Saline Valley Farms

Saline Valley Farms is a new community located in Saline, MI. About 4 miles S of Saline off Saline_Milan Rd. you will experience all the peace and tranquility you will need. Over 300 ac of natural preserved land with Private Lake Ella and 2 miles of the Saline River running through it.

One of two communities in the area with a private lake and rolling terrain. Lots are available to purchase or you can build your dream home with Mancuso Builders. Model hours are Sat-Sun from 11-5 or anytime by appointment. Stop by and have a cup of coffee and see this gorgeous community. Walk around and enjoy the vista's and the quiet lake. Yes, I have heard there are some pretty big bass in the lake. Excellent for swimming, or skating in the winter months. Get to know you neighbors as you picnic by the water. Have your year end soccer parties near the soon to be finished beach.

Saline Farmers Market Opens Saturday

Saline Farmers Market OPENS Saturday, May 5th
The Saline, MI Farmers Market opens for it's 8th year this Saturday. It is located on South Ann Arbor Street in Parking Lot 4. It opens at 8 a.m. until noon through Oct 27th. As the summer progresses wonderful fruits and vegetables can be found.
Esther Macdonald wil be on hand with her planters and baskets.
Hector DeVulder with annuals adn early vegetables from his family farm.
Jeff Brown will be there with his delicious honey.
Fred Karpo and his famous baked goods and jams.
Susan Capelli brings her hand carved wooden items including he solar garden lighting.
Mike Prochask will bring his herbs, soaps and flowering baskets.
A master gardener from Michigan State will also be on hand to answer any questions about gardening.
Spend a little time visiting all the merchants in Charming Saline, MI

Paying for Leads

I am using the title in response to Jonathan Daltons' blog this morning on " Read My Lips I don't Pay for Leads"
I do pay for leads, it just depends on who I am paying. Since last July I have worked with two technology genuises in Ann Arbor and I have been paying for leads ( by being at the top of the search engines ) in Ann Arbor and surrounding area.
We ( my TEAM ) and I have closed 7 homes and it has more than paid for itself. By Buyer Agents are happy and we are all busy, all of November and December. I have more than paid for the investment.
Currently, I am working with a lead generation company out of Canada and having a custom web site designed that I am hoping will get me to the top of the search engines organically.
I have 900 plus leads in my que that we are following up. It would have taken me infinity and beyond to pick up that many potential buyers from OPEN houses and all the traditional ways of picking up leads.
I believe the success I have had over the years with converting buyers on the internet are two-fold: 1) if they give phone number, call immediately. This is better than a floor call and you connect in much the same way. 2) drip campaigns to stay in touch until they are ready to show their face.
Since 2004, tracking my sales and listings...........76% is referred from past clients, friends, co-workers etc. The other 34% is internet buyers and sellers that I first connected to on line.
I rarely advertise in the newspaper or Homes Magazines. Not one sale in 3 years, but I will continue to put my money where I see results and that is the internet and the leads it brings. On more thing, if I try something a couple of months and it doesn't produce, I drop it. Once I paid HouseValues 700.00 per month for listing leads.........stupid and expensive. Therefore, I'm not saying ALL lead generation systems work, but the ones that do are invaluable.
Jonathan, this was not to offend, just a friendly counter to your article AGAINST leads.

You've been mimmed ???

You've Been Memmed
I received this in my email today.
Greetings! You've just been MEMED on Active Rain!
"WHAT?" you say? Go to this post:
http://activerain.com/blogsview/27305/The-First-ActiveRain-Meme.
and make a comment telling us "What 5 Things You don't Know About Me". OR, put it on your "other blog", but please put a link to it in the comments of the AR Meme Post (link just above here).
Then contact 3 other Active Rainers and meme them!
Just do it. It's fun!
Curious I did it. Basically a chain letter by email. Evidentially is was started by Mary McKnight who is a awesome blogger on this site and others.
The bounteous, beautiful, bubbly, blog goddess Mary McKnight posted today that she'd been "memed".
What the heck is a "meme"? We'll let Mary explain. She's good:
==============I was memed this morning by my friend and competitor, Paul Chaney of Blogging Systems. For those of you that don't know what a meme is: It's a thought stream carried from one person to another, or, to be more precise, a "unit of cultural information transferable from one mind to the other," so says Wikipedia. Basically, it's the blogging equivalent of a chain letter. The cool thing about blogging is that the meme can be tracked. Entire websites are devoted to doing just that. Some memes, however, are deliberate...sort of a social game to build community and engender relationships. (Jay's emphasis)
==============

Stress and the Realtor

The other day my daughter and I were talking, she is a buyer agent on my TEAM and is working on a very difficult transaction. Buyers will low credit, less than forthright lender ( no not one of ours........they couldnt' get them qualified ) on top of that a bank foreclosed home and the listing agent that is handling it ONLY deals with fore-closed properties. They are a large TEAM in the Meto area and to say the least the left hand doesnt' know what the right hand it doing so Christa has faxed umpteen times the purchase agreement and other doc's.
Recently, she was on her computer, turned to me and said, "mom, this is so stressful!" Never mind she is only 26, it was a very difficult transaction.
Here are a couple of suggestions that were suggested in the article:
1) Know what you want personally. I decided 2 years ago, I would not work on foreclosed properties. Long story but it was too frustrating trying to deal with banks when I had good offers on the properties. Now I refer them out to a realtor that is a member of the MI bar and enjoys them. Win/win for us both.
2) Train your clients how you work. This is one of Paul Starner's biggest principals. Paul is a coach in Travers City, Mi that teaches seminars in Michigan. Christa, my daughter took the classes this fall and I have seen her put this into practice. I sure wish I had learned that years ago. She meets withe her buyers and says. " Ok, here is how this is going to work "..........and it does.
3) Control your time and devices. This is good one for me. I am always in front of my computer if I'm not out with clients, it is acceptable to turn off the phone or forward to you assistant. I am getting better, I actually left my phone in the car when I went Christmas shopping but my mind kept wondering the whole time.
4) Systemitize your business. One of the biggest life-savers I found was the drip campaign I use to stay in touch with internet leads.
Has anyone else got idea's on how to enjoy our career with less stress ? I know I have only touched the tip of the iceburg???

Is It FREE ??

I'm puzzled.....what is the VALUE of FREE ?
No I'm not a deep person, just curios what you might think. Here's where I'm coming from. I manage a RE/MAX office in Ann Arbor, and the last office meeting we had in November, I encouraged all the agents to sign up for a Point2Agent web site for FREE. I have been using it as one of my 5 sites for about 2 years. Last year I upgraded to the professional because I wanted to be able to add all my listings to it, not just the 7-8 or allowed on the FREE one.
I am working with a client moving back from California in January from seeing a listing on my http://MissyCaulkTEAM.com Point2Agent site. It will be well worth the small amount I pay for more listing exposure.
Still no one in my office has signed up. Why ??? IT'S FREE !!
I have invited 26 people to join the Active Rain community, only 4 have accepted. Why not ? It's great fun, a new skill, meet lots of people, learning community and is it because it is FREE ?
My assistant for 9 years and I were going to do a training class at the office on Microsoft Outlook as we have been using if for years. How many signed up ? ONE
Now Zillow is going to let us put our listings on Zillow for FREE. hummmmm I wonder how many agents will sign up for that ?
In a slower market, I believe we do anything and everything to get our houses sold, to improve our skills.
Does anyone else have this problem ? Is the value diminished because it is FREE ?

Saline Valley Farms

Recently the Ann Arbor Review handed out it's award for the Year 2006, one I am especially proud of is Saline Valley Farms. Saline Valley Farms was awarded Best New Residential Development. Saline Valley Farms is located in Saline, MI ( where I live ) a thriving community on the South side of Ann Arbor. Only minutes to the charming down-town area of Saline and the new high school. The new high school which opened in 2005 is the largest high school in Michigan for square footage. State of the Art building with ammenities galore.
Saline Valley Farms is surrounded by trees and its own private Lake Ella, for swimming, ice skating, hockey and paddle boating. Each lot maintains the natural integrity of the area with trees and 100's of Ac of natural preserve.
It was developed by Jim Heussler of Peters Building Company and is being built and sold my Mancuso Homes.
Here is a picture I took of the lake this summer and the model home. With over 300 home sites we invite you to come out and see this beautiful new community and appreciate the Award from the Ann Arbor Business Review.

Buyers and Sellers Attitudes

Here is Michigan we have been in the midst of a Buyers Market since 2001. Every year the inventory increased until know we have 8000 single family homes and condo's to sell.
At first the sellers would not accept the market was changing and it was hard...........they still wanted the price their neighbors got the year before. However, the last couple of years they are more realistic. ( Not all but most )
Actually 2 of my houses sold in 4 days, one at full price and one just a couple of thousand under. Why ? They told me to price it to sell, after looking at all the comps we went low end of market value.
I do believe the buyers are right now the hardest to satisfy. Have you ever gone to a really nice jewelry store and the jeweler picks out one at a time each piece and shows it to you ? Once I asked them why they did that and they didn't just take out the whole tray. His comment was, " If I show you everything, you will buy nothing, it decreases the value".
Right now the buyers are like that............they have so much to choose from they choose nothing. Their attitudes are " I think it will come down more", "I think mortgage rates will come down more ". One other thing I hear mostly from other realtors presenting offers to me is " This is their first choice, if they can't get it at the price they want they have 2 others picked out and will negotiate those."
Unfortunately I have seen people walk away over very small amounts of money. My daugher had a buyer like that from out of state. He brought 4 houses in and had decided to go one by one until he got the deal he wanted...........20% under asking price with closing costs and prepaids !
We told him no that is not how we were going to do it. We would write on offer, comp the neighborhood, negotiate strongley and if it didn't work out THEN we would go to the next house. Fortunately we were able to get them in their ( her ) favorite house.
QUESTION:
What is happening in your area? What are you sellers doing? How are the buyers acting?

I'd really like to hear from everyone !