Gabriel Duque's Blog

To increase the property value there are a group of things that can be done some should be approached by the owner and others by the realtor

The owner should take care of all the aspects of the house that require their attention as painting, decorating and removing any object that is not needed from the home. If needed he/she can contact a storage space to remove extra furniture and clothes that are not used on a daily basis.:

•1.     Paint the exterior

•2.     Complete all needed repairs

•3.     Furnish the home to sell. (contract a decorator)

•4.     Upgrade front yard landscaping (try professional landscaping)

•5.     Create a quick kitchen makeover

•6.     Think spa, not bathroom

•7.     Install soft and hard window treatments

•8.     Replace carpet rather than just cleaning

•9.     Don't overlook your closets

The job of the realtor is to increase the exposure of the property and help the owner keep the peace of mind of the buyer:

•1.     Purchase a home warranty (peace of mind of the buyer)

•2.     Contract a virtual tour of the property that must be placed in realtor.com and other websites.

•3.     Make flyer that can be downloaded from the webpage and place the add in other web-pages.

When the owner and the realtor take care of all these points and the home is placed in the market at the appropriate price the house will sell in as short time as possible.

To obtain the maximum Internet exposure for your listing  and to increase the SEO of your web page you may contact Virtual Florida Real Tours that is a fully authorized dealer of RTV the number 1one virtual tour provider. We serve the areas of Miami Dade and Broward counties. Do not hesitate to call us at

(305) 331 8960

A Key to Selling Homes

There are three Key Factors in Selling Real Estate

•1.       Fair Price

•2.       Location

•3.       EXPOSURE

Virtual Florida Tours is your best way to get your listings exposed! We are a full service dealer provider with RTV, the world largest network of virtual tour providers and an approved vendor with realtor.com. Our company is locally owned and operated virtual tour provider in Miami Dade, Florida. Our company serves Miami Dade and Broward counties, Included in this area are the cities of Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Pine Crest, Palmetto Bay, Hallandale, and Fort Lauderdale.

NAR statistics recently show that about 86% of home buyers use the Internet when they begin searching for a home, and 67% of current home buyers in Florida come from outside the state. You will not be able to reach this market by using a yard sign and local advertising. In today's market exposure has become critical and Virtual Florida Tours has a distribution list that outperforms our competition.

Our Virtual Tours will show your information, ensuring to brand the online exposure you and your company need to compete in today's challenging market. The virtual tour will have links to your personal and your company's web site; will show your business partners as well as your phone and your email address. Therefore the prospect viewing the tour is constantly exposed to your information making it easier to contact you.

Additionally to the traditional virtual tour you will find Area Information, an excellent Mortgage Calculator, and Satellite View of the property. You can also contract additional requests that include:

Professional Narration, Custom Pintable Flyers and Interactive Floor Plans

Single property websites and Panoriders

We are always striving for excellence and our real value is created by the quality of the service and support that we provide to our customers. Our main priority is your complete satisfaction and we see the success of our customers as our ultimate goal. Allow us the opportunity to serve you on your next virtual tour and you will see why our customers like Gustavo Lopez consider our company the difference between on sale and SOLD!

11761 Recently Virtual Florida Tours made a virtual tour of this gorgeous home equal to none, in excellent condition. Absolutely fabulous. Formal living and dining rooms, immense kitchen with fantastic informal dining area. Updated bathrooms and kitchen. Stainless appliances. Extra large family room with beautiful stone wall and decorator's touches, overlooks a private & cozy terrace & patio with fountains. Very large inside laundry rm. Bonus rm could be den, office. You must see this home inside. Excellent neighborhood & schools.

This single Family one story Property in Dade County was Built in 1968. with 3 total bedroom(s) and 2 total full bath(s) has approximately 1813 sq. ft. Central air conditioning and Central heat

Interior features: First Floor Entry,Dishwasher, Dryer, Microwave, Refrigerator, Washer,Bedroom on Entry Level
Exterior features: Exterior Lighting, Fence, Hurricane Shutters, Patio, Room For Pool,Front exposed to North
Shingle Roof the lot has aproximately 7500 sq. ft. 

If you are interested in this home please contact Zizi Careaga 305-987-0211
12695 S. Dixie Hwy
Miami, FL US  33156

While at least eighty percent or more of today's buyers begin their search on the Web. These prospective buyers expect their agents to provide them  with accurate data  consistently and quickly apart from their ability to email. When an agent ignores this pool of buyers he/she will have a difficult time in the business¹.

Everyone is recommending an improved presence of the agents in the Internet. Mr. Taverner says. "you are what you Web." People are going to look at websites and select an agent by what they see as their virtual brochure on the Internet"².

All agents must remember that real estate, like most other sales positions, is a numbers game. You need to contact enough people that want what you have to offer, enough times, and you will make sales¹.Exposure is the most important factor to remember when marketing your listing online. Post multiple images of your listing everywhere you can. Put them on your website, your MLS, Yahoo!, Google, etc. Any good virtual tour provider will distribute your images to the major real estate websites for you³.

To transform online traffic into foot traffic, you could announce  your open houses on your virtual tour and website. Doing this will make your open houses more effective since you are driving qualified foot traffic right to your doorstep³.

Virtual Florida Tours will provide you with a complete statistics of who and from where they are viewing your tour. Knowing this will allow you to decide which are the marketing tools that are working for you increasing your return on investment.. The data obtained will allow you to show your clients what you are doing to market their home and use it in your listing presentations³.

Remember that today's customer is becoming an expert in almost every field. This false confidence on their Internet acquired knowledge, these prospects lack trust on professional services and they have a big desire to cut out the middleman. So in this times of Internet informed customers you need to offer your client more than they can easily obtain or secure on their own through the Internet⁴.

Also the existence of a second domain name that is related to the city or region to which you provide your service and is not so evident that it is your own website will help bring traffic to your site, This second website has to be branded for legal reasons and should contain full disclosure about the fact that the site is yours must be easy to find, but it will not be placed in the first page. You may place all your information in the contact us page⁵.

Reference:

•1.     Nelson  Nancy ; Why-do-Some-Agents-Succeed-in-any-Market-and-Others-Falter-3 ; Retrieved from the Internet at: http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-09-13/viewpoints-why-do-some-agents-succeed-in-any-market-and-others-falter-3/

•2.     Tavener ,Mike; "The-Right-Tools-for-Success"; retrieved from the Internet at: http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-09-13/the-right-tools-for-success/

•3.     Roberts , Tyler;" Why Do Some Agents Succeed in Any Market and Others Falter?"; retrieved from the Internet at:, http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-09-06/viewpoints-why-do-some-agents-succeed-in-any-market-and-others-falter-2/

•4.     Wester , Fayette; "‘Prosumerism' and Your Business - Friend or Foe?"; Retrieved from the Internet at:http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-09-10/%e2%80%98prosumerism-and-your-business-friend-or-foe/

•5.     Proctor, Craig; "How to Generate More Leads and Track Your Ads with Multiple Domain Names"; Retrieved from the Internet at: http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-09-09/how-to-generate-more-leads-and-track-your-ads-with-multiple-domain-names/

To create an excellent team environment it is necessary to learn to hear the opinions of your subordinates, even when you do not totally agree whit their opinion. The solutions they propose could show new ways to address your problems. The difficulties that exist in your organization need to be discovered in order to solve them.

If you start reacting against the persons that show the difficulties you will not receive the needed information that will allow you to improve your team.

Sometimes it is better to develop a way to receive anonymous information avoiding the risk of people being scared to blow the whistle.

While you keep the door of your office open remember to ask questions that help you measure the climate of your team. The best way to understand other person's ideas is on face to face conversations.

Reference: Mantor, George W.; "6 Ways to Lead through Listening", retrieved from the internet at: http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-09-11/6-ways-to-lead-through-listening/

Hanley Wood has made an excellent economic study on how difficult is the situation on the real estate market; She is playing with the ghost of inflation and flagging the banner of doom. I will admit that the situation is not precisely the most favorable but when she is looking at her glass and saying that it is half empty. At the same time multiple realtors around the country are excelling in this market and even though the sales market did declined 2.6% this implied that 4,733,000 houses changed their owner in that month.

So, what are the successful real estate agents doing? They are increasing their presence in the Internet and in their farm areas. They are showing their customers that they are not only the more knowledgeable person in their market they are widening their possible clientele since they are using new techniques like virtual tours.

When a realtor uses virtual tours he/she goes one step further in the International market. Now not only the realtors and clients on their city can have an access to their listings. The use of the Internet allows everyone to reach you and your velocity on responding to your clients will ensure your share of the market.

If you are still not convinced that the glass is half full just think of this 0.01% of the houses sold in June represent 47.3 houses. My very modest opinion is that we can fight for at least one of these 47 houses with teeth and claws. To do this you need to apply all the new technologies available to increase our presence in the Internet, we also need to have automatic systems allowing us to respond to the prospects as soon as possible. You should also not forget the ranking of your page on the Internet. Increasing the SEO of your page is a must.

The word most realtors are hearing recently is cahallenge. Undoubtedly there is a significant challenge in the real estate industry so realtors need to think and actimplementing out of the box ideas.

Realtors need to increase sales, generate new leads, and get know by the community where they live. agents and brokers alike are looking for diverse and unique methods. Realtors need to implement tools that allow them to connect with clients and obtaining a competitive edge above the competitors has proven positive for many. One such tool is virtual tours to help boost business.

The realtors need to understand the great difficulties that their customers are undergoing while selling or buying a home this will help create a valuable relationship.

The real estate market is in recesion in Miami Dade and Broward counties so a way to reach customers from other parts of the country and other countries is using the Internet and buyers all around the world mention the use of virtual tours as a way to select their homes.

In this times that all the Real Estate Agents are hearing is that the market is shrinking, there is still a certain part of the real estate market that is continuously expanding.

As health care improves the number of Americans reaching their senior years is increasing at a tremendous pace. Some of them choose to live in active retirement communities while others look at facilities that allow them the assistance needed for their needs.

According the US census there were 37.3 million people over age 65 living in the United States in 2006 that is approximately 12 % of the US population. Not forget that this number is growing exponentially and is expected to increase to around 86.7 million people by the year 2050.

This market is spread all around the country and Florida is an excellent place for retirement due to its excellent climate. To address the needs of this growing community  REaltors shoulkd increase the Interenet presence of their lisitng using virtual tours to increase the possibilities of obtaining a share of this market.

To prepare Realtors to focus on this growing group of the population the National Association of Realtors created the SRES designation. Those Realtors interested in addressing the needs of Americans ages 50 and over need to understand that it is not easy for people to downsize or move from their homes, therefore to cope with the stress generated you will need a lot of patience, but on the other hand you will be rewarded with the knowledge that you helped a person to obtain a better living condition.

Based on this and the continuous need of learning to correctly serve the community it will be a good time to go back to school and obtain the SRES designation.

If you are a number person is about time that you pay attention to some NAR statistics.
According to NAR over 80% of home owners work with the first real estate agent they come in contact with.
87% of home buyers start their search on the Internet and one out of twenty of these buyers are already ready to buy.

The question is simple Who do you think has the highest probability to be this first realtor in this world dominated by the Internet? Someone that has not even a webpage or the one whose presence in the Internet is such that his webpage shows in the first page of any search on your farming area. That is accomplished by increasing the SEO of your Webpage.

Based on NAR houses are sold on average every five years so you only need to stay personally in touch with around 150 prosppects to generate 30 sales a year. Remember you  will need to excel in your business to be their realtor.

So how you can differentiate from your competition again by showing a good use of the Internet and the different possibilities this tool offers. You need to have a consistent use of virtual tours, panoriders, a fast response to your clients by using automatic services, and last but not least you need to keep in contact with your previous customers on a periodical basis.

If you are just starting to work as a realtor one sure way to increase your prospects is by targeting expired listings.This omes did not sell because either they were incorrectly priced or the terms were unreasonable.

Houses that are built in a bad location need to reflect this in their price. Since is very unprobable that the homeowner will list again with the previous realtor here is something you can do.After you get i contact with the expired owner ask them why they think that their house did not sell. Listen for several minutes most people just want to be heard.

Offer them your services and a detail analysis why their house did not sell, remember to get an appointment to show them this as soon as possible.

Reference: Wickman, Floyd: "I quit real estate- part 4" retrieved from the Internet at: http://brokeragentpro.com/viewArticle.html?ArticleID=1495

After reading a recent article by Phillip Cantrell I realized that our blog should share it since some of the information in that article was extremely important and clarifies the present situation of the real estate Industry.

It is true that the number of sales went low in June it is also true that from the 120 million homes existing in the U.S. more than 33% are already paid in full, around 40 million of the remaining were bought before the year 2000 so even in a fire sale they will have a minimum of 30% equity.

On the other hand according to all the information available 94% of the houses are not behind in their payments  therefore only 4 million homes are at a risk and of those only 2% are in foreclosure.

For these owners that made a bad decision the Congress is about to spend $300 billion dollars to save their houses, so despite all the talking the situation is not a s bad as some people are placing it.

One of the many ways in which Virtual Florida Tours tries to serve the community is by keeping the realtors serving the areas of Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Miami, Pine Crest, Hallandale, Fort Lauderdale and the rest of Miami Dade and Broward Counties informed of the real situation of the market in which they carry their business.