Karen Monsour,REALTOR® Broward,Palm Beach,Miami/Dade! 954-464-4194 anytime!

I was honored to meet Clark W. Toole, III, President and COO of Coldwell Banker (Florida) at my office today!

There I was working on a closing for Thursday and searching for properties for 2 new customers than who walked around the corner?

First it was Charles Richardson, our new Coldwell Banker Senior Vice-President of Southeast Florida. Charles comes to southeast Florida from southwest Florida. He has a great vision and is a welcomed asset to Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate's market in the Miami/Dade and Broward County areas.

I have met Charles at numerous Coldwell Banker real estate functions and he certainly is a man of vision and progressiveness in real estate.

As I was calling for showing instructions for tomorrow, around the corner walked no other than Clark W. Toole, III, the President and COO of Coldwell Banker (Florida)! Wow! What a pleasure. Mr. Toole came to us in May 2007. he oversees the day-to-day operations of our company's 150 offices and more than 6,000 sales associates here in Florida. WE are lucky to have him. He relocated to Florida from Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas.

What was a fantastic conversation involved Active Rain. Mr. Toole was very interested in where I generated leads. He was very impressed with my success on Active Rain. When I told him about all the wonderful referral leads that were generated from this site, he said that he had heard about this site.

When I explained the importance of the Active Rain communityto him and how the friendships and the development of business relationships helped me be a successful agent - he was impressed. We discussed my use of my website as well. We discussed advertising about Coldwell Banker and various other topics as well.

The point here is that the AR community is blooming. It started as a seed a few years ago and now it has blossomed and sowed more seeds. While not everyone has reaped the benefits or realized the significance of this site, I have just elaborated on the value that I have found Active Rain to be to Mr. Toole. He found it impressive as I have worked hard to be the #1 agent in Fort Lauderdale through my continuous blogging and friends that I have generated through the use of Active Rain.

What a great day I had today and the pleasure was all mine to converse with people who wanted to hear how I ran my business and what tools I used to generate leads.

It was a pleasure for me to have included Active Rain in my business plan...and it was also a pleasure to explain how it worked for me.

Have you had the same experience with your President and COO?

We value our customers and provide exceptional service! We are here for you whether you are buying or selling your home. I offer a free Comparative Market Analysis to my customers!

http://www.KarenMonsour.com, 954-464-4194 cell, call me!

(Copyright© 2009 Karen L. Monsour, All Rights Reserved.)

Broward County, Florida available inventory, short sales, and REO's (bank owned properties).

Here is a composite of the available inventory in south east Florida, specifically Broward County as of today, 7/14/2009:

Available HOMES: 9667

Homes in Short Sale status: 3261

REO's (bank owned properties) 544

Available CONDOS: 15678

Condos in Short Sale status: 5037

REO's 707

Total available inventory: 25345

This is fantastic news as last year in the spring there were 25 months of inventory or around 36,000 properties for sale.

NOW is the time to buy. Hurry and take advantage of the $8,000. home buyer credit...This is available for all home buyers at this time.

Give me a call if you need any help buying or selling your home.

http://www.KarenMonsour.com, 954-464-4194 cell

(Copyright© 2009 Karen L. Monsour, All Rights Reserved.)

Knowledge is VALUABLE, however, customers, how many agents do you need at one time?

Hello Mr. and Mrs. Buyer,

I'm so glad you chose me to help you purchase a new home. I will work diligently to find you the home of your dreams if you provide me with the following information. (Specific to south east Florida for the purposes of this blog).

Do you want a home or a condo?

Would you like ocean front or Intracoastal views or would you prefer a dry lot?

How many bedrooms do you need?

How many bathrooms do you need?

Do you require a minimum square footage?

Do you want a garage? If so, a one car, two car, three car?

Do you have pets? If so what kind and how much do they weigh?

Would you prefer a pool or not?

Do you want to be in a gated community?

What type of amenities would you like in the gated community?

Do you have a limit (condo) as to how much you are willing to pay for maintenance fees?

Even if they include everything except electric?

How soon are you interested in purchasing?

Have you been pre-qualified for a mortgage?

Do you have money for closing costs?

Is this a cash deal?

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: Are you currently working with another agent?

All of these things are considered by the agent when you are requesting information on properties.

What many customers do not know is that once we list a property on our local MLS, it is uploaded within about 3 days to REALTOR.com. So we know what you are seeing there as well.

Many customers will not tell you that they are working and calling and talking to other agents, why? I would like to hear from them.

Many customers do not realize that our MLS or the site we go to in order to located a home that fits their criteria is available to those agents who pay to be members of our local board. If the agents are members then if they ask the questions as above, and set up the search in the system they can find the same thing as another agent searching for you the customer.

If you use multiple agents, you are going to receive the same properties from all of the agents...now what?

How do you choose who you will work with? Are you going to fess up at some point in time?

Customers do not realize the ethical end of a real estate agent and when ethics become an important part of dealing with a customer. A good agent does not want to step on the toes of another good agent because they are unaware of the situation.

If an agent is the procuring cause - showing a property once, twice, even three times and you have another agent write the deal, the agent who was the procuring cause should be paid for the deal.

So, my point here is. Talk to multiple agents if you want to, then choose the person you feel the most comfortable and stick with them. LOYALTY AND RELATIONSHIPS that are built between agent and prospective customers is so important in making a transaction a memorable one.

Interview, choose, and be Loyal...who know's you might just end up with a NEW BEST FRIEND.

These are my THOUGHTS, WHAT ARE YOURS?

You don't need multiple agents, you just need a great one and I'm always available! :-)

http://www.KarenMonsour.com, 954-464-4194 cell

(Copyright© 2009 Karen L. Monsour, All Rights Reserved.)

Wednesday - blog roll is going so fast...I missed it..here's a thought! Elongate the AR ladder!

REALLY, IT'S LIKE..."ROLLIN ON THE RIVER!"....remember that song?

Perhaps the blog roll should be elongated...REALLY! You post, your dropped...do you have a chance for viewers to see your post...now the roll is rolling so fast...Even I feel like I'm missing lots of good stuff.

Tonight, the blog posts are moving so fast, I don't think mine was one the main blog page for even 15 minutes! WOW.

Now here's a thought. Geese when I started, a blog post hung out for a while, you had commenter's and it was worth writing an astute post. NOT that it's not worth writing an astute post now, however - consider this:

When I joined, there were about 54,000 members of which 5-10% contributed articles and made comments.

NOW, THE COMPETITION IS times 5...so people who want to make it in their neighborhood know they need those 10 blog posts per week and those 10 comments a day to climb up their personal ladder on AR.

Hey, it's not like AR isn't dealing with more important issues...

Case in point and my humble opinion...everyone take a step back, post if you have something important to blog about and give the AR staff time to catch up on 250K plus comments and suggestions.

The really special thing about the AR G*ds is they just don't hire anyone to work for us. They look to hire the best. That being said, as though I might miss a blog since this place has grown so fast...I will wait for the dessert...it's coming!

http://www.KarenMonsour.com

It's an AS-IS short sale, we're closing Friday and U want an inspection...quick?

Why? Well that's OK, as I frantically call my Inspector for a "favor".

All of the issues were disclosed up front...about $300.00 worth. This is a short sale...offered at $289K...approved at $275K...This inspection is going to cost $500.00.

A few little holes in the closet when shelves were removed or heightened...a handle on a door that needs replaced... another few incidentals.

The roof (little leak in the garage) is the responsibility of the Condo Association and they are fixing it.

While, I always love to have an inspection to make sure all is known.

Do YOU?

http://www.KarenMonsour.com, 954-464-4194

(Copyright© 2009 Karen L. Monsour, All Rights Reserved.)