I guess many of you saw the article about Redfin today in USA Today.

If you are up for some excitement and have a little cash, there is a perfect opportunity for you to be involved in a Redfin type model that recently started in the Tampa area.

I know many Realtors are opposed to the model and I understand how you feel.  It's an interesting concept and if done correctly, can be quite profitable.  Are you aware that their minimum charge is $4,000?  That be part of the "fine print."

I saw on their website somewhere that many of their agents are closing 5-8 transactions per week.  I'd say "do the math," but I'm sure you did already.

Check out our site, www.DreamRealty.com.   We don't give back 2/3 - we split the commission with the buyer 50/50.  We also do an excellent job with search engine optimization.    Our "redfin" type site has only been up for about 2 months and Google already has more than 15,000 pages from Dream Realty in their search engine.  Redfin has 277,000 - but most sites have way, way, way, less. 

Try site:www.yoursite.com  in the Google search bar to see how many pages Google has for your site.  Make sure there is no space between site: and your site name.

Anyway, we are very excited about the progress we have made thus far - but would love to hook up with some successful brokers/investors to take it much further - before Refin actually does get to Florida.

Let me know if you want to talk.  I think we don't need crazy money like the 20M Refin shot on their deal.  We've gotten this far with way, way, way less.

Best wishes,

Sheldon Goldberg

Broker, Dream Realty

727-512-6030

Hi - Last weekend the St. Pete Times put on a home show at Tropicana Fields (home of the Devil Rays)

I didn't really want to pay for a booth - around 1200-1500.  But I was in the mood to "press the flesh" and see what kind of prospects I could scare up.

I concocted a fairly innocuous survey.  There were about 5 or 6 questions.  The only really important one was the last one - "Are you, or anyone you know, looking to buy a house in the next 6 months?" 

After I asked the first 5 questions, showed sincere interest in the person, joked around a little, I got some pretty good answers on my "key question."  Some definite leads!

It wasn't the least bit awkward walking up to people with my clipboard - asking them if they didn't mind a short survey.  Was only turned down by less than 5%.  I did all of the surveying out in the food area.  Didn't try surveying in the exhibit hall.

But, there was much more action in the hall so I decided to try to make something happen in there.

As I walked around, I noticed 2 booths where the exhibitor had not shown up.  One was in a pretty good location, had a table and no chair.  The other was on the far end, had a table and a chair.

So, I went out to my car, brought in my laptop with aircard  (aircard is a fabulous deal if you dont' have one - unlimited internet anywhere for 60/month).  I also had some flyers that I was giving out with the survey.

So, I walked back into the show, went straight to far away booth, grabbed the chair, then took it over to the good booth.  I took down the sign on the booth - was some kind of window company.  Then setup my laptop, flyers and cards on the table.

Logged into my company website and also the local board MLS.  After I was all setup, I started calling people over to MY booth.  "Hey can I sell you a house today?"  "You already have one?"  "How about a condo?", etc, etc.  Said the same thing to the security guy when he walked by.  He still plans to rent.

Was never kicked out and got some pretty nice leads.

It was fun and different and kind of exciting and hopefully, I will sell some of these guys!

Best, Shel

Hi -

Here is a great way to see how Google sees your site and what keywords Google has in bold.  Go to www.yooter.com/cache.php . Enter your www in the search box.  Make sure that the radio button "Text Cache" is selected.  I don't want to pick on anyone's site, so just enter your own and see what your site looks like to Google.

For an example, check our site, www.DreamRealty.com.  You will see that we are currently optimized for Tampa Real Estate.  We just started to focus on that area about 1 month ago.  We are currently up to #9 or #10 on Google.  We are higher for Real Estate Tampa and Tampa Realtor.

If you look at our homepage and then look at the Google cache, you will see a stark difference.  This is mainly accomplished through the use of what is know as cascading style sheets (if you are not familiar with css - your webmaster will be).

Another important item for Google to start loving you is to have lots and lots of pages read into their search engine.  You check your site by going to Google and entering site:www.yoursite.com.

The more pages you have, the more keywords you can optimize for.  It is not good to optimize for more than 3 keyword phrases per page. 

If you enter site:www.DreamRealty.com you should see around 13,700 pages!  If you had checked it in March, the count would have only been around 1000.  We started optimizing for pages about 1.5 months ago.

Now here comes the exciting part:

The latest version of Dream Realty is setup like a Redfin type brokerage.  Refin is not coming to Florida anytime soon.

So where do you come in? 

We are looking for brokers to partner with.  We excel at web technology.  We are not married to the Redfin thing:  We are actually more interested in competing with Trulia.  I think Dream Realty is a much better name than Trulia - and our technology is not very far behind theirs. 

We could actually have a site with about all of Trulia's features in a couple of months.

It is amazing to me that both Trulia and Refin raised about 20 million for their ventures.

Bottom line - if any brokers/agents are interested in talking, email me or call me - 727-512-6030.

If you want to pay for some serious Google optimization, we could be open to that, but preferably - we can work together and really own the internet.  It is for sure within your grasp.

Best wishes, Shel

Hi - This is kind of unusual post, but what the heck...

My company website, www.DreamRealty.com has only been active in its current incarnation for a few months. Still, it is enjoying high levels of traffic.  It had 18,000 visitors last week.  It is currently ranked 45,121 of ALL U.S. websites according to http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/dreamrealty.com  (US ranking near bottom of that page).

Google already has us at #8 for Tampa Real Estate - which is the first new market I just started focusing on.  Our other site www.ClearwaterDreaming.com is already #1 (sometimes #2) for Clearwater Real Estate on Google, Yahoo and MSN.

  The purpose of the post is not to brag.    My staff and I are very good at web development and search engine technology.   We have a solid plan to get to the top of the various markets in Florida.   (and beyond)

Currently, we have the MLS with addresses for the Tampa/Orlando areas.    Here is a sample MLS page,  http://www.dreamrealty.com/mls_info.php?lid=T2147963 .  Note on the right side of the page is me (for now). The website is programmed to show whichever agents in my group works that zipcode or city. 

What I'd like to do is - find a brokerage that has a number of agents so I'm not the only one shown.   It is a ton of work dealing with the calls and emails when I'm the only member of Dream Realty.  I do have agents that I refer to, but I am looking at this on a much bigger scale now.

I have the website and the technology.  I'd like to JV with a brokerage that either a:already has many Florida agents, or b:would like to help me create an Exit Realty type model (first in Florida - then the rest of U.S - world) or c:already has many agents from another state and wants to expand into Florida.

Although I am a Florida broker, I have  been a software consultant for 25 years.  So, this is all doable with today's internet technology and it doesn't take a ton of money.

Actually, the overall plan will probably floor you with it's simplicity and ambition.  It is totally mapped out!

Hey, it's all a fun game, so we may as well shoot for the moon.

If you have gotten this far, I thank you for your indulgence.

My contact info:

Sheldon Goldberg  - 727-512-6030

s@DreamRealty.com

Hi - This is kind of unusual post, but what the heck...

My company website, www.DreamRealty.com has only been active in its current incarnation for a few months. Still, it is enjoying high levels of traffic.  It had 18,000 visitors last week.  It is currently ranked 45,121 of ALL U.S. websites according to http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/dreamrealty.com  (US ranking near bottom of that page).

Google already has us at #8 for Tampa Real Estate - which is the first new market I just started focusing on.  Our other site www.ClearwaterDreaming.com is already #1 (sometimes #2) for Clearwater Real Estate on Google, Yahoo and MSN.

This is NO BRAG, JUST FACT.  The purpose of the post is not to brag.    My staff and I are very good at web development and search engine technology.   We have a solid plan to get to the top of the various markets in Florida.   (and beyond)

Currently, we have the MLS with addresses for the Tampa/Orlando areas.    Here is a sample MLS page,  http://www.dreamrealty.com/mls_info.php?lid=T2147963 .  Note on the right side of the page is me (for now).

The website is programmed to show whomever I wish.  What I'd like to do is - find a brokerage that has a number of agents so I'm not the only one shown.   It is a ton of work dealing with the calls and emails when I'm the only member of Dream Realty.  I do have agents that I refer to, but I am looking at this on a much bigger scale now.

I have the website and the technology.  I'd like to JV with a brokerage that either a:already has many Florida agents, or b:would like to help me create an Exit Realty type model (first in Florida - then the rest of U.S - world) or c:already has many agents from another state and wants to expand into Florida.

Although I am a Florida broker, I have  been a software consultant for 25 years.  I also have huge ideas and big dreams.  Actually,  my overall plan will probably floor you with it's simplicity and ambition.  It is totally mapped out!

So, this is all doable with today's internet technology and it doesn't take a ton of money if you are clever enough.

Hey, it's all a fun game, so we may as well shoot for the moon.

If you have gotten this far, I thank you for your indulgence.

My contact info:

Sheldon Goldberg  - 727-512-6030

s@DreamRealty.com

Hi - I picked up an interesting negotiation technique that worked pretty good.   

I recently sold a place where the seller was asking 519K - which was 100K below anything else in the building.  My clients came to town determined to get a "steal" and were only going to be able to justify the purchase in their own minds if that is what they got.  They were only in town for a few days and if they didn't find something while here, it was much less like they would end up buying anytime soon.

They really liked the place and offered 479K.  They indicated a willingness to go up 495K.

The seller responded through their agent with 505K.   The seller pointed out how their place was already 100K below anything else and really priced to sell.  (which was true).

So, instead of taking the 505K right back to my buyer - I waited a few hours and called the seller and basically said that I know my client won't go higher than 495K.  See if you get the seller to accept 495 and we will not counter that - I will do my best to get my buyer to go for 495K.  (which was an extremely good deal).

The seller agreed.  So, when I called the buyer - I just said that I had good news - and totally presented it as such.  It actually was good news.  But, instead of calling the buyer right away and telling them about the 505K - which I knew would disappoint them, I decided to see if that step could be bypassed. 

From that I and other negotiations, I could see that doing my best to ethically avoid presenting bad new or disappointing news - and presenting "good news" was very effective.

Everyone was happy and I kept any unnecessary negativity out of the process. 

Sheldon Goldberg

Broker Dream Realty

www.DreamRealty.com

One of my websites, www.ClearwaterDreaming.com happens to be in a very unique position to monitor the dominace of the top 3 search engines.  The primary keyword phrase the site is optimized for is: Clearwater real estate.

The site has been #2 on GOOGLE, MSN and YAHOO for some time.  When you go to the site you will see one of the major conversions is to have the user search for property.  The property search engine is at the top and the most noticeable action item on the site.

I monitor all searches made: what exactly was searched for, when and from where.  What did they search in the search engine to get to my site, etc.

Amazingly, out of every 13 referrals from the top 3 search engines, a whopping 10 are from GOOGLE, 2 from YAHOO and only 1 from MSN.  This is not consistent with the "normal" statistics you read about, GOOGLE around 50%, YAHOO around 25% and MSN around 12.  But, the stats at Clearwater Dreaming of 10,2 and 1 repeat themselves day after day.

I do some adwords advertising for a disrelated company that I own part of, www.BCG-LLC.com and the results are similar for pay per click - though not as skewed in GOOGLE's favor.  More like 7-2-1 for the same ad, paying about the same for pay per click with each search engine.

Does anyone else out there have similar/dissimilar stats?  To me, it looks like GOOGLE has much more than 50%.

Happy Thanksgiving to all,

Shel