Something I have been looking for for some time is a good map of the Rivanna Trail, a walking/biking trail around and through the City of Charlottesville. Finally, I stumbled upon this map today. I picked up several maps to give to clients.
Date Archives July 2007
A logo for RealCentralVA.com
After donating money to Todd’s attempt to be released from “jail,” and receiving a t-shirt as thanks, I figured now was as good a time as any to have a logo for RealCentralVA.com. I contracted with F5 Designs via Elance for a logo. I filled out their questionnaire and this is the result -When I asked them what it meant, this was the response, one with which I am pretty satisfied:From what we saw in your site, we related the connected arrows with Market connections and communications. As a central point for meeting and sharing information….What do you think?
Just a note on subscribing to RealCentralVA via email
I have noticed in the past couple of days that some of the newer subscribers do not seem to be verifying their subscriptions…. – First, you have to click on the subscribe link and enter your email address. – Next, you have to check your email (possibly the spam folder) and verify that you do indeed want to subscribe. Once you do this, you will receive updates when new stories are written.Hopefully soon Feedburner will allow me to adjust the frequency of emails – for example, when I write three stories, then you get an email.
What does a franchise bring to the table?
As the real estate industry evolves, and the need for “big” real estate companies is lessened, what benefits does a franchise bring to the table?Perceived credibility – I have had clients say that they picked my Century 21 because they sold a house once with Century 21…. Stumbling on a conversation in the office about whether it seems more buyers are electing to have radon tests, or if there are any people having home inspectors, or did a home inspector/attorney/Realtor do something recently that was good/bad is much harder and often times, much more valuable.Technology – This is a dubious argument, as it seems very few franchises really innovate…. Any individual agent with the right motivation (and funding) can set up the necessary infrastructure to provide extraordinary customer/client service.Reputation – as an individual agent working in a small franchise in a relatively small market, I have far more control over my reputation than if I worked in a larger company/franchise…. Within a smaller company, there is more accountability to your fellow agents as generally, you know everybody else.Autonomy – smaller companies aren’t tied to an unwieldy corporate culture.
Blog Tour USA in Charlottesville!
We had some great conversations – enough to support several forthcoming blog posts.Their video camera rarely off, we went to the Downtown Mall, saw the Pavilion, the Paramount the Free Speech Wall and interviewed representatives from two very different new construction companies – Ryan Homes, a traditional production builder of many, many homes and townhomes who have had a presence in the area for nearly two years…. On the other end of the Mall we stopped into the sales center for the Woodlands of Charlottesville, who take a very different, grass-roots plus, approach to marketing…. Both Ryan and Woodlands folks graciously spoke for about thirty minutes each to Joe and Rudy – not a bad response to a couple of guys walking down the mall with a video camera!My only regrets?… Ah well, next time?Perhaps most impressive about their tour is not their fortitude, patience and persistence, but that there are enough real estate bloggers to even support such an effort!
kijiji in Cville
If Charlottesville hasn’t yet “gotten” craigslist, how long will it take for them to “get” kijiji? From a real estate marketing perspective, how long for vFlyer and Postlets to add kijiji to their distribution?
New subscription plugin
Thanks to Seth, I just installed this plugin that serves to passively and non-intrustively publicize my RSS feed and Email Alerts.