Activerain’s RainCamp in Dallas was RICH with information! Dallas RainCamp offered new information on blogging, technical tools, Twitter, Facebook, Activerain, Google, websites, Zillow,  and lead conversion.  I know that I will be able to incorporate information provided to help me market Houston and Bellaire real estate in new and exciting ways.

Of course, often when you attend events like this you get so excited about all that you’ve heard.  However, you drive or fly back home . . .only to have to go back to work immediately . . .and then you tend to forget so much.  Well, I did something different this time.  I had my hotel room until noon the next day.  So, after our evening networking mixer I went back to the room and studied what I had learned at Dallas RainCamp until 2:00 in the morning.  Then I got up about 8:00 and went  through all the helpful websites that Brad Andersohn presented. I checked out at noon, but continued studying in the hotel lobby until 2:00.  It really made a difference in my retention of the information. The only reason I really stopped was because I was hungry. So I left, ate lunch and headed out on my 4 hour drive back to Houston.  During that time I thought about what the speakers said and emphasized.  I made a plan to incorporate information to use in marketing homes for sale in Houston, Bellaire and a resort I love, Artesian Lakes which is near Cleveland, Texas.

This was a great seminar for me!!

Brad Andersohn shared over 30 FREE websites that will benefit me in marketing and blogging about Houston and Bellaire real estate.

My TOP 10 FREE WEBSITES ( not in any particular order) that I’m going to add to my real estate business are:

1. picnik.com – take any picture. change it’s size, etc.
2. OneTrueMedia.com – mix photos & videos to create something “WOW”
3. FillanyPDF.com – great for online signatures
4. eventbrite.com – publish customised event to website or blog
5. Retagger.com – single real estate source for all your social networking, blogs & websites
6. Freeconferencecall.com – self explanatory
7. AVG.com -anti-virus & spam
8. collecta.com – gets anything from twitter
9. walkscore.com – type in address, it brings up grocery stores, restaurants, parks,etc. Promote listings.
10. wix.com – create custom “Flashy” web pages in minutes

LET ME KNOW WHAT YOUR EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN WITH THESE SITES . . .OR IF IT’S YOUR FIRST TIME TO LOOK AT THESE . . .GIVE ME YOUR OPINION ON HOW THEY CAN BE USED IN THE BEST WAY FOR YOU!!  I look forward to hearing what ya’ll have to say about these technology tools.

If you have a chance, please take the opportunity to attend RainCamp when it’s offered in any city that may be close to you.You can’t help to learn from the experience.  It is information packed!!  I am so thankful that Ben Kinney, Bob Stewart, Brad Andersohn, the great panel and John took their time to share and teach. 

Right now it’s time for me to go  implement some ideas.  I want to do the best I can for my clients and customers when I help them buy real estate in Houston, Bellaire and Artesian Lakes.  It’s another great day!!

As a partner of the Houston real estate team of The Zoller Group of Keller Williams Realty. I thought a would take time to share the following with you.

I attended a meeting this week and the speaker was a real estate investor whose topic concerned how things have gone so far in 2009 and what the trend is for the rest of this year. He makes his living buying and selling real estate and is constantly monitoring statistics which he thinks are real estate related. He had nothing to sell and had no handouts.  All the statistics I will be stating come from my notes. I haven’t verified any of them, but did find them interesting and thought that I would share them.

The Bad News-Nationally the latest unemployment figure was 9.4% and predictions are that it might climb to 10.5%. The latest Houston unemployment figure at the time of the talk was 6.90%, which is worse than predicted at the first of the year. Yesterday I read that this increased to 8.0%.  Through May 2009, the cumulative number of  jobs lost was 56,300, also worse than predicted.  

The Good News for Houston-we’ve gained about 7000 of the jobs back and have a chance to gain most of the remainder back by the end of the year. Major projects which will help gain jobs are the 1.5 billion dollar mass transit project, the 1.4 billion dollar restoration project for the UTMB facility in Galveston, the 98.3 million dollar stimulus money for the Port of Houston and the 40 million dollar stimulus money for the Port of Galveston. There is also a new 14 story medical building nearing completion at the Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center and surprisingly to me, numerous new commercial projects planned throughout Houston.

National Real Estate Trends for single family homes:

For the last 3 months, pending sales have increased. 

 Sales in California, one of the biggest  losers real estate-wise, are double from their worst month.

May 2009  . . . job cuts were the lowest this year

The national home inventory is down to 9.7 months

Consumer sentiment is up for 4 months in a row

The HAI(Housing Affordability Index) is the highest since it became an index in 1971

The latest Durable Goods Index was up 1.8%   after predictions were for a .6% decrease

Houston Real Estate Trends for single family homes:

Home Inventory is 45,282 which is less than last year’s number of 53,305

Days on Market is 6.2 months which is considered a neutral market and is less than last year’s figure of 6.5 months. For those of you who remember the 1980’s in Houston, I believe that this number was about 2 years

May 2009 foreclosures accounted for 19.8 % of sales down from a high of 34% in January2009

Although new home sales are down 60% in Houston, we are still #1 in the nation.

The Brookings Institute has Houston as the major market least affected by the economy and ranked #5 in the “Market Expected to Rise” category.

Big Picture:

I bet that most people think that it is a strong buyers market, but the figures don’t support that. I know that some neighborhoods are worse than others, but overall it could be a lot worse.

The latest population prediction that I remember was 5.7 million in 2008 for Houston and vicinity . . . increasing to 11.7 million in 2040.  Can you imagine?!?!  If true, they gotta’  live somewhere.

If you have any information to add to this or want to discuss anything concerning this blog, please let me know.

This article was written July, 2009 by Guest Writer, JIM ZOLLER.

Texas is Growing

Recently the Forbes.com website reported the top states in our nation to experience an inbound population growth. The Lone Star state was recognized in the top three in growth. From 2000 to 2008, Texas’ population increased by a whopping 16.7%. Many of those individuals and families who moved to Houston. during that time span can be attributed (from our perspective) to Job growth here in Houston in the fields of energy and health care. See my previous post on this topic.

Read the rest of this entry

Topics in The Zoller Group’s monthly real estate newsletter for August, 2008, include:

• Mortgage Rate Locks Become Crucial
• Current Mortgage Rates
• What’s Hot & What’s Not in Bathroom Redesign
• Credit Scores Remain Misunderstood
• Man’s Best Friend May Be Costly When Selling
• Local Market Conditions

Please click here to read these and many other informative real estate related articles.

We would appreciate it if you would contact us and let us know if this information is helpful to you.

My new GoDaddy representative called me yesterday morning and asked “Did you intentionally make the decision to not renew your domain names?”.

This question really got my adrenaline charging.  I hesitated on my response with a very sick feeling in my stomach . . . please don’t tell me they have expired . . . I worked so hard to get them.  How can I sell real estate in Houston, Texas without those domain names?  I finally answered, “Oh nooooooooooo . . .they can’t have expired.  I need them.  I worked too hard to find those names.”

The representative quickly calmed me down and told me that I had 4 more days before they expired.  I was so relieved. I renewed them for a couple more years.

I never thought to put the expiration date for my domain names on my calender.  I will from now on.  I can’t expect people to call me every time something that important is due.

HAVE YOU KEPT UP WITH YOUR DOMAIN NAMES???????

Meg and Jim Zoller – The Zoller Group of Keller Williams Realty, The Metropolitan

Please view our website, http://www.finehomeshouston.com/ . Also, feel free to contact us at:

Direct: 713-661-0884

Toll Free: 800-808-6153

E-mail: Meg@FineHomesHouston.com or Jim@FineHomesHouston.com

Cells: Meg – 713-875-4844 Jim – 713-545-6338

Yesterday a friend of mine told me that Daylight Savings Time was initiated due to the fact that farmers needed the extra daylight.  I thought that was quite strange. 

My grandfather and his parents were farmers in Nebraska.  The farm is still in the family.  I don’t believe that  they ever worried about what a clock told them when it came to farming.  I remember my grandfather being up and out doing chores long before breakfast and late into the night.  He came in to eat breakfast, dinner and supper . . .after working before and after each meal.  The work never seemed to be done.  I think he could have cared less about Daylight Savings Time.

Therefore, I started researching the origin.  There is a tremendous amount of history concerning Daylight Savings Time  in the United States that I knew very little about until I started researching it yesterday.  I was amazed at the history and found it to be quite interesting.  One of the sources I discovered is one that I will share with you if you have any interest in the origin and history of Daylight Savings Time . . . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time .  It was very informative and had a list of many other sources for information. 

I enjoy more sun filled hours during the day so that I may sell Houston, Texas  residential homes.  It seems to give me more time with homes buyers and home sellers.

Now I’ll get back to the whole point of this post . . .

Sunday, March 9, 2008 you need to remember to turn your clock ahead by one hour for Daylight Savings Time!!  You can always remember which way to move the clock by the saying “Spring Forward and Fall Back”.

Meg and Jim Zoller – The Zoller Group of Keller Williams Realty, The Metropolitan

Please view our website, http://www.finehomeshouston.com/ . Also, feel free to contact us at:

Direct: 713-661-0884

Toll Free: 800-808-6153

E-mail: Meg@FineHomesHouston.com or Jim@FineHomesHouston.com

Cells: Meg – 713-875-4844 Jim – 713-545-6338

This week my new GoDaddy representative called and asked “Did you intentionally make the decision to NOT renew your domain names?”.

This question really got my adrenaline charging.  I hesitated on my response with a very sick feeling in my stomach . . . please don’t tell me they have expired . . . I worked so hard to get them.  How can I sell real estate in Houston, Texas without those domain names?  I finally answered, “Oh nooooooooooo . . .they can’t have expired.  I need them.  I worked too hard to find those names.”

The representative quickly calmed me down and told me that I had 4 more days before they expired.  I was so relieved. I renewed them for a couple more years.

I never thought to put the expiration date for my domain names on my calender.  I will from now on.  I can’t expect people to call me every time something that important is due.

One of my blogger buddies told me that I can ask my GoDaddy representative call me a couple months before they expire so I know the renewal is coming up.  I had actually thought that’s what they were supposed to do this time.  I guess I just need to stay on top of the matter myself.

HAVE YOU KEPT UP WITH YOUR DOMAIN NAMES???????

Meg and Jim Zoller – The Zoller Group of Keller Williams Realty, The Metropolitan

Please view our website, http://www.finehomeshouston.com/ . Also, feel free to contact us at:

Direct: 713-661-0884

Toll Free: 800-808-6153

E-mail: Meg@FineHomesHouston.com or Jim@FineHomesHouston.com

Cells: Meg – 713-875-4844 Jim – 713-545-6338