tampa4u's Blog: REAL ESTATE stuff

  When people think about buying lakefront property, it's no surprise that Florida is at the top of their prospective locations.  After all, what other state has both a county called Lake County and a city named Lakeland?  Within Lake County itself are nearly 656,000 acres of lakes, while Lakeland boasts 38 named lakes covering 28,000 acres.  Add to that the fact that most major cities in the state have numerous lakes, and you'll understand that there is the potential for millions of acres of lakefront property. So is a lakefront home for you?  It could be.  Lakefront property is good not only for a place to live, but makes for an excellent investment opportunity. Baby boomers are retiring to Florida in record numbers, with more wealth than ever.  And… Read Full Post

Thank God we survived 2007. 2008 is going to be better.  We're looking forward to a very fruitful, "fun-filled" exciting year. Can't get any worse than the last:) ... or will it. See our Welcome 2008 message to our customers: Welcome 2008

I always tell pessimists that in any market there are opportunities. In spite of what we read about the sluggish real estate market and what buyers and sellers tell us, there are a lot of positives in this market:

Prices are falling to the point that first-time home buyers can afford to buy again. In some areas of Tampa prices have dropped by almost $100K. 3 bedroom, 2 bath , 1600 sq ft homes can be purchased for a little over $150K in nice master-planned communities.

Lots of real estate agents are not going to be renewing their licenses this year: that means LESS competition.

Builders are once again kissing our behinds and offering substantial co-broke incentives.

Sellers are more willing to give us more to list their homes and are once again…

I saw the headline on Yahoo and immediately clicked on it: A Rebound in 2008. I clicked on the link and it's blank. That's funny. Rebound in 2008??? Blank, zilch, nada.

I still want to read what it says so maybe later on there will be content on this link: http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/104024/Will-Home-Prices-Hit-Bottom-in-2008-YesBut

Quick: what's the best gift to give your clients this holiday? Last year we gave clients $20 to $50 gift cards to Panera Bread and Starbucks. We haven't decided what to give them this year...and.. we're 2 weeks away from the day. Any ideas?

We stumbled on the best closing gift this year: GPS. They just love it.

You spend all this time and effort optimizing your website to be one of the most visible site for your respective keyword(s)... but.... if you don't answer your phone when leads come in, you've just wasted your efforts.

This goes the same for emails. How you respond to emails is also important. Prospects are not stupid. They can tell a canned response from a real response. You are most likely to get a response back if you respond from the heart. If you programmed an auto response ... you may as well not have responded to begin with.

We've tried all sorts of response to emails. The best gauge for this is YOU. Read the email you're about to send and ask yourself... if I receive an email like this... will I respond to it? If the answer is NO.... Don't send…