Brian Brumpton, Boise Idaho Real Estate

Hurray! Boise State Broncos have made it to number 8 in the rankings. Despite all the detractors coming up with excuses about why they wouldn't make it in a big conference they refuse to be shaken. Year after year they bring the drive and determination to be at their best.

Say what you want about the Broncos, they are a great team with a great Coach. They may not have the "depth" and the "talent" the ESPN announcers like to quote when bagging on them and comparing them to the top conferences. What they do have is the heart and understanding that each one of them is an integral part of something greater than the whole of the individual.

Boise, Idaho short sale success, another one closed in 64 days!

We just closed on my 2133 Leadville property in Boise, Idaho. I couldn't have been more happy with the outcome. The sellers came in asking us for help and in 64 days from contract to close we were able to successfully get them released without a deficiency on this short sale.

The cherry on top was the lender gave the sellers nearly $1000.00 dollars for completing the short sale. We were able to close this short sale before any notice of default was ever filed and the quick close helped to minimize any damage to the sellers credit.

I owe a big thank you to my sellers for being so responsive throughout the process, the buyers for being so patient, and to the lender for making this one work.

Short sales in Idaho are effective. And in this case it's a win-win for everyone involved. You could just see the relief in my sellers faces when we walked out of closing.

There's no shortage of companies promising to save troubled homeowners from foreclosure through loan modifications. Many of them charging an upfront fee ranging from 1000-3000 dollars. Once the fee is paid they do little or nothing at all on the loan modification.

Now the government is considering banning companies from charging upfront loan modification fees altogether.

In my opinion they should have done this a long time ago. It would have saved troubled homeowners asking for loan modifications a lot of trouble and despair.

It's hard to know in a time of desperation what you should do. It makes it easy for a smooth talking salesman to peddle their loan modifications and take advantage of people in a time of need.

The top three things I always advise my clients seeking a loan modification to do go in this order:

1. Call your lender!

2. Call your lender!

3. Call your lender!

Your best chance at successfully achieving a loan modification is going to be personally contacting your lender. The point I'm trying to make about telling you to call them over and over is because that's in all likelihood going to be the reality.

Last but not least, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, pay an up front fee to anyone offering to do a loan modification.

I have designed a new website for our team and I would greatly appreciated some feedback from the AR community.

The web copy is not done yet so that will be changing. Not all the links work as some of the pages are still under development. I'm just trying to get a feel for what people think about the look and feel of the site. Does the navigation make sense. Does the layout work.

Please take a gander and give me your thoughts: Mike Brown Group, Keller Williams (click here!)

Thanks in advance for helping me out.

Want to dominate your market area? Are you wondering how? Well you could take after one of the biggest retailers in the world and focus on getting the business that steep discounts alone won't buy you. Walmart, the nations leading discount retailer, is launching a new campaign aimed at crushing the competition. Coined "Project Impact" Walmart plans to focus on three initiatives to drive the competition out.

1. Cleaner less cluttered stores to improve the shopping experience.

2. Friendlier customer service.

3. Focusing on categories where they can beat the competition.

Two of these really aren't anything new but lets take a look at how this applies to the business of real estate.

1. Cleaner less cluttered stores to improve the shopping experience - If you're a real estate agent, your storefront is anywhere a client interacts with you. Theses things include your appearance, your office, and your online presence. I'm going to assume you've got enough sense to dress properly and keep a tidy office so let's talk about your online presence.

Your website and your blog are prime examples of a storefront where you and potential clients interact. Treating your online presence like a superstore will help you to dominate in the online game. Start with a web hosting account that can handle the traffic, you wan to make sure you have plenty of parking for all your customers. Make it easy for people to navigate and find what they're looking for. Don't clutter your site by riddling your home page with links to every other page. Give them plenty of well laid out aisles to peruse and links to the shelves of information so they can easily find what they're looking for.

2. Friendlier customer service- If you're having trouble wrapping your head around this one, read Sales 101, and by the way there is no 102. All the discounts in the world won't make up for poor customer service. Not even Walmart with their deep pockets and technology can avoid this cutting into their business.

When a customer has a question, you better be there to answer. This is a pretty simple one to accomplish. First, answer your phone. Second, return phone calls. Third, when a visitor to your blog or website asks a question, respond, and do it in a timely manner. Pretty simple stuff but it's a violation of the fundamentals that will get you every time.

3. Focus on categories where you can beat the competition - This is an important one. Everyone loves an underdog story where a guy with nothing to lose is outmatched and outgunned but somehow manages to prevail. The truth is your chances of success in those instances are very low. Identifying market niches that are under served or at least have a level playing field are prime picking. Larry Easto did a great blog on finding market niches.

You should focus on areas where there isn't already a dominant player or you have an advantage. Once you've thoroughly covered all the bases on your defined niche, you can add another.

A substantial web presence and a blog loaded with local content gives you a highly cost effective way to dominate your local area.

You can bet Walmart has spent big bucks to identify these needed areas of improvement and you can benefit from applying them to your business as well.