edkirkland's Blog: All Categories

The economy and the real estate is the topic of discussion just about everywhere these days. I feel like I have a fairly unique viewpoint since I am familiar with two totally different market areas. For over ten years I owned and operated a REMAX office in Destin Florida. A couple of years ago My wife and I sold our office and moved to Colorado where my family is from and built a log home on a ranch just outside of La Veta. Now I sell real estate in Colorado as a broker associate. 

My wife and I turned over all of our personal business to our daughter who still lives in Florida. Karrie used to work with us and now she has taken over the lead and is doing a fine job. 

The market in Destin is probably one of the worst effected markets in the country. We…

Does anyone have an idea of how much longer Google will wait before reindexing? I had a Florida site that was crushed durring the last reindex because of my reciprical link farm. I am licensed here in La Veta Colorado and have had my new site active for a little over three months now.  I guess Google will eventually get around to reindexing, but the wait is killing me. Pardon me if I'm wrong, but I think it's been around 4 months since the last reindex. Does anyone out there have any clues? Read Full Post

When is a good time to go out on your own?

I have been selling real estate for about 15 years now. For the last ten years I owned and operated my own brokerage. Below are a few of my experiences, some good and some bad. Please remember these are only my experiences and opinions.

Ten years ago a partner and I decided we should open our own office. We chose a large franchise to affiliate with. We ponied up the money for the franchise fees, office equipment, insurance and other assorted expenses. We leased a not to expensive office space and set up shop. We were fairly successful with recruiting and soon outgrew our small office. By then we were making money, but still no where near a profit. We contracted for a build out and lease with a new landlord. We…

I've been selling real estate for around 15 years now. Over the length of my career I have seen up and down markets but never such a dramatic lashing as the Gulf Coast has seen over the last two years. Those of us doing business on the Emerald Coast of Florida have been through the ringer as of late. In many ways Katrina was a perfect storm.

The local north west Florida market was coming off of an unprecedented sales boom where many property values had doubled in less than three years. The boom was taking it's natural course and had just started to slow down about the same time as hurricane Katrina struck. The combination of these two factors led the abrupt turn around in the local market. The effect was as if a light switch had been turned off. Then as…

I have noticed when I'm working with buyers looking at land or ranches many times the subject of conservation easements comes up. Often they haven't a clue what a conservation is, what they are used for or what the benefits are for granting one. I have written a short primer below to help bring things into focus.

A conservation easement is a written instrument typically in the form of a deed that limits land use. When recorded in the public records and accepted, the deed conveys valuable property rights to a charitable organization-most often a land trust.

Agricultural conservation easements limit the land owners use of the property for farming and ranching uses and limits construction except for buildings used for agricultural purposes or homes for the…