Week in Review: Things We Liked from the Week That Was

Posted on 05. Feb, 2010 by Sherry Chris.

We had a mixed bag of news this week. Do you want the good news or bad news first? A storm cloud hung over the many homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages who are paying as much as 25 percent more than homeowners with similar loans. Additionally, new research suggests that a large group of distressed homeowners [...]

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Are You Running With or Against the Wind?

Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by Jeff Lefkowitz.

Whether you’re running a multi-office brokerage, or you’re running your own niche role, one thing is for certain: in the Real Estate business you will always be “running” -running to make sure your operations are covered, running to keep your clients happy, running to improve profitability.  It’s hard to break that pattern.  There is so [...]

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Week in Review: Things We Liked from the Week That Was

Posted on 29. Jan, 2010 by Sherry Chris.

Although President Obama said in his State of the Union Address that the worst is over, we know—at least for the housing market—that we still have a steep hill ahead of us to climb. That’s because everyone loves a good deal, and shoppers in the housing market are no exception. People looking to buy are [...]

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What’s on the Radio?

Posted on 17. Nov, 2009 by Sherry Chris.

What’s on the radio when you’re driving around a client? This was a trick question for the people we interviewed. Most felt that this was a prime opportunity to do some listening and gain insight on the buyer to build a rapport. “If you can’t be a good listener, you can’t be a good talker,” [...]

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Selling Through the Cycle

Posted on 23. Oct, 2009 by Robert Albanese.

From years of observation, it is clear that phases in the real estate market can be tracked by changes in inventory levels, home prices and number of homes sold (sides) year-over-year. The ‘initial phase’ of a real estate recovery is indicated when three essential trends emerge.

Inventory levels begin to fall, implying an initial increase in [...]

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What’s the Time? Time to Get Real

Posted on 18. Sep, 2009 by Camilla Sullivan.

Taking your eyes off the market (trends, drivers, needs) is a great way for a company to lose a position of leadership, alienate customers and become irrelevant. When the environment you are operating in changes, you need to change in order to survive in the new conditions.  Just ask any real estate professional and they [...]

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The Executive Suites Model: Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Executive – Seattle, Washington

Posted on 01. Sep, 2009 by Robert Albanese.

(From a phone interview with Keith Nelson, CEO)
As early on as 1991 with only 25 agents, Keith Nelson, CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Executive in Seattle Washington was already experimenting with alternate business models. Over time, his concept of “executive suite” type locations has emerged as a strong operational alternative. The basic [...]

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Friday Blog Scan: Things We Liked from the Week That Was

Posted on 14. Aug, 2009 by Jason Steele.

Augmented Reality is a type of virtual reality that aims to duplicate the world’s environment within a computer by combining real scenes viewed by the user and a virtual scene generated by the computer and augmenting it with additional information. The virtual scene generated enhances the user’s sensory perception of the virtual world they are [...]

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Why is Change So Difficult & What to Do About It

Posted on 02. Apr, 2009 by Robert Albanese.

Through all of the turbulence of the past three years, it is interesting to look back on it all and ask, why is change so difficult for most of us to negotiate? More changes are likely to occur as we move toward the real estate industry of the future, so it would be helpful to deal with the concept of change-resistance and to better understand the reasons behind our change-averse culture.

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The Future is Bright For Some, But Not All Will Get It….

Posted on 25. Mar, 2009 by Sherry Chris.

As I sat on the main stage Friday at REtechSouth in Atlanta, one of the shows organizers, Brad Nix, asked me what I thought about some of the statistics in NAR’s 2008 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers Survey. What he was referring to specifically was the fact that 85% of the consumers surveyed said they would definitely or probably use the same real estate agent they transacted with again. On the surface one might think that is a good number, but when you pair it with the fact that only 26% of sellers and only 18% of buyers actually do, it is frightening. Could there be a bigger disconnect? And why?

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What I Would Do with the Housing Stimulus Package

Posted on 23. Feb, 2009 by Wendy Forsythe.

Time will tell if the newly passed economic stimulus package and the components related to the real estate industry will have a positive impact on the housing market in the county. I believe that the behaviors of Realtors all across the U.S. will have an impact on the ultimate outcome of this government initiative.
If I were [...]

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