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.

1)      Guaranteed not the lean, tilt, or fall over

2)      Built to last

3)      Fashionable looking

4)      Easy to install

5)      Light in weight

6)      Reasonable cost

Fast forward two years and dozens of experiments, Worthington Realty has got it!  The first real estate sign guaranteed to stand straight up tall just like the day you put in the ground.   Worthington Realty consulted with visionary fabrication guru’s to create the ultimate in real estate sign technology.  We’ve perfected the anchor which attaches the post to the ground.  The anchor weighs approximately 20lbs which is extremely light compared to what was originally engineered.

Worthington Realty is looking for the industry public opinion.  Is there a demand for a real estate sign guaranteed to stand tall like the day you put it in the ground?  What would you pay for an item like this?  Can you imagine putting a sign in the ground and knowing you’ll come back to it standing tall?  What are your thoughts?  Worthington Realty would greatly appreciate your input.  In our office we are not perfectionist or genius by any means, however we shoot for the stars making every single day count, do you?

“While Realtors are increasingly moving their marketing activities online, it’s interesting to see the continued strength and perceived effectiveness of print and mailer campaigns,” stated Louis Cammarosano, General Manager at HomeGain.

With the economy going through a difficult cycle and REALTORS strapped for cash and looking for low cost, high impact marketing opportunities, it will be interesting to see where agents actually spend their time and money in pursuit of new business.

The snail mail has a thick stock cotton style envelope.  Inside is a high definition business card, high definition tri-fold resume & a typed letter about me on one side & how I can help on the other side.  I feel the presentation even though I’m not in person and doing this by snail mail is so powerful that customers call; about 2 out of 100 mailers to be exact.  Generally speaking, I usually list and sell the property.  I ask myself the question, what if I implemented a follow up snail mail campaign after the initial mailing?  I will report back with my results in a future post.  Can I close more snail mail sales as opposed to just one mailer, why not 3 or 4 snail mailers, especially on quality listings?

The email drips seem to have less response than a snail mail campaign.  Surely I have closed leads off of my website and then referred from those sales.  BUT, my conversion rate is far less than 2% like the snail mail.

My take is simply this.  Email drips do work, but are easily forgettable to consumers.  Snail mails are more expensive but since the consumers are physically touching quality materials, they are not easily forgettable as apposed to emails.  Your thoughts?  So much for my quest to go paperless…

• International buyers bought 154,000 homes and condos during the 12-month period ending in May, and they continue to be attracted to the weak dollar.
• The U.S. dollar has weakened significantly since June, dropping 9 to 11 percent against such foreign currencies as the Japanese yen, European euro and Canadian dollar.
• Both the U.S. economy and the U.S. housing market are showing signs of stabilizing.
• Nearly 46 percent of international home buyers paid cash for homes purchased.
• The median price that foreign home buyers paid for a home was nearly $80,000 more than the U.S. national median price.

Among International buyers, those from Brazil, Canada, France and the Netherlands have paid mostly cash for second homes. Those purchases, MSNBC.com reported, ranged from $6 million to $15 million in condo buildings.

That seems to be changing as a recent AZCentral.com article

highlights the new, fresh styles home buyers and remodelers are seeking for their kitchen work surfaces. Among the up and coming counter stars are some old niche favorites like glass and concrete while new contenders including recycled paper (Paperstone) and engineered quartz (Caesarstone, Silestone) pop up on buyer radar.

One reason home buyers are moving away from granite as a first choice surface is the ubiquitous nature of the stone in new homes. When granite was still new to the market it was very expensive and exclusive. After the wild popularity over the past decade, granite prices have plummeted and the idea of granite countertops in a home has lost its luster. While granite is still pricey at about $40 per square foot and up, it’s significantly lower than concrete ($100+/per square foot).

Another reason granite is slipping into the past is the porous nature of the stone. Granite needs to be sealed upon installation and every so often to prevent staining and losing its shine. Non-porous stones like Silestone avoid this making them practically maintenance free.

Still, the higher cost of alternatives will keep granite at the forefront of kitchen surfaces until discretionary kitchen upgrades grows more common again. Have you noticed a shift in buyer perception of granite countertops?

Image Credit: Rennette Stowe

The gist of the advice is this. Many people have been contacting Google asking them to “take down” or “de-index” negative information that has been published about them. Google is taking the opportunity to point out that this is NOT their job.

For REALTORS the problem often boils down to mixing personal information published on the web with business information. The result is that when someone searches for your name, they find other personal information that may or may not lead them to do business with you.

So how do you change this? According to Google it starts by first removing the offending information where possible by contacting those who own the site.

Secondly you can add positive information to crowd out the bad information from off of page 1 of Google.Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country the movie

Just this weekend I attended the 2009 FIABCI-USA Fall Business Conference here in Denver, Colorado. How could it have been any easier? This was in my back yard. I met such an incredible group of real estate professionals locally, nationally and from around the world. Some of the countries represented beyond the US were Canada, Norway, Japan, Italy, Germany, and more. I’ll be writing more on my experience at this even shortly.

While there is a plethora of information available online, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) provides great resource information on NAR’s International Lost Stallions: The Journey Home ipod web page and on the recently updated International Field Guide which provides direction for locating and working with international clients, etiquette, cross-cultural business guides and international networking opportunities.

Should you should have interest in expanding your business model into the International real estate market just let me know as I’m glad to share.

Beyond buildings skills & knowledge, do designations enhance your professional image?  Yes they can, but its not the silver bullet to success.  The WRA stated that Realtors with professional designations earned more than double their incomes against Realtors without designations.  Here are a few statistics to quote exactly.

Realtors without designations earned $33,200

Realtors with designations earned $67,900

The difference of $34,700.

Are designations a clear cut way to boost your income or are designations a way for Realtor Associations alike to boost their income?Sidewalks of New York ipod

Here is the latest on the current real estate market from the analysts at Keller Williams Realty. These timely videos will clue you in to what is going on and why!

Click here for the This Month in Real Estate Still Waters movies

video.