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Home is where the house is

By Alison Rogers, Monday, October 13, 2008.

We are slowly nearing the sale of my beloved beach house, which I bought with boom real estate profits in 2001. I had wanted an apartment, but my then-Realtor (and now my current boss) convinced me that a two-family house would make much more sense in terms of financial planning flexibility.

"You can live in one half, and you can always rent out the other half," he said. "If you keep the house long enough, that will provide retirement income." more...

Going beyond Post-it

By Alison Rogers, Monday, October 6, 2008.

I am trying SO HARD to be a grown-up, and the world just keeps socking me in the face.

For one, I decide that 2009 would be the year that I start advertising. Since I've been making minimal money, I've been spending minimal money -- and what I've been doing so far is buying nice gifts and meals for my most intimate circle. That is appreciated but I want to do more, and I'm finally at the point where I'll be able to afford a little more spending. more...

Mastering referrals: Part 2

By Alison Rogers, Monday, September 29, 2008.

ROOKIE: Last week you talked about asking your closest sphere for help, marketing to other agents, and how to handle a less-than-top-quality referral. Will you share some of your database secrets? How big are your spheres?

CHRISNER: As far as my personal sphere, I have a tiered system: an "A" is someone I've done a transaction with who has referred me or attempted to refer me. There are 63 of those. A "B" is someone who I think would refer me, but the right opportunity hasn't come yet. I've got 79 of those. Then there's the Cs -- hundreds of people who I have relationships with, who know me and recognize my name ... more...

Q&A: mastering referrals

By Alison Rogers, Monday, September 22, 2008.

Real estate agents know that one key to success in the business is chasing referrals. What would happen if you decided to make that your primary focus? I checked in with Vicky Chrisner, a Keller Williams real estate consultant in Northern Virginia, who has done exactly that.

ROOKIE: When did you get started in real estate? more...

Stayin' alive in a shrunken real estate market

By Alison Rogers, Monday, September 15, 2008.

So we just had this discussion in the office today: How are we going to increase business?

Five years ago, lots of real estate agents knew the answer to that question: We can just get a share of an ever-increasing market! Home-ownership rates had been trending up and there were about 6 million transactions a year, so eager salespeople would just sell newbies their first home or boomers their second. more...

The big real estate marketing blitz

By Alison Rogers, Monday, September 8, 2008.

Why does vacation have to be over? That doesn't make any sense.

Trying to get myself in the swing for a big fall marketing blitz. I bought my first mailing list -- 200 names in the micro-neighborhoods where I like to work. more...

Analyzing the real estate dream

By Alison Rogers, Tuesday, September 2, 2008.

In the dream, I am showing a suburban house -- I am a city Realtor who shows apartments, so this was a good first cue that it was a dream -- and it is my first open house for the property. There are so many visitors that they form a tribe, and I am leading them through, tour-guide style. more...

Real estate by the numbers

By Alison Rogers, Monday, August 25, 2008.

I work with words a lot, but I wouldn't love real estate the way I do if I didn't have a feel for numbers too. So over the past week, as I've been reading news stories, I've been making notes about some interesting numbers that have popped up here and there. Sometimes my curiosity would lead me to track down another number -- all data is as current as possible. more...

The dog days of real estate

By Alison Rogers, Monday, August 18, 2008.

So the dog -- a fairly big black Lab -- threw up in the lobby five minutes before the potential buyers were supposed to show up. I swear I was nice about it. "I'm a real estate agent and I've got someone coming to see the apartment," I said to the dog's walker, a girl of about 16 who looked like she'd never seen dog vomit before.

"Do you mind if I just fold the rug over a little bit before they come in?" I asked, adding, "I don't think it'll make it harder to clean up." more...

Something to chat about

By Alison Rogers, Monday, August 11, 2008.

Two years ago (aw, c'mon guys, I swear I'm still a rookie) I wrote a column about hanging out on the Internet to gain customers. I expressed shock about how mean people could be when they could hide behind electronic identities, and I questioned why chat boards weren't a better place for lead generation. more...

An early au revoir for tenants

By Alison Rogers, Monday, August 4, 2008.

I have a sales listing that, after a few months, has still not gone to contract. We have had offers at the right price that didn't get financing, and some lowball offers we didn't take. I am very interested in getting my seller his top price -- so frankly, I was looking forward to the renters moving out so I could show it empty.

Wednesday: I call to see if I can show the unit the next day. "No," said the tenant. "We're going back to Europe. The movers will be here that day and the next. We'll be out Friday." more...

Dos and don'ts of postcard marketing

By Alison Rogers, Monday, July 28, 2008.

Every so often, I like to take a break from doing my own marketing to see what works on me. I got a perfect chance to do this because we are selling the beach house, which has occasioned a flood of postcards from moving companies. I'm not quite sure what tipped them off -- I haven't filed a change of address yet, and I can't imagine that these movers are roaming the neighborhood looking for "for sale" signs. My best guess is that they somehow monitor the multiple listing service and see a contract has been signed. more...

3 new real estate rules

By Alison Rogers, Monday, July 21, 2008.

I wonder if it is a coincidence that after a long drought of no money I had two closings very close to June, the month where I wrote everything down. For those of you who missed last week, I made a spreadsheet and entered every activity, every client.

This week I was working on another rental. So much of the week was spent pushing toward yesterday, a showing marathon where we went through 10 properties. more...

Time is money ... sometimes

By Alison Rogers, Monday, July 14, 2008.

During June, I decided to do something I'd been thinking about for a long time: I wrote everything down.

Not everything as in "brushed teeth: three minutes," but I made a spreadsheet with different columns on it and tried to allocate my business time, by quarter-hour, just to get an idea of where my time goes. I feel like I work constantly and am not rich yet, so part of the goal was to provide a numerical approximation of the words "time" and "rich." more...

It's closing time

By Alison Rogers, Monday, July 7, 2008.

I write this column weekly, and I keep copies of each one on the computer. I didn't even have to look very hard to realize that there aren't that many with the word "closing" in the title.

So it is with joy that I'm writing this one, with an extra 5,000 bucks in my pocket.

I have been working the sales market here in Manhattan. The goal is to develop a high-end boutique practice, to do some but not many deals, and to be able to pick and choose my clients a little. more...

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