About Tompkins County, NY

RE/MAX is the United State's No. 1 real estate franchise - and the nation's No. 44 franchise overall - according to Entrepreneur magazine's 30th Annual Franchise 500 survey.

The survey appears on the magazine's Web site and in its January 2009 issue.

Subway bested McDonald's to capture the top position overall. Behind No. 2 McDonald's came Liberty Tax Service at No. 3.

Among real estate franchises, RE/MAX ranks No. 1 for the ninth time in the past nine years. The closest competitor - Keller Williams - came in at a distant No. 71.

RE/MAX ranks No. 10 overall in the Low-Cost Franchises category. It finished No. 1 last year.

Additionally, RE/MAX tops all real estate competitors at No. 38 on the Global Franchises list.

RE/MAX has a long, successful history in the survey. It ranked No. 10 overall a year ago, No. 11 in 2007, No. 8 in 2006, and No. 10 in 2005.

All companies in the rankings are judged by the same criteria, the most important being financial strength and stability, size and growth rate. Also considered: number of years in business, length of time franchising, start-up costs, litigation, percentage of terminations and financing options.

The factors are plugged into a Franchise 500 formula, with each eligible company receiving a cumulative score.

"Help! We want to buy our dream home, but need to sell our house first. What do we do?"

At RE/MAX In Motion we use the ‘Sale of Home Contingency' in the best interest of our clients and we know how important it is to make sure that our clients are not at risk.

When a sale of home contingency is properly written, explained, negotiated, and advocated for, with the right terms, it can be a WIN/WIN for both buyer and seller. Most offers with this contingency make it to a successful closing.

New policies at the Ithaca NY Board of REALTORS have made it possible for sellers' properties to remain in ‘active' status even with a sale of home contingency offer in place. This means continued exposure of your property. This allows buyers to continue to see your property & make purchasing decisions. If this makes sense for you, ask your REALTOR.

At RE/MAX we know how important the next chapter of your life is.

A double whammy today in the world of real estate in upstate New York - it's Friday afternoon AND we are being blanketed with 8-14 inches of snow as I sit here and type this. It's quite beautiful out... if you don't have to drive!

So this shaken up snow globe that we have going on outside coupled with the fact that the holidays are right around the corner and it's Friday afternoon... yes you can imagine because of those circumstances it's 'dead' today. In fact I'm the only one in the office right now (I've got 4 wheel drive, & snow tires).

So that brings me to my point ---

It's a GREAT day for business planning! 2009 is only 2 weeks away (yikes!) and for some of us that means dusting off the 2008 plans to update them or creating brand new ones for '09.

Interestingly enough, I did a quick survey of agents in the office and about half of them don't use a business plan! They prefer to go with the flow. To me, that's scarier than driving in all this snow with people who don't know how to drive in the snow (like Cornell Univ & Ithaca College kids from the south).

I digress...

Anyway, at slow times, if and when I find myself, aimlessly wandering, so to speak, my plan keeps me on track and provides an outline of tasks, calls, mailings, etc - basically keeps me focused on my goals. I need that anchor.

So, as I sit here, quietly, I've finished my 2009 business plan and boy am I looking forward to next year and what it will bring!

Which one are you? Do you go sans business plan?

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Re/Max In Motion is supporting Musical Artist, Derek Rose in the global One Billion Fans Contest sponsored by Tribe of Noise.

Derek describes his sound as, "True homemade music without any modern technology, with good vibes and feelings."

We acknowledge that we can't do justice to his sound by just describing it - we can have the technology to do much better - here's a link to his on of his original songs, Painted Boots:

http://www.tribeofnoise.com/listen.php?h=ba7b6c3fa8d2c1361bbc5feb384077eb&l=f

Derek has a chance to win the One Billion Fans and an even better chance if you vote for him - please click here http://www.tribeofnoise.com/dereckrose and click on the stars. Thanks.

As the winner of the One Billion Fans contest, Derek Rose would have his image on the world's largest digital billboard, in Times Square in New York City. Cool huh? Please take the time to vote - we appreciate it!

The contest is being sponsored by Tribe of Noise.com. It is the first and only website solely using the Creative Commons license and user agreements to share music for commercial purposes. The musicians' need a platform to have their music heard and you or someone you know may be looking for hip, cool, new sounds in which you don't have to worry about copyright hassles. There is a component to the site which allows marketers/advertisers/gamers/video/movies/bloggers to use the music with no copyright hassles. There is also another side to the site which allows fans to click in and hear fabulous originals in all kinds of genres. It is a great tool - spread the word.

Thanks!

First let me set up the scene... at RE/MAX In Motion we post our listings to the Ithaca craigslist. It is a very popular craigslist and it's proved to be successful. So this morning I get a frantic phone call from one of our agents - she says that her seller saw their property on craigslist for rent! So I think, "how can that be? I definitely posted it for sale by broker over a week ago." Then the agent tells me that when an inquiry is sent to the poster a response is sent about being in Nigeria and just send money and you can move in! YEAH RIGHT!

So after some detective work I found the fraudulent post... basically the poster stole the information from either the original & correct craigslist post or from some other tertiary website. They were advertising the house for rent... a two bedroom two bath house in Ithaca NY for $850 a month - Yeah right! Here is the text of the email I received from the fraud poster - I'm posting it so other agents can be aware of what is happening.

This unique and beautiful property is well located and it's available now. I am a diplomat, i have just been recently transfered here in Nigeria, West Africa to serve with the United States High Commission, i am here with my wife for a 3-year term. The address of the property again is _____________, Ithaca NY 14850 and square footage is 1489. We have decided to rent it out because we will be out for a long time and we do not want to keep it vacant. Before we departed the States, we searched for a God fearing and reputable agent who can take good care of the house, but we couldn't get anyone then due to the limited time we had before our journey, we left with the keys and papers of the house. I'm willing to rent out the property to a tenant who is able to come up with the security deposit and first month rent upon moving in and I will like to be assured that the house will be properly managed. I will be sending the keys and the paperworks to you soon so you can have access to the inside of the house but before then, you can take a drive by to see the house and it's surrounding at your earliest convenience until you receive the keys and the paperworks. God bless you. Sean Turner. +234-808-647-0889. tlynnproperty@yahoo.com

I have never seen or experienced anything like this before. Oh and the house is not vacant...

The silver lining--- craiglist has an 'abuse' email address and a few minutes after I alerted them to the post they removed it.

Moral of the story... agents beware!