I considered a name change–oh no, not my “real” name, but my on screen real estate name. Robin4Homes just doesn’t reveal who I really am. Okay, okay, so yes, my real name is Robin, and yes, I do sell homes (ala real estate); but nowadays, one’s on screen personality can really sizzle with a dynamic screen name; I mean would people have viewed Archie Leach in the same light as they did the  suave, debonair, sophisticated Cary Grant? I think not. And what about Madonna? Would she have had the same fame had she remained Louise Veronica Ciccone? Questionable, at best.

So I tossed around a few names to see what transformation might occur with a new name.  The first one was Rockin’ Red Robin; certainly, sizzly–but maybe a little too sizzly; I wanted to be noticed on screen, but maybe not in that sort of way. So out went Rockin’ Red Robin, and in came Robin’s Nest–too cutsy; later it was on to Robinzhoods; I thought this one was a winner; but my partner nixed it;  he thought it sounded too gansta rappy; and Round Robin too portly.

Then to complicate matters, I started a blog and had to come up with an on screen persona for the new blog; I was told not to obsess about it–to give it ten minutes max and be done with it. So I wound up with Irvine Real Estate Blogger (boooring!).  But I guess it defined a certain aspect of me (I live in Irvine; I am in Real Estate, and I am a would-be real estate blogger); Still it did not define the real me, definitively, and in a way with which I was satisfied.

Fast forward to the RE Barcamp in San Francisco, the day before the Inman Connect 2008 Conference, where the superstars of the blogosphere gather to discuss blogging about real estate and the newest technologies in a free-wheeling, brainstorming sort of way. Some brilliant, creative minds thought up a great way to meet and greet other bloggers; namely, calling cards with code names that defined a superpower within each of us. Too cool! Thus we were introduced to The Striped Crusader  whose superpower “emits powerful rays of inspiration,” The Legal Eagle whose superpower is “making the industry better one degree at a time,” and The Mortgage Man whose superpower is “keeping consumers safe from high interest rates,” and so on. And then my name was called out: Robin Fenchel (Real Name), dubbed “The Diva of Orange,” whose superpower is raising a UC Berkeley and Harvard tandem.” Poof! I was transformed, aloft and afloat without warning, from Robin4Homes into the Diva of Orange for a single, cloud computing moment in time. And what a time it was.

Open Houses can be a viable, valuable marketing tool under certain circumstances and in particular niche markets.  Real estate is after all local, and buyers often like to check out neighborhoods and houses up close and in person without having to commit to using the services of a real estate agents in the beginning stages of their search.

Just as many buyers prefer to view homes first online, anonymously, and educate themselves before actually making contact with a real estate professional, buyers also utilize Open Houses as a way to familiarize themselves with those particular communities in which they may ultimately have an interest in purchasing a home or condo. (more̷

There is light at the end of the tunnel… 

It began this spring with whispers and mumblings in the real estate community and  blogesphere. Buyers were emerging from their winter doldrums and showing up at Open Houses–at first checking house prices; not commiting, but still demonstrating a measurable interest in real estate.

While the reports from the established media were still cast in colors of May gray, and June gloom, the tweets and twitters from the chorus of real estate agents in their respective local nests were singing a different tune and what a sweet tune it has turned out to be.

Open the curtains, raise the windows, throw open the doors, and inhale the fresh air of a changing season in the real estate market. The flowers are in full bloom and their fragrance fills the air.  The birds are singing and a new day is dawning here in Irvine and in the local housing markets around Orange County.

Psst…if you haven’t heard, homes are selling and they are selling in healthy numbers. Active listings down; pending sales up; inventory is rapidly being absorbed–these positive trends continue to emerge in the Irvine, California and Orange County real estate markets.

Irvine and Orange County housing sales reported to the MLS continues to be strong.  The past two weeks have seen sales in greater numbers. Inventory continues to fall by an average of about 100 listings per week, compared to increases of approximately 200 listings per week at this time last year. The current inventory in Orange County number 1600 fewer homes than at this time last year.  Active listings in Orange County have fallen below 15,000, and the index of how long it would take to sell/absorb the existing inventory at the current rate of sales is at its lowest point since August of 2006. In our local Irvine housing market, we currently have a total of 839 active listings in the Multiple Listing Service. Those homes/condos reported as in Back-Up or Pending Sales (in escrow) number 272 which indicates that it would take only three months to absorb/sell the existing inventory at the current rate of sales. 

Buyers have a real opportunity to realize their dream of home ownership at significantly lower prices and favorable interest rates.

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