Matt Fox

Social Media for Real Estate- Facebook, Twitter, & More

Matt Fox — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:19:13 +0000

Yesterday I attended two presentations about using social media effectively. The presentations were tailored to real estate professionals and hosted at the San Diego Area REALTOR (SDAR) office.

I arrived early and spoke with three of the attendees while we waited for the presentation to begin. One agent named April was concerned about privacy and the ability to separate her personal facebook page from her real estate fanbook page. Some people discussed not knowing what to “tweet” about, one agent asked for advice about upgrading to an iPhone4 or 4s (get SIRI and the upgraded camera). The entire group was socially engaged.

The presenter discussed the statistics that overwhelming indicated that the majority of home buyers and real estate transactions begin online- whether the statistics are accurate or not it’s safe to assume that if you are not found online you will miss opportunities to do business. For some reason she skipped the discussion on using google analytics and engagement measurement tools. Her presentation was engaging though and covered a wide variety of social mobile web technologies and tools to get excited about researching.

The presenter discussed establishing a habit of posting online information everyday during “peak” times, the need to follow and build followers across facebook and twitter, and focusing those messages on 4 primary and 4 secondary markets in as localized an effort as you can travel and service effectively. During the sessions we setup a facebook fan page, explored the topics of search engine optimization (SEO), as well as the short hand characters used on twitter and social media- such as the @user and #hashtag to signify keywords.

During the advanced topic session we reviewed online application sites such as:

Facebook.com
twitter.com
dlvr.it (delivers wordpress rss to a facebook page as a content entry)
bit.ly (url shortner so you can fit more characters in your tweet)
truetwit.com (tweeter validation -not to be mistaken with verified on twitter)
twellow.com (third party twitter directory)
twitbacks.com (templates for your twitter account)
paper.li (your own online newspaper)
hootsuite.com (project management dashboard for a few leading social media sites)
& many more

Selecting the social media sites and tools to use from the ever expanding offerings from new startups and social sites requires dedication, technical knowledge, consistency, social awareness, and a commitment to analytic performance monitoring.

Follow me on twitter and facebook (I prefer instagr.am to author my tweets and wall entries- just snap some pictures, add your comment @ # and post to your social accounts) if you would like to get more information about social media uses in real estate, analytics, and reviews of the website and tools that make it easier to adopt and improve your presence online. I’m currently using google+ and I must say that I prefer it to facebook.

Attending Foreclosure & County Auction Trustee Sales

Matt Fox — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:12:14 +0000

County Courthouse Steps

The county official in charge of the scheduled auction stood at the top of the courthouse steps. The crowd of one included just my father, who was the only one that attended the trustee sale auction recently conducted at the courthouse steps in my hometown. There were no bidding wars on the courthouse steps on that day. The absence of competition peaked my interests in researching the trustee sales process and inventory.

Trustee sale auctions are periodically conducted at your County’s court house steps. Future trustee sales must be advertised and announced in one local news publications twenty days prior to the sale- so check your local business newspaper. Real property that is foreclosed and auctioned to the highest cash bidder at the courthouse steps can sell for significantly less then it’s market value.

Finding what should be free obtainable public data online can be a challenge at times with numerous websites that are purely online marketing sites intended to gain revenue by capturing the clicks of users or building a database of email accounts for marketing purposes. I’ve attempted to aid in your search, or at the very least share with you some of the sites I found informative when looking for trustee sale events. Bid4Assets.com, Auction.com, and Realtytrac.com are some of the most popular sites used to find trustee sales online. RealtyTrac.com is a paid service or subscription based website that lists properties scheduled for auction as well as those properties that have been issued a notice of default (NOD). A free site affiliated with Bank of America is ReconTrust.com. I think that this is actually an interesting site and worth reviewing and knowing about.

Purchasing real property at a trustee sale has several requirements that inherently reduce the number of bidders and competition. For instance, buyer’s are not typically permitted to inspect the real property that is being sold at auction. Winning bidders are required to tender an immediate cash or cashier’s check payment when the auction ends. While a foreclosure and the trustee sale wipes out junior loans against the title to property, government owed back taxes remain the responsibility of the winning bidder and requires payment to posses clear title to the real property purchased. Bidders must conduct thorough title research with the county recorder’s office or title company to ensure that their will be no additional costs of outstanding property taxes.

Get in touch- and tell me anything you can about your County Courthouse Step experience! Register to gain access to my private research on the subject of flipping, buying primary residences, and investment real estate in California.

Vacation Destination Investment Properties in Northern California

Matt Fox — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 07:03:39 +0000

Modoc California Summer Real Estate Tour 2011

Northern California is on sale! Starting in late June, 2011 I left on a tour of Northern California. My time has been spent gathering real estate market data from the California counties of Tehama, Shasta, Siskiyou, Lassen and Modoc.

My focus was on Vacation Destination Investment Properties. I used a proprietary calculation method and located numerous properties that would be a potentially safe storage of cash wealth to a rental income and/or second retirement home property.

I am bullish on this economically torn-up real estate market in the Northern portion of the State Of California. Based on my research I plan to review the formation of a legal real estate syndicate specifically to build, manage, and grow a portfolio of profitable vacation destination rental income properties.

I invite real estate buyers, sellers, and investors with an interest in Northern California real estate to get in touch with me and discuss opportunities.

Visit the Old Escondido Historic District on July 19, 2011

Matt Fox — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 22:13:21 +0000

Old Escondido Neighborhood Walk June 21, 2011

The Old Escondido Historic District offers free 1.5 hour walking tours through the historic district.

On June 21, 2011 I joined Carol Rea, a long-time resident and President of the Old Escondido Historic District as she lead our walking tour through the district. Carol narrated the history of various homes and types of architecture.

The next walking tour is on July 19, 2011. If you would like to learn more about life in Old Escondido this is a great opportunity to meet some nice people and walk through history. Remember to wear comfortable walking shoes, dress for the warm weather and bring your iPhone or camera to photograph some striking visual sights!

Visit www.oldescondido.org to learn about the historic district. You are welcomed to contact me if you are interested in touring properties in the Old Escondido 92025 area- I’ve lived in the area, owned, and managed a property in the district for a decade and enjoy talking about the history of the local real estate.

2D Floor Plan Rendering or Free Magic Plan iPhone App?

Matt Fox — Thu, 05 May 2011 05:23:58 +0000

Last week I downloaded the MagicPlan floor planning iPhone app by Sensopia. My intentions are to generate renderings of a residential property that I manage in Escondido, California at the same time I photograph and capture video. A day or so later, my friend Erik emailed to tell me about his new 2D and 3D floor plan services idea. I found his timing uncanny. I’ve known Erik for several years now and I respect his initiative and decided to share this adventure of an idea with you.

Why 2 D and 3D Floor Plans?

“We do real estate marketing including photography and similar, however our main service is the production of 3D floorplans. Our edge is that we can produce them faster and cheaper than probably anyone else on the planet – and they look great =) … Floorplans are used widely for marketing outside the US, but the trend hasn’t caught on here yet… ”

What Do 2D and 3D Floor Plan Marketing Plans Start?

“Regarding pricing, we can produce plans for clients starting at $7 each – and even cheaper with volume. So say a realtor is trying to sell a home – for $7 they could have an attractive 3D floorplan to help buyers visualize the property. Or, companies that currently offer 2D floorplan services to their clients could also benefit from working with us, because we can do the manual work of rendering the 3D plan much more efficiently. ”

Can You Send Me Samples of Your 2D and 3D Renderings?

If you are interested in Real Estate marketing, digital photography, etc., bookmark mattfox.com. I’ll post what follow up results from using MagicPlan app and Erik’s 2D and 3D rendering service. Please feel free to share your opinions with us and if your interested in having real estate in North San Diego County photographed, video encoded or rendered to 2D floor plans and low cost 3D mock ups get in touch with me.

Google Analytics intelligence alert

Matt Fox — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 23:01:48 +0000

Gathering user information at your company website is critical. With standard free Google and Google Analytics’ accounts, you can begin learning how customers find your site, where they are geo-located, what pages were viewed, etc.,

Discover business trends in advance with data and best “guestimates”

Google analytics is a tool that I use daily. Once again, lost without Google.com.

Go Rodgers ! Go Chico, California!

Matt Fox — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 20:43:23 +0000

Always bullish on Chico, California.

Home to California State University, Chico and Bidwell Park.

Today I acknowledge you Aaron Rodgers!

Today, even Red Bluff Spartans cheer for you from their homes in Tehama.county.

Nevada Speculator AKA Land Shark

Matt Fox — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 02:45:59 +0000

Today my family received a letter from”Tony” in Wisconsin. He was writing a relative of mine asking her to sell land she owns in Nevada.

. He gathered a delinquent tax notice and began his “attack”.
First the shark phoned our family offering an absurd sum of money to peak interest.
Next he mailed a personal form letter without mention of his Real Estate business to our family member.
Now he waits to be contacted… (presumably to buy the property for back taxes and a fraction of the rather low market value)

According to wikipedia Land Sharks are essentially speculators in real estate, not just silly character from Saturday Night Live (SNL).

Who Will Buy Redfin.com?

Matt Fox — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 06:15:36 +0000

I attended a local home buying seminar presented by Redfin.com in La Jolla, Ca on Wednesday, January 19, 2011. The room was crowded but the ocean sound and architecture at UCSD were relaxing.

We learned about buying a home using the Internet discount real estate broker firm Redfin.com. We learned about the method that Redfin.com uses to facilitate the short sale business traffic.

The crowd was international with attentive focus. Pizza and beverages were served.

The discount brokerage is fantastic. The technology is admirable.

Site includes: zillow.com, trulia.com and propertyshark.com (a favorite of Mark Bennett).

Leaves me wondering when Redfin.com will be bought by a “larger fish.”

Nice evening redfin.com.

Thank you,

Matt Fox

Yahoo! Buzz Link Article- Top 10 US Steepest Streets

Matt Fox — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 04:00:45 +0000

Click the image to enlarge

Via fixr retaining wall cost guide