February 27, 2009
It’s finally over. In early December I wrote a blog about the crisis that the Rocky Mountain News was facing – looking for a buyer or looking to shut their doors. Without much surprise, there was no buyer and they are officially shutting down. The final issue of the 100 year old paper will be distributed today, Friday, February 27.
And as expected, there are many people very upset about the situation. The Rocky Mountain News has been a great asset to Colorado for a long time and with good reason, we’re all sad to see it go. Newspapers hold a certain memory for many of us – Dads reading the paper over breakfast every morning, flipping through the sports highlights or as a child, finding the Saturday comics. For older generations, the newspaper holds meaning. For many new generations, the newspaper is outdated. While some of us may be sad to see it go, most knew it was inevitable. This is just another strong indication of the shift from print to web.
In the real estate world, this shift has been obvious for some time. According to the National Association of Realtors 2008 study on home buyers and sellers, 87% of home buyers used the Internet to search for homes in 2008. Of those, 69% reported using it frequently. Compare that to 42% only 5 years ago and it’s clear that this trend is growing rapidly.
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February 26, 2009
Something new we’ve been wanting to try is highlighting staff or agents around the Enterprise Network that are making a difference in their organization and the Network itself. We asked each of our Members to nominate people they think deserve recognition as things happen in their organization. We talk to these nominees and find out how and why they are making an impact and try to uncover some of the things they are doing that others in the Network could learn from.
Congratulations to Tom Flanagan of Residential Properties for being the first person nominated! For anyone that knows Tom, you know he plays an important role at his brokerage and has lots of ideas and good information to share. Below is the interview we had with Tom – hopefully we can all learn something from him!
Name: Tom Flanagan
Title: Director of Information Technology
Company: Residential Properties Ltd.
Q: What are your duties on a day to day basis?
A: My duties include overseeing the entire website and web marketing. I also oversee the entire telecom infrastructure which involves anything from Servers, Mail Server to Voice and Data but really my expertise is in new media.
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February 23, 2009
Back in November I blogged about the original Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, specifically the $7,500 tax credit for first-time home buyers. With the changes in our economy and the new president, there is now a new incentive for first time homebuers out there!
The new bill designates a true $8,000 tax credit. If you don’t remember, the original bill was in all reality an interest free loan from the government that had to be paid back over 15 years. This new bill does not have to be paid back and is credited dollar-for-dollar as a reduction to you as a taxpayer. So lets do the same thing we did last time, here is the run down:
- The tax credit is for first-time home buyers only
- The tax credit does not have to be repaid!
- The tax credit is equal to 10% of the home’s purchase price up to a maximum of $8,000. (more…)
February 19, 2009
I just finished taking a quiz on the Realtor Magazine’s website and got an 8 out of 10. Turns out I know buyers and sellers! The quiz I took was “How Well Do You Know Buyers and Sellers?” Question #8 stood out to me as a website developer and technology solution provider. I feel that Active Website offers a great solution for this issue, but first lets review the question.
Question: What do buyers particularly value when visiting a real estate website?
Answer: Photos – “Buyers love photos – 86 percent said photos were ‘very useful’ on a Web site, which was the highest ranked…”
Active Website offers Individual Property Websites as part of our Enterprise Platform. IPWs allow for an unlimited number of photos, just what the buyers want. While providing each property with a unique webpage to boast its features, these websites will engage buyers and impress your sellers. (more…)
February 17, 2009
Is it possible that we will see the United States Post Office become digital? If moving online will keep postal costs from increasing, online becomes a desirable option. Also in the wake of the talk about the budget deficits that the USPS has been having and discussing, one consideration is to cut back to 5 service days per week. Considering the cost that it would save the USPS, would it really affect us that much to not have Saturday delivery?
The big question is – would people accept it and could the digital online world handle the volume that would be necessary? While this move will not happen in the next year it is an interesting concept, and will require a lot of thought and planning if it even has a chance of succeeding. Still it has sparked innovation by a couple of companies internationally. Take a look at this article posted by BusinessWeek for all the details, Is it Time for Postal Service 2.0?
What do you think? Would an online based postal service really affect your brokerage?
