Gary White~ Grand Rapids Real Estate, FlexIt Realty, a call or click away!

Effective advertising is always a challenge unless you know where and how to generate buyer leads. I see many agents using newspapers with small one line recurring ads. This may help the agent generate a specific type of prospect but it may not help his overall business as effectively as other sources of media.

Sellers love to see their home in print. Is print media the right place. This depends on your market area. Many areas do not have a "Real Estate" channel dedicated to residential homes. So print may be the only choice but the type of print media may be a wide open choice. Direct mail inserts is an option to display space advertising. More costly but more effective. You certainly can hand over some big dollars if you make the wrong choices or use a status quo approach.

If you like the local newspaper or a dedicated regional paper that is one choice, again you can also look at the regional real estate magazines. This may be an option or both. We hear so much about the Internet and the percentages..."Over 80% start looking on the Internet" that is true...but only 60% of American household have the Internet so what happens to the other 40% They don't buy because they don't have the Internet? Sounds ridiculous when you put it that way but that is what some media experts would like you to think.

The answer is a blended marketing approach. You can certainly weight your spending based on results. So if you generate more from your local newspaper keep that and add the magazine. Use different phone numbers and email addresses to track your results. If you do not where your leads are coming from you cannot Change your marketing efforts to maximize results for spending.

Sellers want results...they want their property sold! Can you blame them? Part of giving the results expected by clients is knowing when and what is effective. Don't be pressured into spending money on advertising that you know won't work. All you have done is spent money that could have been used for effective advertising and helped convince your sell that your marketing doesn't work.

I use a multi-media advertising marketing program weighted based on where the buyers are being generated. I don't put all my advertising dollars in one spot and I use actual results to show my sellers why I use what I use. When they say a company uses big newspaper ads on the front page of the Real Estate section, I explain that the results for my company and agents show it is a good marketing program for the company but is not very effective for the seller.

Advertising is very expensive and if you spend your dollars in the wrong media areas all you will end up with is smaller budget to spend in the effective areas. Knowing your market and media is the key to seller, agent and company success. That's my feelings based on tracking results for years.

One other issue is consistency. It takes time to be recognized but once consumers find you and they constantly find you they expect to see you where they have found you in the past. I tested this as well. I also use a give-away in my advertising...it can be a free report or guide. This also creates activity which can turn into buyer and seller leads.

How do you view your advertising model?

I was just watching a update on the woes of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae...the losses they are sustaining and all you can say is....it is going to get worse before it gets better. Anyway that is the way it looks and the stock market, housing market and GNP are all going to take hits.

I looked at it and somehow it seems as though we are selling off the American Dream at bargain prices and the bottom line is it is a loss. So every buyer that finds one of these homes to purchase is getting a discount for a home that should have been worth much more....or was it?

I just toured a foreclosure with one of my buyers. The sheriffs sale has already happened. The home was unsecured...anyone can walk right in....but once in you can see how little value the former occupants placed on the American Dream.

Every door has a hole kicked in it. Wire closet shelving ripped from the walls. Dog and cat feces left on the carpet and in the basement. Light fixtures pulled lose or taken.

All the appliances gone, cupboard doors missing and the sheriff sale had the home purchased by the lender for $148,000.....we wrote an offer for $100,000 and wonder if we went to high based on the repairs and cleanup required.

This type of owners needs to get a reality judgement with a long term cash payback for the damage...it won't happen.

When honest people who tried to do the right thing lose their homes I feel bad for them and will do everything I can to help them avoid foreclosure with a short sale or debt negotiation.

However, when people do this type of thing to homes...and they walk laughing at the mess they have left behind for other to clean up, I think they need to reimburse the lender for every penny that they walked away from without paying. It could take them a life time to pay off but they are not in jail and they gave up their chance to do the right thing leaving the home in the lowest possible condition. A mean spirit isn't going to change losing a home.

I decided not to show the carpet or the basement. These are some of the photos I used to get the lender to accept our offer. They were shocked to say the least. This is two days after the sheriff's sale. I did a BPO and our offer was right in line with estimates to get the home in livable condition.

Now this is the real tragedy...this is one of the better HUD homes in a nice neighborhood!

We took the grand kids to the Grand Rapids zoo This past weekend. Many of you know I published some photos of the Grand Rapids Park which is now the zoo. Back at the turn of the century the road leading to the park Fulton St. was a couple of miles from the center of town across the Grand River to the West.

Going to the zoo is always great fun.

It has changed over the years but I never knew until I viewed the 100 year old post cards the history of John Ball Park.

This is a close up of my grand daughters...climbing on a statue of John Ball...almost a tradition when you go to the zoo.

100 years ago the park was a couple of miles away from downtown by buggy for a Sunday picnic. Look at the over flow parking now.

Hard to imagine

The old buggy trail has sure changed over the years!

The skyline has sure changed from a 100 years ago and continues to change.

The day was terrific and if you haven't been to the zoo take the time to go with your kids. It is great family fun.

Hope you enjoyed the updates from the 100 year old post cards.

If you are a seller in Michigan and are not currently listed with a realtor or your listing has expired and you still want to sell...give us a call Toll Free: 877-667-4699 Email: GaryWhite@FlexItRealty.com or visit our Website: www.FlexItRealty.com for more than 30 Free Reports that could save you thousands of dollars in your next real estate transaction. Ask about our "30 Day Fast Track Marketing Program"©2006-2008
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Serving: Grand Rapids Michigan, and surround communities Cascade, Cedar Springs, Grandville, Kentwood, Wyoming, Holland, Grand Haven, Muskegon, Newaygo, Big Rapids, Reed City, Mt. Pleasant, Midland, Bay city, Saginaw, Flint, Lansing, Brighton, Ann Arbor, Jackson, Coldwater, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, Benton Harbor, St. Joseph and the surrounding Michigan cites with more offices opening in the near future

Here is some more post cards from our family collection. This is quite interesting to those that have gone through the area and are new to the area. Many of the residents have never seen Grand Rapids from any other view than from what they have known growing up here.

The stories that have been pasted down all make sense once they see some of these photos. My wife's parents now in their early 70's (my mother-in-law made me put that! She said, no more cookies if I told the truth!) they were looking over the post cards and were amazed at what they remembered as young children growing up here. They had forgotten much of the history they lived through until the post cards jogged their memories.

Here is what it looked like to be sworn into office...with our election at hand...back then it meant something to everyone....this election does too...but we have to vote for the best people not a party in my estimation. Just a little plug to be an independent thinker...when voting.

Here is what I believe to be World War I home coming. I think the intersection is Ann St for sure but it doesn't make sense that it is 6th or 60th as recorded on the photo. I actually think it is Monroe St. You can see the banners draped from the windows on the buildings to the left.

We are considering donating these post cards and photos to the local museum. The age and condition will let generations long after us see our city as it progressed to the city it is today.

This give you an idea with a little help from an unknown artist to fill in the background the transportation system of the city at the turn of the century. This is looking west on Bridge St. over the river. The cross street before crossing the bridge to the other side is Monroe. Downtown has certainly changed. I will post updated photo so you can see the changes.

Hope you enjoyed the look back at the history of Grand Rapids Michigan.

I took a few photos the other day from a rooftop downtown to show the changes in the Medical Mile. Michiganders know that Grand Rapids is the second largest city in Michigan...but many do not know the heritage of the city.

Grand Rapids Michigan started as a logging town that soon developed into the mecca of wood furniture making. As the automotive industry grew in Detroit so did the furniture manufacturing on this side of the state. Some of the key office furniture manufacturers turned into giants of the industry. Steelcase, Herman Miller and Hayworth are still position as the go to companies in the nation when it comes to office furniture. One of the long gone companies that was huge at the turn of the century Stickley Furniture, their building was on a family post card (on left) from 1909.

On the right is another furniture maker that changed over the years and most would never know they had their beginnings as a major furniture maker. Phoenix Furniture Company down on Monroe Ave.

Of course this was made possible because of the Grand River and logging. Here is a post of the Grand from 1910.

Then came a few investors and they offered millions of dollars from their personal fortunes and some of the old hospital started getting face lifts.

Today we have a city with a blend of the old and certainly the new!

Here is part of the face lift.

I took this photo from the top floor of one of the new enterprise zone tax free condos that have been built. You can see as the city changes we keep some of the old as well but soon it too will give way to developers and once again the city will have a new skyline.

Because of these changes we have a more stable economic environment on the Western side of the state than we do on the Eastern. We certainly have the automotive influences...but we have diversity into other economic areas as well.

I hope you enjoyed walking down the road with me in a little photo time capsule. My family has been in West Michigan for over a 100 years and some of the post cards I will be sharing in the next few months will give us a glimpse at what life used to be a 100 years ago.

If you need a knowledgeable agent to help you sell or buy and you are not working with or currently under contract get me a call......put experience on your side. Call me direct: Gary White 616-821-9375