People like videos. While the average Internet user spends 48 seconds on a website, the same user spends close to 6 minutes on a website that has a video. If your real estate website and individual property websites include video, your visitors are likely to stay longer. What do videos help you do for your real estate listings?
Build relationships
Video helps develop familiarity and approachability. If someone can see what you look like, know how you interact, and get a sense of your personality it can put you in control of the first impression you have on them.
Stay top of mind
Having relevant video content, like home improvement or maintenance tips, can help you stay top of mind with your clients even after they buy a home.
Only do the home improvement thing if you know what you’re doing.
Be easy to find
When homebuyers are searching for properties one of the first places they go is online. Having searchable videos will help you and your listings findable. Videos are more likely to generate a first page Google ranking. A video on the first page is more likely to be clicked over other content. To market a listing, use the address as the URL and in the video description.
Grab and keep your prospects’ attention
A visitor to a website with videos will typically stay 6 times longer than sites with no videos. However, videos should be no more than 2 minutes in length.
Be viewed as the local expert
Delivering relevant videos to your current, past, and future clients is a great way to separate yourself from your competitors. If the videos you have are truly helpful, they will increase repeat visits to your site, blog, or social network.
Using professional-looking videos will help improve your search listings and the way potential buyers view your brand.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
I found an old photo in the archives of the three LarsonEd founders. Why do we all look so dang serious?? I figured we should change industries if we wanted to act so grim. What do you think?
About Larson Educational Services:
No, we are not a law firm. Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
To sell annuity contracts, variable contracts, health insurance or life insurance in Florida, a person must have a license from the Florida Department of Financial Services (DFS).
Before obtaining a license, a person is required to attend a pre-licensing course, pass the state exam and submit an application.
The 3 types of Florida Life and Health Insurance licenses
2-15 Florida Health & Life (Including Annuities & Variable Contracts) Agent License
2-14 Florida Life (Including Annuities & Variable Contracts) Agent License
We’ve created an easy-to-follow 5-step guide to help you navigate the Florida Life and Health Insurance licensing process.
A Step-By-Step Guide
1. Attend class
60 Hour Health and Life (Including Annuities and Variable Contracts) Agent Pre-Licensing Course – $339 tuition includes a 1-year enrollment term in the classroom course.
Click below to view more information including our course dates and times:
Larson Educational Services is a Florida approved Insurance School (License #370501). All applicants must complete the required education and pass the end-of-course final exam with a score of 70% or better. Your Course Completion Certificate is valid for four (4) years from the date of issuance.
Currently, Larson Educational Services is approved to teach the following insurance course(s):
60 Hour Florida Health & Life (Including Annuities & Variable Contracts) Agent License Course – Course ID #96045
Larson Educational Services is required to submit proof of your course completion to the Department of Financial Services Bureau of Licensing within 20 days of your course exam pass date. We guarantee we will do this in no more than 7 days.
Step 2. Pass the State License Exam – $42
You can schedule your Florida insurance exam at any time. Completion of the pre-licensing course is NOT required in order to schedule the test.
Our recommendation is to take the state exam 5-10 days AFTER you’ve completed your course. Scheduling can be completed by calling 1.888.274.2020 or visiting PearsonVUE.com. The state exam fee is $42 for each attempt.
State exam regulations:
Regardless of which exam you take, a 70% score is required to pass.
A passing score is valid for one (1) year from the passing date.
You will be required to re-take the exam if you do not complete the licensing process within that time-frame.
You are limited to five (5) examination attempts during a one (1) year period.
Each exam contains 15 “pretest” questions that do not affect your final score. “Pretest” questions are distributed throughout the exam randomly. Most likely these questions will look very different from the course materials and practice questions covered in our class because we have no knowledge of the content of these “pretest” questions.
Exam Type and Code Number of Questions Time Limit (use the code listed in the table below when scheduling by phone or online. View more detailed State Exam Information):
Step 3. Register for Electronic Fingerprinting – $48.55
Florida requires electronic fingerprints be taken in order to run a criminal background check. To make a reservation with MorphoTrust, click the link below or call 800.528.1358. Insurance license fingerprint records are good for 1 year.
Cost of fingerprinting is $48.55. The results of your criminal history check will be submitted electronically to the Florida Department of Financial Services.
If you are asked for the “ORI” number at any time during the fingerprint process, use “FL921060Z”. This is how the fingerprinting company knows your fingerprints are for Florida Insurance Agent licensing.
Southwest Florida has two Insurance License fingerprinting locations:
Fort Myers: Fingerprint Services – 8192 College Pkwy, Suite A-27
*The application can not be submitted until the pre-licensing education has been completed from Step 1.*
Submit a license application to the Florida Department of Financial Services (DFS). On the application you will share information about yourself and include a fee of $55 payable to the DFS.
Click the icon below to access the MyProfile page managed by the DFS Bureau of Licensing. Either login to an existing account or click on “Create Account.”
When creating an account for the first time, you will select “Individual” as your account type. The license type is one of the following:
After all the steps above have been completed, the DFS Bureau of Licensing will send your license approval by email. You can print your license from your MyProfile page.
The total cost to obtain your Florida Insurance License:
2-15 Health & Life Insurance License is $145.55 plus course tuition
2-14 Life Only Insurance License is $145.55 plus course tuition
2-40 Health Only Insurance License is $145.55 plus course tuition
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
You have three and a half hours to answer the questions, which means there is no need to rush.
Just take a deep breath and trust your preparation.
2. Read all the darn questions…2 times
It’s too easy to skip over key words in the question. Our brain has this nasty habit of filling in the blanks of sentences when we haven’t even seen every word.
Give yourself a chance of getting the questions right by reading them each 2 times.
3. Read all the darn answers…2 times
Before choosing an answer, even if you are 100% positive it’s right, read through all the choices.
It may be that you have prematurely selected a response that is correct, but there could be another answer that is more correct.
If you fail to read through all the answers there’s a chance you may mark the wrong one.
4. Longer is better
If you come to a question that has you completely stumped, usually the longest choice is the most likely to be correct.
This is not a hard rule of thumb, but rather an indicator to go off of when you don’t have any idea what the answer could be.
5. Treat each multiple choice question as 4 true-false questions
Each multiple choice question will have 4 answers, each of which you should regard as a true-false question.
This will help you ensure that you aren’t missing any details when responding to each question.
In order to learn the information necessary to pass the state exam, you need access to hundreds of sample questions, immediate feedback, and explanations covering the content you’ll see on test day.
That’s exactly what you’ll get with LarsonEd’s Real Estate Exam Tutor,available here for $69.
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
Are you sick of your listing photos looking unprofessional? Can’t afford to pay for a photographer? Check out these simple real estate photography tips to help make your listings sparkle!
To sign up for classes, give us a call at 239-344-7510 or visit our website, LarsonEd.com.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
Whether you’re a new real estate professional or a broker, you can learn from the brokerage employment process. As a new agent, it helps to know what you can expect from the recruitment and hiring process to better prepare yourself. As a broker, you can improve your recruiting and hiring process to find the best new agents.
In our last post, we started to outline some of the common elements of a good job interview. Let’s continue with that list.
Professional Assets
Take time to explain the job in detail and give the candidate the opportunity to sell himself or herself. Questions might include:
“What do you think are your major assets as an employee?”
“What strengths do others see in you?”
“What are your areas that need development?”
Closing
Conclude the interview with a summary and ask, “Do you have any further questions about the job, our company, or anything else we’ve discussed?” A good candidate will have questions prepared for the interviewer, which will allow the candidate to listen to the interviewer sell themselves to him or her.
Selecting a Candidate
Once the interview process is finished, the next step is choosing who to hire. The right person is the one whose knowledge, skills, abilities, goals, values, and expectations fit the job. The right fit for the organization is the one who is motivated, creative, flexible, and will work well in the company’s culture.
Converting all of this to an employment decision requires a quantifiable assessment according to certain established selection criteria. Criteria related to the job and the organization must be established and become the platform for evaluating and selecting a candidate.
Hiring
The person who hires is also the person who fires. The hiring person should be completely committed to the person who is finally selected. The hiring process generally consists of two steps:
The offer and acceptance
The formal employment paperwork.
Once you have followed through on these job interview guidelines, the company and candidate will have both found the right fit for the job. Follow these hiring guidelines to better prepare for your upcoming real estate job interview, no matter which side of the table you’ll be sitting on.
To sign up for classes, give us a call at 239-344-7510 or visit our website, www.LarsonEd.com.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
A SWOT analysis is an honest inventory of your strengths and weaknesses as an agent and what opportunities and threats exist for you (professionally).
Florida real estate school
Strengths are your personal assets that can propel you to success. For example, one of your strenghts may be that you have a background in lending and finance.
Weaknesses are those personal liabilities that can prevent you from achieving your goals. For example, one of your weaknesses may be that you have little understanding of technology.
This isn’t a job interview; answer your SWOT questions honestly.
Opportunities are environmental factors that are helpful in achieving your objectives. For example, one of your opportunities may be that higher rent prices are causeing renters are looking to purchase real estate as first-time homebuyers.
Threats are environmental factors that are harmful to the achievement of your objectives. For example, one of your threats may be that lenders are not financing your buyers.
Remember:
Strengths and Weaknesses = internal and personal
Opportunities and Threats = external and environmental
Strengths and Opportunities = Helpful
Weaknesses and Threats = Harmful
An honest SWOT analysis can help you better understand where you are as an agent and what you should be doing to improve yourself.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
Whether you’re a new real estate professional or a broker, you can learn from the brokerage employment process. As a new agent, it helps to know what you can expect from the recruitment and hiring process to better prepare yourself. As a broker, you can improve your recruiting and hiring process to find the best new agents.
Generally, the real estate employment process will consist of:
Recruiting
Prescreening
Interviewing
Selecting
Hiring
Recruiting
Any brokerage needs to be able to recruit from a position of strength, which is why company image is so important. Recruiting is the process of assembling a pool of candidates for consideration.
That means the company’s business reputation and its workplace environment play a vital role in attracting the best people in the pool, which gives management good candidates to consider. Recruiting, therefore, can begin internally or externally.
Prescreening
The prescreening process is meant to gather basic information in order to decide whether an applicant meets the position requirements. Prescreening is often done with an application, a resume, a brief face-to-face, and a phone call or videoconference conversation.
Sometimes a candidate will be required to answer a few questions that require written answers. This exercise is useful not only for analyzing the content of the answer, but also for evaluating the candidate’s communication skills.
Interviewing
Candidates who make it through the prescreening process will move forward to a formal interview, the most important information-gathering part of the process. If the brokerage hasn’t found any suitable candidates to interview, then it’s better to go back to the recruiting process rather than waste everybody’s time with an interview with a candidate who doesn’t meet the qualifications.
Best practices for interviews
A good interview will include some common elements that the interviewer will use to find the best candidate.
Introduction
The opening question can be used to put the candidate at ease with an icebreaker. For example, get the conversation going with an easy question such as, “How did you become interested in our company?”
Work Experience
Questions about previous work experience can reveal the candidate’s skills, motivations, initiative, and problem-solving ability. Questions might include:
“What have you done best in previous jobs?”
“How have you handled job-related problems in the past?”
“What are your major work accomplishments?”
Education
Questions about education can reveal the candidate’s level of accomplishment, professional interests, and potential for growth and development. Questions might include:
“What have you learned related to your desired career in real estate?”
“What made you choose to work in real estate?”
“How do you feel about getting additional education?”
“What do you want to learn next?”
Check back next time for part 2!
To sign up for classes, give us a call at 239-344-7510 or visit our website, www.LarsonEd.com.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
The real estate market is dominated by distressed properties. Real estate professionals are competing with short sales and REOs. The best strategy is to price the property right when it’s listed. If the market demands change, then it’s time to lower the price. Here are some things to consider if one of your listings isn’t moving:
You’re drawing few lookers
What are the sales statistics? Why aren’t buyers looking at your home? The answers to these questions may tell you why your listing isn’t attracting potential buyers.
You’re drawing lots of lookers but have no offers
Something is wrong if good buyers are buying other properties. An overly high price may be discouraging buyers from making an offer.
Your home’s been on the market longer than similar homes
How long is it taking similar homes to sell? It may be time to price the home UNDER the market.
You have a deadline
It’s a race against time. The price is not determined by how much money you need or when you need to sell, it’s determined by the market.
You can’t make upgrades
If comparable homes in better condition are selling, buyers are paying less for a home that doesn’t show as well as others. If the money isn’t there for fix-up, then the price must drop.
Sometimes your hands are just tied
The competition has changed
Take a look at recent sales and current listings. You’re competing against the properties priced to sell, not the properties that are priced to sit.
Keep these 6 points in mind when trying to consider whether or not to lower your client’s selling price.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
You’ve got a listing presentation scheduled with a potential client. Fantastic. Now think of your upcoming presentation as a job interview: you are trying to convince your potential client that you can sell their home faster, for more money, and with more care than any other agent. Therefore, your first impression should let your potential clients know that you are trustworthy, knowledgable, and prepared. Because if you don’t they may be inclined to go with another agent.
Think you can go into this or any other presentation and wing it? Failing to plan is another way of planning to fail. The true difference between rookie agents and the superstars is a preparedness. Your listing presentation is won or lost, in large part, before you even meet with the potential client. Follow these tips to better serve your potential clients’ needs.
How often do you get a personal, hand-written note from people anymore? It’s rare, but it feels great when you receive one. It shows that somebody cares about you enough to take the time to write something specifically for you.
After every listing presentation, send your potential client a handwritten letter and perhaps a small, thoughtful gift to show them what kind of personal attention they’ll receive as your client.
Also, be sure to get their email to add them to your email newsletter list (if they are interested).
5. Be ready for common questions
No, you can’t know exactly how your presentation and conversation with your potential clients will go, but there are some questions that will come up time and time again as you do more and more listing presentations. It behooves you to come prepared with some answers to those questions.
For example, they might ask: “What do you think of our property?”
Be sure to project your enthusiasm for their home—remember, this is their castle. Highlight some of the key positive features while gently sliding into a few things that could stand to be fixed.
Or they might ask: “What are your credentials?”
This one should be easy for you. Let them know if you are an accredited Realtor. Give them a rundown of your recent sales history and some average sales prices for different property types. If you are a full-time agent, mention that—it will give you more credibility than a part-time agent. If you are a part-time agent, be honest about it, but be sure to spin it into a positive by pointing out how your sales record is all the more impressive because of your part-time capacity.
6. Get the seller, not just the listing
Dale Carnegie said: “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”
Now, you don’t have to be friends with your clients, but employing the same quality listening skills that would get you a friend can help you better serve them. What is their body language saying about how they feel? What kind of questions are they asking? Paying attention to these forms of communication can help you gauge your client’s interest in your presentation.
Follow these tips to better improve your listing presentations. To sign up for classes, including real estate post-licensing, visit our website, www.LarsonEd.com, or give us a call at 239-344-7510.
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Naples real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
Naples Real Estate School 