Carnival of Real Estate: 158th Edition
Hello everyone! We are happy to be hosting the 158th Carnival of Real Estate; we received many great entries, six of which we have decided to share with the CORE readership. Although our site is only for apartments and homes for rent, our business is intimately linked with the for-sale market and we keep our eyes on and share many of the same issues and concerns.
This week's submissions were all very interesting, but we were able to narrow down our list of favorites to six; remember, posts should be somewhat current, we did receive a few from 2008 and 2007, which, however informative, will not be showcased here.
And now, for the winner:
Karen Goodman of Arch City Homes suggests a new approach to holding an open house: invite the neighbors! This may be counterintuitive, as neighbors are obviously not moving next door, but it does bring the real estate agent in close connection to that neighborhood in their city or territory, it brings about the possibility that the neighbors will have acquaintances looking and mention the listing to them, and if and when interested buyers do show up, they'll see a crowded house filled with what appear to be interested parties.
Karen's approach to inviting neighbors, “Choose Your New Neighbor," is outlined in the video above and we think it will be very successful. I know that on a Saturday afternoon many neighborhood people would be more interested than they'd like to admit in checking out the neighbor's house.
And here are the rest of the submissions in particular order:
The Real Estate Tomato gives great advice on the very first step that real estate agents need to take to get started reaching out to their online audiences, going to godaddy.com and buying a URL.
The Bigger Pockets blog (next week's host!) outlines a comprehensive list of costs that homeowners should be aware of before you try to flip that house.
Mortgage planner Dan Green at The Mortgage Reports blog shares how he quickly ballparks four different types of mortgage calculations, monthly mortgage payments on principal and interest, interest only, and how to calculate the amount of principal you pay for a given month or year.
Bob Schwartz at the Broker for You blog identifies an oft overlooked “rip-off" tactic occurring in the California short-sale market, where independent escrow companies, whose fees are not regulated, are trying to get a bigger piece of the pie.
And finally, The Housing Chronicles asks that age old question, is real estate a good hedge against inflation?
Of course, right before we sign off, we'd like to plug our CEO's latest whitepaper, Cost Effective Resident Acquisition, which helps real estate professionals develop a sound understanding of how to best leverage online advertising expenditures.
Thanks for reading to the bottom! Be sure to submit your posts for next week's Carnival of Real Estate, which will be hosted by the good folks over at Real Estate Investing for Real. Please leave us comments if you have questions or comments or contact MyNewPlace on twitter for a more interactive discussion!
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5 Responses to “Carnival of Real Estate: 158th Edition"
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September 14th, 2009 at 10:52 am
I'm thrilled that you liked my approach to drumming up traffic for an open house.
It seems to have worked. I had constant traffic through this open house, and even stayed an extra half hour because people just kept coming. I had several interested buyers. Some of them even were able to talk to a neighbor and have some of their concerns about the community eliminated. One of these buyers is coming back for a showing with her agent today, and she told her agent that there seemed to be a lot of interest in the property. Hopefully I'll have a contract on this property before the week is out.
I'll definitely be using this technique again!
September 14th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Hey Karen,
Thanks for sharing that additional information. That the neighbors could act as neighborhood evangelists is a great point and a wonderful benefit.
Just as in online marketing, consumers view fellow consumers (neighbors) as crucial resources when making their decision. It's great that you've found a way to get the exact people who potential buyers want to hear from to help you sell!
September 15th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
That is a great tip Karen, we have used it in the past as well to get more bodies into the home and to create that extra excitement about a property. Also as you mentioned most of them are quite curious about their neighbors home anyway and are looking for an excuse to come in.
Bill
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Every little helps and the locals can pass the message on through word of mouth and best of all its free. If you live in an area that you love then your message relayed onto another person will be one that is genuine and very well educated, this kind of word of mouth can sell a property much faster than the internet or print ads. Yes the chances of this form of marketing turning into a sale maybe 50/50 but that's really good odds!
Word of mouth rules and it sells…… every time and with most applications.
September 29th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Every little bit does help. Our neighbor basically sold us our current home by being so friendly. Liking her certainly helped us make up our mind to buy the place.