KS's Seller's Newsletter, May 2013

Hi There,

You haven’t heard from me lately because all of a sudden I’m in a hot market, well… the bottom of the market is hot. The question is will the heat rising from the bottom bubble to the top? It’s inevitable, isn’t it?

By now, you know I’m an optimist…

And then this:

The Ridge at South Mountain is in Foreclosure

 April 30, 2013, and a Notice of Foreclosure takes an entire page of the Daily Courier from top to bottom. All of the unsold land, in The Ridge at South Mountain, a very fine development, will be sold on the courthouse steps. And what will this do to Rutherford County? It depends. It depends on who buys the property, if another developer picks it up to hold for resale, or if the bank sells the lots piecemeal, and that too, depends, on whether they release the lots onto the market slowly, two or three at a time, or dump all of the parcels at once. Will they hold them in inventory for a few years or release them right away? That remains to be seen. And there’s nothing to be done for it, so I’ll keep on keeping on.

In the interim, the bottom of the market is hot. Properties priced lower than the market value are selling. People are shopping for deals and they’re finding some. Transactions have become more difficult as banks lay on more and sometimes onerous guidelines. A lot of deals are falling apart on the way to the closing table and some right at the closing table. But I am in the business of helping people buy and sell real estate and except for keeping an eye on the weather, there’s not much I can do about all that, so I am here, taking fresh pictures, enhancing properties on the internet, and doing what I can do to market the properties I have listed. And toward that end I am playing with the big boys in the industry, listing aggregate giants, Zillow, Trulia, Homes.com and to a lesser extent Realtor.com. I have a paid subscription to Zillow advertising my services and I’m getting calls. As more people begin their search on the internet, they say 90%, it makes playing with the big boys worth while.

There are still problems with geocoding in the rural areas. I have your latitudes and longitudes in the MLS and on file, but sometimes I sit in the living room on Sunday night with my laptop manually mapping your properties so they’ll show up in mobile searches in the right places. So far there’s no app for that.

Someone said at our board meeting that I must have a lot of free time to attend to all of this technical stuff. Not really. We all have 1440 minutes in a day. Last night around 10 pm I was online figuring out how to hook a dual monitor system to the newest computer in my arsenal and this morning I was here before 6 am writing to you. I have to go to the office today for a business meeting and to preview homes we have listed. My new housekeeper asked me how I could work at this pace, and I told her, half the time I’m playing. I work awfully hard to be able to play at this level. Yesterday morning I was up on Cherry Mountain to talk with two potential sellers, and what a gorgeous spring day it was! Iris and some wild azaleas are blooming; the mountain laurel is covered with buds. There were ducks, and a pony, and dogs, both large and small, there were chickens and running streams and springs and lovely people. I made some new friends and came home with a dozen fresh eggs! It wasn’t like work at all – it was like a mini-vacation. So, yeah, I do put in some awkward hours, but I enjoy it, and that, as Robert Frost said, that makes all the difference.

Karen D McCall, Broker, e-PRO®
4 Seasons Homes and Land, Inc

Mobile 828 429-0251 Direct or Text
GVH Office 828 245-9003
KDMcCall.com

PS  Friends, I haven’t ever asked for you to recommend me to your friends and family members, because I know most of you live far away, but I’m going to ask you on the behalf of the buyers and sellers I may, through you, be able to help. If you run across my profile on Trulia or Zillow (and you can do that by visiting the website and plugging in the zip code here, 28018) and review my service, it would help me, and consequently the higher ranking in the site will generate more phone calls, which will in turn help you. Thanks.

120 Sunset Road, Bostic, NC 28018, Log Home For Sale

120 Sunset Road, Bostic, NC 28018, USA - Off the Beaten Path - real estate listing with slideshow!

Between Shelby and Marion, North Carolina, not far from the 30,000 acre wilderness area, South Mountains State Park and Gamelands, you'll find an old Scott - Irish community, tucked into the foothills of the Isothermal Weather Region. Welcome to Golden Valley North Carolina, where God maybe paused to do a little extra work, in an area known far and wide as "God's Country".

Across the First Broad River, around a few curves, on paved roads, up and over the mountain named Biggerstaff, just over the ridge on the western side you'll find a log cabin and a guest house for sale. It sits at the end of Sunset Drive in lovely Golden Valley Estates, where the annual dues are $250.  Yes, this is a gated mountain community, the perfect place for a recreational home, a great place to spend weekends with your family and friends. There's even a guest cottage.

Conveniently located between New York City and Miami Florida, we're about 20 miles from anywhere, and yet like a hub, we are convenient to five counties: McDowell, Burke, Cleveland, Rutherford and Polk and are convenient to I85, I26 and I40. Come from Raleigh, come from Charlotte, come from Columbia or Charleston, come for a weekend, stay for a lifetime.

For area and community information, visit us online at our website and blog at GoldenValleyNC.com. You'l find lots of area links at the blog.

Welcome Friends

Welcome! Beides old newsletter posts you will find lots of information on the real estate blog: http://kdsfarm.blogspot.com . It’s nice to have posts handy, like Home Staging Tips and Can You Say Syndication? And I can post things and reference them without being redundant. As unstable as the real estate market is today it’s good to know there are some things we can count on.

Data feeds. Here’s something we can count on. Like Murphy’s Law, “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.” If there’s a data field in your listing that says 3.5 acres, it may be picked up by some sites as 3 acres, and some as .35, and some not at all. This is due to the vast difference in mapping data fields. If you match A to A, there’s no problem, but it you’re using the alphabet and you go to 27 well, then… things just got interesting. I can not map data fields in our system or change how they are mapped, but I can make corrections if needed in the MLS and sometimes by logging into an outside account I can turn off fields. As real estate becomes standardized across the nation we will see some improvements, until then, bear with me. If you find your listing on a website with something weird in it, let me know. I’ll fix it if I can and if not, we can get pretty creative in the public remarks.

To those of you who have had your lots cleaned up thank you. Local landscape firm owner/operator Clayton Self has completed several. If you’d like to keep him on for maintenance, Clayton will be happy to put you on a regular schedule. Since he lives in Bostic and his crews start and end up here, he can swing by your lots, and get these small jobs without sending an entire crew from town. Call him early in the morning 828 245-5213; you‘ll probably have to call before 8 to get him. Call later and his wife, Pansy, will take your call and have him call you. If I need to meet him or direct him to your property let me know and we’ll get together. Clayton is NOT the only firm in the area, Scott Mayhew with All Quality Landscaping 828 245-9245 and Brad Ford 828 245-9309 with BRS Landscaping are both excellent. These are all local companies. I can only recommend firms because of the problems that arise if someone gets hurt doing a job for you on your property. An accident could be charged against your homeowner’s insurance – lot owners? That could get as complicated as data field mapping. I don’t want to go there.

I’ve been really busy getting things together so someone can step into my shoes and run my business for a few weeks. Dropbox has been a large part of that and I’ve nearly met my 2GB limit. Dropbox is a file sharing program that synchs automatically across several devices. I have it on my desktop, laptop, and smartphone. Files are always available and I don’t have to duplicate an upload because they synch. I can add documents from any of my devices and they’ll be in my Dropbox folder. If you need file storage “In the Cloud” Dropbox will host up to 2 GB for you free. I’m soon going to need more storage and you can help me get it for free. Dropbox will bonus me and help you get started with a free account and plus a 250 MB bonus if you’ll join with my link: http://db.tt/3ZwnKPu  Remember to install Dropbox in your computer after signing up, otherwise we won’t get the 250MB bonus.

If all goes as planned I will be having my left hip replaced June 26^th. I have lined up buyer’s agents, Teresa Lederer and David Brackett, and my United Country Broker / Owner, Annette Stover (who can help with anything at all) 828 286-2313 while I’m out. I am having the least invasive, anterior, procedure and expect to be using a walker for a couple of weeks. Since it is typically slow here in the summer, with a peak in the spring and in the fall, this is the best time for me to have this done. So, I’m taking a two week “staycation” and taking care of me. I’ll return to limited duty after two weeks and expect to be back at my desk in four and hopping rocks across creeks in eight. If you need me you may reach me at home. 828 245-3886.

Someone called and said they were publishing a menu for Becky’s Country Store and asked if I was interested. When I found out I could run my QR code which opens my personal website, and gives me an opportunity to invite buyers to Be My Guest and use the MLS on me, for free, I decide to try it. KDMcCall will run on a smart phone. Let’s see if I get any calls. (Proof Attached).

There’s always something happening in real estate. I like to send my Newsletter out the first week of every month. The reason this letter didn’t get out the first week of the month is because I had buyers and sellers.

This is a good thing!

Hope you are well and that life is treating you fine and remember if you don’t hear from me, I need to hear from you.

Best,

 KD McCall

Lauren Donaldson, Take Better Photographs of Your House Part 1

Take Better Photographs of Your House in a Snap

Houzz- Kitchen Remodel, Bathroom Remodel and More »

Browse Accessories And Decor on Houzz- For Example:

Candles And Candle Holders · Frames · Holiday Decorations · Indoor Pots And Planters · Mirrors · Paints Stains And Glazes · Throws · Vases ·

Taking Pictures of your House on Houzz.com

Take Better Photos of Your House in a Snap: Part 2

Houzz- Kitchen Remodel, Bathroom Remodel and More »

Browse Home Office Products on Houzz- For Example:

Bulletin Board · Cable Management · Desk Accessories · Desks · Filing Cabinets And Carts · Task Chairs ·

116 N Mitchell Street Rutherfordton NC 28139

116 N Mitchell Street Rutherfordton NC 28139 for sale.




Walk To Town


The above link in blue, should open to a slide show in Picassa, it's partly an experiment to see if you can use a Picassa slideshow URL in a blog, and to see if you can use a Picassa slide show in a blog to drive web traffic. I am very curious to see it this will "Google" in the next few days. In the meanwhile, perhaps you are interested in a Rutherford County Historic home, here's a lovely old gal, and at well under $150,000 she's a nice buy.

Here's the real estate blurb:

Historic Rutherfordton Home, built in 1927. Classic town home with a hip roof, nearly 4 square, with 5BR/2BA, all large with high ceilings, heart pine floors, and great flow for entertaining. With a garage and a workshop out back, it's a classic town home from the era. Facing the road you have the traditional 9 windows and a door. A covered porch makes the home inviting and would have been used by the family throughout the summer. The porch and door to the right opens to an office, typical for professionals in the day. A undercover patio out back has been added for grilling and outdoor activities. The Firedepartment next door is a good neighbor, and dispatches with lights only, not lights and sirens. You can walk to town. If you love older homes you're going to love the plaster walls and deep baseboards, the stairwell that leads to a landing upstairs. The home is charming and elegant, has central heat and air, but has not been fully rennovated. If you are interested in acquiring and rennovating an older home, in a charming town, look twice at this 1927 brick street front home. Furnishings negotiable. MLS 37957

And if you're interested in lovely antiques, you will find some really lovely ones here and they are for sale, if you're interested let me know and I'll put you in touch with the seller. And if you'd like to see her showcased on the my site at United Country: 116 N Mitchell Street Rutherfordton NC 28139

What Can I Offer Sellers?

In the REAL Talk Real Estate Experts Digest a REALTOR named Joe says he's looking for something he can offer sellers so they'll fill out his Capture Form then he can follow up and get the listing. Following are my comments.

Joe,
Do you have a listing presentation? What do you offer that other agent's don't? For instance, I'm putting together an expired letter, it'll read something like this:

Dear Mr and Mrs Seller,

Your property with XYZ Company recently expired. This is a really tough market. Do you think it would have made a difference if your property had been marketed? Really, seriously and deliberately marketed with:

• Visual Tour hosted on YouTube
• Syndicated Online Exposure (3,000 plus feeds)
• Hyper-Local Print Marketing (with the Real Estate Book and Homes and Land)
• National Franchise = National Exposure on Specialty Websites
• Local, Regional, and National Website distribution
• Franchise advertising in 60 magazines and 100 newspapers to drive on and offline buyer leads
• Personalized URL with QR Codes 

This, in addition to what nearly every REALTOR offers: local MLS listing with an IDX feed and a yard sign, online photo hosting and syndication to Zillow, REALTOR.com, Trulia...

You can build a capture form around nearly any criteria. Who in your market do you want to list? Are you looking for any seller or a specific group of sellers? What would be an item of value to them? Information? Service? A Guarantee? Home Warranty? Answer these questions and you'll be well on your way to targeting your market and creating a capture form that will attract the clients you want to work with.

I rarely use lead capture and I do NOT use Lead Capture on the website I maintain for my buyers. I hate to be captured and I'm not going to do any capturing. Internet shoppers want to find what they're looking for. Toward that end I push my listings as far as possible, with as much power as UnitedCountry.com and their publications can put behind me and with as much power as I can get from my own syndicates. I PUSH listings, via several vehicles I manage. It's called funnel marketing, I don't have time to go after people. I am using search engines to drive traffic to my listings. People come to me. I field phone calls from self-qualified customers instead of running down targeted market leads. I help people, instead of convincing them. What I do involves no coersion, it involves overcoming no objections, it involves cooperating with and helping people to get what they want. It involves bringing together two halves of a real estate transaction with skill and finesse. It involves negotiation skills, tactical skills, human relations skills, and technical skills. If you acquire these skills, you'll be plenty busy without capturing leads.

May 2012 - Newsletter For Sellers

I’ve set all of the sellers I work with up with List Hub and you should begin hearing from them the first of every month. I expect to get online viewings if we’re not getting showings. I’ve been working this area for about 10 years and we have always had Internet interest. Sometimes a picture might need to be changed – when you go online to look at property and you keep seeing the same ole - same ole - it's boring, you've seen it, it's market stale – a listing that people aren’t looking at. I don’t care how old your pictures are if you’re getting clicks! Sometimes people WANT to see a spring time picture in the dead of winter or a fall picture in the summer. The point is to get your listing in front of as many eyeballs as possible. And clicks are eyeballs, click throughs are looking for more information.

As you know, price ALWAYS sells so the one way you can guarantee a sale is to reduce your price by $10K every month until you have multiple offers. That’s how the foreclosures sell. The asset management firms reduce, reduce, reduce, and reduce until they have bidding wars. Trust me, it’s effective, it works every time. For those of you who can not or do not want to go there, let’s hang in. I am building inventory and hope when things begin to turn around that I have to hire assistants.

It’s a lot easier to do the newsletters since I left Constant Contact. Although it was a super program, it wasn’t as easy as typing a note. If you want to see what I’ve been up to with bells and whistles visit me online at my real estate blog from there you can go to my website and over to Golden Valley. I’ve been using some of Home and Land’s visual tours to supplement my YouTube tours – they’re online at my United Country Real Estate Website, I look a little smug, in that picture, I was probably trying not to laugh. Listings are in order by price, wait for yours to flash by and click on it, or use the scroll key to fast forward and click on it.

I held a Broker’s open house this week at Smokey’s Den and served lunch. We had made to order deli sandwiches, with pickles, chips and called drinks. I fixed sandwiches in the kitchen while the Broker’s toured the house. Luckily I think this is great fun! I’m fortunate, you see. I love taking pictures of houses, I still haven’t opened a door and not been curious to see what lay behind it. I love houses, I love land, I do not, however, love chiggers and I’m getting over being slam eat-up with ‘em. I picked them up setting signs and checking lots. Consequently, I’ve contacted a landscaping firm to see about getting some of your lots cut. The grass is growing and it’s high, too high in some cases to drive into. So, I went around with a maintenance sheet and have made a list of lots to revisit with my local landscape guy, Clayton Self. We’re going to see what it’s going to take to clean up your road frontage (and maybe more). I’ll be in touch if your lot needs work and I hope I have a price for you. Several of you have already had your lots cleaned up, thank you! It’s hard to show property when potential buyers are scared to walk on the lot.

I choose Clayton because he lives in the area and has been in the business for years. He’s good, he can readily follow up with his crew, their work is excellent, he has experience, equipment, and last but certainly not least insurance. The same may be said of Brad Ford at BRS Landscaping, Brad's firm handles a lot of Fall Creek's Developments and he's good, too. Located between Rutherfordton and Lake Lure, BRS has a lovely roadside location, and a public storefront is in the works.

The Zillow reports came in, as did Trulia, and List Hub, and they’re all screwy, mostly on account of all of the account maintenance I’ve been doing. Your property is online, the reports I’ve signed you up for will arrive automatically.

Sell Low - Buy Low, Should I Make a Move Now?

My best articles come from letters to clients. This is one from "Eric" who said, "We are exploring our options and aren't sure what we should do." Here's my response:

Hi Eric,

Thanks for following up with me. It sounds like you've got some decisions to make, but nothing that can't wait a while. This market has made a lot of people unsure of what they should do. Do you live in Western Carolina?

My thought is that while it might be OK to make a lateral move right now - sell low, and buy low - moving into an altogether new situation requires a different sort of investigation. And with this market in flux... every week a different expert pops up to say: We're at the bottom! Invest your money today; we'll strike it rich. And at the same time another expert on another channel chews thoughtfully on the end of a pencil and says "Bottom? Really? Not with all of the shadow inventory. Until that clears, we're still going down. And here's our National Real-Estate-Expert, Miss Smarty Pants, to weigh in on the REAL real estate news this week." And the cameras roll.

We don't know what to believe.

My thought is that this is the time when you follow your heart. Play the theme song from Annie: The Sun will come out tomorrow, betcha' bottom dollar that tomorrow, there'll be sun...

Do what you feel is in your families best interest, for today, and for the long haul. If you can stay in your home, STAY! Make it more comfortable and stick this out. Laura Allen, a local business woman, has been selling some of her household goods online. She said she can't afford a bigger house so she's going to declutter, rearrange, redecorate and make the one she has feel bigger. Smart girl!

A lot of people have to relocate - and it comes down to this - do you HAVE to sell or can you STAY. Whatever you decide you've got some work in store, whether it's the work of putting your house on the market, or redecorating for the long haul, now is the perfect time to get started. 2012 is just around the corner.

Whether you sell or stay here are some links you might want to explore.

See: Video from the National Association of REALTORS: Inside An Energy Audit
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1785312249?bclid=1747275818&bctid=1726708597 

See Video from the National Association of REALTORS: The Staging Pro
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1785312249?bclid=1747275818&bctid=63269637001 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

By the way, Eric, in writing this note I realized I've stumbled onto a good topic for my New Year's real estate column! If you see this in print....

Real Estate Syndication

Real Estate Syndication, "Distribution Trumps Destination" so says Saul Klien in this fantastic video that explains real estate syndication in a way that absolutely makes sense.

This morning as we approach the Thanksgiving Holiday I've just got to say, Thank you to Saul Klien, who has been a leader in real estate and real estate technology. I took my e-Pro certification under Saul's Internet Crusade before the National Association of REALTORS took over the class and that was one of the smartest/bravest/best things I've ever done.

Syndication Overview

View more webinars from yveszx

I specialize in a second home and land market that requires a good understanding of technology. Most of my real estate transactions are with out of area buyers and sellers. I utilize and enhance marketing and syndication of listings with tools like visual tours. I've talked with a lot of you about syndication and explained how important it is, but Saul Klein nails it.

Our MLS Board offers syndication through List Hub. United Country offers syndication through their online partners as does The Real Estate Book and since I rarely work with clients who won't participate in syndication, you can safely assume your listing is syndicated.

Now in our rural area, we occasionally get some errors, particularly mapping errors, some I can fix and some I can not. Sometimes we find off the wall examples of data feed errors, like $17,000 appearing at $1700, but, the technology is improving everyday and while I can't make changes to your listing on every little site, like "typepad" and "hothomes", I want you to understand that I am covering the bases and have accounts with the big guys.

Real Estate Syndication - made easy - watch and learn from one of the big guys, Saul Klein whom I am grateful to "follow" in RealTown.