When an agent goes on a listing presentation, it is opportunity time in many different ways!

For one, it is a chance to display one's innovative marketing skills that sets the successful Internet savvy agent apart from the mediocre competition. Most agents belong to the second group; they just want to list a home. They are real happy if they can walk away from the listing with a signed agreement and a sign in the ground. It doesn't matter that the house may never sell. Their conquest was the signed listing. This is not the way it should be at all.

The listing presentation is a time when the moment can be seized to sell your abilities. It is a demonstration of worth based upon your experience and abilities. It is a display of talents, and that you deserve a normal or higher commission fee instead of wholesale or discount services. It is a statement that you are not into passive marketing that will not offer much in the way of hope in selling a home. You are making an announcement that you alone are the person to hire!

This listing presentation is the one chance at bat that will determine whether or not you can generate enough income in real estate to survive or leave the industry without ever making enough money to pay the bills. This is the moment that separates doers from dreamers. There is more to real estate than listing a home, placing a sign in the ground, and entering it into the MLS. Closure only comes when the home or property you listed successfully sells, everyone receives their money, and you obtain bragging rights! This is the moment that you differentiate yourself from licensed mediocre competition! This is an Internet moment.

The Internet offers the Internet savvy real estate agent, home seller, and avid home buyer a whole new world of possibilities. Internet home marketing displays more than just Sunday real estate classifieds online … it offers world wide exposure 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and global exposure.

It takes a real estate listing from the dark ages of black and white text ad that is almost impossible to read in blurry newsprint and allows full interior shots, and jumps off the virtual page with vibrant exterior color views of a home that invites and beckons new owners. It is an engraved invitation to become the new person on the block in a neighborhood you wish to live. Or its a virtual tour or video that moves you beyond the fantasy of owning to the reality of sensing what it would be like to own a particular home.

All in all, the internet is also a perfect fit for today's busy techno lifestyles. It is the right fit for the profile of the average home buyer in the mid 20's that has grown up with today's technologies. For today's buyers, it's second nature for them to find their needs fulfilled online, rather than by searching through inked up black and white pages of a newspaper or looking at a stale color homes magazine.

The Internet is a tool that allows a home buyer and seller the opportunity to exchange places in life. It allows a focused homebuyer to find and view focused real estate marketing. It is a meeting of the minds that only the techno savvy can really participate in, because they understand the fundamentals that are in play. The Internet is appreciated by all that have used it to buy or sell real estate online. Some in our real estate industry may view this as the future in real estate, while others have already seized the moment as an opportunity, and demonstrates that he/she has the skills, and tools in place right now to assist both buyer and sellers needs today … in real time.

Published: February 23, 2007

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Jim Crawford, ABR, e-PRO 500 is currently licensed as a Broker Associate with RE/MAX Greater Atlanta in Atlanta Georgia, and as Broker Associate with Distinctive Realty Inc. in McLean Virginia. Jim and his wife Ellen work as a husband and wife team in the northern Atlanta suburbs. As the team's rainmaker, Jim is a self-taught webmaster and designer, and he relies exclusively on the Internet for marketing. He is considered an expert on marketing, nationwide relocation, cutting edge technology, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for real estate, and Internet marketing. Jim's seminars, online contributions, and technology ideas assist real estate agents to maximize their business results, and raise the industry's professional service level skills. His common sense marketing ideas have been published and quoted regularly in trade publications. He has also consulted and advised NAR offices regarding Internet issues, and Internet ethics for Realtors. In between sales, Jim is a popular speaker at national and regional real estate seminars, and retreats. He is also an online real estate coach, with a self-tutorial coaching site for real estate professionals. Jim was a featured speaker at the November 2004 National Association of REALTORS® convention in Orlando, and has spoken at the several REALTORS® conventions both in the United States and Canada. Visit his website at RealEstateTechCoach.com, or e-mail him at .