Gina McKinley's Real Estate Blog

Family & Friends Mortgage - 7/13/2017 Somehow it just seems right to give your kids a mortgage when they buy a house, if you can afford it. Wouldn’t it be great for someone to pay you 4-5% interest on a secured loan? Yes it is until the IRS sticks their nose into it. THE IRS??? Yep. Read on…Anyt...

Getting more clients is often easier than we make it.  We spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on marketing and lead generation, yet we overlook the simplest way to generate business… Talking to strangers. Think about it.  Every day we’re surrounded by potential clients.  At the store, in...

There are many first time home buyers who think that they need to save up a large amount for a down payment.  Most of the time, waiting to save up funds can either price them out of a market with rising home prices (like the Phoenix area is now, especially in the lower price ranges) and they end ...

Have you ever struggled to successfully navigate a work/life balance or keep up with managing the day-to-day of selling real estate?You’ll hear some people say time management is an oxymoron.  And…it is.  You can’t manage time.What you can do is manage your activities so you get the most out of t...

For most home buyers and sellers, this is just one of those many documents that crosses their way when they're buying or selling a home.  However, this can have some big implications for some buyers depending on what's on the CLUE report (also known as a claims history report) as well as other pe...

Look up the word “productivity” on Dictionary.com and you’ll find a mish-mash of terms like “exchange value”, “bring forth goods and services”, and “discrete linguistic elements”.In the real world, productivity simply means being able to do more in less time.  And for you, being more productive c...

There's one item that I've needed in the past but is missing on this list...toilet paper!! You'd be surprised when showing homes just how many times nature can call, not just for you but also for your clients!  Being prepared for any type of situation is great, not only for real estate but also f...

Are you familiar with the phrase “orphaning your buyers”?Orphaning your buyers refers to when you fail to stay in touch with clients you’ve helped buy a home.  Because the buyers cannot remember your name when the times comes to sell, they use a different agent and you miss out on the listing.If ...

There’s a rumor going around email marketing is dead.  That overwhelmed inboxes and pesky spam filters make it impossible to capture people’s attention.Don’t believe the rumor.Email marketing is still one of the best ways to nurture relationships and get referrals.  In fact, the Direct Marketing ...

Most of the time in Chandler we hear about CPR with alternating mouth-to-mouth breaths due to the number of drownings (or near drownings) due to the number of swimming pools we have in Arizona.  Swimming pool safety can be a big issue, especially with smaller children.  However, this is something...