NY Houses 4 Sale

Every bit of information -

..Can now be text messaged right to your phone. 

• Looking for open houses in Bayside?  Its there.
• Looking for open houses in Whitestone?  Its there.
• Looking for open houses in Flushing - Flushing North?  THERE.

I know most buyers look on the MLSLI.com website to get all the open house info but now - by going to OpenHouseOnTheGo.com every house can be sent right to your phone. 

Click here for more information and instructions

Color me Happy!!!

Actually - don't.  I am just dumb founded about how far behind NY is with regards to agency and marketing.  There is not a day that goes by that something my MLS does that just boggles me.  Have they been living under a box? 

Its almost like the blind leading the blind at times.  I mean, HOW could the  local board of Realtors not know about blogging - I mean, unless they NEVER turn on the computer, how have they missed this? 

Let's just say that for arguments sake, they have been busy with the agency stuff.  But, to add insult to injury, I got a very informative email about 26 seconds ago - and the tech group is offering ways for Realtors to improve their website rankings.  The email talks about organic and natural hits and WHY its important.  They offer great advice on HOW to get indexed for FREE and they even suggest that you should utilize the FREE sources before you go paying sites like Google, MSN, and Yahoo. 

Some info that they passed onto me.

Tip: Make sure you are taking advantage of all the FREE ways you can increase your websites ranking before you start paying Google, Yahoo, and MSN to do it for you. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Get Listed: submit your website with search engine directories so they know your website exists. Register with the search engines that account for most of the traffic such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, etc.
2. Improve the Odds: keep your website ranking up to date by periodically editing and adding to your website copy so it may rank well for particular terms that are relevant to your business.
3. Have other sites link to yours: search engines look at the popularity of your site, such as the number of links to your site. The more popular you are, the higher you will get ranked. It’s best to have as many websites as you can link to your site.
4. Keywords: Determine the keywords most used by your customers and use them in your website text whenever possible – link them to other pages on your site too. Hint – place these keywords towards the top half of your page – search engines view text in the top half of your page to be more relevant.

**I think I did these things about 3.5 years ago.  Not bad!   So blogging in NY should be popular within the next 3-5 years.  You have time, right?

Real Estate articles and tips...

Hey guys - Just wanted to pass along some great articles  and tips out there that are a must read. 

1031 Real Estate Exchange - by Real Estate Snippets (*BTW, I am having a lecture about this week) Great topic!

The Unbrokerage: How to profit from the glut of unproductive real estate agents . . .  - by the  BloodhoundBlog (Produce and your fired.  Just sit there and umm do nothing)

Real Estate News and Advice for Buyers, Sellers & Investors - by Glen Roberts for Inman News (*I noticed that Inman News did a slew of posts today - they had alot to say, I guess).

WHAT TO EXPECT from your realty blog - by RSSPieces (Great article for real estate agents).

REBlogGirl Chats with Sellsius° Real Estate at sellsius°  - from Sellsius/by RSSPieces (A great spinoff  (WITH a PodCast)from my original post).

How to screen a tenant - by Landlord Shmandlord (Great tips if you are a landlord - want to be a landlord or even an agent who deals with tenants and landlords).

You Don’t Always Get What You Pay For - by  BlueRoof.com Blog

Google wants YOU - and all your information....

Google is everywhere – Literally everywhere.  When Google bought YouTube almost two weeks ago – it had some people stumped.  Why would a multi-BILLION dollar company buy YouTube.com, an amateur site that displays videos that was only 19 months young?  With that question came the more important question; WHY for 1.65 Billion dollars?  It was just that – an amateur video site, that kids use to upload their silly videos.  Ahhh – but you see – that is not where YouTube was heading.  More and more professionals were starting to use it.  I know I saw advertisements on there.  The site was changing.  But did it matter?  Google wanted it and they made the owners an offer they could not refuse.  A 1.65 billion offer.

Well, there is a reason for everything.  There is a reason for Google.  If you follow the trend of Google, you know that they have come upon fast and furious.  You know that once they started – they won’t stop.  Yes, they are the number one for search engines.  Yes, they have beat out Yahoo, MSN and all other search engines. They are the big kids on the block and no one can come close to the empire that they have built.  There is only room for one and that one is Google. 

But, what is the ultimate goal for Google?  Do they just want to be the top search engine company?  My answer to that is an absolute NO. 

I actually don’t think that they care about being in number one search engine.  What they care about is bigger than that.  Google is all about positioning themselves.  They have a motive and they are going full steam ahead.  Google is like I said, king of search engines.  But did you know that Google could be getting strategically positioned to "take over the world"?   THAT is what they want – Donna Bogatin from ZDNet clearly watches Google and she asks .  “Google: Should we cheer it or fear it?”

Donna asks “Fear Google? Unthinkable to most, but real to many. Why? Google is steadily realizing its unflinching objective to control the world’s content (information) and then use that content of others to its own strategic and profit objectives while determining how it is made available, stored, manipulated, accessed…”

Other related Google Articles:

Google to world: You can have a piece of GOOG $$$ billions

Will Google click fraud increase with Custom Search Engines?

Google to Yahoo, Microsoft, Amazon: Hand over confidential, competitive info

Google's YouTube deal could help it break into TV ads

UTube

One thing I hate is to do a post after someone else has already done it.  I don't like being the second in line on a story, I will however reiterate what I feel someone is saying to be true.  I Read alot of blogs each day, I found this post from Rain City Guide, Dustin was talking about using Tube as an advertising venue, I was wondering if he knew that his company that he works for Move.com already has a video on UTube.   I have to say, I thought it was professionally done - unlike the Broker from NYC (which was removed by the user).  Granted she got over 1600 hits, but that was not 1600 GOOD hits.  I know, sometimes bad publicity is good publicity - but she is clearly resorting to her looks to get ahead in this business, and who am I to begrudge that?  No one, I just feel that no one will take her seriously.  I think, that if she used a better Videographer - perhaps it would come across better? 

So, is this the WEB 2.0 that everyone is talking about?  We are getting go Internet savvy that we don't even need talk to anyone anymore?    We will resort to all Emails and only talk when we have to?  Are we getting so ahead of ourselves that we are forgetting about the one on one connection?  We are going to give our messages through videos?  Look at how far we came in the past 3, 5, 10 years, What will things be like in the next era to come?  I anticipate it with fear and yet some excitement. 

Orlando Reginal Realtor Association..

What a great advertisment by the ORRA.  I found this plug over at Sellsius - and thought it was a great one.   Click on the picture to see it larger.

   To view the Dontityourself.com website.

The importance of branding.

When I get a home to sell, I have to advertise.  That is part of my agreement, right? OF COURSE!!  But what happens when you are a new agent or an agent who has nothing to advertise?  BRAND - BRAND  - BRAND!

If you pick an area that you want to sell in, list in, BUY in.. then circulate there.  Send post cards, send out the seeds for the plants, send magnets, ADVERTISE -YOU- THERE!!  There was an article that I was reading on TRUMPBLOG.   YES... I know there is a blog (not to get off the subject but it looks like whenever someone posts on his blog - it looks like a 30 second job application/resume).  Anyhooo - TrumpBlog.com says "Think of your brand as a magnetic force. It may attract, or it may repel. Designing a powerful brand strategy means building a force field around your company or product (or you!) that draws people in -- specifically the people most likely to buy what you have to offer".  more..