Nobu Hata

By Nobu Hata

I’ve been lucky enough to be a Realtors Property Resource™ beta tester for the last couple months, and MLS controversy aside, it’s an elegant site that belies a very powerful information resource, packed with potential, underneath it all.  I’ve devised its place in my marketing plan (as a monthly client touchpoint) once live, but I’d never had the opportunity to talk about it with a consumer… until today, with the last set of clients I’d ever think of chatting about it with.

I’m working with a couple – a retired teacher and a very non-retired medical researcher – who are an absolute dream client.  They don’t care about my website/Facebook Like-Page/Twitter stream, they don’t want MLS auto-emails, and they trust my judgment that the homes I’m emailing them for showings match their needs.  They’re old school, and I love it.

Their home search has narrowed to two upscale condo developments in two very different parts of the Minneapolis market; one in a very established and stable neighborhood, the other in an area smacked upside the head by the overdevelopment/distressed property crow bar.  Naturally, they love the latter.

Today, we had a showing at what ended up being a dud property, but it gave us an opportunity to talk about the “research” hubby had been doing on the condo building he and his wife love.  Out flies the (circa 1990) MacBook and a spreadsheet that featured complete owner, tax record, previous sold dollar amount, city assessment, and price per-square-foot numbers for the whole building, to go along with average utility costs for the city, linked to very snazzy bar charts.

No joke, it was RPR – if my OCD grandpa had developed it.  An hour of conversation followed: Continue reading »