Visit the website of just about any builder or new home community and you will see a list of the environmentally friendly attributes of the homes. Going green, making sustainable choices, reducing our carbon footprint and environmental impact – these aren’t just buzz words – they are extremely important to today’s consumers, to our communities, and our planet. Don’t let the new home builders get all the credit for their eco-friendly policies. It doesn’t matter how many ENERGY STAR® appliances they put in a home, it will almost always be better for the environment to buy an existing home than to build a new one.

Environmentally friendly features are likely to save home owners money as well, as they are often related to energy savings. The financial benefit is especially great when the green elements are already in the home – there are no up front costs such as replacing existing appliances or light bulbs, or installing new systems such as solar panels.

Appeal to conscious home shoppers by highlighting the green aspects of your listings. Be on the lookout for items such as these that may be already present or easily and inexpensively added:

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Social Media has become one of the most effective tools in a real estate agent’s repertoire in engaging their target audience. And now, according to search engine guru, Danny Sullivan, data shared through Twitter and Facebook has a direct effect on a search engine results page placement (SERP). Although it had long been suspected in the SEO community, this announcement further confirms the weight being placed on social media interaction.

Long held to be of utmost importance in search engine algorithms, Google’s PageRank has been a benchmark of trust by which a website/domain can be easily measured. How does this translate into Social Media? ‘SocialRank’ (Danny’s term, not confirmed lingo used by the SE’s) could very well be the next level of social measurement, which takes an individual and calculates THEIR level of authority on various networks (independent of the PageRank of the page to which he/she is associated). Factors taken into account in calculating ‘SocialRank’ could include number followed/followers, number of friends, number of ‘Likes’, etc.

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We are pleased to announce the Top Performing AgentEvaluator Real Estate Agents of 2010.

HomeGain real estate agents and brokers continued to have a productive and successful year, despite the bleek outlook on the direction of home prices nationwide. We are proud to recognize these agents for their high level of accomplishment in association with HomeGain’s AgentEvaluator marketing program.

In addition to highlighting the 2010 Top Performers Nationwide, by Region and State, HomeGain recognizes agents who had impressive results and are deserving of honorable mentions.
HomeGain is proud to quantify the successes of our AgentEvaluator agents in 2010 and we look forward to continued success for all of our member agents in 2011.

Here are some 2010 AgentEvaluator highlights:

• HomeGain recognizes 46 of its member real estate agents who have received Top Performer awards based on nationwide, regional and state achievements.
• Overall, in 2010 HomeGain’s top five Realtors earned an average of $103,122 in gross closed commissions from their HomeGain AgentEvaluator business and an average of 13 closed home sales (transactions).
• We now have a  total of 975 member agents in the AgentEvaluator Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond and Million Dollar Clubs based on the following criteria:

- 2 agents are Million Dollar Club honorees, having earned over one million dollars in gross lifetime commissions from HomeGain business
- 26 agents are Diamond Club honorees, having earned over $500,000 in commissions
- 377 agents are Platinum Club honorees, having earned over $125,000 in commissions
- 304 agents are Gold Club honorees, having earned over $75,000 in commissions
- 266 agents are Silver Club honorees, having earned over $50,000 in  commissions

And the 2010 Top Performers for AgentEvaluator are…

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Eighty-four percent of Nevada real estate professionals expect home prices to decline over the next six months

Last month, HomeGain, one of the first companies to provide free instant home valuations online,  released the fourth quarter results of our nationwide home values survey of over 1000 HomeGain current and former members and 2300 home owners.  The HomeGain survey asked their opinions on home prices and what they thought of President Obama’s performance. On this blog we published the 4th quarter 2010 national results as well as the complete 4th quarter  2010 regional results, including commentary from real estate agents and brokers and homeowners.

Today we are releasing the Nevada home prices survey results.

Set forth below is the fourth quarter 2010 real estate professional and homeowner Nevada home prices survey data along with the 4th quarter 2009 and 2010 real estate professional survey data along with the 4th quarter 2010 national home prices survey data.  Click on each question to see complete results:

1. Have home prices increased, decreased or stayed the same in the last year?
2. On average, what do homeowners believe that their home is worth?
3. How do buyers feel that homes for sale are priced?
4. What is the average difference in price between what sellers believe their home to be worth and the amount at which the home gets listed?
5. What is the average difference in price between what a home is listed at and what a home sells for?
6. In the next six months, will the values of homes in your market increase, decrease or stay the same?
7. What percentage of homes for sale are foreclosures in your area?
8. What is the average home price in your area?
9. What percentage of your clients are first-time buyers?
10. How do you think Barack Obama is performing in his role as President?

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HomeGain member Andrea Dugan of RE/MAX Premier in Virginia was recently a guest of Ryan Sloper on the Real Estate Radio Show on 1580 AM The Big Talker. Andrea, an AgentEvaluator® Diamond Club member, follows up Louis Cammarosano‘s appearance on The Real Estate Radio Show and discusses a variety of topics with Ryan, including finance and credit tips, interest rates and more.

Listen in as Andrea shares her valuable insight! (52:51)

HomeGain.com announced today that it has released the results of its nationwide home improvement and home staging  Home Sale Maximizer™ survey. Past findings from the survey have been a guide for thousands of home sellers in preparing their homes for sale.

HomeGain recently surveyed nearly 600 real estate agents nationwide to determine the top 10 low cost*, do-it-yourself  home improvements for people getting their home ready to sell.

The top five nationwide home improvements that Realtors recommend to home sellers, based on average cost and return on investment (ROI) to sellers, are:

1. Cleaning and de-cluttering ($290 cost / $1,990 price increase / 586% ROI / 99% recommended)
2. Lightening and brightening ($375 cost / $1,550 price increase / 313% ROI / 97% recommended)
3. Home staging ($550 cost / $2,194 price increase / 299% ROI / 80% recommended)
4. Landscaping ($540 cost / $1,932 price increase / 258% ROI / 93% recommended)
5. Repair Electrical or Plumbing ($535 cost / $1,505 price increase / 181% ROI / 92% recommended)

Costs are averages and rounded up.

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