1. Election Day by the Numbers
On Behalf of HAR’s Governmental Affairs team, thank you for casting your vote in last Tuesday’s elections. Many Houston City Council races have resulted in runoff elections, which will take place in December (date to be determined – HAR will keep you posted). Here is a recap of the election results:

2. Election Day by the Numbers (cont’d)
City of Houston (cont’d): The Woodlands Township:

3. HAR Tool of the Week Member Blogs
REALTORS® are becoming more creative in their online marketing efforts to engage new clients and market the properties they have for sale. These avenues include social networking sites and personal blogs. If you haven’t already, consider starting a blog to help build your image as an expert in your particular market.
Here are a few ways blogging can help real estate agents:
Position yourself and your company as the thought leader of your business.
Have a more personal relationship with your customers.
Be the knowledge source.
Rank highly in search engines. Google and other search engines reward sites that are updated often, that link to other sites and most importantly, that have many inbound links.
For more information about HAR Member Blogs, go to

4. Weekly HAR Market Stat
Most analysts agree that we are not in the midst of inflating another housing bubble. Instead, we are sometimes seeing seemingly dramatic price and sales increases, but off of artificially low baseline levels. Private equity firms and first-time buyers have bought up a lot of inventory, while some sellers await further price recovery. Credit remains available but not abundant, so lenders are avoiding the facilitation of another bubble. Default rates and foreclosure activity are at multiyear lows. As of now, the housing recovery is intact.
In the Houston region, for the week ending November 3:
• New Listings decreased 4.3% to 1,694
• Pending Sales increased 24.2% to 1,571
• Closed Sales increased 10.8% to 1,821

5. Open Your Mind to Learning
Top Five Ways to Create Profitable Lifetime Client Relationships
Just imagine if you delivered more amazing service than anybody else in the Houston real
estate market. New clients were clamoring to work with you because their friends and family
told them there was NO other choice but to work with the best REALTOR® in town – YOU!
In this exciting session taught by Marilyn Wilson of the WAV Group, the industry’s leading
expert on home buyers and sellers, you will learn the best ways to create lifetime client
relationships and raving fans. The session will deliver five practical methods for
providing amazing service to your clients and help you significantly grow your business.
*This course will be viewed using Go2Meeting. Lunch is provided IF you attend in person.
*To take the class remotely, copy and paste this link into your browser to register:
Date: Wednesday, November 13
Time: 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Location: HAR Central
Investment: $10
Questions? ext. 6
Register at