Today my wife, Bridget is hosting a Blog Carnival over on her One Word At A Time… blog. I’m very excited for her and happy she’s gotten as involved as she has in blogging and social networking. She’s having a wonderful time meeting some great new friends and I just know that one of these days she’s going to get that call she so badly desires… “Bridget, we’d like to have a conversation about getting your writing published and distributed.”

As I mentioned, her blog is “Hoping To Make A Difference… One Word At A Time…” and for each post she takes a single word and expands upon it through her experiences and perspective. Since she is hosting this Blog Carnival the idea was to keep with her “One Word” theme. To read all the Blog Carnival entries you need to head over to this post.

The word for today’s carnival is…

Trust

As a Realtor this word resonates within me. Am I trustworthy? Do people trust me? On a daily basis I am responsible for the largest investment most people will ever make. Do I handle that responsibility with care? Do I earn each clients trust?

What is trust?

Whether online or offline, I desire to act in a manner that earns everyone’s trust through being genuine and honest. Chris Brogan and Julien Smith have just released their newest book Trust Agents that discusses the concept of online trustworthiness. From the inside cover you see:

Trust agents aren’t necessarily marketers or salespeople; they’re the digitally savvy people who use the Web to humanize businesses using transparency, honesty, and genuine relationships.

Real estate is a human business! Even with all the automation of home searching and valuations, ultimately it is a human business. I believe that anyone who originally met me online would say that I’m the same guy IRL (In Real Life). I’m generally the same goofy guy who loves to take pics of food and anything else that crosses my path, engage in great conversation, listen when an ear is needed. Maybe point someone in the direction of help if I know someone who can help. I don’t do these things because I have to, I do them because it’s who I am. I think Jeff Turner summed it up wonderfully:

“You can always tell when someone is sincerely interested in helping others and when they merely want you to think they’re interested. Dale proves over and over again, that he is truly interested in helping others. For a real estate professional, that’s a gift. I’m honored to know Dale and pleased I can count him as a client and a friend.”

These are words that humble me and make me smile. (Thank you again Jeff, I’m honored to call you friend as well!) Everyone wants to think they are trustworthy but unfortunately all are not.

Realtors are one step above Multi-Level Marketers

Wow! Those are words that hurt. Tonight I was out with a few friends and we were talking about online and offline reputations and the above statement came out of one of their mouths. They did not direct it at me but it was directed at the industry I am a part of. I’ve also heard from more than one individual that real estate professionals are not much (or any) better than used car salesmen.

Why do people continue to work with people they don’t trust? This escapes me. If you have that feeling about someone, why not move along and find someone you do trust? Especially when dealing with such a large investment. Trust is critical! Why place such an enormous responsibility in the hands of a “MLM or used car salesman”? I don’t know the answer, but it is an interesting question.

So, do you trust your real estate professional? Have they earned your trust? I certainly hope so. Are you a real estate professional? Are you trustworthy? Are you going above and beyond to earn the trust of those who need you and your service? I certainly hope so.

Trust Agents photo by Chris Brogan, used under Creative Commons licensing
We Con photo by boeke, used under Creative Commons licensing

Today’s Monday market statistics are brought to you by the numbers 9-8-6-6-0 and 9-8-6-6-3.

It is Monday and that means we get to look at some more of our Vancouver area market statistics. Last week we looked at 98661 which includes the Vancouver neighborhoods of Southcliff, Edgewood Park, Hudson’s Bay, Columbia Way, Central Park and Harney Heights. This week we’ll continue to work our way West and head into 98660 and 98663. This takes us down into the downtown Vancouver area and some of the neighborhoods included are Esther Short, Hough, Arnada, Carter Park, Fruit Valley, Shumway and Lincoln. As always, I’ll post the statistics with a link to go see them much larger and easier. They’ll give you the August snapshot showing things like number of new listings, number of sales, average days on the market, rate of appreciation, average sales prices, etc.

Let’s start out with 98660

(Notice the average sales price IS climbing!)

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Now for 98663

(Again, notice the average sales price IS climbing!)

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As always, take a look at all the numbers. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to shoot me an email, make a call or send me a text. If you want more detail of a more specific set of market data, let me know!

Today’s Monday market statistics are brought to you by the numbers 9-8-6-6-4.

It is Monday and that means we get to look at some more of our Vancouver area market statistics. Last week we looked at the Fishers Landing and Cascade Park areas. This week we’ll work our way West and head into the Vancouver Heights area. Specifically we’ll look at zip code 98664. As always, I’ll post the statistics with a link to go see them much larger and easier. They’ll give you a snapshot showing things like number of new listings, number of sales, average days on the market, rate of appreciation, average sales prices, etc.

(You can click on image for full size)

As always, take a look at all the numbers. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to shoot me an email, make a call or send me a text. If you want more detail of a more specific set of market data, let me know!

Yesterday I posted Part 1 of my Animoto slideshows from the Inman Connect San Francisco conference I attended last week. Since today is Foto Friday I thought I’d post a couple more slideshows of my photos from the event. I hope you enjoy them.

Here are some shots from the Cocktail at Connect evening:

Enjoy some photos from the main conference:

Time for some Startup Alley and the Exhibit Hall:

I’ll close out with some pics from the Workshops:

Last week I told you I’d be in San Francisco attending the Inman Connect Real Estate conference. Part of the deal for me being there was to officially shoot the photos for Inman. In addition, I got to attend and learn a ton of cool stuff plus spend face to face time with my real estate friends from around the country. The week was amazing, I had a ton of fun and shot well over a thousand photos.

We partnered with Animoto to use my pics to build videos to be shown during the transitions between speakers. This allowed everyone to get a taste of what was happening throughout the day. I thought it might be a fun way to show off some of the pics and also show off how awesome Animoto is for building the “rock star” videos. If you are interested in getting Animoto for yourself, head over here and check it out.

We kicked the entire event off with the Beer With Bloggers event.

Here’s some shots from the registration area the next morning.

Wanna check out the Exhibit Halls?

Finally I’ll show you some general “Look and Feel” from Inman.

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed these shows and check back again right away for Part 2 (and maybe Part 3). I had a blast shooting this event. It was my first “official” shoot and it was a blast. I think that Inman was even happy with the results. Yeah!

I’m currently sitting at Anchor & Hope in San Francisco. Just had a great bowl of clam chowder and wanted to try this application.

iPhone has a WordPress app that let’s me write this very easily. How cool is this?

Today’s Monday real estate market statistics are brought to you by the numbers 9-8-6-0-7 and 9-8-6-7-1.

It is Monday and that means we get to look at some more of our Clark County area real estate market statistics. Last week we looked at what is happening in the Battle Ground, WA real estate market. This week we’re going to head back South and East to the Camas and Washougal areas of Clark County. As always, I’ll post the statistics with a link to go see them much larger and easier. They’ll give you the June snapshot (July numbers should be available right away) showing things like number of new listings, number of sales, average days on the market, rate of appreciation, average sales prices, etc.

Let’s get this party started in Camas, WA

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Now we can move next door to Washougal, WA

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As always, take a look at all the numbers. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to shoot me an email, make a call or send me a text. If you want more detail of a more specific set of market data, let me know!

Today’s Monday market statistics are brought to you by the numbers 9-8-6-4-2.

It is Monday and that means we get to look at some more of our Clark County area real estate market statistics. Last week we looked at what is happening in the Salmon Creek, NW Vancouver areas of 98665, 98685 and 98686. This week we’ll head north along I-5 to the Ridgefield area. As always, I’ll post the statistics with a link to go see them much larger and easier. They’ll give you the June snapshot showing things like number of new listings, number of sales, average days on the market, rate of appreciation, average sales prices, etc.

Let’s look at Ridgefield now

(Please click on image for larger view)

As always, take a look at all the numbers. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to shoot me an email, make a call or send me a text. If you want more detail of a more specific set of market data, let me know!

Understand Short Sales? You must be kidding Dale!

Now that I have you laughing hysterically… Let me share with you the first thing I share with every single buyer I meet (or anyone who wants to talk about this topic). Are you ready for this? There is a secret that I share. Something that must be done right up front. Something that has to be done for any of the conversation to make any sense. Something that will blow your mind when you hear it. Are you ready for this?

What must I do?

You must remove a component of most normal topics. Something that we like to think matters. Something you think the banks would understand. Get on with it Dale, what is it?

LOGIC

Yes, logic. I share that the first thing we have to do is take logic and remove it. Place it over on the side so that it doesn’t get in the way of our talk. I share this because as soon as I begin to explain how the short sales work, you will say “that doesn’t make any sense”. Ah, you are correct. Remember, we took logic and moved it aside. It can’t exist for this short sale conversation to work. That would be, according to The Princess Bride…

In the weeks to come I’ll share a few other steps to understanding (if that’s really possible) the short sale buying process as I’ve seen it unfold here in Vancouver, WA. Thanks for stopping by, keep checking back for new information.

(Thanks to my Virginia RealEstateZebra friend Daniel Rothamel for the photo. Thanks to my California buddy Dustin Luther for the laugh!)

(Also a special thanks to a dear friend I’ve made through Flickr who just so happens to live in Ireland! AnnMari is a wonderful photographer that I’d highly recommend you take a few minutes to go visit and see some of her work. Tell her I said hi. She took the Logic photo above.)

Do you ever wonder what the value of your home or investment property is? Wonder what it will be in three months? I hear people all the time ask this question. The famous line is, “if I only had a crystal ball”. Well, guess what?

We do have a crystal ball of sorts. It is called the Property Investment Profile (PIP). What is the PIP? It is a report that can be sent out as frequent as daily all the way out to quarterly. You have stock reports that tell you what your stock value is, why not a regular report that tells what the current value of your most valuable asset is worth? Good idea huh?

Just fill out the PIP form

All you need to do is go to our PIP form and fill out a bit of basic information about the property you want the report on (you can do this for all of the homes and investment properties you own). Where is this form? Well, I’m glad you asked. It’s over there on the sidebar closest to this post right up toward the top. It’s the one with the gold doubloon with the $ sign on it.

This report is great to give you a general idea of what’s happening in your location. A good cursory overview of what the real estate market looks like. However, when you really want a detailed breakdown of your homes value comparing it to the closest similar homes please remember to shoot me a call or an email. That’s one of the reasons I’m here.

(Photo by circulating, used under Creative Commons licensing)

The question gets asked all the time. Do I buy now or should I wait for “the bottom” of the market to hit. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to tell you when the “bottom” hits until several months after it has happened.

The thing we can say is interest rates are still at an all time low and prices haven’t been this low in years. It is an incredible time to buy and the last 10 weeks of increasing pending sales says something about the activity starting to take place.

Don’t wait until rates jump or prices start to swing the other direction. If you have any questions please shoot me a call or email.

Take care,

Dale