Active Rain
-
Quick Tour
Connect. Share. Learn.Welcome to ActiveRain, the #1 social community for real estate professionals.- Explore the world's largest storehouse of real estate knowledge
- Access free training on ActiveRain University
- Share the experience of life in the real estate industry
- Grow your business through real estate blogging
- Blogs
-
Resources
Product Reviews Curious as to what others in your profession think about a certain product or tool? AR's community takes the time to leave honest and transparent reviews of their experiences so you can be a bit wiser about your purchase.
- Broken down by categories and subcategories for easy finds
- Get an unfiltered look at what real users are saying
- Leave a review yourself for others to benefit from
- Add new products as you use them and gain points for doing so
|
After reading Jonathan Greenes Wanted I started thinking that a lot of Realtors will be having the same problems. When starting out in this field, it is probably advisable to have a second (or third) source of income, to get you through the hard times. Even if you have been in the business for a long time, you can still have slow times when you do not know where your next commission check is coming from. Obviously you need to set aside money to keep you going, but what happens when you are first starting out and there just isn't enough money … (14 comments)
Brian Brady has a great post discussing the value of purchasing property that is being pitched on TV. 
In my previous article I referenced that a mortgage professional should strive to be more then a rate retriever. If a loan officer takes this to heart, or in other words they begin understanding their real value, then a whole world opens up to their future business. Here is why I believe that the modern day loan officer is the new gatekeeper of most future transactions in the real estate industry.
Ben wrote earlier today about a number of new updates. There are a more to come of course but today I feel it's most important to talk about the new ability to group to group your ActiveRain Contacts. As this Network grows it will help you to be able to discern your closer associates. Now you can categorize your ActiveRain contacts and each can belong to multiple groups. What was your associates list can now be broken down into categories. This is useful for organizing the different types of relationships you form with The Real Estate Community.
I've seen some debate in the real estate community over the necessity of Buyer Broker Agreements, or the BBA, and I've heard that many buyers are hesitant to sign them. I wanted to weigh in on this topic.
2 of my favorite quotes from the comics; "Good Grief!" is Charlie Brown of Peanuts fames favorite saying. "We has met the enemy and he is us" is from an old comic strip called "Pogo". Pogo was a cartoon opossum and the originator of that saying. 
Late last year, parts of the real estate community were pondering the unbranding of the FSBO. NAR did press releases, white papers, and tv spots about how we need to stop building the FSBO brand and call them what they are: unrepresented sellers. You can find many of these resources on Realtor.org. 
Let's do a case study just for fun, shall we? Tell me what you would have done. 
An interesting thread has developed on the Real Estate Webmasters (REW) forum regarding the NWMLS. The NWMLS implemented a new rule which went into effect/enforcement this year prohibiting agents and companies from utilizing the term "MLS" or derivatives of "search the MLS" on agent websites, or use in domain names and company names. This was done so there is no inferrence to the public that they have access to the MLS through agent or company websites.
I'm sure Matt or Caleb will do a post on this in the morning but we launched some new features tonight. Briefly they are:
Our "What's It To You?" Contest ended yesterday and we've had some really good input. I really appreciate being able to read some fabulous posts. 
Our Association just went through a SupraKey Locbox upgrade a few weeks ago. I got all my lockboxs changed out and things were clicking along. 
I found that people rarely buy what they tell you they want. Sometimes they cannot afford everything they want and they scale back their expectations, but more frequently I don't think people really know what they want until they start looking. They get ideas as they look and other things appeal to them that they had not thought of.
Heads up, in 8 days, all cell phone numbers will be released to telemarketers!! You will start to receive these annoying calls, and YOU have to pay for them as they rack up minutes on your phone plan!To be put on the DNC list, call 888-382-1222. You must call from the cell phone in which you wish to register. You'll be on the list for 5 years. I just called in myself and they also warned that it takes a while to be removed from the list, but if would definitely be updated by 31 days. Why 31 and not 30, … (4 comments)
Yesterday, Rory Siems interviewd me regaring my thoughts on real estate blogging and websites. 
I'm sure we'll being hearing about Katrina a lot because of the anniversary. Dateline did a show on it last night. One thing I didn't know was that the media was allowed to stay inside the Superdome, or at least one journalist with a camera crew. They showed 27 minutes of footage they took as the storm was happening inside the dome and after. The amount of suffering and helplessness they caught on tape was truly horrifying. This is AMERICA. Things like that AREN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN. It took FIVE days before the government showed up with food and water. The … (2 comments)
I have spent this afternoon going around and gathering up signs and making sure that items are secured at many listings today. Collier County Schools and many businesses have already decided to close (including the Board of Realtors on Marco Island) and we will be dealing with Tropical Storm winds. 
I took one of my buyer specialist to a Howard Briton Buyer University. She had the same attitude as one of the comments I recieved yesterday about hating scripts, they sound canned etc. by the time we were done she totally understood. Practice, yes a packet of over 130 scripts and many with words she never would have thought up or situations she might never have imagined. Being prepared is important.
As Real Estate professionals, I think it is very important that we know the language of Real Estate. There are quite a few terms that we as Realtors misuse on a daily basis. And I cringe whenever I hear them. And not because I am a stickler on perfect grammar or semantics. In fact, I am far from that. I grew up in the south and didn't care much for "book learnin" when I was growing up. School and I didn't get along. To me it was one big social event. In fact when I was 16 the Principal of my … (8 comments)
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
© 2013 ActiveRain Corp. All Rights Reserved
