Agoura Hills won't be tread on

Here at Century 21 Adobe, we take pride in our community and now we especially appreciate and empathize with small-town Agoura Hills' latest move to rally its outrage against the state of California in a lawsuit (Ventura County Star). It will join a protesting coalition of over 180 other cities in California who won't stand for local funds being siphoned upwards as a quick and sloppy fix by bureaucrats in Sacramento.

The state's budget deficit is predicted to be $15 billion this year (East Bay Express). Our company wholeheartedly supports its community in its fight against the Man, or more specifically, this man...

Office meeting brings good news to both realtors and prospective customers

Our weekly office meeting brought some more good tidings to a time when agents and homeowners have long grown accustomed to holding market reports in one hand and either a stress ball or a strong drink in the other.

California, who, along with Florida were the first to plunge down the drop, were also the first to come back, with home sales increased over 20% statewide and 14.8% in Ventura County in June. Aided by federal tax credits and the Obama plan, real estate's recovery exceeded economists' expectations in the most sudden increase in sales since December 2000, the start of the doomed bubble's inflation. Inventory falls as home buyers and all other sectors of the economy regain their confidence, making right now the best time to buy. Century 21 Adobe owner Michael Schaller comments, "Real estate led us into this mess and it's leading us out."

Visit our website to learn more about capitalizing on the rising market.

Renting: the back door to a dream home

Even with home prices at all-time lows, home renting remains for many families an easy solution to live beyond their otherwise means. However, home renting should not bear the stigma of being for those too poor to afford ownership. In fact, there are many factors that can affect the choice and make it simply a smarter financial choice to rent rather than buy a home.

Many rent vs. buy calculators floating around can help in this decision such as this particularly comprehensive and simple one: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/business/2007_BUYRENT_GRAPHIC.html.

Renting is the significant other side of the real estate coin that's all too often ignored. Visit our website at http://www.century21adobe.com/AdobeRentals to browse our complete and informative list of our rentals. Even if you don't find what you're looking for with our company, check out our links to other rentals in your area.

Real estate's impending crisis

It'd be rather more than cliche to state that times and practices are changing rapidly in our modern era. Computers grow exponentially more powerful and impossibly small, iPods grow unbelievably even more sleek and elegant, and technology has shrunk the world to the point where it becomes more efficient to process fast food orders in call centers hundreds of miles away (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/11/technology/11fast.html) and soon, in India.

All the hubbub, hullaballoo, and hooplah will certainly overwhelm and confuse most of the world's population but luckily, Jeff Jarvis' book What Would Google Do? provides an informative and succinct manual to the new age and more importanly, what you can do for yourself or your company. While it contains a hearty pat on the back for internet companies springing up to take advantage of the new digital age, many industry's will find its writing more like the book of Revelations, as it proclaims ominous doom for the middleman, including newspapers, car dealers, and most relevantly, real estate agents.

The new era of openness, Jarvis declares, will sweep aside all old businesses based on controlling a product or service. For real estate, that is the MLS monopoly we hold exclusive access to. In time though, he predicts that will open up a crack in our last line of defense to all open and free sharing of property transactions, advertising, and information on the new internet's boundless networks.

In the worst-case scenario for our industry, MLS would be freed up or obsolete in the light of new and more open databases and buyers and sellers would all directly connect through the internet without the service of agents. That vision is incredibly grim and slightly realistic but rather akin to a future in which we have moved completely beyond fossil fuels: technologically possible, but extraordinarily difficult due to established practices and societal inertia.

In the meantime, what can real estate agents do to ensure they remain unique and unreplaceable by a cold, inhuman database or online service? Agents must remember that in the new age, the days of owning a product or monopolizing a service like MLS are numbered and to not rely on customers coming to them for a commodity, but for a complete helpful, enjoyable, and efficient service. Even if buyers and sellers could snap and find their perfect match immediately, there remains a massive labyrinth of financial and legal barriers to cross. That's where experts with years of training and experience in the industry can best offer their services, guiding customers honestly and proactively through all the headaches of title, escrow, disclosure, and such, rather than just unloading a home and moving on.

In the new age, "stuff, things, atoms" as Jarvis derogatorily calls it, will become much less valuable and more of a hassle while information will be the new standard of value. If agents can remain masters of information and not just stuff, they will weather this new paradigm shift like many before.

Our company website

Adding a personal touch to real estate

Century 21 Adobe has always remained dedicated to an enjoyable, friendly, and personal experience for our customers. That being said, you entrust a lot of information and responsibility to the man or woman buying or selling your house. Wouldn't you want to get to know your potential agent a little more personally before they help you with life's biggest financial and personal decision?

We've added a new feature to our website, where you can view video profiles of some of our agents (more to come). Just follow this link to our agents page and hover over the menu for a list of video pages to pop up. Alphabetically organized, they'll let you better pick the agent that fits your needs and is right for you.

Our office agents represent a select group of community members from our very own Ventura County. They all live, work, and play in the areas they serve and are committed to giving you the best selection and service out of their extensive training and local knowledge of the area.

The new cardinal sin

John Steinbeck's shockingly realistic social commentary, The Grapes of Wrath, set during the Great Depression, rails against its villains of sloth and greed which threw millions of honest, industrious Americans out of work, into poverty and into bread lines. Now, exactly 70 years after its publication, it might perhaps ring its poignant bell loudest in this recession.

One of the most tragic scenes in the book full of gloomy depravity is when crowds of hungry families gather around a river as greedy, capitalistic farmers discard their orange crop, soaked in gasoline, to re-inflate prices. As a nation starves, they let such precious resources slip through their grasp, declaring the message of the scene: in times of hardship, waste becomes a cardinal sin.

So to explain why that's relevant: we at Century 21, as the nation's largest relocation company, enjoy a lot of corporate support that we seem to take for granted. Our industry rejoiced in a boom where "volume can cure a multitude of sins" (Michael Schaller) but as of these hard times, a new vigilance must be resumed.

In addition to the delicious apples that always seem to be floating around our office, our 21online service offers many useful tools that a majority of our agents seem to not be taking advantage of.

Contact Management: the site offers a customizable organizer for all your contacts, clients and others (like Outlook, but much more comprehensive). You can input thousands of clients and set up, within minutes, a system to automatically send birthday, Christmas, and anniversary greetings, or little flags to remind you to make a quick call to keep in touch. As callous as it may seem, it cuts down maintaining personal relationships with your clients to a science.

Why that's useful? National statistics show that after finishing a transaction, 70% of buyers would probably or definitely use their real estate agent again. Sounds great, but few of them actually do. The only thing that can happen is they lose touch and by the time they want to buy or sell again (an average of four years), the agent that provided them such excellent service is now long gone into the abyss of memory. With 21online's contact management system, you easily stay in contact with satisfied clients so that they return again and again and even have the presence of mind to recommend you to others. As Century 21 Adobe owner, Michael Schaller puts it, "Most agents stay in their first year of business every year." With the right tools, you don't have to.

Customizable presentations: Everyone knows how hard it can be sometimes to win over a client. Century21's corporate support artillery releases dozens of customizable presentations (PowerPoint or paper) that can boast everything about you from your reliability and experience, your entrenchment in our national network of over 140,000 professionals, to the numerous pitfalls of selling home yourself (misguided For Sale ByOwner's). All the tools and presentations anyone would ever need to win over a client are accessible on 21online with the click of a mouse.

So as real estate as an industry recovers, many more opportunities will become available to those who care to optimize their available resources and stop soaking their oranges in gasoline.

Attention to details helps homeowners sell fast in a buyer's market

Your boss has just given you the career opportunity of a lifetime, but the job is in another state. Soon you discover that moving your family to another city may be one of life's hardest tasks. The thought of leaving behind old friends and schools for a strange town can be frightening. The biggest challenge of all, however, it to preserve the equity in your housing investment so you will be able to purchase a similar home in the new location. Not to worry. Even in these uncertain times homeowners can sell at very satisfactory prices in a reasonable period of time. The secret? Pay attention to details, utilize marketing savvy, and price the home to sell quickly. The following tips can help you get that "sold" sign up fast.

SELECT A SAVVY REAL ESTATE AGENT, one with a successful track record in your neighborhood, backed by resources that extend into outside housing markets. Make sure the agent prepares an effective listing of your property, one that outlines all the features that make your home unique. Also, it's smart to prepare a separate fact sheet that can be distributed freely to all interested buyers. In soft time, offering the agent a bonus if the house sells within 60 days can work to the homeowner's advantage.

OFFER THE RIGHT PRICE. Start with a price that is reasonable for your neighborhood and the size of your home. Comparing the price of your home with similar nearby listings is an easy way to be sure you are offering the right price. Comparing the opinions of two independent appraisers will also help you avoid over-pricing.

PAY PART OF THE CLOSING COSTS, usually 3 to 5 percent of the loan amount. This will attract those first-time buyers who are short on cash for down-payment and closing costs. Offering to turn over personal property such as washing machines and dryers, refrigerators, and flower boxes can also attract buyers looking for the best deal.

ACCEPT CONTINGENCY AGREEMENTS. Make your sale contingent upon the sale of the buyer's home. This takes away buyers' fears of juggling two properties and mortgages at the same time.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CORPORATE RELOCATION TRADE. Be sure that your broker is connected to a relocation network, one capable of bringing in buyers from distant places. And, of course, try to get your employer to provide you with relocation assistance, too.

MAKE YOUR HOME STAND OUT. Fresh paint and flowers can go a long way in impressing buyers. Tend to such details as mowing the lawn, fixing stubborn door knobs and sliding doors, and straightening up the basement. Remember, your home's appearance on the day it's shown can make or break a sale. The bottom line is that sellers should take the time to make their home as attractive as possible. Compiling helpful tips for the buyer about school districts, utility bills, and directions to the nearest shopping mall can go a long way in selling your house quickly.

With a little work and an active real estate agent, chances are good that your house will sell fast in today's buyer's market.

Our flagship listing

Every real estate company and their listings display has that coveted spot atop all the small-time houses and condos for their most expensive listing, the stereotypically spacious, picturesque and beautiful house that always grabs a reader's attention first. It is like Cal Poly, SLO: the outlier of excellence that we flaunt out of the group to proclaim, "Everything else is just as good too!"

So anyways, for Century 21 Adobe, our current champion is 1835 Pandora Avenue in Los Angeles (90025), our only listing now for over $1 million. This magnificent listing is located in the heart of Westwood, home of the UCLA Bruins and neighboring Beverly Hills and Bel Air, placinng it firmly withing Los Angeles' rich culture sphere.

As for the house itself, it s a rare spacious condo near Beverly Glen and Santa Monica Blvds with 3540 square feet, including 3 bedrooms all with ensuite bathrooms, plus a half bath downstairs. It is the essence of luxury and elegance with custom painted, custom moldings, 20ft ceiling in living room, 2 fireplaces, and hardwood floors throughout.

This magnificent location also happens to be hosting an open house by Pat and Chuck, the "SoCal Gold Team", tomorrow at 1 PM. Check out the persuasive pictures:

The death of commision sales?

An interesting new innovation to the real estate industry seems to have gained in popularity recently, and that is flat fee real estate. We are all familiar and completely accustomed to the current modus operandi of agents and that is to take a commission, typically 3% of the property value going to the realtor from both sides of the transaction. It's the old standard model and has worked brilliantly since Moses led the Israelites away from their depreciated foreclosed homes in Egypt to the promised land of new swanky beachfront property along the Dead Sea.

Still, just google flat rate real estate and you'll find many agents like this guy touting his daring to break from tradition. He and his fellow rebels are part of a new process that is definitely significant now, but the question remains: will it spread?

Charging a flat fee for real estate certainly makes some sense. It's like an analogy I heard about Coinstar machines, which charge 8.9% of all the money they turn into cash. Say you have 100 dollars worth of pennies and 100 dollars worth of quarters. You put them both in and get $91.50 from each bag. However, the bag of quarters contained twenty-five times less coins and thus was 25 times easier to count, so how come it was charged the same high rate?

In real estate, is it really twice as much work for an agent to sell a million dollar house than a half million dollar house? It's essentially the same service in each case, though maybe a little more walking to do during the tours.

Still, such a huge deviation from a tried-and-true practice that has been in use forever isn't likely to happen any time soon because people like the Palos Verdes agent (http://www.mygrpr.com/grclips/parsed/CA_e043_01072009_1_1.pdf) who made $183 million in sales last year, translating to an income of about $11 million by the standard 6% commission, would never stand for that . His deal is just too sweet right now.

So in the end, commission sales will probably remain on its throne right next to the qwerty keyboard, as systems that have spawned more efficient and logical replacements, but win out in the end out of familiarity and tradition.

Our website

Uncle Sam wants you...to buy a home

Good news has been a long time coming for real estate owners, buyers, sellers, etc. but for a limited time, the federal government is announcing an $8,000 tax credit to first-time homebuyers. Those who qualify for this unmissable handout are first-time homebuyers or anyone who has not owned a principal residence in the last three years. Economists reckon that first-time homebuyers are the eager salmon who will swim against the downward current to lay the fertile eggs of a new economic start.

Anyways, don't miss out on this opportunity, which will end on November 30, 2009. If you really feel it's necessary to have the countdown to this date of impending doom stalking you over your shoulder, check out this website, with a live countdown: http://www.retradio.com/want8000.php.

The complete consumer experience

I heard a bit of sound business advice this weekend. It was from a seminar at CalTech that emphasized creating a "complete experience" to complement a product. What that means is not just providing whatever product or service your company is known for, but all the supplements, helpful asides, and support that it entails. Many competitors can provide their product, but the complete experience is what will make one company stand out to customers.

A great example is a look at Apple. An emerging leader in technology and one that basically defines the cool gadgets these days, Apple made their explosive comeback from increasing obscurity and obsoletion with the help of one of their flagship products: the iPod. It swept the music and technology worlds by storm, with over 100 million units sold as of 2007. The cute pocket-size (and much less now) contender has also achieved the ultimate success in branding: synonymity with their product (think Kleenex, many people refer to tissues as "Kleenex's", regardless of their brand).

But many mp3 players of similar and comparable quality and style have cropped up, and the iPod itself did not immediately stand out in its early days. What really triggered the neon-green and pink explosion was the launch of iTunes. Apple took the next step in taking the complete process, from finding music to actually listening to it from your player, and making it unbeatably easy and convenient.

At Century 21 Adobe, we have always offered our outstanding services in not just the purchasing and selling of houses, but in the full scope, including help with loans, Escrow, mortgages, and all manner of miscellanea that laymen might struggle with. Our latest move is to offer the complete experience on our website, where we will now begin to update our listings map with not just our properties, but other important information crucial to selecting a home, including schools, commutes, shopping centers, and much more. At Century 21 Adobe, we are also always open to conversing with our customers so feel especially free to contact us by email for other information you would like to see on our map.

Our new interactive map feature

Our website, dynamic as it is, is currently undergoing elaborate changes faster than Sarah Palin's wardrobe. In all seriousness, be sure to check out the newly featured real estate map, showing an interactive Google map of all our current listings. If nothing on that list satisfies your home cravings (doubtful), we have a link at the bottom for a complete map of all listings in the Conejo Valley area, and beyond if you care to scroll that far. Other new elements include a subscribe feature where you can stay updated with all real estate happenings, including new listings, and a Twitter feed along with our blog.

Our own recessionary crunching

I was very pleased today to find this article (http://rismedia.com/2009-07-08/corporate-relocation-responds-to-the-economy/) because it basically explained our recent actions here at Century 21 Adobe.

With our old model, awkwardly straddled between two offices in Newbury Park and Agoura Hills, we were for several years barely breaking even. Despite our strong business and the productivity of our agents, we were tied down by a overhead of over $30,000 per month on our office in Newbury Park.

Perhaps that might fly in the boom times but with the recession, it became an unexcusable waste. In early June, we began the daunting task of closing our Newbury Park office and relocating our whole company to Agoura Hills. Now a whole month into our move, we have been fully functional for a while, having conquered the squashing the crawling logistical parasites, such as IP networks, box unloading, and agent commutes.

Now with our cash flow freed of its old tremendous burden and our full strength and productivity concentrated in one office, we are fully ready to attack the market anew.

Our promise to move forward

Here at Century 21 Adobe, we pride ourselves on our ability to adapt to change. Far from being the extinct dinosaur of ages past, we are instead much more similar to the genetically super-bred dinosaurs from Jurassic Park: still living and thriving for one, and very astute and capable of learning to manipulate our environment, opening doorknobs, testing electric fences, etc.

So to explain that somewhat esoteric and obscure analogy, we are proud to say that we are actively pursuing our promise to move forward in this new business environment. We have all the time-tested reliability and standard of excellence of an old business with all the innovation and initiative of the new business.

Among all of our latest projects, we have spread our tentacles into much of the new media, with profiles and listings on trulia.com and zillow.com, as well as an account on Google Real Estate. The old mantra of real estate remains "location, location, location" so now, from our website, you can now see detailed maps of our community complete with the locations of our listings. Also be sure to check out our new search tools for rentals in Ventura and Los Angeles counties (currently under construction).

These are just the beginnings of our actions to reinvent how an old industry like real estate operates.

Our website: http://www.century21adobe.com

Edit: the new weapons of business

I first want to say that I'm not contradicting my earlier post about the advantages of a brick-and-mortar foundation and all of the security and reliability it entails. What I mean to do is qualify what could be seen as a flippant disregard for the new modern business with an elaboration of the additional value of technology.

RIS Media, the "leader" of real estate information systems recently released an innovation guide demanding self-examination from any company wishing to not be scathingly labelled a "dinosaur" (http://rismedia.com/2009-07-05/become-the-real-estate-firm-of-the-future-today/) It touts the importance of new marketing on new medias: texting, blogging, and facebook, once the casual playtoys of savvy teenagers is now suddenly a very serious imperative for companies hoping to stay ahead of the curve, ride the wave of change, reconfigure their whole paradigm, etc.

The powers of this new media are undeniable. According to the statistics, reaching a market of 50 million people would take 38 years by radio, 13 years by television, four years on the Internet, and three on iPod-but only two years via Facebook. Popular real estate website Zillow.com reported over 67% year-over-year growth in the first half of 2009, showing just where our new generation of customers is shopping for houses. New weapons have just been thrown into the mix and those who don't exploit them in the never-ending business arms race will no doubt be destroyed.

There's no reason a well-founded brick-and-mortar establishment can't also maintain and thrive in the new web environment, which is what we at Century 21 Adobe have made a top priority. As it turns out, old seasoned veteran dogs can learn new tricks.

Special Guest Post From Conejo Joe of ConejoValleyGuide.com

OK, I'm a famous AM radio celebrity now! I had all of about 5 minute on the show with Kelli McKay this morning...not a lot of time but it was a lot of fun. For anyone interested, I've embedded the podcast here: http://3.ly/4th

This link will work through the weekend, then I'll take it down. it will also be available on the KVTA website for 3 weeks at http://1400localsonly.podomatic.com/

Have a great 4th of July!

Conejo Joe
World Famous Radio Personality
and Founder of World Renowned Website,
www.ConejoValleyGuide.com
conejovalleyguide@gmail.com

Hip around Conejo Valley

Our Conejo Valley community is one that frequently boasts its lively activities and the weekend of our nation's birthday is deinitely no exception. Local information and events ranging from fireworks and movies to concerts and cherry cola rib recipes can be found on the website of Conejo Valley's very own community spokesperson, Conejo Joe: http://www.conejovalleyguide.com/. Check regularly on his excellently informative and updated blog for local happenings all around our quaint community.

The light at the end of the long, dim real estate tunnel

Since the 2006 sent the real estate industry as the lead car down this ludicrous roller coaster drop, pulling the rest of the market frantically behind it, realtors have been waiting, screaming, with their arms raised, for this ride to hit the bottom. Most predictions in the beginning of 2009 promised a pick-up in the second half.

Well, the second half is finally here and as promised, things are picking up. For the first time this month, the whole nation has seen in increase in the real estate market. Finally, both prices and sales are starting to rise back up. Furthermore, federal interest rates, drastically lowered to stimulate the economy, have not yet been raised, making this the perfect time to buy a house. Even as the national market recovers slowly, locally, Conejo Valley's real estate market has been on the rise with continual growth since February. With less job losses, less foreclosures and a nationwide, market-wide recovery, we can finally spring to life again, knowing the economy is finally sprung from its coma.