ARE YOU KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH AMC IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD?

Please allow me to take this opportunity to throw out a few words about Social Media.

Now I have to admit a secret here and tell you- I am not a particularly social guy! However, I do read a lot of online articles about current events that shape our market, and I do have some interests that I think may be fun for my friends to read. So I think there is a place for a person like me who likes to communicate in writing and has some opinions that he doesn’t mind sharing!

I went to a couple of Social Media presentations, and Marsha attended the SOCON convention here in Atlanta, and I subscribed to Mashable ( a must if you want to understand Social Media), and I have learned a great deal about Social Media, and how it works.

Here is what I have learned so far.

First, there are many, many social media outlets to choose from, but only 4 that really make a difference right now. I say “right now” because in this online world, the rate of change has really accelerated! Here they are:

Linked In- This is an important tool. Why? Because it lets you know who you are linked to that may be linked to others you want to meet! (I say this knowing that my competitors are reading this with a light bulb going off in their heads right now). First, send the Linked In invites to everyone in your address book- that’s right, everyone! You will be surprised to find out that people you know are “linked” to someone you want to know, and Linked In lets you know that! I will talk about the second phase after I do it.

Are you "Linked" to AMC?

Blog- yes, I said it- BLOG! This is so easy to do. Are you producing a newsletter? Then all you have to do is put it in your blog. The experts say you should blog every two week. This coincides nicely with the frequency of a newsletter. The blog should ideally contain only your thoughts, not a cut and paste of someone else’s thoughts. Blogging is free and easy. Link your blog site to your website. More later.

Are You Reading AMC's BLOG Postings?

Facebook- it’s the one I am worst at. Some say to keep business matters out of it entirely. I was an early pioneer in a revolutionary concept called “email” back in the early 90’s and I cant tell you the number of times I got “flamed” for talking about business in email blasts to my own lists of voluntary subscribers. You see, email at that time was only intended for pure esoteric talk about science and academics etc. How THAT has changed! My point is that, as with all media, the traffic keeps changing. Right now we have a “fan page” for our business as well as my personal Facebook page. I still don’t quite “get” Facebook but we use it.

"LIKE" AMC on Facebook!

Twitter- I read in Mashable the other day that only .05% of all Twitter posts account for well over 50% of all Twitter consumption. In other words, if your name isn’t Justin Bieber or Charlie Sheen, your tweet is likely only a lone voice in the wilderness. Then you read stories about people like Gilbert Gottfried and others getting fired for indiscriminate “tweets” and you wonder whether its worth it! But you need to keep in mind that the online world is developing and changing at electron-speed, so I strongly recommend that you learn to tweet! The rule is 140 characters. If you like to tweet about something you read online, go to Bitly.com, it shortens long links to a few characters, I know not how.

Are you "FOLLOWING" AMC?

All of these activities can be linked to your website. Are some of them “fads”? Perhaps. But they will lead to new things, and having a grasp of them will give you a leg up on “the next big thing”!

Jeb Howell

Elements of a Successful Auction

There are many elements required in order for an auction to be successful. These include strong demand, motivated seller, adequate information for a buying decision, an ability to sell at the current market price, and the ability to promote adequately in the marketplace. Not all elements must be present for an auction to be successful, but some combination of these elements must be present. We will address these elements one by one.

Strong Demand

The greatest source of frustration for real estate auctioneers is the perception on the part of many sellers that the only properties they want to consider for auction are those for which there has been absolutely no interest in the course of ordinary brokerage activities. Sometimes, this misperception is even fueled by real estate listing brokers, who may hold the belief that allowing bidders to competitively set the price on a high demand property does not maximize the seller’s revenues.

In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. It is no accident that the highest prices attained for such diverse assets as fine art, collectibles, Treasury securities, cattle, firearms, and many other asset categories are attained at auction. Whenever we have had the opportunity to sell assets with high demand, we have always outperformed ordinary brokerage prices. Examples include a house we sold for a prominent bankruptcy for $1.05 million where the highest price previously paid in the neighborhood was $400,000, and an industrial building we sold for $2.75 million, over $10/sf higher than any previous sales in the park. Both were cases where the demand proved to be high, and where ordinary brokerage practice would have been to set an asking price based upon “comps” which would have resulted in far lower sales prices. There are many similar examples of this.

If an asset has high demand, an auction will yield the highest possible price, since there is no subjectively determined asking price setting the upper limit.

We love doing auctions of high demand assets. It's where we can really shine!