Category Archives: Chappaqua

Join the Google+ Revolution Now | Chappaqua Real Estate

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By the end of 2012, analysts predict that Google+ will reach 400 million users.  In its first 88 days the social platform’s growth rate outpaced Facebook and every other social network.  Impressive, but, is it worth a small business owner’s time and energy to learn yet another social network?  While Google+ is still just a fraction of the size of Facebook, its uses are already becoming apparent.  Because of this, developing an understanding of the unique qualities of Google+ can help give your business a competitive edge on a new and expanding platform.

Start with a clear understanding of the features that make Google+ different from other social networks like Facebook and Twitter.  Open a Google+ account and try it out.  I recommend starting with a personal account before you create a business brand page.  Chances are, you are already one of the 800 million active Facebook users.  But, the choice between Facebook and Google+ is not mutually exclusive—you can do both.  Of course, a natural overlap will exist between Facebook and Google+ users, just as the majority of my Twitter followers also use Facebook.

You can be assured that your customers and prospects are debating over similar choices.  More and more people will adopt Google+ because of its unique benefits.  Also, since your competition may not have established a presence on Google+ yet, doing so now can pay dividends later.

What are the  Strengths of Google+ for Small Business?

A few unique advantages to this new social platform are highlighted below:

  • Low Production Costs and High Reach Potential: Do some quick best practice research and visit these ten great examples of creative Google+ brand pages.  Of particular note is the Burberry’s brand page’s creative use of animation.  Google+ allows you to make your brand page visually stunning—helping to drive interest and visits—with relative ease.
  • Google+ is More than a Social Network: According to Brian Solis, “Google+ will become a platform that connects all Google products, essentially creating a personal or social operating system for each individual.”  Google+ is a strategic addition to the range of products many of us already depend on such as Gmail, Documents, Google Apps, Reader, and Calendar.  All of these components are parts of a carefully orchestrated strategy to make Google indispensible to the everyday user.  All wrapped in a very clean, easy to use interface.
  • Google+ Circles: this just may be the killer feature of G+ that enables you to narrowcast messages for different groups.  Such a feature creates strong marketing implications and offers you the ability to segment or micro-target your messages to different audiences.  Circles are based on the fact that you may not want to share all messages with everyone.  For example, let’s say you are an accountant looking to expand your business among not only firms of various sizes but individuals as well.  Your biggest challenge is to identify more cost-effective ways to market your services.  Using Circles, you can create and segment based on your definitions.  For example: loyalty, high value, new customers, prospects, small businesses, etc.  The Circles feature allows you to customize offers, deals, events, and various types of information.  And, as a blogger, you can also share content on Google+ based on interests.  Your goal is to become a trusted resource in your online community, a person or business known for publishing valuable content.  Circles will enable you to share the right information with the right audience at the right time.
  • Hangouts: This unique feature enables you to host online video chats with up to 10 people at a time.  With only a webcam you are ready to invite anyone in your Circles to join in.  The opportunity to show off your product (and yourself) is a big plus.  Using short videos is a great way to involve your audience.  It is also an engaging way to hold a meeting, brainstorm or conduct market research—and keep the travel costs down.  Using Hangouts effectively shows off your personality and humanizes your brand.

Helpful Links to More Information

To read more about the benefits of using Google+ for your small business, read the links below:

Dell: One of the Early Google+ Brand Page Pioneers

Take a look at Dell’s Google+ page.  Dell was involved in the June, 2011, Google+ beta test, making the company a pioneer in the brand page space.  The Official Dell Corporate Blog describes Dell’s Google+ brand page as a “centralized place to get updates from all of Dell across all our businesses.”  The page provides something of value whether “you are a home user, an owner of a small or medium business, or someone who is responsible for implementing technology in a global corporation.”  Observing how major brands use their brand page is a great way to give you ideas for your own page.  In this way, Google+ helps level the playing field for brands of all sizes.

Small Businesses’ Top New Year’s Resolution

According to the latest Intuit Small Business Survey [November, 2011] reported in the Huffington Post, “More than half (57 percent) of small businesses’ top New Year’s resolution is to expand marketing to attract more customers.  Intuit created this Infographic with some of the survey results.

My recommendation is to establish your Google+ brand presence now.  As this new social network grows, more and more of your customers and prospects will join.  Experimentation will give your small business a leg up on your competition and help energize your small business marketing initiatives in 2012.

via business2community.com

Chappaqua Real Estate | Freddie Mac Investments Under Scrutiny by Treasury Dept.

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The report came just as the Obama administration had been escalating its efforts to push Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ease conditions for homeowners, including those who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.

Last Friday, the Treasury announced that it would offer increased incentives to lenders to forgive portions of homeowner debt, saying pointedly that for the first time the incentives would be offered on loans held by Fannie and Freddie.

But Fannie and Freddie, which said they would review the increased incentives, have long declined to allow debt reduction on the loans it holds or guarantees, saying that it would create unnecessary losses for taxpayers. The companies, which are financed by taxpayers, have also maintained barriers to refinancing, like risk-based fees for homeowners, even as mortgage interest rates have dropped below 4 percent.

In his State of the Union address last week, President Obama said a new refinancing program would cut through government red tape. He has yet to provide details of the program.

The Obama administration has tried, with scant results, to persuade Fannie and Freddie to ease refinancing restrictions and participate in debt forgiveness programs.

The Federal Reserve, which has made low interest rates a crucial part of its response to the financial crisis, has also objected to some of the barriers to refinancing, including fees it has said are unjustified.

On Monday, ProPublica and National Public Radio reported that Freddie Mac, which maintained slightly tighter restrictions than Fannie on homeowners’ eligibility to refinance, had a multibillion-dollar investment whose value hinged on borrowers continuing to pay higher interest rates.

Beginning in 2010, Freddie bought several billion dollars’ worth of “inverse floater” securities — essentially the interest-paying portion of a bundle of mortgages — for its investment portfolio while selling the far less risky principal portion. Fannie and Freddie are supposed to be decreasing the size of their investment portfolios.

There is no evidence that Freddie tailored its refinancing standards to its investing strategy, but “inverse floaters” make less money if the loans they cover refinance to a lower interest rate.

Freddie issued a statement on Monday defending its commitment to helping homeowners. “Freddie Mac is actively supporting efforts for borrowers to realize the benefits of refinancing their mortgages to lower rates,” it said. The company said refinancing accounted for 78 percent of its loan purchases in 2011.  

Christopher J. Mayer, a real estate professor at Columbia Business School who has been a proponent of mass refinancing, said he could see little reason for Freddie to use such a complex investment scheme. “Why are we three years into the crisis and some of the same kinds of complicated derivatives deals that brought down some of our biggest financial institutions are being done by Freddie Mac?” he said.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, Freddie Mac’s regulator, also had problems with the deals. Late Monday, the agency said it had reviewed the inverse floaters last year and had identified “concerns regarding the controls, including risk management.”

Freddie Mac had already stopped conducting the transactions, and only $5 billion of its $650 billion portfolio was held in inverse floaters, the statement said. It said that the investments had no bearing on recent changes, announced last fall, to the Home Affordable Refinance Program, in which Freddie maintained stricter controls than Fannie on homeowners who owed less than 80 percent of their homes’ value.

Some have advocated principal reduction as a better way to restore equity to homeowners, though it is more expensive. The Treasury’s offer on Friday would triple the incentives paid to lenders that reduce principal, to 18 to 63 cents on the dollar from 6 to 21 cents on the dollar.

Proponents say that reducing principal is the most effective type of loan modification and that it would help the housing market and the broader economy by reducing the $700 billion in negative equity that is weighing down growth.

But Edward J. DeMarco, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has remained unconvinced that principal reduction is consistent with the goal of saving taxpayer money that was used to bail out Fannie and Freddie. Two weeks ago, he wrote in a letter to Congress that principal reduction would cost $100 billion if every single underwater government-backed mortgage were adjusted.

Mr. DeMarco noted that reducing principal could reduce losses not for taxpayers but for third parties, like the holders of secondary loans or providers of mortgage insurance. “F.H.F.A. would reconsider its conclusions if other funds become available,” he wrote.

via nytimes.com