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| I am really bad at the politics of competition. I will walk into an arena of competing associates and really believe they are willing to help and lend a hand in that great new “web 2.0″ way of sharing the love. But no.
No it isn’t so. The latest was me being bloody naive when I thought of marketing two different products and tweeting about it. Talk about cold shoulders from a large group of people.
I work with both products Ubertor and myRealPage. Both companies offer hosted websites for Realtors. As a designer and marketing person, I don’t see why I would limit my clients to one. Dumb of me to think everyone would understand.
In fact, there are more people rutted into their brand than my Grandpa was with his Ford. Once a Ford man always a ford man. People like this are your best marketers because they over compensate the products actual abilities as well as slander (without any legal liable) the competitors. Gramps hated anything import and was quite verbal about it. Case in point is this video “Ubertor vs myRealPage” from a Realtor making false statements. But wow, what a marketing plug for those who are unaware. A real user slamming the competition, (Interesting to note he’s selling Ubertor signups from his site, so I’m not too sure which it is, real user of selling agent)
Uberto or myRealPage, I have used both system for many years watching them change and grow. whether you choose Ubertor or myRealPage, each one is different and each has strengths and weaknesses. I want to offer as many marketing products as possible that I can help businesses brand and use. Cold shoulders can blindly follow like the old days. In the 2.0 version of open communication, perhaps there is a market out there for people who want a real choice, I’m hoping so.
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Originally published at An unbiased street view with curb appeal. You can comment here or there. | |
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|  VANCOUVER, B.C. March 3, 2009 Residential housing sales in Greater Vancouver rose 94 per cent in February compared to the month before, with 1,480 sales registered in February compared to 762 sales in January, which was the slowest month for housing sales in 25 years. Over the past 10 years, February sales have typically surpassed January by an average increase of 53 per cent.
At the same time, new MLS® listings for residential properties continued to decrease for the fourth month in a row. New listings decreased 25.6 per cent in February compared to the previous year; 20 per cent in January; 8.6 per cent in December; and 10 per cent in November.
There are terrific opportunities out there right now, but with property listings continuing to decrease, those opportunities may be available only for a brief window of time, said Dave Watt, president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV).
REBGV reports that year-over-year property sales in Greater Vancouver declined 44.7 per cent in February 2009 from the 2,676 sales recorded in February 2008. Year-over-year, those are the lowest sales figures for February since the mid-1980s.
REALTORS® are reporting more activity compared to recent months as people begin to see whether their position in the housing market has strengthened as a result of falling interest rates and improved affordability, Watt says. It took, on average, 67 days to sell a home in Greater Vancouver in February, seven days less than last month, but behind the sellers market of last February when the average stood at 33 days.
Sales of detached properties in February 2009 declined 41 per cent to 587 from the 995 units sold during the same period in 2008. The benchmark price, as calculated by the MLSLink Housing Price Index®, for detached properties declined 14.2 per cent from February 2008 to $653,452.
Sales of apartment properties declined 45.6 per cent last month to 650, compared to the 1,197 sales in February 2008. The benchmark price of an apartment property declined 13.9 per cent from February 2008 to $333,143.
Attached property sales in February 2009 decreased 49.8 per cent to 243, compared with the 484 sales during the same month in 2008. The benchmark price of an attached unit declined 9.7 per cent between Februarys 2008 and 2009 to $426,268.
New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties declined 25.6 per cent to 3,916 in February 2009 compared to February 2008, when 5,260 new units were listed.
Share on Facebook Originally published at An unbiased street view with curb appeal. You can comment here or there. | |
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| The Domain Registry of Canada is pulling a mail-out scam.
Has anyone else received one of these? They mail a notice of renewal for your domain name with pricing, check boxes and a credit card information area for them to renew your domain name.
It’s been my experience that the average person has little understanding of who their domain registrar actually is and how it all works and I am guessing that this is what The DRoC people are hoping for.
As a domain name registrar reseller myself receiving this notice stood out to me like a red flag. They are using the word “renewal” as if this is coming from YOUR current domain registrar but what they are really trying to do is TRANSFER your domain name to their services.
Normally, a succesful transfer relies on the person clicking “yes” in a confirmation email from the current registrar but what the fine print on the back of these DRoC mail-outs say is that in the event a transfer doesn’t take place they will keep trying daily until it becomes available for transfer. Not only that but “You agree to pay prior to the effectiveness of the desired services.” In otherwards, if your transfer to them fails, you still pay.
I don’t know of any domain registrar who does that except for DRoC.
Share on Facebook Originally published at An unbiased street view with curb appeal. You can comment here or there. | |
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| Andrew Niland was arrested for performing body modification on various individuals who had asked him to do so. But I'm not sure what to say about that yet because...
First I have to ask myself, what is body mod? I can't list all here but generally when one hears the term body mod, one might think of branding, scarification, piercing and even tattoos as just a sampling of what body mod is. I tend to think of everything we do to intentionally change our natural selves is a form of body modification even if the change can be created naturally. If it's a choice then it's body mod in my humble opinion.
Every morning when I shave I am altering my natural appearance so believe it or not, it's body modification in my eyes. When a nurse in Surrey Memorial recently shaved off a man's beard as he lay in a coma, she would probably have been better off piercing both his ears in the eyes of his family. I believe it's still in court. Weight alteration from getting skinny to bulking and building up muscle is body modification. Definitely plastic surgery is a form of body modification.
Being OK with the choices each individual makes seems to depend on what group a person associates with. For example, a high fashion breast augmentation and eye lift person probably would never associate with the scarification and 5 brow piercings person. Not only that, they would probably sneer at one another when passing on the street for each other's "Stupidity". In their own circles they discuss freely the practitioners/doctors (depending on group) they use to one another. I know, I am in both groups.
All I know is Body Modification is ancient and is here to stay. However, If you remove your own fingers don't look for disability handouts later in life.
I have had the opportunity to read some points of view on the subject and got an invite on Facebook to help support this Niland fellow. I don't know enough about the industry to know whether he had the right amount of certification or what not. Or if the industry even has certification set up for it. It should, we need it to inspect a house and drive a car. | |
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| In the book Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Charlie bucket saved a piece of chocolate. With great discipline and restraint he only savoured a tiny piece of it every day. I was in grade 3 when I read that and realize today just how much effect it had on me over my life so far. As far back as I can remember, I looked up to this. I'm sure this is where I learned to eat the vegetables on my plate first and save the chop for last.
Brandon is the complete opposite. He eat his most favorite part of the meal first leaving the worst part for last. He wears his favorite cloths to school everyday in a row until they need to go into the laundry so by Wednesday, as far as he's concerned, he has nothing to wear. That's fine. But he complains about the position he finds himself in blaming others for his predicament. "you haven't done laundry for too long", "you feed me too many vegetables"
Maybe it's just a matter of teaching him to accept the position he got himself into. That way he can make up his own mind to use restrain. After all, I don't want teach hording. | |
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| No matter how slow things get in the market place, when it comes to marketing and design the big players keep visible. They might decrease distribution but that means target market research goes up to maximize exposure and there is always the artwork and design no matter how small the campaign - whether it be social networking online or otherwise.
I am fortunate to be working with some of the best in the business and that some of the best in the business see me as the *Ka-Ching!* and keep up their marketing plans and value the branding consistency. I am fortunate to be listened to and on the flip side I am even more fortunate to be learning so much from them as well.
This is a good time for me and my clients seem to be doing quite well. I am grateful for this and my heart goes out to those hurt by the downturn.
Share on Facebook Originally published at An unbiased street view with curb appeal. You can comment here or there. | |
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| This is a bad week for Virus / Worms /rogues etc. If you or any of your family use Facebook or MSN Messenger please read the following, it might save you from some grief and save some money.
MSNWorm.FU is a worm that spreads through MSN Messenger. To do so, it opens conversations with the infected user’s contacts and offers them a file as if it were a photo for the contact to accept and consequently become infected. The file is sent together with sentences such as:
“me puedes marcar en esta foto de facebook?” (can you tag me in this facebook photo) “me cerraron mi cuenta por subir esta foto. si esta muy mal?” (they closed my account for loading this photo. Is it that bad?) “viste esta super fiesta de año nuevo?” (check out the New Year party) “toma, esta perfecta esta foto como wallpaper” (here, this photo is perfect as wallpaper)
The file is usually compressed in a .zip file to avoid being detected by the Messenger.
DirDel.A is a worm that reaches computers with a folder icon, to fool users into running it. When run, it does not display any message or open any folder. This malware replaces folders in different directories with a copy of itself. For example, if there is a folder called Example, it creates a copy of itself in the same directory called Example.exe and deletes all the original folders and their content.
This worm spreads by copying itself to all the system drives and shared folders.
P2PShared.AB reaches computers disguised as an email file, with names related to trademarks, such as Ikea.exe. To spread, it copies itself onto the shared files of P2P programs, with names of programs, disks, and so on. For example:
Youtube Music Downloader 1.0.exe
Absolute Video Converter 6.2.exe
FOOTBALL MANAGER 2009.exe
Password Cracker.exe
This worm also spreads via email by sending spam emails with subjects such as You´ve received a Hallmark E-Card, and an attached file called postcard.zip which contains malware. See image here
In addition, this week PandaLabs has informed about a new phishing attack used by Facebook as bait. French users received a message inviting them to view specific content in Facebook. When they did, they were redirected to a fake Facebook page, similar to the original. Any details they entered were sent to cyber-crooks.
More information here:
http://pandalabs.pandasecurity.com/archive/Facebook-Phishing-Site-Targets-French-Users.aspx
You can thank my friend David Anderson at Technically Yours for this information.
Share on Facebook Originally published at An unbiased street view with curb appeal. You can comment here or there. | |
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|  VANCOUVER, B.C. – February 3, 2009 – The first month of 2009 saw a continued reduction in the number of homes listed for sale in Greater Vancouver, while sales volumes in January were the lowest for that month since the early 1980s.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that sales of detached, attached and apartment properties declined 58.1 per cent in January 2009 to 762 from the 1,819 sales recorded in January 2008.
New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties declined 20.9 per cent to 3,700 in January 2009 compared to January 2008, when 4,675 new units were listed. Total active listings in Greater Vancouver currently sit at 13,966, down nearly 6,000 listings from October 2008.
Overall residential benchmark prices, as calculated by the MLSLink Housing Price Index®, declined 10.9 per cent to $489,007 between Januarys 2008 and 2009.
“Home sales and consumer confi dence are at a low point at the moment, but the long-term strength and security of our housing market are beyond the reach of the economic clouds of today,” Dave Watt, REBGV president said.
“Today’s short-term conditions are creating long-term opportunities. Buying opportunities have not been this strong in a decade, with low interest rates, broad selection and more affordable prices,” Watt said.
Sales of detached properties declined 54.4 per cent to 292 from the 641 detached sales recorded during the same period in 2008. The benchmark price for detached properties declined 11.2 per cent to $659,638 in January 2009 compared to $742,490 January 2008.
Sales of apartment properties in January 2009 declined 58 per cent to 361, compared to 860 sales in January 2008. The benchmark price of an apartment property declined 11.6 per cent to $334,602 compared to $378,336 in January 2008.
Attached property sales in January 2009 were down 65.7 per cent to 109, compared with the 318 sales in January 2008. The benchmark price of an attached unit declined 8.1 per cent to $425,309 compared to $462,627 in January 2008.
~ Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver
Share on Facebook Originally published at An unbiased street view with curb appeal. You can comment here or there. | |
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| I do single property websites using Wordpress. They are easy to manage and have many advantages all of which won’t be covered here. If you’re interested in doing this please don’t hesitate to contact me for more information.
Before you start ask yourself why. For some the answer is to offer something more to your client. It can make a client feel like a million bucks and can cost as little as $10 if you’re a DYI type. For others it’s about driving more traffic to the listing causing it to reach higher in search engines which in turn drives traffic to your own regular website. Of course you can have both but one is obviously harder to achieve than the other.
If you’re looking to have great search engine optimization [SEO] then don’t use the property address for the URL. Use a broader term. This way you can use the URL (and site for that matter) over again for a new listing down the road taking advantage of something called residual search traffic. The total numbers of clicks to your site matters. Also, expect it to not look as graphically pleasing as a brochure site that does not drive traffic. The use of Flash galleries and converting text to images so you can use a specific font type is completely the wrong way to go for a SEO site.
It’s still possible to please your client with thier address as a URL like 125LoveleyStreet.com since you can have more than one URL pointed to the the same website. Maybe advertise this one on the sign outfront since the address and the online information should go hand in hand. Don’t market the hell out of this address URL though. You may end up watering down the clicks to the single property website that you want to use continually.
Obviously you will have a link back to your regular site because active external links pointing to your site (among other things) is a great way to push traffic and search engine stats. How many realtors have external links pointing to their site? In the menu bar of your Single Property Website will be the usual “About” and “Contact” links both of which can carry the prospective client back to your real website.
It’s not as hard to put together as one might think. In fact there are a lot of ready made Wordpress Themes specificly designed for this exact use. The Single Property Website is something more you can add to your arsenal of marketing systems offered a prospective listing. I will provide a single page brandable write-up on the subject for use in your Property Evaluation to give to your client.
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