This youtube video is labeled as an “actual” virtual tour and demonstrates what *not* to do when setting up an online tour of a home.

I actually take a multitude of photos of my listings, then set up a nice tour on Animoto.com.  If you haven’t found that site yet, don’t walk but RUN to use it.  Amazing, it is!

My friend is hosting a “Realtor” open house tomorrow to bring his listing to the attention of agents in our office.  It’s been on the market for just over 150 days now and is listed at just under $270,000.  The house is truly a beauty with hardwood throughout, five bedrooms, and three bathrooms.

To get agents to attend, he’s feeding them.  I’d like to say that most of us would go anyway to show support for our colleague, but sadly this isn’t true.  When there’s no food, about three agents attend (me and two others).  However when there’s food, attendance goes up.  The last Realtor open house I went to had lasagna, salad, and a dessert that is long forgotten, and about eight agents came.

The goal of the listing agent is not only get the attention of other agents, but to also satisfy the sellers that he is doing everything he can to sell.  In my years of real estate, I have seen agents bring their buyers to houses once they toured an open house - I did that for one of my own buyers.  This time, however, I’m not currently working with anyone in that price range, so can’t make any promises.  I hope other agents can help him out, though.

Do you think “Open” Houses are important if you’re selling?  If you’re buying, do you go to open houses?

For a house listed at nearly a million smackaroos, why why WHY would a seller submit this photo?  To show that it’s fun to four-wheel at the house?  Especially with no helmet?

One thing for sure… when you choose to list for next-to-nothing compensation with a company located out-of-state, you get what you pay for.

I’ve lost but one sign in my years as a real estate agent.  I had a lot for sale that was inhabited by a mobile home.  The owners of he movable house were not delighted when the land seller told them they’d have to get their wheels a’rolling when the lot sold.  As a result, my expensive metal sign disappeared.

It seems like stolen signs are a plague on some agents (as if a slow market isn’t bad enough!).  Realtors pay for their own signs usually - we get the big “for sale” signs, along with open house, arrow pointers, price reduced, swimming pool, amazing home, etc.  All the signs you see to market and sell real estate are paid out-of-pocket by the agent with the listing.

This doesn’t deter neighbors who like the strong wire frames.  They’re perfect for yard sales!

If you’re ever tempted to take a real estate sign because it’s available and free, think again.  It’s like walking up to someone and taking money right from their wallet.

I would never in a gazillion years advertise a home as a cockroach hotel.  But it worked for one agent and kudos I say to the flipper who had the courage to do this!

I did show a house once that was CRAWLING with these nasty nasty things.  It’s the only time I ever screamed while working with a client.  I laid my business card on the counter next to another agent’s card.  My card accidentally nudged the other card and about a thousand baby cockroaches came streaming out from under the other card.  Horrible!

I’m beating the photo drum yet again.  Taking a look at a “quiz” on the National Association of Realtors web site and one of the questions was: What feature on real estate Web sites do customers most frequently say they find the most useful?

Of the choices, I picked “Photos of the property”…

Sure enough, the answer is correct.  So why in the world do sellers not request that their agents put multiple photos online when the home is listed?  I just performed a random search on my own MLS using the price range of $130,000 to $140,000 - an average priced home, really.  Of the almost 100 listings that came up, ELEVEN homes had only one photo or none at all.  That’s over 10 percent of the homes listed!

When you hire an agent to represent you, make sure they do their job.  Take photos, post them online.  It’s what buyers want.

When I’m driving down the road going perhaps 5 miles over the speed limit - admit it! You do to! - and someone flies by going probably 100 miles per hour, I don’t get bent out of shape.  Instead, I find myself looking several miles up the road for a car turned upside down or skid marks off the road or for blue lights parked behind the speeding car.

It’s the survival of the fittest.  That’s why I found a recent blog post at Active Rain by Ruthmarie Hicks of New York to be very interesting.  She discusses that between part-time agents and full-time agents, we are hoping to “thin the herd.”

“Part-timers are better because they aren’t so pressed to make a sale…There is nothing worse than desperate agent breath!”  Major artillary

“Full-timers are available 24/7/365 – a part-time agent means part-time service and a lack of dedication. “  Saturation bombing.

I admit that when I first started in real estate, I was met with some hostility by the oldtimers.  But I was willing to work with them, ask lots of questions, and I stumbled every now and then.  Eventually they figured out that I was in it for the long haul (though 2009 nearly did me in).  Now when people think about coming into real estate (and isn’t it amazing how few there are with this limping housing market?), I tell the truth. Chances are we won’t know the same people, so won’t have the same sphere of influence.  But they’re going to have to work really hard, they’re going to have to spend some marketing money (monthly mailings, web page), and they MUST be willing to ask lots of questions or they’ll make a fatal mistake.

It is the survival of the fittest.  And in the end, it’s the people who conduct their business like a business will be around when the dust settles.

It’s just part of the job when real estate agents pay for advertising, send in monthly fees for fancy online slide shows that “tour” the inside and outside of houses (with snappy or soothing music in the background), put in open house ads, buy balloons, and drive back and forth to update photos.

After spending perhaps less than $20 on marketing or sometimes thousands of dollars, does an agent have means to regain what they’re “out” when a seller decides to cancel the listing?  In our state contracts, we do now have that option.

Specifically the listing contract says if a seller cancels or withdraws the listing prior to the expiration date, they are liable for the costs of marketing the home.  While it is within their rights to not sell the house, if an agent has out-of-pocket expenses and no hope of regaining them through the commission compensation at closing, the seller should pay those fees incurred during the listing period.

Of course the seller can try to make a case that the agent didn’t do enough to market the home, therefore they found another agent.  However when there are advertising fees that were accrued, it seems pretty evident that the previous listing agent DID actually market the home, which ultimately we are paid to do.

I may be biased here, but I say the seller should refund the agent that money, paid to the broker.  What do you think?

Photo by lilit through Flickr Creative Commons.

Once a home is listed, the sign is in the yard, lockbox on the door, flyers have been designed, printed and stocked, and web sites are updated with beautiful descriptions and great photos, you’d think a Realtor could just kick back and relax as we wait for a stream of offers to pour in.

Bzzzzzz.  (That’s the wrong answer buzzer!)

If the house doesn’t sell within a month or two - maybe three or four - the seasons start to change requiring updated photos.  Or the flyer box is empty.  Or you want to just drive by and make sure your sign hasn’t been vandalized and it’s still standing.

One a listing is complete, the work is just getting started!  I’m heading to a beautiful listing in a few moments to take a photo of the newly staged bathroom and restock the flyers.  Last week I drove by to take a picture of the gorgeous pink tree in the front yard so the MLS photo will no longer look like winter.

Onward ho!

Big Brother is watching us.  They are watching our advertising, they come into our offices to see how we respond, they call us.  And now they’re watching the Internet, particularly Craigslist.  What are they watching for? Why are they stalking us?

April is Fair Housing Month - a good reminder of how EVERY client should be treated fairly and equally.  What I like about this month is we have the opportunity to review “case studies” or take quizzes to see if we can answer correctly.

Let me give you an extreme example… which of these two phrases in ads is fairly written?

House perfect for bird watchers!

OR

Abundant nature surrounds house.

The first ad could be viewed as discriminatory against people who are NOT bird watchers (again this is an EXTREME example…).  Agents and sellers alike must remember that they are selling a house or property, NOT a lifestyle.

Craigslist seems to be a hub for fair housing violations because anyone can advertise any house.  Agents can sometimes forget our advertising rules.  We must always disclose that we are licensed agents in ads, must include our company name and phone number, and we have to be careful about selling the HOUSE, not the area, not the location, not that it’s a great Hispanic or Laotian community, not that it’s perfect for young families or the elderly, not that it’s near a certain denomination church.  Big Brother is watching Craigslist closely.  Just sell the real estate. Sell the house.