Classifieds are up and running!

Well that wasn't too tough. Thankfully I had done it once prior on another site I own (Lodgix.com).

Anyways, over time I think classifieds will work real well on this site. Only time will tell. It's free and lots of people will read them and Midwesterners love anything that's free! Is anybody out there reading this? Post some comments please!! Tell me what you think of the site! Offer up suggestions!

Thanks!

Brent

August Sales Report!

Thanks to all the folks who visited Great Homes in Minnesota in August. Even though the month is not yet over, I wanted to update my readers on the sales that were generated from this website. For the record, the switchover to Wollmering & Elliott occurred on August 7th, so even with less than a full to work with, W&E was able to sell 6 homes solely from the leads from this site! Great Job Wollmering & Elliott! Here is a breakdown:

That's nearly $1.5 million in residential real estate sales for only the month of September - and all of these sales resulted from this website! That's great, I look forward to reporting similar results for September!

Sorry for delay!!

It's been awhile since my last post. I've been busy working on the grounds of my resort (www.rosewoodpointe.com). I still have big plans for this blog and prepping for the time when it will be running simultaneously in all cities.

Today, I am going to try and get my Classifieds script up and running on the Minneapolis site. I think it could be a hit, as I would like to have this site turn into a site that people visit for other purposes besides just real estate. Online classifieds are a big money maker for the newspapers. However, for the next 6 months, I will be offering free classifieds,as my goal is not to make money off the classifieds portion of the site, rather to gain exposure for my real estate business. Anyways, I'll give it a shot and hopefully it willbe up and running by tonight!!

Thanks for your patience!

Brent M. Kleinheksel

Baker National Golf Course

I'm back! My system fell victim to that MSBlaster worm...overloaded my buffer and crashed my system. :-( That was not nice. I had to reinstall Windows XP and then reinstall all my programs, 90% of which are cracked, so that was a pain.

The good news is that my system is now secure and when I was looking for all my programs I discovered a great new, spyware free, file-sharing service called Ares. They hooked me up with Acrobat 6, Systemworks 2003, etc.

Last week Jen and I, along with Jen's boss and husband, golfed Baker National Golf Course. THAT is a really nice public golf course. They monitor the speed of play real well, the course is in great shape, the rates are reasonable ($35 for 18)...it's so much better than Rush Creek. Pretty nice driving range too. It's out there aways, but not too bad. There is not much opportunity to go to the can or grab something to eat between the 9th and 10th holes..so be preapred for that. Other than that, I would definitely return to Baker National Golf Course.

Check out the book that Tiger Woods wrote on golf. I think it's really really good if you need to tweak your game, or in my case, overahul your game. :-)

Have a great week!

Brent

Renting and the law: Building going condo? Lease still applies

Renting and the law: Building going condo? Lease still applies

Plastic -- some tenants won't pay rent without it

Plastic -- some tenants won't pay rent without it

Minnesota Renaissance Festival

So, I've been working on formatting the blog today. Seems to be coming along nicely. Hope to add a couple new sections in the next hour or two.

The Renaissance Festival is coming up, starting on the 16th. I think Jen and I will be heading out one of those weekends to check that out..should be interesting.

Additionally, there is an interesting Holocaust Exhibit at
The downtown YWCA on Nicollet and 12th Street. They are hosting a traveling exhibit on Nazi persecution of homosexuals during the Holocaust ("Nazi Persecutions of Homosexuals 1933-1945"). It will be on display on the lower level of the Y until September 26.

I think I am going to check that out this afternoon, I'll let you know what I think!

Off Campus Housing: The Hottest Real Estate Investment

Interesting article from dBusiness.com.

dBusinessNews.com - Triangle Metro Edition

Followup to Star Tribune Decision

Not sure why I find this so fascinating, but here is some info on the guy that made the decision at star trib, including his email address!

Nick Rogosienski
rogosnl@startribune.com

Nick is a Chicago native who is adapting well to the culture in Minnesota. “Everyone’s so darned nice here!” His work roots are in the real estate industry. He has owned, developed, managed and rented thousands of apartments during his career. As licensed real estate broker he has also sold residential and multi-family properties. His career at the Star Tribune started by being the Marketing Manager and Team Leader for the Rentals Market Group. The folks that bring you the rental ads in the Star Tribune, Star Tribune Rent Right Magazine and Star Tribune Fonahome. His current responsibility as Online Site Manager includes general management of HomeZone and Motoring for startribune.com. He and his lovely wife Gina have four children, two boys and two girls. They all live happily on a 25 acre hobby farm in the country. “Growing up the only thing I ever saw that had 25 acres was our boy scout camp. Stop by any time.

The Probability That a Real Estate Agent is Cheating You

Excerpt from an article in today's New York Times

While negotiating to buy old houses, he found that the seller's agent often encouraged him, albeit cagily, to underbid. This seemed odd: didn't the agent represent the seller's best interest? Then he thought more about the agent's role. Like many other ''experts'' (auto mechanics and stockbrokers come to mind), a real-estate agent is thought to know his field far better than a lay person. A homeowner is encouraged to trust the agent's information. So if the agent brings in a low offer and says it might just be the best the homeowner can expect, the homeowner tends to believe him. But the key, Levitt determined, lay in the fact that agents ''receive only a small share of the incremental profit when a house sells for a higher value.'' Like a stockbroker churning commissions or a bookie grabbing his vig, an agent was simply looking to make a deal, any deal. So he would push homeowners to sell too fast and too cheap.

Now if Levitt could only measure this effect. Once again, he found a clever mechanism. Using data from more than 50,000 home sales in Cook County, Ill., he compared the figures for homes owned by real-estate agents with those for homes for which they acted only as agents. The agents' homes stayed on the market about 10 days longer and sold for 2 percent more.

Star Tribune cancels subscription to NorthstarMLS data

Check this out..and read my comments below.

Star Tribune cancels subscription to NorthstarMLS data, changes HomeZone service
Effective immediately.

Star Tribune has chosen to cancel their subscription to NorthstarMLS data for their website. Their decision is in response to their consumers’ needs. Star Tribune is changing their HomeZone website to be more like classifieds advertising. If you want your listings to appear on this service, you need to set up an account and pay advertising fees to Star Tribune (anyone may do this--agent, homeowner, etc.). Because the data no longer comes from NorthstarMLS, the listing has to be re-entered into the Star Tribune system. However, they offer options for expanded data fields and other services, such as neighborhood tours. For more information, go to northstarmls.com.

My comments:

I'm not sure what to make of this. In my humble opinion, they are not changing in response to consumer needs, they are changing in response to declining margins. Consumers want choice. Consumers want to search ALL homes for sale in a given region. In my mind, the resulting increase in revenues from Realtors, for sale by owners, etc.. will be more than offset by the decreased website viewership once consumers realize that they are searching an extremely limited database of homes. I will have to check out the site..but this development excites me, essentially one of my competitors has voluntarily left the marketplace. :-)

Brent

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