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This will effect how all real estate advertising is permitted on the internet.

The National Association of REALTORS® has amended the Code of Ethics that gives individual MLS companies the ability to prevent you from using the term "MLS" anywhere on your website for advertising to consumers because, at least so they say, it does not provide a "true picture" to consumers. Here is the amended code:

Section 4.4 – Use of the terms MLS and Multiple Listing Service No MLS participant, subscriber or licensee affiliated with any participant shall, through the name of their firm, their URLs, their e-mail addresses, their website addresses, or in any other way represent, suggest or imply that the individual or firm is an MLS, or that they operate an MLS.…

Sandy Springs homes for sale, like many markets in North Fulton, have not suffered the slowdown of Metro Atlanta as a whole or the rest of the country for that matter. I am not trying to paint a perfect picture here, but, some of what we hear on television and the news does not necessarily apply to us here on a local level. Here is a snapshot of Sandy Springs homes for sale compared with all of Metro Atlanta.

• There are 501 Sandy Springs homes for sale.
• 42 homes in Sandy Springs are working on an offer.
• 91 homes sold in the last 3 months.
• The absorption rate to sell all Sandy Springs homes is 16 months.

Now these numbers may not sound like a hot market, but, you have to consider something very important when you look at market…

Warning! Warning!

Many of us saw it coming and they just said it wasn't true. You may remember a post I wrote about Trulia and other third party real estate website listing services and how it will end up being nothing but bad news for the consumer in the long run. well, you may be interested in an email I just received from Trulia about PAID ADVERTISING. Here is an excerpt from that email:

Greetings Ryan Ward,

Thank you all for your hard work and participation on Trulia Voices! Trulia has been hard at work the past month putting together our first ever agent advertising product and we want to make sure Voices users get something special. In the holiday spirit, we would like to gift all the dedicated Voices users a $100 coupon for our Agent Featured…

I have a few blogs. A couple free standing WordPress blogs that I enjoy using just don't seem complete without a way to add a professional way to market my listings to consumers who may come across my blog posts. Well, I have searched and searched to no avail so I set out to come up with a solution on my own. I think I have found it and you can see how it looks here:

http://www.ryanwardrealestate.com/WordPress/listings/

Now if you like the way it looks and would like to install this on your own WordPress blog, I wrote a post on my new real estate test blog with, what I hope, are pretty solid instructions on how to recreate this on your own. You can read the instructions…

Real estate agents today utilize various methods of marketing homes for sale for their clients. Virtually all agents now listings on a number of online resources to increase exposure of listings directly to buyers. Few however, have been able to harness the internet with their own personal and local real estate websites to market homes for sale.

What sets us apart from other agents and brokers in the market today is our unique ability to market Sandy Springs homes for sale directly to buyers from within our own website which provides buyers with a local source for not only finding your listing, but, extensive information for buyers so that they can freely speak with a knowledgeable professional when they find your home.

We have taken additional steps to…

I received a phone call yesterday and the gentleman asked me this. I have heard this and a few other myths that I thought I should try to dispell about Alpharetta. So here they are:

Myth Number 1: Alpharetta traffic is horrible- this is simply not true. Well, it's no worse than any other part of Atlanta and it is better than most.

Myth Number 2: Alpharetta is snobbish - Really? If you think Alpharetta is snobbish then perhaps you should drive through some of the other "exclusive" communities in Atlanta.

Myth Number 3: Alpharetta is too expensive - Nothing could be farther from the truth.

So, myth number one that I hear more than any other is related to traffic. I drove from I-285 and GA 400 to Exit 8, Mansell road yesterday in the middle of rush our in…

The sales in 2007 started off higher in Alpharetta than they were for the same time period of 2006, but, have been declining every month since April. the question is when will we reach the bottom. It's clear that we are in a buyers market in that buyers definitely have the upper hand in negotiations, but, buyers are still sitting on the sidelines, waiting for the right opportunity.

So really, when is the right time to buy? The answer should be quite clear and the statistics indicate that right now is the answer. I just put together a comprehensive report on the Alpharetta real estate market, and, from the data contained in the report, you can clearly see that right now buyers have more leverage than they have had in years and still they sit.

Waiting for…

As it has become more difficult to sell real estate in the current market, it has become more important that your home be in excellent condition if you are to attract a buyer for your home. Curb appeal remains very high on the priority list of items that should be addressed and improved prior to listing your home for sale. As a homeowner, it is sometimes difficult to objectively review all of the parts of a home that have slowly lost the luster and newness associated with them. One item of particular importance is often overlooked when addressing the exterior of a home and preparing it for sale. Gutters may seem like a boring, utilitarian device of little consequence, but, the truth is that gutters are found on nearly all homes and act as a sort of jewelry…