Real Estate Darwinism

Part of the reason that we are a Colorado Springs real estate TEAM, is because when we are busy the LAST thing we want to appear as is too busy for our customers and clients.

I bring this up because we just had a $100+ dinner at a local restaurant and although the food was as wonderful as it ALWAYS is, the service was awful. We waited for over 10 minutes AFTER we were sat before anyone even approached us. Once the server DID approach us, he made it abundantly clear that he was slammed and proceeded to treat us as though we were wasting his time each time he visited our table. He never asked us if we needed refills of our drinks, just (eventually) removed the empty glasses from our table. He never recommended ANYTHING from the menu, just said, "What do you want?" He rushed in and out of our sightline so quickly, I quickly realized that I had better sevice at the McDonalds drive through window. Sad.

Eventually the manager on duty made her rounds and asked how everything was. We explained that if this was our first time at her restaurant, it would have been our LAST. (However, lucky for her, we have eaten there on multiple other occassions and knew that this was odd ... but awful nonetheless.) She did her best to remedy it, comp'ing the dessert and apologizing and our waiter received a tip a fraction of what we normally tip.

How could this have been better?

1. Our waiter could have easily given us to another waiter since he was so busy. It wasn't like he got more money by "waiting" on us. No other waiter was as hurried and perpetually rushed as he was. (teamwork)
   
2. Our waiter could have enlisted the help of the wait staff with fewer tables and/or the bus staff to help him take care of the some side tasks, like refilling drinks, clearing off salad plates, etc. (teamwork)
   

And even if he could not do ANY of those things, he should have been 100% OUR waiter when he was with us, and not a flurried mess chomping at the bit to run from table to table.

How does this apply to OUR Colorado Springs real estate team?

Well, we believe that our clients deserve all the attention that they need. Yes, there are times where we are "slammed busy" and may not be able to give each client the attention that they deserve. (And the "shifting market" has only made us busier...) This is why we have built (and are building) a team. Our team is designed to act as an extension of us - able to accommodate our clients' and customers' needs at anytime, regardless of how busy we are.

We fully understand that we DO NOT HAVE a business without people looking to buy or sell homes, and so we make sure that we are never too busy for our clients and customers.

Posted By: Mariana Wagner - Colorado Springs Real Estate Agent - Wagner iTeam
The Wagner iTeam is a power team of Keller Williams Clients Choice Realty,
specializing in Colorado Springs Real Estate and Monument Real Estate
Pictures of Colorado Springs
(719) 434-7525

 "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." ~ Mahatma Ghandi

This week's Miami Luxury Real Estate Pick is located in Historic lake Belmar just South of Miami Shores in Miami's Upper East Side. Lake Belmar is a neighborhood on Biscayne Bay that people confuse with Davis Harbor and Miami Shores, but it is unincorporated Dade-County and has fabulous waterfront homes, historic properties and Luxury real estate. It is a hidden treasure that is centrally located and full of great architecture.

One of Lake Belmar's interesting landmarks is the "Historic Lake Belmar Canal". From this map you can see that there are no homes directly on the canal but have to cross the street to reach their waterfront properties. These canal front properties are literally "waterfront" - their water frontage is located on the front of their property rather than the back. The canal has open access to Biscayne Bay and the Ocean.

1036 NE 89th Street - Miami, Florida 33138

Read more »

A recent study from Point2 Technologies (one of the nations most comprehensive real estate data sources) found that:

"Compared to listings with only one photo, those with 21 or more photos generated more than triple the number of Detailed Views, more than double the amount of Interest ... . Compared to listings with no photos, those with 21 or more photos generated more than fifty-five times the number of Detailed Views, nearly twenty-seven times the amount of Interest ... ."

We ( the Wagner iTeam and Colorado Springs Real Estate Connection ) have always promoted the use of as many photos as possible in marketing the homes that we have for sale in Colorado Springs, Monument and Fountain. I even wrote a post about it last November:

Selling Your Colorado Springs Home: The Importance of Multiple Photos

This recent study just confirmed it! The more photos that are used in advertising your home for sale ... the more people will look at it online and the better opportunity you will have - as a homeowner - to get your home sold!

So, when you hire a competent Realtor® in Colorado Springs to sell your home, make sure that they TAKE and ADVERTISE as many pictures of your home as possible.

Posted By: Mariana Wagner - Colorado Springs Real Estate Agent - Wagner iTeam
The Wagner iTeam is a power team of Keller Williams Clients Choice Realty,
specializing in Colorado Springs Real Estate and Monument Real Estate
Pictures of Colorado Springs

"If somebody thinks they're a hedgehog, presumably you just give 'em a mirror and a few pictures of hedgehogs and tell them to sort it out for themselves." - Douglas Adams

Small Living Space Soutions for Long Beach Homes

Space Savers or Hidden Secrets?

Down here at the beach we trade square footage for beach living and ocean breezes.  But what do we do with all of our stuff?  Lifetime collections of photos, books and other treasured belongings, that we are just not prepared to part with, need a place in our new homes as well. 

Small spaces are a challenge when we downsize our lives.  Creative use of our space without feeling cluttered and oppressive becomes a mission.  Creative Home Engineering, a Tempe Arizona company specializing in hidden passageways may have solved some of these issues. 

Read more »

Mortgage rates in Long Beach, California  for July 14, 2008.  Loan amounts up to $417,000:

3/1 ARM              5.125%
5/1 ARM              5.250%

7/1 ARM              5.625%

10/1 ARM            5.750%

30 Yr Fixed          6.000%

All rates offered to the borrower with 1 point cost.  Rate quotes assume a purchase transaction with a 20% down payment, 720 credit score, and full income qualification.  Rates are subject to fluctuation.  Custom rate quotes and rate lock advice are available by calling at the number below..

LONG BEACH CALIFORNIA  MORTGAGE RATE TREND:

Next 7 days:       Neutral 

Next 30 days:      Higher 

Next 3 months:    Higher

Last week was a scary one if you've been following the mortgage industry:

Senator Schumer (NY) caused an old-fashioned bank run when he wrote a letter to the San Francisco Fed President concerned about IndyMac Bank's ability to weather the storm....then, he made that letter public. IndyMac Bank ceased new loan operations, in an effort to manage the loans they have on their books, on Monday. On Friday, the Feds closed IndyMac Bank down.

This was political grandstanding at its worst:

Sen. Schumer rejected that, saying that, while banking regulators do their work in private, lawmakers typically do theirs in public. Sen. Schumer, the head of Senate Democrats' re-election effort, threw in a political jab as well. "Clearly what was happened here was the OTS, having the second-biggest bank failure on their watch, sought to blame the messenger. In sum, it's sort of classically what this administration does. Blame the fire on the guy who called 911."

The New York Times asked if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were insolvent and Wall Street went nuts.  Treasury Secretary Paulson stepped in and offered government support SHOULD the big mortgage guarantors fail.  Are Fannie and Freddie too big to fail?  Well, they insure almost half of this nation's $12 trillion worth of mortgage debt.  A failure would be a major disruption to housing capital and drive mortgage rates to the a MUCH higher level.

Read more »