Luxury Clues

Costa Rica

This spectacular luxury home sits upon the highest ridge in the development. If you are in the market for a premier luxury home in Costa Rica's most well-rounded coastal town, you must see this property.

Listing Provided by Point2

The 2-Second Real Estate Comparable Market Analysis (Another Reason to Own an iPhone)

I just downloaded the new Zillow application for the iPhone. Personally, I have spent thousands of hours downloading listing information, organizing it into a format my sellers could evaluate, and then doing my best to persuade them to be realistic about their list price. Now imagine that you can do all of that in just 2 seconds!

Using the GPS on your iPhone, Zillow's new program (which is free) identifies all the houses that are currently for sale in the immediate area where you are located. You can see the various prices either on a grid or on a "hybrid" map (i.e. a map with the streets imposed on a satellite image of the area.) When you click on a property, it gives you the exact address, the type of property (single family, condo, etc.), the square footage and the lot size. It also provides you with a range of Zestimate (Zillow's estimate of value) for the property. In addition, it shows how much the property has changed value over the last 5 or 10 years. 

More importantly, it gives the most recent sale price, when the property sold, and how much was paid in property tax the last year. Best of all, it gives you 4 comparable sales. If you click on each of these sales, the same detailed type of information appears, plus comparable sales for that new property. 

Talk about a time saver. Better yet, you can get property values without having to sit at your computer for hours trolling through reams of MLS data. Imagine how great it would be when you're with clients and they say, "How much did that house sell for?" and you can answer it just two seconds--point-click-price!

You can also use a scaled down version of this system with Zillow Mobile. To see the iPhone version, check out the YouTube video

Posted by Bernice Ross--Are you looking for more tips on how to do a digital listing presentation. If so, email me directly at Bernice@RealEstateCoach.com about our upcoming webinar series on digital and social media. 

Create a Positive Mindset No Matter What the Real Estate Market Does

Maintaining a positive mindset in today’s turbulent economic environment is more challenging than ever. What will happen if the financial bailout doesn’t work? How will people buy homes when lenders have limited funds? How many more people will lose their jobs? As a result, how many more will face foreclosure?

While we cannot control what the markets and the government do, the one thing we can control is our mindset. One of the most powerful ways to create a positive mindset is to control your environment.

Buckminster Fuller, the inventor of the geodesic dome, once said, “Environment is stronger than will.” Even though you intend to change your thoughts and actions, if you don’t address your environment, you will be unable to create sustainable change. For example, if you listen to the negative news around you, your environment will support you to attract negative events. Psychologists call this self fulfilling prophecy. What you concentrate on and what you expect to happen generally does happen.

Daniel Ariely, the author of Predictably Irrational, conducted a study where college students listened to several elderly people describe the difficulties they had walking. After the students finished the experiment, Ariely measured how quickly the students walked through the hall leading away from the lab. The students who heard the negative descriptions actually took longer to walk through the hall as compared to the control group.

Another experiment with elementary school children demonstrated the power our thoughts have on our physical environment. Elementary school students filled two bowls of water. When they walked by the first bowl, they told the water that it was “bad.” When the walked by the second bowl, they told the water how good and wonderful it was. When the water was examined under an electron microscope, the water molecules in the “bad” water were ragged and ill formed. The molecules in the “good” water formed beautiful, well defined patterns. Consequently, never underestimate how much your environment can influence your real estate success.

Many of us attempt to use will power to accomplish our goals with little thought given to the role our environment may play. Sadly, without a supportive environment, will power eventually runs out of steam. Our projects or great intentions die on the vine.

Ultimately, successful people manage both their thoughts and their environment. Success does not come from will power alone; your environment is equally important. While establishing an “ideal” environment is an on-going process, here are four simple strategies to get you started.

1. Surround yourself with like-minded people
Choose friends that fully support your goals as evidenced by their thoughts, comments, and actions. For example, if you are interested in losing weight and one friend keeps encouraging you to eat dessert, avoid eating meals with this person. This is one of the reasons that groups such as Weight Watchers and AA are so successful—members find support from others who are going through the same experience.

2. Clean and upgrade your existing environment
Start small, whether it’s your bedroom, office, or even your car. If cleaning your office or your desk is too overwhelming, then clean at least one area where you can work. Next, commit to keeping this area clean. To experience the effect this has on your productivity, work in the clean area for an hour and then work in one of the chaotic areas for an hour. Normally there will be a substantial difference in your productivity.  

3. Turn off the negativity
Listening to negative comments from others can quickly destroy your positive attitude. Turn off the news, stop reading the paper, and run from those who want to focus on how bad things are. If you can’t escape a negative rant, you can ask, “Please tell me one thing that went right today.” If the person says, “Nothing is going right,” you can point out that they have their health, a roof over their head, clean water, good food, etc. If you catch yourself falling into being negative, stop immediately and identify at least five things that are right about your life.

4.  Join a mastermind group
An excellent way to upgrade your environment is to join a mastermind group or some other group of highly successful people that meet regularly to help grow their business. Jack Canfield talks about how he didn’t start making lots of money until he changed his peer group. According to Canfield, if you take the average income of your ten closest friends and/or colleagues, you can accurately predict what your earnings will be. Upgrade your peer group and you will upgrade your income.

Creating a supportive, positive environment is critical factor in achieving real estate sales success.

Posted by Bernice Ross--do you need help understanding how to use Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn in your business? If so, email me personally at Bernice@RealEstateCoach.com to learn more about our social media webinar series that will unlocks the secrets of social media success.