Moving in 1999 to the “Space Coast” – Brevard County, Fla. – former Internet-company owner Mitch Ribak started working in residential real estate in 2001. He teamed up with Linda Reiss and Debbie Sanders in January 2004. In March 2005, Mitch opened his office with six agents and today, Tropical Realty of Suntree has 22 agents. Mitch also runs the eHomes Realty Network, a training, referral and business-consulting enterprise targeting small to medium-sized brokerages.

Email Mitch

Tropical Realty of Suntree is the number-one buyer brokerage out of 500 offices in Brevard County. This area has one of the worst markets in the nation, but we handled 242 sales last year and are on target for 350 sales in 2009. We use the HomeGain BuyerLink™ program for leads and have increased both our lead flow and our conversion rate. The fact I am most proud of is that I haven’t lost a single agent to another broker since we opened our doors.

Since the beginning of the year I’ve been working on how I can take my team of agents to the next level. One of my goals is to help all my agents become successful. I’m very into developing new skills to teach my staff, and I’m proud they are all very committed to our training – every week over this entire year.

But you gotta have fun as well. Anyone who walks in this office with a negative attitude gets kicked out! My motto has always been, “if it ain’t fun, I ain’t doin’ it!”

Yes, the BuyerLink program from HomeGain is a remarkable product. I don’t take giving my money to anyone very lightly, but HomeGain is the only company I have worked with that does exactly what they say they will do. On top of that, their staff is awesome, their customer service is great and they are always willing to help their customers. I like them so much I have volunteered to be on their board of advisors and am glad to speak to anyone who has any questions about the BuyerLink program. Let’s face it, if the program can save you 50 percent or so off the cost of Google™ and Yahoo® and then give you almost double the amount of leads per clicks, then it’s a no-brainer and everyone should be using them.

Prior to working in real estate, my background was in the Internet along with managing and training sales reps. I started selling real estate and implemented different Internet marketing strategies as well as lead generation programs. Within two years, I rose to be the number one agent in my office as well as one of the top agents in the county.

I had learned that most Realtors and brokers have no idea how to market on the Internet and they don’t know how to convert Internet leads. So I kept developing various systems, thinking I would franchise the ideas. But I decided instead to institute the eHomes Realty Network, where I work with members to help them with teambuilding, handling floor calls and FSBOs – and of course to reinvent how they handle the Internet. I conduct Webinars every two weeks, have held seminars for members to attend, and have also traveled around the country to help members retrain their staff and turn around their business.

The eHomes Realty Network is aimed mostly at small and medium-sized brokerages that don’t have access to training, referral networks or business systems. I really enjoy acting as a “sounding board” with our members, taking advantage of my experience of starting or buying 15 businesses over the past 25 years. In addition, I have the advantage of the Tropical Realty of Suntree office being a live, working office to test all these marketing and lead capture ideas.

I use blogging for a couple of reasons. One of course is to help build my eHomes Realty Network. The other is to keep my visitor to my sites coming back to my sites. One of the things I have been working on a lot the past few months for both companies is education-based marketing. I have found that if your main goal is to help your customers through education, you will create more loyalty as well as more sales. If you do your job correctly, your customers will feel you are the expert they should be using to buy a home. They also will know that you are looking out for their best interest and since you are so knowledgeable, they have faith and comfort knowing they will most likely get the best deal they can get.

I started blogging on my real estate site about two years ago. I don’t do it enough, but I can’t tell you how many people read my blog and make comments to me about it. I believe it solidifies my relationship between my company and my visitors. My main goal has always been to do whatever it takes to help my customer. Blogging gives me another avenue for my visitors/customers to know that I really care about them and will take care of their needs.

Email Mitch