Sam Miller

Most real estate agents realize that the buying public is shifting away from newspapers and print marketing in favor of the internet. It has been said many times that over 80% of all real estate consumers are using the internet as their primary method of searching for available homes BEFORE they ever contact a real estate professional. This statistic is quite impressive and it leads me to a topic that I believe is worthy of discussing which is the use of digital camera wide angle lenses.

This past weekend a real estate friend of mine from Colorado asked a group of us a question about digital cameras because she is about to make an investment and replace her current digital camera. Her question caused me to do some serious thinking about her question and her needs so I wrote a blog titled "Digital Camera Wide Angle Lens Comparison". The idea behind this blog was to share with some of my real estate friends and speakers a real life photo comparison using different camera lens settings so that everyone could actually see the differences. I limited my photo examples to just four different photo views including a popular 35mm, 24mm, 17mm and an ultra wide 10mm photo.

After sharing my blog with our group several of the members asked if would be willing to post it on ActiveRain so here is a micro version of the blog and I am including a link to the original blog that I posted this past Saturday. I hope that being able to see comparisons between the 4 different lens settings is helpful.

35mm photo example above.

24mm photo example above.

17mm photo example above

10mm photo example above.

To view a more detailed example of this topic feel free to visit the original blog: CLICK HERE.

Sam Miller of RE/MAX Stars Realty at www.SamMiller.net or 1-800-282-9096

2008 was a fairly active year for the Mount Vernon Ohio housing market. Every January I complete a very detailed real estate market study and I research more than 50 different searches using the Knox County MLS service. The most important report I do each year is the residential home sale "State of the Market" report. This report reveals specifically which home price ranges were hot and which prices ranges were soft.

The Mount Vernon Ohio real estate market saw 211 residential homes sell in 2008. The accumulative dollar volume of Mount Vernon homes sales was $22,261,688 in combined sales volume according the the Knox County Ohio Multiple Listing Service. The 2008 average sales price for a home that sold in Mount Vernon was $105,506 with the highest residential home selling at $425,000.

For a more detailed report that highlights exactly how many homes sold in each price range and the all the average sales price for at the Mount Vernon in 2008 you will want to click this link.

Sam Miller

This past year was an active year for the Apple Valley lake community. Each January I study the Knox County Ohio MLS system and I review which areas and price ranges were especially active and which price ranges were slower with sales activity. This report highlights all residential home sales for the previous year.

The Apple Valley lake community saw 101 residential homes sell in 2008. The grand total of Apple Valley homes sales was $16,058,378 in total combined sales volume according the the Knox County Ohio Multiple Listing Service. The 2008 average sales price for a home that sold in Apple Valley was $158,993 with the highest home selling at $530,000.

For a more detailed report that highlights exactly how many homes sold in each price range and the all the average sales price for at the Apple Valley in 2008 you will want to click this link.

Sam Miller

The Apple Valley lake community is located in Knox County, Ohio about an hour north of Columbus.

There are times when searching for real estate listings can be a challenging experience. The challenge with most real estate websites is that they lack a true search feature that allows the visitors a choice to view by specific locations and or by specific price ranges. My team and I discussed this topic over and over and we worked with our developer to create a way that makes searching for homes much easier for our visitors.

When you are visiting our website you now can search for available home in more specific price ranges. An example of this would be homes priced at $100,000 or less. We reviewed the most common price ranges in the Knox County Ohio area and we created specific searches based on these price ranges. We wanted to help our visitors save time and avoid needing to scroll past dozens of homes that they were not interested in. Our goal was to make the search process quicker and easier.

We also took the idea a few extra steps further for our clients and customers. There have been many people asking us about Knox County Bank Owned Listings so we created a specialized search for clients for only bank owned homes. This way they do not have to search through hundreds of listings in an attempt to try to figure out which listings are bank owned. We simply organized our bank owned listings in an individual section titled "Bank Owned Listings". This will make it much easier for those who only want to view forclosed homes in Knox County Ohio.

Sam Miller of RE/MAX Stars Realty

Sometimes it takes a personal experience to cause us to change our way of thinking. We were working with a corporate relocation client who was moving here from a large metro community. Before we ever met the client in person we exchanged about a dozen e-mails with us sending real estate listings via email links and the client enjoyed being able to review detailed listing information BEFORE their initial community tour and house hunting trip. After several information exchanges he sent me an e-mail with the final 8 homes that he felt most interested him. HERE LIES THE LESSON... he sent along a surprise note that said "Eliminate any home on my favorite list that doesn't offer true high speed internet service meaning...DSL or Cable".

This was not a difficult request of my client but his request got me thinking about just how critical this amenity was to him and I am sure it is to many others. Something we currently are not promoting in our marketing materials or on our websites is "Broadband Internet Available or Hi Speed Internet Available". However, this client has got me thinking that this is an amenity that we should be promoting even if only in a subtle way. Now that this client created the awareness that this is a feature he was not willing to live without...it has become abundantly clear that we need to market this beyond just an MLS listing detail sheet.

I am interested in knowing how many of you are including "Broadband Internet Available or Hi Speed Internet Available" in marketing beyond your MLS listing detail sheet. I look forward to your thoughts and opinions.

Happy Selling!

Sam Miller