Dmitry & Maureen: Moving Metro Detroit

A few weeks ago another Realtor in the Birmingham MI real estate market referred to me derogatorily as a “blogger”, somehow implying that blogging is not something that a real estate agent does to sell homes. Oh, how wrong he is. And I am OK that he does not know better. Another victim of “Old School” thinking that traps many agents into using ineffective marketing tools. Great for me.

 

Yes, I write about real estate on miOaklandCounty.com and on ActiveRain. Is that a bad thing? I write about the local market, a bit about our business practices, and I closely track the newest trends from across the nation in real estate technology and marketing. I don’t care if the people who read my blog actually buy or sell a home from me, though that is certainly appreciated. When we go on a listing appointment I always tell the prospective client that they can interview us on-line at miOaklandCounty.com. Most of our “secrets” can be found here.

How does blogging impact our business?

• It has given us great “Google Juice.” We listed a home on Poppleton Park in Birmingham on Monday this week. It is right on the park, which is a great selling feature. We put up a post about the house on Monday night on our ActiveRain blog, and a day later we were on page one of Google (more than once) for the term "Poppleton Park". Kind of cool. If a prospective buyer were to google Poppleton Park, there is no way they would miss our listing. Compare that to using the term Poppleton Park in the newspaper. Not so effective, right?

• Google loves us for some big time key words like "Birmingham, MI real estate" and "Bloomfield Hills real estate". There are hundreds of agents and brokerages competing to be on page one of google for those extremely competitive terms.

• This blog has introduced us to a wonderful network of agents across the US. We have an outstanding referral database.

• We are frequently testing out the latest real estate technology products. That helps us to expand and improve our services.

After two years of engaging in this activity, I know it is not for everyone. It is hard work and it has taken more hours of effort than I could begin to count to get the results we have gotten.

Long story short, I hope some day that gentleman will see that blogging is something that Realtors do as part of their business activities. It keeps clients informed about the market. It helps prospects understand the process of buying and selling a home. And it gives those interested in the process a place to ask questions and get answers.

 

This post appears courtesy of miOaklandCounty.com. Copyright 2007 by Maureen Francis. All rights reserved.

Some of you may recall a post I did a while back about Habitat for Humanity taking our house away. Actually they were just taking building materials to resell in their the Restore from my childhood home before it met the wrecking ball.  It was a huge win-win for all involved.

We sold the house in 2003, and it is looking like the new home on the site is nearing completion. Quite a change from the home I knew as 600 Lakeside, Birmingham, MI 48009. In fact, not even the address remains. Now the city has ‘retired’ 600 and given the home the address of 620 Lakeside. I think they stopped forwarding my mail a few years ago anyway. And another step toward complete transformation of the property.

When I lived there, our home was about 2,700 square feet. The new home is over 7,000, though I wonder if they are including the basement in the square footage. As a tear down, our house was listed for $800,000 in 2003. Today, the new home is $2,700,000.

I am not sure how far along they are now but here is the description:

"Luxury living at its best! Enjoy this four bedroom home with five full and two half baths, a spacious family room, elegant living room, library with rich appointments, formal dining room, two-car attached garage, apartment above garage, five fireplaces locations, finished basement with bar, kitchenette and full bath."

Not a bad looking home at all, and it still has the priceless view of Quarton Lake that could not be bulldozed. The funny thing is that when I look at this picture, I still see MY house sitting on that lot, sandwiched between the two gracious 1920’s colonials. I envision my dad calling the ducks and the geese on to our front lawn to entertain house guests.  My brother and his friends intentionally jumping their bikes off of ramps and splashing in to the lake.  My mother cajoling us into having our picture taken on the front porch on milestones like Paul’s first day of school, my first communion, my grandparents 40th wedding anniversary and our graduations. And me, personalizing the purple walls of my bedroom with my own version of graffiti.  

The trees are gone, the house is gone, but my memories live on.  

I chose today to post this blog because it is mother's day.  My mother did so much to make that house our home.  Happy Mother's Day, Mom. 

This post appears courtesy of miOaklandCounty.com.