Think about it. You just had a huge dinner, with loved ones surrounding the table and the talk of buying a piece of real estate comes up.

Read a ActiveRain blog indicating winter real estate is slower, blah blah blah.

real estate markets

You the real estate broker with fire, desire, and push that aggressively, skillfully puts one by one the marketing components on line for every property you list should not suddenly see the real estate plug pulled. Not without friendly objections made known loud and clear. Your blogs, video, real estate marketing machine working year round. That is the mission...no dead air, dark screens, or waiting. Don't see it removed if you can convince the owner of the mistake made by doing so. Modify the possession date, but don't stop the marketing due to a little white stuff on the ground, the roof of that property. Wait until spring to relist means you pull down an iron curtain around that listing that was live, active, radiating on line until withdrawn, deleted from consideration. Hopefully you had the place lots of spots on line. All that careful work undone..dismantled, tucked away in a dark real estate closet.

You have folks you are emailing on this particular place. Or were. Now theses folks wonder if it is sold, under contract. They watch real estate sites seriously..like real estate hawks. They see the missing hole on your site, realtor.com and other venues. And like a missing front tooth, it is obvious it is gone from consideration. Hidden so the buyer forgets all that you used for real estate bait on that one to make the phone ring, to generate specific incoming emails or visits to happen to your office.  To generate business.

Lead lining it so no one sees it on real estate radar makes no sense. Don't stop marketing. Delay possession but never stop the real estate fireworks..keep sending up real estate ordinance, artillery, splash to attract attention of real estate buyers on line year round.

     If the fear is if my home is on the market, I have to move in thirty, sixty or whatever time frame, remember the possession is part of the terms and conditions. The buyer may not want to move right now either but he is motivated to own before the end of the year for tax reasons. He has a 1031 real estate tax exchange sale clock ticking...or a myriad of other carrot and stick situations pushing him in to gear.

     If your seller's property is suddenly gone, disappeared on line...just when this buyer was warming up to the neat imagery, copy, video you splashed....the prettiest girl at the junior high dance has suddenly left the building. No longer by the punch bowl. Darn...but like the expression that "the girls get prettier toward closing", the fewer homes that are remaining on the market may get a second, third look...and the flirting with what is there to work with comes in to play.

     If winter means traditionally in your market that there are fewer homes, farms, land or whatever for sale...then I want my seller's listings front and center. Beaming those image jewels, blogging about the real estate, videos showing on portable screens everywhere from airport travelers killing time. And eyeballing what you post to families crowding around the computer after way too much turkey around Christmas who get the bright idea to see what is on the market in Maine. Maine snow...any snow or times of the year when the red in the thermometer lowers on the glass tube are still important real estate marketing opportunities to not waste. Does not mean you have to be holding an open house when the family is drinking egg nog by the fireplace and eating divinity fudge. You can black out showing times...just don't stop the internet marketing on line.

Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers

You answer a Maine real estate buyer call. The lights dim as energy is transfered over the phone line.

     It can be like the question "what is a diamond worth?" If you ask the Maine real estate buyer this question, it can slow the pace of interrogation..I mean questioning so that a one sentence answer is not coming with out a few of my own questions to really say, it depends on you. And we need to know more about you, the caller. How talented you are with a hammer?

What does liveable mean to you beyond heat, good roof, clean and safe.

Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers

A downstate Maine real estate broker shared this with me.

     "A friend of mine told me a story about how when he was a kid he was in the hospital and near dying.  His Italian/African grandmother came to the hospital and told a family member to go buy her a large onion and a new pair of white cotton socks.  She sliced the onion open then put a slice on the bottom of each of his feet & put the white cotton socks on him.  In the morning when he awoke they removed the socks.  The slices of onion were black and his fever was gone.  The following story that someone sent to me might have some truth in it. We are going to try this winter.        

     "In 1919 when the flu killed 40 million people there was this Doctor that visited the many  farmers to see if he could help them combat the flu. Many of the farmers and their family had contracted it and  many died.  The doctor came upon this one farmer and to his surprise,  everyone was very healthy. When the doctor asked what  the farmer was doing that was different the wife replied  that she had placed an unpeeled onion in a dish in the rooms  of the home, (probably only two rooms back then). The doctor couldn't believe it and asked if he could have one of  the onions and place it under the microscope.  She gave  him one and when he did this, he did find the flu virus in  the onion.  It obviously absorbed the bacteria, therefore, keeping the family healthy."

 
     "Now, I heard this story from my hairdresser in AZ.    She said that several years ago many of her employees were  coming down with the flu and so were many of her  customers.  The next year she placed several bowls with onions around in her shop.  To her surprise, none of  her staff got sick.  It must work..  (And no, she is not in the onion business.)  

The moral of the story is, buy some onions and place them  in bowls around your home.  If you work at a desk, place one or two in your office or under your desk or even  on top somewhere.

     "Now there is a P. S... to this for I sent it to a friend in Oregon who regularly contributes material to me on health issues.  She replied with this most interesting experience about onions: 
Weldon, thanks for the reminder.  I don't know about the farmers story...but, I do know that I contacted pneumonia and needless to say I was very ill...I came across an article that said to cut both ends off an onion put one end on a fork and then place the forked end into an empty jar....placing the jar next to the sick patient at night. It said the onion would be black in the morning from the germs...sure enough it happened just like that...the onion was a mess and I began to feel better.  Another thing I read in the article was that onions and garlic placed around the room saved many from the black plague years ago. They have powerful antibacterial, antiseptic properties." So, have any onions or stories to share about them?

Maine housewives...around the 10 - 2 time slot listening to Bangor Maine Radio...liked to tune in to Z-62.

     The radio jacket Tim wore was embroidered with the expression "You are never too old to rock and roll?" He was in his early 50's at the time. Tim had goats, lived on a hobby farm with his wife and was trying to be somewhat self sufficient. But his on air Maine radio job was not like a job and he was good at it. In any product or service sale, your advertising has niche audiences but still overall, the larger the audience the better. Unless you are selling brain surgery tools, diamond cutting devices which are a pretty narrow market to tap in to.

     The Bangor Maine radio arbitron ratings kept tract of who was listening each quarter hour. Our station had listeners tuning in for news that had local sound bites of the new makers, not just rip and read AP copy for something happening two hours away down state. It was local marketing, coverage of the community alot like the blogging we do for Southern Aroostook/ Maine.

Tim had a following, played rock and roll and kept the big share of housewives happy.

Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers