Show me your door mat

Little things make a house a home or help give it that homey feeling. One such item I notice when showing a home is the front doormat. The doormat can serve as an initial greeting or a preliminary introduction to the resident of the home to a friend or stranger. Numerous mats in use today have the words Welcome interwoven or the homeowners name. It also serves of course as the cleaning station for those snow, mud, dust or dirt covered clodhoppers.

Doormats can be purchased relatively cheap at most department stores. Or you can take another route and buy one for a little more money that gets a message across for you.

Maybe it is important for people to know your hobby. Or your interest. Do you use yours to tell people you are not interested?

Doormats are a great way to keep the dirt out and give the world a glimpse to who you are, your personality, humor and beliefs. What does your doormat look like?

Related Florida real estate views:

Americans believe home prices will increase

HUD is coming to a theater near you

Trump sells Florida home for $95 million

- Greg Staker Watson Realty Corp. 407-304-0255

No showings on Sunday please

I found this article discussing the selling of churches. This would be the definition of a niche market. We have had several inquiries about available church property this past year. For the record, the Mid-Florida MLS reports as of today, 18 churches for sale.

Related Florida real estate views:

Church property for sale in Volusia County

Land for sale in St Cloud Florida

Embraer opening facility in Florida


- Greg Staker Watson Realty Corp. 407-304-0255

According to FAR, real estate statistics

Orlando metropolitan statistical area (MSA) reported 1,705 existing homes sold last month, compared to 2,656 homes sold a year ago for a 36 percent decrease. The market's median existing home price increased 4 percent to $263,600; a year ago, it was $254,600. A total of 276 existing condos changed hands in Orlando in November for a 41 percent decrease over the 467 condos sold the previous year. The market's median existing condo price was $171,800; a year ago, it was $182,400 for a 6 percent decrease.

Related Florida real estate views:

Florida home median sales price increase

August home sales in Orlando lowest of the year

Speaking of home ownership

- Greg Staker Watson Realty Corp. 407-304-0255

Florida real estate and the Santa connection

Christmas is fast approaching and everyone is excited as the year draws to a close. The real estate market is wrapping up for 2006 with high expectations for 2007. In keeping with the holiday period I did a little research to see how closely the Florida real estate market mirrors that St. Nick fellow and the Holiday season.


Homes listed for sale on streets with "Santa" in the name.............. 56

Homes listed for sale on streets with "Christmas" in the name....... 3

Homes listed for sale in a Florida town or city named Christmas.. .. 16

Homes listed for sale on streets with "snow" in the name .............. .. 25

Homes that were listed for sale on Christmas day, 2005 ................. 76

Homes listed with fireplaces for easy Santa entry ............................ 10,269


The fireplace statistic has to be proof of Santa. Why else would anyone in Florida own a home with a fireplace?


Happy Holidays to all.


Related Florida real estate views:

Orlando Christmas Parade

Ground Hog day tornado

Holiday homes for sale in Florida


- Greg Staker Watson Realty Corp. 407-304-0255

Price reductions - Price improvements - Price correctly

Regardless of what you call it, proper pricing is the key to homes that are selling and homes that are sitting for month after month, frustrating Realtors and sellers. Back in the fall of 2005 I had started blogging about reaching the ceiling of value in our marketplace. I likened what was happening to a baseball runner getting caught between bases.

Well guess what? Here we are. I have seen agents and managers scurrying around this year trying out any gimmick they can think of in hopes of selling their listings. Builders and sellers are offering cars, trips and more in hopes of attracting buyers and sales. All of this to entice buyers who, according to most surveys, are primarily motivated by a home's price.

Statistics this past week of 11-20 to 11-27 provides additional proof. I checked the MidFlorida MLS and according to my research, 222 homes went under contract within the time period in Seminole and Orange County. 61% of those homes had at least 1 price reduction. Amazingly, of those homes that went under contract during the 1st 30 days of listing, 21% already had at least 1 price improvement. 84% of those homes on the market for over 90 days that received an accepted contract had at least 1 price reduction.

It is that simple. Not sure where your home should be priced? Call one of my top associates for a free market evaluation.


Related Florida real estate views:

Americans believe home prices will increase

National real estate market nowhere near the bottom?

Short sales offer clues to traditional home sellers

- Greg Staker Watson Realty Corp. 407-304-0255

如果你連絡我,奧蘭多房地產專家 , 我將供應免費你一份房地產市場報告以及房子賣出計畫

The title of this blog reads:

if you contact me, a Orlando real estate expert, I will provide you
a free copy of real estate info and a plan of how to get your house sold!

This is how it is explained to me by my associate Peimei Chen. Peimei is one of 3 associates in the Maitland office who speaks and writes Chinese. I believe that these associates will be able to provide professional service that is needed in the Florida real estate market. I have discovered from a search of the South Florida area looking for a Chinese speaking Realtor, that finding said Realtor online is harder than I would have thought. Hopefully I will be able to assist my Chinese speaking associates establish a presence online.

Related Florida real estate views:

我與您一起圓您的夢想 Orlando Florida

Holiday homes for sale in Florida

Orlando international visitors

- Greg Staker Watson Realty Corp. 407-304-0255

Show your home 24/7

Show your home 24/7 with a virtual tour

If we have learned one thing this year, it is that the days of placing a sign in the yard and stepping out of the way of the stampede of buyers has ended, for now. Old and not so old marketing tools have been brought back out of real estate agents marketing closets, dusted off and placed back into use.

One of these not so old tools are the virtual tours. With over 10 months of listing inventory in Central Florida for prospective buyers to choose from, now more than ever is the time to promote your home 24/7. Listing your home with a real estate company and agent with no web presence would be unthinkable in today's real estate age. Sellers should strongly consider allowing their agents to also have professional videos taken of their property so that potential customers can view the home at anytime, day or night.

Giving your home this extra edge against it's competition, may be the difference in price realized and time on the market.

Related Florida real estate views:

Does your agent have enough money to advertise your home?

Finding the right home is like finding a needle in a needle stack

5 things Sellers wish their Realtor® would have told them


- Greg Staker Watson Realty Corp. 407-304-0255

Florida home sales remain healthy

While the country experiences a sharp decline in home sales and even the Central Florida market adjusted sharply in 2006, the sellers who contracted associates from Watson Maitland to sell their property, have not felt the full brunt of the changing market.

As an office we have avoided the double digit drop in closed and written business volume that our competitors and sister offices have experienced. Part of the staying power has been the increase of listings and the ability to close new business we have opened.

Besides the increase in listings and limiting "fall-thrus", the associates of Maitland have been diligent in their marketing, dusting off old stand bys of days gone by. Open houses on nearly every day of the week, Broker opens, creative flyers and post cards to targeted neighborhoods, phone calls to their center of influences to ask for referrals. Sign riders, associate paid advertisement and neighborhood walking all have had a part to the success of this year.

Maitland associates have also embraced the new. Virtual tours, virtual caravans during sales meetings and personal and real estate related website positioning all work to give our sellers the maximum exposure. Targeting the limited supply of buyers is the goal that each and every associate takes seriously.

No better example of how noticeable their efforts have been than noting a call our floor agent received last week. As relayed to me, our associate received a call from a seller who has their home listed with a nationally known company. The seller, through their own research, found that Watson Realty Maitland lists their homes on several different classified websites. They were curious if we would tell them how we get such exposure, so they could relay it on to their listing associate. Amazing.

The back to basics theme appears to have worked. The experience level, business minded nature and professionalism that the Watson Maitland associates have insured their continued success this year.

Related Florida real estate views:

Is customer service improving as the market weakens?

Real estate agent flying high

Advertise your home where it will do the most good


- Greg Staker Watson Realty Corp. 407-304-0255

Our buyers and sellers are the true winners. Instead of gimmicks and negative results, we have been able to provide to them a service that is made up of positive attitudes and fundamental practices.

The great jar opener giveaway

Every year, Watson Realty Corp. conducts a jar opener contest. William Watson Jr, the CEO of Watson Realy believes strongly in this marketing giveaway. These jar openers are round rubber mats that are better describe as a gripping device. Each office or associate has their contact information printed on the jar opener and as part of a reminder to get out and meet the people, each year a company contest rewards associates and consumers alike who receive or pass out these little rubber hand helpers.

As a part of this years contest, I decided to put a jar opener page up on my site. I encourage the associates in Maitland to consider the internet as a strong business source. I received a few requests a month for this giveaway and each time I would assign to a different associate, who was taking an interest in web marketing, the address and customer name so they could send them an opener and have another contact.

Things changed drastically this month. Someone stopped by my site and while hopefully searching for real estate in Florida, they came across my jar opener giveaway page. My page link was then placed at several forums that announce freebies and great online deals and BOOM, suddenly my traffic increased by 1500+ uniques! This went on for 5 straight days. Fortunately I had a "while supplies last" warning on my jar opener page. I have had to suspend the free giveaway. I will be restocking up on personalized jar openers and I am working to get those visitors who got their requests in on time, their openers in a timely manner.

The point of this is wow, how quickly things can change online. Kudos to sites like Absurdly Cool, Red Flag Deals and Free Stuff Times who were the 3 top links to my site. I promise to have more jar opener giveaways along with other marketing pieces. I may include these giveaways in with consumer surveys. Complete a survey on what you look for from a real estate site and get a jar opener or calendar, something along those lines.

Until then, I am now looking to see if I can get my "free no obligation property search feature", picked up by other great online referrers. Any takers?


Related Florida real estate views:

Crazy not to buy real estate today?

The future of real estate advertisement

Is there a difference between buying an airline ticket and a home online?


- Greg Staker Watson Realty Corp. 407-304-0255

I... uh, lost my password, yeah...that's it.

Ok, last post was May. So June, July, August September and now most of October have past with no blog posts. My admission is, contrary to what the title of this blog states, I did not lose my password, I just fell into that black hole that a lot of new bloggers stumble into. Stop me if you have heard (read) this before, I am going to start blogging again and this time I will keep active!

Blogging is hard. If you don't believe it, type in google "blogging is hard". I just did and found over 24 million results. The 1st result was from this site. I read the article and it provided me with several good explanations to why blogging is hard. I must admit part of me was kinda hoping the 2/21/2006 post was the last time a blog post was made on this site. (I thought it my ease my guilt of not blogging since May) To the credit of newsome.org, there was a blog posted today titled road gear. Good for them.

Anyway, I am back. Lots of things have happened since May. Lots of things to blog about. The big difference from this "hey, sorry I have not been blogging but now I am back and will start blogging again" and the bazillion of other times you have read that lame excuse from other apologetic bloggers online is, well.....I mean it. ;)


Related Florida real estate views:

Imagine an entire real estate office blogging

Kissimmee agents enter the blog world

And now a word from home buyers and sellers.


- Greg Staker Watson Realty Corp. 407-304-0255