Whistler Real Estate Company Expands Website

Whistler, BC is known the world over as one the premier ski resorts. In the past 10 years, it has also gained the reputation as a year round playground. Whistler Real Estate has seen a number of ups and downs over the past 25 years, however in the past 10 years growth and property values has been a steady line—a line straight UP!

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HomePages.com - A New Real Estate Site?

The folks at HouseValues.com have just launched another website. This one is called HomePages.com. Interesting name? One has to ask themselves, how easy will it be for them to make online consumers think of a website about 'homes' rather than 'homepages' of websites? I can just imagine the marketing meeting where this idea came up. "Hey, we've got boat loads of cash, let's just pay whatever it cost to buy this great domain name I heard was avaliable for our new site—HomePages.com!"

For you REALTORS® out there, it is a national IDX website designed to build the HomePages.com and HouseValues.com brand - not yours. When you perform a property search, the REALTOR who has purchased the zip code for that area is profiled (if you can call it that) on the top of the page. We can only assume that all 'leads' captured here will go to that agent.

Link: HomePages .

Listing Display in Canada - Not Here You Won't

Here's an interesting site, a REALTOR who is telling is website visitors to NOT waste their time on the MLS systems. Now why would any REALTOR do that in today's online, IDX world. Well friends, it's simple, he's in Canada and REALTORS in Canada don't know what their American cousins really have...

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Marketing 101 Part 3 - Developing Fishing Skills

Having identified the types of Fishermen in the previous section, let’s now turn our attention to the actual practice of fishing and some of the skills that are needed. Those of you who have had some fishing experience will remember occasions where you have seen one angler taking fish while other anglers watch in awe and wonder what makes the difference.  It’s not usually just a single skill that contributes to success but rather a number of skills working together.  One weak link can render a chain useless, likewise one area of weakness in a selling or listing process can collapse the entire deal.

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Marketing 101 Part 2 - Let's Go Fishing

I have done a fair amount of fishing in my life, in different locations, in different countries and for different types of fish. Over my career, as I developed knowledge in the practice of Real Estate, I became intrigued with the similarity that exists between Real Estate and Fishing.
                              
Let’s take a look at these similarities in a marketing context and see what we can land from the comparison.

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Who Pays the Buyer's Agent?

An article on Realty Times by Blanche Evans asks this interesting question and is apparently in response to a prospective buyer's agent questions about how he would be paid. I ask our readers the following two questions about this. First, after reading the article, do you think the new recruit will have his or her answer or be more confused. And secondly, honestly now, when you represent a buyer in a transaction (those of you who are not 'exclusive' buyer's agents), do you act like you are representing the seller? Do you tell your client that you are or are you prone to suggest that they need representation and that your services are free to them? Just asking - posted by Glenn Davies

Link: Who Pays The Buyer's Agent? by Blanche Evans.

Free eBook - The Bootstrappers Bible

Everyone loves a good book, but a great and FREE eBook! Don't miss this limited opportunity to get guru Seth Godin's ebook—The Bootstrappers Bible. Perfect for the independent marketer.

Link: ChangeThis :: The Bootstrapper's Bible .

Real Estate Blogs—Where Do I Start?

We are getting more and more questions about blogs and how they impact real estate and, in particular, brokers and agents. Suffice to say that blogging has matured significantly in the past year and that ignorance of the power behind publishing on the Internet, could be as costly as thinking you didn't need a website a few years ago.

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New Beta MSN Search

The boys at MS have finally released their beta version of the much anticipated MSN Search. Built upon their own technology, this new search facility will finally allow MSN to separate itself from rivals Yahoo and Google. Yahoo, owners of the Inktomi search engine database, are the current content providers for the natural search results on MSN Search. Things are about to change....

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Ode to Mr. Ogilvy

There have been many firsts in my personal, as well as my business life. I was just 20 years old when I first cracked the spine of David Ogilvy's classic, Confessions of an Advertising Man. I knew instantly, that I had met someone who understood what my mind had been telling me for some time—there's nothing truly 'new under the sun', but inspiration and creative genius, thankfully, YES!

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