ar challenges: Cleaning the Augean Stables
- 03/30/17 12:20 PM
Debbie Laity's challenge for this month has, as I feared it would, left me feeling like Hercules - I have a mountain of crap to work through, and every time I work on it, it just seems to become bigger and bigger.
For my neighborhood market reports, I always link to a general introductory post which provides an overview of the neighborhood. And while I wrote those overviews as regular posts, I always published them in my outside blog. Out of some vague understanding that it was beneficial to my SEO, it was the outside blog posts that I linked to in … (26 comments)
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ar challenges: Some Thoughts on Client Appreciation Parties
- 12/19/16 10:21 AM
Mary and I have done a few client appreciation parties over the years, but we stopped doing them a while back. Here's why.
After over 20 years in the business, we have a large client list, and a great program for keeping in touch and top of mind with them. Many of these clients have become friends whom we see socially, but most just think of us as their Realtors, and know us as the people who did a great job for them and send them a Sunset Magazine subscription every year, a Ben & Jerry's ice cream birthday cake on the … (45 comments)
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ar challenges: Christmas Trees
- 12/15/16 10:31 AM
A retirement home in Fort Collins, CO - The Fort Collins Health Care Center - is providing very special Christmas cheer to their residents and to thousands of commuters as they pass by the facility on Lemay Avenue on their way home from work every day.
There are many lovely displays during the Christmas season in Fort Collins, but this may very well be the finest decorated tree in northern Colorado. There are 30,000 - count 'em, 30,000! - lights strung on this tree. By comparison, the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, which is 94 ft. high, has 50,000. Stringing these lights was … (28 comments)
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ar challenges: 2016 4th Quarter Review
- 10/21/16 04:01 AM
It has been an interesting and productive year so far. Our markets are still facing significant inventory shortages, but have cooled a bit from last year's levels. Since regional economic and job growth have continued at a strong pace, there's no real reason to suspect that potential demand has diminished. We're guessing that rapidly rising prices in the lower and mid ranges have priced some buyers either out of the market or into its fringes, while others may have become discouraged by the multiple offer frenzy so common last year.
In spite of that cooling, we have had a good 2016 so … (11 comments)
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ar challenges: About That Business Plan...
- 07/31/16 01:09 AM
It has been some time since Mary and I did a formal business plan. After 22 years in the business for me, 24 for Mary, and 18 working together, we know pretty well what we need to do to keep the wolves from the door. Over our time together, we have been very proactive in tweaking our approach and our methods - we're constantly looking for ways to be better at what we do, and always willing to try something that seems to make sense. That's how we found blogging and AR.
But even without a formal business plan, we're always checking … (19 comments)
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ar challenges: The Branding Lesson
- 06/14/16 04:00 AM
In 22 years in the real estate industry, Mary & I learned many lessons. Some of them were enlightening, some invaluable, some painful, and some a complete waste of time. Among all of those, there is one that really stands out as a major contributor to our success, and it didn't really come in lesson form. Rather, we lucked out - some things that we did because we wanted to, turned out in retrospect to be very good moves.
When Mary & I began working together as a team back in 1998, we had one of those ghastly couples photos on our … (59 comments)
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ar challenges: A Different Kind of Builder Listing
- 06/11/16 02:50 AM
Over the course of our real estate career, Mary and I have worked with several new home builders. The best of these relationships were the ones in which we were the builder's "Preferred Realtor". When a buyer who had a home to sell wanted to buy a new home from the builder, we would offer to waive our part of the listing commission if we were chosen to list their home. And in return, the builder paid us the selling side commission on the new home.
These were great deals for all parties. The buyers got full and excellent service on their … (31 comments)
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ar challenges: Sensei/Grasshopper - Time Is Running Out
- 05/22/15 11:04 PM
There is only a week and a day left to enter the Sensei/Grasshopper Challenge, but that's still plenty of time, really.
Don't let this opportunity to up your game or to help a fellow AR member pass you by.
You can still find someone to act as your mentor and teach you a valuable skill or technique - just ask for help in the Sensei/Grasshopper Group.
And if you want to be a mentor, offer your services in the Sensei/Grasshopper Group.
Connect with your Sensei or Grasshopper, complete, or even get a good start on, your project, and write a post about it (and be … (12 comments)
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ar challenges: Sensei/Grasshopper: Round IV
- 04/22/15 02:51 AM
It's time for Round IV of the Sensei/Grasshopper Challenge!
The Sensei/Grasshopper challenge focuses on two of the things the ActiveRain community does best - sharing skills and making connections with other members.
ActiveRain is an information-rich environment. The skill sets of the membership, along with the millions of blog posts in the archives, many of which are how-to articles relating to things like technology and real estate marketing, ensure that if there is anything in real estate you need to know, the odds are pretty good you can find out about it here.
But sometimes reading about how to do something isn't quite … (67 comments)
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ar challenges: Singing in the Rain - Scott Godzyk
- 01/23/15 02:10 AM
Scott Godzyk and I have been following each other for years, trading comments regularly. We both have a pretty good sense of what each other is doing here, and share some similar attitudes and approaches to how we do business. So it was an easy choice to give him a call for Debbie Reynolds' Singing in the Rain challenge.
Scott owns and manages the Godzyk Realty Group in Manchester NH, a company originally started by his mother. He has been in the business for 28 years, has developed a reputation for excellent customer service and effective marketing, and, as well … (18 comments)
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ar challenges: On-Line Friendships
- 01/23/15 01:33 AM
Debbie Reynolds' Singing in the Rain challenge has been tremendous fun, providing us with a great excuse for some real-world interaction with our fellow AR members.
But as I wrote that, I thought "wait a minute, a telephone conversation isn't really real world", remembering those times before the Internet when real world meant face-to-face. Now a chat on the phone is kind of an intermediary state, between inhabiting the same physical space and connecting on-line.
What is interesting is how real and solid personal interactions have become all along that spectrum. There are people we know from personally meeting and … (50 comments)
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ar challenges: Yukking It Up with Pat Kennedy
- 01/21/15 01:19 AM
Yesterday, as part of Debbie Reynolds fun contest Singing in the Rain, I finally got a chance to talk to Pat Kennedy. I've subscribed to Pat for a while now, always check her weekly "Best of" posts for the good stuff I missed, and greatly enjoyed pretty much everything she has written.
In addition to being the current AR points leader, Pat is one of the Old Guard - she has been an AR member since June of 2007, so she knows where all the bodies are buried, and her perspective on our community has the weight of history behind … (18 comments)
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ar challenges: Sensei/Grasshopper - Important! Please Read!
- 04/30/14 12:36 AM
First, I'd like to thank all of you who have participated. Your willingness to share and eagerness to learn are amazing, and have generated a lot of great collaborations and some very productive results.
However, I see way more posts in the Sensei/Grasshopper group than e-mails I have received to qualify you for points for this challenge.
If you would like to receive points for your entry, please ensure that you have done the following:
Posted your challenge report in the Sensei/Grasshopper group
Sent me an e-mail with the following information included:
Sensei/Grasshopper in the subject line
… (13 comments)
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ar challenges: Sensei/Grasshopper - An April Challenge!
- 04/02/12 08:03 AM
ActiveRain may be the most complete repository of real estate information and expertise available in the galaxy. With over 2.5 million blog posts in the archives and over 220,000 members, it's an information-rich environment that can help anyone find and use tools to improve their business model, adopt and adapt new technology, and achieve success.
And while ActiveRain makes Herculean efforts to help newcomers get oriented and make sense of what at times can seem an incomprehensible and overwhelming array of options and information, it can be a daunting task to get started.
Think back to when you first got … (120 comments)
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Debbie Laity's challenge for this month has, as I feared it would, left me feeling like Hercules - I have a mountain of crap to work through, and every time I work on it, it just seems to become bigger and bigger.
;)
;)
;)
