I just signed a lease for a new store in Birmingham Michigan so we can service the growing number of listings we are getting. We currently have 20-25 listings (depending on what time you read this/ we think this may double by May based on Pipeline) and 23 pendings, we sold 60 last quarter on the listing side.

I am looking for two buyers agents to handle calls and buyers these listing generate. The potential is great, I have agents driving from Flint for showing and we are doing five-eight buyer sides a month now, we both now a local agent can do way better.

Based on average list price I proforma this office to do $1.5-$2.0 million a month in BUYER sides only by end of April with the right TWO agents.

You will have an office in a fantastic Birhmingham location with easy parking and easy access to anywhere, you will have the most advanced virtual office in the business (VoIP Phone system, exchange email, blogs, listing text, fantastic direct mail all from your laptop), you will have sign calls going directly to you and your teammates, you will have NO fees except for licensing and dues.

This will jump start your business for 2011, my agents average 30 plus transaction sides each, this office should be doing 50+ with volume of calls, emails and leads.

I don't expect you to believe all of this without be showing you, so email me at Buddy@ChangingStreets.com, confidentially of course and we can set up a online meeting or meet when I am in town later this week.

ChangingStreets.com has been awarded a portion of the HUD MM3 account to sell HUD Homes in Genesee County. This is a truibute to our property marketing efforts. Each Hud Home in the Flint Area will have a dedicated buyer team, text for info, a special phone line for HUD only inquiries and a web page,  http:Flint.ChangingStreets.com/HUD, where buyers can collect information, view homes, schedule appointments and request information.

We feel this is a big step forward for HUD Home sales. In the past HUD Agents have had to do too many things for too little MM3 allows agents to focus on consumers adn property marketing. The goal is to increase the perception of a HUD Home, they are not what they use to be. ChangingStreets.com currently has HUD Homes listed in Linden, Fenton and Grand Blanc that are very nice and priced right. HUD Homes are not just inner city $5,000 homes for sale anymore, they still exist but there are great opportunities in other parts of the market.

This is kind of full circle for ChangingStreets.com founder Scott Hoyt, as he started his "career" doing drive by occupancy inspections on HUD forclosures at the age of 16. 

You can get new listings for HUD Homes in Genesee and Lapeer Counties at either http://Flint.changingstreets.com/hud or follow @flinthud on Twitter.

Sometimes any change is good. For Michigan yesterdays elections are good. It feels different a little different in the mitten this afternoon, the shoe has dropped and we can move forward with "the Geek".

Michigan needs a concise, business forward message and an implementation plan to pull it together, I am excited to see what a business man can do with this turn-around opportunity!

Let's all the ride the wave of optimism

I am so glad all this campaigning will be over tomorrow! I have to say Buddy is excited about today, a new governor for Michigan, a strong possibility of Nancy and Harry joining MSNBC and some great story telling with my business partner.

The elections had us talking and laughing this morning, both excited about the prospect of a new day in America. My partner had been doing some consulting and recruiting in North Carolina for a big company and was telling me about a couple of his more interesting "candidates" this morning and where they are now!

Rhis came up because one of the potential agents he interviewed and respectfully let remain at KW is running for office in North Carolina and his opponent is running ads about how he bounced checks all over town and my partner indicated that at the interview the "candidate" told him he had closed over $12 million in business the trailing 12 months when the reality is the number was $1.2 million. He denied the low production and the bounced checks, both we proven. He never got a second interview but he won a primary? Wierd Country, hopefully he will not be having the last laugh tonight.

The best story was about a newer agent that was telling him it took six months to get her marketing in place because her hair stylist was having a hard time matching her hair to her poodles'. Yes, she was dying her hair to match her dog for her business card picture...not kidding. She had her picture taken with her poodle for her cards with matching hair, it took four shoots!

She just opened her own shop, with 38 career sales, that sells real estate and interior design!!! Seriously, the poodle lady will not sell your home and decorate it too! She also was not given a second interview and stayed at KW until she decided to change the face of real estate, or at least the hair!

Has anyone noticed all the "puberty"  in real estate this year? Every agent with less than four years experience is changing the way real estate is done... remember when you discovered the world was round and thought you knew it all? I remember the day I found our I didn't, a younger friend came home from school with the same cocky, know it all attitude I had three years earlier. That was the day I realized I hadn't discovered the answer, it was there all the time I just had not been open to it.

That is what our industry is like today. The same mistakes are being made that were made in 2002, 1998, and 1994, by a new group "reinventing the business" with the same old ideas and no horsepower to make it happen. My advice...math is simple, there is only 100% in every deal, join the professionals that have been changing the business for years...playing catch up sucks, working on a strong team is the bomb.

Well I guess the point is our government is a lot like our industry, the bar has been set pretty low and we bet our country on a person with no experience that was going to change the world two years ago (how is that working, I just read in New York magazine only 10% of Obama Nation from the last election is still energized) hopefully tonight we will see some positive change, and hopefully just not for the dogs.

I was looking at our Metro Detroit market blog today, how boring. We are beating a dead horse in Detroit, all we have been blogging about are sales price increases. I guess when you are so fired up about something so unexpected you can't help but dwell on it.

Prices are up in Metro Detroit over 12% third quarter of 2010 vs. third quarter of 2009.

Why do you care if you live somewhere else? Because we were the first in and the hardest hit! We are coming back around, well off the lows on price and thinking we could continue a solid appretiation for while. Property is just so cheap, infratsructure is good, labor is relatively cheap, and shoot we have global warming on our side (did anyone see the blurb in Wired magazine?).

Agents in Detroit rock. They know how to move property and benefit buyers and sellers, they stopped the price reductions and started rocking value, it worked.

Check out our Detroit market blog, I promise to quit bragging about home prices! You will not believe some of the increases.

ChangingStreets.com buyers can now get information on any listing by text. As a buyer they can do the Sunday drive and text SWM to 25827 they will by instructed to reply with the address. ChangingStreets.com will automatically send price, size and info with a link to photos and a mobile web page. The buyer can then link to a ChangingStreets.com agent to request  a showing.

This is a proprietary system through ChangingStreets.com that will increase the user experience for our buyers....that is smart, easy, sane real estating!

ChangingStreets.com is a turn-key consumer focused real estate brokerage opportunity, to find out more go to ChangingStreets.com/join-us

I have been getting ready for the end of the third quarter and running a lot of marketing reports this morning and have noticed a trend you don't here on the news.

Yes sales are down, a lot in some areas. But average sales prices are up, in some areas a lot. Not just up from last year but up from last quarter.

Flint Michigan sold home prices have risen four months in a row.

Not only are Oakland County Michigan (Northern Suburbs of Detroit) on a roll, 11% average price increase, but the high end is on fire...over 29 million dollar plus homes sold already this quarter, up from 21 all of Q3 2009.

Get Scoop on Metro Detroit Real Estate at http://detroit.changingstreets.com/blog

Get the Scoop on Flint Area Real Estate at http://flint.changingstreets.com/blog

Follow Raleigh Area Real Estate at http://raleigh.changingstreets.com/blog

ChangingStreets.com has always prided itself on being a consumer focused company, and yesterday we found out our consumers appreciate it. ChangingStreets.com was voted the best real estate company in Genesee County by consumers and readers of mLive and the Flint Journal.

ChangingStreets.com web traffic grew 40% last month alone and now features homes for sale in Kalamazoo, Homes for sale in Flint, Homes for sale in Raleigh, Homes for sale in Oakland County and Homes for sale on Maui. ChangingStreets.com is also in discussions with groups in Florida, Texas and Southeastern Michigan to open additional operations to serve additional consumers.

Later this month ChangingStreets.com will debut its text system allowing consumers to text changingstreets.com on 95% of the homes listed in the states of Michigan, North Carolina and Maui. This will allow consumers to get information faster and connect with the best buyers agents in the business by text, a true win for home buyers.

For more information log onto www.ChangingStreets.com

I am a sucker for useless information, and the Forbes "Where Americans Are Moving" map is like a drug for me. I have been disecting some of my markets for the last 24 hours and here is what I have found:

Who is Moving to Oakland County Michigan

We all know people are leaving Flint Michigan, but where are they going?

Who is moving to Maui.

Great stuff, please check out the blogs, then check our your town!

Amazing Torch Lake Home

There is little debating Torch Lake is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. This home sits on one of the greatest spots on torch lake, a cove in the middle of the lake with a sandy bottom  and no neighbors to the north for over a 1/2 mile. It is like your own private cove with caribbean blue water.

The house has a little going for it as well, 6 bedrooms (four with private baths), five and half baths, fabulous master suite with deck overlooking the cove, full walk out with wet bar, and huge family area, and fire pit.

I have had the pleasure of staying in this house and it lives perfect, a great modern house with room for everyone, with a cozy-up north feel. You feel like you should be relaxing, it is not hard!

The home has over 44oo square feet but lives much larger with the abundant deck and patio space. Three of the bedrooms (on every level of the photo to the right) not only open to a patio or deck they also have there own bathrooms complete with large showers and separate whirlpool tubs. There are three additional bedrooms on the top level, one with a private bath the others share a bath.

When building the home the builder took great care to pay tribute to one of the worlds most beautiful lakes. With tons of knotty pine, field-stone, hardwoods, the home truly feels indigenous to the cove it over looks. The colors mirror those found in the lake at different times in the day, the sand, the turquoise water and the sky are all represented in this fabulous home the current owners called "Spirit".

6 bedrooms

5.5 baths

4446 Square Feet

$1,200,000   For more information contact Andy Goggins, ChangingStreets.com 810.845.0300 or see the property Here!