Heath's Blog

We have HollywoodEast starting to develop its presence in the East Coast here in Southeastern MA by Cape Cod.  The new studio including sound stages and back lots for movie production have started working on their web site. 

The new portal is HollywoodEastTV.com and it seems to be like AR and Facebook and all the other sites springing up for social networking.  There are videos, and pictures, and blogs, and vlogs, and all the things that go with a social site.  However, this one is hosted and run by a movie studio: the Plymouth Rock Studio.

So if you want to get seen by movie producers, you might want to try an integrate another membership (I know - like we need another one) into your "free time".  LOL.

There isn't much information yet on the site about the actual studios, but I'll keep you posted.  Of course on the real estate side, there are voices saying actors are starting to look for real estate in Plymouth and on Cape Cod.  I think they should look in Falmouth where we have more waterfront property than any other town in the country.

Happy listing and selling!

I have attached 2 pictures of downtown Falmouth from noon today.  We did get some inches of snow.  Of course it will be leaving by wednesday when the 50 degrees comes back. 

It is hard to want it to stay as the pleasant white, clean carpet it is, but there are still people without power in New England.  Some may not get power back until after Christmas.

So in their stead, I hope for a Florida weather Christmas this year.  But today the snow is fun.  (And if you look to the left in thse pictures you can see my main street office!)

Well, the snow storm is still coming, so I went through the Falmouth Christmas Parade pics I took on Sunday and put them on a web page.  There are 105 because I tried to get one of every group that passed my Main Street real estate office.  The FalmouthChristmas Parade is the largest in Southern New England.  (And Falmouth MA has more waterfront that any other town in the country.)

I had only one daughter in it this year.  Hadlee plays clarinet in the Lawrence Middle School band.  She was waling with her friends and yucking it up.  It was a sunny clear day in the 40s.  We had good eats and cheered all the participants. 

Click the pic to see the other 104.

So how do you know when to shake hands and when are you supposed to hug?  I am more of an introvert, so I like shaking hands.  Occasionally I get into that awkward position where one person wants to shake hands and the other is a hugger.  Then there is that awkward switching to hugging from a hand shake, and then back to a hug, and then leaning in for the handshake in the end but only partly grabbing the hand properly...    Whew!  I am so glad when that's over.

I really get into trouble with my wife's family - they are kissers.  Now I know we all have "The Aunt".  The one that kisses you on the cheek, and you can see that coming so it isn't too bad.  But I always get caught going to the "wrong side" with my wife's family.  Nose bumps, lip grazes, starts and stops, mid kiss corrections - it can get messy.  So is there some rule that you kissers have that you can post here in your comment that people like me can rely on?!

The awkward handshake versus huggers must have some rule, too.  How can you tell a hugger from a hand-shaker?  I can see the pucker coming on the kissers, but huggers sometimes lean in similar to hand-shakers and I get fooled into the awkwardness of the mid hug correction. 

After all is said and done I usually laugh at the confusion after everyone is gone.  I like people.  I hope the ones that get a lip graze or a nose bump or handshake when they thought they'd get a hug laugh as much as I do.

Happy selling and listing!

Alabama real estate is appreciating!

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) produced a report in November that indicates Alabama real estate has been appreciating, even though most areas of the country are still experiencing a troubled real estate market.  Alabama was number 4 in the list of US states that are appreciating.  The report shows almost 3% appreciation which is a result of the local economic successes of the Mobile, Huntsville, and Decatur areas. 

In this area of the country, there are federal tax incentives for investment.  Known as the "Go Zone," investors that meet certain requirements get huge tax breaks for investing here.  Couple that with the state's pst efforts to attract new companies to the area and the result is local businesses are growing.  With over 1/2 of the states in this report showing decreases, the Alabama example is worth study.

The Florence real estate appreciates over 8% in the third quarter.  Mobile, Decatur and Huntsville all had more than 4% appreciation in the third quarter.  Tuscaloosa, Anniston, Oxford, Auburn, Opelika, Dothan, Muscle Shoals, Gadsden and the Birmingham area also appreciated.  While the "GO Zone" tax incentives were created after Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, Mobile and other Alabama cities already had economic plans in place to attract new jobs.  I made a few trips there myself to research opportunities and look at real estate. They had already attracted thousands of new manufacturing jobs before Katrina hit.  Now, those jobs are helping the area grow as they continue to rebuild.

Some of the towns in the rrpoet are: Mobile, Decatur, Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Hoover, Montgomery, Anniston, Oxford, Auburn, Opelika, Dothan, Florence, Muscle Shoals, and Gadsden.

There are some statistical issues with the report, as with all statistical reports.  For example, the fact that the information/data for the report only comes from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac might have more weight from problems than if the data included smaller regional institutions across the country.  Of course that data would be more tedious to collect.

This version of the report only covers the third quarter of 2008.  The next report, which may include a summary of the whole year, should be even more interesting.  The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) produced the report for the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO). 

Happy selling and listing!

So I spent some time playing with data today.  When I last used the OFHEO report to study the national real estatemarket, the title of the report was "Decline in House Prices Accelerates in First Quarter".  As I read through the report, I noticed that more than 1/2 of the United States was actually appreciating and not declining as the title stated.   It was one more example of reporting good news as bad. 

That caused me to look at the data in the current report more closely, too.  Unfortunately, this time the title is backed up by the data pretty well.  I did look at the data without CA, NV, AZ, and FL, but the number is still negative although closer to 1% than 5%.  It is interesting to note that the four mentioned states with double digit depreciation don't bring down the other states all that much.  Which indicates that there are some strong areas in the country.  See my earlier post today about the Austin Texas area.

Then I started thinking, "Is there anything we can do to stem the fall of real estate prices?"  And I decided YES!  Lets look at the positives and report on them for a change.  For example, I have a movie studio being built in my part of Massachusetts.  It will provide 2000 jobs itself, which means 8,000 to 20,000 jobs after all development is done and the support businesses move in.  That is like a whole town moving to Southeastern MA!  YEA us!  They will be looking for good Massachusetts real estate!  Bag the reporting about casinos, and bag the complaints that the state is raising tolls in Boston!  We got some Jobs down here on Cape Cod!

There is good news out there.  Lets take our laptops by the USB and start inputting the content that America is looking for.  I am looking forward to some positive news!  Now go type yours!

Happy selling and listing!

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) produced a real estatereport in November that indicates the Austin area real estate has been appreciating, even though most areas of the country are still experiencing a troubled real estate market.  The OFHEO (Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight) uses the report to show that the Austin area was number 1 in the list of US cities that are appreciating.  The reported 5+% appreciation (35+% over the last 5 years) in 2008 is in part a result of the local economic successes of job growth and the long term plan to create 72,000 jobs in the area.  Having a vision is great, and having a plan that is being implemented is even better.

The 5 parts of the Austin plan are: Capitalize on Existing Strengths, Recruit and Target Diverse Sectors, Stimulate Entrepreneurship and New Enterprises, Market Austin Effectively, and Improve Regional Competitiveness.  These are good topical headlines, but Austin's implementation of their sub points has them well on their way to their goals.  They want the Austin area to be ranked number 1 as much as they'd like to see the Texas University football team ranked number 1!  They have been working the plan since September of 2003.

In the Austin area of Texas, local businesses are finding ways to succeed that the rest of the country can take as an example.  With over 1/2 of the states in this report showing decreases any good example of success is an attention grabber.  The Austin Texas area has added 3366 jobs in 2008, according to the Austin Chamber.  This is significant because 1 job can result in 4 to 10 other "support" jobs which follow the newly created one.  When a job is created, that new employee will need a plumber, a mechanic, an electrician, etc.  As more jobs are created, existing companies will expand, and new companies will be formed to meet the needs of the growing community.  The Austin Texans have applied their plan so that their job growth in 2008 comes from over 60 companies rather than just one or two.  And the newest jobs are in many different industries.  This means that if one part of the economy has problems it will have less of an effect on the whole economy of the Austin area.

Cities in the Greater Austin area are:
Austin, Lockhart, San Marcos, Kyle, Bastrop, Elgin, Manor, Pflugerville, Round Rock, Cedar Park, Taylor, Hutto, Leander, and Georgetown.

The latest version of the FHFA report only covers the third quarter of 2008.  The next report, which will summarize the whole year, should be even more interesting.  In the past is has provided interesting statistics for review.

If you have noticed a drop in your Internet real estate traffic, here is a suggestion to recover some of it.  Sometimes there has been a change in the criteria the search engines use, and sometimes there is a change in the competitive real estate web sites that are after high ranking for your search terms like "Falmouth MA real estate".  In either case, you can write an article and/ or include the topic in your blog.  In the paragraphs of the article, make sure you use the search terms your site is optimized for and embed a link to the site in the text.  As the spiders/robots find the article, they will follow the link to your site and re-spider it.  The text in the link should also be made up of the words or phrases that you are trying to optimize for search. 

You can also include in the article links to pages deeper within your site, for example "real estate ny".  This will help the spiders index some of the deeper pages of your site and not just the home page.  A site can be found many ways besides the home page.  Content relative to your keywords and phrases is extremely important.

So what do you do:
1. Write an article about your site.  (The topic could even be about your noticing lower traffic if you are having a hard time coming up with a topic.)
2. After your write the article, embed a link to your real estate site.
3. Make sure the words in the text of the embedded link are the words your site is optimized for.
4. Include a few other imbeded links to some pages on your site that are not the home page.  Like a page about HUD homes.

And then, as it says on your shampoo bottles, repeat.  Of course don't repeat the article verbatim (word for word, exactly as before, the same as the first one.)  Spiders don't like copies of the same page in different locations.  But lots of links to a site from different places that have relevant text and keyword relative links can help increase traffic.

We all know (all real estate professionals) that any real estate transaction is enhanced when customers find us and hire our experience.  The easier they can find us instead of a site that is going to refer them to us, the smoother our business is.

Happy selling and listing!

I was impatiently rushing to an appointment that I wasn't late for the other day when some things dawned on me. 

I had purposely taken the coast road so I could relax and enjoy the view and the peace of the beach.  As I turned onto the beach road, another car pulled in front of me.  They were obviously not in any rush to get anywhere and were driving very slowly.  I became frustrated at their intrusion very quickly and got close enough to their car that they felt my impatience and frustration. I could see them looking in their mirror.  Even though they saw me they didn't pull over or speed up.  This added to my frustration.

Then it dawned on me that I had come this way to relax and enjoy the view.  I backed off, and began to look out the windows at the great expanse of the ocean.  It was a calm day.  The water was a blue green.  The sun was shining.  Boats were going to and from Martha's Vineyard and out into the open ocean to go fishing. 

As I looked around, I was reminded that my frustration was a choice, and that the small events that occur to distract me can only control me if I choose to let them.  In this case, I chose to reset my mind and my actions. The slow car in front of me turned off, and as I looked inside I saw it was an older couple enjoying the same beach drive I was now enjoying.  I refocused my mind to feel a part of the things that are occurring in my life with great relief and different peace.

There are many things that "pull in front of me" in a day.  Sometimes I just need to back off and enjoy the view and bea part of the bigger picture.

Happy Listing and Selling!

The real estate business has never had more opportunities.  Prices are low.  Interest rates are low.  Inventory in almost every part of the US has property that provides an opportunity. 

These days look like the days in the 1980s and 1990s that were the trough of the next wave of investing.  The crash in the 80s came from government changing the tax code relative to investment properties.  The changes in the 90s came partly from people cashing out of the stock market and driving up real estate prices with their cash profits.

And the real estate market today is recovering from government causing lenders to make loans that would have been rejected at other times in history.  BUT - this too shall pass.  Just lake all waves there is a trough and then another wave. It looks like we are poised for the next swell!