Archives of real estate blog entries for June 15, 2007

Featured blog posts


A Open Letter to RISMedia on Lead Sellers - 10:23 AM
Today I read the artical that RISMedia put out about lead sellers which was basically a advertisement for Lead sellers just like the recent 60 minutes story was a advertisement for Redfin.  I read their entire artical and found it to be a very very poor example of what Realtors should do.
Here is a link to the artical:  http://www.rismedia.com/wp/2007-06-12/to-buy-or-not-to-buy-whats-all-the-fuss-about-online-leads/
What they did not say is that these companies are trying very very hard to get between the consumer and the Realtor, and in the process devaluing the Realtor as just a commodity to be used and thrown away.
Here is the e-mail that … (11 comments)

Title Issue's - Open Discussion - 10:26 PM
 
While searching the local MLS for a buyer, I came across this item.  Thought I would throw it out there for open discussion.  
The unit is an office/condo, in a desirable historic building, close to the ocean, with no parking, in a parking impacted area.
The public remarks state:
Why rent when you can own this large office condo for less than a monthly rent check? Unit is carpeted and has a full bath, large window and good storage space. As the owner of your own office condo you are able to enjoy all the benefits of the XXXXXXXXX … (40 comments)

community update 2 - 05:06 PM
EDITED*** In an effort to keep the playing field level and fair, so that those who make honest contributions to the network get rewarded, we have decided to stop awarding points for adding communities into Localism.There have been numerous instances where members have added literally hundreds of communities in a day in order to earn points, game the rankings and get better visibility on the network at the expense of other members.The community portion of localism is still a great place for our members to direct content and attempt to reach out to consumers. We want to encourage you to continue to … (39 comments)

What has Active Rain done for me lately? - 12:32 PM
This is post number 50 for me.  Don't feature it!!! I don't want to break my streak.  (Nor do I want to be accused of whining)
I have only been on here since the end of March, almost 3 months.  I have accumulated 23,000+ points (2,000 more and I qualify for the Adobe Photoshop in the Active Rain Prize Catalogue.)  At first when you join in this place, your first reaction is I NEED POINTS!!!!  You can see it still happening with all of the nOObs.  I think it's a right of passage.  Once you pass that feeding frenzy, you start to … (38 comments)

Driving Traffic to Your Blog Through SEO - #9 How to Start a Local Real Estate Blog - 12:44 PM
Sorry for the short hiatus… my wife and I were busy having a baby last Thursday!
_____________________
Many of you have probably heard the terms: SEO & SEM (Search Engine Optimization, and Search Engine Marketing). There is such a vast amount of information on both topics out there, and it may be confusing. It’s hard to know who to trust, and who the experts are with all of the controversial topics surrounding the subject. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the cofusion about page rank, Google Sandboxing, duplicate content, link exchanging, keyword density, the list goes on and on…
But … (58 comments)

Wow! Talent Shows up in the Most Unexpected Places - 02:21 PM
I just saw this on Good Morning America this morning and it just made my day.
A plain, geeky looking guy who has a job at a cell phone warehouse always just wanted to sing opera.  He got a chance to do it before a large audience on a British TV show that I guess is the equivalent of American Idol.
Just watch this video and get inspired.
It reminds me of when an unknown, ordinary person finds their voice in blogging and writes something truly amazing.  You just sit there and say "Wow!!"

… (35 comments)

Active Rain: Top Colorado ‘Rainers Connect for Lunch - 09:36 AM

Today I had the pleasure of going to lunch with my friends and fellow Active Rainers: Dena Stevens, Kristal Kraft and Sabine Pyrchalla. (Here on Active Rain, Kristal, Dena and I are the top real estate agents in Colorado, and Sabine and I are the top real estate agents in Colorado Springs.)
What a great time we had! It was so neat being able to "meet" Dena and Kristal for the first time, yet feel like we were old friends! Sabine and I work from the same office, so this was such a treat for us!
We went to Biaggi's Ristorante … (41 comments)

Don't kid yourself - Active Rain Blogging creates Real Friends and Real Business - 12:23 AM
Clearwater, Florida ~ I wanted to share what you may not see on Active Rain but it's going on every day..."Cyber Friends" are materializing in my "Real World" and it's a Good Thing! 
 Tuesday I finally got to meet Peggy Edwards, Realtor in person. Jack & I who specialize in Clearwater Beach  Real Estate including all of the waterfront  Tampa Florida  Real Estate so we referred a West Chase, FL area listing to her and know she'll do a great job. She was as "authentic" in person as she is on Active Rain. We agreed it wouldn't be the last get-together. She's hoping to go to Orlando … (115 comments)

Are You A Good Sandwich Maker? - 01:42 PM
Today it occurred to me, as I ate lunch at the local Quiznos, that I like the owners of this establishment.  The sandwiches are great, but the people behind the counter make them outstanding.  They're kind, remember everyone's name, thank you for stopping in, go the extra mile if you need anything.
I did a flashback to a different sub sandwich spot I visited a few years earlier.  An angry man owned the establishment, intimidated the customers and alienated patrons.  I know after an embarassing tongue lashing I received from him (in front of other customers) my "sub" never tasted the same - nation … (52 comments)

The House Appraised for How Much? - 10:24 AM

I have to share this story of how a sale that got way off track, a few years ago, due to an appraisal problem on a house I sold in Port Orange FL.
It started with the Port Orange listing I had for a family I have known for many years. The buyer for their house was someone who went to church with them. After many twists and turns in her financing, she was finally able to close.
On the flip side, I was also working with the family whose listing I had, to help them buy their next home. We found … (38 comments)

Choosing an Agent - or Not - 10:26 PM
We all share lots of comments on why people chose us as their agents. Recently I was showing one of my listings to another agent and her clients, and much to the surprise of the clients finding me there - we knew each other. One of the prospects quickly shared with me that they chose to work with the other agent because her husband had died, and mine hadn't, and so she needed the sale. 
Later, the prospects shared that they had chosen to work with the other agent because she was one of the husband's clients. I can appreciate that. It … (37 comments)

Excellent Article: Real Estate Contact Management Customization for Outlook 2003 - 03:55 PM
About.com has great instructions on how to customize Outlook 2003 to fit your real estate business, both for property listings and for contact management.
I tried it and it is very easy and works great.  One other thing that I tried is to go into the master list on the categories section, add categories for each property listing.  Then I can check the properties that the person showed interest in.
James Kimmons did a great job with these instructions and I am appreciative.  If you are looking for contact management or listing management software, instead you might try customizing Outlook, if … (51 comments)

Make Profile Groups Invisible - 01:37 PM
I'd like to suggest that we be given the option of making the "Groups" list in our profiles invisible to non-members.  I like some of the changes I've seen with regards to being allowed to use HTML and add widgets & such to our blogs but there are still a few things I'd like to see changed and this is one of them.  This option can be included under the "My Settings" section. 
Personally, I prefer consumers not see the long list of ActiveRain groups I belong to.  It also makes the left side of profiles not look as nice as it could.
With the … (24 comments)

Blogging Laryngitis? How to find your voice! - 09:42 AM
When I began this blogging adventure this past January, I did not research or create a plan. Business was slow. I like to write. I read an article that blogging can bring business. So I started. It was just that simple.
A month into my journey, I discovered Active Rain and all of the wisdom and advice of thousands of other Real Estate bloggers! Wow! I found I was a newbie with lots to learn. In reading articles and comments, one phrase and piece of advice was confounding to me: "Find your voice!"
Find my voice? This isn't a singing competition! Blogging … (50 comments)


Blog posts


What Bubble? Buy a loft get a Land Rover - 10:57 AM
On the Car obsessed Jalopnik:  Buy a loft get a Land Rover … (4 comments)

checking in. - 01:32 PM
Hi everyone.  I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the moderator status.  I appreciate all of our unique perspectives.  Having this dynamic energy has been awesome.I wanted to note that it would be good to see the featured posts, at least for a while, focus mostly on business related topics.  I realize it may be tough to find any, but even if they are few and far between let's try and have more real estate related issues for all types of professionals.
Thank you.
… (17 comments)

My First Love....My Daddy....Happy Father's Day! - 02:41 PM
Up until I was 8 years old my brother and I we were raised by my step-mother and grandmothers, not too many men around. We flew from Pennsylvania to Florida to move in with our new parents.  It was truly exciting and we were very scared.
I can remember pulling into our front yard, and there stood my 5 new brothers and sisters. They ran to us, with arms wide open, it was overwhelming but it felt good, it really felt right, I think maybe we finally might be home!  Now I finally knew what it felt like to have two … (16 comments)

Kent SR 167 HOT Lanes Pilot Project - 02:07 PM
 
I just received an email from the Kent, Washington Chamber of Commerce that the Washington State Department of Transportation is going to have a SR 167 - HOT Lanes Pilot Project.  The WSDOT explains it as:
 "State Route 167, located in King and Pierce counties, connects communities between Renton and Tacoma and provides the Puget Sound region with a vital alternative to Interstate 5. The SR 167 HOT lane project is a four-year pilot project that will convert nine miles of high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes on SR 167 between Renton and Auburn.
The SR … (1 comments)

The rich's ‘insatiable appetite’ for pricey goods - 05:57 PM

This is not my own title; it is from an AP article today on MSNBC.com discussing how much some of "the rich" are willing to pay for luxury items.  "NEW YORK - Forget about the $350 stilettos. Shoes with status these days come with $1,000 price tags. And $600 handbags have become so bourgeois. A-listers don’t want to be seen with anything costing less than $5,000."
Don't get me wrong, I love looking at nice things.  When I was in my late teens I would go to the high-end department store, Frederick & Nelson, in downtown Seattle and look at … (0 comments)

Seattle Area Condo News--Continuing Trend of Expanding Inventory, Fewer Sales, Rising Prices - 07:45 PM
 

According to the Northwest Multiple Listing Services June 6th, 2007 report, Condo sales dipped last month. Brokers reported 99 fewer pending sales compared with the same month a year ago for a 5.5 percent decline. In King County, where about two-thirds of the pending sales occurred, the volume nearly matched year-ago numbers. Brokers notched 20 fewer pending sales for a 1.8 percent decline from twelve months ago.
Prices for condominiums continue to jump at a fast clip. For last month’s closed sales, the median selling price system-wide was $270,000, up 18.4 percent from a year ago. In King County, … (0 comments)

Matt and Jon on Inman - 07:25 AM
Matt and Jon on Inman TV
… (20 comments)

community update 2 - 05:06 PM
EDITED*** In an effort to keep the playing field level and fair, so that those who make honest contributions to the network get rewarded, we have decided to stop awarding points for adding communities into Localism.There have been numerous instances where members have added literally hundreds of communities in a day in order to earn points, game the rankings and get better visibility on the network at the expense of other members.The community portion of localism is still a great place for our members to direct content and attempt to reach out to consumers. We want to encourage you to continue to … (39 comments)

It's nice to be #1 (SEO from someone who has done it) - 12:59 PM
SEO is actually becoming more simple with all the search engines being able to detect reciprocal linking and ignoring them. Search engines are actually basing their rankings on good contant and properly designed pages.
This is not to say SEO is simple... Here are the basic steps to proper SEO:
Keyword researchPage design/layout, (with a good menuing system)CopywritingLink building.Yes, #4 is link building... but not the typical reciprocal linking, but good quality one way links.
I think this post will generate a lot of questions... which is a good thing. I will answer these questions in further posts and focus on the topics that get … (3 comments)

Slowing, but definetly not down and out. - 02:45 PM
Recently it seems like you can't turn on the news or open a newspaper without hearing about the real estate bubble bursting, and the bottom falling out of real estate prices.
Be careful about believing what you hear... things are alive and well here in Orange County. When looking at real estate, ignore all you hear about "national averages"... Orange County is a horse of a different color.
Every week my website updates the chart for Orange County and display the total number of homes on the market and the average days on market for these homes. While averaging under 30 days on … (0 comments)

Hot Springs -- One of the Most Valuable in the Nation - 09:52 PM
 
      While the entire country is feeling the effects of a housing recession, home values in Hot Springs are actually moving in another direction...up.  Hot Springs is one of the Top 25 projected markets in the country for the highest real estate appreciation in 2007.        In December of 2006, Kiplinger's Newsletter identified Hot Springs as one of three markets across the country that they predicted would actually buck the national trend and continue to see home values climbed in 2007.  Now the Housing Predictor - independent real estate market forecasters - has issued a report predicting that home values in … (0 comments)

Do You Squidoo? - 11:51 PM
We've joined the gang over at Squidoo.  Please visit our first lens on Real Estate Website Strategies.
Here's a brief overview of Squidoo if you're not familiar with the site.  The latest figures show that about 9,000,000 surfers are visiting the site each month.  And, since the search engines are friendly toward the good pages, it could be a great way to increase your visibility on the Internet, and add some search engine love to your real estate website.
Has anyone seen a Squidoo lens showing up in search engine results?  I'd be interested to hear other people's experience.
Kathleen
… (11 comments)

1103 Parker Ct, Cedar Hill TX 75104 $109,000 - 11:30 AM

CLICK HERE for the Visual Tour!!  3 beds, 2 full baths, 2 car garage, all for ONLY $109,000!!
What a Great House that sits at the back of a quiet cul-de-sac street, adjacent to trees and greenbelt. The house is in move-in ready condition!! New 18" tile throughout Kitchen and Nook, New Appliances, New Carpet and Fresh Paint throughout! Kitchen has an Island and a Beautiful view of the yard from the Bay Window in the Nook. Walk-in-closet, high ceilings, gas start wood burning fireplace, and so much more... this house is a must see
 
   
 
 
As you can see, … (4 comments)

819 Miles Ln, Cedar Hill TX 75104 $134,900 - 11:41 AM

CLICK HERE for the Visual Tour!!  3 beds, 2 and a half baths, 2 car garage and all for ONLY $134,900!!
Great Corner Lot with a Huge Backyard for entertaining or adding a pool! Many updates throughout include: New Carpet, New Appliances, New 18' Tile in the Kitchen & Nook, and Fresh Paint. The master bedroom is downstairs with a garden tub, separate shower, and walk-in-closet. Upstairs has a Loft area with a skylight, great for play area or study with an abundance of natural light. The Formal Dining has a Bay Window. Other features are Vaulted ceilings, Gas Start Wood Burning FirePlace, Kitchen with … (4 comments)

314 Halifax Ct, Cedar Hill TX, 75104 $83,000 - 11:52 AM

CLICK HERE for the Visual Tour!! 3 Beds, 1 and a half baths, 2 living areas for ONLY $83,000
This is a Great starter home located on a quiet, cul-de-sac street. Many updates within include New Carpet, New Appliances, New Counters, New Cabinets, New Tile floors, & Fresh Paint! The house is move-in ready so pack your truck today! There are two adjoining living areas so plenty of ways to arrange your oversized furniture. The Dining area is 15 X 12 which is room enough for a HUGE dining table and Hutch! The backyard is huge and great for entertaining! This is … (4 comments)

Why Real Estate Blogging Is Like Golf. - 09:08 PM

9 observations of how publishing your real estate mind is like mastering a game of patience and grace.
1. You are competing against yourself.In golf there is no other responsible for your successes failures.Blogging is no different.  Your search engine presence, traffic and leads are all dependent on your performance.  The more you play, embrace your strengths, improve on your weaknesses and learn from those that are better, the more effective you will become.2. It’s not how you get the ball in the hole, it’s if you do.It's not how you generate leads and business through blogging, it's if you … (8 comments)

Wisconsin referral - 12:01 AM
I have a relo coming into town the 2nd week of July and wants to look at properties in Wisconsin just about the border as close to 94 and the Illinois border as possible.  Price range $500,000 to $600,000.  I need a Realtor that is NOT licensed in Illinois.  Please comment if interested.  Thanks! … (3 comments)

No more points for adding Communities - 04:25 PM
I have been trying to get an answer as to why I haven't been getting NO points for adding the communities in the past several days and I finally got an answer:
Vicki,We are not giving points anymore for posting communities because it's easy to do and we have no way of making sure all the communities added are real. We've had some problems with people just added communities for points and those communities did not exist.
My thoughts....
I sincerely feel that now the Communities are going to get really messed up!  If we have NO control and anyone can add a community … (12 comments)

For Sale By Owner - How To Sell Your Home Without An Agent - 01:11 AM
Jeferson City Misouri Real Estate
If you've tried to sell your home yourself, you know that the minute you put the "For Sale by Owner" sign up, the phone will start to ring off the hook.  Unfortunately, most calls aren't from prospective buyers, but rather from every real estate agent in town who will start to hound you for your listing.         
Like other "For Sale by Owners", you'll be subjected to a hundred sales pitches from agents who will tell you how great they are and how you can't possibly sell your home by yourself.  After all, without  the proper information, selling … (0 comments)

How to Avoid 9 Common Buyer Traps BEFORE Buying a Home - 01:18 AM
Jefferson City Missouri Real Estate
Buying a home is a major investment no matter which way you look at it. But for many homebuyers, it's an even more expensive process than it needs to be because many fall prey to at least a few of many common and costly mistakes which trap them into either paying too much for the home they want, or losing their dream home to another buyer or, worse, buying the wrong home for their needs.  
A systemized approach to the homebuying process can help you steer clear of these common traps, allowing you to not only cut costs, … (0 comments)

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