PROVIDENCE – (Oct. 23, 2008) – Residential Properties Ltd., Rhode Island's largest privately held real estate company, is in the fourth month of a new agent-support arm for their company, Corporate Training, headed by Rich Epstein.

This division of the company hosts seminars for new and seasoned agents alike, and promotes real estate as a grass-roots, referral-based business.  Epstein also conducts seminars relating to and utilizing available business technologies.

Epstein and Tom Flanagan, Director of Information Technology for Residential Properties, have been experimenting with webinars and the results have been positive.  So far, they have held 5 webinars, or online seminars and they have met with great popularity.  The seminars, able to support 16 unique locations, have had multiple attendees centering around one computer - nearly doubling viewership.  Viewers are able to watch their presenters' screen as they demonstrate new online tools for real estate agents and clients.

In addition to training agents on the new features of Residential Properties' redesigned website at www.residentialproperties.com, such as advanced mapping, Epstein and Flanagan have demonstrated customizable searching for properties, ways to utilize community content from the site, as well as helping agents to learn the modules of their personal websites.

"It is easy to put off working on your website," said Ian Barnacle, a Sales Associate in the company's Providence office.  "I am now in the habit of making appointments with myself to improve efficnecy and concentrate on building my cache of resources to better serve my clients."

Another focus of Epstein's new role is in promoting personal branding and self-marketing not only through traditional marketing techniques but also through the internet as a whole, including online advertising and blogging.

Central to Epstein's role is instruction on maintaining and expanding a referral base or sphere of influence.  For the second in a series of classes, agents are asked to deliver an action plan, highlighting their intentions and specific steps along the way.  The goal of the 6-week training is to get agents into the habit of promoting and building referral business a part of every day.  Roughly 10% of the 150+ agent company is enrolled in this first coaching series.

Since the training division began in June of 2008, the company has held 4 webinars, 2 new agent meetings, and 2 coaching classes. 

Technology enthusiasts Flanagan and Epstein creatively promote the seminars internally, with names like "Blogapalooza," a play on Lollapalooza, an annual music festival.

Epstein joined Residential Properties in 1999 as a Sales Associate and was a Broker/Manager for the company before his appointment as Corporate Trainer.  He can be heard every Sunday with CEO Sally Lapides on her radio show, Real Estate Insight on WHJJ 920 a.m., at 10:00 a.m. and has been featured on HGTV's "My House is Worth What?".  A Rhode Island native, Epstein lives in South Kingstown with his wife, Cathy, his son Jacob and daughter Caitlin, both 11.