HomeBuyer Seminar in Plano-Frisco, TX

Dallas Suburbs launches new website for Agents and customers

Home Page?  My Page Check it?  We are very excited to announce the release of the new company website. Everything you can hope for or need to use to find a property in North Texas is all right here. Plus we added some cool links- Check the map searches, (I personally love the map searches) the "for kids" link is fun and the calculators are right on the pages. So we are now very customer friendly and having a lot of fun on the back creating some extra pages for the public to enjoy.

If you are a North Texas agent, please check out the "NEWS" link where you will find updates on the power networking lunches held on Wednesday's. If you see something you like just call and speak with our Managing Broker, Ivy Boland. 972-208-9200 She likes to invite our friend's to lunch and learn at the Wednesday Power lunches.

I am bubbling just a little bit, some of the photos on the home page came right out of my camera! I think half of the fun of a new website is the anticipation of all of the great tools we can offer to new customers, plus hopefully all of the new leads from people starting to get serious about finding a home in the Dallas Suburbs.  The "Hot Market" falls in the summer here, which is the exact opporsite of my time in Florida when more homes were sold in "season" November to April-ish.  We might have counted ourselves unlucky in Real Estate in Texas, awhile back when everyone else's markets were going great guns but, our time has come around-we are now one of two "top selling markets in the country. Dallas area and Houston are the "good deal areas". Now I'm glad I got that license here, too! 

So if you are in a buying frame of mind-c'mon give me a call and let's make a deal for you.

Children's Medical Opens in Plano-April 08

What a blessing came to Plano early in April. We are lucky to have Children's Medical center open right at Hedgecoxe and Preston Road on the SW corner. They have had offices on the SE corner for quite awhile and those will be occupied by some of the doctors practicing at Children's.

Our children may very well be safer because of this step. So we want to say welcome to the neighborhood!

Linked in How to's

IF any of you saw an earlier blog that I put up about linkedin.com and took my advice to go get linkedin then you might have received an e-mail this week from Zale about how to use this site. I got a kick out of his 7 ways to Get business from Linked in:  http://www.zaletabakman.ca/2007/12/19/seven-ways-to-use-your-linkedin-network/ As all of us could use any more ways to get business, I am sharing this link today for your reading pleasure.

Have a fabulously profitable weekend and share a good idea with us this next week!  Teach a man (or WO MAN) to fish!

Foreclosures in Plano, TX

There are currently as of today 61 properties that are available with a foreclosure classification. These Properties range from 72,000 to 3,442,900.

The 72,000 is a 3/2 with a 2 car gar square ftg is 1335

The 3,442,900 is a 5/5 with a 2 car gar sq ftg is 12,278 

While we're seeing a slight increase in foreclosures it has not dramatically affected sales prices. I just thought it might be fun to see the two extremes in this market.  Please call if you would like to walk either property or the others.

What's going on this week at the Office?

Easy floor plan and Easy to show.  It's had it's face washed this weekend so if you have or are the gardener who wants to live in Frisco, just north of Main street, Don't let the roadwork stop you from seeing this one. GREAT yard. House is nice too! Camfield Frisco, TX 75034

Jeff Crilley came to visit

When one of the TV guys shows up for an office meeting the agents come out in droves! Even top producing agents who may stop by for a bit of lunch while usually on the run to important appointments-sat down to listen to Jeff's comments and join in the giggles.

We had the pleasure of a visit from MR. Jeff Crilley of Channel 4 here in Dallas. He spoke to our office about "How to market using little to no money, on building a recognizable brand and getting attention from the press." That wasn't the real topic but it covers what we learned and what fun we had.  Tom Apligian, one of the owners of RE/MAX Dallas Suburbs joined in the experience and learned that he and Jeff had community in common, both are Michigan natives and while they didn't remember each other growing up they enjoyed sharing rememberances of the area and their time near Detroit.

Jeff brought things to make us laugh at ourselves and others, He brought things to open our eyes about the real impact of "Branding", he even made us blow some bubbles to teach us to understand how a press room really works. When was the last time you were offered a PEZ candy? See Tom above holding the huge PEZ dispensor? Luckily he has an excellent sense of humor as he was drafted into the presentation immediately.

This entertaining and thought provoking presentation is a must see for agents wanting to have impact in a powerful way for their products and Brand.  While Jeff speaks for FREE he has written a powerful book and offers it almost reluctantly at an incredible price of $10.00 and for those of us who wish we could read even in the car there is a companion CD for another $10.00. For REALTORS used to paying much, much more for quality content this was a true value and enjoyed by all who attended the 2 hour TX-MCE qualified presentation.  I want to share that he does enjoy travel so for any of you agents out there who would like to really know what you have to do to get some attention from the media (Also known as FREE advertising) Click on Jeff's name above and see what you too can arrange! While Jeff will speak for free if you are asking him to travel-perhaps some tickets and a room would be happily accepted!

Collin County Foreclosure Tours

If you are considering a home purchase this spring, why not let us help. There are over 200 Houses that are under $200,000 in Collin county that are going through the foreclosure process.   199,900  4/4 2 car garage

Many of these homes are in good condition; they are simply houses whose owners have hit a crisis point and now these houses are looking for new owners that can and will give them the care a home needs. If you are one of those people who are hoping to find a house that needs a homeowner's care-give me a call. 972-208-9200 or send me an e-mail: Doris@DorisBarnett.com.    3/3  138,900

Let us first get you qualified, that increases your negotiating position and gets you some pull in the buying process. Then we will help with pricing point information, so that you can buy at the right price for a particular area. We do scientific CMAs and that is a feature that we offer to the clients of this company. A scientific CMA follows very specific guidelines and commonly hits the price on the nailhead with which the appraiser will agree when the time comes. Remember as a buyer, a lender will first approve you for the loan and then they will require an appraisal to approve the property that you wish to buy.

Start your spring in a new home, locations are good, prices are better and rates are still dropping. Why wait to start building your wealth? The National Association of REALTORS says that most homebuyers use their homes to help build their wealth and buying smarter gets you started with some equity at the start.

Rainy Day work

When it's gray and gloomy outside so many of us try to stay inside. We are having a couldburst kind of day today in North Texas and the best thing about it is the flowers are just rejoicing! We have petunias in front of the office that are dancing in the rain! It's funny to watch them kind of wiggle everytime a raindrop finds a petal.

What are you doing for your rainy day? It seems that this same cloud is almost covering the entire country right now and while I know we will have some really incredible flowers by the end of this month. We have daffodils already. I am thinking about my end of the month and how I can best spend today so that I have a sunny face about then, too.

I have one buyer looking for a daycare business up to 2 million dollars. whoeee Found a building but learned today that it was just used for that purpose not as a business at this time. Drat!

I have a seller who was anxious to sell her 3/2 with almost a half acre of land and then decided to lease it. Drat again. I am following my servant heart but, hello out there. I could use one deal this month!

I did an open house this last weekend and the seller offered me an extra $1500 to FIND A BUYER! Ok anyone got a big shovel! I think I'm going to have to dig one up!

My open houses this weekend were spent catching up on paperwork and watching HGTV. I have some excellent ideas for home improvement. No one was visiting on Palm Sunday. Seller is itchy, not my listing, just helping a friend who really needed time with family.

Now I am not moaning at all-just a recording of the facts-I'm one of those glass half full kind of people and I know that sometimes you do have to get out the shovel and plan some Rumplestiltskin work-spinning straw into gold- so I'm busy today with some planning efforts. 

• Find another daycare center-operating one this time!
• Pull some under average market priced homes and then set some contact plans in place.
• Choose new properties for open houses and plan to announce them better.
• If I had a bus I'd be doing foreclosure tours after the buyers were qualified of course.
• Those small corragated signs can be done up for about $10.00 or less if you do them in quantity.

Heh the good news is-with the weather this way I can put off cleaning the inside of the car until tommorrow morning! No one wants to look at property today! I've been wet all the way through but, it has been a really productive day. Sometimes the rain is important for our growth, too! Have a big glass of water but, remember to leave it "half full!"

I found an old Friend this week!

I still have one missing but, this was so exciting to just be fooling around on my "linkedin.com" searches and run across an old buddy from the "cellular days"_those were the 1980's for me. She is still out there doing it and here I am settled into a new, after 18 years, not so new business! It is fun though to re-find people that were once so important to my life. We had dealt almost daily on the phone together for awhile while I was still in Chicago and it was a nice surprise to find her name and contact information in the linked in website. By the way for those of you who are looking for a way to find old contacts that is a good place to start. Go to www.linkedin.com and join for free, then search for old business connections and even old friends. Perhaps they would be willing to send you business even today. Sometimes I think the best friends we have ever made are those we made in our early years. So if you like the idea, try that site and then try one called www.fastpitch.com both work the same. I have done more with linked in but like the structure of fastpitch!  If you have others I'd love it if you would share them! 

There is still one friend her name was Luanne India, from Medinah, IL in the early 70's. She will remember Doris if she ever hear's that I am still thinking about her silliness after all of these years. Some people bring rain to your life some bring the sun. The sunny ones stay in your heart! Enjoy!