Real Estate Blogs for Internet marketing tactics and tips - AZ Real Estate Blogging Network

10 SEO steps to follow

Eric — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:23:11 +0000

There is no mistaking the power of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). There are millions and millions of dollars spent every month on SEO efforts. Why so much? Well because SEO pays off. The process of approaching, implementing, maintaining and monitoring an SEO effort is often a difficult task. However, if you take your approach one step at a time and keep informed of search engine guidelines, you would be smooth sailing. Just going through the motions will not get your site on that sought after first page in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). In fact if you’re not careful you can get carried away with your SEO efforts and get your site booted right off the SERPs. To avoid that make sure you study up a bit before you commit to an SEO campaign.

With that being said I have put together what I find to be the 5 most important SEO efforts. These are not necessarily in order of importance, but if you follow these 5 steps you will have taken that first step to attaining SEO stardom.

Title – The titles of your pages should contain the keywords in which you are optimizing the page. This is the first thing that the search engine robots, crawlers and spiders look at. Your title tags ( ) should be located near the top of the page coding in between the head tags. Your titles should be no longer than 100 characters, however Google will truncate the title if it is more than 60 characters including spaces. So unless you don’t mind your title being cut off with a … then have at it.
Keywords – A title means nothing without keywords. Keywords are what drive an SEO campaign and fuel your sites success. Keywords are a tricky business though so take your time, research your keywords and make sure you select keywords that are in your niche. Often times webmasters will not take much time in this area and just plug in the words that they would like to rate high in. For example, Joe has a website soliciting his carpet cleaning business so for lack of knowing any better, his site is geared toward the key phrase “carpet cleaner”. The problem with this is that the competition in this key phrase is very high and to reach the first page Joe will have to compete big names to be seen. Now this is not impossible but it is a bit far fetched for Joe to even attract his target market. Perhaps Joe should stick with a key phrase like ‘carpet cleaner Oakland CA’ or ‘bonnet cleaning Oakland CA’.
Body text – The body of your text should contain your keywords. The keywords should not be over used to avoid keyword spamming, which could get your site booted from Google and other search engines. Your “keyword density” should be balanced just right, if it is too low you may not get the optimum results where if it is to high then your page might be hit with a keyword spamming charge. Google is by far has the lowest keyword density tolerance, which is right around 2%. Yahoo and MSN are considerably higher at possibly 5%. There is no magic number here but I can tell you that it is not as many times as you can get the keywords on the page.
Heading Tags – Make sure that your heading tags contain your keywords, ideally the
tag should be right up there at the beginning of the page. Ideally the first thing in the tag should be an
tag that has your title. But we live in a world where we need Headers and nav bars, so the idea here is get the titles up as close as possible in the page.
URL – If at all possible get your keywords into the url. For instance if your keywords for a particular page are shopping concierge, then you may want to name the page something like shopping_concierge.html (or .php or whatever). Additionally if you have the opportunity you should consider getting a domain name that contains your keywords. To continue with the concierge example, let’s pretend the concierge company’s name is ‘Butler Concierge’ and that they are located in Fort Worth Texas. It would make sense to the average person to choose a domain name like butlerconcierge.com, however this company should consider a domain like fortworthconcierge.com. Search engines also use the domain name as an SEO qualifier so keep that in mind when choosing your domain names.
Links – Make sure there are no broken links in your site. Often times search engine algorithms see a site with broken links as incomplete or just not worth finishing so the overall rating of the site is affected. Also stay away from the SO tempting “click here” link, for instance ‘To get a quote on auto insurance, click here’. Where “click here” is the link. Instead try ‘FREE AUTO INSURANCE QUOTE’. Where the entire sentence is a link. The reason you want to stay away from “click here” is that when Google or Yahoo’s or whoever’s robots, crawlers and spiders come through they will recognize that the ‘auto insurance quote’ page is linked to the text “click here” rather than the key words for that page. Thus making your link useless.
Inbound links – Inbound links are paramount to the rating of your site. These links should be from sites that are of high quality. The higher the rating of the sites that link to yours, the higher search engines will rate you, in the light that quality sites think you have quality content and think your site is worth linking to. Getting inbound links are the hardest part of SEO by far and remember you can pay for quantity but quality is often compromised in this action. When getting your inbound links try to have the site Webmaster insert your links using the keywords like mentioned in number 6.
Flow – Remember, the reason you are trying to get your website to the top is because you want people to come to the site and look at your content, buy what your selling… etc., Don’t get so involved in SEO that your web site is not legible. What I am saying is design your site (as best as possible) for the robots, spiders, crawlers and your users. You don’t want to lose your users because you are tailoring your site so strictly for the search engines. Remember the bounce rate (the time your users spend on your site) is a part of SEO as well.
Patience is a virtue – Be patient, SEO campaigns are not for those who are instant gratification junkies. Give your site about three months to sink in. Check your analytics program to see how the site is doing and adjust accordingly. Keep your efforts simple; make a minimal amount of changes so that you can accurately see what works and what doesn’t.
Updates – Finally, stay on top of things. Keep an eye on the search engine guidelines to ensure your SEO is always up to date. The last thing you want is for your long sought efforts to slowly wash down the drain as technology advances.

There are many other things to consider when engaging in your SEO campaign and others that even deserve to be right up here with these, however I want to give you the basics and provide a solid direction to follow. Remember, to study up on these actions before actually implementing these. I would hate to see anyone say “Well I was reading this article that said I should include my keywords in my body text, so I just repeated the words over and over, made them the same color as the background so no one would see them. I don’t know why I can’t find my site on Google any more” Guys, that’s been done and the out come is not good. I promise.

Plagiarism and Copyright Infringements - Do’s & Don’ts

Candace Robinson — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:11:46 +0000

Join Az Real Estate Blogging Network and SAAR for our next meeting on March 10th, 2009 with special guest, Jonathan Bailey. An expert on plagiarism and copyright infringements. Come learn all about plagiarism and how it works. Jonathan Bailey is from New Orleans, LA with a BA in Journalism and Mass Comm, 2002, University of South Carolina. Jonathan will share his story and enlighten us of the pitfalls of plagiarism and the Do’s and Don’t’s.

Jonathan’s personal experience of plagiarism of his poetry and literature was being stolen for over six years. His journey and experience forced him to become knowledgeable to learn to fight back and not allow his work to be stolen any longer.

As a result of fighting back and gaining the knowledge to do so has given him the ability to help others fight again plagiarism.

Jonathan will help us understand the signs and warn us of the pitfalls of plagiarism today. The risks of plagiarism and how to go about putting a stop to keep from having anyone plagiarize your content.

Through Jonathan’s own experience he has been able to share advice and guide others through his personal site at Plagiarism Today.

Come join us for our March Meetup to learn about content theft, copyright infringement and plagiarism.

Date: March 10, 2009

Time: 10:00 a.m - 12:00 p.m

Where: Scottsdale Area Association of REALTORS®

4221 North Scottsdale Road
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
(480) 945-2651

We will be live streaming Jonathan in through Skype to ask questions and get the answers we all need to know and be prepared to take charge.

This is a very popular topic and hope you can find the time to meet up for the two hours set aside to tackle a very difficult but important subject. You won’t want to miss this event!

Be sure to RSVP and save your spot!

Be sure to follow Jonathan Bailey on Twitter @plagiarismtoday

Cultivating Crops in 2009

Nick Bastian — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 01:33:38 +0000

Over the last 16 years in the real estate business, I have really enjoyed meeting new people and keeping in contact with many of the friends I have made. Early on in my real estate career, I learned that “farming” was a term often used by successful agents, denoting an area, sphere of influence, or specific demographic that fits ones needs personally or professionally. In the “old days” farming mainly referred to door knocking, direct mail and making sure your farm heard from you a certain number of times per year.

Today, new farms have cropped up all over the internet. Terms like niche marketing and hyper-local blogging have become quite effective. Over the past couple of years, I have studied many different types of web -based and social networking options to better serve myself and my clients. This has allowed me to grow some great new relationships as well.

While I enjoy keeping in contact with past clients and feel that they are the back-bone of my career, it is fun to cultivate new crops via niche markets. For me, one such niche market has been homes near the light rail line in Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa. I have found this to be fun, interesting and mutually beneficial to myself and

to many people. So far, the seeds for this niche have been planted strictly on-line, but the response has been quite positive. In the near future, we plan to further attack these areas using a combination of new technologies and some “old school” cultivation. In fact, I have been actively seeking out real estate and mortgage professionals that will be a good fit in helping with this harvest. It is a new year, rates and prices appear to be bringing people back into the game. This truly is a great time to be in real estate, I just don’t care what the media wants to say… Our crops are planted, the growing season is upon us!

SEVRAR / BlueRoof360.com Tech Conference Schedule

Robert A. Gibbs — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:29:19 +0000

Many of you have asked and so here is the line up for the day. This is a pretty solid schedule at this point but please forgive us if we have to adjust things at the last minute!

8:15 - Registration Opens - Register online at www.SEVRAR.com - Non-Members and to order lunch please use this form.

8:45 - 9:15 - Palo Verde 1- Dean Naughton - Kickoff Speaker

9:30 - 10:15 - Theater - Jeff Raskin - Virtual Office
Palo Verde 1 - Mike Garland - Technology Threats to your Business
Palo Verde 2 - Greg Drezza - Free Virtual Tours

10:30 - 11:15 - Theater - Chip Lambert - LinkedIn Essentials
Palo Verde 1- Joeann Fossland - Blogging
Palo Verde 2 - Greg Tracy - Website Strategies

12:00 - 1:00 - Palo Verde 1 & 2- Jack Peckham - Keynote Address

1:15 - 3:00 - Theater- Jack Peckam - Real Estate Technology

If you are coming for the Keynote Address - please use this form to order lunch with your registration

1:15 - 2:00 - Palo Verde 1- Chirs McKeever - Social Media
Palo Verde 2 - Jay Thompson - Blogging

2:15 - 3:00 - Palo Verde 1 - Bill Austin - Social Media
Palo Verde 2 - Kathy Lunak - AAR Transaction Management

3:30 - 4:30 - Palo Verde 1 - Panel Discussion - Paul Pastore - Moderator
Jack Peckham, Chris McKeever, Jay Thompson, Joeann Fossland, Kathy Lunak, Craig Tracy, Bill Austin, Sarah Bonert (Zillow.com)

ALSO THROUGHOUT THE DAY WE’LL HAVE THE FOLLOWING ONE ON ONE DISCUSSIONS GOING ON IN PALO VERDE 3

9:30 - 10:15 - Serach Engine Optimization - Matt Jackson
Twitter & Other Social Media - Nick Bastian and Calie Waterhouse
General Computer & Software Questions - My Computer Works

10:30 - 11:15 - Tablet Computers- Jeff Raskin
Blogging - Jay Thompson
Twitter & Other Social Media - Nick Bastian and Calie Waterhouse
General Computer & Software Questions - My Computer Works

1:15 - 2:00 - Technology Tools- Joeann Fossland
AAR Transaction Management- Kathy Lunak
Blogging- Shailesh Ghimire
General Computer & Software Questions - My Computer Works

2:15 - 3:00 - Social Media - Chris McKeever
Blogging - Shailesh Ghimire
General Computer & Software Questions - My Computer Works

ARMLS WILL BE DOING ADVANCED FLEX MLS TRAINING THROUGHOUT THE DAY!

ARMLS Training in the Cholla Rooms

9 - 10 - Custom Views and Q&A

11 - 12 - Business Cards, Flyers and Q&A

1 - 2 - Personal Preferences and Q&A

2:30 - 3:30 - Wireless FlexMLS and Q&A

AS IF THAT WASN’T ENOUGH - WE’VE GOT A TEAM OF TECHNICIANS THAT WILL BE READY TO DO A “LAPTOP CHECKUP” FOR FREE!

There will be lots of Tech Vendors there as well to get you up to speed on the latest stuff!

Don’t miss this event! SEVRAR Members Sign Up Online at www.SEVRAR.com

Non-Members please sign up with this form

Bloggers - Please feel free to cut and paste to RE-Blog this post. THANKS!

Do You Know The Power Of A Link?

Katerina Gasset — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:14:06 +0000

The power of linking is underestimated by most bloggers. Google puts a lot of importance on links that are coming into your blog and those that connect one post to another post on your blog. The latter is called internal linking.

You don’t want to have a lot of outbound links. If you get too many outbound links the search engines will view you as a resource site and not a content rich site which determines where in the search you will end up.

DO NOT buy into link farms. These can be very dangerous and have you thrown into the ‘google sandbox’.

There is a lot that you can learn about SEO but the 2 most important things are writing good content with proper keywords and inbound and internal linking.

I advise that in every 2 paragraphs ideally you should have one link pointing to another page or to somewhere else on that same page.

Most of us do not fully utilize and optimize our blogs with internal linking strategies. Here are some ways in which you can more fully use internal linking in your blog posts.

In case you do not know how to add a link to your post, it is very easy to do:

Use Anchor text for all your links. This is one of the most important and easy SEO things you can do with your blog and website. Your anchor text should be keyword rich. Use the keywords you want to be found for in your anchor text.

What is anchor text? When you type in your post, ‘Click here to search all Wellington Florida Luxury Homes For Sale ‘ that is anchor text.

Now I would click on the link image on the toolbar and add my URL into the link box, ‘http://www.Wellington-luxury-homes.com.

Then when someone clicks on the text that I wrote like the above text, Click here to search all Wellington Florida Luxury Homes For Sale it will go to my website. When you add the link, the anchor text will be in blue font color. That tells people that if they click on the words they will be going to where you linked those words to go to.

Do not use the name of your website and write your whole web address in your post because then you are not fully optimizing using your keywords. I see a lot of posts where the whole address is right in the post and the URL is not keyword rich. Like for instance: http://www.anyrealtyinnowheretown.com. Those words should go in your link box but not in the post itself.

Use keywords in the text part.

Also when you are using links internally make sure you do not use shortcuts to certain pages within your site. Type out the entire URL within your page you want your visitor to go to. If you are sending them to another post use the URL of that post, don’t send them to just your profile page unless that is where you want them to go.

For each post concentrate on only a few longtail keywords per post. Don’t try to go and rank for every keyword in one post. Target those specific keywords and learn how to use them effectively throughout your posts.

When you are using internal linking add it throughout the body of your post rather than just listing all the links in a row. So in each paragraph add words that are a part of what you are writing about and turn those words into links. Linking within your page adds more relevance and internal value to your link.

You can go back to some of your older posts and add internal links to some of your newer pages of relevance. This way you add some valuable link juice and give it some rank boost.

If you would like to learn more about SEO and how to implement these strategies you can click here to read about my SEO To The Top Webinar.

SEVRAR / BlueRoof360.com Technology Conference - January 27, 2009!

Robert A. Gibbs — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:03:11 +0000

Hi everyone…

I wanted to let you know about the SEVRAR / BlueRoof360.com Technology Conference on the 27th of January 2009!

We’re holding it at the Mesa Convention Center in Building B and we have some FANTASTIC people lined up to speak!

Jack Peckham - Founder and CEO of the Real Estate Cyberspace Society (www.RECyber.com)
Greg Tracy - REALTOR and Founder of www.BlueRoof360.com
Joeann Fossland- GRI Technology Instructor and Business and Life Coach - www.Joeann.com
Chip Lambert- LinkedIn Master Instructor from www.IntegratedAlliance.com
Bill Austin- Social Media Guru & the 3rd most linked person in Phoenix on LinkedIn www.azhttp.com
Jay Thompson- Blogger Extraordinary - www.PhoenixRealEstateGuy.com
Chris McKeever- NAR Center for REALTOR Technology - http://www.realtor.org/technology
Jeff Raskin - Microsoft Expert - http://technologyforrealestate.net/
Kathy Lunak- AAR Transaction Management - http://www.aaronline.com/TM/

In addition, ARMLS will be doing training all day long on the following topics

Custom Views and Q & A
Business Cards, Flyers and Q & A
Personal Preferences and Q & A
Wireless flexmls and Q & A

If that was not enough you will get the opportunity for one on one time with experts in:

Blogging
Twitter
LinkedIn & Other Social Media
Search Engine Optimization
Tablet Computers
Technology Tools
Transaction Management

Also be sure to stop by and see our very own Arizona rep Candace Robinson at the Diverse Solutions booth. Diverse Solutions will be offering some training in conjunction with ARMLS. For those seeking an outstanding SEARCH MLS page to diversify your online presence and make a better search experience for your consumers be sure to stop by and see the great offer that DS has for you!

SEVRAR Members and Non-Members planning on attending the Keynote Address should Sign up with this form so you can order lunch (the address is over the lunch hour 12:00-1:00).

As always, SEVRAR Members who don’t feel they need lunch can sign up at www.SEVRAR.com

Our Keynote Address by Jack Peckham is over the Lunch Break so please DON’T FORGET TO ORDER A LUNCH when registering!

Thanks to our sponsors for keeping this event FREE to EVERYONE!

www.BlueRoof360.com
www.SendOutCards.Com
www.REALTOR.org
www.ORHP.com
www.magnustitle.com
www.DiverseSolutions.com
www.Zillow.com
www.HWA.com
www.VisitMyLuxuryHome.com
www.mycomputerworks.com
www.ARMLS.com
www.Superlative.com
www.DynamicPageSolutions.com
American Title Agency

Bloggers - you have my permission and are encouraged to CUT AND PASTE this article into your own blog!

Ethics and your blog

Steve Belt — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 04:11:53 +0000

I’ve never seen anyone write a blog post regarding ethics as it relates to a real estate blog. Given that REALTORS^® all subscribe to a code of ethics and all all licensed, this seems a little strange, but perhaps it’s because being ethical on a blog isn’t well understood. Or perhaps it’s because those that are ethical are saving their finger pointing for a time when they might find it useful. Who knows.

At any rate, I thought I’d run down a few things that I find grossly problematic in the RE.Net, and pass along a few pointers that will hopefully keep the finger pointing away from you.

For the most part, it is pretty easy to be ethical on your blog, and in the past I’ve seen very few gross violations. The violation I’ve seen the most often, however, is when a REALTOR publicly bashes another REALTOR^® during a heated blog war. The pre-amble of the Code of Ethics clearly states that:

Realizing that cooperation with other real estate professionals promotes the best interests of those who utilize their services, REALTORS^® urge exclusive representation of clients; do not attempt to gain any unfair advantage over their competitors; and they refrain from making unsolicited comments about other practitioners.

Make a special note of that last important component: “they refrain from making unsolicited comments about other practitioners.” If you engage in a blog war, and start making derogatory remarks (whether they are true or not!) about your fellow REALTOR, in my opinion, you are making unsolicited comments, and you are committing an ethics violation.

The point of this was made clear to me, when I recently attended an ethics class taught by my broker (John Foltz) and Bill Gray (Arizona School of Real Estate & Business), in which they belabored this point, giving as an example: If you meet someone that is a client of John Doe REALTOR, you cannot tell this client, “Oh, I know John…did you know he was recently contacted by the police regarding …”. Even if this police contact were true, you provided this info about John Doe in an unsolicited manner, for the pure purpose of discrediting John Doe, to put yourself at an advantage. Bringing this to our blogs, I don’t think there’s any doubt that nearly 100% of our blog visitors are not soliciting specific information about a different REALTOR, when they come. Given that, if we post derogatory comments, which are now surely unsolicited, in my opinion, we are committing an ethics rules violation.

So, if there aren’t at least 100 other good reasons not to engage in a blog war, let this be #1 on the list. Personally speaking, my membership to my association, or even the fine associated with an ethics violation, is absolutely not worth whatever could possibly be gained, by getting involved in a blog war, and calling out the merits (or lack thereof) of your fellow REALTOR.

Another ethics violation that I’ve (fortunately) seen on the rarest of occasions refers to SoP 1-9 and keeping confidential client information confidential. I know that I am constantly on the lookout for good blog content, but good blog content cannot be the confidential information provided to you by your client, even if it’s critical to “tell the story”. If you need to use confidential information to tell the story, this will be a story you don’t tell on your blog (or anywhere, for that matter).

Perhaps the most common ethics violation I see is with regard to Article 10. Actually, that’s an exaggeration (something that Article 2 says to avoid), but it’s close enough to the point I want to make: Article 10 says we will not deny our “services to any person for reasons of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.”

The consistent problem I find on the vast majority of blogs is the lack of a fair housing logo on display. The Arizona real estate commissioner believes this logo should be on every page and visible without scrolling. Let me repeat that, in case it didn’t sink it. Visible on every page without scrolling the browser. Where is your fair housing logo? Do you even have one? Is it in the footer, where you have to scroll waaaay down to the bottom to see it? Here’s an idea: move your fair housing logo to the header or the top of your sidebar.

And finally, harkening back to the preamble of the Code of Ethics:

REALTORS^® can take no safer guide than that which has been handed down through the centuries, embodied in the Golden Rule, “Whatsoever ye would that others should do to you, do ye even so to them.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

LinkedIn LIVE! Training and Networking Event

Robert A. Gibbs — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 04:05:22 +0000

Hey everyone…

I’ve been very fortunate to be involved with a company called Integrated Alliances, the leader in online social network training for LinkedIn® and soon other networks for serious professionals.

I’m sponsoring two FREE events on 7 January 2009:

At 3:00pm is an hour long discussion on LinkedIn® with tips and tricks from the Founder of Integrated Alliances and Social Media Guru, Mike O’Neil. This will be at the Fidelity National Title office in Tempe on the corner of Rio Salado Pkwy and Mill Ave.

For full details on this event and to pre-register visit: http://Essentials.BleedingEdgeTech.com

At 5:00pm the second event is a LinkedIn® Live! networking event being held across the street at Monti’s Steakhouse - La Casa Vieja. LinkedIn® Live! events are opportunities to meet people and network. And we all know that the business of Real Estate is about being in front of people!

For full details on event and to pre-register visit: http://Live.BleedingEdgeTech.com

Come for one or both…if you aren’t sure if you can come, put it in your calendar and come if you can!

See you there!
Rob the Tech Guy

dsc_1000 will get you 707 results

Dave Smith — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 03:32:03 +0000

Any one care to guess what I’m talking about here? I mentioned this when I had the privilege to speak at the November meeting. I’m talking about taking the time to change the name of images to be keyword rich and descriptive. I did a quick Google image search of the term dsc_1000 and got 707 returned results.

There are three place to pay attention when using images in your posts.

The File Name

I’m talking about the file name of the image you upload. Change that file name to keywords which are descriptive of the post. Instead of dsc_1000.jpg use McCormickRanchGolfCourse.jpg. You can also insert hyphens between the words. The search engines will remove the hyphens.

The Title Tag

I often make the title and caption the same. (Captions if using a Wordpress blog). Here again I would title it something like “The view from the tee box at the 15th hole”.

The Alt Tag

The alt tag is the one place you don’t put keywords unless they really do fit for the image. The alt tag is what is spoken for the visually impaired if they can’t see the screen. Their browser reader will tell them it is an image and the alt tag is what is read to describe the image. This is not the place to put keywords unless they are descriptive of the image.

I would never recommend you use the Title or Alt tags to stuff keywords. I don’t believe in keyword stuffing anywhere on a blog or website. Create good content and tag your images and posts accordingly. Do this often and you will do more for the SEO of your blog than all the keyword stuffing you can think of.

Descriptive Terms Increase Your Traffic

Up to 1/3 of my traffic on any given day comes from image searches on Google. They find those images because they are searching for things related to Tucson or the desert etc. No one besides me searches for dsc_1000. Use those descriptive terms and you will increase targeted traffic to your site.

Finally, Google and other search engines are clamping down on all the keyword stuffing that has been going on in alt tags. (Abuse leads to regulation and penalties). My point. If you have been keyword stuffing your alt and title tags of your images you not only should stop it, you should go back and edit those previous posts where you abused the system, even if you didn’t know it was an abuse.

Google doesn’t look to see when you started or stopped, it will know when it finds it and it will penalize accordingly. JUST BECAUSE EVERYONE IS DOING IT DOESN’T MAKE IT OKAY. What you might “Get Away With” today could very well earn you a penalty in the future. This is why it is always best practice to follow “best practices”. It will make your life easier in the future.

An artificial high placement today is fleeting. What you want is long lasting placement and earned trust of the search engines by using best practices in all you do on the web.

AZREBN Welcomes 100th Member!

Candace Robinson — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 05:11:24 +0000

Az Real Estate Blogging Network is proud to announce our 100th member on our AZREBN Meetup.com group, Nancy Sexton! Nancy joined our AZREBN group in December of 2008 and we are pleased to welcome her to our network. Nancy comes with a very impressive background in Real Estate and is currently building her Home Staging business locally. She has shared her website with us, Sexton Services Home Staging.

With our SpotLight of the Month, I would like to recognize our 100th member and say, "Thank You Nancy," for joining our network and we look forward to getting to know you better and wish you much success and a very prosperous year!

Nancy Sexton’s career in real estate began as early as high school back in New Jersey when she worked part-time in a real estate law firm that handled real estate closings (the practice done on the East Coast). A few years later and 3000 miles across country she became a California Real Estate agent in 1989 and will be celebrating her 20 years in real estate this upcoming year. In the meantime, she graduated from UCLA, and went on to become a level IV paralegal. Taking skills from her real estate career, her analytical skills from law, her inherited interior decorating skills from Mom, and her training as an Accredited Staging Professional®, she is now focusing on her own home staging company — Sexton Services.

As a proud “Dog Mom” of two German Shepherds, she understands the special needs of families living in their homes while they are for sale in the real estate market, and thus specializes in owner occupied home staging. She also offers vacant home staging, and home redesign for homeowners who desire some assistance setting up their new home, or would like an interior design change in their current home.

Nancy’s goal is to educate the public and the real estate industry on the amazing benefits of home staging to sell a home faster and for more money! Home staging is clearly here to stay as more people realize that marketing a house for sale requires the same “product showcasing” as any other product for sale. The statistics are amazing and prove that the investment in home staging is returned several times over.

Nancy is thrilled to be one of the lucky people in the world who loves her work and enjoys not only the satisfaction of transforming a home for sale into a buyer’s delight, but also the grateful joy of homeowners who accomplish their goals of selling their house and moving on to their own dream homes. If you would like to contact Nancy Sexton for her services and/or a quote please contact her at 480-553-1105 or contact her through her meetup profile! Thanks again Nancy for sharing your story and look forward to seeing you monthly!