Monthly Archives: December 2012

Tips for Preparing to Buy in 2013 | Chappaqua Real Estate

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You’ve been saving your pennies for a down payment and watching the housing market news. You see the low interest rates, are confident you’ll own a property for at least five years and know that you’ll be able to find a home that you’ll love within your budget.

You’re finally ready to buy a home in 2013!

Here are a few tips to help you get started.

Get with a lender

First up is going to a bank, direct lender, credit union or mortgage broker to get qualified for a loan. They will run the numbers to set your price range for financing. This will help you in working with a real estate sales professional to determine which areas and types of properties fit within your budget. The lender will also pull a credit report to see if you need to be aware of any credit issues. If necessary, this will give you time to start improving your credit picture to make you the most creditworthy you can be when it comes time to lock your loan rate and terms.

Find a competent real estate agent

You also should look for a real estate agent whom you feel can best represent you. Talk to friends and acquaintances for referrals, and interview at least three agents. Find out how many properties they’ve sold in the past few years, what training they have and whether they work as an agent full time and know the areas where you would like to purchase. Get some references from each one and actually take the time to call those references and see what they thought of the real estate professional’s service level and experience.

Educate, educate, educate

This will most likely be your most complicated, expensive and riskiest purchase of your life. You should talk to friends, family members and possibly a lawyer; read books, articles or take a class. In other words, do everything you can to better understand the real estate buying process and how to make the best home purchase decision.

Shop, shop, shop

Consider all the neighborhoods that fit in your price range. Drive them during the day, at night and on the weekend to get a feel for the areas. Look at the neighbors’ properties, any retail spaces nearby and check online neighborhood ratings, crime reports and school ratings. Learn all you can about where you are going to be a real estate owner.

With a price range from your lender, a good real estate sales professional on your side and a solid education on buying a home and the areas where you want to buy, you’re now better prepared to make 2013 the year of the home purchase.

Good luck!

via zillow.com

For Sale By Owner Tips | Armonk NY Homes

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If your home is worth considerably less than when you bought it, you may consider trying to dodge real estate commission fees and sell the home yourself so you can at least walk away with a little something. Trying to sell without an agent isn’t for the faint of heart. But if you have the time, skills and emotional wherewithal to go it alone, here are a few things to consider in the ultra-important pre-sale phase.

Price it right

Taking into account its condition, what comparable homes in your neighborhood are selling for (search on Zillow to find out!) and the state of the overall market in your area, it’s really important that you price your home appropriately. Remember: fair market value! After all, studies show that homes priced higher than 3 percent of their market value take longer to sell. And the longer it sits on the market, the less interest there is from potential buyers. Want your house to move quickly? Consider pricing it 2-3 percent below competing offers.

Prepare your home

The idea is to make your home look as attractive as possible (think showroom condition) as its condition will affect how quickly it sells and the price the buyer is willing to offer. First impressions are the most important, so make minor repairs (leaky faucets), remove personal items and declutter so that the home looks both spacious and inviting. Can’t bear to part with years of possessions? There are professionals who can help. For about $85 an hour, the folks at clutterbusters.com will make your home more salable.  And a clean, organized home can only result in your getting a better sale price.

Stage your home

You might even consider staging your home. While it can be costly (several thousand dollars), staged homes tend to sell faster than non-staged homes, averaging only 29 days on the market versus 145 days for non-staged homes, according to one estimate.

Get the word out

Doing this yourself is no easy task. It’s really important that you nail down your target audience and make it easy for them to reach you. Beyond that, pay for a weekly spot in the real estate section of your local newspaper, list your property online on Zillow, appeal to buyers on social networking sites, send direct mailings out and host open houses on the weekends. To attract the most buyers, you may also consider piggybacking on the competition’s open house dates/times.

Consider gimmicks/promotional tricks

Looking to stand out from the crowd? Hold a drawing or throw in some freebies (such as a complimentary weekend getaway in the Caribbean) to generate publicity and attention. It can’t hurt and may even help.

via zillow.com

Pending Sales of Existing U.S. Homes Climb for Third Month | Katonah Homes

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Pending home sales rose for the third month in November, a sign of the housing recovery’s resilience in the face of fiscal threats facing the U.S.

The index of pending home sales climbed 1.7 percent to 106.4, the highest reading since April 2010, after a revised 5 percent gain in October, the National Association of Realtors reported today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a 1 percent advance.

Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) — Robert Shiller, a professor at Yale University and co-creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values, talks about the outlook for the U.S. housing market. He speaks with Sara Eisen on Bloomberg Television’s “Surveillance.” (Source: Bloomberg)

Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) — James Lockhart, vice chairman of WL Ross & Co., talks about the outlook for the residential real estate mortgage market and the so-called fiscal cliff of automatic tax increases and spending cuts. Lockhart speaks with Sara Eisen, Mike McKee and Alix Steel on Bloomberg Television’s “Surveillance.” (Source: Bloomberg)

Low borrowing costs and stable prices are drawing homebuyers three years after a recession triggered in part by a collapse in housing prices. Fewer foreclosures are coming onto the market, easing concerns that values could fall.

“Housing is building some momentum,” Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania, said before the report. “There is a growing perception that now is a good time to buy. Prices are starting to tick up, mortgage rates are still rock-bottom and the job market has shown some signs of improvement.”

Another report today showed the economy picked up in December. The MNI Chicago Report’s business barometer rose to 51.6 in December, a four-month high, from 50.4 in November. A reading of 50 is the dividing line between expansion and contraction.

Shares Drop

Stocks slumped, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lower for a fifth day, amid concern talks between President Barack Obama and Republican lawmakers may not yield a budget deal by the year-end deadline. The 500 Index fell 0.6 percent to 1,408.99 at 10 a.m. in New York.

Estimates for pending home sales in the Bloomberg survey of 35 economists ranged from a 2.7 percent drop to an increase of 6 percent.

Three of four regions showed a gain last month, including a 5.2 percent increase in the Northeast and a 4.2 percent advance in the West. Sales contracts were little changed in the South.

Pending sales are considered a leading indicator because they track purchase contracts in advance of actual transactions, which are tabulated a month or two later. Existing or previously owned homes account for more than 90 percent of the housing market.

Sales of existing homes reached a three-year high in November, rising 5.9 percent to a 5.04 million annual rate, the Realtor group reported last week.

Sales Climb

New-home sales, also logged when contracts are signed, rose 4.4 percent in November to a 377,000 annual pace, the highest level since April 2010, the Commerce Department reported yesterday.

Property values, too, are picking up. The S&P/Case-Shiller index last week showed home prices rose 4.3 percent in October from a year earlier, the biggest 12-month advance since May 2010.

Record-low borrowing costs have helped fuel demand for would-be buyers who qualify for financing. The average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 3.35 percent this week, according to Freddie Mac. A late November reading of 3.31 percent was the lowest in data going back to 1972.

Federal Reserve policy makers this month expanded asset purchases in a continuing bid to reduce unemployment and spur growth. Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has said that tight credit availability remains a concern to the housing market.

Stronger Traffic

Homebuilders are taking advantage of strong demand and tight inventory by breaking ground on new communities and raising prices. Toll Brothers Inc. (TOL) and KB Home (KBH) are reporting stronger traffic at their sales offices.

“New demand is now being created due to increased urgency to take advantage of incredible affordability as prices are now on the rise,” KB Home Chief Executive Officer Jeff Mezger said on a Dec. 20 earnings call. “While it’s been a few years in the making, housing is becoming a bright spot for the economy and the industry is once again positioned to play its historical role of being a job creator and leading the national economy into a full recovery.”

via bloomberg.com

6 Cliches You Need to Develop Killer Web Series Content | Katonah NY Real Estate

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Below is a list of cliches every creator should know when developing a web show or web series. Development is the first chance a show has to “get it right” or “get it wrong” before entering into production and ultimately published online. These tips on programming, format, audience and overall strategy will help you save time, money and increase your chance for web show success:

6 Cliches You Need to Develop Killer Web Show Content

1) “Two’s a failure, three’s a success”

Your content should satisfy your brand, your audience and you personally. These 3 areas are the sweet spot of successful web content. Your brand is the channel, business or identity that you’ve created that exists when you’re not in the room. Your audience is someone specific (#3 below). And YOU are the one who needs to be inspired to create the content consistently. A perfect example of this is ReelSEO’s very own Creator Tip series.

2) “For every $1 spent in pre-production, you save $5 in production & $10 in post”

This rule extends to content development. Spend time crafting a strong show format and script first, and you’ll reap benefits from production to audience development. FreddieW spent over a year writing Video Game High School and EpicMealTime’s Epic Chef was hinted at many months before we saw it publised.

3) “If your audience is everyone, your audience is no one”

When developing content I always create 3 audience personas: target, broad and opportunity. These fictional people have names and behaviors and allow me to understand who we’re creating the show for. Use YouTube Analytics and Facebook Insights to extract demographics and content trends. There’s a reason AOL On serves entertainment news and Revision3 is exclusively unscripted content.

4) “Bad creators steal, good creators iterate”

See what I did there? On the internet it’s fine to be blatantly “inspired” by others work. Just make sure you give it your own voice, personality and a fresh twist. Make a new version, also known as “iterating”. Audiences are drawn to content they already know. SourceFed wasn’t the first web show to cover a news topic, but they developed a unique show with personality.

5) “Shoot for the low hanging fruit”

when developing a new channel use popular, social trends to draw in audiences. Then retain them with your original, but less social, creations. I recently worked with DustFilmsOriginals on is content strategy. His wonderful shorts couldn’t find an audience so he made a Man of Steel parody to draw in audiences. Now they’re watching his originals too!

6) “This program is part of a balanced diet”

Have you considered adding a show to your programming slate? If you can afford the investment, more content can help you grow your audience, brand and ultimately revenue. But make the new show compliments the existing program. A solid channel supports their flagship content with talk show, behind the scenes and Q&A content. Just look at MyMusic Show and IGN Start for a balanced programming diet.

via reelseo.com