I learn a lot by analyzing my web site logs. There’s quite a bit of information contained in them like what search term people are using to find my sites, what pages they access and how long they stay on them, and even what Operating System they are using.

One statistic is what web browser they are using. Here is the top 5 Browsers used on my LocalLinks.com website for the first 29 days of May.

(Out of 21,492 visitors)
1. Internet Explorer 6.x – 73%
2. Firefox – 12%
3. Safari- 4%
4. Others – 3%
5. Internet Explorer 5.x – 2%

New MLS Map Search Enhancment

You might have noticed the words “Email this Map” on the MLS map search. If you click on this, it will bring up a window where you can put in an email address. What is emailed is a link to the map that you are currently looking at with all the criteria you’ve defined (price, bedrooms, zoom level, type of property, etc.).

There are 2 uses for this. One is that you can email someone else the map so they can see the homes you are seeing too. You can also email it to yourself. This will give you the link which you can then click and save in your Favorites. Then, you can just choose this link when you want to view the map to see if there are any new homes that come on the market. Each time you draw the map, it will display the currently available homes. This will be a big time saver as you won’t need to spend time moving the map around and defining your criteria each time.

There are some other enhancements coming, including having new listings appear as a different color on the map. This should be a really cool addition and will post more info to my blog as I get more info from the vendor.

Greetings from Tennessee!

I’ve been in Knoxville most of this week with my daughter who is competing in the Destination Imagination Global Finals. We’ve had a wonderful time and are coming back tomorrow. Here are some things I’ve noted about Knoxville…

1. You can get a nice home for under $200,000
2. Gas costs $2.59/gal
3. People enter freeways at 25 mph and no one honks
4. It’s easy to find a country station on the radio
5. Carls Jr’s is called Hardees
6. They play Mayberry RFD on two TV stations
7. Deal or No Deal has about 5 spots in the Neilson Top 10 TV ratings
8. They sure are friendly in Tennessee!

Thanks to the lead of some school age children, Morro Bay is now a non-smoking beach. It is the only Central Coast beach that’s non-smoking and joins 20 others statewide. Bonfires are also no longer allowed.

Beachfront property value continues to climb (at least the asking prices). A Pismo Shores condo just went on the market for $1.675 million.

Just want to say THANK YOU to all of you that dropped by my Open House today to say hi. Also, thanks for your kind words about my web site!!! – Keith

This is my 350th post to my Blog!!!

I have another new listing. A beautiful Alan Little built home in Arroyo Grande.

Lots of photos and Interactive Floor Plan at http://www.670SilverCharm.com

Pismo Beach approved the construction of secondary units for lots larger than 5000 sq feet. For those with lots between 5000-1000 sq feet, a homeowner can build a 600 sq foot unit. For over 10,000 sq ft lots, a unit up to 1,200 sq feet may be built. There are also restrictions for homes in the Pismo Heights because of concerns of having only one exit road.

Display or Not Display (your address)…that is the question

Our MLS System now allows the Listing Agent to specify if the address of a listing gets displayed on public searches. A Listing Agent can also decide if the listing is displayed on Realtor.com, MLS Search sites, etc. All the other choices defaul to “Yes” but the Display Address question defaults to “No”. No surprise that I’m starting to see more homes displaying without their address.

I don’t really know the benefit to a homeowner to not have their address displayed. There may be some exceptions but I can’t think of any offhand. Since MLS Map searches are quickly becoming the way Buyers like to use to search for homes, not displaying the address will make the home not appear on the map. This seems like anti-marketing to me.

Most homeowners won’t know how the Listing Agent answered the questions unless they searched and didn’t find their home. Make sure that the Listing Agent tells you of any marketing tool they are going to exclude your home from! I think the “Display Address” question is being overlooked by most Listing Agents when they enter a listing and they are leaving it “No”.

Just Listed

A spacious 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom home near Ocean View Elementary in Arroyo Grande. More info including photos and interactive floor plan can be found here www.1223Brighton.com

I’ll be holding an Open House this Saturday from 1-3. If you’re in the area, stop by and say hi!