THE FM CONNECTION
V2 | E1
HELLO FM REALTY!
SAVE the DATE F M A N N UA L AWA R D S March 7, 2017 @ 2pm
Can you believe that it's 2017? Where did the time go? If you missed last quarter's FM Connection, you can find the archive on the Toolkit under Marketing Tools - FM Connection Archive. We had a lot of exciting things happen at FM Realty in Q4, and Q1 of 2017 looks like it’s going to be just as exciting. We want to remind you to save the date for the FM ANNUAL AWARDS on March 7th at Duke Energy Center! This awards show will be different than any other year. Rod will lay out the vision of the company going forward, speaking about what our next 40+ years will look like. Plus, we have a guest speaker who is going to knock your socks off... and probably make you shed a few tears. We are also thrilled to announce that because this is an afternoon event, it will be followed by a reception. You REALLY don't want to miss this!
LETTER FROM THE REGIONAL MANAGER I don’t know about you, but every January I am so excited about the New Year and new opportunities that I sometimes forget to stop, reflect and celebrate the great things of the previous year. 2016 was a tremendous year for the Eller family. We found new work homes. We gained a Daughter. We prospered. We had heartache. We had joy. We said goodbye to some friends, family and longtime furry friends. We made new friends. We laughed. We cried. We lived life. The fact is we all did. 2016 was a great year! Thank you for all of the things you did to make 2016 a special year for me and my family. You worked extremely hard to provide for your family and to serve the needs of people that trusted you with their home. On March 7th, we are going to celebrate your achievements and hard work. We are going to do it a little differently this year, so please save that date and stay tuned as we send you more information during the next two months. The event will be special and we’ll have an opportunity to get a group photo of us all! 2016 was a busy year with the addition of new marketing team members, a new Toolkit, Moxi & Presentation Pro, Luxury Home Marketing, a new blog, additional training, the Cary school expansion and a new logo. These are just a few of the areas that we focused on to provide you the tools and resources to support you as you support others. As part of our new branding, we took a fresh look at some key values that had been developed in the past. Those values were reviewed by your leadership team and six key values were chosen - Professional, Proactive, Community, Integrity, Innovative, and Supportive. When I came to the offices to share the logo survey results, I shared these core values. I also shared that Long & Foster had done the same exercise and had chosen Family, Integrity and Excellence. Many of you said that our six fit into the Long & Foster three and we looked at it and agreed. Your leadership team discussed it and decided that we would adopt Family, Integrity and Excellence as our three core values to direct and guide us. It is who we are. I want to close by thanking you for the things you do for the community. We are a company of giving people. I’m proud of that and I’m proud of the contributions we have made in recent months to the fight against cancer, hurricane relief with the Red Cross, Angel Tree and your generous donations to the Food Bank. Caring is not something that we just say, it is who we are. #FMcares. Here’s to a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2017!
ROD ELLER SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT/REGIONAL MANAGER FONVILLE MORISEY REALTY, A LONG & FOSTER COMPANY RELLER@FMREALTY.COM
Fonville Morisey Realty was honored on December 1st as one of Triangle Business Journal’s inaugural Family Business Award winners.
GIVE A ROUND OF APPLAUSE TO THE HARD WORK THAT HAS BEEN DONE fm school expansion in cary
the fm store
Christmas came early for our Cary classroom! If you haven't been by to see the changes, the Fonville Morisey real estate school, located beside the Preston office, has almost doubled in size! In December, this classroom was expanded and given a technology upgrade. If you have ever been squeezed in a continuing education class or played musical chairs in pre-licensing, you know that demand often exceeded supply in this very popular location.
Have you noticed that we added a new addition to the Toolkit? On your menu bar, there is now a section called The FM Store. We are excited to continue to develop this feature for you over time.
We are so pleased to offer our faithful students not only more comfort and desk space, but also state-of-the-art wireless technology with two wide screens for optimal viewing. We hope to see you in Cary for your next CE or Broker class - be sure to check the fmschool.com website for dates. Who knows, with this new and improved classroom, even the Mandatory Update can be fun! You are now able to easily order Luxury Collection packages and company name badges online and pay with your credit cards, straight from the Toolkit! We are excited for this new feature on the Toolkit and hope that you will be too. We encourage you to take a look at it and give us your feedback.
“Your leadership team was able to spend time volunteering at the Food Bank of Central & Eastern NC. We prepared over 16,000 meals in a few short hours. -Rod Eller, Senior VP / Regional Manager
presentation pro
#fmcares
Exclusive and free of charge to Fonville Morisey sales associates, Presentation Pro is designed to create compelling, well organized and professional presentations for every listing, selling and marketing opportunity. It creates very modern and visually pleasing presentations that look consistent on desktop and mobile devices.
The Food Bank of Central & Eastern NC services 34 counties, and 650,000 people throughout the state of North Carolina. As a non-profit, volunteers are a vital part of the food bank's day-to-day operations. Fonville Morisey has pledged to continue to volunteer with them, and there will be many opportunities in the future for company wide volunteering - so stay tuned!
You will now be able to distance yourself from your competition as features like easily incorporating videos, providing INRIX Drive Time™ map data, interactive charts, graphs, maps, and current MLS data are included in your CMA. That’s right! When a listing has a price or status change on the MLS, every presentation you’ve provided to your clients, current or potential, is automatically updated. The FM Marketing team has included some exceptional branded material that is available to use right out of the box. Have some material that you want to use? No worries. Presentation Pro is fully customizable and you can include any content that you’d like. There are templates built in to ensure that you maintain mobile responsiveness. So how will you use Presentation Pro? CMAs, listing and buyer presentations are obvious fits. (Cue the Superman theme song.) But expand your thinking! Imagine the personal marketing you can do! Neighborhood or even city marketing. Let’s say that ten clients visit your open house. Envision shortly after the open house ends, they all receive a personalized “Thank You” presentation that not only includes the information on the home you were showing, but also includes a marketing piece on yourself, even video. Set yourself apart! Cue that theme song again! And go to the Toolkit and search "Presentation" for more information about Presentation Pro.
The leadership team spent a morning in December sorting food and preparing meals, and in a few short hours prepared over 16,000 meals. We want to thank you for all of the generosity you showed during our fall food drive. Together we made a huge difference in the lives of our neighbors that have had a tough time during the holiday season. We're proud to say that we collected food and cash donations to provide 8,056 meals throughout the course of our food drive. That translates to about 9,500 pounds of food. It took two days and two truckloads to get all the donations to the food bank.
mark your calendars Brier Creek on the blog in February 2/4 - 80's Ball at Market Hall FM Sponsored event 2/20 - President's Day, offices closed Chapel Hill on the blog in March 3/7 - FM Annual Awards Ceremony
THE LATEST AND GREATEST ADDITIONS TO OUR MARKETING INITIATIVES new logo
luxury home marketing
In December, we officially launched our new FM logo and branding initiatives. For the first time in almost 30 years, our logo has been updated. We believe that in order to continue to be competitive in this market, we have to embrace change and stay current. Before the launch, Rod was able to spend time at each office, sharing the news and purpose behind the change.
We launched the FM Luxury Collection and luxury home marketing services in September, and have received great feedback. We are thrilled with the positive response from FM associates that have used our services. The fmrealty.com website now features new weekly FM listings on the home page. There is also space available to feature one Luxury Collection home every two weeks. We are also excited to highlight our newest luxury listings in our monthly Luxury Home eBlast which is also shared on our social media channels.
We hope that you are enjoying your new name badges and business cards! If you haven't had the chance to thumb through the new company brochure yet, you can pick one up from your branch manager, or on the Toolkit under Marketing Tools - Branding. Also on the Toolkit, check out the new Branding section under Marketing Tools where you will find the branding guidelines, logos and email signature template. This has been an exciting time for FM Realty and we can't wait to see what the future has in store!
FM Realty received the Spirit To Involve Award from Susan G. Komen for the CureÂŽ on November 16th.
Finally, we are proud to say that you can now order and purchase luxury marketing services on the Toolkit and pay via credit card in the FM Store!
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