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Month: February 2008 (page 8 of 8)

February 1, 2008

Up Your Marketing Game

by

Real Estate Rainmaker

Author website

What tips do you have to share with us to help everyone brush up on their marketing game?

February 1, 2008

The upside of exclusives

by

Mapping Technology Entrepreneur

Author website

What if sellers could list with anyone and everyone and what if only the party that brought the buyer got paid? Online listing search paralysis: no agent will disclose the address to a buyer unless they can show it.   

Sounds like the ideal place to go direct-to-sellers to list their house on the web; they’re already distributing their listing all over the place. 

It also sounds like agents really provide no service to help consumers get more for their listing there; no staging, pricing advice, etc. They’re just trying to find buyers and get it sold. Note to Spanish agents: the internet eats information withholding middlemen for lunch. Provide valuable services or die.

February 1, 2008

M-soft bids for Yahoo! What does it mean for search?

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

According to Yahoo News linked here Microsoft has tendered an unsolicited bid for Yahoo that would make it (in theory) a realistic competitor to Google in the search engine world. They are not even in the same league at the moment.

I had posted a couple of weeks ago about Yahoo laying off hundreds and the power of focus. Seems that Bill G. thinks he can bring some focus to them…it will be interesting to see. What will be even more interesting to see is (IF this bid is accepted and I would think it would since it is a large percentage over current stock values…) how they attempt to take on big G.

I will be posting some more in depth thought on how this MAY impact search marketing and search engine optimization efforts in the real estate space as the story develops. I think they will have a difficult time in getting their search results more relevant than Google’s are right now.

There could be some interesting implications to many REALTORS who currently derive much exposure from the search engines.

Stay tuned.

February 1, 2008

If you’ve finally found your dream home — don’t dawdle

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link):

 
If you’ve finally found your dream home — don’t dawdle

Here’s a paradox for the ages: It’s been a strong buyers market for more than two years — and yet buyers still can’t afford to be lax about the houses they love.

How’s that? In our recent seller’s market, sellers were completely indifferent to home-buyers — as a matter of studied strategy. “We might consider your offer,” they seemed to say, “but not today. We’re letting the offers pile up until Monday or Tuesday, then we’ll take a look at them all at the same time.”

Why can’t buyers in this market approach sellers with the same bland indifference?

They can — provided they’re willing to buy just any home.

In a seller’s market, qualified buyers are essentially a fungible quantity. Each one is simply a pile of money in the seller’s eyes — some larger, some smaller, some sooner, some later. Allowing for risks and opportunities, one is as good as another.

Not so for buyers. Houses are inherently non-fungible — each one is unique in location, appearance, construction, condition, amenities and lifestyle factors. Even with so many homes for sale right now, it can be a challenge for buyers to find even one house they are completely committed to buying.

My take: If you want to get the best possible deal, pick three homes, not one, and pit the sellers against each other.

But buyers don’t do this. Instead, they look at dozens of sub-standard offerings, and then focus all of their attention on the one house they can find that is priced right, repaired and staged right, marketed right.

And guess what? Of all the houses these buyers will have seen, this is the one for which there is competition. The factors that appeal to them also appeal to the other folks out there looking for homes right now. The dirty or neglected or over-priced houses attract no offers, where the few that are truly market-ready can draw multiple contracts within a few days of being listed.

The lesson to take away: If you really love Read more

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