I'm pleased to offer the following historic home to the real estate market! What a majestic home to own - a home with a history and income generating opportunities as well.

Located at 624 NW 9th Street in Corvallis Oregon, this 1892 Victorian-era home is grand! It is currently set up as a four-apartment unit building; two 2BD/1BA upstairs and two 1BD/1BA downstairs.

With a total of 3,322 sq. ft., it has wonderful features including wood floors, pocket doors, beautiful glass, a wonderful banister staircase, ornate fireplaces, a sunporch and much more! It is situated in the heart of Corvallis and has off-street parking as well. What a wonderful opportunity for only $525,000.

Interested? For further details, call me at 541-908-9018 or email cynthiamcm@kw.com.

Cynthia McMahon with Keller Williams Realty Mid-Willamette: "Making real estate a positive experience...from start to finish"

Hi,

I meant to include the link to the RISMEDIA article I referred to in my last post. The article offers more details than the highlights I provided.

http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-12-29/5-business-mistakes-you-dont-know-youre-making/

Greetings!

When you work as an independent contractor, you wear a lot of hats. From industry professional (i.e. realtor or mortgage specialist) to secretary, to salesperson, to marketer. I recently read a RISMEDIA article entitled, "Five business mistakes you don't know you're making," and wanted to share those highlights with my fellow professionals who are wearing multiple hats as well.

1. No marketing plan.

2. A poor understanding of the marketing environment.

3. Not knowing your customer's true motivation for buying.

4. Failure to forecast sales.

5. No selling system in place.

When I was a marketing communications consultant, one of the biggest trends I noticed was that marketing went to the bottom of the list for planning and expenditures when times got tight, especially for small businesses. It was the easiest place for companies to believe their money wasn't well spent. Yet, with a strong marketing plan, that includes short- and long-term marketing objectives, your money is better spent than in other areas. You just need to have some tools in place to track your return on investment (ROI).

I challenge you to approach your business with a fresh perspective and review your marketing and sales activities, make a new plan, and hit the new year running. And, turn off the news. Don't let the gloom and doom of the media control your motivation and your business success this year. Best wishes!

Just wanted to share some great quotes our Team Leader sent out last week...

"You can have everything in life you want if you just help enough other people get what they want." Zig Ziglar

"Plan with attitude, prepare with aptitude, participate with servitude, receive with gratitude and that should be enough to separate you from the multitudes." Krish Dhanam

"Hope is the foundational quality of all change." Alfred Adler

 "If there is hope in the future, there is power in the present." John Maxwell

May you have a grand day!

Just wanted to put this question out to the AR community:

Why are your buyers waiting to buy?

I've heard from area agents here that buyers are following the media and keep expecting housing prices to drop, so they are waiting. If that is the case, are we failing to educate our buyers about the cost of waiting?

Just yesterday, our local mortgage lender, Van of Corvallis Metro Mortgage, sent out a notice, to quote, "A milestone in rates was hit today. A 30 year conventional loan has a rate as low as 4.875%."

A $250,000 loan at 4.875 percent, for 30 years, would be about $1324 a month. If the buyers wait, and obtain the same loan amount but at a 5.5 percent interest rate, their cost goes up to about $1419 per month.

If the $95 doesn't seem like much difference initially, and if they can afford the $1400+ monthly payment, consider that if they buy now at the lower interest rate, they could actually have more buying power, up to about a $275,000 loan instead. Or, you can look at the long-term effects. At the end of 30 years, a $250,000 loan at 4.875 percent would cost the buyers about $25,000 less in interest than if they went with a 5.5 percent loan.

Not comfortable educating your buyers about financing options? Refer them to your local expert!

But, maybe this isn't the problem everywhere. I'd love to hear feedback about why your buyers are waiting. Take care, and have a great weekend!

Is your home healthy? A healthy home should have cleaner air, reduced allergens, and fewer toxins.

Surprisingly, many of our homes are not as healthy as we might think. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), recent studies demonstrate that the air in homes and buildings is often more polluted than many industrial cities.

The Oregon Department of Human Services notes that children are even more susceptible to environmental hazards in the home. Why? Because children eat more, breathe more and drink more in relation to their body size than adults.

Sources
Inadequate ventilation and pollutants are often the major causes of polluted indoor facilities. Gases and particles released into the air can increase pollutants in the home. According to the EPA, controlling the source of pollution is often the most effective method of improving indoor air quality.

Some of the pollutants to examine include:

· Carbon Monoxide

· Environmental Tobacco Smoke

· Household Chemicals

· Radon

Carbon Monoxide. Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that is highly poisonous. Often related to dizziness, headaches, and fatigue at lower concentrations, at high concentrations, it can cause unconsciousness and even death. Fuel-burning appliances that are not operating correctly can cause carbon monoxide to pollute your home. Other carbon monoxide sources include, but are not limited to, motor vehicle exhaust, leaky chimneys and furnaces, and unvented gas heaters.

Chemicals. Some of the chemical zones in the home are in the bathroom, the kitchen, bedrooms, the basement, and the attic. Common chemicals around the home include benzene, chlorine, formaldehyde, pesticides, propane, solvents and lead. These chemicals are found in products such as paints, varnishes, cleaning solutions, and degreasing products, to name a few.

Radon.  Radon is a natural substance. It is a radioactive gas that is odorless and tasteless. Radon can enter the environment from the soil, from uranium and phosphate mines, and from coal combustion. It is the decayed state of radon (the alpha particles) that can damage the human body's cells.

Improvements
You can improve the health of your home by checking the contamination of your environment, and taking simple precautions to reduce the introduction of contaminants in your home.

· Utilize Detectors. Radon can be detected using kits; check your local hardware store. In addition, there are carbon monoxide detectors and alarms available for personal use. It is important to remember that a smoke alarm does not detect carbon monoxide.

· Limit smoking to the outdoors.

· Use chemicals according to the label instructions. Properly dispose of unused chemicals.

· Use adequate ventilation during home improvement projects. Remember, just because a product contains organic chemicals, doesn't mean it can't be harmful to you.

This article addresses only a few of the many contaminants in our home environments. For more details,
visit http://www.epa.gov and search the topic "indoor air quality." 

I was flipping through the newspaper this morning and came across a disappointing advertisement. On the first page of the classified section was a retail display ad. At the top is a picture with a house in the background, and a diamond-shaped sign in the foreground. On the sign it reads, "You want it. You can afford it. You'll never see it." The headline, centered in the ad states, "What is racial steering?" The ad defines racial steering, offers assistance on rights, and is sponsored by the Fair Housing Council of Oregon.

Why is the ad disappointing? I'm disappointed to see it in the paper at all because to me, that means racial steering still exists in our industry. And, that disappoints me.

I just read an excellent article published by the Linn County Extension Association entitled, "Enjoying the holidays in a tough economy."

The article offered some great tips on keeping holiday costs down and finding joy in the occasion. First and foremost, it reminds us to not bury our heads in the sand. Instead, it is important to recognize and accept our current, personal economic situation. If the finances are not what they were last year, face the facts and adjust accordingly so the holidays don't send you into a financial tailspin.

The same is true in our real estate business. If real estate transactions are not at the same level this year as they were in the past, you may need to make some changes to keep afloat. One of the best ways to do this is sit down and review your spreadsheet. I'm not an accountant, and don't ever want to be one, but tracking income to expenses is pretty easy. I just spent a couple hours this morning reviewing and updating my files.

Once you have your income and expenses written down, you can categorize. How much did you spend on print advertising in the local newspaper? How much did you spend on printed marketing materials such as notepads, pens, or calendars? How much did you spend on postage? Office supplies? Office rent?

Are there categories of spending that appear to have little or no return on investment? Did you get any leads from those activites, products or services? What expenses allowed you to increase your presence in the community? What expenses did you incur that turned into a profitable transaction?

The value received from expenditures on products and services will vary from person to person. For some, a long-term marketing strategy might justify spending $80 a month for a magazine ad. For others, renting an office to stay focused while at work (vs. having the kids at home hollering in the background while you're on the phone) might be an expense worth continuing.

I challenge you to sit down with your numbers and do a review. Figure out what you can do without in the coming year and still run your business so you can stay afloat or better yet, increase profitably in 2009. Best wishes!

With today's marketplace highly controlled by buyers, and a larger inventory of available homes, it is important for sellers to make their home stand out from the crowd. How does a listing agent go about helping clients set their home apart? Here are some quick tips:

1) Price. Price is currently the biggest marketing tool, in my opinion. Instead of constantly chasing the market, it is important to set the price of your home to sell sooner than later. So, if your home is similar to 10 homes in the market, and all are priced within $10,000 of one another, set your price to beat out the competition.

2) Presentation. Make the home stand out with curb appeal. Buyers have more homes to choose from, and so they have more time to do drivebys before they even contact an agent for a showing. This means keeping the leaves raked, the walkway swept, and some foliage gracing the entry. It also means completing those well-meaning, but delayed projects, such as a paint face-lift or a new gutter.

3) Appearance. Don't forget the appearance of the interior. Buyers need to be able to envision themselves living in the home. So, it is important to clear the clutter and depersonalize the property. Not sure how to go about such a task? Consider contacting a local home staging consultant. In the Willamette Valley, you can work with trained folks such as Margaret Oscilia-Creative Concepts and Contracting, and Jennifer Hoffman with Interior Aura.

Best of luck with the sale!

May this holiday season find you and yours happy, healthy and safe. Enjoy your Thanksgiving break, and take a moment to help and remember those less fortunate. Food for thought:

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."  ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy