 |
||||
Featured Client of the MonthFebruary 2006: Debbie FerrariDebbie Ferrari, e-PRO, CIPS, EMS/CE, RECS, RRS Website: http://www.debbieferrari.com Contact Information: Her History and Her Start in the Industry
Proud of her Native California heritage, Debbie’s first few realty years were in the burgeoning San Bernardino, Upland, Palm Springs area. In 1983 she moved to the coastal city of San Clemente, working for a number of smaller agencies that were subsequently swallowed up by larger ones. Today, she’s a nationally known Prudential California Broker-Associate based in Orange County, specializing in higher end homes of the South County area, including San Clemente, Dana Point, Capistrano Beach, San Juan Capistrano, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Hills, Laguna Woods, Aliso Viejo and more. Debbie has been deeply involved in 1031 Property Exchange since the 70’s and is Vice-President of the National Council of Exchangers. Debbie has been a Certified Equity Marketing Specialist (EMS) for many years, and one of the few equity professionals qualified to moderate 1031 property exchanges at official NCE meetings. She also holds the rare RRS “Recreation and Resort Specialist” designation, bestowed by the Worldwide Recreation and Resort Sales Council. The RRS identifies a Realtor® qualified to serve consumers undertaking investments in vacation, recreation and resort properties, and second homes. Starting in 1996, Debbie had one of the first Realtor web sites in the United States and was one of the early advertisers in nationally famous realty sites including www.IRED.COM, www.Reals.com, www.relibrary.com, www.RealEstateABC.com and dozens of others. As a result, the media discovered her and ever since she has enjoyed almost monthly exposure in national, regional and local print and online publications. In February, 2006, Fortune Magazine quoted her regarding the real estate bubble/non-bubble debate. She holds the prestigious e-PRO designation from the National Association of Realtors and the e-Certification from Prudential California Realty. She is regarded as one of the leading Web Realtors in the country. Her Google-ranked PR6 web site gets nearly 50,000 visitors a month, she has 10,000 consumer buyers actively listed in her private MLS search service, and sends out 2,700 emails a day to the ones who asked to receive new listings that match their search parameters. She gets 98% of her sales from web site leads and normally has about 20 transactions a year in a coastal area where the median home price is $800,000. In January, Debbie and husband, Bill Koelzer, spent 12 days in Bangkok where she received the coveted NAR designation of “Certified International Property Specialist,” held by only 1,000 other agents world wide. In July, 2005, Debbie’s Site Won Second Place, NATIONALLY Among Nearly 40,000 Realtor Sites for “Most Leads” in the annual “Best Sites” competition held by AdvancedAccess.com. On August 25, 2004, Debbie was selected by Inman News Service* to give her analysis of the changing real estate market in Orange County, California, which has 3 million residents. In May-June of 2003, AdvancedAccess.com asked its real estate agent customers to vote for the "Most Impressive Website" hosted by Advanced Access. Debbie's site won the number two spot, nationally. In September 2002, Debbie was inducted into Allen F. Hainge’s CyberStars™ which is an elite group of leading real estate professionals from around the country. The CyberStars are an active referral group, sending buyers and sellers to other agents they know will handle the referral well, thus greatly benefiting consumers. In June, 2002, Debbie was inducted into the Real Estate CyberSpace Society for the Internet-skilled. She also earned the prized Real Estate CyberSpace Specialist (RECS) Designation. Only a handful of real estate agents in Orange County have qualified for the designation which signifies an agent’s ability to serve clients online extremely well. In April 2001, she was the second agent in the country to earn the coveted "Platinum Producer" award from BrokerAgentNews.com and Broker Agent Update. In the January 2001 issue of its online magazine, OCAR (the Nation’s third largest Realty Association) published an article describing Debbie’s leadership in web marketing. In November, 2000, the Web’s largest new home information site, NewHomeSale.com, honored Debbie with its prestigious monthly award. NHS included Debbie on its home page and on a full interior page. The August 1999 issue of Realtor® Magazine (reaching 750,000 Realtors®), included Debbie's photo and comments in its cover story on technology. The NAR article said, "Debbie Ferrari is as high-tech as they come." In May, 1999, Real Times, one of the two largest Real Estate Industry Resource sites on the web, praised Debbie, in a front page story, for her on-line service to web-savvy buyers and sellers. The April 1998 issue of Broker Agent News had Debbie on its color front cover. On June 12, 1998, Debbie was featured on the front page of her home town newspaper. No one can remember the last time that a local Realtor® appeared on the front page. Debbie was honored by the National Association of Realtors® in their prestigious "Meet Today's Realtor®" section. NAR also singled out Debbie and ran her photo in their Special December, 1997, "Technology" issue. The prestigious Inman News Features, one of the largest on-line publishers of real estate information to some of the most heavily trafficked real estate sites on the World Wide Web, featured Debbie's activities in its coveted "Real Estate Profiles" section. Inman News also put her photo and part of her profile on the FRONT PAGE of their heavily visited "Residential Real Estate" Section. Agent News (www.AgentNews.com), another major Real Estate News Site, featured Debbie worldwide in one of their prestigious Interview features entitled, "Debbie Ferrari Speeds Away From The Pack." Her Market – Orange County, California
Debbie says, “I invite all agents to get involved in their local community projects, especially ones of non-profit groups. They struggle so hard to raise just a few dollars and so it means so much to them when outside people pitch in and use corporate or area-wide savvy to help them out.” Debbie Tells Why Advanced Access?Debbie Ferrari says: “For years it was a struggle to keep my web site high up on the search engines. I kept noticing that many of the sites that STAYED at the top and competed strongest with mine, were sites of AdvancedAccess.com. I always say if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. And so I gave my custom site over to Advanced Access which has now hosted it for many years. Maintaining a custom site is very hard to do. But if you’re in the market to have a custom site, you could not find a better host and site manager than Advanced Access. They’re reliable (my site NEVER goes down), their tech people know what they’re doing, they have great graphic artists, and their frequent marketing tips newsletters are constantly helping me do a better job online. I just cannot tell you enough about how much BETTER they are than other firms who design agent web sites.” The Advanced Access Forums“Whenever I need to know about something very important that is going on regarding the Internet or new real estate laws, scandals, bubbles, Washington monkey business, or whatever, I go log in at the Advanced Access Forum. There is ALWAYS an answer there. Plus, if I just post a query, five or six people will give me an answer almost immediately. What a great tool the forum is and I cannot understand why more agents don’t use it.” The Final Word“My business is wholly based around my web marketing. The most important factor is how my site gets found on the web, and hopefully I have both bought links on the right portals and directories so that people will be sent to my site, and optimized my site well enough for the search engines to continue giving it top ranking. “You will hear some self-styled “gurus” telling you that it is a waste of time to try to get your site high up on the organic search engine results pages (SERPS). But don’t listen to them. They often work for web site design firms whose pretty agent sites that they sell, do poorly on organic searches anyway, so naturally they will say that. Even if it takes you years to keep adding useful content that truly SERVES your web site visitors, never give up doing that. Why? Because eventually, just as I did, your site CAN come up high enough on engines for your city, and thus brings you tons of leads, and resulting sales that are truly pleasing. “Never use tricks or cheating in trying to get your web site listed higher, even though some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firms who call you constantly may promise you the world. Engines eventually find out cheaters and they can then penalize your site or ban it. Also, never steal text, images, formats, or concepts from other agent’s sites. That is stealing! Even the words on another site, which may look simplistic to you, may have been carefully constructed to appeal to search engines and thus are proprietary; in other words, not for YOU to take. Do your own work. “Can you get leads and sales from your web site? Yes, for sure. Just keep adding content and keep reading and learning. Eventually find and hire an SEO firm that OTHER Realtors recommend. And swap links with other Realtors. To swap links with me, GO HERE |
 
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
Debbie Ferrari, (
Debbie’s territory is mostly along the south Orange County coast, located halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. A firm believer in giving back to the community, Debbie has been honored many times for her 
(800) 335-1563 | 
