Daily Archives: July 6, 2013

Content Marketing for Real Estate Agents: Can Blogging Help You Sell Homes? | Mt Kisco NY Realtor

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It’s amazing to consider the ways in which online marketing has transformed the real estate industry—and if you don’t believe it, consider some of these figures from a 2012 study from the National Association of Realtors.

The study finds that more than 40 percent of all home buyers find their dream property via the Internet; nearly as many home buyers find their home by consulting with a real estate agent, and in many cases, these agents are found through the Web. But what about those old-fashioned newspaper ads, once so prized by real estate agents?

In today’s world, they account for only 2 percent of the homes found and purchased. What all of this suggests is that, for the real estate sales professional, the Internet represents the best, most cost-effective place to spend one’s marketing budget—by a long shot. Of course, this is something that most real estate agents have come to terms with.

The trouble that many have is deciding on the best way to reach leads on the Web. Increasing Visibility Means Drawing in Homebuyers The secret is in understanding that, for realtors, successful online marketing is all about improving visibility. That same NAR study reveals that the overwhelming majority of homebuyers never call more than one real estate agent—meaning that the first agent they come across is the one who gets their business.

Additionally, the NAR’s 2013 “Field Guide to Quick Real Estate Statistics” notes that 90 percent of homebuyers use the Internet as a primary tool in their real estate quest. The bottom line?

When people want to buy homes, they don’t flip to the Real Estate section of the local paper, and they don’t pick up the print catalogs that are on display outside supermarkets. They turn to the Web, they conduct a Google search, and they seek out a real estate agent who has high visibility—an agent positioned on the Web as someone who is knowledgeable, helpful, authoritative, and, above all available.

Content Marketing Tips for Real Estate Professionals In many ways, content marketing is the perfect way for real estate agents to position themselves in this way. Content marketing is all about selling without selling—not about constant self-promotion, but rather about sharing helpful and informative content that establishes the agent as someone consumers can trust. As an added bonus, helpful content like this is what Google and Bing favor—so content marketing empowers real estate agents to achieve high visibility and superior rankings on online searches.

What kinds of helpful and informative content can agents share? A few ideas come to mind: Share local market data and statistics. What are the “hot” neighborhoods in your city or town? Where can local home seekers find the best deals on the most valuable properties? For buyers who do not know exactly where to begin their real estate search, information like this can be priceless.

Share tips for first-time homebuyers. This is, after all, a daunting process for many, but when you share handy info on applying for loans, negotiating closing costs, conducting home inspections, and so on, you cultivate trust with potential buyers.

Share home maintenance tips, proving that you’re interested in the long-term satisfaction of your clients, and that your expertise doesn’t end when all of the papers are signed. Share information about local schools and community events, which can be helpful for those moving from another city or state.

Finally, there is certainly nothing wrong with sharing some of your own more attractive listings, from time to time!

Read more at http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/content-marketing-for-real-estate-agents-can-blogging-help-you-sell-homes-0538077#akA1qQyPkCq7ZUDe.99

Content Marketing for Real Estate Agents: Can Blogging Help You Sell Homes? – Business 2 Community.

New Google+ Website Plugins: This Week in Social Media | South Salem Realtor

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Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.

What’s New This Week?

Google+ Launches New Plugins for Your Website: Google+ launches “a bunch of new plugins that help visitors to connect with you on Google+, directly from your website.”  There’s an updated Google+ Follow plugin and updated badges for your Google+ Profiles and Pages.  You can now also create a badge for your Google+ Communities.

Check out the updated Google+ Page badges.

LinkedIn Adds the Top Requested Features to Their Mobile App: LinkedIn has “added the top requested features — the ability to search for jobs, companies, groups and people on-the-go. In addition they have added a few tips to help you be more productive from wherever you may be working.”

With LinkedIn mobile, you can now find and discover people, jobs and groups.

Discussion From Our Networking Clubs: Thousands of social media marketers and small business owners are asking questions and helping others in our free Networking Clubs. Here are a few interesting discussions worth highlighting:

How are the Facebook Hashtags going for you so far?

Are you drowning in social media?

Facebook Announces a New Review Policy for Pages and Groups: Facebook will “implement a new review process for determining which Pages and Groups should feature ads alongside their content. This process will expand the scope of Pages and Groups that should be ad-restricted.”

For example, Facebook “will now seek to restrict ads from appearing next to Pages and Groups that contain any violent, graphic or sexual content [content that does not violate (current) community standards]. Prior to this change, a Page selling adult products was eligible to have ads appear on its right-hand side; now there will not be ads displayed next to this type of content.”

Twitter Decides Auto-Follow-Back Is Now Taboo: SocialOomph reports that “Twitter changed their terms of service and outlawed automated following back of people who followed you first.”

Bing Integrates Search Prevalence Into the Klout Score: Klout announces “the official integration of Bing search results into the Klout Score.” This means that “the number of times you are searched for on Bing will now contribute directly to your Klout Score.”

 

New Google+ Website Plugins: This Week in Social Media | Social Media Examiner.

Countertop materials that stand up to years of abuse | Cross River Real Estate

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When shopping for kitchen appliances you’ll see a dizzying array of choices, from basic models to ones loaded with features. But your countertops might outlast your appliances by years, maybe decades, making this decision one you’ll live with for some time. Consumer Reports tested 14 materials and found that except for recycled glass, there wasn’t much difference among competing brands, but there were big differences in materials. Here’s a look at our tests and what’s new in countertops.

Crazy about quartz. This synthetic material is becoming more popular and some mimics stone, although may look too uniform to be realistic. Quartz also comes in vivid colors such as Caeserstone’s Apple Martini and Red Shimmer. Quartz was tops in our tests, whether polished or matte finish. Sharp knives, abrasive pads, hot pots, and most stains didn’t damage it plus it’s easy to maintain and doesn’t require sealing. Silestone’s suede series is designed to have a leathery finish with little reflection, but their website warns that this finish may require extra care.
CR tip: Edges and corners can chip and repairs aren’t a DIY project. Rounded edges help.

Granite’s rock solid rep. It’s been rumored to be on its way out for years but granite is still among the most desirable or must-have kitchen features, according to a recent study from theNational Association of Home Builders. No two slabs are exactly alike, giving your kitchen its own look, and unlike marble, limestone, and soapstone, granite is the only real stone that’s practical enough for heavily used areas. It performed similarly to quartz in our tests and new suede and leathered finishes skip the high sheen and offer a softer look.
CR tip: When properly sealed, matte finish and polished granite fended off most stains, so reseal periodically to maintain resistance. Chipped edges and corners are a possibility and only a pro can repair them.

 

 

Countertop materials that stand up to years of abuse – Yahoo! Homes.

Bedford Corners sales flat – Prices down 6% | RobReportBlog | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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Bedford Corners NY Real Estate ReportRobReportBlog
20136 months ending 7/52012
10Sales10
$1,105,000.00median sold price$11,800,002.00
$315,000.00low sold price$450,000.00
$3,600,000.00high sold price$4,800,000.00
3891average size4239
$344.00ave. price per foot$346.00
244ave days on market215
$1,410,600.00average sold price$1,546,900.00
96.32%ave sold to ask93.92%

Armonk sales down 7%- Prices up 17% | RobReportBlog | Armonk Real Estate

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Armonk NY Real Estate ReportRobReportBlog
20136 months ending 7/52012
36Sales39
$9,974,999.00median sold price$847,500.00
$378,000.00low sold price$350,000.00
$3,900,000.00high sold price$9,300,000.00
4364average size3832
$301.00ave. price per foot$331.00
226ave days on market214
$1,349,696.00average sold price$1,414,097.00

Shadow of student loans could hurt housing market as graduates swim in debt | Bedford NY Real Estate

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Amanda Tappan, 21, tries her best to save money. She shares an apartment with four roommates, pays off her credit card each month, and drives between odd jobs in her used Chevy Cavalier.

But when she graduates next month from the University of South Florida, she won’t be spending that money, or her early career wages, on buying a home. Instead, that money will go straight toward her $16,000 in student loans.

“It was so easy to get a student loan. … But then two years later, it was like, ‘Why did I do that?’ ” Tappan said. “I want to have most of my debt gone before I even think about buying a house.”

The young marketing and management student is one of 38 million Americans who face a staggering $1 trillion in student loans, more than people nationwide owe on car loans or credit cards.

So instead of buying their first home after graduation, those educated debtors are running the other way, stoking worries that the massive debt could block many from the housing market just as it begins to rebuild.

For decades, young hopefuls like Tappan were one of the housing market’s most dependable fuels. Young families and new buyers bought starter homes en masse, allowing sellers to move up into better homes.

But over the past decade, as the recession zapped jobs and student debt quadrupled, young buyers have started to stay away. First-time buyers have traditionally bought 40 percent of the homes on the market, National Association of Realtors data show. In May, their market share plunged to 28 percent.

Americans paying off student loans are, depending on income, 25 to 36 percent less likely to own a home than those who are free of student debt, a One Wisconsin Now survey of 61,000 people found last month. Indebted graduates faced an average of 21 years of debt before their student loans were paid off.

In Florida, more than half of the state’s Class of 2011 graduated with an average of $23,000 in debt, Institute for College Access & Success data show. That’s a little less than the average indebted American graduate who owes $27,000. Students at some local schools face an even weightier anchor. At the private University of Tampa, 58 percent of graduates flipped their tassels with an average debt of $31,000.

Student debt eats up first-time buyers’ savings accounts, typically their first choice for making down payments. It stops them from qualifying for mortgages under banks’ tight debt-to-income demands.

And it can discourage them from taking on new expenses. Students said they’ll be forging into the chaotic working world already making hundreds of dollars a month in loan payments. Who has the confidence to add another bill, especially a big one like a mortgage?

Christa Hegedus, a USF St. Petersburg junior, said she expects to graduate into an unforgiving job market with nearly $10,000 in debt, despite her two scholarships.

“I have friends who graduated with thousands and thousands of dollars in debt, and they’re working at a restaurant,” said Hegedus, who wants to be a state senator. “I don’t know how anyone could do it and expect to buy a house.”

Shadow of student loans could hurt housing market as graduates swim in debt | Tampa Bay Times.

Housing: Home equity numbers rebound as market heats up | Pound Ridge NY Real Estate

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You’ve probably seen some of the reports during the past week about home sales and prices. Housing is hot.

• New home sales in May were almost 30 percent higher than a year ago, and average prices jumped by about 10 percent during the past 12 months to $308,000.

• Resales of homes were up by 13 percent in May over May 2012. Median prices increased by 15.4 percent, the sixth straight month of double-digit gains and the largest monthly advance since October 2005.

• Median prices of new listings in some cities where inventories of homes listed for sale are tight and multiple bidding situations are routine have gone off the charts. In the Los Angeles-Long Beach area, list prices were nearly 28 percent higher in May than the year before, according to data compiled by Realtor.com from local multiple listing services. In San Diego, median list prices were 21 percent higher. Washington D.C., 18.8 percent. Seattle, nearly 18 percent. Charlotte, N.C., 11 percent.

But one key housing number that hasn’t gotten as much attention – yet directly affects the financial health of millions of Americans – is home equity. Thanks to the big gains in home values, total home equity balances have grown by more than $2 trillion within the past 12 months to nearly $9.1 trillion, a 28.6 percent gain, according to the Federal Reserve.

That’s $2.5 trillion above where it was at the end of 2011, but still below the $10 trillion it hit in 2007, on the eve of the market crash. During the last three months of 2012 alone, total home equity grew by a stunning $816 billion.

Numbers like these may be hard to get your head around, but they can be distilled down to the personal level: Home equity is the value of your home minus all the debt you have against it – generally first mortgages, junior liens and equity credit lines. If your house is worth $400,000 and your mortgage is $200,000, you’ve got positive equity of $200,000. If your home is worth $200,000 and your debt is $400,000 you’ve got $200,000 of negative equity.

If you were at $60,000 negative equity three years ago, and the resale value of your home has gained by $70,000 plus you’ve paid down $5,000 in principal balance on your mortgage, you now have positive net equity of $15,000. That’s what’s happening across the country as real estate markets rebound from five years of recession.

Not everybody is sharing equally in the realty wealth boom, however. New data from a study by realty information firm CoreLogic reveal that current equity holdings vary widely around the country. In some metropolitan areas, just about every owner has positive equity. In Dallas and Houston, and on Long Island, N.Y., more than nine out of 10 homeowners have positive equity. Pretty much the only people with negative equity are those who overpaid on their last purchase and mortgaged the house to the hilt. In Seattle, 87 percent of owners have positive equity. In Los Angeles, just under 84 percent do. And in Washington, D.C., and its Maryland and Virginia suburbs, it’s 78 percent.

In other metropolitan areas, the economic rebound hasn’t replenished equity quite as fast. In Miami and Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla., more than 40 percent of owners are still in negative territory; just under 60 percent have positive equity. Chicago also has been a relative laggard in the recovery – with just 65.8 percent of homeowners having positive equity, 34.2 percent with negative.

Nationwide, roughly 57 percent of all homeowners have at least 20 percent equity in their homes, but another 23 percent are what CoreLogic calls “under-equitied” – they’ve got less than 20 percent. As of the first quarter of 2013, 19.8 percent of all homes with mortgages continued to have negative equity, but that’s falling fast – down from nearly 22 percent at the end of 2012. If home prices rebound another 5 percent nationally, says Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, another 1.6 million homeowners will regain positive equity.

So the overall outlook on home equity appears to be encouraging. But last week another research organization, Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, sounded an alarm for one segment of owners: seniors. More and more owners in their 60s are carrying heavy mortgage debt loads. Between 1989 and 2010, the share of owners aged 60 to 69 with mortgage debt rose from just 32 percent to 60 percent.

 

Housing: Home equity numbers rebound as market heats up.

Bay Area housing market bidding frenzy cooling off | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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The super-heated housing market may be cooling down in the Bay Area, as multiple bids aren’t come in as fast as a few weeks ago, nor are over-bids.

Sunnyvale is a red-hot market and homes often sell within a week, maybe a couple of days, or even one day. But in this super-heated market we’ve seen a lot of buyers offering from $50,000 to $100,000 over the asking price. However, something has changed because now all of a sudden buyers are taking a breath before they make an offer.

A three bedroom, two bathroom house in Sunnyvale went on the market five days ago. As recently as a couple of weeks ago, multiple offers would have come in even before the first open house. However, Pertria real estate agent Barbara Lymberis says it’s taking a little longer.

“In this market it’s taking a little bit longer for buyers to make a decision to make an offer. I would say we’re probably looking at 10 days to two weeks before we start to see offers,” Lymberis said.

Lymberis and other agents told ABC7 News that buyers are moving slower because of a number of recent developments. Interest rates are inching up, past four percent now, after the Federal Reserve signaled it may ease its mortgage buying this fall. Higher rates will also make it more expensive for investors to borrow money to buy rental properties.

“It’s been multiple offers, overbidding, people buying with all cash, offers with no appraisal contingencies or any contingency whatsoever, which is a dangerous situation for anybody. I think buyers are getting frustrated with that,” Keller Williams Realty agent Quincy Virgilio said.

In recent months, buyers found themselves overbidding, and then discovering the house didn’t appraise for the contract price. So they would have to come up with the difference in cash in order to get a loan.

“Buyers overpaid because they had to, you know, in order to beat out the competition. A lot of buyers would pay more than they might in a balanced market,” Lymberis said.

But the bidding frenzy may be cooling off. The asking price for a three bedroom home in Sunnyvale is $879,000.

“I have not seen as many multiple offers in the last two weeks as I had before, and so I would say that we probably have a little cooling off period,” Cedar Mortgage Company broker & President Marge Nogosek said

 

Bay Area housing market bidding frenzy cooling off | abc7news.com.

REOs and Short Sales Drive up Prices | Armonk Real Estate

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Though in past they have been a drag on local home values, foreclosures and short sales actually are now rising in price so much faster than normal homes that they are driving up price increases and pulling normal homes with them.

In a reversal of their traditional relationships, since at least April distress sales (REOs and short sales) have been driving the price recovery on a national level, according to the latest home price data from CoreLogic.

April home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 12.1 percent on a year-over-year basis in April compared to April 2012. On a month-over-month basis, including distressed sales, home prices increased by 3.2 percent in April compared to March.

However, excluding distress sales, prices rose only 11.9 percent in April year-over-year basis compared to April 2012. On a month-over-month basis, excluding distressed sales, home prices increased 3 percent in April compared to March.

Distress sales outpaced normal homes by an even greater margin in May, according to CoreLogic’s monthly price report released today. The gap between year-over-year national price increases without and with distress sales grew from .2 percent in April to .6 percent in May.

Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 12.2 percent on a year-over-year basis in May compared to May 2012, a slight increase over April. This change represents the biggest year-over-year increase since February 2006 and the 15th consecutive monthly increase in home prices nationally. On a month-over-month basis, including distressed sales, home prices increased by 2.6 percent in May compared to April.

 

REOs and Short Sales Drive up Prices | RealEstateEconomyWatch.com.

Luxury Homes Officially Enter Seller’s Market | Chappaqua Real Estate

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For the first time since the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing began tracking upper tier market trends in 2008, its Market Action Index hit the threshold that separates buyer’s and seller’s markets earlier this month.

The highest tier of luxury homes for sale, homes priced over $500,000, has been the last part of the market to feel the effects of the housing recovery.  On June 2, the ILHM reported its Market Action Index had reached 30 for the first time and in subsequent weekly reports the index has maintained its position.

“The ILHM National market is currently slightly in the Seller’s Market zone (greater than 30).The Market Action Index stands at 30 which indicates that luxury demand is relatively strong but the available supply of new listings doesn’t get acquired immediately,” the ILHM noted in its June 23 report.

The ILHM Luxury Composite Price for the week ending June 23 was $1,273,414 and the asking price per square foot was $324. Homes have been on the market for an average of 151 days.

“I believe that it was in the first week of June that we first saw the Market Action Index hit the 30 threshold which defines the entry point into a “Seller’s Market.”  All month it is has been trending along right around that 30 mark,” said Waco Moore, the Institute’s president. ILHM staff could not identify a time when institute’s market index crossed over into seller’s territory in the past five years.

Hot markets in the ILHM report where luxury properties on selling on average faster than the national average last week were Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Washington, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Silicon Valley. Share/Save

Luxury Homes Officially Enter Seller’s Market | RealEstateEconomyWatch.com.