The Housing Market is Getting Better. Consumer Confidence is the Drag.

November 8th, 2011

We’ve just published the latest edition of Carpenter Reports: The Central Indiana Real Estate Market, a quarterly review of central Indiana real estate market activity. For reasons you’ll see in the report, I’ve titled this edition “The Housing Market is Getting Better. Consumer Confidence is the Drag.”

Why? I believe this quarter’s report continues to illustrate that the central Indiana housing market is in a recovery. Any argument that now is a great time to buy a home is more compelling today and that this report supports that.

Over the last quarter almost every county in central Indiana saw lower inventories of single family homes for sale, a necessary and healthy sign of recovery. Six had double-digit declines. With that, we noted double digit increases in sales for the third quarter. With the exception of Shelby, Putnam and Madison Counties, all central Indiana counties experienced solid double digit increases. Again, evidence of a recovering market. Stabilization, and gradual improvement in the Average Sales Price of the homes sold is another key indicator. Compared to the third quarter of 2011, this quarter showed a healthy 2.7% increase in the Average Sales Price.

With these numbers, we anticipate positive comparisons for the fourth quarter of 2011 and early 2012 as the recovery continues to build momentum into Spring.

The biggest challenge to a sustained recovery in central Indiana’s housing market continues to be consumer confidence. The downward trend in the monthly Consumer Confidence Index continues to put a drag on the housing recovery. Despite favorable prices and interest rates, many prospective homebuyers simply lack the confidence in their personal situation to undertake such a major purchase.

At Carpenter, we believe there will be gradual improvement in our housing market over the next few quarters and for years to come. It won’t be a straight-line to recovery. There will be bumps along the way. It will take improving consumer confidence in what the future has to offer to assure us the sustained recovery we all need and want.

Posted by:  David Caveness

tagged with carpenter real estate, carpenter reports, current housing market, david caveness, housing market trends, indiana real estate, living in central indiana, quarterly reports, real estate market, real estate news, real estate recovery, real estate trends | 0 comments »

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Carpenter's new agents "get" it

September 6th, 2011

Just spent a couple of days with our latest training class. I like these guys. Most classes have a few dynamic future success stories … with a few of the opposite. Sometimes they’re death on wheels. And a few rare groups like this one give us a reason to be excited.

On Thursday, sharing the Carpenter Marketing offerings with them, they not only stayed alert (sometimes a challenge when I’m in front of a group) but it was obvious they were paying close attention. From our co-op advertising programs to details on their free CRM program and websites to a full-on discussion of the value of good photography, they proved themselves ready to get out there and make something happen. Today, reviewing out custom website options for our agents, they got it. They got the value of having a full site and the value of custom content. And they really got it when we did the hands-on, get-your-site-looking-good training. One of the easiest groups to work with from step one.

I’m looking forward to early next week when we review our CRM offerings, with contact management, drip email campaigns, neighborhood reports and more. It’s the best value and most important banana in the bunch.

It’s interesting. As a new agent, you have to figure they’re concentrating on selling homes. And we stress technique and tools. But when they understand and also get excited about the marketing opportunities we provide - helping them brand themselves, providing a full, free CRM program, offering custom websites, providing programs to offset their advertising costs – other “sit-on-your-laurels” agents at companies who don’t provide these benefits should start watching their backs.

So, newbies, if you’re reading this, thanks for a good couple of days.

Posted by:  Jim Newell

tagged with agent news, carpenter real estate, current housing market, jim newell, new real estate, real estate agent stories, real estate market, real estate trends | 0 comments »

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Carpenter Realtors Honored by The Leading Real Estate Companies of the World

March 4th, 2011

The Leading Real Estate Companies of the World^® will be holding its international conference at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas next week.  I couldn’t be more excited and humbled that Carpenter Realtors^® has been nominated for not one…not two…but six different awards!  Many of these are a direct testament to the ability and professionalism of the agents that work at Carpenter.  Here’s a peak at some of the nominations…

We’ve been nominated among all companies in the network with 500 to 1,000 real estate agents for our Outgoing Referral Production and our Incoming Conversion rate.  Outgoing Referral Production means that Carpenter agents have connected a large number of their friends, families, and clients with our outstanding partner LeadingRE companies for real estate services (Outgoing Referrals).  LeadingRE really is comprised of the best companies in the country.  If you or someone you know needs real estate assistance anywhere in the world, ask a Carpenter agent or call our Client Service Center at 800-630-1727.  Locally, the Incoming Conversion nomination represents the fact when our LeadingRE partners send their clients to Carpenter, our agents are among the most effective and efficient in helping those clients close transactions.

In addition to these awards, our Marketing Contest entry for our QR code initiative, the TAG IT! program, has been nominated in the New Media category. Jeremy Page in our Zionsville office has been nominated as one of the networks top bloggers.  You can follow his blog about the Anson development in Boone County here. The final two awards we are nominated for are directly related to our website, www.callcarpenter.com.  An independent panel of experts analyzed and tested our website over a couple of months.  The results - we have been nominated for the search engine optimization (SEO) strategy employed on the site (making it easier for people to find us), as well as the responsiveness and process we have in place to respond to consumers on the site (our lead management program).

Thank you Carpenter agents!

Posted by:  Ryan Carrell

tagged with boone county real estate, carpenter realtors award, carpenter realtors news, jeremy page, leading real estate companies of the world, real estate awards, real estate company nominations, ryan carrell, tag it! program | 1 comment »

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The 6 Reasons Today May Be the Best Time in 40 Years to Buy a Home – Reason #1

February 4th, 2011

We recently published a white paper The 6 Reasons Today May Be the Best Time in 40 Years to Buy a Home.  I want to focus on only one of those reasons today. Mortgage interest rates. I want to focus on mortgage rates because this is the single “reason” that may be changing the fastest. In fact it might be going away as one of the six reasons. I don’t have a crystal ball and certainly can’t predict the future of mortgage rates, but common sense tells me that with the extent of government deficit spending and the resulting borrowing that is taking place at all levels of government, inflation has to start to surface in the economic picture. I predict sooner than later. As inflationary pressures begin to build in the economy, interest rates must rise. Mortgage rates are not immune to those pressures. They must rise too. As mortgage rates rise, the true cost of housing rises. It’s just a matter of time before one of the “six reasons” goes away. Spread the word, now is the best time!

If you’d like to receive a copy of our white paper, contact a Carpenter Realtors^® agent or visit our website.

Posted by:  David Caveness

tagged with david caveness, home buyers, housing market, mortgage rates, rising inflation rates | 0 comments »

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Android does Zimbra Sync, too

February 1st, 2011

Android users (what Verizon calls “Droid”) can also sync to Zimbra but not as seamlessly as iPhones.  iPhones have native CalDAV integration, while we have to use a third-party app to handle the CalDAV calendar syncing in Android.  It’s a free app, however, so it’s not too much more effort.

I own an HTC Evo 4G running Android 2.2 Froyo.  There are a LOT of Android devices out there these days and I obviously can’t test this on all of them (or any of them other than my EVO for that matter) so your mileage may vary, but I think this should be something that should work fairly universally.

First thing we need to do is get the app from Android Market.  Go to the market and search for “caldav” and only one app should show up – Calendar (CalDAV) Sync BETA.  It’s a free app. Download and install it.

Start the Calendar Sync app and enter your settings, the most important of which is your CalDAV Calendar URL.  It uses the format http://m.callcarp.com/dav/{your zimbra username}/Calendar - so, for example, mine is http://m.callcarp.com/dav/gchrist/Calendar since my email address is and thus my username is gchrist.  Pay attention to the capital “C” in Calendar at the end of that address and ignore the warning about not syncing over a secured connection.

Your username is your Zimbra username and the Password is your Zimbra password.

You then need to set your Synchronization frequency (how often it syncs with Zimbra), the range of dates it will sync and which calendar.  I use Google sync to sync my Outlook calendar with my phone so I chose to have the app sync Zimbra with my gmail calendar (see an earlier blog for info on Google Sync).  You can choose whichever calendar works for you.  Save your settings and then try “Synchronize Now” to see if it works.  If it doesn’t, go back and check your settings and make sure you got the URL, your username and password entered correctly.

Now, on your computer go to http://m.callcarp.com and log into your Zimbra account.

Once in your email, click on the Preferences tab and then click on Calendar along the left side of the screen

Make sure Enable delegation for Apple iCal CalDAV client is checked.  Click Save in the upper left.

You should now have your Zimbra and Android phone calendars syncing back and forth so that any appointments you set show up in both calendars.

Posted by:  George Christodoulou

tagged with android, george christodoulou, smart phone, synchronization, zimbra | 0 comments »

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Embracing the new (and free) real estate technologies in 2011

December 30th, 2010

Looking forward to the new year, are you? Sure, everyone’s looking forward to 2011. No matter if it’s jobs, politics, the economy or the real estate business, we all have our own reasons to look forward to the new year.

Professionally for me, I’m looking forward to the year of adoption. Or rather – the implementation and embracing of the tech opportunities Carpenter Realtors® offers its agents.

In 2010, we introduced a completely new custom-designed website with more bells and whistles than anyone else can offer. With that website came customizable agent web sites at no charge. Not just a web page that they can change some wording on, but a custom site to which they can add as much individual and local content they want. Plus, we offer a very robust Client Relationship (CRM) program that rivals the offerings from SharperAgent, Top Producer and others. Again - $0.

No matter who you are, or how tech-savvy you are, this is a lot to learn and absorb in nine months. That’s why 2011 is the year of adoption/implementation/embracement (real word!).

My goal: To make all our agents (and the public for that matter) more aware that callcarpenter.com now has more tools and more detailed statistics on homes for sale, neighborhoods, cities, schools, local economies and more. The site can even automatically recognize a smartphone to display the mobile site and now has a GPS location search to ID properties near your current location! I’ve always said that home buyers are information junkies. This new site gives them more tools and more stats – a better, quicker “fix,” you could say.

My goal: To continue to show our agents how their individual websites can be customized to create more value to them and their careers. While technically these are Carpenter sites, they can be customized to have a totally personal look that matches the agent’s personal “brand.” An agent can also create custom content that better serves the neighborhoods and groups they’re targeting. (here’s an example) See what I mean that it doesn’t “look” like a Carpenter web page? This is a huge, valuable tool. Not only do other brokers not offer this option, but the agents who want this are paying hundreds of dollars a month out-of-pocket for the same product we’re offering our agents for free.

My goal: To show our agents how easy and valuable the Carpenter CRM program is. We call it iContact and it can be used as a one-stop location for list management, scheduling and emails. Even more valuable are the many action plans available. From automated emails (monthly, quarterly, etc.) to action reminders to direct links to any resource, iContact is the Swiss army knife of CRM programs. And yes – we have agents cancelling their subscriptions to other CRM programs, again saving hundreds of dollars. And again – our iContact is a no-charge to Carpenter agents. It’s like a MasterCard commercial. No cost, but it’s priceless.

Add to these the Microsoft Tag, mobile tagging program we adopted and our PinPoint Perks affiliation and you have a lot to absorb, implement, embrace.

My goal: To make this happen early in 2011, and painlessly, so our agents see the results a quickly as possible.

Don’t look for me in the office over the next few months. I’ll be out working to build careers. Sure hope gas doesn’t get too expensive.

Posted by:  Jim Newell

tagged with carpenter, crm, icontact, jim newell, microsoft tag, technology, website | 0 comments »

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Robos-Signing scandal affects mortgage foreclosures. Read the FAQs

October 18th, 2010

It’s estimated that there will be a record 1.2 million foreclosures this year. In 2005, there were around 100,000. As a result, mortgage lenders have found themselves severely unprepared, or understaffed, for that huge increase in volume. How much do REALTORS®,  and homebuyers, know about the robo-signing scandal and how it could affect each of us personally?

Carpenter Realtors® has had a chance to research the latest information and news reports and talk to a number of professionals about the crisis. As a result, we’ve compiled this list of frequently-asked questions about the current foreclosure news. There’s no quiz later, but REALTORS® and homeowners alike should be aware of what’s happening, what to expect, how it might affect us and how long it might last. 

Posted by:  David Caveness

tagged with david caveness, foreclosures, homeowners, robo-signing scandal | 0 comments »

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Keep Your Facebooking Amongst Your Friends

September 24th, 2010

Facebook is quite a phenomenon.  A recent Wired Magazine article noted that the Internet is dead and in its place are now portals  like Facebook, Youtube and Hulu.  Forbes just came out with its list of wealthiest Americans and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has jumped ahead of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.  Keep in mind that Apple sold over 16 million iPhones in the first half of this year alone and has by far the fattest profit margins of any of the major smart phone manufacturers.  Facebook is a web portal that sells advertising through its web presence.  And its founders are worth more than Apple’s.

So, yes, Facebook is huge.  And far-reaching.  I lived in Athens, Greece for four years in high school over twenty years ago and made many friends there.  When I returned to the States I never heard from most of those friends again – until Facebook made it so easy to look up old acquaintances, schoolmates and even long lost relatives.  It seems like everyone is on Facebook: my mother is on Facebook.

And therein lies the rub.  Most folks wouldn’t think of opening a web page with a title along the lines of www.thethingsIsaywillgetmefired.com or www.pleaselookatthesemortifyingphotosofmedrunk.com (and if those are real websites, please don’t click on them!) but they will post photos, or get tagged in photos that are harmless when viewed in context. Hey, everyone has a life, or tries to, that doesn’t involve work – but maybe mom or your boss doesn’t need to see those photos of you bonging a six-pack upside down in Cabo Del Fuego.

The other thing I worry about when I see private information posted on Facebook is how easy we’re making it for criminals to use this information posted in such a public forum for ill-begotten deeds.  Birthday, city you were born in, spouse’s name, family members (ergo, maiden names), pets, children.  Does that list sound familiar?  It should if you’ve ever filled out the security questions that are used to reset your password for anything from your Yahoo email account to sometimes even your banking information.  And many, many people post this information with no privacy turned on.

I don’t know how many times I’ve had friend requests, or clicked on friends of friends and seen the usual “this person only shares information with people they know” and then clicked on the Photos tab and all their photos were visible or clicked on the Information tab and I could see what city they live in, their spouse’s name, sometimes even their birthday.  And then I sigh.

Don’t get scared out of using Facebook.  Just start using it smarter.  While you’re on your Facebook page, click on Account and then Privacy Settings.  From there you can completely customize your settings.  Who can view your information, who can see your photos and wall posts, even who can see your friends list.  You can choose whether you want your profile to show up in Google searches or Facebook searches.  If you just want a Facebook page so you can see the photos your kids post of your grandkids and would rather not have anyone be able to search for you, you can do that.

The next thing you need to do is create friends lists.  Segregate your “friends” into appropriate groups.  If you have business contacts, past clients, etc. put them into a “work” group and then only expose your content to them that is appropriate – photos, wall posts, etc. that you wouldn’t mind them seeing.  Make a group for actual friends and relatives – so you can post photos of your children and vacations or let your cousins and close friends be reminded of you birthday and anniversary, etc., without exposing your crazy cousin Louie’s thoughts on politics, money or foul language to your professional sphere.  You can control all of that with Facebook’s privacy settings.

Once you’ve tweaked the settings and think you have it locked down, try the settings out.  Facebook let’s you “preview” what your page looks like to anyone on your friends list (Account – Privacy Settings, click Customize and then click Preview My Profile).  So you can pick one of your business acquaintances and look at your page as he or she would see it.  Does it all look appropriate?  If not, make the changes that need to be made.

Facebook is a great networking tool and clearly a great way to get information out.  Just make sure you control the flow of that information and think about what you are putting out there and who will see it.

Here are a couple links with some more good ideas on Facebook privacy:

10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know

10 Solid Tips to Safeguard Your Facebook Privacy

Posted by:  George Christodoulou

tagged with facebook, george christodoulou, privacy settings | 0 comments »

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Why are we still faxing?

August 24th, 2010

I still get the calls about problems with fax lines and I hear the complaints about how long it takes to fax a 30 page document and how hard it is to read a faxed and re-faxed and re-re-faxed document and I just wonder why the habit persists to fax documents rather than scan and email them. I understand we should be even beyond scanning and should be totally paperless but that technology still just isn’t “there” yet in my mind. However, scan to email has so many advantages over old fashioned faxing that I am dumbfounded that fax machines haven’t been sent added to the list of things we just don’t do anymore like rotary phones, film cameras and socializing in person (hah!).

If you scan and email a document you can send the document straight to the intended recipient, not the office fax machine that every prying eye in the office can snoop at. Scanned documents don’t get picked up by a careless co-worker along with a stack of their copies or, worse, crinkled up in a paper jam for four hours waiting for the repairman to come fix the copier. Scanned documents also come through crystal clear with very little quality loss compared to the original. You can be anywhere and receive an emailed document, not tied to a stationary fax line at the office or home. And did I mention speed? The Internet used to be accessed via phone line – in 1995. Fax lines still use that same dial-up technology and it shows. A scanned document can be emailed in seconds. A lengthy sales contract can take twenty minutes to fax. You wouldn’t fire up your 56k modem to download a 20 megabyte PDF or printer driver so why do we still use that technology to send contracts?

I can sit on a beach on a Greek island, take a picture and post it to Facebook in literally seconds. I can take a picture of a check and deposit it into my checking account from anywhere in the world. I can geo-tag a photo and display it on a map instantly showing my location. I can download an album to my phone in one tenth the time it takes to actually listen to said album (and for you born circa 1985 reading this, an album is what they used to call a collection of songs, usually around ten of them, that they used to press into vinyl discs called “records” that would get scratched and would pop and hiss but sounded awesome and had album art and stuff you could read…but I digress). So if we have progressed this far in practically everything else, what is holding us back on the fax machine? Is it nostalgia? Something like, you can take away my vinyl records and my rotary phone, but by God, I’ll not give up my fax machine… or is it comfort food, like chamomile tea for an upset stomach and a fax machine to soothe the troubles of a lengthy contract negotiation. We’ll never know. 

Posted by:  George Christodoulou

tagged with creating pdfs, faxing, george christodoulou, scanning documents, sending contracts | 4 comments »

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Facebook for Real Estate Agents

August 13th, 2010

Catching up on some reading, I recently ran across an old article about how real estate agents can use Facebook to create value for their “friends.” It’s relatively dated (yeah - articles about Facebook from 2009 are dated), but there are several points that remain valid and valuable.

It’s called Facebook for Real Estate Agents, created by LGM3 llc.

Here are some of the more interesting points I noticed as I re-read it during a particularly boring hotel conference room presentation. Things for real estate agents to remember as they use this still-new tool in building their real estate career. Maybe for any sales professional.

1. Facebook isn’t about selling. It’s about maintaining old relationships and building new networks. Instead of “selling” yourself or your listings on Facebook, simply build a network and offer some value to the discussions within that network. This isn’t door-knocking and cold-calling. This is about creating a valuable relationship to make them like you and want to work with you … in the future.

2. Understand that others are doing the same thing you are. Simply posting your listings is selling. Interesting status updates give your friends a reason to read yours and comment on them. Comments on their updates makes them feel validated and liked. Advice on real estate and home sales gives you expert status. Sales pitches get turned off.

3. Reconnect. There are a ton of ways that Facebook enables you to locate past clients, friends, classmates, etc. Pull out your old files. Search within your high school and college classes. You’ll find a ton of names with whom you’ll want to reconnect. Then, join groups with similar interests as yours and meet new people.

4. With the ability to create Friend Lists in Facebook, you can separate your drinking buddies from your clients. There are things you want to share with certain groups that ain’t gonna support your career and sell a house. Learning how to create those lists and how to share messages with only certain groups will help avoid the embarrassment of potential clients seeing your drunken tailgate party photos.

5. Link Facebook to your website. Carpenter real estate agents have a fully-functioning website that offers great value to their visitors, with complete homes for sale search options and all the great tools at callcarpenter.com . Give your Facebook friends a chance to get to know you better with that link.

6. Create tabs to showcase your listings and interests.

7. Facebook is a resource, not a silver bullet. Don’t Facebook to the detriment of your current clients and other marketing efforts. It’s only a part of your overall plan.

The report highlights four keys to having a successful Facebook presence: Reciprocity, Expert Status, Likeability and Social Validation. These four keys are important to every aspect of an agent’s self-promotion and personal brand, and should be applied to every Facebook plan as well.

Posted by:  Jim Newell

tagged with facebook, facebook for agents, jim newell, real estate agents | 0 comments »

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Why use a licensed Carpenter agent to buy a home?

July 6th, 2010

Thinking of buying a home? Regardless of the news reports, people are buying and homes are selling. Is it time for you to start looking, and if so, why would you want to work with a licensed Realtor®? You can search for millions of homes online, so using a realtor isn’t about finding a home – it’s about the buying process. If you can’t comfortably answer the following questions, you should be serious about seeking out the right real estate agent to help you through the process.

• What are the steps involved in scheduling a showing?
• How do you correctly complete a Purchase Agreement?
• What happens when there are counter-offers?
• Once an offer is accepted, what’s the right way to handle an inspection?
• How do you qualify for a loan? When should you apply?
• What about the closing, including title service, location, times, required funds, etc.?

The more knowledge you have available during the home buying process, the more comfortable you’ll be with the entire transaction.

As the real estate leader in central Indiana, we know the home buying process. There are 700 Carpenter agents ready to work with you - more than anyone. That simply means we have more people who are the experienced, knowledgeable agents for the neighborhood you’ve chosen to live in. They’re the experts and we’re the company that gives them the support you expect from Indiana’s largest. And each has that knowledge and support to help you get through the process quickly, with as little stress as possible.

Posted by:  Jim Newell

tagged with buying a home, carpenter agent, jim newell, licensed carpenter realtor, searching for indiana agent | 0 comments »

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Carpenter Realtors Offers Agents Free Websites

June 29th, 2010

At Carpenter, we’re excited to offer fully-functioning, customizable websites to every Carpenter agent at no cost. Many agents find they get a single, non-customizable web page from their broker. Others have to buy a website simply to have a presence on the web.

Carpenter’s customizable personal agent websites offer features costing hundreds of dollars a month from other vendors: full search functions (locally and nationally) with the nation’s best local stats and information; multiple design options, with the option to add your personal photos, colors etc.; links to all content within callcarpenter.com; and the ability to add an unlimited number of content pages - including pages on individual neighborhoods, agent’s qualifications and outside interests - anything. Any of those pages can link to any area property search.

We think it’s cool because of the huge number of options for customization these sites offer. The cost savings we can provide our agents is the bonus! 

Posted by:  Jim Newell

tagged with agent websites, callcarpenter.com, carpenter agent websites, carpenter realtors, jim newell | 0 comments »

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