Traverse City, MI

Traverse City Real Estate Market is in fact better. The numbers don't lie!!! From July 1^st 2008 to September 25th 2008 there were 270 closed residential sales reported in the Traverse Area Association of Realtors (TAAR) MLS system. During that exact period of time for this year there were 303 closed residential sales reported. That's a 12% increase over 2008! Another positive note is that of the 303 residential sales only a total of 68 were either bank owned, foreclosures or pre-foreclosure homes. Again, this is good because prior to this, foreclosures represented approximately 35% of the closed sales in Traverse City. Now that number is only 22% over the last 86 days.

"It just feels better" according to Josh Croff of Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors 402 E Front Street office. "Any first time home buyer I work with has had to be disappointed by the number of properties that are already "under contract" waiting to close" says Mr. Croff. He continues "Your buyer picks out 15 listings to look at and of those 15, 7 are not available to show because they have a contract signed".

The fact that the number of closed foreclosure homes is shrinking is good news for both regular folks trying to sell their home unencumbered by a shortfall and good news for real estate prices. If this trend continues then prices should level off as compared with a consistent decline we've seen in recent months.

The bottom line is this: Now is a great time to buy and now is a great time to sell. Buyers are "coming out of the woodwork" The "two minute warning" is here. Two months to close for first time home buyers to qualify for the $8000 tax credit. November 30^th 2009 it ends...unless it gets extended. Let's hope it does! Either way Traverse City Real Estate Rocks!

I am excited to announce that Northern Michigan now has a chapter of Women's Council of Realtors. We have been working diligently since July to form our chapter. Currently, we have 25 Realtor members and 10 Affiliate members. For those of you who may not be familiar with WCR, it is a fabulous organization for both women and men.

Nationally, WCR has over 16,000 members. WCR is not only a wonderful networking organziation but they are founded on the basic principals of helping its membership grow their business through leadership training as well as referrals from other members.

The mission of the organization is to build and sustain a strong sense of professional community, create business opportunities, provide educational content relevant to today's real estate professional, create opportunities to try new skills in a supportive environment.

If you do not have a chapter in your area, any Realtor can start a WCR Local Chapter by following the guidelines set forth by WCR. Everything that you need to know about WCR can be found on their web site www.wcr.org.

The Northern Michigan Chapter is hosting an event on October 6, 2009. In conjunction with our local Board of Realtors, we are bringing National Speaker, Andrew Wooten to our community. Andrew speaks Nationally on Safety and Identity Theft. We are lucky enough to have him here in Northern Michigan for three speaking engagements on the 6th of October. He will be in Empire at Century 21 Sleeping Bear Realty from 9:00 am - 10:30 am, Traverse Area Association of Realtors from 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm, and at the Kalkasks Kaliseum from 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm. To register or get additional information, contact Lora at Lora@taar.com.

Christine Stalsonburg, Realtor

Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors

"A Tradition of Sound Advice"

231-944-0854

www.stalsonburg.com

Even after 20+ years buyers still amaze me. In a market with record low prices, readily available financing, record low rates and mountains of foreclosures all there for the picking... Buyers are still sitting on the fence waiting. Waiting for what I ask?

It seems that despite how good a buy something is, buyers are always looking for a catch. I say a program on television (20/20 I believe) where a man in a suit was standing on the street corner handing out crisp $20 bills and almost no one would take one. I was amazed. It just goes to show how most people believe the saying that "if it's too good to be true".

I am convinced that the same applies to real estate today. I am seeing some fantastic deals selling in our area everyday. How do people get such great deals? Simple...THEY GET OFF THE FENCE and write an offer. No other time in the past 20 years have I seen so many sellers willing to practically give away their property.

To all buyers I say... WRITE AN OFFER.... Please! It seems that I tell every single buyer that same thing and what do I generally get? Nothing... no offers. Now I recognize that there has to be some interest to begin with but what is holding everyone back I wonder?

If I were in a position to buy a home or property, the first thing I would do is get in touch with a REALTOR who is an expert in the area I am looking and sit down with him or her and devise a game plan. I'd enter into a buyer broker agreement and I would get them out hunting for me.

The key to success is as simple as:

1. Have your financing or proof of funds lined up in advance
2. Do your homework and know the market
3. Learn what is actually selling and for how much (learn the comps)
4. Go look at a lot of properties so you'll know the good one when you see it
5. Don't be afraid to write and offer... if its not accepted you are under no obligation and have little to no risk
6. Write your offer carefully leaving yourself an out for financing and inspections

If you take those 6 steps you will find that you will eventually find yourself laughing all the way to the bank. In 10 years (at least in this area) you'll be so proud of yourself because on the grand scheme of things... everything is a bargain now.

Feel free to contact me for assistance in buying or selling in the Grand Traverse Region at jules@julesyates.com.

Ok, so you are out shopping for insurance for that nice shiny new Ferrari you just bought yourself off that sweet deal from last month (ok... this is a dramatization) and you want to make sure that your investment is in the right hands. You have a choice of two insurance agents in town (it's a small town...What can I say?)

Insurance agent A: You walk in the office and almost scare the poor guy out of the nap he was taking. He moves his feet off the desk, shuffles papers around and sets to writing an insurance proposal. You notice, while he's fumbling with numbers, that his favorite pair of college tennis shoes is peering out from under the front of his desk adorned by frayed fragments of his dirty jeans and it seems that the last time his team baseball shirt saw a washer machine; he was walking past it at the home depot. As he finishes the insurance proposal, he knocks over what's left of his morning coffee, wipes the stains off the document with his hand, wipes his hand on his pants and then gives you the documents for your review. He then excuses himself, muttering something unintelligible as he walks out of the office and says he will be right back.

Insurance agent B: You start to walk into his office and are immediately greeted by a clean cut gentleman wearing a crisp white shirt, blue tie and black Dockers. His black dress shoes look like he spends the majority of his day obsessed with shining them, but from the looks of the neatly hung pictures of current clients & testimonials, you are quite sure he spends his days dedicated to his clients. He invites you to take a seat, asks you a few questions and quickly prints out a professionally prepared document. He then asks you if you would like something to drink and offers to go over your options with you.

Now... take a quick look at your profile picture and see what first impression you are giving to potential clients that are reading your blogs. Are you agent A or B? Does it look like you were fumbling with your phone when the flash suddenly went off? Kids did a drive-by ‘shooting' while you were working in the yard? (Camera shooting that is) You set the camera to delay on the kitchen table and missed the top of your head?

I have actually seen all of the pics that I mention above on profiles here in active rain, and wondered... what are they thinking? Isn't the purpose of a blog to attract more clients? Who in their right mind would entrust their biggest investment to agent A? ... I mean do you really want to project the image of agent A to potential leads?

- RTV Marketing & Team RTV

Visit our Virtual Tour Blog

In this economy of intense competition, it is easy to get stressed out at the thought of learning new techniques to getting real estate listings and virtual tours out in the public eye. But, there is no need to completely abandon traditional marketing strategies. The best advertising and marketing strategy is to diversify your marketing to reach a larger target audience. In order to do this properly, you must use all available means of marketing to draw potential buyers and sellers to one central place; most favorably, your website.

DIVERSIFY: The efforts of the agent or broker can seem like a monumental chore to undertake, but the benefits far outweigh the effort required in the long run. By diversifying your marketing efforts and funneling leads you can ensure that you are not left without steady business. Using a combination of traditional as well as modern advertising and marketing efforts can pay off for the savvy real estate agent.

LOCAL MEDIA: Many agents who use virtual tours also take out ads in the local paper and include the URL to the virtual tour web site. By using traditional media in the local real estate market area, the realtor can drive targeted traffic to the virtual tour web site, which will feature a variety of homes to choose from as well as virtual tours of the properties. Outlets such as news papers, magazines, local trade publications and free discount magazines are excellent methods of advertising the agent's active virtual tour web site to the world. Once visitors arrive at the agent's site, they can choose from various types of homes and locations to view online and view an interactive virtual tour.

MAKE IT EASY TO REACH YOU: Be sure to include SEVERAL means of contact, regardless of advertising medium. After looking at the virtual tour some users might opt to call the realtor directly for a personal showing. So be sure to leave your phone number in an easily accessible and prominent area on your online AND print media advertisement.

DISTRIBUTE FLYERS: Print-out fliers and brochures that advertise your single property website, your business and the online virtual tour. These fliers and signs can be printed and distributed locally.

USE UNIQUE ATTENTION GETTING MARKETING: Using unique marketing tools such as RTV's PanoRider(tm), emailable HitStats(tm), or even just using a professional photographer service for those dramatic night-time shots can help you stand apart from the crowd. Using these marketing tools not only makes your properties stand apart from the rest, but also says incredible things about your marketing strategy to prospective sellers.

TV and RADIO: The local effort to drive traffic to the realtor's site should include any manner of traditional advertising the realtor can afford to incorporate into his or her ongoing advertising and marketing strategy, even radio and television if the prospective URL isn't too difficult to remember.

OPTIMIZE, OPTIMIZE, OPTIMIZE: Once the virtual tour and the supporting web presence have been established and advertised locally, it is important to concentrate on web site marketing and optimization online. Optimizing your website, your blog and even your virtual tours maximizes your overall traffic and potential leads by allowing search engines to properly index your website and listings. RTV offers free SEO, Blogging, Social Networking, Social Back Linking training by way of our Social Ignition Course too all providers of our technology.

SOCIAL NETWORK: Getting the word out about your website and your virtual tours may seem like a daunting task, but if taken step-by-step, will prove to be quite easy. The trick is to get your network set-up and to get yourself into a routine that is easy for you.

Need help setting up your social network? Check out our 12 week workshop as announced in our last RTV Newsletter. Simply log into your TMS and click on the Social Ignition Course to sign up. Free to ALL RTV providers. A Sure-Fire Way to Beat the Economy!

RTV Marketing

Jason LaVanture

http://www.RealTourVision.com