Entries from May 2008 ↓

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If you are a real estate agent, you have uttered the less than memorable phrase, “Please tell your friends about me.” But the question that you need to ask is why should they?

Seriously, did you go that extra mile in marketing, consultation, or execution that would make you memorable? For someone to talk about you to their friends you have to be special, and that is either way.

Years ago I was in the restaurant business and we had a golden rule. If someone has a good meal and time, expect them to tell one friend. If someone has a terrible meal or experience, they will tell 10 people. It takes a truly exceptional experience for your clients to evangelize for you.

Seth Godin has a post today talking about word of mouth marketing and why it sometimes does not happen. Give it a read and think about how your level of service can rise above the crowd and compel your clients “tell their friends about you.”

First, understand that people talk about you (or not talk about you) because of how it makes them feel, not how it makes you feel.

Second, if you’re going to build a business around word of mouth, better not have these things working against you.

Third, if you do, it may be to work directly to overcome them. That probably means changing the fundamental DNA of your experience and the story you tell to your users. “If you like us, tell your friends,” might be a fine start, but it’s certainly not going to get you there. via Seth’s Blog

Love him or hate him, Donald Trump knows how to make headlines in the real estate market. He is in the news today for going to contract on his mansion in Palm Beach that he purchased in 2004 for 41 million dollars. After 25 million more in upgrades The Donald has sold it for the 100 million dollar price tag.

The master showman was in the headlines a couple of months with this property threatening to turn it into a hotel. Nothing for the marketplace but it did get headlines then.

And nearly a year ago he turned down a 90 million dollar offer on the Palm Beach Mansion which he made very public. At the time I said this, “My advice to the Donald would have had my real estate agent talk to Schwarzman before the offer was made and tell him to make it 101 million. Then Donald could offer to buy Schwarzman’s old cigar case for 11 million dollars. The difference in capital gains Trump would pay would be quickly washed away in the millions of dollars of free publicity of selling the most expensive home in America.”

Do you think Donald Trump took my advice and offered a rebate at closing to make headlines? It would not surprise me.

The unnamed buyer is considering tearing down the recently remodeled mansion and possibly subdividing the property, according to sources. Although bulldozing an 80,000-square-foot luxury estate might seem bizarre for the average homeowner, it’s nothing new for ultra-rich buyers willing to pay huge sums for precious oceanfront property.

Trump paid the fire-sale price of $41.35 million for the estate in 2004. He bought it from bankrupt Abe Gosman, a former health-care magnate and Palm Beach philanthropist, then poured $25 million into a renovation overseen by Kendra Todd, winner of the third season of Trump’s TV show The Apprentice. The redo resulted in a 62,000-square- foot mansion with nine bedrooms, a ballroom, a conservatory and a 48-car garage.

But as proof that even the super-rich are not completely immune to the whims of the market, Trump did have to come down from his original asking price of $125 million. via the Palm Beach Post

Sorry for the misleading and shocking headline, especially if you have come over from Google or any other search engine, but sometimes you need it to get attention to things that will attract a buyer.

(Tenerife Blue Tit)

But the title is dead on accurate.

When selling a home these days pictures tell the story. Not to mention a nice headline will bring people in. So say you have a yard that has a great collection of birds that come and visit every day. Take some pictures and put them in your marketing material, it may be the thing that gets a bird lover to come look at it.

Remember people are searching the internet all the time for homes when they are ready to buy. In the past the Realtor steered you to the homes that were on the market, now it is the buyer asking to see specific homes. So make your marketing material appealing to smaller niches that people will get excited over.

And another thing, don’t get stuck in we only use pictures you have taken. Ask the owners if they have some great pictures of the home from the past that shows it off. Especially in the era of digital cameras they may have some excellent shots that will help you greatly.

Anything that helps sell the house ethically is in both yours and your clients best interests.

Google has added a great deal of capability to their Google Maps application that includes the ability to see property listings pulled from it’s Google Base, Wikipedia entries, and other sources.

The other big thing I have been able to gather is that it has added flash capability to Google Maps. The ability to embed maps that are “mashed up” with your information should be a huge help for real estate agents that are web savvy.

If you’re looking for a home in a certain location, you have a new search option: Google maps. Enter an address and click on the “show search options” link, which is right next to the “Search Maps” button. You can set whatever limits you want on size, price and other variables.

Another improvement to Google Maps adds geo-tagged photos and Wikipedia entries that are associated with specific locations. To see these, click on the “more” button on the map — it’s right next to the “traffic” button. via The Dallas Morning News.

More information on this:

• Trusted Reviews
• Wired Blog
• C-Net
• Google Operating System Blog

Back in March I talked about how the Michigan legislature was trying to destroy real estate values in the state with a new tax system. Well, they passed the tax and now it is in effect.

Take a wild guess who it is going to hurt the worst. You got it, landlords and real estate firms.

So a state with a worse than moribund real estate picture is now adding a huge tax to those who are willing to buy real estate. There are some real rocket scientists in the Michigan Statehouse these days.

The first filings of estimated liability under the MBT were due in April, and some real estate firms are seeing six- or eight-fold increases in taxes, said Kirk Profit, lobbyist for Government Consultant Services Inc.

He’s been retained by some local firms to push for changes in the tax, which replaced the Single Business Tax this year.

Profit said the credits in the MBT for personal property, payroll and research and development don’t benefit property owners and managers.

“There’s not a lot of that activity,” he said.

So you have real estate that is dropping like a rock and raising taxes by 6–8 times for the landlords that might be thinking about buying real estate in the state? Smart, huh…

“It’s going to take away a lot of your profit,” he said. The temptation is to pass along those costs to tenants through higher rents, but that might not be possible today, Chaconas said.

“I’m not sure you can get away with that because the market is soft,” he said. Profit predicted that will be the only option for many landlords. “You’ll probably see a dramatic increase in rents,” he said. via MLive.

Sure, increase rents from what. The economy in Michigan is in the toilet, real estate is not far behind, and you have a social welfare system that is bankrupting the state.

No wonder why we have so many former Michigan residents living in Georgia now, they just might be the smart ones.

This advertisement from Nike is so dead on. For agents and non agents, to be the best you have to be willing to fail publicly. As Michael Jordon said, “26 times I have been trusted to take the game winning shot and I have missed.”

Are you willing to step up and take the game winning shot even if there is a chance you will fail?

The carnage is running rampant in California these days in the housing market as in some communities there seems to be a home on every street that is in some stage of foreclosure. For example, Stockton is leading the list and one out of every 30 homes is in some stage of foreclosure.

The one thing I am noticing is that some markets are in free fall. I do feel sorry for those who bought honestly in these markets.

Top 10 Worst Metro Areas For Foreclosures, 1st Quarter, 2008

“There are some incredible buys out there for first-time home buyers.”

When you start seeing quotes like the one in the headline, you know we are getting near the bottom. In the middle of a gloom and doom report coming out of Florida, and it is very rough there right now, a nugget pops out that starts to say the conventional wisdom may be starting to lag the market.

And like any market, when prices drop far enough, consumers re-enter and start buying. When enough buyers drop in we get a firm bottom. At that stage word starts to filter out to those who have been waiting on the sidelines and the market starts  to turn upwards.

And then 6 months later the conventional media will have a string of articles asking if we have hit bottom.

Sandra Israelson, an agent with Michael Saunders & Co., had bank-owned listings that included a two-bedroom one-bath home on Baldwin Avenue in Sarasota listed for $114,000 and a luxury Siesta Key penthouse in The Pointe that was going for $437,000.
In both cases, the bank asked that the homes be priced at a point that allowed them to sell within 30 days.
Apparently, Israelson struck the right prices. She received four full-price offers for the Siesta Key penthouse within one week, and the pending sale is set to close next month.
The starter home on Baldwin also found an interested buyer, who has made an offer and is waiting to hear back from the bank.
“There are some incredible buys out there for first-time home buyers,” she said. “These homes we’re seeing are the type of houses that would be perfect for them.” via  HeraldTribune.com

One of the great problems that is affecting foreclosures in Arizona, California, and Florida is what happens to the pools after the homeowners leave. These pools turn into a breeding ground for mosquitos that have the potential to carry disease and make neighborhoods unsafe for all who live there.

Enter the mosquito fish, or it’s technical term, Gambusia affinis. The fish is perfect to be dropped in these pools and then eat the larvae and juvenile mosquitos before they can develop into a nuisance. Town officials can put them into an abandoned pool and these wonderful creatures will do the rest saving the cities from spraying pesticides in these neighborhoods. 

How cool is that.

The mosquito fish is well suited for a prolonged housing slump. Hardy creatures with big appetites, they can survive in oxygen-depleted swimming pools for many months, eating up to 500 larvae a day and giving birth to 60 fry a month. That can save environmental crews from having to repeatedly spray pesticides in the pools while the houses grind through the foreclosure process.
Some local agencies, increasingly worried about mosquito-borne diseases like the West Nile Virus, are taking to the air to find problem swimming pools. The Turlock Abatement District, near Modesto, Calif., last month hired a plane to fly over 55 square miles, snapping pictures of pools from about 5,000 feet. On the ground, mosquito-control crews cross-referenced properties that had greenish-brown pools with a street map and a database of local foreclosed homes.
A significant threat to public health can be resolved through the use of a biological intervention. Learn more about the fish that eats mosquito larvae to reduce the threat of the west nile virus. WSJ’s Michael Corkery reports. (May
In the Turlock district alone, about 475 stagnant pools were identified on the flyover. Many of those will be filled with mosquito fish. via WSJ.com.

Michael Jackson, world famous singer and one of the worlds most bizarre individuals, was given a reprieve when Colony Capital purchased his 23.5 million dollar mortgage that was in foreclosure. The company says it is re negotiating the lease while they also search for buyers. The Neverland Ranch is famous for it’s collection of roller coasters, amusement rides, and zoo that Michael Jackson had to entertain his guests.

Reportedly there are celebrities looking to buy the home such as soccer star David Beckham.

Michael Jackson avoided foreclosure on his spectacular Neverland Ranch Sunday when a new bank took over the mortgage on the property.
The 2,700-acre spread, complete with amusement park and menagerie, had been expected to be auctioned off this week after Jacko defaulted on payments.
But Colony Capital, a real estate investment firm, bought the $23.5 million mortgage and said it was negotiating a new payment plan. via NY Daily News.

Luke Mullins at US News has more on the Neverland Ranch mortgage sale.