Keller Williams: Number One for Home Buyer Satisfaction!

J.D. Powers and Associates commissioned a benchmark study that "measures customer satisfaction of home buyers and sellers with the largest national real estate firms." Keller Williams ranks Number One is satisfaction for Home Buyers while Prudential earned that title for sellers. (Click here for the press release.)

“When buying a home, customers particularly appreciate agent professionalism, responsiveness to calls and e-mails and the agent’s skill in locating and showing properties in the appropriate price range—all areas in which Keller Williams excels,” said Jim Howland, senior director of the real estate and construction practice at J.D. Power and Associates.

The study also found that:

• Nearly one-half of respondents (46%) report using recommendations from family or friends to find their real estate agent. Approximately 28 percent used the Internet, while 23 percent used an agent they had used previously and 11 percent used a printed real estate guide.
  
• On average, home buyers were shown approximately 13 homes before making a purchase.
  
• Home sellers report that, on average, their home was shown approximately 11 times and approximately five open houses were conducted before the sale occurred.

It's too bad Keller Williams didn't rank #1 for both buyers and sellers, but where selling is concerned, follow through and marketing ability seem to vary widely from agent to agent, team to team.

If you'd like to see what our listing plan looks like, email our marketing director Katy and she'll send you a personalized copy: katy@spokanesbest.com

Reaching Generation Y: "Why" You Should Try Spokane's Best

From the Spokane Home Builder's Association:

Generation Y relies on e-mail, the Internet, PDAs, BlackBerrys and other electronic devices and, for many, these technologies are their preferred method of communication. In addition, studies show that eight out of 10 Generation Y home buyers use the Internet to research their home choices.

Once they have narrowed their choices, they expect their requests for more information to be answered quickly and for those answers to be personalized ― they don’t want to wait a week or two for a generic response.

I wonder if Generation Y'ers mind being labeled? We're cautioned about defining home buyers (empty nesters, seniors, minorities, etc), but when it comes to young people, the rules seem to change.

There is a lot of truth here, though. We find that a lot of our younger buyers use our automated home search tools and rely more heavily on email. Undoubtedly many of our clients are also using social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Blogger.

To that end, we now provide our sellers with the tools and expertise to integrate their home’s listing to any number of websites, increasing exposure to potential (and potentially younger) buyers. Here are some examples:

 Through our relationship with Realbird.com, you can use social book-marking or networking services to save and share your personalized listing website. Forwarding to friends, family or prospects is easy and encourages viral marketing.

 Your listing is featured on our blog using a handy program called a “widget” that is regularly updated and user-friendly.

 We have all the information and coding available to help sellers imbed a beautiful slideshow of their listing onto their blog, website, Facebook profile—or just about any site !

Marketing Your Home on CraigsList Means Discerning Serious Buyers from Scammers

Fox 12 News is reporting a new take on a (relatively) old scam.

For one local apartment manager getting flooded with calls about her vacancy, it turned out to be a bad thing.

[snip]

It started, innocently, when a legitimate advertisement about the property was posted on Craig's List. Things went wrong when con artists copied the ad, sweetened the deal and dropped the price. Asking would-be renters to wire them a cash deposit in Nigeria.

"And it looks like one of them was about to send money to these people in Africa," said Roth.

While Roth doesn't want her apartment complex named, she says while clearing up the mess, she got copies of what the scammers sent out from a mother who barely stopped her 18-year-old daughter from sending the con artists money through Western Union.

We've all heard about the "wire money to Nigeria scam" that even smart consumers have occasionally fallen prey to. Copying ads and redirecting readers is a new low.

The most common attempt aimed at scamming me is replying to our CraigsList listing ads. Here's a recent example:

I am interested in buying this house. What are the extra costs like taxes, heating, electric, insurance? Does house need any repairs? Can it be bought with any furnishings? Is it possible to rent with option to buy? Do you have any pictures of the house interior and exterior that you can send with an E-mail?

Let me know. Thanks!

Regards,
The Scammer with Nothing Better to do With My Life

Our real estate listings always include photos and links to our website, which would answer the question of furnishings and, oh, pictures of the interior and exterior!

Usually the questions are worse, and sometimes the emails are more detailed. "I'm moving from London and my agent in Boise will be handling everything."

Ignore these emails. They're a waste of your time. If you have a serious buyer on your hands they won't ask for photos when there is a link to see the house from 50 different angles, and they won't ask about repairs.