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Home » Columnists » Biographies »

Real estate by the numbers

By Alison Rogers, Monday, August 25, 2008.

I work with words a lot, but I wouldn't love real estate the way I do if I didn't have a feel for numbers too. So over the past week, as I've been reading news stories, I've been making notes about some interesting numbers that have popped up here and there. Sometimes my curiosity would lead me to track down another number -- all data is as current as possible.  more...

The dog days of real estate

By Alison Rogers, Monday, August 18, 2008.

So the dog -- a fairly big black Lab -- threw up in the lobby five minutes before the potential buyers were supposed to show up. I swear I was nice about it. "I'm a real estate agent and I've got someone coming to see the apartment," I said to the dog's walker, a girl of about 16 who looked like she'd never seen dog vomit before.

"Do you mind if I just fold the rug over a little bit before they come in?" I asked, adding, "I don't think it'll make it harder to clean up."  more...

Something to chat about

By Alison Rogers, Monday, August 11, 2008.

Two years ago (aw, c'mon guys, I swear I'm still a rookie) I wrote a column about hanging out on the Internet to gain customers. I expressed shock about how mean people could be when they could hide behind electronic identities, and I questioned why chat boards weren't a better place for lead generation.  more...

An early au revoir for tenants

By Alison Rogers, Monday, August 4, 2008.

I have a sales listing that, after a few months, has still not gone to contract. We have had offers at the right price that didn't get financing, and some lowball offers we didn't take. I am very interested in getting my seller his top price -- so frankly, I was looking forward to the renters moving out so I could show it empty.

Wednesday: I call to see if I can show the unit the next day. "No," said the tenant. "We're going back to Europe. The movers will be here that day and the next. We'll be out Friday."  more...

Dos and don'ts of postcard marketing

By Alison Rogers, Monday, July 28, 2008.

Every so often, I like to take a break from doing my own marketing to see what works on me. I got a perfect chance to do this because we are selling the beach house, which has occasioned a flood of postcards from moving companies. I'm not quite sure what tipped them off -- I haven't filed a change of address yet, and I can't imagine that these movers are roaming the neighborhood looking for "for sale" signs. My best guess is that they somehow monitor the multiple listing service and see a contract has been signed.  more...

3 new real estate rules

By Alison Rogers, Monday, July 21, 2008.

I wonder if it is a coincidence that after a long drought of no money I had two closings very close to June, the month where I wrote everything down. For those of you who missed last week, I made a spreadsheet and entered every activity, every client.

This week I was working on another rental. So much of the week was spent pushing toward yesterday, a showing marathon where we went through 10 properties.  more...

Time is money ... sometimes

By Alison Rogers, Monday, July 14, 2008.

During June, I decided to do something I'd been thinking about for a long time: I wrote everything down.

Not everything as in "brushed teeth: three minutes," but I made a spreadsheet with different columns on it and tried to allocate my business time, by quarter-hour, just to get an idea of where my time goes. I feel like I work constantly and am not rich yet, so part of the goal was to provide a numerical approximation of the words "time" and "rich."  more...

It's closing time

By Alison Rogers, Monday, July 7, 2008.

I write this column weekly, and I keep copies of each one on the computer. I didn't even have to look very hard to realize that there aren't that many with the word "closing" in the title.

So it is with joy that I'm writing this one, with an extra 5,000 bucks in my pocket.

I have been working the sales market here in Manhattan. The goal is to develop a high-end boutique practice, to do some but not many deals, and to be able to pick and choose my clients a little.  more...

Finding the 'Nifty 50'

By Alison Rogers, Monday, June 30, 2008.

I have been so busy these past couple of weeks tying up a couple of rentals that I worried I'd been neglecting my sale. However, I know my seller is getting antsy as July -- and vacations with their consequent disappearance of buyers to the beach -- looms. So I decided to set up an open house for this weekend, and to make it a big one.

Now I have to digress for a minute and tell you that the deal du jour in my area -- downtown -- actually happened as the result of a mistake. An agent accidentally typed the wrong price on a listing and the result of the underpricing was a fierce bidding war and a terrific final price. Crazy, huh? Well, that's what this market is like.  more...

Three years, and still no paperweight

By Alison Rogers, Monday, June 23, 2008.

As I write this, tomorrow is my third wedding anniversary, which loyal readers of this column will know marks a milestone, because it was around the time I got married that I stormed out of my corporate job and decided to adopt a cool real estate life. The transition from employee to freelancer opened doors I'd never expected -- including the fulfillment of a lifelong dream to write a book -- but it caused all sorts of emotional and financial turmoil, too.  more...

Finding lemonade in sour market

By Alison Rogers, Monday, June 16, 2008.

What did I do this week? I pounded on my computer until it produced the perfect property for one buyer, who loved it but announced that his job situation is still too iffy for him to want to buy anything right now. But I loved the apartment -- expensive kitchen, outdoor space, and the kind of cute little building where a celebrity cook with a name that rhymes with Machael May might hang out. So I dangled it in front of another client, who it would be perfect for. She didn't e-mail me back.  more...

Work less, 'Excel' more

By Alison Rogers, Monday, June 9, 2008.

It's summer, and I'm a little bored, and frankly a little depressed because I had surgery just two weeks ago. I have two accepted offers and no contracts, and frankly no desire to work at all. I could shepherd those two offers into contract and call that a month's work if I'm not careful.

So I was casting about for something to do, and I remember something I heard once (OK, many times) at Inman Connect.

It was that as agents, we need to measure our business.  more...

Remember to charge your Blackberry?

By Alison Rogers, Monday, June 2, 2008.

Maybe it's just me -- or maybe all agents out there go through chaos when trying to leave the house each day. Here are 10 reasons I can't leave the house on time:

1) Because I really do try to carry only the client folders I think I will need, but for some reason Mary has three folders, one labeled with her name, one labeled with her address, and one labeled with her name and address, so when I'm running late I grab all three.  more...

No downtime in a down market

By Alison Rogers, Tuesday, May 27, 2008.

Yet another sign that my market is slowing down: Everyone is paying waaay too much attention to me.

I have two open deals, a sale and a rental. (Or I suppose I should say, two immediate deals where I represent the owners. There are multiple deals where I'm tangled up with buyers, but in this climate those people could be buying three years from now.)

So anyway, I found out last week that I was going to need surgery on Monday. So I told my sponsoring broker, handed him keys ...
 more...

Four perks in a down market

By Alison Rogers, Monday, May 19, 2008.

Here in Manhattan, home sales are starting to slow. Things that are priced well still go, but the atmosphere is worse, like a plane flight that still goes between cities but hits pockets of bumpy air. One recent example: I have a listing that moved to an accepted offer at a pleasing price very quickly, but then of course both sides couldn't get the contract battened down with any speed.

Still, to a rookie, a down market isn't all bad news. For one thing, when you're building a career, you don't suffer a business slump. Loss of income? Me? Well, I'm just getting started, so there's no high plateau to fall from.  more...

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