I have heard everything from “well I’m just going to wait till it gets better”, or “I’m not sure whats going to happen to me this is terrible who let it get this bad”.  Keep in mind we have had some amazing economic years that have been UN-precedented and now we are  coming down off that high. Think about this I recently read a great article by Mark Riepe and it was comparing our economic times now to the great depression and here is just a snip it of that.

If you would like to read the whole article click here on Charles Scawab

My point is this, get informed, don’t panic and be smart about your finances. If you don’t have a great financial planner get one. If your in business look for the opportunities and push forward. What you don’t want to be doing is running around waiting for the sky to fall.

So recently I visited with some Windermere agents on Whidbey Is. who are really thinking out of the box and being very successful in the process.They are taking the tool of Google Analytics and taking it to a whole other level.

Recently I read how Remax is using Google Analytics to better track and understand the traffic they receive to remax.com, Windermere has been doing this pretty much from the very early days that Google offered this great free tool.  That said we didn’t stop there. It is one thing to track traffic to your company site it is a totally different concept to follow traffic right down to each photo on every single listing, and  then making sure the agent can use this data to do a better job at educating the Seller on the effectiveness of the  maketing programs and reach that that particular agents has at exposing this home to as many buyers as possible.

From the Geographic traffic maps to the vistor trending reports in the Google Analytics tool agents can now embed this code directly into each of their listing’s photo galleries. What is does is something amazing. Now when listings get activity on line you don’t just get a hit counter. What you get is a story that can be used to better explain how important, pricing is, how valuable a good search tool is, how the internet has far greater reach than any printed publication. You can track trends and market swings based on global activity. When was the last time you ran a real estate classified ad in the local newpaper and the following day you were able to automatically send out a heat map plotting the traffic that that add received from it’s distribution? With Google analytic you can do all that and then some.

One of the tools that is very popular is the ability to e-mail any report directy to your seller or buyer or better yet have it set up on a weekly automated push. With the market being as tuff as it is agents always need to have new creative ideas to articulate the value the can bring to the table. Google Analytics can provide then with just that.

To set up a free account today visit https://www.google.com/analytics/home/

So all this talk about Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 what does it really mean?

In a Web 1.0 world the content in many ways is created and managed by the webmaster and it has a direct message that is controlled and used to try and capture the reader. It is a site that is text heavy and video lite. It can be static in nature and self serving. There is very little outside contribution and ideas and concepts can by over shadowed by the knowledge of the expert controlling the message. It usually is a single dimensional site that is answering a single questions about a single topic. Your audience is someone who is seeing that information only and not interacting.

This is very different form the Web 2.0 world. Wikipedia states web 2.0 as

“Web 2.0 is a term which describes the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies. The term became notable after the first O’Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004.^{[2] [3]} Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users utilize the Web. According to Tim O’Reilly:”

I’m not sure what that means but here is what I do know. In a Web 2.0 world we have to understand that it is no longer about us but more about our customer’s needs and wants. Our sites need to be interactive and allow for collaboration. We have to let the customer get involved. We are no longer the expert but rather the facilitator of communication on shared ideas and values, and from that we get peer credibility. Our sites need to be dynamic with now information. We are not trying to capture anyone but rather create a place where our users want to come and  share and learn about the information that is being enriched in this new interactive world.

Advergril does a great job with these nine differences between Web 1.0 and 2.0 see here site for visuals.

1. FROM FINDING INFORMATION TO MAKING CONNECTIONS

2. FROM DIRECTED BEHAVIOR TO FINDING BY BROWSING

3. FROM ANSWERS TO CONNECTING TO SUPPORT

4. FROM VALUE PROPOSITIONS TO SIMPLE VALUE

5. FROM READING TO WRITING

6. FROM ACCESSIBLE TO PERSONAL

7. FROM EXPERT VOICE TO PEER CREDIBILITY

8. FROM YOU TO ME

9. FROM CONTENT TO MULTIMEDIA

 So what does this mean for you as a real estate agent. Take a real close look at your website and analyze are you 1.0 or 2.0 and what do you need to do to move into this new look and feel of the 2.0 world. A helpfull sites that can get you some better looks would be

rahmn.com, where they are building sites that are more blog driven and less template driven.

With a blog you have the ability to take that knowldge and get it out to the people that are looking for it on a daily basis. A blog allows you to write your thoughts and ideas and share information in a far more dynamic arena. A lot of agents are afraid to blog because they don’t think they can write or  they just don’t have the time. Both of these are excuses and can be overcome with a little direction and help.

Your Blog can be used to tell it like it is on a Neighborhood level and allow you to become the expert. You can write on many different topics that help educate both the buyer and the seller about your profession, the process of buying and selling and just how great, or not so great areas are in the communities you serve.

Don’t get me wrong websites can do this to but the work required to keep your site up is not a easy as adding an article daily or weekly to your blog. If you want to get started with a blog watch this great video that really gets right to the meat of what a blog is and then think abouit  takeing  Windermere’s blogging class to get you going in the right direction. To see the windermere classes visit Windermere’s Blog

Great Video on Blogs
 

Recently Windermere did a study and In April 2008, we contracted  Hoi-Yin (Hoi-Yin Lo, is an independent consultant with a master’s degree in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) from the University of Michigan. She has been a user experience researcher for over 7 years and had served as a consultant at Microsoft, Intel, and Zillow. ) was hired by Windermere to conduct independent user research on what buyers look for in a real estate multimedia presentation (also known as virtual tour). She wrote a white paper  to help selling agents use their marketing money wisely by creating the best multimedia presentation online. The research also serves to advise Windermere on the best way to create real estate multimedia presentations.

I’m not going to go into great detail here but I want to make some points about marketing a home on-line and this is backed up by our recent studies.

Many agents today really focus on the Seller as to what is going to please them when it comes to how the home will get marketed. I think the we as real estate agents forget that what a seller wants to see is not what a buyer wants to see. Many virtual tours companies talk about how 9 out of 10 sellers love their features and there fore Mr. and Mrs. Real estate agent use our program. I have to tell you that Sellers don’t buy homes buyers do.

From our studies let me share with you what we found that buyers don’t like when they are on line looking at homes and images. Here they are.

·         Auto-play slideshows

·         Background music

·         Audio commentary

·         Narratives instead of quick facts

·         Agent videos

·         Difficult-to-view videos

In many cases the number one viewers of virtual tours are the sellers not the buyers. So what do buyers want when it come to a good presentation here is what we found.

·         Photos of different kinds and angles

o   Photos that show character of the property

o   Photos of closet spaces, flooring, garage and other details

o   Neighborhood photos

·         Detailed photo description that described amenities and dimensions of the room

·         Property and tax information

·         Neighborhood information

To maximize chances of potential home buyers pursuing a listing, make sure to choose a real estate multimedia presentation that best accentuates the most desirable features and content of the presentation. The best-of-breed multimedia presentation will feature the following:

• Large, clear photos
• Photo description next to the photo
• Written descriptions of important facts about the property
• Floor plan or layout map
• Panoramic views of the property’s surroundings/neighborhood

TThe bottom line here is that as Real Estate Professionals we need to arm ourselves with information and then be able to articulate it to a seller as to how we are going to best represent their home to the pool of buyers that are out there looking. Remember just because the Seller thinks it is neat and fun doesn’t mean it will get more attention from a buyer.

Credit to Hoi-Yin Lo, User Experience Researcher

Ok so finally this weekend the Sun was out and it was time to take the boat out on Lake Washington. Jack had been hounding me for some time and really really wanted to test out his new water tube that he helped pick out. The one he really wanted was far to big and so this is what we settled on. He also told me that he didn’t need me to ride with him because he know now to do this. Keep in mind he is almost 5 and has never been on an inner tube.  Well needless to say not only did he have a good time but so did I. We were out for about 4 hours and it wasn’t until about the 4th time when he finally said daddy I’m tired lets go get some pizza. So we did we hauled the boat in and had some pagliacci pizza on the beach. It was a great day.

Thomas Pridgen

In that I’m a drummer and love drumming more than anything. Well not anything, my family is more important, but right up there is drumming. One of my favorite drummers is Thomas Pridgen. For as young as he is and what he can do with a pair of sticks and a standard drum set is amazing. When you watch him he really makes it look so easy. His rhythm is clock work and he really brings in his own style to what he plays. I honestly could watch him over and over again because every time I watch him I learn something new. IT as if he was put on the earth to play drums and do it better than anyone else.

It isn’t that his style is so unique it is the fluidness he has as he transitions form one rythem to the next or how his fills are effortless. He also mixes up the beats with some amazing foot work that compares to other favorites like Carter Beauford drummer for the Dave Matthews band.  If you like great instructional videos Carter has one called (Under The Table & Drumming) it is great and really helped me with some stick technique.

In addition with the new Windermere photo gallery tool it will be a piece of cake to make this happen. As our market becomes more demanding we as Real Estate professionals need to start thinking out of the box and be willing come up with new creative ideas on how we do a better job at exposing our listings out there to the masses, but in a tasteful and professional way.

Ok so I took the family to Disneyland for 5 days last week. I have to say that we had a blast. I’ve only been to Disneyland a handful of times but every time I go it is new to me. My son Jack who is almost 5 was the most excited out of all of us. We also went with my parents and my sister and her son.

The first day there we needed to get our bearings so we quickly figured out the benefit of the fast pass. Wow this is a great thing. Lines were a bit long and being in line with a hyper 4 year old for 50 min can be a challenge to say the least. Fast Pass made it all bearable. I also found out that my son is adrenalin junky. Hi favorite rides were Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and the Matterhorn, basically anything fast with lots of turns and drops. He actually had a melt down when he found out he was too short to go on the big roller coaster at Disney California.

My daughter Emerson had lots of fun in Toontown. She loves Minnie and Mickey’s house and the Roger Rabbit ride. Often she would be in a back pack on my back as were would walk from ride to ride. At one point she was on my back in a gift store, because after every ride they feed you directly into a gift store so you can hear your kids say to you “daddy look at all the stuff I want you to buy for me”.  Well Emerson being on my back was just at the right height to just reach out and take what she wanted without me even knowing until we had left the store. This was fun to go back in and tell the cashier “hey my daughter just lifted this Donald Duck and I’m bringing it back”, as she is screaming on my back “My Duck My Duck” I had to buy the duck.

Ok so we are excited. Next weekend on the 12th  the Woodinville wine passport festival is going on  between 11:00 and 4:00 my band Natalie Wouldn’t will be playing at my good buddy’s winery. The Gorman Winery. That is chris and some of his help.

Chris and I go all the way back to college.  We were both students at Western Washington Univeristy. He played guitar and I played drums in a band called the Ruff Yuppies. He was my roomate and then we both worked together at an Italian Wine distributor (Bianco Rosso Imports). We played in 4 bands together and now we get together on occasion and just enjoy wine and good food. Chris is an amazing up and coming wine maker and because of his love for wine and music he is having Natalie Woulnd’t play at his tasting this Satruday the 12th. This is a perfect match Chris loves music and Natalie Wouldn’t loves wine. Don’t we look like wine lovers?