Once again there is something new at SCHMIDT! 

In addition to the beautiful photos we post online of our listings, we are now using a new tool we have discovered to create video presentations of our homes for sale.  Click here to go to our See All Listings page, then click on any one of the properties to access the individual website and select the Video option from the left side menu.

We will now be sending these videos to our sellers so they can email it to friends and family or post it on Facebook!  Let us know what you think!

Wouldn’t it be great to easily invite anyone who emails you to be your friend on Facebook?  Or to see an entire conversation thread all at once?  Or to quickly locate an attachment a colleague sent you?

XOBNI is “inbox” spelled backwards.  I first heard about this incredible communication tool at a real estate conference in Las Vegas last December.  XOBNI is a powerful FREE software that quickly analyzes your Outlook account and provides information on the sender’s social network connections, and even shows you a photo of the sender as well.  While there is a version you can purchase, I find the free version does a great job!

There’s a good video on the XOBNI intro page on their website, to see a demo of all the features.

Let us know if you try it out and what you think!

Submitted by Kathy Schmidt, Broker Owner of Schmidt Realty Group Inc.

If Santa was extra good to you and brought you a new laptop, you may be wondering what to do with the old one.  The Electronic Recycling Association of Canada has locations in Edmonton and Calgary and provide lots of excellent options for disposing of those unneeded items safely.  In Edmonton, they are located at 11404 – 143 Street and are open 9-5 Monday through Friday.  Visit ERA’s website to watch videos about ERA and for information on charities who are in need of electronics.

Click here for a full list of items ERA will accept.  If you live in Edmonton and have electronics you would like to donate but can’t get to the ERA during their hours of operation, call our office at 780-437-2030 and arrange to deliver your items to us by January 31st.  We’re open 9-9 Monday-Friday and all day Saturday!  We’ll gather up all the items and take them over to ERA. 

Contributed by Kathy Schmidt, Broker Owner of Schmidt Realty Group Inc

WHERE ARE YOU HEADING IN 2010?

2010 is here and the team at Schmidt Realty Group is raring to go!  All signs point to a very busy Edmonton area housing market this spring and we are ready to hit the ground running to help you make a great move.  Even if you’re planning on staying where you are, the new year is a great time to take stock of your real estate investments.  Do you know what your home is worth right now?  What are your housing plans for your kids when they head to university in the next few years?  Let us help you put a solid plan in place to ensure your family’s real estate needs are well covered and you maximize your return on investment in your primary residence as well as vacation homes or investment properties.  Consider us your real estate resource!

Our team is looking forward to lots of exciting changes this year.  We will soon be launching a new service using texting technology to enable buyers to receive property information including photos on their cell phones and will also be introducing video blogs on this site.  And stay tuned for news of new team members as well.  We’re excited about the year ahead!

All the best to you and yours for a healthy, prosperous and joyous 2010!

Submitted by Kathy Schmidt, Broker Owner of Schmidt Realty Group Inc

Just a few years ago, REALTORS held all the information.  If you wanted to find out the price of a home for sale, you either hoped the price was advertised in the local newspaper or you would have to call the listing REALTOR.  Then if you wanted to see inside that house, you had to book a showing with a REALTOR.  If you didn’t like that particular property, and wanted to hear about others for sale in the area, you needed to make an appointment to meet with a REALTOR to get a list of homes for sale. Gaining information was the key reason many people consulted a REALTOR.

Times have changed!  Information on homes for sale is readily accessible on the internet with interior photos normally available.  In fact, so many buyers start their search on the web that we now we refer to web hits on SCHMIDT listings as “First Showings”.  In the past, buyers would look at 20-30 homes and then pick their top 3 homes to view for a second time before making an offer.  Today’s buyer can easily view 100 homes onlines while sipping their morning coffee, and then book their top 3 to view for a “second time”.  On our website, buyers can search all MLS listings at their leisure, without ever speaking with a REALTOR. They can choose to view our newest listings, receive emails when we have new listings or even set up a permanent search so they are notified of all properties in a particular neighbourhood or price range.

So what’s the benefit of having a REALTOR?  Seth Godin is a marketing “guru” I admire and he addressed this very issue in a recent blog post about the changing role of the “middle man” in  industries such as travel and real estate.  Gone are the days when a REALTOR could get a license to sell, a license to drive and be in business!  What an “agent” in any industry must bring to the table today is “added value”!  In the case of real estate, this includes area knowledge, contract and negotiating expertise, and the experience to know how to take their clients successfully down the many twists and turns on the road to “SOLD”.  Helping a client create a focused search for a home he or she can afford that meets their wants and needs is not as easy as it sounds. With literally thousands of properties on the market where does one start?  House or condo?  Urban or suburban?  New or re-sale? Custom or spec? Upgraded or ready to renovate? Helping a client analyze their real needs vs their wish list can save thousands of dollars through ensuring the right property is chosen.  Moving is costly as well as time-consuming.  Taking the time to do it right is a smart investment, and a good REALTOR can make all the difference in the world.  Think about re-sale for instance.  What you might love in a home might be something very unique, and that’s great. But if you think you might be transferred in a couple of years then that “unique” home just became a potential roadblock as you search desperately for a buyer who wants exactly that rare shade of pink granite countertop or black bamboo flooring.  And what about inspection issues?  Surveys? Condo documents? Conditions?  These are just some of the areas where a skilled REALTOR adds invaluably to the process.  No longer simply the “keeper of information”, today’s REALTOR needs to customize their approach based on each client’s needs, bringing focus, clarity, knowledge and experience to the table.

At SCHMIDT, we understand that you expect a lot from your REALTOR.  We’re OK with that!

Contributed by Kathy Schmidt, Broker Owner of Schmidt Realty Group Inc.

It’s an exciting day at SCHMIDT because we have just launched this totally new website!  Actually, it is a “blogsite” which is even more exciting!  You may be familiar with blogs – many websites incorporate a blog into their traditional website. Blog posts are written by the company or person who owns the website, and anyone who is interested can sign up to be notified when there is new information posted on the site. For instance, we will be posting newspaper articles related to real estate, and anyone who is interested can request to receive updates via email. At SCHMIDT we are committed to staying on the cutting edge of technology to provide the best service available anywhere to our wonderful clients. With that in mind, we have created an entire website based on blog technology – this allows us to update information in minutes from anywhere we have internet access! New listings, changes in mortgage rates and media reports can all be loaded onto our site daily and delivered to subscribers instantly!

You can easily view our New Listings as well as all our other lovely properties for sale and also everything for sale on MLS, all from the Home Page! There are also lots of great links in the Resources section with information on life in Edmonton as well as Mortgage Rates and helpful information about the real estate industry.  In the Blog section you can search by Category for everything from our latest Market Report to Going “Greener” and Fun Stuff (check out this last category for humorous real estate related videos from YouTube).

And now each of our listings is featured on its own website which is named by address!  You will find the same high quality photography you’ve come to expect from SCHMIDT along with new features such as area amenities, maps and more.  Plus it’s easy to email the listing to your friends!

There is also a Forum where we can discuss real estate topics that interest you, and you can comment on any Blog Post as well, and your comments will appear in that category.

Have fun touring our site and please let us know what you think! 

Housemaster Newsletter - August 2008 issue:

• What “bugs” you?
• Computer and gaming system safety
• Extension cords
• Maintenance tips
• Q&A