Monthly Archives: March 2014

Adorable $995K Mendocino Renovation Will Warm the Heart | North Salem Real Estate

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Location: Mendocino, Calif. Price: $995,000 The Skinny: This completely renovated early 1900s home in Mendocino Village has just jumped into the lead in the early running for Most Totally Adorable House of the Year, with its nautically themed loft master bedroom (it’s got an en suite clawfoot tub!) and impossibly quaint backyard writer’s retreat. Which is plenty cute, to be sure, but the kitchen’s blue beadboard cabinetry and the front yard rope swings with ocean views—not to mention the rustic nearby water tower—put it firmly over the top. Despite all this welcome whimsy, the brokerbabble tries to milk the place for it-was-a-dark-and-stormy-night melodrama: “And when those North Coast storms blow, you’ll be safe and warm snuggled up in front of a beautiful river rock fireplace with a front row seat as the drama unfolds outside.” Well, sure. Or you could be soaking in the clawfoot tub with a fleet of model boats and a bottle of grog, reenacting Nelson’s glorious victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, because in a house this twee, well, coffee and blankets in front of the fire betrays a pitiful lack of imagination. For those willing to rise to the challenge, the three-bedroom home—and its red outhouse door—is asking $995,000.

 

http://curbed.com/archives/2014/03/11/adorable-995k-mendocino-renovation-will-warm-the-heart.php

5 Ways to Use Pictures to Tell Visual Stories With Social Media | Mt Kisco Realtor

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Are you sharing your stories with your fans?

Do you use pictures in your social marketing?

People want pictures in their social channels.

When done right, these pictures become visual stories.

In this article, I’ll show you how five brands are using pictures to share their stories and why that’s important.

Great Marketers Are Great Storytellers

As a marketer, you know the importance of stories, but do you know how to tell a story with few or no words at all?

“We’ve now entered a phase in which visual communication is supplanting the written word,” says Bob Lisbonne, CEO of Luminate and former SVP of Netscape.” Some are now calling it the dawn of the Imagesphere.”

Our brains process pictures 60,000 times faster than text. When your brand shares a picture, your fans decide in a split second whether they want to see more.

People upload about 250 million photographs to Facebook every day, and Twitter has become more visual, showing photos and videos right in your feed.

The growth of other image-rich sites like Pinterest has been stratospheric, and apps such as Instagram, Vine and even Snapchat aren’t just for teenagers–savvy marketers are using them too.

These channels help you tell stories that create engagement, build communities and ultimately help nurture brand loyalty and long-term relationships with customers.

Below I’ll show you how five brands are using visual stories to engage their audiences.

 

 

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/visual-stories/

Surging Home Prices Are a Double-Edged Sword | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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The U.S. housing market faces a challenge at the start of the spring sales season: higher prices.

It is hard to overstate the benefits of rising prices to the economy broadly and to homeowners, banks and home builders specifically after years of declines. Price gains have pulled more Americans from the brink of foreclosure and given home buyers more confidence that they won’t get stuck with an asset whose value will decline.

But those gains have a painful edge, too, especially because prices have bounced back so strongly. The increases have rekindled concerns about affordability, particularly for first-time buyers, and could damp the gains of a housing rebound still in its early stages.

 

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304732804579425120291627990?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304732804579425120291627990.html

Big Investors Boosting Home Prices, And Not Everyone’s Pleased | Chappaqua Real Estate

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It’s taken several years, but in many parts of the country, home prices are nearly back to where they were at the peak. In places like Florida, where the housing recession hit hard, home prices rose last year by one-fifth or more.

A major factor in the price rise is hedge funds, private equity firms and other large investors. They’ve moved aggressively into the residential market over the past two years, buying tens of thousands of distressed properties, often at bargain prices.

Some analysts are worried that those bulk purchases will leave middle-class buyers out in the cold.

One place where investors have been very active is Florida’s Palm Beach County. Jeff Lichtenstein is a real estate agent there, and he’s busy. He’s listing and selling homes at a pace reminiscent of the go-go days of the last real estate boom back in 2005 and 2006. “I have 19 or 20 under contract right now, which is the most I’ve had at any given time,” he says.

Lichtenstein is currently showing a home he has listed in PGA National, a resort and residential development with more than 5,000 homes. It’s a community of palm trees, lakes, golf courses and manicured lawns.

“This was built in ’92 or ’93. Three bedrooms, three baths,” he explains as he shows off the house, which has a back patio looking out onto a golf course. “The view is what people come here to Florida for.”

 

 

http://www.npr.org/2014/03/10/286261937/big-investors-boosting-home-prices-and-not-everyones-pleased

10 homes on wheels | Armonk Real Estate

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Do you dream about simplifying your life by downsizing to a house on wheels? You’re not alone. Mobile living is gaining popularity, attracting everyone from young couples trying to save money to adventure-seeking retirees. Some people drive a refurbished bus or tow a tiny house because it reduces their cost of living, letting them live mortgage-free. Others choose the lifestyle for its promise of adventure — they can enjoy the freedom and joys of cross-country travel without giving up the comforts of home. Whether you dream of driving or pulling your own home, you’ll find inspiration in these 10 residences on wheels.

 

http://realestate.msn.com/10-homes-on-wheels

 

Why MBA purchase applications declined and new home sales surged | North Salem Real Estate

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The Mortgage Bankers Association’s or MBA weekly applications survey offers a comprehensive analysis of the mortgage industry. The index was created in 1990, and since then, it has been a leading indicator of housing and mortgage finance activity.

As per the data released by the MBA, applications for the seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity fell sharply, by 8.5% to 348.5 for the week ended February 2, 2014. Both new purchases and the refinancing index were down by 4% and 11%, respectively. The decline was in line with the fourth quarter softness witnessed in U.S. home prices. However, U.S. home prices were still positive. Analysts expect the holiday-shortened week to impact mortgage applications.

 

The MBA compiles 75% of the U.S. retail residential mortgage applications. The purchase applications index measures applications for mortgage lenders. This is a leading indicator for single-family home sales and housing construction. By tracking economic data such as the MBA purchase applications, investors can gauge demand for housing, which also has a ripple effect on other sectors—including the labor market, retail sector, and construction sector. Buying a home is a major indicator of consumer spending, which in turn indicates the direction of economic growth. A rise in the economy leads to a positive impact on stock prices, which rise as investor sentiment swells and leads bond prices to decline.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-mba-purchase-applications-declined-130011689.html

5 Tips for Beginner Real Estate Investors | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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If you’re just starting out with real estate investing, there’s a lot to know.

You could feel overwhelmed with all the different articles out there trying to tell you what is most important, what you should learn first and a half-dozen other assertions.

But when you distill it down to the most basic components, there is a list of about five things you should know or consider before you invest in real estate.

Because they all ultimately impact your bottom line, knowing these five elements can be crucial to determining your success as a real estate investor and how well you accomplish your goals.

Without further ado, let’s explore these tips:

1. Be Aware of Tax Laws This is one of the biggest things that you should know about real estate investing. Where you are and where you’re investing matters, as there are state, county and city laws that dictate local taxes on properties. There may be differences in how the taxes are calculated based on the type of property.

Additionally, you should be aware of federal and state taxes on income from rental properties. Learn the laws, discover if there is anything you can do to reduce your responsibility, and evaluate how they will impact your financial goals for the property. It can mean the difference between a positive cash flow and a negative one.

2. Compare Property Values and Rents This is the next biggest thing that will determine how well your real estate investment will pay off. You want to make sure that the income you receive will be worth it. You don’t want to invest too much into a property just to find out that the local market won’t support the rent you’d have to charge in order to make the income you expect.

Look at the prices of similar properties being sold nearby, as well as the cost of comparable rentals in the area. Try to seek out the highs and lows, as well as the average for sales prices and typical rents. Then use this information to help inform your property investment strategy, as well as how much to charge for rent.

 

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/03/09/5-tips-for-beginner-real-estate-investors.aspx

That’ll Be $19.5M for This Highly Photogenic Aspen Compound | Cross River Real Estate

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Equal parts glassy modern, traditional ski lodge, and austerely cement-clad in an almost post-Soviet vein, this circa 1995 Aspen compound is a bit of a hot mess, architecturally speaking. But whoever designed the interior is a miracle worker; so often, when chalets go for darkly handsome and somewhat brooding they end up looking way too severe or even a bit raunchy. Could be that all the vintage fineries—which thankfully, stop just short of Anthropologie catalogue excess—pull this place out of the design limbo it was born into. Of course, the listing asserts that “every detail… was crafted from imagination and ingenuity,” but anyone willing to plunk down $19.5M on this 14,000-square-foot six-bedroom head-scratcher will have to come to grips what a hodge-podge it is from the outside. Get an eyeful in the gallery below.

 

http://curbed.com/archives/2014/03/10/thatll-be-195m-for-this-highly-photogenic-aspen-compound.php

Get Your Fill of Burnt Orange in This 1953 Time Capsule | South Salem Real Estate

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Even in a city as laden with midcentury gems as Los Angeles, the hunger for cork floors, built-ins, glass walls, and period kitchens—that oven!—cannot be satisfied. So when homes like this untouched 1953 spread, on the market for the first time in half a century, become available, there’s no shortage of fanfare/drooling—and for good reason. In Silver Lake—the enclave once named Best Hipster Neighborhood in the country, in large part because of it’s imminently mockable obsession with Dwell-style architecture—this design by L.A. architect Al Martin is what Curbed LA calls “highly textural,” what with its acoustic tile ceilings, plastic-y kitchen cabinets, and raw brick. There’s also, for better or for worse, much in the way of original overhead lighting—including orb lamps at the bar and fluorescent strips in the kitchen—plus two clunky brick fireplaces, a workshop, and a wraparound deck. How much does one need to move in? $1.595M. Photos, however, are free.

 

http://curbed.com/archives/2014/03/10/get-your-fill-of-burnt-orange-in-this-1953-time-capsule.php