Mike's Dyersburg Real Estate Blog

Yesterday I did a post asking California agents to comment about their market. In that post , Matthew Zgonc stated that the only area higher priced is Florida. I have been researching Florida and noticed that the coastal areas appear to be hardest hit by the current downturn.

I will ask the Florida Realtors(primarily coastal areas) here just like I asked the California Realtors, "What was your market like a year ago, 6 months ago, today and do you see any light at the end of the tunnel". I asked this question of the California Realtors because the rest of the country usually mimics their market a few months later.

I also have another reason for asking this question of the Florida Realtors. Up until about 6 months ago, the state sending me the most business was Florida. I guess a lot of people were moving "half way" back to their previous homes in the north.

I appreciate your feedback very much and hope the current downturn ends soon for you all! 

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post discussing the drop out rate of Realtors here in my area. I heard from Realtors from across the country.

Now, I would love to hear from primarily California Realtors about their individual markets. Please tell me what your market was like 1 year ago, 6 months ago, today, and "if" there is any light at the end of the tunnel.

It has been said that "as goes California", the rest of the country is soon to follow! I really believe that is the case. I have to be honest and say our market has not been as bad as you hear about on television. How about your market? Is CNN just blowing smoke or is your market really that bad?

I am planning to quote many of your comments in a new localism post and also an outside blog that many people in my area read regularly.

We have had our share of B-paper foreclosures but our industries are still going at full strength and still hiring like crazy. We still have a lot of people moving into the area but many of them are unable to purchase because they have not sold their home. This is making our rental market "red hot".  As I mentioned in the above post, our sales have slowed down quite a bit in our MLS although my company is only off about 20-25% from last year.  

I look forward to your comments! 

After inviting my friend Jimmy Cooper(competitor of mine in Dyersburg) to Activerain, I asked myself the question, "Why did I invite my competition to Activerain"?

Many of you here are asking this same question. Here are a few reasons I invited Jimmy.

First of all, there is enough business to go around. I have so much business now I cannot get it all done. If I could devote more quality time to each client the results could be much better.

Secondly, Jimmy is not my real competition! Who is your real competition in your market? I suggest to you that the FSBO's are your real competition. You are working with a good customer or client(good reason for you to be their buyer's agent) and the next thing you know they have contracted with a FSBO. I strongly encourage my agents to get the buyers agent contract signed with their clients. Most people want us to be committed to them so why not ask for that same commitment from them!

Thirdly, all deals should be a win/win and what better way to have that happen than when two "professional Realtors" are involved! I invite my competition here to learn how to be a more professional Realtor. I am in awe of all the professional Realtors here teaching us how to mimic them! Thank-you for helping to develop "me" into a professional Realtor.

Fourthly, technology is evolving so fast that even if the agents jump into Activerain right now, the learning curve is so great that they possible never will catch up with you.

Get out there and invite, invite and invite others to Activerain, even your competition!

I have been keeping an eye on the number of real estate agents in our MLS. We ended the year last year with 147 agents but at renewal time only had 105. I venture to say that today that number has dropped even more. Since January, sales here have dropped off 30-40% in our MLS(mainly because of the lose of B-paper sales)

For the last 2-3 years, we had at least two new companies open up in our city. However, about 90 percent of their business was B-paper. They lured away agents from all the established companies here and offered "a higher commission split". When some of my agents told me they were offered more money, I explained to them that the only business these companies was getting was the b-paper business and that bubble was set to "burst". Some listened and stayed and some chose the "good life" with the fast, easy money".

You know the rest of the story. The bubble burst and all those real estate agents are looking elsewhere for that almighty dollar because they do not know how to make commission the old fashioned way, hard work!

My company and I are still closing deals although at a slower pace. All those high flying b-paper real estate agents(I refuse to call them Realtors) now are no where in sight!

What is happening in your market? Are you seeing the disappearance of a lot of real estate agents?

I had a great phone conversation with Brad Andersohn on Friday. I called him to discuss our upcoming training session. He is just as enthusiastic on the phone as he is in his many posts and comments. After discussing his transition to becoming part of the Activerain team, we discussed just briefly our upcoming training session. We both decided that about 4 hours should be the length of this training session.

Brad asked if anyone outside my office was coming and I told him I had a lot of interest from people who had read my featured blog about Activerain hiring a trainer! Besides 5-6 in my office, there are also 3 from outside our area who have committed to come. I have started asking other agents in my city(not in my office) and a couple of them have committed as well.

My trainer and I discussed the need for a larger conference room for this training so we have decided to rent the conference room in the new Holiday Inn Express here in Dyersburg,Tennessee. That room should hold about 15 people comfortable and has wireless access. So, I have room for only 4-5 more people.

Brad asked me to get together a curriculum that I wanted him to cover. I told him that he should really spend some time discussing posts to localism and how to write them effectively and with the public and search engines in mind. One thing that Brad brought up was adding video to blogs so he plans to camp out there as well.

Do you have any suggestions as to material that I should ask Brad to cover? I appreciate any and all ideas offered here. Let me say that in my opinion there are about a dozen different people here in activerain that could do a great job teaching this class.

Right now the plan is to fly Brad in here sometime in the first two weeks in May. When Brad and I firm up our calendar, we will let you know. As of right now, we still have room for 4-5 more people. Dyersburg is located in northwest Tennessee about 80 miles north of Memphis.

Bob Stewart take note; my predictions are about to come true concerning membership in Activerain. Several weeks ago I did a post with my predictions concerning the growth for Activerain.

Bob, if you, Brad and the programmers can just keep the Activerain servers up for "most of the time", we will break that 80,000 mark in short order.

Another prediction: I predict that we will break the 100,000 barrier by July 15th, 2008.

Don't you just love Activerain?

 Just wanted to introduce my latest invite, Jimmy Cooper to Activerain. Jimmy is a competitor of mine here in Dyersburg,Tennessee. Jimmy and I have been friends forever and his speciality is commercial properties.

Please let Jimmy know that he is welcome here on Activerain and there is a wealth of knowledge available to him! I told him today at lunch I was going to share with him one of the secrets to my success!

Jimmy has been blogging for a couple of years but now will get noticed by the public! His profile is here but I am sure he is just setting it up now.

Just a few days ago I wrote a post titled, "Should Activerain Hire a Trainer?" Well the response was incredible to say the least. I am not sure what Bob Stewart and Activerain have decided but I am making plans!

Normally, my office has a weekly sales/training meeting each and every week. I introduced my trainer, Jackie Keeling to Activerain blogging about 2 weeks ago and he is now just as excited as I am!

Hopefully, Bob Stewart and I can firm up a training session and date sponsored by Activerain with the fees picked up by my company, my agents, my trainer and any outsiders who chose to come. I am excited about the possibility of getting a Brad Andersohn in to train all of us "green" Activerainers!

This morning I got an e-mail from Vickie McCartney in Kentucky saying she wants to come. I quoted her a fee of $100 and she said that was a bargain to sit at the feet of Brad Andersohn. My conference room will only hold about 8 people and there are 5 of us (pictured in revolving cube over on the right side) committed to be at this training.

If there is any interest from others to come to Dyersburg(northwest Tennessee) please let me know. The fee will be $100. If I get overwhelming responses, I will rent a larger place. We are shooting for 3-4 weeks out. 

Yesterday, I wrote a post about a special training class I am planning to have in a couple of weeks. After a few comments received, it dawned on me, "Why not get someone like Brad Andersohn in to teach the class"?  I was really only dreaming because if you follow what's going on here on Activerain, Brad is one of the best!

Brad responded to my blog post and said that he just might can make it happen! I e-mailed Bob Stewart with Activerain about a trainer being available and he told me they have been talking about this very thing and wondered if there would be any interest for field training?

So, is there any interest out there for a Activerain trainer coming to your office to teach one on 5-20? The trainer could use a power point presentation while the agents sit with wireless notebooks logged into Activerain!  

In my opinion, this would have the potential to jumpstart anyone's blogging knowledge by several months! Personally, I have been blogging for almost 4 years but only about 6 months here in the "rain". I am just now starting to feel comfortable with all the dynamics of posting here. 

How long did it take you to learn how to complete your profile insuring you made it "Google friendly". How long did it take you to learn about titles tags, cloud tags, keywords, posting to localism, entering pictures and sizing them correctly, putting in links,etc? This list could go on and on!

I am sure the broker would incur some expense to bring in a trainer but perhaps the broker could let the agents help offset part of this. My guess would be somewhere around $500 but that is only a guess! 

Please comment on this post and let Bob Stewart know if there is any interest in Activerain starting up a field training program! Bob, as for me I am sold on the idea and I am in discussions right now with my trainer to see about bringing in a "special Activerain field trainer". Is there anyone close to Dyersburg,Tennessee(NW Tenn) that would also be interested in coming to a training session with Brad Andersohn doing the teaching?

I am so excited to have several in my office here on Activerain and many actually blogging. However, their blogging is like my blogging was 3-4 years ago:(

Three of my agents are leaving next week to attend the Tennessee Association of Realtors Spring Conference in Franklin,Tennessee. I normally go but with all three of these agents leaving, someone has to hold down the fort!

Every week, we hold a training meeting to educate our agents. In addition to myself, 4 other agents in my office are members of Activerain. I am so proud! There are only a total of 7 agents here(including myself).

Since we will not have a training meeting next week, the following week we will have a special Activerain training session.

I will train the trainer, all my activerain agents and anyone else that shows up how to blog here on Activerain. We will learn about localism, titles, cloud tags, key words, catchy titles that Google likes and the public likes, how to enter and position pictures. I better stop there because the training only lasts from 1.5-2 hours. 

Anyone out there had Activerain training in their office? Maybe this will be a first!