Iowa City Real Estate Blog

Cardinal Realty opened its doors for business this week. As my good friend Corinne Guest so eloquently said in her post this morning. AR is a journey. The decision to start my own real estate company comes in no small part through the influence of ActiveRain. When I signed up at AR in July 2009 I was a "toddler" in the world of real estate. I was smart enough to know I needed to tap into the Internet to take my real estate endeavors to the next level, but had no idea how. I'd gone through several template websites and spent a boatload of money on SEO to get absolutely nowhere!

A couple of months on AR and I had my road map. There is SO much information here for those willing to take the time to learn. In no time at all I went from toddler to University Grad. I learned about Wordpress. I learned how to take care of my own SEO. (Saved myself mega bucks there). And most importantly I paid attention to the Independent Brokers here on the Rain and started to grasp the idea that it really wasn't rocket science and I could do that too. 

Two years later Cardinal Realty becomes the newest real estate company in Coralville. For me real estate is a service industry. I am here to serve my clients, not to "sell" homes. The philosophy behind Cardinal Realty is to keep real estate simple. No conflicts of interest by working two sides of a deal. Each client gets exclusive, personalized service. Simple and straightforward. 

Following through with that thought, the plan is to streamline operations so everything can be done online. "Going Green" if you will. Anything we can do to reduce our carbon footprint  is good and what makes it even better is that it's good for business. Clients this year have already experienced the benefits. Iowa City is a relocation destination and folks are transitioning in and out all the time. My last two sellers who both relocated out of state loved the no-hassle option of signing documents online. That's just one example. I'm always looking for new technologies to incorporate into my business. Streamlining my business will mean I have more time to spend with my clients building relationships. And that's what real estate is about, isn't it? 

So here I am with a big Thank You to everyone here on the Rain who motivated and inspired me to forge ahead. I would not be where I am today if I had not attended AR University! You'll know who you are, I comment on your posts from time to time. Special thanks to Corinne for her support. That's the other cool thing about AR. Not only do you find a wealth of information here, you also make friends for life!

J Philip Faranda wrote a post this week that got me thinking. He takes sellers to task for canceling showings.  It's a wonderfully humourous post and if you missed it you should really check it out. He makes some great points, but once again I had a WTH? moment. (My second this week). What about the agents? Where do they fit in this picture? I actually have a problem with the concept that the seller should be on top of everything and know how to behave in all situations.  Is the seller the one living and breathing real estate? Nope, that's us. That's what they hire us for. Our expertise... And part of that will be dishing out tough love...

Fact: It sucks to be a seller right now. They need our help.

If you don't make it crystal clear to sellers that they need to make showings happen, come what may, then don't be surprised if they think minor inconveniences reason enough to cancel showings.

I like to talk this through right there at the listing appointment. As I'm writing this I can think of occasions when sellers have tried to negotiate with me on times and black out days. I had one client who had a new born baby, a dog and two cats that she needed to pack up every time there was a showing. Seriously inconvenient for sure. When this became too much for her she tried to re-negotiate the showing terms. I agreed that it was a real pain, but stuck with what I had told her before: If she was serious about selling her home she needed to be as flexible as possible. Ultimately she needed to vent. She was frustrated and I was her sounding board. Making it clear to her that buyers rarely go back once they miss out on seeing a house was all I needed to do. She didn't know that. She was only looking at it from her own perspective, (and who can blame her for that?)

It's been a busy day and I was feeling a little rough around the edges when I found a link to this from a good friend in my inbox... Nothing relieves stress more than seeing pets play, (except maybe seeing kids play that is). Of course the music probably helped, not to mention the fact that it's filmed at the sea - One of my favorite places to be. Whatever way you slice or dice it though, these are some very smart dogs having a lot of fun!

Vacation is over. Time to get back to those market reports... Before I do though I want to share a few of the many, many photos I took while I was visiting family in Wales. These are of Alexandra Park and Penarth Esplanade. My niece informs me that one of the Dr Who shows was filmed on Penarth Esplanade last year. Everyone who follows the series knows it's often filmed in Cardiff, (within spitting distance of Penarth), but I bet you didn't know that, did you?

The World Cup is into it's 3rd day. Germany is playing thrashing Australia as I write this. If you caught my post on Friday you will know that we have been counting the days in our house for months for this mega sports event to arrive. It's finally here.

We all know that well used phrase a picture paints a thousand words, I'm thinking this just about sums up what the Weltmeisterschaft means to my son...

I love the idea of buyers getting information as they drive by properties. I think flyers are great. I just think that for one reason or another they're not always the easiest thing to keep on top of, so I've been looking for a more efficient way of getting that information to buyers. This week I found it and I'm so convinced that it's a great idea that I felt the need to share it here on AR right away!

Text Message Marketing is what I'm talking about. Basically you upload your property information to a website, get an ID number that you put on a sign rider and presto buyers can text for information about that property and get it back to their cell in minutes. That of course is a very condensed version of the service. Here's an article by James Kimmons on About.com that does a much better job of explaining it.

There are much more expensive versions of this service. I of course chose to go with the most affordable option offered by home2cell.com This will be costing me about $3 per month, per listing. I can run to that. I sure as heck pay a whole lot more for gas right now! Texting is huge. I can't imagine that this won't work, although I have no experience yet. I'm waiting on my sign riders and once I have any kind of feedback I will let you know.

This much I do know. I will be the only agent in town doing this. I hope that not only buyers notice it, I hope sellers notice too and see that I'm serious about getting information out to the consumer! Watch this space. I'll let you know how it goes...

Today was a good day. Continuing ed classes this morning with Darryl Davis were extremely motivating, despite the dark and dismal, reminiscent of Hamburg weather.... And then this afternoon I pulled into the gas station to fill up my car and flags blowing in the wind caught my eye. The sky was grey as could be, but the colors were eye catching and my little country flag was right there, front and centre. Yes, I'm from Wales and most folks I talk to have trouble locating it on a map! I think I might be a tiny bit biased, but I think we do have one cool flag... What say you?

Don't you just love how all these flags "posed" for this photo?

Anna Nicole Smith, Heath Ledger, Michael Jackson, Brittany Murphy and now maybe Corey Haim. I came up with those names at the drop of a hat. I'm sure if I stopped to actually think there would me more... Where's the outrage? All these people died from the use of prescription drugs and yet when it's reported in the media there's something of an "of course it was drugs" attitude of reporting that totally blows my mind.

Money gets poured into educating our children about the dangers of illicit drugs. What about this?? Where are the awareness campaigns? It may look like this is a problem that only people of celebrity have, but I'm doubting that. I just think they're the ones who make the news.

In the 21st Century we live in a fast paced world where celebrities and non-celebrities alike have problems dealing with what life throws at them. I get that. What I don't get is that the use of prescription drugs for everything from restless legs, (my personal favorite) to anti-depressants the moment you feel a bit down is seriously on the rise. Case in point: When I went for a physical I just happened to be going through a period of my life where it's natural to get mood swings. It came up in conversation. The next thing I know the doctor wants to prescribe Paxil, an anti-depressant. I refused and didn't go back to that doctor - I thought it was an over the top solution for my problem.

What's my point? My point is that there is a shift going on in our society that make prescription drugs an acceptable way to solve problems. Not only is this not true, it can also lead to fatal consequences, as the recent run of celebrity deaths proves. So where's the outrage? Why aren't we doing something about this?

It's cold in Coralville again today... 5° Fahrenheit to be precise.  (-15° Celcius). We have another winter storm warning from 6.00pm Wednesday through Thursday. I say another, because I'm already having trouble keeping up with how many winter storms we've had this winter!

Now if you think I'm unimpressed by all this cold weather, below is a photograph of a certain someone who is even less impressed than me! This is my cat Tigger and I actually think his body language says it all. He is hating this weather with a passion, (and is usually very vocal about it). He insisted on testing the deck this morning in this photo - I think he has an almost resigned look about him... (Note how he somehow manage to get snow on his face.:-)

After years of grappling with template websites and being unhappy with the results I've taken the plunge into the Wordpress world and built a better website.

Wordpress is a blogging platform, right? No, it's much more than that! The possibilities with Wordpress are endless as to what you can achieve with your website, with only your own creativity setting the boundaries...

Of course that's oversimplifying it a bit, you need to work with a great Web Developer too. That's where I got lucky when I emailed Kaspars Dambis, a member of the Wordpress Community for his help. We hit a couple of bumps in the road in the development, but that's exactly where he showed his true worth. When a particular plug-in I wanted didn't work as hoped he just designed another plug-in! He did what I do in the real estate world, he found solutions rather than focus on problems.

What made me think Wordpress was right for me? I have the AR community to thank for that. Blogging here for the last 5 months has been an enormous learning experience. There are some VERY tech-savvy Rainers and I have definitely profited from all that knowledge.

All my new found knowledge needed to be put to good use, hence the new website. If you're grappling with template websites, then I would highly recommend this solution. It went a whole lot easier than I expected and I have so much more control over the design and content. Here's a link to the website for you to check it out for yourself.

Update February 2010: Here is the "New, Improved Website..."  After some brain storming with Kaspars this is what we came up with. The plan was to make the site more user friendly with much more visible tabs. I think it works well...