BlogWA With Realtor Greg

O-Condo, Oh Yes!

realtorgreg — Sat, 29 May 2010 20:54:55 +0000

Search for Condos & Townhomes on O-Condo.com

Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah & the rest of the eastside has a site specifically for the condo and townhomes buyers and sellers.

O-Condo.com is a Condo & Townhouse specific site created for buyers and sellers in and around the Bellevue area. You can search condos and Townhomes for sale and/or get the market value of a condo or Townhouse.

There is also a quick condo/Townhouse search page set up for those looking for condos in a specific area and price range.

Check it out. It’s pretty cool!

Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah & the rest of the eastside has a site specifically for the condo and townhomes buyers and sellers.

Orbitz.com blew it and it cost me $400. Orbitz took care of me..

realtorgreg — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:05:13 +0000

Update..Update..Update Feb 20th 2010

The power of social media/networking really works. How did I get the people at Orbitz to contact me to take care of my issue??

As you will see in the post below calling customer service didn’t work for me. There are a few online social networking communities that I use regularly Facebook, Twitter & my blogs. I decided to use those to get my word out. Facebook & my blog worked fine to get the word out but Twitter did the trick. I blasted about 16 tweets about my experience Orbitz. Every tweet had the key words Orbitz.com in it. Orbitz has a Twitter application that sends them notifications when their name is in a tweet. There are a few designated people who read these tweets and if they need to be addressed they will find a way to get a hold of you. In my case they sent me a direct message via Twitter. A lady there wanted me to contact her directly so I did. She heard my issue and she agreed enough to take care of me. She offered me a $400 voucher to cover the difference in the ticket prices. I am now satisfied and will most likely do biz w/Orbitz again. Twitter is not just a place to micro blog about your life 140 characters at a time. It’s the BEST search engine for the ABSOLUTE latest news, coupons/deals etc and, obviously, a place to get your issues resolved.

Happy again w/Orbitz

================================================================================

: Angry at Orbitz.com

Dec 22nd my biz partner tried ordering 2 flight tickets online with Orbitz.com. He had some issues so he called customer service. After spending over and hour on the phone the rep gave him a confirmation number and told him there would be an email confirmation coming w/in 24 hrs. An hour later he got the email and did what many people do, he filed it away w/out reading it. Feb 8th he wanted to check our itinerary so he opened the email and noticed it said the order was canceled. The subject line didn’t mention anything about “canceled order”. It did say “action required” but it was the last thing in a long subject line that was too long to fit in the subject quick view.

We both got online, right away, to look at other flights and noticed the cheapest flight was now almost double the price we thought we locked. This being unacceptable to us I got on the horn w/an Orbitz service rep. The first call dropped and no call back. On the second call I spoke w/a friendly agent. I told her my problem mentioning that there should have been a call made to us way back when the order was cancelled to let us know we needed to find another flight. In my opinion when dealing with limited flights and constantly changing prices an email is not a good way to let a customer know an order was cancelled.

I told the service rep I expected to get a flight close to the times we thought we had booked and for the same price. I had to escalate to a manager because the CSR didn’t have the power to satisfy us. It ended up that the manager didn’t have the power or was unwilling to take responsibility and pony up $400 for their lack of service. She offered a $50 voucher but that was not acceptable. She said that’s all she could do.

I am still very unsatisfied with Orbitz and will not do future biz w/them and I have made it my mission to spread the word. Be careful readers. Everything is fine until you have a problem. Good companies are able to build lifelong loyalties by taking responsibility for their weaknesses/mistakes. Orbitz had their opportunity but blew right over it.

Home Buyers Tax Credit. Current Home Owners Now Can Get A Piece Of The Stimulus Pie

realtorgreg — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:21:38 +0000

First time home buyers are not the only ones getting a piece of the stimulus pie. Now current home owners who want to buy can qualify for the a tax credit.

Christmas came early for the first time home buyers who just missed the deadline of November 30th to qualify for the $8000 tax credit. Christmas also came early for home owners who want to take advantage of the low interest rates and amazing deals on real estate. They now can qualify for a tax credit of their own, up to $6500. You want more details? Check the vid below.

FAQ regarding the tax credits

Do you want to take advantage of the tax credit? Well you don’t have a whole lot of time. Start your home search here.

Search homes for sale in Bellevue, WA and around the Eastside

Snohomish County Wasting Money. This is NUTS.

realtorgreg — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 06:35:00 +0000

I am spending the weekend east of the mountains just outside of Yakima with family. I was told that builders from Snohomish County have been hauling their waste here to a dump. Why would they drive 3 hours to do this? Well, the cost to dump it here is about 1/10 of the cost of dumping in Snohomish County. It is cheaper for companies to pay for a driver, gas, & wear and tear on the truck than it is to dump it at the local dump in Snoho. This is America where we have the freedom to shop around and find the best deal.
I know what you are thinking. Greg, what does this have to do with Snohomish County wasting money? Well, Snoho Co Deputies have been following these trucks from west of the mountains to this small little town outside of Yakima. Why? Because they do not like to see that money leave their county. They have even followed them into the dump site and harassed the drivers and workers at the site. The site owners & workers have told the deputy officers that they do not have jurisdiction over here and to get off their property. I was told, in one incidence the Police officer said they do have jurisdiction here, but the worker, a former police officer, said NO, only if there is a crime in progress.

One the workers from the dump site told me that they asked a truck driver hauling a load from Snohomish County where the deputy was. The driver said that they had a decoy truck leave before their other trucks and when the Snoho Co officer followed the decoy truck the other trucks pulled out and convoyed to the eastside.

OK, long story short, this seems to me, to be a HUGE waste of money and valuable resources. Maybe the Snoho Co PoPo should focus on crimes and other community services and let the biz’s dump where they want to dump as long as it is legal

No Mo Snoho Co Po Po in Yakimo

Congrats to Bellingham’s Pizza’zza, National Geographic says “the towns best pizza”

realtorgreg — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:58:09 +0000

Bellingham's Pizza'zza "The towns best pizza" says National Geographic

National Geographic came to Bellingham to do a story on the northern WA town. They called Pizza’zza “The towns best pizza“. Pizza’zza and GregRBenson.com use the same marketing company CreateAMemory.net.

Way to go Pizza’zza!!!

Follow Pizza’zza on Twitter to get web specials and read the latest.

How to get your home sold fast and for the most amount of money..

realtorgreg — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 23:18:56 +0000

Sellers…. If you have to sell, you have to sell. Here is what needs to be done to get your home sold for the most money and the least amount of time. You have to get buyers to fall in love with one of two things if not both. First, they need to LOVE the price. You have to make them think they are going to lose a smokin’ deal, or you have to get them to fall in love with your home. There has to be something absolutely amazing about your house. Something very desirable and hard to find. Here is an example. Remodel your kitchen and baths. I am not talking about getting stock materials from the home super stores. Get the good stuff. If you don’t have an eye for design or know what most people desire, contact a good designer & contractor. Chances are they are offering great prices now.

If you go the remodel rout and put $30K to $50K into your home you will have more buyers see your home because you have something special. The more buyers you have visiting your house the better the chance of a sale at a higher price.

OK, let’s check out the other option. Your home is clean and well maintained but hasn’t been updated since the late 90’s or earlier. I believe you can still get your home sold quickly but you will have to attract the buyers with something else. Obviously, your average house is not going to attract many buyers. There are a boat load of average homes on the market. What will separate yours from the rest?? This answer is not an easy pill to swallow. You will have to give your house an incredible price. Take a look at the market (consult a real estate pro if you can’t find this info online) figure out what the “market value” is and beat it by 10% to 15%. If you think your home is valued at $499K ask $425K to $450K. If you think about it, just about every retailer is dropping prices. They are not messing around with piddly price drops of 10%-15%. They are taking 25% to 75% off. They have to to compete and get their product sold. If you aren’t buying what I am saying, put a buyers hat on and lets go on a home search. We find 40 homes that fit your search criteria. After looking at the price and the pictures you weed out 35. All of those homes you weeded out were average homes with average prices, homes you didn’t like the style or simply over priced homes. Do you want one of those 35 to be your house?

Get your homes market value. Search homes for sale. Search luxury homes for sale. Urban condo projects.

I will leave it at that for now. Thanks for visiting BlogWa With Realtor Greg. Please let me know what you think!

Luxuria. Luxury Homes & Real Estate in and around Bellevue WA

realtorgreg — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:57:25 +0000

There are some new geo-specific luxury real estate websites created specifically for luxury real estate on the East Side of Lake Washington. The cities these sites cover are Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond. The folks at Luxuria also created micro-geo-specific sites for more specific areas. These areas are Clyde Hill, Medina, Hunts Point, Yarrow Point and Mercer Island and each have a median price over $1,000,000.

These new sites are in the early stages but can still help with your Luxury home purchase and sale. Search for homes in these specific areas or all over Western Washington.

Why should a Luxury home buyer or seller have a specialist working for them? Well, there are many reasons. For buyers you need to have somebody with a proven track record for successful negotiation. Agents who specialize in luxury homes are usually very good negotiators. They understand the market & the comparable homes. By knowing this and asking strategic questions they understand who has the negotiating power and how to use that power to get their buyers or sellers the best deal. Even if a person would think they didn’t have the negotiating power they have the skills and experience to get creative and are still successful.

Why should a seller have a luxury homes specialist list their home? Luxury home specialists KNOW luxury homes. They know how to price them correctly. They know what needs to be done to get a home ready to sell and what will return the most money to the seller. Luxury home specialists are also experts at marketing these homes. They use their network of other luxury homes specialists to find buyers. They strategically post these homes to special sites that luxury buyers visit to go along with the other more traditional real estate sites. These homes need national exposure.

Picking the right luxury home specialist is vital to the sell of your luxury home or condo. The specialist at Luxuria are those people.

Contact Luxuria Real Estate

Click to have Luxury Home/Real Estate listings sent to you

Click here to visit Luxuria Real Estate for Bellevue, Kirkland & Redmond

Should I sell my home now in Seattle/Bellevue? Jan 2010

realtorgreg — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 21:40:00 +0000

Is it a good time to sell now? This is a follow-up posting to my January ’08 post. The following still applies today

Well if you are a regular reader of my blog you probably saw the posting “Should I sell my home now?” back in January of ’08. Well, the market has changed since then. The good news is this makes it a great time to sell for certain sellers. Home values in most of Western WA have dropped since the beginning of the year. In some areas the drop has hit the double digit percentage. How could it be good to sell when your home may be worth $50,000 less then last year?

Here’s how…

For move up sellers. Seller who plan to move up to a more valuable home.

Last year your homes market value was around $500,000. For the ease of calculation I will use 10% in this example. This year your homes market value dropped by 10% ($50,000) and now is valued at $450,000 . Your plan is to buy a $900,000 home. The home you choose also had a drop of 10%. That $900,000 home last year had a market value of $1 million a difference of $100,000. You would actually save $50,000 by buying up.

How did I get that #? $100,000 (the drop in value for the home valued at $1 million last year) - $50,000 (the drop in value for the home valued at $500k last year) = $50,000 savings.

Who shouldn’t sell now?

Sellers who are freaked out by the market and have no plans to “buy up”, should NOT sell. Think of.. buy low, sell high.

Don’t forget, in order to sell your house the price has to be better than all of the comparable homes. If it’s not, expect the potential buyers to move on to the better priced home. Inventory is up. Buyers know this and will move on to the next house if the price isn’t right.

For more info about your homes market value & selling your home please contact me @ 206-465-7257.

To search for homes/real estate in the Seattle & Bellevue areas click here.

Visit www.GregRBenson.com for more info about buying and selling a home or condo

About Me

realtorgreg — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:51:05 +0000

After spending 12 years in the sales, support and service field, I made an exciting career change to be a Realtor. The last six of those 12 years I was a corporate trainer. I trained customer service, retail, and I.T. support. Now I am helping people with what I became fascinated with many years ago when my wife and I purchased our first home, buying and selling homes.

What I have done and how I did it. I have been in the business since early 2005 and in my first full year I was in the top 20% of the nation in commisions and in the top 10% in my 2nd, and the top agent in my office of 110 agents. I think I have been able to acheive these numbers by living my life with honesty and integrity long before I got in the real estate business. A mjority of my business has come from my friends and family and they knew they could trust me with the sale or purchase of their home. I also have worked very hard to get my websites up on search engines and since mid 2007 about 50% of my business has come from my websites. I use that same honesty and integrity when working with internet clients. I was nominated to be part agent leadership council for my office and I am also a trainer and personal mentor for new agents to our office.

I grew up on the Peninsula and moved to the Seattle area in 1992. My wife and I were married in 1998 and have lived on the Eastside since then. We purchased our home in what turned out to be a very close knit neighborhood. We have regular neighbor nights, we help coordinate an annual 4th of July block party, and host an annual Halloween haunted house in our yard and garage. I look forward to helping my clients find this sense of community in a neighborhood whether it be a starter home or a dream home.

In my free time I enjoy playing softball, working in my yard, entertaining friends and family, and going to estate sales.

It is my goal as your full service realtor/real estate consultant, specializing in the Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah, Woodinville and Bothell areas, to provide you with superior service at all times. My local expertise and extensive real estate experience will benefit you whether you are serious about buying or selling a home at this time, or are a returning client checking out the many homeowner resources I offer.

Selling link goes to a testimonials or blog

Buying a home? I look forward to helping you select the home of your dreams by taking time to listen to your needs and desires.

Selling a home? My real estate expertise and many effective marketing programs will give you the exposure and edge you need to sell your home quickly for top dollar.

Returning Client? I appreciate the opportunity to continue to serve you and hope you take advantage of the valuable resources I provide. Come back to visit often!

I consider these communities excellent places to reside and would love to share with you my enthusiasm for the many neighborhoods that encompass it. I pride myself on providing unparalleled service and look forward to developing a long-term relationship with you. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss how I can best assist you with your real estate needs.

Sincerely,

Greg Benson

Testimonials for Realtor Greg

realtorgreg — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:36:12 +0000

Thanks for visiting my testimonial page. Below are just a few of the happy clients I have helped to get into a home or condo.

P & J Smith- “Thanks you so much for all of your support, work and advice!We appreciated your help so much. Your time spent on us was invaluable! Thank you!”

R & S Drake- “We will continue to recommend you highly in the future.”

Susan Smith Keller Williams Real Estate agent in Colorado regarding her referral to me- Betty is so thrilled with your performance and her new home! I really appreciate the good care you took with her and now you are my ‘send to’ guy for anyone else I run into headed your way.

Thanks again,

Susan

Steven & Jennifer Bandy- We feel like you took the time to find out what our needs were and showed us appropriate properties. I don’t think we could have ask for more from any agent. It was fun working with you and getting to know you.