Aug. 29, 2007 - On The Coat Tails Of My Blog

It seems that someone calling themselves "for sale by owner" has decided to ride the coat tails of my blog for a little free advertising.  He, she, or it, has linked their name to a for sale by owner web site.  Since I have been too busy to blog much lately I figured I would point these postings out to you.  They aren't too awful very bad and they will give you a reason to reread some of my old missives.  Besides, why should a guy like me be afraid of a FSBO site.  Once a seller fails to sell that way, I'm always glad to take the listing.

The postings you want to look at are, "You Want What?", "You Knew This Was Coming", "When Not To Use A Home Inspector", and "Bang For The Buck".

Now I really don't care if you want to actually put links on my blog "for sale by owner".  Chances are, if you put enough of them, when people do a search for "for sale by owner", my blog postings will come up as well, and that's a good thing.  However, since I am a highly skilled, full service, professional, that knows how to get the job done, I really don't think you would want to go head to head with me for a listing.  My suggestion to you would be to simply start your own blog.  Who knows, you might be able to do with the $34.95 listing what Earl Schieb did with the $34.95 paint job, make a totally useless product nationally famous. 

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Aug. 7, 2007 - It Was A Real Good Lunch

As many of you know, this "real estate blog" does not always stick to the topic of real estate as such.  Every now and then I get moved enough by some off topic event that I feel the need to share.  In a market as slow as this one I have my nose to the grindstone for my clients, trying to get their home sold and so I have blogging low on the priority list.  This time it was yesterdays lunch that inspired me to take the time to pay attention to my blog.

Well OK, it wasn't the lunch itself that inspired me, I had an Italian Sub with everything but mayo at Potbelly's in Metropolitan Square.  It was the entertainment that got me raved up.  When I walked in there was a slight sort of man wearing a pork-pie hat sitting in the window playing a Pink Floyd tune on an acoustic guitar.  I had noticed him there one time before playing something that the lunch time troubadours don't usually play.  Some deep cut or another, I don't remember.  What I do remember is that he was just finishing up his lunch time gig and he vanished really quickly before I had a chance to talk to him. 

Any way, I didn't have a chance to speak to him this time either, but he, or should I say his music, sure did speak to me.  He went on to do Neil Young's "Southern Man", "Five O'clock World" by whoever the heck it was that did that and some other foot tappin' ditties that had me humming along.  He put his own style on everything he did and I must say I was very impressed.  I find that there are those out there that can cover one or two artists really well but aren't versatile enough to run the gambit on an entire era.  This guy certainly is.

Who is this guy who could stir the musical soul of a crusty old curmudgeon like myself?  His name is Noel Rivera.  His business card gives him the title of "Guitarist/Vocalist".  His tag line is "BEST OLDIES AND ROCK N' ROLL".  The truth be told, his tag line hits the nail on the head.  He is really damn good.  I am going to find out what his schedule is and pass it along as soon as possible.  If you have the opportunity to catch his act you should take it, you will be giving yourself a real treat.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Aug. 2, 2007 - Slow And Unsure

So I do all of this groovy stuff in order to market a listing.  It makes me soooooooo happy, because that is what I do.  That will get the word out to the public, now I need to rally the troops.  Wing off some just listed stuff to the other REALTORS® and we'll be all set. 

I throw a Brokers open and offer a bribe of pizza and soft drinks so I can get every agent for miles around to attend.  I indicate that if you are the kind of person that needs something a little stronger to wash the pizza down you are more than welcome to bring your own personal flask.  If I'm lucky, Chicago Agent Magazine will send a photographer sometime between 11:00 and 2:00 to record the event.   Couple all of that with the opportunity to come face to face with Gene Molloy himself and I figure we have ourselves a real Tuesday afternoon wang dang doodle.

Can you imagine my suprise when the clock struck 11:00 and I was all alone in my lovely listing?  Not to worry, I tell myself, everybody must be sleeping in this morning.  They will be arriving soon.  Low and behold, the clock stuck high noon and I was still all by myself.  At 1:00 I started to worry about looking foolish serving cold pizza when the last minute rush of hungry REALTORS® came in.  By 1:50 I had everything cleaned up and put away.  At 1:55 a married REALTOR® couple I had never met before rang the bell.  Too bad they arrived so late.  We could have had a party.

The open house I held last Saturday was not to much better.  My first first visitor was a Hanover Park Police Officer who had one of my open house signs in his hand.  It turned out to be the one from Barrington Road.  He said I had placed it too close to the public way.  He said I needed to put it about a foot further in from the roadside.  He effectively cut off any drive by traffic I could hope to attract from busy Barrington Road.  Now I'm not alluding to anything here, but there was a Century 21 open house sign right where mine used to be when I was leaving that evening.  The exact same place I have put my sign during many other open houses.  Go figure.

The only other person that showed up was in fact a prosective buyer.  Her son is a REALTOR® and he has her Townhouse listed.  She indicated that whenever she got a contract on her Townhouse she would be ready to make on offer on something.  She was sure doing her research.

I called a few of my associates this week.  I was thinking that maybe I was loosing my touch.  I was feeling washed up.  Fortunately, they are all telling the same story.  Nobody is out shopping.  They too are spending lonely weekends in empty open houses.  I guess I'm not so all alone after all.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.