Melinda's Blog

Delightful home ready for move in!

Melinda Duncan (RE/MAX Creative Realty) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:02:20 -0500

Welcome to this lovely home at 552 Millpond offered for $169,500.

You will love this bright, sunny open floor plan in the popular neighborhood of Willow Bend. This neighborhood offers the opportunity for amenities like pool and tennis. Walk to shopping and eateries. This Ball Home Parker model is upgraded with separate shower and garden tub. The lovely kitchen has bright white cabinets with granite look counters. A full compliment of appliances stay with the home. The flat rear yard is fenced on three sides. Dining room could be an optional bedroom or office. Only 5 years old!

Call for a private tour today!

Looking for an investment or home for your student?

Melinda Duncan (RE/MAX Creative Realty) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:26:16 -0500

My team is offering 1369 Hartland Woods Way up for sale at $93,900. It is a great purchase for a first time home buyer, downsizing, student or rental property. Located in a desirable area close to shopping and Man O War, it is worth a closer look.

Welcome home to this freshly painted townhome with new carpet and a beautiful vaulted wood ceiling. This open floor plan offers all that you are looking for in a home. Great locationclose to Man O War, shopping and schools. Private rear area on townhome with deck overlooking trees. A full compliment of appliances stay including the refrigerator and washer and dryer. Notice the skylight and fireplace that differentiates this from all the rest.

Walk to Chevy Chase

Melinda Duncan (RE/MAX Creative Realty) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:20:52 -0500

We have another wonderful old home in the heart of Lexington. Thos home is located at 906 Tates Creek Rd. for $224,900. Please give us a call for your private tour.

Lovely older home in the heart of Lexington. Walk to Chevy Chase, dining, schools and shopping. This elegant home offers a full front porch just waiting for a swing. As you tour throughout you will appreciate pieces from the past. This home is clean and ready for move-in as it is or would make a wonderful restoration.

Great historic home!

Melinda Duncan (RE/MAX Creative Realty) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:10:46 -0500

I have got a beautiful historic home in the much desired area of Lexington. Walk to work at the hospitals, University of Kentucky, and a short drive to downtown. Please check out our listing at 1623 Nicholasville Rd. offered for $415,000.

Welcome to this beautiful historic home. You are welcomed into the home by a southern style covered front porch, perfect for sipping lemonade and watching the kids play on the huge front lawn. Offering all the charm and character of days gone by with the amenities of today you will love all it has to offer. This over sized shaded lot has a fully fenced private backyard with a two level slate patio. The home offers large rooms with gleaming hardwoods and updated baths. It also has a walk up attic with heating and air making it easily finished for extra square footage. The family will enjoy the partially finished basement with a warm and cozy fireplace. The kitchen offers todays conveniences with touches of the past in its built in butlers pantry and rounded doorway. Walk to work at Central Baptist or UK.

For more information give us a call at 859-422-2035 and we will be happy to give you a private tour.

Market news

Melinda Duncan (RE/MAX Creative Realty) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:03:23 -0500

I don't know about you but I am so tired of opening the paper only to read how the housing market is on the decline. Haven't we heard this for the last two years? I opened the paper last week only to read splashed across the headlines that the market will continue to be down until 2010. Who makes these guesses and why is this new news? I knew this since the last RE/MAX convention in March.

All these headlines bring about is frightening the consumer into believing that it's still not the right time to buy or sell which further exacerbates the problem.

How about shouting out about the areas of the country that aren't slumping so bad. Recently there was an article that Lexington, KY was a great buy. This was on the Bloomberg Report site and by a National writer. Why wasn't this glorified by our local paper. I only heard about because our local board sent it out to the members. I, of course, shared it with our clients but would have loved to read about it in the newspaper too. Even page 2 would have helped!

Top tip

Melinda Duncan (RE/MAX Creative Realty) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:45:12 -0500

I don't know about you but I am inundated with phone calls each day from sales people offering yet another service my business can't live without. If I bought every service I got a call on my team and I would spend all our time keeping up with them and never sell real estate. Not to mention the fact that I would go broke.

Most of the systems we use have come as a suggestion from our Broker or another top agent. My team always calls an agent using the system to get real feedback. So I thought it would be great to pass along another suggestion of a system we use and find extremely helpful.

http://www.homefeedback has been a real blessing to our team. My listing coordinator was going on maternity leave last year and we didn't know how we were going to keep our sellers informed of feedback. (Our office doesn't offer that service). So she called around to some other agents and got a referral to home feedback.

After a showing you enter the agents information, it emails them a questionnaire and it automatically forward it to the seller if you choose. We don't edit the feedback and our sellers love it. It's a great way to get price reductions or that pink kitchen painted when they hear from a buyer instead of you.

Check it out and see if it's something you can use. Pass along a top tip to me. I can always use them!

Networking

Melinda Duncan (RE/MAX Creative Realty) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:08:17 -0500

I have found one of the best ways to fight our way through this market is to rely on each other. One of the reasons I travel around speaking occasionally is to meet other agents that share my philosophies and beliefs and want to give their clients and mine top quality service.

As an industry we have more entities fighting to reduce our commission and steal our relocating clients. The best way to avoid this is to capture those relocating clients before they get to the "interlopers" and send them to a reputable agent.

I advertise to my sphere of influence that any time they need the services of an agent outside my area I will gladly and free of charge refer them to the very best agent for them. Remember it is a "win-win" for you and the other agent. Who doen't love getting that check in the mail with little work on your part.

Voice pad, great technology

Melinda Duncan (RE/MAX Creative Realty) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 22:49:36 -0500

I know, I know you probably think I never work instead I skip around the country to speak. It is true that I enjoy this immensely but it just happens that all my speaking engagements have fallen together. I am on my way to Knoxville to speak with an office there about the benefits of "Voice Pad" innovations.

Many of you either use or have heard of these 24 hour hotlines. They provide around the clock information on your listings and are a great source of leads. Mine are on the sign in the yard of the property and list a phone number to call and a four digit code to enterl. Upon answering a prerecorded script provides basic information on the home.

Not only does this relieve me of the nosy neighbor calls but it sends the callers phone number to my cell phone. I or my team call them back quickly. I ask if they got all the information they needed on the home and would they like to take a look.

Last year alone we sold 8 of our listings and picked up another 4 buyers from this method. I'm just wondering if this works for anyone and what your experience has been.

Freebies for ads

Melinda Duncan (RE/MAX Creative Realty) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:57:17 -0500

I am lucky enough to have a family member that is up on the game of technology today. My team and I pride ourselves on the fact that we try to stay one step ahead when it comes to technology. One area we were lacking was exposing our listings and our team to the vast audience on the internet. Of course we had them on our local mls, realtor.com and remax.com but we were missing so much more. Thanks to my brother-in-law we now feature our properties across the web.

First and foremost I now podcast. I have a site www.melindaduncanpodcast.com that has both public and agent information. But even more important he showed me how to advertise myself and my properties for little to no money. I now feature my listings on Craig's List, youtube and several others. This is a great way to drive traffic to your site and expose your listings to the public. If you haven't started be prepared, the public now expects it.

Time to get back to the basics!

Melinda Duncan (RE/MAX Creative Realty) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:40:09 -0500

After attending the convention one thing I realized is there is no magic solution to get through this market. I am so tired of our current market but am not ready to throw in the hat. The thing that I have realized over the last year is it's time to get back to the basics.

It's been many years since I had to hunt out clients but I have actually resorted to knocking on doors again. No, not just random strangers but the neighborhoods I specialize in. My team and I have also narrowed down our sphere of influence to a core group and have begun a little extra treatment. In these times we must depend on those clients to send their friends and family our direction.

I always try to end a phone call, face to face meeting or personal note with asking for them to refer anyone they think deserves world class service to the Melinda Duncan Team. I am never too busy for referrals.

Try asking the next person you meet if they or anyone they know is looking to buy or sell. You might just be surprised at their answer. End your next phone call with an agent out of your area if they can give you one great idea that works for them. We get our best ideas from other agents.

Teams!

Melinda Duncan (RE/MAX Creative Realty) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 22:03:34 -0500

I thought about the reason I was asked to speak at the National Convention and wondered about the experience other agents had with teams. By teams I mean a group of agents and administrative staff joined together for a common goal.

Do you have a team, work on a team or have you had a transaction with a team? I get positive and negative feedback on teams. I personally wouldn't have it any other way. I have done it on my own and although I succeeded I enjoy the comraderie involved. I can get my ideas put into action and gather great ideas from the rest of the team.

When I leave town I know I am leaving my clients in the capable hands of my team. I have full faith that they will be treated just as I would treat them.

My team and I strive to give our clients world class service. After having attended the convention I always come back with ideas bursting from my brain. I am great at gathering the new ways to succeed in business but terrible at getting them off the ground. The greatest part about tomorrow morning is I know at our team meeting I will throw a million ideas and my team will groan but then they will do their very best to complete the necessary research to help us decide if it's for our team. When we do agree it's for our team I know they will do their very best to execute them.

That's why I love my team!

Wow! I actually did it!

Melinda Duncan (RE/MAX Creative Realty) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:15:51 -0600

Well, after much anticipation and nerves I got up on that stage and spoke to an auditorium of RE/MAX convention goers. It was fit for 1,000 and looked like 10,000 but probably more like 600 or 700. I was asked to speak on teams and how to start one. I have worked with a team for over 15 years or so and wouldn't have it any other way. I was representing the small team and there were 2 others for the medium and large teams.

I'm honored I was asked, pleased at how well it went but very glad I'm done! If any RE/MAX agents are out there that happened to attend, let me know how you thought it went.

Well, I'm trying to get back home tonight through all the snow that has hit so wish me luck!

First day on active rain!

Melinda Duncan (RE/MAX Creative Realty) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:59:15 -0600

Well to all the Realtors nice anough to read my blog, hello! I decided to give active rain a go after I was asked to speak on technology at the Kentucky Association of Realtors. Another agent speaking based her share of the class on the benefits of belonging to this great group of techies. Being that I am interested in keeping up with the new generation of buyers and sellers I thought I'd give it a go. Seems like it is full of valuable information.

I am currently attending the RE/MAX convention in Las Vegas and have been featured as a speaker in one of the large forums going on after Brian Buffini and the founder of RE/MAX, Dave Liniger. Pretty big stuff for a small town girl. I'll fill you in upon my return and let you how I survived!