By Paige Tepping
RISMEDIA, August 2, 2010—Successful real estate professionals must go beyond selling a home in today’s market—and focus their attention on selling the lifestyle. Here, read how Lori Arnold, President/Owner, Coldwell Banker Apex in Dallas, Texas goes above and beyond to help her clients achieve their real estate goals.
Lori Arnold
President/Owner
Coldwell Banker Apex
Dallas, Texas
Region served: Dallas, Fort Worth area
Years in real estate: 28
Number of offices: 8
Number of agents: 400
Average listing price: $165,000
Average time on market: 60-75 days
Getting the right listing price: Not only do you have to put together a good, solid CMA, but you also must pay attention to the overall availability of competing properties and be aware of the market trends.
Secret for effective time management: Know what your goals are and plan your daily activities around those activities that will move you forward in achieving your goals.
What is your company doing to be cost conscious in today’s market?
We are looking at our company closely and only cutting costs in areas that won’t affect our customers and our agents. While we need to be aware of our expenses, we can’t sacrifice our service to our clients or our agents.
How are you working to ensure you stay ahead of your competition?
Staying ahead in today’s market is about knowing the market trends and knowing who you are as a real estate company. Real estate companies can’t be everything to everyone, so by knowing your company inside and out, you can focus on what you bring to the market that other firms don’t.
What are some of your best online marketing strategies?
Our best online marketing strategies focus around our use of social media. Not only are our agents marketing themselves and their properties on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but we have a consistent group of agents that can point to online marketing through social media as a good portion of their business. Our agents also take advantage of On Location, Coldwell Banker’s YouTube channel, to market their properties as well as themselves in addition to using the videos as educational content to send to their clients.
What are the advantages of being able to offer your customers home warranties?
Being able to offer our customers warranties through AHS has been a huge advantage in today’s market. While everyone is strapped financially these days, having a safety net to protect buyers from unexpected costs is important. AHS takes its commitment to service seriously, and this has benefitted both our agents and consumers.
