WorldWideWordsmith

If you go to http://www.movoxo.com, you’ll find some movie previews at the Realtor Videos tab.  I was hired to write the scripts for some of these videos.  There was some editing after I delivered the text, and their people placed all the images.

If you need scripting for videos or speeches, I’m here to help.  I can provide scripting from formal through educational to light and fun on topics related to my experience in:

• Real Estate
• Construction
• HVAC Contracting
• Internet Marketing
• Search Engine Optimization
• Adwords and Yahoo Marketing
• Web Site Design
• Blogs and Blogging
• WordPress
• Technology Solutions
• Business Management
• Entrepreneurial Topics

LandReport.com, the online version of the upscale magazine of the same name, commissioned me to write a piece about water rights in New Mexico.  It involved my own knowledge, research and an interview with a water rights attorney.

Water Rights Article Link.

One client who would never divulge their company, nor where they intended to use the 100+ pages of web material I wrote for them, wanted extensive detail to instruct homeowners in every facet of the home sale process.

I wrote about everything from choosing a Realtor to preparation of the home, marketing, contracts, negotiations, and closing.  Here’s one short excerpt:

Condition and Home Preparation

Selling your home can be an exciting and profitable process. Or it can be disappointing when you see the bottom line on the settlement statement at closing. You have some control over that bottom line. Selling a home is a competitive process. There are other homes out there, possibly even on your street, that want those buyers as much as you do. If you can make your home more desireable than others around you, it’s possible to generate better offers or possibly even competition among buyers.

Marketing, web sites, and advertisement is important. But they won’t help a bit if buyers arrive and are turned off by the condition of your home. Consider the preparation for sale a three step process:

• The Plan – Gather information and compare your home to the competition.
• The Inspection – You or professionals determine what the problems are.
• Getting it Done – Get repairs and improvements done well and economically.

Dean Graziosi, a real estate investment guru,  has been working with investors for many years.  He has multiple books and websites with detailed information about buying and selling real estate as an investment.  I have written some background articles for his organization.  I don’t know where they ended up, but here are some excerpts:

It’s Not About Motivation – It’s Mindset and Knowledge

Most of us know someone who just seems to be successful, no matter what they try to do. They can start a business and make it grow into something bigger than themselves, realizing wealth along the way. These same people can hit a snag, or a large setback can befall them. Perhaps their business even fails completely. Then, a little while later, they have bounced back. Another successful enterprise is up and running, and they’re financially well-off again.

One might assume that they’re just lucky, or perhaps they have been to numerous motivational seminars on being successful in business. The problem with motivation for motivation’s sake is that it works for a tiny minority of seminar attendees, and the rest try and fail yet again. Why is that? Dean Graziosi, the author of Totally Fulfilled doesn’t want to pump you up with pure motivation. These successful people, even after previous failures in business, are that way because their mindset simply will not accept any other outcome. And it isn’t about being motivated as much as it is about confidence and knowledge.

Real Estate Investment – Don’t Discount the Simple Solutions

When real estate was appreciating at a rapid rate everywhere, investment gurus popped up almost daily. And, this being America, there seems to be a need to come up with a newer and better mousetrap to prove value. The problem comes when the fundamentals of investment are ignored or replaced by so-called sophisticated strategies that multiply risk to achieve dubious rewards.

The funny thing is, now that appreciation has stopped or dramatically slowed in many markets, the gurus still keep popping up. And, the better and newer methods some are pushing are just new packaging on old ideas that didn’t work in the first place. Sometimes getting back to the simple is the solution.

An investment story that illustrates complexity and risk is a very true experience of a stock market options trader. He studied options trading and read books until he knew more than most stock brokers. There wasn’t a sophisticated strategy that he hadn’t used multiple times….though results weren’t always as planned. One day, one of his market tracking software packages produced an alert on a well known bank stock. There was a heavy spike in the purchase of options, possibly indicating something in the wind for this stock.

Agent Direct News, a print publication with more than 100,000 Realtor subscribers, also has a subscription only online version of their articles.  I am a regular monthly contributor to this newspaper.  Articles are around 800 words and are intended to help Realtors to embrace new technology and use it to help them be more successful.

Here’s a link to one of the article’s text.

Realtor Magazine, with a circulation of more than 1.2 million Realtor readers, asked me to do an article for both print and online concerning the decision of whether to use email and newsletters or a blog for real estate marketing and ongoing client communication.

I have extensive experience doing both, and tried to present a balanced analysis, though I am very much in favor of the blogging method, with an email newsletter created from the blog’s posts.

Here’s the link to the story.

With a circulation of more than 1.2 million readers, Realtor Magazine is quite careful in their editorial acceptance and writing policy. I am gratified to have been asked to contribute two articles to their Tech@Work feature column in the past. One is the use of an intranet in the management of a real estate brokerage.

Here’s the link to the online version.

A Canadian consulting and web design company hired me to do 1000 word articles for the websites of their Realtor clients. As they resell these articles, I cannot place links or content here, as I’m not sure where they ended up. Titles were as follows:

Here are some titles and excerpts:

Why Buyers Need a Real Estate Professional

With the Internet providing huge amounts of information about homes listed for sale, it is easy to get the idea that an enterprising person can go it alone in locating and purchasing a home. Let’s work our way through some information and situations and see what a buyer will encounter in the real estate market.

The Internet is a great tool for home buyers. There are not only a great number of sites with home listings, some of them even offer valuation estimates and comparisons. What could be the problem with this information glut? Briefly, there is just too much, and much of it cannot be verified for accuracy.

· A real estate professional will help you to weed through the massive data available out there.

· Your real estate professional will have access to some resources not available to you.

· Sold property data is just one small piece of the valuation puzzle.

· Experience in the local market adds invaluable insight into hard numbers from a computer.

How Do Real Estate Pros Price a Listing?

A very accurate saying is that “Any home will sell once you get the price right.” Of course, this is usually said from the perspective of dropping a price until it’s too attractive to pass up. Actually, the accurate pricing of your home prior to listing is as much an art as it is a science.

The Science:

Computers have helped a lot in the data and science aspects of pricing homes for sale. The real estate professional looks at many data sets in the process, including:

· Records of recent sales in the neighborhood or area.

· Currently listed comparable homes.

· Historical trends in price appreciation.

· Feature comparisons for mechanical value adjustments for differences.

Though this client at http://acepropertyinvestments.com is in site redesign, with my content not yet up, I have done multiple small writing projects for them. The general focus is on Rent to Own and Lease Purchase as a viable option for all involved, Buyers, Sellers and Realtors.

Here are a couple of titles and excerpts:

The Buyer’s Guide to Home Purchase Negotiations

Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary defines “negotiation” as “a conferring, discussing or bargaining for an agreement.” Turning a negotiation into a battle of wills is rarely a strategy of value.

As a buyer in a real estate negotiation, you are making the first contact with the seller via your purchase offer. This is a defining moment, and how you craft your offer often sets the tone of the entire negotiation process. The most successful negotiations almost always end with all parties feeling like winners. Don’t let your offer create ill will with a seller, as this will usually result in a difficult proces

Does this mean that a buyer shouldn’t make an offer significantly lower than the asking price? This will depend on the current market, as well as property condition and perceived seller motivation.

Understanding Title Insurance

Most homeowners are quite careful to examine their homeowner insurance policy for the dollar amounts of coverage, as well as the damage and events that are covered and which aren’t. There should be even more attention focused on the coverage provided by title insurance.

In most real estate purchase transactions, a document called a “title insurance binder” is issued to the buyer. This document “binds” the insurer to the issuance of a policy of title insurance with certain exceptions and requirements.

Title insurance provides protection to a property owner for possible future actions of others, or information discovered, that damages the property owner’s benefits of ownership. It does not cover restrictions or other limits on use that already exist