Six months of sales for the last ten years ending 8/7/12.8/12 347
8/11 294
8/10 286
8/09 167
8/08 298
8/07 421
8/06 390
8/05 434
8/04 457
8/03 387
8/02 456
Disclosure Regarding Real Estate
Agency RelationshipsSeller’s AgentA seller’s agent is an agent who is engaged by a seller torepresent the seller’s interests. The seller’s agent does thisby securing a buyer for the seller’s home at a price and onterms acceptable to the seller. A seller’s agent has, without limitation, the following fiduciary duties to the seller:reasonable care, undivided loyalty, confidentiality, fulldisclosure, obedience and duty to account. A seller’sagent does not represent the interests of the buyer. Theobligations of a seller’s agent are also subject to any specific provisions set forth in an agreement between theagent and the seller. In dealings with the buyer, a seller’sagent should (a) exercise reasonable skill and care in performance of the agent’s duties; (b) deal honestly, fairlyand in good faith; and (c) disclose all facts known to theagent materially affecting the value or desirability ofproperty, except as otherwise provided by law.Buyer’s AgentA buyer’s agent is an agent who is engaged by a buyer torepresent the buyer’s interests. The buyer’s agent doesthis by negotiating the purchase of a home at a price andon terms acceptable to the buyer. A buyer’s agent has,without limitation, the following fiduciary duties to thebuyer: reasonable care, undivided loyalty, confidentiality,full disclosure, obedience and duty to account. A buyer’sagent does not represent the interest of the seller. The obligations of a buyer’s agent are also subject to any specific provisions set forth in an agreement between the agentand the buyer. In dealings with the seller, a buyer’s agentshould (a) exercise reasonable skill and care in performance of the agent’s duties; (b) deal honestly, fairly andin good faith; and (c) disclose all facts known to the agentmaterially affecting the buyer’s ability and/or willingnessto perform a contract to acquire seller’s property that arenot inconsistent with the agent’s fiduciary duties to thebuyer.
It’s not totally complete, but pretty close to it, and I find myself referring to this helpful infographic from Lunametrics frequently. Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and Pinterest all have the opportunity for you to attract people to your brand and content, by adding compelling visuals and images. There are some really creative ways you can express yourself (even though the platforms change often), so if you have access to a camera or photographer or really awesome graphic designer & artist, I recommend having at least one stunning visual that expresses your brand, on every page.
Which other social media platforms do you use that have standard image sizes?
Want Social Sparkle & Shine to review your infographic or helpful cheat sheet for social media or online business marketing?Send an email invitation to debbie@theSparkleAgency.com
Social media is becoming more and more prevalent in marketing today. With so many different social media platforms out there, it can be hard to know which to use, which to ignore, and how to go about leveraging all these different media outlets. Personally, I think it is important to make use of all the social sites and their specific features. You want to be sure that any potential customer or client will be able to find you and your name where ever they look, otherwise they will find a competitor. Social media is an easy and free way to get your business’ name and message out there, so there is no excuse to not be taking advantage of these simple marketing instruments.
Maybe you don’t spend ⅓ of your life online like I do. Well, I won’t judge you for your lack of social media knowledge if you don’t judge me for spending so much of my time staring at a computer screen. Instead, I will share with you some of my great knowledge on my favorite social media sites and how you can use them for business purposes (not just sharing pictures of baby/pet with your mom). In the first part of my post, we will look at the two most widely used sites, Linkedin and Facebook.
Full disclosure, I had so much to say on this subject I decided to post the second half at the end of the week, when I look at Tumblr, Reddit, and Twitter, so stay tuned on Friday!
Linkedin was built to be a professional networking site, so it is easy to see how you would use it for business purposes. It is an easy way to introduce yourself to other professionals in your field and expand your network. When someone looks at your company’s Linkedin page they should be able to get a good idea of what you do. Brian Carter has a great article on Social Media Examiner in which he discusses 7 Ways to Prospect for New Customers with Linkedin. Brian provides some great insight and a few new tips that you may not of heard before, so I figured I’d share.
Your Linkedin profile is another aspect of the social site that has been used as a great recruiting tool. It will track how ‘complete’ your profile is and suggest what you can do to improve it. The more detailed your profile is, the better Linkedin will be able to match you to possible job opportunities. If you are in the B2B space and not leveraging Linkedin’s capabilities, you are already losing out on potential opportunities.
Facebook is obviously the most popular social media site out there, with over 900 million active users worldwide. It is no longer just an outlet for college kids to share their photos from the weekend. Everyone is on facebook, if you’re not, you basically don’t exist. One of the first things you’ll see in the search results when looking for a person or organization is their Facebook page, so you want to make sure your company isn’t going unnoticed in this space.Since Facebook isn’t a professional site you shouldn’t feel like you have to keep it all business on your company’s FB page. This is the perfect place to show your customers and clients the faces behind the company. Use it as an opportunity to share what your office environment is like. For example, at my organization, we share photos from our company events, funny things that happen in the office from day-to-day, and of course all the dogs that come and visit the office. This is also a great recruiting tool. When I found this job opening on Linkedin, the first thing I did was Google our organization and the Facebook page came up. I browsed through some of our photos and posts to get a better feel for what I would be joining. I found pictures from cookouts, summer parties, and games played in the office. This showed me the atmosphere and culture, revealing it as probably a really great place to work which is one of the reasons I chose to work here!
On Friday, August 10, I will continue my post with a look at Tumblr, Reddit and Twitter, three sites that have very different purposes and audiences, but will provide B2B organizations higher visibility within their target market.
I recently wrote on my thoughts for getting back to basics this year with my social media efforts. I have been working hard at cleaning out the noise in my Twitter stream and trying to connect with some new folks and reconnect with some that I have fallen quiet with. I came across this infographic highlighting some Twitter basics for relationship building.
Surprisingly, there are many that don’t follow these general rules-of-thumb. So I thought I’d share it as a great reminder of how one might behave on Twitter if they actually want to grow some relationships.
I agree with all but one point in the image below. I don’t use auto-responders at all… and never intend to. Most of the messaging on Twitter is spam, and in my mind the weakest point about Twitter is the messaging – so I don’t use it. But this is a great guide overall.
If someone is talking negatively about you, or a conversation heads in a negative direction that is your opportunity to shine! Don’t ignore, embrace!
Agree? Disagree? Head over to Twitter and tweet me! I promise to respond!
Happy Tweeting!
This image has been floating around now for a week or so and is gaining popularity among social marketers as a great representation of what [we] do. This image is a visual representation of the digital marketing landscape these days. There are so many tools, sites, networks, communities, apps, blog platforms, measurement tools, and so on and so forth. How does one even know where to get started? Do you throw a dart at this thing to help you pick the first place you’ll go to get started?
That would be about the same as hiring a college intern (no offense students), to manage your social media marketing – which is often something you hear when talking to companies about how they manage social. They still don’t really get it, so the general sense is to bring in someone entry level to put some resource time to it, and hopefully figure it out. If that’s the case – you might as well take the dart approach. You get 3 darts to choose 3 places to focus your efforts – so aim carefully.
I would hope that this diagram produced by Buddy Media might shed some light on why it is important to invest properly in both time and talent to ensure your social marketing is on par with your competitors. Either partner with a seasoned agency who has the experience to help you manage the right social channels, or hire a social strategist who has the depth and breadth you need for your organization to help you make the right choices – backed by experience. Hire a strategist who has been in the trenches, and perhaps even failed and learned.
How much infinitely bigger will this landscape get in the coming year, two years, five years? Do you still think that the dartboard approach will work? Once you make that first social impression, it will be difficult to take it back.
As a business, wouldn’t you want someone who could help you navigate this diagram to digital success? Here’s an idea – if you are interviewing for a social strategist – throw this diagram in front of them and ask them what it is, what it means to them, and how they might use it… If your candidate has done their homework about your company, they should have a general sense of where on this diagram they might focus efforts, if hired… Ask the question, I dare you.
Just saying… It’s worth thinking about. But go ahead, hire that intern, give them this diagram, and wish them luck.
On Twitter, you need to follow people in order to have a community of people to engage (this is almost opposite to Facebook where you need to share content and information about yourself for your community to grow).
Truthfully at the start on Twitter, no one you talk to will really be your friend (all your real-life friends, who you’ve connected with on Facebook aren’t likely on Twitter). So the value in Twitter is really in networking and socializing with your professional peer group and people who you don’t know yet, but who share your passions in life for sports, arts, dining, clothes, crafts, and more.
The more specific you can be about exactly who you are & what you are passionate about enough to invest your time & money and passion into, the more easily you’ll find people just like you, around the world. These are the people who can tell you the most about Twitter and your industry, introduce you to key people (on Twitter) and keep you motivated when you need support.
Start by making a list, as specific as possible of:
– all businesses and people who own/run work at businesses that are similar to yours
– every CEO, CFO, C-Suite and sales person of your direct competitors
– all the news & entertainment media channels and brands that touch on your industry, and their editors and journalists, the personalities, stars and even fictional characters
– any journalists whose articles you consistently enjoy and any book authors you enjoy
– any and all politicians and lobbyists who you support, and those who impact your business or industry
– every client you have, or would like to, and the people they converse with
– all your past clients
– all your past employers and employees
– anyone in any title/position that you think you might need to hire at some point in the future
– anyone who is talking about your brand, business or product/service (especially customers)How to find people the people you want to follow on Twitter
Search for them by name, or by keyword, then follow everyone who’s Twitter bio includes the keywords you searched for and anyone who’s tweets (active conversations, right now) include the keywords you searched for.How many people should you follow?
Twitter will only allow you to follow 2,000 accounts until you have nearly 2,000 people following you back, and after that you are only allowed to follow a ratio of 1.1 for every 1 who follows you (1.1 to 1).It can take a LONG time to get to 2,000 followers on your account, so at the start, although you want to maximize new followers and potential customers, try to limit yourself to 1500 new accounts you follow. This way, as your following grows you’ll still have a few hundred new people available to follow at conferences and individually, so you can easily follow new people without having to dump previous people. I made this mistake when I started my @Sparkle_Agency account in April 2011, following 2,000 people right away and its just now getting close to 2,000 followers after 15 months of tweeting 1,000-1,500 tweets per month.
Why follow 1,500 people in the first 48 hours of your account?
I think its important to have an audience for your tweets right away, and every time you follow someone on Twitter (if they haven’t changed the default option), Twitter sends them an email introducing you. In my experience, when I follow people who are relevant to my business or conversation, I usually have 25% of the number of people I have followed following me back within a few weeks.As I mentioned previously, on Twitter, you need to follow people in order to have a community of people to engage (people who are following you back), so that even your early Tweets have a chance to be retweeted and shared to a larger audience.
Since you’ll not only be posting links & updates to your Twitter, you’ll also be having @name conversations with individuals, your past Tweets are less likely to be seen than past Facebook updates (on Facebook people frequently scroll and see your history).
It’s August, the summer is in full swing, and the living is easy. Well, sort of. As every homeowner will agree, there’s always something to do around the house or the yard to keep things looking good and performing well.
This month is the ideal time to tackle some upgrades on your home’s exterior; simple, inexpensive things that you can accomplish on your own to boost the curb appeal of your home — its resale value.
And with the days growing continually shorter, the time to start is now. Here are my five “must-do” projects for August:
Update your front entry
Improving the entrance to your home is a relatively easy thing to do. Add some color by painting the front door in a fresh coat of gloss paint, or strip it down to the natural wood. Consider container gardens or shutters to provide additional interest. And replace outdated exterior wall sconces with more stylish models. If you are looking to do the latter, here’s all you need:
Materials and tools
- New exterior wall light fixture
- Wire nuts (if not included)
- Multi-head screwdriver
- Pliers
- Lightbulb
- Electrical tape (optional)
Directions
- Turn off the power. You will need to go to the main circuit breaker of the house to shut off the power to the existing light fixture. Don’t think that having the light switch “off” is a sure-fire way to cut the power entirely. It’s not!
- Remove the old fixture. The existing fixture will be attached to the wall with either a mounting cover plate or exposed screws. If the former, lift the plate off to reveal the mounting screws. Loosen and remove the screws while holding the fixture in place until you disconnect the wires.
- The mounting bracket. Chances are the old light fixture was affixed to the wall with a crossbar mounting bracket. You should replace it with the mounting hardware that came packaged with your new fixture. Depending on the style of lantern, the crossbar is either a 4-inch circle of metal with several holes cut in it, a 4-inch by 1-inch metal plate with several holes, or two 4-inch by 1-inch metal plates connected in the center to form a cross.
- Wiring 101. Connect the wires according to the manufacturer’s instructions: white (neutral) to white, black (hot) to black and green (ground) wire to the bare copper wire from the junction box. Use plastic wire screws to keep wire connections secure. (You can also choose to secure connections with electrical tape.) Pack all the wires back inside the outlet box, making certain not to loosen connections.
- Installing the new lantern. Attach the lantern to the crossbar with the mounting screws provided, or position it onto the protruding screws and affix the hex nuts packaged with the lamp. Secure tightly. Depending on the contour of the wall siding, you may need to put a bead of clear caulking along the top and sides to prevent water from seeping behind the fixture. (Another option is a foam mounting block cut to fit the contour of the siding.)
- Power on. Turn the power back on at the circuit breaker and test out your new fixture.
Create a stone path
You can avoid the expense of a structured walkway and add visual interest to your home’s landscape by laying a more casual pathway. Choose from a full range of materials — bricks, pavers, flagstone, granite slabs, river rocks, gravel or simulated stone products like above — to design the path that fits your home’s design and matches your DIY skill set. Not interested in cutting stone to configure into a pattern? There’s no need. Plenty of designs require nothing more than a little imagination, a thoughtful plan and some basic skills.
Make a window box
A simple window box can add enormous curb appeal to a house or an apartment while providing an attractive garden view from indoors. There are a multitude of products on the market today — wood, plastic, resin and metal — that embrace a broad range of designs and price points. Feeling crafty? Make one yourself. It’s an easy woodworking project that requires minimal tools and materials. You can tackle it as a family, imparting how-to skills and an appreciation for small-scale gardening to your kids.
Consider a garden shed
If you are looking for a way to free your garage of unnecessary seasonal storage, consider the benefits of a ready-made shed. Not only are sheds a practical choice for outdoor equipment storage, many are appealing as an architectural element in the yard. But today’s sheds aren’t just for the garden. Coming in all shapes and sizes, some are perfectly suited as a standalone workshop, artist studio or home-away-from-home office.
Collect rainwater
Although serious rain shortages and extreme heat have parched many a lawn and garden this summer, you can take some initiative and responsibility by installing a rain collection system to help with future irrigation needs. A rain barrel, or some variation thereof, will allow you to keep your yard and garden well-irrigated without tapping into well water or municipal water supplies. You might want to check with your town to see if there are any restrictions on rain barrel use or size, first.
Related:
- 5 Kid-Friendly DIY Home Projects
- 30 Days of Easy Summer DIY
- Adirondack Chairs: 10 New Classics for Today
Bob Vila is the home improvement expert widely known as host of TV’s This Old House, Bob Vila’s Home Again, and Bob Vila. Today, Bob continues his mission to help people upgrade their homes and improve their lives with advice online at BobVila.com. His video-rich site offers a full range of fresh, authoritative content – practical tips, inspirational ideas, and more than 1,000 videos from Bob Vila television.
Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of Zillow.
Tiger Woods’ Corona Del Mar Condo Sells
Source: Wikipedia
When Tiger Woods’ Corona Del Mar condo hit the market this April, blogs and newspapers hurriedly jumped on the fact that this home was one of the reported locations for Woods’ infamous affairs.
One of his former mistresses told TMZ that she spent quite a bit of time there, but according to the Orange County Register, neighbors also saw quite a bit of Woods’ ex-wife and two children there as well.
In the end, it didn’t matter who spent the most time at the oceanside condo, because now it’s just one more thing that Woods is leaving behind as he tries to reinvent his image.
The pro golfer listed the property at 2616 Ocean Blvd, Corona Del Mar, CA 92625 for about half a million less than he purchased it for in 2004. After a few months on the market and a price cut at the end of June, property records show that the home has sold for $2,213,875.
The 3-bedroom, 3-bath home occupies 2,000 square feet opposite the beach with views of Catalina Island. High ceilings, large patio and balcony areas, surround sound and a gourmet kitchen make up the condo.
Woods’ main residence is another oceanside property — but on the other coast. The Jupiter Island, FL custom estate includes a full golf course.
Natasha Bedingfield Lists Los Feliz House for Rent
Source: IMDb
Although pop singer Natasha Bedingfield was born and raised in the United Kingdom, like many celebs, she also owns a place close to the bright lights of Hollywood.
Bedingfield purchased her Los Feliz home for $2.3 million in 2009, shortly after her marriage to Malibu businessman Matt Robinson. She has recently listed the home for rent at $18,000 a month. It’s unclear if she’s testing the Los Angeles real estate market, taking advantage of the competitive rental market or just filling her home while she’s away.
Best known for the pop hits “Unwritten” and “Pocketful of Sunshine,” Bedingfield and her brother, Daniel Bedingfield, began their music careers early, forming a group when they were in their teens.
Described as an “ultimate retreat for celebrities and individuals who value their privacy,” the Los Feliz rental is gated and private, located in the high-end community of Laughlin Park.
The 5-bed, 5.5-bath, 4,792-square-foot home was built in 1953 and has been updated with “no expense spared.” The home includes a hot tub, pool and patios with views of the Los Angeles skyline, as well as a movie theater and two kitchens.
The home is listed by Andrew Mortaza of Keller Williams Realty.
