Daily Archives: October 10, 2012

U.S. Mortgage Fraud Initiative Data Included Older Cases | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate

The announcement from the Obama administration was that a yearlong crackdown on mortgage fraud netted charges against 530 suspects in the year ending Sept. 30.

In fact, the list included cases filed as many as two years before U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the initiative began.

Holder said at a news conference in Washington yesterday that the initiative ran from Oct. 1, 2011 to Sept. 30, 2012 and resulted in “285 federal criminal indictments and informations against 530 defendants for allegedly victimizing more than 73,000 American homeowners — and inflicting losses in excess of $1 billion.”

A sampling of cases incorporated in the data Holder cited shows those numbers include cases filed as early as 2009.

Cases filed before the start of the initiative were included because some type of “law enforcement action” occurred during the yearlong period, according to William Carter, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Those actions could include indictments, convictions and sentencings, he said.

“There is no attempt to fudge the numbers or make it look like it was a bigger problem than it was,” Carter said. “Through our intelligence, we saw this as a rising problem and we’re trying to get ahead of it.”

The “Distressed Homeowner Initiative” was spearheaded by the FBI, which began to recognize a sharp increase in frauds aimed at struggling homeowners in the years following of the 2008 housing crisis, Kevin Perkins, the FBI’s associate deputy director, said at yesterday’s news conference.

FBI Survey

The information used to compile the results from the initiative came from an FBI survey of the agencies involved in the Mortgage Fraud Working Group.

The Justice Department didn’t provide a list of the 285 cases. Of 11 cases touted by individual U.S. attorney offices as being part of the initiative, six were filed in 2009 and 2010. Another two were filed before October 1, 2011, the date cited by Holder as the start of the fraud crackdown.

One fraudulent loan case against operators of a mortgage brokerage, an attorney and legal staffer was filed in Trenton, New Jersey, on July 20, 2009.

Charges against one of the defendants in the case were dismissed two years ago. Four others pleaded guilty this year to assorted charges including wire-fraud conspiracy and tax evasion. Another defendant was convicted at trial in March of conspiracy and money laundering.

In a case involving falsified loan documents in Washington, the defendant pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge about two weeks before the initiative began. She was sentenced to 40 months in prison in January.

Politics Denied

Holder said yesterday that the timing of the announcement, less than a month from the 2012 presidential election, had nothing to do with politics.

“The notion that this is a campaign event — I mean, there’s a logical break,” Holder said. “This thing started with the fiscal year last year and ends with the fiscal year September 30. So we’re now reporting on what happened over the past fiscal year. That’s what this is all about.”

Adora Andy, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, didn’t respond to e-mail and telephone requests for comment.

The press conference yesterday was meant to draw attention to the issue that has become a growing problem on the FBI’s radar, Carter said.

“We want to get the word out to the public that these fraudsters are out there,” he said.

Desperate Targeted

The FBI also released a public service announcement with Tim DeKay, an actor from the television series “White Collar,” warning about fraud schemes “that target Americans desperate to modify loans and avoid mortgage foreclosures.”

In 2010, fewer than four percent of the FBI’s mortgage fraud cases involved distressed homeowner fraud, Perkins said at the press conference. This year that number has risen to 20 percent.

As President Barack Obama’s administration rolled out plans aimed at increasing mortgage modifications to keep people in their homes, the number of fraud schemes targeting those same homeowners began to increase, Shaun Donovan, the Housing and Urban Development Department secretary, said yesterday at the press conference.

Typical schemes involved promises to homeowners that foreclosures could be prevented by payment of a fee. As part of the scams, “investors” purchase the mortgage or the titles of homes are transferred to those taking part in the fraud, resulting in homeowners losing their property.

BofA mortgage workforce swells even as it tightens belt | Bedford NY Real Estate


Tourists walk past a Bank of America banking center in Times Square in New York June 22, 2012. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

The Bank of America Corp unit that handles troubled home loans has grown more than tenfold since the bank bought ailing mortgage lender Countrywide Financial in 2008, documents obtained by Reuters show, shining new light on the scale of the clean-up the purchase entailed.

While most attention has focused on the No. 2 U.S. bank’s $35 billion in mortgage losses stemming from settlements and repurchases of soured home loans, information the bank provided to the Federal Reserve in 2008 and recent company reports show the mortgage mess could undermine efforts to improve profits for some time to come.

Bank of America now employs some 42,000 people – or nearly 1 in 6 of its 275,000 employees – in Legacy Asset Servicing, the unit that services problem mortgages. Operating costs in the mortgage servicing business reached $2.7 billion in the second quarter, up 29 percent from a year ago, as the bank added 7,000 workers to handle foreclosure reviews and loan modifications required under government settlements.

The bank has also had as many as 16,000 additional contractors working in the unit, according to company reports.

In 2008, as Bank of America was seeking regulatory approval for the Countrywide deal, it told the Fed the two companies had a combined 3,900 employees working on “housing retention,” a number that had already doubled in the previous year, according to the documents, which were obtained by Reuters through a Freedom of Information request.

That is not a direct comparison to the 42,000 full-time employees in the mortgage servicing unit now, as it has been restructured over time to include servicing for borrowers who have not defaulted. But default servicing is the largest team within the group, and its overall staffing levels are a good proxy to show how much the bank has had to ramp up to deal with the mess.

The hiring has come as the bank has set out to eliminate 30,000 consumer banking and technology jobs under a program called Project New BAC to cut $8 billion in annual expenses by the middle of 2015. It means that while 20,000 jobs have been eliminated in the past year, the overall headcount is down by only 13,000.

Despite the hiring and spending, Bank of America recently ranked last among five big lenders in modifying mortgages. Like some of its peers, borrowers and consumer advocates have repeatedly accused the bank of losing borrower paperwork, speeding up foreclosures and giving homeowners the runaround when they try to get their loan payments reduced.

Reining in these cleanup costs will be critical to financial performance over the next couple of years, as the bank retools to offset reductions in revenue due to new regulations, a tepid economy and low interest rates.

The $2.7 billion in operating expenses equaled 15 percent of Bank of America’s noninterest expense in the second quarter. It is also more than five times as high as the $500 million per quarter that CEO Brian Moynihan has projected the bank could spend on servicing in times of more normal delinquencies. The figure doesn’t include mortgage-related litigation expenses.

“This is perhaps the biggest earnings lever they have,” said KBW analyst Jefferson Harralson.

Investors will get an update on its costs when the bank reports third-quarter earnings on Oct 17. It is likely to post a small loss after reaching a $2.4 billion settlement of allegations that it failed to disclose bonus payments and ballooning losses ahead of its 2009 Merrill Lynch acquisition, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Bank of America spokesman Dan Frahm said the bank has invested heavily in its Legacy Asset Servicing unit to assist customers, boost the housing market and help the company move forward after the Countrywide acquisition.

“We will not sacrifice service to our customers in need of assistance,” Frahm said, adding that the team has helped more than 1.4 million mortgage customers avoid foreclosure.

“As the economy improves and we continue to resolve customer needs, we will further reduce the number of delinquent loans to service and the size of the Legacy Asset Servicing organization will be reduced,” he said.

The unit was designed as a “temporary solution to address specific needs” and was built up using contractors and vendors so the bank could eventually reduce it in size, he said.

‘TOO EARLY TO SCALE BACK’

For now, though, the bank is struggling to bring the problem under control.

Moynihan said in October 2011 that mortgage servicing had peaked, but expenses have climbed since then. In May, he told investors the costs should start coming down in the second half of this year, but then in July he said “meaningful” improvement would not begin until the end of this year or early in 2013.

Last month, Chief Financial Officer Bruce Thompson said at an investor conference that lower costs for servicing are “going to be very much in the future.”

The bank has underestimated the extent of problems at the business in the past, the Fed documents show.

In May 2008, the bank said it planned to maintain the “historically high staffing levels” for at least a year after the deal closed, according to the documents.

Despite ramping up staffing, Bank of America has fallen behind rivals in meeting terms of a $25 billion pact finalized in April with state and federal officials.

As of June 30, the bank had not modified any first-lien mortgages under the national mortgage settlement, according to a report issued by monitor Joseph Smith. The other four lenders in the settlement had completed some modifications.

The agreement requires banks to pay penalties over foreclosure-related errors, modify mortgages by reducing principal owed and refinance loans for customers whose mortgages are worth more than their homes. Bank of America owes the most: $11.8 billion in payments and consumer assistance.

Bank of America has called Smith’s report an “early snapshot” and has said it has made significant progress since June 30, completing nearly $600 million in loan modification as of August 21. The bank has said it plans to meet conditions of the settlement.

“It’s clearly too early to scale back because they haven’t even scaled up to meet all of the obligations that have been imposed on them,” said Stella Adams, director of the National Fair Housing Training Academy, which provides fair housing and civil rights training to government agencies, industry officials and others.

Future of old NY amusement park to be discussed | Bedford Corners Real Estate

Drastic changes may be in store for Playland, the landmarked, county-owned amusement park just north of New York City.

Westchester County Executive Robert Astorino says he will have a major announcement Thursday about the park’s future.

Astorino has complained that Playland is losing more money than taxpayers should have to cover. He said last year that closing the park could save $2 million a year. He invited developers to propose ways to “reinvent” the park.

A citizens’ committee reviewed the proposals and submitted a report to Astorino a year ago.

Playland, a National Historic Landmark in Rye, opened in 1928 and was featured in the 1988 Tom Hanks film “Big.” Among its famous old rides are the wooden “Dragon” roller coaster and a high-speed carousel.

California foreclosures fall, reducing housing market’s shadow inventory | Pound Ridge Real Estate

In another positive sign for the housing market, the nation’s so-called shadow inventory of properties in the foreclosure pipeline fell by more than 10 percent in July from the same period a year before, CoreLogic reported Tuesday.

The tracking firm in Irvine, Calif., said the number of housing units in jeopardy of foreclosure — or that lenders have repossessed but not yet listed for sale — dropped to 2.3 million this July from 2.6 million a year earlier.

“This is yet another hopeful sign that the housing market is slowly healing,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic.

The report should be welcome news for homeowners worried that a wave of foreclosure sales might further depress housing values.

The real estate market generally has been on the path toward recovery this year, with home prices pressed upward by the low inventory of homes for sale and by record-low 30-year mortgage rates, now below 4 percent.

Experts have pointed to the shadow inventory as a potential threat to the fledgling upturn. Large numbers of foreclosed homes hitting the market could drive prices down.

The improving economy and alternatives to foreclosure, including short sales and loan modifications, have helped prevent homes from becoming part of the shadow inventory.

CoreLogic s calculates the shadow inventory by adding the number of homes in foreclosure and those that are bank-owned but not yet for sale. Homes where

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owners are 90 days or more past due on their payments also are included.

All told, the shadow inventory in the United States was worth about $382 billion as of July, the firm estimated. That’s down from $397 billion a year ago, it said.

Forty-five percent of all distressed properties are in five states: California, Florida, Illinois, New York and New Jersey, CoreLogic reported.

Housing Is Bright Spot In Beige Book | Chappaqua Real Estate

The housing market showed broad improvement as the economy continued to expand modestly in late August and September, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday.

The Fed’s “beige book” report reinforced a host of recent data suggesting the housing market’s recovery is picking up steam. The report, which is based on anecdotes from business contacts and economists, said existing-home sales strengthened in all 12 Fed districts, while selling prices rose or held steady.

In general, the Fed noted that economic activity “generally expanded modestly” since its last report, with consumer spending inching up or staying level.

Some districts noted that uncertainty over the presidential election, the U.S. budget outlook and the European sovereign-debt crisis were keeping some employers from hiring.

The economic snapshot was prepared by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York based on information gathered on or before Sept. 28 and will be used for discussions at the Fed’s next policy meeting, Oct. 23 and 24.

The beige book observed that “residential real estate showed widespread improvement since the last report.” That is in line with data showing a nascent firming in a sector once rocked by the collapse in housing prices and the recession. Sales of previously occupied homes reached their highest level in more than two years in August, the National Association of Realtors said last month.

The Fed noted that shrinking inventories of houses helped push up prices in some districts. Some regions saw robust growth in the construction of multi-family units. The commercial real-estate market was “mixed,” with some softening in the office market.

At its policy meeting in September, the Fed took action to boost the housing market. The central bank launched a bond-buying program, under which it will purchase an additional $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities each month until the labor market significantly improves. The Fed opted to buy mortgage-backed securities to help put downward pressure on mortgage interest rates.

Some districts reported that retail sales were being held back by rising gasoline prices, political uncertainty and “concerns about the fiscal cliff.” That is a reference to the package of tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to simultaneously take effect at the start of 2013 unless Congress reaches a deal to avert them. Manufacturing conditions were mixed, but “somewhat improved,” while tourism remained steady at “robust levels.”

The Fed found price pressures were contained.

Rules of Thumb for Estimating Apartment Utility Costs | North Salem Realtor

Utilities are a hidden cost: You know you’ll need to plan for them, but when you’re looking for an apartment, they’re not at the top of your mind. So, before you sign that lease, make sure you can pay all your rental expenses, not just rent. It won’t be much fun to sit in a cold apartment, hunting for a neighbor’s unsecured Internet connection, because you forgot to budget for utilities.

Here are some rough rules of thumb for estimating how much you should expect to pay for various utilities:

Electricity

During winter months, or if you don’t use air conditioning, expect to pay $30-$50 a month for electricity. A lot of your bill will simply depend on how much you’re home, how much you watch television (tube TVs are big electricity drains), how efficient your refrigerator is and how careful you are about turning off lights.

Air conditioning

On average, expect to pay about $250-$300 per year for air conditioning. That said, air conditioning isn’t an evenly-distributed expense: Most people only use it about three to five months a year. And, in some places, like Minnesota or Maine, you may only use it a few times a summer, which makes it a much smaller expense.

If you live in a place with average weather, you’ll be running your A/C May-September and spending about $50-$80 a month extra on your electric bill. However, if you live in a really hot place, like Phoenix or Dallas, you’re going to be paying a lot more per month, for more months — $80-$90 a month (plus regular electricity costs), for eight months a year. So keep that in mind. Your silver lining is that you don’t have to worry much about heating costs.

Heat

If you are in a multi-unit building with radiators, there will almost certainly be no extra charge for heat. The landlord will pay the building’s heating bill in total and build that cost into the rent. However, if you and some friends team up and rent a house, you’ll be on the hook for keeping an oil burner going for heat and hot water, which could cost more than $300 a month. If you have gas or forced-air heating expect to pay at least $100 a month in the deep winter, though the cost can vary. One good way to find out what to expect is simply to ask the landlord or a previous tenant.

Cooking gas

In some buildings, if you have a gas range, you’ll have to pay for the natural gas that you use during cooking. (And in some buildings, the natural gas will also provide your heat.) With cooking, the cost is minimal — $15 a month at most, usually quite a lot less. It really all depends how much you cook at home.

Internet

Monthly, expect to pay about $45. Keep in mind that you can split the cost with as many other people as are using your connection, so if you have two roommates, that’s only $15 a person per month. The other thing to consider is bundling your Internet with your cable. You can often get a deal that way, if you decide you want cable.

Cable

This is an optional expense. With the new high-definition televisions, and their digital antennae, it’s easy to get great reception on network TV, and then you can use online streaming services for the rest of your needs. This will cost you about $20 a month, if you subscribe to two services.

If you want cable, look for a deal. They come along frequently and can save you some money. But be careful; companies often have add-ons like free premium channels for three months, which will then be charged to your account if you don’t cancel when the preliminary deal expires. So make sure to keep an eye on your account, so you know what you’re being charged for. While it’s nice to have cable, and you can usually find introductory deals that include cable and Internet for about $90 a month, it’s still a lot of money compared to using a streaming service or two for about $20 a month.

Renter’s insurance

Finally, always get renter’s insurance. You never know what may happen, and it’s very affordable, at only about $150 a year. If your apartment is burglarized, you’ll be very thankful you have it.

Total bill

If you skip the cable, your total utilities cost comes to roughly $200 a month. Keep in mind, though, that this is for the rental as a whole — if you have roommates, divide by the number of people living in the unit. Of course, if you have a very large apartment (say for four people or more) or you are renting a house, the heat, electricity and A/C will be higher, so add 20-30 percent to the estimate, and then divide.

As a rough rule of thumb, expect to spend on utilities an amount equal to about 20 percent of your monthly rent if you live alone, or about 10 percent of your monthly rent if you live with roommates.

via zillow.com

Bundle Services to Save Big | Mount Kisco Realtor

In these tough economic times, perhaps you’re thinking about bundling some of your household services? And rightly so — it’s easy, convenient and could save you, well, a bundle.

Telecom services

You can typically get a discount on your phone, Internet and cable services when you bundle all three with one provider (which is why 1 in 3 surveyed Consumer Reports readers do it) and sign a one- or two-year contract, but you always need price it out individually, a la carte, just in case. To find out which company is offering the best service bundle in your area, go to lowermybills.com.

Banking services

As you are fully aware, many financial institutions are tacking fees on formerly free checking accounts. One way around this is to bundle: Sign up for other services that banks offer — such as direct deposit, online bill pay, etc. Having multiple accounts with one bank — and having a lot of money in them, combined (!) — is another way to dodge those pesky fees.

Insurance policies

Many insurance companies offer discounts if you buy at least two policies from them. Bundle your home and car policies, for example (a typical combination), and you could save as much as 25 percent.

Moving services

Did you see our recent study on moving habits? Among other interesting factoids: A whopping 21 percent of all movers spend $10,000 or more as result of their move! Not only is the process of moving expensive, but moving also drives surprise purchases — from electronics to cars! One way to save is to bundle. For example, some storage companies will provide you with a complimentary move if you’re storing with them for a certain number of months (and there may even be room for negotiation if you don’t meet their minimum monthly requirements, but you have to ask). That’s easily a $400-$500 discount.

Should Lifelong Renters Consider Buying a Home? | Waccabuc Realtor

Isra Hashmi is one of the lucky ones.

And even so, she’s watched her mother sink under a $700,000 mortgage for a home in California that she never could afford to begin with on a physician’s income. Hashmi’s mother eventually had to walk away from the house. She’s seen her brother have to abandon his home, too, after his clothing business failed and he was foreclosed on. She stood by a friend who lost tens of thousands of dollars in a short sale when it was the last option to get out of a mortgage that was burying her in debt.

But Hashmi herself has never had to face what her friends, family and millions more Americans have as the crippling housing crisis unfolded. She might be the only one she knows who hasn’t.

That’s because, even at the age of 39, Hashmi has never owned a home — and she may never after seeing what’s happened to everyone around her, she said.

Isra Hamshi and her husband with three children.

A lifelong renter, Hashmi (pictured at left with her husband and three children) is in the minority of Americans who have never taken the plunge into homeownership. (Despite slumping to a 50-year low, the rate of U.S. homeownership was estimated to be 62.1 percent in the second quarter of 2012.) But she’s likely among a majority of lifelong renters who today count themselves blessed or lucky that they’ve never owned a home. These are the few who have made it through the housing crash and resulting foreclosure crisis virtually unscathed.

“I’m still the only one I know who has never owned,” Hashmi told AOL Real Estate.

It’s not that she hasn’t come close. Eight years ago, when Hashmi and her husband lived in Tucson, AZ, they were on the verge of buying a home there.

“It was the middle of the housing boom, and homes were popping up everywhere,” she said.

But when it came time to make an offer, Hashmi’s husband raised a red flag. He realized that the mortgage their bank was offering them was way out of their budget.

“He said, ‘This is freaking me out. I don’t make enough money to afford this,’ ” Hashmi recalled. “He had the sense to realize that we couldn’t afford it. And then we couldn’t understand why we would even be offered this loan.”

Relief when the housing bubble burst

The couple decided against buying. A few years later, the housing crash would hit, as millions defaulted on loans that they couldn’t afford and shouldn’t have been able to qualify for in the first place. Four million people would lose their homes to foreclosure, and more than double that would face the same possibility.

“We looked at each other in relief and said, ‘Do you realize what we just escaped?’ ” Hashmi recalled.

Today, the couple rents an apartment in Boston with their three children, and Hashmi said that they don’t have any plans to buy in the future, even amid record-low mortgage rates and far lower home prices.

Even though renting might have saved people like Hashmi from deep pain as the housing bust took hold, is shying away from buying a home a winning strategy for the future? Not necessarily.

Analysts say buying better financial option

According to Zillow’s breakeven horizon analysis, buying has become a better financial option than renting in 75 percent of U.S. metros, where it takes an average of three years or less of owning a home to break even with what you’d pay in rent over the same time period. (Home prices are down about 30 percent from their peak in 2006.) In Boston, where Hashmi lives, it would take awhile longer to break even: 4.3 years.

Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries said that lifelong renters “have played the smart money for the last five years” by staying out of the buyer’s market, but the fortune in that decision is turning a corner.

He pointed out that historically, over the last century, home prices have risen at an average rate of 0.5 percent to 2 percent per year.

“Despite what’s happened in recent years, housing is generally a non-depreciating asset,” Humphries said. “We think we’ve hit bottom on home values … The steep drops are behind us.”

The renters who avoided catastrophe during the housing slump have a golden opportunity to gain wealth by buying now as home pricesare climbing back, Humphries added.

Gerald Poindexter

Golden opportunity?

That’s an argument that could potentially persuade Gerald Poindexter. The 43-year-old San Diego resident (pictured at right) has been a renter all his life, and he said he felt like he “dodged a bullet” during the housing crisis.

“But never say never,” he said about the possibility of buying a home in the future.

Poindexter said he mostly has stayed away from buying because of the overwhelming responsibility of owning a home.

“Your home starts to dominate every aspect of your life,” he said. “You stay in a job you hate just to keep up with the house.” And when the housing bubble burst, it only affirmed his decision to remain a renter.

But “I love a good deal,” Poindexter said, referring to the deals available because of battered home prices. “If the right opportunity came along, I wouldn’t say no.”

Then again, have longtime renters really survived the housing bust without a scratch? After all, rental prices have soared across the country as ex-homeowners who lost their homes have flooded the rental market.

Rents soar in some key markets

Gary Malin, president of New York City-based realty firm Citi Habitats, has seen some of the worst of it. Rental prices in the market that’s already America’s most expensive have beaten record highs multiple times over the last couple of years.

Still, Malin said, judging whether a renter has gotten off scot-free during the housing crisis depends entirely on individual circumstances.

“If you were in a position to buy at the height of the market but didn’t, then you’re still way ahead of the game,” he said. But if you were only financially capable of paying average rents at the height of the market — when they were much lower than they are now — then today’s surging rental costs are likely hurting your bottom line a lot more, he added.

Hashmi admitted that rising rents have been a struggle for her family. Their rent has gone up every year for the past three years that they’ve been in their Boston apartment. She said they are considering moving outside the city to find cheaper rental rates. But for her, that still doesn’t outweigh the comfort of being free of mortgage debt.

“It’s the most amazing feeling to go to bed at night and be debt-free,” Hashmi said. “There’s nothing else like it.”

5 Ways to Improve Your Facebook Engagement | Cross River Realtor

5 Ways to Improve Your Facebook Engagement

social media how to

Having trouble engaging your Facebook audience?

If your fans are not interacting with your brand and sharing your content, what value are they?

In this article, you’ll discover how to get more likes, comments and shares. I’ll reveal five strategies for Facebook posts that get your fans buzzing.

#2: Don’t Use URL Shorteners

A recent study by Buddy Media found that engagement rates were three times higher for Facebook posts that use a full-length URL, rather than a link generated by a URL shortener like bit.ly.

bad bitly postConverse fans may have liked this post, but how many actually clicked on the link? Generic bit.ly URLs are less likely to drive traffic to your site.

Why is this?

The likely explanation is that Facebook users want to know where you’re taking them. This makes even more sense considering the fact that Facebook users are increasingly accessing the social network exclusively from their mobile devices (20%, or 102 million and growing).

A shortened URL does not indicate what type of website you’re taking them to, which is a deterrent to mobile users.

But didn’t we just learn that longer posts have lower engagement? Yes, but a URL doesn’t seem to count in this instance.

If you’re worried about post length, use a brand-specific URL shortener that lets users know you’re taking them to your website.

For example, Victoria’s Secret uses http://i.victoria.com/wSl instead of this crazy-long link: http://www.victoriassecret.com/shoes/whats-new/studded-suede-pump-betsey-john…

victoriaGet more clicks by using a brand-specific URL shortener. Fans want to know where you’re taking them.

#4: Use the Right Words for Higher Engagement

What you say—or don’t say—on Facebook matters. Certain words elicit more engagement, while others will leave your post dead in the water.

Buddy Media found that action keywords like “post,” “comment,” “take,” “submit,” “like” or “tell us” are the most effective. Be direct in your request, and fans will listen.

macy'sWant your fans to do something? Tell them! Fans respond well to specific instructions.

On the other hand, if you’re running a contest, sweepstakes or other promotional offer, fans don’t respond well to direct or aggressive language.

Softer-sell keywords such as “winner,” “win,” “winning” and “events” will make fans excited rather than feeling like they’re being sold to.

Aggressive promotional keywords like “contest,” “promotion,” “sweepstakes” and “coupon” will turn them off.

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