In many cities across the country, the real estate market has changed. Inventories have increased, buyers are taking their time, and pricing a home right has never been more important. It goes beyond just getting the listing. Sellers now need to be educated to understand the new realities facing many markets today. 

I found this great article by Steve Harney today, Managing Homeowners’ Expectations that gives a great guide on the major factors that are affecting the housing market and what you and your clients need to take into consideration when pricing their homes right to sell quickly.  This is something to add to all of your listing presentations.

Have any plans November 13-16? Well you should plan on attending the 2007 NAR Conference & Expo held in Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. 

I am proud to announce that I will be joining my colleagues in the International Real Estate Assistant Association(IREAA) at the expo in this year’s NAR conference. Join in on the fun and meet me there at the National Association of Realtors’ largest meeting that features hundreds of speakers, networking opportunities, exhibitors and more.

The NAR conference can be a great opportunity for you to make hundreds of new connections, get inspired by the great speakers like Michael Russer, and learn about the cutting edge technology that applies to your industry.

The Expo alone can be the most valuable part of your conference as well. Find your favorite vendors like Advanced Access, Top Producer, Quantum Mail, Point2 Agent, and so many more that are be added each day. I not only would be there as an exhibitor with the IREAA, but I will also be there to network and make connections with vendors and check out what’s new in real esate marketing and technology. 

So make plans to attend the 2007 NAR Conference and Expo. It could be the best thing to happen to your business. And I welcome you to come by and meet me and my IREAA friends at booth #3951.  

With the subprime loan mess that is all around us, and foreclosures popping up left and right, many are thinking that the foreclosure market is the next hot thing. Prospective buyers and investors are being lead to believe that foreclosures are where they will find the great “win-win” deal and have been calling on Real Estate Professionals to help them find that deal.

Before you jump right in, test your foreclosure knowledge with a quiz from REALTOR Magazine Online and learn the truth about foreclosures:

http://www.realtor.org/RMOQuiz2.nsf/foreclosurequiz?OpenForm

When you finish your quiz, check out the NAR Field Guide to Foreclosed Properties to fine tune your skills and get you ready to serve the new buyers and investor clients looking to tap into that market.

 According to the Wall Street Journal… Home staging can bump up sales prices in a moderate market 2%-10%

With home sales falling, it is becoming increasingly important to really attract and impress buyers in this market.  Gone are the days of listing in the morning and having an accepted offer by sundown. Buyers have become much more choosy in their home searches and are expecting more for their money. Many buyers are looking for properties that have little maintenance or cosmetic issues, and something they can move right in and live in, not work on.  Adding some serious home staging to your marketing plan will make your listing more attractive to buyers, and hopefully make it stand out from the rest.

Home staging can be a tremendously valuable addition to your marketing plan, not only by impressing your prospective sellers, but also can help get your listings top dollar. The ultimate goal is to make the home look like a model, or the “dream home” to your prospective buyers. By simply placing furnishings in practical and attractive places, using the right accessories, polishing and decluttering living spaces and spiffing up the curb appeal, can speak volumes to a prospective buyer.

This article in today’s Realty Times, highlights Beth Ann Sheperd(“stager to the stars”) with great tips on how to take your seller’s home from drab to fabulous with some upgrades.

You can choose to learn the trick of the trade and add ”Professional Home Stager” to your resume:
Home Staging Training
Home Staging Expert
CSP Designation

Or you can hire a professional home stager to handle the job:

StagedHomes.com
Find a Home Staging Expert

Calling all REALTORS…

This past Sunday on CBS’s 60 Minutes, Leslie Stahl did a complete hatchet piece titled “Chipping Away At Realtors’ Six Percent” . In this piece they practically tear apart real estate professionals and in my opinion depicted them as greedy scam artists, preying upon consumers.  I also believe it was more of in infomercial for the Redfin, a “non-traditional” real estate service provider, rather than a news story.  But lately, you can’t expect anything less from 60 Minutes. To me they now amount to nothing more than a TV tabloid than REAL journalism. (more…)

Widgets are nothing new to the internet world, but there are now many new widgets available that are relevant to the real estate world.

What exactly are widgets you ask? Widgets are fun little technology applications that you can embed into a website or blog that provide specific tasks or information.  They can be as fun as interactive games, a virtual pet or fishtank that you can display on your site, or useful information like the local weather conditions, a digital clock, or google maps.

Now the online real estate world is starting to get a taste of widgets and are startign to be wideley used among brokers and agents. The newest one comes from vFlyer who have released a few new widgets for agents to use on their sites. They’ve created a widget that enables you to have a small box that includes your branded information along with a scrolling gallery of your listings for sale that you can embed in any website, blog or social networking site. How cool is that?

The sometimes controvercial, but useful Trulia is another real estate site that has begun offering widgets for agents to use. In TruliaMaps, agents can create an interactive map of thier listings to place on their site. Customes can see all the listings you have, where they are located on the map and even a short description and picture. When the customer clicks on a listing on the map, it takes them directly to the property information page right within your site. You can even customize the size and color of the map.

Want to find more widgets relevant to real estate for your website?  Or just want to add something fun? Try Widgetbox. Widgetbox is a directory where you can find a whole host of widgets for your site or blog. They’re relativley easy to use, and best of all, they are free!

In my business I my efforts are mainly focused how I can help my Realtor clients build their business, sell more homes, serve more clients, increase their marketing presence… I don’t even bother with the investor side of real estate, thats not my business, so this post may seem off topic a bit for me. But I happened to stumble upon this blog today, http://iamfacingforeclosure.com/ . I absolutely cannot find the words to describe it… maybe it is somewhere between blind optimisim and absolute stupidity

This is how to NOT Successfully Invest In Real Estate.  And boy he messed up bad. And through it all, he still doesn’t seem to be in touch with reality whatsoever.

An interesting read to say the least.

Are you staying in touch with all your past and present clients or customers? It has become increasingly important to make sure you keep in touch with people on a regular basis that can in turn help boost sales and increase referrals. Doing so keeps you and your busniness fresh in your prospect’s minds and you become their “go-to” person when their friends are looking for a real estate professional, or they are ready for that next home.

Kevin Stirtz wrote this great article about the importance of follow up in The Fortune is in the Follow Up.

Need help keeping in touch with your clients?  This article found on Realtor.org illustrates some simple steps to stay connected.  The following is a selection of some of those steps. 1. Call within 24 hours of the closing to congratulate the client on the sale or purchase.

2. Send a thank-you note within one week after the closing thanking them for thier business and emphasizing what a pleasure it was to work with them.

3. Create a binder for the client containing copies of the paperwork, such as contracts, appraisals, inspection reports, warranties, and settlement statements generated during the transaction. They’ll remember you when they have to check this information at tax time.

4. Offer to provide referrals for household services such as plumbers, electricians, contractors, carpet installers, landscapers, or appliance dealers.

5. Send a customer satisfaction survey form two to three weeks after the closing to get feedback on customer reactions. With this you can ask for an endorsement or testimonial letter you can use in your presentation materials and on your Website.

6. Find out if the client has any friends, family, or business associates who might be interested in buying or selling their homes.

7. Set up a client file that includes personal information such as names, birthdays, ages, pets, and hobbies for the client’s family.

8. If you haven’t done so already, add your client to your montly mailing list or newsletter subscription.

9. Enter the anniversary date of the closing into your calendar so in the following years you can send them a greeting card commemorating the anniversary date of their purchase.

(Info provided with the help of Realtor.org http://www.realtor.org/rmotoolkits.nsf/pages/follow03 )

Coming Soon… Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions “Stay Connected” program.  Keep in touch with all past clients and friends with our new Stay Connected marketing program. Send closing anniversary cards, and monthly direct mail campaigns to keep yourself in front of your clients. Call us for more details!

The main headline on the Drudge Report for much of today has been “The Big Cool Down”, regarding the recent trends in the real estate market. According to this article supplied by Reuters, Existing home sales lowest since January 2004“, the sales of existing homes fell 4.1 percent in the month of July, and the supply of unsold homes was the highest it has been in over 13 years. Some say this is a sign that the bubble is bursting. Others remark that this is merely the market transitioning.  In the higher-priced markets, some buyers just simply had tired of the overheated prices and decided to wait it out on the sidelines. Once prices adjust accordingly, many speculate, that the buyers will come back.

What steps are you taking to stay ahead of this “cooling” trend? Over the next few weeks, the BVAS Connection will go over ways to help improve your marketing power and keep you from getting caught up in that slow market rut.