Davis CA Real Estate Blog

Holding your breath when upgrading a site

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:57:27 -0600

It's always a little scary when you have a well established domain to upgrade the site to a new and hopefully better designed site. That is just what my friends Cal and Laura Carter just did with their NorthGALife site focused on Lake Lanier Real Estate. I am certain that the upgrade from a basic template to a semi-custom site is going to work well for them in the long run, but right now while Google and other search engines recrawl the site - it can be a little nerveracking.

Cal documented the process when he switched to a custome site GulfshoresLife which focuses on in Gulf Shore Condos in this post last year so he's been through this before but it still can be nerveracking.

I'm certain that this new site will bounce back quickly and will start generating more leads than the template site it replaced. Cal and Laura, the new site looks great. Looking forward to seeing how this site evolves.

Discover Sacramento Homes

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:56:13 -0500

I'm very happy that my new site for Sacramento Real Estate is live. The site is not done by any means but it will soon be a resource for buyers and sellers for the greater Sacramento region. The website covers homes for sale in Sacramento, Yolo, El Dorado or Placer counties.

If you are looking more specifically for homes for sale in Davis then visit Discover Davis Homes. That site also has information on greater Sacramento homes but has specfic home searches for Davis neighborhoods and property types.

Winters, CA Market Statistics March 2009

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:27:37 -0500

Winters CA being a town of 6,990 (July 2007) has a much different housing market than the most of the greater Sacramento region.

	1 year	15 months
	Mar 08	Mar 09	% Change	Jan 08	Mar 09	% Change
For Sale	36	33	-8.3%	32	33	3.1%
Sold	3	6	100%	1	6	500%
Pended	5	6	20%	0	6	n/a

Because the numbers are so small they should be looked at more to see the general trend than to be taken at face value - also can use the numbers to see how the Winters market fits in with the rest of the region.
The number of homes for sale has decreased by 8.3 percent since March 2008, however this is only a total of three homes in addition the number of sold homes increased 100% from 3 to 6 homes. Again, the numbers are so small, any variation makes a large percentage change. Sales are up in the region and that is reflected in these numbers. Pending sales went from 5 to 6 in this time period.

The average sales price changed from $339,000 to $224,000 which is 33.9% change. What is very interesting about the market statistics for Winters is that 5 of the 6 homes that sold were REO/Bank owned properties. So while inventory numbers have remained relatively stable for the past year, the number of foreclosures on the market has increased. About 1/3 of the Winters homes listed for sale in March 2009 are bank owned properties. This number should be monitored as many experts feel that there will be more foreclosed homes come onto the market in the next few months.

Visit my site to see all Winters homes for sale.

Active Rain blog vs. REW blog - which one is stronger

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:02:45 -0500

I haven't spent much time at active rain lately - I spent a lot of time in 2008 here - made some friends - I had a closing or two from people that found me from my blog here - consider the time I spent worth the effort last year. I haven't given up on blogging - in fact I'm blogging a lot more in multiple places this year. Just wanted to try something for fun. I started my blog on active rain about the same time as one on Real Estate Webmasters. I have posted more lately to my REW blog but in terms of total numbers I have more posts on this one - my AR blog.

I think I already know which blog is going to win out - however, when I was looking through some results in google to try and come up with some topics to write about I did notice that I had both Real Estate Webmaster posts as well as Active Rain posts on page one of google for a number of terms.

I'm going to write three posts for each blog - they will be market statistics for March 2009 - the most recent full month I have data on. Since it was too confusing to figure out if I had written about a city before - I'm picking three cities that are in my market area but ones I have not written market analysis about in the past - there are SO many areas I haven't written about...

Winters, CA

El Dorado Hills, CA

Rocklin CA

This isn't going to be a perfect test - I don't write duplicate content for ANYTHING - and REW blogs do not allow for duplicate content either - so these will be similar posts on similar subjects - if the posts on AR and REW are too similar I know I will have to change the REW post - that is the rules over there and I'm fine with that concept. So let's see how these blogs do.

Cool improvement for twitter.com

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:04:25 -0500

I love Twitter - I really like how you can use twitter on your phone or on the web - I use it to stay in touch with my friends, ask questions, gather information and even get some news. Early on I found that using the web interface (twitter.com) was a bit limited and after trying a few different desktop applications decided that Tweetdeck worked best for me. I could group people, I didn't have to constantly check for updates. Even though I use Tweetdeck I still end up using twitter.com quite a bit. Well there is a modification to Twitter.com that you can do through firefox that makes using the web interface a lot more fun.

Troy's Twitter Script is a firefox extension - follow the instructions (you download the greasemonkey extension and then Troy's script) and all of a sudden your twitter page looks like this:

Sorry about the quality of the screen capture I did this very quickly. All of a sudden conversations are nested- you can follow conversations and replies of friends even when you aren't following their friends. Videos and photos get expanded, you can watch them right on the twitter.com page.

This is a really nice modification - there is a group function but I haven't been able to see how you use groups yet. The script also adds a RT (retweet) button to make it easier to pass on tweets you have found useful. It also expands out the URLS so you can see what you are about to click on (instead of just the URL shortner like tinyurl.com)

There is also a way to add social links to twitter profiles (another feature I have yet to play with) but another great way to build connections with people.

This is an easy modification - but only works with firefox. Learn more about this Cool Twitter Script

Almost forgot, be sure to follow me on twitter @cgjerdetu

Woodland CA Short Sales

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:32:48 -0500

As of today there are 85 homes for sale in Woodland listed as short sales. A short sale is when the seller owes more on the house than what it will sell for. In order for a seller to "sell short" the mortgage holder(s) must approve the sale and agree to accept less than what is owed on the property.

Since there is never a guarantee of what a home will sell for until there is a contract - most banks will not even look at a seller's package until there is an offer in place. Banks are also overwhelmed with the volume of home owners who are looking to complete a short sale and the process of reviewing files can take some time.

A better metric as a buyer is to see if the seller is working with a short sale negotiator - they work on behalf of the seller to negotiate directly with the bank - leaving the listing agent to do what they do best - market the property and work directly with the seller.

There are some bargains out there for patient buyers - but the key is PATIENCE. Search Short Sales in Woodland to look specificially for homes listed in MLS as a short sale. You can also search all homes for sale in Woodland, CA on my website.

Davis Market Statistics 2008 vs. 2007

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:33:45 -0600

I'm updating Discover Davis Homes with 2008 market data and noticed an interesting pattern for single family homes in Davis.

Davis CA Homes Sold in 2008 : 332

Average List Price for Davis Homes: $583,943
Average Sold Price for Davis Homes: $ 566,058
Average Days On The Market: 68

Davis CA Homes Sold in 2007 : 509

Average List Price for Davis Homes: $583,145
Average Sold Price for Davis Homes: $ 570,081
Average Days On The Market: 57

While the number of single family homes sold decreased dramatically last year, the average sold and list price stayed virtually the same. Micro-markets in Davis have seen many fluxuations, however on a broad scale, homes values in Davis have held pretty steady.

Visit my site to search homes for sale in Davis CA

Davis, CA College town

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:24:23 -0600

Davis, CA is a true college town - it is one of the only places on the west coast where the university is still a major part of the city - there are restrictions on growth in the area which for the near future will help keep the balance between town and university in check. One of the main events every year is Picnic Day - a tradition that goes back to the 1920's a time for parents to visit their students - this always takes place in early April, which means that some years it rains on Picnic Day. Here's a video from 2007 when it did rain on the parade.

Typical for a parade in Davis, there are plenty of bikes and the UC Davis marching Band-uh. It's interesting living in a place tied so closely with a unversity. One of the more curious observations though is how little the students seem to notice the people who live here - it's almost like they just walk past without even noticing anyone over the age of about 22. There is a strong emphasis on education here and the schools are considered some of the best in the state. To see what is currently for sale here visit my website on Davis CA Real Estate

Getting noticed | Website Design

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:47:27 -0600

How do you know when your website is making an impact? Of course the easiest and perhaps most satisfying way is when a you get a customer that you know came directly from your site. Even better is when that customer buys or sells a home and tells you your website was the reason that they chose to work with you. Another way is to look at visitors and try and track the number of people who are returning to the site. Real estate websites have an advantage over a lot of other industries because the listings make our sites "sticky". Make it easy for people to search for homes and they will come back over and over, many times earlier in the process than they would feel comfortable with personally contacting an agent.

Another great way to know when your site is making an impact is when it gets quoted in the newspaper. My friend Wayne Long from Columbus GA just had his site used in a local newspaper's website. Wayne just recently went through a redesign of his site and it looks great.

The local Columbus newspaper, The Ledger-Enquirer's story was not about Wayne's website -- wouldn't that be nice if the newspaper reviewed real estate websites, but instead the story was about a multi-million dollar mansion that is headed for foreclosure owned by a former car dealer named Bill Heard . Wayne's site was featured in the related content section of the story and there is a link directly to his Columbus GA Real Estate site.

I haven't seen any of my local or regional papers link directly to any real estate websites, but someday they might. If I keep working hard enough on my site, maybe they will link to mine.

Green point of sale initiative Davis

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:48:28 -0600

Davis agents, this is late notice but the Davis MLS meeting on Friday, December 12th will have a guest speaker to talk about the possible Green Initiative in Davis. The city is considering requiring "green" updates to be completed on buildings at the time of sale. This is something that is likely to slow down the buying process and would add unecessary expense to the sale of a Davis home. Details of the program are still being formulated, the City of Berkeley has recently put in a Green initiative and there are reliable stories that this is delaying loan approvals and causing problems in getting escrows closed.

I am all for environmental upgrades but not forced at the time of sale. If the city pushes for this, let's try and help them come up with some better alternatives.

The meeting starts at 8:30 am at the OddFellows Hall on 2nd Second Street.

UPDATE: I wrote about the meeting here: Davis considers green resale ordinance

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu specializes in Davis Real Estate

Sussex Shores and still dreaming of the beach

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:23:53 -0600

I love living in Davis, I've written a number of times about living in a college town and how it is very bikeable and a tight knit community and how this is a great place to raise a family. No matter how great I think Davis is, however, it is an inland place. I grew up along the Mendocino Coast in California and sometimes I miss the ocean and the beach. I feel that no matter how long I live away from the ocean I will always be a coastal person.

I'm lucky that a I still have family on the California coast and that Davis is only about an hour from the pacific ocean. Since this sense of being on the ocean seems to be calling to me right now.

I've lived in New England and found the winters there too long and cold. I am a Californian and I don't like the cold. Delaware is enough further south that maybe I could survive there, especially in the summer. Who knows, maybe someday I'll buy a vacation coastal home in Delaware. One area that seems interesting is Sussex Shores. It has one of the only private beachs and of course ocean front homes. This is not inexepensive real estate, all are well over a million dollars and some have sold for more than $5,000,000. The homes in the neighborhood are not necessarily fancy but they are large and best of all they are just steps away from the beach. I don't think I will ever leave California but maybe I might be tempted to spend some of my summers in Delaware looking at Sussex Shores Homes for sale.

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu specializes in Davis Real Estate

Building websites based on location

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:05:57 -0600

I'm in the process of building a new website that is a little less focused on Davis and will better serve the Sacramento region in general. This is going to be a great site and I've written about it in Dreaming of LEC's Websites and Architecture. I'm really excited to be working on a new site but it is overwhelming at the same time because there are so many decisions to be made. The site structure is set but there is still a lot up in the air and I'm currently contemplating how to make the site fit the area.

One of my friends, Cal Carter runs a site featuring Fort Morgan Condos. Fort Morgan is along the beach on the Gulf Coast of Alabama. I keep coming back to this site for ideas because I think Cal has done a great job not only with the site, take a look at how well the site fits together, but because it conveys a mood about his area. Everything from the texture of the background to the colors to the crab all convey a sense of place.

I'm not the only one who has noticed Gulf Shore real estate lately. Maybe with a change in the weather there are a number of us dreaming of the beach. Eric Blackwell's caught beach fever with Sell with Senses and Lou Lynch is also not only noticing Cal's site but some of the reasons people actually would want to buy a condo in Alabama Condos and Townhomes. Knox, always a mystery, is thinking of selling his place in Florida to move his vacation condo to the Gulf Shore beaches.

Sacramento is not the beach. It is along a river, in a valley, the towns and Sacramento itself are sprawling. There has always been a lot of land for expansion in the Sacramento area. Sacramento is also the Capitol of California and is home to a lot of state agencies and jobs. Sacramento was never a place where they mined for gold but was a very important city (along with San Francisco) in outfitting the miners and providing the infrastructure during the California gold rush. The photo above is from Sacramento's Old Town. Walking around this area gives you a good feel for the early days of the city.

The idea for the website is how to create a sense of place, but not one just to represent Sacramento but the region in general. It has to be simple but at the same time create a lasting impression. Right now I'm still thinking about how to acomplish this, look for updates as I move through this process.

Curious about the site, it will be a Real Estate Webmasters LEC2 site. I have the exclusive right to Sacramento.

Contributed by Carolyn Gjerde-Tu who's current site is focused on Davis Real Estate.

Twitter and Real Estate | The best social network to build community

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:15:35 -0600

Twitter for real estate is being talked about a lot right now at Real Estate Webmasters, Active Rain, most every real estate community on the internet. More and more real estate agents are starting to use twitter both for networking with each other and building friendships in their local communities.

I have been one of the people commenting on active rain blog posts for the past year thinking that twitter was a pretty cool application but just did not "get" it. At about the same time I first tried twitter I also started a facebook account. Facebook, while still a bit foreign, people playing little games, throwing things at each other, etc. made more sense and I found that over time I have made connections with people from my past. Over this past year more and more of my classmates have joined and it is a nice way of getting back in touch. What I found though that at least for me I have mainly friended people I knew in real life or people I knew virtually but would consider friends. Most facebook users keep their profiles protected and while my friends may also have friends that I might have a lot in common with I often don't know enough about that person to make the next step to friend them and get to know them.

For the most part, twitter users do not password protect their feeds so it is much easier to find people who have common interests. When an interesting conversation pops up you can click on the @username to see the original comment and if you like what you read can follow that person instantly.

How does this relate to real estate? A friend of mine, Knox who is not a REALTOR sums up one of the best reasons real estate agents should be using twitter, Twitter makes Communities Tighter. This could be a community of real estate agents or people from the same area. If you learn how to use search.twitter.com you can find people who are interested in just about anything you can think of and you can likely find people in your town and can immediately to build community.

Starting to see the benefits but still can't figure out how to get past the empty box and the question, "What are you doing?" I recently wrote a handy post on Twitter for Real Estate - How to get started.

Even though I signed up well over a year ago, I've only been active on Twitter for a few weeks. It is too early to tell how much community building I can make with people who live in my area, but I do know that the community and sharing of information with other agents that I have met has made this well worth the effort.

you can find me at twitter.com/cgjerdetu

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Get the latest information on Davis Real Estate on my website at Discover Davis Homes.

Google Calendar - Tech tip of the week

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:31:28 -0600

Every week I give a short presentation at my office meeting on technology. Many times I provide tips to the other agents focused on the agent achieve software that Lyon Real Estate provides to everyone in the company. I have decided for tomorrow I'm going to talk about Google Calendar.

The idea came to me when I realized that I had forgotten to enter November's floor schedule in my phone and I had to call the office to see if I was on the schedule for today. Luckily I wasn't but I started thinking how nice it would be if all the agents in the office could acceess a master calendar that could list floor agents, events, education activities etc. All without calling and bugging the office.

Google Calendar fits that bill and coming from google it is free. We'll see if this is something that the office will find useful, but at least for me it would have been just as fast to quickly look up the office calendar than to call the office.

While this is one way Google Calendar can help the office agents can also put an online calendar to work some ideas could be open houses, home buying seminars, community events, the possibilities are limited only by the user's imagination. You could have a link to your public calendar on your website or blog and then tell everyone to look up events through your website.

Contributed by Carolyn Gjerde-Tu specializing in Davis Real Estate.

Davis MLS Meeting Schedule

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 03:17:41 -0500

The weekly MLS meetings and broker tours for Davis are held Friday mornings at 8:30 am at the Odd Fellows Hall at 415 Second Street. The meetings are important networking and educational opportunities for all members of the Yolo ar. The schedule of events for the next several months are as follows:

October 17: Cann Tree Kick-off

October 24: Bill Emien, Daivs' City Manager - Water Issues Update

October 31: Update on CAR Statewide Meeting 2008 Legislation Handout

November 7: Rian Barrett, CAR Lobbyist to discuss recently enacted bills that affect REALTORS

November 14: Yolo ar Budget/Finance Report.

November 21: Dave Howe/Bill Miller to provide Metrolist update (active keys, next gen software, etc.)

November 28: No meeting -- Thanksgiving

December 5 : TBD

December 12: "What You Need to Know to Close a Home with Mold" presented by Carol Coder

December 19: Celebrate Meeting...more details to follow

December 26: No meeting - Christmas

January 2: No meeting - New Years.

I have been honored to serve on the board this year as a director and looking forward to the second year of my term in 2009. I feel lucky to be a part of a small association where each member's voice can be heard.

Contributed by Carolyn Gjerde-Tu, specializing in Davis Real Estate.

Real estate is about service and sweat, not SEO?

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:22:22 -0500

The above quote, Real Estate is about service and sweat, not SEO came from an anonymous commenter on Joe Lane's featured post on TheSarasotaMLS.com is history I'm not going to rehash the whole controversy, you can read about it here: The Sarasota MLS Gone or here: Sarasota Associaton of Realtors - The real cybersquaters or even sing the SAR Pokie.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a segment of agents who simply do not understand what it takes to build a presence on the internet. They think, pick a good name for your website and the leads will come. It is not that simple. What people like SAR Donicus should understand is that the work just starts when someone comes to the website. There are many people out there that will tell you they get a lot of traffic on their website yet have nothing to show for it.

I've heard that NAR analysts believe that close to 100% of all buyers will start their search for homes on the internet within the next several years. While many of those same buyers will find an agent through a referral or an open house or sign, etc. some will chose their agent via a website. Building a strong internet presence will continue to be more important over time.

The punitive situation that Marc Rasmussen is facing over his Sarasota Real Estate site will affect his ability to do business. So what if Marc has chosen to focus his business around the internet and not more "traditional" marketing of door knocking, cold calls, etc. Maybe he does do those things as well, I don't know Marc personally but I know that his site and the success of his site were partially responsible for my decision to focus on building larger web presence. TheSarasotaMLS.com was one of the sites I looked up to for guidance in how to build the right kind of website. Instead of bashing him, the Sarasota Association should be looking to see how Marc's site could help their members sell more homes.

To help support Marc put a button on your site: No SARjacking

Updated to include additional posts/resources:

There are more posts out there, anyone google Sarasota Association of REALTORS lateley?

Wow I'm writing this with a pen

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:34:08 -0500

I just got a new computer, a Lenovo X61 convertable tablet. I can use it like a regular laptop or what I'm doing right now,writing on the screen With a pen, there are many applications that agents can use with the tablet, including signing contracts, taking notes at listing appointments. I'm not trying very hard for the computer to recognize my handwriting and I have often been told how dreadful my handwriting is. I'm sad that my trusty Sony Vaio is on it's last legs but I'm sure this new computer will be a winner. Written exclusively With the pen.

Contributed by Carolyn Gjerde-Tu Specializing in Davis and greater Sacramento Real Estate.

West Sacramento path for the future

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:45:23 -0500

West Sacramento seems to get a rough deal many times when people are discussing the Sacramento region. With much of the city located next to downtown Sacramento it is a growing community that has a lot to offer.

One way the community is changing is to continue to build then connection between the two cities. Early in 2009 the City of West Sacramento will take over a set of abandoned rail lines and plans are to build a path that connects the two communities. Anything that promotes walking and bike riding should be supported. KCRA recently ran a story about this project.

Contributed by Carolyn Gjerde-Tu, Sacramento Real Estate

Davis Jazz Festival

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:12:00 -0500

Wandering downtown Davis this afternoon, I ran across the Davis Jazz Artists Festival. Taking place both today October 4th and Sunday October 5th, this is a nice mix between visual art, spoken word and jazz. I happened to catch the Brubeck Institute Quintet and the Davis High Jazz Band. Today's events were free and it was nice to see the support for both the Davis High School music funds as well as a strong show of support for Measure W with people giving out stickers and yard signs. There was also a raffel and artists were painting onsite and it looked like there was spoken word events planned as well.

It was really fun watching both the Brubeck Institute Quintet and the Davis High Jazz Band and seeing the enthusiasm for the music from these young musicians. Reading about the Brubeck Institute Quintet, this is a group made up of musicians just out of high school. They can not have entered college to be eligible to compete for this position.

The festival contines tomorrow, Sunday, October 5th, 2008.

Contributed by Carolyn Gjerde-Tu, your resource for Davis CA Real Estate.

Measure W for Davis Schools

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:30:06 -0500

The Davis community as a whole has always been very supportive of the schools. One of the reasons people choose to live in this community is that Davis is well know for the quality of education and importance of education in the community as a whole.

Earlier this year, the Davis Schools Foundation set a big goal to raise enough money to prevent the layoff of dozens of Davis teachers and to keep special programs like elementary science, music programs intact. The fundraising campaign was a success and also provided a good message to the school board as well as the community as a whole how important the schools are to this community.

The voters of Davis will have an opportunity in Novemeber to pass a special parcel tax that will help preserve these school programs for the future. In a state with continued budget troubles, it is likely that individual communities will continue to step it up at a local level.

Visit the Yes on W campaign and learn for yourself why this is so important for the Davis Community.

Contributed by Carolyn Gjerde-Tu, specializing in Davis Real Estate

Luxury Granite Bay Homes

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:21:25 -0500

I keep finding myself on Youtube. Sometimes I search for topics like I would in google. It is really interesting the types of videos that are posted. Along with many virtual tours in most areas, you can typically find other information about a region on youtube.

Here is a news story from last year on the high end of the Granite Bay Real Estate market.

There were the same number of homes for sale in Granite Bay in July 2007 than there were this July. However, the number of homes that sold from July 2007 to July 2008 has dropped. TRENDGRAPHIX indicates the average price per square foot (all homes in Granite Bay) dropped from $275 per square foot in July 2007 to $223 per square foot in July 2008. While this may indicate that prices have fallen, it is also an indicator that it is the smaller homes in the area that are selling.
Have you been waiting for the right house to come along? This may be your opportunity to find the perfect Granite Bay Home.

Contributed by Carolyn Gjerde-Tu, Broker Associate with Lyon Real Estate, focused on Sacramento Real Estate

FRED is coming to Sacramento, Monday Sept 29

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 03:53:57 -0500

FRED is Lyon Real Estate's Fun REALTOR Education Day that will be held next Monday, September 29th. If this year's edition is anything like last year it will be a full day with information and ideas on how to best survive and even grow your business in this market. Last year FRED was an exclusive event for Lyon agents however, this year they have opened it to include some invited agents from other companies. I would assume that there will be some "selling" on Lyon Real Estate but you might find you like what Lyon has to offer.

Even if Lyon is not the right company for you, this is a great opportunity to network with local agents and to figure out what is and is not working in this market. Rick Deluca will be the keynote speaker. I took away so much from his talk last year. His main idea to the group was "do fewer things well". Beyond the keynote there will be several breakout sessions ranging in topics from technology, green homes, generational marketing, social networking and how to break into the REO market.

Sacramento agents not currently with Lyon, contact me or one of your favorite Lyon agents to see if you can attend as a guest. Lyon agents, hope to see you there.

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu a Broker Associate with Lyon Real Estate. Whether you are looking for homes in Davis or real estate in Granite Bay, Lyon is a leader in Sacramento Real Estate.

Davis stage: Tour of California 2008

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:00:29 -0500
I was spending a little time around Youtube and found this video from earlier this year. Ever wonder what it is like to watch a world class bike race go through your town? Well this video is a good representation of the 2008 Amgen Tour of California when the pro bicycle tour passed through Davis back in February. The commentary is classic.

This bottom clip was filmed downtown and gives a better feel for the action around more fans.

Contributed by Carolyn Gjerde-Tu, specializing in Davis Real Estate and Homes in Greater Sacramento

Sacramento Techology Expo Sept 5th, 2008

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:14:56 -0500

Friday is the Sacramento Association of REALTOR's annual Business and Technology Expo. Held this year at the Double Tree hotel, they are expecting nearly 800 agents to attend. There will be several breakout sessions including the latest information from Metrolist, several sessions on how to best utilize a smart phone into your real estate practice and "Avoiding Techological Roadkill". I attended the expo last year and thought it was well worth the time. In addition to the breakout sessions, there will also be close to 45 booths for techology oriented exhibitors. The cost is a measly $25 dollars for association members and includes a boxed lunch. I walked away with a lot of good ideas and information last year.

Contributed by Carolyn Gjerde-Tu, specializing in Davis Real Estate

Thinking about becoming a real estate agent in Davis?

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu - Davis Ca Real Estate (Lyon Real Estate) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:37:32 -0500

Thursday, July 17th, at 7:00 pm the Lyon Real Estate office in Davis is holding an informational seminar on becoming a real estate agent. While total sales are down specifically in Davis, region wide the number of homes sold has increased from last year. While jumping into a comissioned based sales career may seem daunting in the current market, some say that agents who start their career when the market is tougher tend to have more dicipline because to succeed they have to have a clear plan.

Herb Cross, the manager of the Lyon Office in Davis since 1989 will be hosting the session and will talk about careers in real estate in general and how Lyon Real Estate's focus on training, technology and relationship building are keys for success in this market. Come and learn about the power of Lyon5 and see if joining Lyon Real Estate is the right move for you. Contact me for more information about this event.

Contributed by Carolyn Gjerde-Tu, Lyon Real Estate Agent in Davis