Idaho Real Estate >> ID Real Estate Specialist

I find interesting all the talk about open houses, print advertising, postcards, web marketing and on and on.

A point I would like to make is that technology has changed dramatically in the last 15 years and dramatically in the last 5.  If people still tried to do things with technology the way it was done 15 years ago they would be left way behind in this competitive world.

It should come to no ones surprise that what once worked 15-20 years ago in real estate is not working well in today's world.  Just like technology in computers, automobiles, airplanes, communication etc. has advanced, real estate has advanced as well.

So many articles have been written as to why print advertising and open houses don't work and yet other articles as to why they do.

Just like some people have a hard time letting go of any memorabilia, many have a hard time letting go of postcards, print advertising and open houses.

All of us know where 99% of all postcards go.   Every Realtor I have asked about print advertising has told me they only do it to please the seller because they (the seller) wants to see their home advertised.   These same Realtors hold open houses because their sellers are demanding it.

This to me is a sad reason to spend thousands on print advertising and open houses.  Sure, every now and then a home will be sold from these sources but not consistently.  I would much rather educate my sellers as to what is working and why.

When buyers can go to yours or my website and do an IDX MLS Search and have properties emailed to them daily that is up to date information, why would they pickup a magazine that is old news?

Another thing I find interesting is when the next "Greatest website since Microsoft" pops up promising great exposure for real estate listings. Many Realtors jump on the band wagon with a vengeance and confidence this is the answer.  Just this spring the number of blogs that appeared on AR promoting this and that site were amazing.

I won't mention names but you all know what I am talking about.   At least two major sites were announced early this year as the "Cutting Edge" sites for Realtors.  One site had been around for awhile and the other was fairly new.   I was not a fan of either and voiced my opinion.

I don't hear anything about the one site at all anymore and when I called agents across the country about it, those that used it had never received a lead and were dumping it.

The other site promised to tell homeowners what their home is worth and claimed it would rock the real estate world.  If property is appreciation at 7% a year in Seattle and is depreciating the same percentage in Detroit, and the rest of the country is somewhere in between, how can any site claim to accurately know what your home is worth?  This is the job of a professional Realtor.

The next time one of the "Latest and Greatest" real estate websites are created think about this:  Why does Wal-Mart do so well across the country?  One reason is they have "Everything you need" and they are priced well.  You can buy anything from a gallon of milk to a set of tires for your car.

Sites like Craig's List and EBay are flourishing because surfers can find nearly everything they want on these sites.  I have sold 17 homes through Craig's list in the last 24 months.  If ads are written correctly one can sell homes and much more on Craig's list.  I have written blogs about this and one of my good friends back east, Sue Argue, recently wrote a Craig's list ad the correct way and received a staging lead the very first few days from the day she posted the ad on Craig's List.

My point is that just because your broker told you to send out postcards, take floor time and do lots of print advertising and open houses, does not mean that it will work for you.

Think as a buyer of today's world does and think about how they are buying everything from clothes to Christmas presents to automobiles, to homes.   The next generation of buyers embraces text messaging,  blackberries, and know the computer better than you and I can ever dream of.  Do you really think they want to receive a post card from you and I or visit us at an open house?

Let's enter the new world of real estate marketing and let go of the covered wagon.  The covered wagon will always be admired and loved as a part of history but it isn't transporting people anymore.

Search Idaho Homes

I took a class last week and the instructor spoke about the importance of having a mentor or a coach to be a true top producer.  He spoke about golf and quoted many articles in which Tiger Woods was quoted as saying why he uses a coach to continue to hone his incredible swing and remain the top golfer in the world.

At one of the breaks I told the instructor that speaking of golf I have always admired Vijay Singh.  Vijay has been known to win golf tournaments and then after the tournament he hits the driving range and will practice until dark.   Most golfers will celebrate with a dinner, drinks, etc. while Vijay is at the practice range working to get better and better even though he just won a million dollars!

Over the years I can't tell you how many times in my career I have seen Realtors have a good run and close several transactions in a week or two and stopped doing the things they needed to keep doing while they were collecting commission checks. They are scrambling to take care of their closings and almost always these Realtors will follow their great success with a lull of a month or so and they don't know what happened.

I think we can all learn from Tiger and Vijay.  Many of us will hit streaks where we will have several closings in a row.  Just like Vijay we need to keep prospecting continuously to keep the pipeline of clients coming in. We also need to keep honing our skills with all the education we can get. 

I try to go to every seminar and class I can go to which are not required by our real estate commission.  If I can learn just one thing from each seminar or class it is one more thing I didn't know the week before.  Continuing to do the things day in and day out even when things appear to be going well is what develops SuperStars.

Search Idaho Homes

I had a call the other day and these sellers were thinking of selling their home and I was one of three Realtors they were interviewing.  I received the call on a Tuesday and we scheduled meeting on Thursday of the same week.

I asked the sellers if they had access to the Internet and they said they did.  I said "Please go to Google and type in the name "George Tallabas" to get more information on me and I will see you on Thursday". 

We said our goodbyes and that was it.  When I knocked on their door Thursday afternoon the Mrs. answered the door and jokingly said "Wow, we are honored that someone so respected across the country is in our home".  We both laughed and I asked what brought this on.

She explained that they took my advice and went to Google and typed in "George Tallabas" and they were amazed that the entire first page had information about me which included testimonials, links to two of my websites, Active Rain profiles and blogs, a real estate show that I had created and discovered through Active Rain, and an awesome blog that Jack & Cyndee Haydon had written about me.

There's more.  The seller said they were so amazed by all the information written about me that they decided to do the same with the other two Realtors and were not nearly as impressed.  They called the other two Realtors and told them they had already decided on a Realtor to represent them and they had not even met me yet!

Of the 10 links on the first page, 4 of them came directly due to Active Rain.

So when someone calls you and sets up a meeting tell them to go to Google and type in your name.  You may not be as lucky as me and have them cancel the competition but it will certainly get your foot deeper in the door! To me this is like having a pre-listing package and you don't even have to assemble it!

Search Idaho Homes

I have seen many cycles in real estate during my 27 year real estate career. Southwest Idaho has seen some significant changes take place. My office is located in Nampa, Idaho which is 15 minutes from the Capital of Boise and 15 miles from Caldwell where I live.

We here in Southwest Idaho didn't see the train coming. The train I am talking about is the 2005 train from California that hit our area big time.  The train included buyers that were selling their home in California and paying cash for personal residences and investing left over money and purchasing investment homes here in Idaho.

In addition, investors that still lived in California began purchasing investment properties here in Idaho in record numbers.   The result is builders started building homes that "Californians" could afford but few here in Idaho could afford.

Now that the California market has cooled and the train has slowed dramatically, there are a lot of homes in the $200,000+ price range and when I say "A lot of homes" I am talking about record numbers of homes on the market in many cities.

For instance in the price range of $200-300,000 there are:

• 1,945 Active residential home listings in Ada County (Where Boise is located) and,
• 741 Active residential home listings in neighboring Canyon County

This price range is the most saturated price range of our market area. Price ranges above this range are also saturated and marketing times have increased.

The DOM or "Days on the market" for SOLD properties have slowly increased as well. For the past 6 months here are the DOM's for Ada and Canyon County in the same price range of $200-300,000.

• 48 DOM in Ada County
• 68 DOM in Canyon County

As I have mentioned, these are the DOM's for the past 6 months in the respective markets.  These are expected to keep increasing with the current signs and as we approach the the winter months when the marketing times always increase.

The price ranges under $200,000 are still doing relatively well because this is the price range that the residents of the area can afford comfortably.  If homes in this price range are priced well based on the competition and are well cared for they have a good chance of selling relatively quickly but this isn't always the case.

What this all means is that the buying opportunities are some of the best I have ever seen.  It is quite common to see many sellers offering incentives like paying for buyers closing costs and floor covering allowances, etc. Go to Search Idaho Homes to start your home search.

As a seller you must know where you stand in the market place.  It is important that you have a Realtor that gives you monthly CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) and Absorption Rate so you know where you stand.  With the market changing as rapidly as it is changing you must know where you stand each month.

This cycle will change in the months ahead as all cycles do.  When it will change and which direction the market changes will be affected by many factors.  The media tends to overplay market conditions so look for the advice of a professional Realtor to know what current market conditions are.

Search Idaho Homes

It was reported today that a Washington State Title Company has been slapped hard by the Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler.  The commission has issued a notice of hearing seeking 1.95 million for it's alleged violations of insurance law.

The alleged violations were discovered during an investigation this summer and total thousands of dollars in illegal inducements paid to real estate agents, brokers and agencies.

Per Kreidler, state law prohibits title insurance from giving anything in excess of $25 per person in any 12 month period, as an inducement or reward in connection with the placement of title insurance business.

This is one of the heaviest if not the heaviest fines levied for illegal inducements. All told, this Title Company is accused of violating state law 195 times. The entire National Realty News article can be read by clicking here.

Here in Idaho I know of 2 cases in the past 10 years where Realtors foolishly gave buyers money to pay for closing costs without disclosure and were fined and one lost his license.

With the real estate market changing as much as it has across the country it is getting harder and harder to move homes.  Whenever any real estate market gets tough it is common to see certain Realtors creating new ways of putting transactions together and many of these "Creative Financing" schemes can land one in hot water. 

One Title Company is finding out just how hot the water can get.

Search Idaho Homes

Want a very easy and FREEway to know where your website ranks on Google, Yahoo and many other major search engines?  Go to MikesMarketingTools and find out.

I checked two of my sites using this website this a.m. and it was right on target!  What is really cool is that the site also has a free widget that you can add to any site which visitors can click to check the ranking of their own site.  This will give your site just one more cool tool to attract visitors back.

It will also give you a way to monitor your site on a regular basis to see if your SEO campaign is working and if your site is marching forward or regressing backwards.

I have searched for a simple site like this for some time and it is very accurate and very simple to use.  Share it with all your friends and give them something of value.

Your site not showing up? Try this:

• If you have a template site make sure and rename all your buttons to something that is not the same as the other thousands of templates sites out there ie: for example, if your template site defaults to "Sellers Tips" change it to "Sellers Forum" ect. Rename all your buttons.
• Write rich and unique content on as many pages as you can. If you write your own content that is not the same as the thousands of sites out there you improve your chances to be ranked higher.
• Go to LeadWebDesigners and click "Search Engine Submission" at the top and scroll down to the bottom and pay $49.95/year to have your site submitted to the top 500,000 search engines!  This is the best $49.95 you will ever spend!

Please don't take this as an attack.  It is simply my request to all AR members to please think about what we write and where we post it.   Many know I am working on a new Point2Agent site.

Because of this I was attracted to the group called "Point2AgentSites" which was created by Jay and Francy Thompson.  When you visit this group and go to the groups page, on the left side of the page it clearly states:

"An ActiveRain group for members who have Point 2 Agent web sites. Post tips & techniques for optimizing your Point 2 web site, or ask for help!"

It is very clear what Jay and Francy intended with this group.  Anxiously I joined the group and began my search for valuable information that would help me with my new site. 

I was surprised when at one point I had to go through 3 complete pages before I found another blog that was relative to the group!

I have to admit that many of the blogs that are written are excellent but they don't apply to what Jay and Francy asked for in terms of content.  Many of the post that were written were perfect for other groups but not for this Point2Agent site.

I wrote to Jay and mentioned my disappointment and he said he agreed but did not have the time to monitor the group and asked if I was interested in helping him. 

With the high number of non-relative posts it would be nearly a full-time job to monitor and edit the posts that are written. Why can't we all monitor ourselves and post our blogs in the proper groups?

My plea is for all of us to be respectful of the authors intention when they write a new blog.  I am sure everything written has something of interest to someone.  Please just try to apply it to the proper groups.

I know I am not the only one concerned about this.  Last month a group email was sent out by Craig Schiller informing everyone that non-relative blogs added to the group "Stage it Forward' would be deleted.  None of this would be necessary if we just posted our blogs where they belong.

Please lets all be considerate and post blogs where they belong and we have what we are searching for when we search.

Happy Blogging!

Many of you know I have been transcending from one template site to another Point2Agent site that will allow me more flexibility.   My goal is to have a local website that is attractive and allows me to promote all my residential, commercial, land and investment property.

I am not so interested in making it a "Pretty" site.  Instead I want to make it a powerful "Information Based site".

Too many of us have been lured by the desire to have a "WOW" site with flash, Color, and many "Pretty" Features.  Instead of going for the "Pretty" I am focused this time around for making a lead generating machine.

I have been told by a few web masters that "Template Sites" are not where it's at and that I need to spend thousands on a custom site.   There is an AR member in Westminster, Colorado that would beg to differ.

Michael J. Clarkson is an AR member that has a Myers Internet Inc. template site that cost him $199 to setup and $35 per month to service.  Hundreds of thousands of Realtors have these kind of sites and 99.9% of them are not generating many leads at all.  What's the difference with Michaels?

Realtor Magazine was so impressed with the results of Michaels site that they interviewed him in this months Realtor Magazine Issue.

Michael's website milehighhomehunter is getting attention because in the past 60 days he received 70 leads all without using "pay-per-click" with Google or Yahoo.

Michael was quoted as saying he is using strong search engine optimization couple with meaningful rich content.

Instead of going for the pretty or "WOW" site Michael has gone for the "Information Site" and used smart Search Engine Optimization techniques.

My point is you don't have to spend $3,000 or more and $200+ per month to have a lead generating machine.  Build an "Information Packed" site that people will want to visit and get your site optimized.

• Consider Point2Agent for a template site that is really user friendly and has some powerful tools
• Go to leadwebdesigners to get your site optimized

Forget about the "WOW" and give users a reason to visit your site.

I think everyone knows the deep love and respect I have for our dear friend Karen George.  Karen has brought a lot to Active Rain and to the lives of so many and I am at the very top of those that owes her so much.

I recently developed a new website and because of my efforts to help Karen with her struggles with cancer she offered to help me with my site using her SEO talent.   She emailed me last week and told me she was going to work on my website this Labor Day weekend.

I received an email from Karen earlier today and she apologized to me that she will not be able to work on my site because she received some bad news from her doctor yesterday (Friday the 31^st of August).   The cancer has spread worse than ever before and she will be going in for emergency surgery this coming Tuesday the 4th of September.

I tried to get some things done after I read her email but I was struggling.  I can't tell you what the entire email said but I can tell you that the the list of her complications is more than you can imagine.

Karen really appreciates what many of us did for her and I know it came at a good time for her.  She is now fighting an even bigger battle that has become a HUGE MOUNTAIN for her to climb.

I know many of you care about her and are praying for her.  I am trying to find a way to smile this weekend and I will try to do it for my dear friend Karen George.  I can't get real excited about anything right now.  Maybe things will look brighter tomorrow.

I love you Karen