Maria Pettis

Changes in Yahoo Ranking Algorithms??

Maria Pettis — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:50:00 GMT

I read on a message board recently that Yahoo had made some changes to it's ranking algorithms (whatever those are!). Several agents on that board mentioned that they had seen a drop in their ranking on Yahoo. I was on the top of page one of yahoo for certain key words for a long time and now I've dropped to the bottom of page two. I thought perhaps that it was because of several small changes I made to my home page, but now I'm wondering if it's due to this thing with yahoo instead.

Does anyone know anything about this and how I can improve my ranking again? I've seen a serious decline in my website traffic.

Thanks!

Open House troubles...need ideas please!

Maria Pettis — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 17:55:00 GMT

I have a townhome listed that's in immaculate condition and priced ok. However, we are not getting anyone in to even look. I'm confident it will sell if I can just get buyers in the door because it's a really nice place.

I've agreed to hold an open house, but told the owner's not to expect much. I haven't had much success with open houses in the past and especially in this market. Anyone have ideas of how to draw people in? I will advertise and put out signs and balloons as usual, but what other things can I try?

I thought maybe advertising that visitors can register to win a gas card might get some people to stop by, but I've been told it would probably just be a waste of money.

Thoughts anyone?

Thanks!

Anyone ever use Talking House?

Maria Pettis — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 21:47:00 GMT

I just got off the phone with a representative of Talkinghouse.com who, of course, wants me to purchase their services. I have to say that being "backed" by NAR and being able to do a risk free trial has me seriously thinking about it. I haven't seen anyone else in my area use this. Have any of your ever used it? If you did, did you like it? Did you get leads/listings from it? Are there drawbacks? Despite the trial period, I don't want to fork out money every month if it's not going to deliver some kind of serious results.

My first listing and it's a toughy! Need Advice!

Maria Pettis — Wed, 02 May 2007 19:32:00 GMT

I am getting my first listing after being in the business for 7 months and I'm really excited about it. However, I know there are going to be challenges to selling it because it is a 2 bedroom/2 bath home with no garage. It's very small. The seller is aware that these things may work against them especially with the market slowing down. However, they are doing all kinds of nice upgrades ie: new flooring, new appliances, fresh paint, etc. It's a cute place and will look nice when finished.

Since the buyers interested in this property will most likely be first time buyers or downsizers, does anyone have suggestions on how to market this home? I'll be doing the usual "just listed" mailing, flyers, open house, caravan, advertising in paper/local real estate magazine, etc. But is there more that I can do to target people who might be interested in a home this small?

Any and all suggestions would be appreciated!