Freelance Writer and Real Estate Expert
Although her first love is real estate, and she has over a decade of residential listing and sales experience, Shannon O’Brien is a freelance real estate writer. Her hands-on experience with homebuyers and sellers gives her a unique perspective that many professional real estate writers lack. As a short-sale specialist, she has steered clients through the distressed property trenches and offers common-sense advice to homeowners in trouble. Upon her exodus from California almost 10 years ago, Shannon left not only the state, but her real estate career as well. Since then she has put her California State University creative writing degree to good use, publishing numerous real estate articles for RealEstate.com, the San Francisco Chronicle’s website, LendingTree.com and individual real estate agents’ websites in the U.S. and Canada.
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It looked like a feeding frenzy, investors circling in the water like hungry great whites, salivating over the deal. So says a homebuyer in San Francisco’s Bay Area, where it’s not uncommon to see 50 or 60 offers on a house in good condition and in a decent area. Unfortunately, for the average homebuyer nationwide, there may be at least one investor in the bunch, waving cash around with promises of a quick close. The good news for buyers in areas such as
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Read more about How to Compete With Cash-Rich Investors
From lawyers to news anchors, real estate agents typically enter the business after finding success in another field. St. Augustine, Fla. agent Peggy Gachet worked with Delta Airlines for 16 years, starting in customer service and ending up in sales and marketing. You know how sometimes you’ll see a product prominently displayed in a TV show or movie? It was Gachet’s job to get those placements for Delta Airlines.
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Read more about Peggy Gachet
October 29, 2012 is a date no Rockaway resident will ever forget. That’s the day Hurricane Sandy descended on this 11-mile sliver of peninsula in Queens. One of the storm’s hardest hit communities, whether The Rockaways will ever be the same is open to much speculation by locals. One of those working hard to ensure the community’s revival is Robin Shapiro, owner/broker of Robin Shapiro Realty. With many homes damaged beyond repair,
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Read more about Robin Shapiro
If you’re running your business intelligently, you’re bound to get to a point where you can no longer handle everything by yourself. At this point, most agents decide to delegate the administrative tasks and consider hiring an assistant to take them on. With an assistant to take over these tasks, the agent becomes more productive, generates additional business, and thus makes more money. That “success builds on success” is never more apparent than in the trajectory of a
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Read more about Opting for a Business Partner
There are small towns and then there are really teeny, tiny, dinky towns. The latter is the type in which Matt Kellam, owner-broker of Help-U-Sell Keystone Realty in Chambersburg, Pa., grew up. In 2000, Cheriton, Va. was home to 499 happy small-town folks. A decade later, the population was 487. It’s safe to say there isn’t a lot of real estate action going on in Cheriton, which is most likely why Kellam didn’t go home to start his career. Instead, he worked
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Read more about Matt Kellam
It isn’t just the so-called celebrity real estate agents, or those who cater to rarified-air-breathing billionaires and status-seeking social climbers that hire publicists. More and more real estate agents across the country, in markets big and small, are hiring public relations firms or publicists to help them define their brands and beef up their presence in the market. If you’re feeling the need to get noticed and are considering hiring someone to help you, read on.
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Read more about Hiring a Publicist
If anybody out there is seeking an agent who has clean fingernails, eschews manual labor, has never had a cavity and can recite all 50 states – in alphabetical order as well as backwards in under 20 seconds, drunk or sober – have I got an agent for you! Her name is Deb Tomaro, and she works with Re/Max in Bloomington, Ind. A sixth generation Californian, Tomaro moved to Indiana when her dad got a job transfer. Rather than being upset about being uprooted from her friends back home,
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Read more about Deb Tomaro
Any real estate agent who has been in the business for some time has a story about clients lacking a firm grasp on the difference between fantasy and reality – the difference between their dream home and their starter home. The dream home: “We want a home on the beach, in a good school district. It must have a lot of natural light, central air-conditioning, heated floors, a gourmet kitchen with granite countertops, a wine cooler and a walk-in pantry. We also want a media room, sauna,
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Read more about Unrealistic Home Expectations
Real estate designations: For some they are a source of ridicule, to others they are confusing and to others, a source of pride. They can be costly and time-consuming to obtain. Are they worth it? That depends on your reasons for obtaining a designation. Many agents use designations in their marketing, assuming it gives them credibility. In reality, it doesn’t.
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Read more about Real Estate Designations
In a room full of real estate agents, Katie Yeager is sure to stand out. No, it’s not the blond hair, the great-big smile or the to-the-point manner of speaking. It’s the fact that she’s the only agent in the room wearing jammies. Actually, that’s ok because on a typical morning, Katie Yeager, who works primarily from her home office, is the only agent in the room.
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Read more about Katie Yeager
