The Business of Real Estate

The gloves are now officially off* in the residential real estate biz.  This should come as no surprise.  However, it appears many in the business seem to have been caught off guard.  While the industry watched other industries evolve via the features and benefits offered by the Internet, reside...

In our market the answer is yes.  Not so much in the traditional home sale sector, but anything that has potential (i.e. renovation, redevelopment) is prime for a direct sale. Builders seem to have recapitalized, investors are making themselves known, and individual buyers are back to writing le...

After reading a nice blog roll on Activerain about "pocket listings", it appeared to be loud and clear that without the MLS and its primary function (exposure), the traditional brokerage model would be in big trouble.That seems logical, the MLS is the heart and soul of the industry, it's the way ...

What functioning “alternative marketplaces” will look like in the traditional residential real estate arena, who can create them, what’s necessary, and why they will change the game - forever. Alternative marketplaces or “dark pools”* enhanced Wall Street’s model for transacting securities some y...

Even when the market was bad, our phones would be ringing pretty consistently from sellers at this time of year.  For us, right now, it is quiet....too quiet.We've sold everything that should be sold (priced right in the right location), have buyers lined up ready to pounce, but where are the sel...

A broker friend told me this morning that her biggest take-away from the Prudential RE Convention earlier this week in Vegas was simply; get to work....the "old school" way.  I had actually been thinking the same.Has "innovation(s)" in the real estate business "jumped the shark"?  An agent wrote ...

Like them, hate them, buying 'em, selling 'em, or just watching the movement, it appears that many communities are once again replacing their older, mostly obsolete housing stock with new construction and "like-new" renovations.We're not talking new developments out in green space here, this is t...

I'm beginning to question whether anything has really been improved upon in terms of marketing a local real estate business.Ten years ago the marketing strategy for our (local) brokerage consisted of:1.    Direct mail2.    A display ad in the local paper (we have a good one that most residents ac...

For over 12 years we have done business using a strong, one-word descriptive brand that gets our phone to ring and creates a call-to-action for agents, buyers and sellers interested in using our consumer-centric products and services. Well, in an effort to broaden the scope of the business and of...

Can a simple brand name alone be all it takes to drive and sustain a real estate business?I think it's fair to say that when a consumer drives by a yard sign it's not very likely the prospective client will make a beeline to the local brokerage's office or call the front desk and ask about the fe...