I've heard over the years, history repeats itself. Humans are creatures of habit and cycles will always repeat. I was talking to my dad the other night and he shared a story about a conversation he had with my great grandfather. When my dad was in college and looking to start his own business, he asked his grandfather for his "nugget" of advice. He said "history repeats itself, every 20 years cycles will change, be ready to take advantage" My dad was young and didn't think the advise was all that great, he was more concerned with the future. Looking back it was probably some of best advise he ever received.

I always get a kick out of all the "experts" that, at the top of a cycle say, this time is different, the rules have changed, there are new laws to keep this from happening, etc.. To prove my point take a look at some the following stories from the past.

[6.17] Hence followed a scarcity of money, a great shock being given to all credit, the current coin too, in consequence of the conviction of so many persons and the sale of their property, being locked up in the imperial treasury or the public exchequer. To meet this, the Senate had directed that every creditor should have two-thirds his capital secured on estates in Italy. Creditors however were suing for payment in full, and it was not respectable for persons when sued to break faith. So, at first, there were clamorous meetings and importunate entreaties; then noisy applications to the praetor's court. And the very device intended as a remedy, the sale and purchase of estates, proved the contrary, as the usurers had hoarded up all their money for buying land. The facilities for selling were followed by a fall of prices, and the deeper a man was in debt, the more reluctantly did he part with his property, and many were utterly ruined. The destruction of private wealth precipitated the fall of rank and reputation, till at last the emperor interposed his aid by distributing throughout the banks a hundred million sesterces, and allowing freedom to borrow without interest for three years, provided the borrower gave security to the State in land to double the amount. Credit was thus restored, and gradually private lenders were found. The purchase too of estates was not carried out according to the letter of the Senate's decree, rigour at the outset, as usual with such matters, becoming negligence in the end.

A.D. 32-37 The Annals By Tacitus

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/tacitus/TacitusAnnals06.html

March 16, 1946
New York Times

President demands housing crisis ends

July 18, 1969
New York Times

Builders and financial institutions urge overhaul of Federal home mortgage programs to ease financial crisis in housing.

July 28, 1974
New York Times

Current housing slump worst since Depression days

November 29, 1986
Boston Globe

Serious housing crisis that is getting worse

July 20, 1990
Washington Post

Median Home Price Falls; First Drop in 10 Years

February 17, 1991
Dallas Morning News

HOME-LOAN DEFAULTS SOARING

October 27, 1992
Denver Post

At the peak of the foreclosure crisis
 

August 22, 1993
Los Angles

Home Sellers Pay the Price as Home Values Decline and There's No End in Sight

Do any of these headlines look familiar? Back when these articles were written and the sky was falling everyone said the market will never be the same, it is going to take decades to recover, there is a long road ahead, etc.. Through numerous natural disasters, wars, economic crisis, rising energy prices, and high interest rates, real estate has managed an impressive 3.9%-7.6% average yearly appreciation (depending on the region).

Going thru a down cycle is never easy, frankly it sucks. It is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The light is coming and the market will start to stabilize. New home sales at a 13 year low, is great news. Existing home sales up for the first time in 9 months.

This too shall pass.

One of the biggest concerns I get from franchisees looking to start a blog is finding good topics to right about. It is a valid concern because you need to write about topics and issues your audience is going to be interested in.

I think the best approach is to put yourself in the shoes of your readers, or soon to be readers. What are their interests and concerns? One way I come up with topics is to pay attention when someone asks you a question about your market. Questions like, Is now the time to buy? Should I sell now or wait? Is the bottom of the market here? Are interest rates going up or down? What price ranges of homes are selling the best? Do you have any deals? What services do you provide at Assist-2-Sell? Why is Assist-2-Sell a better choice? Answering these questions is a great start and will give you plenty to write about.

Another idea is to pick out a neighborhood you are interested in or do a lot of business in and write about it. How many homes are for sale in the area? What makes the neighborhood unique? Highlight new subdivisions in the area including price ranges and features. Find interesting stories about the area. You may actually learn more about the area in the process.

The internet is becoming a powerful tool for real estate sales, but will never replace your experience and expertise. People want to do business with an expert, someone that will watch out for their interests. Blogging gives you the ability to leverage your expertise. The hardest part is getting started. Don't wait start today.
Happy Blogging!

Many have asked me how to get their web site to the top of the search engines? One answer is you can pay to be at the top with advertising called pay per click (PPC). You can bid to be at the top and choose which searches you want to appear on. Some clicks will cost you $2-$3 or more depending on the popularity of the phrase. This can be effective, but also very costly. The other concern is many people ignore the advertisements because many times the ads do not apply to what you are searching for. I will address PPC at a later date.

So the question is, how do you get the top of the searches naturally or as they call it in the business "organically?" Meaning when people search your web site shows up in the list. There isn't a simple answer but here are few items search engines look at to establish rankings.

Off Page Factors

1. Age of the Domain 2. Number of Inbound Links 3. Link Text (Anchor Text) Keyword 4. Age of the Domains of Inbound 5. Age of the Inbound Links 6. Keyword Theme of Domain/Link 7. Google Page Rank of Inbound Link 8. Directory Listings (DMOZ.org, Yahoo, Second Tier Established Directory Listings. 9. Niche Directory Listings 10. Inbound Links From Authority or Matter Expert Sites. 11. Domain Registration Length

On Page Factors

1. Title 2. Body Text 3. Headings H1/H2/H3 4. Link Text (Anchor Text) 5. Domain Names, File and Folder Names 6. Keyword Repetition, Proximity, Prominence 7. Alt tag attributes in Images and Links 8. Page Size 9. Search Engine Friendly Navigation 10. Number of Pages on the Website 11. Website Freshness/Frequency of Updates 12. Number of Outgoing Links 13. Domain Class (.edu/.org/.com..etc) 14. Site Map

As you can see there is quite a bit to it.

I thought I would call an expert for an explanation, and tips on what we can do with our web sites so they rank higher on the search engines. I called Mike Parker from The Blackwater Consulting Group to pick his brain a bit. Mike has been featured in Broker Agent News and other publications. Click below to listen to our conversation.

Mike Parker Interview MP3

You can click on the link and it will open an MP3 player on your compter like Windows media player, real pleayer, or quick time. Or you can right click the link and click "save target as" and save the file to your computer and listen to it later.

Below is a link to a report explaining SEO. It is an interesting read. (the file is large so it may take some time to load)

1b-SEO_Secrets_2.pdf

You can contact BlackWater at 949-760-3002 Let them know you are with Assist2Sell. or you can email them at  info@theblackwatercg.com

Have you ever been driving around and had a thought you wanted to remember but couldn't stop to right it down?  Or maybe you see a house that's a FSBO and want to send them some info later but you are in a hurry and don't have a paper and pen. Driving to work you realize you need to pick up something from the grocery store and don't want to forget.

Well I found a great web site that will help you out. It is called Jott.com. Here is how it works. You call an 800 number Jott provides, an automated system will ask you who you want to send a message to and then will ask for the message. You leave a message just like a voice mail. Once you have left a message jott will transcribe the message and send it to your recipient in the form of a text message and or email. You can also set up reminders. When you call in say reminder, Jott will ask you the date and time. The reminder will be posted on a reminder list and 15 minutes before the event you will be sent a text and email. You can also set up groups of recipients, call jott and record your message and an email / text message will be sent to everyone on the group.

Great service, and it's free!

www.jott.com