Monthly Archives: February 2013

The Power of Publicity for Real Estate Agent | Katonah Real Estate

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Have you ever picked up the local newspaper to read an article quoting one of your competitors? Have you ever wondered why some real estate agents seem to get in the local newspaper or on local TV more than others?

There’s no reason you can’t be the subject of the next story. That publicity is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to your competitor. The newspaper story or television story reached tens of thousands of potential clients when it was published or aired. It will live on the Internet for years, where tens of thousands of buyers and sellers will come upon it when they are searching online for an agent and learn about him.

Let’s count the ways your competitor will get business from a single good news story. First, he will get cold, unsolicited calls from customers in the market to buy or sell. Second, he will reach tens of thousands more with the power of a third party (the newspaper) endorsement that supports the other marketing he is doing. Third, his article will live on the Internet, poised to pop up when a customer searches for local real estate agents on Google. Fourth, other real estate agents and brokers will see the story and be more likely to refer him business. Fifth, lenders and vendors he works with will see it, be more eager to work with him and refer him business. The list goes on.

How much money did you spend last year on prospecting and buying leads? Your competitor just accomplished more than you did and it cost him absolutely nothing. You are just as good a real estate professional. You know just as much about real estate and the local market and you would make as good an interview as anyone else in town. Except that you don’t know how to go about it.

You don’t need luck. You don’t need “media contacts.” You don’t need to advertise in the newspaper or on TV. You don’t need to be president of your local Realtor board or CEO of the biggest brokerage in town. You just need to learn how to get media coverage. Steve Cook and I (David Lereah) have written a guide to help real estate agents get local media coverage; it’s called: How to Get Media Coverage that Generates Referrals, Leads, and Income.

Over the next several weeks, we will publish selected excerpts from this guide so our readers can learn strategies and receive advice from one of the top media people in the real estate business – Steve Cook.

via realestateeconomywatch.com

Investors Outspent Lenders and Homeowners to Rehab Foreclosures | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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Expenditures on foreclosures and short sales drove the remodeling market in 2011, as investors spent more to rehabilitate each foreclosure they purchased to flip or rent than either lenders or owners who bought foreclosures to live in.  However the rental share of overall spending on improvements has been shrinking since the housing bust.

A new report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies found that in 2011 lenders made improvements in about one third of the foreclosed properties prior to sale, with an average expenditure of about $6,500 per unit or $1.7 billion. About 60 percent of owner-occupant purchasers undertook improvements averaging $11,100, totaling $4.2 billion, while investors spent even more per unit, an average of$15,600, for a total of $3.9 billion.

In total, spending on distressed properties added almost $10 billion to home improvement expenditures for the more than a million distressed properties that came back onto the housing market in 2011, including 760,000 lender owned units and 300,000 short sales.

Renovating foreclosed or abandoned homes benefits the entire neighborhood. Joint Center research has shown that home prices in neighborhoods with higher levels of improvement spending appreciate more rapidly, explaining why investing in blighted neighborhoods has been a national priority in dealing with the foreclosure crisis, the report said.

Some 4.4 million formerly owner-occupied units were shifted to the rental market between 2007 and 2011. Another 4.6 million were vacant in 2011 and may (at least temporarily) become part of the rental stock as demand continues to grow.

Now, however, the quality of the rental stock is declining.  Joint Center estimates show that the expanding supply of rental units in recent years seems to have more than offset increased demand, thereby limiting the incentive to raise improvement expenditures. Between 2001 and 2007, average inflation-adjusted spending on owner-occupied units increased by 40 percent while spending on rental units showed a slight decline. Then, during the housing bust from 2007 to 2011, spending on owner-occupied units fell more than 25 percent and spending on rental units nearly matched that drop.

The rental share of overall improvement and repair spending has therefore been shrinking. After averaging close to 25 percent of the market through the early part of the last decade, the rental share dipped to 16 percent at the peak of the housing boom and has only edged back up near 20 percent since then.

via realestateeconomywatch.com

January Inventories Fell 25 Percent Below 2012 | Armonk Real Estate

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How far can inventories fall? The latest existing home data suggests we have yet to find out because they are still in freefall just two months before the spring buying season nears. Will sellers warm up in time to populate the MLSs with enough listings to get buyers excited? Or will the inventory drought drive buyers away at the most important time of the year for housing markets?

Total housing inventory at the end of January fell 4.9 percent to 1.74 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 4.2-month supply 2 at the current sales pace, down from 4.5 months in December, and is the lowest housing supply since April 2005 when it was also 4.2 months, according to the National Association of Realtors’ existing home sales release.

Listed inventory is 25.3 percent below a year ago when there was a 6.2-month supply. Raw unsold inventory is at the lowest level since December 1999 when there were 1.71 million homes on the market.

“We expect a seasonal rise of inventory this spring, but it may be insufficient to avoid more frequent incidences of multiple bidding and faster-than-normal price growth,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun.

NAR reported that the national median existing-home price was $173,600 in January, up 12.3 percent from January 2012, which is the 11th consecutive month of year-over-year price increases; that last occurred from July 2005 to May 2006. The January gain is the strongest since November 2005 when it was 12.9 percent above a year earlier.

Distressed homes – foreclosures and short sales – accounted for 23 percent of January sales, down from 24 percent in December and 35 percent in January 2012. Fourteen percent of January sales were foreclosures and 9 percent were short sales. Foreclosures sold for an average discount of 20 percent below market value in January, while short sales were discounted 12 percent.

via realestateeconomywatch.com

Katonah, North Salem NY Lead Area in Highest Ask Price | RobReportBlog

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Katonah, North Salem Lead in Highest Ask Price | RobReportBlog
Katonah$18,995,000.00
Pound Ridge$3,950,000.00
South Salem$5,900,000.00
Mt Kisco$4,500,000.00
Chappaqua$4,750,000.00
North Salem$18,500,000.00
Armonk$12,499,000.00
Bedford$14,500,000.00
via trulia.com

Real Estate Marketing Insider Lists 3 Traits of Great Blogs | Mt Kisco Realtor

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The Real Estate Marketing Insider‘s Tobias Nergarden continued his weekly “Top 3” series with a list of three traits that help make an effective, high-traffic blog. The list was prompted by an analysis of twenty real estate blogs that are updated regularly.

One of the best methods for real estate sales marketing in an internet-driven market is to create an engaging, easy-to-read blog. Blogs are often neglected and dismissed by realtors as a waste of time and mental energy, but the statistics show otherwise. Small businesses that keep regularly-updated blogs receive 50 percent or more hits on their websites than businesses that don’t. And as Joe Heath of Reality Biz News pointed out this week, those hits can become real home sales and commissions in a hurry. This week, Heath published a list of 20 real estate blogs that are regularly updated and easy to read, as a model for realtors who want to start or improve their own blogs.

Heath’s list is a great starting point, but for realtors who want to take a blog from good to great and increase their traffic, REMI has put together a set of three traits that these highly effective blogs have in common:

  • Regularly updated. This is a no-brainer. People will only return to a website or a blog to see content they haven’t already seen. As REMI has said before, the content does not have to be linked to real estate all of the time.
  • Easy to Locate. This is a multi-part task involving a clear blog name comprising both the target market’s city and some variant on “home” or “real estate”. This can include a short, easily-remembered URL, and ideally, individual posts tagged and search-engine optimized, that can appear on simple searches for “real estate.”
  • A simple, attractive format. Most free blog hosts like WordPress or Tumblr have ready-made blog formats specifically designed so that they’re easy to read and have an attractive color scheme that doesn’t hurt the eyes. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it – choose a ready-made template and worry about making the content the centerpiece of the blog.

    • The Real Estate Marketing Insider publishes a “Top 3” feature that focuses on traits of successful, high-traffic real estate blogs. REMI recommends that blogs be updated regularly, be easy to find online, and have a presentation format that is simple and non-distracting.

    About the Real Estate Marketing Insider:
    The Real Estate Marketing Insider brings the real estate industry breaking news, insider information, and analysis. Based in La Jolla, Calif., the online journal caters to real estate professionals and clients alike.

    via prweb.com

    Mortgage delinquencies, foreclosures on the decline in U.S. | North Salem NY Real Estate

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    foreclosure2013.jpg  

    CLEVELAND — Seriously delinquent mortgages and foreclosures remain a much bigger problem in Greater Cleveland than in the rest of the nation, as new numbers from Mortgage Bankers Association in Washington D.C. show that one in 10 local homeowners was 90 days’ past due or in foreclosure in the fourth quarter.

    Cleveland’s rate of 9.5 percent is 40 percent higher than U.S. rate and the average for the top 25 metropolitan areas. Greater Cleveland is defined as the Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor region.

    Overall, the U.S. delinquency rate dropped to the lowest level since 2008, declining about 4 percent from the third quarter and about 22 percent from a year ago.

    “This is movement in the right direction,” Michael Fratantoni, vice president of research at MBA, said in a conference call.

    The numbers in Cleveland, however, remained flat from the third quarter. This could stem in part from the jobs picture.

    While the region’s unemployment rate of 6.7 percent is lower than the U.S. average of 7.8 percent, there is concern that the employment picture is skewed. Statewide, the labor force decreased by 8,000 in December, so the declining unemployment rate could reflect people who have dropped out of the work force and therefore don’t show up on state unemployment reports.

    Cleveland also jumped up two spots among the 25 largest metropolitan areas, with the fifth highest level of homeowners who were 90 days’ past due or in foreclosure. Ranking higher were Miami, Tampa, Nassau/Suffolk, N.Y. and Chicago.

    Cleveland’s rate of 90-day delinquency/in foreclosure was 9.5 percent. Miami’s was 20.7 percent. Chicago’s was 10.1 percent.

    The percentage who were 90 days’ delinquent remained unchanged for Cleveland, at 3.7 percent. The percentage in foreclosure was 5.8 percent, down slightly from 6 percent in the third quarter.

    Ohio, meanwhile, remains at No. 9 for the highest percentage of homes in foreclosure, at more than 4 percent. The rate is 12 percent in Florida and nearly 9 percent in New Jersey.

    The Mortgage Bankers’ data covers 42 million first mortgages, or 88 percent of all such loans nationwide.

    “We are seeing large improvements in mortgage performance nationally and in almost every state,” Jay Brinkmann, MBA’s chief economist and senior vice president of research, said in a statement.

    The 30-day delinquency rate and incidence of new foreclosures decreased to their lowest points since 2007. The total in foreclosure is at the lowest level since 2008.

    Brinkmann noted that the foreclosure start rate dropped by the largest amount in the nearly 50-year history of the MBA survey and is half of what it was at the peak in 2009. The percentage of loans in foreclosure also enjoyed a historic drop.

    This is only the second quarter that MBA has broken out numbers for Cleveland and the other larger metropolitan areas. So there are no long-term trends that can be backed up with numbers.

    Many homeowners have been able to catch up financially in part because mortgage interest rates have remained near historic lows. This week’s averages were 3.6 percent for a 30-year loan and 2.8 percent for a 15-year loan, according to Freddie Mac.

    Fratantoni said it’s encouraging that delinquencies normally jump up in the fourth quarter, because of the first winter heating bills of the season and the holidays, but they decreased this time around.

    Not surprisingly, the lowest overall delinquency rate (at least 30 days’ past due) is lowest among borrowers with the best credit ratings and fixed-rate loans. That delinquency rate of 4 percent is nearly half the U.S. average of 7.5 percent.

    However, the overall delinquency rate is worst, at 23 percent, among borrowers with adjustable-rate loans aimed at people with bad credit.

    Brinkmann noted delinquency rates for FHA loans are higher than for prime loans, but said the rates show improvement if you look at FHA loans originated in 2010 or later, when lending standards started tightening.

    via cleveland.com

    Westchester County starts school safety program | Waccabuc Real Estate

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    WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) –

    A former New York City police commissioner has been recruited to kick off a Westchester County program to protect schools and communities from violence.

    William Bratton, who was NYPD commissioner from 1994-96, will be the main speaker at symposium next week on school safety, said County Executive Robert Astorino. Bratton also served as police commissioner in Boston and chief of police in Los Angeles.

    School leaders and police departments are invited.

    Astorino is also tapping the county police and health departments, plus clergy and local leaders for a “Safer Communities” initiative.

    He said it is meant to prevent tragedies like the school massacre in Newtown, Conn.

    On April 9, the departments of Health and Community Mental Health will hold a “Community Violence Prevention Forum.”

    Astorino said Wednesday he wants to educate the public about existing county resources and improve inter-agency communication.

    via myfoxny.com

    China’s property market heats up | Cross River Real Estate

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    Prospective buyers at a property sale in Beijing.

    HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

    Property prices ticked up last month in many Chinese cities, raising the chances of further government action to cool the housing market.

    Prices jumped in 54 of the 70 cities tracked by the government in January, according to data released Friday by the National Bureau of Statistics.

    The average price change was an increase of 0.6%, the first year-on-year acceleration in 11 months. Compared to the previous month, prices rose 0.5%, which is the fastest rate of growth since January 2011, according to economists at Nomura.

    China has gradually eased property ownership restrictions in recent decades, and its citizens have responded by pouring money into housing.

    The resulting growth was so red-hot that many analysts feared a bubble was developing. But more recently, China’s real estate market had slowed amid government efforts to rein in speculators and control prices.

    The measures include higher down payments, tough qualifications for mortgages, residency requirements and limits on investment purchases.

    The slowdown spurred developers to offer discounts to unload their unsold inventory. Spooked by falling prices, would-be buyers stayed on the sidelines, and investors mourned declining valuations.

    January’s increase is likely attributable to looser monetary policies and an abundance of liquidity — general stimulus measures taken by Beijing recently to combat a slowing economy.

    Related: The Rise of China

    But Beijing is still wary of rising property prices, and will likely respond with cooling measures.

    “We believe the recent rise in property prices will pressure the government to tighten policies,” economists at Nomura wrote Friday.

    Chinese stocks: ‘Not for the faint of heart’

    And indeed, the government is already signaling some action.

    China’s State Council said Wednesday that cities where prices have “soared too fast” will be asked to “introduce timely curbing measures.”

    And in a bid to maintain supply, the council said it would guarantee land supplies for housing projects at no less than last year’s level. To top of page

    First Published: February 22, 2013: 1:38 AM ET

    via money.cnn.com