Mary Anne 's Blog

The UPside of a DOWN Market--Part 4 -- Save a Tree!

Realty Executives of Atlanta — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:57:12 -0500

You know the saying -- Save water, shower with a friend..........I am seeing agents with listings figuring out that constantly churning out flyers on home printers or office printers is not cost efficient.

Soooo, at a class I taught today to some internet newbies, the AHA's were great as they found out that emailing flyers to their databases ( thru Sharper Agent, Top Producer, etc) and pushing their websites or even their web pages and listing pages thru the net is easier and for the most part, FREE!

In my 16 years selling real estate I can officially say that I NEVER produced a flyer that was responsible for selling a home. I used as much pufferey as I could for those dog listings that smelled, had refugee carpet, wood rot, etc and all the effusing on a piece of paper never sold the home. Killed alot of trees in my time......

Price and Condition folks.

I found out about a cool product called QAlias that puts your name at the top of Google for $9.95 a month. It's essentially a mini site but the cool part about it is that it is extremely cost efficient and when people refer you, do they refer your company? your website? NO, they usually say, my buddy Bob White is a great agent, I'll try to find him for you. Telling your clients and friends to Google your name is easy--a big Remax Agent I know here has on his flyer box--If there are no flyers, just Google my name for info on my listings-- www.Qalias.com is the site. (I get no bump or anything for the referral, its just cool)

So, SAVE a TREE and use the INTERNET-- and Google ME!!!! (Mary Anne Payne) and check it out!

The UPside of a DOWN Market--Part 3--It IS easy being GREEN!

Realty Executives of Atlanta — Tue, 13 May 2008 08:10:49 -0500

Kermit is my hero. The frog, that is. "it's not easy being green.." is the mantra of the uber famous Kermit the frog. Kermit would be proud of the folks I have encountered in this market who, by nature or by accident or by common sense, are saving gas by PRE QUALIFYING buyers, thru sign calls, referrals, or what ever way they get them.

You mean they are actually ASKING questions now??? 2 years ago this is the scene at my office:

(treo rings) Hello, this is Betty with Buyer/Seller Realty, can I help you?

(prospect)Yeah, we saw your sign on 123 Cedar street and was wondering..........

(Betty, interrupting prospect)OH my gosh, that house is SOOOOOOO great, it has SOOO many features and upgrades, the sellers are REALLLLLLLYYYYY motivated, I can meet you out there in 20 minutes!!!!!!!!!!

End of this story, prospect doesn't show up, or prospect wants a home for $150K and this one is $300K!

Well, at $2 a gallon of gas, lesson learned for about $4 dollars.

NOW, we are thinking twice about learning any lessons at $8 dollars--that's a full meal for 2 at Taco Bell these days!

This market is producing agents who know the value of their time, and their gas and who are asking questions and drilling down to find out a prospects' real needs--eliminating the tire kickers.

Green agents are using recycled paper in flyer boxes, using the internet more and more to market their properties, green companies (like mine) are moving towards a paperless system for turning in agent paperwork.

I am seeing more agents in hybrid cars like the Prius, Lexus Hybrid, etc. Heck, I traded my gas sucking Mercedes SUV last summer for what I think is the coolest car on the road-the Honda CRV--white, leather, xm radio, heated seats and 28 on the highway for $26,000. My clients LOVE it-it also seats 5!

As Kermit would now say--it IS easy being green!

The UPside of a DOWN Market--Part 2--Better Eats!

Realty Executives of Atlanta — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:41:36 -0500

Why do I love this DOWN market--CARAVANS!--the Lunch offerings are getting MUCH better.

OK-not so great for the waistline, but in today's high inventory highly competitive market, Caravan Tuesday in my area is offering better food, better prizes for agents. On any given Tuesday in my area, an agent should NOT go hungry!

Back in the heady days of bigtime real estate, caravans were either non-existent or feedback related for the loser listing to get folks in the door and fed. More often than not, caravan food was average at best-bag salads with store bought chicken fingers, subs from the local fast food, chicken nugget trays......ugh....

Well, today, I was treated to lettuce wraps and shrimp and melon something from PF Changs, then we cruised over for wrap sandwiches and salads from Jasons Deli-rumor has it there will be more Changs next week.

New home communities are back to dropping off great promo baskets of food, prizes, birdhouses and all those fun chotchkes they used to deliver. Boy, when they were pumping out the homes, they largely ignored us...not anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh, how I love a down market..............................

The UPside of a DOWN Market--Part 1

Realty Executives of Atlanta — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:52:58 -0500

Mega Mike, a top agent in my area spends 7 days on a Carribean Cruise. Superduper Debbie takes a few weeks off for a "Procedure". DealinDiane takes her teenager to NYC for a girls weekend. Listing Queen Linda suddenly sheds 20 pounds....... WHAT's HAPPENING to today's agents--GASP??????????

Could they ACTUALLY be enjoying a guilt free vacation with their family?

Could they ACTUALLY be taking time to take care of THEMSELVES?

Are they ACTUALLY having a LIFE outside of real estate?

DO NOT TELL THE GENERAL PUBLIC--this is a warning. It will blow our cover and we do not want to let them know that we are actually enjoying this 'slower time' in the market.

If you were smart in the past few years, you squirreled money away for these rainy days. Working agents are still making money in all areas. But the best part of this market is the fact that we have the chance to re-evaluate our priorities and find out what our business really means to us.

I didn't get into real estate to work 60 hour weeks and ignore my family, but it happened.

I didn't get into real estate to have other people run my life (sellers), but it happened.

I didn't get into real estate to get into office politics and drama, but it happened.

My re-evaluation time over the last 6 months has been eye-opening to me. I am not as important as I think I am and I am more important to my daughter, my husband and myself than to anyone else. I chose real estate for the promise of FREEDOM in determining my career path and I intend to manage it myself and not let others manage me.

So the UP side of this DOWN market is to get a tan, hug your kids, go on a vacation with your spouse NOW rather than later and get your boundaries and priorities straight in your career so that when the market comes back, you can ROCK your business and ROLL with your life to the fullest.

3 MOST Important Words In Real Estate.....Opening in June 2008

Realty Executives of Atlanta — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:47:39 -0500

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, OK, I know, where is the SIGN???? Our new office at the Avenues Forsyth location in Forsyth County is on track to open in June 2008--we were pushed from May as retail was pushed from April 30 to May 14--some soft openings are predicted at the first of May.

Dealing with big commercial developers is VASTLY different from local owner/developers of smaller facilities and we have found that if you are not sellin shoes or ladies clothing or hamburgers, you are way lower on their priority list! One of our partners called me from his car yesterday and gave me a driving virtual tour--statues are being placed, roads and parking lots are completed, signage is going up and the flurry of activity is humming.

Look for an exciting Open House announcement from us -- I predict the walk in traffic at this location will be HUGE!! For the 24 agents we have so far, they are already fighting over office duty!

I will post photos of the location shortly on my office website at www.realtyexecutivesavenues.com

No Mention of Convention -- Share Your Notes, Ideas and Aha's

Realty Executives of Atlanta — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:40:05 -0500

I just returned from sunny San Diego last weekend after a great week at the RE Convention--AWESOME!

This is my first convention after being with a large 100% 'recruiting' company and I was really impressed with the level of speakers, breakouts and executives I met. One of my biggest aha's was how long so many of these folks have been with RE! What a testament to the quality of leadership you all have. It was also refreshing to hear a company promoting hiring QUALITY and not QUANTITY and not being afraid to talk about that!

You folks in Las Vegas are so lucky to have Fafie and Jeff Moore as your leadership team and meeting the movers and shakers was great. Did you all know that ONLY 6% of all current mortgages--of which there are over 76 million of--are in some state of foreclosure (According to analyst Anne Randolph of LORE Magazine)--that is really not that bad.......

I am starting an office in the northern suburbs of Atlanta--I already have 20 top agents and we don't even open the doors till mid-May--HotLanta is ready for a new company--send your referrals to my office!

Avenues of Forsyth County-Our New Office

Realty Executives of Atlanta — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 09:45:31 -0600

WOW WOW WOW

We had the pleasure of walking around the new Avenues of Forsyth property on 141 at 400 north the other day, or shall we say HIKING around the property-not all of the pavement is complete and it is still hard hat city!

Realty Executives of Atlanta's newest office WILL open May 1 in this location with a state of the art real estate facility not seen in Forsyth County as of yet. Welcome to a new era in real estate--lower fees for agents, professional high tech environment and no distractions so you can FOCUS on selling real estate. Along with my partners David Kilpatrick, Chip Walsh, Marc Lintz and Mark Fisher and Associates (so far...) we tromped through the mud and admired our location on the upper south west corner of the facility across from the 30 PLEX theatre--holy moly--and above Ann Taylor, Chico's, Ted's Montana Grill and way too much tempting retail to spend our commission checks in.

With all that is going on around and in that location, agents will have a great place to meet clients, eat and shop all in one place. We have finalized our build out plants and Cousins Properties lives up to its dates so watch for fun grand opening activities from the center and from us! To find out about stores, site info and more, click on this link for more info!

To find out about how you can join us (experienced agents only, please...) please email me at maryannepayne@realtyexecutives.com.

My Bad--I also wanted to add my other partners Alexia Gallagher and Jeff Ramsey-Managing Broker, Partner of the RE Alpharetta office.....