Peter Simonsen, e-PRO, REALTOR, GRI, SRS

We all know that the current economic environment is challenging to say the least, but did you know that McDonald's stock price has gone from $12 in early 2003 to $52 today? It also hit a high of $67 in August of last year. What is even more impressive is the fact that McDonald's makes money. Along with Wal-Mart, McDonald's is one of a very few number of companies which are growing profitably in the current economic environment. How did they do this?

First, McDonalds brought back an "old hand" to run the business. In early 2003 McDonalds then determined their future business strategy - "Play to WIN". It was a one page document which shifted McDonalds focus from building new locations to improving the looks, menu and operations of their current locations. In hindsight this might seem like an obvious approach, but at the time it was somewhat radical.

McDonald's focused on improving their menu, drive-through and overall look which has paid off handsomely. The menu got more "green" and healthier items like apple dippers, the drive-through (14% of their business) was improved and not considered an afterthought any more, and finally they remodeled the current locations to upgrade them from an early "cafeteria look" to a much more modern look and feel. Today's parents now think it is OK to take their kids to McDonald's because they can order the apple dippers and other much healthier menu items besides the super Mac. They now get most of the drive-through orders right the first time and the McDonald's locations looks friendly, modern and clean. Finally, did I mention the McCoffee? As part of their long term strategy, McDonald's now sell quality coffee to compete with Starbucks, but for a lover price.

How does this apply to selling your house?

First, remember that families buy a home, but they need to sell a house. Like a famous Austin REALTOR said: "Once you decide to sell your home, you do not live there any more", which means that you always sell a house, but buy a home.

Second, the old truth still applies: "Location, condition and price will sell your home" but today you need to add a couple of steps in order to sell your house quickly.

• Drive-through is all about convenience
  Make it very easy to find your house listing
  Yes, it needs to be listed in REALTORS MLS system
  Yes, it should have a for sale sigh in the form yard
  But also make sure that it is all over the Internet
  Realtor.com
  Zillow.com
  Trulia.com
  GoogleBase.com
  Homes.com
  Craigslist.com
  YahooRealEstate.com
  Frontdoor.com
  And many other websites.
  Personally knock on doors and hand out flyer's to at least 100 homes in the neighborhood
  
• Modern look and feel is all about first impressions
  Have the house professional cleaned
  Professionally stage the house
  Take care of all outside clean up items
  Take great pictures not just good, but great pictures
  Make an inviting video
  
• Menu items is all about the quality of work, before you list the house for sale
  Have the house pre-sale inspected
  Correct most of the discovered items
  Complete a house energy audit
  Point out "green" items
  Could be short commute
  Instant water heater
  Double pane windows
  Extra insulation
  Buy an home warranty
  
• McCoffee is all about applying a long term strategy
  Hire a professional REALTOR
  Full service, unless you want to "give" away the house
  Pay the full commission (you get what you pay for)
  Get a professional comparable market analysis
  Price your house correctly (ahead of the market)
  Pay attention to feedback
  From your REALTOR
  From prospective buyers

If you apply this "McDonald's" approach to selling your house, you should be able to sell it very quickly, even in this challenging housing environment.

Do you have sensitive client information on your laptop?

What if you lost your laptop? Could a crook access your client information and use it for devious purposes?

Technology can be a great productivity booster. You can work from anywhere at any time. You can help your clients 24/7 if you so desire, but you need to make sure that you protect client sensitive information. Just like you have a fiduciary responsibility to your client when they hire you as their REALTOR, you also have a responsibility to protect their most sensitive information. I am talking about social security numbers, signatures, financial statements, account numbers, address etc. All of this kind of information, thieves would love to exploit to their own financial gain and your clients demise.

I have a couple of recommendations for minimum computer security:

1. Firewall. Any computer should have a firewall installed. Today, according to federal sources, it only takes 10 to 15 minutes for a computer to be compromised if you connect to the Internet and does not have any firewall installed.
2. Virus scanning software. The Internet is full of nasty software which your computer easily can pick up if you are not careful. The best advise is to have a commercial grade virus scanning software installed. Several vendors provide excellent solutions to protect your computer from all kinds of viruses, however you need to keep the signatures updated. So please check for new updates aat least once a week. Windows Live One care is one solution, McAfee, HouseCall and Kaspersky are other solutions.
3. Spyware scanning software. Protect your computer with a good spyware scanning software. Several versions are free of charge. SpyBot is a free version, even though you are encouraged to donate a small amount.
4. Check for operating system and application updates. Every second Tuesday of every month, Microsoft comes out with their monthly software updates and if the situation is serious, Microsoft will releases an update ASAP. So check for update on a weekly basis.

Here are some more advanced computer security recommendations:

1. Hard disk encryption software. If you encrypt your hard drive, your information will still be secure even after it would fall into the hands of "bad" people. There are several solutions available. Microsoft Vista has a built in bit locker and PGP Corp has several commercial grades encryption solutions.
2. Computer monitoring software. If your computer should et stolen or lost, LoJack can help authorities recover your computer.
3. Backup. Use an on-line service like Mozy or Carbonite for remote backup solutions. Separate free standing hard drive for weekly backup and burn a CD once a month.

If you follow this advise your clients will thank you should you loose your computer and you will also avoid and legal exposure from lawsuits.

It makes me feel sick when I hear the national media describing all real estate in the US as horrible. It is like saying the temperature in the US is 79 degrees today. Do you care what the average temperature is? You care about the temperature where you are or where you are going.

Here in Austin Texas we have a very stable housing market with a median home price of only $182,000 and only 5.6 months of inventory. Last year we sold a total of 20,199 houses her if the greater Austin area. Not bad for a "terrible" real estate year. So please remember that all real estate is local, from the state, city all the way down to the neighborhood.

By the way, the temperature in Austin today will be around 50 degrees and around 50 homes will be sold today. Let us give you professional REALTOR services for all you real estate needs in Austin Texas. Call us at 512.636.7993 today.

Well it happens maybe twice a year, and this mornig it hit. We have ice in Austin.

The weather tells us that it is winter and this morning mother nature covered most of the greater Austin area with a thin layer of ice. The news channels already reports several accidents this morning at 6 AM and several school districts will start 2 hours later than normal.

I remember two years ago when we had a really bad ice storm which closed down Austin for a couple of day. Then I had park my car outside overnight and by mornign we had about half an inch of ice alll over the car. I took me some boiling hot water just to get into the car. Then it took about 25 minuter to get the car warm enough so the the ice on the windows started to melt and I could get a scraper under the ice in order to get the windows clean.

The positive in this situation is that normally we do not get much snow here in Austin, so we have to deal with the occational ice storm every winter. Usually the temperature warms up enaough during the day that the ice willl turn into water, so we will see what the day will bring.

When the whole economy turns south it gives rise to crooks, criminals and scam artists. This means that you need to be careful out there. When hard times hit you see both more criminals and more victims. Do not fall for any "easy" way out of your problems. Please be careful and follow these tips;

• If it sounds to good to be true, it most likely is.
• Do NOT sign anything you do not understand.
• Do not give out any personal information over the phone, unless YOU have called the business.
• Do not click on web site or email links. Always type the web site address into your web browser and see if the URL starts with https (the s at the end is very important since this signifies a secure connection to the web site)
• Please consult your professional advisers if you have questions. Your attorney, REALTOR, CPA or financial advisor. They are all willing to help you.

Please call us at 512.636.7993 if we can hel you with your Austin real estate needs.