Blogging Attitudes Are Evolving! - 05/31/08 11:36 AM

I remember less than a year ago sitting down with my fabulous broker and having a chat about Naples real estate.  I recall distinctively him telling me that the future of real estate marketing was in blogging and as he continued I sat quietly...completely skeptical.  I remember asking...really?  Why?  Who cares about what we have to say?  That sounds so stupid, how could it possibly help build business? 
Then about a week later I went to the Inman conference in San Francisco and I miraculously transformed from a non-blog-believer to a true Active Rain Juice Fan.  When I got back to … (74 comments)

Naples Renters Are Coming, Naples Renters Are Coming! - 05/29/08 09:34 PM
One of the trends I've noticed lately is the increase in number of rental searches that have been occurring on my Naples, Florida website.  So I can actually feel some of you think, oh how would you know!
Well, it's all in the search terms my friends. For example just today I saw:
Avalon at Pelican Bay rentals Terraces at Park Shore Naples rental vacation rentals on Gulf Shore Blvd Naples Florida I also received my first list of rentals for next season from a property manager in town who keeps me up to date with available rentals. 
People who are really on the ball start making … (2 comments)

Someone In That Company Blogs! - 05/28/08 04:45 PM
I took a quick and unexpected road trip with a friend of mine this weekend up the coast.  She asked me to tag along to meet some of her friends who were down from Michigan for the weekend so we packed up, drove to the Tampa area, met the friends, packed up and drove home. 
Had I made a better plan I would've made arrangements to meet some of my blogging buddies in the area but unfortunately, time didn't permit.
As we were on our way home, we took the long way because there were areas that I hadn't seen before … (19 comments)

We're Past The Point Of Convenience...Get It On! - 05/28/08 12:32 PM
You gotta love people's sense of urgency sometimes.  When I received a call today about scheduling an appointment for an appraisal on a property regarding a deal requiring full loan approval by Friday, my convenience of getting you in the door, although sweet to consider, is really a mute point. 
Would you have time to open the door tomorrow?  Uh, yep!
Not only will I make time to open the door for you tomorrow I will (EDIT) arrive at the property, do back flips across the lawn to the front door, stand on my head while opening the lockbox while holding … (17 comments)

Brett Arends, Do Your Wall Street Journal Readers A Favor! - 05/22/08 03:56 PM
As promised in my last post, Naples, Florida has recently had a visit by a Wall Street Journal reporter by the name of Brett Arends.  As expected, he has made Naples sound more like a devastation spot instead of the destination spot that Naples is which by any measure is no great surprise.
The unfortunate part of course is that by not reporting all of the facts, he's portraying a false impression of the state of the Naples market and the motivation of many Naples homeowners which in turn will greatly disappoint those planning on coming down here and capturing the … (9 comments)

Naples, Florida Real Estate Secrets You Should Know! - 05/20/08 04:03 PM
According to a colleague of mine, a reporter from a very well known newspaper is coming tomorrow to interview someone in my office about Naples, Florida real estate.  This should be a good thing because even negative press is press and well, you can ask Paris Hilton or Britney Spears negative press isn't ALWAYS bad for business.
But incorrect press IS BAD for business.  Although I respect the newspaper...mostly, I had a pretty tasteless experience with them a few years back.  There was a reporter doing a story after Hurricane Charley and apparently she didn't think what I had to say was … (4 comments)

Naples, Florida Buyers Say And Do The Craziest Things! - 05/19/08 06:24 PM
You gotta wonder what goes on in the minds of the people we come across.  For example, I should be on my 3rd week of hibernation had this years' real estate traffic turned out to be like last years' traffic but no, I'm still really busy with existing and new customers just itching to buy real estate in Naples, Florida.
I spent nearly the entire week with clients from Switzerland who have narrowed their sites on a particular waterfront property in the Moorings.  Not to mention I tried to juggle the time I had left between a batch of both new and existing customers looking … (5 comments)

Confidence - Too Much Or Not Enough Can Hurt! - 05/16/08 12:25 PM
How's your confidence?  When we're doing great it ROCKS, when we're not doing so well...well, it can be a little more challenging to maintain. Is it you, is it me, is it the economy?  All of those second guesses start taking place.
When you have a "healthy" confidence, everything shines towards your direction.  Tip toe across the "over-confident" mark and it's amazing how buyers, sellers, other agents and the general public start shying away.  Fall back past the unconfident mark and the same thing happens.
Then of course there's the broken confident meter.  People who are over or under the healthy confidence range … (8 comments)

Seriously, Can We Talk? - 05/15/08 10:25 AM
A successful showing agent knows when to talk, when to shut up, when to be available for questions and when to step back to allow their buyers to talk about what they're looking at.
An interesting thing happened a couple of days ago when I was showing some customers from Sweden.  Before we started our tour, he turned to me and said, "Shannon, the sign on your door says that you speak German"?  I replied, "Actually the sign on the door says that there are German speaking agents but I am not one of them...I hope that doesn't pose a problem".  … (32 comments)

"I Can't Disclose That" Is Not Helping You Or Your Seller Part 2 - 05/12/08 04:56 PM
Back in March I wrote a post called:  "I Can't Disclose That" Is Not Helping You Or Your Seller. This turned out to be a pretty controversial post when you review the comment section.  For those of you who don't want to go back and read that post I'll summarize it for you.
It basically says:  Buyers and agents working with buyers are quite possibly going to ask you how flexible the seller is going to be on the price if they decide to write an offer.
This is a passionate point in real estate today because many of us were taught.  DO NOT DISCLOSE ANYTHING … (17 comments)

Naples, Florida Real Estate Blog Works! - 05/06/08 08:45 PM
This one's kinda funny!  Since I joined Active Rain last August, I've been encouraging colleagues in Naples, Florida to join Active Rain.  I gotta say, it's been kind of a tough sell.  Not because Active Rain isn't great (because we all know Active Rain is GREAT) but because blog is in fact a 4 letter word and let's face it, it's a scary word for many agents because they don't quite get it like the current Active Rain members do. 
So after talking with one of my colleagues forever about the powers of blogging on Active Rain, go figure, I finally get … (20 comments)

WHOA! Don't Pull The Plug So Fast! - 05/03/08 02:45 PM
With the economy in constant turmoil and other crazy factors making our consumers think there might be better deals if they wait just a tiny bit longer, we're seeing a few people come to Naples, write offers and taking off when their initial bid or further negotiations aren't accepted. In some cases, that might be the best decision to make.  In others it may not. 
Here's an example.
I wrote an offer for some folks who were interested in Pelican Bay.  After the first counter it became apparent what the seller's lowest price was.  The buyers showed serious signs of backing off.
Now typically, … (1 comments)

Naples, Florida Real Estate & Zillow - 05/01/08 04:40 PM
There's no mystery that Zillow has had their fair share of challenges when attempting to accurately provide real estate estimates for Naples, Florida real estate.  But before anyone gets too excited, this is not a Zillow bashing post...just an update.  Besides, I'd like to give a special high five to that Zillow representative who admittedly said they had been faced with the challenge down here.  It was quite some time ago and they explained that they were "working on it" so I thought I would double check again to see what has improved especially since I recently wrote an offer with a … (7 comments)

 
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Shannon Lefevre, PA

Shannon Lefevre, PA Your Naples Smart Girl

Naples, FL

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John R. Wood REALTORS Inc.

Address: 800 5th Avenue South Suite 200, Naples, Fl , 34102

Office Phone: (239) 595-6223

Cell Phone: (239) 595-6223

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Author Bio: Shannon Lefevre, PA sells Naples Florida real estate and has been doing so successfully since 2002. That's why many call her Naples Smart Girl.

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