Real Estate Agents Face Rising Costs

A Post in philly.com by Alan J Heavens, Inqirer Real Estate Writer claims that "Eight out of 10 real estate agents are independent contractors, not salaried or commissioned employees." Many real estate agents are small businesses, facing costs and uncertainties

In the small Western Carolina Board of REALTORS, where I'm a member, that figure is closer to ten out of ten agents. There are a couple of agents who also work as employees, but all of our local real estate agents are paid on a 1099 and not a 1040.

This means agents are responsible for the entire tax burden. There is no employer to share federal taxes with; agent's pay their own SE or self employment tax. Agents are responsible for their own benefit packages, if they can afford one, and they are responsible for maintaining records and filing taxes just the same as any other small business.

The IRS has put together some great material for small businesses, including some excellent videos and they even host a Small Business/Self-Employed VIRTUAL Tax Workshop.

As the cost of doing business rises, and uncertain times loom, you can't afford not to understand the tax ramifications of working as a 1099 Contract Laborer. And heed the advice I give to all new agents. When you get a check, set aside at least 15% for taxes. You'll be glad you did.

Scientific Advertising

Seth Godin writes that no one should work in marketing without having read Scientific Advertising by Claud Hopkins. This book, published in 1923 is still considered to be a fundamental, ground zero, must read. Advertising 101 - produce measurable results. You'll find the book at the above link. Out of print, and past it's copyright, Ian Dewar put this together for general use. Thank you Mr. Dewar.

Instant Professional Online Forms For Your Website - FormExperts.com

A snippit of online buzz was given to FormExperts.com by Ruth A. Gabbard, of Gabbard Hawaii Properties - Honolulu, O'ahu, Hawaii

Ruth recommended Instant Professional Online Forms For Your Website - FormExperts.com she says they pay, "Only $47.00 a year and it's totally customizable to look like your website. You can create an unlimited number of forms and it includes autoresponders, custom landing pages (or you can direct it to another page on your website), and tracking. They also have a free 10 day trial."

I made a note that I found Ruth on the Agent2Agent Referral Network (Refer a Great Agent)
beautifulhawaiihomes.com/agent2agent/form.html (probably one of Ruth's forms).

It got my attention. I copied and pasted it into my June Stickies document as worth mentioning.

Also I saw a recommendation for blog material - biggerpickets.com (for real estate investors). And for Jonathan Streeter's "In the Loop" at imintheloop.us and social marketing. And for negotiating tips see http://www.karrass.com/.

Good stuff.

Get Your Business on the Web with Bill Swanson

Bill Swanson asks you to think about what kind of site you need.

Tuesday, May 26 2011, Isothermal Community College's Small Business Department featured a "Soup to nuts seminar to get your business up-and-running on the Internet".  Bill Swanson with Exacting Design, from High Point, NC came in to present the program.

If you weren't there, you missed a great opportunity to quiz a webmaster, who knows great web design and a good deal about SEO (search engine optimization).

Isothermal Community College's small business department has been offering seminars like this to the public absolutely free. Please call them at 828-286-3636 # 229 and get on their mailing list.

If you'd like to take a look at one of Swanson's high priority sites, click over and visit motivational speaker, Kelly Swanson. She happens to be Bill's wife.

Seth's Blog: A marketing lesson from the apocalypse

You know, I follow Seth Godin, and if you have any marketing to do, you should follow him, too. Seth's Blog: A marketing lesson from the apocalypse

How can people follow the doomsayers, time and time again? The world is coming to an end, next Saturday.

I love the story of the Prophet who took his people into the mountains to wait and pray for the return of Jesus. The deadline came and went. The Prophet appeared before his confused and unsettled audience. He held up his hands and cried out, "Praise be to God, because of our obedience, by our prayers, the earth has been spared."

Don't think because some thing's not true, it can't be marketed. That happens all the time. It's not the kind of marketing that wins friends, but it is the kind that influences people.

While it's great to be able to think fast, especially in a tight spot, it's better to make decisions that keep you out of a tight spot.

And the doomsayers? Well, they're not always wrong. The real estate bubble burst.

Seth's Blog

If you haven't heard of Seth Godin, you probably haven't heard of Linchpin, you haven't heard of the Purple Cow, you haven't heard of a Meatball Sunday and you're missing out on Seth's Blog. Anyone and everyone who uses the Internet for sales, marketing, anything other than email needs to read Seth's Blog. If you haven't subscribed to it, you haven't got RSS feeds set up for your homepage, and you don't know what Squidoo or landing pages are, Seth can help you with that. If you don't care, if you don't know, and you don't want to know, nobody can help you. Good luck with that.

101 Marketing Charts and Graphs

Check out this SlideShare Presentation from Hubspot:

101 Marketing Charts and Graphs

View more presentations from HubSpot Internet Marketing.

Zillow Buys Real Estate Listings Creation And Distribution Tool Postlets

Zillow Buys Real Estate Listings Creation And Distribution Tool Postlets

I just fouind out about this today. Did you know? Have you even ever used Postlets? Ah, well. Score another for Zillow.

HOW TO: Spread Your Business Footprint Around the Web

Write once, publish EVERYWHERE. In this article, Mashable's put together a great piece on HOW TO: Spread Your Business Footprint Around the Web The more places you are, the more likely it is that you will be found. A scatter-gun approach seems to be best just now. As more and more people turn to the web, connectivity is growing in leaps and bounds. SEO is changing more rapidly than it can be mastered. Be out there, be EVERYWHERE. Spread it around.