When Michele Alvarez designs a model home, she strives for that swept away feeling of comfort and serenity.

Casting aside influences that are dark and heavy, Alvarez instead selects colors, furnishings and accessories that are soft and simple.

Whether it’s outfitting a welcoming front porch, dressing up a formal dining area or blending an upstairs landing into a hard-working home office, the Design Center manager for Beazer Homes aims for the “I could easily live here” takeaway from home buyers.

“For those seeking inspiration, builder model homes can offer a plethora of ideas,” said Alvarez. “While shelter magazines and television decorating shows may be insightful into how a room evolves, a model home tour adds the ‘wow’ factor by bringing the entire home to life.”

As the summer heats up, top-10 national homebuilder Beazer will see a stream of traffic through hundreds of model homes across the country. From potential buyers in search of the right home in the right school district to would-be decorators taking in fresh ideas, model townhouses and single-family homes will get the critical eye.

National homebuilders oftentimes have a designer on hand who can help with choosing colors in everything from the paint to the floor to the cabinetry to help buyers get the model home look. For others who want it now, Alvarez offers the following tips to get started:

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Those who want to save energy and live a more eco-friendly lifestyle can look close to home to cut back on power bills.

Here are some tips from Tony Callahan, senior vice president for Beazer Homes, to get you started.

Change filters. Replace your air filter regularly and tune up HVAC equipment yearly. A programmable thermostat will allow you to set the temperature according to your schedule.

Seal gaps. Repair or replace weather stripping on doors and windows, using caulk if necessary to get a tight seal.

Use CFLs. About 10 percent of electric bills come from lighting, and compact fluorescent bulbs are good to use in areas where lights are on for hours at a time.

Water works. Reduce water and the energy used to heat it with new water-saving showerheads and sink faucets.

Check your fridge. Replacing a refrigerator bought in 1990 with a new Energy Star model will save enough energy to light the average home for nearly four months.

I was reading the Realtor.org Newsletter and there was a piece on marketing ideas that will “get you noticed.” Here is one that I thought was especially helpful and very important:

Customers don’t care much about marketing that tells them you’re in the million dollar club, how long you’ve been in the business, and other “me” types of promotion, Watson said. They care about how you can help them. So statements like “I sold 200 units this year” would have more impact if you said “I helped 200 families move into new homes.” Also, use words to your advantage. For example, when you tell customers that they will be working with your “assistant,” it makes it sound like you are passing them off to someone insignificant, Watson said. Instead, call your assistant a “specialist” or “partner.” Also, use the word “bought” in replace of “sold” and “new price” instead of “price reduced.”

Now that the market is ripe with foreclosures and other bank owned property, we want to take a moment just to clarify what a short sale really is.

What is a short sale?
To sum it up quickly and concisely, a short sale is a situation in which the lender allows a property to be sold for less than the amount owed on a mortgage and takes a loss.

How does it benefit the homeowner?
After submitting thorough documentation, including, but not limited to:

• W-2 and pay stubs to verify income
• Bank statements to assess assets and financial situation
• Hardship Letter to explain why the bank should consider your property for a short sale

the bank may consider a short sale. The process can help keep the homeowner out of bankruptcy and save their credit rating.

The house will be sold and the difference between what you owe the bank and what the bank received on the sale will either be written off or the seller will be responsible for it.

NOTE: It is important to understand that if the bank writes of the difference, they will more than likely report it as 1099 income for the seller. This could adversely effect the seller’s tax liability.  Speak to a tax professional.  Remember, just because they write it off, doesn’t mean it disappears.

For an even more thorough look at short sales, check out the resources below:

The Definitive Short Sale Article

Short Sale (Real Estate) - Wikipedia

Everyone loves the smell of fresh baked cookies.  How about replicating that smell for each of your open houses, without having to bake any?
Place a couple of drops of vanilla extract in the oven and crank it to low. Try it out!

One man thinks so, and a lot of other real estate professionals might agree. Especially tech savvy ones.

Galen Ward posted a blog entry regarding Trulia’s so-called “underhanded” SEO (search engine optimization practices). In most geographic areas a search for “san francisco real estate” for example will pull up Trulia’s website as the first result, burrying other relevant local real estate companies websites. Ward believes this to be unfair.

One of his very valid beefs is that Trulia makes links to your website on their website, no-follow links. This means that search engines like Google and Yahoo will ignore linking to your website, losing out on precious SEO ranking.

While it is more than likely not the case that Trulia wants to destroy your website ranking, they definitely do want to rank number one. Are you getting what you expected from your relationship with Trulia?

Also, take a look at how they optimize their website. Talk to your IT administrator to see if you can do the same. A couple things that I have noticed that would really make a difference in a real estate websites rankings is having a landing page for each city that you do business in. Also make the URL for that city search engine friendly, ie: http://www.pmz.com/modesto/ca/real-estate/ or http://www.pmz.com/stockton/ca/real-estate/. For each of those landing pages, in the title and metadescription, include something like, “Modesto Real Estate & Modesto Homes for Sale” to make it more relevant to your geographical area. That’s really just the beginning.

Real Estate professionals, want to know what clients really think about you? Want to hear what they really want or what they’re interested in?

You should check out Tweet Scan. Tweet Scan is a web application that allows you to type in any keyword you want, I did “Real Estate” and it shows you all the latest Twitters that contain the word real estate.

I’ve come accross some pretty neat marketing tricks from other Agents this way, give it a try.

By the way:  For those of you who are not familiar with Twitter.com, it is a web application that allows you to send out a short message to everyone updating them as to what you are doing, or whatever you want.  Think of it like a mini-blog.  People can subscribe to you and follow what you’re doing or “twittering” about. So far, Twitter is over 1 million users strong and growing every day.

Matt Keenan, recruiter here at PMZ, showed me an interesting website called Jott.com that allows you to send emails with your voice.

How it works, You set up an account online, add your contacts, call an 800 number, speak the name of the person you want to “jott” a message to, and speak your message.  Your message will then be transcribed and delivered to that persons email.

It’s a cool service if you are on the road checking your email, but don’t want to type a long message into your Blackberry or iPhone.

The only downfall is that when the person receieves your email, it has Jott.com branding everywhere on it, so be wary and send the email to yourself and forward it without the extra branding when you get home.

Proposition 13, the voter initiative passed in 1978, allows property owners protection from skyrocketing property taxes.

If you are a parent selling or transferring title of your home to your child or a child doing the same to your parents, then your property can be excluded from reassessment under proposition 13.

This law applies not only to parents and children but also to parents and son-in-laws and daughter-in-laws so long as they’re not divorced.

However, in order to take advantage of these exemptions you must apply for them; they do not happen automatically.

Talk to a professional tax consultant if you feel you can take advantage of this exemption to save some money.

Thanks to Jon Zagaris for pointing this out.

The weather is getting even better! It’s supposed to hit 90° here in Modesto, CA.  What a perfect time for an open house.  Denise Lones at the Realty times offers some tips for handling an open house successfully, including:

• Researching the neighborhood so when potential buyers have questions about nearby school, supermarkets, shopping centers, you will be able to provide them with confident answers
• Advertising your open house online, through your email list, in the newspaper and with street and yard signs.
• Create a good rapport with potential clients whether they be buyers or sellers in the future that remembered your dynamic personality. Answer the door, don’t “hide in the kitchen.”

I think one of the best tips she offered (all of them are great) is giving your clients a list of homes that is around the same price range of the open house they are visiting. Include pictures, driving directions and a space for notes for each listing.