Politics at the Oscars
The Oscars have always been center stage for politics so it was to no surprise that this year was no different. This year, two award recipients thanked their union crew clearly pointing shots at the Republican governor of Wisconsin, who has made headlines for trying to take away bargaining rights from unionized civil servants.
Another award winner mentioned "I think what's going on in Wisconsin is kind of madness right now," during a press briefing backstage. Earlier, he thanked his "fantastic union crew." It is evident that the words were not chosen on accident as the Oscars is a very publicized event.These are just some of the comments that were mentioned in terms of politics.
Well, just like politics being mentioned in the media, OwnACondo.com has been mentioned on the streets lately as well. The office is moving downtown and word has spread fast. Many agents are looking to start working for OwnACondo.com as soon as the doors to the new office open!
It appears that the office is scheduled to open in March 2011. The old office is packed up and the crew is just waiting for the office to be completed. The new office will be located at 540 N. Lakeshore Drive in Chicago, on the corner of Lake Shore Drive and Ohio Street.
OwnACondo.com is the best place to buy and sell condos in Chicago. The company has agents who specialize in all areas of the city and are educated in all territories. If you are looking to purchase or sell a condo, OwnACondo.com is the place to start.
What to Expect from a Listing Presentation
If you are not familiar with Real Estate, then you may not understand what is involved in a listing presentation. Although listing presentations may vary by Realtor, there is a list of things that should be covered in the presentation. Some of these items include explaining how the agent will prepare the property in order to market it, going over what marketing strategies will be used to inform the general public that the property is listed, and going over the listing agreement and explaining what it means. It is also a good idea for the Realtor to explain what happens after the listing agreement is signed.
It is important for the Realtor to prepare the property in order to market it. During the listing presentation the Realtor should make sure that the home is clean and if repairs and/or improvements are needed, that they are taken care of. The Realtor may suggest trimming trees, adding some landscaping or painting some walls. The idea is to make the property as attractive as possible. Once the property is ready, then the Reator will want to come over and take pictures of the property. He/she will also want to take measurements of all the rooms and gather the information needed to list the property on the MLS. Once the necessary information is gathered, the Realtor will want do a competitive market analysis to see what would be the best price to market the property.
The Realtor will want to explain to the seller how he/she will be marketing the property. The agent will explain what websites, signs, open houses and/ or other forms of marketing that will be used. It is important for the seller to understand the efforts the Realtor will make in order to sell the property.
After the Realtor explains what mediums will be used to market the property he/she will want to sit down with the sellers/owners and go over the listing agreement. The Realtor will go over all the details of the agreement and have the sellers sign and initial where needed. This is also the time where the agent will guide the sellers as to what price would be the best to market the property. The agent will use his or her expertise and knowledge and the information from the competitive market analysis to suggest a listed price. Once the price is agreed upon and the listing agreement is signed, the agent will then send the listing agreement and disclosures to the broker. The process of what happens after the listing presentation should also be explained to the seller/owner.
For instance, once the broker receives the listing agreement, the broker/owner will review it and sign it. The broker is responsible for getting the listing agreement back to the Realtor as soon as possible, so that the agent can not only provide the seller with the contract but also list the property on the MLS. The property needs to be listed on the MLS within 5 days after the broker signs the agreement. This begins the marketing period for the listing of the property.
Hiring a Realtor
When you are thinking of buying or selling real estate hiring a realtor is not easy decision. Real estate agents are licensed professionals requiring completion of initial educational requirements and to maintain their license is required throughout their career to take continuing education courses. It is not an easy task to become a licensed realtor and to succeed requires time, energy, creativity and money. Most real estate agents are independent contractors which means they pay their own expenses no matter if the market is booming or bust. As with most parts of the country real estate jobs are currently plentiful but opportunities are there for the taking if you have that entrepreneur spirit that most successful real estate agents possess.
When hiring a realtor most people think they do nothing all day but drive around in their big cars, show a few homes, go to the country club and pick up a big check every few weeks. Nothing is further from the truth. The true job description of a successful real estate agent is longer than most CEO’s of major corporations. Agents are small or big depending on their success, independent business owners who must be counselors, financial experts, expert negotiators, educators, marketing specialists, public relations experts, and more often than not a chauffeur. When it comes to buying or selling real estate there is little a real estate agent does not do for their customer or client.
Real estate jobs in major metropolitan areas offer their own set of challenges and hiring a realtor is no different. With most metropolitan areas which cover hundreds of square miles, as an agent how do you choose what areas in which to work? Obviously you would like to work close to home but that is not always possible or the best choice. Agents many times travel long distances and work long hours to service their customers and clients. Real estate agents derive most of their business from friends, family, and the referrals they generate which means they will list or show property over the entire metro area as well as surrounding suburbs and counties.
The real estate business can be a rewarding career but not for the faint of heart. The market offers many challenges and opportunities for those who possess that entrepreneurial spirit and are willing to put in the time and effort required to be successful. For those of us who have made real estate a lifelong career there is no other job or career that can compare.
Tips for Putting Your Home on the Market
Tips for Putting your Home on the Market
Selling your home can be a stressful process. Many people do not realize the work that goes into putting your home on the market. The reality usually sets in after the seller has met with a real estate agent and the agent has given them a different perspective on what the seller thought was the perfect home. It is very important to know some tips for selling your home.
Make sure to hire a reliable real estate agent. This means, someone who will work hard for you and be available to you when you need him/her. Also, see if you can get an agent through a referral. Start asking around and see what people have to say. This will give you confidence when choosing the right realtor.
You also want to make sure that you are not wasting any time on buyers who are just looking or are not interested. Too many times, sellers and agents spend many hours and a lot of energy trying to convince people to purchase when they are just not ready. Focus on the motivated buyers. Work with your agent to determine who the motivated buyers are. Maybe the buyer is on a deadline, this includes people who are relocating for a job, investors who are on tax deadlines, college students and staff who need to get in before the school year, etc. I think you get the point. Find out more about the buyers who are viewing your property and see what their situation is.
When putting your home on the market, it is a good idea to make sure that you price it to sell. A home that is priced too high for the market, will almost never sell! Make sure to price it low right off the bat. If you start high and do small price increases, you are just wasting time. Price it low, get some activity. If you do it right, you will price low and sell high!
It is always a good idea to have good curb appeal. This includes, sprucing up the landscaping, cleaning the gutters and touching up the paint. You want to keep the buyers safety in mind by making sure the stairs and walkways are clear and free of clutter. Speaking of free of clutter, always remember less is more. The less furniture and décor you have, the bigger the space feels. Having just the right amount, will give any place a cozy and spacious feel! Again consulting with a realtor when putting your home on the market would be a good first step as they will assist you with letting you know how to prepare before selling your home. Go to OwnACondo.com to learn more about putting your home on the market!
Choosing a Realtor
There are many factors that need to be taken into consideration when you are choosing a Realtor to represent you. In making your decision to work with an agent, the first question you should ask is whether the agent is a registered Realtor. The term Realtor is a registered collective membership mark that identifies a real estate professional who is a member of the National Association of Realtors and who subscribes to its strict Code of Ethics. By knowing whether or not he/she is a realtor, you can conclude that the agent has to lawfully abide by all the rules and regulations within Real Estate Law.
When choosing a Realtor, you also want to know if the agent has an active real estate license in good standing. You can always check with your states governing agency to get this information. It is also important to know if your agent belongs to the multiple listing service. For either buyer or seller, this information is important to know because this explains how much access the realtor will have to the current market.
Knowing whether or not real estate is the agent’s full time career is beneficial as well because it allows you to assume that full time agents usually dedicate their days for real estate activities. There are some agents who only do Real Estate part -time, which could limit their availability they may have for you. For the most part full time agents are well informed as to what is going on in the market and they seem to have greater availability in terms of showings and/or marketing.
You may also want to find out if the agent holds any specific real estate designations. What do they specialize in if anything? Have they furthered their education in any way in the real estate arena? This could be another measure as to how serious the agent may be about Real Estate.
In exchange for your commitment, how is this agent going to help you accomplish your goals? If you are a seller, this could include knowing what the agent's marketing plan will be. If you are a buyer, this could include what their availability is like for showing homes; also what properties do they have in mind that meets your expectations.
The bottom line is that when choosing an agent to work with you in a real estate transaction, it is important to know the specifics about the agent and interview them to make sure that he/she is what you are looking for.
Best Chicago Condos
Where can you find the best Chicago condos?  Chicago is such a mix of cultures and nationalities with over 77 different neighborhoods that condo buyers have a variety of choices from the more upscale Gold Coast to the excitement of River North. There is no place like the city of Chicago and all it has to offer from the dozens of museums to professional sports for those who want to live in one of the most exciting cities in the world. Chicago condos have become one of the fastest growing segments in the residential real estate market for first time homebuyers or those looking to experience the excitement of downtown living.
There are literally hundreds of condos to choose from at almost any price. There are several major developments currently going on downtown and many developers are rolling out new incentives for pre-construction Chicago condos. Some developers are offering credits as high as $30,000 toward furniture as well as the services of a professional interior designer who sign up before a deadline. Others developers are offering a wide range of incentives from free parking spaces to options on floor plans at no cost and price guarantees.
Some of the best Chicago condos are scattered throughout the city and below are just a few.
- 1720 and 1819 S Michigan Avenue in the South Loop
- Emerald Condominiums in Greektown
- Waterview Tower Condominiums on Wacker
- Glashaus Condos on Wabash
- 235 Van Buren Condominiums
- The Chicago Spire
- Odyssey Lofts on West Jackson
- Park Kingbury Lofts on North Kingsbury
There is no better time to start looking for the best Chicago condos than now. Interest rates are low and pricing is the most reasonable in years with developers and sellers offering incentives to make their units stand out. That is why choosing the right Real Estate Agent to represent and market your property is a smart move. Your agent will review with you the different kinds of listing agreements or sales contracts and recommend the structure that would work best for your marketplace and property. But no matter who you choose, always look for these four parts in the agreement.
1.           Timing - duration of the agreement should be clearly stated
2.           Compensation - fee structure and payout
3.           Cancellation - What happens if you wish to cancel the contract
4.           Disputes - How will disputes be handled.
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The agreement is an important document. Read and understand all sections and if you don't ask a real estate professional or attorney.
Hiring Chicago Real Estate Agents
OwnACondo.com is hiring Chicago real estate agents for its Chicago River North office along with the expansion to Miami, Los Angeles and New York. If you are a full or part time agent and would like more information on becoming an OwnACondo.com Realtor, please call Brian at 877.627.5543 or email him at BK@OwnACondo.com.
OwnACondo.com is hiring real estate agents to fill many roles. First and foremost is the daily leads coming in from all the outdoor advertising the company does. Currently, OwnACondo.com has 400 outdoor impressions all over Chicago on park benches and billboards bringing in dozens of daily leads. We turn over these leads to our Realtors based on the area the customer wants to be serviced. We have customers calling from every part of the Chicago area.Â
Secondly, we’re hiring Chicago Realtors to help us with all the development listings that are coming in right now. Over the last few weeks OwnACondo.com listed over 250 units in five developments. These projects need to be staffed and today will most likely bring in even more leads and listings. We need help! If you’re looking for an opportunity to receive leads on a daily basis please call us.
Additionally at OwnACondo.com, for every licensed Realtor you refer in to the company, you will receive 4% of every closing of that agent. For instance, if you refer Jane Doe to OwnACondo.com and she sells four units a month, you’ll receive 4% of any sales commission she makes, as long as you are licensed with us and she is licensed with us. This 4% comes out of the company’s end, not out of Jane Doe’s.
OwnACondo.com is not only hiring Chicago real estate agents, but they are hiring Miami, New York and Los Angeles Realtors as well. The website is being optimized to start excepting leads for these areas and we should be networking with individuals from these areas soon. We’re expecting to have physical offices in these areas by the end of 2009. If you know of anyone that may be interested in joining OwnACondo.com for these other areas, you would also receive a 4% refer fee on their transactions.
OwnACondo.com is a full service licensed Illinois broker in Illinois focusing on condos throughout all of Chicago. A complete United States expansion is expected over the next 60 months.
Hiring Chicago Real Estate Agents
OwnACondo.com is hiring Chicago real estate agents to fill a number of needs currently. Over the last two weeks, OwnACondo.com has listed five developments totaling more than 300 units throughout the Chicago metro area. We need real estate agents that would like to help out on these condo developments. Secondly, OwnACondo.com markets all over the Chicago area creating a number of condo buyers and condo sellers registering on our website daily. We need help in servicing all these customers.
Just imagine waking up each morning with well over twenty five people needing help on either buying a condominium or selling a condominium. That’s what happens to us everyday of the week. Then we get another 25-50 calls throughout the day live with people looking for help. We basically need more help to keep up with the flow.Â
How does OwnACondo.com produce all these daily leads? It comes from a number of sources but basically OwnACondo.com has put over five million in marketing their brand name throughout the Chicago are over the last thirty six months. They have advertised their name on the right field wall of the Chicago White Sox in 2006, 2007 & 2008. Additionally they were in Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, with a 4x32 foot banner on the first base line for the 2008 season. Next they put over 400 neighborhood and expressway billboards up all over the Chicago area in the last thirty six months. This started driving leads in at a crazy level. They went from ten Chicago real estate agents in 2006 to eight five Realtor in Chicago today.
Eighty five is not enough to keep up. OwnACondo.com is hiring Chicago real estate agents to not only handle the lead flow today but to be prepared for what is upcoming over the next three quarters. In addition to the outdoor advertising campaign in place today, they are working on website optimization. This ranks them very high on a “Google Search†when a certain keyword is inputted. They are on page one of more than 100 condo related keyword phrases. This is just the start. Their goal is to be on the first page on Google on more than 1,000 condo related keyword phrases by Christmas 2009.
Lastly, they will be running a television campaign in the fall of 2009. With hundreds of thirty second TV commercials, hundred of page ranking from Google and more than 400 outdoor impressions, OwnACondo.com needs to be ready to service five time s the leads it has today.
If you are a licensed real estate agent and have an interest in finding out more about OwnACondo.com, they are currently looking to hire Chicago real estate agents. Please contact Brian at 877.627.5543 for more information about becoming a Realtor for OwnACondo.com.
Hiring Chicago Real Estate Agents
We need more real estate agents! OwnACondo.com is hiring Chicago real estate agents to fill the gaps. Currently we’re receiving too many leads on a daily basis to keep up to level of service we’d like top give our customers. Each agent in OwnACondo.com that takes leads receives a lead based on the territory they want to work. If a customer calls us today wanting to buy or sell a condominium in the River North area of Chicago, we hand it over to an agent that wants to service that area as well.
The leads are given by territory, but an agent can take as many territories as they’d like, as long as they can handle everything. We have some real estate agents handling Chicago that only want to take leads in one zip code and we have others that will service all territories. It really comes down to you.
Why does OwnACondo.com get so many leads? At this moment in time, OwnACondo.com has over 400 outdoor impressions throughout the entire Chicago area. Park benches, bus stops and billboards make up the outdoor. This is a start. First off, can you think of any other real estate company that has 400 outdoor, let alone any brand? This makes the phone ring every fifteen minutes at our office. Next, OwnACondo.com is focused on website optimization. This means that when you type in a keyword phrase in Google, where do you rank? OwnACondo.com now ranks on the first page of several hundred pages and is not stopping there. For starters, you can type in the phrase find a condo, finance a condo, sell a condo, buy a condo, buy a condo in Chicago, Chicago area condos, hiring Chicago Realtors, Chicago condominiums and buy Chicago condominiums, OwnACondo.com, the company, comes up on the first page of results. I’ve just listed nine phrases. There are hundreds of phrases that we rank on the first page of results.
What does this mean for Chicago real estate agents looking to be hired by us? Lots and lots of leads. People click on us constantly looking to buy or sell a condo. We take the lead in through either a website registration or a phone call. We qualify the lead and then dispatch it out to our condo experts.Â
If you’d like to find out how to get more information about becoming a real estate agent in Chicago for OwnACondo.com, contact us at 877.627.5543 for more info.
