Archives of real estate blog entries for October 1, 2006

Featured blog posts


UPGRADE-SCHMUCKGRADE - 08:11 AM
Several MLSs around the country are powered by Rapattoni MLS.  I-Tech MLS in the Glendale, Pasadena, Foothills area of Southern California is one.
In November of 2005, I-Tech MLS upgraded to Rapattoni's MLS Version 10. To my knowledge the I-Tech management did not seek member input before making the upgrade. But, OK. Here's the little blurb from a broadcast message last year describing the new features available in the upgrade:
MLS v.10 will feature a robust customizeable MLS Home page, keyboard shortcuts, an Options pane, a new combined Radius/Map Search, and other new tools. The new MLS v.10 requires users to set … (8 comments)

Real World Marketing & Advertising Basics (for Print Media) - 10:18 PM
This is a synopsis of an hour and a half class that we recently taught, at our local Keller Williams office. I'm certain that you will find a lot of this very useful...
Point #1: What is an ad? A seller usually wants to know that their property will be advertised in a magazine ad. Having a magazine ad may increase your chances of getting a listing. BUT... did you know that less than 3% of homes are sold because of an ad in a magazine? Then why advertise in a magazine? ... to get buyers.
Point #2: Who cares? Did you … (14 comments)

It`s Sunday " Do you know where your Realtor is?" - 05:18 PM
I`ve read some great posts today about showing instructions ( daniels and pavey). both professionals discuss how difficult it is to locate a Realtor in South Florida on a Sunday.    
Many times, i believe Sunday isn`t the only day that a Realtor can`t  be found.
In fact lets say it`s difficult Mon-Sat. as well!
There is a home located in Weston that our client wanted to see. It took me 4 x`s to contact the Realtor to no avail and another 2x`s to get to the office.    
The point is that my client realized that the motivation of the … (13 comments)

Contest #1: And we have a winner - 12:02 PM
Back on August 15th we started a contest to see who could come closest to guessing the number of members we'd have on the ActiveRain Real Estate Network on the beginning of October.  At the time of the contest starting (82 days after launch) we had 3,158 members.
At the stroke of midnight last night, 45 days later we had 6,306 members.  There were only 3 members that came within 200 of the correct guess, and amazingly 1st and 2nd place was only seperated by a 1 signup margin.  So without further ado, here is you top ActiveRain psychics...
1st: Mitchell Hall (6,316) 
Margin … (25 comments)

Happy New Year!! - 11:49 AM
(Uh, John, this is only October 1st...) Before you dismiss this as just a crazy idea, let me give you one of my beliefs. Everything we have today is a result of what we did 90 days ago. Think about what you were doing in July. Was it prospecting, marketing, going on listing appointments? And today, do you have listings, escrows and maybe a few checks in the bank?
This is the time of year when agents start talking about the market slowing down. They say 'nobody buys around the holidays, it will pick up after the 1st of the year.' With that mindset it … (15 comments)

Market price or wish price? - 11:43 AM

Unfortunately for sellers... they are still in that mode that it's still a sellers market and they are still looking to get that big 25% return we were all getting the last 3-4 years, I ...as well buy property and sell,rent or flip or whatever else you want to call it so I can relate to their disappointment.
But because of rising property taxes and ridiculous reasons insurance companies just drop HO's like a hot potato. Prices are starting to level off and I anticipate that they will surely start to drop at a drastic pace if something isn't done.I remember when things were … (24 comments)

Title Insurance: Who needs it?? - 08:48 AM
How many times have you gone to a closing as a listing agent and watched the drama unfold over whether or not the purchaser is going to buy title insurance? Most of the time, they are clueless about the cost and benefits. Oftentimes, the settlement agent isn’t much help because he then has to disclose that he gets to keep a big chunk of the premium as a commission. What do you do?
I am not an attorney, but I have been around long enough to know that if you are in ownership of real estate, you should seriously consider having … (8 comments)

REALTORS: Barbershop Marketing - 03:14 AM
I've gotten a good deal of business from brochures in barbershops.  This weekend, I'm working on a new project for my barbershop marketing:
Blog Books.  You see, not everyone reads the girlie magazines in the barbershop.  Some men actually read Maxim, just kidding.  Seriously, men always have to wait 10-15 minutes to get their hair cut.  When you get in the chair, you tend to read whatever you were reading while you were waiting.
I'm making up some blog books for the 8 barbershops I'm in right now.  I'm going to have 3-4 of them in each shop.  I bought some 3 ring binders … (27 comments)

Please, please Mr. Seller list with me. NOT! - 07:31 PM
Let's talk about Seller interviews. Yep, that's right Seller interviews. when I go on a listing appointment, I know in advance that the listing is mine. why? Because I'm great! Well, maybe in my own mind. But seriously, I have the mind set that if they are calling me to list their home, then they have already made up their mind to give me their business. They could be meeting with other realtors as well, but frankly, I am never concerned about that. Cocky? Probably. But I do know from my years of experience that it is very rare that I … (30 comments)

Spectators - 11:13 PM
Hello All,
I was out showing properties today (despite missing some great football games) and some young people came up and wanted to see inside the home.  I did not show them the home, because I was just there checking it out to make sure that it was something that I wanted my buyer to see later that day. 
Have you all been approached while showing a home in this manner?  Do you show the home to individuals that you know are there as spectators?  I also refused to show the home, because they were not of legal buying age and I … (23 comments)

What Price do you start with? - 09:01 PM
What price do you start with when listing a property for sale?  You most likely go thru the CMA's, recent solds, client's agenda/requests and a look forward to any market changes on the horizon.  What percentage of the time do you sell your listings without having to make any adjustments in the list price?  If you sell too fast, do you worry that you left money on the table? Do you clients complain that maybe the offer was too low since it came in too fast?  If you don't sell it fast enough than likely the price starts coming down and … (6 comments)

Want to hit your goal? Plan for success ~ I'll share mine, just ask... - 04:35 PM
John Novak's terrific post about "happy new year " got me to thinking about setting goals and getting to work on my business plan.  every year I set aside several hours a week for at least a month to figure out what I need to get accomplished next year.  I can tell you from experience, building an annual business plan is the best thing I do for myself.  by doing it, I stop and actually think what i want to accomplish, but it gives me a personal road map on how to get there.
The process I use is a plan pulled together from many sources, mike ferry , reg … (15 comments)

Oppotunities to stay in touch with your Sphere - 04:13 PM
Here are some of the ways that I have stayed in touch with my Shere.
Halloween car  with some of the major events in Portland.Thanksgiving card will events for the monthChristmas and Newyears note with helpful hintsValentine card with suggeted resturants and BB'sMother day card with suggested stores to shop at for giftsFathers day card with suggested gift ideasKnown weddings will always get a personal note from meBirtdhays cards for those that I have records of.4th of july safty card Back to school letterThis is a great way to say infront of people that you know and to have your name seen many times … (11 comments)

Is Google all that? - 02:16 PM
Google is where everyone want's to be found, preferrably on the first page of a keyword search.  As I started building my site 2 years ago I researched SEO and did what the experts said to do to acheive decent rankings in Google.  For the most part, I've done well on a number of targeted keywords.  I even cracked the top ten for Seattle Real Estate for about a week a few months ago but haven't been back since (I mostly hang out in the 11-16 spots).When I look at my stats, a whopping 88% of search engine referrals came from … (22 comments)

Make money on rentals? You’ve gotta be kidding! - 01:04 PM
I have a friend I’ve known for 15 years. All he works is rentals. Last year he made in excess of $300,000, working with landlords and renters. I can’t tell you the last time I had a renter in my car. All my renters go to Eddie.
Let me tell you how he does it. First of all, he really doesn’t like buyers or sellers. There are too many things to worry about, spend money on and waste time. For the last 18 years, Eddie has cultivated a reputation as the go-to-guy for renters. He will not work with a renter … (17 comments)

Remind your sellers to keep a poker face! - 07:42 PM
I have a listing-down the street from my house.  Been on the market for 5 months (finally got the price reduced, long story there!).  So we finally have some interest...a second showing scheduled with 3 days' advance notice (unheard of!)...and the wife ran her mouth to the neighbors-who are going through the beginning stages of DIVORCE-so they got their house on the market ONE HOUR before our second showing, undercut our price and got the buyer.  And buddy, it's a hard pill to swallow knowing that without that inside knowledge of a buyer who had already decided to buy on this … (15 comments)

Seller feels that $155K not enough at closing! - 09:03 AM
The story of the year! We`re at a closing on Friday. The seller is sitting at the closing table, takes a look at his HUD and tells me "I thought I was receiving more money, I feel cheated?!"Cheated? How I ask! I`m in dismay, we just sold a home for "Top Dollar" the transaction went smoothly, the Seller walked away from the "Closing Table" with $155,000. He purchased the house 3 years ago for $299,000. My mind is spinning. This man is upset for making a tremendous profit..! I`ve seen it all but, this is highly insane! With that the Attorney tells Mr. Seller his payoff was … (31 comments)


Blog posts


Watch out, I have the keys... - 07:20 PM
Earlier this week Ben who's done the vast majority of the development work on this site left for a 3 week long vacation to Germany.  Instead of letting things stagnate, he handed off the keys to me and I will try to pick up on development while he's gone.  Should be interesting... 
While I've done most of the design work, I've only really poked around with the coding side of things.  In fact I've never written anything before in the technology (Ruby on Rails) that this site is built on.  After about a week of playing with stuff, things don't look to … (16 comments)

Open house,public & broker - 10:05 PM
For those who say an open house is a waste of time I beg to differ.  I just did an open house today, although the market is slow.  I had a chance to catch up on some phone calls and reading.  I did however have 2 people show.  A neighbor who was looking for a friend , who I am secretly waiting to hear from :o)...and a family who came through who just arrived from Germany and are living in hotel until they find a home.  I told him to give me his email info and I would send him some listings.  … (3 comments)

Is Google all that? - 02:16 PM
Google is where everyone want's to be found, preferrably on the first page of a keyword search.  As I started building my site 2 years ago I researched SEO and did what the experts said to do to acheive decent rankings in Google.  For the most part, I've done well on a number of targeted keywords.  I even cracked the top ten for Seattle Real Estate for about a week a few months ago but haven't been back since (I mostly hang out in the 11-16 spots).When I look at my stats, a whopping 88% of search engine referrals came from … (22 comments)

Great, inexpensive images - 05:58 PM

If you're looking for terrific images for your website, blog and marketing pieces, I wanted to share istockphoto.com with you.  Istockphoto.com claims to be one of the fastest growing liabrary of royalty-free photographs, flash files, illustrations and video clips.I've used istockphoto.com for most of the images on my website and postcard mailings. And, they're relatively inexpensive.  Unlike many other royalty-free sites, istockphoto.com licenses are roughly $1 - 5 dollars per image, depending on resolution.  Users purchase blocks of credits (minimum $10) and apply those credits to any image or file they wish.  For web-ready photographs, that's 10 images for $10 dollars, … (3 comments)

Ben Stein's Observation - 10:58 AM

One of my cousins sent me this today, I hope this isn't against the rules.  This is very thought provoking and is internet related.  I like Ben Stein and enjoy hearing his financial advice.  
  If they know of him at all, many folks think Ben Stein is just a quirky actor/comedian who talks in a monotone. He's also a very intelligent attorney who knows how to put ideas and words together in such a way as to sway juries and make people think clearly.        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~         The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS … (2 comments)

Contest #1: And we have a winner - 12:02 PM
Back on August 15th we started a contest to see who could come closest to guessing the number of members we'd have on the ActiveRain Real Estate Network on the beginning of October.  At the time of the contest starting (82 days after launch) we had 3,158 members.
At the stroke of midnight last night, 45 days later we had 6,306 members.  There were only 3 members that came within 200 of the correct guess, and amazingly 1st and 2nd place was only seperated by a 1 signup margin.  So without further ado, here is you top ActiveRain psychics...
1st: Mitchell Hall (6,316) 
Margin … (25 comments)

Why Craigslst Works in Real Estate - 03:42 PM
10 days ago Teresa Boardman posted an article on her ActiveRain blog regarding her fascination with the success that Craigslist can generate.  The article below was inspired her post.
There are several reasons why Craigslist fails to live up to the hype for real estate agents, and I'm sure readers' comments will fill in these blanks.  However, there is a ton of success being flaunted by agents that have struck gold by simply posting a free listing on the site.   How is it, that a haphazardly strung together database of random listings is able to attract so much traffic when there are … (5 comments)

At what point to call it a "Buyers Market"? - 06:08 PM
Our team has buyers that we are working with, good listings still sell, but everything is taking way longer. Buyers have less urgencey and many listings are sitting for months at this point. As I have been doing our market updates many of the towns I serve are now above 12 months of inventory and some have even hit 24 months. 
With the fact that good listings are still selling it is my opinion that we are more in a stable market. Not truely a buyers market yet in most areas I serve, but there are a few that I just have … (9 comments)

Skokie Condo Market Conditions - 06:17 PM
The condo market in Skokie, IL currently has 213 condos on the market and there is about a 11 month inventory.
Currently listed: 213 Under Contract: 64Sold in last 180 days: 117 Low Price: $137,000High Price: $1,279,300Past Market Updates: 08/24/06The condos in the lower price range seem to be selling much better than the high end condos in Skokie. There is one month less inventory now than one month ago. This shows that the Skokie Condo market is doing better than many of the surrounding towns that are seeing growing inventory.
… (2 comments)

Barrington Condo Market Conditions - 06:28 PM
The condo market in Barrington, IL currently has 46 condos on the market and there is about a 13 month inventory.
Currently listed: 46 Under Contract: 16Sold in last 180 days: 21 Low Price: $174,900High Price: $650,000The condos that are highest priced are new condos near the train station. If you remove the highest priced condo at $650,000 the next highest one is $460,530 so that the numbers are a little skewed by that listing. If you need more information about real estate in Barrington feel free to visit SuburbanHouseHunters.com. … (0 comments)

Car Organization 101 - 08:31 PM
 
I wanted to reach out to my fellow Realtors to find a better method of organization to keep one's car clean from various showings, etc.
What system have you implemented that works best for you?  I am finding that at the end of the day, I have stacks of papers, etc in my car and it's really hard to keep everything straight.
Please provide any information on what works for you.  I appreciate your input.
Laurie
… (20 comments)

Website navigation - 06:26 AM
Lots of real estate professionals that promote their own sites usually focus on two things: content and exchanging links.  Quite often they are successful using that strategy and over look an important component for both ranking and use: internal links.  Internal links can be as important to a website as outside links. They help direct both a visitor and search engine to other pages in your site.  A site will a lot of external links and poor internal linking structure will suffer in rankings as well as repeat visitors.   Pages that aren't linked properly will take longer to get cached by … (4 comments)

Project City Center - 06:31 AM
The colossal planned community on the strip is going forward. Project City Center will reside on the former site of the Boardwalk casino on the Las Vegas strip. It will be located between the Monte Carlo and the Bellagio, connecting both properties.  The entire parcel is 66 acres, making it the largest project on the strip. The mixed use project will boast a 4,000 hotel room luxury hotel and casino,  2,800 condominiums for sale and 2 400 room boutique hotels.
The entire project is expected to cost 7 billion dollars. It is expected to open in late 2009. For more information about … (4 comments)

What do your pictures say about your site - 02:04 PM
One of the challenges you face as a website owner is putting up good quality content on your website.  The better and more accurate that content is, the more likely it will draw new visitors and keep regulars coming back for more.  Its said that a picture is worth a thousand words and on the internet, that couldn't be more true. A great picture or pictures on your website will make a huge impact on any visitors you may get, not to mention how professional (or not) it makes your site appear and I haven't even got into listings yet!  A … (6 comments)

UPGRADE-SCHMUCKGRADE - 08:11 AM
Several MLSs around the country are powered by Rapattoni MLS.  I-Tech MLS in the Glendale, Pasadena, Foothills area of Southern California is one.
In November of 2005, I-Tech MLS upgraded to Rapattoni's MLS Version 10. To my knowledge the I-Tech management did not seek member input before making the upgrade. But, OK. Here's the little blurb from a broadcast message last year describing the new features available in the upgrade:
MLS v.10 will feature a robust customizeable MLS Home page, keyboard shortcuts, an Options pane, a new combined Radius/Map Search, and other new tools. The new MLS v.10 requires users to set … (8 comments)

What the HECK is wrong with the Raiders? - 08:05 PM
OK, gang, let's figure this out.  What exactly is wrong with the Raiders?  Whatever it is, it's been wrong for the last few years.  What is it, exactly?
In today's game, the Raiders had a terrific opportunity when Asomugha picked off a long pass.  OK.  The first down of that possession, Walter is sacked.  I forgot what happened on the second down, suffice to say "not much". On the third down, Walter ran the ball.  On the fourth down, they decided to punt. 
Why didn't they go for?  It looked to me like they were very close to the first down line, … (6 comments)

Fund Raiser Idea --- - 01:50 PM

I am a strong supporter of Tommie Barifeld Elementary School here on Marco Island.  Last night was our big fund raiser Derby on the Bay at the Villa Venezia.  Probably the most stunning home here on Marco Island and is listed for $12,900,000.  I was happy to help out, although my feet are not really happy with me today....
Awhile back someone wanted ideas for a fund raiser - well let me tell you this was a hit!  Everyone dressed in their Derby best (I went for a 40's look others went with a more traditional look) there was a silent auction, … (10 comments)

Money left on the closing table - forgotten reissue title insurance credits - 04:35 PM
We all know that title insurance is a necessary cost that most all transactions incur. Depending upon your local customs and/or the negotiations between the seller and the buyer one of them is going to pay these charges.
No matter whom you represent no one wants to see any party overpay for this rather expensive protection.  The title company generally earns a 70% commission on this protection and i have found it rare that they volunteer ways to save money in this regard.
Any policy being issued within the State of Florida, wherein there was a prior policy issued within 3 years prior, … (3 comments)

CyberSpace? - 08:50 AM
Has this ever happened to you? I just wrote a blog and it totally dissappeared? I have checked everywhere and its nowhere to be found?  I am going to redo it but where did it go? … (9 comments)

Your States' Alter Symbols - 09:01 AM
This is "Mr. Potato Head", Rhode Island's alter symbol.
He is not the symbol of Rhode Island...."Rhode Island Red"  a rooster,  is our actual symbol.
This picture was taken in Bristol, Rhode Island at the Wonderful 4th of July Parade held there each year.
Mr. Potato Head comes in all different styles, or dress, I should say.
I chose this one because he is Patriotic.
Does your State have an "alter" symbol?  It would be interesting to see them.
… (10 comments)

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