For the budding real estate pro, if you’re seeking direction – emulate these perhaps…

Joe Kadaf and the Top of the Heap

I always tell clients; “It’s easy to make it to the top, what’s hard is staying there.” Evidently somebody told Joe (left courtesy Remaxknows) about this saying, he’s been on top a long time. Even from the start, the now legendary Remax broker showed a phenomenal gift for moving property, his first year he sold $4 million worth. What’s even more meaningful here though, is the fact that Kadaf has proven a teacher and leader of these same sales-rific traits. His agents continually lead all others, and in an area of the country not exactly teaming with good news.

Dearborn Heights, Michigan, not exactly what anyone would call property or economic boom territory. Yet despite one of the worst unemployment rates of any area in the US (11.4% as of now), somehow Kadaf and his team manage to move properties. It think the follow quote from Kadaf via Real Trends, is perhaps the best way for the reader to learn about this pro’s excellent record:

“I have passion for real estate. Although no one likes to work for free, it isn’t the monetary factor that drives me. I reinvest a lot into my office to help others succeed.” Kadaf also takes pride in his charity work. “Our office is involved in several charitable endeavors, but I do my own projects. For example, there was an elderly woman who was being kicked out of her home because of the deplorable conditions. We rehabbed the property to allow her to stay in the home and it helps the neighborhood as well. I’m not attached to one charity. I look for stories and emails from people to find ways to help.”

And all that despite the fact Kadaf is all but unplugged from the web. Just finding an image of the real estate pro proved difficult for this web guru. I can only imagine him taking over all of real estate with more leverage via digital channels. Wow.

Kevin Tomlinson – The  South’s Luxury Condo Guru

I won’t lie to you, ever. Kevin is now a friend of mine on Facebook. Two years ago I found Tomlinson‘s One Sotheby’s International Realty via our ongoing series of evaluations of real estate people for their relative digital involvement. Kevin was and is, proving to be one of the best online, as well as showing off Miami’s best luxury pads in person. That said, no mention of Miami high end properties could be complete, so to speak.

A long time Sotheby’s sales dynamo, Tomlinson practices what he preaches. In the know, if you read about his philosophies on sales, he prescribes for the 70 percent of condo sales that begin in the digital world. That’s right, over two thirds of Tomlinson’s luxury transactions start on the web or mobile.

So NOT featuring Tomlinson, friend or foe, would simply be ignoring the truth of his expertise. Readers may read his bio here. Despite my constant constructive criticisms of real estate players online, I actually do love saying nice things about excellent people.

Larry W. Strother – Just East of a Vast Experience

Where I come from, maybe where you’re from too, the say “there’s no substitute for experience” is a time tested truism. I am sure there is a lot more that can be said for Larry Strother, one of the nation’s leading real estate agents for some decades now, but maybe his wealth of knowledge is enough?

Fayetteville, North Carolina is a popular market, but certainly not San Francisco or New York. And within that metric a bit of Larry’s excellence as an agent is revealed. You see he is listed in the top 20 agents nationwide by the Wall Street Journal. Ahead of everyone in New England, basically up the eastern seaboard and down to Florida. Of course the WSJ is not the end all, is it? So, ERA Strother Real Estate also has Larry’s wife, Denise Strother’s award winning talents to fall back on once the nation’s leading business publication is proved wrong.

Excuse the tongue in cheek here, but in reality top agents are really always parts of a greater team. As you can see in the video above from Strother ERA, a pretty vast team has been assembled by the founders.

Go West and Call Debbie Craig-Banducci

It is pretty easy to pick whoever is best in the West. All one has to do really is find California’s top anything, and there you are. Not to put down other states out there, but California is its own little country, and Debbie is tops there. Her RE/MAX Magic team helps Debbie maintain here number one rating in California, and her number six position nationwide compared with ALL real estate agents.

Buying, selling, commercial, residential, luxury, Debbie is one of those super multi-talented people whose energy is reflected in how accessible she is. How many top notch real estate moguls do you know who paste their email addy and cell phone number all over the web? And Debbie does not operate 50 cheesy websites to get this done either.

Bakersfield has its own breed of hyper excellent property professionals, and Debbie Banducci sits at the pinnacle of those. Maybe your own assessments, but this lady has friendly written all over her, Facebook to the Wall Street Journal. She’s got “West” covered for this roundup.

Image credit: Cardinal Points – courtesy © Daniel Wiedemann – Fotolia.com

Brett Furman

Re/Max real estate professionals Joe Dono and Brett Furman have received Five Star Awards, for their quality services to local clients.
This award is given to real estate agents in more than forty five markets in the United States and Canada. In addition both agents were featured in a special advertising section in the Philadelphia Magazine.

Realtors receiving this award are evaluated by consumers on their customer service, integrity, market knowledge, their negation skills and their skill in being able to help customers find their perfect home. They are also evaluated on overall customer satisfaction.
Joe Dono commented on this award saying “I am humbled and excited to receive recognition of this award.  Both agents can be reached on 610-687-2900.

Re/Max Classic has been a family owned and operated business for the last 22 years and has outstanding support staff that is able to assist their agents, enabling them to focus upon the business of providing excellent customer service to clients.

Re/Max was founded in 1973 by Dave and Gail Linger, who still lead the Denver-based global franchiser today. The company is recognized as being one of the leading real estate franchises in the industry. In addition the company has raised more than $100 million for Children’s Miracle network Hospitals, Susan G. Komen and for the Cure®.

Realtors believe the recovery is on its way © Petr Ciz - Fotolia.com

The survey of RE/MAX real estate agents revealed that four out of five agents believe prices have already hit rock bottom, and that a resurgence led by a growing demand for low to mid price homes will materialize by the end of the year, reports Property Wire.

Margaret Kelly, CEO of RE/MAX, said that many agents were already seeing evidence of a recovery:

“For active real estate agents, this market is definitely heating up. They are witnessing a recovery across the country fuelled by home buyers and sellers taking advantage of a significant market opportunity.”

Just over two thirds (66%) of RE/MAX agents believe that real estate prices will rise by the end of this year. This belief is backed up by the realtors’ perception that demand for housing is once again beginning to grow, especially in the low-to-mid price property bracket.

According to the survey, 80% of agents said they were seeing a ‘good’ or ‘very good’ demand for homes in the low price bracket, with a further 71% claiming they had seen ‘good’ or ‘fair’ demand for homes in the mid range price bracket.

The growing demand is not being led by any one demographic either, which can also be taken as evidence of a solid recovery taken shape. According to Property Wire, first time buyers account for approximately a third of all new homes sold, with investors and current homeowners accounting for about a third each.

Even so, there are problems in the way. Agents say that the toughest challenge for first time buyers is obtaining credit, with lenders still insisting on very high credit scores before they’ll consider giving out a loan. Other problems cited by first time buyers include coming up with a down payment, and also finding a home to buy – agents say that some markets are actually experiencing a shortage of suitably priced homes for sale in the low-to-mid price brackets.

For repeat buyers, they have the additional problem of having to sell their current home before they can make a move.

Realtors, we have found, are not exactly prime candidates as social media gurus. As it turns out, neither are many top CEO’s. You’d think decision makers would jump at the chance to enable new channels, but you would be wrong too. The ReMax agent at left thought stone tools were frivolous too, look where he is now. Just because you tried using wet flint to start your business fire, does not mean fire cannot be created.

Looking at the infographic below, what many perceived as an advantage of youth at the onset of Web 2.0, turns out to be just that. The graphic illustrates a steadfast resitence by older decision makers to adapt to technological change, even in the face of devastating competition. Just how difficult can it be to adopt these new social media strategies? (click the image for the larger version)

Nearly half of all 50+ CEO’s get their business intelligence someplace besides via a mobile device! This seems astounding. Talk about giving away an advantage. If we interject that brokers are in effect, CEO’s, imagine the opportunity costs there. It’s worth thinking about, Baby Boomers simply retiring instead of fighting an un-win-able fight during these economic times. In the end, that’s what you’re doing giving up digital and social channels to your competition. Just because twitter seems stupid, can you afford not to compete? Food for thought, I am on G + if you need help.

Caveman image courtesy © Bastos – Fotolia.com

Foreclosed homes are being targeted by thieves. Image courtesy of BBC World Service

One of the most common scams, brought to the attention of real estate professionals by the National Association of Realtor’s Memphis branch, is for thieves to pull up a truck outside a foreclosed home, remove the old “For Sale” signs, and then break inside the property and start helping themselves to anything of value that they can find. Typical items which are removed include air conditioning units, light and plumbing fixtures, copper from inside the walls, furniture and kitchen appliances.

Copper especially, has become a hugely tempting target since prices shot up in the last year by more than $1/pound.

As Mandy Creech, a RE/MAX real estate agent explained to McClatchy-Tribune Regional News:

“We’ve had it where they took the cabinets, the sink, the toilet, the lights, everything,”

But it’s not only that things are being stolen, the foreclosed homes are also suffering extensive damage as well. For example, in one incident that was described in the McClatchy-Tribune Regional News, thieves turned on the taps of a home they were stealing from, leaving the water running for four days before it was discovered by the real estate agent responsible for the property.

Expensive copper piping draws thieves to foreclosed homes. Image courtesy of Andy Putnam

Local authorities have been making efforts to frustrate the thieves in recent months, for instance by making the sale of an air conditioning unit or its parts illegal without a HVAC License.

Another initiative, led by the Memphis Association of Realtors, in concert with home builders and chambers of commerce, has proposed that local authorities initiate something called a “tag and hold” policy affecting the sale of copper. Under the initiative, anyone selling copper pipes or something similar to an official merchant would need provide an ID and also leave a thumbprint.

You can read the original article here.

Traffic and popularity do not always end up being best for everyone. How do you deal with bug ugly corporate websites? Switch to Coldwell Banker? Let’s find out.

Zillow, Trulia, Realtor, even Caldwell Banker and many of the others rest their laurels, to a degree, on the “dogma” of popularity. “The Number One Real Estate Company In… You fill in the blanks. Like most corporate glee clubs, real estate organizations hand out awards like soccer moms determined “junior” will be Michael Jordan, skill or not. Inman will soon award a select few their pint of glory at  Real Estate Connect® San Francisco, even Bollywood (well India any way) has jumped on the mutual gratification band wagon – the CNBC AWAAZ -CRISIL-CREDAI REAL ESTATE AWARDS hand out gold for everything from The Best Integrated Suburban Developer to the Best Walk in Closet, or so it seems. But where is the consumer?

Realtor dot com

What’s in a name? Well, brand awareness, that’s what. Having the best domain means a lot, there’s no telling how much Realtor.com had to spend on theirs? One look at their “cookie cutter” website shows for certain they spent a lot less on web design. Either that or their change hit them in the back once Move, Inc squeezed this one out. It’s pitiful.

Why should I let Move Inc off the hook digitally, when screwed up sites around the world catch it when they fail? Move can afford anything available, and what you see is what you the consumer gets? 22,000 of you “like” their Facebook pages, even though you had to scroll 23 miles to the bottom of their site to find the buttons.  And the Tweets of thanks to Inman for Connect awards are already chirping in: Thank you @InmanNews for Most Innovative Real Estate Start-Up Award for SocialBios! #icsf. In depth Realtor dot com analysis, later on, engagement score in the interim: 4 of 10

Stunning is not a word to describe Realtor.com's web footprint

Realestate dot com

Again, a mighty big outfit fills the Google search query at position two with mediocrity. Greg Hanson, General Manager of Realestate.com, just has to be one of those corporate types not many ever see, his face (and everyone else’s) sure is missing from the clinical pages on their website. I did manage to hunt Greg down at LinkedIn, a nice looking fellow, all the more reason he should be up front for Realestate. As COO of Tree, Greg should switch Realestate dot com with the far cooler Tree site. Facebook? Twitter? SVP of Technology, Kamelia Dianati , should look into social media as a conduit for her company. The company actually has 2000 + fans, God knows how they found FB though? Realestate dot com’s initial rating: 3 of 10 (massive resources factored in)

Realestate dot com - Web 1.5 technology, brick and mortar mentality

Zillow?

Google, Apple, Yahoo!, AOL, Zillow? What the hell is a zillow any way? Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink had a brilliant idea, or glowing connections one, when they launched Zillow. The name, while a bit Cat in the Hat, is catchy, and the service has its advantages too. However, beauty, personalization, and adherence to cutting edge web feet prints are not always up to snuff, are they? Zillow is mud ugly, at least for me. The landing looks like some drunk designer’s “half hearted” attempt at minimalist design. Sorry, but bazillion dollar companies should offer more.

Zillow does have at least one saving grace (besides visibility that is) – they attract really knowledgeable experts. Anyone wanting to know anything about the industry, can trust Zillow to have data on it – or better yet, resident experts like Brendon DeSimone, put bluntly, the man knows his stuff. I leave off Zillow for now, more to come later on. Watch Bendon’s video at bottom, but Zillow’s interim rating as a digital company: 4 of 10 (We should expect more)

Zillow looks like a really ugly Google - devoid of anything like aesthetics

End Part I

Tomorrow we will move down the list of top online real estate entities, and even onto page two to find some better choices, maybe. As a preview, RealtyBizNews will briefly cover; Remax, Trulia, and a lesser company on page two called AOL. Stay tuned for how AOL’s Laura Goldstein and Co. may need to be your online advisors of choice! As always, we welcome your opinions, thoughts, and comments.

Phil out for now.

The Holmby Hills estate, sold for $85 million. Image courtesy of Atwater Village Newbie

The 56,500 square foot residence was sold by its owner Candy Spelling, widow of Aaron Spelling, the late TV producer, for just $85 million. The home had previously been listed at $150 million for the last two years.

Slightly larger than the White House, the enormous Holmby Hills property was snapped up by UK socialite Petra Ecclestone, the daughter of Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone, whose family fortune was recently estimated to be worth $4.2 billion, putting them 254th on the Forbes rich-list of the world’s wealthiest people.

British socialite Petra Ecclestone. Image courtesy of Etonline

Estimating the value of a property can be incredibly difficult when it comes to multi-million dollar luxury mansions such as this one, says RE/MAX’s Jorden Cohen. “With homes this size, you don’t ever get matching comps, because they are all unique when you get into the multi-million dollar price range,” she said.

Luxury homes can be tricky to value as they are always unique. Image courtesy of SMH

But despite initial reports saying that the property had set a new record as the most expensive home in the US, the property at Holmby Hills falls just short of the mark. The title currently belongs to a Silicon Valley property which went for the highest ever known price at $100 million earlier this year.

A great listing off GA 400 by former Greater Atlanta agent Russ Robinson - $749,000 | 6 BR, 6 BA, 1 Half BA Courtesy Robinson's Facebook listings

Greater Atlanta Brokerage Solutions LLC operates several offices in Atlanta including; Sandy Springs, Atlanta, Johns Creek and Dunwoody. WSBTV in Atlanta made a brief report and spoke with CEO Raymond Morris about the Chapter 11 and its effect on RE/MAX clients:

“The clients won’t be affected at all. The business will go on as usual. We’ll continue to list and sell homes and we’ll continue to have closings.”

Apparently a number of clients were caught unaware and had earnest money or other business in process with Greater Atlanta. Morris also belayed those fears with; “Earnest money, deposits, trust accounts are all in federally insured banks and they’re governed by the banks, so they’re all safe and sound.” Of course being directed to Federal insurance red tape rather than a direct refund is a bit circuitous for most people.

Atlanta was the hottest market going - now bankrupt is a household word

Just my own cursory look for information online about  Greater Atlanta Brokerage Solutions LLC leads me to believe the agency was a dinosaur destined to flop under the current economic pressure. Finding a name attached to the company online requires the services of a modern day Sherlock Holmes. Their cookie cutter RE/MAX site leads nowhere expect to limited social engagements. RE/MAX Greater Atlanta’s Facebook updates seemed to stop about two weeks ago, as did their limited Twitter broadcast effort.

It is actually easier to find top sellers like Russ L. Robinson having left for greener pastures than it is to find even a mention of Greater Atlanta’s BIC. Some affiliations of the agency being apparent (PDF), this company has a digital footprint that looks like they do not want to be found. Sorry to be critical here, it’s no small wonder they went under without a real face or faces for their brand. Russ Robinson announcing he has joined the Around Atlanta “Family” - need I say anything here? But the dude did announce “same” to his 33 Facebook peeps (sorry this is just so funny).

Atlanta’s real estate market has been decimated, so seeing some agents go under like this is not really surprising. What is surprising for us is how pitifully so many of Atlanta’s and other city’s agents used the web as a tool. Just look at Robinson’s new company “Around Atlanta” – if Greater Atlanta RE/MAX was horribly inept and had no faces – Around Atlanta is a nightmare of a digital real estate entity.

Russ Robinson at least knows how to dress in a website

VirtualTourCafe launched last year and has a client list that includes Coldwell Banker, RE/MAX, Prudential, Keller Williams, ERA, Century 21, and Weichert.  According to CEO Tim Denbo, other virtual tour services were either too expensive, too complex, or simply not using modern, competitive technology. He decided to start VirtualTourCafe and has been enjoying success ever since.

Virtual Tour Cafe landing - not exactly cutting edge

A virtual tour is a way to view a property, including its interior, without leaving your computer.  VirtualTourCafe offers companies and real estate professionals a framework to display virtual tours to their customers, which includes a tour video, property information, mortgage calculator, YouTube and other social media integration, amenities, printable flyer, information about the real estate agent, and more.  The software allows agents to “do it yourself” and create their own professional virtual tours.

Despite the optimism, no one really knows if home sales will get better over the next year.  Many homeowners continue to struggle to pay their mortgages in the US, and millions of homes are currently valued for less than the owners owe.  Nevertheless, foreclosure rates went down last year, and forward-thinking businesses may help to reignite the market.

Based in Dublin, California, VirtualTourCafe is an online real estate marketing service, specializing in providing easy-to-use technological solutions for real estate professionals.  Its solutions are affordable enough even for agents just getting started.  For as little as 14.99 a month, agents can have two active tours online.

Virtual tour tool

Some Key Competition: Tour Factory, Home Debut,  3DVista,  and most predominantly My Virtual Listings.

RealtyBizNews Staff rate this technology Orange based on a cursory review of the technologies involved, the graphic and other design elements of the company website, an initial mini SEO audit, and the absence of our official product review. We have reached out via the various social channels for a “test drive” of the product, and will report and update our findings.