I’ve been meaning to post about this for several days, and I only wish I’d done it sooner. If you read here much, you know that I’m big on putting out the stats that show what’s going on in OUR LOCAL housing market, so that everyone can see the real numbers and determine for themselves if what they’re hearing in the national news matches up with what’s going on in Oklahoma.

The Central Oklahoma Home Builders Association (COHBA) has done a fantastic job lately of getting the word out in their own way, and I plan to share some of their information here, in hopes of helping them in their efforts. Tonight, I’ll simply embed a video that I found both interesting, and informative. Enjoy!

Rain on the scarecrow

Originally uploaded by gotbob

There’s something about old farmhouses, nature, and black & white photography that just strikes me, so, when I stumbled across this amazing photo on Bob Carney’s blog, I just had to share it with my readers.

I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have.

I posted this a couple of weeks ago to my national agents network, but thought it would be useful information for my clients also.  After all, it’s just as important for you to understand what it is that I do, and why it’s important, as it is for my colleagues to learn from it.  Enjoy!

It’s a question I see in the eyes of many clients, and even more of my peers, so it’s always fun to get a little love from those who recognize what you do right.  It was no different when my online presence was recently noticed and used as an example in an article written by Dustin Moore of a la mode, inc.

Dustin was touching on the real, tangible benefits of social networking, as in what it can do for your business.  I can personally attest to a ’smarter not harder’ result over the past year and a half since I really discovered what social networking is all about.  In 2006 I gained absolutely no (zero) new clients as a result of my online presence, but 2007 was much different.  Almost 20% of my new clients in 2007 found me directly through my social networking sites, such as ActiveRain, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and my own Edmond real estate website (Yes, I built new client relationships as a direct result of each one of these sites in the last year).  This year is on track to produce an even higher percentage.

The real benefit for me, though, has been the added exposure that my clients’ homes get as a result of my diverse approach to the internet.  When I list a client’s home, I promote it on about 35 different websites.  Many of those 35 websites then feed that information out to other partner sites, so in essence my listings end up on an untold number of places on the vast WWW.  This equates to more eyeballs seeing my listings, which then equates to more showings, quicker sales, and ultimately higher sales prices.

Think of it this way; If you were searching online for information about homes for sale in Long Beach, CA, where would you start?  Would you search Google, Yahoo, Realtor.com, Remax.com, Ask.com, Trulia, Zillow, or one of the other thousands of real estate websites out there?  Good question right?  YOU might start with Realtor.com, but your neighbor might start with Zillow.  Which one’s better?  Who knows… doesn’t really matter.  Fact is, over 80% of home buyers start their search online, and each of them start in different places.

So, the question then is, do you want an agent who puts your home on the MLS and on one or two websites… or do you want an agent who gets your home into every possible corner of the internet.  Do you want to attract only buyers who look on Zillow, or do you want to attract buyers from everywhere?

I would think you’d want the agent who covers it all, so that no matter where a buyer begins searching for Edmond homes, they’ll see yours!

So anyway, back to this social networking thing; it’s nice to be recognized and all, but what this really does is drives even more traffic to my websites, which translates into more relationship building (with both peers and consumers), which then turns into better results for my clients.

By the way, I’ve also noticed a new flow of traffic from RSShugger.com lately, where I’m currently listed in the top 50 blogs.

I posted a while back about a proposed property tax increase in Edmond, and will continue to post about this regularly until it comes to a vote before the residents of Edmond.

Rumor is that the vote will take place in late July or early August, so mark your calendars now and be sure you take the time to vote if this issue is important to you.  Every current and future home owner should be taking interest in this proposal, as it stands to take money directly out of the pockets of ONLY property owners, while others who will benefit from the bill will make no financial contribution whatsoever.

Tonight I’d planned on blogging about a great new listing I just picked up over the weekend, but before I even had the chance, it’s sold!  I knew it’d be a quick one, but it’s always a surprise when you sell a home in just 3 days.

We had 2 couples take a look at it over the weekend, and both were ready to make an offer right away.  Just another example of why it’s so important to be prepared to buy when you go looking at Edmond homes.  When it comes to the prime properties, the early bird definitely gets the worm, and if you’re not approved and ready to make an offer, that other couple will get to it first.

In this case, the first couple that looked was already prepared and they got the home.  Congratulations to everyone involved.  Now START PACKING!

I recently posted about a hot new listing in the Fairfax Estates addition of Edmond, and wanted to share the photos here:

Well, if you’ve noticed my lack of posts lately, you’ve probably wondered if I fell into a pit somewhere.  Actually, that’s exactly what happened.  I fell into the same pit that so many of my clients do.  Yep, you guessed it… I moved.

I’ve spend the past week or so in moving hell, and it’s refreshed my memory of the pains that so many of you have felt recently, or may be about to feel.  With that in mind, I think I’ll post a few pointers:

• Be organized – pack each room carefully marking boxes with specifics of what’s in them, and where they belong in the new home.
• Keep your friends close – buy the beer, pizza, or whatever you have to, to motivate your friends to help you. 
• Be efficient – it’s really easy to get distracted as your loading or unloading, and turn a 2-hour job into a 6-hour job.  Stay focused.

I have a lot more, but those are the basics to keep in mind, and let me say a BIG HUGE THANK YOU to all my friends and family who put their weekend on hold to help us get things taken care of.  We’re not settled yet, but we’re far closer than we ever could have been on our own.

Now, just so you all know, I won’t be moving again for many, many, many years! 

We have a beautiful one-of-a-kind historical home for sale in the famed Heritage Hills/Harndale/Mesta Park area of Oklahoma City, and I wanted to share some pictures here for all to see:

As rapidly as things are moving and changing in the mortgage industry, I’m relying heavily on my trusted mortgage advisors these days; moreso than in months past, simply because keeping up with the changes truly is a full-time job and, obviously, my full-time job is selling homes, not mortgages.

I recently got an update from Cody McCollom of Grandmark Mortgage and felt I should share this with my clients:

Effective immediately, 100% conventional mortgages have been eliminated from the mortgage market. This is an industry-wide guideline change. Regardless of credit score, income, or debt ratios, 100% conventional mortgage financing has come to an abrupt end.

A 3% minimum down payment will be required by all borrowers. FHA loans with down payment assistance from the seller (if seller is willing) still exist. This type of loan allows the seller to pay the borrower’s down payment of 3%. Seller must be willing to participate in this type of transaction and we will likely see fewer sellers willing to do so as a result of uncertainty in real estate markets.

There are still great mortgage programs for borrowers and rates are still low. However, it is more important than ever for borrowers to have their credit, assets, and down payment in the best shape possible if they expect to qualify for a mortgage, especially if they expect to qualify for the preferred programs with the lowest rates and fees.

Make sure you are working with an experienced and reputable Realtor. Also make sure you are working with an individually licensed loan officer. Ask for their individual license number. Don’t accept a blanket license for everybody in the office. Get theirs, and match it with the Department of Consumer Credit’s database to make sure that they are current on licensing as well as continuing education.

If you have any questions specific to this, or any other mortgage topic, please feel free to get in touch with Cody.

Personally, I’d call it humor based in slightly-exaggerated truth.  What say you?