Idaho Real Estate >> ID Real Estate Specialist

I have this site Search Idaho Homes with Point2Agent which is awesome and bringing me in a lot of business. I have found one little quirk with it and that is with loading photos into blogs and having them look good.  The photos work good with new pages added to the sites but not with new blogs.

I phoned Point2 customer support early in the week and the customer support person I spoke to could not help but said she would investigate it and call me back.  I never did hear from her so I went to Active Rain and searched for members with Point2 sites and ran across Nestor and Katerina Gassett which not only had a Point2Agent site but their blogs had great looking photos.

I called their cell and heard back from Katerina this morning.  Katerina was amazing and explained how I could upload great looking photos to my Point2Agent blog page.  Katerina not only helped me with this issue but we spoke on the phone a long time and shared ideas.  After we hung up I started the process of loading photos to my blogs.  I had a glitch and I called Katerina and she explained what I was doing wrong.  Walla, in minutes I had GREAT LOOKING PHOTOS on my Point2Agent blog page! 

About two weeks ago AR member Patricia Beck emails me out of the blue and emails me a great SEO tip.  I had never spoken to Patricia and had no idea why she would do something so incredible for someone like me. Thank you Patricia!

Last year I wrote about how Karen George and Chris Elizabeth Griffith helped me and guided me in creating an Active Rain Profile that has generated me a lot of business.

I hate to think what my real estate business would be like if I had never joined Active Rain and met friends like this. 

Sadly, I can also say I have requested information from some members and have never heard from them.

My friends, life is short and this world gives us but one opportunity to touch someone and make a difference. Today by Katerina returning my call I shared some marketing ideas with her that will help her. The help she gave me is appreciated more than she will ever know.

I hope we can all realize the great power of Active Rain but more so, realize the power in giving and sharing. 

Isn't this a great world???!!!

 Posted By: George Tallabas - Boise Idaho Real Estate Agent - Associate Broker 
with RE/MAX Advantage, Canyon Counties #1 Brokerage in sales and listings
specializing in Boise Idaho Real Estate and Southwest Idaho Real Estate.

There are a lot of agents in our area of S.W. Idaho that entered the real estate business just prior to the peak year of 2005.   In most cases these new Realtors just sat at a builder model home and had buyers walk in right and left.  Anyone with a real estate license could make $100,000 with their eyes closed.

Fast forward to 2006 and things changed quite a bit.  Enter 2008 and things have changed a whole lot!  All of a sudden real estate agents have to know how to properly list and market a home.  What?  You mean I have to interview sellers, measure homes, put up signs, lock boxes, market, etc, etc?!

I can't tell you how many of these Realtors have left the market.  Of those that are still with us, many are looking for a panecea or "cure all".  A system they can rely on that will help them grow their business and create a reliable business machine. They are "lookin to hitch their wagon with someone".

I have heard the names of several highly respected national real estate trainers and so called real estate "Superstars" that advertise in the monthly real estate magazine.  Some of these Realtors promise to have one earning a lot of money with no cold calling and no evening or weekends.

There is no doubt in my mind that many national real estate trainers have some great systems in place and ways to help many grow their business.  There is a place for these trainers and a place for some Realtor systems in every market and there are strong supporters for many of these trainers.

While there are a lot of great trainers and ideas out there that offer great coaching and marketing ideas, there are some basic charactaristics of all top agents and these have been consistent throughout time:

Integrity - This is a word that is thrown around a lot but few honor it. Simply put if you say you are going to do something, do it!  This seems really simple but I can't tell you how many people in our industry and others tell us they will do something and their words are simply hollow.  I recently had a young man sell me some technology and tell me to call him with all my questions.  That was this past Tuesday.  I have left him 2 messages in 3 days and he has yet to return my call.

Be a sponge - Take in the world around you.  Never fail to go home at the end of the day without learning something new.  Learn from others in the industry.  Learn from classes we take.  Learn from books we read.  Learn from the people we come in contact with.  I closely met a minimum of 30 Realtors at the recent RE/MAX National Convention in Las Vegas and I can truly say I learned something from every one of them.  I talk to farmers, commercial contractors, surveyors, attorneys, planners, accountants, etc. and love it!  I always learn something that will benefit me in some way.

Know when to hold them and know when to fold them - Yes, learn when to walk away from a client or situation that is not good for you.  In today's market every client is like GOLD.  All of a sudden there is no such thing as A, B & C buyers.  Every potential buyer is being worked.  Just know when you can invest your time in a buyer and seller and see something come of it.  It is the same with real estate offices.  Even though I believe there is no Broker that will make or break us, the environment we are in can make a big difference in our attitude.

Take a genuine interest in people - I have a farmer client that has referred me over $150,000 in commissions the past 4 years.  One day I saw him in a field working.  I stopped and helped him with his chores that day and talked to him for over an hour.  That was over 4 years ago.  People tell me he still talks about that day I stopped by. That farmer calls me now and then to ask me for more cards of mine so that he can hand them out. I call all my sphere at least monthly and "never ask them for referrals" but receive many referrals annually none the less.  I believe I receive these referrals because I show people I genuinely care about them.  When people know we truly care about them, they will refer their closest family and friends to you.

Be a source of information - Many people have called me over the years and asked me for a name of a handy man, plumber, electrician, etc.  I have now started a list of vendors I recommend on my website my preferred vendor list . When people trust you and feel good about you they will lean on you for names of vendors they can trust.  Let people know you can help them and it doesn't involve you receiving a commission. Help them just to help them and because you care.

Get your name out - I have written in the past about the powerful use of business cards and hand written notes.  For the past several years I have given away over 3,500 cards per year and I plan on expanding it.  One Seattle Realtor wrote in the mid nineties that she included cards in all the bills she paid.  She mentioned a credit card employee moved to Seattle from the east and looked her up and purchased a home from her.  You never know when a buyer or seller will find their way to you from a business card you handed out long ago.

These tips are not rocket science and are very basic but I can assure you many top producers do these things day in and day out.

 Posted By: George Tallabas - Boise Idaho Real Estate Agent - Associate Broker 
with RE/MAX Advantage, Canyon Counties #1 Brokerage in sales and listings
specializing in Boise Idaho Real Estate and Southwest Idaho Real Estate.

"Transferring a cell number from one company to another is easy...right? Wrong!"

I have done very little other that be on the phone with Sprint Customer Service since last night around 10:00 p.m. and have been on the phone with them a good 3 solid hours today.

Yesterday afternoon I went into a Sprint store and told them I wanted to stop my Verizon account and open up a new Sprint account, purchase a new Palm 755P and sign up for thier $99.99  "All In One" program".  I asked a lot of quetions and one of them was how long would it take to transfer my number. I was told the transfer of my number to Sprint would take an hour or two at the most.

Within 2 hours my new phone was up and working and I could make and receive calls.  That lasted about an hour and I have not been able to receive calls since then and it is now nearly 3:30 p.m the following day!

After 7 phone calls to Sprint I have now been told that there is a "Portability" issue and it could take 2-3 days for my phone to be fully working!  I said ?!>@)(* !!!!!  and that was after I had cooled down!

I tried to to suck up to Verizon and reactive my old phone so I don't loose anymore business but it is too late and I can't do anything but wait!

So if you are switching from one cell company to another and keeping your old number "BE CAREFULL"!!

This has been nothing short of a nightmare for someone like me that lives with his cell phone and averages over 3,000 minutes per month of usage!

 

 Posted By: George Tallabas - Boise Idaho Real Estate Agent - Associate Broker 
with RE/MAX Advantage, Canyon Counties #1 Brokerage in sales and listings
specializing in Boise Idaho Real Estate and Southwest Idaho Real Estate.

 

In my years in the business I have seen a lot of ups and downs and have also seen history repeat itself recently.  Adjustable rate mortgages were around in the late 70's and by 1981 mortgages reached 17 ½ % and the prime rate hit 21 ½ %.  When rates reached this level borrowers were loosing their homes and much was written about why adjustable rate mortgages were so bad and why they would die a deserved death and never be seen again.

Fast forward to 2004/2005 and everyone forgot about the early 80's and adjustable rate mortgages became the means that many used to get into the home of their dreams.  It didn't matter what could happen to these rates because we would get the home that we and our families always dreamed of and we would get it now.

I saw another thing happen.  In our own community I heard many Realtors, Builders, developers and mortgage lenders make statements like "This (the current real estate market) is going to last for 5 years, 7 years, 10 years, etc.  Many Realtors believed this and started buying hummers, boats, vacation homes, sports cars, etc.  I even know of  young Realtors in their twenties purchasing expensive vehicles with payments as high as $1,100/month and new homes with payments as high as $2,800/month based on the 2005 real estate market.  Many of those young Realtors have had creditors knocking on their door and have received demand letters from the IRS.

We will come out of this economic crises many parts of the country are experiencing some day.  Our country will climb out of it just like we have climbed out of every challenge we have faced.

I hope when we do climb out of it that someone will carve somewhere on some mountain the importance of learning from history and learning the lesson that Grandpa and Grandma taught us about not buying anything if we either 1) could not pay cash for it or 2) make enough of a down payment to get the monthly payment down to an area where we could comfortably afford it without putting a strain on our financial status and our families.

No market, whatever condition it may be in will ever last forever.  The truly "Rich Dads" referenced in the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" refers to are all the men and woman that have learned to create cash flows instead of debt and learned to live without in the first few years to have all we could possibly need when we really need it.

New Census Bureau figures show slightly more of the people coming from other states and nations settled in rural counties than in preceding years. Canyon County has been reckognized for having a growth which was higher than neighboring Ada County, the home of Boise.

Based on county population estimates for July 1, 2007, just over 80 percent of the 35,500 increase in statewide population from mid-2006 occurred in the six counties with populations over 70,000. That compared to 84 percent of the growth between mid-2005 and mid-2006 and 85 percent from mid-2004 to mid-2005.

Those large counties - Ada, Bannock, Bonneville, Canyon, Kootenai and Twin Falls - accounted for 28,500 of the additional population, and only Bonneville County had a higher growth rate in 2007 than in 2006. Only Bannock County had a lower growth rate than the statewide average of 2.4 percent.

Statewide, the 2.4 percent population growth ranked fourth nationally. Over 55 percent of the growth was the result of people moving from other states or countries, this represented the ninth highest percentage among all the states.

Idaho's most populated counties rose 3.1 percent last year compared to 3.6 percent in the July 2006 estimates while the rural population was up 1.3 percent compared to 1.1 percent a year earlier.

Canyon and Jefferson counties were among the fastest growing counties with over 10,000 population in the United States. Canyon County, which has benefited from living costs lower than neighboring Ada County, recorded a 4.5 percent population increase to rank 46^th nationally, and Jefferson County, which is absorbing new growth around Idaho Falls, was up 4.3 percent to rank 57^th. Canyon County posted a 4.9 percent increase in mid-2006 while Jefferson was up just 3 percent. The complete report is available at Census Report on fastest growing counties

Recent real estate sales data through February, 2008 showed Caldwell having the highest percentage of new home sales in the Treasure Valley and out performed neighboring cities in Ada County.

An agent friend of mine came in to see me yesterday and said he learned of two new interesting websites he heard about at a class this week.

Jott.com  This site allows you to call one number and enter a voice message.  The system will then automatically converts yoru voice message and sends an email and text message to an individual or group of people.  All you do is make one call.  If you are on the road and don't want to forget to do something tomorrow you can call jot and leave a voice mail.  The following morning you will recieve an email and a text message reminding you of the to-do.  There are other cool features.  Log on to see all of them.

kayak.com Kayak is a travel search engine. Which means they search hundreds of travel sites from all over the world, provide the information to you in an easy-to-use display and then send you directly to the source to make your purchase. They help you find the perfect flight, hotel, cruise, or rental car. You basically enter all of your desired travel information and they scan all the travel and lodging services all at once, travelocity, orbitz, airfair.com, etc. to get you the best deal.  I tried entering a flight from Boise to Las Vegas and in about a minute I received every low air fair.

Go in and check out these sites. They are cool and just may make your hectic life a little less hectic.

I have written in the past about my luck with Craig's List.  I am a fan of it not only for advertising properties but it is an awesome SEO tool if used correctly.  The more popular sites link to your site, the higher your site will be ranked by the popular search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.

Many know that I am not a fan of using Postlets, VFlyer and similar real estate fliers with Craig's List.  The more information we give to viewers, the less likely they are to link to our sites, it is the basic rule of advertising that has never changed.  I use Craig's List in many new ways that most have never thought of and one thing I always do is give limited photos and encourage the viewer to link to my site by having a link to it.  This causes two things:  First I get the SEO benefit of the viewer linking to my site and secondly, I encourage them to look at other listings and other valuable information I have posted on my site.

The data below was taken from my site tonight and shows that two Craig's List postings I posted early in the week rank directly behind Google in terms of attracting the most viewers to my site. It can't be any clearer than that.  At one time when I tried using Postlet I had NO VIEWERS link to my site.  As soon as I went back to the system I currently use the links to my website skyrocketed and I started getting sales.

Postlet, VFlyer and other real estate flyers look nice but they don't encourage visitors to link to your site and this in my opinion is a big mistake in the proper use of Craig's List or any other real estate portal. Don't give the farm away in advertising.  Give visitors a reason to link to your site. The search engines will smile upon you and you will have viewers view other listings of yours they otherwise would not have done.

	(no referral)	129	28.04%
	www.google.com	122	26.52%
	eastoregon.craigslist.org	56	12.17%
	boise.craigslist.org	39	8.48%
	search.yahoo.com	33	7.17%
	activerain.com	27	5.87%
	search.msn.com	13	2.83%
	search.live.com	9	1.96%
	www.buildrealestateresults.com	5	1.09%
	realestate.aol.com

Stop all the presses!  There isn't supposed to be any strong economies out there according to all the negative press.  Foreclosures here, short sales there, jobless claims everywhere.  "The Sky is Falling"!   One cannot turn on the radio or T.V. or read anything published without being reminded about how bad things are. 

Forbes Magazine has just named Boise Idaho "The 2nd Best Place For Busines And Careers" in their rankings just realeased. Cities were ranked according to economic growth, cost of living, jobless claims, tax rates, etc.

Last September (2007) USA Today wrote a wonderful article titled "No End In Site For Idaho's Growth" where it raved about Idaho's computer technology, agriculture, and other attractions such as white water rafting, fishing, hiking, etc. which draws thousands of new residents and tourists each year.

Read both the Forbes article and the September, 2007 USA Today article by clicking Idaho Gets National Attention

Companies in the U.S. are facing a myriad of challenges, from the credit crunch to soaring commodity prices to corporate tax rates. In spite of all the challenges facing the country, there are still areas like Idaho that are  seeing strong job growth and solid economies.

Posted By: George Tallabas - Boise Idaho Real Estate Agent - Associate Broker 
with RE/MAX Advantage, Canyon Counties #1 Brokerage in sales and listings
specializing in Boise Idaho Real Estate and Southwest Idaho Real Estate.

At our office meeting the top of Zillow came up.  It is no secret to any of you that know me that I have never, ever been a fan of Zillow and in fact have been very critical.  My point is this:  If homes are appreciating at 3% a year in Seattle Washington and depreciating 6% or more in Detroit Michigan with the rest of the country somewhere in between, how can any national company accurately value homes day in and day out?

In our office meeting are Broker mentioned that some of his clients went on-line to Zillow's website and were told their home was worth around $210,000.  Our Broker stated after doing a good market analysis the final list price was $123,000!

I spoke to some other agents after the meeting and many of the their clients are logging onto Zillow and being deceived as to the true market value of their homes.

There is no replacement for a true professional REALTOR and no website or national company of any kind is ever going to simplify the process.

Posted By: George Tallabas - Boise Idaho Real Estate Agent - Associate Broker 
with RE/MAX Advantage, Canyon Counties #1 Brokerage in sales and listings
specializing in Boise Idaho Real Estate and Southwest Idaho Real Estate.

Having recently returned from the Re/Max International Convention in Las Vegas I was priviledged to be among a lot of Super Stars that are selling a lot of property in this current market we are in.  The numbers I heard on awards night were staggering to say the least.  I even sat with a man on awards night that closed over 20 million in dollar volume near the Kansas City real estate market in 2007 where 25% of the homes are in foreclosure.

My point is that homes are selling everywhere USA.  People still get married, still get divorced, are still relocated in every market of this country.  Here in S.W. Idaho we have some tough markets in certain price ranges but every month homes sell in each and every price range, even the tough ones. The question we must ask is why does one home sell and another does not?

In my opinion we simply need to "Get back to basics" and tell our sellers what works and what does not.  We need to be very candid and let them know they have a fighting chance of selling their home if they trust us as professionals and they take some steps in preparing their home to sell.

I just wrote the newsletter "What Can I Do To Help My Home Sell"  I want to be proactive and "Get back to basics" and give my sellers the amunition they need to get give their home a fighting chance of selling.

Happy selling!