The National Association of Home Builders’ National Sales and Marketing Council (NSMC) and the Institute of Residential Marketing (IRM) have officially changed the name of their MIRM designation to “Master in Residential Marketing” after the NAHB Executive Board passed the motion at the 2010 Spring Board of Directors’ Meeting in Washington last month.

Established in 1977 as “Member of the Institute of Residential Marketing,” the MIRM designation is the most prestigious designation offered by IRM. It is the only NAHB designation that requires the completion of a case study, making it a top-level achievement for professionals in new home marketing.

 “Builders need the very best in residential marketing right now, and the MIRM designation is the easiest way to identify our top professionals,” said Ross Robbins, 2010 IRM Chair. “It was time to make a change to help builders understand how respected those four letters are in new home sales and marketing.”

Learn more about the NAHB and view the original press release here.

The General Services Administration reached agreements with popular social media networks like Facebook and YouTube to allow agencies to use the service.

Previously, elements of the terms of these services blocked the government from using them.

So what’s a government to do?

The “agreements” resolve legal concerns and conditions having to do with liability, endorsements, advertisements, freedom of information, and governing law.

Other than the blog post with the video, there isn’t much to the page other than a few links to Whitehouse.gov and to Obama’s and Vice President Joe Biden’s MySpace pages, as well as a link to some playful White House photos. The whole page seems designed to humanize Obama and help younger voters relate to him.

There are no ads on the page, but if you click through to photos page, then you do get some ads. The ad beside this photo of the president running down a hallway with his daughter’s puppy says, “Pimp My Profile.”

Not very Presidential.

Hopefully, these pages will follow the same pattern as the administration’s other web efforts – they start out underwhelming, but improve eventually.

For example, the White House blog originally contained little more than repackaged press releases, but it has become chatty and conversational.

Meanwhile, until recently, the Recovery.gov site for learning about how the $787 billion stimulus package gets spent lacked any real data.

Privacy advocates’ biggest concern is that most social networks treat a government agency no differently than a former roommate. People might friend the White House on MySpace, for example, to indicate support for the president or to get messages about what the administration is doing.

In doing so, however, they are agreeing that every party photo, love poem, and wisecrack from a friends that appears on their profiles will be visible to White House Web masters.

And so far there are no guidelines that say whether those Webmasters might keep copies of any of personal information they see or send it to the government officials who could use it to get authorization to audit people’s taxes, keep them from boarding an airplane, tap their telephones or even arrest them.

In case you are wondering where your tax dollars are being spent these days via federal employees, here are a few places to visit online to learn more:

• Facebook.com/Whitehouse
• MySpace.com/whitehouse
• Twitter.com/whitehouse

As new home sales agents, we often find ourselves looking back on the “game-tape” of the events that were played out on life’s field that day.

At times we may be searching for answers, meaning, direction, and are left wondering, “Where did the day go? What did I forget to do? Could I have done more?”

Today can seem like the same day, everyday, yet we play back the moments spent and time loss anyway…hoping, for a glimpse of a fresh start tomorrow.

There is an endless list of daily decisions that need to be made and acted upon in order for us to find inner peace and success; according to John Maxwell there are only twelve.

In his book “Today Matters,” leadership expert John Maxwell crystallizes a dozen key areas of life, that he guarantees will help any individual find fulfillment, purpose, and success each day of their life.

Known for his quick witted humor in the organizational and business leadership arena, he takes a more personal, reflective tone in scripting what could be known as one of his best books yet.

John begins by underlining the value of every single day; saying that “today can be a masterpiece…, or a disaster;” it all depends on the sum of decisions that we make each day.

The following paragraphs illustrate just a few out of the twelve key points found in the individual daily decisions outlined by Maxwell in “Today Matters.”

• Today’s ATTITUDE gives Me Possibilities

Ever look in a mirror and not like what you see? Is your reflection involved in a hidden conspiracy to sabotage your self image?

Are you at conflict with what you believe about yourself?

Some people are old, and don’t act their age; some are overweight, and don’t care; others are beautiful, and haven’t a clue.

Your attitude is the reflection, of your perception of life. What you believe determines what you will see!

Beginning each morning with a positive mental outlook is crucial to realizing the impact that each day has in creating a healthy life.

• Today’s PRIORITIES Gives Me Focus

Allowing outside circumstances and events to dictate the path and destination of life is frustrating and dangerous. Prioritizing each activity, everyday ensures you a maximum return on time and energy.

Imagine waking up every morning with a list of 100 places to stop on your way to work. Most likely many of those detours would keep you from making it to your job on time, and keep you from doing what you know needs to be done.

Half way down the list, the pit in your stomach spells out the potential loss of your job, so you disregard the rest of the itinerary and rush to work. But it’s too late, the damage is done – your boss doesn’t understand.

Not having a clear impression of what is important to you personally in life is just about the same thing… going somewhere but, not getting to where you want to be.

• Today’s HEALTH Gives Me Strength

If you feel like you are moving a lot slower than you use to, it’s probably not the fact that your birthday is next week. Really!

Medical studies, one after another prove that it is the lack of physical activity in human life that degrades our bodies, not necessarily our age.

In modern society it is readily declared that the right attitude to have in our careers is “work smarter, not harder.” Time will prove however, that this is a fallible viewpoint.

We should be aiming to, “work harder and smarter!” Our physical bodies need to be challenged consistently. You have heard that a “chain is only as strong as its weakest link,” so it goes with us.

Every detail to maintaining a healthy spirit, soul, and body will add value to our life experiences each day.

• Today’s FAMILY Gives Me Stability

Physically, the muscles in the abdomen are the most important group of muscles in our body.

From our mid-section you can trace an unbreakable fiber of muscle tissue to each one of our other 560+ muscle groups.

Intricately woven, this network of different muscles combine and work together, to promote physical movement throughout our body.

In our lives, the role of our family and its members, demonstrate a similar relationship between society and our self.

The “bread basket” of personal peace and fulfillment is found in a life patterned by love and interdependence with others.

Developing healthy relationships with those that are closest to us give us strength to fulfill our potential daily.

• Today’s THINKING Gives Me an Advantage

For most of us, thinking is something we do not do enough of.

It used to be, that men and women were praised for the gift of being able to pull thoughts out of other’s minds. In contrast however, today’s society rewards those who are able to incorporate their own thoughts into another mind.

We should think more about thinking.

Weighing out our options in fore sight, allows us the freedom to be able to choose our own destiny.

This incredible tool is powerful in that it provides us with the opportunity to concisely and effectively communicate our goals, desires, needs, and position in life to others around us.

Today, amidst everything else, is a new chance to get it right… even this morning’s troubles have already been spent, paid in full, with no option for a refund!

Benjamin Franklin was quoted as saying, “One today is worth two tomorrows; what I am to be, I am now becoming.”

There is no better ailment for days gone by and no fonder cure for days to come, than making good decisions today.

Take time to evaluate, and become familiar with what is really important in life, and don’t hold back in living it out.

Do this daily and discover truly that TODAY MATTERS MOST!

A few years ago, I was driving to a friend’s new home for the first time.

Jamane Williams and his wife Alecia, were first time home buyers in a freshly built new home community not far from where I grew up in Houston, Texas.

He called me with great excitement and enthusiasm for the new home that they had just purchased, and I gladly accepted his invitation to visit.

I had great directions on how to get to his new home, but somehow I managed to get lost on my way.

Row after row of neatly combed, and recently built streets led me to what I thought was a dead end.

However, the developer of this new home community must have had me in mind when designing this subdivision because at the end of every road was a turning circle (in Texas we call them cul-de-sac’s.)

Feeling lost and with no foreseeable alternative to continue forward, I had no choice but to turn the wheel, hug the curb, and back-track my way down the same street to where I began…

Web 2.0 and social media platforms have drastically changed the way online buyers are shopping for everything, including your new homes.

Have you met potential home buyers halfway by changing your own approach to sales and marketing?

Mr. or Mrs. New Home Sales Agent: if you feel lost, or the road that you’re on looks like it might be a dead end… take heart, you may not need to change roads, just direction.

In essence, many home builders have reached the dead-end of “new home sales street.”

Fear not, as this challenging market is actually a turning circle that will allow our industry turn the wheel, hug the curb, and start a new direction with new home sales marketing efforts.

P.S. I eventually made it to my friend’s new house…

Multiply your efforts by marketing new home properties to local affinity and social groups.

Individuals and companies that offer specialized services serve “niche markets” and usually well compensated; and usually at a premium price compared with those who attempt to be everything to everybody.

The truth is, there are just too many different types of groups and the individuals that belong to them, to effectively target and reach them all.

At the highest level of skilled selling, resides a secret ingredient that reaches far beyond any other forms of marketing – social networking.

Networking with members of a local trade association might induce a favorable response for your sales proposition.

Web 2.0 and social media platforms may make it easier to identify these groups and classes of individuals via the internet, ultimately it is your responsibility as a sales professional to penetrate and assume an active role within the group’s identity.

Here are some examples of affinity groups that you might consider targeting when you are planning your next new home marketing campaign:

• Bankers, Loan Officers, Insurance Agents
• Accountants, Lawyers, and Doctors
• Real Estate Professionals
• Local Union, Rotary, and Business Counsels
• Social Service Providers: Police, Fire Dept, Emergency Crews
• School and Church Staff
• Small, Medium, and Large Business Owners and Management Teams

Initially, it may appear difficult to get inside the circle of influence within these groups of prospects.

Once you are able to build a few relationships from within these groups, you’ll find the same strength in numbers that once worked against you, can now be leveraged for new home sales via referrals.

New home prospects can now tell Google which sites to show them search results from.

According to Google, “The preferred sites feature lets you set your Google Web Search preferences so that your search results match your unique tastes and needs. Fill in the sites you rely on the most, and results from your preferred sites will show up more often when they’re relevant to your search query.”

Example:

A potential client is searching new home listings online.

They only want to view specific listings like “open houses for new construction” and not resales. They might add home builder websites like SheaHomes.com, KB.com, spechomes.com, and other sites to their list of preferred Google search terms.

In this fashion, when a search is performed for home builder models, results from those websites on  the preferred list will return first. The preferred sites feature sort of acts like a filter or aggregator, which means you might as well flush all of your new home marketing efforts down the drain!

Only kidding, your real estate blogging efforts will most likely trump the average internet user!

This is why…

In order for this new feature to work, one must be signed into their Google account. Preferences and settings will have to be modified to enable the feature. According to Google, it will parse your browsing history and offer some suggestions as to which sites you might add to the list. (Featured listings?)

Once you’ve added a list of sites, you’ll see a little indicator in the search results that lets you know that that particular result came from your list.

Feel free to read more about it here.

Let go of information… holding onto it can destroy the new home sales process.

In the best selling book “Idea Virus,” Seth Godin likens the spread of information online, to the particles of an infectious virus.

Note this is not just theory, but an observation of how effective messages move through the lines of digital communication.

Information technology has broaden the width and depth of our world online, and offline as well. By shortening long distances, new online social tools and web apps have exponentialy increased the number of messages to us all… (think Twitter.)

This constant influx of information often overloads one’s ability to effectively interpret and properly categorize a majority of these incoming messages; thereby creating a need for information aggregators.

Here’s the “opportunity” for the new home sales pro:

The fracturing of traditional offline information into mobile bite-sized info bits is creating a seemingly endless supply of emerging micro-real-estate-markets.

Why not be the local information aggregator for your new home community?

Online home buyers prefer their home search information to be well filtered, and thoroughly refined… why not research and aggregate all of the home buying related information for your area.

Then use your new home sales blog to filter your competitors’ real estate marketing and sales messages to the bottom of the search engine pile, and present yourself as the local micro-real-estate-market expert.

“Feature your Inventory Homes on SpecHomes.com and drive an overwhelming response from active home buyers on the internet!”

A Featured SpecHomes.com listing will appear in some of the most prominent sections of the site as well as appearing highlighted in our inventory home search results. Your featured listing will get premium visibility and increase the audience for your ready to move spec homes. The more prospects that see your inventory homes, the better chance you have of finding a buyer.

What are the Key Benefits?

• High Visibility. Featured Inventory Homes are highlighted in the Search and on other content pages. This increases the chance of your listings getting noticed by active and passive property seekers.
• More Click-Through. Your listing will get more detailed views from Real Estate Professionals by being a featured listing on SpecHomes.com!
• More Exposure. Call more attention to your inventory house listing, your organization, and your opportunities by going featured, and take advantage of extra spec home web traffic through our online distribution partners.

How Does SpecHomes.com Syndication Work?

“Behind the scenes, we distribute your listings via automated XML feeds to major internet classified and search engine destinations such as:

Google Base, Oodle, Vast, Backpage, Propsmart, Edgeio, Lycos, Zillow, Trulia, Local.com, FeedBurner, and many more…

(We also supply automated notification of new page contents to Yahoo, Google, & MSN daily!)

In order for your spec home inventory to appear as a featured SpecHomes.com listing, you must first submit your data via your easy to use account control panel. Once your spec home ad is live, it will be rotated throughout the site with other featured listings in your local region or area.

“Syndication is a term we use to define the most unique part of our service.”

Basically you create your spec home listings once on SpecHomes.com via our easy to use control panel, and we do all the heavy lifting behind the scenes of sending your classified listing information to other high traffic websites. So you can potentially have dozens of websites advertising your inventory all across the internet!

SpecHomes.com consistently appears on the first page of search results for hundreds of keywords and search terms related to:

Spec homes, inventory homes, home builder inventory, new home community, and home builder directory on Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, and many others as well!

These FREE Extra Features make you Local Internet Marketing Experts!

•         Create and submit new home community events relative to your new homes and communities for free to our online New Home Community Events Calendar – perfect for extra exposure online!

•         Find out what the competition is up to – sign up for free automated email alerts in your area! When another home builder posts a listing in your city, will send you a notification to check out their offerings.

And We Never…

•         Sell, Rent, or Share your confidential information!

•         Charge you for individual leads. Your listings = Your customers!

We want you to dominate your local marketing area on the internet and we provide you the latest tools available on the internet today to do just that.

Contact Us Today!

It seems that those statistics have yet to reach the advertising and marketing departments for a majority of the home building industry. See also, Home Builders Are You Blogging?

One Texas home builder however, seems to be getting the message loud and clear.

Tilson Homes has been building quality new homes on Texas land for over 75 years, and a quick peak at their website might foretell why many more prospective clients will consider them to build their new house in the future.

Here are the top six characteristics on how this home builder website effectively delivers the information that Internet prospects want; and how you can implement similar strategies with your online advertising:

1. The main objective for most house hunters searching the Internet is to gather information that will help them make an informed buying decision.

An online sales counselor should be available 7 days a week during normal business hours to help answer prospective questions that are not covered in your online marketing literature.

2. Customer interactivity does not have to be flashy to be an effective Internet advertising tool on home builders websites.

The ability to create a user account to store home search information will foster repeat visits to your website, and begins to incorporate a sense of customer attentiveness to your prospect’s personal needs and wants.

3. It is suggested to formulate multiple access points for the main content of your website. Web marketing studies show that different web users respond to different visual stimuli.

Balancing graphic links with keyword rich text links can increase your website browsers ability to effectively navigate your floor plans and home offerings easier.

4. A common complaint for many home builder websites is that there is not enough information regarding specific product and floor plan offerings.

Stop all heavy handed advertising techniques that impede a home buyers ability to gather information! Give them what they are coming to your website for new home information.

5.  Provide live pictures that actually demonstrate the product that you are offering to build.

A home builder only has to build a floor plan for client, to be able to re-use those images to sell to another. Most home buyers don’t want to imagine their future home, they want to see it.

6. In case your website design team missed the mark on providing access to the easy to find information that your web clients are looking for…

Create a simple keyword rich, text-based site map navigation page that allows browsers un-tethered access to everything that your home building website offers.

This is the information age. Gone are the days of home builders and real estate professionals being the only segment of the population to posses knowledge regarding new housing and construction.

Just as the home building industry has implemented new technology, and techniques to speed up the construction process itself, the online home buyer has also discovered the power and freedom that well designed web technology brings.

Builders who take initiative with these simple, yet effective website marketing strategies will reap the rewards that transcend their core construction services, they will be sewing the seeds of future new home sales.

Home builders are you blogging? You should be.

In fact, whether you are a custom or production home builder with 1, 10, or 10,000 employees, all of you should be blogging!

Why? Search engine optimization.

It’s no longer a secret that online, fresh content is king. “Content” meaning articles, videos, podcasts, and text links which usher viewers directly back to your product or service online.

In our case, new homes, the new home lifestyle and new home communities.

When a web surfer does a search for a specific set of keywords on a popular search engine like Google, MSN, or Yahoo!, the search engines do their best to return relevant results for that specific set of keywords or search terms.

You’ve read the statistics right?

According to the National Association of Realtors, “86 percent of home buyers start their home search on the Internet; and 98 percent found the internet to be a useful tool in helping to decide which homes to inquire about in person.”

Eighty-six percent; that’s nearly 9 out of 10 new home buyers searching and sifting through literally billions of web pages, hoping to find you and your newly built homes.

Why not give them a hand?

Everyday home builders across the nation continue to wallow in extremely low consumer confidence. Where do you think that sentiment is being perpetually reinforced?

You got it, online directories, forums, news channels, professional and consumer blogs.

Take another look at the title of this new home marketing article: Home Builder Blogs

Type that exact phrase into any search engine and chances are you’ll find the same website at the top of the search results almost every time.

And unfortunately, it’s probably not your home builder website.

So what can you do to be found at the top of the search engine results? Start blogging.

There are many free blogging platforms online. For no more than you’d spend on a month of billboard advertising for a single new home community location, you could probably have a custom blog system integrated into your existing company website.

See you at the top of the search engine results page…