Hawaii Real Estate Market Update: Old Fashion, Top Notch Realtor Service

I was speaking with Kelly Barnes—a HomeGain agent and Realtor who uses BuyerLink—over the weekend about the market in Hawaii and he graciously agreed to send me an update, which I’d like to share.

Hawaii Real Estate Market Update

Every year a large number of military families relocate to Hawaii. In addition a good number of people relocate in Hawaii just to live in paradise. The good news is the value of Hawaii’s residential properties are still holding strong, unlike many areas on the mainland which have seen dramatic decreases in recent times.

On Oahu, although the actual “number” of residential real estate sales has slowed down, overall prices have been staying fairly steady. For instance, the difference in values of single family homes between this time last year and now is only a decline of 4.4%. Sales of 740 single-family homes and 1,121 condominiums were recorded in the April-to-June period this year.

Compared to the same time period last year, the 2008 sales figures showed a decline of 28.6% for single-family dwellings and a 30.7% decrease for condos. When these second quarter sales numbers were compared to the first quarter, we saw increases of 10.0% and 8.1%, respectively, according to the Honolulu Board of Realtors. read more

Posted by Louis Cammarosano on Jul 07, 2008 under Regional

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The Arcane Science of Lead Conversion (Really has Nothing to do with Real Estate)

The problem with online marketing for real estate professionals is the reality that learning online marketing has little to do with real estate practice. Remarkablogger confirms one of real estate’s online marketing principal missions – lead generation and conversion.

If visitors don’t take actions that result in profits, you are wasting your time.

You can do all the SEO work you like, but if nothing happens when visitors show up, you did it for nothing. You can pay tons of money in advertising, and you have thrown away every penny if nobody buys anything or signs up for your newsletter. You can write comments on other blogs and work through social media to attract visitors, but if those visitors just bounce right back out of your site without doing what you want, you’re leaving money on the table.

Mastering the tricks and vagaries of effective online lead generation are beyond the scope of 99% of real estate professionals. The industry knows this, and online real estate applications have historically aimed to simplify or automate online marketing presence for agents: read more

Posted by Pat Kitano on Jul 04, 2008 under Leads, Guest Bloggers

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The Key to the Kingdom is Not the Keyword: Why You Must Market Offline

The Gospel According to NAR

I had read the Gospel according to NAR (National Association of Realtors)—77% of buyers use the internet to search for homes.

The NARstat is sacred dogma, incessantly chanted by mainstream media and the bloggerati. It provides the philosophical foundation for the agent congregation putting their listings on all manner of real estate websites, especially Realtor.com, the largest real estate church on the net.

The NARstat requires agents do penance and upgrade to the revered “featured listing” pews. To question the holy NARstat would be a blasphemy akin to questioning the earth’s roundness (actually, the earth is an oblate spheroid, but I digress.)

The NARstat also justifies, to a large extent, the agent’s participation and marketing in the new Web 2.0 world where the Google keyword prayer box promises to bring roaming client pilgrims to the agent’s blog or their Truzilfacespace profile—leading to blessed business and salvation for all. But, are we worshiping a false god at the Tower of Google?

The Internet Reformation

Last summer, I took a little RV cross-country trip with Rudy, my partner at the time. We set out to spread the Word of Web 2.0 to the masses, who we suspected were unbelieving techno-pagans. Our odyssey took us to over 30 cities—places like Boston, Philly, D.C., NYC, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami, Tampa, St. Pete, Chicago, St. Paul, Denver, Phoenix, San Diego, Sacramento, Reno, Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake City, Boise, San Francisco —- and all the Waffle Houses in between.

We interviewed real folks young and old, owners and renters—to discover how and where they looked for the places they call home. After 5 weeks on the road and 10,000 miles logged on this beautiful country’s highways and byways, it was I who began to question my internet marketing faith. read more

Posted by Joseph G. Ferrara, Esq. on May 28, 2008 under Realtor, Best Practices, Guest Bloggers

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Will agents show your listings? A glimpse into NE Ohio's Competitive MLS

I’ll tell you why our MLS is competitive in one word: VOLUME.

Yesterday I checked the community of Euclid Ohio. There were 683 homes on the market. Rocky River has 240 homes for sale. Lakewood has 376; Cleveland Heights has 666. You get the point. There are a lot of available homes in NE Ohio.

If you are selling your home you will be asking the same question your Realtor® is asking—what can I do to make my listing stand out, and not be the house in the back of the room waving it’s chimney saying ‘pick me, pick me!’

I decided to use myself as an example. I have quite a few buyers at the moment and spend time culling the listings to set up showings.

Here is what I automatically eliminate:

1. Homes with no photos
2. Homes with no room sizes and amenities listed
3. Descriptions

Since almost all of my clients and close to what, 90% of all prospective home buyers are read more

Posted by Carole Cohen on May 05, 2008 under MLS, Guest Bloggers, Regional

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