Ray Carman – Auctioneer

I was reading this article  and thought it was interesting. After reading it, I ran across several others I liked I thought you might enjoy. They contain several different opinions on the market today.

A Buyers Market : This is one featuring some opposing views by an Analyst and some Real Estate Agents. Some great comments followed as well.

McMansions getting downsized. I ran into this just the other day as a local builder is looking for smaller lots to build homes much smaller than what is his custom. He is recognizing the shift in the market toward smaller homes.

After reading, feel free to post your thoughts here.

When heading toward the market with your investment, this is a question worth asking. Here are a few thoughts:

1. When your market is over flooded with homes similar to yours. An Auction can be the aggressive move that will  make your home stand out from the rest.

2. When your market area is moving slow. If the time on the market is longer than what fits your timetable, going straight to the “hammer” up front can help you avoid the picture of “desperation” if you try the market and move to an auction as  a last option.

3. If you have come upon unfortunate times. If your life has taken an unexpected turn, and payments have become too much, a financial institution will work with you and an Auctioneer to help you avoid foreclosure. This is especially true in a market when the foreclosure rate has skyrocketed.

4. When you are an Administrator of an Estate. When people leave this world, and they have asked you to oversee what they have left behind, an auction is a very good way to have both their property and personal items.

That is just 4 good opportunities for you to seek out the assistance of a professional Auctioneer.

The Shifts in the market have drawn in the questions of the value of a Realtor. Being a Realtor, of course, I am aware of the value of having a good Realtor assist you in the sale of your property. There are a-lot of assets that a knowledgeable Realtor who knows the market place can add to your home and its sale.When ForSaleByOwner.com opened up, a shift started taking place here in TN. It started earlier in other market places like CA, WA, and out west when it became legal to offer commissions as rebates to buyers and sellers. These efforts have driven people to think differently about how to go about selling their home. Buyers Agency has seen a tremendous rise as agents are forced to have buyers sign contracts in order to find a niche in todays market. This has been brought on as “everyone and their brother” have rushed in the past few years to get their license to make the “big bucks!” But, now, even buyers are becoming very stingy in their signatures ,even though in most cases it does not cost them a dime. And with buyers doing the “lion share” of the work by searching out the properties online and only calling an agent to open the doors, the public is starting to question even more the value of a Realtor.

So this leaves us staring another shift square in the face. As the market softens up, many “get rich quick” agents who got their license while things were booming will not renew for the next term. This will relieve the tensions temporarily, but it will not change the inevitable. As commissions slow down, the hard working agents will be forced to either think outside the box, or become more aggressive in their listing and selling strategies. None the less, the overall key will be convincing the public that remains of your overall value as a Realtor.

Do you know your value as a Realtor in todays market and the future market to come, and what are you doing to convince the public of you worth? Share your advice and comments here!

If you are thinking of looking for a home, this is probably one of the first search engines you turn to. It by far, offers you the most thorough look at what is available on your current market. But after reading this report, a real light bulb went off! After trying to catch up on new trends and market shifts, this report was astounding. So I went and checked it out for myself at Alexa.com. Here is what I found over the last 6 month period: (go to Alexa.com and enter Realtor.com, Trulia.com, Zillow.com, Craigslist.com, and Youtube.com, click 6m and Rate tabs )

Wow! Look at the amazing difference between daily hits on Realtor.com and Craigslist.com or even Youtube. Are you amazed? I would ask you to keep this in mind though, Craigslist.com and Youtube are not Real Estate Specific. This graph covers the three major Real Estate Specific sites over the past 6 months: ( remove Craigslist and Youtube )

Notice the gap Realtor.com has now. When it comes to Real Estate it holds a major key, which is held presently by Realtors. But this is no excuse for Realtors not to be using Craiglist.com FOR FREE to put their clients listings on, or from using Youtube as an advertising outlet! (Remember, once a video is loaded to Youtube, you can embed it on any site you or your client has access to. )

Times are changing, and so must the Realtor!

This could be very interesting and useful! Thanks to Joel Burslem for the heads up on Twitter.

Jeff Turner recently wrote this post. I was intrigued by the question he asked at the end. What do you think?

There is no denying that our world is hungry for the latest in technology. There is a whole new language being spoken because of it, Text! You don’ think so, just listen to anyone in the younger generation or watch this commercial! Or this one! A conversation with a friend the other day confirmed this when he said his co-workers would prefer to text or email than have a conversation.

This is pouring over into the Real Estate World. People seemingly prefer less contact in the transaction. This is proven by the rise in online virtual tours and people demanding multiple photos online. They would prefer looking at a home from their easy chair or desk vs calling someone to look at it.

But in all of this, there is still the demand for “personal touch.” It is in-born desire each person has to have person contact. Although from the outset it would seem we are pulling away from each other through the use of technology, we are in reality, allowing our deep desire for personal contact to be fed. Just look at Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, or any other social networking site. People are reaching out and touching base with more individuals than ever before. We are going beyond even our realm of personal influence and meeting new people through these avenues.

Even though technology has changed how we do business (see this post), our basic desire and draw toward personal contact is only growing, not diminishing. The key is to figure out how do evolve with the technology and use it to keep that “Personal Touch” in your daily Real Estate and/or Auction business.

As I began loading videos for PriorityOne.tv on Youtube, I received several messages for other sites to load the videos that are dedicated to Real Estate.

1. Clipmeet.com was the first one. It is very easy to use, and the registration was fairly quick. It seemed relatively new  to TN, as I appeared to be the first videos loaded in our area. That is okay though. Sometimes it is nice to be first.

2. OneStopVideo.com was a;so easy to register and load on. It as well appears fairly new to the area.

These are just two more examples of sites you can personally load your home onto for the world to see. From what I could tell, they are targeted at RE Agents, but are in no way exclusive of public users.

As the web grows and the capabilities, your options will continue to expand. For a consultation appointment to discuss your options, just call 615-428-4920, we will be happy to set up a time to meet with you and help out!

Owner / Agent on this one!

PriorityOne.TV

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Here is our first video home tour of a house in Hendersonville TN. 143 Hillside Dr.

For More info on this home, call 824-0044.

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