by RMLS Communication Department | Jun 10, 2009 | Tips & Tricks
We sometimes get reports of homes being entered into RMLSweb as detached homes, when they are in fact, attached (or vice versa). We realize this can be confusing at times, so let’s briefly review the attached v. detached question.
Let’s start with the textbook definitions:
“Attached: An element of the residence’s construction (such as a wall, ceiling, or floor) is shared with another property. Condominiums excluded.”
“Detached: A stand-alone residence, excluding manufactured homes, for which the sale includes the land on which the residence is located.”
Now – remember how your teachers would have you come up with acrostic poems? It’s when you take each letter of your name or a word & you have to use it as the first letter in each line of the poem (here are instructions on how to write an acrostic poem… in case you wanted to know).
We came up with one each for Attached & Detached houses to help you remember the difference!
ATTACHED:
Adjoined
To
Things, such
As
Ceilings and walls of other
Houses,
Especially
Duplexes
DETACHED:
Disconnected from
Everyone, especially from
Those
Adjacent buildings,
Construction, and
Housing. But, connected to
Earth and
Dirt
Ok, I’m aware that acrostic poems probably won’t be particularly helpful in remembering what’s attached v. detached, but just let this silly attempt at a mnemonic device serve as a reminder to be cogniscent cognizant of the issue when entering listings. And if you’re ever unsure, feel free to give us a call!
Oh, and in case you want the original poems, I wrote them on this cool writing paper I found online:
My originals, missing is the "F" for poor penmanship.
by RMLS Communication Department | Jun 4, 2009 | Events, Homeownership
June is National Homeownership Month and if you read the blog, you probably know I am a new member of the homeowner community.
After getting through my first transaction, I can say that I definitely understand how some first time homebuyers can be intimidated by the process of buying a home. Per the old adage, “nothing good comes easy”, and I emphasize the good.
Between choosing a Realtor and a lender, finding the right home, negotiations, inspection and the mounds of paperwork at each step, it can make your head spin when you have no experience with it. Fortunately, Realtors help alleviate all of those concerns and lend understanding to each stage of the process.
However, for those first time buyers who may not have chosen a Realtor yet, or a just looking for more information, our friends over at the Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors® (PMAR), have put together a great website for potential buyers – HOWNW.com (Homeownership Opportunities Website Northwest).
The website features a very helpful Home Buying Process section. I peeked at the site a few times before I decided to buy and found it very helpful. The site also includes a section that allows potential buyers to search for homeownership programs that may fit their needs.
Even though I had a good Realtor, along with friends, family & colleagues around me that are knowledgeable about real estate, I still found it stressful at times (I’m a worrier), so I think any other resources that can shed some light on the process are worth highlighting – here are a few others I was able to find:
American Bankers Association – National Homeownership Month Resources
CNN Money: Money 101 – Buying a Home
Portland Housing Center: Schedule for Homebuying 101 Classes
Image courtesy of John Salazar
by RMLS Communication Department | Jun 3, 2009 | Market Trends
We know you’re curious how the market is doing. We are too! We’re guessing that you’ve probably had buyers asking if “we’ve hit the bottom yet” and sellers asking you how much longer it will take to sell their house. We don’t have a crystal ball, but we’ve been trying to provide you with more information to help you answer your clients’ questions.
You may have noticed Supra lockbox access graphs and charts. These stats should give you a sense of how many lockboxes are opened on a daily and weekly basis. Plus, we’ve added a graph to show you how that activity has changed through 2009.
Today, we’re releasing some brand new information: the number of new saved searches and the number of new prospects by RMLS™ subscribers per week since January 1! We hope these stats will be useful in helping you get an idea of when new buyers are joining the house hunt.
Saved Searches 5-24-2009
New Prospects 5-24-2009
We welcome your ideas of other stats you think might be useful. We can’t promise that we’ll be able to gather them for you, but we will try to incorporate those ideas whenever we can.
by RMLS Communication Department | May 29, 2009 | Fun Facts
REALTORS® have a tough job in trying to accurately & positively portray their listings, while also trying to set them apart from the pack (especially with a high-level of inventory), and I imagine it’s probably hard at times to find the right word (I can sympathize). With that said, I thought it might be interesting to see what adjectives are commonly (and not so commonly) used.
I did a quick survey of adjectives on active listings in RMLSweb; the survey was of words that appear in the “comments” (private or public) fields in RMLSweb.
The winner was “great” at 34%, followed by “beautiful” at just over 20%. However, I should note that I do have some suspicion that the term “great room” may have affected the outcome.
Here are the Top 20 results:
Click on the graph for a larger view
Those are the top 20, but I also spent a lot of time in the old Synonym Finder book by J.I. Rodale that we have sitting around the office. I checked out 65 words total in this highly UNscientific study (I had to stop somewhere!) Here’s the full list.
I probably missed some other common ones, but one can only spend so much time… let me know if you noticed any omissions!
Looking for Unique Language for Your Listing?
If you’re looking to be unique in your listing language, here are some words that I didn’t see in any listings:
Bewitching
Prodigious
Winsome
Wondrous
Tip-top
A Number 1 (ala Frank Sinatra)
Bang-up
Also, if you want to reach out to the younger generation, check out the Online Slang Dictionary – some very good stuff there.
This is what it looked like when I tried:
“This crib is totally fresh. It is in a bomb diggity location just outside of Portland. The kitchen is totally bonkers, with choice granite countertops & bumping hardwoods.”
DISCLAIMER: I don’t actually recommend that you use any of the aforementioned adjectives in your listings… However, if you want to, more power to you.
by RMLS Communication Department | May 19, 2009 | Misc.
We realize you don’t always have time to login and scan the RMLSweb newsletter page for the latest updates when you’re busy running your company, developing your personal brand, listing property and meeting with clients. We get exhausted just thinking about it. So we’ve decided to try and bring this information to you in the virtual worlds where you already work and play.
For example, you can subscribe to our new blog with your RSS reader and you’ll be able to easily see when we post something new. Then you can choose to read it on your own schedule.
Plus, this blog allows us to talk about other industry related information that may be interesting to you, but wouldn’t normally be appropriate for the RMLSweb newsletter page or a direct e-mail from us.
We’ve also created an RMLSweb Twitter account to keep you updated with quick bursts of information. Follow us @RMLSweb.
We hope you will find the information we post here to be interesting and useful. Please don’t be shy. We welcome your comments, questions and suggestions.
P.S. I almost forgot! Just for fun we’ve created a Facebook fan page. Hope to see you there.
Image courtesy of Billy Alexander.
