Suzie & George Crudo's Blog

When buying a home it's Location, Location, Location. When selling it's PICTURES, PICTURES, PICTURES!

Suzie & George Crudo (Weichert Realtors Hallmark Properties) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:50:13 -0800

About a month ago I noticed my pc was starting to show its age. It was really starting to slow me down. So I finally gave in and bought myself a new HP with a widescreen 23 inch monitor. For the first couple of hours I flashed back to 1964, watching Cary Grant starring in Father Goose in the fourth row at Radio City Music Hall! Somehow Mr Grant looked a whole lot different than he did on our 19 inch black and white set I had at home. I could see every detail and imperfection in the face of the great thespian. After coming back to reality and leaving my memories of Radio City Music Hall I immediately thought of how my last blog ( What Good is Your Marketing Efforts if Your Photography STINKS!) is even more relevant than ever before. As the quality of graphics on the web continues to improve with every day passing our marketing of homes has to adapt accordingly. In my opinion it all begins the minute you enter your listing to shoot those photos you plan to use in your marketing. All this state of the art technology can really help market properties, when done right; but it can also hurt when done wrong. Bad photos will only look worse and really do an injustice to sellers. I've put together this short video to provide an example of how photography can influence what buyers see and how they respond. It's not Cary Grant but you'll get the idea.

What Good is Your Marketing Efforts if Your Photography STINKS!

Suzie & George Crudo (Weichert Realtors Hallmark Properties) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:08:41 -0800

A lot of Realtors claim to be better at marketing than most of their competitors however, when I browse the MLS I am floored by what a poor job most "experts" do at marketing their properties.

Almost 90% of buyers now use The Internet to find a home. After restricting their search to neighborhood, price range, square footage etc. the next thing they look at is PICTURES! And some of the pictures I see are pretty bad. I would go as far to say that some look like "accidental discharges" (you know...the one where your camera goes off accidentally while pointed at the floor)

Today a lot of us are so focused on texting, 800#'s, and various ways for buyers to reach us instantly. I fear that we are forgetting what motivates buyers to call in the first place. Yes I know that we still get sign calls and by all means we want to answer that call promptly when it comes in. But let's not forget that the largest source of buyers is now The Internet; and on The Internet buyers want to see pictures... a lot of them. If they're bad you run the risk of losing that buyer forever.

When the inventory of homes is as large as it is today it's more important than ever to get the attention of buyers with good photography. I have seen pictures of tables, sofas, fireplaces (and I mean just the fireplace) and even TOILETS! This does nothing to get a buyer to call on a property.

I have dabbled in photography long before I ever knew that Realtors worked on commission, so I guess this might explain my frustration with what I see. With today's cameras it really is not difficult to do a decent job if you just give it a little thought and effort.

I, for one, have ventured on to a more advanced technique called HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography. This is a process that requires no flash for indoor pictures and provides a really nice balance of light; even when shooting very large rooms.

Is anyone else out there is using HDR? I'd love to hear how it's working for you

Does Tuesday Have a “Feel”?

Suzie & George Crudo (Weichert Realtors Hallmark Properties) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:47:17 -0800

For all you Seinfeld fans out there you might recall an episode where Kramer and Newman get into a somewhat heated discussion about how certain days of the week have no "feel" while other days do. Newman argues that Tuesday has no feel while Monday and Friday definitely do.

Tuesday has no feeling

Although it made for a very humorous exchange in the show, there happens to be a lot of truth to this. Sundays feel different from Wednesdays and Fridays feel different than Mondays. Each day has a unique "feel" that can influence both our productivity and effectiveness.

As real estate professionals our work week tends to be less structured than that of many other professions. We do not have set hours that we need to be in the office. We work weekends, nights, holidays and whenever duty calls. This tends to damper the "feel" that certain days of the week have on us; which, in turn, can have a detrimental effect on productivity for both ourselves and our clients.

To compensate for the inherent problem associated with the profession I've adopted what a like to call my, Monday and Friday "feel" days. Every Monday I wake up and develop my plan for the week and decide what I want to accomplish and what I need to do to get it done. I work on achieving my objectives through the week. When Friday arrives I then take the time to look back on the week and evaluate whether or not my goals were met.

Motivational experts universally recommend writing down goals and setting realistic time frames for them to be accomplished. My Monday and Friday "feel" day method has helped me stay on course and get things done that I might have put off indefinitely. It provides structure to an otherwise haphazard work schedule and helps me stay focused.

As I am writing this I must note that today is Friday; and Friday, for me, still has a "feel"!

Can You See the Bottom Yet?

Suzie & George Crudo (Weichert Realtors Hallmark Properties) — Thu, 28 May 2009 11:20:11 -0700

Well, it's been an interesting year and a half; to say the least. Here in Orlando we've been hit hard with a large number of foreclosures, which have kept our inventory hovering up around 25,000 listings for just a little over a year now.

All along I've been telling clients that when we start to see inventory drop it might be an indication that things are getting better in the housing market. Could that time be now? Market reports from our Realtor Association have now reported the first significant decline for the first time in well over a year and a half. We have gone from 24,408 listings in Nov 2008 to 20,194 in April 2009. We haven't been this low since Dec 2006!

New contracts hit a three year high of 3415 in April of this year.

So for all of us that have, thus far, weathered the storm, there seems to be some signs of hope out there. However don't pull your sails in just yet. Along with predictions of high inflation headed our way, higher interest rates are sure to follow. This may just be a brief break in the clouds with the second storm coming right behind. I, for one, am trying to make the best of what may only be a blip on the screen until I am sure I can see land!

Bad real estate market? I ask the question...For whom?

Suzie & George Crudo (Weichert Realtors Hallmark Properties) — Mon, 05 May 2008 09:13:20 -0700

We are in the midst of a very unusual (to say the least) real estate market. Everyone always asks us, "When it is going to get better?" My knee jerk response would be, "We all know that no one can predict the future. However, economic indicators say that this could possibly continue for another 6 months with a leveling off period for about a year and then we will see moderate increases at about 3%..Blah blah blah blah blah"

But as we delve deeper into that question you have to ask yourself this; "Get better for whom"? In 2004 we saw a buying frenzy for real estate unlike any other time we can remember. Buyers were at the mercy of sellers who were driving up prices on an hourly basis. Full price offers were being rejected by sellers and offers above asking price were being submitted. Would you consider this to be a "good" real estate market? Once again I would ask, "Good for whom"? Most certainly it was not good for the buyers. Many of those buyers paid exorbitant prices for a home that, if given a choice, they wouldn't have bought in the first place. They felt pressured into buying because of their fear of being "priced out of the market", or losing the only home available in the neighborhood they wanted.

Economics 101 teaches us about the law of supply and demand. As supply increases, demand decreases and conversely, as supply decreases demand increases. Each of these scenarios is good for one party in the transaction.

The other day I imagined myself walking into the grocery store and, to my astonishment, seeing only one type and brand of white bread on the shelf. Adding to my astonishment I realized that this bread was now double the price! Even though it was not the brand of whole wheat I always buy, and I need it to feed my family, I find myself paying more for something that was not what I originally went into the store for in the first place. For the baker this is great. He only has to provide one product brand and can charge more for that product. For the consumer this is horrendous.

In this age of 24/7 news and a media that seems to only see the glass as half empty, our view of the world is often distorted in a way that can actually drive people into their own personal depressions. In fact do you really think it's a coincidence that we see so many ads for depression treatment drugs during our nightly news stories? They constantly report on foreclosures and prices being driven down by the large inventory of homes that are not selling; all of which have had a negative impact on the economy as a whole. The one thing they avoid telling us is that this real estate market is probably the best we have seen in a very long time... for buyers! Prices have come down significantly in the past year. Sellers are extremely negotiable and you have a plethora of homes to choose from. Builders have huge inventories of new homes and are giving away upgrade packages just to get their homes sold.

So, the next time your favorite news anchor is telling you another depressing story about the housing slump, foreclosures, the banking crisis etc. think multi grain, whole wheat, honey sweeetened bread for .75 cents a loaf! What a deal!

For questions regarding properties in the Central Florida vicinity call Suzie or George Crudo at 407-489-8953, or visit http://www.GeorgeAndSuzie.com