Category Archives: real estate

Topics, resources, tips, tricks and advice for real estate agents, Realtors, brokers and small business owners in industries related to real estate.

Real Estate Service: An Oxymoron?

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Russell Springs Kentucky - Russell County KYNope, not always. (But it is much more often than it should be!)

I just spoke with Russell Springs broker and real estate agent Kim Byrom of Lake Cumberland Properties who is the first real estate agent that actually tried to help me find a new office space. She is NOT the first one I contacted. In the future, she will be.

Kim asked qualifying questions, got my name and number and said she would give me a call back. I believe her. I told her how much I appreciated her help and that she was the first real estate agent of the five I’d contacted that was interested in helping me. She said that most of the office space rentals were not listings so she helped people as a public service. She went on to say that it strengthened the community… etc, etc.. and I found myself in awe. She said all the right things. She’s service-centric! I love it.

Yes, I work with Real Estate agents all day, every day. Yes, my own clients are overboard on the customer service. That’s one of the reasons I work with them instead of working with other agents and brokers in their zip code.

But locally, it’s always been hit and miss with real estate service and it was really nice to talk to Kim after what I’d endured on this one inquiry already today. It was refreshing and I told her so.

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Making Connections: 3 Golden Rules of Social Media

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Social mediaWith the constant droning buzz about social media and Internet communities, it can be pretty overwhelming to determine where you should spend your limited time and even more limited energy.

If you are considering joining some now, you should:

Select only a few - it’s better to do a few things really well than to “sort of” do many things. Choose carefully based on your interests, the others involved whether or not the layout/setup makes it easy for you.

Participate – social media doesn’t work if you don’t work it. Signing up and staying quiet is like going to a dance and propping up a wall all night. It’s no fun and it doesn’t help you become more visible to your potentials.

Advertise – if you are a member of a social network and you don’t tell anyone — how will you be found? Many of the people you already know (or those who know you) may be interested in becoming involved with you on a social network — if they know which ones you use… Continue reading →

Having Problems? Blame a Realtor!

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Hard Hat to protect yourself from othersI have a client, a Realtor, with a particularly hairy situation. This genuinely nice individual has managed to become entrenched in the mire with a unethical builder. Normally, I’d find this situation incredible — but I’ve watched it develop and it has made me wary of such situations for my other clients.

I know that times are hard for many in the industry right now. I know that people are running scared as the houses sit and the inventory increases. Builders are hard hit, real estate professionals are starting to struggle, even the general public is starting to worry and sweat what Forbes Magazine is calling a Recession Dead Ahead. But, as I read over the letter that this particular builder is now posting all over the Internet, blaming the Realtor and the broker for all the problems he and his family are experiencing, I just have to shake my head. Continue reading →

WordPress and Real Estate: What IS a Widget and Why Should You Care?

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WordPress is extremely user-friendly. If you have ever hand-coded or altered or edited any HTML, it’s a snap. If you haven’t — you really need the easy-to-use interface… like WP. And widgets improve the ease of use factor.

What’s a Widget?

Widgets are tiny programs, usually with specific functions that people add to their desktops or (in the case of WordPress) their websites.

What Do They Do That’s So Cool?

Widgets allow individuals to customize the look, feel and function of the chosen platform quickly, easily and (usually) without the need to touch a single line of code. Read this article about the general concept of widgets and how Coldwell Banker has a desktop version to show new listings in a tidy little package.

Do People Really Use These Things?

Comscore, a digital data tracking service, recently launched “Widget Matrix” to track widget saturation across the Internet. According to the report on widget popularity, the top ten most popular of these little snippet sized programs reached an audience of over 177 thousand unique visitors and in North America alone over 40% of all Internet users visited a website with a widget. The most popular type of widget? Photo-related (think randomized shots of your current listings with “click to view full description” capability).

How do I use them?

Widgets allow you “drag and drop” functionality in many cool features for your new WordPress site — and you can select those and install, activate and customize them yourself. It will give you the ability to be creative and to add new “stuff” without calling a webmaster.

It also gives you the ability to turn off, activate and move around your site’s content to your satisfaction. Once you get it the way you want it, a single click on the “save” button in the widget dashboard and it goes live!

How Do I Use Widgets on My WordPress Install?

First, select a pre-widgetized theme. If the theme you love doesn’t offer widget capability built-in, you can get it widgetized by a code-jockey or you can widgetize it yourself (which is what I did for mine).

Widget-Ready WordPress Themes

Download the WP Widget Ready Theme Pack (15 megs) of over 100 themes.

How to Use Widgets – a step by step guide for beginners

Widgetizing Your Own - http://automattic.com/code/widgets/themes/

Making your own Widgets

Finding Cool Widgets

http://www.widgetbox.com/

http://widgets.wordpress.com/

http://www.widgipedia.com/ - Widget supersite (but not for WP specifically)

Turning Plugins into Widgets – Here’s how!

Real Estate Widgets:

http://www.thegoodblogs.com/wordpress_widget – the good blogs widget

http://www.ozpolitics.info/blog/wordpress-plugins/#links – I like quite a few of these widgets — like the aggregate RSS feed widget (I need this for my own blogs).

Category Replacement Widget

Cluster Map Widget