Congratulations to Amanda MacLaughlin of RE/MAX Equity Group in Portland, Oregon for being the next $50 winner of the HomeGain Agent Appreciation contest!

A HomeGain member since 2007, Amanda has recently been inducted into the AgentEvaluator Silver Club for her real estate success with home buyers and sellers.

The 5 correct answers from the Spot the Difference HomeGain contest were:

1. The man on the right side is looking a different direction
2. The little girl on the right side of the photo has a pink coat versus blue coat
3. The blond lady is holding the gorilla in one photo but not the other
4. The emblem on the man’s hat in the front is different colors
5. There is a gorilla added into the middle of bottom photo

See the Week 2 Word Search Contest and Realtor Winner

See the Week 1 Trivia Contest and Realtor Winner

On Monday we will announce the final game!

We’ll announce the Grand Prize winner on Monday, November 2nd. Make sure you play each week to increase your chances of winning the Grand Prize!

Green is the New Black

The housing industry hasn’t developed a reliable way of breaking down green versus conventional homes sales figures. But its clearly a hot button issue and will even become more important, perhaps mandatory, as we begin to seriously deal with global warming.

What Others are Saying….

Developers
“Those builders are seeing that they’ll get more buyers coming to their developments when they have solar. They sell like hot cakes,” Bernadette del Chiaro, an energy specialist at the advocacy group Environment California, told the Los Angeles Times. The Times also quoted Julie Blumden, a vice president at San Jose-based solar tile maker SunPower Corp., as pointing out that the increase in sales velocity is actually paying for the solar systems.

MLS
At least one MLS listing service is updating its database to allow for property searches based on a range of green features.

National Association of Realtors®
According to a recent NAR survey, 90 percent of recent home buyers thought energy efficiency was a very important consideration when searching for a home, and the demand for green buildings and environmentally sensitive home features is growing.

HomeGain
Arbor National Mortgage & American Forests notes that 83% of Realtors believe that mature trees have a ’strong or moderate impact’ on the saleability of homes listed for under $150,000; on homes over $250,000, this perception increases to 98%. This survey is supported by observations from the USDA Forest Service: mature trees add an average of 10 percent to a property’s value. Continue reading this post

Congratulations to  Danielle Boling CRS, CNHS, AHS, ABR, HHS of Network Real Estate Partners in Texas for being the next $50 winner of the HomeGain Agent Appreciation contest!

Danielle is an AgentEvaluator Platinum Club Member and has been with HomeGain since 2007.

The 6 correct answers from the Word Search Contest were:

• AgentView
• Homegain
• Success
• Leads
• Thanks
• Realtor

Next week’s new contest starts on Monday! Are you good at comparing photos? Might be worth the $50!

Login to your HomeGain account on Monday and Tuesday (and make sure you have your pop up blocker off) to get the link to the Agent Appreciation page.

Or email us.

One of the questions that I get from REALTORS all of the time while consulting is something like this…

“Do I need to worry about ranking in Yahoo and MSN as well as Google?”

“How much attention should I pay to Yahoo and  MSN?”

While the questions vary slightly, the meaning is exactly the same. Each search engine is different. It is one thing to rank really well on one search engine. It is another thing entirely to rank on two (or more). In the past (before Bing and Yahoo announced that Bing would be powering Yahoo), the answer was splendidly easy. Just worry about Google. The rest do not matter. They simply do not have enough market share to matter.

But what about after Microsoft has spent over $100 million advertising Bing as the “decision engine”? What about once Yahoo is powered by Bing? Will they have enough market share to matter then?

A couple of insights are helpful. The first of them is to know how to get a monthly snapshot of the search engine market share. Continue reading this post

I was recently chatting with someone who has just started in the Real Estate business about our team and I was telling him that being part of a team is a huge advantage over being an individual Realtor.

Here are 10 reasons why I feel it is an advantage to be part of the Columbus Home Show Team.

1) Problem Solving. When one of our team members is having a problem, we collectively kick it around and almost always one of our team members comes up with a workable solution.   It is pretty much impossible to think of all the possible solutions by yourself no matter how smart you are or think you are.   Within our group there is a lot of experience and free thought which we encourage.

2) Cover. Our business comes in waves and there are a lot of times that I cannot be everywhere or a team member cannot be in more than one place at the time.   This is when we call on another team member to cover for the overwhelmed team member.   This has a huge impact as sometimes it is important to be at 2 places at the same time but physically impossible.   With a team it is possible!

3) Ideas. When we need new marketing ideas or efficiency ideas or whatever we need, we kick them around just like problem solving.  If we hit on a good idea, we then kick it around some more within the group to refine it. Continue reading this post

Part of being “green” means making some thoughtful decisions.  As an EcoBroker, I find that clients often say they want to be green because they have a romanticized view of what this entails, aptly named greenwashing.

The reality is that they are usually not sure what it really means.  In many cases, they find that going GREEN can mean giving up some of their high style options.  As their Realtor, my job is to help them find the satisfaction in choosing the long term benefits of going GREEN.

My basic rules of ecofriendly real estate include:

• Renovating an existing property is always greener than new construction (even if it is in a green community with an energy star rating).  Anytime new land is cleared, the environment and all the flora and fauna are decimated.
• Local materials should be selected whenever possible.  Transporting building materials can add up to a huge carbon footprint.
• Energy saving features should take priority in the budget.  Investing in a long term benefit of reduced energy consumption is good for the buyer and the planet.
• Water conservation should be part of the landscaping plan.  Drought tolerant lawns and plant materials are also easier to care for.  Native plants are always a good option.  Placing plants in the optimal conditions will also reduce the need for watering.
• Explore all tax credits, state and federal, to know the bottom line.  The Obama administration has implemented serious incentives for upgrading hvac, windows, and insulation and other energy saving products.
• Find a lender who can provide a “green” mortgage product.  Many of these loans will permit a higher amount to be borrowed provided it will go toward energy saving improvements.

Continue reading this post