Coach Dan Foster

If you’ve been hesitant to engage in social media or if you think its just a fad, this video post is for you. Erik Qualman’s book, Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business and the video below will open your eyes to the social media revolution that is occuring all around us. It’s time to jump in before it’s too late.

This past week my team and I discussed what to do with listings that just will not sell. There are a number of reasons why listings struggle to sell including price, condition, location, and current buyer needs and wants. We focused our time together talking about a nine step guide to reaching resolution with these types of listings and our clients. This guide is not exhaustive and I encourage your feedback and critique. If you have a listing that is “stale” and not selling, you may want to consider the following process.

Let’s be honest, holding an open house is more for the benefit of a real estate broker than it is for a home owner. The 2009 National Association of Realtors® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers reports that only 46% of home buyers used open houses as a means of searching for homes. Most articles that I have read tell me that only 1-2% of home buyers actually purchase a home they visited during an open house. I encourage you to share these stats with your seller and be completely honest with them about the probability of an open house leading to a sale of their home. If they still request an open house or allow you to hold one for your own benefit, than consider these eight tips for holding a successful open house.

Each quarter my company, Prudential Northwest Properties, uses client survey response data to compile a source of business report. This data is compiled by a neutral third party company named Quality Service Certified (QSC). We use this report to help our associates know where to best spend their time, efforts, and money to attract, win, and keep clients long term. Our Vice President of Marketing, Sandy Gillison, just sent me the 2009 Year End report and the numbers are fascinating. Here are some interesting statistics to consider, when comparing 2008 to 2009: