Attention: Agents, Brokers, Builders, Lenders… We have some work to do!

Posted on 08. Dec, 2008 by Sherry Chris.

When I saw the headline in the Saturday New York Times entitled “It May Be Time to Think About Buying a House”, I thought to myself…  “Good, a positive article about the housing market.” A few of those, coupled with the rumored drop in the 30 year fixed to 4.5%,  might just be what we [...]

Continue Reading

Are Real Estate Mobile Search Apps a Good Idea?

Posted on 04. Dec, 2008 by Jason Steele.

I have never been a fan of technology for the sake of technology.  Although tech ideas can be very high on the cool scale they tend to usually be very low on the ROI or usefulness scale.  I am sort of perplexed by all of the hype surrounding real estate search on your mobile phone.  [...]

Continue Reading

We Don’t Recruit – We Attract

Posted on 03. Dec, 2008 by Wendy Forsythe.

A big thanks to RISMedia for featuring my thoughts on attracting and retaining talent. We receive dozens of inquiries weekly from people across the country considering a career change. If you are responsible for attracting talent to your office, you might be surprised to know that almost 70% of these inquiries are coming from seasoned [...]

Continue Reading

Tough Times, Tough Decisions

Posted on 02. Dec, 2008 by Sherry Chris.

Continue Reading

When it Comes to Content, Think Consumers First

Posted on 01. Dec, 2008 by Camilla Sullivan.

Sitting down to work on our website content strategy for 2009, our discussion quickly dove to the core questions at the heart of things: “What do home buyers and sellers want to know?” “What information is useful enough for them to spend their time on?” “How has the market changed most recently and how can [...]

Continue Reading

Giving Thanks…

Posted on 26. Nov, 2008 by Sherry Chris.

How does one really put into words a meaningful and heartfelt Thanksgiving message? Do you start by making a list of what we have to be thankful for? Or making a list of people you would like to thank? Both of those lists would be very long for me, and probably for you too.  As [...]

Continue Reading

Analyzing NAR’s Monthly Release

Posted on 25. Nov, 2008 by Nicolai Kolding.

Yesterday the National Association of REALTORS® issued its monthly release of existing home sales.  Rather than add to the many existing articles that understandably lean towards the consumers’ perspective, we believe there are trends and statistics that aren’t being highlighted that could help practitioners in our industry plan ahead.  You may find some of what [...]

Continue Reading

Vendor Review: Cogent Step Recruiting

Posted on 24. Nov, 2008 by Wendy Forsythe.

Part of my job includes evaluating and searching for new tools, services, ideas and partners for the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate network. I am contacted by or make contact with about 10 vendors each week. I’ll admit this can be exhausting, but also very interesting. Recently, I was contacted by Todd Shyiak who [...]

Continue Reading

Get Big or Get Boutique

Posted on 20. Nov, 2008 by Nicolai Kolding.

The days of the single-office, generalist, residential brokerage may soon be over.  Those who survive this down market will most likely have done so because they will have made the choice between getting bigger or becoming a specialist firm, a boutique. This is a common theme within any industry facing the kinds of historic challenges [...]

Continue Reading

Simple Steps to Building a Social Network

Posted on 18. Nov, 2008 by Sherry Chris.

Social networking becomes less complicated when you break it into simple steps. Last week, I presented this concept at NAR to a predominately broker owner audience. As promised, I am sharing an edited version of the presentation right here. Click here for a larger version of this slideshow. The four categories, as we see them [...]

Continue Reading

A Simple Approach to Effective Office Leadership

Posted on 18. Nov, 2008 by Robert Albanese.

It’s interesting how the simplest ideas are often the most effective. Production charts are very powerful tools in the real estate environment, yet somehow many leaders pass up the opportunity to use them. In the example below, I have chosen to measure specific areas, but you can measure virtually anything that you want to, from [...]

Continue Reading