Looking to get a custom website up? See what $500 get's you

 

Developing websites related to real estate has been a passion of mine for some time now. Working in our industry and finding ways to use the newest technology to sell real estate really captured me like blogging has most of us on the ActiveRain network. I would like to share free tidbits here on active rain in my blogs for the future many of the tricks I use to capture buyers and sellers from the web. And we all know how important t has become to have a web presence. I wrote this post to announce that I am willing to help other agents who are not in my immediate market area with implementing a fully functioning site. I can install Open-realty sites to servers and add custom templates of your choice for the price above. I can also customize sites or generate logos of pictures for you. All designs can be accommodated and updated and will reflect your branding.

With my installation, all you will need to know how to do would be "filling in the blanks" for your listings in text fields and "hitting the submit button." Upload pictures easily and have a SEO optimized site customized for you.

Here are some demos of the administration section of an open-realty site. Click here for PDF view

Expect to pay for my installation service 1 time, any specific custom template you choose (average $70.00, some are free), monthly website hosting ( I recomend Bluehost.com , about $9.80/mo) , and any custom work you want after the fact based on an hourly rate of just $23/hr.

 

 

 

 

 

 

visit these sites to view my work:

GulfsideLand.com   LeeForbes.com   AStepAbovePropertyInspections.com

BradentonFloridaRealEstate.com   TheRealEstateZoo.com  

MrLandman.com  Organizeyourenergy.com   HighlandRidgeFL.com

BradentonRealEstateClub.com

I work with:

• Flash
• html
• java
• php
• SQL
• Open-realty
• Wordpress
• Blogger
• Video Production

I use the newest and top rated Professional software to develop my projects.

• MS 2007 programs: Word, Excel, Power Point, Publisher, and Access  
• Adobe CS3
  • Dreamweaver
  • Acrobat 8 Professional
  • Photoshop
  • Fireworks
  • Flash Professional
  • Contribute
  • AfterEffects
  • Illustrator
  • InDesign
  • Premier Pro
  • Encore
• Windows Vista and Vista 64 bit
• Many, many, many, many others

Please contact me with your thoughts or intrest in working together

Thank you kindly,

Lee Forbes     CRS, GRI, ABR, E-Pro
Premier Team Inc., REALTOR©
3850 SR. 64 East
Bradenton, FL 34208

Direct: 941-725-4258

Toll free 877-646-8326 

"We Make Real Estate Easy"

Visit my website LeeForbes.com

Awarded Top 10% in the nation for consumer satisfaction by the Internet

Consumer Group!

Blog Entry dated 10/29/2007 11:43 AM

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Blog Entry dated 10/26/2007 9:24 AM

ure, you order takeout three nights a week, and preparing a burger tests the limits of your culinary know-how. But that doesn't mean you don't need and deserve a spacious kitchen. After all, the kitchen has evolved from a room where food is prepared to the hub of a house, where you do everything from eating casual meals to paying the bills and helping Junior with his algebra homework.

Plus, as long as you stick within the norms of the neighborhood, a kitchen expansion is one of the best ways to increase your property value, says Omaha appraiser John Bredemeyer, a spokesman for the Appraisal Institute. "A lot of people buy the kitchen and take the house that comes along with it," he says. "So going from a cooking kitchen to an entertaining kitchen is likely to pay for itself when you sell your house someday."

Best of all, you don't necessarily have to shell out the $50,000 to $100,000 cost of a kitchen addition. Here are some money-saving tricks for enlarging the kitchen - or at least making it seem bigger:

Reconfigure the eating area

Having a place to eat in the kitchen is essential, but even a 3½-foot-wide round table takes up a 10-foot-by-10-foot floor space to comfortably accommodate walking around it, says Denver architect Doug Walter. So consider these space-conserving alternatives:

• Lose the table You could replace it with a diner-style booth ($2,000 to $5,000), which needs just six feet by eight feet of floor space and can be set directly against the wall or in an alcove. Or let a new countertop double as a breakfast bar by overhanging it 15 inches off a peninsula or an island. Opt for backless stools, and they can be tucked almost entirely under the counter.

• Use the dining room If you rarely eat a meal in the dining room, consider knocking down the wall separating it from the kitchen to form an attached, everyday eating area. That costs about $1,500 (if you have to move a structural wall, it will cost another $4,500). You'll lose cabinets, but if you put a peninsula in the wall's place, you'll retain some storage space.

Maximize the space

Sometimes kitchen congestion can be resolved by updating an old-fashioned floor plan that's chopping up ample square footage with too many walls and other obstructions.

• Annex other spaces Walk-in pantries, mudrooms and laundry rooms that abut the kitchen are often worth sacrificing for an expanded kitchen, says Charlotte, N.C. contractor John Harmon. Construction costs can be as little as $2,000, depending on the situation. And thanks to stackable laundry machines that can be tucked away in a closet and cabinets that can store as much as an entire closet in a fraction of the space, they won't be missed.

• Move the sliders Replacing sliding-glass patio doors with a single swing-out door ($3,000 to $4,000) or relocating your backdoor out of prime kitchen territory ($5,000 to $7,000) can free up vital wall space for new cabinets and a countertop without adding any floor space.

Add on economically

If the only solution is more physical space, you may be able to do the job for less than the $400-a-square-foot (or higher) cost of a full-scale kitchen addition and remodel.

• Add adjacent living space If what you really need is an eating area or a space next to your existing kitchen, build a family room, den or great room alongside it. The open floor plan will make the kitchen seem bigger, and the person cooking (or microwaving, as the case may be) will feel like part of the household activity. And because the new space won't require all the labor and materials involved in reconstructing a kitchen, the project will cost about $200 a square foot.

• Hang a bump-out If your plans for the kitchen require just a little more room, you may be able to hang the space off the side of the house by suspending the additional square footage from the existing structure, much like a bay window. As long as the bump-out doesn't extend more than three feet beyond the main exterior wall, it should easily cost $2,000 less than if the contractor had to excavate the yard and pour a new foundation, says Walter.

Whatever technique you use to expand your kitchen, once it has an open, spacious feel, it's sure to become an even more popular hangout. Heck, it might even inspire you to break out a cookbook.

Can it get worse?

sales are down,WAY down!!

The battered markets for real estate and home building still have farther to fall, according to a range of economists who spoke Wednesday at a forecast conference sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders.

The economists agreed that the problems with home finance markets will continue to hit housing into next year, and that even when there is a recovery, it will be a slow process that will see weakness continue into 2009.

While most said they believed the overall U.S. economy can weather the housing downturn, several saw significant risk of a recession. Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Economy.com, said that large areas of the country will fall into recession, if they haven't done so already.

The economists also admitted to being surprised by how bad the housing downturn has become, and all said that making forecasts of a recovery is difficult due to the problems in the credit markets.

"This time, we just don't know how it's going to pan out because the securities markets have become so much more important," said David Seiders, chief economist with the builder's trade group.

Home sales: Record weakness

The conference was held in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, as another trade group, the National Association of Realtors, was reporting the lowest pace of existing home sales since it started using current measures to track those sales since 1999. The sales of existing home sales slowed to the slowest pace since 1998, while the supply of homes on the market rose to its highest level in 12 years.

Zandi estimated that the excess inventory of homes on the market is close to one million, and he added that the glut could get worse if mortgage defaults and foreclosures increase, as it now appears they will.

"We're awash in inventory," he said. "I don't think this [credit] crisis is over. It's less stark than it was four to eight weeks ago. But I wouldn't be surprised if the embers which are smolder catch on fire again."

Thomas Lawler, a former Fannie Mae official who is now a private housing and finance consultant, said the easy financing terms of the boom years have been replaced by an overly restrictive lending environment. But even when underwriting standards return to more normal conditions, it won't be enough to lift demand and prices back to peak levels, he added.

"There's a part of the mortgage market that is gone for at least a while, and it should be because it should never have been there," Lawler said. "But that will slash demand. If the pace of building doesn't continue to fall, we'll see even worse price declines." He's now projecting prices down another 6 or 7 percent next year, on top of declines of that amount this year.

Staring into the mortgage market abyss

"The fact that building wasn't cut as early as it should have been is one of the reasons that that prices continue to fall," he said.

Still, Michael Moran of Daiwa Securities said he puts the chance of a recession at only about 30 percent, as employment and income should stop the housing market from going into a free fall.

"I think it's a blow the economy should be able to absorb," he said. "The housing prices are holding up reasonably well. If you look at the traditional determinants of housing demand, they're not that bad."

And Bernard Markstein, a National Association of Home Builders economist, said that the fact that home building isn't seen as coming back to 2005 levels or even 2006 levels for the foreseeable future isn't a bad thing.

"The real comparison should be to 2002 to 2003, back when we were meeting our needs, not to 2004 or 2005," Markstein said. "That's when we were overbuilding - we don't want to be there." 

Blog Entry dated 10/17/2007 8:38 AM

 

 

 

(9/17/07) - Lee Forbes of Premier Team inc. has successfully completed the REALTOR e-PRO course to become one of a select few real estate professionals to earn the prestigious certification offered through the National Association of REALTORS.®

 

The REALTOR e-PRO certification course is an educational program unlike any other professional certification or designation course available, comprehensive and interactive. It is specifically designed to provide real estate professionals with the technology tools needed to assist consumers in the purchase or sale of a home.

 

With more than 70% of consumers beginning their real estate research on the Internet, e-PRO certified agents have the experience and expertise to meet the demands of today's buyer and seller.

 

"The real estate industry has undergone a fundamental change over the past several years," said Lee Forbes of Premier Team Inc. "A majority of consumers are taking the time to conduct their own research prior to contacting an agent. In turn, real estate professionals must be knowledgeable of how technology can assist them in serving the needs of the buying and selling public."

 

The exclusive REALTOR e-PRO certification course is presented entirely online and certifies real estate agents and brokers as Internet professionals. Because of its innovative design, students are able to complete the course at their own pace, when and where they want, via any Internet connection. The course is designed to help REALTORS stay at the leading edge of technology and identify, evaluate and implement new Internet business models.

 

Once completed, the e-PRO certified real estate professional joins the ranks of a special community of highly skilled and continuously trained professionals who provide high quality and innovative online-based real estate services.  Consumers can identify the e-PRO through the exclusive e-PRO Internet Professional logo.

 

Both the content and the delivery platform were created by San Diego-based technology company InternetCrusade®. The course instructs participants in the professional use of e-mail, the development of an interactive Web site, and the use of online research tools. Graduates use the skills they've acquired to provide clients information on properties for sale, local communities, and the local real estate market.

 

For more information, e-mail Lee Forbes at Results@LeeForbes.com or call 941-725-4258.

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you kindly,

 

Lee Forbes     GRI, ABR

Premier Team Inc., REALTOR©

3850 SR. 64 East

Bradenton, FL 34208

 

Direct: 941-725-4258

Toll free 877-646-8326 

 

"We Make Real Estate Easy"

Visit my website LeeForbes.com

 

for FREE info:            

·       Mortgage Calculator

·       FREE Online Newsletter

·       Articles & Advice for Homebuyers & Homesellers

·       FREE “What’s My Home Worth?” report

·       Search the Manatee County Multiple Listing Service

 

Awarded Top 10% in the nation for consumer satisfaction by the Internet

Consumer Group!

 

Blog Entry dated 10/11/2007 9:46 AM

The number of foreclosures across the country dropped in September, falling 8 percent from a 32-month high in August, according to a regular monthly survey.

Delinquencies and defaults fell to 223,538 filings, according to the latest data from RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosure properties.

RealtyTrac also reported that nationwide numbers were down in all foreclosure categories, which include default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions, with 39 states reporting decreased activity.

But the figures were still double the number reported a year ago. "It's important to note that September's total was still the second highest monthly total we've seen since we began issuing our report in January of 2005," James Saccacio, chief executive of RealtyTrac, said in a statement.

Florida's foreclosure activity dipped 2 percent from August, but the state's foreclosure rate moved up to the nation's second highest, after placing third last month.

Rust Belt states, or those located in the nation's former industrial centers, that made the top 10 included Michigan (one in 314), Ohio (one in 319), and Indiana (one in 615).

Among the states with the highest foreclosure totals, Illinois was the only state to see a month-to-month increase in foreclosure activity with 8,257 filings, up 33 percent from August.

California claimed six cities among the top 10 metro areas for the number of filings. Merced topped the list with one of every 68 households, followed by Modesto, Stockton, Riverside-San Bernardino, Vallejo-Fairfield, and Sacramento. Detroit, Ft. Lauderdale, Cape Coral-Fort Meyers and Las Vegas also landed on list of worst hit metro areas.

California also led the nation in the actual number of foreclosures with 51,259 households in some stage of default during the month. Florida was next with 33,354 and Ohio, with 15,709, was third.

Washington D.C. saw the biggest drop in foreclosure activity in the U.S., falling 82 percent from last month.

Although foreclosures showed a broad-based decline, RealtyTrac still expects the number of filings to hit over 2 million this year