Creating a monster marketing program to sell homes

The ability to continually evolve and improve is the secret to a business serving you better. In the real estate market, finding more powerful and effective ways to sell homes gives that realtor the edge over their competition.

The Dan Cooper Team has always been proud of the superior level of customer service we provide, the attention to our clients’ needs 24/7 and our commitment to making every real estate transaction enjoyable and profitable.

That dedication hasn’t changed, and we are among the best at taking care of our customers.
But, the way in which we are marketing and selling homes is evolving by leaps and bounds. The result is that we are finding innovative ways to sell homes quickly and for the best return on your investment.

We started a few years ago by being among the first to introduce video tours of our properties online. We developed www.dancoopertv.com as a separate website and it was a huge success and continues to attract hundreds of unique visitors each week.

And although we were leaders in this area, we certainly were not prepared to sit back on our laurels and believe that this was all we had to do. We knew our competitors would catch up and surpass us if we were complacent and failed to be innovative and creative in our approach to selling homes.

Today, the playing field is uneven as brokerages such as ours develop more powerful selling tools and are fearless in their commitment to implement new systems and technologies. In fact, we have been using the guru of internet marketing, Dean Jackson, to help us build successful strategies. We are not about to experiment with new approaches when it comes to selling your home. We want to be innovative, but also smart about it. Dean has been working with us to take his world-class marketing strategies and implement them on a local level. The result is a higher level of success using proven systems.

We have bolstered our online efforts, creating separate websites for each listing and posting them on YouTube. We take the time to optimize the individual sites so they are more likely to be found when a potential buyer types in Oakville or Burlington Real Estate, for example. Finally, posting them on YouTube creates even more exposure for your listing.

Our Twitter profile and our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/dancooperteam, are quickly attracting a large following of fans who want to stay up-to-date with real estate news and community events here in Oakville and Burlington.

Furthermore, we have recently developed direct response marketing campaigns, which are helping us identify qualified buyers thereby selling your home in a shorter time period and for more money. It’s a unique and powerful approach, and one that we believe will revolutionize our industry because it allows us to expend our energies on those who are truly interested in your home.

Of course, we still rely on magazines and real estate sections, but the key is merging our print marketing with our online marketing. Again, with professional and expert guidance from Dean, we are merging our strategies to create a monster marketing program for our clients.

Whether you are looking to buy or sell, choosing a realtor who is committed to client service and has created an innovative marketing program to sell homes faster and for more money will ensure your peace of mind.

The Dan Cooper Team is an award-winning brokerage with Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Brokerage – the Number 1 Royal LePage Team for Canada in 2009, 2007, 2005, 2002, 2001, 2000 and 1999. Go to www.Oakvilleburlingtonhouseprices.com to get your free 2012 July Report on Oakville/Burlington house prices. Also “Like” us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dancooperteam for the latest real estate and community news.

Being an industry leader requires a commitment to improvement

A few years ago we launched dancoopertv.com – a unique site at the time that further illustrated why we are among the top real estate firms in the area. Innovative real estate firms remain leaders in the marketplace by developing new and exciting ways of marketing properties. Maintaining our position as one of the top brokerages in the Oakville and Burlington areas means that there is no time to stand still or to be content with creating a unique video-based website.

The website, however, continues to be a powerful marketing tool that is attracting hundreds of visitors each day. Our properties come alive as we take you on a video tour of the homes, showing you room by room what each has to offer. It is convenient for potential buyers and a much more informative method of showcasing properties than the typical static photographs.

If you are searching for a home, the website delivers some exciting opportunities. New properties are continually being added so we encourage you to check back with us from time to time to see what is new. For those selling a home, the site will showcase your property in a completely fresh way and will reach a web savvy demographic that prefers the Internet over printed forms of advertising.

A good real estate website, however, should be more than just a vehicle for selling homes. At dancoopertv.com, you will find a wealth of information about your town and some of the people in it – wonderful retailers and business people who make Oakville and Burlington vibrant and engaging communities. Discover where to find the freshest baked goods or the best shop for window curtains. See our entire educational series on home inspections with advice directly from the experts.

And while our website was leading edge a few years ago, we have evolved to use technology to our advantage. We have added QR codes, Twitter and Facebook to our arsenal to help you sell your home faster and for more money.

The Dan Cooper Team is dedicated to helping our clients with all their real estate transaction needs. We have key relationships with local experts from real estate lawyers to mortgage brokers to moving professionals to help your move go smoothly and stress-free. Our unique 16-page guide How to Sell Your Home in Less Than 60 Days – Guaranteed is an invaluable guide that you can download directly from our website dancooper.com. This handy FREE guide provides all the information you need now to give you an unfair advantage over the competition.

Our expertise, our position as one of the leaders in this area and our innovative approaches to selling homes has garnered us a growing fan base following us on www.facebook.com/dancooperteam. Join us now and discover what many already have – that we are on top of the latest developments in real estate in Oakville, Burlington and Mississauga.

The Dan Cooper Team is an award-winning brokerage with Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Brokerage – the Number 1 Royal LePage Team for Canada in 2009, 2007, 2005, 2002, 2001, 2000 and 1999. Call the office today for your free home evaluation or to learn more about the firm’s innovative marketing solutions. And join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dancooperteam for the latest real estate and community news.

Using the Internet to sell homes faster and for more money

The mark of a good real estate agent is the lengths to which he or she will go to market your home. In today’s marketplace, it is not enough to merely place a few ads in the real estate section of the local newspaper. Advertising, of course, is important – and that is why I go big whenever I use traditional media. I consistently take out one and two page spreads in these sections. I also carefully select the most effective magazines – and again take the best strategic positioning within those publications to provide the maximum exposure for my clients.

But perhaps most important, I have been a leader in utilizing the Internet by developing a unique online marketing program. My DanCooperTV.com website was ahead of its time when I launched it a few years ago and it remains a dynamic element of my marketing strategy today. The video-based format brings properties to life, providing a much more striking impact than static images. Whether you are buying or selling a home, the opportunity to display a property through a live tour of the home accompanied by a voice-over description of the home’s unique features is a powerful tool. The seller is able to advertise their property in a whole new light and the buyer is able to take a comprehensive tour at their leisure and convenience. Professionally produced, this site offers an incredible venue like no other.

A good real estate website, however, should be more than just a vehicle for selling homes. At DanCooperTV.com, you will find a wealth of information about your area and some of the people in it – the retailers, businesses and charitable organizations that make Oakville and Burlington vibrant and engaging communities. See my entire educational series on home inspections with advice directly from the experts. You will also meet members of the Dan Cooper team, providing you with an opportunity to better learn who we are and our approach, to begin building that ever important open and honest relationship that needs to develop between broker and client. I want you to be comfortable with our team, to trust that everyone is working in your best interest.

If you haven’t visited DanCooperTV in awhile, take a look – and take a visual tour of some of the exciting properties we have posted on the site. We recently posted a tour of a spectacular mansion on two acres of country property on Trafalgar Road, just north of Highway 407. This is a home that many passersby have wondered about – and here it is on my website. It’s the new, cutting-edge approach to marketing homes and we’re leading this exciting trend. There are other developing technologies that we are looking into and I will talk more about those in the future.

In the meantime, for more information about how we can sell your home quickly and for top dollar, visit my website DanCooper.com or give the office a call and we would be more than happy to tell you more.

Dan Cooper is an award winning Broker with Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Brokerage – the Number 1 Royal LePage Team for Canada in 2009. He can be reached at 905.338.3737, direct line at 905.849.3303 or through his innovative and interactive website at DanCooper.com. Be sure to catch the Dan Cooper Real Estate Series on DailyWebTV.com. For his free booklet How To Sell Your House For Top Dollar – Fast! or his Guide to Oakville Real Estate, please call the Dan Cooper Team.

Take a virtual tour of Halton’s first GreenHouse certified home

Cutting the ribbon to officially open Halton’s first GreenHouse certified home are from left to right: Greenbilt Homes president Mike Manning, Dan Cooper, Regional Councillor Alan Johnston and Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn.

It is the first of its kind in Halton – a house that is so unique that close to 200 people crowded into the home and lined up outside the door during the recent Grand Opening. This luxury home, just a few blocks from Bronte Harbour, is among the most energy-efficient homes in the region. The two-storey Georgian home by Greenbilt Homes at 2305 Belyea Street in Bronte Village is the region’s only GreenHouse certified home. Located in a park-like setting, the Greenbilt home has all the craftsman finishes, luxurious features and modern conveniences that are found in today’s custom homes, but has the building integrity and efficiencies that are far ahead of their time.

Achieving the GreenHouse Construction certification is a remarkable accomplishment and you can see what makes the home special by taking a virtual tour on DanCooperTV.com. Simply click on the video titled Oakville’s First Green Home. The Greenbilt property is considered by many to be the future of building. Home building in Ontario is gradually becoming greener, and the major push for this change is coming from the industry itself. There are a number of industry-wide initiatives such as the very stringent GreenHouse certification program that encourage home builders to embrace and adopt energy-efficient products, technologies and practices. But individual companies like Greenbilt Homes and builders like Mike Manning and Catherine Ann Marshall are leading the way by building beautiful homes that are luxurious and sustainable.

Oakville MP Terence Young had this to say as he toured the home. “This home in particular is exciting to me because it’s incredibly energy efficient which is a solution to a number of problems we have in Canada. One is the greenhouse gas effect; another is the cost of living for folks. “And also because it is made out of a lot of recycled materials and recycling is brilliant. The ideas that are implemented in this home – it won’t be long before they will be in every new home and it won’t be long before they are in almost every home by way of retrofit.”

Other politicians had equally glowing remarks. Regional Councillor Alan Johnston said he was impressed by the superior level of insulation and the innovative recycling program within the house. Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn added that “there is a huge appetite for this type of house. And Greenbilt is really the leader.” He said a luxury home that is inexpensive to operate “can’t help but to be a good thing.” How inexpensive are we talking? According to Marshall, the owners of this home will save up to 30 percent on their utility bills compared to homes of comparable size that were built in the 1980s. That works out to be roughly $1,500 this year and will increase as utility costs rise, Marshall says.

People are talking about this truly innovative home – but seeing is believing. The grand design, heritage touches and energy-efficient technologies are showcased and discussed in the video on DanCooperTV.com. I’m proud to be the Broker for this exciting new project – to be associated with the latest evolution in building and to be part of a critical new direction to build homes that will reduce our carbon footprint. If you want to see for yourself what everyone is talking about, call my office; the Dan Cooper Team will be glad to help you.

Dan Cooper is an award winning Broker with Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Brokerage – the Number 1 Royal LePage Team for Canada in 2009. He can be reached at 905.338.3737, direct line at 905.849.3303 or through his innovative and interactive website at DanCooper.com. Be sure to catch the Dan Cooper Real Estate Series on DailyWebTV.com. For his free booklet How To Sell Your House For Top Dollar – Fast! or his Guide to Oakville Real Estate, please call the Dan Cooper Team.

Opening the MLS to the public – will it really save you money?

There is a significant development in the world of real estate these days which involves the ability for sellers to list their homes on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Canada’s Competition Bureau has been urging the industry to open up its listing service to the public. Recently the Canadian Real Estate Association took a step in that direction by proposing a change in the rules that would allow agents to post listings on the MLS for a flat fee. The agent would then step aside and leave the rest to the seller.

For some people this will be attractive. Like online stock trading or arranging your family vacation through the Internet without the assistance of a professional travel agent, the new regulations would allow homeowners to sell their property without the help of an agent and avoid paying the agent’s commission or fees. Perhaps some home sellers will find the savings worth the work and inconvenience they will endure while trying to sell their home. But is it worth it? Do those people fully understand, or appreciate, what exactly is involved in selling a home? Simply listing your home on the MLS is no guarantee it will sell. A photo and description will sit there with thousands of other listings, and you just hope the right buyer sees it.

A qualified, experienced and knowledgeable Broker, on the other hand, is a master at marketing properties so that your home sells quickly and for top dollar. Knowing the community, what buyers are looking for, how to market your home and how to stage it will help you sell your home quickly and for top dollar – this is what we are good at. When working with the Dan Cooper Team of Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Brokerage, you are working with a Broker who has developed innovative and carefully selected methods of showcasing your home for optimum exposure. These methods involve selecting the prime advertising spots in a variety of publications and using the Internet creatively to ensure your home sells quickly and for top dollar. For example, my unique DanCooperTV.com website is bringing properties to life through a video-based platform. I’m proud to be one of the first to tap into this exciting form of marketing to provide you with a competitive edge when selling your home.

This comes at a cost and that’s where some of our commission is invested. People trying to sell their homes themselves are not spending thousands of dollars a week to advertise in the various real estate magazines or to develop a website to showcase their home. But a good Broker is spending that amount to market your property. Besides superior exposure for your home, there are a host of other benefits when dealing with the Dan Cooper Team, such as complimentary home staging consultation; instant access to our team of lawyers, home inspectors, mortgage brokers, appraisers and contractors; ongoing updates and progress reports as part of our in-depth communications; and being served by a team of multi-disciplined professionals with more than 40 years of combined experience. Having a listing on the MLS may only cost a few hundred dollars, but it is a very small part of the whole picture when it comes to effectively selling your home.

Dan Cooper is an award winning Broker with Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Brokerage – the Number 1 Royal LePage Team for Canada in 2009. He can be reached at 905.338.3737, direct line at 905.849.3303 or through his innovative and interactive website at DanCooper.com. Be sure to catch the Dan Cooper Real Estate Series on DailyWebTV.com. For his free booklet How To Sell Your House For Top Dollar – Fast! or his Guide to Oakville Real Estate, please call the Dan Cooper Team.

Restyled and relaunched, the Dan Cooper website is better than ever

I have just relaunched my website and I believe it is among the most dynamic and interesting real estate sites you will find. Redesigned, retooled and restyled, www.DanCooper.com is more interactive and better positioned for today’s Internet savvy consumer. I’ve spent the past several months overhauling the site to create an exciting video-based home page and to optimize my presence on the web – making it easier for home buyers to find my site.

Going beyond traditional methods to sell your home is how I am differentiating myself from most realtors and taking the marketing of your home to a new level. I am one of only a few realtors who are maximizing the power of the Internet to sell homes.

DanCooper.com incorporates the streaming video home tours that have been a major feature on my popular DanCooperTV.com site. Consumers demand more information in order to make informed decisions in complete confidence and how a website is structured and developed separates the innovative companies from the norm. I’m proud that Dan Cooper Real Estate is among the leaders in Internet development with our unique video-based productions.

“With a professionally-produced high definition video of your property, we tell your story on the Internet in a fresh, realistic and dynamic way. Prospective buyers can take a virtual tour of your home before, during or after your open house,” explains Tony Hall of See My Clients. His company has been an integral partner in rebuilding my website and producing dynamic video productions of our listed homes.

DanCooper.com also provides timely market advice, explaining the mood of the market and developing trends, giving you an advantage when making one of your most important decisions. You are also introduced to the Dan Cooper team and can witness strong testimonials from clients and colleagues. When choosing a realtor, you want complete confidence in their abilities, knowledge of the market and that they are working with your best interests at heart. Being able to check out your realtor even before you meet will help you make your choice with peace of mind.
I believe few others are putting the level of resources that I am investing in this new exciting medium. My website alone receives more than 200 hits a day. Combine that with a presence on the MLS website and the many other sites that are linked to DanCooper.com and you can imagine the exposure your property will receive.

But then, seeing is believing. Visit DanCooper.com today and spend some time exploring the many great features and offers.

Dan Cooper is an award winning Broker with Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Brokerage. He can be reached at 905.338.3737, direct line at 905.849.3303 or through his website. Be sure to catch the Dan Cooper Real Estate Education Series on DailyWebTV.com. For a free copy of his Guide to Oakville Real Estate or his booklet How To Sell Your House For Top Dollar, please call The Dan Cooper Team.

Digital tour is an exciting way to sell your home

Going beyond traditional methods to sell your home is how I am differentiating myself from most realtors and taking the marketing of your home to a new level.

Of course I still use print – perhaps more so than many brokers – and heavily utilize my website, but digital media is a powerful marketing tool that is bringing your property to life and increasing its exposure to a massive audience. I am among the first to utilize this new wave of advertising and I have invested heavily in this new exciting medium. And it is paying dividends by helping me sell properties faster and for more.

By combining a dynamic video experience with a well photographed print ad, I effectively create a bridge from print to the digital world where you not only see more, but I can track the user experience. This is critical to capturing qualified leads for your home.

Here is how Tony Hall of See My Clients explains the process.

“With a professionally-produced high definition video of your property, we tell your story on the Internet in a fresh, realistic and dynamic way. Prospective buyers can take a virtual tour of your home before, during or after your open house.

“Additionally, we optimize your video over the Wide World Web so that more people will see your home – more viewers mean greater exposure and greater results. By multiplying your video advertisement on multiple websites, blogs and RSS feeds, we can greatly increase the number of viewers going through your digital open house,” Tony explains.

I believe few others are putting the level of resources that I am investing in this new exciting medium. My website alone receives more than 200 hits a day. Combine that with a presence on the MLS website and the many other sites that are linked to DanCooper.com and you can imagine the exposure your property will receive.

Seeing is believing. Visit DanCooperTV.com today to see what I mean. And watch for the re-launch of my enhanced Dan Cooper.com, which is coming soon.

Dan Cooper is an award winning Broker with Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Brokerage. Dan can be reached at 905.338.3737, direct line at 905.849.3303 or through his website. For a free copy of his Guide to Oakville Real Estate or his booklet How To Sell Your House For Top Dollar, please call The Dan Cooper Team.

Video tours on the Internet are the way of the future in selling homes

I’m overhauling my website to create a more dynamic video-based home page and to optimize my presence on the web – making it easier for home buyers to find my site. By pulling some of my websites under my main umbrella site – DanCooper.com – I am fully utilizing the Internet to sell your home.

Soon to be re-launched, DanCooper.com will incorporate the streaming video home tours that have been a major feature on my popular DanCooperTV.com site. The site’s home page will also have direct links to LivingInOakville.com, which offers home sellers and buyers valuable real estate tools and advice booklets absolutely free, and to DailyWebTV.com where you will find my Dan Cooper Real Estate Education Series – a valuable resource for anyone thinking of selling their home.

Incorporating the streaming video tours into DanCooper.com is perhaps the most exciting element of the site’s evolution. Here a member of the Dan Cooper Team takes you on a virtual tour of a particular home. The technology and technique have been available for quite some time and I’m surprised this capability of bringing homes to life has not been embraced by more real estate Brokers. In fact, I think I could be considered one of the pioneers.

Perhaps the resources and time that must be invested to produce these five-minute spots is prohibitive to many Brokers, but if it helps to sell your home faster and for more money, then the effort is well worth it.

To help me develop this innovative program, I turned to Tony Hall of See My Clients. This is how he explains why it is time to revolutionize the real estate industry.

“We are in a web video culture thanks to Youtube and now we are busy engaging ourselves in marketing into this space,” Tony says. “The days of rotating fishbowl picture slide shows of your property are over. Nobody wants to look at your property through a distorted wide angled lens any more – they want to watch, explore and listen.”

“Marketing real estate has never been this exciting. With the advancements of video technology and the ease by which people can view streaming video over the web – it has never been this easy to communicate your message over the Internet in a fresh, realistic and dynamic way. With a high definition video of your property, you not only tell your story more cost effectively, but you create a convenient and powerful way to showcase your home at the viewer’s choice. Prospective buyers can get a dynamic preview of your property before, during and any time after the open house.”

“Additionally we optimize the videos over the World Wide Web so that more people will see it – more viewers mean more exposure which means greater results. Dan Cooper is on the leading edge by utilizing this fresh and powerful marketing tool,” Tony explains.

Dan Cooper is an award winning Broker with Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Brokerage. He can be reached at 905.338.3737, direct line at 905.849.3303 or through his website. Watch for the re-launch of his dynamic and interactive DanCooper.com and spend time exploring the many great features and offers. For a free copy of his Guide to Oakville Real Estate or his booklet How To Sell Your House For Top Dollar, please call The Dan Cooper Team.