My first real effort at blogging occurred almost two years ago on ActiveRain—and I was immediately hooked.

I loved the real estate blogging community with its running stream of commentary, sense of humor and predictable disagreements. We were all gifted with the opportunity to openly develop our voices and emerging blogging skills—and shared immense chunks and tidbits of knowledge.

We also discovered pretty quickly that Google and other search engines were following us closely—and sometimes loosely.

We learned about the power of the long tail, or how obscure information in the content of blogs and websites gets stored on the search engines—with some potentially interesting results. Let’s say someone searches the term “rimless shower doors” on Google.

In late 2006, there were Page One results for a listing (with rimless shower doors) we had described on our website in 2004. Today, a blog article I wrote in May 2007, Drag a Long Tail and See What You Catch (describing the rimless shower door finding), now sits on Google Page One results for that term.

I never intended to become a rimless shower door expert, but Google doesn’t know that. Nor, I doubt, did HomeGain blogger and Phoenix Realtor Jay Thompson ever intend for Continue reading this post

1. Read Before You Write

What I always advise real estate professionals interested in getting started blogging is to go out and read other real estate blogs. You’ll have no trouble finding them. Just Google “real estate blogs” or type in your market followed by “blog”.

Reading other blogs will give you a sense of the topics discussed, the presentation, and the various writing styles of bloggers. The more you read the more you will know what folks are saying, and how they’re saying it. Some bloggers write short posts, others expound into treatise length. Many use images and video, some do not. Some are heavy on facts and figures, others heavy on opinion and their experiences. When done right (and I use that word loosely), the blogger’s voice -— their personality -— comes through the writing.

And that’s what you should strive to do -— find your voice and get it out there.

Besides, reading blogs gives you the visceral feedback of what you like and what you think sucks. (Avoid the stuff you think sucks.) Continue reading this post

One of the most difficult aspects in today’s market is getting consumers to understand the difference between national, local and hyper-local real estate trends which could vary dramatically depending on your location.

More importantly, a client’s perspective in the market will in large part determine their expectations for a transaction. Many home buyers today feel that the water has run completely red with blood and many buyers believe that they can steal a home with this new found leverage. Many are excited about the possibilities and have heard the news reports about buying homes for 60 cents on the dollar.

If you don’t convey to your clients up front that this is not likely to be the case, you will have problems getting buyers and sellers to agree on a price at which the home could be purchased.

Understanding your hyper-local market, even within your city and being able to convey how that translates into accurate expectations for a client has never been more important than it is today.

Being an expert in your market is paramount to building trust and in turn clients and it’s your responsibility to understand and be able to convey the difference to help educate them.

Knowing what is happening on a hyper-local level, will help you be the local expert, build their confidence in you and help you close sales. Continue reading this post

No recommendation until tomorrow. All eyes are on the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee today. At 2:15PM (EDT), 11:15 (PDT), they will release their interest rate decision and statement. The fixed income securities market believe there is a 43% chance that the Fed will RAISE rates to stifle inflation in August and that there is a 61% chance that the hike will come in November.

The eyes will be on the Fed’s commentary, though:

”We expect the Fed to keep the funds rate at 2% today but to shift to a more hawkish statement by placing more emphasis on inflation over growth risks,” strategists at Credit Suisse wrote in a research report. “The Fed will likely use this meeting as an opportunity to set the stage for a potential rate rise in August.”

If the Fed signals that rates could rise as early as August, expect mortgage rates to jump .25% higher, from today’s 6.375% 30 year fixed rate, over the next few weeks. If the Fed signals rate hikes are “possible” as a way to fight inflation, expect rates to stay Continue reading this post

This month’s Agent Success Newsletter features Alisha Wade, Associate Broker at RE/MAX Achievers in Arizona. In our exclusive interview with Alisha, hosted by Peter McCullough, she discusses how foreclosures are affecting her business and gives advice to other agents who may be facing challenges in a market full of foreclosures.

Listen to Alisha’s feature story:

“Arizona is in top 5 cities for foreclosures in the country – 20% or higher of all inventory are foreclosures. It may be awhile before the market turns around, which makes it really important for an agent to know how to do foreclosures and short sales, and not be afraid to learn how to do them.”

“Short sales are priced $10-15k below cost (and more for foreclosures ) but the danger is when the house won’t appraise, even for a home that was in great condition. It’s great for the home buyer if that happens, but not the seller.”

7 Tips from Alisha Wade:

1. Learn bank processes. Foreclosures are actually very easy to do as long as you know the banks processes. Sometimes the addendum can be 14 pages long – and you really have to read them thoroughly!
2. If you are writing a contract Continue reading this post

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