Archive for April, 2008
We all know there are a lot of foreclosures out there today. In fact, it seems that in some places, if you aren’t selling foreclosures, you’re not selling anything. A question that comes up fairly often, though is, “How can I identify the homes that are in foreclosure or getting close?”
If you have, or are thinking of establishing, a niche in foreclosures, here are a couple pieces of technology that will help.
Foreclosure.com
Foreclosure.com is a place where you can find information about foreclosures, pre-foreclosures, tax liens, FSBO and bankruptcy property. It is a nation-wide service. You can post a widget like the one below on your website to help your visitors determine if there are foreclosures in their area of interest. You can also get a desktop version that provides more functionality.
Of course, the listings don’t give complete information, but you can establish an account at Foreclosure.com that gives you complete access to all property information. The fee is $9.95/week after a trial period. Keep in mind that your account will auto-renew after the trial, so make sure you cancel promptly if you decide not to keep the service.
When a visitor on your site wants more information about a property they are prompted to join Foreclosure.com. That isn’t the best alternative. So, make sure it’s clear on your site that you can supply additional information to your visitors at no charge.
ForeclosureRadar.com
ForeclosureRadar.com offers a similar service, but they are only active in California right now, although they have plans to expand their coverage area. Their fee is $70/month. The nice thing about this service is that if a web visitor wants more information about a listing, they are prompted to complete a contact form and that information is emailed to you.
As with anything else, you have to make an investment to take advantage of this foreclosure information, but it is an effective way of making yourself the local expert!
Do You Know Your Walk-Away Price?
· CommentsI’ve written before about the need to be discriminating about how you choose your clients. That’s especially true during a down market. You just don’t have time to babysit clients who are not serious about buying or selling.
After all, you have a great website where people can go to research the market. Right? So, while consumers are trying to make up their mind, you are providing them with the tools and information they need to do that.
But, holding out until you find “good” buyers and sellers can be difficult – often, a knee-jerk reaction is to take on what comes your way. I came across an article by Bob Corcoran published on Broker Agent News. Bob’s article discusses three ways to obtain better listings. And, in that article he talks about establishing a walk-away price. I think that’s a great idea whether you’re working with home owners or buyers. Setting an expectation in advance will help you stick to your guns.
Before you go to your next listing appointment, identify your walk-away price on the home to be listed. If the homeowner insists on listing the home above your walk-away price. . . of course, you promised yourself that you’d walk away.
The same principle can be applied when you’re working with buyers to avoid a protracted negotiation. Set a walk-away price with your buyers. As soon as it seems as if the negotiation is going to go on and on until you meet the seller’s price – you got it – walk away.
And, take your buyers with you.
Whimsical Wednesday: The Best Way to Shop
· CommentsShopping. It’s got to be my least favorite activity. I’m not even very happy about buying things, although it sure beats shopping. What’s the difference you ask? Well, shopping is the process of looking around in stores in preparation for actually buying something. Buying, on the other hand, is the process of entering a store, choosing something and buying it.
Now, I’ll admit that shopping does have some advantages over buying. If you’ve done enough shopping, when you are ready to buy something you probably know where to go to 
get the best price and selection. With buying, you pretty much enter the store, find something that at least vaguely resembles the item you need, and head for the cash register.
I do enjoy shopping for things like gifts, for example, because you want to be sure to get just the right thing. And, I much prefer shopping for things I don’t have to try on. Trying on clothes is one of the most irritating things I’m forced to do. And, I blame the clothes manufacturers.
For example, did you know that there is a group of designers who decide what colors are going to be used each season? Well, there is. So that means that if you want a red sweater and red isn’t “in”, you’ll have to wait until next year – or maybe the year after that. By that time, of course, you’ve forgotten you wanted one.
The other thing that drives me nuts are clothes sizes. Put all the manufacturers together, and they’d look a lot like the blind men trying to describe the elephant. You remember that one, right? The blind man at the head of the elephant described it as a long, flexible tube-like creature. While the blind man at the opposite end of the elephant swore it was a long scaly animal that swished back and forth a lot, and so on.
With clothes manufacturers, they each have a different way of describing women. I swear you can find clothes with the same dimensions that are sized as 6, 8, and 10 by different manufacturers. Therefore, you might have to try on three sizes of the same item to make one purchase. Ridiculous!
This topic came to mind because I just discovered a fantastic way to shop, invented by Jamie Curtis. When asked about a jacket she was wearing, she described how she came to own it. It’s called Drive-By Shopping. She was driving by a clothing store, spotted the jacket, called the store on her cell, asked if they had the jacket in a medium, gave them her credit card number and they met her at the door with her purchase.
Wow! Awesome!! Maybe I’ll invent a clothing store with a drive-up window. Might be a hit.
An Easy Way to Make Yourself a Video Star
· CommentsIf you’ve been wanting to produce a video or two, but you’ve been stuck on the technology issues, things could get a bit easier if you use a Flip Video, for a number of reasons:
You don’t have to have a big budget to acquire a device to shoot a video. The Flip Videos range in price from $120 to $179.- It’s small – 4″x2″ and only 1″ thick.
- It only has 8 buttons. I haven’t used one, but I don’t think I could get too messed up with only 8 buttons.
- According to one reviewer, Flip Video produces “startingly good footage”.
- There is built-in software that lets you edit the video and add music
- You can transfer the video to your computer with a USB connection that flips up.
I’m not sure if the resolution would be good enough to fill a large-screen TV, but for posting videos on the Internet, it sounds to me like this would be a great way to go.
Is Google Really Turning Into Big Brother?
· CommentsOne of Google’s latest toys is Street View. Now, in addition to seeing things on a map, you can actually get street-level views of neighborhoods. Sounds like a good idea, right?
Probably, unless you’re in one of their photos and it’s not too flattering. Or, you might be like the Borings from Pittsburgh. They’re suing Google because of the photos of their home that have appeared in Street View.
Most people think that by law, a photo taken from a public street is fair game for publishing. But, there have been law suits where other applicable laws have shot down the idea that anything goes.
So, this ought to be interesting. I never really thought about the possibility that my likeness could be preserved on the Internet and I wouldn’t even know about it.
What do you think about Street View? Is it a good tool for a real estate website? Do you like the concept?
Google says that they will gladly remove a photo from the system if asked. I did a search (on Google, of course) for remove street view photo. I found lots of results from a variety of websites that discussed the issue or might even tell you how to go about getting a photo removed. Oddly enough, none of the first page results was from a Google page.
Hmmm…..
