Daily Archives: May 24, 2013

Bedford NY Luxury Market Inventory Report | RobReportBlog

5/22/13

Bedford NY Area Luxury Real Estate Market Report

Over $2,000,000
Homes for Sale165
Homes Sold (6 Mos.)27
Homes in CC, pending, sold44
Inventory- sold36.66 months
Inventory- sold, cc, pending22.51 months

 

 

Bedford NY Luxury Market Inventory Report | RobReportBlog.

Pound Ridge NY Weekly Real Estate Report | RobReportBlog

Pound Ridge NY Weekly Real Estate Report

5/23/2013
Homes for sale
88
Median Ask Price$1,045,000.00
Low Price$285,000.00
High Price$4,250,000.00
Average Size3903
Average Price/foot$354.00
Average DOM119
Average Ask Price$1,357,334.00

 

 

Pound Ridge NY Weekly Real Estate Report | RobReportBlog.

Jobless claims inch down | Cross River NY Real Estate

Jobless claims in the U.S. reversed back down, falling by 23,000 filings for the week ending May 18 and hitting 340,000 total claims.

This slight increase comes after last week’s revised figure of 363,000, according to the Department of Labor

The four-week moving average was 339,500, a drop of 500 filings from the previous week.

Analysts with Econoday said there have been a few bright spots on the outlook for May’s economic data.

“This report is definitely a strong positive for the employment outlook. Whether this correlates with gains for the Dow is uncertain given the possibility, following yesterday’s hawkish sounding FOMC minutes, that strong data could begin to trigger withdrawal of Federal Reserve stimulus,” Econoday said.

 

Jobless claims inch down | HousingWire.

Some say housing may not lead the recovery | South Salem Real Estate

Robert Shiller, Karl Case and David Blitzer — leading experts in the housing market — believe several headwinds will keep a lid on housing gains, such as a low level of new home starts, an unexpectedly slow migration of so-called shadow inventory onto the market, and difficulty for buyers to secure financing, writes NBC News.

Yale University economist Shiller said:

“You’ve got a lot of breathless commentary in the media. All this talk that we’re in this great recovery—we probably are in the short run, the longer run doesn’t look so terrific to me.”

 

Some say housing may not lead the recovery | HousingWire.

Barbara Corcoran: From waitress to real estate queen | Waccabuc Real Estate

HOW10 barbara corcoran

Corcoran in her New York City apartment

(Fortune)

Barbara Corcoran’s story would make perfect fodder for movies or TV: A diner waitress with moxie takes a $1,000 loan, uses it to build the first woman-owned real estate firm in New York City, and rises to the top of residential real estate in the city before selling her firm, the Corcoran Group, for $66 million in 2001. Sure enough, the woman who once owned 14 red suits — her visual trademark — eventually found her way to the small screen, with regular roles on the Today show and Shark Tank, a reality hunt for entrepreneurial talent. Her bestselling books share business advice, and today Corcoran, 64, who was once too terrified to speak in public, enjoys giving motivational talks. Her story:

I grew up in Edgewater, N.J., the second oldest of 10 kids, and even though it was a very poor town, I thought we were the Kennedys because my father wore a suit to work. He was a printing-press foreman, and my mother was a housewife.


I went to Catholic school, and it was an accomplishment for me to make straight D’s. I say this because there’s always a dumb kid in school who thinks grades have something to do with what you end up doing in life. They don’t. It’s street smarts that helped me succeed. I had 20 jobs before I graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas College in 1971, doing everything from selling hot dogs to being an orphanage housemother in my senior year.

Barbara Corcoran: From waitress to real estate queen – May. 23, 2013.

New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez sells Florida mansion for $30M | Bedford Hills Real Estate

Injured Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez already rakes in more dough than any player in baseball, earning $30 million a year for playing — or, this year, not playing — like a shell of his former self. And as it turns out, A-Rod also has a pretty good real estate racket going, too.

According to TMZ, the 37-year-old Rodriguez, who has been on the disabled list all season following January hip surgery, recently sold his nearly-20,000 square foot Miami mansion for a whopping $30 million, netting himself a profit of $15 million.

Rodriguez reportedly purchased the sprawling estate for $7.4 million in 2010. Then after putting in $7.6 million into renovating it, Rodriguez listed the nine-bedroom, 11-bath palace for $38 million in August. (It’s a shame he had to settle for such a lowball offer.)

Here are a few photos, via TMZ, of what you could have gotten for the equivalent of one year of A-Rod’s salary:

    

It’s currently not known who the buyer is — TMZ says it’s a celebrity from Palm Beach — butaccording to the New York Daily News, Rodriguez had been renting the home for more than $125,000 a month before settling on the $30 million purchase offer.

 

Report: New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez sells Florida mansion for $30M – MLB News | FOX Sports on MSN.

Offers remain high even in depreciating markets | Pound Ridge Real Estate

Forty-one percent of buyers surveyed by Redfin said today’s low inventory has caused them to consider paying more for a home in the second quarter of 2013. This is up from 34% of survey respondents in the first quarter and 26% in the fourth quarter of 2012.

As someone who was looking to buy a home in this crazy North Texas market where prices continue to appreciate, I can attest to feeling the need to offer over list price. In fact, on the second home my husband and I put an offer on, we offered nearly $4,000 more than the original listing price of $214,000. This was only to find out that the home ended up selling for $225,000… another $5,000 on top of our offer. 

But what about the markets where prices are still depreciating?

According to the April Trulia Price Monitor, Honolulu, HI, New York, NY and Rochester, NY, also saw a decrease in the seasonally adjusted asking prices year-over-year. So are offers going in above listing price in these markets as well? 

Patrick Hastings, a broker/associate at RE/MAX Plus in Rochester, NY, says the market is surprisingly stable. 

Hastings said buyers are still going over the listing price on homes from time to time in multiple offer situations. In the good neighborhoods, there is still pent up demand, says Hastings. 

Patti West, an agent in Manhattan, said she is definitely still seeing offers come in at or above listing price.

It depends on the property, West said, because there are so many variables: how it’s priced to begin with, if it’s priced right to begin with, etc. 

There are some who still try to negotiate, but it depends on what the property is. For instance, condos are a bit more money, so they’re going in at asking or above listing price, while co-ops are a little bit more negotiable, according to West. 

So it seems that even in markets that are still depreciating, demand remains high. This only raises the question: at what point will that depreciation turn into appreciation? We’re going to guess soon.

 

Offers remain high even in depreciating markets | REwired.

Two Ways to Motivate Employees to Do Content Marketing | Bedford Corners Real Estate

By Definition a Social Business Creates a Lot of Content

In order for most businesses to create a lot of high quality content, employee participation is necessary. I’ve said many times, no marketing department is big enough to produce all the content it needs. Additionally, consider that in most businesses the marketing team is not comprised of domain experts.

Here’s what Forrester Research says on this topic: “Today’s B2B buyer will find three pieces of content about a vendor for every one piece that marketing can publish or sales can deliver. They are finding this content in an ever-expanding number and variety of channels.” Read the full article here.

The way I see it, there are two primary methods to harness employee involvement in a social business. One involves a carrot and one involves a stick.

The Stick

You could mandate employees to contribute content. Revise the company policy to require employees who meet a domain expert criteria to contribute original content. Non-compliance with this policy could be cause for termination. If you’re going to take this approach, my recommendation is to provide employees ample resources to fulfill their obligation. For example, the marketing team should deliver a well planned communication plan explaining the virtues of a content marketing strategy to the business. Ideally, the CEO should have a hand in this plan with an endorsement of the strategy. This communication plan should serve to inspire employees to participate in the content production process by offering them choices of topics and content formats.

The marketing team should publish an editorial calendar with topics where employees can “sign up” to contribute content. Most importantly, the marketing team should provide an easy-to-comply-with process that allows content production to be painless to the employee. For example, offer to interview employees with a video camera so the interview will be recorded, edited and produced into high quality content by the marketing team. The marketing team should repurpose the video into other content formats such as a white paper or blog post. By allowing the employee to painlessly share her domain expertise through an interview format, you take away the heavy lifting from the employee. The result can be high quality content from domain experts. This approach mitigates the biggest objections from employees who are asked to contribute content: “I don’t have time,” or “I hate to write.”

The Carrot

The carrot approach does not threaten employees with termination if they don’t comply with company policy;“thou shalt contribute content.” Rather, this approach provides employees considerable recognition and reward for their contribution. The same methods described above can be used for the production of content. The difference is that psychology plays a much bigger role. Rather than requiring employees to contribute, you inspire employees so that they want to contribute for the recognition they receive and the sense of contribution to the overall good of the business. Such recognition can bolster their morale, their ego and even their resume. Don’t hesitate to promote the positive impact on the employee’s resume. When you implement programs that help an employee build their career currency, their loyalty to the employer strengthens considerably. Employees talk among themselves about many aspects of their employment. The carrot approach to content marketing participation fuels positive word of mouth for your brand. The improved loyalty also helps in your recruiting efforts.

Another approach is to start out with the stick approach and over a span of time transition to the carrot approach. Once employees beging to enjoy recognition for their content among their peers and even within industry circles, they understand the value of personal branding. Even more remarkable is the appreciation by the employee for the opportunity to build their personal brand under the umbrella of the corporate brand. I call this the halo effect.

The Content Marketing End Game

Reaching your target consumer and earning their trust is influenced less by the brand’s ability to engage him. Rather, it is influenced more by P2P content marketing. In people-to-people content marketing real people who work for a brand engage with real people who might be a customer, a prospective future customer, influencer or future employee. Considering that the C suite is not likely to double or triple the marketing department’s staff size, the only option to produce the content needed to reach target customers is to tap into the inherent assets in the employee population. Personally, I prefer the carrot approach. But, each company is unique. Whichever method works best in your business the important thing is that you recognize the authenticity of P2P content marketing and the economics of leveraging the content marketing potential of employees.

 

 

Two Ways to Motivate Employees to Do Content Marketing | Find and Convert.

Luxury Prices Lag Lower Price Tiers | Armonk NY Homes

For nearly two months, through the heart of the spring buying season, the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing’s Market Action Index has stayed stuck at 29, one point below the official level designating a seller’s market.

Meanwhile lower priced homes have risen. The national median price on Realtor.com for all price tiers is up 2.63 percent in April over March and other listing-based market reports registered similar gains as slim inventories and a robust buying season combined to fuel the recovery. While the average price for ILHM’s market profile has risen to $1,266,086 through May 16, it’s only 1.6 percent above the ILHM average at the end of March.

Compared to lower price tiers, luxury demand is much weaker. Inventories in ILHM’s profile have increased 7.3 percent since the end of March, typical for this time of year and in line with monthly increases in the overall national inventory. However, time on market, which measures the balance between supply and demand, has been stuck on neutral like ILHM’s market index. The average days on market for luxury homes is 184 days, unchanged in six weeks. The median age of inventory on Realtor.com, however, was 81 days at the end of April, down 2.41 percent from March.

However, in the hottest markets in the nation, luxury sales have been doing as well as lower priced homes. In Denver, one of the best markets in the nation for all price tiers, luxury home sales skyrocketed in April, with sales of homes priced at $1 million or more rising almost 142 percent from April 2012, according to independent broker Gary Bauer. For luxury homes priced at $1 million or more, there were 87 single-family home sales in April, a 141.7 percent jump from the 36 in April 2012, according to the report based on Metrolist data.

Luxury home values increased in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego in the first quarter of 2013 compared to a year ago, according to the First Republic Prestige Home Index by First Republic Bank. San Francisco Bay Area values jumped 8.7 percent from the first quarter of 2012 and 3.2 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012. The average luxury home in San Francisco is $2.82 million. Los Angeles area values rose 7.1 percent from the first quarter a year ago and 1.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012. The average luxury home in Los Angeles is $2.1 million.

 

RealEstateEconomyWatch.com » Luxury Prices Lag Lower Price Tiers » Print.