April 1st, 2009 at 4:26pm | Author: Deven Spear
I have to admit… I can sometimes join the crowd of pessimistic naysayers that revel in how bad the economy is today and how hopeless it looks for the future. Unfortunately, that attitude causes us to completely overlook the blooming buds of optimism that appear during the Spring of Recession.
Here’s just a few of them from the past week (click on any for the full article)!
Like Kasey Casem said; “keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars” (no idea why that popped in my head).
March 30th, 2009 at 6:41pm | Author: Deven Spear
A “slightly modified” version of a Scott Adams classic….
March 24th, 2009 at 4:04pm | Author: Deven Spear
As we have predicted for months, there’s a new array of mobile applications streaming into the marketplace and many can be modified for real estate buyers.
Looks like Apple will have an advantage! (and I use a Blackberry Bold).
The iPhone now accounts for 50 percent of mobile Web traffic from smartphones in the U.S., according to an AdMob Mobile Metrics report released this morning. Over the past six months, the iPhone has taken share from Blackberry and Windows Mobile. In August 2008, the iPhone made up only 10 percent of mobile Web traffic from smartphones. During the same time, Blackberry’s share has gone from 32 percent to 21 percent (with the Curve and the Pearl coming in stronger than the Storm), while Windows Mobile has taken an even bigger hit, declining from 30 percent to 13 percent. Palm is also down to 7 percent from 19 percent six months ago. <from www.techcrunch.com>
March 13th, 2009 at 7:40am | Author: Deven Spear
Every month I update our Venture Capital partners with a “pulse” of what we hear happening in the real estate development community. I thought it would be fun to post these findings on the Blog for discussion. Nothing scientific – just honest feedback from a smart group of insiders.
- Increasing anxiety about prolonged economic turmoil (domestic and global)
- With staff reductions, new spending hard to justify
- Increased pursuit of any and all types of “efficiencies”
- Financing hurdles for those that do want to buy
- Growing operational limitations imposed by lenders and owner/investors
- Near abandonment of print advertising, collateral and media
- Chapter 7 vs. chapter 11
- Interested prospects want completed communities (no renderings)
- Recognizing need for exceptional service and experience for every single on-site prospect
- Retail buyers are looking for foreclosures, short sales or a “steal”
- Leadership is learning to sell because all sales people have quit or been fired
- Watching for signs of positive consumer confidence
- Progressively more dependent on web-based databases and lead generating tools
- Interested prospects have low levels of interest in home sites
- Research is leading to a fractional explosion over the next 5 years
- Flush developers and lenders (and there are many) have the opportunity/opportunities of a lifetime
- Best location, best product and best price still wins!
Special thanks to these folks for their contribution this month: Linton West, Jason Weaver, Harry Redfearn, Terry Tolbert, Ranie Good, Chris Hill, Jami Mullikin, Terry Weaver, Gary Harmon, Judith She’, David Pisano, Mike Notartomaso, Burt Baine, Johnny Ussery
March 6th, 2009 at 3:00pm | Author: Michael Worthington
BrightDoor recently conducted a brief industry profile of colleagues and customers, polling them on topics such as the most effective lead generation initiatives, the best inbound lead sources, and greatest organizational challenges. In many cases, we weren’t surprised by the feedback. However, there were some trends that we wouldn’t have anticipated. Our 2009 Online Market Survey Report will be generally available on Brightdoor.com very soon.
As our friend Terry Weaver likes to say, “If none of us hold back…All of us can move forward.” In the spirit of that notion, we’d like for you to sound off on any of these real estate sales & marketing topics:
- What source of inbound leads are most effective today?
- What lead generation efforts are you investing in this year?
- What ineffective sales and marketing programs are you eliminating?
- How are you keeping your sales team(s) engaged and motivated?
- What are you doing to ensure future success?
Join the conversation. Click the “Comments” link below and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from you.
