Real Estate Blog

Newer Country Home With Ten Acres in Minong, WI - $225,000 - 3 Bedrooms 2 Bathrooms - Newer Country Home With 10 Acres.

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Newer Country Home With Ten Acres

EQUESTRIAN DREAM! (KVT) in Murphy, NC - $165,000 - 0 Bedrooms 0 Bathrooms - Great Equestrian Property

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EQUESTRIAN DREAM! (KVT)

In its September 2008 issue, alongside its reviews of tub cleaners and organic produce, Consumer Reports turns its critical eye on the real estate industry.

The publication polled a sample of 3753 readers who sold or tried to sell a home, 4029 readers who bought a home and 7368 readers who did both. The results are illuminating to anyone in the industry; especially some of its findings which will surely be controversial.

Let’s look a bit deeper at the numbers.

First, the good news. Only 1% of sellers tried to use an online web site (craigslist, forsalebyowner.com etc.) to sell their home. 80% chose to go with an agent. It suggests that any fears that online players may someday distermediate the Realtors seem overblown. Sellers want to work with a real estate professional

The bad news is that CR concludes is that overall “higher commission didn’t always translate into more service or better results.”

Moreover, respondants who “paid commissions of 3 percent or less were just as happy with their brokers performance as those who paid 6 percent or more.” In fact, those who paid more were “more likely to say they had regrets about the selling process”.

More troubling, is that CR recommends that consumers continue to aggressive negotiate the 6%
commission downwards.

Seems to me that the real challenge here is that, moving forward, the industry needs do a better job of communicating its value (beyond puff advertising pieces) and, more importantly, delivering that value to consumers.

There are many ways to turn this tide, but I believe one way to slow the downwards trend on commissions is if brokers and agents can demonstrate to consumers they have an aggressive multi-modal marketing package in place for each and every listing.

Unfortunately, despite overwhelming evidence that consumers are looking for homes on the Internet (about 80%), it seems some Realtors are still choosing to ignore the medium.

According to CR, 85% of Keller Williams agents advertised homes on the Web - compared to only 76% of RE/MAX agents and 75% of Century 21 agents. The numbers, while high, are still unacceptable.

Agents should be syndicating their listings across the Net, taking dozens of high quality photos of the home, creating single property sites, doing video tours, blogging about their listings’ key selling features. Any or all of these approaches can add value (either real or perceived) to the bottom line of the transaction.

Brokers aren’t off the hook either. They need to be educating their agents on what the 21st Century internet-savvy buyer is looking for and then provide those platforms that can deliver those services to their agents.

The Internet is not the be all and end all to getting a home sold. But far from being a threat to commissions, it may just end up being their salvation.

Continued here:
Can the Web Save the 6% Commission?

Charming Eastside Retreat in Santa Fe, NM - $1,125,000 - 2 Bedrooms 4 Bathrooms - Enter a courtyard with beautiful gardens that leads to a remodeled and updated home.

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Charming Eastside Retreat

Cabin Nestled Among Stately Trees On Gilmore Lake. in Minong, WI - $164,000 - 3 Bedrooms 1 Bathrooms - 150′ of beautiful sand frontage on Gilmore Lake.

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Cabin Nestled Among Stately Trees On Gilmore Lake.

Very Private, Mint Condition Log Home. in Spooner, WI - $229,000 - 2 Bedrooms 2 Bathrooms - Mint Condition Log Home, Wrap Around Deck and Very Private.

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Very Private, Mint Condition Log Home.

SECLUDED COUNTRYSIDE in WALWORTH, WI - $479,900 - 3 Bedrooms 2.5 Bathrooms - Away from the crowds in a quiet, secluded countryside sits this charming 3BR/2.5 BA ranch on 5 wooded acres in Deer Path estates Subdivision. The home was…

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SECLUDED COUNTRYSIDE

CONTEMPORARY HOME in DELAVAN, WI - $495,000 - 3 Bedrooms 1 Bathrooms - This brand new 3 bedroom contemporary home offers quality, style and an open layout with cathedral ceilings which make a wonderful first impression. The l…

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CONTEMPORARY HOME

BEACHCOMBER CHIC in DELAVAN, WI - $495,000 - 6 Bedrooms 3 Bathrooms - Beachcomber Chic. This 6 bedroom, 3 bath lake home is the ideal family destination, completely updated from top to bottom in charming east coast style with…

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BEACHCOMBER CHIC

One of the things that always struck me at the last couple of Connect conferences was the number of folks in the audience that came from outside the US.

Last month in San Francisco was no different. I met people from Canada, Mexico, Germany, Australia, Spain, France and many others, all walking the floors of the Palace Hotel.

Every day, I look at the Inman News Facebook and LinkedIn groups and there are requests from entrepreneurs and real estate professionals from every corner of the globe who want to participate in the conversation.

So this got all of us at Inman thinking, why not give them that forum?

Let’s get the folks from Booli.se, Zoomf, Immobilien Scout24, Igglo, Properazzi or Immobiliare.it and connect them with the people at Zillow, Trulia, Redfin and others and share the insights.

Let’s examine REALTOR.ca, a truly national real estate search site, MLS driven and controled by Realtors. Sound familiar?

Let’s look at markets in North America, Asia, Europe, South America and understand how the greater global economy can impact even the smallest local markets.

Let’s learn how brokers and agents around the world are retooling, relaunching and reacting to ever-changing global real estate markets.

Let’s understand how new technologies like smartphones, video and social media are knocking down traditional barriers and borders around the globe.

Global Connect will be all of that and more… Mark your calendars, we’re bringing the world to New York City, January 7-9, 2009. You can learn more on the Real Estate Connect NYC 2009 web site. With much more to come.

I’m also looking for speakers, topics and anything else FOREM readers can contribute. I’m honored that this blog reaches the far corners of the globe, and over the years I’ve had many conversations on line and off with readers from around the world.

So whether you’re in Rotterdam or Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town or Chennai, Tokyo or Toronto; if you’re working on a cool technology, doing something innovative with your business, writing a blog or just have a interesting new idea - let me know. I want to hear about all of it. I want to bring you to New York.

Please contact me at joel [at] inman.com or phone me at +1 (971) 228-5704.

This should be a lot of fun. Hope to see you there.

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Inman News Kicks off Global Connect in NY

ELEGANT GENEVA NATIONAL HOME in GENEVA, WI - $599,999 - 3 Bedrooms 3.5 Bathrooms -

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ELEGANT GENEVA NATIONAL HOME

Google Insights for Search is a fantastic new tool that allows you to dig into Google’s search volume patterns to find trends.

While I think there are a lot of ways you can use this tool (see agentgenius.com), I think that for most marketers the geographic breakdowns will be one of the most interesting - mainly because it can help identify brand awareness in any particular location.

Let’s look at the national brand awareness of the big search portals:

Strong Nationwide (Near universal brand awareness)

Realtor.com

Yahoo! Real Estate

Regionally Strong (Strong in specific regions; east, west, south, north)

Zillow.com

Trulia.com

Confined Awareness (Searches confined to single States)

Cyberhomes

Frontdoor.com

Poor roost.com did not have enough search volume to show any results.

(h/t Sellsius blog)

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Digging in to the National Real Estate Search Scene

Wish I could be in New York for this. Looks like a fabulous get together.

Surely someone is going to shoot it on video and share with the rest of us right?

Future of Local Video Gathering in NY

iPhone 2.0 turned the iPhone from smartphone to full-fledged pocket computer. Applications continue to pour into the iTunes store and I’ve been experimenting with a lot of them. Here are a few of my favorites, practical applications:

Evernote - Need to keep track of all the contacts and colleagues you meet on the road? Scan their business cards with the iPhone’s camera and Evernote will scan in the information so it’s waiting for you in text form back on your desktop.

Pulawai - The power of location-based, mobile real estate search can be seen in this app. Bare bones for now, and the search results are pretty sketchy - but familiarize yourself with this experience… the future is here.

Yelp - Keep track of your online reputation in Yelp’s reviews with this handy app. Better still… find a good place for lunch when you’re out on the road.

Nearby - On a neighborhood tour with out of town clients? Top up the databanks with useful local landmarks pulled from Platial’s geobits. Better still create your own neighborhood tours on Platial and pull them up on your iPhone.

Sketches - Take a photo of a property you want to email to a client? Use Sketches to mark it up, add arrows and notes right on the photograph.

Any others to add to the list?

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5 Apps Every Real Estate Agent Should Have on Their iPhone

Lovely, Newer Two Story 2,300+ Sq. Ft. Home in Bradley, CA - $534,000 - 3 Bedrooms 2.5 Bathrooms -

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Lovely, Newer Two Story 2,300+ Sq. Ft. Home