Happy New Year from Homes & Land West Coast!

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Homes & Land West Coast wants to wish you all a Happy New Year! We look forward to marketing with you in 2010!

Wow… the Olympics are only a month away! With over 2 million visitors coming our way I hope you are prepared!

Don’t miss out in being a part of our February issue of Homes & Land magazine… the world is coming to Vancouver in February and the exposure for your business is unparalleled. Even if you are not planning on being in the city – the referral value for showing your Clients that International exposure is important to your business will echo on for a longtime after the Games are done!!!! The deadline has been extended to January 16th!

Did you know:

• Search Engines look for video as the primary ranking
• The first 30-45 seconds are searched for Keywords
• YouTube has over One Billion views per day

How should you optimize your videos and what does this have to do with your marketing efforts? View the below video to find out!

An Invitation from Homes & Land Magazine

Many of us recall the summer of 1986 when the world discovered British Columbia, and Vancouver in particular, in a new way. Millions of visitors came to Expo 86, and a good many of them came with their eyes open. What they discovered was a beautiful location complemented by the amenities that make the West Coast such an amazing place to live.

In February, the world is coming again. Over 2 million visitors are expected for the winter Olympics, and many of them will be here with their eyes open. Some will be thinking of relocation, and looking at the West Coast as a place to settle down and establish a new life. Others will be giving thought to this area as an ideal second home or vacation destination, ready to buy a property that they and their families can return to for recreation, whether winter or summer. Still others will be alert to investment opportunities in a dynamic property market with exciting long term growth potential.

Whatever they are looking for, some of those 2 million visitors are going to find it here.

This could give you unrivalled exposure for your property and real estate business; new development or established neighborhood; Water-view home or downtown condo: there hasn’t been a time in the last thirty years when so many eyes can see what your have to offer, and it could easily be another thirty years before such chance presents itself again.

This is where Homes & Land comes into the picture. Our special international buyer’s issue will provide those visitors with a comprehensive introduction to the lower mainland and Vancouver Island real estate markets. At airport locations, major hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, and tourist attractions, 60,000 copies of the Homes & Land international buyer’s issue will be waiting to welcome and inform.

At current readership levels, over a quarter of a million people will read about your properties and look at your photos. Realtors, builders, and developers can establish a connection with buyers and investors that will yield dividends for years as visitors return to act on the impressions they form this year.

Homes & Land invites you to join us as we present our region, and all that it has to offer. Let us deliver your message to an audience with the inclination and the means to make the West Coast of Canada a part of their future.

Warmly,
Angela Albright
Publisher

Real Estate Growth for Canada

More positive real estate growth news for the West Coast Coast of Canada, BC and Canada overall! This is a massive boost to our economy in British Columbia and will create a cushion for our economy no matter what economies prevail this coming year just south of the border. A direct tourist alignment with the Worlds largest country is a good move!

For more details, read the following article:

Canada’s Tourism is Expected to Boom as China Lists Canada as One of the Travel Destinations During Harper’s First Trip to China

Homes & Land announces New Partnerships

Vancouver, BC – May, May 13th 2009 – Homes & Land is thrilled to announce the addition of mega Canadian Media Partners Canwest Global and CTVGlobeMedia. These two Canadian partners will join Homesandland.com’s current International online network of partners.

Homes & Land automatically uploads properties for sale from its own website to international partners including The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Dupont Registry, Wall Street Journal, Unique Global Estates, Google and more. Now Realtors and Real Estate Marketers will benefit from a huge Canadian audience as well.

Homes & Land Magazine secures great exposure on GlobeAndMail.com
Canwest is Canada’s leading international media company, representing a portfolio of world-class brands, including two conventional television stations – Global and E!, which in turn, are complimented by twenty specialty networks including TVTropolis, Food and HGTV (with shows such as Makeover Home Edition).

Canwest also reaches 4.9 million engaged readers on a weekly basis, through one of Canada’s largest newspaper chains, which includes the National Post, Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, Winnipeg Free Press, Regina Leader-Post, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Vancouver Province, Vancouver Sun, Victoria Times Colonist, Sherbrooke Record, Lethbridge Herald, Medicine Hat News, Kamloops Daily News, Kelowna Daily Courier, Penticton Herald, Belleville EMC, Brockville/St. Lawrence, Kingston Heritage, Frontenac Gazette, Quinte West, Okanagan Saturday and Whistler Question, plus many more community publications.

These publications are complimented by several online properties under the Canada.com network which averages over 4.5 million unique visitors per month.

CTVglobemedia Inc. is Canada’s premier multimedia company with ownership of CTV, Canada’s #1 television network, and The Globe and Mail, Canada’s #1 newspaper. CTV also owns and operates 27 conventional stations across the country, with interests in 32 specialty channels, including Canada’s #1 specialty channel, TSN.

Additionally, CTVglobemedia owns the CHUM Radio Division, which operates 34 radio stations throughout Canada. Other CTVglobemedia investments include an interest in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd., which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors and the Air Canada Centre; and an interest in Dome Productions, a North American leader in the provision of mobile high definition production facilities, and Report on Business Magazine.

These outlets are front-runners in their fields, whether the field is broadcast, print or Internet, with globeandmail.com and ctv.ca.

Homes & Land is the leader in Multi-media (magazine & internet) Real Estate Magazine Marketing across North America. Realtors and Real Estate marketers utilizing HomesAndLand.com are full service professionals committed to excellence in their fields of marketing real estate. Do your homework when choosing a Realtor. Choose a Realtor in Homes & Land!

Homes & Land is a North American wide company annually distributing over 65 million magazines in 30 thousand communities across North America. Our national reach generates more qualified leads from consumers relocating to your area. We are also community experts specializing in local distribution. Our magazines are placed where your prospects live, work, and play. In addition, we direct mail our magazines to target markets that are actively buying and selling real estate.

Choose a Realtor with a Balanced Marketing Plan

Hello West Coast Home Sellers!

Selling your home in today’s real estate market requires a full service Realtor who utilizes a balanced multi-media marketing plan to expose your home to the broadest market of perspective buyers.

In fact, the #1 Advise to Home Sellers from Consumer Reports is….Pick The Right Broker…“Look for local agents who are listing, marketing, and selling in your community, even if the market is slow. Ask several Realtors to make a listing presentation to discuss your home’s value, justify their numbers and explain how they would market your property”.

Hire a Realtor who presents a marketing plan to sell your home that includes both offline and online marketing, not just one or the other.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) posted an update in September 2008 indicating over 30% of consumers searching for properties use a Home Magazine in their search as well as the internet.

For expensive homes (over $700,000) it is likely that percentage is even higher as age groups of 35+ are heavier users of magazines than 25 year olds (although magazines certainly motivate younger generations as well).  The following ad illustrates the age breakdowns of consumers using magazines to drive their online purchasing in all industries.

Dan Gooder Richard, author of Real Estate Rain Maker, A Guide to  Online Marketing indicates roughly 47% of people shop through a catalogue and buy from a website.  Also, rougly 30% of website traffic is generated by internet searches.  The remaining 65% of consumers go to a website through some form of offline marketing (print, radio, tv, etc). This means 2 out of 3 people need an offline prompt to direct them to a website.

A Realtor using a Home Magazine such as Homes & Land to market your property is investing in a broader strategy to reach more home buyers by utilizing all of their preferred search tools. Homes & Land Realtors are quite simply – doing more for you!

When it comes to the internet, it is a given that your property should automatically be loaded to the MLS (now Realtor.ca) and your Realtor’s website.

Although 85% of people use the internet to search for property, a much smaller percentage will actually find and view your Listing from a random property search or from googling real estate terms.

Ask your Realtor if they have a plan to drive specific traffic to your listing, not just to their website or Realtor.ca where the chances of a buyer finding your property are reduced.

In Print, Across the Internet, Through Direct Mail, On Mobile Devises.

Our integrated approach enables you to reach more people in more places – faster.

Research the Realtor’s website to see how easy it is to navigate. What is their online strategy? How many photos do they post of their other listings?  Where else do they distribute their current listings for on-line exposure.

Potential buyers need to be able to find them and have an engaging experience on their website or they won’t stick around to see your home. At least 6 photos but preferably 10 or more photos should be posted on every website your Realtor features your home on. Statistics from NAR show 98% of consumers searching properties want more photos and six or more photos outpulls time spent on a property by 300% over five photos or less.
When you hire a Homes & Land Realtor and your home is featured on our website with 6-photos or more, it automatically turns into a virtual tour to enhance the buyers experience. Then it loads to websites like Googlebase, Oodle, Live Deal, Resort Scape, Zillow, Condo.com, Vast. Properties priced over $750,000 load to The New York Times.com, The Wall Street Journal.com, The International Herald Tribune and properties valued at $1M+ load to Unique Global Estates.com.

Home & Land is the leader in integrated Real Estate Magazine Marketing across North America with a magazine presence in over 30,000 communities and a website that generates over 34 million monthly property views (and growing as we now expand beyond Canada and the US into Mexico, Costa Rica and the Bahamas).
There is no better coverage available in the marketplace to advertise your home.

Your home may be your greatest investment. Protect your equity by choosing the right Realtor® for the job. Insist on Homes & Land exposure for your home!

Or better yet…choose a Homes & Land Realtor to sell your home!

Read More Posts From This Category »