Within the last year, Craigslist dramatically tightened up their terms of use for real estate postings – stripping away the ability to create full HTML ads with clickable links to outside pages. Now, they are testing some impactful changes to the housing section that may help agents get more exposure for their listings.

It appears they haven't rolled the new layout out to all markets yet and I haven’t seen any official release details so I’m not sure when you’ll be able to see changes - but it’s always good to be ready!

Today's Agent Insights is focused on transitioning to a technology driven paperless office. San Diego Broker  Melissa Zavala shares her insights on the struggles of transition and the benefits of the final outcome. 

Here's Melissa:

As an agent, you’re constantly trying new strategies to help you drum up new business, nurture existing business and drive referral business. It all starts with a basic marketing strategy - right?

Wrong. 

There are lots of real estate tools you can use - but in truth - it starts with your mindset. All too often, we forget how much impact a positive or negative mindset can have on our day-to-day outcomes. As the great Oprah Winfrey once said, “The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.”

This can be especially true when it comes to real estate – because so much of what you need to do to be successful has to come from a place of personal drive and ambition. You need to walk into a listing presentation with high energy and leave your prospects saying WOW.

So what are the best ways to start your day with a fantastic mindset or overcome a not-so-great situation to turn your day around?

The Great Debate:

Which is better for your real estate business – a Facebook business page or a personal page? 

On one hand - real estate is all about relationships, right? So why build a business page if you’re really just looking for a space to connect with clients?

On the other hand, mixing your business persona and your personal life can be hard to manage. Prospects who want to get to know a bit about your personality probably aren’t terribly interested in what you ate for dinner. 

So which one should you choose  and why?

Welcome to this week's issue of Agent Insights! Today, Doug Rogers - an agent out of Louisiana - will be sharing real estate agent advice on how to deal with the inevitable stress that comes along with constant high-stakes work. Take a deep breath...

Here's Doug:

Perhaps it's the fact that most of us are independent contractors - or maybe because our compensation only comes at the end of a long and winding escrow road. Either way, real estate can be stressful. 

When stress comes calling - reduced productivity, burnout and disappointment often follow. Unchecked stress can lead to all kinds of challenges - and in some cases it gets so bad that it leads to a quick exit from the field, especially for newbies. 

Let's talk about some practical ways to manage stress.