Bubbleinfo Readers

Do you ever wonder who else is reading this blog?

Here are some demographics for readers in the first two months of 2022:

The number of users were running around 5,000 per month last year, so welcome newcomers!

About half of the audience is between the ages of 25-44, which is promising:

I’m glad to see that gender is fairly even, with 58% male and 42% female readers:

Here’s where you are from:

Ashburn, Virginia is ‘a major hub for Internet traffic, due to its many data centers’.  It is probably where many of the bots originate.

Thank you for being here.  If you, or someone you know, is thinking of moving, I’d sure appreciate a call!

Bubbleinfo’s 16th Anniversary

It was 16 years ago today that the blog began with this post – which still has some relevance today:

https://www.bubbleinfo.com/2005/09/24/20-25-appreciation-per-year-how-can-that-happen/

Here is a summary of where we’ve been:

https://www.bubbleinfo.com/2019/09/24/happy-birthday-bubbleinfo/

I am grateful for you being here!  We appreciate the business from readers, and your friends and family. Thank you so much!

Seller Review

We are grateful for the opportunity to assist our blog readers! From a recent seller:

When we moved to San Diego in 2005 we rented a big house on Mt. Soledad (La Jolla) with 180 degree ocean views for the same payment as a mortgage on a dump in Chula Vista. Clearly something was wrong. Yet, the media was full of the usual happy-talk nonsense, so I was glad to find Jim’s blog.

I’ve followed his honest assessments and data since.

We decided to sell and move to AZ at Thanksgiving. Dec. 1st we met with Jim to sell our home. We closed today (29 days later). Jim orchestrated a feeding frenzy — we had 25 showings in 2-1/2 days, multiple offers, and sold for well over asking price. I’d say he earned his commission!

We have owned and sold homes in 5 different States always using experienced, productive, full-time realtors. Jim outshines them all. You don’t decide to sell and close 29 days later over Christmas (with COVID lockdown) without some miracles. Donna was amazing at performing lots of those miracles and ensuring that everything was done right and on time. They are a terrific team with a very responsive and professional network.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2020 Gratitude

Though last year had many challenges and was the worst year ever for many, it turned out to be a phenomenal year for us, business-wise.  We are very grateful for our clients’ faith and confidence – many of whom found us here at the blog!

The Klinge Realty Group had a record year with 41 sales and just over $50,000,000 in volume!

THANK YOU!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here’s the new year message from my wife Donna:

Yes 2020 was one for the books – a year no one will ever forget.

As we bid adieu, many of us will look back and reflect on the many valuable lessons and gifts this year brought to us. It was a year full of uncertainty, fear, and doubts; but we also bore witness to a year full of love, service, human sacrifice, collaboration, and a sense of belonging to one same world – all of us in this together.

As we walk into the promise of a new year, we are thinking about all of the people who helped us get through so much unexpected change, and we are filled with gratitude and hope for 2021. We appreciate our loyal clients for their faith and confidence in us in helping them buy and sell their homes; our co-workers and team who said “Yes we can” and were beyond inspiring; and our family and friends who loved and supported us along the way. We love making people’s home dreams come true!

Who thought our generation would face a pandemic. But here we are, fighting together as one world.

We wish you a healthy, safe and Happy New Year!

2021, we’re ready for you!

Why Hire Jim to Sell Your Home

My listing in La Costa Oaks closed escrow today!

I’m sure people are thinking….

“Did they just get caught up in the frenzy fever – or is Jim really that good”?

“Or does he just list ’em low just to stir up the frenzy?”

Let’s consider the two most recent sales, #3 and #6 on the list above.

Number 3 is a model-match to the subject property, but it did not have the additional bedroom and full bath down like we did. Our list price of $1,379,000 reflected a $54,000 premium for those.

Number 6 is the bigger floor plan and is RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from our listing – and it closed for $1,410,000.  We would have to expect that buyers would consider it strongly.

Two things to note about the subject property:

We have a downstairs master suite, which is an in-betweener. Seniors who want the traditional one-story think it’s too much house for them, and some families with little kids don’t like having them on a different floor.  It’s probably why we had three offers, and the pending listing had eight offers.

Our backyard was a similar size as all the other comps and was tastefully landscaped, but it didn’t have any extras that would cause people to pay more. It also had a window that stood out:

All considered, our original list price of $1,379,000 looked like full retail when we started.

Nobody offers $91,000 over list just for the heck of it. Only two of comps closed substantially over list price, and just by $30,000 – which is way different than $91,000 over.

Admittedly, our market conditions have been hot and the inventory had dwindled down to there being virtually nothing similar for sale when we listed. But it was also December, so the holiday spirit or the raging pandemic could have cooled our chances too.

Someone must have created an ideal environment for buyers to pay the extra pop!

Two other notes:

Mr. Seller has read the blog since 2005 – my second seller this year who has been here since the beginning!

I first met the sellers on December 1st, and thirty days later they closed for $91,000 over list price.  Is that the type of efficiency you’d like to have?  Then contact me to sell your house!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Best Real Estate Blogs

Bubbleinfo.com made the list of best real estate blogs in the country, as determined by Hooquest.com:

https://hooquest.com/real-estate-blogs/

Thanks Brian for including us!

He is right – I don’t give much thought to SEO, which is probably why we had the lowest number of estimated monthly visits (by far) of the nine blogs included. He mentioned that the view-counter tends to be low, especially for hyperlocal sites.

Here’s our number of viewers this month from Google Analytics:

I’m glad you’re here – thanks for participating!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Laguna Row

Brett Farrow is a local architect, builder, and developer – and has been a long-time reader of the blog (you’ve seen him comment here as ‘Mozart’). Yesterday, we got together at his latest project, Laguna Row, and talked about his experiences in the village of Carlsbad:

I also did another tour around the village for an update on the booming redevelopment:

Here is Brett’s website:

https://www.lagunarow.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bubbleinfo.com, The First 15 Years

Bubbleinfo.com has been in existence for 15 years!  The peak audience here was at the bottom of the market (~11k), but having 5.6k users over the last 28 days is fantastic – thanks for being here!

Over the last 15 years:

Total number of Blog Posts: 9,820 (plus a few hundred more on the previous Squarespace format)

Blog comments: 64,524 (of which 6,587 were mine)

Twitter: 11,200 tweets

Instagram: 482 posts, 1,087 followers (Natalie is running it)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The big news this week is that Kayla is going solo!

You’re never going to be comfortable and ready to go on your own, so at some point, every agent has to take the plunge.  She is going to keep working at Douglas Elliman in their midtown Manhattan office, and she has pledged to have her new blog up and running by October 1st!

Pin It on Pinterest