Sample Post Styles for Real Estate Bloggers

Fishing for Listings: Casting a Post Line

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:30:18 -0500

Reading here on the blogs created by users on this particular site, I've noticed several key things.

First, that people are really willing to go the extra mile to devote the time and effort to reach out through the international Internet community, and we are all casting our nets wide to the web (as far as we can dream, our connections and articles can go).

Second, I've noticed that attitude (a willingness to embrace the process of creating discussions and sharing our ideas on life, business, and marketing) plays the biggest part in how well advertising things online is going to go. People who post--going above and beyond the norm to keep in touch with a tech savvy community--have higher traffic on their websites. They have a greater recognition rate in their community. They win the prize for being the biggest catch wherever they go. [I know that guy... and she's the one who... aren't you in real estate? I'm not ready to sell yet, but in a few days, weeks, months, years I'm going to call you and let you know.]

Now, thinking logically, where does this knowledge leave me? It answers a few questions in ways I really (by using common sense) ought to know.

Does having my name ranked high on my local community page make me a real estate dynamo? Nope. Does it matter if I don't bother to schedule regular time to log in to post? Personally, I think so--because when I remember that the perfect bite might not come today but just when I have settled down for comfortable mid-afternoon snooze some big nibble is going to tug at my line...

Half the fun of fishing is not in the catch--it's in enjoying your time working at the process especially when times are slow.

At that point, when I get that big catch fish story dream house contract closed, I'm going to look back. I plan on being completely grateful for all my time spent enjoying the ride. You see, I fully appreciate all the downtime and relaxation I experience when I am leisurely participating in the process on viral marketing. By keeping motivated and getting to know more and more about my community I am becomming a better agent.

Wherever I am, through exploring and working actively on my education process related to my craft, I am spending all my time getting ready to handle my target. I dream big, knowing that one big multi-million dollar estate property and commercial land contract that needs my marketing services and help... and that I will be able to use my part of the proceeds to make sure everyone in my family has their own place to call home.

So, I check my page rank and I keep following thorugh with posts. Check your page rank. Like cranking the handle on the reel of a rod, our essays bring us each one click closer to having that "trophy" listing we want to own or show.

Moving Up The Line: Watching Your Rank Here At Active Rain in Your Target Community

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 02:53:44 -0500

Have you been checking your points and place rack here at activerain recently?

In the Real Estate and Community Service game, making sure your profile is public and known is critical. In large communities, having people recognize your name and face can be difficult; targeting a neighborhood close to home, it is easier to be known.

I'm a little fish in a little pond, fishing in the great big real estate waters of the DC Metro in Northern Virginia. Though I am well known in certain circles around the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions in my other professional groups, there are very few spots I can go "at large" where I am known by people I don't know.

Put me in my comfort zone, working in and around Ashburn and Brambleton, and someone usually recognizes me or knows about my community service website (that residents are beginning to use to keep in the know about what's going on in and around the town). Pull me out, and I have a long way to go.

I think that's why I like the feature on this site that allows me to see my advertising efforts moving up the line. With each post I make and each article I post, I'm able to work to earn my place in activerain's own internal version of SEO.

Like reeling in a fish, page rank works as my own motivator that keeps me involved and on task with the marketing boat. I throw out a goal like bait for myself (for example, to strive to be in the top 30 of my target area or to surpass another realtor's posting points and rise above). Once I create my article, I've essentially cast and set my own hook.

Advertising (and guerilla marketing), in that sense, is a lot like fishing. You never know what leads you are going to catch. Does not having a guarantee of fish daunt or thwart the fisherman from heading out offshore with fishing gear in tow? No. Is fishing, in and of itself and regardless of a haul, pleasurable? It all depends on your willingness to go.

If you have prepared for a day at sea, you know that the most important part of the experience--and the ONLY way you will have success is if you get off your behind and (again) GO. The only things in your control are preparedness, participation, and attitude.

Now get to work and write that next positive and effective community post!

~~ Kae

New York Times Article Sent By the National Association of Realtors: The Housing Market Crisis is Going International

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:35:04 -0500

Frustratingly interesting evidence of the BANDWAGON Phenomenon.

A few days ago, April 24, 2008 to be exact, the National Association of Realtor newsletter came 'round to my emailbox, and one of the first links to click was to an article published by the New York Times about the housing market bubble expanding internationally. That makes it official, I guess. [When the NAR releases NYT reports, I tend to believe their sources are substantiated and the issue is no longer a headline ploy to sell more subscriptions to the World Weekly News, National Enquirer, or some other Post.]

Not just an American phenomenon anymore, one has to wonder the effects of press theorizing so much about possible negatives that they eventually make the feared outcome come true. Just as a person spreading a vicious lie to contaminate the appearance of a good person's character is effective because even if they can't prove their case, the person will always be held publicly suspect and in question, the media-in their quest to expose a big story-has purposefully and deliberately hammered away at the real estate market to no good end.

At some point, we hope the media will accept some of the accountability for the damage done to the public wealth by so negatively attacking Realtors and the housing market. The New York Times seems to have spearheaded a good portion of the press, and made sure this outcome was unavoidable by allowing their subsidiary papers to publish negative real estate articles front page and center-long before any evidence of a "bubble burst" was even created. Technically, the media has acted like a slanderous bully, only with no one person capable of pointing a "libel" finger, they have flexed their muscles and gotten the outcome they set out to create.

The media wins. Prices have dropped, and families worldwide are feeling the impact of the harm that inflammatory reporting has been doing.

Whatever sells a headline, though. Right? Right?

This article is just my quiet (or not so quiet) opinion and expression of remorseful embarrassment of how the American media reporters and mogul conglomerates have been behaving. If one small person who is a resident of the United States voice matters, to the world-for this and all the other ills created by folks here operating without any forethought or recklessly without regard to the outcome of what 5th amendment rights unchecked are capable of creating, I feel very ashamed and terribly sorry. In my corner of the world, I'm working hard to make sure I publicly express the OTHER side of the story.

Regardless of price point, there are incredible people and phenomenal communities all over the globe. There are families and friends who are good to one another. there are billions of wonderful conscious acts done every day by people. If the media could manage to discover that headlines ought to be more about promoting civilized society and subjective good, while factually and objectively reporting the statistical news and keeping the negatives reported with an ending to the article on how humans could improve, then perhaps rather than causing crashes, panics, and collapse they might actually create a revival of human spirit, community service, and do the entire globe some good.

Before you get upset and feel victimized by the housing market mess, remember-we have the power to diffuse many negitives by the positive community building work we do.

At any rate, read on for more information from the New York Times. However, before spreading more news of sadness, try to also identify in your own mind something about the situation that also brings positive news. What we are witnessing is the slippery slope effect of being able to print whatever we feel like, whenever we want, substantiated or not, and doing so intentionally. Why? To have a group of people somewhere feel powerful and show media prowess by manipulating emotions and consciousness of the masses to create a measurable "look what we did" success. I don't know who in the real estate industry offended the media higher-ups, but it certainly has had a far reaching and difficult to overcome domino effect for the rest of us, not just in the States-but now globally thanks in a huge part to the US press.

Kae Davis, one little Realtor in VA

-sad to see the American press v. NAR wars negatively affect the world

April 14, 2008

Housing Woes in U.S. Spread Around Globe

By MARK LANDLER of the New York Times

DUBLIN - The collapse of the housing bubble in the United States is mutating into a global phenomenon, with real estate prices swooning from the Irish countryside and the Spanish coast to Baltic seaports and even parts of northern India.

This synchronized global slowdown, which has become increasingly stark in recent months, is hobbling economic growth worldwide, affecting not just homes but jobs as well.

In Ireland, Spain, Britain and elsewhere, housing markets that soared over the last decade are falling back to earth. Property analysts predict that some countries, like this one, will face an even more wrenching adjustment than that of the United States, including the possibility that the downturn could become a wholesale collapse.

To some extent, the world's problems are a result of American contagion. As home financing and credit tightens in response to the crisis that began in the subprime mortgage market, analysts worry that other countries could suffer the mortgage defaults and foreclosures that have afflicted California, Florida and other states.

Citing the reverberations of the American housing bust and credit squeeze, the International Monetary Fund last Wednesday cut its forecast for global economic growth this year and warned that the malaise could extend into 2009.

"The problems in the U.S. are being transmitted to Europe," said Michael Ball, professor of urban and property economics at the University of Reading in Britain, who studies housing prices. "What's happening now is an awful lot more grief than we expected."

For countries like Ireland, where prices were even more inflated than in the United States, it has been a painful education, as homeowners learn the American vocabulary of misery.

"We know we're already in negative equity," said Emma Linnane, a 31-year-old university administrator.

She bought a cozy, one-bedroom apartment in the Dublin suburbs with her fiancé, Paul Colgan, in May 2006, at the peak of the market. They paid $575,000 - at least $100,000 more than it would fetch today. "I sometimes get shivers thinking about it," Ms. Linnane said, "but I'll let the reality hit me when I go to sell it."

That reality is spreading. Once-sizzling housing markets in Eastern Europe and the Baltic states are cooling rapidly, as nervous Western Europeans stop buying investment properties in Warsaw, Tallinn, Estonia and other real estate Klondikes.

Further east, in India and southern China, prices are no longer surging. With stock markets down sharply after reaching heady levels, people do not have as much cash to buy property. Sales of apartments in HongKong, a normally hyperactive market, haveslowed recently, with prices for mass-market flats starting to drop.

In New Delhi and other parts of northern India, prices have fallen 20 percent over the last year. Sanjay Dutt, an executive director in the Mumbai office of Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate firm, describes it as an erosion of confidence.

Much of the retrenchment seems to be following the basic law of gravity: what goes up must come down. With low interest rates helping to inflate housing bubbles in many countries, economists said the confluence of falling prices was predictable, if unsettling.

This is not the first housing downturn to cross borders, but its reverberations have been amplified by the integration of financial markets. When faulty American mortgages end up on the books of European banks, the problems of the United States aggravate the world's problems.

Consider Britain, which had one of Europe's most robust housing markets, with less of an oversupply than in Ireland or Spain. Then last summer came the subprime crisis across the Atlantic.

Within two months, mortgage approvals dropped 31 percent, compared with the previous year. And by March, average housing prices had fallen 2.5 percent, the largest monthly decline since 1992.

"The boom in house prices was actually much bigger here than in the U.S.," said Kelvin Davidson, an economist at Capital Economics in London. "If anything, people should be more worried than in the U.S."

Britain has one of the most developed home-financing industries, not far behind that of the United States. The amount of outstanding mortgage debt, as a share of total economic output, is higher there than in the United States, according to a study by the International Monetary Fund.

"The U.K. followed the U.S. into never-never land, pushing mortgages out the door, believing that prices would go up forever," said Allan Saunderson, the managing editor of Property Finance Europe, a newsletter for investors.

Still, the problems in Britain pale next to those of Spain and Ireland. Residential investment accounts for 12 percent of the Irish economy and 9 percent of the Spanish economy, compared with 5 percent in Britain and 4 percent in the United States, according to the I.M.F.

The glut of housing has brought new construction to a standstill, driving up unemployment and dimming the prospects for two of Europe's stellar performers over the last decade.

"We're waking up from the property dream and finding ourselves in a situation where prices are falling in Spain for the first time," said Fernando Encinar, a founder of Idealista.com, a real estate Web site.

In Spain, more than four million homes were built in the last decade, more than in Germany, Britain and France combined. Average house prices tripled in parts of the country, as Spain's torrid economy attracted immigrants and Northern Europeans snapped up holiday homes along the Costa del Sol.

Now, though, thousands of those houses stand empty. The I.M.F. estimates that property is overvalued by more than 15 percent. With mortgages drying up and prices swooning, speculators who once viewed Spanish property as a no-lose proposition are confronting hard reality.

In 2005, Julian Felipe Fernandez bought three small apartments, as an investment, in a huge development being built outside Madrid. He paid 100,000 euros as a deposit for the units, and now he is eager to sell them to avoid having to taking on a costly mortgage. But with the market stalled, Mr. Fernandez's asking price is what he paid for them.

"Three years ago, it looked like I would be able to flip them for a nice profit before they were finished," he said. "I just want to get them off my hands, to get rid of this headache."

If he unloads them, he will be lucky. Enric Bueno, head of marketing for Ibusa, a real estate company in Barcelona, said his firm was closing six or seven sales a month, compared with40 a month a year ago.

"Things are really bad," Mr. Buenosaid. "If this goes on for five years, we won't make it."

Economists have been busy cutting their growthforecasts for Spain, with a few saying that it may stagnate this summer. BBVA, a leading Spanish bank, forecasts that unemployment will rise to an average of 11 percent this year, from 8.6 percent in 2007.

Such cutbacks are well under way in Ireland, where the taxi drivers complain that their ranks are being swollen by laid-off home builders. The housing collapse has brought an abrupt end to more than a decade of pell-mell growth that earned Ireland the nickname "the Celtic tiger."

Today, the mood in this country feels like a wake, and not an Irish one. Average house prices fell 7 percent last year, the most in Europe, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a British real estate group. They are likely to fall by a similar amount this year.

After a 16-year boom that was interrupted only briefly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Ireland has the most overvalued housing market among developed countries, according to the I.M.F. In its recent economic outlook, the fund calculated that prices are 30 percent higher than they should be, given Ireland's economic fundamentals.

For many Irish, accepting that reality is like passing through the seven stages of grief. Some homeowners are still in denial, brokers said, asking $5 million for houses worth no more than $4 million. But developers have begun cutting prices for smaller apartments like the one owned by Emma Linnane.

"Last year was our ‘wake up in the middle of the night with sweat pouring down your face' period," said David Bewley, a director at the Lisney real estate agency. "Now we've grown up."

Not all the omens are negative. Mr. Bewley said houses were selling again, albeit for 25 percent less. Ireland has not yet suffered widespread incidences of defaulting mortgages or foreclosures in this downturn, in part because lenders havenot been as aggressive as those in the United States.

But some worry that the housing meltdown could spoil Ireland's recipe for success. Like Spain, it attracted lots of foreign workers, many of whom came for well-paying jobs in the construction industry. That fueled the Irish rental market, which has remained buoyant and been a source of income for Ireland's many real estate speculators.

"If the immigrants go back home, will this hurt the rental market?" asked Ronan O'Driscoll, a director in the Dublin office of Savills, a real estate firm. "If that happens, it would definitely cause foreclosures."

Reporting was contributed by Victoria Burnett in Madrid, Eamon Quinn in Dublin, Heather Timmons in New Delhi and Julia Werdigier in London.

Blogging on the GO? Join TWITTER for Social Network MOBILE TEXT UPDATES

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 23:59:44 -0600

Okay... it's getting late in the afternoon and you are still on the go. Running between appointments and office duty, picking up the kids from soccer practice after school, waiting endlessly in the bank drive through. What about your blog promotion? Have your thought about following through with your SEO placement maintenance for the day--followed up with your Internet network connections--checked off your Internet To-DO list?

When you find yourself at home with 10 extra minutes, wisit Visit http://www.twitter.com/and sign up your profile. Link your account with your mobile phone. Later, when you find yourself in the car waiting for an appointment to show up or you catch yourself standing in that long grocery line, you can text your mini-blog update to Twitter. I can't promise it is the greatest marketing site or that it is intended for real estate professionals (it is not). However, I can say it will keep your name and main site address rolling around the virtual plains like a tumbleweed blowing in the wind.

Twitter is a fun and easy Internet service you can also share with

your tech savvy clients and friends. Have fun with it...

it's also a great place to follow your friends virtually around.

kaedavis playing with my facebook account... missing myspace quite suddenly! laughing that term "IT" is made of straight lines (no learning curves) about 1 hour ago from web

Special Thanks to John Novak for the Heads Up on this One

Requesting Restaurant Reviews for Northern Virginia

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:11:27 -0600

Loudoun County Residents living near Ashburn and Brambleton,

What is your favorite restaurant in the Loudoun Area?

Loudoun County or Fairfax County

I'm putting together a community service restaurant guide for the residents of our Dulles Technology Corridor area and would like to promote the fantastic businesses and restaurants of our area.

Where do you like to go for Breakfast? How about Sunday Brunch? Where do you meet for lunch? How about happy hour or an early dinner? What about casual dining versus fine dining? Do you venture out for snacks or that perfect late night bite? Are you a restaurant owner in our area interested in catering for local businesses?

Drop me a line at kaedavis@gmail.com or answer right here at Active Rain. If you have a recommendation on what to order and where to go, I'll head over. If we have the same great experience, I'll be happy to do a press promo of your favorite place-and add a thank you link to your business for you if you would like!

Thanks in advance to all residents of Northern Virginia for your participation,

Kae Davis
www.everythingashburn.com

Brambleton Community Market Watch: 4th Quarter Summary Report 2007

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:13:57 -0600

BRAMBLETON Community Market Watch "Blog Report" by Coldwell Banker Agent Kae Davis (edit/delete)

Brambleton SOLD: 4th Quarter 2007 CMA Statistics

Residential CMA Statistics from Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc

and

Kae Davis, Licensed Virginia Real Estate Sales and Service Provider

SOLD IN BRAMBELTON (ZIP CODE 20148): 22 LISTINGS 09/01/2007-12/31/2007

Average List Price: $ 470,112.00
~ Average Sold Price: $ 459,617
Median List Price: $ 456,685.00
~ Median Sold Price: $ 440,825
Low List Price: $ 293,990.00
~ Low Sold Price: $ 275,000
High List Price: $ 717,116.00
~ High Sold Price: $ 717,116

Please note the following prevailing market factors and considerations when considering selling our buying your home in Brambleton of Ashburn, Virginia in Loudoun County...

The average number of days on the market for AVERAGE homes in Brambleton was 31.

The median number of days on market for each sold listing in Brambleton during this quarter was 20.

The fastest sale of a Brambleton home during this time period was 0 days (1).

The home sold at the highest price was listed at $ 717,116.00. It was sold for 100% of the listing price. The sale amount was reduced by a $295,000 subsidy, resulting in a net price of $ 422,116.00. The property was listed on the market with the selling agent for 180+ days.

The average net sales price awarded to a Brambleton seller was $433,562.96.

Copyright (c) 2008 Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc. Information is believed to be accurate, but should not be relied upon without verification. Accuracy of square footage, lot size and other information is not guaranteed. COMPETITIVE MARKET ANALYSIS DISCLOSURE: This analysis is not an appraisal. It is intended only for the purpose of assisting buyers or sellers or prospective buyers or sellers in deciding the listing, offering or sale price of the real property.

Market Watch Report Courtesy of: Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Ashburn Dulles

Websites: http://www.everythingashburn.com/

Email: connectionsprep@gmail.com

LinkedIN has made their site more user friendly!

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:39:54 -0600

Are you a member of LinkedIN? If not, then you should be--and here is one more great reason why. Linked IN has just launched a more user friendly website. If you struggled with their old page, visit their site again. They are looking for feedback right now on how you like their new networking website platform.

With the value of social websites rising for professionals everywhere (real estate professionals especially), LinkedIN.com is a great tool to get you going.

If you have read this blog and agree that Internet Marketing can be a valuable connection tool to promote global professional "IRL" (in real life) friendships, feel free to add me as a friend on LinkedIN.

You can request to add a profile as a network connection by entering their name and a person's email [Kae Davis kaedavis@gmail.com] or head right to view them.

My profile link (as an expample) is www.linkedin.com/in/kaedavis . I'm a licensed VA real estate professional in the DC Metro Region. I'm happy to be working in the Dulles Technology Corridor, and am very pleased to be working actively with friends and neighbors in my community through my services Internet Marketing. Nice to meet you--and I'll look forward to hearing from you by email or through LinkedIN!

Cheers,

Kae Davis, Licensed Virginia Real Estate Agent

www.cbmove.com/Kae.Davis

kaedavis@gmail.com

Who is your TARGET MARKET: Readability Statistics Link Measures Your Blog Word Power

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 02:03:46 -0600

Who is your target market?

What is your area's prevailing demographics?

Who do you expect to read your blog--and who do you hope will bypass it?

WRITE TO YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE.

Anything else, and you are wasting Internet breath.

Cheers,

www.cbmove.com/Kae.Davis ~ http://www.everythingashburn.com/ ~ http://www.playingintraffic.wordpress.org/

The Christmas Pickle

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 21:36:45 -0600

Are you looking for a great little holiday history story to share with your clients by email or on your local community service blog? Here's a great little bit of christmas tradition trivia I came acorss an thought I would share. I came across it and wondered how many people on Active Rain have a "Christmas Pickle" as part of their annual decorating scheme this time of year? I know we have always enjoyed the tradition--but had know idea it may have been rooted in the German part of our ancestry!!! I posted it to my local blog with a similar question to my neighborhood area.

Special thanks to the article's author. To find out more about the Christmas pickle or other holiday folklore, please visit http://mymerrychristmas.com/2005/pf/pickle.html. Read on, and cheers for safe and happy holiday travels, and may the elves bring all good things your way!

Kae

www.cbmove.com/Kae.Davis

Printed Courtesy of My Merry Christmas.com

The Christmas Pickle
By B. Frnacis Morlan

It is a quaint tradition that nobody wants to claim. And its story would not be the first tradition of Christmas born of a total fabrication. It is the little-known tradition of the Christmas pickle.

The Christmas pickle is not really a pickle at all. It is a pickle-shaped ornament that is the last one hung on the tree on Christmas Eve. The first child to find the Christmas pickle gets an extra gift from Saint Nicholas. Or so the so-called legend goes.

There are two other versions of the origins of the Christmas pickle. One is a family story of a Bavarian-born ancestor who fought in the American Civil War. A prisoner in poor health and starving, he begged a guard for just one pickle before he died. The guard took pity on him and found a pickle for him. The pickle by the grace of God gave him the mental and physical strength to live on.

The other, perpetuated in Berrien Springs, MI, is a medieval tale of two Spanish boys traveling home from boarding school for the holidays. When they stopped at an inn for the night, the innkeeper, a mean and evil man, stuffed the boys into a pickle barrel. That evening, St. Nicholas stopped at the same inn, became aware of the boys' plight, tapped the pickle barrel with his staff, and the boys were magically freed.

Berrien Springs calls itself the Christmas Pickle Capital of the World. They celebrate with an annual Christmas Pickle Festival held during the early part of December. A parade, led by the Grand Dillmeister who passes out fresh pickles along the parade route, is the featured event. You may even purchase the German glass pickle ornaments at the town's museum.

Rumor and speculation place the origin of this tradition in Germany. However few in modern-day Germany recognize or have even heard of the Christmas pickle. Some in West Germany blame generations of East Germans who may have had nothing more than pickles to decorate their Christmas trees with after World War II. But even families and historians in East Germany shrug at the mention of the Christmas pickle tradition.

Regardless of where it came from, the Christmas tradition survives. Ornament manufacturers continue to make the specialty decoration and enjoy perpetuating the myth of its legendary origins -- false though they may be.

© 1989-2005 by The Merry Network, All Rights Reserved. Printed from My Merry Christmas.com. This article may be reproduced free of charge in its entirety only as long as this notice remains intact with due credit given to the author and My Merry Christmas. Kindly notify us of how and where this article is used so that we can link to your site or publication.

BEYOND GOOGLE: Are you curious about the effectiveness of SEO?

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:21:56 -0600

Hello Everyone!

Are you curious how effective your search engine optimization has been on various sites beyond GOOGLE? Visit http://www.dogpile.com/ and type in your name or keywords. What you will find is a compendium of listings, including search engine result titles that indicate who reported your term to them. It is very user friendly, and will give you an idea about where your information turns up all over the net.

Here is an example. My name, Kae Davis, entered into http://www.dogpile.com/search returns the following items. I've included the top 20 here, but you can see I have not yet focused on improving my key words for multiple search engines. I've also indicated where the resultes are mine:

1. Search for People Online. Access Info Search People Name. Free People Search. Find Email Address. Affiliate. Sponsored by: search-for-people-online.com [Found on Ads by Yahoo!]

MINE 2. Play in Traffic with Jack Davis Kae Davis, www.activerain.com/KaeDavis, is also a proud. member of the ActiveRain Real Estate Network,. a free online community to ... www.ferrarifans.org/ [Found on Google, Yahoo! Search, Ask.com]

3. Obituary: Edwin A. Davis Deseret News (Salt Lake City) - Find Articles He is survived by his two children: Sharon Day and Rikk (Kae) Davis; five grandchildren: Jodie, Kellie, Todd, Tysson and Zane; nine great grandchildren; ... findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20031204/... [Found on Google, Ask.com]

4. Lake Davis Fast & Easy Mortgage Refinancing. Get Free Quotes. Bad Credit OK. Sponsored by: www.MortgageOfferings.com [Found on Ads by Yahoo!]

5. http://www.dogpile.com/clickserver/_iceUrlFlag=1?rawURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwzuy.ask.com%2Fr%3Ft%3Dp%26d%3Dsynus%26s%3Ddpl%26c%3Ddp%26l%3Ddir%26o%3D0%26sv%3D0a300583%26ip%3D47a33a1d%26id%3D1B705FD7E670B1F898F66C8EE63DBF95%26q%3Dkae%2Bdavis%26p%3D1%26qs%3D121%26ac%3D24%26g%3D308bZekDBmVRPf%26en%3Dte%26io%3D0%26b%3Dalg%26tp%3Dd%26ec%3D10%26pt%3DKae%2BDavis%2527%2BAds%2Bfor%2BNew%2BZealand%2B%2540%2BKae%2527s%2BAdpost%26ex%3D%26u%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fkaedavis.myadpost.com%2F&0=&1=0&4=204.9.89.53&5=71.163.58.29&9=54b63303e80b48a5befaa551de42c801&10=1&11=info.dogpl&13=search&14=264870&15=main-title&17=5&18=1&19=0&20=2&21=3&22=VoIp14DXL64%3D&23=0&40=Dt92x490sYQRpby1hbvneg%3D%3D&_IceUrl=trueKae Davis' Ads for New Zealand @ Kae's Adpost: Kae Davis' Ads for New Zealand with more than 1,000,000+ members & 1,000,000+ ads globally - free ads... kaedavis.myadpost.com/ [Found on Ask.com]

MINE 6. Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage - Agent Profile Kae Davis is A DEDICATED SERVICE PROFESSIONAL helping to strengthen our local, national and international community. A committed and loyal advocate for her ... www.cbmove.com/Kae.Davis [Found on Google]

7. Find Kate Davis - $9.95 Get current information on this person instantly. Sponsored by: www.peoplefinders.com [Found on Ads by Yahoo!]

MINE 8. Kae Davis (Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage) - Real Estate Agent - Ashburn, V... ActiveRain real estate profile for Kae Davis (Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage) a Real Estate Agent in Ashburn, Loudoun County, Virginia activerain.com/kaedavis [Found on Yahoo! Search]

REFERENCE TO ME IN THEIR NEWSLETTER 9. Ferrari Maserati Lamborghini of Washington www.lwash.com/ [Found on Yahoo! Search]

10. KAE Kevin is licensed in Oregon. ... Davis Rothwell Earle & XÃ³chihua P.C. www.davisrothwell.com/kae.html [Found on Ask.com]

MINE 11. Real estate blog entries tagged with marketing by Kae Davis ... All the blog entries on the ActiveRain Real Estate Network tagged with marketing by Kae Davis (Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage) activerain.com/blogs/kaedavis/tags/marketing [Found on Google]

MINE 12. Kae Davis (Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage) - Real Estate Trainer - Bramblet... ActiveRain real estate profile for Kae Davis (Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage) a Real Estate Trainer in Brambleton, Loudoun County, Virginia activerain.com/cbtechpundit [Found on Yahoo! Search]

13. kae davis Links relating to kae davis Sponsored by: www.toseeka.org [Found on Ads by Ask.com]

MINE 14. Real Estate Blog - Happy Holidays from the Davis Family Elves This elfin' greeting brought to you by OfficeMax® and the Davis Family. I hope your family has as much fun with it as we have been. Cheers! Kae Davis ... activerain.com/blogsview/308022/Happy-Holidays-fro... [Found on Google]

15. Chenoweth: [WILLIAM] Isaac of Berkeley Co., VA 12 Camilia Joan Davis .................. 12 Kevin Michael Davis .................. 12 Jesse Darin Davis ............... www.chenowethsite.com/ch7wi.htm [Found on Ask.com]

MINE 16. northern virginia « Brambleton Community Market Guide OR Contact Kae Davis, Licensed VA Real Estate Agent, to arrange a pick up in .... Kae Davis can help you find the best local Brambleton and Ashburn… ... brambletonbuzz.wordpress.com/category/northern-vir... [Found on Google]

17. "Obituary: Edwin A. Davis" Deseret News (Salt Lake City) 12/2003 - Obituary: Edwin A. Davis - Credit Card required for Free Trial. Get articles from 3,000 newspapers, magazines and journals at HighBeam.com www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-7127956.html [Found on Yahoo! Search]

MINE 18. A Brambleton ~ Ashburn Lifestyle ~ Community Service Guide ... Kae Davis is a proud member of the. ActiveRain Real Estate Network, a ... www.cbmove.com/Kae.Davis directly. for free Multiple Listing Service ... brambletonbuzz.wordpress.com/ [Found on Google]

19. MySpace.com - Karin ~ KAE Makeup ~ Makeup Artist - 97 - Female - Kansas City, Los ... MySpace profile for Karin ~ KAE Makeup ~ Makeup Artist with pictures, videos, ... McCall editor, Michelle Taylor fashion stylist, and Alyssa Davis hair stylist. ... www.myspace.com/karinkaemakeup [Found on Yahoo! Search]

20. For a Full Breakdown of where and When you can see Kate Davis. Sponsored by: www.LocateTV.com [Found on Ads by Yahoo!]

Now... with a ratio of only 9/20, obviously I am not very happy with myself and my Internet marketing. In a perfect SEO world, my name would come up more than 80% of the time in the top 10, 70% of the time in the top 20, and 60% of the top 30. What this tells me about the health of my Internet presence is that my key words have the flu (cough cough). I need to get busy this next few months making them healthy for more search engines other than Google so that any time someone is searching for me in the business, there will be a trail of Internet bread crumbs that lead back to find me. With the high tech power of Coldwell Banker behind me to help promote and share my listings, it is up to me to stay on top of the maintenance of my Internet presence to help my clients both contact me and get to know me as a member of the Southeastern United States community.

Cheers, everybody! Hope you are all safe, warm, prosperous, selling real estate, and happy.

Kae Davis

www.cbmove.com/Kae.Davis ~ http://www.playintraffic.wordpress.com/ ~ http://www.everythingashburn.com/

Happy Holidays from the Davis Family Elves

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 00:35:08 -0600

How do you keep the christmas spirit alive and pass it around? We are going to be traveling for the holidays shortly, so I'm busy finding fun ways to keep in touch with my sphere of influence via internet while I am gone. Counting down to Christmas and New Years, here is another fun way to send a personalized christmas greeting to your family, friends, and clients. Check it out by clicking the link below. It's the cutest holiday gimmick I have found all season long, as it inspires child-like wonder and laughter from everyone.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1416226320

This elfin' greeting brought to you by OfficeMax® and the Davis Family. I hope your family has as much fun with it as we have been.

Cheers!

Kae Davis

Business Plans: Include Personal Commitments

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 23:34:07 -0600

I love this time of year because it really allows you to knuckle down and reflect realistically at what you have done and how you have grown, while still focusing peripherally to broadcast ground for the garden of your dreams.

I'm happily planning well into 2010 with the steps I am taking now. I'm going beyond that, too... but that's for my family daybook post. 2005 until today I've done what I needed to accomplish. For 2008 and 2009 I am ready to roll.
I've spent the least two years getting familiar with forum life, and I'm devoting the next three years EASILY to searching out the most effective Internet community resources that are functional nationally, in the Mid-Atlantic [DC] and Southeast regions, and throughout Florida.
I'm committing myself to work with agents I like; I am happy to grow my business through people I know. I'm also dedicating a large portion of my daily time to give back to the different Southeast communities and regional people that I love and know.
If you have ever heard the expression, "Make hay while the sun shines" and the market is slow, turn your down time into educational opportunities and to get more comfortable with the rapidly changing tech market. It's my plan, certainly. Educate, investigate, enervate.
I will recommend people, I will promote Good Will, and I refuse to fall victim to negative emotions in declining marketplaces. I will develop empathy and never define a negative without offering a constructive solution--regardless of origin of industry or profession.
I will protect my clients interest while maintaining the ethics of professionalism and the traditions of exceptional customer service.

Keeping my eyes on the targets and taking one step every day toward reaching goals is the only sure way for me to cultivate a positive, stress free lifestyle. I endeavor, and because of my intent, I can look in the mirror every day I know that who I am is good as gold.

Agents, who are you? What is your ideological lifestyle dream? Are you focused on the numbers more than who you are as a person--forgetting what you have done or need to do to grow yourself? In a world so often tainted by greed, incompetence, and malice--are you the kind of person you would like to know? If you hold up a mirror, does it tell you all you need to know?

Just rhetorical food for thought questions to share with New Years resolutions fast approaching.

Regards, everyone... Happy Holidays and BLESSINGS for a prosperous new year.

Kae Davis

www.cbmove.com/Kae.Davis

"NASA" Real Estate Market: Print Advertising Phases Waxing and Waning While the Internet is Taking Us Straight to the Moon

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 23:47:16 -0600

THE AGE OF PRINT ADS DOMINATING THE REAL ESTATE MARKETPLACE IS WANING

Print advertising has gone cloudy and stale, as has blind advertising. Beyond that statistically proven objective evidence, I truly believe subjectively that the happiest and most successful agents are actively involved in their community. Referrals come when people know you are the kind of person who genuinely cares about other people's needs--and that you are the kind of person who they can rely on for consistent performance and quality service. Attending brokers opens might not get you the next sale, but it is a great way to getting to know your area homes and to interact with fellow agents. Hosting open houses helps you meet new buyers in your area, and allows you the opportunity to get better sense on buyers takes on property values, buying motivations, and sales killers. The Internet allows you to interact with the well educated of our community from luxury of your laptop home. As such, being a part of your community includes making your niche market web presence known.

INTERNET PORTALS ARE WAXING

Advertising in our area has dramatically changed in the last two years, with printing costs easily escalating over 300% of where they should be, paper ads are statistically producing incrementally smaller and smaller returns. Only a few short years ago, agents relied on print ads to make them money. Now, their advertising dollars are going to waste unless they are lifestyle marketing (making sure the company name is known and giving portal contacts to information on specific properties). With so many great tools like Active Rain at our disposal to connect real estate agents to clients and other industry professional over the Internet, the tech savvy Realtor is ideally placed in the global market.Factor in the portability of Internet ads and the eco-value, and you have yourself a safer, environment friendly marketing medium that utilizes search features to cater to a local market while allowing content to touch worldwide homes.

80% FULL CYBER-MOON

In 2007, over 80% of home buyers and sellers utilized the internet to find properties or research area comparables. If you or your company is not aggressively working the web, you are letting your business slip by; invest in http://www.superpages.com/rather than a print phone book and sign with a company that gives you and your business ample Internet support. The longer you have been in and around the real estate market and observing from an analytical business perspective, the more you realize phases, like the waxing and waning of the moon, happen in the global marketplace. I had a call just yesterday from someone asking me to contribute to their Christmas fund buy buying a print pack that would go to only 4500 homes for the low, low cost of 500+ per month with a 2 year contract commitment. DON'T BE DUPED INTO BUYING LARGE PRINT CONTRACTS DURING THIS CHANGING MARKET; don't let the sales pitches of slick schiester advertisers try to con you out of your money; use what the gods and muses of the Internet have made available to you.

REAL ESTATE AGENTS STAR GAZING

With a cyber-moon on the rise, there is little time before old school grounded agents will be left in the technological dark ages.To be a rising real estate star, post those blogs, get your profiles up, and spend your face time out and about getting involved with your community.The faster people in various markets and regions get to know you, the stronger you are able to make alliances that will carry us through this metaphoric rise of the Internet moon. Once the blog portals begin to dull (the way the print markets began to fail us 10 years ago), we'll all have to be on the lookout for the next great thing to orbit. Until then, however, agents need to think like astronauts: let your "NASA name" and Active Rain profile help you be known (the Next Advertising Solicitation Avenue).

I want to be the "Man in the Moon" when people use the Internet to search my area for an agent. How about you?

Regards, as always.

Kae Davis

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Ashburn Dulles

www.cbmove.com/Kae.Davis ~ http://www.everythingashburn.com/

GIVE BACK TO YOUR COMMUNITY... HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON

Recycled Retail: Shopping tips for the Eco-Conservative Fashionable Agent

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 13:16:07 -0600

Household industry: I've been buying about 80% "recycled" goods on my wardrobe budget for the past 10 years and I LOVE IT. God bless eBay, I can get professional "new to me" clothes I know will fit comfortably and loose without ever even trying them on... [I always buy stuff that is tailored but really loose for comfort].

By relying on my internet to connect me with goods and services that I want, I have more time at home, more time with my family, save gasoline, cause less pollution, and avoid hefty sales taxes every day of the year--not just on "no tax" back to school days. This works for all retail items, not just clothes. It turns into a giant and amusing game if you play it right.

My mailman hates me for so many packages, but here are my candid buying and holiday gift wishlist tips.

1. Go to stores and find exactly what you want. Take a pic on your camera phone and text email yourself all the specifics of place, brand, price, and size as relevant. Do this for yourself, your spouse, your relatives, and your children. Make windowshopping a treasure hunt adventure.

2. Go home and search eBay listings. It is here you will be most likely to strike gold.

a. If they don't have what you want, set up a watch. EBay will email you if your product is listed.

3. Assuming they have many items you seek, only buy from sellers with 50+ feedbacks, and their seller rate is 98.5% or higher. Go for those with the highest feedback if there is a choice.

4. Before you bid, calculate your bid cost + shipping charges. If you can buy "new" but recycled from eBay for less that you would pay at the store, go for it!

5. Limit your bid to whatever hits at the percentage discount you feel comfortable with under the amount if the item is used. For example, a $100 new cost item that has been worn once you might pay 80%, but one that is washed and in good condition you might expect to get for a 50% discount from the cost of new.

6. TAKE YOUR MEASUREMENTS. Measure yourself, your favorite pair of jeans you already own, your shoe size and width. Save them to a file. Match all clothing auctions to items that are in your size or close enough to be tailored back down to fit you perfectly, or go with shoe brands you know you always buy in a certain size. Stick with brands that run true to size and fit your shape [GAP, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Armani, Versace, Cole Haan]. Tuxedos, ball gowns, and leather goods are great to purchase online from 100% reputable feedback sellers.

7. Remember how much time you used to spend driving to different stores and trying on clothes that looked terrible or didn't fit you? Remember all that sales tax you used to pay? AHA! That is NO MORE. Now, grab your laptop and shop while you watch the tele or just reply to the watch notifications if you don't want to be lulled into buying stuff you never set out to look for...

8. Troll. Not in the sense of trolling like internet flaming, but troll the auctions as if you are fishing from a Troller. Don't be afraid to set your mental purchase budget--say $500 this week. Then, head off to low ball bid on auctions that the shipping totals plus you minimum totals no more than $100. You might bid on thirty things and only win one, or you might win them all--but whatever you get will be a surprise and based on the gamble that the auction you picked might not get any other bids... and you'll be the lucky winner!

9. Don't bid on used shoes without seeing the soles. If someone wears a pair of shoes for a day, they are used. If someone walks to Boston from Cali, they are used, too. Be careful. Purses need to show the inside and the bottom, too. Be leary of items with "creative photography" angles or bigh ticket items without pics of all tags.

10. Use your shopping notes to verify cost of items and be careful to buy authentic goods. Just like you have to be careful at SAM's or COSTCO that they don't rope you into a bad deal, watch for sellers who make you think you are paying for a brand and what you get is not. EBay users guides can help you.

As real estate professionals, it is important to always look our best. Find sellers who offer items in your size and keep them listed into your favorites. Don't be afraid the sell your unworn closet treasures, too.

Best of luck. Shop victoriously!

~ K

PET FRIENDLY RENTALS: FINDING LANDLORDS WHO WILL LOVE ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 17:06:17 -0600

Finding the right rental space for your family often involves more than you and your children. It involves other family members as well: namely, your pets.

What do when you have a dog that requires some running room? A large dog? Two small dogs? A kitty cat? If you are a renter, the possibility of moving inspires dread-because you know how hard it is to find a landlord that will allow animals to be in their investment home. As a Realtor, I have some advice and suggestions about where to turn and what to do if you have pets who are like family members and you need to rent your residence they will think of as home.

1. Hire a licensed real estate professional to assist you in their search. Their services are offered at no cost to you, because they will be compensated by the landlord if there is a successful transaction. SIGN AN AGREEMENT to let a good Realtor help you in your search. They will have more power negotiating with other owners or agents when it comes time to formalize the terms of your lease contract-including negotiating pet clauses.

2. Have current friends, landlords, Realtors who have seen your pets and your present house, and veterinarians write letters of recommendation for your pets regarding their temperaments. With cats, people are typically concerned with litter-box odor and scratch damage. With dogs, noise, yard damage, chewing, and aggression around strangers and children are often the concerns. All home owners are concerned with flea and tick control and carpet cleaning and deodorizing services cost. With those thoughts in mind, have letters written about your pets that demonstrate and awareness of potential negative issues but absolve your pet from having created any of the problems listed.

3. Finally, BE FLEXIBLE. If your ideal and perfect human rental home is going to require you send Sparkey or Tinkerbell to the humane society or local animal shelter, then find way to either shift your requirements or change your parameters. Be willing to offer an additional security deposit. Agree to have carpets cleaned multi-annually rather than yearly. Agree to professional pest sprays of the home, and to repair any lawn or garden damage at your own cost. Visit a local dog park rather than needing a fenced yard on the rental home-or offer to pay the cost to install a fence where to the specifications the local homeowners association will allow.

Where there is a will, the family pet can stay. If you had read my example letter sent to a client earlier this evening, you'd notice that many options for pet lovers exist in Ashburn, Virginia (my home area) [and my personal market watch area BRAMBLETON itself has many units available that consider accepting large dogs as well as small].

If you have a pet and are considering renting out your home, listing your house as pet friendly will help to draw people in; if you are seeking a pet friendly rental, work with an agent who is a pet lover and has actually rented. If you are considering selling your home and have pets in house, list your home with a Realtor who is willing to help service the listing and make accommodations for pet containment while your come is being shown.

Thanks for visiting,

Kae Davis, Pet Friendly Licenced VA Realtor

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Ashburn Dulles

www.cbmove.com/Kae.Davis for more information

SIGNPOST or INTERNET the best advertising bet? Buyers: lay odds.

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 18:44:27 -0600

Which came first--the chicken or the egg? If you had to bet, what would you guess...

Reading a controversial blog at www.ActiveRain.com, I was confronted with a point blank "either or" question. What do people think about advertising and marketing strategies? Do buyers really find property by searching the Internet, or do they see signs first and then head home to look the homes or property up? Honestly, I think that unknown variable it is a sincere and legitimate question: to pose to the present market community--and, as real estate agents, to further take the time to ask various generationally divided buyer groups we encounter.

WHAT IS THE ADVANTAGE OF A SIGN POST IN THE YARD OF A LISTING

In a modern marketplace, with busy commuters hustling and bustling blindly past hundreds of signs on any given commuting day, most people searching turn to the Internet as a condensed portal into the virtual market area in which they desire to buy or reside in a home. However, you can't replace the neighborhood gossip value when any new home "for sale" yard signs swings from a freshly installed post. Talking neighbors are likely to go home and research your listings as an agent, and will also be looking to you to be posting or emailing market watch information about their community homes.

SO THE SIGN HELPS, BUT THE INTERNET SERVES COMMUNITIES "IN THE KNOW"

For a house to sell expediently, ANY agent you work with should be offering personal listing service and extended Internet marketing for every listing. By hiring an agent or team willing to keep pace and follow the pragmatic service miles, you will surely have an advantage over many other home-sellers on the marketplace who rely solely on the manpower of 1940s-1980s real estate sales era techniques to facilitate the sale of a home. Knocking on doors and cold calling as an agent can help you meet people in the short run, but you have to have the long term know how to build your business with you as a resource to sell what you know.

CHICKENS CAN'T KEEP GOING WITHOUT LAYING EGGS ANY MORE THAN REALTOR SIGNS WON'T WORK IN TODAYS MARKET WITHOUT INTERNET HENTRACKS [DIGITAL FOOTPRINTS]

Regardless of the mechanism that ultimately draws the buyers, listing agents must continue to fine new and fresh ways to effectively increase the selling advantages and odds.

Technology is here to stay--and we can no longer deny that more and more each new generation of buyers is coming to rely on the Internet and the convenient services it provides them. However, with our baby boomer generation and their downsizing parents beginning to offer up the bulk of family properties for sale on the present market, we have to remember what day and age we live in as service providers.

Real people still continue to interact in real life, and many people in the 50+ markets, any age new in areas and seeking neighborhoods they might not know, or first time buyers will still still drive through neighborhoods seeking for sale signs in the yards of homes. For that reason, folks, as agents we have to be ready willing and able to provide "dual services" to market both electronically and through our desktop publishing fliers and sign posts.

FINAL CALL: ALL BETS ARE IN NOW

My final bet is that there is no answer that allows me, as a RESPONSIBLE agent, to bypass one side of listing service or the other. A successful agent has to be willing to bypass the question of the most expedient or effective media, and logically focus on improving the selling chances of any property or home. In that sense, both you and your client "hedge your bets", placing you in a much more protected gamble in a selling position during questionably predictable market conditions. To that end, I wholeheartedly recommend all agents educate their clients to think of each Internet ad placement as a metaphoric "double post".

Kindest regards, everyone... don't forget to decorate your signposts this holiday season to share some warmth, and to add a digital wreath or candle to the bottom of your next December post.

Kae Davis, Licensed VA Sales Associate

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Ashburn Dulles

www.activerain.com/KaeDavis

In and Around Brambleton, Ashburn, and Virginia: Store Hours Changes and Shopping for Groceries

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 14:21:21 -0600

This is just a little side note about our local grocery store chain HARRIS TEETER

and their changes for the holiday weekend.

While we are all scrambling to finish up our business details and get out last minute banking in, don't forget to take those few extra steps to get to the stores tonight to get your holiday fixins'.

Here's the little email clip sent by our area store about a holiday hours change. Normally 24hours, Brambletonians have come to rely on the chain being open, and also on their cost saving promotions...

"Weekly Specials: The specials from last week's Thanksgiving Ad will continue to be valid through Thanksgiving Day, when our stores will close at 2:00 pm. Click here to view the specials from that ad. Due to the extended Thanksgiving Ad there will be no advertised specials available from Friday, November 23 to Tuesday, November 27. You can still take advantage of the thousands of items on sale everyday by using your VIC card! Just look for the VIC tag on items throughout the store. Thank you for shopping Harris Teeter!"

Hopefully this reminder will get around VA far enough that everyone, whether shopping Harris Teeter or not, will remember to get to the store well before close.

Happy Turkey prep, everyone... may your birds all come out a lovely and rich dark shade of GOLDEN.

Thought for the Day

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 17:34:32 -0600

"The rain does not fall only on one roof." - Cameroon proverb

Thanks, Active Rain, for giving me this great platform to network with other real estate industry professionals. Members? THANK YOU each and every day for all you do. I am forever grateful for the energy, wisdom pieces, and blog posts you share here.

May it always rain on your parade, if it's activerain for you.

Kindest regards to the global marketplace,

Kae Davis, Licensed Virginia Real Estate Sales Professional

www.cbmove.com/Kae.Davis ~ www.linkedin.com/in/KaeDavis

Got CARS? Exotic Auto Trader is an ACTIVE RAIN Connection!

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 16:51:03 -0600

Car people, you know who you are; you love exotic automobiles; garage space is larger than home space; you might even dust and polish auto chrome more than the knick knacks in your living rooms. Agents, you know when you have a client who collects trophy cars: Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini. What you may NOT have known is how difficult they can be to procure.

HOW MUCH WOULD A CONNECTION IN THE AUTO INDUSTRY BE WORTH TO YOU--IF YOU COULD OFFER THAT INSIDE TRADING CONNECTION TO YOUR MOST AFFLUENT RACING ENTHUSIAST CLIENTS?

Welcome to my world. Highline automotive industry meets premier estate homes. Working from a home base in the Dulles Technology Corridor just a few short miles from Washington D.C., a stone's throw away from historical monuments, bed and breakfasts in rolling green mountains, and nestled into Northern Virginia's wine country, I have an offer for you.

If you have clients who are automotive sport enthusiasts, let me connect them to my husband Jack Davis. Clients can visit his profile at www.linkedin.com/in/JackHDavis. I'm happy to add you here at Active Rain as a network connection. In return, any clients I have in your areas, I will be happy to refer to you as a licensed active real estate professional. If they are visiting DC and would like a local tour of the Loudoun County area, I'll be happy to work a referral from you--and will make sure they get a "Race Shop" tour, too.

By merging our clients service needs for executive marketing, we can all promote our network power and sphere of influence. I'm reaching out to Active Rainmakers because I know I can trust them to represent themselves professionally; by connecting with me, you give yourself one more opening to conversation with upscale clients, and hopefully will be able to "do this favor for them" (connecting them to us but most memorably through you).

We can assist local customers with new Ferraris, Maseratis, and Lamborghini and ship nationally and internationally models that are 2 years old or more. I can also be trusted to give excellent professional real estate tours to shop for executive homes in our beautiful region and to tend to client matters with the utmost of "family professionalism". PLAY IN TRAFFIC.

Keep in touch,

Kae Davis

Licensed Virginia Sales Associate

www.cbmove.com/Kae.Davis ~ www.ferrarifans.org ~ www.linkedin.com/in/KaeDavis

Following through with LINKED-IN

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 13:21:50 -0600

Are you LINKED-IN? Last night I made another terrific connection through Active Rain and was able to introduce my connection to my husband (who is in the exotic car business) through www.linkedin.com/in/JackHDavis .

A small world made even smaller by the advances in Internet technology, I found that the gentleman's wife had also worked in the auto business (which I had, too--she, Lexus, me, BMW). Synchronized, the connection we were able to discover were fun and amazing. For instance, after long, separate careers my new friends married, and as a couple now they work together in the Mortgage business. Like them, my husband and I strive to work together as a professional couple whenever we can. My husband was stationed in Coronado; they are 20 miles north. My husband was a UDT, this man not only knows what this is but plays golf with a whole group of them.

The man I met through Active Rain I was drawn to because of a simple blog post, and what followed is we have grown to know he, his family, and more about his business by visiting Linked-In. Since we have bi-coastal clients with our connection to Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, and car collectors, I can now recommend his company through my Active Rain/ Linked-IN connection. In return, I am not present and visibly available to any of his connections on Linked-In should they be in need of real estate services in the DC Metro Northern Virginia region.

I'm available as a connection through Linked-In as a writing professional, education consultant, car girl, and real estate agent. How about you? Add your profile and visit me at www.linkedin.com/in/KaeDavis . If we have connections, let's link the Active Rain real estate network and make some professional referral associations. As for the man we met, I am happy to give you an introduction to him though my network. I'll give you a hint, though... visit www.mortgagereports.com for more information.

Are you LINKED-IN?

Kindest regards,

Kae Davis, Liscensed VA Sales Professional

www.cbmove.com/Kae.Davis ~ www.ferrarifans.org

www.brambletonbuzz.wordpress.com

www.wordpress.com: Free Blog Tool

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 16:08:23 -0600

Thinking about promoting your community, special interest group, or listing? Check out www.wordpress.com. It's just another great marketing tool at the disposal of the real estate community. With only a few short hours of effort, it's easy to make a professional blog site and do your local area marketplace some good.

Cheers, everybody!

Kae Davis, www.brambletonbuzz.wordpress.com

"Parents: Job Description" FUNNY Thoughts Entering Thanksgiving

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 09:45:35 -0600

Hello all,

This year as we enter the thanksgiving season, we are focusing on giving thanks for being Parents. Having taken a few moments to send out our family prayers for good fortune to our family and friends, I received this great email forward.

With so many working professional parents in real estate, I applaud all of you for taking the time to find positions that allow you the flexibility to tend to your children's needs.

To those with young children--have no fear: it will be the best and most thankless job you have ever done. Someday, they will remember all the wonderful things you have done to care, nurture, and provide discipline for them and they will seek to grant the same gift of protection and guidance to their own children.

To those with teens or those children growing up to be adults, the work you have done is only starting to be repaid to you. You will see all the good you have done come back while you watch the kindness they bestow on others in the world around them every day. As the ages and eras change, you can rest easy knowing it is they who will eventually care for you.

Enjoy.

Kae Davis

PARENT

Job Description

This is hysterical. If it had been presented this way,
I don't believe any of us would have done it!!!!

POSITION :
Mom, Mommy, Mama, Ma
Dad, Daddy, Dada, Pa, Pop

JOB DESCRIPTION :

Long term, team players needed, for challenging permanent work in anoften chaotic environment.
Candidates must possess excellent communication
and organizational skills and be willing to work
variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends
and frequent 24 hour shifts on call.
Some overnight travel required, including trips to
primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless sports tournaments in far away cities!
Travel expenses not reimbursed.
Extensive courier duties also required.

RESPONSIBILITIES :

The rest of your life.
Must be willing to be hated, at least temporarily,
until someone needs $5.
Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly.
Also, must possess the physical stamina of a
pack mule
and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat
in case, this time, the screams from
the backyard are not someone just crying wolf.
Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges,
such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets
and stuck zippers.
Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars and
coordinate production of multiple homework projects.
Must have ability to plan and organize social gatherings
for clients of all ages and mental outlooks.
Must be willing to be indispensable one minute,
an embarrassment the next.
Must handle assembly and product safety testing of a
half million cheap, plastic toys, and battery operated devices.
Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.
Must assume final, complete accountability for
the quality of the end product.
Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and
janitorial work throughout the facility.

POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT & PROMOTION :

None.
Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills,
so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE :

None required unfortunately.
On-the-job training offered on a continually exhausting basis.

WAGES AND COMPENSATION :

Get this! You pay them!
Offering frequent raises and bonuses.
A balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because
of the assumption that college will help them
become financially independent.
When you die, you give them whatever is left.
The oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that
you actually enjoy it and wish you could only do more.

BENEFITS :

While no health or dental insurance, no pension,
no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays and
no stock options are offered;
this job supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth, unconditional love,
and free hugs and kisses for life if you play your cards right.

Forward this on to all the PARENTS you know, in appreciation for everything they do on a daily basis,
letting them know they are appreciated for the fabulous job they do...or forward with love
to anyone thinking of applying for the job.

** AND A FOOTNOTE ?
THERE IS NO RETIREMENT -- EVER!!! **
If you are fortunate enough you will become grandparents--but Hopefully NOT TOO SOON!

Grass Roots Community Efforts WORK: Overcoming Negative Perceptions of Market Areas or Slow Conditions

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 16:24:02 -0600

Hello friends!

I was cruising the internet today and looking up information about my local area. As you all know, I am right outside DC in Northern Virginia. I am fortunate enough to live in and work around a wonderful newly developing town called Ashburn. In that, I am happy to be directly involved with many of our local neighborhood communities, including one of my favorites: a place called BRAMBLETON.

The blog spot I found at brambleton.wordpress.com had a post by the writer "brambleton". To my chagrin and surprise the writer publicly said,

"I wonder how Brambleton developer would like to categorize or promote shopping center as. Some how, it is not visualized to be an attractive destination. In fact, shops are not even similar to a strip mall where you would typically find nails, party or lower end decorative shops, etc. On the other hand, there are a few specialty shops and are not meant to attract masses. Barnes & Nobles delayed their presence by a year or more. Here is an interactive map of what is expected soon, all shops in phase I are on the right frame of this page: Brambleton Shops. Posted in 20148, brambleton, commercial, shops |
Response: No Comments"

Now, my first though on reading the post was whoever wrote that must be disillusioned with the present market conditions. It occurred to me that if they had built early enough in Brambleton's history or had purchased in late summer or fall of 2005 before the market dropped, that the tedious but steady progress made by the Brambleton Town Center to complete their ambitious project has frustrated them. However, this type of caustic post, rooted in discontent, DOES NOTHING TO BENEFIT THEM.

The blogger "brambleton", just as we all are, is probably less angry and more anxious to see the plaza become a HUGE success for probably one undisclosed yet fundamentally important reason. Once the Brambleton Town Center Shopping Plaza features and related amenities are finished, they will undoubtedly increase property values for all homes in our Ashburn area. Moreover, a thriving commercial use venue so close to home will most directly positively affect all the current property owners in Brambleton. To those ends, I agree that the property agents placing business in Brambleton must be incredibly careful to select those restaurants, shops, and retail establishments that will draw business to our area—but also to keep in mind that the store they approve ought to be tailored to benefit primary use by our residents.

The discrepancy, then, comes into play when you think about the benefit of “brambleton” posting blog commentary that specifically damages or disregards the truth about our Brambleton lifestyle or current market situation. Representing Brambleton to the world (and ultimately suggesting the tone and tenor of all Ashburn and Northern Virginia residents), they have negated the positive plan of our area, have done deliberate public harm to our retailers, and have set forth their opinions of our marketplace as popular opinion. As ambassadors to the world about Brambleton (by virtue of their self declared web title position), they have essentially cut their own nose of to spite their face by not choosing the words more carefully to aid the developers in improving our collective situation.

To counteract and voice a comment of positive support to Brambleton businesses and residents, I crafted the following response. Whether or not this “freedom of speech” dissenting opinion comment will be approved by their moderation, I’m not certain, but I wanted to share my thoughts here with active rain on what to do when you find a negative opinion floating about damaging the reputation of your client’s markets. Aggressively support positivism. Befriend the people you want to see stay in business—and be loyal patrons. Speak kind words about your neighbors, your neighborhoods, and friends. Don’t be afraid to be objective disseminating information—and be proud to indicate when what you have said is wholly subjective opinion. Please see below, and if you are ever in the area and are interesting in investing, I know a great agent.

Cheers,

Kae Davis, Licensed Virginia Real Estate Agent and Concerned Neighborhood Watch Citizen
Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate Brokerage Ashburn Dulles
44050 Ashburn Shopping Plaza
Suite 163 of the Ashburn Village Shopping Plaza
Ashburn, Virginia 20147
www.cbmove.com/Kae.Davis

COMMENT POSTED IN REPLY TO CRITICISM OF BRAMBLETON TOWN CENTER:

Wow--we love the Brambleton Town center and have such a different perspective.

As the host of a residential shopping plaza, Brambleton residents are utilizing so many of the Brambleton Town center features! Though we are all a bit frustrated with delays building the center and all the new construction along Ryan Road and Loudoun County Parkway is slowing us down, we have access to some pretty wonderful stuff already placed and open.

*Harris Teeter (24 hour, Pharmacy, Floral Department, Bakery, Seafood and Meat, Organic Produce, Sushi Bar, and $0.99 SUBS are the BOMB)
*Caribou Coffee (drive through option, free wireless Internet access, and with some of the best caffeine fixes around)
*Coldstone Creamery (home made ice cream with awesome combinations of mix ins available, staff entertainers, and patio seating)
*My Thai (the most delicious Thai food in Loudoun county, atmosphere or a Washingtonian elite Night spot, best Mojitos in Loudoun)
*Subway (which is everywhere but they sure are handy when you want and easy place to grab a six foot sub for a party crowd)
*California Tortilla (hundred of hot sauce flavor combinations, fresh fast food, and big tables for large groups or families with children)
*Nick's Corner Grill (with an upscale gourmet atmosphere and quiet HUGE screen televisions it's the perfect wife-meets-football place in town, late nights, full bar)
*GO BANANAS Toy Store (absolutely one of the most thrilling educational and retro toy stores, clever "kids pick" toy storage for birthday and holiday selections--keeping everything a surprise because you come back without the children)
*Edible Arrangements (with stylized fresh fruit arrangements that look like floral bouquets, the perfect gifts to send in Brambleton for fun or as treats all over the nation)
*UPS Store (easy package drop off)
*Dry Cleaners
*Hair Cuttery (ask for Wendy or Hannah and bring pictures, great men's barber shop cuts, excellent to keep our growing kids looking well coiffed during all the seasons)
*Nail Salon (Pedicures and Manicures, Massage Chairs-but make an appointment if you want to get in)
*Fox Cinemas (sixteen screen stadium seating with rocking recliner seats in an Art Nouveau setting, hot pizza pretzels sound gross but taste amazing for a different movie tradition treat, frozen cokes for the ideal brain freeze)
*Chevy Chase Bank (yes--they DO have a drive up ATM)
*Leesburg Canine Country Club (a dog friendly Adult Recreation 26 acre area right down the road from us-take Ryan to a right on Evergreen Mills and it is just a hop skip and jump down on the left

Combine these destinations already open with the coming soon attractions and the Brambleton planners really do seem to be making Brambleton a very easy place to live. [Barnes and Nobel, a pain your own pottery location, a chocolate shop, a paper goods store for stationary and whatnots, a Birkenstock shop for those comfortable casual wearing, a specialty closet shop that will help all residents get their storage life happily in order are all coming attractions.] If we just had a "First Watch" and "Sweet Tomatoes" franchises (plus a really nice gas station), it would be an ideal daily living situation. [Did I mention I work with investors and also commercial clients?]

** Please note I regretfully forgot to mention the wonderful place I go most often for Lunch in Brambleton, FROOTS. I'm addicted to their fresh juices, awesome salads and wraps, and their delightful ownership--it is such a friendly establishment!

I will admit to have the Art and Frame store connection be one of our first opened features was a bit off in their use planning, but the owners are such nice and wonderful people that I believe in the long run, once all is said and done, we will have supported their business and the Brambleton Town center will be happy to have them.

Local amenities are everything. If you can't find whatever comfort food, solution product, or specialty item you need, we are so close to the areas other competing plazas (South Riding, Shellhorn Road, Ashburn Village Plaza, Ashburn Commons, the Dulles Town Center, Broadlands, South Walk, the newly building Loudoun Valley Estates, Waxpool Road, Farmwell Road, and the Auto Park by the giant Wegmans and Target Plaza off Pacific Boulevard and the 28 Waxpool fly over exit) that you can BE to what or where you need in under 15 minutes. [Home Depot, Home Goods, Bloom, Giant, Safeway, CVS, Walgreens, 100 more restaurant choices from fast food to four stars, hotel suites, local wineries or bed and breakfasts, Dulles International Airport, the Dulles Greenway (267 Toll Road), whatever.]

Patience is a virtue, and regardless of delays or any perceived aesthetic discontinuity right now while we are under construction Brambleton has a huge set out here of its "Brambletonian Lifestyle" fans. Visit www.brambleton.com for more information or stop by the Visitors Center. One last perk and thumbs up for our specific local area? Brambleton is a neighborhood full of friendly professional and personal friends.

Kindest regards to all Brambletonians,

Kae Davis, Happy Resident

Are you LINKED IN?

Connections Prep (Connections Prep by Davis Enterprises) — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 14:36:25 -0500

Hello everyone! I'm glad to see you here. If you haven't already, add me as a friend here. For additional networking, head on over to "LinkedIn".

I'm looking forward to building a strong and supportive network of professional family and a global network of "Good Will" associations.

Nice to see you, my friends!