Archive for April, 2009
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Real Estate Trends on April 23rd, 2009

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WNC continues to defy the slowdown in the Real Estate market and have a strong start to the year and continue into the Spring at The Settings of Lake Rhodhiss (Valdese, NC) and The Settings of Black Mountain (Black Mountain, NC).
Western North Carolina has continued to survive and thrive throughout these tough times. Between the booming business of Charlotte and the continued accolades of Asheville we have seen strong response to our limited advertising and web presence.
Good traffic and sales is not by accident though, even though we are spending a lot less on marketing in general including paid website searches; our continuous tweaking of the website has enabled us to keep traffic up going to our sites. For you website connoisseurs that know numbers I think we have had a great success; averaging 2,500 site visits per month, 14,500 page views/month, 5.64 pages/visit, with only a 24.5% bounce rate (down from 84%!) and 67% of the traffic is new visits! This it is imperative that you have a great marketing team that is going to watch your site daily and know how to keep up with an industry that is constantly changing.
We also have a very dedicated sales team that is doing a great job following up with inquiries, communicating with our prospects and property owners even if the news is not always great, communication, talking to them, is the key and periodical email updates also help.
Our appointment traffic for example at the Lake Rhodhiss property is the strongest and we have over 25 appointments for the rest of the month and had sales have tripled over last year at this time and more coming.
Another great indicator of better times ahead is that we have just had another builder join us at The Settings of Black Mountain and he is going to start a builder model home in the next 60 days and we met with another builder there just last week that is going to build a custom home for one of our property owners and will build a model home also when he gets started on the custom.
Marc H. Wilson
The Settings Development Companies
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Real Estate Economics, Real Estate Trends on April 13th, 2009

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Successful commercial Real Estate Brokerage and Development requires one to have a keen grasp of many fields. Going light on depth in any single specialty can evidence itself by creating holes in your practice or your development that can cost you business or clients or tenants or a certain quality in a project that may affect its profitability or sustainability. Strive to become precise and practiced in all these areas;
LAW. One must have grasp of the complexities of the field of law in order to even get off the ground. Protecting your fee or your equity, protection against unfettered litigation, an unscrupulous lender, or partner is imperative. Be prepared to lock horns with any practitioner in this field. Learn contract law so as to quote in your sleep. Do not fear, but respect legal issues and make sure to use them in your favor. You should hope to be outlawyered early in your career, before you have much to lose.
ECONOMICS. Should be a lifelong study. It is here where you will pass your peers. Free enterprise is only one economic system. Know the others. It is the most efficient, and the most efficient price is always determined by the intersection of functions of supply and demand. But this is of course a theory which is based on the precepts of perfect knowledge. Which does not exist. Distinguishing between theory and the real market is where one makes money. Having the most perfect knowledge comes with research, hard work, and homework.
ART. Yes we are actors on a stage and the best actor gets the part, gets the listing, wins the assignment, gets the financing, wins over the equity investor, and closes the deal. Likewise for the sharpest graphics and most artistically inspired presentation. On the tangible side, your architect and/or planner makes or breaks your deal, as design creates value. The most functional space is designed that adds a quality of life but is both practical and enduring. Being financeable can be a big help as well.
PSYCHOLOGY. Students of the human mind, how it works, what motivates it, what it fears, what it craves, and the various psychoses that affect decision making will always have an edge. When confronting a client or a decision maker on a deal, are you able to classify that person into one of the four personality types that person exhibits and how best to achieve a win/win outcome? Learn this and close more deals, not to mention saving you and your clients time and money.
I could go on here stressing like needs and importance for practitioners in our field to have dexterity also with MATHMATICS, FINANCE, HISTORY, POLITICAL SCIENCE, and GOVERNMENT, etc. You don’t need to know everything. But know someone who does, like Market Solutions Group.
Article Written by Bruce A. Davis, Senior Partner of Bryant Commercial Real Estate Partners, LLC of Atlanta, GA, and member of Market Solutions Group.
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