SellSmart News

Join - Grow - Lead

2007-07-18T09:19:00.001-07:00

ALERT: SellSmart Server is Down until Monday

2007-06-22T16:53:00.000-07:00

Our server for SellSmart real estate, www.sellsmartrealestate.com, will be down until Monday. SDG&E will be replacing a transformer, probably in preparation for these transformers.

We apologize for the inconvenience. If any SellSmart broker, agent or employee needs anything from office support please contact me here or here.

Happy Father's Day

2007-06-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

Today is Father's day, a day that was partially spent on my mountain bike. Riding is great alone time, time to think and at times not to think. On some of the longer uphills the strangest things pop into my head. Commercial jingles, bits of songs that repeat because I don't know the rest of the song and when I do plug in my headphones, songs that today reminded me of our dads. The dads that are no longer with us.

Our most recent loss was Wayne Harrington, owner and operator of SellSmart The Easy Way. Wayne was a father to his entire office and his extended family.

Late last year we lost a great father and grandfather in Don Thompson.

The year before, my dad John Cook, lost his short battle with cancer. He was 82. He only knew he had cancer for the last 9 months of his life. For half his life he did not even know me, since I was not born until he was in his forties. He is the reason I still ride a bike today.

We spent years travelling to BMX races. We would load up the Jimmy on every weekday night and drive more than an hour to a race. On Saturday it was up and out by 6:00am to make that day's first race, another hour drive away. By the afternoon we were at another track and yet another track that evening. The same thing would happen on Sunday. The next week would bring the same schedule. That is 11 races a week. We did this for an entire year. The only break we got was when we headed out for the Texas Tour, we only had 6 races a week for those summer months.

Why did we do this? Well I wanted to be the number 1 rider in my district, I wanted to be a member of the 10,000 points club. He just wanted to see me accomplish my goals. We both got what we wanted.

RSVP seating ForTwo

2007-06-08T11:35:00.000-07:00

The Street Smart Road Show rolls through our city this week and we were there for the first stop at Mercedes Benz of San Diego. Eager crowds stood in line for up to 45 minutes for a 3 minute test drive, that did not disappoint. Future owners plunked down $99 to reserve a 2008 model which is due in the first quarter of next year.

Read the entire post and view the photo page.

Mark Maynard, Wheels editor for the San Diego Union-Tribune did a brief interview with me.

Innovative smart car makes for effective marketing vehicle

2007-05-24T15:31:00.000-07:00

Real estate firm uses technology to keep fees low
By JENNIFER WHITELAW, Special to the Daily Transcript
Thursday, May 24, 2007

Residential brokerage firm SellSmart Real Estate is determined to do things differently, which is part of the reason company president Lynda Cook drives and advertises her firm on a Smart car.

The compact, fuel-efficient Smart car will not be widely available in the United States until next year, but Cook was able to find one. She bought the car and wrapped it in her company's insignia.

Cook drives the Smart car all over town, and she always finds a parking space, because her Smart car can be parked nose-in to the curb, rather than parallel.

"It's been one of the best marketing tools we have," said Cook. "I'm always being approached by people who want to find out more about the car, and then they ask about SellSmart Real Estate."

A relative newcomer to the market, SellSmart Real Estate is quickly climbing the ranks of residential real estate franchise firms. The company found success by offering a discounted commission fee without discounting any of the services buyers and sellers have come to expect from a conventional real estate brokerage firm.

"I think people are wary when they hear that they can get the same service for less money," said Cook. "When we explain that technology makes the Realtor's job easier, and other firms just choose not to discount their rates to reflect innovation, people get it."

Cook and her team believe that by doing right by the consumer, success will follow.

"In many areas across the country, real estate prices have escalated faster than individual earnings," said Cook. "People shouldn't have to pay 6 percent of the purchase price to the Realtors anymore, especially when Realtors have so many tools at their disposal to make their jobs easier."

Cook says that most home shoppers start their search online since the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) is now available to the public. Data from research firm comScore Media Metrix supports her claim, pegging the proportion of people who start their home search online at 80 percent. These prospective homebuyers can manage the process of identifying homes for sale themselves with little help from their Realtor.

Additionally, customized Web-based services alert homebuyers the moment a new property matching their criteria appears on the MLS. Other Web-based services help homebuyers calculate estimated mortgage payments and track specific properties.

"Unlike other discount realty firms, we don't have to offer a la carte services to save our customers money," said Cook. "We're full service; we just believe in passing along the savings real estate agents have realized over the last several years to our customers."

In addition to the standard technology-based services employed by residential real estate brokerage firms, SellSmart Vice President Richard Cook developed the Knockbox, a wireless appliance to let home shoppers bring up a virtual tour of a for-sale home's interior from their laptop, PDA or even some cell phones.

"Our Realtors can provide instant information about a listing so that people can tour the property as soon as they find it," said Richard Cook. "Offering as much information at one of the most influential moments of the home shopping experience, right at curbside, helps identify serious buyers and reduces the time a Realtor will have to spend showing a house that might not be right for that buyer."

The Knockbox technology is also helpful to sellers with tenants living in their house who want to limit the amount of showings and for out-of-town buyers who may not be able to tour a house in person.

The SellSmart difference has attracted many real estate brokers and mortgage loan officers looking for an innovative way to run a business of their own, because the company offers not only employment opportunities for agents, but also franchise opportunities with exclusive territories for real estate entrepreneurs.

"Realtors see the increasing demand from the consumer side for more reasonable commission rates, and they are looking for a way to adapt to the market without compromising quality," Cook said. "And mortgage brokers are looking for creative ways to increase their loan business, especially when many real estate brokerage firms are offering mortgage brokerage services in-house."

SellSmart Real Estate made its first big franchise push in the Sacramento market, where the company is now firmly established. The Nevada franchises are almost completely sold out, and the company recently entered the Texas market.

"Our headquarters are in San Diego, and we see an opportunity now to concentrate on business in our own backyard," said Cook, who is now marketing several additional SellSmart Real Estate franchise opportunities in San Diego.

"With a healthy job market, great weather and beautiful landscape, San Diego is well positioned to remain a top city for real estate investment, but the high prices here increase consumer demand for discounted commission fees, and that's where we come in," Cook said.

Cook says she plans to continue to implement innovative ideas that help SellSmart Real Estate respond to the changing market, from ideas like the Smart car that help "green" the company to technological advances that increase efficiency and effectiveness.

You were posh last week! I wanna be POSH'D

2007-05-05T10:39:00.000-07:00

Posh: It's always the same. I never know what to wear
Sporty: It must be so hard for you, Victoria. I mean, having to decide whether to wear the little Gucci dress, the little Gucci dress, or... the little Gucci dress!
Posh: Exactly
Baby: I know, why don't you wear the little Gucci dress?
Posh: Good idea. Thanks, Em.

[Geri and Mel B are playing chess on the Spice Bus]

Ginger: Check!
Scary: What d'you mean "check"?
Ginger: I mean, check; my bishop's got your king.
Scary: Where?
Ginger: There! You've either got to move it in front, or move it out of the way.
Scary: Well I'll move that fairground horse to there. Sort that out!
Ginger: You can't *do* that!
Scary: Sez who?
Ginger: Says Mr. Chess! It's been in the rules for thousands of years!
Scary: Well I'm gonna break the rules and set this little fairground horse free amonst all these little square fields, like that. There!
Ginger: I'm gonna slap you in a minute!

Redfin Real Estate Consumer’s Bill of Rights meets Many Eyes

2007-04-26T12:07:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting tool from a research project at IBM known as Many Eyes. I was looking around for data to throw at it and this post just jumped out. What seems to jump out at you when you see this?

Jared at Brain Sparks is conjuring up memories of Al. What other data sets, real estate related or not, will you visualize?

aka schismet

Web 2.huh! Save your speech I just want to get money

2007-04-25T21:18:00.000-07:00

If you have not yet devised that revenue plan for your "next" Web 2.0 project, you are not alone. A report cited at one of the best IT sites from the 1.0 days reveals that corporate brass are just as confused. My questions:

Does Web 2.0 have to cross the chasm?

Does the design of a Web 2.0 app allow for early adoption by even the late majority and laggards?

Tick Tock Tally

2007-04-25T19:56:00.000-07:00

Must look away: Worldometers

Shift Happens - 转移发生

2007-04-18T17:37:00.000-07:00

glumbert.com - Shift Happens

Hello Whirled!

2007-04-10T20:42:00.000-07:00

The fight goes on. Defeat is not in our vocabulary. We are committed to the very end. Ready to dish out "a whirled of hurt(TM)".

What's that? Oh, we are back online! Never really went away for longer than 24 hours.

Thanks to Jonathan at ILS for providing the answers.

We are back online! Did you miss me?

REASON-ing

2007-04-10T20:17:00.000-07:00

If you read the previous post you know our woes. Well it only got worse. Network Solutions failed to inform us of this little bit from ICANN:

You must wait 60 days after the initial registration or any previous transfers to initiate a transfer.

Our site may be down, our emails may go unanswered. But in the mean time I have a lot of reading. Everything happens for a reason but it may not be reasonable.

Or as Laura would say, "Anything can happen with a razor".

ERRORS!

2007-04-10T10:47:00.000-07:00

All of us at SellSmartRealEstate.com apologize that our site has gone down and our email is no longer functioning.

It seems that GoDaddy does not provide for an MX record for their domain registration accounts unless you are also hosted with them.

We had attempted to move our site from our current host to one of GoDaddy's Virtual Dedicated Servers only to find that the control panel was incompatible with our configuration. We learned this only after changing our registrar from Network Solutions.

We are now in the process of switching back to Network Solutions. It will be another 5-7 days before our site and email are functioning. In the mean time if you are attempting to reach anyone @sellsmartrealestate.com please send all email to:

rcook@ardell-martin.com

Thank you for your understanding!

Update: They do allow for MX records but you have to change to their DNS. When they said "hosting" they meant DNS servers, duh! I knew this but tech support at GoDaddy led me down the wrong path where simply semantics are to blame, what I hear when you tell me "hosting" is web site.

Never fear, this all ended with our own Jonathan from ILS providing the solution.

Propagation underway.

Just KNOCK to get a peak at what's inside

2007-03-31T11:15:00.000-07:00

From SellSmart Rempfer & Associates and RGJ.com:

"Many prospective homebuyers whose plans for a new home still are a bit hazy like to drive neighborhoods just to see what houses are available for sale. It's a nice way to spend a lazy weekend afternoon, stopping to write down phone numbers and Realtors' names, maybe picking up a flyer from the little pocket attached to the For Sale sign.

When the hunt turns serious, it can be frustrating not to be able to find out immediately what the inside of the home or the back yard looks like and what features it has.

While many real estate Web sites offer virtual tours and additional photos and information, the advantage to the KNOCKBOX is that it's an immediate contact."

Read the full article here...

SellSmart Real Estate Offers TransactionPoint(R) to Franchisees

2007-03-14T12:25:00.000-07:00

SAN DIEGO, March 14 /PRNewswire/ -- SellSmart Real Estate announced this month that it now offers TransactionPoint(R), a powerful transaction management solution from Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions(R), as the official transaction management platform for its rapidly expanding franchise network. In addition to being offered to all new franchisees, the Web-based automated transaction management tool is now being integrated into approximately 50 SellSmart locations in California, Nevada, Texas and the District of Columbia.

Transactions initiated by SellSmart's affiliated agents will now be handled by the TransactionPoint platform, reducing costs while providing increased security, efficiency and accuracy. With TransactionPoint's tracking of each escrow, SellSmart customers have online access to status and documents for appraisals, inspections, repairs and other required services.

Founded in 2001 by 40-year industry veterans John and Lynda Cook, San Diego-based SellSmart (http://www.sellsmartrealestate.com/) began offering franchises in 2005 to meet increasing broker demand in a highly competitive industry. SellSmart has already gained market share in the discount real estate market by combining cutting-edge technology with innovative marketing strategies that promote properties directly to buyers in the marketplace.

Widely recognized for its consumer-driven business model, SellSmart Real Estate provides home sellers with professional expertise throughout the entire cycle of home selling without paying the standard industry commission. Through use of innovative marketing approaches, sellers are able to realize substantially more savings. Their knowledge and use of cutting-edge technology, effective marketing techniques and innovative business model enable SellSmart's brokers to operate more efficiently without reducing services and they have opted to pass these savings on to the consumer.

"Sellers have been waiting for an alternative to traditional high commissions," says Lynda Cook. "Our competitive lower optional fee structure fills a long-awaited niche in the real estate industry, and the efficiencies resulting from our partnership with Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions provide us with yet another opportunity to pass on the savings to consumers."

With integration to online forms, popular customer relationship management products and back office accounting systems, TransactionPoint offers real estate agents, brokers and transaction coordinators a single, centralized platform that streamlines the process as it permanently logs all transaction-related messages, documents, key dates and activities. While minimizing the risk of an item falling through the cracks, the platform also eliminates redundant data entry and wasteful paper usage. Clients gain real time access to transaction status and pertinent documents. TransactionPoint imports property data directly from MLS, manages contacts, provides standard reports and insures that compliance requirements are met.

The Machine is Us/ing Us

2007-02-13T11:35:00.000-08:00

This post is a bit off topic for here, but I could not resist. This video was created by Michael Wesch Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology Kansas State University and is in response to another video, Web 2.0. I think it shows the progress that the web has gone through to become "interactive". I remember when "multimedia" was usually attached to that word. Today the content is breaking free to the point of being overactive. What's next? I happen to agree with this post on Web 3.0. But until that happens this video actually does a great job of showing the ease that content can be distributed, shared and unfortunately persistent. When you're done with that take a stroll through the garden.

SellSmart(R) Lone Star Opens New Office in San Antonio, Texas

2007-02-13T08:22:00.000-08:00

SellSmart Real Estate announced the grand opening of a new office in San Antonio, Texas. The new office for SellSmart Lone Star Real Estate is the first to open in Texas, marking a significant milestone as the company continues to expand through its successful franchise program. The San Antonio office will be operated by Don Conkright, Bill Bobadilla, Joe Corwin, and Mike Sandoval, who together have more than 33 years of combined real estate experience, along with strong military and business backgrounds.

The group has had experience with traditional real estate chains, and so is enthusiastic about becoming a part of the growing discount niche that is welcomed by consumers. "The real estate business models that are willing to adapt to market demands will have a clear edge on the competition," notes Bobadilla, who plans to expand his territory as the business grows. All of the agents at SellSmart Lone Star are committed to the national corporate mission to provide full real estate service, savings, and results to clients.

Widely recognized for its consumer-driven business model, SellSmart Real Estate provides home sellers with professional expertise throughout the entire cycle of home selling without paying the standard industry commission. Through use of innovative marketing approaches, sellers are able to realize substantially more savings. Understanding that technology, effective marketing techniques, and an innovative business model enables them to operate more efficiently without reducing services, SellSmart Real Estate has opted to pass the savings on to the consumer. "Sellers have been waiting for an alternative to traditional high commissions," says Lynda Cook, the co-founder of the company. "Our competitive lower optional fee structure fills a long-awaited niche in the real estate industry." Today SellSmart Real Estate has approximately 50 locations opened, mostly in California and Nevada.

The San Antonio office will be open mid-February, and is located at 15028 San Pedro (Hwy 281 & Brook Hollow), San Antonio, Texas 78232. For more information, please call (210-494-SELL) or visit the website at www.SellSmartLoneStar.com.

It's a Jungle Out There

2007-02-12T10:37:00.000-08:00

As the company grows into new states, and accelerates the franchise program through area development, we have a fantastic opportunity to capture market share. While many traditional and sub-par players in the industry migrate out, SellSmart brokers and agents are in a prime position to pick up the pieces.We are all experiencing changes in the market, to one degree or another. For most of us, listings are taking longer to sell, and costing more to carry. Economists say that following an unsustainable boom in housing starts, sales and price appreciation, a period of “below-trend performance” is necessary to work off excess inventory, and to improve housing affordability. As the market adjusts - as is the norm in a cyclical industry - home pricing becomes more difficult as sellers still have unrealistic expectations, and buyers expect better deals. Traditional appraisal models rely on the past, and Internet models misrepresent home values with skewed results. Supply and demand does not stop at property inventories. There are too many licensed agents competing for business, and technology itself takes away much of the value that agents could tout in the past. Loan agents are getting into the real estate business as well, and winning consumers over to the “one-stop shop” model.

Perfect Opportunities

To make the most of these changes, take a look at the positive aspects of industry trends:

Mortgage Rates have been holding. This is great news for franchisees that offer loan services.
Sellers are getting more realistic on pricing, and also offering buyer and commission incentives.
Consumer education is much less of an uphill battle at this point.
Sellers are willing to pay for the help they need in this market. The opportunity is ripe for picking up FSBOs.
The Dow is at a high. Money doesn’t have to “trickle-down” too far before it’s spent on real estate.
Inventory selection is great, making it a good time to buy a home. It will be the most serious sellers who will attract these buyers.
As agents continue to leave the business, the spoils will go to the remaining few. Weeding out the unskilled is also beneficial to the reputation of the rest.
Most agents tend to reduce their marketing efforts during this type of market. This is your opportunity to step up your own marketing efforts and stand out - grab the consumer’s eye!

Fearless Action

As the market tightens, competition will become fierce. Those who survive will be the leading companies when the market turns. To conquer the jungle out there, you must take action:

Formulate a decisive plan. Take control of your business, your time, and your budget. Be willing to work harder, smarter, and longer.
Know the benefits of your program inside and out. Develop confidence through practice. Socialize yourself if necessary.
Become the expert. Educate your sellers, buyers, and agents. Share your knowledge and experience freely to develop trust and relationships.
Market, market, market. Do not cut back - in fact, kick it up a notch!
Maintain a good listing inventory. Find more cost-effective ways to carry listings, and make sure you get the right listings.
Analyze your fee structure. Would a percentage fee work better in your area? Should your fee be increased? Should you add a fee for specialized services?

This market is difficult, to be sure, but it also offers some great opportunities to come out ahead at the other end. Those who attended the SellSmart Safari convention witnessed the rollout of a variety of new programs and tools to help thrive and grow in this particular market:

Luxury Home Program - new marketing materials and sign art to capture this profitable sector;
Associate Manual - a training tool to assist you in orienting and developing your agent talent pool;
Property Management Division - new section in the Smart Suite, that will offer policies and procedures for your ancillary services;
Transaction Management - negotiated rates for an excellent software system that helps you work more efficiently and automates the reporting process;
Consumer Pamphlets - three new consumer reports that you can offer as a community expert, and can also be used as lead generators;
Five-Point Advantage Program - for serious sellers, a structured methodology for competing with other sellers;
Foreclosures/Short Sales - a great tool for obtaining supplemental income.

Best of all, this year, we didn’t have to burden our attendees with additional luggage on the plane trip home. Everything we introduced, improved, or explained, is available at the corporate website. The fun stuff from the Safari is here.

Who drives around with Wi-Fi devices? EVERYONE

2007-01-04T14:58:00.000-08:00

While introducing someone to the idea of the Knockbox I am often asked the above question, to which I give my usual reply.

"Do you use email, do you text, do you IM, do you read blogs? Did you do this these things three years ago?"

Well, probably email, but the others were not part of your behavior three years ago.

Hopping on a WiFi network will most likely be how you do these things. Most everyone will know how to do this and the latest move to WiFi ubiquity can be found in a new router/service being introduced at CES this January.

From Gizmodo.com

Autonet mobile, the company responsible for putting the Internet inside of Avis rentals is selling their WiFi car router to the public this spring. The routers plug into your ciggy adapter, and use what sounds like EV-DO via Virgin Mobile. Interesting. read it

Donald James Thompson, Sr.

2006-12-26T14:37:00.000-08:00

April 15, 1942 - December 22, 2006

Born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania

Don Thompson of SellSmart 1st Choice of Vacaville, CA.

Don and his wife Donna were the recipients this year of an Exceptional Community Relations award as well as Dynamic Growth for a New Office, the rookie of the year award. Don traveled to the SellSmart convention in October to receive these awards. I remember Don standing up at the awards banquet to tell the other award winners that he was hot on their tail.

Don, you will be missed.

Donations can be made in Don's name to Vacaville High School, Bulldog Baseball. Which can be sent to 669 Merchant St., Vacaville, CA 95688

500 Blogs to Watch

2006-10-09T16:09:00.000-07:00

Our blog was named as one of 500 real estate blogs to watch in the coming year. Check it out at this link and be sure and read some of the others, they are awesome.

500 Blogs to watch

In print, on the air and in the blogosphere

2006-09-05T16:41:00.000-07:00

SellSmart and Knockbox are getting a lot of attention these days. Recent magazine and newspaper articles include C&R Resources, Personal Real Estate Investor and the Manteca Bulletin.

After you read the Manteca Bulletin article at the Smart Car Tour site listen to what Leo Laporte had to say about us.

The blogosphere has been very active with news about SellSmart. Read MaisonBisson, Sellsius and the biggest Engadget.

According to Technorati, Engadget has over 25,000 other blogs linking to it making it the most linked to blog.

Is your listing a Knockbox Home?

2006-09-05T15:19:00.000-07:00

A recent article from Inman News correspondent Bernice Ross cited some of the hot strategies from Real Estate Connect. She makes some insightful observations about the future of real estate technology. One of these is that the consumer today desires to get as much information about a home from their initial visit. She mentions a company, CellSigns, that can text message info about a listing right to a cell phone. While this idea is great, it is important to recognize the limits that text messaging has placed on it by cell phone carriers. Currently a text message is limited to 160 characters, while this is plenty to provide the basics about a property, what about pictures?

A Knockbox, in its current version, provides an entire web page including pictures and contact information for the agent listing the home. The future versions of the Knockbox are more amazing. We are currently working on VoIP, GPS, usage metrics, floor plans, inclusion of an agent's other inventory on each Knockbox, remote updating, blogging and video vitual tours. The versions to come will make each Knockbox Home an entire website about its community. All accessable from outside the home, how easy is that?

NEW WiFI Phone - HP iPAQ

2006-08-28T15:28:00.000-07:00

Every week now brings a press release or two about another Wi-Fi capable phone. I have seen announcements from all the major cellular carriers and several MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators). There are a few others like Earthlink and Helio that have made their plans known to incorporate Wi-Fi in future phones. This is a strong indicator that much of the home buying public will soon be carrying around devices capable of accessing a Knockbox.

Click on the picture to see another that is rumored to release this weekend.

Smart Car Tour Ends - For Now

2006-06-30T09:49:00.000-07:00

After 6 days and 10 offices I am back in San Diego. I enjoyed the time spent at each office and would like to thank everyone of the offices for hosting me. We, the car and I, had a great time and look forward to the next round. Check in often for news on all things SellSmart, I will move all of the blogs to one site for a one stop news source.

Smart Car Blog
SellSmartNews