If you’re looking for a foreclosure deal in Hyattsville, THIS IS IT!!!

5017 54th Pl. Hyattsville, MD

~Jonathan Benya
Century 21 New Millennium
9405-A Chesapeake St
La Plata, MD 20646
301-653-8116
Waldorf and Southern Maryland Real Estate
www.teambenya.com

Even as a Realtor, it can seem overwhelming to post home information to all of the different home search sites available out there.  Which site do you use, Realtor.com?  Trulia?  Zillow? Hotpads?  Kajiji?  Craigslist??

In the land of property marketing, the Internet is King!

    Your choice of website as a buyer is not as important as it is for sellers, however.  Owners looking to sell need to make sure that they’re on every site possible, which means finding an agent who really knows the web and is aware of the latest trends and preferences of picky buyers.

    The toughest part about it is that you may not even realize how important your online marketing is!  When a buyer comes to me looking for a home, we look at specific criteria:

• Beds
• Baths
• Size (square footage)
• Garage
• Location
• Etc. 

    Those buyers rarely take my lists as gospel, they’re also going to look at home, online, and when they’re searching on their own time, they may find that property they want to see that doesn’t quite match the criteria they gave me. 

    You need to make sure that those buyers have the opportunity to see your home, regardless of which site they’re searching on.  Over 80% of all home buyers start their search online, and many times those buyers have already seen a wide range of potential offerings before they even step foot into a Realtor’s office.  If, for example, a buyer tells me they want a home in Waldorf(Waldorf, MD photos),  but they home home and search the entire county, they may end up finding their next home is really in White Plains or La Plata (La Plata, MD photos)!

80%!!
 

    If that means 20% of buyers aren’t using the internet now to find a home, You’re relying on 1/5 of the total market to hold your home’s buyer.  It’s an incredibly limiting factor!!  It’s an absolute necessity now to make sure your home is plugged in to as many search sites as possible.  Right now, my listings are uploaded onto over 30 (30!!) different online search sites (and that number grows every quarter), simply because exposure is how homes are sold, period.  You can have the nicest home in three states, but how do you expect to sell it if nobody knows it exists?

Which Websites Work?

     I can clearly see that not all search sites are created equally, and realtor.com is the best ROR (Rate Of Return), but to me it’s an irrelevant question.  Why Wouldn’t you use ALL OF THEM???  Exposure is the goal, right?  More Sites = More Exposure, so make sure your listing can be found everywhere!

    I’ve also had people ask me if websites such as this blog help as well, and my first response is "Well, you read it, right?"   In all seriousness, I have helped people buy AND sell through this blog, so it certainly doesn’t hurt!  Again, it’s the concept of exposure.

Why The Web?

    Well, the bottom line here is that people have finally become comfortable looking for homes online, and they’ve come to expect to see their next home before they even pass through the door.  Buyers are already hip to the lingo:  Virtual Tours, Slideshows, etc., and quite simply, the convenience of it all makes sense and attracts people to the medium.  You could be searching at the office or at home in your bunny slippers!

This is Part 1 of a series of articles designed to educate sellers on how to maximize their returns and get their home SOLD in a buyers market!  Check back every Wednesday for the next edition of the Savvy Seller’s Blog Series!

~Jonathan Benya
Century 21 New Millennium
9405-A Chesapeake St
La Plata, MD 20646
301-609-9000
301-653-8116
Waldorf and Southern Maryland Real Estate
www.teambenya.com

digg_url = ‘http://www.teambenya.com/charles_county_real_estat/2008/04/your-next-home.html’;

     With as many hours as I work each day, it’s made me think about WHY I insist on working such long hours.  I think it has a lot to do with upbringing.  My brother and I both grew up on the water, and it was the greatest experience I could have ever asked for as a child.  We went crabbing daily, fishing just as often, and we typically ate whatever we caught that day when dinnertime came.

(For those of you In Southern Maryland or coming to the area, head to Captain Billy’s for dinner, and order the crabs.  You’ll thank me later.  Unless you’re allergic to shellfish, in which case you should probably ignore me)

You’ve Got To WORK For The Reward

     My parents were by no means wealthy, but they worked very hard for what they have, and among a list of things too long to mention, they taught us how to:

1)  Enjoy the basics.
2) Understand that if you enjoy your work, the long hours you put in are easy.

     Fishing for dinner?  We’ve done it.  We didn’t get the fancy Jet Ski’s or power boats our friends got as kids.  We got a sailboat instead, the kind that fits one, possibly 2 if someone hangs off the side of the boat.

Jib Jabbering

      Sailing that boat was work, bar none!  It taught us some very important life lessons, though, and to this day, we still have that old boat, and I have zero interest in powerboats.  I remember being disappointed that I didn’t have the latest and greatest toys as a child, and I didn’t fully understand what my parents were doing, but there’s no way I could thank them enough today.

     Whenever I wanted to go sailing, it took an hour just to prepare the boat, and another 30 minutes to take the gear down afterwards.  I saw the link directly:  A little work, and a little reward.  I learned to enjoy working, and was glad to do so.  It’s carried over into my adult life.  I enjoy my work immensely, and so I don’t feel a need or desire to take time off often.

     At any rate, because it’s now mid-March, I need to take a day off, and go to Annapolis.  I need new sheets for my little boat, and I’m running out of time if I want to have it in the water by May first!  I wonder, will that qualify as time off to relax, or do Thomas and I need to find a new way to unwind?

      (In case anyone was wondering, Thomas was the one sailing in the previous picture.  He’s on the left, on the right in the fashionable orange jacket is a dog.)

The World According to MeMe

    OOH BOY, Have I been putting this one off!  Up until recently, I had NO IDEA
what a MeMe was!  It was all some strange foreign lingo to me, just
another part of the complicated activerain blogosphere that I didn’t
comprehend.  I chose to ignore MeMe’s, judging that there is a finite
amount of information that I can take in, and the whole concept of
blogging has been a phenomenal challenge thus far;  I didn’t NEED to know, right?

Well, Rick Tourgee has proven me wrong!  Now that:

1: I know what a MeMe is; and

2: I’ve officially been MeMe’d,

it’s time to sit down and write one! So sit down, grab a "cup of joe", and I’ll do my best to muddle through this!

   
To start, I’m 27 years old (as of March 23rd), and I’ve been a licensed
Realtor for just over a year.  My mother has been a Realtor for over a
decade, and I worked off and on as her assistant for quite some time,
until I decided to strike out on my own.  Not terribly interesting in
and of itself, but the path that led me here has been a wild one!

   
What you probably don’t know about me is that I started working at age
5!?!  Jackie Cougan laws aside, I was a child actor.  You name it, I
did it.  3 years at Ford’s Theatre (where Honest Abe bit the bullet, so to speak) playing Tiny Tim, A stint as the national face of Kix Cereal, The voice of ToysRUs.com,
Movie roles playing alongside people like Tom Cruise and Eddie Murphy
were just another day at the office to me, and I wasn’t even 12 years
old!

    I played Johnny Depp’s nephew in Cry-Baby(little kid in the leather jacket, that’s what everyone seems to remember), Albert Brook’s son in Broadcast News, rubbed shoulders with John Lithgow in The Pelican Brief,
and, in short, worked on too many films to count!  By the time I hit
high school, I had already built a lifetime of experiences in the
entertainment industry, spending more time with private tutors than I
did in a real classroom.

    The kicker to it all was that I
didn’t watch much TV, especially when it came to my own films, and for
some reason I woke up one morning and realized that I wanted a normal
childhood.  I walked away from the business, and proceeded to live a
normal life, public high school, school sports, drama club, straight
A’s, yadda yadda yadda.  It was during high school that I assisted my
mother in her real estate business, and little did I know that all
roads lead to Rome, so to speak.

   
I took a scholarship to study design and technology, and the next thing
I knew I was working on building audio rigs for Broadway shows and Rock
Concerts.  Ever hear of a roadie?  That was sort of what I did, I was a
well educated, nerdy roadie!  I worked on everything from small beer
garden stages to big tours for people like Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Presidential Inaugurations, Broadway shows like Spamalot, The Lion King, Fosse, you name it!

   
I did this while I was still trying to get my degree, and within a
month of my college graduation everything changed!  I was involved in
an industrial accident at work, had my fingers broken in 23 places, had
my head split open, and I ended up with reconstructive surgery on both
of my hands and a few new pieces of shiny metal inserted to help put me
back together.

    I took it as a sign,
more than anything else.  I couldn’t be too angry about it, the
accident should have killed me, and I was still breathing!  Being
incapacitated(months of not being able to use my hands AT ALL, followed
by lots of rehab) gave me a very good reason to consider a new
profession.  I knew real estate having helped my mother years ago, and
I had a great background in being a "personality", so it seemed like a
good fit!

    It was one of the best things I could have ever
done!  The market is tough, and I love the challenge!  It’s great that
I get to be closer to home, and because I work with family I actually
get to see them once in awhile!

    AAAANNDD…. SCENE!
I think that’s the best cliff notes version of a MeMe,  the next step
is to identify the next target, correct?   I’m targeting Melissa Stewart at Century 21 Battlefield in King George, VA!

~Jonathan Benya
Century 21 New Millennium
9405-A Chesapeake St
La Plata, MD 20646
301-609-9000
301-653-8116
Waldorf and Southern Maryland Real Estate
www.teambenya.com