We have all heard the saying, "real estate is all about location, location, location." But I have a nice home in a great location why doesn't it sell?

What does it really take to sell a home in today's real estate market? Is it location, new carpet, fresh landscaping, offering a free trip to Hawaii, paying closing cost, or offering more commission to buyers agents? No. The saying sellers and agents should get to know and love is, "real estate is about price, price, price."

The right price will overcome anything. Think about it, if a home is in a bad location but the price is right, it will sell. If the home is in bad condition but priced well, it will sell. If a home stinks and has no landscaping, with the right price tag it will sell.

Auctions, bank owned properties, and short sales seem to get all the attention, why is that? Is it because buyers and agents love the excitement of an auction and want to fight over the house with countless other buyers? Or maybe buyers love the idea of buying a home that was foreclosed on, has a dead lawn, hasn't been lived in for over a year, and needs a lot of maintenance? Or maybe agents and buyers like the challenge of trying to get a short sale approved and closed? I am being sarcastic but I think I made the point.

Get your home/listing priced right, make it a "deal" and it will sell. Think about adding value with creative financing options. Lease options and owner carries. If the home has a loan with a great interest rate, find out if it is assumable. Many loans are assumable with qualifying. If the loan has a 5% fixed rate assumable loan this can be a great "deal" for a buyer.

We have posted another audio recording about A2STalk.com our exclusive blogging platform for franchisees.    

 "I set up my A2STalk.com account/blog, now what?"    

Dave Crumby, Erin Campbell, and Ryan Elliott discuss taking the next steps in setting up your blog. Topics include, what to write about, what not to write about, places to get good ideas for posts, and much more.  You can also get more information on my blog at  The recording is posted on the franchisee resource center under the "A2S Talk Blog Series"  section about halfway down the homepage on the resource center. The link is called "A2S Talk.com next steps audio."  The audio is in MP3 format and can be downloaded by right clicking on the the link and selecting "save  target as," and chose a location to save the file on your computer.   

 As always, if you need any assistance let me know.

Happy Blogging!  

Ok many have asked me what blogs I follow. So here is a list of my top real estate and business blogs in no particular order.

Future of Real Estate Marketing. http://www.futureofrealestatemarketing.com/

This blog is about technology and its application to the real estate industry. The writer, Joel Burslem, is great and the blog is a great read.

1000 Watt Consulting Blog http://www.1000wattblog.com/

This blog is about web 2.0 and marketing. The focus is on the real estate industry.

Real Estate Tomato Blog. http://www.retomato.typepad.com/

Great blog about a number of topic but mostly about blogging for real estate.

Up 2 Date Real Estate http://www.up2daterealestate.com/

This is written by one of our franchisee Doug Willis in Pasadena, CA. He has done a great job with this blog. This is good example of how to blog effectively.

Blog for Author Seth Godin http://www.sethgodin.typepad.com/

Seth Godin is a great writer with many best selling books on business, marketing and customer service. The blog is great and thought provoking

4 Hour Work Week Blog. www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog

This is the blog for the best selling book The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris. This blog always has great ideas on time savings and cost cutting as well as great studies.

In addition to the above I follow a news feed/ blog for our local news paper in Reno.

Final thoughts on the street corner agent. 

The last part of my conversation with Paul was about some interesting ideas he had for making contact with potential customers. For example, he buys lottery tickets every week and staples them to his business cards. He passes out the cards to people he runs into at the grocery store, bank, gas station, and yard sales, etc. He tells people "this card could be worth 25 million." If someone wins, all they have to do is buy a house from him.  As he puts it, "I figure the card has at least a week of shelf life because people need to hang on to it to see if they win!" He says it is a great conversation starter.

Speaking of yard sales,  Paul says he tries to visit yard sales whenever he has a chance.  He plasters his car with signs and graphics and even has a trailer with graphics.  He goes not only to find good deals, but to make contact with people looking to buy or sale a property.  He says many people have yard sales when they are getting ready to move. He also tries to go to as many estate sales as he can.  Great deals and many of the properties need to be sold.

Assist-2-Sell gives you a great edge when it comes to marketing. You have a great conversation piece built in with your system. "I will sell your home and save you thousands." Try the above ideas and incorporate the Assist-2-Sell advantage, I bet you have great success.

Making human contact is the key to success with both prospecting for new business and taking care of the business you have!

You have to check out http://www.docstoc.com/  What is DocStoc.com, I took this from their web site.

"docstoc is a user generated community where you can find and share professional documents. Find free legal documents and free business documents."

There are PowerPoint presentations, legal documents, flyer templates, how to write a mission statement, employment applications, business plans, educational documents, and just about anything else you can think of.

The site also has a number of very good ebooks on a variety of topics.

Before you make anything from scratch, check out DocStoc.com it will save you time and money!