Melissa Zavala: San Diego County Broker, Speaker, Author

At my office, I see lots and lots of contracts, and many agents tend to make the same mistakes. We all like to think that we are perfect. But, the truth is that with the California Association of Realtors® contracts being so sophisticated and changing all the time, agents often don’t yet know abo...

As a real estate professional, it is important for you to connect with clients, prospects, and affiliates. Meaningful connections usually mean more transactions in your sales pipeline. So, when you are in the moment, you don’t want anyone to feel as if anything is more important than the person i...

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed it, but there are definitely certain times of day or night when you get better interaction on social media. And, the times that you get better interaction on Facebook may not be the same times that you get lots of likes on Instagram or retweets on Twitter.Since the ...

How Do I Know if the Property Is a Short Sale?Here’s a good question about how to actually identify a short sale that my office received in the Short Sale Expeditor® inbox a few months ago:Dear Short Sale Expeditor®:I am about to take a listing and I do not know whether the listing will be a shor...

A few weeks ago, while channel surfing, my husband and I came across marathon of The Godfather films on cable television. It was about 7.5 hours long and ran from 10:00 pm and all through the night. Don’t think that I stayed up all night to watch. But in the 45 minutes of so that I did watch, I c...

Today’s real estate professionals are faced with a variety of challenges. It can be challenging to balance your time between the tasks that are pressing and those that are important for the long-term sustainability of your business. But, the more you work “in” your business right now, the less ti...

We’ve got a great opportunity for you to join us next Wednesday, February 17th, 2016 for a live webinar on Smart Strategies for Staying Top-of-Mind this Spring.Smart Strategies for Staying Top-of-Mind this SpringThere's no question that maintaining top of mind awareness with buyer and seller pros...

With tax season upon us, lots of folks are wondering about taxes on the forgiven debt associated with short sales and foreclosures. With the end of 2014 came the end of the Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007. Although there is talk online of extensions, I have found nothing on the IRS website to co...

You’ve built a pipeline of new and repeat clients that can help you keep your business thriving throughout the new year. But when it comes time for those prospective buyers and sellers (those real estate leads) to make their move and jump into the market, how do you ensure that you’re the agent t...

California agents, do you use zipForm® Plus to write your purchase contracts and listing agreements? If you do, then you need to know that they’ve got a lot of new forms that have just been released. In December of 2015, the following brand new forms and form revisions were released by the Califo...