FlexSure Realty Services
Local business. Not a franchise owned and operated by Rebecca Burns, Broker (Owner)
Greater Gainesville Real Estate and Homes for Sale

No transaction too small, too large or too complex.
📱352-870-5272

10/31/23
NAR (national association of realtors), RE/MAX, KW (keller williams), and others slapped with $1.78 Billion in damages awarded to home seller-plaintiffs. The Home sellers were able to prove that the large franchises were in a conspiracy to keep commissions high…aka… Making the homeowners pay for buyer-agent commissions.

Final court approval of the settlement is expected in early 2024.

Lot’s of questions are arising now given the verdict. Sure… they will appeal this finding BUT this was only for home sellers in Missouri. I can see other state filings most-likely coming soon!

SOOOO the point of this note is that sometimes dealing with a local mom and pop real estate brokerage is better.
FRSI is one of those, and I will defend and protect my buyers and sellers and never knowinginly allow sub standard ethics to prevail!

I quit NAR 2022.

I quit the MLS “club” in 2022.

I cracked the code and am flourishing without dishing out the big money for not so stellar services!

Limited number of sales agents will be considered to apply.

JOIN MY BROKERAGE

Why Use a National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) Green Designee?

Going GREEN is not part of a fad. Green real estate is altering fundamental market dynamics. Commuting costs and energy efficiency are considered more carefully in home buying decisions. As energy costs continue to rise, this issue will stay top of mind for clients. Heating and cooling costs were at least “somewhat” important to 85% of home buyers in 2013. A whopping 73% of home buyers considered commuting costs at least “somewhat” important in the same study. And, state and local governments are requiring a certain energy standard on new construction, and two-thirds of state governments have currently implemented green building policies. A lot of people today are “greenwashing” –  falsely claiming to be green. To help you distinguish fact from fiction, the Green REsource Council provides your NAR Green Designee, Rebecca Burns, with up-to-date resources and ongoing education.

SIMPLIFY GOING GREEN

Rebecca Burns, NAR Green Designee, can help you distinguish fact from fiction and make educated decisions about:

• Green materials
• Energy-efficient technology
• Green ratings
• green design
• Green living
• Green incentives and more!

If you are overwhelmed by going green, let Rebecca Burns, NAR Green Designee help you understand green terminology and cost benefits,

Select the situation below that best describes you:

FOR BUYERS

If you’re looking to buy a green home or building, use an NAR Green Designee as your resource throughout the buying process. NAR Green Designees work to serve you, not sell you. With extensive education on what makes a green home smarter, healthier, and more energy and resource efficient, an NAR Green Designee will discover what green aspects are most important to you and find you the right property.

Buying a home is probably the biggest investment you will ever make, and often the most complex. If you’re looking to buy an existing home and make cost-saving green upgrades, an NAR Green Designee can help you:

• Identify green features, appliances, and materials that have the best pay-back period
• Get in contact with green industry professionals that can make it all happen, such as energy raters, contractors, lenders, and more
• Understand green mortgage options (EEMs and EIMs)
• Realize the benefits of an energy audit and work towards obtaining one
• Identify ways to improve your home’s energy efficiency and indoor air quality
• Take advantage of tax credits and incentives encouraging green improvements

Buy your green home with confidence with an NAR Green Designee, Rebecca Burns, she is educated on residential properties.

FOR SELLERS

If You’re Already Green
After investing in a green property, it’s important to make sure such an investment is properly represented. The NAR Green Designee understands sustainable building features, products, and practices and can educate potential buyers on the savings your green property will offer.

If You’re Going Green
You have a lot of options before listing a home with green features. Whether your greening it a little or a lot,  NAR Green Designee Rebecca Burns can help you make the most of your investment and accurately market your property.

By implementing green features and appliances into your home, you can stand out in a competitive market. The NAR Green Designee can help by:

• Providing simple ways to green your home
• Identifying green features, appliances and materials that have the best pay-back period
• Getting you in contact with green industry professionals that can make it all happen, such as energy raters, contractors, lenders and more
• Helping you take advantage of tax credits and incentives encouraging green improvements
• Properly represent and effectively market your green home to potential buyers
• Pricing your green home accurately

Are you ready to buy or sell green?

Green isn’t just a trend; it’s a movement. The National Association of REALTORS® believes that every step toward a greener, more sustainable environment is a step in the right direction. Whether you’re looking to green your home, your business or your life, your NAR Green Designee can help.

“…if your home doesn’t sell (small print, nothing verbally heard: at the terms you agree to or in xyz days) then Big Money Realtor will buy it…”

Hahaha. Are you kidding me?

If you (the seller) don’t like/agree to the terms, your home won’t sell, because you aren’t that stupid and won’t sign a contract that’s unacceptable to you, right? Has anyone else but me dissected the statement above and realized what a marketing lie it is?

“Sex, lies and advertise” is the old inside marketing moto. How do I know this? Let me count the ways!

Rebecca Burns, Broker/Owner of FlexSure Realty also owns graphic design, marketing and advertising agency ComQuest Designs in Gainesville FL since 1990. “THE best form of advertising is word of mouth. Other top picks do not involve big money being dumped into the abyss of nationally sold endorsement advertising campaigns and lead source generation for buyers and sellers, bought through numerous and varied agencies at big money costs”, says Rebecca.

Instead Rebecca plows through all the noise and chatter of big promises with little to no return on her advertising dollars, and is equipped with long standing, real world, professionally based knowledge of new technologies which often rise on the promise of making things simpler, better, and cheaper. Over time however, we learn that they (the technologies) do make things faster, better, and even cheaper, but rarely do things stay simple.

Consider the advertising marketplace, which once seemed pretty straightforward (network TV ads and print materials). Back then marketers had limited knowledge of who saw their ads and how prospects responded. Today, marketers can target specific pools of customers and track their activity, yet managing a variety of social, web, and mobile programs makes the old days of TV’s hegemony seem quaintly appealing. Companies like Google and Bing contend that things will get easier, thanks to new analytics and programmatic marketplaces. More likely, the industry will become more effective at targeting the right message to the right person in the right way, but it will also become more complex.

Rebecca Burns, Broker/Owner of FlexSure Realty Services, Inc. also owns her companion firm ComQuest Designs and has been making use of programmatic advertising with great effect since 1993, during the grassroots internet revolution. The advances and results she has seen over the years have been incredible. However, experience has shown her that its promises of maximizing ROI are empty without highly knowledgeable and sophisticated analytics. After all, it takes a blend of machine-learning technologies (like artificial intelligence) and marketer’s intuition (predictive analytics) for programmable advertising to effectively hit the right audience at the right time to drive higher-quality leads.

Since forming ComQuest Designs (with her 3 letter domain cqd.com — which, BTW, do not exist for sale at any affordable price today) she has created memorable, effective marketing communications for her real estate corp, and contract freelance jobs over the years. She’s a versatile art director and brand strategist who addresses every challenge and opportunity with simple, yet unique, solutions. She fits seamlessly into a creative mode running her marketing departments for all her businesses. She understands how to market your real estate to help get it sold.

Identifying the Prospects
Targeting the Prospects
Knowing Their Triggers
Closing a Deal

What is a Zestimate?  – Ohhh Lawrd….here we go again.

I am extremely quick to voice my total and udder disdain towards Zillow Zestimate’s, and for good reason. As a tech savvy agent, why do I dispise them so much, and can I back up my ill feelings with any data?

The local agent begins building the value of your property by getting local market info, not info from a across the board, national site.
This is a great example I like to use:

My twin brother lives in Cheyenne, WY where the temperature is 24°.

I live in Gainesville, FL and the temp here is 72°

Therefore the country as a whole has an average temperature of 45°.

Right?

Absolutely NOT! But you get the picture, hopefully. LOL

     Their info is inaccurate, which they admit, but what goes into their formula?

     Where do they get their accuracy info and how do they calculate a zestimate?

     What info do you have access to as a local agent that even a giant like Zillow does not?

The Zestimate® home valuation is Zillow’s estimated market value, computed using a proprietary formula. It is not an appraisal. It is a starting point in determining a home’s value. The Zestimate is calculated from public and user submitted data; your real estate agent or appraiser physically inspects the home and takes special features, location, and market conditions into account. I encourage buyers, sellers, and homeowners to supplement Zillow’s information by doing other research such as:

     * Getting a comparative market analysis (CMA) from a LOCAL Realtor®

     * Getting an appraisal from a professional LOCAL appraiser

     * Visiting the house (whenever possible)

Zillow also produces a Zestimate forecast, which is Zillow’s prediction of a home’s Zestimate one year from now, based on current home and market information.

Really? How can they really do that? What if we have a devastating weather event, like Katrina, Sandy, Andrew, Charlie, Jean, Francis…or maybe you remember the wildfires of ’98 in our area. How can Zillow predict weather events…are they in with NOAA and the Weather Channel ? I don’t think so.

So please, when you’re searching for homes, or thinking of selling your home, utilize the best website for your initial research www.realtor.com. It’s the most up to date and honest site. Plus, they offer an app for all your handhelds.