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Important Trends In Real Estate Marketing Photography: Photo Size Is Important 2007-12-05 01:53:32 Fizber.com launches service with unlimited property photo capacity and support for massive photo sizes on their site. November 26, 2007 — Eighty percent of people across the country who bought a new home last year used the Internet while house hunting, and they rated photographs as the most useful tool in their search, according to a survey of buyers and sellers by the National Association of Realtors. Since property photos are meant to be a sales tool, Fizber.com, a premier FSBO website, has recently launched a service that is second to none for home sellers: there is now no limit on the total number and size of property photos that home owners can upload on their website. In real estate marketing photos are important and convey the appeal of the property much better than words. Fizber.com allows home sellers to upload their property digital photos in high quality. The photos are presented in elegant, instant online slideshows. Fizber ... Marketing

A Web 2.0 Approach to First Time Buyers and Sellers In A Tough Real Estate Market 2007-12-05 01:51:43 Fizber.com offers a full range of products and Web 2.0 real estate services dedicated to meeting the needs of first time sellers and buyers in a sluggish real estate market. November 27, 2007 - For those who have imagined owning a home or selling their property for the first time and didn’t know where to begin or what questions to ask, a new FSBO website has been designed to streamline the browsing experience and help them with the process. Fizber.com Web 2.0 services include Drive Score, Bike Score, Street View, Climate Watch, Fizber Video, integrated Google Maps, City Profiles and Blogs. Fizber.com Features: Web 2.0 technology Visualization of search results Combined map and search results on one page Enhanced property mapping and search Detailed neighborhood information Increased site speed Enhanced video tours Unlimited photo size and quantity Blogs “For first-time homebuyers home shopping is an exciting, though nerve-wrack ...

Story of a Staged Silk Purse & a Sow’s Ear 2007-12-05 00:00:00 While home staging CAN turn a “sow’s ear” of a home into a beautiful and easily sellable “silk purse”, there still is only so much staging can do to improve a home’s appeal to potential buyers. Sometimes a house that is for sale, even if it is priced right, has quality construction, or uses the most expensive and luxurious finishes… just can’t be helped with staging. CASE IN POINT: Above is an exterior shot of an absolutely beautiful 3/4 of a million dollar Chicago area home that was built well over 1 1/2 years ago… and has not sold. In fact, 17 months after it had NOT sold, the builder hired one of the finest and MOST savvy Realtors I know. The new Realtor called in Real Estaging with the hopes that if we created a beautiful view on the inside it would help counter the house’s “problem” that was keeping the house from being sold.Actually, except for the fact that this spec home was vacant, it really had no other ... Amp

What would you do if YOU were a real estate agent? 2007-12-04 22:23:01 This just in from Steve Jagger of Ubertor and Reachd: Rodney Bartlett catches up with Vanessa Fox, former product team lead for EZ Ads at Zillow and SEO Goddess, and answers the question, “What would you do if you were a real estate agent?” ...

Key interest rate lowered to 4.25% 2007-12-04 15:15:24 The Bank of Canada cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point Tuesday, citing the increased risks to Canada’s economy from the weakness south of the border. The cut lowered the bank’s overnight lending rate to 4.25 per cent. It’s the first cut in the central bank’s key rate in more than 3 years. The chartered banks quickly lowered their prime lending rates by a quarter of a percentage point to six per cent, effective Wednesday. Tuesday’s interest rate cut will mean cheaper borrowing costs for Canadians with variable rate mortgages, lines of credit and other loans with floating rates. ...

For the price of a latte and a scone”¦. 2007-12-04 10:28:15 Since the broker-owned Kirkland, WA-based Pacific Northwest’s NWMLS has discontinued their feed to Realtor.com, many individual agents are frustrated that their listings aren’t featured on Realtor.com. So, an out-of-state and REALTOR-owned MLS has stepped in to assist. At a cost of just $5 each, an agent can post all of their listings to Realtor.com using via RMLSlite, a sub-MLS of the Regional Multiple Listing Service in Portland, OR. RMLSlite listings are not included on the main RMLS site, as full RMLS subscription would be required for that, but they will appear on Realtor.com and this is a great way for Realtors who’ve lost their feed to get their individual listings on Realtor.com in a convenient way and at a reasonable price. ...

ByTheOwner.com November For Sale By Owner Stats: New Listings, Sold Properties, Active Listings 2007-12-04 08:12:57 Here are ByTheOwner.com’s Canadian For Sale By Owner stats for November 2007: New listings increased 54% from 666 new listings in November 2006, to 1024 new listings in November 2007 Sold properties increased 46% from 276 sold properties in November 2006, to 403 sold properties in November 2007. Total active listings increased 56% from 3,700 active homes for sale in November 2006, to 5880 active homes for sale in November 2007. www.bytheowner.com ...

ByTheOwner.com November 2007 Webstats - FSBO Visitors Increase 75% 2007-12-04 08:07:15 ByTheOwner.com’s website statistics for the month of November 2007: Website visitors increased from 386,860 unique visitors in November 2006, to 678,038 in November 2007. This is a 75% increase in unique website visitors from November 2006 to 2007. Pageviews increased from 3.9 million page views in November 2006, to 5.9 million pageviews in November 2007. This is 49% increase in pageviews from November 2006 to 2007. Unique visitors and pageviews are the two most useful statistics when it comes to measuring the exposure you will receive from a For Sale By Owner website. Unique visitors is the number of individual people coming to look for properties on the site. Pageviews is the number of pages that those visitors look at. Fro example, on ByTheOwner.com in November 2007 we had 678,038 unique visitors and they looked at 5.9 million pages. This means each visitor looked at approximately 9 pages. Some websites claim to have a certain number of “hits”�. This is not a va ...

2008 Loan Limits Are to Remain the Same 2007-12-01 12:20:22 Call me Captain Obvious but here’s the news in case you missed it… Straight from the OFHEO (Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight) Press Release Issued on Tuesday, November 27th: “Director James B. Lockhart…announced the maximum 2008 conforming loan limit for single-family mortgages purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) will remain at the 2007 level of $417,000 for one-unit properties for most of the U.S. Higher limits apply to Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands as well as to properties with more than one unit.” I guess Californians won’t be getting that “break” they were looking for and neither will all those other non-conforming markets. But not to worry, all isn’t lost! Share This ...

Homes for the holidays 2007-12-01 01:42:30 Toronto’s new transfer tax is just one factor as real estate agents, lawyers and movers brace for a busy end to 2007. Many in the real estate industry are expecting a much busier than usual December. In Toronto, it may be those rushing to beat the new land transfer tax, but there is also a trend to relocating for new jobs before the end of the year — also for tax purposes. IF YOU’RE SELLING: If your house is on the market or you have a move scheduled for this holiday season, Toronto Real Estate Board president Maureen O’Neill suggests simplifying your life by getting rid of things. She also recommends cutting back on social commitments. “Don’t try to do it all “? baking, parties and children’s activities,” O’Neill says. Outsourcing as much as possible can help you to be ready for those unexpected showings without making the season unnecessarily stressful. House cleaners can be useful and ordering out for food can save money ...

Maverick Daredevil Real Estate Artists and such 2007-11-30 22:03:11 This just in via email from Mr. McKinney, self-described “Maverick Daredevil Real Estate Artist”, about his hero Evel Knievel, who died yesterday at the age of 69. Evel Knievel died today. I am hard pressed to explain the uncontrollable outpouring of emotion I experienced when I learned the news, and watched a tribute to his life on ESPN tonight. Evel Knievel will always be one of my heroes. Until today, he was the only living “super hero” I ever knew. The only one who actually leapt off the comic book pages and came to life for me when I was a young boy. As I grew a bit older, I realized what an impact Evel had on the formative years of my life. We know how impressionable we are just before we turn teenager. For the years leading up to that milestone for me, I vividly recall being transfixed less than two feet from the screen of a small 15-inch black and white TV watching ABC’s Wide World of Sports portray the larger-than-life daredevil attempt so many o ...

Make Less Waste in San Francisco this Holiday Season - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle 2007-11-30 20:05:03 San Francisco may recycle more of its waste than any City in the US - resulting in 65% overall diversion of waste from the landfill. But during the holiday season, even San Franciscans are prone to create their (more than) fair share of excess waste. I don’t remember where I read this, so don’t quote me on this… but I believe that in the U.S., we create up to 4 tons of waste just from the wrapping and packaging of holiday presents every year. That figure doesn’t even take into account the gazillions of toys that break the day after Christmas or the kazillions of somewhat useless gifts that are given and sit on a shelf until they eventually end up in the trash can. But, there are lots of ways that you can help be a part of the solution and not the problem. Here’s just a few ideas: Send e-cards this year - Sending electronic greetings can greatly reduce the amount of paper that gets wasted during the holidays. While they may seem less personal, you ...

Moving - and Out of Blog Land for a Few Days 2007-11-30 16:08:05 Hi All, The family is on the move. We’re moving this weekend and likely will be with out internet access or free time for the majority of the weekend. We’ll be back in full force after the weekend so don’t miss us too much; but don’t expect much of us in the mean time either. If one of the new contributors jumps in this weekend - great - if not, enjoy the weekend and we’ll see you next week. – Morgan Share This ...

Why your adjustable interest rate mortgage isn’t helped by rate cuts 2007-11-30 06:46:00 In a Bloomberg article about the ongoing credit crunch yesterday the news firm reports that the one-month LIBOR is at its highest point since the Federal Reserve rate cut in September.  First the story, and then why it matters to you on main street with an adjustable rate mortgage. From Bloomberg: The London interbank offered rate that banks charge each other for euro loans due after the end of the year jumped 64 basis points to 4.81 percent, the highest since May 2001, the British Bankers’ Association said. The rate for dollars jumped 40 basis points to 5.23 percent, the highest since Sept. 18, when the Federal Reserve cut the target rate for overnight loans for the first time in 4 1/2 years. Soaring bank lending rates reflect growing concern about the strength of financial institutions after more than $60 billion of writedowns this year linked to U.S. subprime-mortgage defaults. Losses may rise to $300 billion, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Develo ...

Yikes 2007-11-29 21:53:45 Thanks to Sellsius this week for bringing us not one, but two explicit posts this week, Real Estate Porn, Broker-Agent Edition and Real Estate Transparency: Real Estate Agent Fired for Sexy Slideshow, which allows me the perfect segue to share, once again, more news from the lovely Ravenna, Queen of the Burlesque Realtors. If you happen to be in Seattle on December 19th, don’t miss Ravenna and Gal Friends in a fundraiser called “Christmas Stockings: A Burlesque Benefit” to support our troops. It’s at the The Rendezvous Jewelbox Theater and there are two shows: 7:00 and 8:30 pm 21+ $15. Through the sale of their vintage style pin-up images, THE PIN-UP ANGELS raise money to send comfort packages to U.S. troops serving overseas. The Angels do all the work to collect donations, shop for the necessary items, organize the packages, and ship ‘em out to the troops in need. After sending 200+ Christmas care packages, THE PIN-UP ANGELS continue fund-raising ...