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I think signatures are a great tool for real estate agents. I train my agents to use them as a method of response to an otherwise daunting task of replying to large volumes of website leads (thanks to REW).

Our email system (Outlook on an in-house Exchange server) has the capability of creating several signatures per email account. With this feature we have our agents create several signatures with canned response content based on the most common requests for information we recieve via the website. That way if a website request on land comes in, the agent has a canned response for land he or she can use to reply to it. The same could be done with condos, single family, etc. What makes this great is that you can take your time and come up with a very… Read Full Post

Nobody really knows exactly where the Hudson Valley Area starts and stops. As the term becomes more marketable it seems that it takes on a life of its’ own and grows in every direction along the Hudson River. From a real estate perspective, second-home buyers looking for the most bang for their buck are looking on the west side of the river heading more north into the Catskills, in search of more home buying value. Ulster and Sullivan Counties seem to be the destination of choice. Delaware County to the northwest, and Greene County, are second choices when selecting a second home.

  The east side of the river has a second-home market located mostly in Dutchess County. This area is popular with commuters working in the lower quarter of New York State… Read Full Post

Here in Upstate New York we enjoy a niche market consisting of New York City residents looking to escape city life and enjoy a little of what country living has to offer.  Along with the extra acreage, privacy, views and water features comes one other requirement of our city buyers, a feature I refer to as the naked factor.

The naked factor refers to either the entire property or a portion of the property being secluded enough to be comfortably naked outside.  I don't understand it completely but have learned to adapt my sales style to it as it represents a high-end portion of our market.  After all, it has to be relatively easy to identify this requirement in a property, right?  My first stab at demonstrating my ability to find naked properties came as I…

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I recently did a training with a handful of my agents on digital camera use.  It is my opinion and the opinion of a lot of other real estate professionals that good listing photos demonstrate professionalism.

The training worked out great.  Agents were excited to bring their personal cameras into the office so that the tech guy (me) can actually show them how to use them.  After a morning of shooting dozens of photos of a listing we had close to the office we came back to the office to see what we had.

The second part of the training was organizing and getting the photos ready for use.  Enter Picasa!  Probably not a big secret at this point but if you haven't heard or used this free software, you should download it immediately.

One of the biggest…

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