Broker Blog

A Tale of Two Markets: The article that I produced last month has been picked up by multiple newspapers and business journals. I appreciate the positive response and will continue to analyze this phenomenon in the months ahead. If you didn't have the chance to read the article – look down to the last broker blog posting.

Company Update:  For August, 2008, The Wine Country Groups closings were ahead of the rate for 2007, 61 closings vs. 46 a year ago. New sales for the month were 27% ahead of August, 2007, and new listings were equal to those of August, ’07. Our available inventory numbers 225 listings vs. 270 at this time a year ago. Our average listing value is down from $935,000 in August, 2007 to $751,000 at the end of August of this year. We have 117 open escrows going into September vs. 65 a year ago, but the dollar volume is closer than the unit numbers, $83,000,000 compared to $59,000,000.

Year to date numbers are reflective of the month. We are ahead in closings, year to date, but slightly behind in dollar volume. Our Napa office has been performing exceptionally, closing 110 sides in 2008 compared to 22 a year ago. The Sonoma office is holding its own with 164 closings compared to 170 last year. And our Kenwood office has been doing well closing 29 sales year to date compared to 21 a year ago.

We remain number one in market share in our Sonoma, Healdsburg and Cloverdale markets and we have now tripled our market share in the Napa Valley on a year over year basis.

Education:   A reminder of the Legal Updates and Bulls-eye trainings. Check with your manager if you are not aware of the details. The company pays for the cost of this training, so take advantage of it!

Website/Technology Updates:   The first official Wine Country Group Property Website v.2 has been posted. Visit www.5050lavender.com to take a look. Note the larger photos, increased photo capacity, new color template, send to friend & bookmark features, and more. Allyson will be working to set up new listing orders as they come in and then will be working to convert those requesting updates of their existing property websites. Great job done by Lourdes, Susie and Allyson in making these new improvements.

Speaking of websites, we have updated the programming to our www.bankprops.net website so that it now contains many, many more listings than previously possible. Thanks to Ally and Lourdes for working with BAREIS and iHomefinders on this update.

Also, coming soon, www.winecountrymobilehomes. com to be a source of searches for those seeking mobile homes across the entire Wine Country. This will be live in a couple of weeks and I will let you know.

One last technology update – we are working with a vendor to provide instant messaging/texting capabilities for our listings. You’re going to love this convenient and tech savvy way for individuals to gain information about your listings – instantaneously while they are parked in front of the house. More to follow soon.

Important stuff! The following three things are important to our escrow and financial staff – they pay the checks, so it is good to keep them happy!
1. Facing Sheets – please send in complete facing sheets. I’ve seen them with no title company, no contact info, no commission figures, etc. We acknowledge that you have to send these in within three days of ratifying a contract, but much of this information is available if you just take a few minutes to complete the form. Thank you.
2. Change of closing date – Lori is always looking at pending closings for company cash flow management. When you know that the closing will be delayed, or if an extension has been negotiated, please send Lori and Regina an e-mail so they can plan accordingly. Thank you.
3. Transaction Logs – the keeping of transaction logs has gotten sloppy. We are told over and over by legal counsel that a complete transaction log will be our best defense in a legal confrontation. E-mail provides a great means to have a running log, but if you are submitting e-mail messages, please include those with responses from the client. Thank you.

Closings: We have had a bunch of closings since the last Broker Blog update, but I do not have access to those lists as I am preparing this today – so, I will recap all in the next update.

Birthdays: Leo Merle is celebrating the milestone of his 70th birthday this week. Happy birthday to Leo as well as Howard Powell, Lori Greenstein Bremner and Monica Steensma.

Travel Plans: On a final note, Diane and I will be attending a Marketing and Technology Expo the balance of this week being presented by “Real Trends” in Denver. We will have both cell phone and e-mail access. Have a great week!