Real Estate Zealot

Metro Broker Sandy Trujillo says time is running out on the first time home buyer $8000 tax credit

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:05:39 -0500

DENVER, CO - Time is running out for first time home buyer's to claim the $8,000 tax credit

As the November 30th deadline for the $8000 first time homebuyer tax credit approaches, realtors say people are still waiting to close on their homes. If anyone is looking to buy a home under this program they need to go in prepared with a pre-approved lender letter and be under contract before the last week of October. Sandy Trujillo of Metro Brokers says, "It takes probably about 30 to 45 days to close a transaction. There's issues that come up at times between the inspections, appraisals, underwriting conditions that you can't anticipate and so you need to have a little extra time built in there to make sure that all the details are taken care of." Trujillo has seen an increase in multiple offers on bank-owned and HUD homes and growing interest in the areas outside of Denver. Homes in the $200-299,000 price range such as in Aurora are great buys right now. The National Association of Realtors is working adamently with Congress to get the program extended but Trujillo says if they do extend it, there is no saying how long it will take. News of any extension could be delayed as close to the Nov. 30 deadline as possible. Trujillo states that to keep a since of urgency for the buyers, it is in the plans best interest to prevent sales from stalling and keep the buyers guessing. Something must be going right because the IRS says 1.4 million first time buyers have claimed the $8000 tax credit.

Jeff Newman from Chemist to Real Estate Broker

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:41:15 -0500

Jeff Newman from Chemist to Real Estate Broker

Kathy Soltero: Hi I am Kathy Soltero with Metro Brokers TV. Today in the studio we have Jeff Newman, thank you so much for coming in Jeff.

Jeff Newman: You are welcome.

Kathy Soltero: Tell me a little bit about yourself, your company, your real estate company, where you are at?

Jeff Newman: Okay I am Metro Brokers with, Partners in Real Estate and I work out at the office at underneath in [Inaudible].

Kathy Soltero: And do you work primarily in that area or where do you work?

Jeff Newman: Central is where I live, so I kind of specialize in the central and then kind of northern part of the metro area.

Kathy Soltero: And are you, your own office or by yourself?

Jeff Newman: I am, I am in that office but I am a broker on my own so independent.

Kathy Soltero: Okay very good. How long have you been in the business?

Jeff Newman: Five years.

Kathy Soltero: And how have you seen, I mean when you started real estate was just kind of teetering on a rough area here?

Jeff Newman: Right it was okay when I started and just rear kind of kept going down so.

Kathy Soltero: What did you do prior to real estate?

Jeff Newman: I worked in the pharmaceutical industry; I was a chemist so, quite different but...

Kathy Soltero: So what lured you into real estate?

Jeff Newman: Kind of one at I mean introvert in that job, so I wanted to be more of an extrovert and work with people and I don't know just loved real estate and so.

Kathy Soltero: Have you found that it's really kind of helped you get out and do you love your clients or?

Jeff Newman: I do and I think they like me too.

Kathy Soltero: Well that's a good thing, that's a really good thing. Do you specialize in any specific area, do you do foreclosures, do you do short sales?

Jeff Newman: Just basic residential, no specialization of, you know foreclosure or anything so.

Kathy Soltero: But you tackle them or?

Jeff Newman: I thought a couple yeah but never dived into it for you know do full time.

Kathy Soltero: and you say its central area, when you talk about central area what do you mean pretty since you are [Voice Crossover]?

Jeff Newman: The downtown area. I live down there so I really loved the older homes and you know [Inaudible] you know that market basically so.

Kathy Soltero: If there is one thing that you would want your customers to know about Jeff Newman that you have really stand out why they should work with you, what would you tell them?

Jeff Newman: That's I know my job and that I am, I make real estate the purchase fun.

Kathy Soltero: Jeff thank you so much for joining us on Metro Brokers TV and for more real estate related videos be sure to tune into metrobrokerstv.com.

Metro Brokers Jim Leto discusses his real estate company

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:24:38 -0500

Metro Brokers Jim Leto discusses his real estate company

Kathy Soltero: Hi I am Kathy Soltero with Metro Brokers TV. Today in the studio with us is Jim Leto. Jim thank you so much for coming in.

Jim Leto: Well thank you for having me.

Kathy Soltero: Tell me a little bit about your real estate company, where it's out, how many people are in it, that sort of it.

Jim Leto: Well the Metro Brokers office [Inaudible] is at 550, South Wadsworth in Lakewood and I am with real estate professionals and there is only about five of us in the office right now so.

Kathy Soltero: Do you work primarily then in the Lakewood area or?

Jim Leto: I do a lot of Lakewood and a lot of Denver also because I have been living in South West Denver area.

Kathy Soltero: And how long have you been in this business?

Jim Leto: 20 years.

Kathy Soltero: Wow so you have seen a lot of different cycles?

Jim Leto: Yes I have.

Kathy Soltero: How would you say the market is going right now?

Jim Leto: I would probably call it a fairly amazing market; I mean it's a challenge that's for sure. So but I am feeling pretty good that it's starting to break loose. I am getting some good listings and some good activity on them and I think there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Kathy Soltero: Absolutely. What did you do prior to real estate, you said you have been in it for 20 years so...?

Jim Leto: Well I did a lot of different things. I owned the retail stores, some clothing stores and then I was a Mayor in my little town and a county legislator in [Inaudible] state New York did that and then had a midlife crisis and moved to Colorado and at 39 years old and actually had a store in Colorado and so has been for a while.

Kathy Soltero: So then you went into real estate and closed down the stores or?

Jim Leto: Well it's not quite as simple. Actually I was widowed and then went out to California in business and bunked in an old friend of mine and we ended up getting married so.

Kathy Soltero: Oh!

Jim Leto: about a year and a half or two years.

Kathy Soltero: So you are joint business partners?

Jim Leto: Yeah she was, she was already real state agent in California.

Kathy Soltero: Oh that's awesome. So do you specialize in any specific area I mean right now we have got so many short sales out there its almost like every ten that we pick up but we just pull up ten listings almost nine of them are short sales?

Jim Leto: I don't think in that I have one short sale listing right now and that quite a courageous to have a lot of them because it is so next to the tail ends there. I specialize in town house area that I happened to live in now and also an area that I used to live in both of those happened to be in South West Denver.

Kathy Soltero: All right well Jim thank you so very much for being with us on Metro Brokers TV.

Jim Leto: All my pleasure, thank you.

Kathy Soltero: And if you want any more information or you want to watch more real estate related videos, be sure to tune into metrobrokerstv.com.

Former ReMax Agent Cher Schafer is thrilled about being an independent agent with Metro Brokers

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:19:47 -0500

Cher Schafer on Real Estate and cherschaferhomes.com

Kathy Soltero: Hi, I'm Kathy Soltero with MetroBrokers TV, today in the studio we have Cher Schafer. Cher Schafer thank you so much coming in.

Cher Schafer: Thank you, I appreciate it.

Kathy Soltero: Tell me a little bit about your real estate office and your real estate company.

Cher Schafer: Well I'm Cher Schafer Homes of Metro Brokers and I'm located out of the Dakota Ridge office which is at C-470 and Bowles.

Kathy Soltero: Are you all by yourself then or do you have any other agents with you?

Cher Schafer: I don't have anyone underneath me, my license.

Kathy Soltero: Is that something you plan to do, are you going to expand?

Cher Schafer: Um, not at this time. I don't have any plans for that, I kind of like doing my own thing and being responsible for myself.

Kathy Soltero: How long have you been in the business?

Cher Schafer: Actually this month it's 20 years.

Kathy Soltero: Wow, so you have seen quite a cycle of things happen.

Cher Schafer: Yeah, definitely.

Kathy Soltero: What did you do prior to real estate? What lead you into a real estate career?

Cher Schafer: I actually got my real estate license when I was 21 years old. But I was in insurance at the time and I just kind of let myself be guided and it turned out to be real estate was the right thing for me.

Kathy Soltero: Did you do any real estate when you first got your license or?

Cher Schafer: No, it was inactive for awhile actually.

Kathy Soltero: And now CherSchaferHomes.com, do you specialize in any specific area? Or do you specialize in any kind of real estate?

Cher Schafer: Mostly residential, horse property also, townhomes that type of thing. Jefferson County, I've worked quite a bit there because I'm form Colorado actually and grew up in that area.

Kathy Soltero: Cher, you've been in the real estate business for twenty years, tell me how how you've seen it change dramatically over the past few years even?

Cher Schafer: Well, when I got into the business it was very much the HUD market then and so that kind of got me into that gear and was actually a good learning experience to go through that period of time. then it got better after that and now we're right there again, so.

Kathy Soltero: Is it different in dealing with those HUDs and the foreclosures and the short sales that it was back then?

Cher Schafer: It is definitely and you just have to be able to adjust I think to what the market is at the time. Right now the lower price range is really rapid and I think that's a good place to focus on right now too with people trying to take advantage of the $8,000 credit and that kind of thing.

Kathy Soltero: Alright, Cher Schafer, thank you so much for joining us today on Metro Brokers TV.

Cher Schafer: Thank you.

Kathy Soltero: For more real estate information or any of these real estate videos be sure to tune into MetroBrokersTV.com.

Former ReMax Agent Cher Schafer is thrilled about being an independent agent with Metro Brokers

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:45:42 -0500

Cher Schafer on Real Estate and cherschaferhomes.com

Kathy Soltero: Hi, I'm Kathy Soltero with MetroBrokers TV, today in the studio we have Cher Schafer. Cher Schafer thank you so much coming in.

Cher Schafer: Thank you, I appreciate it.

Kathy Soltero: Tell me a little bit about your real estate office and your real estate company.

Cher Schafer: Well I'm Cher Schafer Homes of Metro Brokers and I'm located out of the Dakota Ridge office which is at C-470 and Bowles.

Kathy Soltero: Are you all by yourself then or do you have any other agents with you?

Cher Schafer: I don't have anyone underneath me, my license.

Kathy Soltero: Is that something you plan to do, are you going to expand?

Cher Schafer: Um, not at this time. I don't have any plans for that, I kind of like doing my own thing and being responsible for myself.

Kathy Soltero: How long have you been in the business?

Cher Schafer: Actually this month it's 20 years.

Kathy Soltero: Wow, so you have seen quite a cycle of things happen.

Cher Schafer: Yeah, definitely.

Kathy Soltero: What did you do prior to real estate? What lead you into a real estate career?

Kathy Soltero: Did you do any real estate when you first got your license or?

Cher Schafer: No, it was inactive for awhile actually.

Kathy Soltero: And now CherSchaferHomes.com, do you specialize in any specific area? Or do you specialize in any kind of real estate?

Cher Schafer: Mostly residential, horse property also, townhomes that type of thing. Jefferson County, I've worked quite a bit there because I'm form Colorado actually and grew up in that area.

Kathy Soltero: Cher, you've been in the real estate business for twenty years, tell me how how you've seen it change dramatically over the past few years even?

Kathy Soltero: Is it different in dealing with those HUDs and the foreclosures and the short sales that it was back then?

Kathy Soltero: Alright, Cher Schafer, thank you so much for joining us today on Metro Brokers TV.

Cher Schafer: Thank you.

Kathy Soltero: For more real estate information or any of these real estate videos be sure to tune into MetroBrokersTV.com.

Tom Guest with Key Masters real estate

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:42:50 -0500

Tom Guest with Key Masters real estate

Kathy Soltero: Hi I am Kathy Soltero with metrobrokerstv.com, joining us today is Tom Guest. Tom tell us a little bit about your company.

Tom Guest: Hi Kathy. I have started Key Masters real estate and it's located in Highlands Ranch. We have four brokers working for us and we have been, been in business for about a year in that location.

Kathy Soltero: Do you specialize in that Highlands Ranch area or?

Tom Guest: Specialized in Highlands Ranch, but also work every other area in Denver Metro.

Kathy Soltero: How long have you been in the business?

Tom Guest: Been in the business for 17 years.

Kathy Soltero: Long time?

Tom Guest: Long time.

Kathy Soltero: You have seen a lot going on and [Inaudible]?

Tom Guest: Seen a lot of changes.

Kathy Soltero: What have you done prior to real estate, what got you into the real estate business that maybe was a good transition?

Tom Guest: Prior to real estate I worked retail wholesale and I used to run prize clubs and Pace Membership Warehouse. I was the Marketing Director for the nation for Pace Warehouse club.

Kathy Soltero: And you found that was a good transition then into real estate here?

Tom Guest: It was an excellent transition having the marketing experience.

Kathy Soltero: Do you specialize in anything we are seeing a lot of foreclosures right now, short sales that sort of thing throughout the market?

Tom Guest: Do a lot of bank owned properties helping buyers doing short sales, residential condos just a little bit of everything but there is a lot of bank owned opportunities.

Kathy Soltero: Are you seeing the market start to pick up a little bit right now?

Tom Guest: Seen an excellent pick up in the market this past year especially with the $8000 tax credit that has really benefited first time home buyers.

Kathy Soltero: All right. Well Tom tell me a little bit exactly where your office is located and if people want to contact you, how do you get hold of you?

Tom Guest: Our office is located in Highlands Ranch at 200 Plaza Drive, Suite 130 and just south of the AMC movie theater off of Broadway.

Kathy Soltero: And if they want to call you?

Tom Guest: Phone number 303 718 1182.

Kathy Soltero: And that's your direct line?

Tom Guest: Direct line.

Kathy Soltero: So we will get hold of Tom Guest. Thanks so much for coming in Tom.

Tom Guest: You are welcome, thank you.

Kathy Soltero: Great to talk with you today and for more real estate related videos, be sure to check out metrobrokerstv.com.

Moe Giroux Shuttle Engineer to Real Estate Broker

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:40:05 -0500

Moe Giroux on the road from Senior Space Shuttle Engineer to Real Estate Broker

Kathy Soltero: Hi I am Kathy Soltero with Metro Brokers TV and today in the studio we have Moe Giroux, Moe thanks so much for coming in.

Moe Giroux: Thanks for having me Kathy.

Kathy Soltero: You bet, tell me about your real estate career.

Moe Giroux: I got into real estate business in 1981. I started with Moe and Company back then. After a couple of years in the business I realized if you are going to be in this business and do some business you need to be in the 100% concept and at the time Metro Brokers were still getting going and the only company that was in office that was in my area was RE/MAX. So I joined RE/MAX in 1984 spend eight years there then I realized that you got to be in the business its time to do my own thing and that's what I did I joined Metro Brokers.

Kathy Soltero: And what areas of real estate do you actually specialize here?

Moe Giroux: I own the Metro Brokers office down town its called the Littleton South West office its down in the Ken Caryl Business Center which is basically the South West part of the town.

Kathy Soltero: And so you focus on that area or how many regions?

Moe Giroux: I do focus on that area but wherever the client takes me as well I go whatever the problem is whatever their issue is, within reason you know I go down the Castle Rock or Parker, Aurora is getting a little far away end up North is a little far away but in general it's the Denver South West Metro area.

Kathy Soltero: What did you do before real estate?

Moe Giroux: I was actually a senior engineer on the space shuttle program that [Inaudible] air space that's what brought me here in 1980, and realized right away that that corporate world wasn't quite for me and ended up getting my real estate license and haven't looked back its been great.

Kathy Soltero: With all the foreclosures and short sales and bank owned properties that sort of thing out there, do you specialize in any of those or what do you do?

Moe Giroux: Everything you just said. If you are not working those issues, you are not doing much business because that's, that's the majority of the market is, things are changing I think, the properties that are owned by people that are not foreclosures or bank owned they are realizing they need to compete and they are doing so. So we are starting to see more and more of let's say call the regular market coming out there, but in general yeah there is a still a lot of short sales out there and a lot of bank owned properties.

Kathy Soltero: Okay Moe Giroux, thank you very much for joining us on Metro Brokers TV.

Moe Giroux: Thank you.

Kathy Soltero: And if you would like to get more information, or other real estate related videos, be sure to tune into metrobrokerstv.com.

Michael Paul an Independent Broker with Realty Oasis

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:36:29 -0500

Michael Paul and Independent Broker with Realty Oasis

Kathy Soltero: Hi I am Kathy Soltero with metrobrokerstv.com and today we are joined by Mike Paul, Mike thanks for coming in.

Michael Paul: Well thank you for having me.

Kathy Soltero: Tell me a little bit about your real estate company.

Michael Paul: Well I am in Mark Eibner's office at Realty Oasis. I am a broker associate there not a, you know not an independent broker as many of the Metro Brokers are. It was purely just a matter of choice for me I didn't need to be, need to have my own company and I like it there a whole lot.

Kathy Soltero: And where exactly are you located?

Michael Paul: We are in the Inverness office park, Inverness Parkway very near the headquarters from Metro Brokers.

Kathy Soltero: Do you have lot of other agents that are working with you there?

Michael Paul: You know there are not a lot in the office but there are quite a number I don't know how many, but a lot that are associated there most of them work from their home or from starbucks or wherever.

Kathy Soltero: And how long have you been in the business?

Michael Paul: I am old.

Kathy Soltero: I know.

Michael Paul: Yeah I have been in the business for more than 30 years in one form or another.

Kathy Soltero: So you have seen it cycle around and around?

Michael Paul: I have, I have.

Kathy Soltero: What do you specialize in?

Michael Paul: Currently I am you know a horse property specialist. My wife and I have had horses you know all of our married life and before that even and so it's an area that we are comfortable you know when we meet horse people we always have something to talk about it.

Kathy Soltero: That's right is it a tough real estate market for horse property to decide something else?

Michael Paul: Yes yeah I think its every bit is tough there as it is in the other area of real estate we are feeling the pinch, but we just keep at it.

Kathy Soltero: Do you specialize just in the areas around Douglas County or?

Michael Paul: Well I live in Douglas County, so I probably do more business in Douglas, but we actually you know we form horse people. Its kind of what we do and so wherever they want to be and have horses that's where we go you know whether its buyers or sellers or whatever.

Kathy Soltero: Thanks Mike Paul for joining us today on metrobrokerstv.com.

Michael Paul: Well thank you very much for allowing me to be here.

Kathy Soltero: Absolutely and if you want to see more real estate related videos, be sure to tune into metrobrokerstv.com.

Jeff Newman from Chemist to Real Estate Broker

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:32:45 -0500

Jeff Newman from Chemist to Real Estate Broker

Kathy Soltero: Hi I am Kathy Soltero with Metro Brokers TV. Today in the studio we have Jeff Newman, thank you so much for coming in Jeff.

Jeff Newman: You are welcome.

Kathy Soltero: Tell me a little bit about yourself, your company, your real estate company, where you are at?

Jeff Newman: Okay I am Metro Brokers with, Partners in Real Estate and I work out at the office at underneath in [Inaudible].

Kathy Soltero: And do you work primarily in that area or where do you work?

Jeff Newman: Central is where I live, so I kind of specialize in the central and then kind of northern part of the metro area.

Kathy Soltero: And are you, your own office or by yourself?

Jeff Newman: I am, I am in that office but I am a broker on my own so independent.

Kathy Soltero: Okay very good. How long have you been in the business?

Jeff Newman: Five years.

Kathy Soltero: And how have you seen, I mean when you started real estate was just kind of teetering on a rough area here?

Jeff Newman: Right it was okay when I started and just rear kind of kept going down so.

Kathy Soltero: What did you do prior to real estate?

Jeff Newman: I worked in the pharmaceutical industry; I was a chemist so, quite different but...

Kathy Soltero: So what lured you into real estate?

Jeff Newman: Kind of one at I mean introvert in that job, so I wanted to be more of an extrovert and work with people and I don't know just loved real estate and so.

Kathy Soltero: Have you found that it's really kind of helped you get out and do you love your clients or?

Jeff Newman: I do and I think they like me too.

Kathy Soltero: Well that's a good thing, that's a really good thing. Do you specialize in any specific area, do you do foreclosures, do you do short sales?

Jeff Newman: Just basic residential, no specialization of, you know foreclosure or anything so.

Kathy Soltero: But you tackle them or?

Jeff Newman: I thought a couple yeah but never dived into it for you know do full time.

Kathy Soltero: and you say its central area, when you talk about central area what do you mean pretty since you are [Voice Crossover]?

Jeff Newman: The downtown area. I live down there so I really loved the older homes and you know [Inaudible] you know that market basically so.

Kathy Soltero: If there is one thing that you would want your customers to know about Jeff Newman that you have really stand out why they should work with you, what would you tell them?

Jeff Newman: That's I know my job and that I am, I make real estate the purchase fun.

Kathy Soltero: Jeff thank you so much for joining us on Metro Brokers TV and for more real estate related videos be sure to tune into metrobrokerstv.com.

Kathy Soltero of Metro Brokers talks about the roller coaster market

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:29:10 -0500

Kathy Soltero of Metro Brokers talks about the roller coaster market

Mark Eibner: This is Mark Eibner with Metro Brokers TV and we are here today with Kathy Soltero and Kathy welcome to the show.

Kathy Soltero: Thank you my pleasure.

Mark Eibner: Hey you could tell our audience out there how long you have been in the real estate business?

Kathy Soltero: I have been in real estate now for eight years.

Mark Eibner: Eight years?

Kathy Soltero: We have seen a lot go on in short amount of time, is a great market to start out with and then it got, got of went down and it started to pick up again.

Mark Eibner: Well [Inaudible] all cyclic.

Kathy Soltero: Yes.

Mark Eibner: Any areas you specialize in, in the business?

Kathy Soltero: You know I have actually in the eight years I think done everything and short sales, listings, short sale buys, I have done foreclosures, I have done on the buy-side and on the list side, I have done relocations, I have done listings and buyers I have done first time buyers, I think I basically covered it all and there really I mean I love first time home buyers. I love cash buyers and I just love them all I think every deal is going to be different, short sales are amazing.

Mark Eibner: Well what do you think the majority of your business comes from then?

Kathy Soltero: I would say a lot of my business is coming from referrals and from the Internet, you know website really draws people to, to you and tells you a lot about who you are and that sort of thing. So you know hopefully people tune into metrobrokerstv.com and see more about me.

Mark Eibner: You bet. Well we appreciate you being on the show today Kathy.

Kathy Soltero: My pleasure.

Mark Eibner: For more information about Metro Brokers and their culture make sure to tune into metrobrokerstv.com.

Metro Brokers Jim Leto discusses his real estate company

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:25:53 -0500

Metro Brokers Jim Leto discusses his real estate company

Kathy Soltero: Hi I am Kathy Soltero with Metro Brokers TV. Today in the studio with us is Jim Leto. Jim thank you so much for coming in.

Jim Leto: Well thank you for having me.

Kathy Soltero: Tell me a little bit about your real estate company, where it's out, how many people are in it, that sort of it.

Jim Leto: Well the Metro Brokers office [Inaudible] is at 550, South Wadsworth in Lakewood and I am with real estate professionals and there is only about five of us in the office right now so.

Kathy Soltero: Do you work primarily then in the Lakewood area or?

Jim Leto: I do a lot of Lakewood and a lot of Denver also because I have been living in South West Denver area.

Kathy Soltero: And how long have you been in this business?

Jim Leto: 20 years.

Kathy Soltero: Wow so you have seen a lot of different cycles?

Jim Leto: Yes I have.

Kathy Soltero: How would you say the market is going right now?

Kathy Soltero: Absolutely. What did you do prior to real estate, you said you have been in it for 20 years so...?

Kathy Soltero: So then you went into real estate and closed down the stores or?

Jim Leto: Well it's not quite as simple. Actually I was widowed and then went out to California in business and bunked in an old friend of mine and we ended up getting married so.

Kathy Soltero: Oh!

Jim Leto: about a year and a half or two years.

Kathy Soltero: So you are joint business partners?

Jim Leto: Yeah she was, she was already real state agent in California.

Kathy Soltero: All right well Jim thank you so very much for being with us on Metro Brokers TV.

Jim Leto: All my pleasure, thank you.

Kathy Soltero: And if you want any more information or you want to watch more real estate related videos, be sure to tune into metrobrokerstv.com.

Jerry Biesboer with Metro Brokers and his Business

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:19:24 -0500

Jerry Biesboer with Metro Brokers and his Business

Kathy Soltero: Hi I am Kathy Soltero with metrobrokerstv.com and today we are talking with Jerry Biesboer, thanks for coming in Jerry.

Jerry Biesboer: Thank you, thanks for having me.

Kathy Soltero: Hi tell me a little bit about your real estate company, where it's out, how big is it, that sort of thing.

Jerry Biesboer: I am with Metro Brokers Realty Oasis now I am going by eight year with the program and you know it's, I have been doing this business since 1993.

Kathy Soltero: Wow that's a long time.

Jerry Biesboer: Yeah.

Kathy Soltero: Seen a lot of different market changes?

Jerry Biesboer: Oh sure, sure you know.

Kathy Soltero: Tell me a little bit about maybe do you specialize in any particular areas?

Jerry Biesboer: You know I live in Founders Village in Castle Rock, so kind of work at Castle Rock you know for the easy, but it takes me out through out of those County Parker you know with short sales you know everywhere in the metro area.

Kathy Soltero: And if you don't do the short sale?

Jerry Biesboer: You are out of business.

Kathy Soltero: That's right. Okay so do you have more than just yourself in your company or how many people are in it?

Jerry Biesboer: I know I work with under Mark Eibner in the Realty Oasis system as we have got several offices and you know the good size group of people that we all work together with. So my wife has been licensed in the past now she is now licensed right now and that's one of the things that you know pretty much started me looking around from leaving Re/Max remakes and moving on to try to find a cheaper route that's better than, better as/or better than Re/Max was?

Kathy Soltero: Maybe more cost effective for our business?

Jerry Biesboer: Yes bottom line.

Kathy Soltero: That's right it's always about the bottom line. So what would you say is probably the most exciting thing about real estate right now?

Jerry Biesboer: You know its, right now, the market has been purged lot of agents have left the business. So that's kind of exciting because these will be more for the, ones who survive you know its kind of like [Inaudible] surviving the fire you know that's exciting it's the thrill that kill to me because I do negotiate lot of deals myself and you know we have negotiations training now getting some of the accepted, you know and helping out the, I think helping out the consumer and getting them out of trouble there in.

Kathy Soltero: It is certainly a challenge right now.

Jerry Biesboer: Yes check it out.

Kathy Soltero: Thanks Jerry so much for being with us we have been talking with Jerry Biesboer.

Jerry Biesboer: Thank you for having me.

Kathy Soltero: You are so welcome and for more real estate related videos, be sure to check out metrobrokerstv.com.

Eleanor Yeager of bouldermountainhomes.com

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:06:16 -0500

Eleanor Yeager of bouldermountainhomes.com

Kathy Soltero: Hi I am Kathy Soltero with metrobrokerstv.com and today we are talking with Eleanor Yeager. Hi Eleanor, how are you doing?

Eleanor Yeager: Good how are you?

Kathy Soltero: Good tell me about little about your real estate company, its location and how many people are in it, that sort of thing.

Eleanor Yeager: My Company is called bouldermountainhomes.com. I don't know that there is a lot of dotcom companies out there and make one person company is sort of a new model that Metro Brokers is doing and so I am the broker owner of my own company.

Kathy Soltero: Great then what did you do prior to real estate that got you into that?

Eleanor Yeager: Prior to real estate, I did a lot of varied things. I was a photographer in the army, I was a jailor, I was, I worked for the court systems, the mental health systems and I just found government work was just so limiting and so confining and I wanted to do something that I could do until I died and didn't want to be forced into retirement.

Kathy Soltero: So why real estate?

Eleanor Yeager: Because it offered that, it offered independence, it offered independence, it offered media opportunity to work as long as I wanted to and I always was interested in real estate.

Kathy Soltero: Now being your own company is that tough sometimes I mean do you have to call in some other fellow metro broker agents to help you out in anything?

Eleanor Yeager: No I find that you know I try to limit, I am out there to be #1 agent in the world. I am out there to make a living and give my clients good high quality service.

Kathy Soltero: Do you find that that's a benefit to you I mean just that you limit to how many number of DL's that you do that sort of thing?

Eleanor Yeager: Absolutely.

Kathy Soltero: So you really focus hard on those people that you help?

Eleanor Yeager: Absolutely.

Kathy Soltero: Great so tell me a little bit about what you might specialize in?

Eleanor Yeager: I work out of the Nederland area, and the mountain communities, west of Boulder. So I specialize in mountain properties that are very different from city properties, wells and septics and property lines and there are just all kinds of things that can go wrong in the mountains. I also do work in the Boulder area in the surrounding communities, those deals are so much easier and compared to mountain properties, but so you have to supplement a little bit because mountain properties are always traditionally a lot slower moving than the city properties.

Kathy Soltero: That's right. All right well we have been talking with Eleanor Yeager, thank you so much for coming in today Eleanor.

Eleanor Yeager: Thank you for having me.

Kathy Soltero: You are welcome and thank you so much for watching metrobrokerstv.com. For more real estate related videos, be sure to tune into metrobrokerstv.com.

Jerry Biesboer with Metro Brokers Realty Oasis talks Real Estate

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:11:04 -0500

Jerry Biesboer with Metro Brokers Realty Oasis talks Real Estate

BrokerIPTV: Today we are talking with Jerry Biesboer from Metro Brokers Realty Oasis, Jerry welcome to the show.

Jerry Biesboer: Thanks for having me.

BrokerIPTV: Thanks for being here. So tell me a little about your business, what do you do, where do you specialize?

Jerry Biesboer: Yeah I have been doing real estate in Colorado now since 1993, started with the good old company Van Schaack you know we knew them in Colorado you know been around met up with Mark I have about eight, nine years ago when Mark and kind of working with his platform.

BrokerIPTV: Are you down in Castle Rock you said?

Jerry Biesboer: Yeah I work primarily out of Castle Rock, Douglas County area, Parker you know in our office I actually office out of Inverness office now.

BrokerIPTV: All right so I understand short sales maybe one of your specialties?

Jerry Biesboer: Yes I will tell you?

BrokerIPTV: Heavens why Jerry?

Jerry Biesboer: Two years ago I was like looking outside my door and when I was working my neighbor's, I said man I do not want to get back into short sales ever again but it is the market.

BrokerIPTV: They sucked you in.

Jerry Biesboer: They just got me back yeah.

BrokerIPTV: Like the God father every time I try to get out they suck me back in. You are also an owner a part owner I should say Meridian Title and Escrow as realtors are able to participate is that correct?

Jerry Biesboer: Yes I have been there since they started.

BrokerIPTV: Tell me a little bit about that experience.

Jerry Biesboer: You know I have enjoyed doing that because the way I look at it, its rolled in with our the Meridian Title is rolled in with our transaction management you know so its kind of a one stop shop that we have always promoted and that was the main reason I think I got involved with it you know definitely not that, not so much the money but the money does help, transaction coordinator interconnects with our, all our Title reps they take care of all the back scene stuff for me it kind of leaves me out of loop via e-mail but the only I have to stay in the loop.

BrokerIPTV: What do you like best about Meridian Title and Escrow?

Jerry Biesboer: You know it's...

BrokerIPTV: Besides the connection on this.

Jerry Biesboer: Well the clients I mean it's a better even for our clients you know we have a ten year reissue rate and then that's even saved the few deals with these short sales because of cost and you are down to the wire on who is bringing what to the table and the banks are you know fighting over what they want to keep you know so saved the few deals in the short sales.

BrokerIPTV: So you know the agent on the other side says am I getting paid and you are you know...

Jerry Biesboer: Yeah, yeah.

BrokerIPTV: You are getting paid and then of course that you know there is the seller involved and the bank and then if you can shave a little money off the Title I guess it all helps.

Jerry Biesboer: Oh yeah just I got one I got approval and they wanted a few bucks more and its always, its always been us they have been going after you know it seems that we reduce our commission, don't have to do any more when you got your cost down.

BrokerIPTV: What are the things I hear about Meridian Title and Escrow that people seem to like is the service?

Jerry Biesboer: We have got a great couple of closures now I mean they will travel, the service will travel I mean I just talked to her the other day and she went to someone's home.

BrokerIPTV: Yeah.

Jerry Biesboer: To get some paperwork signed. So what we go beyond the extra mile when it comes to service.

BrokerIPTV: Let's talk a little bit about the connection between short sales which you are specialize in and having a Title company that specializes in short sales is there such a thing?

Jerry Biesboer: That's exciting because that's something new we just started at the Meridian Title and through our [indiscernible] network. We are actually offering a certified specialist with that in that boom, the minute we got there I started sending all my short sales I was on and maybe I was even in the middle of negotiating some of them and I passed them under because what a way to free your time up that what we do, we show and list properties.

BrokerIPTV: Yeah and so I think the title that they are referring to that is a certified distress property specialist which you know as the market change there is new titles all the time to accommodate what's going on in the market?

Jerry Biesboer: You know one thing and I would like to emphasis on that too it is the system is not a listing tool because when you are going up against other agents you got another team, you got another player, you got somebody else its all they do is sit in front of a phone, sit in front of a computer and get those things out and get those things that are needed while I am out showing property, I can't be negotiating.

BrokerIPTV: Yeah well they are complicated deals and it certainly cannot hurt have to have specialist in there thanks so much Jerry.

Jerry Biesboer: Thank you.

BrokerIPTV: I appreciate it.

Jerry Biesboer: Thanks.

Kevin Best the Sales Manager from Metrolist discusses Short Sales

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:08:29 -0500

Kevin Best the Sales Manager from Metrolist discusses Short Sales

BrokerIPTV: Today we are talking with Kevin Best, Sales Manager from Metrolist and Kevin welcome, thanks for being with us.

Kevin Best: Thanks it's a pleasure to be here.

BrokerIPTV: Short sales this is obviously a topic that's really kind of come to the forefront particularly in the last two years. There is a variety of issues associated with them, some associated with Metrolist and How You List These correct?

Kevin Best: That is correct.

BrokerIPTV: So I imagine you have had a few discussions about how you handle these around the office?

Kevin Best: We have the rules and regulations committee came up with the suggestion and it was implemented that short sales be identified in the terms field rather than using the public or the broker remarks field, that's one place everybody should be looking for.

BrokerIPTV: So early on though realtors were saying short sale in the public or broker remarks correct?

Kevin Best: That is correct.

BrokerIPTV: And now you are making the change and its going to be in the terms?

Kevin Best: It's actually been that way now for about four months.

BrokerIPTV: Okay.

Kevin Best: We are seeing a slow transition to that but it definitely is the best place to put that information.

BrokerIPTV: Okay how do you disclose, I mean is that the only way to disclose a short sale in the MLS or is there another way that we should be doing it?

Kevin Best: That's the best way of course you could always put in the public or broker remarks, but to be in compliance with the rule it needs to be in the terms field.

BrokerIPTV: Okay now what's the difference when I see short sale and pending short sale approval?

Kevin Best: The short sale just means that it has been approved with the lender that this home is available for short sale. When it switches to the lender status that means that an offer has been submitted to the lender for their review and that's really when that changed needs to take place, is, once something has been sent to the lender.

BrokerIPTV: Okay. What about if you have to update this you know all of a sudden its how should a listing broker update their listing when it's under contract for instance?

Kevin Best: Once there has been a mutually executed contract.

BrokerIPTV: Right.

Kevin Best: The lender has approved it, the home owner, the buyer at that point, that's when you put the property under contract, up until that point it can stay in an active status as long as its identified that it is a short sale and there is an offer pending.

BrokerIPTV: And the other thing I am thinking about here is maybe there are some people out there still today that don't know what a short sale is, so can you give someone a brief description of that?

Kevin Best: Basically what it means is the home owner is going to be selling their property and they have negotiated with the lender that the home will be able to be sold for a lesser value than would pay off the loan, that's kind of the basic idea of it.

BrokerIPTV: Right so I am representing the buyer and we are going out we have already determined that we don't want to get involved with short sales we don't want to look for short sales. When I do my search in the MLS can I eliminate short sales on my search?

Kevin Best: You certainly can there is [indiscernible] logic in Prime Access and, or not where you can actually say not a short sale, not a short sale lending, a lender pending. You can also do those same things in the remarks fields but I would caution you on one thing. When brokers put in remarks there is times where they might say not a short sale. So if you search and say not a short sale it's picking up on those word short sales and ultimately you are actually eliminating the listing that you are looking for.

BrokerIPTV: Or vice versa what if I just want to search for short sales, can I do that?

Kevin Best: You can you would just put that in the remarks fields typically what we talk about is putting in a wild card foreclosure FOREC, short sale, and then maybe lender owned, bank owned and its going to find just the listing that have that specific information in the listing.

BrokerIPTV: Terrific thanks so much for the information I appreciate it.

Kevin Best: Thank you.

Kevin Best the Sales Manager from Metrolist talks about maximizing your listings on the MLS

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:04:33 -0500

Kevin Best the Sales Manager from Metrolist talks about maximizing your listings on the MLS

BrokerIPTV: Today we are talking with Kevin Best, Sales Manager from Metrolist and Kevin welcome to the show.

Kevin Best: Great.

BrokerIPTV: Glad to have you here. We are talking about maximizing your listings on the MLS and I suppose you are going to tell me today that no matter what a realtor inputs MyListing will come up is that right?

Kevin Best: Yeah that's probably not likely to happen.

BrokerIPTV: All right any realtor how do they maximize those listings?

Kevin Best: Well in the past we have talked about products like Re-Colorado, list up for listings syndication, IDX, but ultimately at the end of the day its all about the listing itself by putting in more complete information you are going to raise the likelihood that your listing will be found by the buyer's agent.

BrokerIPTV: Yeah because what goes in the MLS gets spread out everywhere else.

Kevin Best: That's correct.

BrokerIPTV: So you got to get it in there correct the first time that's right?

Kevin Best: Yeah.

BrokerIPTV: And then you got to get as much in as you can is that it?

Kevin Best: Yeah because you never really know what the buyer is looking for. So the more information you have in your listings, the more likelihood that the person working with the buyer that realtor is going to find your listings.

BrokerIPTV: All right give me some important things that absolutely should be in there that maybe a realtor will leave out not take the time to do but makes the difference?

Kevin Best: Two of the biggest things I can think of are locations, where is the family room? Where is the master bedroom? Is that up or is it low or is at main level. We are hearing a lot of times that people are frustrated trying to find that and room dimensions is another one let's face facts the building is built the way its built and if I can have the most accurate information up front I can make up a better decision for my client.

BrokerIPTV: I always wondered about room dimensions if we should take the time to put that in but you are saying hey a lot of people when they are looking at a listing really want that information.

Kevin Best: They really do.

BrokerIPTV: How about photos, obviously you are going to put in photos but are there some tips on that?

Kevin Best: Yeah that you know we can have ten photos and its interesting to me to see how many listings you will find with five or six photos but then you will look at the listing and it will say its very close to a lake or a park and there is no pictures of those areas and that could really help set that property apart from some of the other listings that the buyers are looking at. So maximize all ten photos and do different photos that really bring out the characteristics of the home and the neighborhood.

BrokerIPTV: Okay how about remarks, talk to me about remarks, how important are those?

Kevin Best: Those are really important and that gives you an opportunity to take the description fields that we have and elaborate a little bit more, give us something that really starts to entice the public because the public remarks are out on all of those public websites and as the consumer is looking let him get attached to that home through that information.

BrokerIPTV: So the key thing there is that the broker remarks are between brokers, it should only really be something that you want another broker to see, is that right?

Kevin Best: That's right it's just something that's going to help other broker prepare their client when they go to see those homes.

BrokerIPTV: But since the public remarks get pushed out over the Internet that's information that you want to relate to the public, so that should be really some rich content.

Kevin Best: It really should again taking something about the home, professionally landscaped tell me about it, there is a pond in the backyard or there is rose bushes or something, something that really is going to entice the public to come look at that home.

BrokerIPTV: Kevin I bet that you offer a class on how to enter this information not only correctly but how to do it really well?

Kevin Best: We do we have an input and maintenance class that shows you how to put your listing into Prime Access and just like all of our other classes, at our training facility its free, its hands on and you get 3 CE credits.

BrokerIPTV: All right if I can't make your class though I can call support and somebody can help me on the spot right?

Kevin Best: You bet, 364 days of the year, 12 hours a day that's what they are there for.

BrokerIPTV: What day aren't you open?

Kevin Best: Christmas day.

BrokerIPTV: Thanks I appreciate it.

Kevin Best: Thanks.

Ed Kohler on Skype-In says its a beautiful day on the Internet

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:58:41 -0500

Ed Kohler on Skyp-In says its a beautiful day on the Internet

Mark Eibner: Hello my name is Mark Eibner. This is Broker IPTV and we are here with Ed Kohler from the Technology Evangelist for another Friday Skype-in and Ed welcome to the show.

Ed Kohler: Hello Mark.

Mark Eibner: How are things going today out there Skype line for Ed?

Ed Kohler: Things are good so far it's a beautiful day on the Internet.

Mark Eibner: Hey well let's get right down to our Friday Skype-in. Today we are going to address floor time in the new world, otherwise known as social media, so any initial input from you on this, this right away Ed?

Ed Kohler: I think social media to me is you that are communicating with people online, so yeah it's really as basic as that.

Mark Eibner: Yeah kind of like interacting.

Ed Kohler: Yes, yes exactly.

Mark Eibner: Yeah I think in the old days we really are big interaction tool at least as far as in the hunter gatherer mode of real estate hunting for a new client, definitely would have been either telemarketing or direct calls in floor times which seems to as pretty much went to Zilch other than what I noticed is the calls that we do get "on floor" are actually a lot better quality calls because people have been shopping for a long time that's why they are calling.

Ed Kohler: Yeah people are able to do more work themselves before they contact people which are, you know scares some people in the industry but in the end you know consumers still want to work with a professional real estate agent on a transaction, so you know its not like the Internet has really had a huge impact on like the amount of physical business has been done. You know when it comes time to actually do a transaction they want to work with someone that they trust and also of course someone they could sue if things get screwed up or whatever.

Mark Eibner: Yeah I think that's mostly what they are looking for someone to sue. So, how about some the recommendations on some of the more commonly used social media venues out there?

Ed Kohler: Okay well couple of popular ones are well one will be Facebook. Now Facebook is you know an enormous site for communicating where the site happens to be best for communicating with people that you already know. So your friends, your family, relatives, former classmates, things like that it's a great site for connecting with those type of people and staying in touch.

Mark Eibner: How about like Zillow and Trulia?

Ed Kohler: Well there are a lot of real estate specific sites like Zillow and Trulia and ActiveRain would be another where you can you know have kind of a professional experience on there, those sites can vary from being kind of agent to agent you know real estate specific where you end up talking to lot of people in your industry, but lot of consumers also you can stumble across them there, I think Trulia is doing a pretty good job with that, with the Trulia voices where they are trying to help people find out local information and who the experts are in their actual area.

Mark Eibner: Yeah and maybe a couple of other little things I might mention, just kick.com and YouTube as far as what we consider social media video venues where people that are most sophisticated or not even that sophisticated great places to get involved.

Ed Kohler: Absolutely and another good one is flicker like few yeah.

Mark Eibner: Flicker you bet.

Ed Kohler: You know if you are really into photography for example, it's really easy to find people who are active photographers in your community.

Mark Eibner: Well let's talk about some other strategies.

Ed Kohler: I would say one thing that I don't see enough of it and I think real estate agents kind of haven't figure this one out yet is some of the best networking you can do is not at real estate specific websites, it's at other websites where you're the only real estate agent. For example you know offline you know the web is just kind of recreate types of relationships that already happen offline. So for example if you are active in your church or you are you know a volunteer coach at a football team or something like that you are out there interacting with your community and you are the agent you know so you know everyone you know they have their job outside of the work they are doing or the volunteering they are doing. So that's a great way to build a network where you are the go to person. So that can help online too, where example of that might be if you do food reviews on urban spoon or you connect with people on yelp something like that where you can differentiate yourself that way and be the soul real estate expert on a different type of community.

Mark Eibner: Yeah actually showing people transparently that you actually are an expert in the area.

Ed Kohler: Yeah I mean if you would review every restaurant in the area, you know shows that you get out to eat a lot which of course lot of real estate agents do. So maybe they can contribute some information there and if you sound like, you know what you are talking about you know if they click on your profile they can see oh, okay this person works in real estate.

Mark Eibner: Well let's just get this wrapped up here as far as the new floor the new way we are stalking buyers, social media or something you need to say to your viewers out there?

Ed Kohler: Well the one thing we haven't mentioned yet I think that we have to at least throughout there is to give Twitter a try because it's a very powerful site and what's nice about is out of all the different types of social media sites out there, its probably the easiest one to use because you can put content out on to the site from any type of phone that you have. So you don't have to be at a computer, which really is nice for real estate people because they are often not at a regular computer, but they do a lot of work from their phone their black berry iPhone whatever. So if you haven't signed up for Twitter yet, even if you have heard about it you know you will see it mentioned on CNN or whatever its like its always in the news now, go to Twitter, its free, sign up and you know just take a look around. You know today you may think this is ridiculous but at least you will have your favorite Twitter user name reserved for free. So go and do that and then one day it maybe a light bulb will go off and you will be prepared with that point take advantage of it.

Mark Eibner: Yeah probably one of the last things you mentioned is most social media venues are in fact, free.

Ed Kohler: Yeah that's true yeah just a matter of getting in a habit of going to these websites and interacting with people.

Mark Eibner: Great we will wrap the show up Ed, once again Ed Kohler, Technology Evangelist and this has been the Friday Skype-in Ed great tips and we will talk to you next Friday.

Ed Kohler: Thank you Mark, take care man.

Ed Kohler from Technology Evangelist at our Friday Skype in

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:54:18 -0500

Ed Kohler from Technology Evangelist at our Friday Skype in

Mark Eibner: Hi I'm Mark Eibner and welcome to Broker IPTV and we are once again with Ed Kohler from Technology Evangelist at our Friday Skype-in and Ed welcome to the show.

Ed Kohler: Hi Mark how are you doing today?

Mark Eibner: Just doing fine, key subject matter today, we are going to talking about fostering leads online and I think more specifically as we have been talking about in the past, registration, to register or to not register?

Ed Kohler: Yeah.

Mark Eibner: So what's your initial input on that Ed?

Ed Kohler: Mark I think this is something that is part art and part science and people spend a lot of time debating, what the best strategy is for this, but clearly anyone working in real estate one of the, you know the goals of their website is to generate leads and one of the tactics people often use is in order to generate more leads they try to force their visitors to register in order to access information.

Mark Eibner: Right.

Ed Kohler: So you know is that a good thing or a bad thing? There is really no right or wrong answer necessarily, and everyone has opinions and some very strong on that issue, but generally I think as people are more qualified as they are further into the buying process when they contact you with, they are going to be a better lead, so there is a quantity and a quality side to this.

Mark Eibner: Certainly I think perhaps one of the things that we can even talk about is that eventually consumers are going to pre-qual. themselves, I have got some of these calls I put up on the screen here like any time you receive a phone call with the words "I have been reading your blog", "Wow you really post a lot of photos on your listings" or "I really love that video you took of the new bakery down on Pearl Street", you pretty much know you've probably got yourself a great lead.

Ed Kohler: Yeah I would say so that the person who is calling who is giving you that kind of information, they are obviously showing that they've spent some time on your website and your website helped convince them that you are credible and worth contacting. So you are not just a, not a pretty face any more, you actually have demonstrated your expertise in the area or in aspects of real estate or you know in your quality of the listings you do or things like that.

Mark Eibner: Yeah let's talk about some suggestions here and I think the one thing I want to bring out and maybe you can support me on this is for the most parts static old world websites just aren't cutting the mustard any more?

Ed Kohler: Yeah I think its, it helps to have a little bit more there to show that you are currently in business and doing business and to show that you are just current on what's going down in your community, this thing is this its not exactly difficult to do today because blog software for example makes it very easy to publish content to the web and you know it costs nearly nothing, so that's a great way to go right there and it shows that you are in fact alive you know if it only representation of yourself online is a picture from ten years ago, there is really not much there for people to connect with.

Mark Eibner: Right yeah I think it gets back to that key word "transparency". I think there is a lot of the new social media where all the webs 2.0 web 3.0 world shows that brokers that are either not up to speed on technology and/or lazy or not actually working will be self evident out on the Internet?

Ed Kohler: Yeah and I think that the Internet also allows people to find out more about some one's expertise then say like a couple of letters after their name does, like certifications for example, outside the industry a lot of the different acronyms are not really well known.

Mark Eibner: Right.

Ed Kohler: So you know given a choice of going and taking another course you know there could be a lot of educational value in doing that, but if you had a choice of where to spend your time maybe you are better off spending your time just talking to people about what you know and just demonstrating it.

Mark Eibner: Yeah which really leads us back into the new issues today are social media being involved in online forums, perhaps industry specific blogs like ActiveRain and really the connectivity of your traditional website with all these different types of new, I guess how would, you even class a social media, these new ways of interacting with consumers.

Ed Kohler: Yeah there is just so many places where people are communicating online and if you can join in and you know be a part of a conversation that's going to help you build additional business for sure and when someone is ready to really do business, if they have known you for a while, then they are going to be more comfortable with you when it comes time to actually do some business. So if the only time you are interacting with someone on the Internet is in the buying cycle, you are missing out on the opportunity of just getting to know people and have people comfortable with you but you know other people I know and I am in Minneapolis and there are real estate agents I know who are very active online right now, I am not currently in you know a buying cycle, but I still know who you know active real estate agents are because they are you know prominent.

Mark Eibner: What have you seen out there on the registrations sites versus non registration as far as what seems to be more successful?

Ed Kohler: I have seen a lot of people trying to do first registration where it hasn't been very successful forum because it's, they end up getting a lot of junk data, so they end up chasing leads that are still very, very cold or the information is just complete garbage that people put into the system. I would try to steer people instead towards what can you do with your website that will help so that when people contact you, they are completely qualified, where they know who you are and they know you do a great job with your business and you understand the industry where when someone calls you up and says I was just reading your blog, if you can do more to get that type of person to call you, that's where you are going to turn more of those leads into closed sales.

Mark Eibner: Great once again this has been another session of Friday Skype-in with Ed Kohler, you can read him at technologyevangelist.com and Ed we really appreciate you being on the show.

Ed Kohler: Thank you Mark.

Mark Eibner: Till next Friday we will see at another Friday Skype-in.

Michael Paul from Metro Brokers Realty Oasis talks Real Estate

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:50:18 -0500

Michael Paul from Metro Brokers Realty Oasis talks Real Estate

BrokerIPTV: Today we are talking with Michael Paul from Metro Brokers Realty Oasis and Michael welcome to the show.

Michael Paul: Well thank you very much and glad to be here.

BrokerIPTV: Glad to have you here how long have you been in real estate?

Michael Paul: I have been in real estate in one form or another for more than 30 years.

BrokerIPTV: And good experience so far?

Michael Paul: It's been, it's been both of those, both good and both bad you know I started actually my real estate license I first got that in 1973.

BrokerIPTV: Yeah.

Michael Paul: The 80s were not so hot you know and then real estate got better as we went through the 90s and you know we are in some rough waters again I think.

BrokerIPTV: I aways like talking to people with 30 plus years experience because you guys have pretty much seen it all?

Michael Paul: Well I think we have you know and my early years were in a family partnership sort of situation and I worked in commercial real estate at that time we did for the most part it was commercial property management and so much different really than the selling that we are involved in these days.

BrokerIPTV: Well what areas are you specializing in now?

Michael Paul: Well I have in recent years been farm ranch and horse property specialist my wife and I have had horses for all of our adult lives and I have a good website that appeals for horse people and I get, I get lots of people visiting that website and I always have something to talk about with them. You know if you are a horse person you can call a horse person up and you have something in common with him right away.

BrokerIPTV: I just did my first large ranch deal and I have to say that's an entirely different animal no pun intended from regular residential real estate, can you talk a little bit about that?

Michael Paul: Well it could be and that you know if you are, if you are talking about large ranches, those are, ranchers are a different kind of people you know and these days there aren't very many large properties around to sell any more. I used to do a lot of land there used to be really you know good commissions in land we used to split 8% and 10% you know among the real estate agents, that doesn't exist any more and the larger parcels are for the most part unless you get quite a ways out, the larger parcels are you know fairly well split up by now so.

BrokerIPTV: You are also a part owner in Meridian Title and Escrow, can you talk a little bit about how that experience has been?

Michael Paul: I am, I am a stock holder and that came about through my relationship with Realty Oasis, I moved from Re/Max office in about 2002 over to Realty Oasis and shortly after that was presented the opportunity to become a part owner I guess you would say a stock holder in Meridian Title and that has been a great experience. I like having or being able to have a close relationship with the Title people that I work with. In other transactions you know very often we have or at least in my past history we would have the listing agent would primarily be the person who decided which type of company you would go to. Nowadays if we are the listing agent, we choose the title company, we choose Meridian Title. If we represent the buyer then we also ask that the seller be willing to use our Title Company and very often they will.

BrokerIPTV: And final question quickly just some of the benefits that you have seen being associated with Meridian Title and Escrow?

Michael Paul: Well I think, I think at this point we have excellent personnel these days, the closures are great, they know exactly what they are doing and they have come a long way since the very early days I think that the rates are also a big draw point we have a ten year reissue rate and we have transaction management that is also a part of that, that enables us to turn most of that over to our, to our transaction manager and they pretty much take care of all the details of any transaction that we have that we are working on.

BrokerIPTV: Michael great meeting you.

Michael Paul: Well thank you very much.

BrokerIPTV: Thanks appreciate your time.

Michael Paul: Well absolutely thank you.

Tom Kunz the President and CEO of C21 International is at the 2009 Inman Connect SF

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:16:58 -0500

Mark Eibner: This is Mark Eibner with Broker IPTV. We are coming to you from the 2009 Inman Connect in San Francisco and I am here today with Tom Kunz and Tom is the President and CEO of the C21 International, welcome to the show Tom.

Tom Kunz: Well thank you very much and appreciate being here with you.

Mark Eibner: Just first of what some kind of insight here on Inman Connect this year?

Tom Kunz: Well I know its really been a very, very interesting because it gives you the opportunity to come here and see some of the companies that have been in the business for a long time and then as we saw today here at the show you get to see five or six of brand new start up companies that are just starting out on some of the products that they have and you know you sit in the audience I was sitting here with [Inaudible] with [Inaudible] and we were and I told him I said its interesting because it just get your brain really churning about wow geez you could do this you could do that with this. So I just find it very energetic and very interesting to come here and here are some of the new things that are happening and how can you tie it back into some of the things we already have to you know moving forward you know this industry.

Mark Eibner: Right well I mean C21 very traditional star word, long standing company why don't you explain to us some of the things you are being involved with or want to be involved with as far as moving your brand ahead?

Tom Kunz: Well it's been very interesting; we have really done almost a total make over of the brand, over the last couple of years. I...we came in and changed our model, we came in and changed our servicing model to our franchisees, I brought a new Senior Vice President of Marketing, I brought a new CEO off from MacDonald's Corporation into to talk to you know here is one of the greatest, largest franchisers in the country and so I want to bring this talent into be able to take a look at our brand and say what do we need to do and how could we make it better and in terms of technology or Bev Thorne, our Senior Vice President of Marketing has totally redone our website. I think if you go and take a look at you will see its one of the... probably one of the most forward thinking types of websites that you will see out there. Craig our CEO from... the gentleman who came from MacDonald's you know has really started to innovate with our business consultants in the market place, to start to talk about real business acumen with our franchisees and putting a lot of coaching accountability into... into our franchisees hands. So what we are trying to do is to marry technology with the ability of how to run a success from profitable real estate company.

Mark Eibner: Well I know you guys took a bold initiative, was it last year you announced or beginning of this year in January as far as your TV media advertising where that was going, was being pulled off and put on to the Internet correct?

Tom Kunz: That's absolutely correct. That was one of the things that Bev did. She, she built the website; she built all the support mechanisms in place and then we... as you said we took this step, we are the first in the industry to do it. Of course we... you know we stayed a few [Inaudible] about that but long term I think its going to be great for us we have taken all our TV advertising and we have shifted it to interactive media because that's where we know the customers at and at the end of the day our job is to really drive leads to our franchisees and other agents, so that they can go ahead and do more transactions and so far what we have seen since we have done that is we have reduced our cost per lead by some 60 plus percent and we have seen over 200% increase in the amount of leads that we are generating, so its... its been very, very good for us so far.

Mark Eibner: Three times more sales if you are making the moves in the right direction I appreciate your time today.

Tom Kunz: Well thank you very much Mark I appreciate being here with you.

Mark Eibner: You bet.

Tom Kunz: Thank you.

Todd Carpenter-Manager for Social Media with NAR at the 2009 Inman Connect SF

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:40:01 -0500

Mark Eibner: This is Mark Eibner with Broker IPTV and we are at Inman Connect in San Francisco, 2009. I am in the lobby here with Todd Carpenter and Todd Carpenter is the Manager for Social Media at NAR, congrats on your position there Todd.

Todd Carpenter: Thank you, thank you very much.

Mark Eibner: So what are you finding out here at this year's with the Inman that maybe different some... than some other events?

Todd Carpenter: Well you know I go to Inman as often as I can because this is where a lot of thought leaders come, not just to speak but to come and listen and so even right here in the hallway, this is a great place to be, you meet a lot of new people, you make a lot of great connections and sometimes those connections don't pay off for a year, but this is where you meet them.

Mark Eibner: Yeah how are things going with your new position at NAR right now with Social Media being something that the national association is looking more at as a viable means for business?

Todd Carpenter: Well I will tell you, when I first came on I thought maybe I was going to have to help, almost evangelize Social Media when going into the associations and really its more like I have to... herd all the different people that really want to use it right now and make sure that we kind of do it in a focused way. So I don't really have to convince anyone that this is a great idea that the association, staff and leadership love the idea of communicating and using the best means is obviously really effective way to do it.

Mark Eibner: Anything on the event or on the forefront here for the national associations meeting this year as far as there is going to be more Social Media classes more people in that genre?

Todd Carpenter: There are definitely going to be more Social Media classes within the annual event itself. In addition to that we are going to have a RE bar camp event which will be the day before the main conference which is un-conference for real estate, a great way to share ideas and then we are even going to have an event called WordCamp and this is a WordPress development seminar which won't even have real estate speakers, its all about how to develop WordPress. WordPress is a blog platform that allows the real estate agency or so the ability to get really geeky if you want to is actually going to be at NAR annual.

Mark Eibner: Excellent, it has been a great scene again Todd I appreciate you are talking with us.

Todd Carpenter: Thanks Mark.

Terrell Williams discusses big changes to Metrolist as of Sept 15th

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:26:05 -0500

BrokerIPTV: Today we are talking with Terrell Williams, the Managing Broker of Western Home and Land and Metrolist board member, Terrell welcome to the show.

Terrell Williams: Thank you Dan pleasure to be here.

BrokerIPTV: Thanks for being here. Today we are talking about metrolist they made some big news recently.

Terrell Williams: Yes.

BrokerIPTV: Got some people nervous that all of a sudden a couple of systems are going away. MyMLS and the legacy system are no longer going to be provided is that right?

Terrell Williams: As of September 15th we are retiring the older systems.

BrokerIPTV: Now it doesn't bother me because I am a techy guy and I have been using Prime Access but I know some of the older realtors who have been using a legacy system for years and MyMLS you know changed kind of creates little stress what have you heard?

Terrell Williams: It does. Well we have heard from some of those folks that they are worried about the transition, they are worried about losing their favorite features, worried about losing their favorite functionality pretty much though that's been limited to a handful of people not anywhere near the response that we had feared as a worst case scenario that's gone very smoothly.

BrokerIPTV: All right so inevitably the next question to come out of their mouths are why are you retiring them?

Terrell Williams: Of course the answer is simple it was time. The older systems were based on technology that was literally decades old. All technology has a life cycle MLS systems are no different Prime Access is based on the latest dot net technologies that allow us to have functionality and flexibility into the future and frankly the older systems were dragging us down, they were keeping us from doing things that improve Prime Access to allow it to move forward.

BrokerIPTV: Now I am sure some brokers say well I use virtual office I use Wildfire those work with MyMLS what's going to happen to those products?

Terrell Williams: Not a thing. We are committed Metrolist is committed to supporting third party vendors. Wildfire, Virtual Office and so on as well as IDX solutions all of these things will continue to be supportive through the web interface.

BrokerIPTV: Now was there anyone out there like me that said that's okay because I didn't use those to begin with, I used Prime Access?

Terrell Williams: You know the newest brokers yes.

BrokerIPTV: Yeah okay.

Terrell Williams: I myself had an earlier career in technology and came to real estate as a second career and so my use of MyMLS was limited. I was introduced to Prime Access right from the beginning and so a lot of us have, cut our teeth on Prime Access and are very comfortable and familiar with it. So the transition has gone very well and we are excited about being able to move forward and add new features.

BrokerIPTV: Now there is certainly were some brokers that said "Hey that Prime Access is great; I will learn that somewhere down the line, but now they are going to have to get to love to speed a little quicker.

Terrell Williams: Well yes we assume that that's the case and as a result we have since the beginning of July, added many new training classes, our new office near at I-25 and Arapahoe has an expanded training facility to accommodate lots more people at one time but also we have added additional classes in terms of more higher frequency more often each month we have added classes at broker offices and added some online capabilities just that all of these are being used heavily and we assume that there will be even more of a rush in the next couple of weeks.

BrokerIPTV: Yeah I bet there will and last two weeks maybe little hectic for you, thanks so much.

Terrell Williams: Exactly.

BrokerIPTV: For the information I appreciate.

Terrell Williams: It's a pleasure, thank you.

Board member of Metrolist Terrel Williams describes Prime Access as #1 Platform

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:22:24 -0500

BrokerIPTV: Today we are talking with Terrell Williams, Managing Broker of Western Home and Land and a Metrolist board member, Terrell welcome to the show.

Terrell Williams: Hi Dan.

BrokerIPTV: Well we have been talking about Prime Access and the news that Metrolist made that Prime Access is going to be their #1 platform, MyMLS and the legacy system will be retired.

Terrell Williams: That's right.

BrokerIPTV: So some people are nervous about they want to get some information out?

Terrell Williams: Sure.

BrokerIPTV: All right tell people what's great about Prime Access?

Terrell Williams: Well to me the single greatest aspect of Prime Access that is far and away better than what we had previously is power search. Power search has enormous capability, enormous functionality, especially with the addition of the map search tool within it as one aspect of the search tool, but to me it speeds things up, it allows us to save the searches in a way that that make sense, the searches that we do the most often. We can modify and customize them and especially using the map tools search according to a geographic constraint a polygon radius instead of being constrained by the old areas that sometimes may just lose something across the border or whatever.

BrokerIPTV: And that's my favorite tool on the whole thing and the reason being is that there are lot of times where I will type in the subdivision incorrectly.

Terrell Williams: Yes.

BrokerIPTV:There will be brokers that put the home in two subdivisions.

Terrell Williams: Right.

BrokerIPTV: And what if they lose this subdivision ahead of this one and then you don't get the results? So I just stopped using subdivision, I go right to the map feature, type in the address, they show me everything within half mile or a mile of this address and it works great for me.

Terrell Williams: Absolutely great example. I live in Wheat Ridge and do a lot of business in Wheat Ridge and the same thing happens there in little bit different way because we have three zip codes in Wheat Ridge too which are associated with Denver and so if we just put in Wheat Ridge, those properties on the Eastern edge are found and so I can create a polygon that describes Wheat Ridge and exactly the way you described it.

BrokerIPTV: Now people are using data in a variety of ways these days and they want raw data that they can use for something else in a different application for this.

Terrell Williams: Sure.

BrokerIPTV: And the thing that I like about Prime Access is you can export, export that data.

Terrell Williams: Sure.

BrokerIPTV: And use it for other uses correct?

Terrell Williams: Right you can download it in a couple of different formats whichever is convenient to you as a spreadsheet or text or whatever you want to do. So you do your basic search and you could be searching for all of the properties you know that are sold in the last few months in a given area same kind of search capability you had previously, but then as instead of sending it out as a report format to a customer just download it as into whatever format you like as a spreadsheet or whatever and then take it into excel or whatever your tools are at database and do those manipulations there.

BrokerIPTV: Tell me about the statistics tool as well.

Terrell Williams: Well the statistics is a powerful capability as well so that as you finished a search you can find out what the... what the averages were, what the commonalities were, how many they were according to all the different statistical parameters and, and that can sometimes help you decide well this was, the search was waited too heavily at the high end, at the low end and so there is a lot of new functionality and capability there as well.

BrokerIPTV: Oh I like them all, I use them all thank you so much for that information I appreciate you being here.

Terrell Williams: You bet happy to here, thanks.

Friday afternoon Skype chat with Ed Kohler on Individual agent brand management

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:07:36 -0500

Mark Eibner: Welcome to Broker IPTV. My name is Mark Eibner and its time for our Friday afternoon skype chat with Ed and Ed welcome to the show.

Ed Kohler: Hi Mark how are you doing?

Mark Eibner: Great, how are you today?

Ed Kohler: I am good.

Mark Eibner: Hey just going to pick up on our conversation we had last Friday, we talked a little bit about localism. Today I think we are going to bring up the subject of, which is called not only company but actually individual agent brand management, what have you to say on that ad?

Ed Kohler: Well I think some of the things that I see online Mark with the brands is that people are still trying to figure out how to transfer their brand to the web and to me a brand is something where it's a consistent experience the people are going to have with the company. So online that could be a thing such as having high quality photos on your listings or making sure that all the agents within a company have good quality photos and content that's filled about on their websites. So instead a lot of real estate sites today have really, really inconsistent experiences from one listing to the next or from one agent to the next and that's a huge opportunity for a company to just really just say you know what, we are going to be consistently good across the board and I would love to see someone step up and get that done but I am not really seeing that yet.

Mark Eibner: Yeah so you have got some of the listings you go out to people aren't even putting their photo up on got for bid the MLS and if they are putting up a photo its usually something that's purely taken much less the company websites where they should in fact have what 10, 20 even 30 photos.

Ed Kohler: Yeah you know I look at kind of how on in brands and other industries there are companies that do a very, very good job having a consistent experience. For example you see hotel chains where no matter where in the country you go or in the world that you go to one of their properties, the experiences can be consistently good you know when you, no matter what room they gave you, when you walk into the room its going to be prepared, its going to be cleaned its... its really just ready for you and if you go to a restaurant chain like something like McDonald's no matter where you go to McDonald's in the world, you can expect the food will be of a consistent quality, will be delivered fast, it will be hot you know that sort of thing where over time that becomes the brand. The brand is the experience the people have with it but in real estate there are still very, very inconsistent from one agent to the next or even from one listing to the next. So hopefully people will understand it, really that's a big part of what it takes to have your brand become stronger.

Mark Eibner: What types of plans are I know you work with "Where to live" you are the broker or the author and writer for technology evangelist but what types of plans have you guys put in place to help some of your companies you work with say in the "Where to live" site have more consistency with their brokers?

Ed Kohler: At "Where to live" one thing we tried to do to help people make their brands more consistent and more... you know just have a better experience for consumers with their brand is to provide tools on the back end of our sites that show agents and show companies what it is they can do to raise the bar across their company. So show them on average how many photos they have on their properties and how many blog posts have they written in certain amount of time, how complete are their profiles of their agents, things like that where you can continually work to raise the bar and get it to a point where no people are going to no matter who they interact with online, its going to be a good quality experience.

Mark Eibner: You were saying like a rating system for agents when they come to the website that pretty much this agent consistently as 15 follows this agent consistently does one blog post everyday, this agent consistently has a video every week something of that nature?

Ed Kohler: There is a lot of ways that a broker could deal with creating a higher quality system both by having tools that could help agents but then also having tools for consumers to help them figure out which agents are some of the best agents in their system. So far what I am seeing at the broker level pretty consistently is people are starting to have tools for agents that we have like "Where to live" on the sites we build there are tools for agents to rate them on the back end of the site to show them what they could be doing to create a better experience for consumers.

Mark Eibner: Right.

Ed Kohler: But I have, would not yet using that data on the front end of our sites to sort agents for example based on different criteria and brokers to this point seem hesitant to do that but over time eventually someone will do that, but today that hasn't happened yet, it maybe that the event are happening more from companies outside of the industry. So maybe it will be a Trulia or a Zillow that's get there first. It is you know as people keep pushing the content, content and content into the sites, they are not going to throw only their content away and eventually they are going to use that content to start reading agents based on transactions or percentage of closing price or what you know the geographies they work and I mean they are not, they are not going to throw it away, they are going to start using that data to make their sites more valuable. So you know whether brokers will do it themselves, I can see where it could be a little bit politically difficult for a broker to do that because you know they don't want to you know irritate any of their agents you know because they are concerned that they will lose some agent.

Mark Eibner: Right.

Ed Kohler: But the same time they want to create a better consumer experience, so they kind of figuring out politically how to do that sort of thing.

Mark Eibner: Yeah makes a lot of sense Ed. Well hey we are going to wrap up today's show and look forward to talking to you next week. Once again this is Ed Kohler and Ed is the author of the blog technology evangelist and Ed, we appreciate your insight and tips for our broker viewers out there. We will see you next week, thanks Ed.

Ed Kohler: Thank you Mark.

Tyler Davey of Infusion Development introduces their new product Falcon Eye at the 2009 Inman Connect SF

Mark Eibner CRS, ePro,GRI (Metro Brokers Realty Oasis-BrokerIPTV) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:33:04 -0500

Tyler Davey: Hi I am Tyler Davey, General Manager with Infusion Development and I am here today to show you Microsoft Surface and Infusion's product Falcon Eye and how can we use it in real estate. So Infusion created a surface application on a touch screen device that allows realtors or businesses or consumers to leverage a 3-D mapping interface to see properties. So for instance we can go into Seattle downtown and when we go into Seattle, what we are going to see are 3-D high resolution textured images being brought to us by Microsoft big maps. Inside this application we can zoom in, we can zoom out, we can rotate and we can pull our custom information like in this case we are pulling up energy information it could be building information, resell values, we are going to pull up custom videos on to the map as well and we are going o get those videos. This could be your 3-D virtual tour, the users can see and interact with, or we could be doing new sub divisions and we can fly into new areas and in those areas we can see custom 3-D buildings that haven't been built yet that are being generated off of your auto CAD files or your drawings and pull those up on to our map in real time and even we can take it to the next level and we can dive into the building and see the video inside the building the room layered all in 3-dimensions. If you want to find out more about Microsoft surface, Microsoft PIN maps and how Infusion can empower your business you can check us out on our website, www.infusion.com or if you want to see any of these technologies, I have been showing you now go to our YouTube site www.youtube.com/infusiondevelopments.