Is your glass half full or half empty?

Hanley Wood has made an excellent economic study on how difficult is the situation on the real estate market; She is playing with the ghost of inflation and flagging the banner of doom. I will admit that the situation is not precisely the most favorable but when she is looking at her glass and saying that it is half empty. At the same time multiple realtors around the country are excelling in this market and even though the sales market did declined 2.6% this implied that 4,733,000 houses changed their owner in that month.

So, what are the successful real estate agents doing? They are increasing their presence in the Internet and in their farm areas. They are showing their customers that they are not only the more knowledgeable person in their market they are widening their possible clientele since they are using new techniques like virtual tours.

When a realtor uses virtual tours he/she goes one step further in the International market. Now not only the realtors and clients on their city can have an access to their listings. The use of the Internet allows everyone to reach you and your velocity on responding to your clients will ensure your share of the market.

If you are still not convinced that the glass is half full just think of this 0.01% of the houses sold in June represent 47.3 houses. My very modest opinion is that we can fight for at least one of these 47 houses with teeth and claws. To do this you need to apply all the new technologies available to increase our presence in the Internet, we also need to have automatic systems allowing us to respond to the prospects as soon as possible. You should also not forget the ranking of your page on the Internet. Increasing the SEO of your page is a must.



Reference: Wood, Hanley; "Housing Market Key Indicator Alert - Aug. 21" retrieved from the Internet at: http://brokeragentpro.com/viewArticle.html?ArticleID=1515

How can we succed in this challenging market?

The word most realtors are hearing recently is cahallenge. Undoubtedly there is a significant challenge in the real estate industry so realtors need to think and actimplementing out of the box ideas.
Realtors need to increase sales, generate new leads, and get know by the community where they live. agents and brokers alike are looking for diverse and unique methods. Realtors need to implement tools that allow them to connect with clients and obtaining a competitive edge above the competitors has proven positive for many. One such tool is virtual tours to help boost business.
The realtors need to understand the great difficulties that their customers are undergoing while selling or buying a home this will help create a valuable relationship.
Richard Ruff;"Why Do Some Agents Succeed in Any Market and Others Falter?"; retrieved from the Internet at: http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-08-23/why-do-some-agents-succeed-in-any-market-and-others-falter-2/

A Growing Real Estate Market

In this times that all the Real Estate Agents are hearing is that the market is shrinking, there is still a certain part of the real estate market that is continuously expanding.
As health care improves the number of Americans reaching their senior years is increasing at a tremendous pace. Some of them choose to live in active retirement communities while others look at facilities that allow them the assistance needed for their needs.
According the US census there were 37.3 million people over age 65 living in the United States in 2006 that is approximately 12 % of the US population. Not forget that this number is growing exponentially and is expected to increase to around 86.7 million people by the year 2050.
This market is spread all around the country and Florida is an excellent place for retirement due to its excellent climate. To address the needs of this growing community REaltors shoulkd increase the Interenet presence of their lisitng using virtual tours to increase the possibilities of obtaining a share of this market.
To prepare Realtors to focus on this growing group of the population the National Association of Realtors created the SRES designation. Those Realtors interested in addressing the needs of Americans ages 50 and over need to understand that it is not easy for people to downsize or move from their homes, therefore to cope with the stress generated you will need a lot of patience, but on the other hand you will be rewarded with the knowledge that you helped a person to obtain a better living condition.
Based on this and the continuous need of learning to correctly serve the community it will be a good time to go back to school and obtain the SRES designation.

Prospecting in Real Estate

If you are a number person is about time that you pay attention to some NAR statistics.According to NAR over 80% of home owners work with the first real estate agent they come in contact with. 87% of home buyers start their search on the Internet and one out of twenty of these buyers are already ready to buy.
The question is simple Who do you think has the highest probability to be this first realtor in this world dominated by the Internet? Someone that has not even a webpage or the one whose presence in the Internet is such that his webpage shows in the first page of any search on your farming area. That is accomplished by increasing the SEO of your Webpage.
Based on NAR houses are sold on average every five years so you only need to stay personally in touch with around 150 prosppects to generate 30 sales a year. Remember you will need to excel in your business to be their realtor.
So how you can differentiate from your competition again by showing a good use of the Internet and the different possibilities this tool offers. You need to have a consistent use of virtual tours, panoriders, a fast response to your clients by using automatic services, and last but not least you need to keep in contact with your previous customers on a periodical basis.
If you are just starting to work as a realtor one sure way to increase your prospects is by targeting expired listings.This omes did not sell because either they were incorrectly priced or the terms were unreasonable.
Houses that are built in a bad location need to reflect this in their price. Since is very unprobable that the homeowner will list again with the previous realtor here is something you can do.After you get i contact with the expired owner ask them why they think that their house did not sell. Listen for several minutes most people just want to be heard.
Offer them your services and a detail analysis why their house did not sell, remember to get an appointment to show them this as soon as possible.
Reference: Wickman, Floyd: "I quit real estate- part 4" retrieved from the Internet at: http://brokeragentpro.com/viewArticle.html?ArticleID=1495

Reality of the Real Estate Market

Reality of the Real Estate Market (edit/delete)
After reading a recent article by Phillip Cantrell I realized that our blog should share it since some of the information in that article was extremely important and clarifies the present situation of the real estate Industry.
It is true that the number of sales went low in June it is also true that from the 120 million homes existing in the U.S. more than 33% are already paid in full, around 40 million of the remaining were bought before the year 2000 so even in a fire sale they will have a minimum of 30% equity.
On the other hand according to all the information available 94% of the houses are not behind in their payments therefore only 4 million homes are at a risk and of those only 2% are in foreclosure.
For these owners that made a bad decision the Congress is about to spend $300 billion dollars to save their houses, so despite all the talking the situation is not a s bad as some people are placing it.
One of the many ways in which Virtual Florida Tours tries to serve the community is by keeping the realtors serving the areas of Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Miami, Pine Crest, Hallandale, Fort Lauderdale and the rest of Miami Dade and Broward Counties informed of the real situation of the market in which they carry their business.
Reference: Cantrell, Phillip; Things I Think I Think - Real Estate in a Nutshell; retrieved from the Internet at: http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-08-05/things-i-think-i-think-real-estate-in-a-nutshell/