Real Estate Marketing Blog

The Three Prong Spear to Housing

I visited a friend over the weekend and he asked me what is up with real estate? In fact he posited that, "aren't we at the bottom?" That was interesting that he would think that.

I told him that my unscientific reasoning is that:

• The real estate market got way past rent value
• There are way too many agents
• And most importantly credit is too tight

My ear out there tells me that the buyers are wanting to buy. I know this from my client traffic, and lead counts that are showing the highest numbers in a long time. And in some cases they are higher than ever.

Either the lending will loosen up, or you must learn how to get creative.

Realtor or Blogger

Are your a wannabe blogger, or do you write to find leads?

ProBlogger is a blogger now selling something (books). CopyBlogger, Dave Taylor, Life Hacker. These are professional bloggers. It seems the advice that most take for blogging has been from guys and gals that blog professionally.

That is terrific resource  when you want to be a professional blogger, selling to one specific community. The word "Blogging" itself has taken on a damaging aura. Writing or creating is a much more useful term.

And as a Realtor you must ask yourself what are you doing to serve your readership?

Here are some more questions to help break away from blogging, and transition back into Realtor the publisher.

What Can Be More Important Than The Housing Crisis?

David Walker, Comptroller General, (THe U.S. tops Accountant), says that our Country is broke. I know that this is not really about real estate or marketing, but it is in a way as it affects markets, and that affects mortgages. This is an important topic that noone from either side of the aile is talking about this election year. Make them!

The Big Daddies of real estate

RISMedia’s announced its 20th Annual Power Broker Survey.

Interestingly, the total number of transactions down from 2,754,618 in 2006 to 2,322,210 in 2007. On average, real estate firms did over 1,100 less transactions in 2007 compared to 2006. Total sales volume in 2007 was down more than $100 billion, from $855,755,959,352 in ‘06 to $749,201,552,294 in ‘07.

More: We have reached the bottom.

3 Oceans is claiming the real estate bottom to add to the echo coming from the OC and LA. So we got North and Southern California covered. How about the rest of the country:-)

Seriously they mention some key points about why the real estate market is at the bottom in the Bay area:

1. The Rich affect. One out of every 10,000 American families has an annual income greater than $10.7 million, according to two university professors who study the super-rich.  By their tally, there are some 15,000 Americans who fit into that category.
2. Jobs-The Bay area tech sector has grown in jobs and Santa Clara County residents earn nearly double the nation’s average weekly wage and surpassed Manhattan as the county whose residents take home the largest paycheck.

Kevin Boer declares the bottom here.

Real Estate Agent or Professional Blogger?

If you have read any of HouseBlogger you know I am a bit of a curmudgeon on the whole Web 2.0 thing and Social Media and Blogs. This seems hypocritical I know. But, I am not against them, just the hype around these web 2.0 entities.

In fact, these platforms get lots of search engine spider activity and thus should be part of a marketing strategy. But these things are just words to describe platforms. And platforms are just software. And I am sorry I am not going to get too excited about my Outlook or Word Software programs. So why should I with a blog or social network?

Page Rank Update & What It Means to You

Pat alerted us to a new Page Rank update. I really do not pay much attention to the PR bar anymore. At best it is a glimpse into the past about 4 or 5 months. And at worse it is a fabrication. (I tend to go with the latter).

Simply put in an ungeek way, Page Rank is the relative importance of your page. In the old days it was hugely responsible for big SERPS in Google.

Today, many believe it simply does not exist, or is not very important. I believe it is still important to a certain degree, its just that Google no longer hands us the odometer to see how to manipulate them. Go figure.

Page Rank is part of linking and linking is the single most important thing you can do for your website. Of course it goes without saying that you should be updating your site with new content.

More Page Rank Stuff

Page Rank is Dead
Coloring Your Google Bar Green
SEO Myths

Email Never Getting There?

Lyris ISP Deliverability Report (PDF), nearly 1 of every 5 permission-based email messages sent to U.S.-based ISPs gets automatically junk mail folder. That means slightly more than 76 percent of invited email successfully makes it to the inbox. 

Part Deux:Please Not Another "Have We Hit Bottom Post"

I just found the clip that I referenced in an earlier post on the market bottoming in Orange County and LA.

Please Not Another "Have We Hit Bottom Post"

I know I know....but doesn't it seem like some of the bad news is starting to get crowded out by some of the positives lately.

Just last night I heard on KABC TV in LA that there is lots of proof that LA and Orange County real estate have hit bottom.

I looked all over for the video but cannot find it anywhere online. Meanwhile Zogby Aol just released a poll showing that over 50% of Americans believe that home ownership is still attainable for everyone.