Jacksonville lost 1,000 construction jobs between December 2009 and December 2010, or 3 percent, with 29,000 hanging on to jobs in an industry that has been clobbered by the economic recession for the past three years. That loss, however, was good news. It was the smallest December-to-December construction employment drop since 2007 and a sign that construction job losses finally are stemming. Still, at 29,000, there were fewer people employed in construction in the Jacksonville area in December than at any point in the last 10 years. According to data released by the Associated General Contractors of America, Jacksonville ranks 138th nationwide in year-over-year growth in local construction employment. We all hope that this is the bottom of the barrel and after this we start gaining a few construction jobs back.
I was at a meeting recently where several folks remarked how many fewer agents there happen to be in Camden County Ga. I mentioned that I have seen the same thing happen. Many agents have left the field to pursue other avenues of work. A friend of mine up north has lost about 1/3 of his agents in the last 18 months. He credits the economy and the fact that most that left his Brokerage were under-performers anyway
My question to the Realtors is what would you say either positive or negative to someone who is considering entering the Real Estate game now as an agent?
New home construction permits have fallen to an almost 10 year low in Jacksonville Fl. Except for a slight increase in August permits the new permits have been falling monthly. There were just 187 permits in November which is a sharp decrease from the 232 permits in September. October saw just 197 permits issued. 2009 saw an steady increase each month with an high of 363 permits in April 2009.
David Vickers, a former Jacksonviile, FL Contractor was found guilty today by a Federal Jury on conspiracy to commit mail, wire and bank fraud. He faces up tp 30 years on these charges. It seems Vickers was using the sellers money to make it look like the buyer was getting money gifted to them. He even went as far as to have cashiers checks made out in the name of the buyers and buyers relatives. Vickers advertised his renovated and new homes to buyers with credit scores as low as 550 and that he would help with down payment assistance. He even went as far as to falsify the paperwork for the closing
Yesterday in Waycross GA the National BBQ Festival held there 9th annual Smokin in the Swamp BBQ Competition. Time restrictions did not allow us to enter the BBQ portion of the festival so we decided to enter the Apple Pie Competition because we only had to make a pie and drop it off and wait for the results.
Nancy's apple pie recipe is in its third generation of existence. Very little has changed over the years and the pie is pretty much the same. So we decided it would be fun to enter this pie and see what happens. Nancy was up against hundreds of professional BBQ'ers and many local folks so the competition was fierce. Typically the professional BBQ'ers win the top 10 positions so we had little chance.
Nancy's Apple Pie was a 4th Place Winner and no one was more surprised than us. People at the festival tell us that this was the first time in the competition that someone other than a professional BBQ'er had ever placed in the Top 10 let alone 4th place.
Nancy has been making this pie for me for over 10 years and I have been telling her that it is the best I have ever had. In fact it is the only apple pie I do eat because eating another pie feels like I am cheating on her.
Congratulations Nancy we are very proud of you!
Marketing Services for Real Estate Agents and Brokers, real estate SEO that gets results, Point2 SEO, Google Analytics, Point2 Analytics SEO for Point2, Online Reputation Management,
I graduated from college with a Business Degree and I am currently working on my MBA. Right out of college I became a Franchisee for Domino's Pizza. That was a lot of fun and I did it for almost 12 years and I was able to hone my marketing and business skills. During my stint at Domino's Pizza I won all of their top honors including Franchisee of the Year, 4 times. During that time I became involved in a small microfilm business which later became involved in a new medium called CD's
During my Pizza and Microfilm days I had many friends who ran Bulletin Board Systems out of their homes.(this was usually a 2400 baud dial up connection). They were looking for a way to allow more than one person at a time to dial into their systems and use the same application at the same time. Over coffee one day my BBS buddies asked if I knew of a way to do this. The programs that were already out there were much to expensive for the average user to buy, let alone install. With the help of a programmer friend we developed the first "Open Source" Doorway Applications program. It was a big hit and launched my new career.
I have always prided myself on being a cutting edge guy when it came to technology and the Internet boom was no exception. Many of my BBS friends became some of the first web sites on the Internet. and Website development was a new medium and there were almost no website developers to be found. I saw an opportunity here and ran with it. My early company was one of the very first Website Development firms on the Internet. In the early days of the Internet it was easy to find a website because there were so few of them.
All a person has to do was advertise their site and people would flock to their site because it was so new. But after a few years it became harder to find a website and these pesky sites called Search Engines were developed to make the search for a websites easier. The Search Engine Optimization market was born. This new industry was exciting and complicated but one that I took to like a fish to water. I soon immersed myself in the technologies and nuances of this cottage industry.
Over the next few years my Website and SEO company took off and business was booming. During this time I also became involved in computer repair and network development for large to medium sized companies. I met my wife Nancy during this time and she took over the Website development part of our company. Nancy's talent and skills for web design were vastly superior to mine and it showed in the amount of business we were now generating from web design.
In the last few years our son Max was born, we sold our Computer/Networking company, Internet Techs, and moved 1200 miles to St Marys Ga. I became the 2004 Missouri Business Man of the Year and got to meet President Bush. I left the self-employed world after 25 years of working for myself and joined the cooperate world. During this time I have stayed very busy handling the SEO for some of our clients and advising many small to medium sized businesses on their SEO. I keep up on the latest SEO trends and changes and pass this on to my clients.
Recently after talking to many Real Estate Agents we saw a real need for good SEO. We decided to REDEFINE the SEO EXPEREINCE by offering more for less to our clients. We offer Online Marketing Services to Realtors and Brokers.
Merriam Websters online Dictionary describes an EXPERT as:
experienced
having, involving or displaying a special skill or knowledge derived from training or experience.
Wikipedia describes an expert as:
is someone widely recognized as a reliable source of technique or skill whose faculty for judging or deciding rightly, justly, or wisely is accorded authority and status by their peers or the public
That is all certainly a mouthful and a very high standard to up hold. I hope my years of experience will speak for itself. Since the release of version 1.0 of Mosaic in 1993 by some good friends of mine at the University of Illinois I have been involved in Website Design and SEO has changed many times over the years and will continue to do so. Great Organic SEO is still the foundation of of being found on the Internet. Developing your organic SEO around the market(s) you are trying to reach should always be first in your SEO strategy and will prove to be the pillar of your website SEO. The new Internet Social Medias also play an important part of your SEO and should be embraced.
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