The San Diego Condo Loft

What are your plans for Thanksgiving San Diego? Are you going to a relatives, staying home, going out to dinner, eating a Big Bird? Well, whatever plans you have in store for Thanksgiving Day 2008, we hope you have a great one.

Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks for things we are grateful for and one thing CondoDomain San Diego is grateful for is the wonderful year that we have had and the fantastically anticipated future we have since we launched in San Diego a few months ago.

Whether you simply enjoy visiting our San Diego condo blog or enjoy looking at the new San Diego condo developments on our website, we hope that you have learned Who We are and What we DO.

Who we ARE

What we DO

If you want more, contact us immediately or meet your San Diego condo team

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and get ready for a fun-filled, jam-packed holiday season! We can’t wait to spend it with you San Diego!

According to MDA DataQuick and pointed out by Emily Friedlander at the WSJ Developments Blog, home sales are up 66.7% in Southern California:

Drop prices low enough and the buyers will come. Home sales in Southern California rose again last month, according to a report released today by San Diego-based MDA DataQuick. The real estate information service reported that in October 21,532 houses and condos closed escrow in six counties in California Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernadino, San Diego and Ventura. This was up 5% from September and 66.7% from last year. More than half of all sales were on homes that were foreclosed on at some point in the previous 12 months. Typically real estate sales slow down from September to October. At $300,000 the median home price in the six-county region was at its lowest since April 2003. Readers, do you think rising unemployment and declining consumer confidence will impact SoCal home sales next month, or will we continue to see buyers jumping into the market?

So if you’re in the market, check out the condo developments in San Diego through CondoDomain.com and save yourself THOUSANDS!

What’s up San Diego! We are new to your city and couldn’t be more thrilled. I know you’ve probably heard way too many Anchorman jokes since the movies release, but sorry, I just cannot help myself. I love Will Ferrell even though his odd interpretation of the meaning of “San Diego” was far from correct. Well, we can blame that one on Ron Burgundy I suppose.

Since we are new to San Diego and just learning our way, I thought I might introduce the CondoDomain San Diego team to you. Have you heard about what we do?

We are an exclusive buyers’ brokerage, meaning, we work strictly with YOU, the buyer. We work to help you search various San Diego condos, personally tour San Diego condos and lofts (whatever you like), and not to mention help you save thousands on your new San Diego condo! Learn how here.

Sound too good to be true? I promise you it’s not. We are changing the way of real estate because we believe that real estate agents should not be compensated for the amount of money you as the buyer spend, but for helping and assisting you find your new home. Here at CondoDomain San Diego we operate on a flat fee business model, only taking a flat fee from the commission and giving YOU the remainder. 

Here’s how it works. 

Working with a buyers agent is of no cost to you, yet we give you money back at closing! So if you’re on the search for a new San Diego condo contact us today and meet with our CondoDomain San Diego City Vice President, Cleve Shirley. He is a San Diego native, has been a San Diego real estate agent for many years, and is ready, willing, and able to help you find your place in an awesome San Diego condo.

Want to search more San Diego condos? Click Here

Get to know CondoDomain and drop us a line!

Before you go and make a silly purchase like sex panther or play the jazz flute (soft j) browse our site and check out some San Diego condos!

I love scotch. Scotchy, scotch, scotch. Here it goes down, down into my belly… 

Not gonna lie…More Anchorman quotes to come, it’s just way too much fun

*** We are putting this out on our entire network all our blogs hoping for some great feedback ***

I had a great call last night with longtime friend and peer Joe Ferrara - and as always, he got my wheels turning.

I am putting this out on the wire (blog-o-sphere) and hope for any and all ideas & suggestions on proven marketing & PR advice for our new message.

Lets put all the the B.S. aside, all the disgruntled comments from the traditional real estate folks and lets just talk basics.

At CondoDomain.com we have a pretty unbelievable story to tell. No we are not curing cancer or saving the planet (I wish I was…but unfortunately I am smack-dab in the middle of the real estate world right now), but the point being is that we are offering a surreal “Too good to be true” kind of product & service.

The Basics:

1. CondoDomain is a real estate broker, just like RE/MAX, Century 21, Coldwell Banker or any other real estate brand out there. We all claim to be better than one another or have more market share, etc, but bottom line is that we are no different than then mega-brands. The point here is that any agent that works for one of these firms is just a “person” and that “person” is whom creates the value in the transaction. So no matter if you are working with RE/MAX or CondoDomain - the better agent will create more value for you - and therefore provide a better service and get you a better deal. Agree?

2. Niche: As a firm we specialize in 1 vertical. We ONLY work with buyers and we concentrate on urban living which mainly consists of condominiums. Buying a condominium is different than buying a single family home, that being said, we feel we have an advantage as our ‘agents’ deal with this all day long. Also, ONLY working with BUYERS allows our “agents” to concentrate on solely that. Most traditional real estate agents spend the majority of their time marketing themselves to drum up clients/business. After they get a new client (buyer or a seller) they need to adjust their perspective on how they are going to help them (ie. markets a new listing or help them find a new home). At CondoDomain we just work with buyers, 100% of the time, so all we do is tour properties all week long and see up to 10X more listing than the average “top real agent agent”. I would put this way up on the list as a major advantage for CondoDomain to serve you as a buyers agent, no?

3. Business model: Without drilling into details or boring you with how our internal systems work, our business model ‘affords’ our team members/agent to work with buyers for a set flat fee. When we started this business it did not make sense to us that if we helped a buyer buy a home and they spent more money, we got paid more? Actually, our exact opinion was this is “ass backwards”. As a buyers agent aren’t we supposed to try and help our buyers get the new home or condo for the lowest price possible? Thus, the implementation of the “flat fee”.

Because of how the traditional real estate model is set up & for still operating, we are still compensated a commission based on the percentage of the sales price. So we simple accept the commission at the closing, subtract our fee due to the firm (which is the exact same for every transaction) and then cut the remainder of the commission back to our client. Sound fair?

Summary:

To date we have had VERY FEW thought-out rebuttals to our business model. Most traditionalist classify us as a “discounter” and just write hateful things to us about the model - whatever! Does anyone out there who does not agree with our model have a “thought out” response to a flat fee based buyers agency?

Our goal as a company, beyond the obvious of helping buyers, is NOT to ruin the real estate industry, but rather provide a very sensible and viable option to consumers.

So….

We are operating a company called CondoDomain that provides a dominant web-based information portal that includes more ‘local’ RE data on one site than any other single source. We have local real estate agents whom we believe are some of the very best in the industry for calculated reasons. And…we work with every single one of our clients for the exact same set fee and REFUND them back any remainder of the commission.

My guess is that if we were lucky enough to tell every buyer in our market about our business model, 8 out of 10 people would choose us. So….HOW DO WE TELL OUR AWESOME STORY?

More information visit our website @ www.CondoDomain.com

Look out San Diego…CondoDomain - San Diego is coming your way!  Today was our grand launch into the San Diego condo marketplace and we are just getting started.  If you visit our San Diego Condo website you will see that we have updated all the hottest new condo development and luxury buildings.  This is just the beginning of building the ultimate San Diego Condo website!

Check out some of the hot new developments for sale:

Alta | Aperture | Solara Lofts |Search All New Condos

What else do we got on CondoDomain - San Diego?

Video - We love video! | San Diego Condo Blog

What are we all about?  What makes us different?  Check out below!

How our commmission refund works | CondoDomain vs. Traditional Broker | The Condo Team

What Else?  Well, we are about a week or so away from implementing our MLS data feed.  Once we have that you will have access to every San Diego condo for sale!  From MLS listings, new develompents, lofts, luxury buildings, foreclosures, auctions and even FSBO.  CondoDomain - your source for San Diego Condos !!!

All ready to go?  Interested in buying a San Diego Condo?

My name is Clive and I am here to help you 7 days a week!  Feel free to call me anytime!

PRESS RELEASE:

CondoDomain.com is pleased to announce the launch of their web-based buyers’ brokerage business model in the San Diego, CA and Washington D.C. marketplaces.

The Boston based company is now operating in six cities as they expand into their pre-existing 33 markets as a buyers’ brokerage helping buyers search, tour, buy and save thousands via the company’s commission refund policy.

“We are in a wild market at a wild time right now,” noted Tony Longo, the firm’s founder & CEO. “We are witnessing traditional real estate companies cut back, reduce staff, and in some instances close their doors. Our ability not only to stay alive, but to continue growing is directly connected with our technology-centric business model and our savvy, value-oriented clients whom choose to work with the firm.”

As the appointed City Vice President and natives of their prospective cities, real estate brokers Cleve Shirley of San Diego, CA and Khalil El-Ghoul of Washington, D.C. will now run all of the real estate operations and work with local buyers looking to purchase in San Diego and Washington D.C.

At a time of increased economic concern, CondoDomain.com offers consumers a choice and a way to save money when they need it most. On average, CondoDomain.com clients have received more than $13,000 in commission refunds at closing.

Shirley and El-Ghoul will run the San Diego and DC operations with commitment and passion for their markets and will now strive to become a valuable resource for buyers in this new Internet home buying era.

Search The New Sites: San Diego Condos | DC Condos

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About CondoDomain.com
CondoDomain.com is a web-based real estate brokerage based in Boston, MA. The company is expanding nationwide to offer its buyers’ brokerage business model in more than 30 cities around the U.S. Currently operating in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, San Diego and Washington D.C. CondoDomain offers an innovative flat-fee business model allowing the majority of the commission to be refunded back to the buyer. By combining up-to-date MLS feeds, new construction buildings, FSBO, Foreclosures, Lofts and Auction listings all on one site, CondoDomain has become one of the most popular and user friendly real estate websites available. CondoDomain.com offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee to all of its clients, ensuring a professional, efficient, and pleasant transaction. Visit www.CondoDomain.com for more information or feel free to dive into our blogs at www.CondoDomain.com/Blog.

Press Contact:
Erica Farthing
Director of Social Media
617.849.4993
erica@condodomain.com

Although we do not plan to release the new San Diego Condo platform publicly until tomorrow, for all your bloggers & innovators following us, you can get on the site today! Search San Diego Condos For Sale Today!

We are extremely excited to release the San Diego site. The San Diego condo market has been a market we have been waiting to get into. We have partnered with a really great San Diego broker and can not wait to get cranking.

Another market we released today was the DC Condo market. This now puts us in 6 markets total with our innovative web-based real estate brokerage business model. Now buyers in 6 markets have options to save money when they are looking to buy their new condo or home. Stay tuned for the press release tomorrow.

More Information: How It Works | Real Estate Rebate | Meet The Team

Whoa! What is going on out there in this real estate world this month? Hot off the press today some major movement in the discount real estate brokerage business, & mainstream real estate media verticals.

Redfin - which announced a few weeks ago to layoff a big % of their staff has rolled out another adjustment to their offering plan for buyers and sellers in the 8 markets that they serve. Today they announce: Redfin Upgrades Online Brokerage Service on their very nicely new fresh designed website. Great work guys. Looking sharp!

Zillow - (via the Sellius Blog and Inman News ) announced that the real estate media company Zillow has chosen to give up all but two of its state real estate broker licenses as a cost cutting measure. (It kept Washington and Texas). On October 17, 2008, Zillow CEO Rich Barton publicly announced the layoff of 25% of its workforce.)

Zip Realty - Zip Realty adds 551 real estate agents in an aggressive recruting effort and boosts sales. ZipRealty Inc. managed to trim third-quarter losses to $1.7 million as the company added 551 agents and took advantage of continued turnover of foreclosed properties to achieve double-digit growth in sales and revenue from a year ago.

From the street level it looks like all these major movements to innovate this stale traditional industry is taking a beating because of nationwide market declines. In short, Redfin tacks on is giving less commission rebates back but offering up more services and dedicated time to their clients. Zip is taking the old old OLD tactic of add more agents and get more deals - yikes. And Zillow who really stands separate from the pack as an ad based business is a clear impression that there is less $$$ being spent in the industry at this current time. Will all these companies survive … absolutely, and we are a big fan of all of them.

CondoDomain.com - (A little “self love”) - Little’ole CondoDomain.com still sits quiet in the pack (even though we are yelling as loud as we can) on the sidelines. Bootstrapped to the max, operating in 4 markets (soon to be 6 this week), our mini-Redfin web-based buyers brokerage business model is trending in the opposite direction. Possiblly hte markets we are in? Maybe our cheap flimzy business cards and marketing material? Who knows, but we are excited to be growing in a time like this. A little birdie told me that San Diego & Washington DC will have a CondoDomain website & buyers brokerage business model there veryyyyyy soon.