Are you thinking about doing more volunteer work, helping the needy in your community, but not sure where to turn? Here’s a website that identifies both short-term and long-term volunteer opportunities. Go to www.VolunteerMatch.org.

Last month Bernice Ross, a Realtor and one of Inman.com’s best columnists, declared that Micromarketing is the hot real estate marketing trend for 2012. Ms. Ross described micromarketing as “old-fashioned farming with a 21^st Century twist.”

Micromarketing means marketing to an area where the residents’ demographics, lifestyle, and recreational pursuits match your own interests and expertise. Perhaps you target residences around a large recreational lake where people buy second homes or retire. This appeals to you because you are an agent who a. lives on the lake and b. owns a boat and likes to fish.

Ms. Ross uses AustinLakefrontProperties.com as an example of a micromarketing website, as opposed to a more common and generic URL like www.Realtorsname.com. You should also use micromarketing to enhance Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and promote your social media efforts.

Ms. Ross reports that “agents who are having the best luck with this approach have integrated their print marketing efforts with their online marketing efforts.”

If micromarketing intrigues you, consider using Homes & Land’s Integrated Marketing Package. Your Homes & Land Publisher can help you reach a micromarket using direct mail. A Homes & Land ad is also a great place to promote your Facebook page and blog. In addition, we feature QR codes that link to a video promoting your micromarket.

With the Homes & Land package you receive a website that can be branded as a micromarket (e.g., AustinLakeFrontProperties.com). You can also backlink your Homes & Land site to your current website for enhanced SEO.

As usual, Homes & Land is ahead of the marketing curve.

When you are marketing what to most Americans is their biggest financial asset, you need to do it right. Columnist Phoebe Chongchua explains how great photography can help you sell homes. http://bit.ly/wcRTJs

Credit reporting companies are starting to include payment histories in credit scores – which may help first-time homebuyers who have not established credit through traditional sources. It may also help consumers who have lost homes to foreclosure rebuild their credit.

These days, everyone can use a little help boosting their credit score so
share this article with your clients and prospects.

These days the kitchen seems to be the most talked about room in the house. Also, the room most closely examined by home buyers. However, fixing up your kitchen can be extremely expensive. Columnist Phoebe Chongchua offers guidance on how you can makeover your kitchen without breaking the bank.  http://bit.ly/u228mA

Buyers still rely on the expertise and experience of real estate professionals to find the right home, negotiate price and assist with the transaction process. Sellers are using agents more too. The Profile found that FSBOs accounted for only 10% of sales – and only 6% when you factor in sales between friends/family.

Graph from AGBeat.com

• Buyer activity may appear to slow down, those who are actively looking during the holidays are that much more serious.
• Many buyers deliberately choose to shop for a home after the busy spring and summer rush. They know that it will be easier to look, and that negotiations will be less stressful.
• Relocating families often don’t have a choice in when they can leave for their new destination and can be that much more motivated to get settled in before school resumes.
• With reduced inventories and motivated buyers, you may find that you have more showings than you would if your marketed your home during a busier time of the year.

“The holidays are my best-selling period,” says Ling. “Most people take off work sometime during the season. So buyers have more time, and they can look at homes together.”

“The market is no more affected at Christmas than during other ‘busy’ periods like spring weddings, summer vacations, and autumn back-to-school activities,” Ling added. “Plus, when is a home ever more beautiful and inviting? Home owners have cleaned and decorated for family and friends, so homes will surely be good enough to impress buyers.”

And if the thought of having to move during the holidays discourages your sellers, Ling recommends including that in the contract negotiation: “Most people can close 30 to 60 days after a contract is written, so there is plenty of time. Possession and closings are very negotiable.”

RealtyTimes article

Below is a funny, light-hearted look at the First Thanksgiving story and how marketing could have made it all happen.
Happy Thanksgiving!

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How Advertising Saved Thanksgiving
by Rob Wicker

As the Thanksgiving Story is traditionally told, the Pilgrims in Massachusetts would have starved to death except for the help of the Native-Americans. The Pilgrims were so grateful that they invited the Native-Americans over for a big spread. The Pilgrims planned to have turkey, dressing, squash casserole, yams, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie with Cool Whip. What is interesting, however, is that the Native-Americans initially didn’t want to have lunch with the Pilgrims. 

Why not, you ask yourself? Well the Native-Americans had watched the Pilgrims stumble around for at least a year. They considered the Pilgrims to be a bunch of knuckleheads.  For one thing, there were those clothes. The Pilgrims wore large, steeple-top hats that bumped against tree branches in the woods. Baggy black garments with gaudy white trim. And worst of all, funny square-toed shoes with silver buckles that got caught in the underbrush when the Pilgrims foraged for food. 

In addition, the Pilgrims carried a rifle called a Blunderbuss. Who carries a loaded weapon named “blunder”? 

Finally, the Pilgrims weren’t exactly tops in the Fun Department. Have you seen the pictures? The only thing rarer than a smiling Pilgrim is a laughing Pilgrim. There’s no “Pilgrim Section” in books about American humor. The Pilgrims were a bunch of stiffs. 

In fact, that’s why the Pilgrims really wanted the Native-Americans to come to lunch. They were sick of each other! Think about it, the long boat trip on the Mayflower, nearly starving to death in the New World, nothing to talk about except how hungry they were—and no jokes. The Pilgrims were about ready to point those Blunderbusses at each other. They needed some company. 

But the Native-Americans weren’t having any of it. They politely declined the Pilgrims’ invitation. They told the Pilgrims that they’d be out of town, visiting relatives on Cape Cod.   

This is when the Pilgrims got clever. Sketching is one thing the Pilgrims were good at. It’s how they passed the time crossing the Atlantic. The Pilgrims sketched and colored fat roasted turkeys with all of the trimmings, squash casseroles, and cranberries not from the can. The drawings are so good that Butterball still uses some of them in their ads. The Pilgrims also showed the Native-Americans pictures of at least fifteen desserts, all with Cool Whip. Legend has it that one of the drawings even included a Pilgrim woman exposing a little ankle below her black dress. 

The Pilgrims were basically advertising Thanksgiving! Boy, did they get a response. After seeing these drawings, the Native-Americans announced that their Cape Cod relatives had suddenly come down with whooping cough. The Native-Americans would be in Plymouth that Thursday, and they’d be delighted to come for lunch. 

The rest, as you know, is History.
Happy Thanksgiving!

The Wall Street Journal reports that Internet home value services like on Zillow and Trulia can be 20% to 50% higher or lower than eventual sales prices. And since these online services have gained in popularity, consumers have used the estimates as factual basis for accepting offers, refinancing and remodeling decisions. Which hasn’t always worked in their favor.

The sites make estimates based on algorithms and collected data, but as WSJ contributor Alyssa Abkowitz reports, that doesn’t ensure accuracy:

“Appraisers and real-estate consultants say the online models can veer off target with alarming frequency. Most data for the models come from two sources: records from tax assessors and listing data for recent sales. Collection is a challenge, however, because not every county tracks properties the same way—some calculate home size by number of bedrooms, others by overall square footage. And automated models aren’t designed to account for the unique construction details that often make or break a deal, or for intangible factors like a neighborhood’s gentrification.”

Read the full article here.

HomesAndLand.com also has a home valuation tool, which advises consumers that it is not an actual appraisal and states: “Determining the most accurate home prices is best left up to a real estate professional.”

We all go to networking events. They’re fun, and they can also be a great way to find new prospects. Bestselling author Jeffrey Gitomer offers these 11.5 ways to make more connections at your next networking event. http://bit.ly/nPOmpW