DC Real Estate and Area Events: March 2009

Help! Help! I need a domain name for my outside Active Rain Blog. Someone here on Active Rain told me about a month ago that when you want to choose a domain name for your blog or website,you should choose a domain name that is short and about you or the business that you are trying to advertise. Of course I want to find a very good domain name so that I can be found by people on the major search engines. 

But my problem is just coming up with a domain name that is short-which is where I have hit a brick wall.

I have some names in mind. However some of them are either too long or I think are not strong names that people usually don't search for in the search engines. I want something that is about Washington DC.

However I am thinking that should it be just about Washington DC? What should it be about? Should my domain name be less than 10 letters? And if it is more than 10 letters,is it okay? So what name should I choose?

Since many of you all have already set up your outside Active Rain blog I would really appreciate it if you can help me. Heck,you can even leave some ideal names that I should consider using. Thanks in advance for your all of your help.

AREA HOMES Looking for just the right property? Click here for properties for sale in this area. more +

JUST LISTED! Tell us what you are looking for and we will send you new listings as soon as they hit the market. more +

Looking for a Washington DC Real Estate Professional that will help you buy and/or sell your next house or want a "Free Real Estate Market Report" in your area of choice? Check out my website Houses for sale in Washington,DC. I can also be reached at Lanre Folayan "Buy home Washington DC" (EXIT PREMIERREALTY ... or Twitter http://twitter.com/DCHomesforsale. Please give me a call at 202-378-0283 (Direct) or 301-560-6700 x1154 (Office) at your earliest convenience. Thank you very much. Looking forward to helping you make your home purchase or sale a stress free and very happy one. Have a great day.  "Buy home Washington DC Zip codes 20019,20020,20032,20011.

AREA HOMES Looking for just the right property? Click here for properties for sale in this area. more +

JUST LISTED! Tell us what you are looking for and we will send you new listings as soon as they hit the market. more +

Looking for a Washington DC Real Estate Professional that will help you buy and/or sell your next house or want a "Free Real Estate Market Report" in your area of choice? Check out my website Houses for sale in Washington,DC. I can also be reached on my new Outside blog www.GetDCSold.com or Twitter http://twitter.com/DCHomesforsale. Please give me a call at 202-378-0283 (Direct) or 301-560-6700 x1154 (Office) at your earliest convenience. Thank you very much. Looking forward to helping you make your home purchase or sale a stress free and very happy one. Have a great day.  "Buy home Washington DC"

Besides the fact that 20 houses were sold in Deanwood Washington DC zip code 20019 in february 2009 42.86% more than february 2008,there is nothing good to write about for the Deanwood Washington DC zip code 20019.

• Total sold dollar volume for houses in Deanwood Washington DC zip code 20019 in february 2009 was $3,075,000 compared to $3,094,073 in february 2008 a 0.62% drop.
• Average sold price of a house in Deanwood Washington DC zip code 20019 in february 2009 was $153,750 compared to $221,005 in february 2008 a 30.43% drop.
• Average days of a house on the market that sold in Deanwood Washington DC zip code 20019 was 129 days compared to 104 in february 2008.
• Average list price of a house that sold in Deanwood Washington DC zip code 20019 was $185,165 compared to $234,450 in february 2008.
• Out of the 20 houses that were sold in Deanwood Washington DC zip code 20019 - 4 of them used conventional loans,6 of them used FHA loans,2 of them used VA loans,2 of them used assumptions and 5 of them used cash.
• 8 out of the 20 houses that sold in Deanwood Washington DC zip code 20019 were under $100,000.

     Here is the rest of the Deanwood Washington DC zip code 20019 Real Estate Market Report

AREA HOMES Looking for just the right property? Click here for properties for sale in this area. more +

JUST LISTED! Tell us what you are looking for and we will send you new listings as soon as they hit the market. more +

Looking for a Washington DC Real Estate Professional that will help you buy and/or sell your next house or want a "Free Real Estate Market Report" in your area of choice? Check out my website Houses for sale in Washington,DC. I can also be reached at Lanre Folayan "Buy home Washington DC" (EXIT PREMIERREALTY ... or Twitter http://twitter.com/DCHomesforsale. Please give me a call at 202-378-0283 (Direct) or 301-560-6700 x1154 (Office) at your earliest convenience. Thank you very much. Looking forward to helping you make your home purchase or sale a stress free and very happy one. Have a great day.  "Buy home Washington DC"

Sales are down all across every category in Washington DC for the month of february.

• Total sold volume is down 35.07%
• Average sold price of a house in Washington DC was down 6.78% in february.
• Total sold units were 257 houses compared to 369 houses last year february.
• Out of the 257 houses that was sold 138 was conventional loans,45 was FHA loans,6 was VA loans,28 was assumption and 37 was cash.
• Average days of a house on the market before it sold was 112 days compared to 92 days a 21.74% drop.
• Average list price of solds in Washington DC in february was $527,654 compared to $547,876 a 3.69% drop.
• Most of the housing activity in Washington DC for february was houses that were priced $500,000 and over.

Here is the rest of the full Washington DC Real Estate Market Report Statistics for February 2009

AREA HOMES Looking for just the right property? Click here for properties for sale in this area. more +

JUST LISTED! Tell us what you are looking for and we will send you new listings as soon as they hit the market. more +

Looking for a Washington DC Real Estate Professional that will help you buy and/or sell your next house or want a "Free Real Estate Market Report" in your area of choice? Check out my website Houses for sale in Washington,DC. I can also be reached at Lanre Folayan "Buy home Washington DC" (EXIT PREMIERREALTY ... or Twitter http://twitter.com/DCHomesforsale. Please give me a call at 202-378-0283 (Direct) or 301-560-6700 x1154 (Office) at your earliest convenience. Thank you very much. Looking forward to helping you make your home purchase or sale a stress free and very happy one. Have a great day.  "Buy home Washington DC"

Billy Bush reminded me to go and twit today on www.twitter.com. Billy Bush of course is one of the hosts of Access Hollywood on NBC. But he was also the guest co-host on the Today Show with Ms.Hoda Kotb. Anyway I went to Billy Bush's Twitter profile and see if he will add me to his network of Twitters. After I did that,I made a comment on my Twitter profile. Thats when I say this on the right hand side of my Twitter profile Widg·etn. an easy way to show your tweets on another web site.

When I clicked on it,this appeared on the screen.

Display updates on your web page Here's a neat way to let visitors to your blog or profile page on the web know what you're up to at the moment: Display your latest updates there with a customized widget (aka, "badge"). Where do you want to put it? Add a Flash widget to your MySpace page! Add Twitter to your Blog! Add Twitter to your Blog! Add the Twitter application to your Facebook profile! We have Flash and HTML widgets that work on nearly any social network or web page. Other When you click on the Facebook icon,you are going to get this screen Where do you want to put it? Other  Add the Twitter application to your Facebook profile. Continue » When you click on the Continue » icon,you are going to get this. Add Twitter to Facebook The Twitter app for Facebook integrates Twitter into your Facebook experience.   Once you click on the Install Twitter in Facebook toolbar,it will bring you to the screen where you sign in with your password. Once you do that you are going to see the screen that is very similiar to the one you see whenever you log into your Twitter Account. And that's pretty much it. I hope this tutorial was helpful. I don't usually write tutorial posts on Active Rain and there is a reason for that. So go ahead and Feed your Twitter profile to Facebook. And if anyone knows Billy Bush,please tell him to add me to his networks of twitters-LOL. Looking for a Washington DC Real Estate Professional that will help you buy and/or sell your next house or want a "Free Real Estate Market Report" in your area of choice? Check out my website Houses for sale in Washington,DC. I can also be reached at Lanre Folayan "Buy home Washington DC" (EXIT PREMIERREALTY ... or Twitter http://twitter.com/DCHomesforsale. Please give me a call at 202-378-0283 (Direct) or 301-560-6700 x1154 (Office) at your earliest convenience. Thank you very much. Looking forward to helping you make your home purchase or sale a stress free and very happy one. Have a great day.  "Buy home Washington DC"

Yes you are reading this right. I have gotten three leads within less than a week from two Active Rain members. And two of them have come within less than 24 hours. Could this be my year when I finally close my first deal courtesy of Active Rain? I sure hope so. Lord knows I have been patiently waiting to close my first Active Rain deal while I continued to blog consistently here.

We all know the power of this wonderful tool. To all you non believers who don't know the power of this wonderful marketing tool please click on this link ActiveRain Success Stories. Now I admit I am excited but I am maintaining my excitement. Again there are leads. And we all know how some leads pan out. But hopefully I can convert one if not all of these prospects into closings.

From the bottom of my heart again I want to thank the two real estate professionals who thought of me and could've given the leads to another real estate professional. I am definitely going to take great care of your referrals and keep you posted as well. And of course many thanks to Active Rain. If it wasn't for Active Rain creating this great platform,I would've never gotten the leads. And of course I would've met all the great people who I formed a online friendship with,have learned from and still learning from. And I hope that this is a beginning of great things to come for me as I continue blogging here on Active Rain.

Update: So far I haven't heard anything back from the prospects. But you never know.

Looking for a Washington DC Real Estate Professional that will help you buy and/or sell your next house or want a "Free Real Estate Market Report" in your area of choice? Check out my website Houses for sale in Washington DC. I can also be reached at my new Active Rain Outside Blog www.GetDCSold.com  or Twitter http://twitter.com/DCHomesforsale. Please give me a call at 202-378-0283 (Direct) or 301-560-6700 x1154 (Office) at your earliest convenience. Thank you very much. Looking forward to helping you make your home purchase or sale a stress free and very happy one. Have a great day.  "Buy home Washington DC Zip codes 20019,20020,20032,20011.

AREA HOMES Looking for just the right property? Click here for properties for sale in this area. more +

JUST LISTED! Tell us what you are looking for and we will send you new listings as soon as they hit the market.   more +

 We all know that more than 80% of first time home buyers start their home search online.

      And these same home buyers are members of popular online social networking sites such as facebook,myspace,you tube and twitter just to name a few.

    But with so many social networking sites believe me its hard to keep up with the ones that you are members of. I am a member of more than 10. There are probably people who are members of more than 25 online social networking sites. (That's a lot). But of course the more sites you are a member of,the better chance you have a potential home buyer or seller finding you. Why? Because home buyers and home owners/sellers are members of social networking sites just like you. And they might sign up on a site just to find a real estate professional who they need to either help them buy or sell their house.

    So you want to know how you can combine all of your social online profiles and contact info into a business card 2.0? You can do it at www.retaggr.com. Active Rain members such as Active Brad Andersohn ~ Community Builder and Jeff & Grace Safrin-SpousesSellingHouses REALTORS, F.C.Tucker Company, Indiana are a few people that I know who have a business card 2.0 on www.retaggr.com. With www.retaggr.com you can combine all of your online profiles such as the great Active Rain,You tube,My Space,Twitter,Zillow,Trulia,Plaxo and Flickr. How great is that. ALL YOUR ONLINE PROFILES AND CONTACT INFO ON A BUSINESS CARD 2.O.

    Just like when you always give out your business card whenever you are prospecting for home buyers,you can tell a seller who is unsure whether they want to use your services as a real estate professional after a listing presentation to look you up online at www.retaggr.com. Or to do a google search on your name so that they can see your heavy online presence-just like this guy in this picture is doing. I mean I dont know if he is about to do a search on you but I am sure you know what I am talking about.

Having a business card 2.0 can be a another great way to market yourself as a real estate professional,network and possibly meet potential home buyers and sellers. So if you haven't combined all of your online profiles and contact info on a business card 2.0,go ahead and do it right now at www.retaggr.com. And its FREE. Who doesn't love free? Also connect with me on retaggr.com at http://www.retaggr.com/card/LanreFolayan

Looking for a Washington DC Real Estate Professional that will help you buy or sell your next house or want a "Free Real Estate Market Report" in your area of choice? Check out my website Houses for sale in Washington,DC. I can also be reached at Lanre Folayan "Buy home Washington DC" (EXIT PREMIER REALTY ... or Twitter http://twitter.com/DCHomesforsale. Please give me a call at 202-378-0283 (Direct) or 301-560-6700 x1154 (Office) at your earliest convenience. Thank you very much. Looking forward to helping you make your home purchase or sale a stress free and very happy one. Have a great day.  "Buy home Washington DC"

Nightline is a news magazine show on ABC that I try to watch whenever I am up or not doing anything. Yesterday Active Rain's Valparaiso Indiana Real Estate Agents Jeff and Grace Safin of F.C Tucker Company in Valparaiso,Indiana were on the show.

On the show they shared a technique called "reverse offer",a move that helped them sell 50% of their homes they tried the method with in 2008. So what is a reverse offer? Here how it works.

Once a home has a second showing,the couple gathers as much feedback as possible from the buyer's agent and works with their client to come up with an offer to present to the buyer. Anything could potentially be on the table such as price,closing cost assistance,home warranty,moving time frame and appliances. It depends on what it might take to get the buyer. Reverse offer gives the home buyer the ball in their court.

In this real estate market,you have to be very creative in order to succeed and stand out from the fierce competition. Hopefully this technique will help realtors sell more of their houses and help stimulate the housing market.

Here are some more blogs written by Active Rain members on "Reverse offer"

Reverse offers in Real Estate - A Paradigm Shift for the Northwest Indiana Market ! by Jeff and Grace Safin. F.C Tucker Company, Valparaiso,IN.

Reverse offers, Who uses them?????? by The Payne Group at Keller Williams Success Realty. Panama City,FL.

How Reverse Offers Make Things Happen by Rhonda Duffy. Duffy Realty. Alpharetta,GA.

Reverse Offers - Help the inexperienced agents sell your listings! by Sam Thompson - Senior Mortgage Advisor. Carolina Mortgage Company of Fayetteville. Laurinburg,NC.

And of course you can WATCH Jeff and Grace on ABC Nightline Show: Desperate Households. Don't even bother calling Jeff and Grace for advice on reverse offer. They are too famous now to have any time for little real estate agents bothering them-LOL. I am joking of course.

Looking for a Washington DC Real Estate Professional that will help you buy or sell your next house or want a "Free Real Estate Market Report" in your area of choice? Check out my website Houses for sale in Washington,DC. I can also be reached at Lanre Folayan "Buy home Washington DC" (EXIT PREMIER REALTY ... or Twitter http://twitter.com/DCHomesforsale. Please give me a call at 202-378-0283 (Direct) or 301-560-6700 x1154 (Office) at your earliest convenience. Thank you very much. Looking forward to helping you make your home purchase or sale a stress free and very happy one. Have a great day.  "Buy home Washington DC"

M.I.A for a while. Well I have been making comments to blogs here. But my contribution as a blogger as a blog writer dropped more than 50%. School is one of the many reasons why my blogging has decreased. So I figure that I write this one now because I dont do it now,I will never write it. Hopefully I can get back into blogging again soon.

So here are my top "Five non featured Active Rain blogs that you probably missed"-Week March 1-7,2009.

1. Death of a Newspaper: Goodbye Rocky Mountain News by Mary Douglas. United Country Ponderosa Realty. Red Feather Lakes,CO.

What is so sad about the Rocky Mountain Newspaper was something that was going to happen this year with Rocky Mountain Newspaper but will never happen. What is it? Read Mary Douglas blog to find out.

2. Do you have Spare Time to feed the Children of America? by Larry Story Coldwell Banker Triad of Greensboro.  Greensboro,NC.

How can 1 out of every 6 six children in this country suffer from hunger? I just can't believe it. Read his blog and find out two companies who have come together to form "Leave no kid hungry"

3. GOOD NEWS!!! SELLERS LISTENING TO ME!!! by Caren Wallace. Stouffer Realty, Akron, Ohio.

In this blog Caren writes about two good things that happened to her. What is it? Read her blog to find out.

4. U.S.D.A Loans--Have You Checked Them Out? by Barbara Delaney. Park Place REALTORS, Inc. Roanoke,VA.

Barbara doesn't write much about the U.S.D.A Loan. But after reading this blog,you'll probably want to learn more about this product that can help one of your clients buy a home.

5. A Free Website To Post Your Blog and Video... by Peggy James- Your Neighborhood Realtor Serving Lake Ridge VA and Woodbridge VA. Erick and Company - Exit 1st Choice Realty,

We all love free. Who does? Free is one of my favorite words just in case you didn't know. Her telephone is ringing thanks to this website so at least some people know about it. Hopefully it can do the same thing for you.

And that's it for me. Tune in next week. Same channel but not sure about the day and time though. Have a great one. I am waaaay past my bedtime. Good thing I don't have a curfew.

Looking for a Washington DC Real Estate Professional that will help you buy or sell your next house or want a "Free Real Estate Market Report" in your area of choice? Check out my website Houses for sale in Washington,DC. I can also be reached at Lanre Folayan "Buy home Washington DC" (EXIT PREMIER REALTY ... or Twitter http://twitter.com/DCHomesforsale. Please give me a call at 202-378-0283 (Direct) or 301-560-6700 x1154 (Office) at your earliest convenience. Thank you very much. Looking forward to helping you make your home purchase or sale a stress free and very happy one. Have a great day.  "Buy home Washington DC"