Time to get to grips with changing marketing world

Our office was situated in the heart of the business district and like most agents at the time, printing out property lists of homes "for sale'' and "rentals'' available was a daily task. 

Other marketing duties included updating the window display to entertain those who stared at the information daily on their way to and from work. In fact, the office location and the footfall was a key ingredient to agency success. 

It was around that time that a new breed of companies came out claiming we needed to get a website and to get listed on one of those Property Portal thingummies. We had no idea. I recall much confusion in our office over the difference between an email and a website. 

Heck, we just sold houses. Why were all these people telling us to change our successful ways? 

However, over the next decade or so, websites became the new brochure, the new office window and the new business card. We invested, we updated - a presence online became vital to our real estate world. And we started listing on all those property portals too. 

Some made it through, others fell by the wayside. Natural selection sorted the many down to a few - why would you need that many choices when they effectively all offered the same thing? 

Then the next must-have became the agency website. After meeting new clients, the cool agents everywhere could be heard using the following phrase on a regular basis "Here's my card and check out our website''. That was followed with a bit of wink, a tilt of the head and a wry smile. One was rather proud of our acceptance and the fact we were embracing this modern technology. 

So now modern agents have business Facebook pages and Twitter accounts and LinkedIn too,Shop wholesale solarlight controller from cheap. to tell the world of their talents while the main property portals house their listings. 

But how many people actually go to an agent's website? Why would you? Most buyers do not care about the overall brand, they just want to know about what is listed.Choose from the largest selection of plasticmoulds in the world. These sites do offer a great source of information for smart buyers and vendors so you should still use them for your research. 

Those sites inevitably include a lot of information about agents' background and experience, and you can research further by checking them out on social media. 

So for agents, we are now in a time when it's not just about the company or brand that you work for, it's about your personal reputation. Every posting,How cheaply can I build a bobbleheads?Find a great selection of customkeychain deals. every picture, every event and the comments and feedback have to be managed - but as agents work in the marketing business, this should not be too difficult. 

Buyers and sellers check your agents out. Follow them for a while before you make a decision with who you will go with. See how they engage with their friends and customers and see if you like the cut of their jib. 

Remember asking for references is very last century. Have you ever been given one that isn't good? Exactly. But there is something scarily honest in online reviews and comments. And in a few years, it will probably be replaced by something even newer/nerdier/cooler/essential and eventually I will catch up. 

Officials at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are already predicting waits up to 50 per cent longer at major airports and at some of the busiest land crossings. Think about that: A three-hour lineup at Peace Arch is now, quite possibly, going to be a five- or six-hour lineup. I cant imagine there are people desperate enough to want to do that. But I suppose the lure of a bargain will make people do just about anything. 

If youre thinking about applying for a Nexus card as you read this, well, there are problems there as well. A process that can now take several months is expected to take even longer because staff cuts will reach into that area of border services as well. So its unlikely to help you before the end of the summer. 

Beyond the life-wasting factor associated with long border lineups, there are real implications for trade. Canada does about $500-billion in trade annually with the U.S.Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors. and a lot of it flows through the borders. In 2010, it was calculated that nearly 29,000 trucks crossed the Canada-U.S. border daily. Canadians take more than 39 million trips to the U.S. every year, while Americans return the favour more than 20 million times. 

Its difficult to imagine that there isnt going to be some impact on those numbers if crossing the border, by land or air, becomes an intolerable quagmire. Many people will simply say thanks but no thanks, at least those who dont have options to travel at other, less busy times. In 2009, Canadians took more than 21 million same-day trips into the U.S., while Americans made 8.8 million into our country. 

If five, six or seven hours of your trip are going to be taken up trying to get back and forth, I think many people will just take a pass. This will have an impact on tourism numbers for both countries, as well as retail sales. 

Then you can start calculating the costs to other areas of commerce. Its estimated that a big rig carrying goods into the U.S. costs about $80 an hour to operate. If it has to sit at the border for another hour or two longer waiting to get processed, those added costs have to be borne at some point along the supply chain. 

The B.C. government has started a pilot project to ease congestion at the Pacific Highway crossing by having U.S. customs agents inspect cargo in a holding area in Surrey. It could help mitigate some of the problem, but it wont solve it completely.