Keeping it real-and being grateful for my friends and associates at Inman:
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StyleDesigner lets you redecorate digitally -on line!
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Thanks to all for your thoughts and comments-(;-])
...Blog ON!
Steve
Obeoman
The days of Googling your keywords to measure the effectiveness of your SEO strategy are coming to an end. According to Bruce Clay of PubCon, there will be big changes in ranking. In the name of Top Shelp Organic SEO, Google will be tuning into the specific behaviors of individual users to serve up more customized results.
What this means to the end-user is better results and less spam. more...
My friend Gustavo Farfan, has prepared this article, hoping to turn the mindset of our community from negative to positive thinking. I hope he is right,lets see what you think about his view. Gustavo Blachman. SHOULD I BUY NOW OR WAIT UNTIL THE PRICES DROP MORE? I hear the same line of question from clients and Real Estate agents. more...
Real estate professionals need to think differently about the future. They need to do more and they need to move faster. It has now been more than 10 years since my first book on trends, Real Estate confronts Reality, and many of the changes that we have been writing and speaking about are now coming to fruition. Things are definitely changing, and on a large scale. Within the next five years the real estate brokerage industry will significantly have changed and brokers and agents that don’t adapt now will not enjoy the benefits of the next economic upswing. more...
Last June, the South Florida Business Journal announced a Fort Lauderdale proposal for a new streetcar system called, The Wave, to replace the current downtown Sun Trolley. The proposed running date: 2012. The proposed price tag: $150 million.
The present Sun Trolley (on wheels) conveys approximately 100 passengers per day. The Downtown Development Authority of Fort Lauderdale, which is planning The Wave, believes this jazzy new, electric streetcar system will attract 6,000 riders per day, especially with plans to link it to the Tri-Rail system. more...
What do “chi” alignment, the number 27, “space clearing” and “hungry ghosts” have in common when selling a residence? Feng Shui. Yes, you read correctly. An article in November’s Realtor magazine says sellers experiencing long periods between listing and selling their properties are hiring Feng Shui practitioners to use the ancient Chinese technique to dissipate the negativity of financial woes by realigning the “chi”, or energy, of the property.
And, guess what? The article says it’s working. more...
Change seems to be the buzz word this year, with Barack Obama touting “Change We Need,” John McCain promoting “Real Change” and even Hillary Clinton saying “Change you can count on.”
Every year the Swanepoel TRENDS Report identifies, analyzes and then details out the imminent changes that are expected to impact the real estate industry over the coming 12 – 18 months. The 2009 Report is currently in the final 60 days of research and writing and obviously with all the recent financial disasters, the energy crisis, the housing collapse and foreclosure catastrophe this has made 2008 the worst year in real estate and financial history. more...
The domain name RealEstateSearch.com is being sold. So, as a long time online real estate marketer, I looked into what impact a domain name like that would have on ranking in Google.
According to the Google Adwords traffic estimator, consumers type the keywords in this domain name "real estate search" 9 million times each month into the Google search.
If you bought these keywords, this would result in roughly 240,000 consumer visits each month to your website nationally. Based on the cost of keywords, this would be quite an investment. more...
So you've found a house that you would like to flip, or you've decided that you want to flip a house, but you are not sure how cheap you need to buy one in order to make a nice profit. more...
Hi Folks
Buying a property is simple, as long as you do follow a checklist. It is really difficult to spend time in researching property overseas, but if someone found the property exhibition in a desired region would help them a lot in relation to meet the developers and real estate agents, and get first hand knowledge of about their properties and locations. more...
We have been running our website now for just over one year with at present no formal marketing. It is run on a voluntarily basis and we have had a good response to our Free marketing offer. There are already a fair few video property tours websites, some ofwhich are free, though we try and pride ourselves with the fact that we only allow actual video footage tours as opposed to film slideshows, virtual/360° Tours. more...
After watching a disturbing video on Inman on home foreclosures in Southern California, I became acutely aware of how much Americans caught up in the net of losing their homes to the volcanic mortgage situation lost something more precious than their homes: They lost their integrity.
The video showed abandoned, completely furnished homes being “trashed out” by a company hired by the banks to empty the property to be ready for sale. Brown lawns are being spray painted green to improve curb appeal for marketing. What are these people thinking? more...
Hi Folks
Dubai’s Real Estate Regulatory Agency (Rera) is cracking down on speculators at the Cityscape
Exhibition. According to Rera top official no memorandums of understandings, sale agreements or property contracts will be legally acceptable if they are not registered with the Dubai Land Department (DLD). Even real estate developers who are not registered with Rera or any of the unregistered projects would not permit to sell their properties. more...
How is your open house traffic in these challenging times? As the Internet gains momentum and videos become the popular option to preview properties, what is the future for open houses?
Typically, the main open house traffic is on Sunday afternoons from 2 pm until late afternoon. Increased gas prices and reduced leisure time may also be impacting the traditional open house habit. What are real estate professionals experiencing in other areas? more...
Coming soon to a cell phone near you: The ability to project images and videos via a built in micro sized pico-projector on any surface up to 100 inches. more...
Hello,
Please review our site and let me know what you think. http://www.OpenHouseDealer.com
New Exclusive Real Estate Video website, We tried to keep it as simple as possible for everyone.
Thank you for your input.
Realtor Magazine* cites an interesting article by a marketing company who segmented homebuyers into five “tribes”-- in which they promise that consumers will recognize themselves as at least one. They believe real estate salespeople can target their advertising based on the following tribes: more...
The Financial Market Disaster of 2008
September 2008 is exactly two weeks old today, but what a September it has already been. The events of late are unsurpassed in living history and I think that 9/08 may very well be remembered as the worst financial disaster in history. more...
Today we remember the brave men, women and children who lost their lives seven years ago and the heroes that responded to the emergency. There are many different video tributes of that day but I thought that this one was particularly well rounded. http://attacked911.tripod.com/
God Bless America!
In this economy of intense competition, it is easy to get stressed out at the thought of learning new techniques to getting your listings out in the public eye. But, there is no need to completely abandon traditional marketing strategies. The best advertising and marketing strategy is to diversify your marketing to reach a larger target audience. In order to do this properly, you must more...
If you are not familiar with Local.com, they are localized online search tool specializing in helping people find large and small businesses within their local area. Unlike other local search tools out there Local.com contains rich review content submitted by actual customers as well as free listings within their directory.
According to Compete, Local.com’s traffic has been steadily increasing over the past few years as well and they are now just under the 10 million visitor per month mark. more...
Hi - This is an article that I recently wrote for an online trade publication that I thought would be relevant here.
Thanks
Mike
Too many marketers live in silos. Their strategy too often fails to address all the ways they could be reaching their target audience. In many cases if they are reaching their audience through the right channels the message is not consistent or integrated properly. more...
A commenter on my blog post about Craigslist, real estate and HTML said that CL is getting more aggressive about removing accounts and ads that are re-posted multiple times. The commenter is based in Austin. Is anyone else noticing this behavior?
Mostly it sounds like they are just enforcing their Terms of Use (which is probably a good thing).
The results for the XXIX Real Estate Olympiad are in.
Wow, what a huge undertaking it has been to tally the scores, taking all factors into consideration, weighted scores, removing highest and lowest scores and of course double checking the hanging chads. Thank you to all paticipants, nominees,voters and judges!
So the Medal Winners of the 2008 Real Estate Pacesetter Award, as voted by the Inman Real Estate Trends Group, are: more...
Mason Pruner, Branch Manager of Wells Fargo on Glades Road in Boca Raton recently sent me this update from Washington on The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. If you haven’t already heard, I’m sure you would like to know the new facts. more...
With the market as difficult as it is are you doing everything you can to sell your clients homes? Have you considered home swapping? If not, then why? The service we provide is FREE and easy to use. Just log into www.pad4pad.com, find your listings, claim them, add the exchange information and do a swap search. If your listings are not on our site, request your agency set up a feed to download them for free. Why not?
Greg
This is in follow up to the post last week titled Real Estate Olympics
Recap of Beijing
Mark Spitz's 36-year old record of 7 gold medals at one Olympic event, across all Olympic sports, was shattered when 23-year-old swimming machine Michael Phelps grabbed his 8th gold in Beijing and 14 all-time gold medals. Who will ever forget his 0.01 of a second photo-finish with Serbian - Wow. more...
My husband and I run our own mortgage broker office. We have never aligned ourselves to any particular Real Estate Agent, but marketed directly to homeowners hoping to refinance or move up in life. Because we have had very good success with this, and have always been the people referring TO agents instead of getting referred BY agents, we haven't depended on Agent business.
Now, however, we are being approached by four different agents in our area who want to co-market with us. more...
Curb appeal - it isn't what it used to be. There was a time when a savvy agent could get a buyer to overlook 'flaws' seen from the road. Well in today's online world, curb appeal has taken on a whole new meaning.
When buyers scan listings on REALTOR.com(r) or other real estate websites, if they aren't impressed with the photos in THREE SECONDS, they "bounce" and click onto the next listing. No matter how many print ads, how many brochures, baseball + football schedule refrigerator magnets they mail, the photos are the be all, end all for getting a listing noticed online. more...
Interpretation and Reality of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 - Arizona (Maricopa County)
Recently the House and Senate passed broad-based housing legislation that was signed into law by President Bush last week. As expected, Fannie/Freddie/and HUD has not yet communicated a majority of the program requirements to the mortgage lenders and investors.
With that disclosure, here are several key changes and how it affects you: more...
It is my pleasure to share another exciting incentive enrolled by the governor’s office toward making Florida an environmentally sound and beautiful locale for living.
On June 24, 2008, the South Florida Water Management District began negotiating an agreement to acquire as much as 187,000 acres of agricultural land owned by the United States Sugar Corporation to reestablish a part of the historic connection between Lake Okeechobee and America's Everglades. more...
BREATHE EASIER IN FLORIDA: Reducing Greenhouse Gases
As of the 16th of July 2008, a Memorandum of Understanding was drawn between the United Kingdom’s Carbon Trust and the State of Florida. The memorandum, signed in London by Michael Rea, COO of The Carbon Trust and Governor Charlie Christ, is summarized as follows: more...
Governor Charlie Crist and the Florida Association of Realtors aggressively supported the now-passed Amendment 1, originally known as the Save Our Homes Amendment begun in 1995. For those residents unsure of how Amendment 1 affects their real estate plans, here are facts from Florida Realtor Magazine: more...
Looking back on the unprecedented growth in the real estate market for the past ten years, the well-muscled housing prices seemed to have been on . . . well, steroids. While lenders matched loans and interests rates to the swelling real estate market, many observers knew the day would come when the high would hit a low.
An interesting article in Continental Airline’s July in-flight magazine called, The Silver Lining Strategy, by Chris Warren, cites real estate developers and investors across the country excited about the new real estate diagnosis. more...
Mayfair International Realty (one of Premier Estate Properties’ affiliates), based in London, England, provides me with valuable market data and an opportunity to promote some of Fort Lauderdale’s finest luxury residences. The latest report from Mayfair International Realty revealed the following facts:
1. Some Florida Statistics more...
GOOD NEWS ON FLORIDA'S HOUSING PROGNOSIS
Florida Trend Magazine has an interesting article in the July 2008 issue. A ‘prognosis’ made by the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Competitiveness states that the U.S. will begin recovering from its “mild” recession right about now. Good news. Florida, however, is supposed to be delayed in its recovery due to the statewide housing slump. more...
IDENTITY THEFT AND THE STEALING OF CONFIDENTIAL DATA
“Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the nation - especially in the suburbs,” says Congresswoman Melissa Bean. The FTC receives over 250,000 reports of identity theft every year and USA Today reported that in 2007 an estimated 260 million records were stolen - that amounts to 8 records stolen every second of every day.
In real estate this is also a growing concern. Here are three possible vulnerable areas of our industry that I see: more...
Margot Larkin, Assistant Vice President and Mortgage Office from Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust, recently commented on the emerging trends towards luxury real estate, which she claims is always the first asset to be super-sized, ultra-designed, and updated with the latest technology and trends.
• Design and Layout
Today’s high-end luxury residences are brimming with amenities never dreamed of years ago. “Smart” homes have been the rage for a few years, but now you can “call” your residence and pre-set the temperature, lighting, television, and more. more...
I am a successful mortgage banker in Northeast Phoenix,Cave Creek and Carefree area.I have many realtor relationships that have been very succesful in the past and now. more...
Have you ever wondered how competitive a real estate market is online. Well an agent with a very limited web presence brought up the very question on the REW Forums.
The agent wanted to know how competitive the term, Glen Cove real estate would be. Here is the link to the test page http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/thread26290.html
I'll be keeping an eye to see if the forum thread ranks within the first two pages of Google. If the thread does rank within the first few pages, then it's a clear indication that the agent needs to launch a site asap.
Do you have a real estate website? If not, you can do a Google search and find 100s if not 1000s of companies that provide real estate web design. However, only a few website companies can provide a quality site that's search engine friendly.
It's of little use to have a Great looking site and no visibility. I've known associates that have spent 10s of 1000s on sites that never seen a lead, much less a decent ROI. more...
...well, I think if you don't blog now, you may miss the boat when something leapfrogs blogging.
Either that or your laptop might fall off your lap.
Seriously.
Steve
steven.stearns@obeo.com
Obeoman
I love the internet, but I forget how much time goes by once I get on. It is also like going to the store for one item and then doing all your shopping. I love all the information and just keep clicking away. There must be a name for that, OC maybe? What will we be like in the future; just arms and head, something out of a Scifi movie? I just upgraded my laptop to Broad Band so I think it's all over now. I don't have a Blackberry yet waiting to see the next generation. What will it do next? Great time we are living in. I wonder if I see a real estate office on Mars? more...
I think that "listing websites" are a great addition to the marketing plan for home sellers. Does anyone else use them and do you have a favorite company?
Hello again!
I was just curious how many of you use guest authors on your blog? I try to write every day on my reverse mortgage blog but it's tough. I have been thinking about trying to bring on some guest contributors but wanted to see if anyone had experience doing that or having guests write on your blog. Are there any networks of guest blog writers out there?
Let me know your experiences, i'm interested to see who does what..
Thanks,
Rogan McGillis
Founder, Sr. Editor
ReverseMortgageCity.com Media Center
www.reversemortgagecity.com/blog
