WeLoveLofts.com
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WeLoveLofts Blog
A Blog for those that love and, maybe even, live in a LOFT
I got an email from RI Association of Realtors today. The state of the market in RI is improving, as home sales are up 19% from December 201 to December 2011. They also explain the conditions of increased affordability that we are experiencing. I have pasted the whole article below for you to review.
Somewhere along the line, HGTV's House Hunters heard about WeLoveLofts.com. I got an email from the casting director last week about submitting a loft buyer to the show.
I've started the process with one of our clients, but this opportunity will also be open to other buyers. The contact told me that they often have repeat appearances from realtors that work with interesting clients and interesting properties (that sure sounds like us!). I have included her list of criteria below, in case anyone is interested in participating as they go through the process of finding a home that they love.
So I got an email from someone that I showed a loft to in March of 2009. Alacyn Wolfe wanted to work as a realtor and already knew that she loved LOFTS. I was so impressed with Allie's letter that I hired her as a part time assistant. On Allie's first day, I had her reaching out to clients that I had not talked to for some time. One of emails that she sent ended up turning into a Purchase & Sale for Unit 207 in Lofts at the Strand. I've included Allie's letter below, in case you were wondering what it looks like to take a chance on something that you want in life.
Lastly, I am identifying an amazing opportunity to those that are sitting on the sideline. Unit 405 is now listed (by another realtor) for $200K. This is the loft directly above the unit that I flipped last year. It has high celings and brick walls and huge windows, the list goes on and on. The owner has decided that he is going down swinging, so he has removed the kitchen, the appliances and some of the bath fixtures. In effect, you can buy what I bought last year, with the plumbing in place for 2.5 baths, on a higher floor, with a master suite built out. As this is clearly a short sale, the seller is interested in offers and I'm interested in bringing one from one of my buyers. I've created a link to the full listing of the LOFT with 15 pictures below.
I've been advised that my websites do not have a clear "Call to Action". In other words, they are not clear on what I do and what I offer. So let's be clear, I'm a realtor and I want to either help you find a home that you love, or help you sell the home that you own for highest value in the shortest period of time. That's who I am
and that's why I'm here. It's a really good gig, and I love it.
My broker, Rob, always talks about working on our business, as much as in our business. I'm blessed to say week has been very busy working in my business and I am coming in over the weekend to work on my business.
Web presence is my current obsession. There are several fronts which I feel are critical to my real estate model, the most important component is clearly the web site. Over the past five years, I have helped over a hundred clients, who called me after seeing my WeLoveLofts web site, to buy or sell a LOFT. Although my current site has serve us well for the first five years, the information accuracy suffers from requiring me to manually update the listings. I also feel that it is time to broaden my offerings to include other niche markets (LoveTheEastSide.com).
The next most important component to my web presence is this article. Although we sometimes refer to it as a blog, it is really an email sent out to a manually input mailing list. A true blog is available directly from the web and has the potential to reach a much broader audience. It is my goal to start writing this article in a blog format and shoot off an email announcing blog entries as they occur. My Blogs would be one page of my web sites, and I would like to get some people commenting or writing articles about their experiences living in a LOFT (or on the East Side), places that they go to eat in the area, and things to do that might be of interest.
Lastly, I really do need to incorporate social media sites like Twitter, Zillow, and Facebook better than simply having a home page on each. So the dilemma becomes, how to work on the business, while I'm extremely busy working in the business. I would like to engage a specialist in getting all of the above going in the same direction, looking like they are all representing the same business entity. I would like to hire a past or potentially future client to do this work. is there anyone that reads this article (soon to be blog) that can understand my goals and is capable of putting this package together.
Since I still haven't rented Unit 401 in Bayley Lofts or Unit 304 in Corliss Landing, I am resorting to drastic measures. You'll see me out hanging flyers at The Coffee Exchange and White's Electric Coffee later today. I'm dropping the price on both to $1250 each, with not much flexibility to go lower.
I just showed Unit 303 in Mile Square Lofts to a client for the second time. He brought his significant other, who really got it and seemed to give him a green light. Hopefully, I'll be announcing that this one is in P&S by my next article.
Lastly, for those of you that are looking for a tip, I showed two cool spaces this past week that are not on anyone's radar. Unit 3B in Imperial Place is currently listed at $159K. The taxes and condo fee make it impossible to buy as an investment, but as owner occupied, the numbers start to make sense. The kicker is that someone has put a ton of money into the build out of this unit. With very little investment, someone could have a killer downtown loft to move in to.
The other property that really turned my head was at 46 Houston in Newport. In addition to having two rentable units (1 traditional, 1 loft), it has an approximately 3000SqFt garage with high ceilings and an overhead crane. this property is about a block from the beach and two blocks from Thames St. It's listed for $399K and I've posted a coule of pictures below. I really feel that these two properties would appeal to my clients.
Please call me when you are ready to start looking for a Loft or home on the East Side of Providence. It is my gift to be able to help clients find homes that they love.
John
