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Author: Greg Swann (page 184 of 209)

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #88: Rental house smart opportunity if set up as business . . .

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This is one of my personal favorites from my Arizona Republic column:

I’m helping a young friend buy his first home. I’ve known him since he was in high school. I admired his decision to defer college for an arduous tour of duty in Iraq. He’s back in school now and he and his mother are buying a three-bedroom home to use as his staging ground for his assault on ASU.

I think this is very smart by itself, but here is the stroke of genius: He is going to rent his two spare bedrooms to other students, using their rent to help amortize the property. The house will be his starter home, but it will also be his first foray into real estate investment.

This is my young friend Andy. Here is the advice I gave him:

1. Form a limited liability corporation to own the property. God forbid something tragic should happen in the home, but, if it does, you want to limit your liability to the home itself, not the rest of your assets.

2. A verbal agreement isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. In Arizona, a lease of less than 12 months does not have to be in writing, but if you take your verbal lease before a judge, he will treat you to equally verbal laughter. A written lease protects both parties, the landlord and the tenant.

3. The past is prologue. If a prospective tenant cheated his last three landlords, he’ll cheat you, too. Credit and rental history matter, and the most important part of being a happy landlord is mastering tenant selection.

4. Pay your own rent. Since the home will be owned by an LLC, pay the corporation the same rent your tenants are paying. If there is a surplus on costs, you’ll be able to use it for maintenance and improvements – or as capital for future investments.

The bottom line: “Owning a rental home is the smallest of small businesses – but it is a business. Treat it that way and it will enrich you now and for years to come.”

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #87: Weblog Review: RealBlogging.com and RealtyBlogging.com . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

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I am at a complete loss to explain RealBlogging.com and RealtyBlogging.com. I will stipulate the idea of weblogging to a purpose, as against ars gratia artis, but even then I can’t figure out what the purpose is. I gather the sites are composed of re-syndicated content, but I don’t understand to what end.

Just as a guess, I’d say the objective is consulting and speaking gigs for the contributors, but I have no confidence in that answer.

It may not matter, in any case. I take the RSS feed on both of these weblog, but I never find myself clicking on the “More” tag. Whatever point there may be to all this activity, I think both weblogs must stand proudly beside it.

Looks like a proprietary weblogging platform, who cares what.

I may find better use for these two weblogs in the future. I haven’t so far…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #86: Ask the Broker: What does pre-qualification mean…?

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

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This is a question I’m hearing every day right now:

What does pre-qualification mean?

Why am I hearing that question? Because I’m representing the seller in a house that is not closing, day after day.

So what does pre-qualification mean? Nothing.

What does loan qualification mean? It means the buyer has paid the loan application fee.

What does final underwriting mean? Hide and watch…

Seriously, pre-qualification often doesn’t mean very much. The buyer may have had a phone conversation with the lender. They may have discussed income and debt. The buyer’s credit may have been run. But other than the credit report, there probably has not been any tangible demonstration of the basis of the pre-qualification.

Lenders pre-qualify buyers because buyer’s agents ask for it.

Buyer’s agents ask for it because listing agents ask for it.

Listing agents ask for it because sellers ask for it.

Sellers ask for it because they think it means something.

Everyone else knows better…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #85: How to build a high traffic weblog . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

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From Steve Pavlina.com, excellent advice on building a high-traffic weblog:

Here are 10 of my best suggestions for building a high traffic web site:

1. Create valuable content.
2. Create original content.
3. Create timeless content.
4. Write for human beings first, computers second.
5. Know why you want a high-traffic site.
6. Let your audience see the real you.
7. Write what is true for you, and learn to live with the consequences.
8. Treat your visitors like real human beings.
9. Keep money in its proper place.
10. If you forget the first nine suggestions, just focus on genuinely helping people, and the rest will take care of itself.

The article is very long and very detailed. Read it all. I think this is remarkably good advice…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #84: Give your weblog posts a magic middle . . . ?

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

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From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, Business Blogwire serves up “5 Tips on How to Give Your Blog Posts a Magic Middle”:

1. Think meat and potatoes.

2. Transitions are crucial.

3. Make your theme abundantly clear.

4. Read your post carefully before publishing it.

5. Whatever you do, overdeliver.

The dinner is in the details, of course, but I think these are good working principles for any kind of writing or presentation, not just weblogging…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #83: Let Realtor do his job and price your house . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

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This is from my Arizona Republic column:

Here’s how to get yourself in trouble when you price your home for sale.

First, collect a whole lot of information from wildly unreliable sources. Public records are almost always hugely out of date. The sales figures published in the newspaper almost never give you enough details to distinguish recently sold homes from your own. And your former neighbors are almost always fibbing when they tell you what they got for their homes.

The second step of the process is elevation by divination. Bill’s house has a bad front lawn, so my house must be worth more. Janet’s house had those hideous mustard-yellow drapes, so my house must be worth more. That custom entertainment center I built — the one that fits my TV only — cost $500, but it adds at least $4,000 to the value of my home.

Now, when you interview Realtors, be sure to pick the one who is easiest to dominate. After all, it’s your house. Shouldn’t you set the price?

Now stop for a moment and think what you — and your attorney! — would do to a dentist who let you pick which tooth to drill. When you sit down with a Realtor, only one of you knows how to price a home to the marketplace. Trying to second-guess and micromanage your Realtor may not be quite the same thing as grabbing the stick out of the hands of a jet pilot — at least not until you crash and burn.

So, armed with a weak-willed Realtor and really bad ideas on price, you’re ready to take on the world: “You have everything you need to languish on market for months on end, selling in the end at a deep discount.”

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #82: Weblog Review: The Phoenix Real Estate Guy . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

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Hey, wait. I’m the Phoenix real estate guy. Jay Thompson is an East Valley Realtor who publishes The Phoenix Real Estate Guy weblog. All gussied up in a brand new weblog template, this blog is fun reading. Well-researched, deeply-linked and yet still great fun to read.

Jay is the Arizona points leader at ActiveRain, but he manages to punch out a ton of content at both places.

Like this:

What real estate school teaches you is how to pass the state licensing exam. They don’t teach you how to sell real estate, how to deal with clients, other agents, title companies, loan officers, inspectors, whiny kids, buyers, sellers, or brokers. Oh you may occasionally get a war story about real estate from the instructor-I learned more REAL real estate talking to my instructors during break that I did in the classroom. The schools churn out future professionals by the score every single day. And they do a damn fine job preparing you for the state exam. They do nothing to prepare you for selling real estate.

Hopefully the new agent aligns himself with the kind of broker that will take them under their wing and truly help them. Sounds simple, but finding a broker that does that these days isn’t easy. Too many brokerages just bring in agents by the truckload. Some have HUNDREDS of agents working for them. It’s just a numbers game to them. The more agents they have, the more desk fees they collect. If they run a commission split office, they figure if they hire a few hundred agents then dumb luck means some of them will turn out to be successful. Those that quit (and 80% do in the first year) are simply replaced by new sheep.

Jay is running WordPress — beautifully. The site just sings…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #81: Ask the Broker: Isn’t there a third foot I can shoot myself in . . . ?

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

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Oh, good grief:

I’m under contract to buy a FSBO. Since the seller and I are doing this without using realtors, I’ve been researching on the internet to make sure I do everything that a realtor would tell me to do. I hired an inspector, and just got his report back. He found a lot of things wrong! Some are little, but some are pretty important like problems with the electricity and slab. I think I’m getting a great deal on the price, but with this much wrong, I’m not sure. How much is too much wrong to accept? BTW, I bought the house knowing it would need alot of handyman type of repairs, and I’m looking forward to that.

I think this is a marvelous example of why no one should buy a home without professional representation. Are you buying a white elephant? You don’t know. Are you paying too much? You don’t know. Are the repairs going to clobber you? You don’t know.

Let’s assume you’re paying market value for the home and that the seller is willing to undertake reasonable repairs. For a well-maintained house in the Phoenix-area, the cost of repairs shouldn’t come to more than 2% – 3% of the purchase price. If we get north of 5%, I’m ready to run — or at least renegotiate the price.

But suppose you’re buying this fixer at what you think is 20% under market, while the repairs are looking to be less than 10%. That might be a smokin’ deal.

In your place, I might cough up the money to hire a very experienced Realtor to evaluate your situation. If he likes your deal, you’re probably fine. If he says, “Walk away,” I think you should run away instead.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #80: Attracting and retaining traffic by being visually interesting . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

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From SEOmoz blog, a definitive resource, how to use art and graphics to attract readers to your real estate weblog:

Ingredients: A useful site, a talented CSS designer and a list of design portal sites (this one and this one come in handy).

Process: Re-design your existing site to the best of your ability. Use pure CSS, graphics, color and layout that mesh well and make it not only easy to use your site, but aesthetically remarkable, too. If you’re struggling for inspiration, look at the sites that make it to the front page of this site.

Results: The design portals themselves can send 1-2 thousand uniques per day if you make their front pages, but the additional value you’ll get from other bloggers and sites picking you up once you make it there is also worthwhile.

The work they’re talking about costs serious money, but that’s not an excuse to limp along with a site that looks like a circus poster or the classified pages. This is something you can always keep on your radar, how to make your pages more interesting graphically…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #79: Win customers with the power of convenience . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

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From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, Return Customer teaches us how to “Win Customers with the Power of Convenience”:

Identify barriers or obstacles that stand between your customer’s wallet and your business. This should be done from the customers’ perspective. You’re probably too biased to clearly identify all these barriers by yourself.

Eliminate unnecessary steps in the purchase process. For example, just because your computer system needs some data doesn’t mean your customer should have to jump through those hoops.

Reduce the customer effort needed to buy. Can the customer purchase from her office? Over the web? Can you deliver? How long will this whole process take?

Explain your product so everyone can understand. Tailor your marketing copy to your audience. If you’re using industry jargon you may just confuse and lose potential customers.

Give customers alternatives that all lead to a completed sale.

Sell a product that is so compelling that the reward of purchasing greatly outweighs any effort exerted by the customer.

I think this is excellent general advice for traditional, full-service real estate professionals.

We believe that convenience and off-loading of tasks are key products. We haven’t marketed this, but we plan to: The Drive-By Listing: Leave me a key and I will go in and do everything necessary to list your home while you’re at work. We’ll meet to sign the paperwork or do it by fax, and we’re ready to rock ‘n’ roll. That’s service, and service is worth money…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #78: ‘Homey’ feel is a lure for attracting women . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

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This is from my Arizona Republic column:

Here’s a cautionary tale for all home sellers: In most cases, a woman will not buy a home if she cannot picture herself taking the Thanksgiving turkey out of the oven — with her mother-in-law hovering over her shoulder.

What does this mean? For a home to sell to a woman buyer or a couple, it must be as clean, as inviting — as “homey” — as possible. Most often, single men will buy any house that satisfies their checklist of required features and amenities. In general, men are much more interested in getting the home-shopping job done quickly.

But a woman has to feel herself at home. More than features and amenities, she wants to be able to experience her future in that home. If she can’t, she won’t buy that house.

If you think about it, this might seem silly to you, but I’ve watched it happen again and again. But consider the contrary proposition:

I once represented the buyers in the purchase of a home that had languished on the market for months. It was in pretty good shape overall, but one member of the family liked to cook on the patio. The grill was greasy, as was the surrounding concrete. There were piles of dirty plates and skillets lying around. Family after family would have toured that home, and each one of them left as soon as Mom saw that mess on the patio. Whatever appeal the home might have had, until then, would have been colored by a visceral revulsion.

My own buyers were made of sterner stuff. The mother of the family said, “Oh, my. That’s going to take at least two hours to clean up.”

We deliberately bid low on the house. It appraised for $20,000 more than we paid. Two hours of cleanup paid my buyers — and could have and should have paid the sellers — $10,000 an hour.

That mess on the patio had been there the whole time the house was languishing on the market. Anyone else could have reached the same conclusion as my buyer. The seller could have reflected Read more

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #77: Weblog Review: moco real estate news . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

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Todd Tarson’s moco real estate news is a great read, particularly for people who live and work in Arizona. Todd is right in the middle of the debate over what to do about Mohave County’s growing pains — as it becomes a de facto suburb of Las Vegas — so his weblog reports history as it is happening.

For a Blogger.com site, the look is very clean, but, as is to be expected, comments are a pain in the butt.

One of the things I enjoy about the site is that Todd uses a lot of good local photography. Mohave County is a different world from Greater Phoenix, and the photos are luscious…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #76: Ask the Broker: Is it too early for Anthem . . . ?

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

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A local question with broad implications:

In 2004 I fell in love with Anthem, and was actually thinking of moving there. Last year the housing market went so crazy that I decided to wait. And the way things are looking today, I’m afraid now to move there. I still love the area and the houses up there. And the commute won’t hurt me because I can telecommute. But I’m afraid that my house won’t hold its value. Do you have any opinion about the outlook of Anthem?

Anthem is a beautiful master-planned community built by Del Webb. Parks, playgrounds, golf courses, a huge waterpark, a kiddie railroad — in many ways it’s heaven on earth. Heaven may be nearer, though: Anthem is a long drive from Downtown Phoenix. Still worse, there is only one road in and out. When that road is blocked by an accident, nobody comes or goes.

For this reason, Anthem was the first area to betray signs of weakness in last Summer’s buying frenzy. It is also very likely to the be last market area to recover as we get back to normal.

Does that mean you shouldn’t buy there?

Anthem may not do as well in gross appreciation as other, similar communities — for example Estrella Mountain Ranch in Goodyear.

It comes down to this: Does the investment value of your home matter more to you, or the community and amenities you love in Anthem? Your answer to that question will tell you what to do…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #75: The power of an online tool . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

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From SEOmoz blog, a definitive resource, how to use a unique web-based tool or service to attract readers to your real estate weblog:

Ingredients: A service that you can code into a tool to save someone time, effort, money or, alternatively, provide entertainment (plus a solid developer, preferably skilled in AJAX).

Process: Tools aren’t always able to attract visitors independently, so much like mashups, you’ll need to do some promotion. Fortunately, there are dozens of online tool lists and plenty of folks blogging about their creation (like the aforementioned Ajaxian). The tool itself needs to serve a real purpose (or make people laugh) and it needs to be unique. If you’re in the retail industry, imagine a tool that could be used to help visitors custom create a product, or organize a set of products in a useful, humorous or fun way. For B2B, cost calculators for customers can be useful, but are often un-exciting. Imagine how you can expand the use of your services to fit a wide audience, then make it fun and interactive.

Results: Tools can generate traffic slowly over time, or they can have huge bursts. Often, they spread virally through email and social networks if they’re built right (and look great — so pay attention to #4, too).

I gave one of these to my dingleberry son, but he hasn’t done anything with it. It was an idea I had over the summer, and I didn’t have time to write it myself.

It’s not difficult: What I envisioned was a PHP utility that would take a marked-up text and return it without the mark-up, but with each marked-up term or phrase having been recoded as a Wikipedia look-up. For general webloggery, Wikipedia is fiercely useful, but coding a lot of links is a pain in the butt. This, by definition is what software is for.

If you want, you can bug the little booger to get busy on this project…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #74: Five ways to piss off an entrepreneur . . . ?

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

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From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, blogtrepreneur brings us “5 Ways To Piss Off An Entrepreneur”:

1) Cut off the broadband: I can’t think of anything worse than not being able to access the internet. Without it, I wouldn’t be able to have any international networking and therefore I would have to start a proper offline business. And let’s face it, these can be irritating at the best of times, and can be costly. And don’t mention dial-up to any internet savvy person (just speaking about it sends shivers up my spine!)

2) Give ’em a 9 to 5: Oh no what will they do without their morning lie in? Unlike the majority of the working population, entrepreneurs are able to have a reasonably flexible working schedule. So when they have to set an alarm to wake up early, tempers will be lost!

3) The dreaded boss: One of the main entrepreneurial benefits is the BMOB (Be My Own Boss). Once you take that away, the entrepreneur is left working under a gruelling dictator who sets your own lunch breaks and gives you special doggy treat bonus packages if you work extra hard.

4) Cell phone destruction: The cell phone (that’s a mobile for those who speak proper English!) is used by an active entrepreneur nearly 24/7. Whether they’re involving themselves in a business deal, chatting to their designer about new prospects, or giving their mothers laundry instructions, without a mobile telecommunicator an entrepreneur becomes a standard Joe who has no communication with anyone but those within a 100 metre radius. And that can’t be too good if you’re wanting global recognition?

5) Noise, noise, noise: Finally, the surest way to piss me off is to continually talk around me or have noises in the background whenever Im trying to do an important piece of work. As a general rule of thumb, I never have music on when I work, and I try and close all doors to shield out the family. Blasting heavy beats in my face, sister-brother bickering and non-peace will be sure to drive me over the edge.

One of my clients Read more

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