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We Interrupt This Blog To Ask A Favor

August 27, 2010

Will you do me a favor? 

I’m trying to get to the annual Realtor’s convention in New Orleans this year.  I entered a video contest for a free trip, and out of all the agents who entered across the nation, I made the top 5!

Now the public gets to select the winner.  This is where I need your help!

You can see my video here, and voting takes place just below the video player.  I’d sure appreciate if you took a few seconds, clicked “Kelley Koehler” and voted for me.

And now back to our regularly scheduled Tucson real estate stuff.

Tucson Home Tour Winner!

June 11, 2010

I WON I WON I WON!
Well, me and my sellers won. The
Tucson Association of Realtors does an agent home tour every week, and then participants vote on their favorite home on tour. And we won!
I’m overly excited. And my sellers will be thrilled.

A Small Delay in our Monthly Stats…

June 7, 2010

UPDATE: seems to be working now! A big thanks to the fast support from the FlexMLS dudes.

I had hoped to pull stats this weekend and publish today, but the MLS is returning some wonky data.  The more reports I ran, the more issues I found – so I don’t trust any of the data right now.  I’ve got a question into support staff to try and get it worked out. 

See what I mean?  Are those columns supposed to add up?  And I know for a fact townhomes sold.  But even if they didn’t, why is there a median sales figure displayed?  Zero Residential units sold?  Something is amis…

Introducing the New Tucson MLS

May 3, 2010

The Tucson MLS is making a big switch this week to a new software service provider.  Personally, I’m excited.  We’ll be using a FBS product called FlexMLS, which is probably the most robust and modern MLS software available.

Of course, there’ll be much outrage and gnashing of teeth as a large population of agents – with a very diverse skill set when it comes to learning new software – are forced to use the new system.  The whole interface is different, it is a whole new system to learn.  But overall, the switch is a good move.

Among the sweet new features is the ability to draw multiple non-contiguous polygons in a single search.  Oh yeah, baby!

AND – I finally won’t have to use Internet Explorer to access the MLS.  Thank you Tucson MLS.  From the bottom of my heart.

And on the less geeky side, agents can upload an insane amount of property photos and the public facing search of the Tucson MLS should be vastly improved.  Very cool for the consumer.

Of course, if you don’t like that system, you can always see the same data on the Tucson home search on my site.

Thrilling, you say?  Oh yes.  Hopefully, my market stats won’t be delayed as I figure out how to pull all that data out of the new system.

Electronic Signatures – Reviewing Before You Sign

March 24, 2010

I love Docusign and electronic signatures.  So quick, so easy, no paper to shuffle or scan or fax.  But I ran into my first client confusion about the system the other day.

When you sign electronically, you’ll get the chance to review it all twice.  And no signature is final until the very end if and when you say so.

When you first open a document to be signed, you’re presented with a little message with two check boxes and a Continue button.  You need to check the two boxes and hit continue.  By doing that, you’re adopting an electronic signature.

Once you hit continue, you’re taken to the document to be signed.  At this point, you can review the document completely – just because you’ve adopted a digital signature doesn’t mean that you’ve signed the document yet.  You’ll have a chance to review it as you go through and click to sign.

And then, you get yet another chance to review it before that document is finally signed.  Once you’ve clicked to sign everything, the system pops up a message where you can either click the Complete button or the Stay and Review button.  You’ll have two chances to look through everything before the signature is complete.

It sounds more complicated than it is.  Basically, you adopt a signature and click to sign where marked.  Just know you’ll get the chance to review it twice during the process of clicking and signing.  Simple!

Saying Goodbye

February 18, 2010

I’ll miss you, Grammy.

You were kind and loving, quick with a smile, a demon at cards, and your popovers and fudge always came out perfect.  You brought grace and happiness to us all.  And I love you.

Goodbye.

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving to you!  This is one of my favorite times of year in Tucson – the days are still warm and the nights trend towards chilly.  The city is bustling with students and winter visitors, football games and street fairs and bike races.  It’s also a lovely time to sit and reflect on the many things we can be thankful for, both small and large.

I’m thankful to have a family that loves and accepts me, and for homemade pecan pie with the perfect dollop of whipped cream on top.  I’m thankful I live in a city where I can still find a sunbeam to bask in midday at the end of November.  For a tiny electric bill and being able to wear soft sweaters that stay stored away most of the year.  For a broker that supports and encourages me, and for my friends both near and far. 

And I’m thankful for you, dear reader, without whom I’d just be talking to myself.

Happy Thanksgiving.

photo courtesy of active metabolite via Flickr

Characteristics of Home Buyers and Sellers – from the NAR

November 23, 2009

Every year, the National Association of REALTORS surveys home buyers and sellers to gather information about the home buying and selling process, demographics of those people, housing characteristics, and whatnot.  The 2009 report just came out.  It’s interesting (to me, at least) to see how these trends change over time.

Highlights:

• 47% of recent home buyers were first time buyers.
• 10% of buyers purchased a home in foreclosure, up from 3% in 2008.
• 20% of those first time buyers said the loan application and approval process was somewhat more difficult than expected, with 10% saying it was much more difficult than expected.
• The biggest age group of home buyers were 25-34 years old – at 34%.
• Single females bought 25% of the homes purchased by first-timers.
• Top three factors influencing neighborhood choice by buyers were quality of the neighborhood, convenience to their job, and overall affordability of homes.
• 78% of buyers used the internet frequently as an information source.
• Home buyers looked at an average of 12 homes before making a selection.
• The primary reason for people to sell their home was for a job relocation, at 21% of home sellers, followed by those needing a larger home, at 19%.
• Recent sellers sold their homes for 95% of the listing price, with 60% reducing their asking price at least once. (this is the one I have trouble believing applies well to the Tucson area…)

By the way – the average home seller is 46 years old.  The average home buyer is 39 years old.  The average agent?  Is 54 years old, did 7 transactions in the last year, and earned a median income of $29,400. 

And 7% of us have blogs.

Introducing… Electronic Signatures!

November 12, 2009

So by joining this new brokerage, I get to do some extra cool stuff.

And one small part of that is that my clients can sign all of their documents electronically, using some technology from a company called Docusign. 

This is a huge step forward for many reasons.  Instead of having to go back to the office where there is a printer and a copier and a fax machine to write an offer or create a repair request, we can create and sign contracts and offers and any paperwork from any computer with internet access.  (Did I mention I travel with a laptop and wi-fi?)  Instead of sending you paperwork at home to print and sign and fax back to me, you can log into your email and with just a few clicks, sign your documents and return them to me. No fuss, no muss, no reduction in quality of the document by printing and scanning or faxing several times.

Docusign is also integrated with something called ZipForms, which lets me create all of your paperwork and offers and contracts electronically.  There’s no concern that the agent on the other end can’t read the handwriting – everything is typed out neatly.  And there is no concern over ever losing original copies of those valuable contracts – they’re all stored and kept safely in ZipForms.

So the next time you need to sign paperwork, I’m going to tell you to look for an email.  When you open it, you’ll click two checkboxes that say you agree this is your signature, and then you just click right next to the big yellow "SIGN HERE" tabs.  So you’ll never miss a signature or line where you’re supposed to initial.  And when you’re done, I know immediately, so I can forward that on to the other agent.

Which makes us, hopefully, faster and more responsive than the next guy.  And that’s a powerful thing.

Moving To A New Brokerage

October 28, 2009

Just a quick announcement to let every one know I’m moving to a new brokerage this week!  I’ve enjoyed my years with Long Realty, but it is time to move to a brokerage more in line with my techno-geek style of business.

So this week, I’ll formally change my license over to become the new Tucson branch of Thompson’s Realty.  Thompson’s Realty is a brokerage owned by my friend Jay Thompson, who works out of the Phoenix area.  He’s another real estate blogger and we run our businesses much in the same way, with similar methods and philosophies.  Overall, it will be a good move.  (And I’m sure he’ll be adding Tucson to the Thompson’s Realty site soon… Right Jay?)

For you, dear reader, you’ll notice the logo on my site will switch to a new one.  But it’s still me, offering the same services and benefits, just under a different brokerage name.

In fact, switching to Thompson’s Realty means I get to go even more electronic and mobile.  Creating and signing contracts and other documents with my clients anywhere, anytime.  No more being tied to fax machines and copiers.  Electronic signatures.  More efficient communications during transactions, precise systems to manage the transaction and timelines on the back end.

I’ll explain some of that new stuff over the coming weeks, let you know how it works and why I think it will be a huge benefit to my clients.

In the mean time, if you need me, I’m still where I always was.  Right here.

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