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Real estate wake-up call

By Kris Berg, Wednesday, January 7, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/laffy4k/367822192/" target=blank>laffy4k</a>.

"Make money while you sleep!" promised the nice spammy-man in my inbox this morning. Not only can I make money in my sleep, it seems, but I can also be socking it away in the old retirement account while I'm on vacation or even out shopping. Except, he's wrong. That was 2003.

Ah, 2003 -- and 2004, and 2005. Those were the wonderful "tweens." Back in the glory days, taking a listing triggered a very predictable chain of events. more...

Resolving the resolutions dilemma

By Kris Berg, Monday, January 5, 2009.

Flickr image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/34409164@N06/3208609896">castielli</a>.

This time of year it seems that resolutions are all the rage. Everyone is doing it, and even if you find yourself feeling that not much in your life truly needs resolving, the peer pressure is enormous. No one wants to be the one loser in the neighborhood without a fatal flaw and a plan to fix it. more...

Vacation? I'm working on it

By Kris Berg, Friday, December 26, 2008.

Flickr photo by <a href=http://flickr.com/photos/officenow/2631530678/ target=blank>Office Now</a>.

It was vacation minus one, and as I navigated between the nine homes on our home tour this day, I tried to field the "What are you doing for the holidays?" question. This is where I found myself explaining the realities of a glamorous real estate career to my clients with real jobs. "Well, we sort of take the week off. We pack stuff, and we drive away with it to someplace else. But, don't worry! I will have my laptop and my cell phone and will be checking my e-mail. You won't even know I'm gone."

And that's the problem. more...

A season for giving good service

By Kris Berg, Wednesday, December 17, 2008.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/ohmeaghan/2259897703/" target=blank>ohmeaghan</a>.

'Tis the season to be a customer. As one who spends 25 hours a day during much of the rest of the year in the role of service provider, I find December to be a study abroad course of sorts. We can learn so much from our own experiences when the roles are reversed that is transferable to our own businesses. We can also better understand our customers by watching the consumers around us.

Maybe it's just me, but I have noticed a different vibe on the shopping front this year. more...

Extending the agent shelf life

By Kris Berg, Wednesday, December 10, 2008.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/iboy_daniel/92313158/" target=blank>iboy_daniel</a>.

Thanksgiving at our house is known as the day of the home-cooked meal. In preparation for this year's holiday, I was clearing the pantry -- or as we like to call it, the "black hole of mystery." I vaguely recall having undergone this ritual in the past, but my most recent survey of our unused things of food origin reminded me that it may have been awhile. more...

Taking a SWAT at the cold call

By Kris Berg, Wednesday, December 3, 2008.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/markhillary/964441032/" target=blank>markhillary</a>.

Have we not learned anything?

Our industry is a little under the weather lately, and a whole lot of agents are in some serious pain. I'm reminded of the old joke where a man says, "Doc, it hurts when I do this." The doctor's obvious reply is, "So, don't do that."

Sometimes the answer is just that simple. If it hurts to do something, don't do it anymore. Do something else. more...

Making real estate 'guacamole'

By Kris Berg, Monday, December 1, 2008.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/375423476/" target=blank>avlxyz</a>.

I was once showing a home that boasted numerous fruit trees in the backyard. "Look!" I said to my clients, pointing to the avocados. "A guacamole tree!"

Then, I gleefully called their attention to a lime-bearing specimen. "A margarita tree!" This is when the wife laughed, "Isn't it funny how Kris only sees trees for their end product?"

Actually, it's good business. I have a vision. more...

Real estate social media on autopilot

By Kris Berg, Wednesday, November 19, 2008.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/devnull/194923942/" target=blank>dev null</a>

I may be in over my head. It occurred to me today that no one is driving my social media bus.

It started yesterday when I received a Twitter message. The advanced users call these "tweets," but I am having a really hard time using the term seamlessly and straight-faced in a sentence. My children are already in therapy over my Facebook page; to start talking about "tweets" and "twits" in public and at my age would put them over the edge. more...

Prices and pizza, bowl and bush

By Kris Berg, Wednesday, November 12, 2008.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/thepizzareview/2481188831/" target=blank>The Pizza Review</a>.

Buyers seem to be out in force lately, which has again thrust my husband and me into warp-speed search-and-show mode. We are mostly focusing on the search part. Inventory remains low in our area, and with more than a half-dozen buyers with their fingers on the trigger, we have reached that idling stage with each. Having exhausted and eliminated all of the current offerings, our clients are waiting for new blood, and it is up to us to find it.

So, as I was scouring the MLS for some unturned stone this week, I came across another one of those listings. "Unbelievable," I giggled. "What's unbelievable?" Steve asked. "They took a picture of the toilet." more...

'Joe' the real estate agent

By Kris Berg, Wednesday, November 5, 2008.

Flickr image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/31533773@N02/2951684435/" target=blank>webradius</a>.

As you read this today, Nov. 5, there is only one topic being discussed around the water cooler. The subject is so timely and historic, that to write about anything else this morning would be irresponsible. I'm talking, of course, about the challenges facing today's real estate agent.

OK, the big talk today is something about a new president. Unfortunately, as I pen this, "today" is actually sometime last week. Even though you know who our next president is (unless, of course, Florida is showing reruns), I do not. more...

Make your own luck

By Kris Berg, Tuesday, October 28, 2008.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/60058591@N00/577718005/" target=blank>Lara604</a>.

I was leaving a restaurant with my husband and youngest daughter when Steve spotted a coin on the ground. "Look, Emily, a lucky penny!" he shrieked. As my daughter bent down to reach for it, I countered with my own shriek, "No! It's tails!" You see, being enlightened and well-studied in the rules of lucky pennies, I knew that they are lucky only if they are resting heads up. Trust me; it's been studied. My husband, on the other hand, is less educated in this regard. One could argue he needs to get out more.

My daughter didn't miss a beat, however. She proceeded to grasp the copper prize (OK, mostly zinc, but you get the point) and flip it over, returning it to its place on the sidewalk. more...

Big brokerage model is 'on the roof'

By Kris Berg, Tuesday, October 21, 2008.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/28481088@N00/" target=blank>tanakawho</a>.

Whenever my husband and I see one of those telltale signs of trouble, we fall back on an old joke. "The cat is on the roof," we say. I don't remember where I first heard it, and it has many variations, but it goes something like this.

A man is away on vacation, and his brother has been house-sitting for him. When he calls home to check on things, the brother says, "Your cat died."

"What?" the man replies in shock.

"Yep. Dead. Bummer." more...

The pastime of part-time real estate

By Kris Berg, Tuesday, October 14, 2008.

This week, I was presented with one more bit of evidence that our industry, my career, is like none other. It's unique in a lot of good ways, yet some not so good.

In response to my rhetorical yet obligatory how-was-your-day query, my 16-year-old tax deduction shared how a woman had happened to sit in on her high school drama class this particular afternoon. My logical and immediate response was, "Why?" According to my own thespian-wannabe, the woman, a fan of the arts, was there to take notes. more...

Working magic in dark times

By Kris Berg, Tuesday, October 7, 2008.

I have been thinking a lot about marketing lately. Fewer homes for sale and fewer buyers have made our competitive business even more so.

We used to say, "There is enough business for everybody." We didn't really mean everybody, of course. What we meant was every licensed real estate agent. But now that everybody is seemingly licensed, everybody really is everybody, and there just aren't enough buyers and sellers to feed the hungry agent population. Marketing ourselves to make a distinction is becoming more important than ever. more...

Write what you know

By Kris Berg, Tuesday, September 30, 2008.

My writing tends to have a read-between-the-lines style. Many get it, and I was reminded recently that some don't. So today I will be as clear as a San Diego/Santa Ana day. This is about journalism and its many flavors, be it citizen blogger or professionally trained student of the medium. It is about authority and responsibility, and about how the two don't always coexist.

more...

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