Realty World Northern California & Nevada

A lot has been stated about the Apple iPhone 4. For all of you non-AT&T users or Apple haters there has been some very exciting news in the Verizon and Droid world. For those of you who haven’t heard on the news or who don’t watch tv commercials, the Motorola Droid is a smartphone which runs Google’s Android operating system. The brand name “Droid” is a trademark of Lucasfilm and is licensed to Verizon Wireless and originally was released back in November of 2009. Various other devices are running the Android operating system and labeled as “Droid” phones.

Enough about the history lesson and onto the Motorola Droid X. Jump to July 16, 2010. The successor to the original Motorola Droid went on sale and completely sold out, despite Verizon’s reassurance that there would be more than enough phones to go around. Verizon’s website shows a ship date by August 3rd.

Similar to the iPhone 4 launch, the Motorola Droid X is having its share of defects and complaints. The defects include some units have flickering or banding displays as well as a Wi-Fi bug where we connection signals are being reported. The numbers of issues for the screen defect and affected users are small and replacements are being issued currently.

The Motorola Droid X has an impressive feature list and understandably contributed to its success on launch day.

Features

• 8 Megapixel camera with dual LED flash
• 720p HD video camera
• 4.3-inch screen in 16:9 ratio
• Wi-Fi & Bluetooth
• 8GB internal storage with 16GB microSD preinstalled expandable to 32GB
• Push email support for Gmail & Exchange & Yahoo
• Unified Google Calendar and Exchange Calendar
• Unified inbox
• 480 minutes usage time
• 220 hours of standby time

I will add in one thing that I don’t think many people are aware of. Verizon’s network currently doesn’t support simultaneous voice and data. What that means is that if someone calls you and says “take a look at the email I just sent you.” Unfortunately, unlike AT&T you will need to get off the phone to do so. The same goes for pulling up a web browser and being on the phone. There are times when I may be on a phone call and I need to Google a phone number or an address and being on AT&T’s network definitely comes in handy.

Repossessions climbed 38 percent in the first six months of 2010 compared 2009 and were up 5 percent from the first quarter, foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac announced Thursday.

In all, lenders repossessed nearly 528,000 homes in the first six months of the year. If that rate continues through the end of the year, repossessions will likely top 1 million in 2010, up 100,000 from 2009.

Historically, about 100,000 homes per year in total are repossessed, according to Rick Sharga, senior vice president for RealtyTrac.

More than 7.3 million home loans are in the foreclosure process, with one in 78 U.S. homes receiving a foreclosure warning in June.

On average, it takes home owners 15 months to actually lose their property after they receive the initial warning, reports Lender Processing Services Inc.

Source: Associated Press, Alex Veiga (07/15/2010)

Purveyors of goods and services who are at the top of their marketing game rarely use their mouth to draw a prospects attention and then pitch in the prayer of a sale. Rather they use their ears to learn what a potential customer needs and then present a solution that is cost effective and worthwhile.

I mention this because recently I had the privilege of meeting two of our newest members to the Realty World Northern California Family, Robert (Bob) Fernandez and Francisco Gonzalez, co-owners of Realty World – Golden Hills in San Jose, California, formerly Century 21 – Golden Hills. Both are long time veterans of real estate in the South Bay and both knew immediately what their business needed in order to compete in times of rapid change. Bob and Francisco are keenly mindful of the activities it takes to run and profit from operating a real estate brokerage firm with over fifty sales associates and a long book of business.

Since joining Realty World, our meetings have focused on the consolidation of tasks that real estate agents need to do in order to compete and win in the eyes of consumers. Bob and Francisco knew these activities were important and a prerequisite for any successful associate continuing in or just launching their real estate career. Their validation of what we are doing at Realty World was a positive sign to me that we had invested right in terms of bringing the business to the agent.
However, there is more to it than that. If you have attended any of the presentations we have conducted at various industry functions this year; you’ll know that the game of finding real estate and a knowledgeable professional to help is changing. Change is the one constant denominator of all markets.

I expect Realty World – Golden Hills to be one of the companies that will be on top of that game too. It’s my pleasure to introduce them to you and I hope you’ll take a minute to welcome them aboard! Bob and Francisco can be reached by phone at 408-238-5111.