The Philadelphia Real Estate Blog

We just sold one of the condos in the Pier 3 Condominium building as settlement was this past week ! Pier 3 is located at Penns Landing, which is the most visited river front location in Philadelphia.  The Pier 3 Condos are literally built on a pier that stretches out into the Delaware River.  It offers amazing views of the river as well as the Ben Franklin Bridge.  Inside includes a 24 hour doorman, a wonderful indoor pool and a fitness center.

It is not easy getting these types of properties sold in this market.  But with the right Realtor on your side providing intensive Internet marketing and advertising for your property, it certainly can help !

Below are a couple of photos of the Pier 3 Condominium Building - the first one being a photo of Chris out front of Pier 3 being proud of the recent settlement !

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If interested in buying or selling properties in Penns Landing, contact Chris and Stephanie Somers at thesomersteam@yahoo.com or 215-400-2612 . You can connect with us on Facebook and Twitter .  For investment properties, check out our new investor site at Philly Investor Hub !

The Somers - Philadelphia Real Estate - our main site

Search the MLS Properties Here in Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Real Estate Blog

Click here to receive our Blog updates via email ! 

Areas of specialty include Northern Liberties, Old City, Penns Landing, Center City, Fishtown, Graduate Hospital, Art Museum, Queen Village, Pennsport, Old Kensington, Port Richmond, Bridesburg, Society Hill, Loft District, Spring Garden and more !

The new Somers Team website now live for Philadelphia Real Estate !

Our marketing team has been working very hard the last couple of months to give our site - The Somers Team - Philadelphia Real Estate a face-lift with some incredible updates including content, blog links and photos.  Also we will be adding additional photos of neighborhoods to the site once the photographer we hired agrees to release all of the photos.  The site just went live this morning !!!!

Whether you are an agent, in the real estate industry or a consumer, please take a moment and let us know your feedback !!  Our goal was to make it a bit more interactive and to integrate some of our blog topics in the site.  We will also have a realtime blog feed or we will choose which blog entries will be highlighted on the site.

We also added some of our social media profiles where we spend a lot of time on the About Us page.   Again, please take a moment and let us know your thoughts !  We appreciate it greatly !!

Below is a snippet of the front page:

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If interested in buying or selling properties in Philadelphia, contact Chris and Stephanie Somers at thesomersteam@yahoo.com or 215-400-2612 . You can connect with us on Facebook and Twitter .  For investment properties, check out our new investor site at Philly Investor Hub !

The Somers - Philadelphia Real Estate - our main site

Search the MLS Properties Here in Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Real Estate Blog

Click here to receive our Blog updates via email ! 

Areas of specialty include Northern Liberties, Old City, Center City, Fishtown, Graduate Hospital, Art Museum, Queen Village, Pennsport, Old Kensington, Port Richmond, Bridesburg, Society Hill, Loft District, Spring Garden and more !

Seller Interviews 7 agents to sell his Graduate Hospital property... and the winner is ?

Myself !  So now the pressure begins.  A great saying in selling real estate is that the best position is either 1st born, 2nd spouse and 3rd listing agent !  The times I have been the 2nd or 3rd Realtor has been great for by that time, the seller is motivated and the listing price will be more aggressive.  So when you are the 1st Realtor, you want to make sure that the price point is realistic and you have enough time for your duration of the listing contract to sell the property.  Anyways, I am getting a little off tangent here...

The purpose of this post was to communicate the Seller's thoughts and my experience.  When I first met with the Seller, he mentioned that he had already met with 5 Realtors.  5 Realtors !!  Wow, that is a lot.  I smiled and told him that I love being in a competitive situation.  I firmly believe that the services Stephanie and I provide are very tough to compete with.  In addition, unlike the old days (which for me is only a few years ago...LOL), I am not attached to every listing opportunity which means that if we do not get a listing we are in the running for, it is okay ! 

We have ample business in this market and are not too interested in working with folks who at that time may not be interested in working with us, or in most cases (for whatever reason) are more interested in working with someone else.  I have found that most of the time the seller has some sort of obligation with another Realtor whether it be family, friend, a friend of a friend or something like that. Or other times, they just want to list it at too high of a price and will find that Realtor to do it for them.

When the seller called and asked me the other day "Will you list my property ? " I agreed.  When I met with him (by that time it was 7 Realtors he met with), I asked him why Chris and Stephanie Somers?  His reply was pretty straight-forward:

1. I felt a connection with you.
2. Your knowledge of the marketplace.
3. Being Internet savvy - the way you market on the internet.  This was most important to me.

I asked him about price in terms of what the other Realtors recommended.  He mentioned one Realtor recommended a price way above what everybody else suggested but the other Realtors (including myself) were all about the same.

Point being here is that I am proud of our ability to communicate with consumers as well as building our experience with every deal that we do.  But I even am more proud of our website - Philadelphia Real Estate - The Somers Team (which this new listing will be featured today) as well as our blog - The Philadelphia Real Estate Voice.  I firmly believe that our decision to focus on Internet marketing has really paid off over the last year or two. 

Now, the pressure is on !  I certainly do not want another Realtor to be the 2nd or 3rd with this listing ! I welcome your thoughts on this blog post and what your thoughts would be with the below questions:

As an Agent, what are your goals for your Internet presence ?

As a Consumer, how important is Internet marketing to you ?

Related Posts:

From Blogging to Speaking on an Expert Philadelphia Real Estate Panel

5 Ways to Recommend Price Reductions to Sellers

5 Steps in Choosing a Realtor to Sell Your Property

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If interested in buying or selling properties in Philadelphia, contact Chris and Stephanie Somers at thesomersteam@yahoo.com or 215-400-2612 . You can connect with us on Facebook and Twitter .  For investment properties, check out our new investor site at Philly Investor Hub !

The Somers - Philadelphia Real Estate - our main site

Search the MLS Properties Here in Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Real Estate Blog

Click here to receive our Blog updates via email ! 

Areas of specialty include Northern Liberties, Old City, Center City, Fishtown, Graduate Hospital, Art Museum, Queen Village, Pennsport, Old Kensington, Port Richmond, Bridesburg, Society Hill, Loft District, Spring Garden and more !

 From Blogging to Speaking on a Philadelphia Real Estate Expert Panel ?

Last week I was invited to be on an expert panel as part of the "Shift into Overdrive" tour outside Philadelphia at Harrah's Chester Casino.  I had the opportunity to have a great lunch with Tony Dicello and hear him speak about the shifting market as well as be a part of an expert panel that included 4 Keller Williams top producers and 4 agents outside of Keller Williams.   I surely was not disappointed and it was a pleasure and an honor to attend.  Tony gave a terrific presentation about the changes of the marketplace and what agents can do to be successful.   The bottom line is that it is an excellent market to stand above your competition and grow your business.  Both buyers and sellers alike need a top Realtor's services more than ever before.

Speaking on the panel was very rewarding and hard to believe I was around so many top producers.  Several people on the panel included the likes of Gary Siegel, Antonio Atacan and George Cahill  who have decades of experience.  In fact, on the first question that was asked was to provide how many years they have been in the business, their specialities and so forth and how they did in 2008 (see Awards Received for 2008 ).  I was a little nervous when answering and forgot to answer that part of the question -  which is a little over 6 years making me the panel rookie.  I settled down after that and when asked about the driving force of our business last year, I discussed the benefits of blogging, Internet marketing, social media and the like. 

The leverage of our The Somers Team website and The Philadelphia Real Estate Blog coupled with our intensive drive to help our clients combined have certainly helped to grow our business immensely in the last several years.  Our presence in the community, on the Internet coupled with our production has propelled us to be a top producer in the area.  Even then, in comparison with some of the other panel members, we still have a long way to go and grow ! 

If it was not for Blogging or Active Rain, I doubt I would have been speaking on that panel.  I think it is a great example of how internet marketing and blogging has helped us with our business in connecting with consumers - both buyers and sellers.  Sellers want a listing agent who gives them maximum exposure with internet marketing and buyers want a buyers agent that they can relate to and trust, someone who has intensive market knowledge in their areas and neighborhoods of interest.

So my conclusion when asked on the panel (see above) in what to do now in today's economy is to check your attitude - It's everything !  Keep up the drive, energy and passion in terms of what you do best ! 

And for consumers, especially buyers, if you have not bought a house yet this year, what are you waiting for ?  With mortgage rates where they are, the first time homebuyer tax credit and the ample amount of supply to choose from, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity !  The same goes for building that real estate investment portfolio !

Related Posts from that day:

Can Sugarhouse be like Harrah's Chester Casino and Racetrack ?

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If interested in buying or selling properties in Philadelphia, contact Chris and Stephanie Somers at thesomersteam@yahoo.com or 215-400-2612 . You can connect with us on Facebook and Twitter .  For investment properties, check out our new investor site at Philly Investor Hub !

The Somers - Philadelphia Real Estate - our main site

Search the MLS Properties Here in Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Real Estate Blog

Click here to receive our Blog updates via email ! 

Areas of specialty include Northern Liberties, Old City, Center City, Fishtown, Graduate Hospital, Art Museum, Queen Village, Pennsport, Old Kenington, Port Richmond, Bridesburg, Society Hill, Loft District, Spring Garden and more ! 

Philly Investor Hub

Philly Investor Hub has a new face and updated content.  Please take a moment to view the site and let us know what you think !

The goal of the sites is to provide resources for both buyers and sellers of Philadelphia Investment properties.  Investors can search for not only our listings but all Philadelphia properties.  Sellers also have an opportunity to have an expanded network of potential buyers when there property is marketed by The Somers on Philly Investor Hub.

In addition, we have updated "Why Philly" .

Under Resources, we have "Blogs Best" where many of our blog entries about investing in real estate or the Philadelphia market is highlighted.

We even have same of favourite investment books highlighted under Resources.

Our folks at Intention Marketing have helped us launch and update this site.  We believe it can provide a needed and important resource to individuals and businesses thinking about buying or selling investment properties in Philadelphia.  Further, as the market starts to improve, we believe it will be the investment market that will heat up first.   Being that very few agents specialize in this area, our expertise and experience becomes extremely valuable for those buyers and sellers that reach out to us.

Traffic week over week is already growing at least 10 percent according to our Google Analytics report.

We appreciate your thoughts and your feedback !  And of course, if interested in buying or selling in Philadelphia, contact Chris and Stephanie Somers at thesomersteam@yahoo.com or 215-400-2612.

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The Somers - Philadelphia Real Estate

Search the MLS Properties Here in Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Real Estate Blog

Click here to receive our Blog updates via email !

Utilizing Google Analytics to Assess Performance, Set Goals and Gain Clients !

Google Analytics is an amazing tool and if you have not checked it out, I would highly recommend doing so.  You can sign up your website or blog to Google Analytics to find out statistics in terms of how many visitors you are getting and other extremely valuable information such as where they came from and how they interact with your site.   You can also gain insight in terms of the keywords that were used for visitors to find your site.  Best part about it is that it is free !

We just had a meeting with our marketing consultant who showed us the increase in traffic and hits with Google Analytics year over year.   It was great to see a HUGE increase in traffic with our main site The Somers Team .  I also signed up our blog Philadelphia Real Estate Blog and recently checked out its statistics as well.

What a great way to assess your business month to month, or even week to week.  I always find it interesting to see the week-to-week trends.  For example, for the first week of December versus the last week of November traffic on The Somers Team  was up 33.99 percent, from 509 visits to 682 visits.  My explanation here is pretty simple in that the last week of November traffic was down due to the Thanksgiving week in addition to things picking up the first week of December with mortgage rates being so low which was one of my thoughts for Are We The Pulse of Real Estate ?

In any event, another reason to use these reports is that they have become an integral part of our listing presentation.  It is pretty impressive I think in a buyers market to have internet marketing be a focal reason for a seller to list with you.  Well, in our local area, the sellers not only get the MLS, they get exposure on our individual sites, blog, etc...  These reports can be shown to validate traffic.  For example, The Somers Team generates approximately 600 visits per week and all of that traffic is looking at the individual listings in the specific areas that we market in !  No wonder our business has had a great year in 2008 - buyers are finding us easier and sellers crave and need the additional exposure. 

Lastly, with this tool, I am now paying more attentions to see where the visitors are coming from too.  Google Analytics will show you what referring sites brought the visitor to your site.  How amazing is this information ?  Thus, you can see if certain campaigns or specific marketing done on other sites generated the traffic that you were looking for to your site.  I will save this topic for a future blog post !

Do you use Google Analytics in your online marketing strategy ?  What works for you ?

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Philadelphia Real Estate - Chris and Stephanie Somers

The Philadelphia Real Estate Blog

Click here to receive our Blog updates via email !

Using Trulia.com to generate more business

When we first started blogging on Active Rain, we immediately saw the importance of having a presence and profile on other sites as well.  We learned a lot about this through subscribing to blogs by  Bill Gassett and Justin Smith (2 highly recommended blogs to subscribe to) .

One of the sites that we have had success with is Trulia.com .  Trulia has become one of the premier consumer sites - it has a wealth of information for consumers and it also provides tremendous resources for realtors too such as setting up a profile, adding listings, having a blog and much much more.  There is also a lot of info regarding statistics and analytics.   If you have not checked it out, do so !

In any event, as an example, we just picked up a listing in our area due to our answering consumer's questions on Trulia voices.   Trulia voices has an extensive network of questions from consumers and answers from real estate pros.  It was on this forum that a seller contacted us to list her property in Port Richmond.  She was looking for something specific in an agent and found it in The Somers Team !  Not only that, we sold her property for her in less than 45 days !

In addition, we have also received several leads from Trulia due to our presence on their site.  With that in mind, we of course will continue to post blog entries there (see our Trulia blog ) as well as answering questions !  It looks like we have answered 311 questions !  Wow - I guess we have a lot of answers !!!

If you are interested in buying or selling real estate in the Philadelphia area, contact Chris and Stephanie Somers at 215-400-2612 or thesomersteam@yahoo.com

Philadelphia Real Estate - Chris and Stephanie Somers

Click here to receive our Philadelphia Real Estate Blog updates via email !