Author: Allen Butler (page 2 of 2)

by Allen Butler

Realtor, Audio Engineer

Author website

Well, Kris threw down the gauntlet, so to speak, and invited a sharing of our own ideas and intrepid adventures in home marketing. I know that many have been very open in their sharing of marketing ideas, especially our host, and I thought I would also share some ideas that I use.

First, I can absolutely see the benfits of a professional photographer, and while I is one, I know that there are better people than me, and I probably ought to delegate some of this (a gratuitous nod to Russell). But darn it! I like doing it. I am an endless tinkerer, and nothing thrills me more that playing with photos. Here are a few examples:

So, I’m not totally thrilled with my work, but who ever is? The point is that I’m always trying to get better.

Next, I tried a new flyer idea: a largish tri-fold flyer:

So, I print these off myself on heavy stock on my Phaser printer, and they come out looking pretty good (despite the 380 dollars a month for ink!)  I then create my own virtual tours:

One thing that I do with my tours that I haven’t seen many agents do is photograph the entire neightborhood and surrounding city. Depending on what’s around the property, I’ll photograph houses of worship, restaurants, cultural attractions, shopping, mountains, ball parks, zoos, etc. I think this is particularly helpful to out-of-town buyers who may not be that familiar with our local scenery.

Finally, I’ll take the virtual tour and burn it to a miniature, business card cd, with a picture of the home on the front and some contact information. This card, along with one of the flyers for the home, and an additional page extolling the virtues of listing with yours truly, will be sent to the homes in the surrounding area. I’ll leave a stack of these in a presentation holder inside the home for the buyer to take with them. I also give a stack to the owners, so they can give them to family, friends, co-workers, and curch-goers. I also keep a pocket-full of these things with me Read more

by Allen Butler

Realtor, Audio Engineer

Author website

A couple of great questions from Ronnie Coleman of Gulf Coast Real Estate Services, Inc has prompted my response, and may prompt yours also. Very cool ideas here…

Allen,

A partner and I are hopefully about to launch a real estate blog here in Destin, Florida in the Florida Panhandle. Our market is upscale with about 4 million visitors per year and lots of second and third homes on the coast. My vision and slight slant is to put in play my avocation which is restaurant reviews. I was the restaurant critic here for the newspaper, judged our local wine festivals and have written a small book about our Top 40 Neighborhood Restaurants.

I have two questions — how do you feel about mixing opinioned restaurant reviews (with pictures) with a real estate blog and secondly (and maybe most importantly) should I buy an existing real estate blog template (I’m looking at something from RSS Pieces or should we start it from scratch by ourselves (we have some capability) or hire a local web/blog design firm?

And lastly I notice you have both a website and blog. Because I’m starting anew, I was thinking I would only go with a blog — do you think I need both?

Kindest regards,

Ronnie Coleman

Broker/Owner

Gulf Coast Real Estate Services, Inc.

My Response:

Hello Ronnie.

Excellent to hear from you. I think that your idea of integrating a restaurant review is a fabulous idea from a couple of standpoints. First, if you just started blogging like crazy about restaurants, you’re pretty quickly going to get noticed. But maybe not for what you’d like: real estate.

As I see it, there are a few ways around this. You could target the blog to out of towners who are looking for great places to dine. Featured prominently on the blog landing page would be large ads and hooks that draw people to look at your real estate web site. This has the benefit of adding dual credibility. One is linking to the other. Submit the blog to like minded sites in other cities and become part of a social network of food critics. Again, somewhat restricted real Read more

by Allen Butler

Realtor, Audio Engineer

Author website

Now, having been an infrequent contributor, and feeling a bit like a schmuck for such, I am resolved to start writing again. So, I have applied what little magic I have left to resurrect a dead horse. With my passions aflame, I will ride this undead creature until such a time as I have said my peace.

Old topic, new bitch session. I recently had another home fall out of escrow due to a lying, conniving loan officer, whose ineptitude (at best) has caused untold misery. What was purported to be (verbally, and in writing) a stellar home buyer with exemplary credit and 20% down, has miraculously transformed into a miserable wretch with a 586 mid score, who’s attempting 100% financing on stated income for a $750,000 loan. My how people change!

Who can stop this nonsense? Sweet Jesus! I always tell my clients that they’ll know the deal is done when the money is in their bank account. Well, that’s no help, but it’s the truth. And in spite of my cautious demeanor, they insisted on putting 20k (non-refundable) on a new home. Ah, the sweet smell of optimism.

So, I am firmly resolved that no buyer shall have an accepted offer on one of my homes without either a fully disclosed and documented credit report, or being thoroughly scrutinized by a lender of mine or the seller’s choosing. Don’t like it? Don’t buy the home. If my clients decide to accept an unverified offer, I take responsibility only those items that fall within my purview.

For the love and Jesus and God, and the Holy Spirit, somebody hold these people accountable for a modicum of veracity, please!

Allen

by Allen Butler

Realtor, Audio Engineer

Author website

Recently, there have been discussions about the ethics of agents who attempt to manipulate Days On Market in an attempt to remove stigma from a property. This discussion over on Active Rain really got me thinking, and I wanted to get the pulse of people’s feelings concerning this issue. Indulge me for a moment while I pontificate:

So what, exactly, does the tracking of DOM actually accomplish? Is it a tool that buyer’s agents use to determine value for their clients? If a home is on the market for 365 days, does it mean that the home is over-priced? Absolutely. However, let us say for the sake of discussion that you take a client to a home because they saw pictures of the listing on line, and thought it looked nice. So, you take them out to the listing, and they fall in love with the home. Now, as a professional agent, you have a duty to your clients to protect their interests. When they say to you that they love the property and want to write an offer, they are relying on your expertise to help them make a good decision. Would you advise them on what price to offer simply based on DOM? Of course not. In fact, to determine a good price for your clients to offer, would you take into consideration the DOM at all? You shouldn’t, as it has no relavance to the home’s value. To come up with an equitable offer, you would simply pull the comparable sold properties, and advise them of this. You would then advise them that the price you have suggested is what the property will likely appraise for, and that unless they want to pay part in cash, they should offer within this range. Paying any more would be unwise. However, an unwise person could pay whatever they want for a property if they have cash, they just need to sign a disclaimer that you advised them against it (someting I did repeatedly in the hot market of 04-05).

Now, can DOM stats help us to determine market trends? I would submit Read more

by Allen Butler

Realtor, Audio Engineer

Author website

Hello Folks!

It’s been a very interesting few days. First, I must say that you people are just a total class act; you couldn’t ask for a better-hearted group of people. You guys are going places, maybe even to heaven.

Well, as it happens, I have some experience with professional audio engineering, and offered to help by cleaning up some audio files so that they could post them on the site as pod-casts. First, I did one for Kris Berg in SoCal when she interviewed the CEO of Redfin, Inc. You can listen here.

Next, I “scrubbed” some audio for a seminar on web potency for Realtors that was conducted by Dustin Luther from Move.com & Realtor.com. You will find these pod-casts at BloodhoundBlog soon, I’m sure.

I’m very excited to help these guys out, as audio engineering is actually rather relaxing for me. It’s a really fun hobby (although extremely expensive), and gives me a chance to exercise the other side of my brain. One of the things I would like to offer to the world at large, is just a bit of advice on how to go about setting up a very affordable and professional sounding portable audio rig to do some recording. For the purposes of this brief treatise, I will assume an absolute ignorance of all things audio, so if you’re a know-it-all, just indulge me for a moment.

I have come up with a plan that includes 3 or 4 very small and inexpensive pieces of audio gadgetry that together would cost less than $400, and would capture audio for both interviews and seminars (or anything else, for that matter) with aplomb. Now, these items that I am about to list are readily available, and are cheap. (Note to Audio Geeks: I know that there are much better tools for this job, and you’re foaming at the mouth to make a recommendation. Let me just preemptively state that I am aware that this job can also be done admirably for around $12,000. Just go back to your corner.)

The first scenario that I envision is that you’ll want to interview Read more