It’s no surprise we got this home in the Jack Britt School District under contract in only 5 days! It’s an affordable home, in excellent condition, in one of the most popular school districts in the county. This home is an excellent choice for anyone looking to buy or invest in a home in Jack Britt.

Still, it did go under contract much faster than one would expect.  The homes in this neighborhood that sold in the last year were on the market for an average of 203 days, and they were similarly sized homes.

The difference for this home was that the sellers made sure it was at the front of the market in price and condition, and let the popularity of the location work for them.

Selling Your Home Usually Comes Down to 3 Things – Price, Condition and Location.

The sellers of this home called me to list their home just a week or 2 (talk about pressure!) before they were due to move out of the area. They are a military family and had orders and had to do something with their home. They did not want to carry a mortgage payment any longer than necessary, as they would be facing a pretty steep mortgage in the area to which they were relocating. They knew they wanted to sell or rent the home in as short a time frame as they could. So, we talked about the effect of location, price, and condition on selling a home and they did what was necessary to get their home sold.

Price – Where do You Want to be in the Range?

What's the best price?

First, these sellers priced their home to be attractive to someone looking to buy in the Jack Britt School District.  Their home is very affordable for many buyers, and it would be an ideal starter home for someone, it would also be a good home for anyone downsizing, and it would be a good investment property for someone looking to invest with an eye to the school district. In this case, we targeted a younger audience, a single or married couple with children in the home who would be most concerned about the school district their children were in.  My sellers set their price accordingly, not giving money away or leaving it on the table, but not pricing it at the high end of the range, either.

Condition – Buyers are Looking for a Reason NOT to Buy the Home

Then they worked like crazy in their last few days here to get the home in top condition to attract a buyer–fresh paint, new carpet, no damage, and everything in good working order. We brought in our team to make sure the house was clean and sparkled and staged to help highlight the features of the home and give potential buyers a feel for what the home would be like to live in. Simple touches–a sense of perspective. Finally, we brought in our lawn team to get the yard cut, bushes trimmed and keep the exterior attractive.

The #1 Rule of Real Estate – Location, Location, Location

And then, we marketed the home to highlight the location–Jack Britt, Jack Britt, Jack Britt. We made sure the school district was on all our advertising, in the MLS, and in all the syndicated sites we list homes on. There is little anyone can do about location–your home is where it is–but there is ALWAYS something you can do to highlight it if it’s a desirable location, or mitigate it if it’s not. In this case, this home is in one of the most desired school districts, in a quiet neighborhood not too distant from post or shopping, and on a corner lot on a cul-de-sac. We had location in the bank!

Here’s a video tour of the home to show you what I mean:

So, we got an offer in 4 days, and we had another buyer considering an offer, also. The negotiations were simple and now we’ll do all the hard work to get the home closed, inspections, repairs, etc. God willing, my sellers will have sold their home in a short time and the buyers will have a great home that meets their needs.

These are the ones that make me remember why I love being a Realtor®!

Front View

3 Bedroom Home for Sale Close to Fort Bragg

This is the newest home I have listed for sale in Fayetteville, NC.

It is a very well maintained 3 bedroom/2.5 bath home on a pretty lot. Located in The Lakes, a quiet neighborhood off Morganton Road, this home is only minutes to the mall area, restaurants and is very convenient to Fort Bragg. Its central location makes it close to many popular areas of town.

Here is a Google map of the location:

Built in 1983, this well-constructed frame home also has many updates, including vinyl-clad windows, updated kitchen and bathrooms, a new roof in 2006, new Lennox heat pump with air purification system in 2008 and new exterior paint in 2009.

Enjoy this video tour of the home:

The front of the home is very pretty, especially when the dogwoods and azaleas are blooming!

Enter this two-story home and find a foyer that is roomy, with a tile floor and a half-bath. The family room is to the right and is very large with carpet, propane gas fireplace and access to the outside covered patio. The atrium door was new in April 2008.

Kitchen

The kitchen was remodeled in December 2004, including a wood floor, countertops, sink and faucets. In January of 2005, a new Jenn-Aire range was added with interchangeable cooktop cartridges that include a griddle, grill, and radiant glass cooktop. The kitchen also has a large eat-in area with a huge picture window overlooking the backyard.

The downstairs also features a formal dining room with a very pretty bay window, wood floor, chair rail and crown molding.

Upstairs are 3 bedrooms, and they are all carpeted. The master bedroom is on the front of the house with 2 windows and a large space. It includes a full bath with double vanity, separate water closet with toilet, jetted tub and shower, and a walk-in closet. The second bedroom is very large, has a pretty bay window and is on the front side of the house also. Bedroom 3 is large, with ample closet space. A full bath services the 2 bedrooms.

At the rear of the home is a covered patio. It is large enough for entertaining and offers great protection from the sun and the rain. The backyard is fully enclosed in privacy fence. The fence is very well maintained. As a gift to the buyer, the home also has a large detached building that has a single garage and plenty of storage area.

This home has so many great features and is ideally located. It would be an excellent choice for anyone who wants an updated, pretty home in a very quiet neighborhood, close to all major venues in Fayetteville and close to Fort Bragg for an easy commute.

Visit the photo gallery to see more photos. Call or text Julissa at (910) 644-0303 to schedule a showing or for more information.

Christmas is Wonderful!

One of the best parts of helping people buy and sell houses in Fayetteville, NC is that I have made so many new friends as a result of my business!

I’ll confess that by nature, I’m a pretty shy person. That creates a problem because I’m also very social–I love to be with my friends. Being a real estate agent in Fayetteville has gone a long way towards helping me solve my problem. I’ve made so many new friends and I’m thankful for each one!

Christmas is such a great opportunity to spend time and connect with the people in our lives. I love the get-togethers, phone calls, or even emails and Facebook messages from all my family and friends, as we catch up with each other and pray for God’s favor over the next year. And, I really enjoy getting Christmas cards and putting them all around my house during the holidays! They end up everywhere–on the fireplace mantle, on the secretary, on the island, etc–and they become part of my decorations. I’m sure it’s the same with you.

But, I love to send out beautiful Christmas cards, too. In the past, I’ve usually ordered my cards from Joni Eareckson Tada; I love her work, her ministry and her messages.

This year, though, I had the opportunity to order some handmade cards to send to my friends, and at the same time, re-connect with someone from earlier in my life. The story is pretty simple, but it’s one that I view as a real blessing in my life in the past year.

Tweet the Mistletoe!

I friended Cazzie on Facebook some time over the last year or two. We’d known each other during our college days, but not had any contact since then (quite a few years ago!) On Facebook, we had routine contact, the kind you would expect from acquaintances who hadn’t been involved in each others’ lives in the last 15 years or so. But at some point, Cazzie posted that she had developed a real interest in scrapbooking and graphic art work. At about the same time, I had helped a couple of my clients sell their homes in Fayetteville, homes they were pretty attached to after having lived in them for so many years.

I thought that giving my clients scrapbooks of their homes would be a great idea; scrapbooks would help them keep the many memories of their homes and their time in Fayetteville as lasting ones. So, I asked Cazzie  if she could do them, and she did.

They were beautiful! My clients were so pleased with them, and I was very impressed at how creative and artistic Cazzie was. I thought these were some of the best gifts I could ever have given.

Well, sometime after that, I asked Cazzie if she could make Christmas cards for me–I love the thought of handmade cards and thought they were a way to show my friends they are special to me. She said “yes” and then she created some of the most beautiful cards I could have hoped for!

Christmas Lasts All Year

It truly is amazing! Each one of these cards is different–no two are alike–and she made 225 of them for me! They are gorgeous, and when I opened the box and sat down on the living room floor to address them, it took me two evenings to get it done! I was so impressed I had to stop and look at each one, read it, and check out the colors, the ribbons and the little trinkets she put on each of them. It’s funny, as I was addressing them, I thought to myself, “I wish I could send this one to me!”

I really am happy that my friends and clients are getting a special card this year. I hope they are as impressed with them as I am, and that the cards get put all around my friends’ houses and become part of the decorations. And, I’m so happy I got to establish a friendship this year with Cazzie.

Here’s a slideshow of some of the cards, if you’d like to check out her work. By the way, if you haven’t gotten one from me, it’s probably because I don’t have an address for you, so just shoot me an email and I’d love to add you to my Christmas card list!

Merry Christmas, and enjoy the cards!

Cookies with Santa

On December 4th, The Julissa Jumper Real Estate Team hosted our first annual “Cookies with Santa” event for all of our clients and friends and their children.

We had a great time!

The day started with set up and decorating, and at about 12:00, Santa arrived. The children started coming shortly after, and Santa took pictures with each child, gave them a small gift and then the children got to play with their toys, color and share cookies, hot chocolate and spiced cider.

They were all very excited, but as you might expect, quite a few of them became suddenly “shy” when it came time to climb onto the Big Guy’s lap. Still, Santa knows how to deal with children, and he had them all relaxed and smiling for their photos in no time. He did a great job! But, some of the children tested his ability to think fast. The two hardest questions: “I didn’t see it in the parking lot, where did you park your sleigh?” and “You’re supposed to be at the parade at 3:00, how can you be there if you’re here?” Turns out the sleigh was up on the roof of the 4 story building, that’s why you couldn’t see it, and yes, Santa had plenty of time to fly in his sleigh from this event to the parade.

We plan to make this an annual event, and are already looking forward to next year! But, we aren’t going to wait that long to do more–we are planning a “Spring Fling” around Easter time, an ice cream social in the summer, and a hayride for the fall!

We’ll get your invitations early enough for all to plan ahead! Mark your calendars and please plan to join us. We have discovered a great way to spend time with clients, friends and their families, and are excited about what the New Year will bring.

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year!

Click on any photo below to see a slide show from this year’s “Cookies with Santa” event. Enjoy!

I’m sure he knows the deal. He knows how I cringe and literally have to leave the room when I hear or see myself on video. Very strange for someone who in my very much younger years not only did not mind but enjoyed walking down a runway in a bikini knowing the audience’s eyes were focused on me.

Well, I’m much more “mature” now and not as confident as I once was.

However, all I have read and seen clearly and unequivocally points to video being what I need to be doing. I am considered a personable person by most people who know and interact with me and I guess that can come across a lot clearer on video than through a written message.

Video is more illustrative than any written marketing message, no matter how expertly wordsmithed.

Google indexes video resulting in “google juice” which is a GOOD thing! And wouldn’t it be even greater if I combined the SEO power of AR WITH the power of video by embedding video in my posts???

I know all this! Well, then why can’t I just get out of my own way and do it!

Well, I did. I spent an hour yesterday working to produce an under one minute video for the registration page on my website. I shot it over 30 times! I just can’t perform in front of the camera. I finally got the wording right and decided to go with it. I didn’t even review it. I just handed it to my husband.

I am going to give the consumer what they want! I am going to do more videos.  I remember when my sisters used to complain about having to eat something on their dinner plate that they didn’t want to eat my father used to tell them, “Eat it this time and I promise, if it kills you I’ll never make you eat it again.”

So I’m going to do video and if it kills me, I’ll just stop doing them!

Posted via email from JuliGrace

Last night, when I was checking my email, I found this from a internet viewer who saw this Featured Home™ on REALTOR.com®:

Email Snip

Now, we all like to get confirmation that we’re doing a good job now and then, especially from someone who has no real reason to comment except that they are impressed.

But, in light of the fact that I’ve recently upgraded my photography and video capabilities, using better equipment and applying some of the techniques I’ve read about on Active Rain and other real estate websites that discuss how to photograph a home for the greatest impact, this comment carries weight with me, confirming that the extra effort we put into marketing a home really does make a difference with the viewing public. More importantly, it really DOES separate our listings from the others!

No amount of photography or write-up can convince a buyer to consider a home that is not well-maintained and is over-priced.

A home that is marketed effectively, on the other hand, is just what is needed to attract buyers to consider a home in today’s market, one where the competition among homes is steep.

Posted via email from JuliGrace

]]> http://julissajumper.com/2010/07/24/when-all-is-said-and-done-selling-homes-is-still-about-relationships/feed/ 0 http://julissajumper.com/2010/07/17/getting-my-listings-to-the-top-of-google-the-long-tail-and-keyword-consistency/ http://julissajumper.com/2010/07/17/getting-my-listings-to-the-top-of-google-the-long-tail-and-keyword-consistency/#comments Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:09:35 +0000 jumperdj http://julissajumper.com/?p=1220 Who was it that first said, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”? Alexander Pope, I think, although others have borrowed it quite a bit.

Nevertheless, it’s very true, in my case

For a long time, I have been marketing all of the homes I have for sale in Fayetteville, NC on the internet, in a variety of different places–the MLS, Realtor.com, KW.com, my blog, Viddler, etc. Each time I would add a new home for sale, I would try to write a description of the home that would appeal to buyers, and would highlight some of the better features of the home. I was very good at making a home sound appealing!

Makes sense, right? Still, in those days, I did not have a well-proven method for getting my listings to rank favorably in Google. All of the homes I had for sale in Fayetteville were pretty much categorized as “Fayetteville NC Real Estate” or “Homes for Sale in Fayetteville NC.” So, despite the great descriptions, the homes I had for sale didn’t always rise to the top of Google. The keyword “Fayetteville NC Real Estate” usually returned a bunch of mega-real estate portals, real estate company sites or newspaper websites on Google. Very generic results for a very generic search term.

Active Rain Real Estate Network

Then I attended an Active Rain Rain Camp session (in Washington, DC) and learned how to do better.  While it is true that a large number of internet searchers will type “Fayetteville NC real estate” (or any other generic search term, depending on the topic) into Google, many more will type in a more specific search term, like “3 bedroom home close to Fort Bragg.”  That phenomenon is called “The Long Tail,” and the theory is that about 80% of searchers will type a more specific term while searching.  The welcome benefit to me and my sellers is that those buyers tend to be more serious or further along in the home search process. The internet users who are “just looking”  are the ones who use the more generic (about 20%) search terms.

Since I first learned about “The Long Tail” and how I could choose keywords that people use when they search Google for information, I’ve written all of my marketing descriptions to reach buyers who are looking for more specific features; such as, “3 bedroom home close to Fort Bragg,” or “homes for sale in the Terry Sanford School District,” or “homes for sale in Country Club North” (or other popular neighborhoods) here in Fayetteville, NC. Since I’ve done that, the homes I have for sale always rank at, or near, the top of Google when searching by those more specific keywords.

Ah, but it is important to be consistent with the keywords.

"3 bedroom home close to Fort Bragg"

This morning, I did a search in Google for “3 bedroom homes close to Fort Bragg.” I wanted to see how my latest listing, a gorgeous 3 bedroom home that is close to Fort Bragg,  was performing in the search engines. My results showed that my listing was not on the first page! Although I had other homes for sale close to Fort Bragg that ranked on page 1, this newest listing did not. I had checked only yesterday, and it WAS on page 1, so what gives?

"3 br home close to Fort Bragg"

Keyword consistency is what gives. I re-entered my search as “3 br home close to Fort Bragg” and the results showed my latest listing at the top of Google; in fact, 4 out of 10 results were homes I had for sale.

That little change, “3 bedroom” vs “3 br” made all the difference, and I learned a valuable lesson.

Choose your keywords deliberately and then use them consistently. It makes a difference, and it can be quite dramatic.

In this case, I’ve decided that internet searchers are more likely to use the term “3 bedroom home close to Fort Bragg” instead of the abbreviation “3 br” and so I’ve corrected my posts and descriptions to match the keyword.

It seems that such a little thing shouldn’t make such a big difference, but it does.

And the lesson was amplified to me when I entered “3 bedroom homeS close to Fort Bragg” and got a totally different result!

But that’s a post for another day!

Front View

This very clean and well maintained home is in Middle Creek subdivision. Here is a Google Map of the location. Middle Creek is an established neighborhood of single family homes and it is only a few minutes drive to post or to the mall. It is a very green subdivision; lots of trees and yards. Additionally, for anyone who has school-aged children, the elementary school is located right in the neighborhood.

Here is a video tour of the home:

» Powered by XHTML Video Embed

This home is very well cared for by the owners and they have done significant upgrades in the last few years. New heat and a/c unit in 2005; new roof, new windows, new water heater, kitchen re-model and new carpets in 2006; tile installed and bathroom remodeled in 2008; and master bath remodeled in 2010. The dishwasher, refrigerator and stove with microwave have all been replaced within the last 4 years.

Greatroom

The home features a very open floor plan. Enter into the foyer which opens into the greatroom. It is a very large room, fully tiled, with a fireplace and doors to the backyard. It is also open to the dining area and the kitchen–a huge gathering place for friends and family. In addition to the newer appliances, the kitchen also has a very large pantry, ample cabinet space for storage and is very clean.

The master bedroom is large enough for a king-sized bed and furniture. It has a bath with two vanities, huge shower, his-and-hers walk-in closets and plenty of storage for linens.The other two bedrooms are full sized with plenty of closet space. They share the second bath which is located between the two on the opposing wall. It is a full bath, including tub with shower.

This great home also has a two-car garage and the backyard is fenced.

To see more photos of the home, visit the photo gallery. Click here to see this Featured Home™ on Realtor.com®.