Experimenting with video, producing local content and shoring up holes in mobile presence were hot digital initiatives for brokerages in 2012, and some firms who took those steps last year are looking to refine them in 2013.

Decision makers at three large brokerages — The Corcoran Group in New York City, Alain Pinel Realtors in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Nothnagle Realtors in Rochester, N.Y. — agreed to share with Inman News readers what they’re focused on in 2013.

A smaller brokerage — Do Good Real Estate in Wilmington, N.C. — also provided insight into how much can be accomplished even with more limited resources.

“2012 at Corcoran was all about expanding and strengthening our digital ecosystem,” said Matthew Shadbolt, director of interactive product and marketing at Corcoran. The new year, he said, will be about smoothing out the user experience between all of the firm’s established digital products — social media, video, apps, website — and creating a more personal, local, adaptive service.

Alain Pinel has a similar goal for 2013 — a focus on customer experience, said Alain Pinel executive vice president Rainy Hake.

By expanding its video offerings, improving its mobile presence and adapting its agent training protocol in the new year, Nothnagle Realtors hopes to stay at the cutting-edge of technology and marketing techniques, said Armand D’Alfonso, president and CEO of Nothnagle Realtors.

Producing exciting agent videos, developing quality local information and taking the leap to a cloud-based transaction management system are key goals in 2013 at Do Good Real Estate, said Ryan Crecelius, the firm’s founder and owner. 

Building a local, responsive brand

“Midtown Manhattan is a very different place in the morning than in the evening,” said Matthew Shadbolt, director of interactive product and marketing at Corcoran.

Shadbolt said Corcoran — a 2,200-agent brokerage based in New York City, with additional operations in the Hamptons and South Florida — wants to adapt its customer service and its social media-sourced info to the nuances of a neighborhood like Midtown Manhattan in 2013.

After launching a new website with a location-focused, agent-forward platform and character, the Realogy Holdings Corp.-owned firm is looking to go a step further this year.

“Contextual, location-aware information, delivered in a timely and relevant way, is something we’d love do a better job of,” Shadbolt said.

Matthew Shadbolt

After doubling its digital presence in 2012 with big investments into its website, mobile apps, video production, social media and advertising — and its first-ever TV ad, this year Corcoran is “going to focus on the spaces between all of these products and how customers can move seamlessly among all of these experiences,” Shadbolt said.

Technology should help people use their time more efficiently. By applying the notion of the “quantified self” — which typically involves tracking aspects of an individual’s daily life and activities — Corcoran hopes to help employees identify activities that generate the best return for the time spent on them, he said.

As Corcoran’s digital footprint increases, Shadbolt said he’s encouraging Corcoran to shift its perspective of its online community. “It’s important for us to stop calling or thinking about Corcoran’s digital audience ‘consumers, followers, fans or viewers,’ ” he said. “If you’re serious about building business online, these people are your customers.”

Video for all listings

Having updated its website in 2012, San Francisco Bay Area luxury real estate firm Alain Pinel Realtors — ranked by Real Trends as the fifth-largest brokerage in the U.S. with 2011 deals totaling $7.51 billion — is also looking to refine its digital presence.

This year, Alain Pinel plans to improve customer experience by simplifying the firm’s presence across mobile platforms. The firm will also sharpen the visual features on its website by requiring high-definition photo and video for all listings, and creating dozens of professionally-shot, neighborhood-focused videos, said Alain Pinel executive vice president Rainy Hake.

“Visual marketing is one of the best ways to communicate the attributes of a home and create an emotional connection with possible homebuyers,” Hake said of the impetus behind the firm’s decision to roll out its high-definition image platform this year.

Rainy Hake

Alain Pinel has mobile apps – like a comparative market analysis tool for iPad — for all major devices, Hake said. But the firm is focusing this year on coordinating them into “one responsive interactive unit,” to simplify the firm’s multi-platform presence.

Along with an enhanced visual presence, Alain Pinel will be launching several online magazines with interactive video and content like market statistics and lifestyle information, laced with hyper-local community content. The online magazines, like the local videos, are an effort by the firm to produce more local content.

“We are looking to make our online content more robust and interactive,” Hake said.

After experimenting with augmented reality for a couple of years, 2013 could be the year Alain Pinel begins to incorporate the technology into some of its print materials, allowing users to turn a printed page into an interactive document with their smartphone camera and screen, Hake said.

Hake noted that the firm dropped quick response (“QR”) codes — which allowed users to scan a small pixelated box with their smartphone cameras to access specific online data — from its marketing materials in 2012. Augmented reality, on the other hand, may succeed in leaving its gimmicky reputation behind and entering the mainstream.

Agent videos, enhanced mobile and old-school training

Rochester, N.Y.-based Nothnagle Realtors — a 625-agent firm ranked by Real Trends as the 37th-largest brokerage in 2011 with 8,070 transaction sides — is also looking to beef up its video and mobile presence in 2013.

The brokerage began exploring video marketing in 2012 with agent profiles, said Nothnagle Realtors President and CEO Armand D’Alfonso. This year, he said, the firm will expand video to property spotlight pieces, which will “not only showcase the properties but also allow each agent’s unique personality to shine through as each video includes narration and commentary from the agent.” 

Armand D’Alfonso

In addition to video, the firm wants to enhance its mobile offerings to ensure that agents respond quickly to customer needs, and consumers have access to more, immediate information.

“Consumers want immediate response and access to information and data wherever they are and we can continue to provide that through an enhanced mobile platform,” D’Alfonso said.

Nothnagle Realtors will augment its agent training in 2013 with a dose of low-tech, by increasing hands-on, live seminars. D’Alfonso said the firm has found that agents, despite having access to online, on-demand training tools, still value and want the classroom experience.

The brokerage as music label

A smaller firm, Do Good Real Estate, based in Wilmington, N.C., is looking to solidify its business model and add agents, do more video and launch a marketing campaign and a new website in 2013.

“In a sense, we see our brokerage as a music label,” said Ryan Crecelius, who founded Do Good in 2010 and has generated some buzz by donating 20 percent of all sales commissions to local charities. The firm wants to produce a video (like the one below, that Crecelius commissioned for himself) for every agent that comes on board, Crecelius said.

Video profile of Ryan Crecelius.

“When we sign a new ‘act’ we want to make sure we create buzz and give our agents a proper launch,” he said.

The firm will launch a new website this year focused heavily on local content including in-depth area guides and neighborhood details. Crecelius said website will embody the brokerage’s 2013 marketing campaign slogan: “LOCAL. HONEST. ALWAYS.”

Ryan Crecelius

Do Good already uses paperless solutions like DocuSign, Dropbox and Evernote. This year, it’s also planning to transition to a cloud-based transaction management system like Cartavi, Reesio or dotloop, Crecelius said.

“It would be great to have everything in one place so that we can access all of our agents’ transactions to be able to offer support, keep things efficient and deliver a consistent customer experience,” Crecelius said.

Where its branding is concerned, Crecelius said Do Good is focused on being unique in the new year.

“We want our customers and our agents to feel that they are engaged with a brand that is different.”

Ryan Crecelius will be a speaker on the panel “Pushing the Envelope: Beta-Brokers” at Real Estate Connect New York City, Jan. 16 – 18, at the Grand Hyatt New York.

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The nine-county region saw the highest November sales rate in six years, said San Diego-based DataQuick. A total of 7,296 new and resale homes changed hands in November, up 15.5 percent from a year earlier. That was nearing the long-term November average of 7,873 sales.

“We’re seeing a more-normal level of sales and a more-normal distribution of sales across price categories,” said Andrew LePage, a DataQuick analyst. “The market isn’t quite as lopsided.”

Bay Area buyers paid a median price of $438,000 last month, up 20.5 percent from November 2011. DataQuick said about half of the increase stemmed from a shift in the mix of houses sold.

Bargain-basement foreclosure resales are now at their lowest level in five years, accounting for 11.5 percent of November resale transactions. A year ago they were a quarter of the market; at their peak in 2009, foreclosures were 52 percent of all resales.

Short sales – homes sold for less than is owed on the mortgage – were 23 percent of the resale market, down from 24.9 percent a year ago.

More buyers committed to pricier homes. Mortgages above the old “jumbo” limit of $417,000 were 40.1 percent of the November market, up from 29 percent a year earlier.

Realtors throughout the Bay Area report that a dearth of supply is fueling bidding wars, with properties selling well above asking prices.

“We’re getting 30 offers on properties at the lowest price points,” said Don Faught, managing broker with Alain Pinel Realtors in the Tri-Valley area.

“The challenge we have now is that there’s nothing to sell,” he said. “But now that prices are increasing, people are finally realizing that they can sell their house.”

LePage agreed. “This is a strengthening market that is still undersupplied, hence the pressure on prices,” he said. “If these trends hold, we will see a lot more inventory. As prices ratchet up, fewer people are underwater and those who are in a position to sell will be tempted to make their move now.”

Investors remained a potent market force. Buyers paying all cash bought 28.7 percent of Bay Area properties in November, the same as a year earlier, paying a median $320,000, up 27 percent from November 2011.

Low interest rates – one trend underlying the surge in sales – seem likely to continue. The rates on 30-year mortgages dipped last week to an average of 3.32, nearing the record low, according to a Freddie Mac survey, also released Thursday. The all-time low was 3.31 percent in the Nov. 21 report.

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday it would continue buying government securities and mortgage bonds until unemployment drops below 6.5 percent – something it predicts will not happen until 2015. The tens of billions of dollars it is pouring into those purchases will keep interest rates low.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: csaid@sfchronicle.com

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Bay-Area-home-sales-prices-jump-4116852.php

The nine-county region saw the highest November sales rate in six years, said San Diego-based DataQuick. A total of 7,296 new and resale homes changed hands in November, up 15.5 percent from a year earlier. That was nearing the long-term November average of 7,873 sales.

“We’re seeing a more-normal level of sales and a more-normal distribution of sales across price categories,” said Andrew LePage, a DataQuick analyst. “The market isn’t quite as lopsided.”

Bay Area buyers paid a median price of $438,000 last month, up 20.5 percent from November 2011. DataQuick said about half of the increase stemmed from a shift in the mix of houses sold.

Bargain-basement foreclosure resales are now at their lowest level in five years, accounting for 11.5 percent of November resale transactions. A year ago they were a quarter of the market; at their peak in 2009, foreclosures were 52 percent of all resales.

Short sales – homes sold for less than is owed on the mortgage – were 23 percent of the resale market, down from 24.9 percent a year ago.

More buyers committed to pricier homes. Mortgages above the old “jumbo” limit of $417,000 were 40.1 percent of the November market, up from 29 percent a year earlier.

Realtors throughout the Bay Area report that a dearth of supply is fueling bidding wars, with properties selling well above asking prices.

“We’re getting 30 offers on properties at the lowest price points,” said Don Faught, managing broker with Alain Pinel Realtors in the Tri-Valley area.

“The challenge we have now is that there’s nothing to sell,” he said. “But now that prices are increasing, people are finally realizing that they can sell their house.”

LePage agreed. “This is a strengthening market that is still undersupplied, hence the pressure on prices,” he said. “If these trends hold, we will see a lot more inventory. As prices ratchet up, fewer people are underwater and those who are in a position to sell will be tempted to make their move now.”

Investors remained a potent market force. Buyers paying all cash bought 28.7 percent of Bay Area properties in November, the same as a year earlier, paying a median $320,000, up 27 percent from November 2011.

Low interest rates – one trend underlying the surge in sales – seem likely to continue. The rates on 30-year mortgages dipped last week to an average of 3.32, nearing the record low, according to a Freddie Mac survey, also released Thursday. The all-time low was 3.31 percent in the Nov. 21 report.

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday it would continue buying government securities and mortgage bonds until unemployment drops below 6.5 percent – something it predicts will not happen until 2015. The tens of billions of dollars it is pouring into those purchases will keep interest rates low.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: csaid@sfchronicle.com

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Bay-Area-home-sales-prices-jump-4116852.php

118 Coso Ave.

Beds: 3 Baths: 2.5 Square footage: 2,220

This three-bedroom, 2.5-bath home was built in 1909 and has about 2,220 square feet of living space. The foyer has intricate hardwood floors and a wooden staircase that leads to the upper level. The living room has a fireplace and bay windows that let in lots of natural light and provide cross-ventilation. The formal dining room has a modern light fixture and is open to the kitchen, which is perfect for dinner parties. The kitchen offers stainless steel appliances, a dishwasher, solid-wood cabinets and ample cupboard space. The backyard has a wooden fence for added privacy, a patio area and a hot tub.

Listing agent: Michael Salstein, Zephyr Real Estate eTeam, (877) 627-2805.

San Francisco, $1.395 million

272 Dalewood Way

Beds: 3 Baths: 3.5 Square footage: 1,923

This three-bedroom, 3.5-bath home has about 1,923 square feet of living space and offers breathtaking ocean views. The living room has elegant crown molding, a fireplace and hardwood floors. The formal dining room has a chandelier and the kitchen is adjacent. The kitchen has a gleaming black tile floor, stainless steel appliances and solid-wood cabinets. The master bedroom is sleek and modern with red walls and white trim, and the master bathroom has dual sinks and granite countertops. The garage provides space for two vehicles and added storage. It is conveniently located within one mile of Miraloma Elementary School.

Listing agent: Pamela Rummage Culp, Alain Pinel Realtors, (415) 640-3293.

San Francisco Chronicle and BlockShopper San Francisco scour the Bay Area to find what range of properties buyers can get for their money. This week, What You Can Buy features homes in the $1.287 million range.

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/What-you-can-buy-in-San-Francisco-for-1-179-4004343.php

San Francisco Bay Area luxury real estate company Alain Pinel Realtors has redesigned its website, adding property search by keyword and by lifestyle attribute, and adds the ability to search for for-sale homes within school districts and by the number of days on the market.

The new site also features a more integrated global search capability, three new blogs, and a toolbox with a rent-vs.-buy calculator for property listings.

The new site features a lifestyle search that allows visitors to search for a home by some of the lifestyle attributes they want a home and its neighborhood to provide. It’s one of the highlights of the redesign, said Rainy Hake, executive vice president for Alain Pinel Realtor.

Filtered by county or neighborhood, the search prompts visitors to provide relative importance to a variety of home/location-related features of prospective homes, including: “school quality,” “the arts,” “entertainment/dining,” “family-friendly,” and “shops and services,” among other choices.

APR.com screenshot.

The new keyword search option allows homebuyers to search for listings using keywords that might turn up houses with certain unique attributes that would take much longer to find in conventional search.

The site also features a cool map-based orientation to the 11 San Francisco Bay Area counties that Alain Pinel services that allows visitors to select various towns within a county to see homes for sale, a short introduction to the market and fairly robust up-to-date market data.

The site will be mobile- and tablet-friendly soon, with a mobile app and an iPad app in development, said Hake.

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Article source: http://www.inman.com/news/2012/04/10/san-francisco-area-real-estate-firm-redesigns-website

Los Gatos, California (PRWEB) March 29, 2012

Real estate investment firm Pertria of Los Gatos, California, announces the appointment of Harry Murray as President effective February 7, 2012.

Murray, former Vice President of J. Rockcliff Realtors and Manager of the J. Rockcliff Danville office, will play an instrumental role in expanding the company while managing its internal operations. Helen Pastorino, Pertria’s Founder and CEO, will focus on business development, strategic affiliations and Pertria’s vision for the future.

Regarding the new position, Mr. Murray said: “It is rare to receive a second opportunity to work with someone who has maintained the level of integrity and professionalism that Helen has throughout her career and has played such an influential role in the real estate industry. I look forward to working with the exceptional team of professionals she has aligned to produce this highly effective model integrating financial, tax, insurance, legal and real estate services”.

Murray, a San Francisco Bay Area real estate executive of exceptional notoriety, has worked more than 40 years in real estate with over thirty years of holding positions in executive management. Pastorino and Murray worked together at Fox and Carskadon and then went on to build Alain Pinel Realtors into the successful business it is today.

“Harry has built and maintained an astonishing career”, says Pastorino. “He is a true statesman who engages people with the utmost respect, understands the value of relationships and is impeccable in all his dealings. I am incredibly fortunate that he has accepted this position and delight in the idea that we will be working together again”.

As Vice President of J. Rockcliff Realtors, Murray played a pivotal role in the company’s growth. Before joining Rockcliff, he managed the Fox and Carskadon Los Gatos office for over ten years, acted as the Broker of Record for Alain Pinel Realtors for nearly 17 years and was Vice President and Directing Officer at Intero Real Estate Services.

In 2004, Helen Pastorino founded Pertria, representing residential and commercial real estate sales, investment analysis and property management strategically aligned with like-minded financial professionals including certified financial planners, tax advisors, insurance specialists and specialized legal counsel. Pertria recently expanded into the former Zynga Los Gatos office space and is now located at 720 University Avenue, Suite 100, in Los Gatos, California. For more information on Pertria and Helen Pastorino, please visit www.pertria.com or call 408-357-7777.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/3/prweb9344172.htm

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/03/29/prweb9344172.DTL

Trulia Inc. is providing “premium placement” of all listings represented by San Francisco-based Alain Pinel Realtors under the terms of a “strategic partnership,” the companies announced today.

With 1,400 agents working out of 32 offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, Alain Pinel was ranked by Real Trends as the sixth-largest U.S. real estate brokerage by dollar volume of transactions handled in 2010.

Premium listings show up on top of search results on Trulia.com with a brokerage’s branding. Trulia claims a branded homebuyer request form that appears next to the premium listings generates three times more leads than are generated by the company’s nonbranded form.

If agents have not “claimed” them, listings on Trulia are often accompanied by “Trulia Pro” lead forms that generate leads for agents who work for competing brokerages. The lead forms appear at the bottom of a listing, and invite site users who want more information about a property to contact up to four agents. Brokers and agents can also purchase dynamic Trulia Local ads, which appear higher up on listing detail pages.  

“There are no competing agents on the lead form for any clients, paying or not, as long as the listings have been claimed by the broker or agent, which can be done for free,” said Ginger Wilcox, Trulia’s head of industry marketing. “For Premium Listings customers, additional advertising is pushed down on the page.”

A few brokerages that object to such ads and lead forms have said they will stop providing listings to third-party sites like Trulia, Zillow and Realtor.com. Other brokers and franchisors are willing to pay so that their listings will stand out on third-party sites.

In February, Pittsburgh-based Howard Hanna Real Estate Services announced it would pay Realtor.com and Zillow to promote its listings on the sites unaccompanied by ads or lead forms for competing brokerages.

Howard Hanna, ranked by Real Trends as the seventh-largest brokerage by dollar volume in 2010, said it would pay a seven-figure sum — between $1 million and $10 million — for special treatment of its listings on both sites.

Last June, the nation’s largest brokerage company, Realogy Corp. subsidiary NRT LLC, announced it had signed agreements to add advertising enhancements to 100,000 property listings on Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com and Yahoo Real Estate.

Under the terms of an agreement announced in April 2011, Trulia also offers brokers affiliated with Realogy subsidiary Century 21 Real Estate LLC discounts on premium listings. As part of a listing syndication deal announced in March 2011, Re/Max agents and brokers receive “partner benefits” on Trulia Pro and Trulia Local ads.

Wilcox said the company has agreements with “hundreds of brokers and franchisors across the country.”

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Sam Bamieh, founder and former chairman of San Mateo, Calif.-based American Intertrade Group Inc., owns the Tobin Clark Estate. He is a prominent donor to Republican politicians. Bamieh’s company specializes in real estate development and financial consulting.

The property is in Hillsborough, Calif., a San Francisco Bay Area suburb that’s one of the wealthiest communities in the country.

In 2002, the estate made Forbes magazine’s list of the most expensive homes in the United States. The Wall Street Journal featured the estate as its “House of the Day” on Oct. 1, 2009. According to Zillow.com, the house was supposed to be torn down to make way for six homes. Bamieh bought the estate at a foreclosure sale for $3.2 million, the Journal reported.

Four residential real estate firms – Keller Williams Realty International, Sotheby’s International Realty, Engel Volkers and Alain Pinel Realtors – are marketing the property. An announcement of the Cotsword Tudor mansion being put on the market called it “the jewel in the crown of San Francisco estates.”

In August 2009, Bamieh put the house up for sale – without hiring a real estate agent – at a list price of nearly $28.9 million. Owner financing was available to “qualified buyers.”

The Bamieh family spent more than $19 million to restore the Tobin Clark Estate, which sites on 6 acres and is secured by classic wrought-iron gates. Sam Bamieh bought the mansion, also known as House on Hill, in 1992. Bamieh initially put the estate on the market in 1999 for $45 million, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Continued on the next page

Article source: http://technorati.com/lifestyle/article/mansion-near-san-francisco-on-the/

Of the 13* Redwood City residential properties currently for sale between $900,0000 and $1,000,000 on the Multiple Listing Service, 1733 Hull Avenue in the West Selby area, listed by Rick Freeman of Intero Real Estate, comes in just under $1 million at $999,999. Available since the beginning of February this unique property offers a “2 for 1” approach with 2 separate homes on a large, 13,155 lot – an updated 3 bedroom/2 bathroom home with master suite, plus a 2 bedroom/1 bathroom home, and an office behind the garage.

For a more traditional home, one need look no farther than 2470 Edith Avenue, priced in the middle of the range at $949,000 and listed by  Howard Clark, Dumas Company since August 2010.  With 4 bedrooms and 3 baths, the two-story, 2450 square foot residence on a 6300 square foot lot offers a formal dining room and family room as well as a master suite and is in need of some “TLC”.

At the beginning of the price range, now listed at $900,000 is 31 Foss Drive by Sylviana Montano, Century 21 Landmark Network. This 3 bedroom/3 bathroom home initially arrived on the market at $1,250,000 in March, 2010, and is now a short sale with a much reduced price tag.  Located just below Emerald Hills, the two-story, updated 2880 square foot house on a 5850 square foot lot features a formal dining room, family room, den and a master suite.

There are currently 3 sales pending between $900,000 and $1 million.  962 Round Hill Road  in Farm Hill, listed by Gary Bulanti of Alain Pinel Realtors and priced at $999,000 was on the market for 94 days.  The 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom home with 2130 square feet interior space offers an updated kitchen, family room, master suite and laundry room, and the 8260 square foot lot provides a good-sized, private backyard.  

3 brand new construction homes in Redwood City – 10, 20 and 30 Kenna Court in the West Selby area are representative of the 15 closed sales in this price range over the past six months.  Listed by Greg Terry with Alain Pinel Realtors, all three properties were completed and arrived on the market in November, 2010, and all were listed and sold for $998,000 in 11, 8 and 7 days respectively.  The two-story residences boast all the “bells and whistles” with marble, granite and tile hard finishes, stainless steel appliances, master suites and open great rooms.  All offer 4 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms in 2688 to 2566 square feet on 5444 to 5100 square foot lots.

*All housing market information is provided by MLSListings.com and is deemed reliable but may not be accurate.  

For more information about any of these properties, contact the listing agents or Wende Schoof.

Looking for the right home on the San Francisco Peninsula?  Redwood City could be the right place!  Wende By The Bay is definitely the right place to start! 

Article source: http://redwoodcity.patch.com/articles/home-report-what-can-you-get-for-under-1-million