The raw number of homes for sale is now at its lowest level in over 13 years, according to the National Association of Realtors, and the numbers continue to fall, CNBC reported.
“Every good property I’ve listed this year has brought 10 to 50 offers and sales prices 10% to 20% over comps,” said David Fogg, a real estate agent in Burbank, CA.
Are you just starting to get into the world of real estate investing? As the economy continues to recover, real estate investing is again becoming a popular investment strategy, and for good reason. Real estate investment offers long-term financial security in ways that other investment strategies don’t.
It isn’t tough to get into the real estate investing world. In fact, it’s rather easy. But it does require being smart and dedicated, and not making easy mistakes. Check out these tips for a first time real estate investor, so you’ll be certain to succeed
Diversify Your Portfolio
One of the most important things you can do as a real estate investor is to diversify. Diversify in all areas of your portfolio. For starters, you should diversify what kind of properties you have, in case there is another crash. The best portfolios have a variety of different kinds of properties. But diversification isn’t just about having different properties in your portfolio.
As an investor, it’s also important that you have other kinds of investments in your portfolio. There will be good times and there will be bad times in all kinds of investing, and real estate is no different. Make sure you diversify your portfolio with low risk investments like a whole life insurance policy that pays dividends throughout the life of the policy. You can easily find a good rate on a policy if you compare life insurance rates, and your portfolio will no doubt be safer than if you put all of your eggs in one basket!
Don’t Quit Your Day Job
As a first time real estate investor, understand that you will make mistakes. It’s if you can recover from those mistakes that you will become a good real estate investor. In the beginning, do not take the risk of leaving your employment in order to pursue a career as a real estate investor. In time, you may find yourself so successful that you should dedicate your career to real estate investing, but in the beginning, there’s no way of knowing.
Do your real estate investment research after work or on the weekends, and don’t let it distract from your current job. It may be a while before you reach the level of success that lets you leave your job, but if you’re dedicated enough it will come. Don’t make the mistake of leaving your job!
Specialize on Foreclosures
If you’re new to the real estate investing world, it might be a good idea to focus your initial efforts on foreclosures. Foreclosures usually only require minor tweaks in order to turn big profits, and it shouldn’t take much of your time to get them ready for a sale.
As the market recovers, finding foreclosures is becoming more difficult. But it is not impossible. Do some research into foreclosures in your area, and once you figure out where to look you’ll be able to find them no problem, and you’ll start making money!
2012 Median Prices Up Mount Kisco 12% Chappaqua 2%
“A dwindling supply of homes for sale is helping prices.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index for December shows home prices posted the biggest year-over-year increase last year in six years.
Boosted by decreasing inventory and increasing demand, the 20-city index shows prices rose 6.8% in 2012 compared to the year before with price hikes in 19 of 20 major cities tracked, according to the report released Tuesday. Only New York fell, down 0.5%.
On a monthly basis, the 20-city index gained 0.2% in December. Nine cities posted positive monthly gains in December.
The Case-Shiller national composite index, which covers all nine U.S. census divisions, posted a 7.3% gain in the fourth quarter over a year earlier”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/02/26/case-shiller-home-pri…
Today marks the one-month anniversary of the new mobile app Vine. Since its release, it has received a lot of buzz as well as dealt with a variety of issues. Businesses did not hesitate to jump onto the app for marketing purposes, while amateur users haven’t been shy about testing it out for…other reasons.
Introduced to the world by Twitter, Vine is a simple video capturing application that allows users to film quick 6-second looping videos by holding their thumb on the capture-frame. The looping quality of the Vines results in something very similar to a GIF, while the ability to capture and share moments on Twitter or Facebook makes the app very similar to Instagram.
In fact, Vine is considered to be to Twitter what Instagram is to Facebook. And as such, the snappy in-one-ear-out-the-other characteristic of tweets has been transferred into video form with Vine. The quick-snippet format is a great tool to have for stories that can be summarized simply in 6 seconds, but so far it has mostly been used for fun and games (and in one case, for a resume). Of the “Editor’s Picks” that top a users Vine feed, the best vids have made creative use of the loop-function, or the easy stop-motion capabilities.
Another result of Vine being an extension of Twitter is that while users can post Vines to their Facebooks, they can’t search for contacts through their Facebook friends. This is directly related to Twitter’s restrictions which disallow Instagram users to connect with their followers via Twitter. A statement from Facebook implied that Vine was guilty of replicating Instagram’s “core functionality.“ by stating in 1.10, “You may not use Facebook Platform to promote, or to export user data to, a product or service that replicates a core Facebook product or service without our permission.” A resolution is unlikely given the 2 mega social-media sites’ ongoing battles to top social site rankings.
Although Vine is still only available to iPhone users, the increase in the number of Vines showing up on Twitter feeds makes it something to keep an eye on. While it is still so new to the scene, most every creative Vine vid is getting recognition – but, that means so are all of the bad ones. If your business deems this mobile application’s capabilities fitting to your brand image, by all means, try it out! In order to get the most out of the platform, here are a few guidelines to get you started:
1. Promotion
If you’re going to use Vine as a promotion, it can’t be a straight sell. It has to be more of a tease. “Look what we’ve got in the works but aren’t going to show you, yet…” If you do show what you’re selling, make sure there is another point of interest, like…
2. Story
Use your 6 seconds to create and resolve a conflict. Keep in mind that your story will loop, so it needs to make sense to a viewer who could come in at any point. Don’t try to tell a story that needs more than 6 seconds.
3. Point of View
Make use of the motion and multiple scene capabilities. This is not the medium for Panoramas. If you can think of a creative way to splice your video to give it an awe-factor then this app was made for you.
Vine is an exciting new tool that can be leveraged to generate real results for your business, but if you are on the fence about it, don’t feel pressured to be an early adopter just so you can say you lead the pack. Like any mobile application, there will always be updates. Best just to wait it out until inspiration strikes and voila, Vine turns out to be the perfect outlet. When that happens I wish you a rainstorm of views and fruitful growth to your business. Pun intended.
