The latest edition of the Federal Reserve's Beige Book depicts only intermittent, patchy spots of continued economic growth, with residential real estate markets across the country characterized as "sluggish," and commercial real estate conditions garnering a descriptor of "weak."

Beige Book findings are based on anecdotal information collected across the country from businesses and contacts outside the Federal Reserve.

An address that you’ll surely love to have. Port Royal offers waterfront living at it’s finest. Enjoy the sandy beaches and breathtaking sunsets.

This prestigious and exclusive single home community that consists of only about 550 residences is bordered on the west by the Gulf of Mexico, on the South by Gordon Pass, to the on the east by Naples Bay and on the north by Aqualane Shores.

Job growth will be the key factor in whether the U.S. real estate market can extend a recovery after the end of the federal homebuyer tax credit, according to a Harvard University study.  High unemployment is fueling the foreclosure crisis and discouraging the household formation that drives property demand, according to the State of the Nation's Housing report issued by Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies.

First-time homebuyers looking to land an $8,000 federal income tax credit may have a little more time to close on their purchases if a Senate amendment unveiled last week makes it into law.

The closing deadline could be pushed back to Sept. 30 under an amendment offered by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV., Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-GA., and Sen. Chris Dodd, D-CT. The senators said they want to make sure banks have time to process the transactions--especially short sales.

It remains to be seen, however, whether the amendment will go anywhere. Its part of a controversial jobs and tax bill that may be radically changed before the Senate approves it. Lawmakers are not scheduled to vote on the bill until next week at the earliest.

Source: CNNMoney.com, Tami Luhby, (06/10/2010)

One of the most common and costly mistakes made by sellers is setting an unrealistically high asking price. Every seller wants to receive the highest closing price possible for their house, but losing sight of fair market value can have serious repercussions.

In some cases a lack of objectivity results in overpricing the home, other sellers may subscribe to the theory that pricing high initially leaves room to negotiate lower later. Overpricing from the outset could actually force you to end up settling for a lower price than you would have received by setting a realistic asking price based on market research.

The expiration of the 2010 Home Buyer Tax Credits on April 30 is unlikely to put off Americans looking to buy homes who believe now is a good time to buy and are confident that home prices will rise according to a recent survey.

Cities in California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona once again accounted for all top-20 foreclosure rates in the first quarter among metropolitan areas with a population of at least 200,000, even while the majority of those top metros reported decreasing foreclosure activity from the first quarter of 2009, according to  RealtyTrac's Q1 2010 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report. The report shows that California accounted for 10 out of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates, followed by Florida with seven, Nevada with two and Arizona with one.

Foreclosure activity declined on a year-over-year basis in 14 of the cities in the top 20 and in eight of the cities in the top 10. In contrast, foreclosure activity in the first quarter increased on an annual basis in 159 of the 206 metro areas tracked in the report, and foreclosure activity nationwide increased 16 percent from the first quarter of 2009.

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In a previous post, we tackled about how you can post your NAR listings to Facebook. But it's just one of the things that you can do to get your business profile in Facebook up and running!

I found an article that cites 6 Facebook applications that will really  be useful for real estate agents. I got excited to share this to you all! I think this is a great idea to try for all of us!
So here is the list!

Display your listings from REALTOR.com® on your Facebook wall!  If you are a real estate agent, your listings are already displayed on REALTOR.com® for FREE.

Now you can add your listings on Facebook with the FREE REALTOR.com® See My Listings application.

How do you do it? It's Easy, Trust me!

1. Go to this website: http://www.realtor.com/seemylistings/


2. Click on "Add my Listings"


3. Click on "Allow" to let realtor.com access needed information.


4. Select your MLS and input you MLS ID


5. Enter the necessary information.

In an effort to develop a clear view of the real estate market, Homes & Land, a Tallahassee, Fla.-based provider of real estate media and marketing, recently asked thousands of real estate agents for their opinions about their local real estate market and published the results in its Market Pulse Survey Report.  When asked if the Home Affordable Modification Program "has reduced the rate of foreclosures in your market," only 10 percent of respondents said yes. Of those remaining, 65 percent responded no, and 25 percent were unsure.  Despite the low enthusiasm about HAMP, overall optimism seems to be improving, with most agents reporting an increase in homebuyer interest. Regional responses in states with the highest foreclosure rates showed even higher buyer interest-Arizona, at 71 percent; California, at 64 percent; and Florida, at 67 percent-than the national average of 58 percent.  However, Home & Land said the increase appears to be coming in the form of distressed sales. Only 14 percent of agents reported that the majority of their sales over the last 12 months came from distressed sales, but reports of distressed sales were much higher in Arizona, at 38 percent; California, at 35 percent; and Florida, at 26 percent.  The survey also found that 41 percent of respondents believe real estate prices in their market have bottomed out.

Source: REAL Trends Email update # 1184

Fresh data from Campbell Communications' monthly survey of more than 1,500 real estate agents found that the investor market share of buy-side transactions has jumped nearly six points since November, while first-time buyers have fallen more than seven percentage points since October.

Sales to existing homeowners also have increased from October to January, and last month their market share overtook first-time buyers, 41.2 percent to 39.8 percent.
With increased supply of distressed properties and decreased demand from first-time homebuyers, average prices declined for damaged REO and even for non-distressed properties in January.

Did you ever wonder why some listings sell faster then others? In a tough real estate market you should make sure you follow all these simple rules to help your sellers sell their homes.



1. Price it Right



I am sure you know that the best way to sell property is to price it right. Most of the time Realtors let the seller price the property because seller’s are in love with their homes and often think that their property is worth more then it really is especially in these market conditions where property values have gone down and not up as it use to do.  So you as their Realtor have to show them all the comps and all the gloom and doom reports from the media to convince them to Price it Right! You must let them know that if the market is bad that their property won’t appraise if it is priced to high because appraisers work on the last 6 months of sales in their neighborhood so if sales have been bad appraisals will be bad too. It is like the TV show “The Price Is Right” if the price isn’t right it won’t sell.

Here's a great article about how real estate marketing has evolved. Be sure to read:

If you are a real estate agent, you must know how vital marketing is for your business. With the shift of homebuyers’ behavior, real estate marketing is not just about newspaper ads, fliers, postcards, letters, or what not anymore. The battle has taken a new platform—the internet.

Online marketing, social media marketing, you’ve probably heard about them. Well if you haven’t, you just have to do some Googling.

Most agents have gone online because homebuyers are online. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 75 % of homebuyers in 2006 started their search online. That is up from only 41 % in 2001. Moreover, online buyers are found to be more knowledgeable and informed, have shorter purchasing cycles, and purchase more expensive properties (California Association of Realtors.)

If you don’t have presence online, chances are you are not sold to the idea of internet marketing, you know nothing about it, or you’re inclined to give it a try, but somehow, you just don’t know where to start.

If you don’t have presence online, you are losing a lot of good leads that could have been clients. And it isn’t just about good leads, talk about saving money.

A website can advertise your listings, as well as you, your achievements, and what you can do for your clients. Furthermore, you’re not limited to a local audience. You are connected to the whole world. You are able to showcase your listings to people seeking relocation from other states or other parts of the globe, much to the delight of your sellers.

And if buyers don’t find you online, chances are, they will find another.

But how do you drive people on your website? Agents, who are not that computer savvy, may be burdened by this. But here are three basic things that you should remember.

1. Know thy audience – What do homebuyers need? Put yourself in their shoes and try to see what they want. Your website must be able to address these needs. If not, your website will just be tossed aside.
2. Invest time in SEO – Search Engine Optimization. Get your website noticed by search engines. This is not a one-shot deal though. This may take time, but it’s worth the investment.
3. Expand your social network – At least online. Facebook, Twitter, Digg, these are just some of the few social networking sites you can utilize.
4. Lead Management – What are that website traffic for if you’re not able to get clients? Don’t let them go stale.

If you’re still not online, maybe it’s time to ponder about doing so, don’t you think?

February, 2010 - America's Best Assistants, with its real estate virtual assistance program, teams up with America’s Best Agents (ABA) in providing valuable administrative and technical support to the best real estate agents in a virtual setting.

With the two companies’ closely knit goals of advancing the quality of virtual assistance into a whole new level, and of helping real estate agents be the top agents in their respective areas, real estate agents will now be able to obtain a reliable support for a fraction of the cost of what they pay for a full time personal assistant.

As homebuyers’ behavior shift, real estate marketing taking the Internet as the new platform, and market recovery still vague, agents faces immense competition more than ever. For that reason, real estate virtual assistance is now a flourishing industry.

Spending time on activities that really help make a living by outsourcing other time-consuming but equally important tasks to a virtual assistant is one key to an agent’s success. With  the partnership, finding a trained, well-rounded, and flexible VA’s with solid background on real estate processes and systems is as easy as ABC.

“They are best virtual assistants I have ever had. As a matter of fact they are the best assistants period. They are always there to help me with everything. They take care of most of my blogging and always have great ideas for helping me be more successful.  I would highly recommend them to anyone”, said Ginny Lee Founder of America’s Best Agents.



About America’s Best Assistants

They part of a company that is a  recognized Top 100 Global Outsourcing Services company for its "Leadership, Innovation and Outstanding Performance…" (CMP Media global survey). They help reduce cost, improve organizational flexibility, accelerate time-to-market, and deliver cost-effective world-class quality services.

Have You Ever Searched Your Name On Google?

Do You Want To Be #1 On The #1 Search Engine?

Now more then ever the Internet is the place to go to find out anything you want to know about anyone or anything.

Just for fun go to www.google.com and put your name in and see who or what comes up. I bet you will be surprised. I was. There was a Ginny Lee café and there is a banker in Alabama and a clothes outlet called Ginny. Try it and see what you find. I know some people searched Google and found some bad stuff and had it removed. It is important for you to protect your reputation especially if you are in business and you are definitely in business for yourself when you sell real estate.

Sure there are lots of websites that offer free spaces for your listings, it get's even better if it's branded as one of America's Best Properties!

We allot ample space on our website for our agents listings to be featured on. It's not just any other ordinary listing page. In our website, we make sure that each listing is one of America's Best Properties.
So what can this bring to you?