I figured out what was slowing down my blog when it was loading up. I have corrected the problem and the page loads up MUCH faster now.
Look for the video post later today.
Thank you for your patience.
Category Archives: website
Are you in a car club?
- Monday, 07 April 2008 21:24
- Written by Lane Bailey
- 1 Comment
It is pretty obvious that my blog and website cater to the type of people that would be in some sort of car club. Well, I am too. 
photo credit: k4cay
So, if you are in a car club, especially one that is in the Atlanta area, or has a chapter around here, I’d love to provide a free rotating banner ad on GarageHomesUSA.com. FREE. That’s it. I don’t need the email addresses of your members. You don’t have to invite me to talk about real estate at a meeting. I don’t expect a banner ad on your club’s website in exchange. All I need is a banner that is 340 pixels wide by 170 high, and an address to link it to for your website.
So, why would I do this?
Why not. Like I said, I’m in a club. In fact, I’m President of a club. (GBR4WD). We are always looking for new members. And, a lot of the hits to my site are auto enthusiasts from other parts of the country looking to relocate to the Atlanta area… and aside from looking for a home, many would be looking for a club, too.
If you would like for me to talk about real estate at a meeting, or if you want to give me a banner spot on your club’s website, that fine. I won’t ask…
Send me those banners.
I can sell ANY home in a week
- Thursday, 03 April 2008 10:52
- Written by Lane Bailey
- 0 Comments
It isn’t that hard. In fact it is downright easy. Selling a home in a week or less is pretty simple. It only takes a few simple steps.
Saturate the market with marketing. If nobody knows it is for sale, it won’t get sold.- Make it look perfect. It has to beat out ALL of the other homes on the market.
- Have a stunning presentation, perfect pictures and excellent virtual tour.
- Get in front of any surprises. Get a pre-listing inspection so that there aren’t surprises from the buyer’s inspector.
- Find a hook… something different… like a virtual interactive floor plan.
These are all well known techniques… although about 75% of the listings on the market right now do NOT have all of these going for them. Every day as I go through listings in the local MLS, I see homes that look terrible, or worse… don’t have enough or even any pictures. I go to visit homes and I see them messy and unkempt. I run across flyer boxes that are empty. I see agents and sellers that have their heads in the sand trying to maintain “plausible deniability” about property defects.
I can list a few hooks, but most of them are really just gimmicks. Giving away cars and plasma screen TVs with the house aren’t that exceptional anymore. And they don’t make a better buying experience… and most of these lead to the biggest problem…
- The price has to be amazing.
Not good. Amazing. That is where things get interesting. ANY house will sell immediately at some price. But, that price might very well not be a price at which the seller wants to sell. But here is the surprise…
If the house is going to sell, it will likely sell early in the listing.
That’s right. The single most critical time for the marketing of the house is the first week. When it is a “new listing” it gets the most attention. The waning attention later in the listing period can be improved with price reductions or other “fresheners.” But, it still won’t get the eyes like it will during the first week.
So, what does all of this mean? It means that if the house is priced aggressively, it will get offers and likely sell in the first couple of weeks of the listing.
So, Lane… why are the average days on market usually several months? There are a couple of reasons. To start with, it is an average… a lot of homes sell faster, and a lot sell slower. If you look really hard through the listings, you will see that the homes that sell late in the listing period, you will see price reductions. Had they been priced that way to start with… they would have sold faster.
Another reason goes back to the first few points I made. Many properties are rushed on to the market. “Get the listing, get the sign in the ground, get it on the MLS and then do the collateral work.” That is the way most agents operate. The first week (the most critical time) the listing doesn’t have flyers, doesn’t have a web site… doesn’t even have pictures on the MLS, much less a virtual tour. We know that this is the most important time, and yet… 3 out of 4 listings WASTE this important time.
Ok, you’ve convinced me… I’ll give you a week to sell my house. If you let me price it like it is on fire… I’ll take it. However, if you want to preserve equity, we might need more time. I think a year is outrageously long (except for some VERY high end homes with a limited market), but even two months is a pretty short time frame to risk spending much money on while marketing a home. Six months is a good medium… but we’ll know if we are getting good results much quicker than that.
If you are ready to sell your home, let me know.
Ready to actually sell your property? ZAG!
- Wednesday, 02 April 2008 14:09
- Written by Lane Bailey
- 2 Comments
Everyone in the real estate industry is zigging… ok, not everyone, but enough. Most real estate agents (and unrepresented sellers) think that tossing a couple ads on Craigslist and claiming the house on Zillow is an Internet Marketing Strategy. Most real estate agents are actually cutting back on their marketing efforts… money is tight, slow the spending is the mantra. Everyone is clamoring for buyers… afterall, it is a buyer’s market, and sellers are having a hard time competing… so abandon them and concentrate on buyers, they are bringing the money.
I’m going through the MLS looking for something in particular. And what do I see? I see properties in the MLS with no pictures. We are allowed a dozen. About 10% of listings have that many. Only about 20% have a virtual tour of any type. Property specific website? Almost immeasurably small percentage.
In order to sell, sellers need to have their property WELL represented and marketed.
When I started in real estate, I came in as a buyer’s agent. That still represents most of my business. At that time, agents wanted listings. Buyers were a dime a dozen, and listings were hard to come by. I saw a need for good buyer representatives. I was amazed at what I saw… and as the market reality shifted, I became more and more amazed.
When we were in a seller’s market, it was normal to see properties listed with two or three pictures (eight was the limit then). Descriptions were sparse. Online marketing was almost non-existent. Sales were easy, why spend money and time? But as the market shifted, sales weren’t so easy, and a new excuse was needed to not really market a property. Back to Money is tight, slow the spending.
I am transitioning to listing more properties. Sellers need someone that understands buyers. Being an agent for 100 years isn’t enough. I have dealt with too many “listing specialists” that have totally forgotten what sells houses, and have only managed to focus in on what sells themselves. Imagine having an agent that is supposed to be representing the best interests of the seller tell you… “It’s a numbers game. I know that only 20% of the listings will sell, so I just take more. If the seller isn’t realistic about price, that’s ok. I get business from having my sign in their yard.” And yes, that is a quote.
I can proudly say that my selling/listing percentage is 4x the market average… and climbing. I have built a portal that offers buyers a unique perspective on property, and is tailored to unique buyers. Instead of just an ad on Craigslist (which I have regularly), I am building a an internet marketing presence that works for properties with better than average garages. I am building single property websites with some killer options that are just not used in this market.
Google cool garages Atlanta or garage home Atlanta or house cool garage or 4+ car garage gwinnett. Did you notice that there were a lot of top spots held by Active Rain (for one of my blogs), LaneBailey.com (this blog), Blogspot.LaneBailey.com (my old blog, points to this blog) and GarageHomesUSA.com (my website)? I have page 1 rankings for ALL of those terms and many more. Everyday I get better in the Search Rankings for those and similar terms.
If you are selling a home in Gwinnett or the surrounding areas, I am ready to put this to work for you.
Newsletter #1 has been emailed!
- Thursday, 20 March 2008 23:38
- Written by Lane Bailey
- 0 Comments
And of course I found a mistake right after I hit the send button… but hey, I’m not perfect. Ask my wife.
If you would like to be on the e-newsletter list, join. On the top right side of this page is the subscription form. I’m not going to spam you 10 times a month with junk. I won’t send out more than a couple times a month (honestly, I don’t plan on doing a newsletter more than once a month…).
I will be altering the newsletter format as I find better products to use.
I’d love your feedback if you are one of the lucky readers that got on the list.
And remember, you can unsubscribe at any time. Just shoot me an email and you will be off the list. I don’t want anyone to have things in their email box that they don’t want… at least not from me.