Dmitry & Maureen: Moving Metro Detroit

Just a quick reminder that the deadline for November's Carnival of ActiveRain is Friday Night at Midnight. This could be your big chance to have instant blogging fame, so take a quick peak through your November posts and see what you've got.  This month we are focusing on blogs written for consumers.

The rules and entry instructions are here.

And, hey, those 300 bonus points for the winners might come in handy with the holidays rapidly approaching.  I've got hosts anxiously sitting by their email boxes waiting for your submissions, so please, send in something today.  

• General Information
• About a Region
• Regional News and Events
• Market Reports
• Advertising a listing

1. Only open to ActiveRain bloggers
2. Deadline for entry is December 1st at midnight EST.
3. All entries must be originally written and posted between November 1, 2006 and December 1, 2006.  Older posts are not eligible. 
   
4. Only one entry per member.  Multiple entries will disqualify the entrant.
   
5. One award will be made for each category.
6. Send your submission though the host's contact info.

**Call for category hosts:
I need 5 people to each host one section of the Carnival.  You will receive the entries through your own email address.  When you've chosen the winner, you will write a post about why you selected who you chose.  Hosts will post their selections on December 3rd on their own blog. You can find links here to see what the hosts did last time.  

Please leave your name below if you would like to host.  I would like to give a new group of hosts a chance, so people who hosted last time will not be hosting again this month.  Anyone who leaves there name after the first 5 slots are filled will be invited first to host next month's Carnival of ActiveRain. 

Here are this month's Hosts.  Please submit your entries through their ActiveRain contact page. 

Toby Boyce has graciously agreed to host General Information

Linda Davis has graciously agreed to host About a Region

Christian Real Estate Network has graciously agreed to host Regional News and Events 

Fran Rokicki has graciously agreed to host Market Reports 

Damion Flynn has graciously agreed to host Advertising a Listing

And everyone can help out by encouraging another blogger to enter!  Don't be shy. Get your blog ready for guests!

UPDATE:  This just in from Washington.  300 bonus points will be awarded to each category winner. 

**update:  We are all set for hosts for November.  Thank you everyone for volunteering.  If anyone wants to do this in December, let me know.

Dear Mr & Mrs. Seller,

I've noticed something funny lately. I happened to Google a couple of local agents' names. I was really surprised that NOTHING came up. I mean NOTHING!  Not one lousy link.  Not even one from their broker's site.

Shhhhhhh. Don't tell them please. They are my competitors. I don't really want you to find them, if they don't want to be found. OK, OK, I don't mind if you find them, but here is my thought for the day:

If you can't find any trace of your Realtor on Google, do you think your agent has a strong plan for marketing your home on the web?

My guess is that he does NOT.

I am about halfway through reading this year's Annual Technology Study from the National Association of Realtors. Again, please don't pass that link on to my competitors here in Birmingham, Michigan.

In the last few years, Dmitry and I have focused on on-line marketing. NAR says that something like 80% of buyers begin their home search on the web. In our Oakland County marketplace, I would say its 99%. That is just my guess, based on the conversations I have with buyers. It used to be common to mail a thick packet of listing tickets to a prospective buyer. But for years now, we've been sending one convenient little link, with color pictures, virtual tours, etc. Buyers seem to prefer the link.

I've said it before (but if you missed it, it is a good read), I'll say it again:

Your home needs to be promoted in the places that buyers are looking.

Glossy magazines are pretty, but I can tell you I've never gotten many calls off of those ads. The weekly newspaper? Forget it. Who wants to search through completely unorganized little boxes with blurry black and white photos that leave your hands smudged?

I'll keep this one short. But please, before you list your home, at the very least, Google your agent's name. While that is by no means the perfect measure of an agent's prowess in internet marketing, I can tell you this, your agent has every reason to want to be 'found' on the internet.  Ranking highly for one's own name is generally not too hard, unless your name is very common.  I don't even rank first for my own name, because I share my name with an opera singer, and actress and a doctor.  And my site is not optimized for people to find my name.  It's optimized for people to find houses in Oakland, County, Michigan. But you will find me on page one of Google search results, if you are looking for "Maureen Francis" , If you don't find anything when you try to Google your prospective Realtor, you might want to give me a call. I would be happy to help you find your next agent no matter where you are in the United States.

Sincerely,

Maureen Francis

SKBK Sotheby's International Realty, Birmingham, MI

Crazy as it sounds, I maintain two blogs.  The other blog, miOaklandCounty.com is slightly more local in flavor, but some of the content appears both places.  Since I joined ActiveRain, I've been exposed to many more people maintaining two (or more Toby Boyce) blogs.  And we've all got different approaches to running these two blogs.

Last month we ran a blog tour, and we visited ActiveRainers 'other blogs'.  I learned a lot, and there seemed to be a consensus that people would like to do it again.  So, the time has come.  We are back.  The visitors are coming!

Here is how it works: 

• Put a link in the comments here with your 'other' blog's URL. 
  
• If you have a post that you think we would particularly enjoy, use that as the landing page.  But the main page is just fine too. 
• I will stop by any blog that is posted here. 
  
• If you post your own blog here, I ask you to visit at least the two other blogs that sign up immediately before you.   Of course, you are welcome to visit more. 
  
• If you add your blog early in the comments, you'll want to stop back later  to check out the new  additions.
  
• When you are out visiting, leave a comment to let them know you stopped by. 
  
• Optional: You might consider adding someone to your blogroll.  If you don't have an outside blog, you could add them to your "favorites" on your blog settings or as an associate.

Let's close the sign up on Friday this week.  That gives everyone a couple of days to either get their blogs 'staged' or do their touring.   You don't need to have another blog to participate.  And you are welcome to come back and leave any observations here, so we can all learn from what you saw out there.

While you are out there, also take a look at this Squidoo lens that Teresa Boardman built.  Its very cool and a great resource!

So, join the fun.  Let's go out blog touring!

Metro Detroit holds the dubious distinction of being a leader in the number of foreclosed upon homes.  Dmitry, my husband, tracks foreclosures very closely for his investor clients and for our own real estate investments.   He's managed to find some great deals through his research.

We are primarily listing agents.  We love buyers, but seem to end up with more sellers, and we always have.  We've got a very good reputation for getting homes sold for our clients, so that has perpetuated itself into more listings.

Dmitry saw an opportunity for us to use our listing skills in conjunction with his knowledge of foreclosures.  This week he managed to get an appointment with the Vice President at a local bank who is responsible for that bank's foreclosures.  We wanted to learn more about how foreclosures are handled from within the bank. Because Dmitry tracks the foreclosure announcements as the news comes out of the courthouse, he actually knew of properties that this VP will be dealing with in the next few months, that the VP wasn't even aware of yet.   

The VP told us that the bank has been working with one real estate broker for 20 years.  We said that we would not want to interfere with a good relationship, but that if there was ever anything that the other broker could not handle, we would be delighted to. 

He called us the next day to give us two listings.

I am proud of Dmitry for looking beyond our "usual sources" and opening up a new opportunity for us. Who knows what this might lead to.

(Our client is not Barclay's.  I just liked the photo of the ATMs)

(With apologies to the professional stagers out there.  I will never be a threat to staging anything better than you!)

Not long ago Matt Heaton left a comment on Merton and Ambrose's blog after Jay asked how he might get a gold star.  Matt's reply is worth taking a look at, but this sentence stuck in my mind:

"I will admit how a post looks and whether it is free from spelling mistakes can make a huge difference".

Then today, janeAnne Narrin posed a question on her blog about how people are finding images to illustrate their blogs.  A good question, and I have seen lots of approaches to the answer.

Many people have mastered staging their blogs with pretty pictures.  Kristal Kraft happens to be a very good photographer, so she often hits the pavement and goes out and takes the pictures she needs.  I can't think of a better way to get photos for local content than to take them yourself. Kristal also buys images when she does not have something in her own archives.

Which brings me to my point.  There are lots of sources for free or cheap images on the net.  Google image search is NOT necessarily one of them because you are not licensed to use the images you find there, just like you cannot republish an entire article from Inman news.

I've used many of the resources that Rory Siems directed us to for sources of photos, and Rory's links have lead me on to discover other free image sites as well.   His list is worth a visit.

Go forth and create a pretty blog.  You might just catch Matt's eye, or, even better, you might catch a consumer's attention.

Last night the Tomato completed deliberations over the Off Topic/Humor Category for the Carnival of ActiveRain.  Like the rest of the hosting panel, The Tomato was faced with a difficult decision and some very fine reading material.  So, without further ado, fresh from the Tomato's vine...

(drum roll please...)

The winner is Linda Davis for The Good Old Days, Linda's reminiscence about high interest rates (illustrated by short skirts), long gas lines and agents prequalifying buyers certainly inspired a lot of commentary.  From what I gather, most of the agents who lived through the "Good Old Days" are glad that they are over.

Congratulations Linda!

Folks, that concludes the Inaugural Edition of the Carnival of ActiveRain.  Thanks for tuning in.

Here is the Carnival Wrap-Up on miOaklandCounty.com 

First let me say, I have a new found appreciation for the "professional blog readers" in Washington, Caleb and Matt.  I read a lot of blogs every day, because there is a lot to be learned on ActiveRain.  Saying one blog is better than another is really very subjective.  My opinion of what is good/better/best is tempered by my personal interests and opinions, no matter how objective I may try to be.

I was really pleased by the participation in this first Carnival of ActiveRain.  Thank you so much to everyone who entered.  You gave me a lot of great stuff to read, and a lot to think about.  I printed out a big stack of entries yesterday morning and passed them around the table at a breakfast meeting I attended so that I could share some of the great stuff I get to read every day.  My coworkers were impressed. I was delighted to be introduced to bloggers who had been flying below my radar, and a couple who have just begun here.  That was exactly what I had hoped for when I started this. I was also really happy to see some of my daily reads take the plunge and throw their names in the hat.

Thank you to my co-hosts, who agreed to participate in my first attempt at anything like this.  And thanks to everyone who took a moment to encourage another blogger to send in a post.  Thanks to Caleb for offering some points to the winners and doing what he could to help make sure people knew this was going on.

I have two announcements to make in this post.  Mary McKnight is traveling right now, and she emailed her winner for Tips and Tricks yesterday.

(drum roll please...)

Damion Flynn takes home the honors for More Free Advertising.  Damion's got a great post about submitting articles to various sites to help improve search engine placement.  For bloggers, what could be easier?  We are already writing, so the issue seems to be getting some of our work spread out to bring back traffic.  Seems like a good idea to me.  Thank you Damion and congratulations!

Which means I have to get back to my assignment.  I've been having trouble with this one all night.  In part, I think we as a community are having trouble deciding which categories our posts belong in.  I had a couple of people ask me about this as they submitted articles.   So I went back to the definition of what is supposed to be in this category.

ActiveRain Community: Posts dealing specifically with some facet of the ActiveRain Real Estate Network.  Such as posts about features, improvements to the system, discussions among members, etc.

Doing this cut down the number of posts I had to chose from.  Some very good posts just did not seem to fit this definition.

There were two posts that I really liked because they both addressed one event in the community this week, an anonymous post on Craig Schiller's blog. They complimented each other very nicely.  Thank you Craig and Marti Garaughty. I've noticed more anonymous posting lately and Craig handled it with aplomb.

A second set of excellent posts was about building community (cow-munity) and the power of ActiveRain.  Maureen McCabe is the AR blogger who most often has a great chart to illustrate her point. Maureen's arguments for blogging on ActiveRain are compelling and well supported.  Angus Woodbury, of course, is most likely to use a cow to illustrate his point.  I look forward to those cows and those charts!
 
In all, I love how these posts are examples of what blogging can be: interrelated conversations on the web, social networking, and the fantastic opportunities that the ActiveRain community has to offer.

Which takes me to my selection for ActiveRain Community.

(another drum roll please...)

The post I've selected is by someone who talks about growing her network, and her business, and how she has made ActiveRain a part of all of that.  I admire Margaret Rome's synergistic approach; it reminds me of things I need to do in building my own business.  And I certainly would consider it a treat to sit in on one of Margaret's seminars.

Congratulations Margaret.

I will be updating this post with the other host's selections as they come in.  Here is the recap and the link to the host's post:

Carol Williams for Real Estate Opinion
Jeff Belonger for Finance

Toby Boyce for Industry News  

Damion Flynn for Tips, Tricks & Advice
Margaret Rome for ActiveRain Community

Linda Davis for Off Topic/Humor 

Thanks again to everyone who participated.  They really were all very fine articles.

Check out the wrap up for the Carnival of ActiveRain on miOaklandCounty.com 

We have some great entries for the Carnival of ActiveRain.  But its not too late to participate.

Those of you who are waiting, don't be shy.  Send in an entry.  Caleb Mardini is offering some bonus points to the winners, and a few of our hosts have said that they will write about their category winner on their outside blogs.  

If you have any trouble with the submission site, just send your entry, with the category to activerain@gmail.com  The deadline is Midnight tonight, EST.