Lauren Briles's (lbriles) Blog

Throughout this year, I have thought about starting a REALTOR group in order to have an in-person REALTOR forum that would allow agents to share their successes, struggles, and potentially have a learning aspect as well.  With so much change in our industry, I think it is important for the agent ...

We all love to learn statistics about the real estate market and see where things have been and where we hope things will go.  After pulling all of the data for Areas 72 and 73 (mainly the Augusta Road area) above $100,000 in the MLS from January - August 2008 and then pulling the same data from ...

Greetings!  Just last week I was asked by an agent, "Why did you start your own company?" and "How do you make it with all of the big companies?"  The agent was not trying to be rude, but truly did not understand why I would want to own my real estate company nor the aspect of making it without a...

In the past week, I have been asked to do a short training (just a couple of minutes) and for a different occasion, give a 10 minute speech.  The training is for a non-profit leadership group and the speech is for a group of people with our Church.  Both are suppose to involve examples of my life...

Last week I listened to a webinar on Potato Chip Marketing by Jennifer Cummings and really enjoyed it!!  We are trying out her marketing tools PCMTools.com and wanted to see if anyone else is utilizing them and what his/her thoughts are on it!  PLEASE SHARE! Jennifer has a similar mindset to us: ...

So last night I decided to blog for the first time in several months.  Not only did I do one blog, but I produced two!!  And YOU responded to both of my blogs...this was very encouraging and has energized me to blog again this morning.  Mostly I want to thank you active bloggers for your particip...

Everyday brings with it a full range of emotion and today was just that!  (I am sure that all of you can relate!) One of my favorite things to do is to spend time with our agents and help them with their businesses!  Due to running a small brokerage and needing to sell real estate, I do not alway...

So our agents are trying to decide whether it is better to have a website or a blog...what are your thoughts?  To me, the website is more for branding and a "go to" center while a blog is ever-changing and a better tool for keeping people coming back for new information. Sure, you can have both i...

Okay so we know that there are tons of database mangement systems out there, but which one do you prefer?  One of my agents wants to be able to put contacts into a program and apply marketing plans to the contacts.  We use Top Producer, but we are looking to see what other products we may have mi...

As you will notice below, the North Main area in Greenville, SC is on the overall still doing well.  It has continued to show signs of appreciation despite the national economic issues!  The homes are staying on the market longer due to fewer buyers, but the sellers are not losing money compared ...