Long Island Relocation>> Long Island Real Estate

The current real estate market has taken us all on a collective roller coaster ride.  Those that couldn't stomach the ride have already started to leave the profession.  Those of us that have chosen to remain in the profession will be faced with some challenges.  Many of us have not been through this type of market, so we have the additional challenge of facing the unknown. 

What will it take to be successful in this market?  Is there a "magic bullet" solution that can get us to where we want to be more quickly?  What will it take to avoid becoming a casualty of the current market?  The simple answer is to get back to basics.

As much as new technology has changed the real estate profession, the bottom line is that we all still need to do the things that have always been done in the profession.  Quite simply, we must continuously work on generating leads and closing deals.  Technology has made this process more efficient, but the human element is still the most important part of the equation. 

You may be wondering where this epiphany came from.  The surprising answer is Starbucks.  So what does coffee have to do with real estate?  Not much, although REALTORS® do drink a lot of it.  This is more about how Starbucks is handling their business.  Most people think of Starbucks as being in the coffee business, but they are actually in the service business.

From 1987 - 2000, Howard Schultz was the CEO of the company that has become synonymous with the word coffee.  Under his guidance, Starbucks flourished and became the household name that it is today.  As is the case with most publicly traded companies, keeping shareholders happy is a vital part of the business.  When the stock started to drop due to an overall underperformance of the company, a change had to be made.  The change that was made was to fire the CEO and put Howard Schultz back in charge of day-to-day operations. (Click here to read the entire story).

Schultz said that he "would return the company to its roots, in which baristas would focus on customer relationships and not just transactions."  Schultz also said "we will focus on what is most important.  We are committed to customer experience."  Part of the customer experience revolves around having well-trained baristas that are knowledgeable about the coffee products that Starbucks serves.  After all, this is what made the company flourish in the first place. 

Starbucks staffers are called baristas, not workers.  Starbucks offers benefits to their part-time baristas because they are all expected to be experts, and not just order takers.  Often times, people in business say the right things, but don't actually follow-through on their promises.  This is not the case with Howard Schultz and Starbucks.

Yesterday, Starbucks closed every store in the country for three hours so that all of their baristas could receive a re-education in "the art of espresso."  You may think that the biggest coffee retailer in the world already had things down to a science, but apparently, Howard Schultz thought that getting back to the basics was important enough to warrant a shutdown of all of its stores for three hours.

My wife happens to be a part-time barista at Starbucks.  She specifically chose Starbucks because they offer benefits to part-time employees.  We had been purchasing benefits on our own for some time, but the rates had doubled over the course of four years, and were continuing to rise.  I can tell you from my experience with my wife that the training that baristas are put through is very thorough, and the learning process is time-consuming.  And yet, Howard Schultz felt that each barista needed even more training.  His focus on the basics will undoubtedly pay off in the long run for Starbucks.

If a dominant company like Starbucks sees the need to get back to basics, doesn't it make sense for us as REALTORS® to take the same approach for our respective businesses?  How many of us have drifted away from the basics in this changing real estate market?

No matter what market conditions exist, our business really comes down to the following:

• Prospecting to generate leads
• Following-up with leads in a timely manner
• Finding the motivation, wants and needs of the client
• Helping buyers to find a home
• Helping homeowners sell their home
• Completing the transaction
• Staying in touch with past clients and asking for referrals

Technology should make us all more efficient and other innovations such as blogging should help us to reach more people, but we should never take the basics for granted if we want to be successful.  

In the real estate profession, we are expected to look our best so that we can make a good impression.  After all, if you rolled out of bed, jumped into your car, and went to meet a client, it would not be ideal for doing business.  So why shouldn't we do whatever we can to make our blog look its best also?   This is particularly important to those of us that are here to generate business from consumers and referrals from other agents.  Many newbies are inspired to start posting, but don't know where to begin.

So, what can be done to make a good impression with your blog?  Here are 5 tips to inspire people to read your blog and comment.  This will also ensure that your blog is an effective lead generation tool. 

[1]     LIBERAL USE OF WHITE SPACE -  Most of us read many posts each day.  Posts that are difficult on the eyes often get ignored, even if the content is something worth reading.  If you create a wall of words without breaking it up, you are almost guaranteeing that your post will be largely ignored.  Single-spacing between paragraphs is fine, but double-spacing is even better.

[2]     TASTEFUL USE OF ACCENTS - Using the bolding feature is an excellent idea to highlight certain aspects of your post, as is the limited use of italicizing, underlining and using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.  These features are all to be used to highlight or accent certain aspects of your post.  Overuse of any (or all) of these features creates a post that is visually unappealing and difficult to read.

[3]     PROPERLY LAID OUT GRAPHICS - While some people may be choosing to have their graphics appear in the middle of a sentence, many people just haven't figured out how to insert the images and have the text wrap around it.  Please check out The Art Of Using Images In Your Blog for some helpful hints.

[4]     SPELLING & GRAMMAR - I recently wrote a post entitled The Importance of Details  that addressed this subject.  In short, our blog is our resume to the world.  While no one will achieve perfection, we should at least do whatever we can to avoid errors as much as possible.  This is why I recommend creating posts in Microsoft Word and copying it to Active Rain.

[5]     BE CONVERSATIONAL - The easiest posts to read are the ones where the author is speaking to the reader, and not talking at them.  Whenever possible, stay away from using a lot of "SAT words."  The goal of a post is to deliver a message, not to make people feel like they have a limited vocabulary.

We are about to wind down the Relocation Package contest this week.  The response to this contest has been overwhelming.  To date, 164 people have joined the group, and there are currently 781 posts to the group.  I've been doing my best to delete any posts that are not related to relocation, but it has been a tough task.  To make the judging more manageable, there will be one last requirement for each participant.

Please read the following to ensure that your contest entry is properly submitted.

[1]        Make sure that each post that you are planning on entering is tagged RELOCATION PACKAGE. 

[2]        Before you tag each entry, you should make sure that the post is actually something that you would put into a relocation package if you were going to print it out and give it to potential customers.

[3]        You must create a single post with links to all of your other posts that are part of your contest entry.  This post must be tagged RELOCATION PACKAGE.  The post should be titled with the name of your area, followed by Relocation Package (ex. Long Island Relocation Package).  Doing so will give you a post that can easily be e-mailed to potential customers.  Titling the post properly will give you a post that can easily be found by the search engines.   

***This is the most important step in the whole process.  It will take some work to complete, but I think that you'll find that it's worth it in the end.***    

This final post will be due by Tuesday, March 4^th.  Our judging will begin by March 5^th, and the results should be posted shortly thereafter.  Please allow the judges some time to make sure that we get a chance to look at your contest entries.  You will be notified by group e-mail when the results are posted.

Thank you all for your participation and cooperation.

The Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium is a great way to spend the day with the family.  As we arrived today, the dome of the Planetarium was covered in snow, as was the rest of the sprawling 43-acre property.  This was the first time that we have gone there on our own, as all of the previous times were with school trips.  Rushing briskly down the cobblestone path, we made it to the Planetarium just in time to purchase tickets and get seated for the 11:00am showing of "A Trip To The Planets."

At the box office we were told that it wasn't possible to purchase tickets to the Planetarium without purchasing a pass to walk the grounds as well.  Because we've only been there for school trips, we had no idea that it was a requirement.  While we were a little surprised, it turns out that the policy is a good one, as the mansion and museums are even more interesting than the Planetarium. 

The cost for each adult was $10 ($7 to walk the grounds and $3 for the show in the Planetarium).  Kids 12 and under pay a total of $6 ($3 to walk the grounds), and children under 2 are free.  You are allowed to bring your own food and sit at the tables in the lobby of the Planetarium, or you can purchase pre-made Subway sandwiches and sodas in the lobby.

As the theater darkened, the narrator gave us a brief description of what the show was going to be about, and also about the special projector that they use.  As the stars moved through the sky, it gave the feeling that the room was actually spinning.  Interesting facts about the solar system were given, and we learned a bit about each planet.  Of course, there was the most to learn about Earth.  Overall, the show was entertaining, and all of the kids were basically well-behaved.  The show seemed to be kept to 30 minutes with the attention span of the kids in mind.

Since we had the passes to walk the grounds, we decided to take everything in.  The first stop was at an outdoor (covered) dinosaur museum.  It was chilly out, so we didn't spend much time there, although it was interesting from a learning prospective.  We then moved to the mansion and museum.  It was interesting to learn that this was merely the summer home for the Vanderbilts.  Needless to say, this is no summer cottage.

As we proceeded up the stairs, we were directed into a room filled with animals were actually hunted by William Vanderbilt's son in the early 1900's in the Sudan.  The educator in the room directed his lesson to the kids, but I stood nearby fascinated to learn more about this family and also to be able to touch the things that were being passed around for the kids to examine.  Unfortunately, no photographs are allowed to be taken inside of the museum, so the only way to see everything is by going there.  Maybe it's for the best, as you cannot get a true appreciation of how interesting everything is by reading about it and seeing the pictures.

After learning about the Vanderbilts and their hunting conquests, we retreated to the garage beneath the building to check out a 1928 Lincoln.  The difference between cars of today and of yesteryear is amazing to see.  The car actually looked very much like the one that was driven in the TV show The Munsters.  Surprisingly, my five-year old started singing the Adams Family theme song, but I corrected him and let him know that it was a different show.  I'm still not sure where he learned the theme song, but I digress.

It was then off to see some more game that was hunted by the Vanderbilts.  The kids really were fascinated by all of the animals, although my son did point out that it was mean to hunt and kill the animals.  I did my best to explain why this was so, but I'm not even sure that the explanation made me feel any better.  Unless you are a hunter, it's probably difficult to grasp what makes it appealing to others.  However, without hunting, we wouldn't have seen most of what we saw today.

We then proceeded to go to the room where the mummy is kept.  It's a little strange to be standing within 20 feet of a 3000 year old mummy, but the story behind the acquisition of the body was very interesting.  I won't give it away here though.

Finally, it was off to the marine museum to see over 2000 varieties of fish.  The educator in the room gave us some great background information on how all of these fish came to be in the museum, and what lengths the Vanderbilts had to go to in preparing them for display.  Everything, while preserved, was real - from small fish to sharks and whales.

If not for the fact that we were there with a cranky 18-month old who was more interested in looking at the snow on the ground than the exhibits, we could have spent even more time at the Vanderbilt Museum.  If you're looking for a great family experience in an amazing setting, this is the place to go.  For more details about the Vanderbilt Planetarium and Vanderbilt Museum, please click here.

On February 12^th, Long Island was hit with its first storm of the season.  There was only a small amount of snow, but icy roads made traveling dangerous.  Unfortunately, the dangerous roads prevented me from making it to the Nassau Coliseum with my son to see the New York Islanders play against the Philadelphia Flyers.  Because I didn't want to disappoint my son, we actually did attempt to get to the game, but I quickly realized that it wasn't meant to be. 

Since we were already on the road, and we had planned a night out, I offered to take him to dinner at Bennigan's, and promised to take him to an Islanders game later in the season.  He was disappointed, but agreed once he saw how slow we were moving.  It took us almost 40 minutes to go less than 4 miles to Bennigan's, so it would have taken almost three hours at that pace to get to the Nassau Coliseum.  We ended up having a great night together, so it wasn't a total loss.

The Islanders run promotions every once in a while, and the tickets that we bought for the game against the Flyers that night were part of a promotional package.  Since the package was ordered by phone, we were supposed to pick it up at the box office. This was a great package deal, offering 2 tickets, a $30 gift certificate to one of my favorite restaurants (Butera's), and a box of chocolates, all for the low price of $49.  In addition, the first 10,000 fans were to receive a New York Islanders calendar.

The next day, I called the New York Islanders corporate office to see if I could at least get the gift certificate, even though I couldn't make it to the game.  The customer service representative was very friendly and helpful.  He told me that I could still pick up the gift certificate at the box office, and that he would see what he could do about getting us out to another game.  I asked about the calendar, but they apparently ran out of them. 

The offer of tickets was a totally unexpected, but much appreciated gesture.  Because I was the one that didn't make it to the game, they were under no obligation to offer tickets as a replacement.  The customer service rep told me that someone would get back to me by the end of the day.  Less than 5 minutes later, he called back himself and told me that the tickets for another game were being mailed out immediately.  Although he told me that they were going to do whatever they could for everyone that didn't make it out to the game, the immediate response was particularly impressive.

When the tickets arrived in the mail, I was shocked to see that we had received tickets that had a face value of $75 each.  Any seats would have been fine, but great seats are just above and beyond.  Perhaps the customer service representative was moved by the fact that I told him that it broke my heart to see my five year old son (a diehard Islanders fan) crying because we couldn't make it to the game, so he decided to go the extra mile.  It's possible that others received great seats as well.  The fact of the matter is that the Islanders went above and beyond to deliver great customer service.  This is even more impressive because they are the only game in town (so to speak).

My son and I went to the replacement game last night and had a great time.  The Islanders shut out the Tampa Bay Lightning, and continued the winning streak that started with the game that we missed due to inclement weather.  It was a very exciting game, and my son and I had another great father-son moment.

During the intermission, a short commercial about the new sports complex that is being built at the site of the Nassau Coliseum was shown on the scoreboard.  It is really going to be something amazing from the looks of it, but the sad part is that it will mean that the Coliseum is being torn down.  I know how much the Coliseum means to me, but that's because I have had many, many experiences there.  Always one to surprise me with his maturity, my son told me that he's sad that the Coliseum is going to be torn down because it's special to him.  I told him that I feel the same way, but that we will make many more memories in the new sports complex.

As we pulled into the driveway, I asked my son if he had a good night.  He said, "of course, the Islanders won, I got an awesome souvenir pack and I have an awesome dad!"  It doesn't get any better than that for a dad.

Thank you New York Islanders for affording me the opportunity to make great memories with my son.  Your outstanding customer service has made being a loyal fan a very rewarding experience. 

In a recent post that I wrote entitled YOU are Your Brand!, the subject of using an e-mail address that brands your broker was discussed.  Using this type of e-mail address at the very least promotes someone else's brand, and in a worst-case-scenario, can cost you thousands of dollars in lost business if you ever decide to change brokers.  Please read the aforementioned post for more details.

There is another common mistake that agents make when choosing the e-mail address that they promote to the public, and for that matter, to other agents.  Any agent that has been in the business for a long time most likely created their e-mail account before personal agent websites were in vogue.  It's understandable that these long-time agents would be reluctant to give up the e-mail address that they've been promoting for years.  Those of us that give out our cell phone numbers would feel the same way about changing our phone numbers.  However, it is different with e-mail.

You can make a seamless transition to an e-mail address that brands you with very little effort or expense.  The simplest way to do so is to buy the domain name that you'd like to use, and create an e-mail account using that domain.  I personally use adam@AdamWaldman.com, but there is no reason that you couldn't use something that describes your area, such as yourname@homesofyourtown.com.  The most important factor is that you own the domain name, so you will always own the e-mail address.

Some long-time agents are already using this concept, but in a way that brands an e-mail provider instead of themselves.  For example if your e-mail address is homesofyourtown@yahoo.com, you are branding Yahoo in every e-mail.  It also looks very much like a personal account, and not at all like a business account. 

Many agents don't even use an easy-to-understand user name for their Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, or G-Mail accounts.  I've had to e-mail information to agents that had an e-mail address like XRT587J@yahoo.com.  If I'm unable to write down this address because I'm driving or otherwise occupied, do you think that there is a chance that I'm going to remember an e-mail address like this even a few minutes later?  Does this type of e-mail address do anything besides confuse the public and fellow agents?  Do you think that it's easier to remember adam@AdamWaldman.com or XRT587J@yahoo.com? 

The seamless transition to a branded e-mail address can be made by simply forwarding your old e-mail address to your new branded e-mail address.  Once this is completed, you won't lose any of the business that you would have if someone tried contacting you at your old e-mail address.  However, all of the e-mails that will be received from you in the future will feature your new branded e-mail address.  Not only will you be branding yourself with each e-mail correspondence, but you will also appear more businesslike in the process.

There is a well-known phrase that was coined a long time ago that describes The Shot Heard Round The World.  Most sports fans will associate this phrase with Bobby Thomson's walk-off home run that clinched the 1951 National League Pennant for the New York Giants.  Fans of Ralph Waldo Emerson may recognize this phrase as the opening stanza of Emerson's Concord Hymn (written in 1837).

A few weeks ago, Bill Gassett, wrote a post entitled Who's.amung.us ~ Free statistic tracking for your Blog.  This is one of the easiest widgets to install on your blog.  Operating unnoticed behind the scenes, WhosAmongUs lets you know who is on your blog and where they came from in real time.  One of the best features of this helpful tool is a map that shows you exactly where your readers are coming from.

When I first added this to my blog, I didn't really think much about it.  Recently, I clicked on the map function of WhosAmongUs, and I was astonished to find out that my blog was being read in 25 countries.  Of course, I knew that it was being read in the United States, and suspected that it was also being read in Canada, but I never would have expected most of the other countries to have anyone reading my blog.

If you haven't added this incredible tool to your blog yet, I would strongly suggest doing so.  It's fascinating to see just how far-reaching your blog can be, but more importantly, it should heighten your awareness of the potential business that you can develop by blogging. 

Think about how powerful this information can be on a listing appointment.  When I tell homeowners that I will be marketing their home aggressively on the Internet, I can show factual evidence that their home is being advertised in 25 countries (and growing).  In addition to the 24 foreign countries, my blog is also being read all across the United States. 

What do you think is more impressive to a homeowner - placing a static newspaper ad that generates virtually no phone calls, or advertising their home via your blog that is read all over the world?  Below is a screen shot which shows all of the places where my blog is being read.

We tend to think in very granular, local terms when we talk about our market area.  While it's true that each of us only covers certain geographic locations when selling homes, the truth of the matter is that we are potentially marketing to the entire world.  Even if we never speak directly to the consumer by exchanging dialog on our blogs, it's important to note that many of our readers live well beyond our chosen market areas.

At this time, I would like to thank all of the consumers that read my blog, both in the United States, and around the world.  Each one of you has contributed to making my blog more than I ever thought it would be when I joined Active Rain.

I appreciate your continued support, and would be more than happy to hear from any one of you, either in the comments section of my posts, or via direct contact.  Should you be interested in contacting me directly, please use the contact information listed below.

Welcome to the NEW and IMPROVED Home Trends Market Report for homes in the Syosset School District.  This will be a monthly feature going forward (formerly a quarterly feature).  The report will continue to provide statistical information, but you will now also be able to see exactly where each sold home is located, how much it was listed for, how much it sold for and how many days that it was on the market.

Since this is a monthly report, there will be a smaller sampling of homes.  As such, there will be greater fluctuations in the averages then there was with the quarterly reports.  This report is designed to give factual information about what is happening locally.  If you are interested in finding out the market value for your particular home, you should consider having an actual market analysis done.

These reports are done by school district rather than town because school districts play a very important role in home prices on Long Island.   

Below the actual data you will find an analysis of the real estate trends for homes in the Syosset School District.

JANUARY 2008 HOME SALES

JANUARY 2007 HOME SALES

MARKET TREND ANALYSIS:  Inventory in the Syosset School District remained relatively flat from January '07 to January '08.  Because of the luxury homes in the market, it is easy for the numbers to be skewed by a few transactions, which is exactly what happened in this case.  Aside from the selling price, most of the numbers remained relatively flat.

CONCLUSION:  Although the prices may be trending down slightly, it is important to note that the fluctuations are being caused by a handful of sales in the $1 million plus range.

As of this month, at the suggestion of fellow Active Rain members, I have transitioned from quarterly market reports to monthly market reports.  There is a lot of ground to cover on Long Island, so I have chosen six school districts from Suffolk County and six school districts from Nassau County to follow on a monthly basis.  The January Market Reports provide a year-over-year summary (2007 vs. 2008).  As the year progresses, these reports will feature more timely market trends.

Each monthly market report will compare and contrast the coinciding month from the previous year.  In addition, there will be month-over-month market trends, and year-to-date market trends.  By the time that 2008 is completed, you will be able to see the trends on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis.  The information provided will show the busiest times of the year for listings and sales, as well as the slowest times of the year to listings and sales.

These new reports will also feature the street name, town, listing price, sales price and days on the market for individual homes.  This will allow anyone that reads these reports to track comparable properties throughout the year. 

If you are a consumer living in an area that is not part of these monthly reports, but you are interested in seeing the trends in your particular area, please don't hesitate to contact me, and I can create a custom report for you.  All of my contact information is listed at the bottom of this page.

Below, you will find links to each of the 12 market reports that were created for January 2008.

Welcome to the NEW and IMPROVED Home Trends Market Report for homes in the Plainview - Old Bethpage School District.  This will be a monthly feature going forward (formerly a quarterly feature).  The report will continue to provide statistical information, but you will now also be able to see exactly where each sold home is located, how much it was listed for, how much it sold for and how many days that it was on the market.

Since this is a monthly report, there will be a smaller sampling of homes.  As such, there will be greater fluctuations in the averages then there was with the quarterly reports.  This report is designed to give factual information about what is happening locally.  If you are interested in finding out the market value for your particular home, you should consider having an actual market analysis done.

These reports are done by school district rather than town because school districts play a very important role in home prices on Long Island.   

Below the actual data you will find an analysis of the real estate trends for homes in the Plainview - Old Bethpage School District.

JANUARY 2008 HOME SALES

JANUARY 2007 HOME SALES

MARKET TREND ANALYSIS:  There was a slightincrease in inventory from January '07 to January '08.  The average sales price went down slightly as well, however the ratio of list price to sales price improved, and days on the market remained relatively flat.

CONCLUSION:  This is a good time to be buying in the Plainview - Old Bethpage School District, as the inventory is up.  It's still a buyer's market, so sellers should be pricing their homes competitvely and also having it appear in the best condition possible.