Sacramento Appraisal Blog

Market trends and real estate appraisals for divorce, estate settlement, loans, property tax appeal, pre-listing and more. We cover Sacramento, Placer and Yolo County. We're professional, courteous and timely.

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My last blog post of 2016

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Almost eight years ago I started this blog, and I never imagined it would still be going after all this time. Sometimes people say, “An appraisal blog? Yeah, that sounds so uninteresting.” But I love the conversations we have each week, and in some way I hope they help us all grow in our skills and understanding. Anyway, I’m sincerely honored you take time out of your day to be here. Thank you for your insight, comments, emails, phone calls, constructive criticism, and the referrals you send my way. On behalf of the entire Lundquist family, I want to wish you Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!!

The next two weeks: At the end of this week I’ll be taking some time to enjoy family, relax, drink ungodly amounts of coffee, lose the weight I said I was going to lose in 2016, hang out with my new nephew, and let my kids whoop me on their Xbox. I might be crazy, but this year when we visit family I’m bringing my tools so I can build my mother-in-law a bookcase. That’s either the best thing ever or maybe I’m setting myself up for a yearly tradition. Uh oh. Ultimately I hope to get refreshed in coming time and ready for 2017. This has been an amazing year, but I need a break. Can you relate? I hope you enjoy this season and I can’t wait to reconnect in early January. Thank you again for making this a tremendous year. Blessings to you and your loved ones.

pallet-trees-by-sacramento-appraisal-blog

These are some of my festive pallet trees in the front yard.

Questions: What are you going to be doing over the next week or so? Any special traditions? I’d love to hear.

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Tips for effective blogging for business

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Do you have a blog for your business? Why or why not? I’ve been blogging consistently for over five years, and it’s made a very significant difference for me. In fact, I’m coming up on post #1000 very soon here, and I’m excited about that. Anyway, about six weeks ago I spoke at Drexel University for a Sacramento Business Journal event about effective business blogging. I wanted to share the talk with you in case it might be useful. I give an overview of blogging and provide very practical tips for how to blog. This is not about SEO tricks, but about the nuts and bolts of developing solid client-centric content. This is good background fodder while working, or might be useful while driving or cleaning the house. Check it out below (or here), and let me know what you think.

I did this presentation with video and social media expert Kerry Shearer, and here is a shot of me in action (if you tied my hands, I probably wouldn’t be able to speak).

ryan lundquist blogging class - sacramento business journal

SacBiz-Journal-Event

Some tidbits: In the video I mentioned the importance of developing a subscriber list, but I forgot to go into more detail. You can use a tool like MailChimp to manage subscribers. Also, this class was on both blogging and video. I mentioned in one part that I would show certain videos, but that portion didn’t make it into the video above. Here is the playlist of videos I showed during the presentation as examples of different types of videos you can make (talking head, scrolling photos, screencast, green screen, etc…). I played the first 5-10 seconds of each video.

how to create original blog content

How to come up with post ideas: Lastly, I mentioned my blog content cloud (see above), which is what I use to keep 20-30 post ideas in front of me at any given moment. I simply write down post ideas and keep them on a cork board above my monitor. One of the most important aspects of blogging is consistency, but one of the major hurdles for success is actually coming up with consistent content. That’s why this content cloud helps me thrive. Download for free and use as you wish.

I hope this was helpful.

Questions: Do you have a blog? Why or why not? Any other insight?

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My favorite 11 blog posts of 2010

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Happy New Year! I hope 2011 is turning out to be great so far. After having just returned from Southern California for a week visiting with family, I am geared up and ready for the year ahead. As I blaze forward in life and business, I wanted to take a glance at this past year of blogging and highlight my eleven favorite posts of 2010. It wasn’t easy to pick only eleven posts, but the ones below made the cut because of fond memories of great conversation, relevant information, or just the sheer fun of posting about the topic. 

1. What legos can teach us about real estate
2. Would the sound of a train drive you crazy?
3. A water tower behind a house in the Pocket area of Sacramento
4. A major hoarder property in West Sacramento
5. The Skinny on Streng Houses in Sacramento
6. A flashlight tour of a dark boarded-up house in South Sacramento
7. Four reasons why appraisals “come in low”
8. Is price per square foot an accurate way to measure the value of a house?
9. Should the Arden-Arcade area of Sacramento become a city?
10. Appraisers vs. Machines: What do you think of websites like Zillow?
11. Would you buy Dorothea Puente’s house?

Thank you for making this past year such a joy. I sincerely appreciate you stopping by the Sacramento Appraisal Blog last year, and I hope you’ll do the same this year ahead. If you have any questions, you can reach me via email, catch me on Facebook, or call 916.595.3735.

Tips for starting a successful blog for your business

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Last week a client invited me to speak to his office staff to help them understand how to build a successful blog for their real estate business. I was excited for the opportunity because it’s always nice to add value where I can. We talked about the relevance of using a blog as a tool to establish an online presence and why blogs are important. It was very practical too in that I set them up with usernames, and we even wrote a blog post on the spot. Learning should be experiential, right?  

I figured some of the content from my presentation might be useful to others, so I uploaded a 15-minute audio-video tutorial. Let me know what you think. 

If you work in the real estate field near Sacramento and I can help you sift through the world of blogging and building an online presence, let’s connect at 916.595.3735 or catch me on Facebook.

Any questions? What tips would you add to the mix?

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