Daily Archives: September 20, 2012
Reid Predicts Deal to Avoid ‘Fiscal Cliff’ by End of Year | Chappaqua Realtor
‘Fiscal Cliff’ Scenarios Leave Economists On Edge | Armonk Realtor
California Foie Gras Ban Can Remain in Effect, Judge Says | North Salem NY Real Estate
U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson at a hearing today in Los Angeles denied the request by Canadian and American foie gras producers for an order to halt enforcement of the law that went into effect July 1. Wilson said he would explain his reasons in a written ruling later.
The ban on foie gras, French for “fat liver,” was signed into law in 2004 by then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Enforcement was postponed for almost eight years to let producers find an alternative to force-feeding. No substitute method has come to light.
The law bans force-feeding ducks or geese to make foie gras within California and bars sales of foie gras produced elsewhere “if it is the result of force feeding a bird for the purpose of enlarging the bird’s liver beyond normal size. Violators can be fined as much as $1,000 a day.
The plaintiffs include a Canadian association of producers who supply 100 percent of Canada’s imports of foie gras to the U.S., and Hudson Valley, the largest U.S. producer of foie gras. They want to stop the state from enforcing the measure on the grounds it interferes with interstate and foreign commerce and is too vague.
Law’s Vagueness
The statute defines force feeding as using a process that causes a bird “to consume more food than a typical bird of the same species would consume voluntarily,” according to the lawsuit. “In practice, the vagueness of this purported standard makes it impossible for anyone to know at what point a particular bird has been fed more food than the Bird Feeding Law allows,” according to a court filing.
Canadian producers had been selling about $4 million to $5 million of foie gras to wholesalers and distributors in California, who in turn sold it for “tens of millions” to restaurateurs and gourmet stores, said Michael Tenenbaum, a lawyer for the foie gras producers. He questioned whether the law would also apply to sales of down, duck meat and other byproducts of ducks used in foie gras production.
Tenenbaum declined to comment after the ruling.
Brian Pease, an attorney for the Animal Protection and Rights League, said “It’s not a question for the courts to second guess a political branch of government” that enacted the law.
Kodak’s Social Media Success—and What Bloggers Can Learn From It | Mount Kisco NY Real Estate
With an active Facebook page, three corporate blogs, a couple of Twitter accounts, a YouTube channel, a Flickr profile and more, Kodak seems to be smiling pretty much all over the social media arena.
And no, it’s not just for the sake of social media presence alone. Kodak is, literally and figuratively, swimming and sailing in social media space—replying swiftly to users’ tweets, creating polls, seeking suggestions, organizing contests, uploading viral videos, and more.
The social media success of this company can be attributed to the fact that Kodak’s SMM is a well-thought strategy, and not a bunch of loosely tied tactics—something that anyone with a brand should seek to emulate.
As Jeffrey Hayzlett, Chief Media office and Vice President at Kodak puts it, the company has specially appointed energetic individuals all across to achieve “4 Es of Kodak”: Engage, Educate, Excite and Evangelize. I must say that I was quite surprised to read that the company has a professional Chief Listening Officer (CLO). The CLO, as Hayzlett disclosed in this interview, monitors all the social media outlets to hunt for conversations involving Kodak so that they can be addressed, assisted, and enriched by the media evangelists later on:
“In fact, we’ve just put in a chief listening officer who acts like an air traffic controller… who listens to the conversations that are going online because I can’t be online every second, every minute (although a lot of people think I am). But it gives us an opportunity to listen to the conversations and route those to sales people, route those to customer service or get them fixed or just say ‘thanks’.”
It seems that Kodak has plunged into the social sector with a no-nonsense approach. You might call Kodak’s earnest commitment to be all over the online space to be the company’s “secret to social media success.” Here’s what Tom Hoehn, Director of Interactive Marketing and Convergence Media, has to say about Kodak’s social media strategy:
“From the consumer side our products are all about enabling people’s self expression, telling the stories of their lives … On the commercial side it is about making connections to get people answers to questions they may have about our products and services. We have embraced social media for some time now. Our blog launched in September of 2006 and our Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube presences followed in early 2008. We love what social media is doing for our business.”
Kodak’s personal interactivity
Another thing that separates Kodak’s social media strategy from the rest is the fact that it lets the real Kodak people talk online. Obviously, the logo does not do the talking for other brands, but with Kodak, it’s explicitly the person talking.
As mentioned above, the company runs a couple of Twitter profiles: @KodakCB, @KodakChallenge. @JeffreyHayzlett, @KodakCL, @KodakCameras, and @TomHoehn.
Here’s an example of the kind of interaction these representatives encourage on social media:
Kodak’s Chief Listener’s Twitter account features her actual photo and a small Kodak logo below that. And in all the conversations, she maintains a tone that’s light and personal. Jeffrey Hayzlett also uses a rather easy tone in his feeds. This strategy helps the company in two ways:
- The customers are assured that they are not talking to the company’s logo.
- Using a gentle tone can help to calm down upset customers if needed.
The Ripcurl strategy
Convergence Ripcurl is the winning social media strategy at Kodak. The driving forces behind this model this have been Tom Hoehn (Interactive Marketing director) and Jenny Cisney (Social Media Manager and Chief Blogger). The duo describes Ripcurl to be their “path to participation” in the social space. Here’s what Tom Hoehn has to say about the concept officially called Kodak Convergence Media Ripcurl [PDF]:
“You will note the words, Twitter, blog, Facebook, YouTube, etc. do not appear anywhere on this graphic. It isn’t about the tools it is about connecting with our customers. This helps people within Kodak understand the opportunity at hand without getting caught up in jargon … Our proactive (speaking) activities are influenced and informed by our reactive (listening) efforts. When we do it right we will see a variety of results. When we get it wrong, well, we try again and keep moving forward.”
How do Kodak’s blogs fit?
Kodak runs three corporate blogs:
- A Thousand Words, a lively blog on how Kodak employees think about imaging and photography in their personal lives. The stories cover a rainbow of topics, but with photography as the focus.
- Plugged in, an instructive resource on Kodak’s products and services, announcements, reviews etc.
- Grow your Biz, an insightful place presenting the experiences of all those who have a passion for print and communication.
In Kodak’s Social Media Guide, Jeffrey Hayzlett explains how these three corporate blogs helped the company:
“The blogs start conversations as I mentioned before, and they also have a direct positive impact on Kodak’s search engine rankings. In addition, Kodak receives more than 11,000 mentions in other authors’ blogs every month in the form of product reviews, opinions on products, rants, fan mail and more. We directly participate in many of these conversations to ensure our customers know we’re listening and to share answers and additional insights.”
As with the other social media channels used by the company, Kodak’s blogs are kept brimming with energy and enthusiasm. For instance, back in 2009, they posted a contest on the official blog which asked people to email a snapshot (theirs or their family’s) to the company. On being selected (and with the person’s consent), the snapshot appeared six times on Kodak’s screen in TS from 31st December, 2009 to 31st January, 2010. Going by the comments that appeared on the Kodak blog, it seems to have been a successful move.
This strategy isn’t just about creating a couple of social media profiles—it’s about keeping the ball rolling, and Kodak is really smart at that! The company knows precisely how to trigger interest, how to maintain that level of interest, and how to keep it growing.
Kodak has also successfully used this strategy to generate worthy ideas from its end-users. For instance, Kodak found that its customers were fuming over its latest launch named “Zi8 Pocket Video Camcorder”. With a little more research, the company found that a majority of people liked the product per se, but they didn’t quite like the name. The company immediately responded by throwing open a virtual contest that required followers to suggest a good name for the next Kodak pocket camera, which was ultimately named the Kodak Playsport.
And as Jeffrey sums it up:
“It’s all about bringing people together around shared interests and reaching them in way that’s meaningful and memorable … I strongly believe that if you get involved in social media, it will grow your brand, strengthen the connection between you and your customers and keep you grounded and aware of what people really think about your company. It’s well worth the time invested.”
So, if you are ready to take the plunge and are on the look-out for a starters’ guide to social media, take a look at Kodak’s Social Media Guide. If it has worked for this massive brand, there is no reason why it won’t for you!
Barack Obama Gave A Horrible Answer To David Letterman When Asked About The National Debt | Cross River Real Estate
Barack Obama was on David Letterman last night, and he was asked about the deficit.
Conservatives are seizing on this line, when asked what the national debt was when he came into office: “I don’t remember what the number was precisely,”
But actually his followup was worse: We don’t have to worry about it short term. But it is a problem long-term and even medium-term.”
Obama’s problem has always been his readiness to concede the deficit “problem” to his opponents.
He came into office with aggressive claims about the deficit. Not long after he came into office he announced a public sector wage freeze, in a nod to the wisdom of austerity.
The problem with acknowledging that the deficit is a medium-term problem (which it’s not) is that you then have a hard time making the case that what we need to do is blow out the deficit right now to stimulate the economy. People like the idea (in theory) of taking pain now for good long-term gains, and so austerity seems like a decent tradeoff.
But the US has one crisis right now: unemployment.
Imagine if a fire was raging at a hotel in Las Vegas, and the fire department was about to start hosing it down, and someone started talking about how Las Vegas faced a water sustainability problem, so we shouldn’t put out the fire. Everyone would rightly look at that person like a moron. Conceding that they kind of had a point is insane.
As long as Obama keeps acceding the fundamental claim of the deficit hawks, it’s really hard to make the case for what needs to be done now.
Twitter Offers Advice for Journalists | Waccabuc NY Real Estate
It’s been a little less than three months since Mark Luckie left The Washington Post to become manager of journalism and news at Twitter, and now he’s got some advice for journalists using the microblogging network.
Working in conjunction with Twitter’s Platforms and Analytics team, Luckie combed through thousands of tweets sent by journalists and news brands towards the end of 2011 to find out what behaviors generated spikes in retweets, replies and follower growth. Most of his findings were predictable, but a few — like the fact that sharing others’ tweets in full using the automatic Retweet button rather than quoting their tweets generated triple the engagement — were surprising.
We’ve summarized Luckie’s full set of recommendations, below:
- Tweet your beat. “Journalists are the experts in topics they cover, and should bring that same knowledge and energy to Twitter,” says Luckie. That isn’t to say journalists shouldn’t tweet about things that don’t fall within their beat — but data shows that journalists see the highest levels of engagement and growth in followers after sending tweets related to their core coverage areas.
- Don’t only post your own stories. Journalists and news organizations who post content from sources outside their companies see higher engagement levels overall.
- Live-tweet events. Some journalists on Twitter joked that they expected to lose half their followers while live-tweeting Apple’s iPhone 5 announcement last week. It turns out that live-tweeting boosts the rate of follower growth by 50%.
- Use hashtags. #Journalists would probably #lose some #followers by #tweeting in #this #style, but using hashtags for live events or ongoing stories can help increase engagement by 100% for journalists, and 50% for brands. Luckie pointed to CBS Chicago’s use of the #drewpeterson hashtag throughout coverage of the Kathleen Savio murder trial. “They really ended up being the big authority for the trial by establishing the hashtag,” he said. “Other news organizations started using it as well as people at and interested in the trial.”
- Use @mentions. “If you include @mentions rather than just URLs, you’re absolutely going to grow your followers and traffic at a higher rate than what you would just by tweeting links,” says Luckie. In other words, it’s better to use “@MittRomney” than “Mitt Romney.”
- Use the re-tweet button. Tweets that are re-tweeted in full using the automatic Retweet button are retweeted three times as often compared to tweets that are quoted.
Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, sodafish
Get Your Tickets to Mashable Media Summit
The Mashable Media Summit 2012 will explore the impact that technology is having on media, and how digital media is affecting our lives and changing the world. This one-day conference will bring together the brightest minds in media, including content creators, technology leaders, entrepreneurs, social media executives and journalists.
Date: Friday, Nov. 2, 2012
Time: 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Location: The TimesCenter, 242 West 41st Street, New York, NY 10036
Tickets: Purchase early bird tickets on Eventbrite.A Look Back at Last Year’s Mashable Media Summit
View As Slideshow »Media Summit 2011
Media Summit 2011
The Future of Social Media
Media Summit 2011
Social Media Grows Up: The Evolving Role of Social Media in News Organizations
Teaching – and Learning From – The Old Grey Lady
The Filter Bubble: How to Fix Content Curation
What Facebook’s New Features Mean For Journalism
The Evolution of Sports Illustrated
From Tactile to Mobile
TV Makes You Smarter
TV Guide Audience
Like A Virgin
Like A Virgin
The Problem of Prediction
Mashable’s Big Announcement
The Importance of Being Awesome
AT&T Brings 4G to NYC
One on One
The New Model of Content and Commerce
The New Model of Content and Commerce
The Future of Social TV
The Future of Social TV
The Future of Social TV
Breaking Down Content Barriers
Sponsors for the Mashable Media Summit 2011
Getting Ready for the Post-Conference Reception
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Security: Have You Recently Changed Your Password? | South Salem NY Real Estate
In today’s technology-powered world, everything from our emails, social networking sites to our Internet banking details is protected by invisible walls built on code, accessible by us with a string of characters, also known as the password. As technology continues to better (and plague) our lives, it has become inevitable that our information can, and is stored online.
And why not? You get easy access to it regardless of where you go, where you are, and let’s not forget the convenience of not having to queue up to settle your banking and official matters (that electricity bill isn’t going to pay itself).
(Image Source: Fotolia)
These days, even shopping can be done online. You can even order anything from fashion items to fast food, luxury items to everyday groceries over the Internet. We know how to use these tools and services, but do we actually know how to keep our online accounts and information safe?
If you secretly answered yes to that, then you’re in luck. Skip ahead to ‘Check the Strength of Your Password’ to give your password a try. See if it is actually strong enough to withstand hacking.
Hacking and Passwords
First of all, let’s make this clear: there is a difference between leaving your Facebook account logged on, and getting your account hacked. There are skills involved when it comes to hacking (and sometimes it’s just pure, yet smart, and brutal guesswork).
(Image Source: Fotolia)
Now, you probably already know through movies and pop culture that the individuals who hack are called hackers. What you may not know is that they may come in several forms – designated by the color of hats, defined by their intent. Here’s a brief round-up:
‘White hat’ hackers: Security experts
‘Black hat’ hackers: computer criminals
‘Grey hat’ hackers: undecided
Script kiddie: A hacker in progress
Site-Wide breach
Recently, two online security breaches occurred, which prompted the writing of this topic. One, a hacker broke into 6.5 million LinkedIn accounts in June 2012 obtained their emails and passwords and listed half of them online.
Here’s an infographic by rapid7 about the top 30 LinkedIn passwords that were cracked by the hacker, which were then posted on a Russian hacker forum. See any of the passwords in there that you are using right now? If you do, you really need to change your password.
The second incident of concern was the Dropbox password leak in which users had used the same username and passwords for their Dropbox account as they have with other third-party accounts they own. It’s like having the same key for all the doors in your house. Open one, and you can open them all. Why tempt them by making your fort so easy to break in?
Creating a Strong password
So passwords are important, but do you know what makes for a strong password? The general concensus, which is available everywhere on the Net, and I mean everywhere, is that it should NOT
contain words that can be found in the dictionary,
be in sequence or in repeated characters.
contain particulars about your name, birth dates, social security, passport, driver’s license or any identifying documents. The same goes for details of your close family members.
It’s best to use a complex, varied and long-enough password to secure your accounts. The password should carry at least 8 characters and be a combination of numbers, symbols and letters in both lower and upper case. Change your passwords regularly to keep them effective.
Check the Strength of your Password
Not convinced that you should change your password(s)? Here are three websites that can help you check the strength of your passwords.
How Secure Is My Password
This site will tell you how long it takes for the computing power of a normal desktop PC to crack your password. The longer the time displayed, the stronger your password. Try it with ’123456′.
Test Your Password
Another password strength checker that tells you where your password stands on 4 levels of security. Just for the fun of it, try to make a password that will give you a BEST reading like what you see below. A long password does not automatically ensures you get a BEST reading.
Microsoft Password Strength Calculator
Length factors into this password strength checker, unlike the previous website. The site also carries some information on how to make strong passwords.
Forgot your password?
Experts say that you should generate unique passwords for every account you have online. This would ensure that even if one account has been compromised, the same password would not work on the other accounts that you have, even if you use the same username for each account. If you do however take this advice to heart, then you might face another problem: remembering all your unique passwords.
The Workaround
Here is a workaround to help you conquer and manage your passwords, and no, it doesn’t involve taping your password to your screen. Have a generic personalized bit of the password, one that you can add to each unique password just to make it harder to crack. Let’s use g33k as a (flimsy at best) example.
Then, fall back on something about the site that will occur easily to you to complete the password, for instance:
Logo: for Twitter you can use g33kBluBi*d
A variation of the name: g33k@fasbUK
Service: g33kMYemelz
Feel free to jazz up the spelling so that it doesn’t reflect a word in the dictionary, in any language. Spruce it up with a mix and match of lower and upper case letters, and sprinkle some symbols in between to add flavor to your passwords.
Bringing long-term tenants up to market rents | Katonah NY Real Estate
Q: My husband and I have been managing a five-unit apartment building for more than three years. One tenant is still paying approximately $260 less than the other tenants because she was already living in the unit before we took over. We didn’t want to increase her rent before, as the owner has a policy of raising the rent for the new incoming tenants on turnover. But now the disparity is becoming so large that we are finding that we may need to.
I know we have to give her a legal notice to increase the rent, but is there a cap as to how much the rent can be increased? Also, can I just increase one tenant’s rent, or do I have to increase all of the rents? Any information that you can provide would help immensely.
A: You raise a good question. In rental housing communities that are not subject to rent control, it is not unusual to find that long-term tenants are paying lower rents than newer tenants for essentially the same rental unit floor plan. This is simply a function of the asking rents increasing over time. Then you may have periods of time when the rental market is weak and landlords will make special offers or concessions to increase occupancy. Then when the market demand improves, the asking rents go up and large disparities can occur.
First, it doesn’t sound like you are in one of the very few areas of the country with rent control so there isn’t likely to be any maximum amount you can increase this tenant’s rent. I would suggest you contact your local affiliate of the National Apartment Association (NAA) to make sure. But the fact that there is no maximum rent increase limit does not mean that you should prepare a rent increase letter asking for $260 more in rent anytime soon.
I think you should send your tenant a letter and explain that she has been fortunate to be paying a below-market rent for a period of time and now you need to begin to adjust her rent every six months until she is closer to the rent being paid by other tenants who have been at the property for at least a year.
I would suggest that you propose to increase the monthly rent by $50 now and again in six months. That will be followed the next year with two more increases of $50 so that the overall increase is $200 over a 24-month time frame.
Q: I am in the process of relocating and I signed a lease for an apartment two weeks prior to the scheduled move-in date. At that time, there was still someone living in the place so I never had the ability to see the rental property before signing the lease. I still don’t have a copy of the lease.
Then two days prior to move in, I met with the landlord and we jointly were walking through the rental unit for my move-in inspection checklist when I notice the bathroom had mold and in the kitchen there were several live insects — mostly spiders, but also some flies and roaches.
I told the landlord that she has to take care of that, and she told me that I was responsible for pest control. We argued to the point where it was going nowhere until the police showed up.
I want to find another rental but I already have given her the first month’s rent, the last month’s rent and the security deposit. She was willing to give just first month’s and last month’s rent back but not the security deposit, which she claims I must forfeit because she took the rental unit off the market. I told her she must be crazy for me to move in to an unclean place.
Am I able to get my money back? If so, how would I go about doing so? I have thought about just cleaning the bathroom and buying some bug spray, but there’s already tension and I haven’t even moved in yet, which makes me worried about what type of landlord she would be in the future.
A: You have good reason to be concerned, and I think your instincts about a landlord who will not properly maintain her rental units are legitimate. Any landlord who would expect you to move in with live insects and visible mold in the bathroom is not likely to be a conscientious and professional property owner when the inevitable problems occur during your tenancy. So I would fully support your desire to cancel the scheduled move-in and negotiate a return of as much of your money as possible.
The fact that you have already signed the lease without seeing the rental unit is a good reminder that you should either avoid that scenario or have a specific agreement with the landlord in advance. I know that today with so many tenants relocating across regions or even countries and making their rental decisions based on photos on the Internet that your situation is not unique or entirely your fault. It happens.
But there is no easy answer without knowing what you signed. You should have been given a copy of the lease, and I would immediately ask the landlord to provide you with a copy.
You should review the lease and see exactly what it says. It is unlikely that there is anything that addresses the possible cancellation of your lease, but you should see if there is any language about a “holding deposit.” That is essentially what your prospective new landlord is proposing to withhold from the funds you have paid in advance.
The landlord will give you back the full rent you paid, as you haven’t and won’t be taking possession. But she is asking you to forfeit the full security deposit, which seems rather unreasonable unless the deposit is very modest or the lease contains a holding deposit that is equal to the full security deposit. In my experience, holding deposits are rarely the full amount of the security deposit.
Without a specific holding deposit agreement, the key issue will likely be how long the apartment was taken off the rental market and how much rent would cover that time frame. In other words, you indicated you signed the lease about two weeks prior to the scheduled move-in.
So unless you had committed verbally and requested the landlord to take the apartment off the market much sooner than when you actually signed the lease, then the reasonable amount that the landlord could claim was lost by you changing your mind (disregarding the fact that you had legitimate motives) would be two weeks’ rent.
You should put all of your discussions in writing as soon as possible after speaking to your landlord. If you meet in person, I suggest you send her an email outlining what was discussed and confirm any agreements that you made as well as any areas where you agreed to disagree.
Why real estate agents don’t answer the phone | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate
The entire time I have been a real estate agent I have been hearing stories about how we don’t answer the phone.
Last night I read a heart-wrenching account written by someone who was house hunting and was not getting his phone calls returned.
We get a bad rap from the experts for not answering our phones. In spite of all the coaching and complaining, it doesn’t seem to get any better. There will always be agents who do not return phone calls, and we deserve all of the criticism we get — even when the calls are not actually going to us because of the way we market ourselves.
As an industry, we need to do some heavy-duty consumer education on what it is that real estate agents do, and how to work with one. Sometimes when people think they are calling an agent, they are not. Other times they are calling the wrong agent. Consumers have trouble telling a lead aggregator apart from a real estate company. They don’t understand agency, and they don’t know the difference between a broker and an agent.
Here are some of the reasons that good, diligent agents may not be answering the phone:
1. The consumer is calling a number on a for-sale sign, thinking that it’s an agent’s number. It’s really the number for the front desk, and the receptionist is at lunch. Or the receptionist is a voice mailbox. Some real estate companies don’t let agents put their own number on the sign — probably for fear the agent won’t answer the phone, and a lead will be lost.
2. The number the consumer is dialing is a call center, or belongs to an office manager who needs to choose an agent to handle the call, which takes time. There will also be a referral fee to be paid by the agent over and above the regular split.
3. The phone number displayed with the property on the Internet is a general number for the office. After being put on hold, the caller gets an agent who just got her license last week, and who knows nothing about the property. This is only slightly better — and sometimes worse — than not getting the call answered at all. But this certainly isn’t unique to the real estate industry — I have similar experiences when I call other businesses.
4. The phone number is the agent’s cell phone, but it’s 11 p.m. and, for some reason, the agent isn’t picking up. She must not need the business. A real “go getter” would be on it.
5. The caller got the agent’s voice mail and left a message, but never got a callback, because he was inquiring about a $10,000 piece of land 50 miles away, and the agent had no interest in the business. The caller ends up calling six agents before he gets help.
6. The buyer was sitting in front of the house and called the agent. The agent was out with buyers showing them a house and did not pick up the phone so the buyer drove away.
7. The broker has decided to use his cell phone number as the main number for the brokerage. Then the broker gets very busy and starts ignoring the “leads” instead of passing them along to agents (true story).
When I read about agents not returning phone calls, I usually hear only part of the story. It’s just the part where the agent doesn’t answer the call or return a message.
Most of us give our clients better service than we give the people who call us out of the blue. We could educate consumers on how to find the right agent, and work with that person instead of calling random strangers at odd hours.
Cultivating a relationship with a real estate agent is a good thing to do. If the caller who was interested in the $10,000 piece of land 50 miles away had been one of my clients, or a friend or neighbor, I would have moved heaven and earth to help him or her.
We could also educate them as to how to leave a message and to check to see if they are actually calling a real estate agent. Consumers need to understand how third-party websites work, and that the agent pictured next to the $10,000 piece of land may actually work in a different county and may not even be able to find the lot.
In an effort to cast the widest possible net, we (agents and brokerages and third-party websites) deliberately invite phone calls and clients that we cannot serve.
If consumers really understood agency laws in the states that have them, they would know that calling the listing agent isn’t always the best course of action, because the listing agent represents the seller, not the buyer. We don’t want consumers to understand agency. We want them to call us.
An educated consumer does some research on agents and asks for recommendations, introductions and references, instead of calling the number on the for-sale sign.
One of the first things I do when I meet with a new client is talk about various options for communication. It has been years since a client has told me that she prefers to talk on the phone. It is usually emails for discussions about properties or for answering questions, and text messages when she is going to be late or needs to reach me right away.