Tom Meyer, Broker

The cool thing about living in Wisconsin: when the Packers win the Super Bowl, everyone gets a trophy.

A woman from Oregon got my attention on Wednesday evening. She was calling from a IMX Advertising to sell Google Search placement. How many of these calls do we get weekly? For years I have said "Not interested. No, I do not want more business. No, I do not want to be found." Maybe it was the way the caller's ability to laugh at herself and her script that kept me from saying, "Thank you, goodbye now", or it was the free month, no contract required offer that got me to stay and eventually say, "OK". I bought the service. Today I am the owner of Middleton Wi real estate in Google Search.

Of course Middleton isn't the only market I serve, but it's where I have always done business, I live there, and it's as strong of a market as any place in Wisconsin. I've moved my advertising budget from paper print to electronic. Spending a couple of bucks a day to be found by people who want what I have is simple, tried and true marketing. Now that my sign says Open For Business, I know changes to the shop were in order.

First step was to make some changes to the landing page on my web site, TomMeyer.com. I know when I land on a page after searching key words, it's important to see something that says I am in the right place. OK. I modified the welcome message, the banner, and the home search capabilities. My web site is a Z57 model. Their support folks are great. A guy did some quick magic and showed me a better way to make my site user friendly. Nice. We also discovered that my home search wasn't working...not so nice, but it's all good now.

Second step--get a point of reference. In a month I have to have some way of evaluating the free 30 days, because the cost goes up at the end of March. My site has some fine stats reporting tools. I see Google has always been the key search engine directing people to me, but the people finding me are coming at a crawl. I think doubling the traffic would be less than modest improvement. I see people were coming in the front door and not going further. I know what that means--I don't see anything I like here. Not surprising those who tried my Home Search tool got nothing. Note to self: check your tools from time to time.

Third step---I've got more work to do, and a house to show in 30 minutes to a person I've known for decades. She found me the old fashioned way. I gotta go before I start getting found.

Everytime someone says "How you doin'?" the don't want to know if my neck aches; they're just saying "Hi". However, when I meet a person who says "How's the real estate market?" they probably want to know How's the real estate market. In fact, they specifically want to know What's Happening in MY Neighborhood?? That's what matters most and last I heard from the us Realtors, markets are local.

They certainly are local. In Madison we have Lake Mendota, which has shoreline extending to more than a few communities and 21.6 miles according to Wikipedia. If I'm sitting on the pier at Memorial Union and a friend calls me from his home in Maple Bluff and asks "How's the water?" and I answer "Warm", because the north side of the lake heated up that day, and he jumps in and finds the water frigid, he might wonder about my sense of reality. But, If before answering, I ask ,"What water?" or "What part of the lake?" I can give an answer more relevant to my friend. Same goes for real estate.

For 2011, I will follow the neighborhoods where I have listings and sales report on the statistics and trends on this blog. The beginning of the year looks cautiously optimistic at first glance at a few areas. Here's what's happening in your neighborhood according to our MLS, and all data is too small to draw any projection conclusions. Unless otherwise noted, the areas are by High School districts.

• Middleton: 9 closings in January. Average first asking price to sale price is 83% and 190 days on the market.
• DeForest: 7 closings in January. Average first asking price to sale price is 89% and 218 days on the market.
• McFarland: 6 Closings. 92.7% and 52 days
• Mount Horeb: 3 Closings. 93% and 32 days.
• North of the Beltline, near Fish Hatchery Road: 2 Closings 93.7% and 288 days on the market.

Distressed sales (REO and Short Sales) do not appear to be significant yet. I found 3, and there were also 3 new construction homes which were not included in this data. Our MLS can be manipulated to show fewer than actual cumulative days on the market. For the big picture it probably doesn't matter as much as when you try to get a clear image of the hyper local market. My sense today is that PRICE is key and more key is that the price is perceived as a "Tremendous Value". I think Tremendous Value is replacing Location, location, location in the priority of real estate lexicon.

I'll keep including areas as the year goes and we can drill down to get more insight. If I do this right, I should be able to tell you where the water is warm or cold before you jump in.

When the going gets tough...throw your associates under the bus. That's the unusual action of The President of the South Central Wisconsin Realtors Association, Charlie Wills. In his President's Message in the Realtor Review which came out today, Charlie suggests the Realtors are succumbing to a challenging economy and resorting to less professional and ethical behavior, and what sounds like, in-fighting. I disagree with his conclusion and hope you do too.

Charlie wrote:

"The past few years of economic hardship has touched most aspects of our personal and professional lives, straining and testing us in many ways. Many fellow Realtors® and I have sensed a decline in professionalism and business ethics, and an increasing negativity towards each other. Disputes and ethics complaints have increased enough to concern us all."

I called Charlie and asked for the evidence. He doesn't have any. He did direct me to Kevin King at the RASCW office for statistics on arbitration and ethics complaints. (As if numbers of filings could only mean one thing.) As evidence to support his feelings, Charlie said his talks with his company leadership and associates about their increased incidence of conflict, convinced him that membership is more combative and less professional and ethical. Charlie admitted he did no formal research to support his accusation, (Gut Feeling he said) and he intended his statements to be "Rah Rah" as he sees himself as a "coach" leading a team.

All of us, as members of the National Association of Realtors, might have good reason to be concerned when any leader of one of our associations makes unsubstantiated accusations.

Before we join this president in feeling fear and striking out at fellow realtors, let's look at the reality:

An increase in ethics or arbitration hearings can be attributed to an increase in the professional acceptance of a highly regarded system of dispute resolution. Realtor disagreements are supposed to be handled outside of the courts and our Association does an excellent job of fielding complaints and giving brokers a fair hearing. An increase can also signal a healthy ethical stance against activity that had once been deemed acceptable. When more is at stake more complaints can be expected to rise to a higher level for resolution. Arbitration hearings are the right venue for settling commission disputes, and we commend members who take disputes to the panels for binding resolution. Ethics complaints from the public should be considered a success of our efforts to be open to the public to use our system to resolve concerns as opposed to forcing the public to expensive courts.

As for the incidences of conflict between his company and membership there are reasonable explanations which could be considered before determining the rest of us are bad guys. The fellow who drives his semi on a one-way street will have some conflict with drivers and pedestrians. Hey, I've been in conflict with people from time to time. I learned it makes sense look at me first before blaming everyone else. If I'm bumping into folks, I usually have a part in the conflict. Might be something to consider.

Charlie told me he considers this message his way of coaching his team as President; a Rah Rah message he said. Why, if he wanted to inspire, did he decline the opportunity to commend the membership for their perseverance, their ingenuity, and adaptability in tough times? Instead of praising those who increased their skills in distressed sales, he condemned the team for not playing nice enough with his company. Where the opportunity exisited to compliment members for developing creative business models to meet the consumer demands, Charlie used his position as Coach President to urge us to "work together" and I assume that means, as suits him. Sorry Charlie, just because we are in the same business, doesn't mean we are all on the same team--but we do follow the same rules. When we make statements about real esate we are supposed to be able to back them with facts. Got any? No. In fact, the evidence appears to the contrary. Without a statistician involved, it seems the number of complaints may have declined in relation to the per capita changes in our associations membership. I got this report from the association within minutes of my call. I would think the president would have done the same.

There is no doubt some business models will put old thinking where it belongs and those who resist will go out fighting. Realtors will keep on keeping on regardless of where the unfounded accusations come from, even if the accuser is the local association president. To conduct research on such an important issue by only feeling the sentiment of a fraction and single minded group such as your own company, disregard respectable evidence and then conclude with such a damaging accusation is the way Charlie leads, I'm not standing near the bus while he's driving.

That's my opinion; I'd like to hear your's.

Real estate markets are local and millions of dollars are invested daily to drive that message home to consumers. I'm a big fan of building on Other People's Money (OPM). Maybe more than an opportunity, I think it might be the responsibility of Realtors to deliver Hyper-Local Market information in an easy to read, consistent format. The question we are asked in public is "How's the real estate market?" and I think the questioner really wants to know "What's happening in my neighborhood?"

Searching the internet for information on Dane County, Wisconsin I'm able to see data exists to show "Hot-Spots" of foreclosures. If I have a home in a foreclosure hot spot it's important that I know it so I can position my property in the marketing. From the MLS I can see how long homes are on the market before an offer is accepted; not just from the last listing, but cumulative days on the market AND how long they are for sale from the LAST price change. That's relevant information because it tells me something about the sentiment of owners and buyers in that hyper market. For example, if 90% of the sellers adjusted their price before getting an offer and they got offers in short order after the last adjustment, it tells me buyers are there and sellers who get it will price to attract the buyer. My job will be the help the owner understand reality.

Over the course of this year, this blog will monitor and report on multiple Madison, Middleton, and other Dane County Hyper Local Markets. While the information may not tell you where we are going, I hope the work will tell us where we are and what makes a difference. Stay tuned.