Florence County Real Estate Blog

I recently had the opportunity to visit with my nephew in Greenville, SC. While I was there I went to check out the downtown area. What a wonderful atmosphere. It reminds me of Charleston with all the people shopping and hanging out at the local restaurants. But to my surprise the most amazing thing is located near the end of Main Street. That hidden treasure is the Falls Water Park. Who would have thought in the middle of Greenville you would find water falls? It is amazing what the city of Greenville has invested to make this park an awesome showcase for the city. Along with the falls there is a bridge that crosses over the river. The $4.5 million Liberty Bridge does more than span the Reedy River -- it serves as the focal point of Falls Park , showcasing man’s creativity alongside nature’s beauty. The bridge is 355-feet long, 12-feet wide, has a horizontal curve radius of 214-feet and 90-foot towers weighing 26 tons each. The falls are just one of the many features you will find at Falls Park, so the next time you are in Greenville, SC check out this wonderful attraction in the heart of downtown. Kudos to Greenville for their efforts.

With so much spam mail, it is highly likely that your clients may not receive your email or newsletters unless they have added you as a safe sender. It is a good idea when people sign up to receive correspondence from you that you remind them to add you as a safe sender or add your domain so future emails will be received. Below is a list of steps for doing this in some of the major email providers.

1. How do I add email address or domain to my Safe Senders list in Outlook? 1. On the Tools menu, click Options. 2. On the Preferences tab, under E-mail, click "Junk E-mail" 3. Click the "Safe Senders" tab. 4. Click "Add" 5. Enter "@teresamcdonald.com into the list box 6. Click "Okay" 

2. How do I add a Newsletter email address or domain to my friends list in AOL? 1. Open your latest newsletter e-mail if you haven't already. 2. Click on the "Add Address" icon. 3. Your newsletter email address should automatically appear in the name and e-mail fields in the "Add Contact" pop-up box. Verify the information was entered correctly. 4. Click the Save button. 5. Your newsletter email address will be entered into your AOL Address Book.

3. How do I add the Newsletter email address or domain to my email address book in Hotmail? 1. Open your newsletter e-mail if you haven't already. 2. Click "Save Address(es)" at the top of the message. 3. Your newsletter email address should automatically appear in the e-mail field on the "Add to Address Book" page. Verify the information was entered correctly. 4. Your newsletter email address will be entered into your Hotmail Address Book.

4. How do I add the Newsletter email address or domain to my email address book in Yahoo! mail? 1. Open your latest newsletter e-mail if you haven't already. 2. Click the "Add to Address Book" link next to the icon on the far right. 3. Your newsletter email address should automatically appear in the e-mail field on the "Add to Address Book" page. Verify the information was entered correctly. 4. Click "Add to Address Book." 5. Your newsletter email address will be entered into your Yahoo! Address Book.

5. How do I add the Newsletter email address or domain to my email address book in Earthlink mail? 1. Open your latest newsletter e-mail if you haven't already. 2. Click your mailbox's "Message" menu and choose "Add Senders" to your Address Book. 3. Your newsletter email address will be entered into your EarthLink Address Book.

I hope this information is helpful to your clients.

Use this link to check out the report cards for schools in Florence School District 3, which covers all the public schools in the city of Lake City: http://ed.sc.gov/topics/researchandstats/schoolreportcard/2007/2103.html.The schools are listed by name. The report cards for 2008 will not be available until mid fall of 2008.

Use this link to check out the report cards for all schools in South Carolina: http://ed.sc.gov/topics/researchandstats/schoolreportcard/2007/default.cfm On this page simply select the category of school you want to check out – such as Elementary, Middle or High and then you will be directed to a page with those report cards listed by school name (note that you may have to scroll down to see the school names.) Keep in mind that just because a school may not have a good rating for the current year does not mean that it is not a good school. It is best to look at the long range data and not just for a single year. You can access the data for previous years on the state website.

Use this link to check out the report cards for schools in Florence School District 1, which covers all the public schools in the city of Florence: http://ed.sc.gov/topics/researchandstats/schoolreportcard/2007/2101.html. The schools are listed by name. The report cards for 2008 will not be available until mid fall of 2008.

Use this link to check out the report cards for all schools in South Carolina: http://ed.sc.gov/topics/researchandstats/schoolreportcard/2007/default.cfm 

On this page simply select the category of school you want to check out – such as Elementary, Middle or High and then you will be directed to a page with those report cards listed by school name (note that you may have to scroll down to see the school names.)

Keep in mind that just because a school may not have a good rating for the current year does not mean that it is not a good school. It is best to look at the long range data and not just for a single year. You can access the data for previous years on the state website.

I have been blogging now for a few months on ActiveRain and like all good members I have been reading blogs and commenting and trying to learn all I can about blogging and the ways to use my blogging in my real estate career. My blogs have been a mix of things. I have posted on Localism to showcase my community and I have posted for members things of interest to me and I hope to my fellow ActiveRain members. Now that we can have outside blogs I have an outside blog which I link to from my website. I am now a member of Digg and I have read that it is a good idea to also post your blogs there by linking to your blog. I am confused at this point though. Should the link go directly to my outside blog, my ActiveRain blog, or to my website where they can access my blog. Should I post all my blogs to digg or just the ones I think people in general will like. I would love to increase traffic to my website so is there a better way to access my outside blog rather than just linking to it from my website? As soon as I feel like I have mastered some pieces of this technology maze I find there is more that I don't know and that I am not utilizing. What do you other real estate professionals do with your blogs? I haven't even made it to doing any videos which seems to be the buzz now? Will I ever learn it all? Any advice?

With the downturn in the real estate market in many areas, it is advantageous to take advantage of all the free marketing and exposure you can get for your listings. I just came across a wonderful place! RealBird.com is a site where you can get free exposure for your listings. These are some of the things that you can take advantage of at RealBird. "Create single property websites in minutes with state-of-the-art presentation features.Unlimited listings, unlimited content, unlimited photos, unlimited design themes. Promote your listings via major classifieds sites automatically, and with RealBird widgets on your website and blogs. The Listing Publisher supports the 3Ps of online real estate listing marketing: Promotion, Presentation and Pre-qualification." This is just a few of the features RealBird has listed on its homepage and best of all it is FREE! Of course they do offer other paid features if you are looking for more, but why not check it out and take advantage of the free exposure. See what you think. I just added my first listing and plan on adding RealBird to my repertoire of marketing for all my listings.