Premier Real Estate

Taking the plunge and buying a real house is a big deal.  To be perfectly honest, the first time that I brought my first home, it was not a home at all, rather it was a trailer.  While most people associate trailer homes with something less than credible, in this day and age, that perception is just wrong.  Trailer homes are honestly some of the coolest looking homes and they have so much space inside of them, it truly is crazy!

However – there are some things that you should do even before you begin going to mobile home parks in search for your dream mobile home.  The first thing is research.  You want to ensure that you are not only going to be getting a good deal, but you also want to make sure that it looks nice.  Looking online for credible mobile home parks and taking some tours is a great idea!

Another thing that you want to make sure of is how you plan to purchase the mobile home – financing is probably the best option, however you do have to have decent credit for that.

Real estate is a tricky thing to get a handle on – you never really know what you can and can not do and that is exactly why we are here!  The question on many people’s minds right now is should you buy a home or should you wait?  Well – the first question that you should ask yourself is ‘are you ready to settle down?’

Once you buy the home, it is going to be very difficult to get rid of and resell right now … so that is something that you want to make sure that you consider when you are making the decision to purchase a home.

Another thing that you need to think about is if you can afford the home that you are considering buying.  While prices have dropped themselves down a lot in the real estate market, you want to make sure that you find a home that is going to fit into your budget and that can be hard if your budget is very, very small.

Now that we have talked about two of the major points as to why a real estate agent should not have a Facebook page – let’s touch base on three more points that are very important.  One thing is the content of the Facebook page.  Most of the time, your Facebook page is not going to contain a lot of the content that you can provide via a blog or even your own website – so that is something that you need to really think about.

The next thing is going to be SEO.  If you are going to sign up for a business Facebook page to promote your website and/or blog – you are going to cut them off at the knees because you are not going to have any SEO on your Facebook page, which you could add onto your blog or website.  Another thing is the prospects that you could gain via Facebook – while you might end up with a lot of fans, you are not truly going to be earning a lot of money.

Facebook is a place for teenagers and people who are not trying to run a business – while I personally love Facebook, I would never put my business on it.

In this generation, we no longer have to worry about business cards and going to social gatherings it seems like because everything is computerized and everyone is looking to move their business online.  While that sounds like a good idea in the beginning, there are many different reasons why a real estate agent should not sign up on a place like Facebook.  While I personally think that myspace is okay, I do not think that Facebook is a good option for a real estate agent.

One of the first reasons is because why would anyone – especially a prospect want to become a fan of their real estate agent?  What would honestly be point of it?  I mean, it is nice that you are trying to get involved with your prospects but to be completely honest, there is no real point for your prospects or clients to become your fans.  Another thing is traffic to the actual page.  If you are splitting up your attention between Facebook and your actual website and blogs – that could interfere with the traffic to your website.

We are going to talk about more points in the next blog but these two points are by far the biggest and the ones that need to be addressed.

It may come as an enormous surprise that Washington, D.C. itself is considered a highly recession proof city. Thus far, it is winning the war against recession; certainly, it is doing much better than a whole lot of other major cities. Currently, it is the tenth strongest city for employment within the United States. This is due to the expansions initiated by the federal government, all of which have helped to create a lot of new jobs and positions.

Over on the other side of the United States, we also have Irvine, California, which has the University of California Irvine campus to thank for its many jobs. Irvine is the third biggest city in the entirety of Orange County, which goes a long way towards showing you how many job opportunities you will be able to find there.

The recession has hit a lot of us hard, and it is still going strong in quite a few places. This leaves a lot of people wondering where they can go to find a little relief, so we are going to take a look at some cities which promise to be recession proof.

We begin with that intellectual mecca, Cambridge, MA. This city is well known for its many higher learning institutions, including MIT and, of course, fair Harvard. The very existence of those institutions mean that there are a lot of jobs in and around Cambridge, which makes the city a huge draw.

Alexandria, Virginia is another recession proof city, partially because, from there, you can get to Washington, D.C. in less than half an hour. Again, there are thus quite a lot of jobs to be had there, which makes it a very palatable and enviable location, especially for the two and half million people who live in that area of Northern Virginia. You can also look forward to beautiful communities and excellent schools.

When you are dealing with a home, there is going to be mold there – one of the first things that you need to remember is that mold is everywhere and if you know that your house is clean, you are still going to have mold.  In this blog, we are going to talk about how you can get rid of mold in your home and hopefully make sure that it stays gone from your home as well.

As we discussed, mold is everywhere and it has been around forever – so you really need to think about that and get that into your head so you know what you are dealing with.  Dealing with mold is fairly easy – sunlight and ventilation are the two things that are key items in getting rid of your mold problems.  You want to always make sure that you use your common sense whenever you are approaching a mold situation. 

Most of the time, mold is going to form in your bathroom, you really just need to use a mold killing cleaner and ensure that there is some sunlight in there as well.  Mold is difficult to get rid of but not impossible!

Given the way the housing market is going, most of us could do with some inside info on some of the most promising and appealing places to live. A lot of those places will surprise you, so some explanations are in order.

For instance, one of the most surprising places to live is none other than Sin City itself, Las Vegas, Nevada. Ever since the city hit its peak back in 2006, home values have gone way, way down — by more than a whopping fifty percent, in fact. Right now, you can actually get houses for less than eighty dollars per square foot!

Right now, the average single family house in Las Vegas is priced at an unbelievable and astounding $140,000 — so you may want to think twice about any preconceived notions and consider Las Vegas for your next move.

In the last blog, we touched base on using the internet for your own personal marketing tool.  Now we are going to dive right back into, how you can market yourself without having to pay anything at all!  The next step is going to be public speaking.  While I am not a fan of public speaking, I know that it will get you noticed and the one thing that you do not want to do whenever you are a real estate agent is wait to be discovered … you have to put yourself out there a lot!  The Chamber of Commerce always needs speakers, so make sure that you sign yourself up to speak.

Now if this is going to take some practice if you have never spoken in front of a lot of people, so make sure that you know exactly what you are going to say and that you practice a lot … a lot.  The next way to market yourself is going to be emailing out newsletters.  Now, if you are currently not collecting e-mails, make sure that you start because you are leaving money on the table right there!

There are a ton of different ways that you can market yourself for no money at all, you really just have to be creative with it and use the free tools you are given!

Times are pretty tough nowadays, especially for the real estate market.  I know that I see houses all the time that are being sold by owners because they do not want to pay realtor fees.  However, if you are a real estate agent with no money at all for advertising for your services – I can help you!  There are many different ways that you can market yourself for little or no cost at all, all it takes is quite a bit of work and some determination and you should be fine!

One of the first things that you are going to need to do is look for free publicity.  This could be in the form of online newspapers, networks, 24 hour TV news and all new radio stations.  You could even advertise online on places like craigslist and things like that.  Coming up with a Myspace page or even a Facebook page is a great way to get your name out there too and it does not cost you anything at all!

And I will let you in on some more secrets in the next blog, so make sure that you stay tuned!