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Archive for June 24th, 2010

More thoughts regarding Jeff Jarvis

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

I was thinking today, Jeff Jarvis is all about openness, and transparency, in most circumstances I understand, and agree, but as far as real estate agents go, if the MLS was as open as say, Craigslist, and anyone could post a listing on it. That would be a bad thing! Why, you ask? Simple, another thing he does not seem to take into consideration, a little thing that is ALL OVER Craigslist called fraud, Craigslist is FULL of not just real estate fraud, but all kinds of fraud. Not that there isn’t fraud that happens in real estate anyway, but it would be A LOT worse if just anyone could post a listing on MLS. Of course, just because there is fraud, doesn’t make it right, and people who commit fraud should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

The reason Mr. Jarvis that real estate agents charge commission, has nothing to do with MLS, it’s because of the work they do, which is far from “little work”.

In his book, he says that he knows there are good agents out there, and he would work with one that would charge a flat fee like the discount brokers instead of a commission. That isn’t always up to the agent Mr. Jarvis, that is the company, and it is true, that most real estate companies take most of the commission. That’s not the case with Magnolia Properties.

Posted in Matt's Desk | Comments Off

Thursday – is Thursday the beginning of the Realtor work week?

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Don’t we always hear “the weekend is almost here”… “Have a Good Weekend”…
Thinking about that last weekend while sitting on the porch in North Carolina – I realized that a good weekend for a realtor is working, really. (I should say “Selling”). Not to say I don’t enjoy a weekend with my husband and family, but we should consider planning our weekends just as we do the time off weekends.
Right?
How to do this? Do you have a prospect list, prospects who are perhaps long term? Give them a call, tell them you know they are not quite ready to buy but you want to preview some homes and realized that these homes might be some they would enjoy seeing – and maybe they also know someone else who would like to look in that price range – area…whatever…
Or perhaps an open house, planned and organized, to “pick up” some buyers. Most Realtors have great personalities – which is why we are in real estate – so what better way to meet people that are somehow interested in property than in an open house!
How do you plan an open house? Well, on short notice – I put up signs early in the day on major intersections or nearby traffic areas that say Open Today 1-4 …put them up early with an address or just the street name…or community name…bold bright and attention getting signs. Even posterboard…homemade looks even more intriguing and perhaps less threatening. Bring a list of listings to hand out with your card…say a line list of a picture, address, price and sf…or perhaps no address just the rest of the info. I also group the list by price…say 20% below the asking price of the home you are in… another group 10%…etc…
I don’t know about you but most visitors to open houses seem to be below the price of the one they are visiting. Do you find that true?
Of course, a lap top…so you can find out what someone really might be interested in and encourage them to…”lets just check MLS and see what there is…”…while walking over to the computer and just doing it…
After all, the goal of the open house is to find buyers to work with. Its great to find someone interested in the property but that would be rare – Open houses are the best of all vehicles to find people that want to buy.
Anyway…more for another day on Open Houses…but today would be a good day to plan your real work week…. the weekend!
E

Posted in Eileen's Desk | Comments Off