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Branding Spotlight: Tim Tiller

Tim Tiller started his custom branding journey with big goals in mind: building real estate teams in Arizona and Missouri. We have created a suite of foundational templates for agent and team branding that will work for both locations. The Arizona team is under the name “Southwest Horizon” and the Missouri team will be “Midwest […]

Is Your Tech Effective? 7 Questions to Ask Yourself

All this month in Club Zebra we are talking about technology! No matter your relationship with technology, this is a great time to do an assessment of how technology is, or isn’t, working for you. Take a few minutes and ask yourself these questions:

My Biggest Technology Mistakes

This week, I’m talking about the biggest mistakes I’ve made with technology. I’ve made tons of mistakes over the years, and I want to share them with you. Mistake #1: Spending Money Before Researching The first mistake on my list is wasting money on technology or software that didn’t suite me. If something doesn’t mesh […]

Following-Up After the Open House

Congratulations! You had a successful open house! You have some people to follow-up with to get their questions answered about the property, but what about neighbors that stopped in, the looky-loos who provided their contact info but you don’t have a strong feeling that they will do anything, and the people who indicated that the […]

The Right Props for Open Houses in Today’s Market

Hi everyone and welcome to this week’s Zebra Report – I am so excited to share with you again on the topic of doing Open Houses. I know – a lot of you are out there in super-fast housing markets and you are wondering, “Wait a second, why in the world would I even bother […]

Open Houses Can Generate Seller Leads

Posted by Denise Lones on April 14th, 2022

Some real estate agents are convinced that open houses are a complete waste of time. They make weekends unschedulable, everyone who shows up is represented already anyway, and open houses don’t really sell the house.

And let’s not forget to address the real elephant in the room – that open houses attract buyer leads. In a market like this, buyers = too. much. time.

Whether you believe all of this or not, open houses have, in-general, gotten a bad reputation. However, I am a strong proponent of open houses. In my business, open houses sold homes, they attracted buyer leads, and they attracted seller leads. Read more »

Branding Spotlight: Anne Marie Peterson

Posted by Denise Lones on April 14th, 2022

Before working with us, Anne Marie Peterson had never had a personal brand before. She did have a black-and-white logo from her brokerage’s design team that she liked, but it needed the support of a modern, high-contrast brand. We guided her through our branding process and developed a minimal brand with a modern script and mid-century sans-serif font to compliment her logo. Her final palette includes a sophisticated slate and a pop of fire-cracker orange. Read more »

My Stupid Open House Book…and how it made me so much money!

Posted by Denise Lones on April 7th, 2022

Imagine you are looking to buy a home and have stumbled across an open house sign in an area that you are interested in. If you have the time, you most probably will stop by to check it out. In fact, that is exactly what most buyers do: They “check out” open houses so they can compare to other homes they have seen. But the challenge with most open houses is that there often isn’t enough data or research provided to the potential buyer to give them the information they need for that home or for the area. Read more »

Branding Spotlight: Chelsea & Dustin Brown

Posted by Denise Lones on April 7th, 2022

Chelsea and Dustin wanted a professional look that would unite their marketing in print and digital forms, stand out from their peers, and convey their professional but approachable business style. Most importantly, it had to mesh seamlessly in their Snohomish County lifestyle and community.

Their final brand achieves all that and more. It is cool and polished with a modular footer, a navy and silver palette, and a modern sans-serif. Read more »

Niche Marketing Done Right!

Posted by Denise Lones on March 31st, 2022

It’s Thursday (#TBT)! I am feeling a little nostalgic today, so I am taking a trip down memory lane to some of my favorite niche brands that we have created through the years. Some of these are older than others (we HAVE been creating brands for agents for over 20 years) but all of them have done their job, creating a visual connection for a specific client base.

Branding Spotlight: Erena Rombakh

Posted by Denise Lones on March 31st, 2022

With over a decade of experience as a real estate agent, Erena needed a brand that would help her work smarter and stand-out from the crowd. We worked with her to create a bold and elegant design, featuring a rich navy and gold palette. Crowning her new templates is a simple but graceful monogram, which is repeated in a tone-on-tone pattern in the header and footer. The way the monogram is stylized, it could be interpreted as a flower, a butterfly, a star, or a geometric flourish. This allows it to appeal to a wide variety of client types and Read more »

Registration for April Denise Live Episodes Now Open

Posted by Denise Lones on March 30th, 2022

This April we are diving into open houses. As the nation returns to in-person business, open houses are a critical part of your relationship development – even in a breakneck paced market! Be a part of our live audience and have your opportunity to share your comments and questions with Denise. Here’s what we have planned: Read more »

Showcasing Your Niche Marketing Expertise at the Listing Presentation

Posted by Denise Lones on March 24th, 2022

In today’s highly competitive, crazy market, with low inventory – or no inventory – when you actually get a listing presentation appointment, you had better show up and come prepared. Particularly if you have a niche market, you can not show up and “wing it.” You have to have visual aids, the data, and show the proof. Read more »

Branding Spotlight: North by Northwest Real Estate

Posted by Denise Lones on March 24th, 2022

Paul, Steve, and Kevin have taking niche marketing to the next level. They have narrowed their focus to one zoning code in one city. This may sound extreme, but their extensive experience makes them experts on bridging the gap between independent homeowners and developers. Coordinating an assemblage sale means working with multiple neighbors while getting the attention of developers interested in up-zoned lots. Read more »

Naming and Claiming a Niche Market without Alienating Your Clients

Posted by Denise Lones on March 17th, 2022

It is common knowledge that specialists usually garner more demand than generalists. However, real estate agents rarely start their real estate business only specializing in one type of real estate. Most real estate agents build their business with any transaction available. Fast-forward a few years and most agents find their database full of past and potential clients from a wide area. The agent is relying on that database for future business and when the opportunity to specialize in a niche market arises, agents are very reluctant to focus on that as they fear alienating the database they have been cultivating. Read more »