An interview with George F. Babbitt

I had the opportunity recently to conduct a phone interview with George F. Babbitt of Babbitt-Thompson Realty Co. to find out how the Zenith real estate market is doing. We were interrupted quite a few times as George tended to his incoming messages and alerts. I’ve published our interview in its entirety.

HomeGain: Hi George. How are things going?
George Babbitt:Could you hold a minute?
HG: Sure.
GB:I am in the middle of a Twitter, a useful tool by gosh, by jingo.
HG: I’ve heard.
GB: You bet, the sooner people realize that they aren’t going to be coddled, the sooner they’ll get on social networks and start producing. You have to tend to your business ALL THE TIME.
HG: I see. So how is the market in Zenith?
GB: I am working on a blog post on the topic.
HG: What will it say?
GB: Don’t know yet, but it will be on allZenithhomes.com, myzenithblog.com, Facebook, MySpace, friendfinder, ActiveRain, del.icio.us,stumble upon, Digg and the RSS feeds will be burning, old boy.
HG: Ok, you seem to be up on the latest social networking trends, tell me a bit about your social network?
GB: There’s some fine fellows in it. Its neither social nor a network but, by gee, you gotta be in it. It’s more like a water cooler.
HG: What’s that?
GB: That’s my other iPhone. Text message coming in. Like the sound?
HG: Yes, that’s a good one. So how is your brokerage holding up? Continue reading this post

As a Realtor in Orange County I am seeing a lot of change in buyer behavior. I am working with more home buyers than ever. The problem is getting them a home.

No, that is not a typo.

I have been putting in offers almost weekly and only getting 10 percent or less accepted. The reason being is that REO agents are getting creative with the way they present their offers to the bank. If your client really wants the home they should come in with a strong offer, either at full price or very close to it.

The REO agents are listing at low prices to get multiple offers. The banks are taking the highest offers most times without countering back. That leaves a lot of home buyers in the Irvine market with a bad taste in their mouths and questioning you as a real estate agent.

If your buyer is qualified to buy a home for $400,000 for instance don’t look at homes over that amount. You are better off looking at homes in the $350,000 range so you have a little room to barter with. This housing market seems to change on a weekly basis.

There are deals out there, deals galore and there are lots of buyers to buy homes in the Irvine area. Most of the buyers are in the lower price range and qualifying through FHA and taking advantage of Continue reading this post

Here is what we’re finding in Baltimore, Maryland…

Homes that are priced right and show well sell quickly and for almost full price. We are still seeing a lot of seller concessions, and FHA financing. FHA mortgage limits range from $560,000 in the Baltimore region which includes Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Baltimore City, Howard, Harford and Carroll counties to $729,250 in Montgomery, Frederick, Calvert, Charles and Prince Georges counties.

The Baltimore market is holding steady with new jobs being created for BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure). Maryland is expected to gain more than 45,000 federal and private sector jobs.

We are still seeing some short sales and foreclosures but overall the Baltimore market is still pretty good.

Eric Pakulla is a Realtor with The Eric Pakulla Team, RE/MAX Advantage Realty in Baltimore, Maryland.

Click to learn more about Baltimore real estate and Baltimore home prices. Continue reading this post

One of the things that I find fascinating in the real estate business are referral fees. I hear REALTORS upset about them and always trying to lower them. I know, with the financial pressures of today’s market, this may sound weird, but I LIKE THEM.

Before you throw something at the screen, let me explain.

In today’s buyer’s market, EVERY buyer side that you have is a result of someone or something. It is the result of a marketing channel that you have invested in. Maybe it is your internet presence. Maybe it is HomeGain. Maybe it was the time you spent on a press release that attracted a buyer or investor. Maybe it was a radio ad.

Whatever it was, you invested in it in one way or the other. I find it amusing that REALTORS often do not pay THEMSELVES a REFERRAL FEE and use it to build up their market presence.

Even if you invested time instead of money into your lead that turned into a buyer, the only way to get more time is to eventually use some of that money to buy back the time either in that market channel or in another one that you deem will generate more ROI.

How do I know this works? Our brokerage did it.

Continue reading this post

The real estate and job markets throughout America the last few years have taken a beating for the most part. There are very few areas of the country that sustained their real estate values and maintained a strong job market.

Many areas such as in California and Michigan, values in some cases have dropped 30% to 50% or more. People are losing their jobs as businesses scramble to downsize to survive this recession.

One market that is not in as deep of waters is San Antonio, Texas. Not nearly as known as their big brothers Dallas and Houston, this city has recently gotten a lot of media coverage for its job growth, low cost of living and real estate market. People have noticed and are coming in big numbers. Look around this city and you will see development and construction going on everywhere and “Help Wanted” signs on many businesses.

What a difference from what I have seen and read about in most other areas of the country.

Here are some of the highlights of San Antonio: Continue reading this post

We’ve been fortunate to have such a great group of Guest Bloggers that we have not added any recently.

That is about to change.

I am delighted to announce that Eric Blackwell shall be contributing to the HomeGain Blog.

Eric Blackwell is Director of Technology for RE/MAX Properties East a real estate brokerage of 120 agents in Louisville, Kentucky. He helps REALTORS reach and assist their clients using Technology and he is the Webmaster of www.HomesinLouisville.com. He is passionate about helping REALTORS succeed in their online marketing efforts and leading by example.

Eric also consults on Search Engine Marketing issues and does Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for select clients from his primary blog, www.EricOnSearch.com. He currently writes for several real estate blogs including the Bloodhound Blog, RealEstateIndustryWatch.com, as well as a columnist for RE/MAX Times Online (an internal blog for RE/MAX Intl.).

Eric lives in Southern Indiana with his wife, Jen, and their four children.

Stay tuned for Eric’s first post on the topic of referral fees! Continue reading this post