Industry Interviews

Carolyn Capalbo – The Real Story

Author’s Note: In keeping with our practice of interviewing interesting real estate industry personalities, Carolyn Capalbo is a REALTOR in Northern Virginia. But she is not the ONLY Carolyn Capalbo in the United States. (There are 4.) One of them is the mother of Ashley Dupree (the infamous “escort” of Eliot Spitzer). Almost instantly, everyone who Googled Carolyn Capalbo saw images of women in bikinis and newspaper articles about the affair. She now has the unenviable task of regaining her image so that she is comfortable having potential clients search for her name.

We caught up with Carolyn at an industry seminar and interviewed her for Real Estate Industry Watch.

EB: Hi Carolyn, you have started a bit of “buzz” in the real estate community as you work to reclaim your name when another “Carolyn Capalbo” became infamous. How is it going so far?

Carolyn Capalbo: The outpouring of support from the Realtor community has been amazing. Agents that I have not met personally have reached out to me and taken time out of their busy schedules to help me reclaim my name. It has been very heartwarming and humbling Read more »

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Marketing

Listing Assistants – Do they make sense?

Ask any agent about how they are handling their workload, and you are bound to hear that they are very busy.  Whether they are doing one transaction a quarter or eight transactions a month, many agents will always feel like they are swimming uphill.  Of course, they will always tell you they’re not too busy for any of your referrals!

Between listing presentations, property showings, initial appointments, and general networking/meeting functions, there are many behind the scenes activities.  There are dealing with lenders, escrow officers, property inspectors, negotiating short sales, creating marketing materials, etc.  Well, finally someone has come up with the idea of Listing Assistants.  These are not your ordinary virtual assistants.  In Phoenix, one of these operations popped up, and they can:

  • Take photos of your property with wide angle lenses
  • Create flyers to place at your property
  • Place the property on Zillow, Trulia, Craigslist, Postlets, Hotpads, Google Base, and Backpages.
  • Create a hosted property specific website with the property address as the domain name.
  • Place lockboxes, posts, and your sign

The businesses around here typically charge $125 for the service.  This can be a future symbiotic relationship that benefits both the assistant and the agent.  The Listing Assistant can do the mundane tasks as well as take professional looking photos, and the agent has more time to spend on their clients.  This is certainly a win-win situation.

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Franchise Watch

Foo Fighters sue RE/MAX in Australia?

BREAKING NEWS: We are currently trying to get information at this time, but according to two at least two blog sources, the Foo Fighters are taking legal action against RE/MAX – Australia in the Federal court over the use of a “riff” created by them in an advertisement aired on Australian TV. Accounts of the legal action are here. According to these accounts, the band band is seeking unspecified damages in the Federal court.

We currently have calls in to all parties involved and will update this post as more information arrives. If true, what this does emphasize is that a) regardless of whether you hire an independant party to create your advertising copy, it needs to be vetted to make sure that no copyright issues are involved. b) even when you are careful, copyrights can be challenged where people have such open access to each other. (In this case, it was apparently a comment made in an online forum that led to the issue.)

According to the blog post linked above, Nicholas Thiele, RE/MAX’s director of their Australia region, claims that they would not knowingly infringe on a copyright.

More news as it arrives…

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Real Estate Marketing Ideas / Trends

Listing Assistants – Do they make sense?

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June 1, 2010

No tilt; no fall real estate signs

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HomeGain completes survey on Agent marketing preferences

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March 12, 2010


International Real Estate Watch

FIABCI-USA Fall Business Conference “Connecting Continents”

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August 12, 2010

New Bill Reduces Tax Burden for Foreign Real Estate Investment Trust Investors

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August 3, 2010


NAR Watch

Jane Pannier chosen as acting President and CEO of REALTORS FCU.

Tom Glatt has decide to step down from his position at REALTORS® Federal Credit Union, and Jane Pannier Announced as New Acting President and Chief Executive Officer,... 

August 5, 2010

NAR asks Congress to preserve Fannie and Freddie

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June 1, 2010

NAR urges Senate to act on Rural Housing Assistance Bill

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May 1, 2010


Real Estate Industry Headlines

Pine Beetles Create Destruction and Spur Creativity in Colorado

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August 24, 2010

FIABCI-USA Fall Business Conference “Connecting Continents”

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International Interest in U.S. Properties Continues to Grow

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July 10, 2010


Real Estate Blog Watch

Real Estate Getting Hot

A hot topic that is getting the attention of many Realtors that get most of their business online is the plight of Carolyn Capalbo.  One of the fellow REW members,... 

July 8, 2010

A New Wave of Mortgages Set To Default

I was surfing the web yesterday and came across this YouTube video of a 60 minutes episode that must have aired recently. The episode was concerning a new wave of... 

September 14, 2009

Listing Syndication? Not for this Broker!

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May 19, 2009


Real Estate Technology Review

Banks try to speed up the short sale process

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July 8, 2010

New IDX rolls out

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July 8, 2010

ePropertySites – website for each listing

ePropertySites has recently gained traction as a tool that agents can provide for their sellers.  Creating a website provides value for sellers, and buyers can... 

June 1, 2010