Finding good schools for their children is a priority for many home buyers.  Showcasing schools with your insights and photos indicates that you have knowledge about local schools as well as their surrounding neighbor-hoods.  You can include private as well as public schools, covering everything from preschools to universities. (Remember to post public schools within their own districts; all others go in their respective cities).  An important tip:  mentioning names of schools and school districts in your written insights and photo captions will provide valuable content keywords for search engines.

Your topics can be broad, such as district-wide test scores, student/teacher ratios and sports programs; parents are vitally interested in that information. However, some of your best articles will be about personal experiences with your child’s preschool or your participation in community programs offered at the local college or the first day jitters of your high school freshman.  Be creative and, as always, think about how education in your area will enhance your clients’ perception of the community.

Here’s an excellent insight by Duane Dickson, RE/MAX Paradise in Orange Beach, AL.

Innovation in Baldwin County Schools!
Many people may not realize it, but the Baldwin County Public School System is recognized as one of the most progressive school districts in America…every student receives a digital device for either in classroom use or to bring home.  Students is kindergarten through grade two receive iPads while those in grades 3 through 12 receive  Mac Book Air laptops.  No longer having to bring home 30 pounds of books has been one of the lesser of great benefits this program has had.  It also helps to eliminate the old “dog ate my homework” excuse as students now simply digitally “air
drop” their homework to their teachers.  While I would love to explain more, this is about where my technical expertise ends…I remember being excited just to have a class that had typewriters!  Now you would most likely only find them in a Museum of Modern History.

Photo opportunities are endless.  Although you cannot show students’ faces, you can show their schools and playgrounds, labs and auditoriums, tree-lined walkways and rows of lockers.  Be creative and make the most of each photo’s caption.  Include more than just the name of the building.  This is a chance to include a little fact that you can say in about 15 words.

Photos by Carmen Lonardo, RE/MAX Realty Group, Pittsford, NY; Daniel Cheuvront, RE/MAX Results, Omaha, NE; and Kevin Newkirk, RE/MAX Excel, Lawrence, KS.

“Agent Insight is a great way to get your name and face in front of the public,” says RE/MAX Agent Lisa Kopp.   Lisa has been with RE/MAX Premier Realty in Prairie Village, KS, for the past seven years and has been in real estate for 16.

“I’ve gotten a lot of exposure through Agent Insight and several leads.  It has put me in front of people I would not have met otherwise,” she said.  Lisa has a good understanding of how to make the best use of Agent Insight. To date, she has posted 213 submissions covering over 50 different areas of expertise. She has written about neighborhoods, events and festivals, shopping and entertainment venues, schools, parks and gardens. Her photos focus on the things people want to know about as they search for a new home.

Also, she has placed a widget on her personal website to lead viewers back to her Agent Insight profile page.  Once there, potential clients can see  Lisa’s knowledge of the local market through her written insights and photos.

When Lisa first registered with Agent Insight, she spent a couple of days when the weather was nice shooting photos throughout the Kansas City metropolitan area. Her submissions added up quickly. She sent in posts every other day so that her face would appear regularly as one of the three “Featured Local Experts” on the Kansas City site’s home page. She continues to take pictures whenever she can squeeze in the time, frequently arriving early for appointments to photograph the neighborhood.

“I really want to hit this hard,” she said. “After becoming a manager/broker instead of working exclusively in sales, I found Agent Insight to be an excellent way to get back in front of the general public.  This is so easy to do and it’s great marketing. There’s no reason not to use it. An agent would be foolish not to take advantage of this opportunity.”

Take a look at a few examples of Lisa’s insights and photographs below.

The Country Club Plaza
One of my all time favorites areas in Kansas City is the Country Club Plaza. I grew up near the Plaza in grade school and I shopped there in my teens. Today I enjoy the many excellent choices of restaurants. I also attend Unity Temple on the Plaza. This isn’t just a place to shop and eat though – there are many choices of homes surrounding The Plaza, from one bedroom condos to large stately homes. Kansas City is referred to as the “City of Fountains” and many of our most beautiful fountains are located at the Plaza.

The format for pictures posted on Agent Insight is horizontal, or landscape.  If a photo is submitted in vertical/portrait orientation, we do our best to crop it to landscape, but only if it can be done without compromising its quality.  When one of our staff members  has to crop a vertical shot, we frequently wish that you, as the photographer, were standing beside our computer to help make the decision.

Take a look at this wonderful beach picture submitted from the Alabama Gulf Coast.  Feet in the sand, followed by a long sweep up the beach to the green ocean water and blue sky. This is such a good picture — just a glance brings to mind the pleasures of sun and fun at the beach.  However, the photo is far too vertical to fit in our prescribed format.  Our choice was to either use the top half, showing sea and sky or crop the bottom half showing the  sandy toes.  We chose the bottom half of the picture because it presents a whimsical little story that can be appreciated by anyone who’s ever enjoyed sitting by the shore.

Control the Finished Product

Both of the photos above could have been taken vertically, making them subject to dramatic cropping.   Instead both of these agents made good choices in deciding how to take a photo of a very tall subject.   Left, Beth McGeorge, RE/MAX Jefferson City, framed the picture of the Missouri State Capitol  exactly as she wanted it shown, picking up details of the dome instead of shooting its soaring height.   Scott Shaker, RE/MAX Grande, Grand Blanc, MI, captured an interesting angle of the tall church tower on the right.  Although he stood close to the building and looked up its height, he still took a well framed horizontal photo.

We want your pictures to be shown exactly as you intended.  Make this possible by using a horizontal perspective when you shoot them.

There are plenty of features important to potential clients in every community where you have listings.  However, all home buyers want a good look at the neighborhoods where they might find a house.  You have submitted thousands of photos from towns across the country showcasing all kinds of homes.  There are many way of photographing a neighborhood.  Let’s take a look at a range of these.

The Big Picture

You get a good sense of the neighborhood from the two photos shown above. The curving street on the left has appeal, as does the canopy of trees on the right. The pictures illustrate the architectural style of the neighborhood. (However, beware of shooting your pictures straight down the middle of the street – this tends to fill much of the frame with pavement and sky instead of the homes.)

Showcasing the Houses

The next two pictures are framed well and their colors are very clear and bright.  A photo of a single home from a neighborhood can give a good representation of what the whole development looks like.  And, if the Agent Insight page shows plenty of pictures of that neighbor-hood, these create a fine set to show off an area.

Hitting All the Bases

Both of the photos above are blue ribbon quality. They show a row of homes characteristic of the neighborhood. The agents who shot the pictures took them when the sun was casting beautiful shadows, making the lawns lush and bringing out the detailing on the houses. These are definitely pictures that will make potential buyers look twice.

Photos by Mike Nielsen, RE/MAX Best Associates, Lansing, MI; Sandy Cona, RE/MAX Plus, Rochester, NY; Barbara McDaniel, RE/MAX of Orange Beach, AL; Aurelia Isidoro, RE/MAX Homeland Realtors, Freehold, NJ; Joe DeLorenzo, RE/MAX in Town, Lawrenceville, NJ;  Scott D. Shaker, RE/MAX Grand, Grand Blanc, MI.

Take advantage of all the summer activities in your area for shooting great photos and writing about the events.  Of course, your clients want to know about real estate, but they also want information about the special events that give a town character and build community.  This season is full of festivals, parades, outdoor theater and musical performances, farmers markets…the calendar is brimming every week.

Keep in mind, your main purpose is not to get people to come to these events.  You want to capitalize on them to interest clients in exploring the area.  Show them how rich and varied the offerings are in your community with your words and pictures.

Here is an excellent example submitted by Thomas “Chopper” Russo from RE/MAX Traditions Real Estate in Oakland,  NJ.  He is highlighting a July 4th event and includes a link to its website.

A Historical Independence Day at Ringwood Manor
Many of us celebrate the 4th of July with BBQs and fireworks. At the historic Ringwood Manor, you can celebrate Independence Day by flashing back to July of 1776. There will be games, crafts and foods, all from the 18th century, as well as dancing and a reading of the Declaration of Independence. The event is taking place from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., so you’ll have time to celebrate the historical way and then end the day with fireworks. For more information and for a schedule of events, please visit the Manor’s website, linked below.

You’ll find opportunities to promote your market areas every week this summer.  Join your friends, take your family and snap some photos for Agent Insight.  You’ll have a great time and your prospects will appreciate learning about what’s happening in your community.  Need further inspiration?  Take a look at these excellent submissions:

Photos by Ron Zupko, RE/MAX Platinum, Brighton, MI; Sue Edwards, Heartland Realtors, Lee’s Summit, MO ; Bob Shallow, RE/MAX Paradise, Orange Beach, AL; Marie B. Henry, RE/MAX Masters, Fayetteville, NY

EDITOR’S NOTE;  We’re looking for the best of the best Independence Day celebration photos! Send us your finest red, white and blue shots  — we’ll feature the winners in a July edition of the newsletter.

The spring and summer sales season is rocking along. You are busy meeting new clients, showing homes and completing closing paperwork. We understand your calendar is crowded and we trust you have plenty of clients demanding your attention.

However, there is no better time for shooting photos and sending submissions to Agent Insight than RIGHT NOW. Trees are full, flowers are blooming and the sky is blue making this the prime time to supplement Agent Insight’s pages, especially those that have an abundance of pictures filled with winter gray.

Our website needs to look appealing to web browsers who want homes in your area. The goal is to make every community look its best through your photos and written words – now is the time! Prospects visit Agent Insight community pages and agent profiles every day and the leads those web visitors generate are sent on to participating agents. Let’s keep this engine chugging along!

Make It Routine

Remember to gather material for your submissions whenever you are out with clients. Just take a minute to photograph the neighborhood amenities when you drive through for showings. Grab some shots when you are out with your family at the lake, shopping, dining, playing…all the summer routine and fun times.  It just takes a few seconds to line up a good shot and a few more minutes to write a short caption and send it. Written submissions are a quick task, too – just schedule a short time to put together your words and get them posted.

Here’s a great reinforcement from the field:  Peg Eisenhauer, RE/MAX North in Amherst, NY, is one of the agents currently building the New York sites to launch to the public soon. She sent the following email to her local colleagues.

“My instincts are telling me that this [Agent Insight] is going to be an extremely lucrative venue for those of us who enthusiastically participate.  It is new, it is different. And I believe RE/MAX is onto something incredible. So get your posts in.  Many, many, many posts.  I did one last night on my iPhone just before nodding off.   Non-photo posts are great!!  You don’t have to go anywhere, you just need five minutes….and an interesting post or extremely popular point of interest with a twist…Photos are great too, but they can enter as it works for you given the fact that we are smack dab in the middle of our busy season.  Have some fun with this….we’ve certainly earned it!”

Photos by Randy Brooks, REMAX Advantage, Spanish Fort, AL; Pat Wattam, RE/MAX First, Baton Rouge, LA; and Al Ryer, RE/MAX North, Amherst, NY.

“A rising tide lifts all boats.”

Or maybe “one for all and all for one.”

Both phrases illustrate the benefits of Agent Insight.  Through the collective work of every RE/MAX sales associate, all agents reap the benefits.  List the ways a lead may come to you as a RE/MAX agent:  television ads, billboards, yard signs, word-of-mouth, direct mail, etc.  Agent Insight is a powerful new tool in your local branding arsenal.  It is unique on the internet because there is no other real estate website with such a  wealth of information provided directly by agents describing places to live.  Google and other search engines move Agent Insight quickly up the rankings due to this quality alone.

Remember:  every time a consumer sees a local RE/MAX site outranking the competition on Google, we all win.  So when your work appears on the computer of a potential client, you ARE RE/MAX.  You are #1.  You are the local expert on that community – and Google proves it.

Editor’s Note:  Although the phrase “a rising tide lifts all boats” didn’t originate with President John F. Kennedy, he used it often in his speeches.  He used it as an illustration that when an economy is performing well, all people will benefit from it. And do you remember where “one for all and all for one” came from? If you answered The Three Musketeers, you are right!

Photo  by Marcia Major, RE/MAX of Higgins Lake, Houghton Lake, MI.

April Redford, an agent with RE/MAX Lifestyle Realty in Branson West, MO, recently attended a sales meeting to hear about Agent Insight.  After the meeting, she sent the following email to Steve Snook, Kansas City Director of the Mid-States & Dixie Region, who made the presentation

Hello Mr. Snook, 
I apologize for anticipating that your presentation today was going to very boring. I have a very low threshold for listening to people give talks. You can imagine my surprise and happiness when it turned out to be inspirationally awesome! We were all so excited over in the Branson corner – we had probably 10 insights among us before the meeting was over! I’m now the Mayor of Cedar Meadows!….Thanks again, you were great.
April Redford

April and several of her colleagues jumped at the opportunity to use Agent Insight as an exciting new marketing tool. Some of their efforts are included here for your review. Along with other agents in the region, they have been working to populate the Southwest Missouri site with good written insights and photographs. The first 200 submissions were made in record time and more are being sent every week.

Editor’s note:  April wrote that she is now the Mayor of Cedar Meadows? Do you know what that means?

Photos by Sheryl Gassman and Rick Billington and insight by Mary Jo Cupps, all from RE/MAX Lifestyle Realty in Branson West, MO.

A primary goal of Agent Insight is to illustrate communities through word and pictures.  Neighborhoods, schools, shopping centers, parks, entertainment and sports venues – these are the first subjects that come to mind and you are doing an excellent job of presenting them with your photos and written insights.

However, stay alert for possibilities that continue to tell the story of your town, but are different from the usual topics. Look for the fun opportunities to be the “color commentator” instead of the “play-by-play” person.

Scott Kirkpatrick, RE/MAX Eagle Properties, Sault Saint Marie, MI, recently submitted a cute piece on “Yooper” being added to the American lexicon. This may not be about real estate, but it makes a great comment about the people who live in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Several agents have written wonderful insights on local history. Philip Stock of RE/MAX Central, Manalapan, NJ, submitted an interesting piece on his town. Here’s part of it:

We need lots of pictures of your community, but have a little photo fun occasionally. Try shooting pictures that capture the spirit or essence of your subject without necessarily showing the entire

scene. What about an interesting architectural feature of a building instead of the whole structure? Perhaps a close up of a rose bush or budding tree instead of the entrance to the park?

The three photos

shown here are excellent examples. Instead of just an zoo sign, there’s the fabulous peacock … instead of a typical hand-shaking photo at a ground breaking ceremony, there’s a row of hard hats on shovels … instead of a showing the outside of the building, you see beautiful windows with a cocktail glass as an accent.

These words and pictures add rich texture to all your other work portraying your communities. Think outside the box as you create your Agent Insight submissions and have a good time doing it!

An excellent way to keep photos of a subdivision or cityscape fresh is to retake pictures with the change of seasons. It would be great if all the subjects featured in a community were shown in fresh spring green, the lush colors of summer, golden reds and browns of fall and covered by snow in the winter. Think about the pictures you have already submitted. If they were taken in the fall and winter, mark your “to do” list for May and June to go back and shoot them again. If you have some good shots from past growing seasons, take them again the next winter.

Take a look at these two sets of elegant photos from New  Jersey depicting two scenes at different times of the year. The first set is of the Old Oak Tree in Basking Ridge, NJ. An area landmark, the tree is located in the graveyard of the Presbyterian Church and was just a sapling when Columbus arrived in America. It was already 400 when the Revolutionary War began.

The second pair of photos was taken of a park in Bloomfield, NJ.,  in the spring and the winter. The contrast of the seasons is shown beautifully and so is this stunning feature of the community.