El Paso, TX

The real estate market in El Paso, TXis humming right along. Interest rates are still low and there seems to be alot more buyers out there right now. El Paso and most of Texas is not in the slump (thank goodness) that alot of parts of the rest of the country are in currently.

Prices are remaining pretty steady and most homes (if priced correctly from the beginning) are selling pretty close to list price (96-98%) because sellers are offering to help buyers with closing costs.

There is still time for first time buyers or those who have not bought a home in the past 3 years to get into a home and be eligible for the tax credit.

Most of our buyers still come from our web site but we still get referrals from past clients and from other agents throughout the country that we have met at conventions etc.

Now is a great time to buy a home in El Paso and if you are moving to El Paso or selling a home in El Paso, please be sure to give me a call.

Preventive maintenance can mean the difference between maintaining the value in your home or depleting the equity you might have gained; keeping hard earned cash in your pocket, or throwing it into the wind with an unnecessary or unexpected expense.

The best way to help maintain any appreciation and protect your investment is to do minor routine tasks, proactively and systematically, to help keep the home operating and functioning normally. Avoiding major operating malfunctions or complete failures can easily be avoided if homeowners take just a few minutes to do some routine minor household tasks.

Many of these items can be done by the homeowner, cutting costs significantly, although the cost of hiring a professional is usually better than not performing the maintenance at all. Having to spend money on replacement appliances and installation costs can be several times more costly than the simple maintenance of them.

Maintenance Check-List

1. __ Service heat&a/c system once a year.

2. __ Change the filters in your heat&a/c system once a month.

3. __ Drain hot water heater once a year.

4. __ Don't leave light sockets without bulbs.

5. __ Periodically run a pitcher of ice cubes through garbage disposal to sharpen blades.

6. __ Replace dripping faucets immediately to conserve water.

7. __ Don't allow toilet tanks to drip - replace ballcock
assembly.

8. __ Check weather stripping around doors for air leaks.

9. __ Visually look at roof after high winds to detect loose shingles.

10.__ Visually look around outside roof line to find holes where animals might enter.

11.__ Check batteries in smoke detectors monthly/replace annually.

12.__ Wrap outside pipes in winter to prevent freezing.

13.__ Remove garden hose from outside faucet in winter.

14.__ Water around foundation during dry periods to prevent
cracking or shifting.

REMEMBER: better maintained homes sell faster and for higher prices

To search for houses currently available for sale within the entire El Paso, Ft. Bliss, and Horizon area don't forget to visit my website at www.JeseSellsHomes.com.

Home sales are up again. Hooo-rah! More than 6.1% sales jump for May 2009. April and March were strong months too.

It's time to warm up your websites, sharpen your lead generating tools and get ready to start enjoying some sales commissions.

A few of my recent blog posts have been on effective real estate marketing and the dark side of not using technology correctly.

I blame a lot of brokers for being cheapskates and morons when it comes to NOT using real estate marketing tools correctly. For brokerages that have sales of several hundred homes and making sales of $10 million, $20 million and more - I am just shocked and outraged when I see huge numbers of broker websites that all look like they got banged out on the same word processor -- today I am going to tell rank and file agents what to look out for.

Too many brokerages are imploding and going out of business. In their wake, they end up screwing the agent out of their commissions they are due.

In this rant and a few more to come, I will teach agents what the warning signs are. My 12 years as a real estate coach and consultant has given me the wisdom to watch out for these warning signs.

Below is the Bartman's Top 10 Warning Signs that your broker could be soon going out of business.

1.) Does your brokerage have an in house person to shoot your 360 virtual tours?

2.) Does your brokerage have an attractive, built from scratch website?

3.) Does your broker website have a natural, page one visibility on Google for the relevant search terms for your area?

4.) Does your broker actively promote new technology to help you with leads?

5.) Does your broker hire and bring in speakers and coaches to teach the agents what the new lead generating tools are?

6.) Did your broker just sign up for Cendant's Lead Router (or another program) and are they giving you the leads (in rotation per agent) for FREE?

7.) Does your broker do any ACTIVE participation with blogging or any social networking activities online?

8.) Did your broker cut your annual ad spend by 50% or more on newspaper ad or real estate guide advertising?

9.) Does your broker have a Twitter, FaceBook or corporate LinkedIn account?

10.) Is your broker able to schmooze and get any of the million dollar producers at Amazing Realty to come and join your place?

If you answered NO to 5 questions or more... this is not a good sign.

YOU -- as an agent can DO something about this if you like the brokerage you're still with.

1.) Get your agent to DUMP your Keller Williams crap website template. Or dump the other McWebsite template company you're with

2.) Hire a consultant that knows what the Hell they're doing. There's a lot of good real estate marketing consultants out there willing to help you turn things around.

3.) Start somewhere. The journey of a thousand miles always begins with the first step. If your broker doesn't get it... then kick things into gear and YOU CREATE a Corporate presence at LinkedIn.com for free. Then go to FaceBook.com. Same thing. Then start Chirping on Twitter. Just dive in and start getting other agents to help out.

4.) You're already here on ActiveRain. Good start, but get your BROKER here, too. Get other agents to jump on board at ActiveRain. Remember when you invite them, you get Active Rain Points! Hooooo-rah!

5.) Start looking at the competition. Go to Google and enter in the search phrases like: your home town + real estate. (dallas real estate, for example). See who shows up on page one. Sniff their source code by pulling down the Source and looking at the code. See how pretty one website looks when compared to another. Start to make notes of who keeps showing up on page one consistently. Go to Amazon and buy books on SEO and learn what it takes to make small changes to your site that over time -- can make a huge difference in online visibility.

6.) Write Press Releases. Upload them to 1888PressRelease.com. Pay $50 bucks and get them instantly linked into Google and other social media networks.

These top six things you can start today. If your agent is still being a sour puss moron, but you like the fact you have ZERO desk fees and you get good commissions, then go it alone and build your own Agent Website.

The critical things you need to do are:

1.) Build a website from scratch. Forget Z57. Forget Advanced Access, eNeighborhoods, Homes.com and the rest. Template websites are NOT the way to go.

This includes MosterTemplate.com, too. Remember today's next time homebuyers are not stupid or naive. They can spot a cheapskate agent a mile off.

2.) Hire someone who knows REAL ESTATE SEO. Search for that phrase on Google: (real estate seo) and go with a proven leader with a track record of consistent home runs.

3.) Get a good IDX into your site. Bartman likes iHomefinder IDX. It contains a built in lead manager and set up and deployment takes seven days or less. Your monthly fee will be $50 to $79 a month.

4.) ADD two way chat to your site. Go here: www.WebsiteAlive.com. Sign up for the FREE 10- day account. If you like it, get $10 off per month when you use this code: ARE1995

5.) Create a few press releases per year and launch them on 1888PressRelease.com

6.) Go here and buy some one way incoming links for $250 a month for six months. www.Rank4Sales.com

7.) Traffic Measurement and analytics. You cannot trust Google Analytics to give you accurate results. Google's purchase of Urchin combined with the fact they can control the algorithm of Google for AdWords and your Pay Per Click campaings is a pure conflict of interest. If Google needs more money, it is possible for them to tweak the algorithm and artificially report through Urchin (Google Analytics) that your results could be dropping when in fact -- they are not.

So stay out of that tar pit and go with an independent traffic analytics company. Go here: VisiStat.com and sign up. It's $29 bucks a month.

Steps one through seven above are what you need to do to get your site in better shape, impress customers, get instant leads and take control of your destiny.

Do these seven things above and in less than a year, your leads will double... or triple.

With 12 years of doing this kind of work, this is how I boil down the elements of what goes into a successful real estate business.

- bartman

I want to scream.

Remember the movie, Network? "I'm mad as HELL and I'm NOT going to take it ANYMORE!"

I'm almost wishing I could go back to real estate sales. At least then, dumb questions and self defeating situations only came from next time home buyers when they asked WHY they couldn't put in for a new car before we closed on their new home.

A lot of REALTORS are needing a similar wake up call, because if 90% of you don't wake up soon, the top ten percent and top 1 percent of the top producers are just going to keep on laughing all the way to the bank. Because 90% of all real estate agent websites: SUCK.

Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration. Actually more like 94% of them suck.

I've been in real estate marketing for ten years so I think I have a bit of expertise in this area. So when a friend of mine said she is moving to El Paso and since I am not licensed to sell real estate in El Paso, I thought I'd go search up a few websites in the El Paso area and give her a few recommendations.

The first website we went to was a Keller Williams McWebsite template. The one you get for free from KW Corporate. It was a complete disaster. I tried a narrow search for homes near the mountain with great photos and 360 tours. No such luck. Open houses weren't working either. Then on one page, there was a link to their new and improved crappy template -- which ALSO from KW Corporate and it looked just as awful. The broker could have done so much better if they went to TemplateMonster.com The colors, the style said nothing about El Paso, no Spanish-Mexican flavor or zest was used to make the site anything but dull.

Four other real estate websites I went to had ZERO virtual tours, either and all of them were equally unremarkable -- and I'm sure Simon Cowell from American Idol would add the word: BORING and karaoke to the reviews if here were sitting in my chair judging the poor looking websites I was staring at in disbelief.

Does anyone REALTOR in El Paso READ anything about real estate marketing but me? I am beginning to wonder if there is any intelligent life (REALTORS) doing business in El Paso? And I'm sorry if this comes across as insulting, but I'm beginning to wonder.

You show me a single REALTOR with a crappy website template in El Paso, ZERO visibility on Google, NO virtual tours and I'll show you a REALTOR who isn't making a six digit income.

FACT: Americans were watching 5 million virtual tours a day, according to a report published by the PEW Internet Research Group. And this report is four years old. My guess is maybe 5.5 million today. Maybe more.

Does anyone READ the annual Homebuyers report? People that buy homes want to SEE the virtual tour first. These too, are hard facts. Then when they are ready -- they will contact you and give you their contact information.

I went to at least ten more websites and they all look like there banged out on the same word processor. The only difference is that one site was blue, the other one was green, the others were a sandy or desert yellow. All of them had the same school information. Nothing different or remarkable about them. Since I was recording a radio commercial for one of my clients in Florida, I had to record a make believe McWebsite Agent Template Company. King Templates.

This is the commercial I made. If this were a real company, their radio ad would sound like this.

Bank foreclosures are just as stupid. I went to some foreclosure sites and an agent offering REOs on her site. These were half baked disasters.

Apparently, banks with REO's send out a driver to do the digital drive by.

They sort of slow down and shoot just the outside of the home. The bank thinks they're doing real estate marketing and getting homes ready to sell.

Ha! Fat chance you'll sell the home with ZERO or no photos.

I'm still sitting here with a friend who's looking to buy a house in El Paso. And she could be a cash paying customer with $150,000 to pay for a home right now. Her FICO scores are 810.

I find one house for her that is $30,000 UNDER market value and near the foothills. She wants to know what the kitchen looks like. The bedroom? Nope, no photos. No such luck. Every friggin REO listing is either NO photo or the outside photo only. And the dumb REALTOR and bank want to know when these homes are going to sell.

I kept looking for more great El Paso real estate websites and did not find any.

WAKE UP CALL TO EL PASO REALTORS -- I have a client for somebody. 810 FICO Scores and she has $150,000 to spend CASH right now. She may opt for $50,000 down with a nice 15 year fixed at 5.0%. She can go VA or conventional.

Send her a few listings with some virtual tours and make sure it is in a nice, safe neighborhood in the foothills with panoramic views of El Paso. Agents without the ability to show my client a virtual tour need not waste your time.

Send your hot sheet leads to: joshua24g@yahoo.com and to the Attention of Sandra C. George. She wants to move in July.

- Bartman

The Mirai Bowl is located at 1765 N Lee Trevino in El Paso, Texas, this is a great place to grab a quick and good lunch if you are in a hurry.

Everything that I have eaten here has not been a disappointment at all. The other day Julio ( my compadre) and I stopped by the Lucero's place (Mirai Bowl) to have lunch. Every time we come here we will try a new dish, so this day we decided to try the Spicy Seafood Udon and the Salmon Teriyaki.

This is the spicy seafood udon, Julio order this for lunch, he said it was very good and spicy.

This is the plate I order for lunch, the salmon teriyaki, and was very good with a mellow taste of sweetness.

The place is always very clean every time we have visited and the Lucero's and their help very attentive.

They also have fresh sushi boxed right to go if you are in a big hurry and short on time.

There prices are very modest and affordable.

So next time you are looking for some good fast food, remember Mirai Bowl Japanese Express, I promise you will not be disappointed.

James and Yong A. Lucero are the owners of Mirai Bowl here in El Paso, Texas, there business phone number is 915 - 591-1005

I forgot to tell you, that they also have a drive up window for orders to go.

Hope you all enjoy it as much as I do when I go there for lunch, maybe we will cross paths there one of these days.

~Life is Good