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Articles from BlueRoof Blog

Real Estate Marketing- Good, Bad and Ugly 2007-06-13 03:01:24   Let’s face it- not all marketing is good. A lot of marketing is horrible, some is simply bland, some is very good and some should be burned immediately. Good marketing people are not always easy to find, and once you do find them they are often very busy because of the aforementioned difficulty in finding them to begin with. Selling real estate effectively requires marketing. It takes people looking at your ads so they see the homes. Whether it’s on the internet, magazines, newspapers, postcards, or wherever- sellers want buyers seeing their property and buyers want to find good homes. The right marketing can have a significant impact on the amount of traffic a property gets. Sometimes good companies have bad marketing, which makes them less-good, but this could simply be the result of bad taste from management, or designers who are either getting revenge on their bosses or are just wasted on crack. Either way, as important as marketing is in the real estate industry, I ... Marketing

Redpin on 16 Minutes 2007-06-10 13:39:53 16 Minutes does an in-depth interview about Redpin and their clients… ...

The Natural Cycle of a Real Estate Market 2007-06-09 11:11:27      As the real estate market was rising nationally the last few years the media went hog wild over the frenzy and everywhere you looked there was someone or something telling you that real estate was HOT HOT HOT! Prices were going through the roof and there was unprecedented growth and people were becoming multi-millionaires from selling their homes. It was craziness. Now the “national market” is going through a correction because it has to- there was too much too fast. In some areas prices and inventory levels are going to decrease. Is that a good thing? Yes, it is. It’s healthy for each market to go through it’s cycle. This ebb and flow is good and allows each market to grow and then collect itself and catch up, and then eventually grow again. Often when an area does go through a slowing or correction, the prices do not actually go down, but rather just don’t go up as fast. Usually the decline of a market is actually just a decline in it& ...

Caution 2007-06-04 13:00:18   From a previous post… “And because this is my blog I write about things that I think about and have opinions about. I was interviewed a few days ago by Brad Inman about blogging and he asked me where I come up with the content for my posts.  The content for my posts come from happenings in the industry, local interests and news, and my thoughts and opinions about whatever. The beauty of a blog, at least my blog, is that it is purposely not a politically-correct bore-fest of facts and promotion. It is opinion and open dialogue. I moderate the comments very light-handedly. They are immediately posted and sent to me and I delete comments that are spam, personal attacks, and sometimes just because they are obnoxious.” I make no declaration of being politically correct, morally superior, or even being right. This is my blog and it is how I see things and about topics I want to write about. I get a lot of advise from many different people all the time about my blog a ...

Believe in What You Do or Don’t Do It 2007-06-04 02:42:37 Driving home today I saw a For Sale By Owner (FSBO) directional sign directing people down a particular street. On the sign was a phone number and the words “owner/agent”. I recognized the phone number as belonging to an agent who used to work for me. What does this tell me? It tells me a few things… - I didn’t teach him well enough to believe in what he’s doing - His clients are losing out working with someone who doesn’t believe in what’s he doing - He may want to re-think his career choice because currently it has no integrity I don’t trust salespeople who don’t believe in their product or services. I wouldn’t trust an atheist minister, a vegetarian butcher or an environmentalist who drives a suburban either. At the end of the day your integrity is worth more than a paycheck and if this agent doesn’t believe in his companies marketing and service then he may want to evaluate which company he is with, or whether thi ...

Microsoft Announces new Surface Computer 2007-05-31 04:21:53 Microsoft announced their new surface computer  today (actually yesterday- it’s after midnight) at the D: All Things Digital  conference in San Diego. Be interesting to see what sort of applications can be made to utilize this new technology. ... Microsoft

“Days on Market” Doesn’t Matter Much 2007-05-30 20:13:18 Imagine you’re looking for a new home and come across one that seems to be just what you’ve been looking for. It’s got the amenities you want, the price is good and it’s in great condition. You ask your Realtor how long it’s been on the market and they tell you it’s been on the market for four months. Does that change your mind about the home? It shouldn’t. Days on Market is a myth- it doesn’t show the desirability of a home anymore than being single at 40 shows that someone isn’t lovable. Sometimes good homes go unnoticed and sometimes there are reasons a good home, priced well, hasn’t sold fast. Maybe it was being remodeled during that time, perhaps it wasn’t accessible and couldn’t be shown very easily, or maybe the sellers received a lot of offers but haven’t accepted any yet. Maybe it’s been under contract and off the market for much of the time. Sometimes agents or staff don’t update the ML ...

Five Things About Successful Salespeople 2007-05-27 19:19:47 I’ve heard it said that we’re all in sales, in one form or another. And there’s probably some truth to that. Having children means selling them on the benefits of brushing their teeth and going to sleep at a good hour and sometimes we try to sell our friends on why we should eat at this restaurant or to try out this new golf club or go see that movie that we thought was so good. But for actual salespeople, or those of us who’s work it is to assist people in the actual sale of a product or service, there are some things that I believe are fundamentally important to being successful at what we do, and they aren’t necessarily the same things that are important in other professions. There’s a difference between acheiving success and being a successful salesperson- this post is about the latter. Five things about successful salespeople; They like people. We’re all different and for every type of personality there is someone who wants to work ...

The Power of a single… 2007-05-22 00:00:27 word. ...

Avoiding Potential Lawsuits When Selling Your Home 2007-05-14 17:36:42   I’ve been in real estate for about fourteen years and sold hundreds of homes (and in three states) so I feel fortunate that I haven’t been to court or mediation for a transaction I was involved in. But as a managing broker for several large real estate firms I was involved in mediation, arbitration and litigation with other agents and their clients. It’s not a fun process and even the side that wins the decision is usually unhappy when it’s all said and done, because they’ve had to go through the frustration of the hearings and all the claims against them and the other party. It’s not fun… When it comes time to sell your home you’ll have quite a few chores to take care of. You’ll need to clean and get ready for sale, perhaps some fix-ups and staging will be in order, you’ll have packing and de-cluttering to do, and you’ll have a host of relocation items such as finding your next home, learning about schools and util ...

Is Your Blog an A-List Blog? 2007-05-06 22:18:08 According to Kineda, BlueRoof Blog is a High-Authority, or B-List Blog. To make it to the A-List you need to have over 500 links to your blog in the last six months. But is linking really the best measure of a blog’s relevance, or even it’s popularity? A true measure of a blog’s relevance would include links to the site, but also things like content, comments generated, and reach to it’s target audience. One factor alone does not give a good analysis. Some blogs get a lot of comments because of the audience they serve. Others because they established themselves early and became a voice early. I blogged on ActiveRain for a while and was listed as the 4th most popular blog on the network. I was ranked high mainly because I was blogging last fall when there were only a few thousand people on the network, so it wasn’t as difficult to rank high while I was actively blogging on their network. Does that mean it was a great blog? It meant it was popular to the ...

Zillow Misses the Mark Completely in Utah 2007-05-03 21:16:14   It’s no secret within the real estate industry that Zillow, and it’s Zestimates are not accurate, and really- they aren’t even supposed to be. Accuracy doesn’t even fit into Zillow’s core objectives. Their business model is not about being accurate at all- its about selling ads. But Zillow does create a real problem for many people who believe the ridiculous Zillow price estimates. Zillow’s business model is simple; 1- Assign a price estimate for every home 2- Generate interest by showing how “fun” it is to see what it says other people’s homes are worth and satelite images of celebrity houses 3- Sell advertising on the website Nowhere in that business model is accuracy. They want to be accurate enough that people will go to the site, but that’s about it. The state of Arizona’s lawsuit against Zillow only feeds them more exposure. And I’m a supporter of Zillow’s. I have been from the beginning and I a ...