Rob Saxe, Realtor/Blog Sales Consultant's Blog

California Foreclosures Drop 61% in September

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:46:18 -0500

According to ForeclosureRadar.com, the filing of notices of default declined 61% from the August level of 42,790 to the September level of 16,352. This was primarily due to a new state law requiring lenders to notify owners of the filing, their options and waiting 30 days before proceeding. While this is a nice headline on the surface, it seems that it will only delay the process of foreclosure not eliminate it altogether. “The drop indicates that the lenders were not ready for the impact,” said Sean O’Toole, founder of ForeclosureRadar.com. The move by the state was to encourage lenders to modify loans to help make the homes more affordable and thus help people keep their homes. The only issue then becomes that, according to Sean O'Toole, it might encourage non-defaulting homeowners to default in hopes of getting a principal amount reduction of their mortgage balance and still be able to keep their homes.

Click Here to Read

The Power of a Tomato Blog!

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:06:51 -0500

This morning I was putzing around on the internet, getting sitemaps registered with Google, correcting some title tags on posts, etc when I thought I'd stop by Mikes Marketing Tools for a gander at my rankings for one of my sites, sacramentorealestateviews.com.

As I've recently gotten back into resale after working in new homes for a year, I didn't expect much from my rankings, honestly. I thought maybe in six months I'd come up in the top 3 pages of, well, anything, somewhere on the se's.

#5 This Morning on Yahoo!

Surpised the living daylights out of me. I was ahead, this morning, of many other top end sites in my region on page #1. While I've seen this over and over again with clients of the Real Estate Tomato, when it happens to you, it's pretty cool.

I don't expect this to last as I haven't been real estate blogging very long, just a month, and consistent results like this take a bit of time to establish long term.

While Yahoo! is not Google in terms of popularity, it is the #2 ranked search engine in the world. I'm thankful for the placement.

First Buyer Lead

I got my first buyer lead as well, we found a house for them yesterday and I'm writing the contract for them today. All in less than one month.

In 5 years and $8K of having a static website aka a "billboard on the moon" (but boy was it nice!) no one ever came to an open house I was having and said they found me because of my website. Not once. This happened in two weeks of blogging.

If you need help with your blog or you'd like to get similar results in creating your own custom blogsite, please let me know.

Real Estate Tomato Blogging Education Opportunity

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 09:41:38 -0500

The Real Estate Tomato is holding a free class at the Placer County Board of Realtors today from 1 to whenever all questions get answered!

If you'd like to attend, please shoot me an email, rob@realestatetomato.com.

We'll be talking about how blogging duplicates your efforts online and social networking.

Exclusive Opportunity at Westpark, Roseville - New Homes

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:34:17 -0500

New Home Builder in Westpark, Roseville Makes Exclusive Offer for Buyers To SREV.com!

I got a call today from a new home builder in Westpark. The context of the conversation was that "hey, we've got ("X" amount) homes to sell before December 1. Make us an offer and we'll consider it." It was music to my ears!

This is one of the most well respected builders in the Westpark, Roseville community and the nation. They have authorized me with all of the information I need to get you the best possible price on a new home this year. I've been asked to withhold the name of the builder and the prices to share them only with serious buyers.

See the rest of the article here

Will You Pay Too Much for Sacramento Real Estate?

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 08:46:53 -0500

Sellers in the Sacramento real estate market sometimes price their homes based on what they need and not based on the market at the time of listing. A good real estate agent won't take a listing unless it's priced to sell. One who does is wasting the time of the poor people who hire him/her.

In the current real estate market in Sacramento, pricing is imperative and means more than it has in the last 8 years maybe even the last 10 years.

When making an offer on a home in Sacramento, make an educated decision. Make sure your real estate professional has shown you comparables that validates his or her decision on price. In short, don't pay too much for Sacramento real estate. Enjoy and, as always, thanks for watching!

An Awesome Feeling

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 08:11:09 -0500

Yesterday I held an open house on a bank owned property. The night before, I created a post on my blog about the open house, capitolcityforeclosures.com, and posted it.

The next day, at the open house, the nicest couple from Nebraska shows up and tells me they just saw me on my blog! They found me because of my 2 month old blogsite! I never heard that about my static site in the 5 years that I owned it.

Blogging is king or queen depending on your perspective. :)

In fact, traffic jump about 200% on that single post due to where I re-posted the article. Craigslist.org. I posted my url in the subject line and then included a link to my site in the body of the post. On Sunday, I got 48 hits on that post alone when prior to that, like all newer bloggers, I was waiting for someone to notice it although I could see there was some traffic coming to the site.

I know from working with clients at the real estate tomato that this happens all the time but when it happens to you, it feels awesome!

I'm hooked on this thing, it's awesome. My experience with the tomato has made all the difference in my strategy and understanding of this method of marketing my business.

Get out there and blog!! :)

Free Real Estate Tomato Seminar at the Placer Board TODAY!

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 08:55:29 -0500

Another reminder that there will be a free blogging seminar held at the Placer Board of Realtors in Rocklin today from 1 to 330pm.

Jim Cronin and myself will be there to conduct and answer any questions. Please attend!

Short Sale Listings vs. Bank Owned Listings: Who Wins?

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:55:16 -0500

Short sale listings are the "Nightmare on Main Street" both for the potential buyer and for the listing agent. This week, in our team meeting, one of our associates had just listed a short sale home only to have one of our listing coordinators tell her that the bank has just foreclosed, taken the home back and she was out of business with that client. Fortunately, our team got the listing. No kiss, no smile, no thank you very much. Her client had stopped paying the mortgage and away the listing went. That's the very least of it. My sympathies to you if you're ever convinced to make an offer on one. So it goes with short sales. This video will explain the difference between a short sale and a bank owned home. Enjoy! Thanks for watching!

CapitolCityForeclosures.com

Real Estate Tomato Blogging Education Opportunity

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:23:48 -0500

(I thought I'd repost this in case you missed it.)

The Real Estate Tomato is being sponsored by the Placer County Board of Realtors for an blogging education seminar next WEdnesday, Sept. 17th from 1 to 330pm. The flyer below has all the information about the class. Please call me if you have any questions.

Rob Saxe

Real Estate Tomato Blogging Education Opportunity

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:05:24 -0500

Blogging Education Opportunity in the Sacramento Region!

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:16:06 -0500

The Real Estate Tomato is conducting a seminar series on blogging education at the Placer County Board of Realtors on August 15th and August 29th from 9am to 1130am. We will be focusing on topics to help you become better at blogging and that will help the future of your business online.

As the X's & Y's get older and come into the real estate market in force, they will be looking to blogs to keep them up to date. There is no time like NOW, when prices have plummeted in our region and first time homebuyers are finally able to purchase again, to learn about how to capture the trust of those buyers. Your future business depends on this!

No matter how you do it, blogging is essential. Efficient blogging is even more important and that's where we can help.

Please let me know if you need more information. Thanks!

Getting Noticed By The Search Engines

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 08:23:13 -0500

On my normal route home last night, I noticed a bikini clad gal on a street corner with a sign that said "HOT coffee and BIKINIS!" She was “attention getting” and all..I was trying not to wreck my car as it startled me to see this in our just a bit too conservative digs. I began to think about blogging..odd huh? lol Anyway....must have been a management change at the neighborhood coffee house!

Onward!

I’ve seen many articles here on AR as well as on The Tomato about how often to blog. Those articles are a bit complex and most of my friends in RE aren’t that tech saavy so I thought I’d break this down into very simple terms.

As we all know, blogging is the most effective to "self-seo" yourself to the top of the "organic" search results. While this does take time, it can be done. As compared to traditional template websites and SEO efforts, blogging will vault you toward page one in what seems like WARP speed if done correctly.

While no one can really tell, other than the search engines techs themselves, exactly what the formula is to getting top ranked positioning on Google or Yahoo, there are 4 things that seem to work. While website age is a factor, I've seen older websites overtaken in organic position by newer sites simply by following some basic fundamentals. This chat is assuming that you’ve got a fully optimized blog AND you’ve been trained how to use it. (I mean, is your business dependent on luck? In this market?)

After that, some of what the search engines look for is current, consistent, relevant, keyword rich content. While there are other parameters, like linking for instance, this is what seems to drive organic search results toward page 1 and it’s easy to understand.

It seems that the more you blog correctly the better. The search engines seem to look for content that has recently been created. Consider blogging that mandatory activity you’ve just got to do and you’ve got to do it often. Having said that, don’t make it “unfun”.

For most of us Realtors, that shouldn’t be hard though. Most of us have a hard time taking a breath between words and therefore, blogging is a great form of therapy for this “running off at the mouth” disease that’s issued with every RE license. I got mine, you? lol

Heck, we don’t even answer our phones most of the time for the tidbit of info that we’ve just got to get out! Put it into words on your blog. Get it out of your system. Remember the old saying “an apple a day….”? Well, let’s shift that around to “a blog article a day will bring traffic your way”. Hey, that’s not bad! (Sorry, it’s late!)

Consistency. Writing an article everyday or every other day, is more productive than writing 4 in one day and posting them all at the same time. The more you feed the monster the more it will come back looking for more.

Having keywords that are the most relevant for the search term your target readership will be looking for is essential to being found. To that end, using your keyword term or phrase frequently in the body of your article will help searchers find your article. This will help you to "optimize" your site for a particular keyword or phrase. Target market and be relevant to your readership.

While this is a relatively simple explanation of a process that can be quite complex, I’ve been seeing people who are blogging their brains out and get noticed. If you follow some simple rules, you won’t have to blog your brains out to get noticed. Be efficient in what you do, do it often, consistently and with relevance. It’s broad, I know, but keep it fundamental and you’ll get higher organic rankings. That is key to the search engine game!

*What the heck does SEO mean?

And Pinging?

What? Trackbacking?

Who came up with this stuff?!

So it's all about.....me?

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 18:59:24 -0500

When I first became interested in what the Tomato was doing, there was something that just didn't sit right with me.

Jim was saying (and I knew he was right I mean the guy comes ranked very highly for "blogging advice" on the big G that arguing with him is fruitless, lol) that blogging helps your potential customers to get to know YOU and that brings relationships that ultimately turns into a huge following of loyal friends who will need your help selling or buying from time to time. It's the humanization, so to speak, of the Realtor. (is that a word?)

They want to get to know me? Isn't that against all prevailing wisdom? Don't I have to pretend that I'm someone I'm not, keep myself on the shelf to gain their trust so they perceive that I'm a professional truly concerned about their best interests? I always thought that the last thing people wanted to do was talk to a Realtor much less get to know one unless they already did.

From a strictly sales perspective, I was into mirroring and matching, scripts and dialogues, NLP, "The Psychology of Persuasion" by Kevin Hogan, cold calling, calling expireds, yada, yada, yada. All worthwhile sales activities yet somehow archaic. (I know that's a word!)

So blogging means that all I have to do is to talk about my sock drawer today, I have a really nice sock drawer by the way, and this helps the readership to see what kind of guy I am THEN they'll feel comfortable enough to do business with me? Doesn't this sound like Agent .05? Is there any love in the room? Can a brother get an "AMEN"?!

Talk about a radical shift in my thinking. Does this mean I can go to my listing appointments in flip flops and a t-shirt? Let's not get carried away but I would wear my fanciest pair of socks!

Then I came across this book, "The Little Red Book of Selling" by Jeffery Gitomer. On one of the first pages, Jeff says

"If they like you, and they believe you and they trust you and they have confidence in you then they MAY buy from you." Can all of this be done in a blog before they meet you in person?

Liking you, according to Jeff, is the #1 reason people will buy from you. I always thought that if I called them, presented an argument that appealed to their sense of logic then they got to like me, I was in. Seems like, and please correct me if I'm wrong here, that blogging skips a step. Am I to understand that I no longer have to sell them on meeting with me then get them to like me?

And what about "How To Win Friends and Influencing People" by Dale Carnegie? Focus on others, be sincere and above all LISTEN! This blogging thing seems to alter if not outright change the sales process and, to some extent, all that I've studied about it. I'm starting to think that a paradigm shift is in order. (maybe it's already occurring!)

Does blogging change the dynamic of the sales process? Is it a sales process at all? Have the rules of the game been changed while I busy being self absorbed?

What do you think?

Keyword Schmeeword!

Sat, 04 Aug 2007 17:37:55 -0500

In my first few days being a part of the conglomerate that is "The Tomato", Jim had to put in a celebrity appearance with Inman in San Francisco and I was left behind to slave away, lol, and return phone calls to folks who had expressed interest in what the tomato has to offer or had questions. Honestly, this is really the fun part and I enjoy it much.

One call, in particular, really struck a chord with me as I had the same epiphany when I had my own real estate website with a company, called property minder, that will remain nameless. A couple of things disturbed me.

1. They were always pushing me toward PPC (pay per click) advertising and

2. My website had zero traffic.

When I got my first website I thought, "hey, I'm mr. internet!" Nothing could've been further from the truth however I continued to delude myself into thinking that I was "the eRealtor". While being self delusional can be entertaining, no traffic means no business from the internet, where upwards of 80% of buyers first begin their home search. (I've always said that this number should be something like 95% of all buyers with computers start their searches here) Not only that, my website was like every other website..a shell of what it could be, an enigma to all who viewed it and essentially useless as a lead generation tool. My lack of knowledge was my downfall. Being an enigma on the internet is, well, not a good thing.

Back to my call! The lady I spoke with in Atlanta is very knowledgeable about her business and very internet savvy. She has a blog already and she couldn't understand why, when she was located on page 1 of Google, she wasn't receiving any benefit from it.

She mentioned that the keyword phrase she was optimized under was "expired listings in atlanta". That brought her up to page 1. Hmmm...that's great but there is one strategic issue at large here.

That keyword phrase is a phrase that someone, say a buyer, wouldn't typically search under. If it were, there would be leads aplenty. When I thought about this, that seemed to be a keyword phrase that Realtors would search under and not one that Buyers would search under. A Realtor who visits your site, while it can happen, seldom turns into a sale. Correct me if I'm off base here.

The beauty of the blogosphere is that with a little education about how this all works, you can optimize your site for the search terms that your target audience is looking for. As well, if you put some keywords through a "KEI", keyword effectiveness index, you may be able to find keyword phrases that are highly searched but aren't highly competitive in your market.

High organic rankings will do you a world of good only if the keyword term you're found under is relevant to your target market.

Fast Fact:

In a Penn St. study done in 2005, they found that 80% of all first clicks went to the "organic" search results while only 6% went to the sponsored links or PPC ads. The first question I had was, "what happened to the other 14%?" lol

1 TOMATO, 2 TOMATO, 3 TOMATO, FORE!!!

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 23:20:58 -0500

Some of you may know me from "The Secret" / Law of Attraction blogging that I've done here, a subject that I enjoy immensely. While not well known, I intend to become more "active", no pun intended. In November/December, I attended a talk given by none other than "the Great" Jim Cronin. Being an avid internet enthusiast, what he said caught my ear. I knew the topic had merit, even if at the time he wasn't quite sure of it himself, and I was very interested in what he had to say.

Now, as you can clearly see, I'm no master blogger, but I will get better...and better. You see, effective, oh, about a week or 10 days ago, I became the newest Tomato, in fact, you could call me a fried GREEN tomato! In a recent conversation about blogging, Jim said that "The Real Estate Tomato" was taking off and he was thinking about expanding. I nonchalantly told him if he ever needed some help, if it got to that, to let me know. I don't think my finger had time to hit the end key before he said "HELP"!

I have been, in addition to being a Realtor with Keller Williams here in Roseville, California, working with an Internet company called thinkbigsites.com. They specialized in turning blogs into marketing tools to propel websites of small and medium sized business racing to the top of the search engines. Through this experience, I learned a great deal about the mechanics of the search engines and how blogging interacts with them as well as optimizing, inbound and outbound linking. While on the surface, it may appear similar to what the tomato does, they are worlds apart.

What I bring to the "tomato patch" is experience as a Realtor mixed with a solid background on how the blogging process can benefit our businesses by giving the search engines what they are looking for while forming meaningful relationships with our readership.

Jim is a great guy, just a whiz and I'm honored to be working with him. I've read through the tomato getting acclimated to the "tomato culture" and I'm impressed. I know most of all of you are too. I saw that he was on to something here and I've known that for almost a year. I'm excited to be a part of this and to be able to bridge the gap, because of my experience as a Realtor, to help this make more sense for those who aren't sure how blogging applies to their businesses, no matter how you decide to do it, to learning from those, and there are many, who are much more seasoned than I.

I've always loved tomato soup and saltines...my mom raised me on that..and beer! lol

Be, Do......Think?

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 09:15:13 -0500

Over the last 2 years, I've been studying in a MasterMind group format with another gentleman that I met at the Bob Proctor Science of Getting Rich seminar in Las Vegas in 2005. We'll pick a classic work, study it independently then talk once a week to see what we've learned from it and how we can apply the principles to our businesses and lives. I've found this to be very valuable to mental development and it helps me to know what is necessary to achieve the things that I'd like to achieve.

In the first part of our current "book study" so to speak, the book is "The Master Key System" by Charles Haanel, he says:

"The secret of all power, all achievement and all possession depends upon our method of thinking. This is true because we must "be" before we can "do" and we can only "do" to the extent of which we "are" and what we "are" depends upon what we "think"."

Wow.

The first time I read this, I thought, what the heck is this guy trying to say here? The second time I read it I got that:

Before we can "be" successful realtor's, (or successful anything)

We must "do" what other successful realtor's "do",

To become who successful realtors "are" we must know

a) what they do

and

b) how they think

We can't assume we know if we "are" not what we hope to become. Therefore a study of what anyone in any field who succeeds is paramount to our own success in that field. We just can NOT depend on anything else but the example that has already been set. The most direct route to your goal is the road well traveled by those who have succeeded as you wish to.

Then, establish your purpose and do the things that failures don't wish to do. Your purpose will keep you motivated to continue when it looks like things aren't going your way. (just because it looks that way doesn't mean its true!)

Like causes cause like effects. If you think, act and do what the most successful among us do, aren't your chances of success much higher?

Do this and you'll attract conditions and circumstances to you that match your thinking. It must happen that way. Like attracts like..it's easy to understand!

Go inside, get quiet and see what's there!

"The Secret" - When What We Desire Stays Away

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 09:23:58 -0500

Inevitably, when a discussion about the Law of Attraction comes up, it's mentioned that while a specific desire was held, what was desired did not manifest itself in the world of the person holding the desire. I've had this happen too and there is a very clear reason for it but the trouble is that it can be a very subtle distinction from knowing and believing that what you want is coming or already here and just merely hoping. Belief and faith is the key that unlocks the power and helps you to "help yourself".

Belief and faith in the ability to manifest in our lives all that we desire, in some cases, most cases, goes against what we have been taught. Paradigms have been established (paradigms being an idea or group of ideas that have been passed along to the subconscious mind and make up our "conditioning") that may be in opposition to this idea or premise that we can attract things. Consequently, we get an auto response to any idea that is not in line with this paradigm something to the tune of "ahh, snake oil!" or "if it were that easy, everyone would do it!". While these examples are designed to be extreme, I think you get the picture.

Building belief and faith in the idea of the Law of Attraction, for me, wasn't easy even though I had been using it unconsciously all my life. I would just think of something I wanted, see it coming and within a short time, it would present itself to me, perhaps not clothed as I thought it would come but none the less still there. It always amazed me. I began to study this idea in order that I could build belief and faith and therefore begin to use this power, which is available to everyone equally with no distinction, more deliberately. (In the unconscious process, I was also creating things that weren't good for me in the short term. It was later that I realized that everything that happens has a positive side and I am grateful for the good and otherwise)

This is what did it for me. There is a patterned plan of growth in the universe that is always operating, always becoming more of what it was. It never stays the same. It's divine nature is always for expansion and fuller expression. I am part of this patterned plan, not separate from it but part of it. The following quote, which I memorized, helps:

"My mind is a center of divine operation. The divine operation is always for expansion and fuller expression and this means the production of something beyond that which has gone before, something entirely new, not included in past experience but proceeding out of it by an orderly sequence of growth. Therefore, since the divine cannot change it's inherent nature, it must operate in the same manner in me, consequently, in my world of which I am the center, it will move forward producing new conditions and circumstances always in advance of any that have gone before."

The evidence of this is everywhere. Even those things in disintegration are for growth and expansion of other things. It's really something.

I realized, through study, that this is what we are meant for. We are not meant for suffering or strife. We are meant for continuous, progressive and positive growth as it's the patterned plan of the Universal Mind or God.

Not being religious, as I mentioned, having faith in something wasn't easy. Now I think its the cornerstone of all acheivement whatever the desired object or thought may be, material or otherwise.

"The Secret"

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 23:42:27 -0500

Since the movie came out, there is a lot of talk about how the Law of Attraction works in our lives. The Law of Attraction is a sub law to the Law of Vibration which states that nothing is at rest; everything vibrates on some level or another. Since all things vibrate, those things that "resonate" in vibration will be attracted to each other. It's a pretty simple concept. The secret talks about this more on a level of thought. When your thoughts begin to harmonize or resonate with something one desires, especially if you're passionate about it, it begins at once to be attracted to you, whether it's wanted or unwanted.

Everyone has had the experience of having a thought about a friend or family member that you haven't heard from in sometime and then, within a few days, as if by magic, you hear from that person. "It's such a coincidence, I was just thinking about you!" That statement alone is evidence of the Law of Attraction in action.

All things are made of the same stuff. Science proved this decades ago when we began to be able to observe the smallest particles, molecules and atoms. The desk you're sitting at and your hand are made of the same stuff. All things are made of the same stuff just vibrating at varying levels. The more dense an object appears, the slower the rate of vibration. It's the stuff inbetween the particles that makes everything happen.

So basically the Law of Attraction, which is always working, always "listening" is always giving us that which we are, not so much what we want. Michael Losier describes it this way, "I attract to my life whatever I give my attention, energy and focus to...whether wanted or unwanted." It gives us what we are in our hearts, be it base or beautiful. This is why people have such varying results.

I've used this for years before I knew what I was dealing with. Money, jobs and any number of things that I focused on I've been able to attract into my life experience. Now that I've spent years educating myself, teaching and coaching the workings of this awesome Law, I use it more deliberatly and manifest things into my life continually. So can you.

This information is not new, just packaged in a new way. The Bible says, "Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you, for everyone that asketh recieveth and he that seeketh findeth; and he that knocketh it shall be opened." I'm not a religious person but that qoute is very telling abd this information is even older than that.

Try it for yourself. Do some research, seek it out and it will find you.

95765 Market is UP over last year

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 10:28:01 -0500

While the same cannot be said for other regions of our area, the 95765 zip code so far this year is out performing last years numbers by roughly 15% and the overall California numbers by over 20 percent. While this isn't "burning down the barn" so to speak, it's nice to see that properties are moving. Our inventory of homes is up but that is to be expected as we are now in the prime selling time of the year. My listings are getting more acitivity than they were over the same period last year and these are good signs.

New homes: Over the last six months, I've become intimately familiar with the new home market in the Lincoln, Rocklin and Roseville areas. Prior to the subprime lending market "collapse", it was thought that new homes had reached the bottom of their market last September but as we are now seeing, this could, as it is with resale homes, still be off in the future.

No one can say at the moment where the market is going, all we know is what has gone on from so far. Some say that we will reach the bottom sometime toward the middle of this year, others say we are in a trough for 2008 as well. I think it will largely be dependent on interest rates and then price adjustment. While this isn't new news, it's true in my opinion.

Home prices are favorable at the moment and I don't think we will see them decrease too much more than they have. Resales have lost 5 to 10 percent depending on the source and new homes, now that they have gone back up a bit in prices, have lost somewhere around 20 percent of value. All uncertainty aside, it's a great time to buy.

Got questions? Feel free to ask.

Rob Saxe