“The learning curve isn’t as steep as people think it is,” said Len Elder, a technology teacher at Hogan School of Real Estate and co-founder of a tech training company, Course Creators. “You can’t afford to not do things differently. Business is being done on here every day.”
Rosey Koberlein, CEO of Long Companies, can attest to the value of the avenues available through new technologies.
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After attending a course with Elder and his partner in Course Creators, Theresa Barnabei, Koberlein jumped into online social networking. She has been on Facebook for a little more than a month now.
“If you’re not on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or something, you’re losing out,” she said. “It is not all young people on there, that is a misconception. Baby boomers are actually gravitating to social networking.”
Not only are they gravitating to the social networking sites, but they are doing it at a much more rapid pace than ever before.
Nearly one-third of adult Internet users ages 45 to 63 have a profile on a social networking site, up from 8 percent in 2005, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
“These social networking sites give you a forum to put yourself out there and allow you to differentiate yourself any way you want,” Barnabei said. “There are many Realtors out there, and they’re not all the same. You can show up how you want to be represented.”
Although social network is underutilized in the industry, Koberlein warns real estate agents to keep it professional when they’re using such sites to promote themselves.
“If I am a successful Realtor, I can’t be typing things up there like, ‘I feel down today’ or ‘I want a Dove ice cream bar’,” Koberlein said. “That defeats the purpose. Professionals need to keep it business oriented. I should be putting up there that more homes were sold this week than last week. I am seeing a real mixture right now and I think it waters the effectiveness down.”
Michael Oliver, a Realtor with Tierra Antigua Realty, has put most of his time and effort into his website and his blog.
“You are always only a click away from a customer going to someone else’s site,” Oliver said. “I try to make it all encompassing and make it a lot different than the average website. I really want it to be a real resource for the reader and build it as a brand.”
Where most any real estate agent’s site will allow you to search for a home while telling you some information about the agent, Oliver designed his site to provide more than just what is on the market.
He has a forum where visitors can discuss the economy, politics, local sports, mortgage information, real estate-owned and foreclosed properties and problems with real estate transactions. He also has a section about neighborhoods in the region, a history of Tucson and information about HUD homes.
“A website is overrated if it is just a savvy business card for you,” Barnabei said. “But if you are sharing information and your site is not static it is great tool people can latch onto. But that is what also makes a blog so great.”
Oliver treats his blog like a business blog focusing on Tucson real estate and avoids personal posts.
“I try to view it from a reader’s standpoint and build it from there,” he said. “I try to keep it specific to Tucson but I do put some national real estate news on there. It is a way that I can possibly broaden my reader base and while someone who reads it may not be moving out here themselves, they may know someone who is someday.”
When it comes to new technology, Koberlein said there is one thing no real estate agent should be without: a smartphone.
“That is without a doubt the most valuable tool to a Realtor right now,” Koberlein said. “If you’re not getting your e-mails pushed to your phone and you are away from your computer for four to six hours showing property, you are out of the loop for too long. I could never give up a smartphone.”
According to Elder and Banabei, the real benefit in social networking is making the things we already do easier.
“I don’t think social networking will ever replace the value we place on a handshake or a birthday card,” Barnabei said. “But now many of the people you connect with have their birthday listed on their page and it makes it that much easier to do those things we should be doing.”
Elder agreed that social networking won’t replace those things, but he said it helps him identify 10 times more people he wants shake hands with and send birthday or thank you cards to.
“There are many great connections I never would have made if it hadn’t been for Facebook,” he said.
Cost of new home includes almost 13% in fees, taxes
Impact fees and surcharges make up 12.8 percent of the sales price of a new home in the Tucson region, according to data compiled by the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association.
The average total of impact fees and surcharges for a 2,100 square foot home was $27,587 last year. As of February, the median price for a new home was $214,364, according to John Strobeck, of Bright Future Business Consultants.
The impact fees and surcharges include the building permit, water meter, water system development, wastewater fee, Central Arizona Project replenishment, and impact fees for roads, parks, police and fire; plus state and local sales taxes.
The lowest fees and taxes in the region totaled $20,770 on a new home in unincorporated Pima County. Moving up from that, Sahuarita’s fees and taxes total $24,098, Tucson’s are $25,771, Marana totals $30,921 and the highest is Oro Valley, at $36,373.
“During this recession, government fees that raise costs on new homes have a negative, devastating impact on demand,” said Roger Yohem, vice president of SAHBA.
Long goes mobile
Long Realty has launched a website specifically for Web-enabled mobile phone users: m.longrealty.com. The site provides agents and consumers access to listings for any home in the market.
“The best part of this is that when one of our agents is out showing a home and the client sees a home down the street also for sale, the agent can pull up all the information immediately right on his or her phone,” said Rosey Koberlein, CEO of Long Companies.
Foreclosures, mortgage delinquency rates rise
Although mortgage foreclosures in the Tucson region were up in February, the percentage was below the national average, according to data from First American CoreLogic in Santa Ana, Calif.
This February 1.1 percent of mortgages in the Tucson region were in foreclosure, up from 0.8 percent in February 2008. The national average for February was 1.7 percent.
First American CoreLogic also reported that 3.8 percent of Tucson mortgages are 90 days or more delinquent, up from 2.4 percent in February 2008 and well below the state average of 7 percent or the national average of 5 percent.
Submit items for Real Estate & Construction to jpangburn@azbiz.com. This feature appears weekly.
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