Hot Weather Tips for Real Estate Agents

Here’s a few hot weather tips I came up with for real estate agents as we all cope with a potential high of 107 today here in Portland!

1. If buyers close on 100+ degree day, offer a window A/C unit as a closing gift (good luck finding one right now, though).
2. Selling agents: if your listing has A/C or is A/C ready – make sure you’re showing those houses now! The heat should really make that selling point stick in the buyer’s mind (and their shirt stick to their back).
3. Keep a cooler full of water bottles for your clients in your trunk when showing homes.
4. Always offer to purchase a Slurpee for your clients.
5. If you happen to be rolling in a convertible while showing homes – apply sunscreen between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., or put the top up.

PS: If you use an ActiveKEY, make sure not to leave it in a hot car for long:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-fdVTBBiCM]

Lockbox Activity – Halfway Through 2009

Lockbox Activity – Halfway Through 2009

As you know, we’ve been tracking the number of times RMLS™ subscribers open Supra lockboxes in Oregon and Washington. Here’s how it looks mid-way through 2009.

In Oregon, May was the high point with nearly 109,000 opens. For the year so far, total, there were 520,900 lockbox opens.

The same held true in Southern Washington, as May was tops with over 20,000 opens. The total for the year so far was 97,100 lockbox opens.

These numbers should be interesting to watch as we head into the typically hot summer months of July and August. Follow all the latest lockbox activity on our Flickr page.