Las Vegas Real Estate Blog

When it comes to age restricted communities, the first name you usually think of is Del Webb. Centex Homes is planning on changing that with a foray into the retiree market with their first age restricted community, Ardiente.  This 55 and better community is located in North Las Vegas, near the huge master planned community of Aliante. 

The Ardiente gated community has two distinct neighborhoods of one story single family homes ranging from 1,235 to 2,813 square feet.  Residents can enjoy a wide variety of leisure activities in the community with its six themed parks, tennis courts, walking trails, two swimming pools, putting green and 30 outdoor fitness stations.   Its clubhouse is the perfect place to meet friends or make new ones.  Staying fit is encouraged by the community with its outdoor fitness stations and walkways.

Centex Homes provides a "fit and finish" two-year home warranty and a 10-year major defect warranty. New construction homes are available. For more information about Ardiente homes including floor plans, visit our website at http://www.lvrealty.net/ or contact Jacqui directly at 702-493-8033. -cr

Being located in the desert, you would think that water front homes in Las Vegas wouldn't be available.  However, Lake Mead isn't the only lake in Clark County. Desert Shores is the answer. Its a beautiful master planned community situated around four man made lakes near Summerlin.  This gorgeous community is home to migrant ducks and swans as well as some lucky human residents! 

It is easily one of most pictureque communities in Las Vegas. Residents can enjoy fishing (the lake is stocked annually), boating and other water activities. Some lake frontage homes have their own small docks that can accommodate rowboats, sculls, and electric boats.  The community prides itself on its quiet atmosphere and has restricted lake use to non-gasoline powered water craft.  Desert Shores also has over 8 miles of walking and jogging paths throughout the community and a beautiful 2,100 clubhouse with terraces on the side of the main lake. Desert Shores also has a stunning lagoon style pool, complete with sandy beach and a picnic park.  The clubhouse is also host to several special community events throughout the year. It is also available for private parties as well.

Desert Shores offers a wide range of housing opportunities, from luxury condominiums to large custom homes. Resales are usually available in all price ranges (as of the date of this writing, there were 68 listings available). For those looking for more than just the average community, Desert Shores should be on the top of the list. More information about Desert Shores homes and Desert Shores Villas can be found on our website at http://www.lvrealty.net. Feel free to contact Jacqui at 702-493-8033 for emails of available properties. -cr

Jacqui got the nicest email earlier this month and I kept meaning to put up a post about it. It was sent by another member, Lysa Napolitano It came at just the right moment as well. It's been a hard year for us (rescue/pet wise).  I thought I'd share it with you all.

Hello Jacqulyn,
I came upon your profile by way of the contest on the blogging page, my intrest peaked when I saw your community work. God Bless You! I too love all animals and am hard at work on two events for St. Judes locally here in Ormond Beach, FL. I have the info at www.gypsysplace.com. I also looked at your most recent blog and your blog on Squidoo, I work for Century 21 Sundance and am going to bring your blog to my Broker/Manager/Trainer's attention this weekend. I just signed up w/Active Rain and you can find me in Volusia County, FL. I think this a great site, even for the "other"s like me, we can stand to learn alot from the Jacqulyn Richey's in our Real Estate Community.
Keep on Keeping on!
Lysa

This ties into a post I had put up about the power of positive feedback in September and a recent one about profiles.  I think it also reinforces what I have been saying about what your site says about you and how your actions on the internet can affect your business. Being a positive member of the community and being active in the community is essential for success. Your actions are noticed by others. Check out Lysa's site http://www.gypsysplace.com/. Thanks Lysa for your email! -Charles

Quite a few of the seo savvy members here maintain a profile like their one on Active Rain on several different networks. It can be quite a challenge to maintain multiple sites, not to mention adding content and promoting your main site. Its obvious from the online ticker now that the lion share of AR members are just phoning it in when it comes to their profile. I can't stress enough that is a mistake, in my opinion. Golden opportunities like this site don't come along that often.

In addition to this blog, I also have a blogger blog, which just made it to the first page of google for the term Las Vegas real estate blog. The next page has some of my other profile pages on Squidoo and mybloglog. Combined all of these different sites accomplish too very important things----they send qualified traffic to our main site and they get a consumer's attention.

That's what I mean about if your profiles are working for you. Having great ranking on a search engine may not be enough any more. Web 2.0 is going to be the age of social networking. The evidence of it is staring right back at you on your monitor.  Most members hadn't heard of Digg or Del.ici.ous a year ago.  These sites are growing by leaps and bounds and are becoming huge authorities in the eyes of search engines, as is Active Rain. But, more importantly, more and more people are joining social networking sites and are using them to get the news they want, find services and purchase products.

In order for your profiles to work for you, you have to commit some of your time and energy into them as well.  Just throwing up a profile page and never visiting or updating it will get you exactly what you are putting into it---nothing. To be successful, you have to incorporate your profiles pages into your regular web marketing and start marketing those pages as well. If you are a member of a community, visit it at least once a week. Interact with other members, offer your opinions, in other words, get out there!  You never know where it will lead. I've been interviewing Jacqui's clients to see how they found her and why they choose her to represent them. Quite a few of them have seen this site and decided to choose her to represent them because of it. Social networking is the future.  Its up to you whether you are going to jump on board or let the train leave the station without you. -Charles

This one of the most watched things on YouTube. Its a parody of a video by chamillionaire. Sometimes you just need a good laugh. Unfortunately, I can't get the imbedded player to post here correctly, so use this url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiCty3DMFC4

Perhaps that could be added to the Active Rain wish list?

Enjoy and hope you all had a nice holiday!

-Charles

As I was sitting in the after glow of yet another very, Merry Christmas, I was checking on my various profile pages on different networks. One of my favorite sites (besides this one of course) is mybloglog.com. Think of it as a myspace for bloggers. I added my profile here, under Jade456. (For those of you wondering, Jade is my Electus Parrot). Quite a few Active Rain members are already there, but several of you are missing!

Basically the site helps you expand your readership, add your various different blogs and websites. The site has some cool widgets to add to your blog, like a recent visitors widget. The site also has a list of several social networking sites that you can add your profile information to your mybloglog profile. Active Rain isn't listed there (yet). Matt, Caleb perhaps you could approach the site owner about getting added to the list?  You can also join communities that interest you, the "hot" posts from each community will then appear on your profile page.  Pretty handy to help you weed through the myriad of posts being put up. I recommend joining the Carnival of Real Estate and Sellsious community.  You can also leave personal or private messages on member profiles, add "friends", "family" or just state that you are a "fan" of someone on the network.

Your profile also has some tracking features built into it. For each site listed, it will track the number of readers you have, page views and off site clicks. Best of all, its absolutely free and a great way to get additional exposure for your blog(s).

Can you digg it?

The internet truly does have a website on every subject. I was checking on my various profile pages on Squidoo, when I saw a lens that caught my eye.   Following the links it listed I ended up on a site called claimid. The premise behind it is to "claim" your name on the internet.  This poses a huge problem for those people that have a common name, like John Smith for example. When I google Charles Richey I get a natural healing expert and a federal judge (no relation I think).  The site allows you to put  up a biography, photo from your flickr account and links to your other websites online.  The "guide" posted states that you may put up a "link resume", ergo all of the links to other websites online that define who you are. Once you start posting you may be surprised at the sheer volume of sites or pages that you actually control.

As you add your links, you can specify if the sites are about you, made by you or enter in whatever you want. The site also asks for the date the site was created and the tags that should be associated with that particular link as well as a text description.

You may also "verify" your links by adding a small snippet of code to that page that the site will identify.  The link will then be marked as owned by you.  If you have a WordPress blog, the site has a widget you can download and utilize.  Other options include the ability to have your id made public or private and have the links cached. There is also a bookmarklet tool that once installed, allows you to instantly add links to your claimid space. You may view my claimed id under Las Vegas Real Estate.  If nothing else, the site gives you a nice relevant backlink. Happy Holidays. -Charles

Green Valley is a huge master planned community in Henderson, Nevada. The area became so popular that residents started stating that they lived in "green valley" not Henderson.  The difference is immediately apparent. Green Valley is just that---green.  Tree lined streets, parks, walking and bicyle trails, and a small town atmosphere make Green Valley a great place to work and live. 

Residents of Green Valley have a huge selection of outdoor and cultural activities.  Each year Green Valley is home to several seasonal events, like Shakespeare in the Park.  There are also great after school programs for kids as well as public facilities like the Whitney Ranch Aquantic Complex and Lorin L. Williams indoor pool.  Green Valley is also just minutes away from Lake Mead and about an hour from Mount Charleston. For the golf lover, there are several courses in Green Valley with all levels of play.

As Green Valley grew, several smaller masterplanned communities were built inside. As a rule they were designed to complement the overall Green Valley master plan. Seven Hills, Roma Hills and Green Valley Ranch are great examples. Each smaller community offers its own unique amenities and lifestyles without compromising the original vision of Green Valley.  For those that prefer a more maintenance free lifestyle, Green Valley now also boasts several luxury condominium and loft communities with more planned.  Green Valley will also have the distinction of having the first LEED certified residential green building in the state of Nevada. 

For more information about Green Valley real estate or community information, please feel free to visit my website or email me at info@lvrealty.net -cr

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Just six months ago we joined Active Rain through an invitation from my friend, Glenn Ginsburg. At that time, there was just over 2,000 members.  You couldn't customize your profile, no one was in the forum at all and there were not many ways to organize anything. Fast forward to December 2006.

Now there is nearly 11,000 members.  While groups are still labeled "beta", I'm sure they are here to stay. I haven't been around much at all for the last month.  We're in the process of selling a rental property in Green Valley, remodeling and making preparations for our annual holiday trips.  I'm glad to see some new faces on the featured blogs.  Its always good to get some fresh blood to mix things up.  There are so many new features I'm still finding them. Now if you want to be a lurker, yet still have a profile you may.

But before you do, consider this.  Active Rain is all about networking and getting exposure on the internet. Even though I haven't put up too many new posts in the last month, I'm starting to see comments from non-members. Googling our main market term of Las Vegas real estate, you'll see Jacqui's Active Rain profile show up on page 2 of the results...after joining six months ago. There is a caveat that goes with that, I've also spent quite a bit of time and effort promoting the profile. Here, you get out of it what you put in.

I still have a few things I would like to see happen here.  Some are minor upgrades (tell that to the programers!), others are going to be a lot more work.  If you missed my Squidoo post, one of the cool things on that site is the module addition. When I created a Las Vegas real estate profile there, I also made a realtors group. You create a profile, much like you do here on AR, but you have things (modules) you can simply plug into the page. Its one of the major upgrades I would love to see.  Instead of everyone having the same thing (although, granted you can rename the sections), you could customize your profile to have just one section or many. Say you have a Flickr account, you could plug it into to your profile to show your pictures. Very handy, if say, you are a home stager. Add an RSS feed from your AR blog to your profile page, or add another feed. Add a quick poll to track current market conditions or to gain feedback about a new feature or service. Pull interest rate data to display it in real time. An automatic google map tie in to your profile address. Or even better, how about being able to add a video greeting or promotional video through a youtube account?  Right now you can do some of these things, it just takes a bit of work.

Down the road I can envision the power of having a profile here, not only in the serps but through direct consumer connections. If not "modules" per say, perhaps additional profile pages. Be able to have a page for testimonials, or additional profile pages for each city you service. Just a thought. What does everyone else think? -Charles

Today when Jacqui was signing into the Las Vegas MLS access site, she got a pleasant surprise.  A free upgrade to mlx professional. Basically its a customizable 3rd level domain off of the main site. You get to pick your site "name", so after several attempts I finally found one I liked. I wanted Las Vegas real estate, which I finally got a combination of. There are roughly half a dozen different templates you can choose from.

The site allows you to add your own text on the "home" page of the site and automatically pulls your listing data from the mls and adds it to the my listings page.  You can also create individual web pages for clients that contact you looking for property. And of course, consumers may search the MLS by property type, whether residential, commercial, land, rentals, etc.

The site makes a nice plugin for mls access from another site, but as a main site its just not customizable enough. You can enter in your regular contact information, including a cellular/mobile web device email account. It also eliminates the need to pay for additional mls search capabilities. I just started playing with it, but am planning on integrating it into the main website as an alternate MLS search option. Right now, consumers must sign up for an account or they can't get access. I'm curious to see if the amount of contacts goes up or down after I integrate it. -Charles