Steven's Blog

Obeo WI

262-325-8687

Obeo in Your Area

800-729-6236

STOP TWO ON THE INTERNET SCAVENGER HUNT FOR REMAX - WISCONSIN!

Obeoman Steven Stearns (www.obeo.com) — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:37:07 -0500

:- ) HELLO HUNTERS!

Well, RE/MAX WI Agents-here we are at the second stop for clues-

-on the RE/MAX WISCONSIN INTERNET SCAVENGER HUNT!

(The hunt starts Friday MAY 9th and is limited to RE/MAX agents in WI.)

Here is what you are looking for to win your Silver Obeo tour:

-A drawing of a brain. When you find it, read the blog, leave a comment on the blog and include your name, phone number and brokerage name in the body of the comment.

-A photo of a home with red shutters. When you find it, read the blog, leave a comment on the blog and include your name, phone number and brokerage name in the body of the comment.

When the hunt is over-I will let you all know who won very soon!

-BUT READ ON!

To win the Bonus Prize-a free Obeo Styledesigner-

follow this link and search for Steven Stearns on facebook.

Send me a message on my WALL and

you will win an Obeo StyleDesigner!

Thanks-Good Luck!

Steve

Obeo WI:

262-325-8687

Obeo in your area:

800-729-6236

30 days, disconnected phones and a hawk...

Obeoman Steven Stearns (www.obeo.com) — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:14:40 -0500

(SHS Photo)

...after 30 days, back again!

...the time was spent wisely-

-pounding the phone-and listening.

-blasting out emails-then waiting for the replies.

-turning the corporate piggy bank upside down - and asking for some tape

to put nickels together to make dimes.

One day after about 30 phone calls,-28 messages and 2 disconnects-

I met my new friend as I slouched into the kitchen to get coffee.

Staring right at me. Sitting on the deck railing.

He heard me and flew off.

But every day, looking for him kept me going.

That, and coffee.

He came back three times this month.

Last time, he let me open the patio door,

and walk to within two feet of him,

eye to eye.

I blinked.

He was gone.

I am gonna keep looking for him.

Steve

Oh yeah, did I mention Obeo throws in a million visitors with the full service photos? And more?

OBEO WI - 262-325-8687

OBEO IN YOUR AREA - 800-729-6236

Real Estate makes my head hurt...sometimes...

Obeoman Steven Stearns (www.obeo.com) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:09:48 -0500

(free brain drawing from www.clipartreview.com)

...from the WSJ...in Italy, the had to let a 400+lb criminal out of jail

Why? There was no bed in the Italian jail that could accommodate his obesity....

....and why is redoing the bathroom, where we spend the least amount of time,

has almost an equal ROI to the kitchen, where we should spend less time?

...how come a short sale requires so many long, paper forms to be filled out?...

...from the NYT...how can the Northeast states lead in the number of foreclosures,

but home sales are up 3% in the Northeast states-that's what public radio said...

and finally, from the Associated Press:

how can a PA homeowner sue Google for taking a picture of their home on a private road,

when pictures of the same house are on a public county website?

Real estate IS crazy....

Steve

Obeo in WI - 262-325-8687

Obeo in Your Area - 800-729-6236

www.obeo.com

REALTOR MAGAZINE: Best Photos, More Photos: 50% OFF DOM!

Obeoman Steven Stearns (www.obeo.com) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:04:51 -0500

REALTOR MAGAZINE: Best Photos, More Photos: 50% OFF DOM!

WOW!

Okay, give your listings the chance they deserve: you know the BEST photos are the BEST first impression.

REALTOR magazine thinks so ,too:

Read on:

From the on line version from REALTOR magazine:

1 Photo = 70 DOM

20 Photos = 32 DOM

This is a no-brainer.

We all laugh our heads off at crummy MLS photos.

Don't let others laugh at your expense.

Hire a virtual tour company.

Let the market work for you.

So you can work the market.

Steve

OBEO WI - 262-325-8687

OBEO IN YOUR AREA - 800-729-6236

(REALTOR on line link)

Ten Things You Know You Can Blog About:

Obeoman Steven Stearns (www.obeo.com) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:55:28 -0500

1.) Your city parks - and dog parks!

2.) Arts programs for kids!

3.) Life-long neighborhood residents-what did it used to be like?

4.) Groundkeeper for the school sports fields-"green" real estate.

5.) A local popular cafe.

6.) Got any street musicians out in the early spring weather?

7.) The municipal employee at the property tax desk.

8.) The owner of the pink or purple home.

9.) Oldest or historical home in the community.

10.) Your dog.

...Okay, the last one is a gimme.

But you can tie all of these ideas with a little creativity,

right back to real estate.

Have fun and Blog 0n!

Steve

to do just what you want it to do:

Obeo in WI - 262-325-8687

Obeo in Your Area - 800-729-6236

iGoogle: a great FREE tool to keep Realtors in the know!

Obeoman Steven Stearns (www.obeo.com) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:19:02 -0500

Probably quite a few of you

know about and use the iGoogle feature-

in about 15 minutes, you can set up a tabbed Google homepage

(my iGoogle is pictured above)

clocks in time zones, calculators, search boxes, keyword news searchs

blog searches, mapping tools, YouTube search box-

it even refreshes the page when you do!

There are literally hundreds of widgets to collect you information,

and deliver it to you every time you go to Google.

...it's a great thing to have in the morning, all day and before bedtime!

Blog On!

Steve

Here is a link to the podcast-the player is on the right hand side of the screen!

Obeo WI - 262-325-8687

Obeo in Your Area - 800-729-6236

WOW! Blog, Broadcast,Chat and twitter all at once!!!: blogtalkradio !

Obeoman Steven Stearns (www.obeo.com) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:07:04 -0500

(Logo from their site: http://www.blogtalkradio.com)

RealEstateZebra is out there leading the pack.

Some of you may know him for his catchy B&W video

about selling a house,

but today he was covering all the bases.

He was blogcasting and taking callers at

the VAR BloggerCon today on blogtalkradio.com

A great discussion about how, why and the zen of blogging.

Everybody was talking about it on twitter, and

there was also a chat box at the

blog talk radio site.

Somebody even put up a photo on twitpic.

Way to go, Daniel!

Steve

Time is not on your side...

Obeoman Steven Stearns (www.obeo.com) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:52:41 -0500

Time.

You only get so much.

There is never enough in a day,

-a New York Minute is

gone in a flash.

Do you have the time?

Can you spare the time?

In Real Estate,

time is money.

How do you spend yours?

Or do you invest it.

You don't have it to waste.

It's already tomorrow...

Steve

You can read more about it,

Obeo WI - 262-325-8687

Obeo in Your Area - 800-729-6236

Wisconsin most stable in Midwest housing market!!!:WRA

Obeoman Steven Stearns (www.obeo.com) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:26:27 -0500

(WRA logo from http://www.wra.org/)

Wisconsin is the most stable housing market in the Midwest!

By the numbers, from the WRA:

-Up .02 in 2007-Median home sale price;

-This WRA chart shows a slight drop in sales in 2007, but Wisconsin sales outperformed the nation in Q3 of 2007.

Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	YTD
2007	1198	2289	1900	1081	6468
2006	1254	2380	1991	1216	6841
2005	1182	2494	2427	1400	7503
2004	1110	2217	2331	1496	7154
2003	1220	2082	2114	1288	6704
2002	1144	2064	1996	1315	6519
2001	1074	1846	1684	1296	5900
2000	903	1713	1525	1097	5238
1999	938	1854	1784	1078	5654
1998	986	1819	1722	1076	5603
1997	805	1736	1837	1216	5594

-Ranked 29th nationally in foreclosures, less than one half of one percent!

And confidence in the housing market is doing just fine:

-77% of consumers asked by the WRA think

it's a good time to buy!

(sample size-400)

and find a Wisconsin Realtor right here!

Plus, you can find some great Wisconsin homes here!

Steve

Obeo WI-262-325-8687

YOUR PERFECT Virtual Tour!

Obeoman Steven Stearns (www.obeo.com) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:24:37 -0500

What is it?

What is YOUR perfect visual tour?

Full service photography? How many still photos?

How many panoramas?

What kind of features do you want?

Do you wany to be able to change the paint, carpet, cabinets and countertops?

What kind of branding?

Mapping? Satellite photos?

Interactive floorplan?

School info?

Local comps? Wish List? Download-able?

Where do you want it sent to on the web? What kind of statistical reporting do you want?

Pricing?

Put it right here in the comments

Let me know.

I am all ears!

Steve

Obeo WI-262-325-8687

Obeo in Your Area-800-729-6236

Grab a life jacket and have a seat!

Obeoman Steven Stearns (www.obeo.com) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:57:34 -0500

(Along the Rock River-SHS photo)

...it seems like lately,

everything is pushing the limits.

Mortgages, housing inventories, foreclosures-

Unavailable, too tight, too high or just too many to run away from.

When the river comes up, you never know what it is going to bring with it.

One thing it does bring is rich silt.

New ground to plant in.

In Egypt, they depend on a flooded Nile delta, now and for thousands of years,

to renew and replenish the land.

Ok, the glass is overflowing-

Grab a paddle and get ready to grab a shovel-soon!

Steve

If this is what I get for making a friend laugh,

Obeo WI-262-325-8687

Obeo in Your Area-800-729-6236

Teresa Boardman is calling me a Weenie!

Obeoman Steven Stearns (www.obeo.com) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 18:30:58 -0500

Dip me in mustard and put me on a stick.

Teresa Boardman, who we all know is the Mother of All Bloggers,

and an activerain member,

was Twittering away with me one day.

My silly smiling avatar had made her laugh. And laugh.

And then humanity came into play.

She called me. A small, honest connection in a big sideways-connected world.

To hear her laugh just made my day.

Just like waaaayyyy back when I started my outside blog Real Estate is Crazy,

She emailed and said I should stop by (her blog) for a cup of tea.

It just blew me away and got me going.

So, I open my mailbox and a Google alert with my name on it pops up.

w0w. Nerdvana.

She is calling me a Weenie, but in the nicest way.

I want enough to share with everyone.

Thanks, Teresa.

I promise to keep smiling.

Obeo WI - 262-325-8687

Obeo National- 800-729-6236

FREE VIRTUAL TOURS FOR LIFE!

Obeoman Steven Stearns (www.obeo.com) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:53:20 -0500

(Fool Image from http://www.english-blogs.com/)

Obeo is giving away free tours to all Realtors. Anywhere. Anytime. Anyone.

Forever and-never.

Simple:

If you sign up with us today,

we will offer you

FREE UNLIMITED PHOTOS FOR ALL YOUR LISTINGS PLACED AT ALL REAL ESTATE WEBSITES

FOREVER!

Never worry again about fussy sellers

wondering if their listing is being seen-

or even sold!

WE WILL BUY THE HOME IF IT DOES NOT SELL EVER. TO ANYONE.

This offer expire(d) when you read the blog.

So kick me,

or just leave a smart-a** comment

And enjoy April Fools Day!

Steve

Obeo WI - 262-325-8687

Obeo National- 800-729-6236

PennyMac from heaven?

Obeoman Steven Stearns (www.obeo.com) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:58:40 -0500

It's called the Private National Acceptance Company LLC.

PennyMac.

It's made up of former executives from Countrywide.

The idea is to buy up at-risk mortgages and home loans to help owners keep their homes.

It might just work.

At what cost-that remains to be seen.

This report on Marketplace radio news offers a pretty good overview.

It sounds simple - keep people in their homes, keep tax bases for communities stable,

and infuse some cash back into the economy for a "jump start effect."

And:

...coupling common sense with lending is suddenly in fashion-

the administration moving toward the formation of a Mortgage Origination Commission

to set up some minimum national standards for licensing of mortage professionals.

I'm no financial wizard-my wife Theresa will tell you that.

Well, the coin has tossed on both of these ideas in less than a week-

here's hoping they come down heads up for homeowners.

Just my two cents,

Steve

Obeo WI - 262-325-8687

Obeo National- 800-729-6236

Yadda, yadda, yadda....

Obeoman Steven Stearns (www.obeo.com) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:57:29 -0500

There are four points to a compass,

but 360 degrees as you go around it.

That is confusing enough.

Add in oh, say an average of 80-90 emails a day,

three or four phone calls an hour, 12 photographers scattered over a whole state and

a thousand-plus clients in your core market.

Some of you are already going-HA! That sounds like vacation, I do that before 10 a.m.,

my kid gets more email than that, what are you - a salesman or a wuss,

yadda, yadda, yadda.

Look, I am not complaining.

I love my job and my company.

I need more of you to keep me busier!

...I need to retire someday, OK?

Steve

Obeo WI - 262-325-8687

Obeo National- 800-729-6236

WELCOME TO THE PARTY!

Obeoman Steven Stearns (www.obeo.com) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:54:19 -0500

and HAPPY BLOGDAY!

My other blog-

Real Estate is Crazy

is one year old today.

Whew.

...and is holding its own!

The keyword search in Google

real estate crazy

or a variation of those words

has me #1 in Google!

....I GET TO KEEP MY JOB!

and I gotta say,

activerain, facebook, twitter and wannanetwork all figure into the picture.

That, and thousands of readers.

So stop by if you need a laugh,

wanna vent,

be shamelessly shilled.

Becasue in the past 365 days

Real Estate hasn't gotten any less crazy,

and you're not!

Steve

Need Motivation? Try THIS!

Real Estate is crazy...

Obeo WI-262-325-8687

Obeo National-800-729-6236

Fly high!

Obeoman Steven Stearns (www.obeo.com) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:52:03 -0500

(SHS Photo)

The robins are back.

In force.

They flew all the way back from Texas and some points further south,

to spring in the Midwest and Canada.

Where there are still some places facing winter weather.

But the robins aren't going back, even if it does snow.

Again.

Even if it's cold and windy,

they will naturally seek out a sunny, warm place.

Turn their backs to the wind,

and observe what is going on all around them

before they decide which way to fly.

Something to learn-

when things might not be going the way

we expect them to.

Steve

Here's what Greg had to say!

Obeo WI: 262-325-8687

Obeo National: 800-729-6236

StyleDesigner - redecorate on line!

Obeoman Steven Stearns (www.obeo.com) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:14:56 -0500

Photos from Bloodhound Blog:

Before StyleDesigner...

After StyleDesigner!

Look what happens when a dog redecorates your kitchen!

Thanks again to Greg Swann at the Bloodhound Blog-

He thinks our StyleDesigner is a "killer" app -

We just like to think it's what Realtors need to make the market work for them.

Virtual redecorating, being able to change colors on walls and trim, flooring, cabinets and countertops.

All with a pick and a click.

Take a look at Obeo,

And then, take another one.

That's what other Realtors and consumers are doing.

And it's working-

over one million people a month at our site.

And, Greg- we'll work on the music, OK? It's not that cheesy...

Steve

Obeo StyleDesigner-Redecorate listings on line!

Obeo WI-262-325-8687

Obeo National-800-729-6236

Social not-working...NOT!

Obeoman Steven Stearns (www.obeo.com) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:42:51 -0500

(Photo from http://www.houdinitribute.com/)

...the more, the merrier!

Or is it?

There is a lot of criticism of social networking - most of it revolving around:

Does it work?

How well?

How do you KNOW its working?

Simple!

If you have:

-learned anything of value about what you are doing;

-taken what you have learned and changed the way you worked;

-broadened your sphere of influence;

-tried one social network and left because it did not fit your marketing plan to try another one that did;

-exposed the name of your brand and business to a broader audience;

-gotten a referral;

-made a referral;

or made a friend,

or found an old one-

Social networking has worked for you,

hasn't it?

Blog 0n!

Steve

Obeo WI -262-325-8687

Obeo National - 800-729-6236