Archives of real estate blog entries for August 25, 2006 (Page 2)

Blog posts


Has Active Rain been breached! - 06:56 AM
When I click on 'all" blogs is diverts me to this link. This happens on the blog dashboard as well as the sort blogs window.
http://www.top-directory.net/search/index.php?q=mortgage
… (13 comments)

Don't Call Me, I'll Call You - 09:06 PM
Okay, it's 6 pm Friday nite and I'm enjoying a glass of wine. My cell phone rings, it's a client that is just outside a new townhome I listed. She asks if she could it see by knocking on the door. I tell her "absolutely not, you need an agent to enter". She then says, "my agent is busy, can you come show me."  My reply is I'd be happy to show you; however, you'll be working with me then an not your agent." "Oh, she sighs, "but my agent lives too far away to show me." "Then she says I'll … (8 comments)

Affiliate Appreciation - 09:52 PM
As President-Elect of the Snohomish County Camano Association of Realtors, I decided to host an Affiliate Appreciation evening. It was held last night from 5-7 pm. at my real estate office. I hired a caterer to do heavy munchies, we had wine, sparking cider, coffee and a gentleman from the Everett symphony played guitar.
Our affiliate members sponsor our clock hour programs so members attend FREE, yes FREE, they host the annual food drive every fall, prepare a Get to Know the Board breakfast every January and are always working on committees to further our interest.
It was so nice to show our … (3 comments)

Ways to gain Points! (not) - 08:54 AM
Since it's inception, Active Rain has been offering a variety of ways for Realtors, Stagers, Mortgage Brokers, Inspectors, Web Developers and other real estate sages to gain points.
Points are the focus of our daily addiction.  Some of the members have gone to extreme measures to rack up as many points as possible, spending 24/7 on the computer, commenting, blogging and adding associates.
Yesterday we learned (thanks Rory) how to now stay connected to Active Rain via our cell phones. 
Points are so coveted, many others are finding additional ways to obtain points.  One member (the name has changed to protect the innocent … (27 comments)

Use of Autoresponders - 03:48 PM
Recently I was emailing messages to recruit for some wild real estate group I am in.  It surprised me to have 90% of my messages responded to via an auto responder.  The messages were basically "Hi thanks for the email, I'm out right now and will get back to you later."
Well, most never got back to me.  That's OK, it's not my point.  I just wonder why people use an auto responder.  To me it's like saying "I'm gone, too bad."
It's not my expectation to have in instant answer when I email someone.  To get a canned message is not helpful.  … (11 comments)

Mortgage Fraud and Lemonade - 06:32 PM
A story in the Denver Post yesterday related how a ex-mortgage company owner is heading toward a new career...in loan fraud prevention.
Michael Richardson's company went down the tubes when 5 of his employees got caught falsifying loan-apps, Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, pay stubs, yaddy yaddy.  He fired them immediately, but not soon enough to save his company.
Loan fraud is rampant in Colorado.  What is amazing out of 337 claims to FHA, of those 1/4th came from 4 mortgage companies. 
The mortgage business needs to be cleaned up.  Perhaps Mr. Richardson is the one to do it.
From losing his life's work … (2 comments)

Craigslist about to be disrupted? - 11:14 PM
You don't have to look long to find a story about technological disruption; I think the term is overused and the true definition is misinterpreted in many cases.
Criagslist is a pretty cool service - most people agree it's disruptive - it qualifies as a disruptive technology for these reasons.
Companies Depend on Customers and Investors for ResourcesSmall Markets Don't Solve the Growth Needs of Large CompaniesMarkets That Don't Exist Can't Be AnalyzedTechnology Supply May Not Equal Market DemandWhat if something quickly emerged that would disrupt Craigslist? A system that combined and harnessed all the power of eBay, PayPal, Google Maps, Criagslist, MLS, and … (2 comments)

Active Rain Contests? - 09:22 PM
Ben brought up a cool idea in his comment he posted in my last blog, Customizing the Profile Page. Ben proposed, if I may go so far as, that Active Rain should hold a prettiest profile page. I think it is brilliant idea myself and worth exploring.
Contests have always been good ways to show support to people/profiles that have contributed in unique ways while encouraging involvement and innovation. Contest also give back to the people who have taken the time to contribute to the network. I have seen contest run, on network sites by people but never by the host … (12 comments)

Round Two . . . - 12:06 PM
Sometimes losing is winning.  I've never felt so good about walking away from a listing, possibly two.  Got a call the other day from a young man who reminded me I'd done a market analysis on his home a year ago (it was actually two years ago as it turns out).  He started the  conversation with, "remember me?"  "Well no," would have been the honest answer, but I found myself saying "of course" and then searching my memory for anything that would connect me to this person.  Finally he said something that triggered the connection.  As I listened to him tell me how he'd … (4 comments)

Bring On The Buyers - 06:17 PM
Like so many people in this industry I started out working with buyers, lots of them.  For the first few years the preponderance of my business came from purchasers and their family and friends.  It worked well but everyone told me at the time that was not the way to grow a business.  That was before buyer agency, when the knowledgeable were saying "list to last."  Always a good learner I worked at getting listings.  It took time to be proficient at it, but I built a listing base that supported me for years.
One day, several years into the process I … (10 comments)

Are you using your e mail program to its full potential??? - 04:46 PM
Lots of full featured e mail program do more than just send and receive e mail.
Probably one of the most underutilized features is the spellchecker. When you're sending or replying to email involving a buyer or seller it's very important to not only use proper grammar but also to make sure your spelling is correct.
I have used Eudora Pro for my e mail client for many years now and the spellchecker is one of the features I use most often.
www.Eudora.com
Often used e mail addresses can be put into an address book within a email program so you don't forget … (1 comments)

Cool programs for real estate - 06:32 PM
One very cool and easy to use program I've had to years and use several times a week is Microsoft Publisher.
It's the easiest desktop publishing program I've came across for designing flyers, post cards, business cards, brochures, and any other variety of printed material.
For instance when I want to do a "Just Listed" post card I open up Publisher, pull up a saved format, plug in the new house photo, print it to a PDF file, and e mail it to http://www.expresscopy.com/ in Oregon.
Next I export however many addresses I need from our online MLS tax records, save … (5 comments)

What's up With Keller Williams? - 11:34 PM
Keller Williams is growing fast and for great reasons.  While there are still many parts of the country experiencing Keller Who?  If they are not in your area, they will be soon.
 In brief, I'll share my story.  I entered the Real Estate business over 12 years ago and became the first member of this areas first ever Team, (the Lorraine Leonard Team).  We numbered at 3 with a full time admin. and we worked for William Raveis (a CT statewide company with about 1200 agents).  In the company's eyes, I was invisible, even after attaining 12 million in sales personally.  They resisited in … (20 comments)

Shot down like a lame duck..... - 10:12 AM
My offer on the property yesterday got shot down with ther relative speed of a heat seeking missile.  They decided to accept another offer.  The only thing that I can think is that the other offer probably didn't have the VA contingency that mine did. 
I know that most of you probably don't care one bit, but some of my friends like to stay up on the saga of my small business start-up. 
… (10 comments)

The Chronicles of Greene - 10:15 AM
I've decided to use at least one of my blog posts a day to chronicle my small business startup.  Call it an e-journal of sorts.  I just think that the problems that I'm facing are probably shared by other "newbies" and that it might save them a lot of trouble to just read my stuff. 
If you're interested in keeping up, just click on "the saga continues" in my tag cloud.  I'll label them that way.
As always, the quality advice that you provide is much appreciated.  If you keep giving it to me, and the other newbies read my stuff, you … (0 comments)

The Ninja Mailman... - 10:24 AM
So I was driving through my farm neighborhood today putting out flyers for an upcoming open house (in their mailboxes...yeah, I had no idea) when a small, stealthy streak of something crossed the corner of my eye.  I turned....saw nothing, and continued about my business.  Several homes later, the bushes began to rattle.  I looked more closely, and there was nothing.  I turned to walk back to my car, and *POOF* a mailman appeared beside the drivers door (no mail truck in sight).
"WHAT are you doing?" He demanded...
"Uhm...putting out flyers," says I.
He proceeded to read me about 20 federal laws that I … (8 comments)

This time, They've Gone Too Far! - 12:48 PM
Nothing gets me going like a politician (or 4) making the wrong decision.  The Hillsborough County Commission voted 4-3 to allow builders to put up a new subdivision in Ruskin along the Little Manatee River.  This particular location just happens to be a major thoroughfare for local wildlife to commute between their habitats north and south of the develpment.  The environmentalists put up a good fight, and the commission originally voted no, but they changed their minds.
How could that happen?  Easy. The builder offered to improve roads in the area, saving the commission some cash.  Great for the motorist....not so great … (9 comments)

How to record a audio real estate podcast - 01:48 AM
Recording and editing a real estate podcast is a relativly easy task. You can learn more about how to record, edit  and add music to a podcast in have a professional sounding podcast in under 30 minutes. You can watch a 6 minute video that we created to see just how easy the software works that we posted on our real estate blog here.
Happy real estate podcasting
… (8 comments)

Questions For a Potential Listing Agent - 01:13 PM
This morning I had a call from a gentleman whose condo listing is about to expire - he was referred to my be a friend up north who has a friend who's a realtor (how's that for a chain?). His property was about an hour from our office so I decline the listing, but told him I'd take a look at the MLS and see if I had any suggestions. Just from the MLS information I suggested that he drop his price (the one comparable that sold near his listing price did not have an over 55 age restriction, and another … (4 comments)

Property Insurance and Condos - 03:16 PM
Pinellas County, Florida, has lots of condos, ranging from older over-55 condos that are less than $50,000 to luxury condos that sell in the $millions.  Condo fees are a basic cost of living in any of them, and property and liability insurance on the building are part of that cost.  i.e., insurance costs could force people to move. Citizens Property Insurance Corp, Florida's insurer of last resort, reports an increase of 33 percent in condo insurance in Pinellas County, and coastal condo rates (barrier islands and around) a 259% increase.
… (0 comments)

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