We have been in a Buyer's Market in all areas of Hernando County, Florida (including Spring Hill, Brooksville, Weeki Wachee & Hernando Beach) for almost 2 yaers now. Interest rates are still historically low and local Realtors are starting to notice Buyers coming out & getting their feet wet. For two months in a row I have had multiple offers fighting for my listings, which is a great sign! I think the prices have finally come back down to where they should have been before they rose to all time highs back in 2001 through 2005.

Hernando County's local builders have been scrambling with incentives, Realtor bonuses & other extras (like plasma TVs, washers & dryers, etc) luring Buyers to their doors. This is a great strategy for builders but it hurts the homeowner trying to sell their older home. Offering Real Estate incentives are a great way to attract Realtors & Buyers to a home, but when it comes right down to it a home priced realistically, on today's market, will bring the most amount of attention. This has been a relatively hard concept to get a Seller to understand.

Homes in Hernando County priced accurately will continue to sell quickly. Yet many Sellers in Hernando County do not believe their Real Estate professionals when it comes to price suggestions & have their homes priced too high. A Realtor suggests a listing price, but a homeowner has the last word on it. Too many homeowners think they can still get 2004/2005 prices for their homes & they create their own price, which is typically much higher than a Realtor's suggestion. When the home lingers on the market for months without a showing the Realtor usually gets a hard time from the Seller, who wonders what the Realtor is doing to market their home. Well no amount of marketing will sell an over-priced home! I myself do not take over-priced listings, it is a waste of a Seller's time, my time & my marketing dollar, plus it sends a message to the neighbors that I can't sell a house.

Homes are selling in Spring Hill. If you're considering selling your home in the next year your Real Estate professional should be offering you a detailed marketing plan on how your home will be marketed, a virtual tour, considerable web coverage/marketing & a detailed comparable market analysis (CMA) backing up their listing price suggestion. The listing priced should be looked at every 30 days & adjusted, if necessary. My advice to Sellers is to work with a Real Estate professional that you trust, let them do their job & you will get the results you're looking for!

Visit my website to search ALL available homes in Florida & to find more information on our beautiful Nature Coast! Sheri Ann Johnson, GRI, REALTOR-Associate, Keller Williams Realty of the Florida West Coast, Spring Hill Florida

For the most part I think that each & every one of us has a good idea of how to create a listing presentation for a Seller. But do you know how to create a Buyer presentation for the Buyer? As soon as my Buyer gets in the car I hand them their folder. In the folder I have a customer copy of each of the MLS pages of the homes we're about to see, stapled together, in the order that we're going to see them. I also include a map of Hernando County, a couple of Nature Coast books, a calendar of events, a visitor's guide, a newcomer's guide, a list of utility companies in the area, my own list of important web links to get them familiar with the area & a blank copy of the purchase contract. I encourage note taking by including a pen in their folder.

When a Buyer gives me their commitment by signing the Buyer Broker Agreement, I go all out. I want them to feel value in their decision to work with me & only me, and I am confident they do. 

When I show a home I don't leave my business card behind, I leave a customized book marker behind! I have had my box of 1000 book markers for 2 years now & I have left them on many different countertops. I think I paid $45 for the box of them. 

Today I got a phone call from a woman who has one of my book marks from when her home was on the market over a year ago. She's been holding on to it (using it actually) & now needs to sell & move up North. She wants me to meet with her on Thursday for a listing presentation... I'm the only real estate agent interviewing for the position. Yippee!

Rest assured your business cards will be thrown away. Leave the Seller something they can use & chances are they will! You can go to QuantumCopy.com & either order a standard design or upload your own photos & create a custom one!

A fellow real estate agent friend of mine got a call this afternoon that the escrow check the Buyer put down to secure her Seller's listing, had just bounced! Can you believe it? It was a $5000 check! She quickly called the Buyer's agent, who had already heard the news & had called her customers. The Buyers seemed mildly surprised, but really weren't all that concerned, actually they laughed. The Buyer's agent advised that when she told her customers how serious this was they were a bit more concerned.

My friend asked the Buyer's agent to secure a bank check from them as soon as possible. My friend is trying to act cool around her Sellers during this whole situation. I only hope for her sake that this is not a glimpse into the future of this transaction! The title company wasn't phased by this at all... Does this happen a lot? 

If I'm not out & about I am at home, and most likely spending a good part of my day on the computer. I use PowerPoint, Word, Outlook & Excel on a daily basis. I have had extensive training on all of them, but I find myself still learning everyday. I use the Microsoft website to download new templates for Excel, PowerPoint & Word, like list making templates, new clip art. There are also many other free downloads, business managment information & various training classes to help anyone better organize their business.While you're looking around

While you're looking around you can also check for updates to keep your Microsoft software working its best. There is so much these programs can do to make our businesses run simpler, we just need to dive in & take advantage of what's right at our fingertips everyday. 

I was messing around on the internet today and found a fun little website. You can plug in your phone number and this website will come up with different word & number combinations your phone number spells, or you can put in a word and this website will quickly tell you the phone number for the word. 

My cellular phone number is 263-8838 and that spells cod-tuft, among other things! I don't think I'll have that posted on my business cards or anything else for that matter. But it's still a fun site.   

Disclaimer: "I can't answer that question, nor can any licensee. It would place you in violation of Fair Housing Laws and would place me in violation of Fair Housing Laws."

We went over & over this in real estate class & I remember thinking to myself, "I'll never have to pull that card out & read it to anyone." Boy was I wrong! I cannot count on two hands how many times I've been in the compromising position of having to pull out "the card" & read it to Buyers (and very rarely to Sellers). It's amazing to me how many people (who don't even know me) feel comfortable having inappropriate conversations with me. 

I hate being put in the position of pulling out "the card" and reading it to them, because I feel like a parent scolding a disobedient child. But that's my job! Many of my peers will just ignore comment in hopes that their non-response will send a message to the customer that they are not interested in the conversation. Please be warned that NAR takes this issue seriously. NAR sends out testers into the market place to check real estate agents. No one should ever put their job in jeopardy for a customer's inappropriateness.

Want to attract more search engines to your website the easy way? I get confused on all the SEO & RSS talk, but I have no problem understanding the use of keywords in hyperlinks on the content pages of my website. This is easy enough & will attract search engines! When search engines see words hyperlinked in my content they think the words are important. To emphasize this even more make sure the page you're linking to has a page name with the keyword in it!

In a city full of real estate agents what makes each one of us stand out? Do we need gimmicks or hooks to be remembered? Maybe being involved in the community, clubs or a local organization would be enough.

I remember a few years ago, when I lived in St. Pete, FL, a local real estate agent made the evening news several days in a row because when he listed a home he put another sign in the yard that said, "List with me & you'll get a FREE pizza!". A pizza! No homeowner's warranty, no discounted listing fees, nothing more than a free pizza! People thought this was so funny that he became an overnight success for this idea. While being interviewed on the news he mentioned how busy he had been listing homes as a result of this pizza stunt. 

There's another real estate agent that put those dirty looking bubba teeth in his mouth & had professional closeup pictures of himself for his marketing! I mean he's got on a nice suit & tie & his hair is done, but then he'd got those jagged teeth sticking out from his lips. Again, people loved this guy's sense of humor & his ability to laugh at himself. He had people calling him to send them his business card or something else they could tack up on their refrigerator. It wasn't long after that stunt that his phone started to ring! 

Not many real estate professionals would be able to throw themselves under the bus like that & take a chance they totally flop & don't make the news. But what if it worked?   

Last month I got a letter from StateFarm, my homeowner's insurance carrier. I called my husband & told him about it & he wanted to know what it was. I told hime that I didn't know because I hadn't opened it yet. I was calling him because I was afraid of the news the letter would bring. Having worked in insurance for over 11 years I know that you don't get envelopes 3 months prior to your scheduled renewal. I opened the letter, with my husband on the line, only to find StateFarm's updated privacy policy. Phew! We dodged another bullet!

My husband & I laughed & he told me not to worry about it. We had been very lucky with our insurance coverage & maybe we were flying under the radar because we had never filed a claim. I've had some form of Statefarm property insurance for the last 17 years, from my very first renter's policy & the homeowner's policy on both of the homes I have owned, never once filing a claim.

Well today I received another envelope from Statefarm. I confidently opened it only to find that my homeowner insurance premiums have gone from $1340 to $2953 a year!!! A $1613 increase, can you believe it? So between my property taxes of $4300 & my new insurance premium we're paying $7253 a year or $604 a month to live in Florida. I made myself a cosmopolitan & then I called my husband.

I guess this is why so many Floridians are running to Tennessee. If you live in Florida & your policy renewal date was prior to July 06 you will not be affected until next year. Brace yourself.