For all Charlottesville agents, buyers and sellers
Read this post from a real estate consumer's perspective. When I market a home, I assume that the first visitor to my website, the MLS, etc. will be my seller client. When I look at MLS photos I want to see the front of the…
Newspapers remain (somewhat) dead
I have written about the ineffectiveness of print media time and time and time and time again. Roberta wrote a nice post today about newspapers' similarities to dead horses. Perhaps my favorite line: I also agree with John’s premise that newspaper advertising is more about…
Signs, signs, everywhere there are signs
There's a crackdown underway. A sting operation, if you will. The City of Charlottesville (and the County of Albemarle, other localities and the VDOT) are letting it be known that signs are not to be displayed in their rights-of-way. See this letter from the City.…
Traditional versus Internet buyers
Aren't we at the point now where "internet advertising" is "traditional" advertising? From Broker Agent News the other day: 92% of Internet buyers found their agent on a web site; 63% found them through an Internet search engine; 0% of Internet buyers found their agent…
How to market a very personal property
I generally don't blog about my listings. I have, on occasion mentioned one or two, but I don't think that this blog is the place for talking about properties I am marketing. If you want to search for homes in the MLS, (here are a…
Match day approaches for UVA
What is "Match Day"? Match Day is when 4th year medical students find out which residency program they matched with. Next year (actually this year - 2007), that day is March 15. On March 13, two days before, you find out IF you matched or…
Where do you search for homes in Charlottesville?
Excellent post today from Kris Berg about the varied places one can search for homes. Frequently even my savvy home buyers are surprised that not all homes are listed in the MLS. Kris does an extraordinary job pulling them all into on place. Locally, I…
How to market new construction
Question from a reader: Jim, I'm interested to hear the thoughts of Realtors on how best* to market lots in a new/proposed residential subdivision. The methods being employed in Fluvanna and Louisa at present are: (1) Make all lots available for sale to anyone (via…
Friday links 12-22-2006
An example of mortgage fraud? Staging Q & A - staging/preparing one's house is becoming more and more important in this market. Fun with conservation My new favorite local radio station Mainstreaming of solar This guy says that the real estate market in 2007 will…
New website is finally up
Finally. After much turmoil *and 24 hours of lost email*, I have now fully opened up my new real estate website. If you get a moment, check it out. The time I have spent on this over the past week has completely drained me. Downtime,…