Out with the old, in with the new

Someone recently emailed me and asked why I had slowed down on my posts on Activerain. “I’ve been busy with real estate”.

This past December has been the best December in my 13 years in the real estate business. Not the purpose to go into all the transactions occurring but I am very grateful. After the surprise economic crisis in October and the election in November.

December saw a lot of buyers and sellers moving forward with their realty decisions.

This has been a great year

Tomorrow I will close out my books for the year after a 3:00 settlement. The year will end being production wise the best one yet.

Growth wise it will be the best yet, my TEAM has grown, number of transactions grown, friendships grown, blogging grown, and knowledge of SEO grown.

It was also a hard year

Every transaction was a challenge, the buyers were picky, (they could afford to be) the sellers were discouraged and as primarily a listing agent it was hard not to let that spill over to me.

The short sales and foreclosures increased and loans were harder to get.

We made it

You made it, I made it, together we are survivors.

I am grateful for all the friendships I have made here, getting to meet so many of you at ReBar Camp in San Francisco, NAR, the Keller Williams Family Reunion, Inman and my girls trip to North Carolina.

One of my personal goals last year was to meet 100 members of Activerain. Accomplished! I am grateful that I have spoken to many on the phone that I have not yet had the opportunity to meet.

I am excited

I am excited for what the year 2009 holds. I have no predictions, only that we will work hard every day, enjoy our clients and learn from each other. We cannot control the market, but we can work and grow in any market. My wish for you is in the video below.

My blog Ann Arbor Real Estate Talk site has been Posh’d. I logged on to Twitter today and found out in a direct message.

What surprise, what a shock, what an honor.

Now I need your help.

If you could go to Posh’d and rate my site, I would really, really appreciate it. There are 5 stars there, so if you like it; click the 5th star and your vote is cast.

One click, one vote.

(don’t do what I did and click the first star,opps)

 

According to Posh’d:

Ever visit other Real Estate websites for inspiration? Ever notice how many of them are VERY similar? We support those of you trying to break the mold and make the real estate sites on the web a better experience for everyone. We’re here to promote you and your fine work, but we also hope that up-and-coming site developers will be able to use Posh’d as a place for inspiration. We want to raise the bar for all Realtors and their sites. Submit your site, and if featured, be proud of your accomplishments!

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the link where you will see my site Ann Arbor Real Estate TALK on Posh'd. 

While you are there, you will see several folks from Activerain that have outside blogs that you can also cast a vote for. We are not in competition.

 

If you haven’t visited my outside blog yet, take a look around and if you like what you see, I would love to have you as one of my subscribers.

My outside blog was designed by Dakno and launched in December of last year. It is on the WordPress.org platform. Brad Carroll and his dad, Bobby were great to work with, so if having an outside blog is in your business plan for 2009, I highly recommend them. They listened and cutomized it exactly as I desired.

 

 

 

 

***I apologize for the shameless self promotion, but it means a lot to me.***

One of the Geeks I met at ArbBar Camp was Charlie Wollborg from Curve Detroit. Charlie likes to refer himself as the Chief Troublemaker at Curve Detroit.

 

Curve Detroit is a marketing firm located in S.E. Michigan.

I like what they say:

“If your advertising doesn't produce more sales, it's just expensive art with your logo on it."

Today, on Twitter, @Charlie Curve posted a link to a Vimeo Video on helping the Michigan economy by buying local products.

If Michiganders spent just $20.00 a week on buying local Michigan made products we could circulate 3.7 billion into our economy.

Michigan $3.7 Billion Bailout is Approved! from Charlie Wollborg on Vimeo.

 

Here is a list to see all the products made in Michigan.

I had posted on Not Just the Big Three back in November 2007, so I won't list all of them here but a few are Kelloggs Cereal, Jiffy Mix, Bissell Carpet Cleaners, and Herman Miller Furniture.

 

If you live in Michigan, why not go to BuyInMichigan and take the pledge to help our economy out. You can download the list of products and places to purchase our state.

 

Originally posted on Ann Arbor Real Estate Talk

Thursday night before the massive snow storm hit throughout Michigan, Karen Moorhead (@A2Karen) and I attended a Bar Camp in downtown Ann Arbor sponsored by A2Geeks.

I heard about the group on the FaceBook group A2Geeks. I heard about the venue change on Twitter because I follow @arbcamp.

The venue was at Cottage Inn Pizza in downtown Ann Arbor, which is a landmark restaurant and always wins the award for the "best pizza in Ann Arbor' voted on by the public.

 

When it was first posted, I had to get on a waiting list as over 100 Geeks signed up very quickly.

 

 

Ann Arbor Spark helped out with the change of venue so it was held at Cottage Inn. Ann Arbor Spark is responsible for bringing many new business to Ann Arbor and we are fortunate to have Michael Finney as CEO helping to spread the word about Ann Arbor Innovation.

Ok, sooooooooooooooooo after getting use to being the oldest one at the event and seeing 20 year olds with CEO's on their shirts we had a great time. Social networking is all about not just interacting on your computer but getting out there and meeting those folks.

 

Having attended the REBar Camp in San Francisco I was use to how they are run as many of you are. One thing they did differently was ask on the spot for people to volunteer to head up the different discussions.

There were no planned speakers.

One rule they had was if you get in a group and don't want to talk or feel you made a bad choice then let your feet walk....that means get up and walk to another group to keep the energy flowing.

 

One of the Geeks I met there was Ben Congleton who owns Hab.la. Hab.la is chat software that you can add to your blogs or web-sites. It is really cool because it allows your visitors to chat based on any chat application they use like meebo, pluggo, gtalk, aim, without having to change their platform to talk.

It is a really cool app that I already added to my blog Ann Arbor Real Estate Talk.

It is really easy to set up and they have a great tutorial to follow if you want to check it out. One more way to engage your readers.

 

The most important thing I have learned from Jeff Turner is YEO. You Engaging Others. (read Jeff's post)

Get out meet people.

Get out of your comfort zone.

Stop talking to people "just" in the Real Estate Industry.

Yea, I was uncomfortable being around 20 to 30 something year olds with PhD's who program in Php, write code for the music industry with widgets to promote their music, starting new companies like YouRateIt.com, starting companies like MotorCityConnect but.............

I did it

I grew

You can too

I met new friends to Twitter with and new friends for FaceBook

...and maybe someday I will sell them a home.

Maybe

Maybe not

That wasn't the point.

 

Back in May 2007, I wrote a post on Google Alerts Stay Informed. Since then I have been using Google Alerts to stay up on certain search terms that I want to follow for my area Ann Arbor and Saline, Michigan.

When you sign up for Google Alerts from you GMail account, (which is the starting point for any of FREE Google apps), you can set it up to receive the alerts two ways email or RSS.  Until my lunch with Steve Holden, I didn't know you could subscribe by RSS Feeds.

 

If your not sure what an RSS Feed is and how it can save you time, watch this YourTube Video by Lee Lefever and you will get it.

Here are a couple of screen shots to show you how to change your Google Alerts from coming in via email to the alerts coming in to your feed reader.  There are many feed readers you can subscribe to but I prefer Google, because I can have it in my IGoogle Home Page.

This has made my life so much easier this week since I follow so many Google alerts and my Inbox was out of control.

I still follow my name in email because if I don't get to my feedreader that day, I want to know ASAP if my name is mentioned anywhere on the internet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recently I started working with Altos Research to assist me in Market Reports for the Ann Arbor and Saline area's of Michigan. I met Scott several months ago when I was trying to do some online research for Ann Arbor and discovered they were not doing Ann Arbor.

Well, we all know Ann Arbor is 25 miles surrounded by reality, and the reports they had for S.E. Michigan just did not apply to Ann Arbor or any of Washtenaw County.

Then we made friends and started following each other on Twitter @AltosResearch and @ScottSambucci.Scott also blogs on Activerain so visit his profile.

Here are some static's for Saline, Michigan where I live.

 This is the medium price for Oct 1st-the first week in December 2008.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Search Homes for Sale in Saline, MI.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday, I ate lunch at Google in Ann Arbor.

Here is how it happened: At NAR in Orlando, Cyndee Haydon and I were walking around the Expo and Google had a large booth there.

So I go strolling up and met a guy named Payton Dobbs...I asked him to share with me the latest and greatest about Google.

 

 

Payton asked me if I was using Google Docs and I said yes we use it for each transaction. My assistant opens a new Google Doc for each file that is under contract. Then the buyer agent and Colleen can access it and add notes and conversations with our clients.

We also use Google Calendar and each of the Buyer Agents has one.

Colleen can overlay each Google Calendar and see what we are all doing that day. Google Calendar can be set up to send us appointments for the day.

So that was it and we moved on to look at other vendors at NAR.

Then I got an email

 

 

Hi Missy,

It was a pleasure meeting you at NAR and many thanks for stopping by our booth at Google.  As you happen to live in Ann Arbor I thought it'd be a great idea to introduce you to one of our team members from that office.  Steve Holden (CC'd) is a relationship manager who works with many of our top advertisers within real estate.  

I figured since you're already an expert using many of our products it might be nice to get more of your feedback on the products (as they relate to real estate) and help us better understand how to position them to our advertisers or others in the industry.  I'll let Steve follow up with more information and perhaps an informal chat or even lunch in the office.

 Regards,

 Payton

 

Payton Dobbs

Manager, Online Sales & Operations

Real Estate, Moving & Storage

Pretty kool, huh?

About 5 minutes later  I received an email from Steve Holden in Ann Arbor-Google to have lunch. I

t was a lot of fun, and I have a few photos but can't post them here because it is part of the terms when you go to Google and sign in at the Reception Center.

Here are my thoughts and feelings on the experience. The food was great and there is a coffee bar with snacks on each floor where people can go and relax and grab coffee or something to eat. We ate in Googles own cafeteria and were able to look out on the skyline of Ann Arbor.

Everything is bright and open, with a Mothers Room, Massage Room and conference rooms both big and small everywhere.

Each room is named after a different city in Michigan. There is a game room with a pool table, snack bar, pop machines and air hockey.What a fantastic work enviroment. There is even a small section where you can drop your computer off if you are having problems and some geeks will fix it.

Did I mentioned this is all FREE?

Steve and I then went into a small conference room and plugged in and he looked at how I use my IGoogle home page, the Ad word campaign I use, etc.  I will post soon on a new feature he pointed out to me, which I have not played with yet and want to make sure I got it down before linking to it.

One thing Steve pointed out to me about Google Alerts, which has been encouraged here on Activerain my many of us that I am changing right now. You can have your Google Alerts go into your RSS feeds.

Since I follow a number of Search Terms that I want Alerts on it can really fill up my email box quickly, so I will be changing to RSS.

Here is my question?

How are you using all the FREE Google Applications to run your business?

 

 

 

I told Steve, Activerain Bloggers were head and shoulders above your average Realtors so....

in your comments let's let Google know which applications you are using in your business.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Proof I was there, sorry for no photos.

What is Good Search ?

Good Search is a search site where you can search your favorite stores online. Anything that you buy through there they donate to the charity of your choice.

When you log on set up your favorite charity and everything you spend a % is given back to the charity of your choice. All of your favorite stores are on there: Amazon, PetSmart, Staples, Walmart, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Best Buy, Gap, HP, HomeDepot, Macys, Ralph Lauren, Saks, and so many more.

Charities and non-profits are hurting in our current economic climate

We can help by just ordering some of gifts online. I wish I had known about this on Cyber Monday, but since I have not really started my Christmas shopping, I am thrilled to have found it.

I will be shopping for The Student Advocacy Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is one of my favorite charities. You can also shop for a favorite school, just add it in.

Over 70,000 Charities are already signed up and benefiting from our shopping through Good Search. Yahoo has teamed up with the sister site GoodShop.com and is donating 1 penny everytime you search.

Just think how much we can help our Non-profits, Charities and Schools if all 123,574 of us on Activerain ordered through them instead of just going to the store?

It is not just for the Christmas Holiday season either, you can shop year round. Invite your friends, family and let your favorite places you donate know of this.

Oprah, ABC News, The N.Y Times, PC Magazine, FOX, CNN and more are all getting in on it.

Oh, and did I say Sephoria is also on there?

 

 

Friday, Dec. 5

Saline Moonlight Madness Craft Show will be held from 5 to 11 p.m. at Saline Middle School, 7190 N. Maple Road. More than 135 creative crafters will be showcasing their work. Admission is $2.

Saturday, Dec. 6

Parade Day in Saline will be held as part of the 33rd annual Holiday Parade and Holiday Week in Saline.

Santa's Village at Beanstalks Play CafÈ will be available after the parade. There will be photos with Santa and a visit with Mrs. Claus and elves.

Saline Fiddlers will perform at Union School from 7 to 8 p.m.

Washtenaw County 4-H Advisory Council will hold its annual Christmas tree and wreath sale from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds near Saline. This will be held December 6-9.

St. James United Church of Christ will hold a bake sale from 9 a.m. to noon at 11005 W. Michigan Ave. in Saline.

Saturday, Dec. 13

Holiday Shopping Rewards Program invites shoppers to save their receipts during Holiday Week and get special rewards in downtown Saline.

Sunday, Dec. 7

Holidays Historic District Tour will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. beginning on West Henry Street.

Fiddlers ReStrung will perform 2 p.m. at Saline High School as a benefit for Toys for Tots.Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds near Saline. December 7-9^th .

Saline New Horizons Band will perform its annual free Holiday Music Festival 3:30 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 1200 N. Ann Arbor St., in Saline.

Monday, Dec. 8

Gift Gathering and Wrapping Day for Saline Area Social Service will beheld. Volunteers are needed to adopt a family or single person for the holiday season.

                    Tuesday, Dec. 9

Treasure Trail to Santa will be held from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. starting at Carol's Hallmark store, where treasure maps may be picked up.There also will be horse-drawn carriage rides, and photos with Santa

Sunday, Dec. 14

Rentschler Farm Museum 1930s Christmas will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday located on Michigan Avenue.

 

Saline Area Social Service is asking for the community's help to makethe upcoming holidays brighter for needy residents. Holiday meal  donors are needed to feed several families of four. Call 429-4570 if you can help out.

 

 

Photo taken by Missy Caulk, taken the day after Thanksgiving with Melina and Allyssa. I have no idea who started this, but I have enjoyed looking at all the photo's so this is my first Wordless Wednesday. If you're not to have words then post it in the comments. I have seen it both way on Activerain.