In the course of researching this month’s real estate email newsletter article I stumbled upon Diana Olick’s Realty Check column on the CNBC site, and I have to say I wish I’d found it long ago.  Each weekday she posts a short, well-researched blurb about some current real estate topic, from recently released housing reports to new legislation, and I found it to be an excellent source of up-to-the-minute real estate information.

One of the things I like about her writing is that she appears to have good insight into the issues and I think she tries to take a fair approach – she’s not out to spin the pros of real estate and at the same time she’s not someone who despises agents either – refreshing.   (I get so annoyed with people who act like they’re breaking barriers in the field of honesty, but if you read their stuff it turns out they’re as hopelessly biased as some of the industry ‘shills’ that they can’t stand.)

Anyway, are you tuning into something daily that keeps you on the frontlines of information that your clients may need you to know?  I understand that checking a bunch of blogs every morning can become onerous, but this is one little column that will take you about 90 seconds to read and will almost always impart something worth knowing.  I highly recommend that you give it a whirl.

Are you getting questions about mortgage refinancing from your real estate clients?  I am, and I recently found a good consumer’s guide to home loan refinancing by the Federal Reserve Board.  One of the reasons I like it is that it  seems to clearly explain some mortgage topics that people commonly get confused about, including:

• Comparing home loan refinance options
• Understanding ‘no cost’ refinances
• Calculating when you recoup the expense of refinancing a mortgage
• Home mortgage prepayment penalties

There’s also a glossary of home loan refinance terms that’s highly useful.

The pamphlet dates from 2008 and is 29 pages, it opens up in just a few seconds via pdf – here’s the link at the Federal Citizen Information Center:

A Consumer’s Guide to Mortgage Refinancings

Yesterday I had to call ValueWeb to help out a client who needed his domain name pointed to a different server.  During my over half an hour on hold (starting out as caller number 44 – the horror!)  I was reminded of how important it is to choose a reliable company for domain names and hosting.  Here are the companies I use:

Buying Domain Names

Godaddy is where I buy all my domain names.  It’s easy to search for them, and at around $10 per year per domain name it’s a good deal.  More importantly, they make it easy for you to manage your own domains.

(Yesterday I was calling ValueWeb because we were not able to change the domain settings ourselves, and the request we submitted 4 days previously had not been carried out.  This cost me an additional 45 minutes on the phone.)  If the domain name had been held by GoDaddy I could have done it myself in about 2 minutes.

Tip:  You can often find discount codes for GoDaddy by simply Googling ‘GoDaddy coupon codes’, or if you just click on the graphic above you should get a domain name for $7.49.

Real Estate Website Hosting

I’ve tried a number of different companies, and I really like Hostgator.  They’re big, reliable, they have good pricing, and their technical support has always been able to help me without being snarky.

One of the main reasons I choose them?  They have phone support!  Many hosting companies these days only allow you to submit support tickets by email or online chat.  If you’re shopping around for website hosting as a real estate agent, I HIGHLY recommend you go with a service that allows you to also call in, like Hostgator.  Unless you’re in the top 5% to 7% of techie agents, you’ll end up wanting this option.

(For the record, I have one website hosted with GoDaddy and have never had a problem with them either.)

Tip:  When you’re setting up hosting you’re usually asked if you want Windows or Linux hosting.  Linux is usually a good default choice unless you know for sure your site runs on ASP.

And…  Hostgator often runs a special via a coupon code shown on their home page.

Looking for a nice way to reconnect with your real estate clients?  At this morning’s office meeting I heard from some agents who are popping by their clients’ homes to say hello and drop off a Hot/Cold thermal bag as a gift.  These bags keep items hot or cold for up to 3 hours, and are great for summer get-togethers and picnics.

Personally I’d be pleased if someone dropped one of these off on my doorstep - I don’t have any, and they look really handy.  You can currently get Hot/Cold thermal bags for just $2.38 each ($119 per case of 50) at the American Bag Company.

Just a reminder that if you have condominium buyer clients using FHA financing, the condo building will need to be FHA-approved in order for the loan to go through.

You can look up condo complexes on the HUD website using their FHA-approved condominium complex search tool.

Have you ever gotten a call from a strange number that you suspected was a marketing call, but when the call went to voice mail no one ever left a message?  It can be annoying, especially when you’re in real estate.  (After all, don’t we secretly always wonder if  this was some great referral from an out of state real estate agent that we missed by not answering?)

Next time that happens there are two things you can do to end the mystery.  One is to simply Google the phone number, which often brings up information about the caller.  The other is to run the number through the search feature on the Who Calls Me website. 

I used Who Calls Me for a number I received a call from yesterday evening and found a long stream of complaints from the public, as well as directions for getting off of their call list.  (It was from a marketing firm that supposedly engages only in research, so they are apparently exempt from the Do Not Call regulations.)

Hey, anything we can do to make life simpler for real estate agents these days…

HousingTracker.net is a cool resource that provides housing data for major cities in the U.S.   They track listing prices and inventory levels, and providing housing data charts and graphs going back a few years.

Here’s an example of some of the information on the Seattle page today, 03/25/09:

They also provide charts of housing data statistics.  Just keep in mind pricing data is based on asking prices, not selling prices.  HousingTracker.net updates its housing data information every Monday evening. 

If you find HousingTracker.net to be a helpful resource I’d love to hear about it!

The best real estate logos not only look good, they also get the message across about what the company does.  Ideally they do it in an imaginative way that leaves you saying “I get it!” and “Whoa, how cool!” at the same time.

Can I tell you how DIFFICULT it is to find a designer who actually accomplishes those two things consistently?  I’ve spent hours and hours (and hours) looking at logos, and a lot of the time it’s a bit underwhelming.

So I’m happy to recommend Josiah Jost, owner of Siah Designs - I stumbled on his site last night when I was looking for Twitter graphics and was totally blown away.  Here’s a link to the Siah Designs logo portfolio, check it out.  (These aren’t real estate logos, but they totally hit the mark, so I’m sure he can do that for your real estate business.) I also talked to him and I think his pricing is very reasonable.

By the way, if you use him for your real estate logo design I’d love to hear how it goes!

This morning in my email inbox there was a message that was supposedly from the “Internal Revenue Service” with the message line “You have one new message from the IRS United States Department of the Treasury.”

I’m writing about it here because even though I am SUPER skeptical about emails I nearly clicked on it, which is pretty unusual for me.  So maybe I can prevent someone else from doing the same thing.

When I previewed it through my email client I saw that the originating email address domain name was “ irs.revenue.”  A quick search of the IRS site tells you that they never initiate communication via email, and that all of their domains start with “irs.gov.”

So beware – this email had a live link that supposedly led to a form that I could fill out to get a refund.  If you get an email like this, you can report it by forwarding the suspicious email to the IRS at ‘phishing[at]irs.gov.’  (Insert the @ symbol in place of [at].)

Stay safe out there!

Thinking about sending out a monthly email newsletter to your real estate clients?

The first question to ask yourself is, “What information am I going to be sending?”  Or, more specifically, “Why should someone open this email?”

 This is HUGE.  Let’s face it, can you think of any one of your clients who’s not already bombarded with marketing?  People are so pressed for time these days, and every one of us has to sort through an email inbox that’s cluttered with unwanted correspondence.

How many times can you expect your clients to continue opening emails telling them that you once again sold or listed a home?

On the flip side (and partly because people are so busy) there’s plenty of useful information that homeowners need and are not getting.  Things that you know that can help them increase the value, safety or enjoyment they get from their current or future home.

Let me say that again, because it’s really important:

People need information that helps them increase the value, safety and enjoyment they get from their real estate.

This is how we structure the main content of all our done-for-you real estate e-newsletters at Tools For Real Estate.  After all, can you think of any current or future homeowner who would say “No” if you asked if they’d like to increase the value, safety or enjoyment they got from their home?

No one would say that.  That means it’s a good basis for the content you put in your email newsletter.

If you’re writing your own client e-newsletter check back in to this blog for more tips.  And if you’d like to save yourself some time and stress, please check out our done-for-your email newsletters at  www.ToolsForRealEstate.com.