About Defiance County, OH

Our first whole week in business has been absolutely crazy, but good. We stayed extremely busy trying to don the "normal" things you would need to do in a real estate company, but had to also do the things that don't happen except when you open one.

We finally received 11 yard signs today. We ordered 20 that were supposed to be here on Tuesday, but it all worked out just fine. Jeri, our sales rep, has been working real hard trying to get things done for us. Anyway, we placed our signs in the yards of the three listings we have and they really look sharp.

Tomorrow night is the annual Halloween parade here in Defiance. We have a cart all decked out and ready to go. It's a big deal here. If the weather cooperates there will be a few thousand people there. I can't think of a better way to start getting out the news that we are open than our parade. We'll be the talk of the town as people try and figure out who we are. We made 500 flyers to pass out and I have to give big props to Hill Top Printing as they pulled off a small miracle today in getting them done for us. I'd recommend them if you need something done.

I'll post after we get the pictures from the parade and I think you'd agree our cart looks GREAT! Dawn and Brittney Carpenter worked on it for several hours yesterday. Thanks you two!

If not too busy tomorrow night, come out to the parade and say hi. We'd love to see ya.

scott

It took some time and effort but our website is finally up and running. It's only running on about 70% of what I would like it to be doing but we couldn't wait forever.

The site's address is http://www.realtyfive.com/. I hope you mark it as one of your favorites and visit it often if nothing else than just to see what the changes are.

If you subscribe to this blog, the Realty Five Fan Page on Facebook or to our Twitter page you can receive the updates as soon as they happen.

The team is going to be sharing posting duties on this blog and you will soon be hearing from Dawn Carpenter and Karol Yeager. I feel blessed to have them as part of the team and am looking forward to our future. If you want to see our new pictures you can see them on our Facebook Fan Page. I think they turned out great. (Thanks Bob!)

Oh yeah, this post is supposed to be about our website. When you visit it you may be asking, "where's the home search tool?" Well, it wasn't forgotten it was just delayed. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, the Toledo Board of Realtors is in the process of getting a new multiple listing service for us. Because of that, we are stuck in the transition and cannot get the search tool until they get transitioned over. When we do, however, we have a great home search tool that we will be implementing on the site. I think you will really like it.

Anyway, take the website for a spin and let me know what you think. I'm looking for imput and ways to make it better.

Thanks,

Scott

As always you can contact me at scott@realtyfive.com

The news this morning - it appears that GM is going to need to file bankruptcy because they couldn't reach an agreement with the shareholders. I'm not putting them down but having a GMAC name attached to our company has become somewhat of a burden. Because we have a GMAC franchise name many people are wondering whether or not we will be affected by all of this. Because GMAC Real Estate was purchased by a profitable company back in September we are happy to announce that we are not affected at all by the problems that GM is going through. The new company is working diligently to get us a new name and a new identity. I am pleased so far with the news the new company is sending out to us, and the support we are being promised. I am even more pleased that we aren't going to have to explain how we're getting through this in the situation GM is in at this time. It's so much easier to say we were purchased last fall by a lucrative company and that a name change is coming. It will be interesting to see what we end up with as a name!

Just got back from our first time at this annual event. My wife & I both met many wonderful people, most of which play an important roll in the real estate transaction. There was great food, great company, and most importantly, great contacts for referral business. Special thanks to InterNACHI (InterNational Association of Certified Home Inspectors) for providing us booth accessories. Also a big congrats to the Realtors who took home cash by spinning our cash wheel - Laurie Merrilat & Chris Ricica, both of ReMax Realty of Defiance, Cindy Gustwiller of AmeraMade Realty in Bryan, and Larry Fillinger of Century 21 Strait Realty of Defiance.

The election is finally over, the holidays have passed and the new year is in full swing. In addition to all that the new stimulus tax credit for first time homebuyers is here and the weather is showing promise of warmth and sunshine. Because of all of that the market is beginning to thaw out just a little bit here in the Defiance area. The problem is, of course, the job market continues to struggle here. GM has decided to layoff 250 employees. Defiance Metal products just laid off 93 this week and a plant in Continental is shutting down.

I'm hoping to see some changes real soon, but I don't expect a lot in the near future. The bright side is prices and interest rates are still at very low levels.

Defiance County Market Conditions
For the Week of:
Mar. 7, 2009- Mar. 14, 2009

Active Listings: 291
New Listings: 17
Price Changes: 9
New Pending: 5
Total Pending: 16
Solds: 8
Contingent: 21
Withdrawals: 3
Expireds: 4