Heath's Blog

I have been looking at the websites of real estate agents from all over the country for over 9 years, and I have found that most agents actually work in only five towns.  The towns are their own, and those directly to the north, south, east, and west of their own town.  This of course makes sense because that is usually a lot of property to cover and learn.

Some web sites I have seen, list every town in the county.  Oathers include every town in the state in their list.  For small states like Rhode Island or Delaware, that may not be many towns.  But for states like Maine, Texas, New York, Florida and California, there are not only large masses of properties, there are great distances.

The reason for having so many towns depends on the agent.  Some large lists of towns are for lead generation.  Other agents include more towns than they work in as a convenience for the consumers that find their site.  I have forwarded customers to the listing agent as a service to consumers looking for real estate outside my personal working areas. 

Now with the probability of requiring a login for any search of MLS listings, how will agents' sites change?  Will they change?  Will customers use one site to search all the MLS, or will they register on many sites?  Will the login requirement make sites without a login requirement be used more often?  Will agents make their own listings available without requiring a login?  How is customer search going to change?

I think that finding more agent sites in one place will help consumers who don't want to register their name and email with anyone.  I know I prefer to find things without having to login anywhere.

Happy listing and selling!

Hollywood East, also known as Plymouth Rock Studios, is starting to provide free acting classes.  From the brief parts shown of the latest, it appears that they are preparing people to be extras.  The class that their daily video (called what else, "The Series") depicts shows a large crowd being coached on cheering at a football game.

Other information is presented to prepare people for the reality of shooting scenes like, "Ok, now we want you to do that 20 more times, and it is cold and snowing."  I think they are smart to prepare a local source of extras.  They can train them with a fresh look and can prepare them with the realities of acting in a movie.  With a fresh group of faces and a clean slate of trainable masses, they may find working here refreshing. 

Nevertheless, movies are going to be made here in Southeastern Massachusetts!   The town of Falmouth has already stated permitting certain locations so they will be pre-approved for shoots.  They are also working on the permitting process so they have a streamlined system in place for requests as they come in.

Who knows, maybe the Cape will become a new getaway for the west coast Hollywooders.

The next class is scheduled for teh end of March +-.

Happy listing and selling!

How can there be so many more web pages available for Dallas real estate than for Brooklyn real estate? Aren't there more people living in Brooklyn that there are in Dallas? Well, OK, maybe if you take all of the Dallas area and compare it to Brooklyn you'll get more people. But 11,200,000 is still a lot of results just to find local real estate.

If there are less than two and a half million licensed real estate agents in the whole United States, how are there so many pages of information about Brooklyn real estate? Well, of course the answer is that there are many pages in every web site. And, many, many, many sites just mention Brooklyn real estate, so there could actually be more than 11,200,000 results from a search for Brooklyn real estate. But how does an agent get their real estate pages found, and how do customers looking for them find them in 11,200,000 results?

If there are millions and millions of Brooklyn real estate search results, there are a whole bunch that are not helping people actually find real estate. OK, lets do for Brooklyn what we did for Dallas and say that the average Brooklyn real estate agent has at least 10 pages on their web site. Those pages are often called About Me, Featured Listings/My Listings, local school info, and of course there needs to be a page for How to Buy and How to Sell. Then there are the 5,6,7,8 listing pages, and a MLS search page. Then the all important contact page for those who can't find an email address or phone number on any of the other 9 pages.

Then, lets assume that all of those pages are optimized for Brooklyn real estate. How many actual licensees could there really be? One source says that the state of New York has over 65,000 real estate licenses. So if only 10% of those are in Brooklyn, that means that they all have an average of 1700 web pages. Hmmm. I'd better get started looking through the 11,200,000 so I can find the great deals in Brooklyn!

Maybe I'm just a naive out-of-towner, but this seems a little cluttered. Surely there aren't sites messing up my search for Brooklyn real estate. Are there? Lol.

Happy listing and selling!

How can there be so many web pages available for Dallas real estate, if there are less than two and a half million licensed real estate agents in the whole United States?  Well, of course the answer is that there are many pages in every web site.  And, many, many, many sites that mention Dallas real estate, so there could actually be more than 19,600,000 results when searching for Dallas real estate.

Well, lets say that the average real estate agent has at least 10 pages on their web site.  Those pages might be called 1)About Me, and 2)Featured Listings/My Listings.  There might be information about the 3)local school, and of course there needs to be a page for the 4)blog.  Then there are the 5,6,7,8) listing pages, and a 9)MLS search page.  Then the all important 10)contact page for those who can't find an email address or phone number on any of the other 9 pages. 

Then, I will assume that all of those pages are optimized for Dallas real estate.  That means that there must be 1,960,000 agents in Dallas.  Hmmm.  Well then they must each have 100 pages on their site.  That means there must are 196,000 agents in Dallas.  Hmmmm.  Maybe they each have 1000 pages in their site.  That gets it down to 19,600 agents in Dallas.  Hmmm.  That is the size of a small town.  And the Texas real estatecommission reported 153,161 licensees in 2007 for the whole state of Texas.  So maybe 19,600 people who are real estate agents in Dallas could have a web site that is completely and totally optimized for and about Dallas real estate.  That's only 12% of all the licensees in the state of Texas.  It could happen.

I'd better get started looking through the 19,600,000 so I can find the great deals in Dallas.  Surely there aren't sites cluttering my search process.  I'm sure that all the 19,600,000 results would be very useful to me as I am searching for Dallas real estate. 

Or, natsuhmuch.  Lol.

Happy listing and selling!

When I dropped my daughter off at school this morning I noticed a news crew at the front entrance.  After I passed them, I turned around and asked the lady reporter if there weren't some good news she could focus on as well as the recent mistakes of a few kids.  (An 8th grader that was sent a picture in a text message on his phone, forwarded it to some other people's phones.)

She asked if I'd like to be interviewed about the issue, and after thinking about it I said ok.  I said that I thought the boy knew what he was doing, but didn't understand the consequences of it.  I also said that it was caught by parents because this community has great parent involvement.  The VIPS (Volunteers In Public Schools) here is very strong, and parents in general take a strong interest in the schools.

I was trying to make the point that we have a very strong community of involved parents here!  Of course they only showed me saying, "Its terrible.  This is a problem that needs to be addressed."  I don't see how they can expect us to trust their "reporting" when they change the intent of people's comments to sound bites that serve their needs! 

One more example of the "news" bending what was said to make it sound negative!  I won't trust anything I see that reporter do.  And the news station was carelessly trying to amplify a situation that is being addressed and corrected.  Why couldn't they report about how actively the community is addressing the problem and how parent awareness caught the actions before they got out of hand?  Of course that would be positive, and I guess they don't like positive stories.

I wanted to watch a new training video but it was an .rar file.  Bummer, now I needed a new "player" application.  But, Winrar asks for $30 after 40 days of trying it out.  I easily found a free application to open .rar files called peazip.  The rar files are one of the latest file extensions being used for videos. 

PeaZip does the same thing for free.  In the set up of the installation, I suggest that you uncheck most of the file extensions it has in default and only check file extensions like .rar so you only have it work on the rar files.

Once you extract an rar, open the folder and look for the html file.  That opened the training movies I downloaded.

Happy listing and selling.

If you or someone you know (like a past client) is facing foreclosure, you must watch this video.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUZdANb6UaY  It is a CNN report that has been around since last year!  The more I look for information the more I am amazed!  If the banks are going to keep the TARP money, try to keep your house!

In another news report FROM THIS YEAR, a US congress woman is seen on the floor of the House advising giving advice to Americans who are facing foreclosure.  She has advised people to ask the foreclosing entity, or better still to have an attorney ask the foreclosing entity, to produce the note that says who has the right to foreclose.

I have been studying the mortgage problem in the country.  Learning about MERS, and the 1968 case of Jerome Dalyare two things to read about if you are facing foreclosure.  These are available publicly by simple searches, and I have also included some links below. 

People are stopping the foreclosure of their homes by requesting that the foreclosing entity produce the original note.  Almost 1/2 the time they can't.  That is worth a try.  At least it may help cause negotiations for a better solution for both you and the lender.

Jerome Daly is a completely different bit of entertainment that is apparently still unresolved from 1968.  I am amazed that his legal case did not change how banks, mortgages, and loans were done up to now!  His case is jaw dropping.  One of the concepts it causes to be stated is, "If I let you do that -- you and everyone else -- it would bring the whole system down."  Well, the system is already down in many ways.

There is a website that has lots of free information and many videos.  It is worth your time if you are facing foreclosure.  It is consumerwarningnetwork.com.

Happy Listing and Selling!

foreclosurefish.com/blog/index.php?id=439  (Jerome Daly info)

activerain.com/blogsview/525644/More-Foreclosure-stuff-MERS-Mystery  (MERS info)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUZdANb6UaY  (one CNN report)

Where were people searching for real estate in January?  Well that depends on whether you look at the total number of searches for real estate, or if you look at the number of searches adjusted for the number of towns a state has to attract those searches.  States with more towns and places to live will get more searches as a whole.  But, when you look at all searches coupled with how many towns in that state could attract those searches, the size of a state has a different impact.  The states in the weighted search also provide some interesting places to research for real estate opportunities.

In January, the top states searched on REindex.com, The Site Engine®, were California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas - although not in that order.  Many of these states have often been in the top ten of the "most searches" data because of the shear number of towns they have within their borders.  The more towns, the more probability they have for collecting real estate search activity.  Of course, there could be other reasons for their ranking, too.  The new president is from Illinois, and one of the teams in the big football game was from Pennsylvania.  But how did Nebraska show up in the top ten list?  And I'd like the "Show Me State" to show me why they are there.  The list presents some interesting trending information that could be the indicator of some good real estate growth opportunities.

When the number of searches is adjusted to reflect the number of towns in a state, there is another top ten list.  For January, this list is made up of California, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Texas, and Virginia.  California is one of the states on both lists this month.  This could be a result of the feeling that the bottom has been found in CA.  There are many areas of the golden state that are reporting increases in volume and price stabilization or increases.  There is similar activity in the Florida real estate market.  The last minute "Go Zone" activity in the Mississippi real estate market may be the reason for its inclusion in the list, or maybe it is the new casinos opening on the Gulf that have attracted searches.

Whether the Texas market has started to correct, or the Boise market is pulling real estate investors to Idaho, there is a reason that these states are being searched.  If you are working in one of them, you might want to start studying what the reasons are if you don't already know.  For example, if you are a lender you can target the new customer type.  If you are a title company, you might push the importance of title insurance for distressed sales or the type of property that has increaseing demand.  If you are an insurance company maybe you create a special package for coming investors or new companies relocating to the area. 

With trending indications in hand, real estate professionals, investors, and consumers should be able to focus their attention on areas that are changing.  Opportunities occur in both the up real estate market and the down.  These trends only show activity.   Those who can learn what the activity is from, and who can position themselves to use those opportunities, can do well in any market condition.

Happy Listing and Selling!

I had to say it!  Its A Beautiful Day On Cape Cod!  We get to live in a resort area and to day we have resort weather!  Almost 60 degrees in February!

I joked with my brother in law, who was over visiting from Martha's Vineyard yesterday, that he was only staying over to go golfing today.  Little did I know that it would be a great day for golfing!

I remember going to college in Florida where we had to wear shoes only one week out of the year - in February.  Now, sixty degrees is barefoot weather on Cape Cod!  The sun is shining, the birdies are singing and truly, Its A Beautiful Day On Cape Cod!

Happy selling and listing!