Chicago South Shore Connections

Last night our team attended the Northwest Indiana Forum Legislative Affairs Program, featuring Rep. Pete Viscloscky (D-IN). What a terrific bi-partisan effort to provide leadership on what could be the most important economic development opportunity this decade.

Green Pointe is emphatically in favor of the extension of the south shore. We were pleased to voice our support along with so many other leaders.

The opportunity to extend the South Shore Commuter Rail into Munster, Lowell, and Valparaiso is key to the next decade of growth and job creation.

Now the legislative leadership will be attempting to build concensus downstate for some form of tax to pay the remaining $350 million it will take to locally match the $650 million already on the table from RDA and Federal funds.

Chicago South Shore Connection, it's about time.

Citizens for the extension of the South Shore Line has an online petition too.

Friends writing the truth about real estate

From Seattle's Urban Villages:

"Even with the tightened mortgage standards, I believe this spring will have a lot of buyers looking to buy homes because of our strong Seattle economy, and continued growth with more people moving to Washington and the Seattle area. While I believe that while we won't have the kind of sellers market the past few springs have seen, it will still favor sellers (in the close in Urban areas) and the buyers who decided to wait out the buyers market this Autumn will have lost their advantage.
So here's a tip for some Seattle Home Buyers: this Autumn could be a very favorable time to "Harvest" the opportunity to buy a Seattle Home!"

Northwest Houston Real Estate:
"In spite of national reports of turbulence in the mortgage industry, the greater Houston real estate market held up remarkably well last month. Sales actually rebounded from the previous two months of declining sales. "

Sacremento Real Estate Blog
"3. There are huge discounts in price - There was a time when homes had trouble appraising and hence getting a loan for the home was hard. Today, if you find a great deal, the appraisal might just come in 10% over the price you’re in escrow for. Congratulations - you just “made” 10% of the sales price by just buying the home!
So head out there and let the shopping begin. Remember, you don’t have to restrict yourself to just retail gifts this winter. Housing is selling at wholesale prices!"

I included the last one hesitently, the post is somewhat negative, but I wholeheartedly agree that this winter is the last and best buying opportunity in every market! The media has overblown the whole sub-prime and foreclosure issue .... creating an artificial lag in home values.

Someone asked for my linked in profile: Northwest Indiana Daltons Briefs Linked In

Valparaiso Nazarene Church to Expand

Valpo Naz, as we call it, is set for groundbreaking next Sunday. Here's the Valparaiso Nazarene Church website as well.

Real Estate Posts

Carnival of Real Estate last week.

Guerilla Marketing Seminar, details forthcoming

Fun interview with Seth Godin, something to the tune of "what would you do if you were a REALTOR?"

Have you considered a "subject to" sale? If so check out this great easy to understand post.

World News

Death Toll in Ukraine Mine Blast increasing "I am grieving with all of Ukraine," said the President Viktor Yushchenko.

Home builders index steady at record low in Nov.MarketWatch - 6 hours agoBy Greg Robb, marketwatch WASHINGTON (marketwatch) -- US home builders remain pessimistic in November and are beginning to blame the news media for their woes.Homebuilder Confidence in US Held at Record Low (Update2) BloombergSlashed prices fail to lift US housing market Financial TimesForbes - USA Today - Wall Street Journal - TheStreet.com

Mexican President Receives President-elect of GuatemalaMexidata.info, CA - Nov 18, 2007Mexican President Felipe Calderón received Mr. Álvaro Colom Caballeros, President-elect of Guatemala, who will take office on January 14, 2008 for a period ...

Albania welcomes Kosovo vote
Kosovo leader sees early independence move
EU Faces Embarrassing Split Over Kosovo Independence

Sound kinda funny to you? Europe, home of all the colonial powers, is still saying that the "little" people need to be careful declaring independance.

Book I'm reading this week

Time to take on a Seth Godin this week

clipped from sethgodin.typepad.com 4 Weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. More than 100,000 copies in print in just a month. A personal take on the Dip from Andy Wibbels. Seth's Web Pages The Dip Blog Books by Seth Godin Seth's Main Blog Seth's Squidoo Lens All Marketers Are Liars Blog SethGodin.com: Official Site

Northwest Indiana Commercial Construction

Time for some self-promotion. This is our new company, based right here in Valparaiso Indiana, focusing on commercial real estate, construction management, and property management

clipped from greenpointe.blogspot.com Welcome to Green Pointe Development. We specialize in leasing, selling, constructing, and managing commercial real estate right here in Northwest Indiana

Week One - Dalton Briefs Ranking of NWI Bloggers

I've been trying for the last couple weeks to come up with a way to rank Northwest Indiana bloggers, but frankly it's going to end up subjective no matter what. For this first week I'm only going to rank the real estate bloggers, since I know most of them. In future weeks, I'll try to add other bloggers, but I'm still looking for them. Note: I'm going to have to add them all day, so it may take until Monday nite to get them all loaded.

Northwest Indiana Top Ten Real Estate Bloggers

Jeff and Grace Safrin of F.C. Tucker Jeff and Grace Safrin Blog


Ranked third in Porter County for Active Rain bloggers. A perenial contender for "northwest indiana real estate" google page one ranks, currently at fourth and the highest ranking personal site behind GNIAR and Realtor.com and McColly.com Corporate site. Here's an example of their blogging work: LET ME TAKE YOU THERE - Crown Point, Indiana - A Place where you can Go - and Call HOME :)


Jana Caudill of Keller Williams Jana Caudill Blog



Jana is ranked third in Lake County for Active Rain. Again she, like the Safrins, ranks consistently high on google for northwest indiana real estate. Her numbers for real estate production are huge too! Here's an example of her blogging: 3 Bedroom Tri-Level for Sale in Crown Point






Chuck Dellorto from McColly the largest real estate company in Northwest Indiana. Chuck Dellorto Blog.

Chuck ranks first in Lake County for Active Rain bloggers. His posts are very strong for consumers wanting solid information about the market. Chuck's been watching new construction too, here's a great real time post about our largest home builder in this market: New Construction Specials - Ready to Move in Homes

Suzanne Willems from Willems Realtors, probably the most blog focused real estate office that I've noticed so far. Suzanne Willems Blog.

Suzanne ranks second in Lake County for Active Rain bloggers, and has posted consistently and heavily for the last six months. Here's an example of her listing specific posts: 1504 Farmdale Dr, Schererville, INDIANA 46375

26-50 Most Influential Real Estate Bloggers

Inman Posts the Top 25, We Post #26 - 50 I totally missed this addition to the original Inman list that surfaced at the beginning of October No, I'm not on the list, and didn't pretend to rank up there with these 50 writers and bloggers.

I have learned a lot though from these terrific and challenging writers.

Here's the original list if you missed it: 25 Most Influential Real Estate Bloggers: 2007".

Maybe i could be #51? Some day.

Facebook is new SEO game in town

I have noticed that many real estate professionals are making avid use of facebook to build their blog traffic. Some have suggested that facebook's new feed is slowly becoming a very powerful force in SEO and traffic creation ... albeit similar to google rank ... with great secrecy as to how to game the system.

Have you joined and begun tracking your real estate blog friends on www.digg.com? Well, digg added social networking a couple weeks back, and the same 200-300 real estate professionals that I see everywhere are there too. My digg profile is here if you want to be-friend there in addition to facebook or linkedin.

So, what's the real goal? Do you just need heavy traffic? Do you really only care for hyper-local traffic that is potentially a real buyer? Do you want to write and discuss? I'm having a hard time deciding which is more important, to me.

A shot across the agent's bow

What do you think of "free" real estate services?

clipped from www.iggyshouse.com Our sister company, BuySide Realty, pays 75% of the commission received from the seller. On average, BuySide’s clients have received over $11,000 each. We list on MLS* for FREE. Get your home on REALTOR.COM® for FREE. THERE IS NO CATCH … it's FREE. See how it works

Today's great real estate posts

The Mortgage Witch Hunt A terrific commentary on the "witch hunt" to clobber the mortgage brokers. She asks the question "If mortgage brokers shrivel up and blow away, then all the consumer will be left with is a few big banks to get their mortgage. Fewer options and less competition will not promote what’s best for the consumer such as lower rates, fees and superior service. Mortgage Brokers, Real Estate Agents and Consumers: if you don’t want mortgage brokers to vanish from the industry, please voice your opinions to your elected officials at the national, state and local levels."

Patrick Kitano suggests that the next wave of real estate blog are arriving with Hail Curbed - the national real estate media network

Silencing Trulia Voices by Jonathon Dalton. Is Trulia really doing a service for consumers if they allow the system to be gamed by REALTORs trying to get ranked higher with vapid answers to questions?