David Barr's Sarasota and Venice Real Estate Blog

Part of my to do list for my real estate business as we entered 2019 was to begin using Facebook Live. I've just completed my third live session on Facebook talking about expired listings in Sarasota, Lakewood Ranch, and Venice. You can view the video here: Expired real estate listings with David Barr BHHS in Sarasota FL Posted by David Barr, Broker on Wednesday, February 27, 2019 If your home is an expired listings, and is no longer showing in the MLS, please contact me about putting your property back on the market and getting it sold.

Have you thought about hiring a high volume Realtor, or one of the "luxury" brokerages to list your Sarasota home for sale? Think about this: If you have a problem, what are the chances you can talk to the actual person you hired to list your home? Does the "team" business model in real estate give you real customer support? And if a Realtor has 10 or more properties they are listing and marketing at the same time, how often can they hold an Open House for yours? This last point is most important: Our price per square foot for luxury properties is far below that of Naples or Miami. Sarasota has just as nice beaches, with just as vibrant an arts and cultural scene than both those cities. When there's little competition other than to get your home sold, it's not a good recipe to get you the very best price for your luxury property. If you think the Sarasota luxury property market is handled by too few, resulting in low prices,...

I read a rather frivolous article in the Manatee Herald about how adding the word "love" in real estate advertising copy helps to sell homes by creating an emotional response in the potential buyer.  The article actually ended up making another point about the difference in marketing philosophy between real estate brokers. You can read the article here:  http://www.bradenton.com/2014/02/14/4992360/bradenton-real-estate-feels-a.html For example, a description in a listing in the MLS remarks, such as "you'll love the gourmet kitchen" always makes me think from the buyer's perspective that kitchens are such a personal statement about the home owner, many buyers may not actually love all that mosaic tile or particular coloring of the granite countertops.  I try to avoid using the term all together. The NAR survey of home buyers and sellers shows that buyers first and foremost want pictures of the property online.  They are comparing features and prices an...

On Saturday mornings I get an email from Inman real estate news. Many of the articles are written by SEO companies and marketing "gurus", telling agents how to advertise themselves to home buyers and sellers. Some of the terms used in the sales industry, not limited to real estate, really make me cringe.  And I've been "in sales" for over 25 years.  "Capture", "convert", "lead", and "capture" are regularly used terms.  Do you as a potential customer really want to feel like hunted prey? My philosophy about gaining new customers and their trust is simple.  I provide information to customers about properties and answers to their questions they are searching for online.  This content is written by me specifically about my service area, not by a 20-something in Silicon Valley who has sold me some content to use in my advertising. Here are some good examples: The buying process :  Learn about the steps in the buying ...

Yes, that may seem a silly question, but I keep seeing a lot of confusion about what a video actually is in reading real estate industry articles, as well as in our own MLS. Still photos, set in motion with animation and sometimes with a music track, is not a video.  It is an animated slide show.  Our own MLS offers a "virtual tour" feature that costs a whole $2 for the listing agent. I would not dare post an animated slide show as a video on YouTube.  YouTube users are sophisticated and want to experience real video of your subject, whether it's a hike, a scenic vista, or a home tour. This is exactly why I provide real video for buyers and sellers on my YouTube channel, sarasotahomes .  Buyers can preview a home from long distance exactly as they would walk through it themselves.  I provide this service for my home listings as well as for buyers who are familiar with an area or a condo complex, and want to see an individual property. Read more on my we...

My real estate website, davidbarrhomes.com, has been a popular destination for buyers and sellers of Sarasota real estate for over 10 years.  Unfortunately, because of this I get frequent calls from SEO sales people telling me I could be doing better with Google search results.  They say my site should appear in organic search (the unpaid links) more frequently on the first page of results. One of these recent calls, combined with an equally recent Google consultation, really distilled the issues facing individual real estate agents trying to promote their websites. Devoting resources to SEO is a mistake, in my humble opinion.  Google has recently implemented a lot of changes on how it ranks sites (search for "Google Panda update"), and a lot of SEO tactics are no longer effective.  Google's changes favor sites with original content (like davidbarrhomes.com) that provide the information being searched for. The first page results on Google for real estate in an...

Google Analytics is a fascinating and highly useful tool for evaluating a website's  performance in the online advertising universe. I started using Google Adwords over 10 years ago for my real estate website, davidbarrhomes.com , and experienced excellent results.  My goal then, as it remains now, is to create a website and online presence that could take on the largest competitors in our area.  A new feature I've been examining on Analytics gives me some extremely positive results to share in this regard. Google's Auction Insights provides a revealing snapshot of how keywords are performing versus other online advertisers.  I was pleased to find out that my keywords targeting some of the most popular neighborhoods and areas in Sarasota and Manatee Counties garnered a higher share of impressions (people who saw my advertisement) than major brokers. To me, this proves that a lone real estate agent can successfully take on even the largest competitors online wh...