The Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce announced the finalists for the emerging business category for Small Business of the Year 2009. Finalists were chosen for for excellence in the following areas: sound business strategies, innovation, community involvement, business growth, and business challenges. The announcement was made by Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief.
Alexander Chandler Realty has made a dramatic impact on Fort Worth Real Estate. During the months of May and July of 2009 Alexander Chandler Realty has had record months in new contracts written and homes closed. This is despite the slowing in the economy. This is largely due to the phenomenol marketing of Fort Worth homes on our nationally recognized website.
Alexander Chandler Realty's Fort Worth, Texas real estate website is designed to be user friendly and offers a host of features. Simply go to http://www.alexanderchandler.com/ to see all Fort Worth houses and homes for sale. You can hear an audio file via the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerces website of the Biz Radio interview.
Being selected as a finalist for Small Business of the Year was an incredible honor and Alexander Chandler and all our expert agents look forward to helping you with your next real estate transaction.
Rally Day 2009 was an enormous success! Nearly 1,000 builders, developers, remodelers and associate members from around the state joined the Texas Association of Builders at the Capitol on February 25 to participate in the day's events. Governor Rick Perry, our key speaker, enthusiastically addressed TAB members on the South Steps of the Capitol. In his speech, Perry mentioned his support for businesses, low taxes and plans for the recently passed federal stimulus bill. "Texas supports the healthiest housing market in the nation", said Gov. Rick Perry in his Rally Day address to the Texas Association of Builders at the Capitol.
Immediately following the Rally, TAB members and Texas legislators enjoyed BBQ and catfish on the Capitol lawn. The weather was beautiful.
Throughout the day, every Senator and Representative was visited by Rally Day participants. TAB members left a folder of key issues along with a tool kit with the legislators. The capitol building swarmed with TAB members taking advantage of the opportunity to meet face to face with lawmakers and their staff. Our participants effectively informed them of the issues important to our industry and our position on specific bills.
Culminating the Rally Day events, TAB hosted a legislative reception at the historic Driskill hotel in downtown Austin. Everyone who participated in Rally Day was invited to attend, including the legislators. The reception was an enjoyable conclusion to a successful Rally Day at the Capitol!
The Fort Worth downtown area welcomes the new Omni Hotel. According to Fort Worth Mayor, Mike Moncrief, the Omni Hotel is "a perfect compliment to a world class convention center. It will change the dynamic of Fort Worth".
The Omni hotel will definately have an impact on Fort Worth's economy. It will bring an estimated 1 Billion to the local economy over the next 20 years. The hotel will also host the NFL AFC champions in the 2011 Superbowl in the new Dallas Cowboy's Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The Omni opened January 17 to visitors and was well worth the wait. It is over 68,000 square feet, has 1,614 guest rooms, 5 restaurants, a full service spa, and 89 condo units available for purchase. This will be a great addition to downtown Fort Worth, TX real estate.
Alexander Chandler Realty's website was honored at the National Association of Realtor's convention this past November. Cyberhomes.com featured Alexander Chandler's website in a demonstration because it is one of the most sophisticate and user friendly website in the country.
Alexander Chandler Realty's website is an awesome tool for buyer's and sellers to find a wealth of information. It features a zip code map of Fort Worth where a consumer can easily click and all available homes for sale instantly pop up. The neighborhood Cyberhomes box leads consumers to a neighborhood search where demographics and instant home evaluations can be looked up instantly. And for those that want to catch up on current events in Fort Worth, Texas a link to Alexander Chandler's activerain community blog. This blog is also linked to Localism.com. Alexander Chandler Realty also has an active blog on Trulia.com. Searches are easy and to pick an agent their is a convenientFort Worth, TX real estate agent page. There is a link page and a virtual tour page where all Alexander Chandler Realty's listings are featured. If you would rather just look at pictures and brief desciptons there is a featured listing page. Alexander Chandler Realty's website took months of research and even more to create and is always being improved for the benefit of the consumer. If Alexander Chandler Realty went to all this trouble to provide you with all these services just think how great the service will be when you become a client.
I just got an email from T Boone Pickens, Pickensplan.com, and thought I would share my experience of seeing him at a Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce luncheon. TBoone is serious about his plan and I do not believe his motivation is only financial. The event was the 25th anniversary of the "T" which is Fort Worth's Transportation authority that is pushing for a fleet of natural gas buses. T Boone told us all about his plan to end our dependence on foreign oil but the funny thing was that I never thought I would be eating chocolate cake and listening to a billionaire talk about windmills, gas conversion, and how no one will loan him any money to build those windmills. So he is focusing on natural gas conversion.
T Boone says 70% of our oil is imported and the only way to end this madness is to convert heavy duty trucks to natural gas. He estimates full conversion could take place in 4-5 years based life expectancy of current trucks. T Boone met with President Elect Obama and relates that Obama was proud to say that he wanted 1 million hybrid cars on the road within his term but the basic problem is there are 250 million cars on the road. The hybrid plan will not even make a dent and Obama did not have an answer to that.
He called ethanol an "ugly baby" which it is because we can not realistically use our food source to meet energy needs. The answer of course is natural gas and the room full of people with vested interest in this turned their ears forward. Fort Worth lies over the Barnett Shale one of the largest natural gas reserves in North America. Natural gas, according to Pickens, is the 2nd largest natural resourse in the US. If the Pickens Plan is implemted then Fort Worth real estate will certainly benefit.
It only makes sense because, "A battery will not move an 18 wheeler". Critics rarely have anything legitmate to say to T Boone because he simply asks them what their plan is and is met with silence. "If you do not have a plan then your plan is foreign oil." That makes sense. It particularly makes sense when you consider "foreign producers of oil are not our friends." Pickens is now 80 and may not see the finish line admittedly but hopes his grandkids will. To learn more about the Pickens Plan simply go to www.pickensplan.com
Recently, my company, Alexander Chandler Realty, with a couple of friends from Republic Title had the opportunity to tour the new stadium still under construction. Jack Williams of the Dallas Cowboys was kind enough to grant us a tour.
The stadium is now only 15 minutes from downtown Fort Worth which is great for us Fort Worthians. We were all given hardhats, safety glasses and these neat flourescent vests so no one would pour concrete on us or something. Immediately, the size of the new stadium creates a sense of awe.
Features
This photo was taken from one of the endzones and you can see Ranger Stadium in the background. At the field level there are box seats that are actually 18" below the field and they will be able to see all sideline action. The stands above that row are for when they would like to see the game from outside the box. Above that is another row of box seats and we were in Jerry Jones' box although there was nothing in it yet. Above that is another tier of seats and higher up is the hall of fame boxes. The field level boxes are sold out but for around 2.4 million there are some other left. The great thing about box ownership in this stadium is you own it and can go to any event in the stadium. Each owner receives 20 tickets to each Cowboy's game.
One of the incredible features of the new stadium will be a gargantuan video screen above the field the is 70' x 170'. Now that is a TV! A side benefit to all this is they may finally get Interstate 30 lane expansion finished between Fort Worth and Dallas. That project has been going on for a decade and now they finally have a good reason to finish it. Thank you Jerry Jones. I heard an announcer in the game against Green Bay, which they won, that Jerry Jones has owned the Dallas Cowboy's for 20 years. It seems like yesterday but I think I can speak for everyone in Fort Worth, TX that we are looking forward to having the stadium in a central metroplex location. It is scheduled to be completed by next year. They are working like gangbusters so let's hope for the best.
We learn by asking questions which brings me to the topic of referrals. The other day I received a call from an agent who said she might have a possible referral. My company has a great internet presence so not sure if she found me from there or active rain or localism.com. Any way, my interest was peaked so I asked her to tell me about.
The first thing she mentioned was the prospect needed a "lot of nurturing" which could be a good or bad thing. Before I could ask what that meant she asked me if I would be handling the referral personally. I replied it would depend on price range, area and needs of prospects. I further explained that my company has wonderful agents and I would match the client to the agent that would be best suited to help. Having done a lot of relocation for a fortune 500 company this seemed reasonable to match the prospect to the most qualified for the situation. The agent then said, "I just wanted to know if you would be handling it. Thank you for your time," and hung up.
Most Realtors out there in blog land and elsewhere are independent contractors and running their own business. A broker or relocation director has an obligation to qualify leads before accepting them. A broker, relocation coordinator or agent should investigate who will be handling the lead when referred out respectively. An agent that blindly accepts any lead when they may not be the best choice is imprudent. For example, Fort Worth, TX and the D/FW Metroplex is a big place and my company has a general policy to focus on areas and refer out if a prospect is out of our area of expertise. This focus has doubled our business in the last year because as a group we are not all over 120 square miles. Often, our clients are pleased that we are interested in their interests before our commissons. We have also made great relationships with other agents around the Metroplex which has been invaluable.
I never did find out who the agent was or the prospect. What I do know is an opportunity for the prospect to be matched based on his/her needs was lost due to a lack of investigation.
Recently I had the pleasure of going to the opening party of Don Shula's new restaurant in Fort Worth, TX at the Sheraton in downtown Fort Worth. It was more of a preopening party. They filed us thru the restaurant which was larger than I expected it to be. There was a lot of memorabilia about. Then they funneled us upstairs to a banquet room where you could stand in line and get Don Shula's autograph. There he is asking me what to do. I told him my name & he took it from there. You see the 347 in the background. That is the name, Shula's 347 Grill. That is how many games he won in the NFL. What was funny is a former assistant of mine was called to fill in a cancellation at the bigshot private dinner and was seated next to Mrs. Shula and she did not know who Don Shula was in the first place. I bet Mrs. Shula was glad not to have to talk about football. I lost the autograph but did make it out of there with a bottle of steak sauce. I wish them well. Even better is I ran into a fellow who works for the Dallas Cowboys and arranged a showing of the new stadium under construction. My next blog will be about that.
Even if you do not get a free bottle of steak sauce it is good to go to as many openings and public events as possible to get your name out there.
Recently, I was browsing the internet looking for listings the way an average person would without knowing it and found some things that may be of interest. One thing of interest is you can tell a little about an agent or company in how the remarks read.
When I post listings to the internet I use the three second rule. (I was inspired by cooks for the title in my restaurant days. When they dropped something occassionally they would pick it up and plate it and say, "Three second rule". Anyway, make the assumption that a person's attention span is about three seconds. The first line is critical and should grab someone's attention and give information at the same time. Think of it as a small newspaper ad where your space is limited. Save the flowery stuff for the remaining lines.
With all the sites out there most people do not know that many of the Realtor listing websites download from the same MLS system. It is a question of format. Again, you can judge a company or agent by their website or lack of one. 85% of people start their property search online according to National Association of Realtor's statistics.
For consumers, I recommend that they do browse around but pay attention to the websites. When performing Google and Yahoo searches make a note of what individuals come up on sponsored links because that means they have made an investment in their marketing which is vastly important when listing a home. Good luck browsing but remember you can learn a lot just by browsing around.
National news will not give the debate over whether increasing oil production will decrease price a rest. I received a lesson from dear ol' Dad the other day who happens to be an economist. We were discussing the local real estate market in Fort Worth, TX where the Star Telegram mentioned that prices in some areas have increased slightly due to a lack of inventory.
Dad credits this to basic supply and demand theory. There is an equilibrium point on any curve and this is true with supply and demand. The principle here, as it applies to everything including oil and real estate, is this: if the demand is steady and the supply shrinks the price rises. How political pundits do not accept this basic principle is beyond me and every economist in America.
The Fort Worth, Tx real estate market has steady demand due to the economic success credited in part to the Barnett Shale which is one of the largest natural gas reserves in North America. My family has been involved in the gas industry and I can tell you the supply and demand curve works there too. Gas is sold in futures and so is oil. Demand for natural gas increases during the winter months so the price will naturally rise. Investors purhase gas futures in advance to sell when demand outreaches supply. Again, the same thing happens with oil. When supply is high investors also buy cheap which happens in real estate as well as gas and oil.
I wish I knew how to work the computer better so I could post a pretty graph but your going to have to visualize it. The tip here is you do not have to be Adam Smith to benefit in a market if you stick to basic principles. Good luck and for the economy of Fort Worth, Texas, buy natural gas!
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.
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