Custom Home Construction On Streaming Video

Some things are just meant to be. In my article Tale of Two Investors, "Jack" was looking for an investment opportunity. We had found several to consider… and placed offers on many of them - but we could not come to terms with any of the owners regarding the price.

A few weeks ago, a foreclosure that I had been watching finally dropped from an unreasonable price to a really good price… so we took a closer look. Although it would need a major renovation, the numbers looked very strong - so we prepared an offer.

Unfortunately, the listing agent beat us out of this one and put it under contract very quickly at this new price. We were genuinely disappointed, as it was the first property we had been able to get excited about in quite some time.

Fast forward to a few days ago. I am scanning the MLS for a residential lot in Gwinnett County that is on a stream, river or lake… when I stumble upon a one acre lakefront lot in Snellville. Wasting no time, I quickly hop in my car to drive over to look at this parcel - and call Reggie Eberhart of RJ Taylor Construction to meet me there.

It didn’t take us very long to realize that this is a great location to build an RJ Taylor house, so I called Jack to ask him how he felt about building a house - instead of renovating one.

"I can’t get over to look at the lot until Saturday," he said.

"This lot may not be available on Saturday," I replied.

"Then I’ll just have to take your word for it," Jack said. "Write it up and send the contract over."

So sight unseen, Jack agrees to purchase the lot. And Saturday, Jack and his wife met with me and Reggie over at their new property. We talked about some of the plans they liked… and settled on the plan that will most likely be used for this construction.

Needless to say, Jack and his wife were pleased with the lot… and they have generously agreed to allow us to film the construction and construction process so that others may benefit from this experience. If we can get them over being so camera-shy, we might get them on video, as well.

The first hurdle is for us to perform our due diligence in regards to establishing that we can build on this property… and determining what all the various requirements shall be. We don’t anticipate any insurmountable problems - but they could occur… and we will rescind the contract through our due diligence contingency if we must.

I’m really looking forward to this!

Short Listing Periods Are Not Useful To Anyone 

This week, I have received several calls from sellers inquiring about our services… and in each conversation, the sellers would not list their properties for more than 90 days.

We will not take a full-service listing for only 90 days

Listing a property can be a simple process… but it can also be an extensive one. For us, there is substantial research to be performed to help our clients establish a proper list price… including previewing some of the listings that our client will be competing with.

Then we have to gear up the marketing - often including our single property websites. These materials must be designed, produced, and checked for accuracy - then published. It is not uncommon for more than 60 hours to be spent on this stage of the process.

With a current inventory of properties in the Atlanta metro area rapidly approaching a 12 month supply, taking a 90 day listing would not make any sense - unless, of course, the seller would list the property at a below-market price.

"But I don’t want to be locked into a long-term agreement!"

Sometimes, sellers believe a short listing period will keep them from being locked into another agreement with an agent who they feel "isn’t aggressive enough". While I can sympathize with their sentiments - more often than not, the reason their agent couldn’t sell their property was because the price was too high.

For example, today I called the listing agent of a property we placed an offer on a few weeks ago. This agent is NOT the agent who represented the seller when we placed the offer - he’s the NEW agent. He took the listing for $185K ($5K less than the previous listing) and they have recently reduced it to $180K.

I expect the price to drop to $175K before an offer will come in… unless, of course, we resubmit our offer.

Another home we viewed in that area finally went under contract after being on the market for over a year and listed with several agents. Was it the new agent that made the difference? No - after over a year at the price tag of $250K the seller finally reduced the price to $235K and voila - a contract was presented.

In both of these examples, the previous listing agents worked hard to try to get the sellers the most for their properties - yet they received no compensation for their efforts.

"They shouldn’t have taken those over-priced listings!"

Now while some might argue "if those agents were worth their salt, they wouldn’t have taken those over-priced listings", and while I agree with that sentiment in principle - it doesn’t always work that way in practice.

On several occasions, I have taken a listing for a higher price than I felt was attainable, only to find out I was wrong. Ultimately, the price is set by the seller - and I respect that. If the seller is way out of line - I’ll pass on that listing.

Won’t shorter listing periods make the agent work harder?

Not really. In fact, the agent might try to convince you to take a lower offer than you should - just because of the short listing period. Who is helped by that strategy?

The only way for an agent to be certain that a sale is likely within the 90 day window is to be sure that the listing is taken at a low price. Who is helped by that strategy?

How fast do you really need to sell your property?

If you need a quick sale, and you are willing to price your property below market for a quick sale - then I can understand the short listing period. But this is seldom the situation with most sellers.

My advice is to find an agent you can relate to - someone who can explain the process and how you can work together to achieve the goal of selling the property. If you relate well with them - give them enough time to do their job.

For the most part - 90 days ain’t gonna cut it. 

Making Portable Video Content Available

When I first started using online streaming of my listings, there were very few people who used a high-speed Internet connection - and therefore very few people could enjoy the work I created - and it IS a lot of work.

Lately, using Google Analytics, I have noticed that the overwhelming majority of my visitors are using a high-speed Internet connection… with less than 3% using a dialup connection.

That’s good news, for me. I have wanted to return to video for a long time - and the time has arrived. It now makes sense.

As a bonus, the price of video ipods is very attractive - and more people are buying  them… and USING them. Many of these ipod users travel on public transportation and have the time to enjoy music and video while in transit.

So from now on, I’ll not only be encoding high quality flash video for streaming - I am adding mp4 videos for each of the streaming flash videos for the ipod users.

Although these files are good sized - my webhost gives me more than enough space to host these files. 300Gigs of space, to be precise.

I am also upgrading my approach to my single property websites to include video, as well.