Real estate has gone through many changes during the last 30 years. In “Back to the Future … a time travel through real estate”, Connect2Agent member Steve Osmar led a time travel voyage from handshakes to Internet-powered real estate deals. Osmar dished about real estate times past, when real estate systems were starting to evolve and documents for real estate resembled handshake-type deals.

Fast forward to the Internet-empowered consumer and the present. The iron curtain has been lifted and real estate information is flooding homes across America. Home buyers - 8 out of every 10 - are researching the heck out of listings, communities, schools and house values. They crave real estate knowlege and e-commerce is quick to dish it up.

What will the future hold for real estate? I spoke with Connect2Agent member Deborah Rubley, who sells real estate in Austin Texas, and she was willing to give a preview on the future of real estate. (more…)

You’ve found your dream house and the next few days ’til your appointment, you are pumped up with anticipation. Showing day comes - yahoo! You jump into your car and drive to meet your real estate destiny. Traffic cooperates and everything is zipping right along until you pull up to the curb.

Uh-oh, what is this? The house looks much smaller, the driveway is narrow with big cracks running through the now-gray asphalt, the greenish-brown lawn’s decorative border is weaved with the yellow heads of dandelions and other hearty weeds.

What the ____? The pictures didn’t look like that online. How did this happen? Let’s rewind. (more…)

Selling your house can make you feel a little loco. There are many things that can happen during the course of a day in the life of a real estate listing–last minute showings, lowball offers, home inspection wish lists …

How does a real estate seller survive the time from just listed to sold? Here are five stress busters for real estate sellers:

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What is in store for real estate listing data in the future? On Zillow, you can get an estimate of value for a house, vote between competing room designs and even see how much money would tempt homeowners to sell their houses. 

How can you get a sense of what a house is really like to live in?

If I were to consider a cross-country move right now, I would want to know as much as I could from the local folk who live there. From the neighbors right down to the shop owners, I’d want to get the inside scoop. These are opinions real estate agents can’t give me. This is what progressive real estate search should be.

I want the inside story. If you have relocated before, you know what I mean.

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How do you make a "to-do" list that keeps you on task? Are you still writing in an agenda book or day planner? Do you use a Blackberry or other smart phone to sync your Outlook tasks, so you can connect to them while mobile? Is it working?

I know how busy life can be. Managing a career, a family and a personal schedule can feel like building an intricate pyramid. Each layer of tasks is interdependent but independent. One slip in the carefully built layers of plans can have a domino effect on the rest of your tasks. 

It’s like getting up and stubbing your toe in the morning. If you let it, the day will just continue to snowball from the get-go.

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If you enjoy walking, then check out this website that calculates the "walkability" of a city. Walk Score measures how easy it is to get around town by walking. It doesn’t weigh the most scenic walks in an area, but it does let you know if you can conveniently get to the grocery store or restaurants on foot.

My walking history

Walking. I used to do it all the time when I was a kid. I would walk to my friend’s house rather than have my parents drive me. I would walk to the convenience store in our rural downtown to get the latest pre-teen heartthrob magazine and a slushie.

Walking was fun, and a primary mode of transportation.

Enter high school and my teenage years. It sooo wasn’t cool to have anyone catch me walking. 

That would have scarred me for a week. My first choice would be to ride in a friend’s car to wherever we needed to go. My last choice would be to have my parents drive and park far down the street from my destination, where spectators couldn’t see me getting dropped off. Then I would get out of the car and walk the rest of the way.

Teenager plus walking equals one sour mix.

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As spring starts picking up some real estate markets across the United States, we thought it would be important to address the rights of real estate sellers. Did you know there is a homeowner’s constitution so that when you sell your house, your rights are fundamentally protected from overly aggressive real estate agents and low-balling real estate buyers? 

Here are the 5 fundamental rights of real estate sellers:

1. The right to multiple services. When you hire a real estate agent, you are not just hiring a local real estate expert. You are hiring a housekeeper, a dog walker, a grounds keeper and an interior decorator all wrapped up into the package commonly known as a REALTOR. If you do not receive all of these services and more, consider your rights as a real estate seller to have been violated.

2. The right to keep your house in chaotic disorder. Have you ever heard the myth that your house should be in pristine, clean, builder-ready shape when you put it on the real estate market to sell? Forget that. Who has time to keep up with real estate showings and messy handprints that grace your white walls? Certainly not a motivated real estate seller. Leave your house and its finer points alone. No worries, real estate buyers will easily be able to envision themselves in your house with your dirty laundry.  This is your right as a real estate seller. 

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Every industry has branding prejudice. Construction workers are dolts, people in tech support are all geeks, all marketers are liars. You get my point.

Then you cross a barrier–in church, a store or meeting a parent for your child’s playdate–and you find that your experiences have been limited to a certain point. You come to this conclusion because your preconceived barrier gets knocked down as you meet the person as an individual, and not a worker, techie or advertiser. Heck, you may even get to like the person and find more in common than you might think.

When Connect2Agent was established in 2002, President Lee Greve wanted real estate buyers and sellers to make an educated decision on the real estate agents they chose to interview. To do this, he established Connect2Agent as the matchmaking site for real estate buyers and sellers. 

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There have been many choices in the real estate market in the past year or two for home buyers that weren’t available in the past. Have you been able to snatch a housing gem; a diamond in the rough that you wouldn’t have been able to purchase a few years ago? Connect2Agent wants to know about your housing find.

There is a magazine that has been capturing my attention these days. It is called FOUND by Davy Rothbart. It is a collection of notes, photos, stories, postcards and objects that people have found from others who have lost, thrown away or forgotten these objects. Reading about these findings has been an evening enjoyment of mine.

Some of the findings are truly bizarre, while others are sentimental and should be with their owner. There are stories of some of these findings where the owner and the object are reunited by someone who cared enough to make the effort to connect the two. 

Similarly, there are foreclosures and bank-owned properties that are available in markets throughout the country. These were people’s dreams and are now ready and available to become someone else’s dream. There are houses that would make great second homes, vacation homes or first-time buyer homes readily available in many real estate markets throughout the country.

Are you a buyer who has found one of these treasures and has snapped it up quickly? How has your purchase enhanced your life? Connect2Agent wants to know about your real estate finding. Please share your story by commenting below.

Posted by Rebecca D. Levinson

What makes your house a home? 

Is it a home because you live in a brand new house, decked to the nines with all of the latest gadgets and upgrades?  Is it because you have formed great relationships with your neighbors and consider them to be an extended family?

I was pondering these questions as I am thinking about what I am grateful for this holiday season.  I am first and foremost grateful for my children, my health, the lifestyle that I live. 

I am also grateful to live in the neighborhood I do.  While I wouldn’t go so far as to give a kidney to my neighbors should they need one, I am blessed to live in a neighborhood where people look out for each other. 

If I am behind in yard work, I have a neighbor who will blow my leaves if she is out working on her yard.  When my kids get off the bus from school I know that their short walk to get home is guided by the caring eyes of neighbors seeing their safe harbor along the way.  If I need a cup of sugar or am just looking for some friendly conversation, I know I can go a few doors down and find it.

I can’t put a price tag on the comfort and security this adds to my life.

The neighborhood I live in now reminds me of my childhood days.  My family lived in upstate New York in an old 1800’s colonial summer estate.  In this house, every room had a history and a story.  When we moved in we added to the house’s history with our traditions and family experiences.  I believe this house had a soul.

My family now lives in Walworth County, Wisconsin.  We haven’t lived in New York for nearly two decades, yet the friendships that my family made from our old neighborhood in New York are still alive today.  The stories from our childhood years in New York are retold to my children, usually during the holidays.  The house and neighborhood in New York will be with us always.

So what makes your house a home?  If you are looking to purchase a house now, what kinds of things are you looking for that will provide you with lifelong memories?  And one word of advice, if you do find that house, grab it.  It will provide you with a lifetime full of memories.

Posted by Rebecca D. Levinson