Once upon a time there was a building that had a mouse problem.  They knew they had a mouse problem because they found mouse poop in the kitchen drawers.  “Ick!” yelled the cook, “Something must be done!”

So the smart people got together to tackle the problem.  One of them suggested getting a cat.  They would let the cat live in the building and it would take care of the mouse problem for them.  “The problem with that,” said one wise person, “Is that we’ll have to leave the cabinet doors open.  And we’ll have to feed the cat and set up cat litter box duty.  No thanks!”

Someone else suggested getting a plastic snake and putting it in the drawers where the mouse poop was found.  “This will not work,” said one of the farmers.  “I use plastic snakes in my garden to scare off the birds and they work well.  But plastic snakes do not scare off mice.  Mice are not afraid of plastic snakes.  They just run right over them and ignore them.”  So they scraped that idea.

Eventually they decided to use mouse traps with some peanut butter smeared on the trigger.  And of course, it worked like a charm!  The mouse problem was quickly eradicated and everybody was happy.

Are you looking to buy a Tulsa Oklahoma house online?  Are you using sites like Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com and others?  If so, you’re a whole lot like those people who wanted to take care of the mouse problem using the cat and the plastic snake.  You’re getting some information about Tulsa Oklahoma houses, but not necessarily the correct information.

And why is that?  Because online sites like Zillow, Trulia and even Reatlor.com get their information from a database called the Multi-List System.  This is where all Real Estate folks put the information about houses they have for sale.  And all this information is regulated.  It has to be entered correctly. 

This information is released to online sites like Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com.  And guess what?  They are not regulated.  They can do with the information anything they wish.  Now, this doesn’t mean they willfully change it.  I’m convinced they don’t.  However, we often find that correct information does not find its’ way from the Multi-List Database to Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com.  Somehow or other, details sometimes get lost in translation.

How do we know this?  Because often, when a home buyer calls about a property they found on one of those sites, the information is incorrect.  The property may have already been sold.  The estimate of value is off or, the agent listed by the property actually has nothing to do with the property.

That’s when we go to our Multi-List system where we find accurate and real-time information.  We can tell you when the house went for sale, IF the house even IS for sale and who the listing agent is and if there has been any price reductions.  We can tell you lots of other helpful information also.  All you have to do is ask!

So the next time you’re looking for a property, go online if you want.  But to be a smart Tulsa Oklahoma home shopper, call up your local real estate agent.  They’ll get you what you need!

Real results...it's as simple as using peanut butter to catch a mouse!  And everyone knows that works!

You know how it is.  You're out showing houses and you come across one of those things that catches your eye.  It can be an old light fixture, a retro stove, the marks on the wall showing the heights of the kids who grew up there or even...just a fence that has stood in place for a very long time.

This sign caught my eye yesterday as I was showing houses in Tulsa Oklahoma, in an older neighborhood.

The house had long since been abandoned and was in foreclosure.

But the fence has continued to stand guard through all the changes and over the course of time.

A testiment to the people who put it there.

Don't you just love opportunistic marketing?  Seems like everyday, I get phone calls from someone wanting to sell me all the greatest leads for only hundreds of my dollars every month.  Yeah, I swallowed that bitter pill once...Not going there again! 

Then yesterday, I got the following email from the nice people at Strategies Inc. 

Dear,

Our agency is currently selling the domain name TulsaOK.net
We can currently offer this domain for the very reduced price of $890.

Owning an easily memorizable domain name can help to drive high value clients to your business.

If you have interest in purchasing this domain or have any questions, you can contact me at...

Now let's think about this for a moment.  The first little indication that this might not be something we really want to consider is the fact that it isn't addressed to me.  In fact, it isn't addressed to anyone!  What that tells us that is that this is a spam email that was sent out to no telling how many people.

The next indication that we should run for the hills on this particular offer has to do with the purchase price and the domain name.  Notice that they are offering TulsaOK.net rather that TulsaOK.com or TulsaOK.org or any other extension.  Why is this?  Because they don't own those names.  They went to GoDaddy.com or some other online vender and bought this name for the same price you and/or I could - around $20 bucks!  Now they're trying to reach into our pockets to make some easy cash.  Is that even legal?  I guess go...but talk about a HUGE price mark-up!  No thanks!

Even though TulsaOK would be a big Google keyword search, the competition for those particular words or for the words of other big cities is extremely large.  The fact that you might own a city domain name is no guarantee that you can drive it to the number one result on Google page one, even with excellent blogging content.  Too many other people have way more money, are way better at it and have been trying to do the very same thing for a whole lot longer.

Tell you what Strategies Inc, I think I'm gonna take a pass on your offer today.  In fact, I think I'll just use my blogging skills, keyword placement and Google juice that I learned and harvest from Active Rain.  That will take me ahead of you to page one position one in Google every time!

Go Ahead and Get Political...You Don't Need Those Clients Whom You're Offending!

I've begun deleting people from Facebook.  It's mostly Real Estate Agents.  And it's Real Estate agents who are posting political stuff that is designed to be offensive.  Now don't get me wrong.  Having a political opinion is smart.  We all need to be engaged in the development of our government and how it operates.  But when Real Estate agents go offensively political on Facebook or in their online blogs and say things about the party with whom they do not agree, they aren't being too smart.  They'll put cartoons and YouTube videos and all kinds of stuff that evokes strong reactions from people.  And it doesn't matter what political party is or isn't in power.  Republican type people blast Democrats and Democrat people blast Republicans and Independents blast both and on and on it goes. 

For me, when a Real Estate "friend" starts posting political crap stuff on Facebook that is over the top, I think, "You know, I don't think I want to be friends with that person any longer."  And the reason is because anyone who doesn't have enough common sense to be smart and saavy about their online political opinion is showing me that they're not someone I can trust to keep their mouth shut about other things (like how's it going with that referral I sent you?)

See, you have to have your brain turned on and engaged when you are online, no matter how passionate you are about your candidate or how much you dislike the other candidate(s).  And why is that?  It's rather quite elementary...

WHEN YOU GO POLITICAL ONLINE,
YOU ALIENATE, DISCONNECT AND TICK-OFF
HALF OF THE POTENTIAL BUYERS AND OR SELLERS
YOU COULD HAVE WORKED WITH.

So, if you have all the business you need in this kind of a slow economy and if your pockets are brimming full of cash, then go ahead!  Go for it.  In fact, why don't you just quit Real Estate and go work for the politicians!  But if you want to survive in Real Estate for the long haul AND you want to prove how smart you really are, then be passionate all you want at home and then go out in the big world and work with everybody!

Isn't it better to have someone you disagree with pay you rather than ignore you?! 

This blog is the third in a short series about the new Facebook timeline.  If you haven't heard, the new timeline is coming quickly, so you're going to have to learn how to use it sooner or later.  The new timeline also offers a couple of ways to be strategic with your personal page in regards to business.

If you missed the first post, click this link, Let's Get Strategic with the new Facebook Timeline
Part Two covers further information!  Let's Get Strategic with the new Facebook Timeline Part Deux

Today, I'm going to show you a very cool way to see what your new Timeline page looks like to your friends. 

Go to your new Timeline and then find the four boxes we talked about in part 2.  These are located under your new, awesome billboard.  Look for the two buttons that say "Update Info" and "Activity Log."  Then click on the down arrow beside the tool icon (to the right of the "Activity Log" button.  A drop down menu will show up.  Move your mouse over the "View as" option and click it.

What you'll get is a screen that looks like this one.  Notice that it say's, "This is how your timeline looks to the public, including subscribers."

Now look for the box that say's, "Enter a friend's name."  Start typing anyone's name in there who is your friend.  As you do that, Facebook will try to autofill that name for you.  It should look like this...

Once the name is autofilled, hit the enter button on your keyboard and you'll get this screen.  Now you're seeing your own timeline as it appears to that person.  You can check to see if your billboard is displaying properly, if your boxes have the information in them you want and what your last posts were.  How cool is that! 

If something doesn't look right, just click the "Back to timeline" button on the right top side of the screen and go fix it!

I use this feature every now and then just to see how others are seeing my page.  That way, I know what my friends can see and how it looks.  Remember, we are getting strategic with the new timeline, so knowing that everything is displaying properly is very helpful.  Facebook has given us a great tool for that with the new Facebook timeline view as button.

If you read the title of this blog, you already know that this is going to be about the infamous leg lamp from one of my favorite movies of all time, "A Christmas Story."

And you would be right.

And so here is my Speechless Sunday pic!

How cool is that?  Even though it isn't full sized, I now have the leg lamp from "A Christmas Story" sitting on my desk.  Everytime I turn it on I can still hear Ralphie say, "There's only one thing that could've dragged me away from the soft glow of electric..."

If you don't know the rest of the line, go watch the movie!

Yesterday I told you how to get strategic with your new Facebook Profile page and timeline.  If you missed that, go back and read it because the new timeline is coming and you CAN use it to your advantage in Real Estate!

Just click here to read the first Let's get Strategic with the new Facebook Timeline post

Now, let's continue on in our strategic use of the new Facebook timeline on our personal page.  Here's my friends, pics, places and likes boxes.

Like yesterday, I ask you, "What do you see?"  Just 4 boxes with some stuff in them?  If so, you're not seeing opportunity.  Three of these four placeholder boxes can be controled!

Let's begin with the friends box.  As you add new friends, their profile pic will show up here.  As far as I can figure, there isn't anything you can really do with this box.  So let's move on.

The photos box is next.  Notice that in my box there is a photo of an add I created.  Each time you upload a photo to your page, it will show up here.  Now think about that for a moment.  You can go intentionally upload some kind of pic having to do with real estate and leave it in this photo box for as long as you want.  Or you can upload something having to do with real estate, leave it there for a bit and then go about uploading other pics.  Or you can upload some kind of Real Estate photo once a month or once a week.  Did you just upload all your Christmas pics?  (you can keep them private to your family only!).  If you don't wan't the last pic to show up as a Christmas pic, you can go upload your profile pic and it will show up in this box.  The point is this.  You can put any pic you want into that box and leave it there as long as you want!  How cool is that!

Now let's talk about the Map box.  This box is connectd to the Place icon in your status bar.  See it?  It is located just under my profile pic and my "About" link (third from the left).  I was playing around with that and thought, "I wonder what that does?"  So I checked in at my office and it showed up in my map box!  So, now I have the words, "McGraw Realtors" showing up in my map box.  And guess what?  I can leave it that way as long as I want.  Now, when someone visits my page, they see the words "McGraw Realtors!"  I do not regularly use Facebook for checkin's at restaurants as I think people pretty much don't care and I don't want them knowing where I'm at all the time.  But even if I did, I can go back to Facebook and check in at my office anytime I want in order to put that wording back into that box.!  Again, how cool is that!

SIDENOTE:  You might have to go to places and make sure your office is there.  If not, it is very easy to create and you can choose the wording to describe the office!

The last box is your "Likes" box.  Each time you like a page on Facebook it shows up there.  So go unlike your Real Estate page and then like it again and guess what?  It will show up on the left side of the box.  Yep, you can control what pages show up there. 

Now the point of all this is this.  You can take control of your personal page, get real strategic and use it to market it yourself in subtle ways.  And remember, you don't want to overload people too much!  This is a personal page.  And this takes a strategic and smart touch to do right.  You occasionally want to put information in front of your friends.  And you want to cycle it in and out of those boxes.  And you want to remember the most important thing of all.  Facebook is free!  You would pay a fortune for this kind of advertising elsewhere on the Internet!

Now for my disclaimer.  I am not advising you to use your personal page 100% of the time to market your Real Estate business.  What I am advising you to do is to think outside the box and to take advantage of the opportunity that Facebook is giving you to control your page.  Don't want to put anything Real Estate on your personal Timeline page?  That's fine.  But still take the opportunity to control what your friends see.  Want to mix in some Real Estate stuff?  Go for it!  Be creative.  Have fun.  Make it a part of who you are.  Put some stuff in your boxes for a while and then take it out for a while.  Or put it there and forget it (like the places box).  Whatever the case, understand this.  Facebook has now given you control over your page!  Use it to your advantage!

Tomorrow I'll show you how to see what others see when they look at your personal page.  That's cool!

If you haven't heard yet, Facebook is rolling out a new profile page called a Timeline.  Right now you have to opt in by going to Facebook.com/timeline.  In about month, you'll be opted in anyway, so why not jump in now?!  Besides, you'll have 7 days to play around with your new profile page before it goes live, so you can tweak it and learn how to use it.  And use it you should!  That's because the new timeline, used strategically, can help you harvest business for Real Estate!

Here's how...

The new Facebook timeline now lets you put up a huge picture at the top of your page.  This picture is called a billboard or a cover pic.  I like to think of it as a billboard.  I decided to get creative with mine.  Here's what it looks like.

Now look closely.  What do you see?  It's me, but it's me with a couple of connections to Real Estate.  They aren't in your face.  They aren't too over the the top.  But they are there.  I have my company logo, my company colors, my professional pic and the word Realtor® and three links to social media.  The links won't work because this is a picture I made, but they are there.  (Notice the Active Rain bottlecaps!).

The smaller picture is your profile picture.  I put a fun one there of my wife and I from this past fall.  You can put any picture you want there too. 

I've seen some people reverse what I did and put a bigger picture of them and their family in the billboard spot and a smaller picture of their business logo in the profile picture spot.  For a good example of this, check out Andrew Mooers profile page over at Facebook.

If all that is too much for you, try this.  Get a great pic for your billboard spot and put something on it that has something to do with Real Estate.  It could be a quote.  It could be a logo.  It could be your yard sign photoshoped in discretely.  It could by anything as long as it has something to do with real estate. 

Remember, a profile page is not to be used for business all the time, so you want to be creative and use your iimagination.  But why not do something to keep your phone ringing? 

And why not do it where you have a huge audience!  On Facebook where it is still FREE!

Tomorrow, I'll show you how to put intentional Real Estate related information on your new timeline so that it can be seen.

Many of you here at Active Rain don't know me because I've been recuperating from a bad case of blogging burnout.  So I haven't blogged much in the last year.  As I've struggled with getting back into blogging, I am constantly reminded of the benefits of not only Active Rain, but of the past blogs I have written.

Here is why.

Many of my friends I met at Active Rain have stayed in touch and have been great encouragers.  They have believed in me when I didn't believe in myself any longer.  You need those kinds of friends in life.  I am thankful for people like Marilyn Bourdreaux, Richard Weisser, Brad Rachielles, TLW, Lori Cain and others.  If you don't know these folks, you don't know some of the best people at AR!

So thanks guys (and ladies) for hanging in there with me.

Now, about those past blogs.

I got a call just before Christmas from a guy who wants to list his mother's house.  You know how he found me?  From my AR blogs on the Internet.  That's what he said when I asked him.  Makes you feel pretty good that all those breadcrumbs you left behind (blogs) pay off at times. 

Just yesterday I got an email from another gentleman in regards to a blog I wrote for a contest at AR about our childhood home.  This was way back in 2010.  Guess what?  He had been talking about his old neighborhood with a friend and got curious to see if there was anything about it on the Internet.  What did he find?  My blog.  And check this out.  My house was HIS house before it was my house!

Now, we're having an email dialog that I can tell is going to lead to a pretty cool friendship.  And maybe even some business one day.  How cool is that?

So if you're new around here, blog away.  You will see a payoff!

Just be careful that you don't blog too much and burn yourself out like I did!

See you around!

Taking the Emotions Out of Selling Your Owasso Oklahoma Home

Everybody knows that a home is an investment.  You buy it.  Values go up.  You sell.  You make money, right?  Yeah, sure.  That may have been the way it was in the past, but for many Owasso Oklahoma home sellers, the world has changed.  In today's Owasso Oklahoma home market, making a profit when you sell is no longer a sure thing.

I could give you all kinds of reasons why this is true, but I won't because we all already know what a mess the housing market is in across the country and here in Owasso Oklahoma.  So instead, let me focus today on what continues to hold Owasso Oklahoma home sellers back from being successful in selling their home.  I call these the "I'm smarter than the market brain farts".

Smarter than the market brain fart Number One:  "I can't sell this house for less than I paid for it!"  I hear this from so many Owasso Oklahoma people who want to sell their home, but can't.  The house sits and sits and sits.  Very few people come to look at it.  And whose fault is it?  The Real Estate Listing agent, of course!  You can talk to these kinds of people until you are blue in the face.  But sadly, many will never understand...or maybe...accept the reality that a house is an investment.  And sometimes you lose money on investments.  And the market determines how much a buyer is willing to pay for your Owasso Oklahoma home.  And the market is going which direction still?  Yeah...down and flat.  People who think they can sell their Owasso Oklahoma home for more than they paid just a few years ago (when they paid maximum asking price in a hot market) are living in Neverland for the most part.  There continue to be too many Owasso Oklahoma homes on the market.  Too many foreclosures.  And too many lower priced properties. 

Smarter than the market brain fart Number Two:  "My house isn't dirty or cluttered!"  Holy cow.  I'm not sure where people got the idea that dirty baseboards, nasty oil spills in the garage (under the car), animal smell, dirty walls, worn carpet, old wallpaper and/or a plethora of other not so clean features has become acceptable in Owasso Oklahoma homes that are for sale.  In Owasso Oklahoma we still have lots of brand new homes to pick from.  Ever climb into a new car on the car lot?  It is super clean.  It smells awesome.  And everything works great!  That's how new homes are marketed to the few potential buyers who are left in the Owasso Oklahoma home market.  When your house stinks, is dirty or has other problems you instantly put yourself into a lower priced category.  Dirty, smelly and clutter are dollars lost in asking price.  And further, an Owasso Oklahoma home that is not in good condition is a sitter.  It will not sell quickly unless the price is bargain basement priced. 

Smarter than the market brain fart Number Three:  "I love this house.  I'm not willing to give it away because someone else will come along who will love it too!"  Yeah right.  I may love a certain pair of old boxer shorts, but that doesn't mean I can sell them in my garage sale for $10.00!  That's what new ones go for.  Old used ones don't.  And sometimes old used stuff that has been well loved doesn't have much a second life.  Think Toy Story movies here.  Haven't seen them?  Okay, let me summarize for you.  Just because you loved the place, there is NO guarantee that someone else will.  And there is especially no guarantee that your love translates into higher dollars for your Owasso Oklahoma home.  Your experiences are not a new buyers' experiences in that home.  So take your memories with you.  Pack them up.  Store them away.  Get real with the market and get your Owasso Oklahoma home sold!

Look folks, I hate to say it, but here in Owasso Oklahoma, we are not seeing a housing market recovery yet.  That having been said, our housing market didn't fall nearly has hard as other areas either.  However, will our continued new construction, the mixture of existing homes for sale, foreclosures coming to market and an unsure economy and high unemployment rate, now is the time for an Owasso Oklahoma home market reality check.  If you want to sell your house in today's market, you may need a counselor.  Or you may need a good accountant.  Or you may simply need a good Real Estate professional who will talk with you candidly about your "investment."

Either way, you have to get off high center to sell your Owasso Oklahoma home!