Category Archives: Lewisboro

“Sand States” are Still the Wettest | Cross River Real Estate

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Some 10.7 million homeowners, or 22 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage, were in negative equity at the end of the third quarter of 2012, down by 100,000 from the second quarter. But the “sand states”, the states that dominated foreclosures for years, still account for a lion’s share of underwater borrowers.

With the addition of 100,000 borrowers, the total number of borrowers who moved from negative equity to positive equity by September reached 1.4 million year-to-date. An additional 2.3 million borrowers had less than 5 percent equity in their home, referred to as near-negative equity, at the end of the third quarter, according to a new analysis from CoreLogic.

Together, negative equity and near-negative equity mortgages accounted for 26.8 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage nationwide in the third quarter of 2012, down from 27 percent at the end of the second quarter in 2012. Nationally, negative equity decreased from $689 billion at the end of the second quarter in 2012 to $658 billion at the end of the third quarter, a decrease of $31 billion. This decrease was driven in large part by an improvement in house price levels. This dollar amount represents the total value of all homes currently underwater nationally.

Rising home values also pushed the equity Americans have in their homes higher than at it was at the onset of the housing crash five years ago, according to the December HUD Scorecard. Homeowners’ equity reached $7714.3 billion, a 5.2 percent increase over the second quarter and an 18 percent increase over the level of $6526.9 in the third quarter of 20011. In 2007, homeowners’ equity reached $1.02 trillion, but fell to $7050.9 billion in 2008, according to the quarterly Federal Reserve’s Flow of Funds report.

Negative equity has been a major cause of foreclosures and short sales. Even three years after the height of the foreclosure flood in 2010, a handful of states that were reasonable then for the majority of the foreclosures are the same states that today are home to an overabundance of underwater homes.

Nevada had the highest percentage of mortgaged properties in negative equity at 56.9 percent, followed by Florida (42.1 percent), Arizona (38.6 percent), Georgia (35.6 percent) and Michigan (32 percent). These top five states combined account for 34 percent of the total amount of negative equity in the U.S.

Of the total $658 billion in aggregate negative equity, first liens without home equity loans accounted for $323 billion aggregate negative equity, while first liens with home equity loans accounted for $334 billion.

Third quarter highlights included:

  • 6.6 million upside-down borrowers hold first liens without home equity loans. The average mortgage balance for this group of borrowers is $214,000. The average underwater amount is $49,000.
  • 4.1 million upside-down borrowers possess both first and second liens. The average mortgage balance for this group of borrowers is $298,000.The average underwater amount is $82,000.
  • Approximately 41 percent of borrowers with first liens without home equity loans had loan-to-value (LTV) ratios of 80 percent or higher and approximately 61 percent of borrowers with first liens and home equity loans had combined LTVs of 80 percent or higher.
  • At the end of the third quarter 2012, 17.1 million borrowers possessed qualifying LTVs between 80 and 125 percent for the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) under the original requirements first introduced in March 2009. The lifting of the 125 percent LTV cap via HARP 2.0 opens the door to another 4.6 million borrowers.
via realestateeconomywatch.com

My 10-in-1 Content Creation Strategy | Katonah Real Estate

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Content creation calendars and schedules are the bane of most serious bloggers’ and content managers’ lives, depending on which side of the creative block you’re on.

I straddled this fine line on many occasions until my Eureka moment. Having amalgamated my home radio and video studios I realised that I could double up on content creation with my business-consultant partner, a content reservoir of genius proportions.

Soon we had discovered a 3-in-1, then a 6-in-1, and finally a 10-in-1 content creation strategy.

When I say “radio and video studio” (actually my third bedroom), be assured it’s not exactly state of the art, although I have slowly acquired suitable equipment and created a workable dual studio.

In saying this, anyone with a computer, some sort of USB audio interface/mixer, a reasonable microphone and digital video camera or DSLR can achieve the same results. In this article I assume you are familiar with your gear so I’m not going to go into any detail on how to use each piece of equipment in the process.

Time costs!

One of the most valuable, and rarest assets of a successful business consultant is time. To maximise the genius of my partner, when time is in such short supply, is a hectic operation usually resulting in a minimal flow of great content. This is where my Eureka moment has paid incredible dividends and saved many hours in the generation of multiple pieces of content at once.

Because we use a joint audio and video, green-screen studio, when we sit down and record a session, we create both an audio and a video recording simultaneously. The following ten points outline the quality content that we create from each five-minute recording session.

We now have this down to such a fine art that we can do six, five-minute recordings in 40 minutes. For me as the content creator, this is heaven, as it enables me to work in my genius. (A little side note here: your genius is simply working in your passion and talent, and I believe you need to be doing this for 80% of your working time.)

How it works

So, it all starts with one content creation session—just one!—where we have learned to maximise both time and genius. Of course there is preparation required to make the session go smoothly, and a good knowledge of your field of expertise is essential, but once we’re in studio, this is how the magic happens.

  1. The primary piece of content is a video for uploading to our YouTube channel and if we choose, we upload it to iTunes as a video podcast. We also embed the same video on our blog at MurrayKilgour.com. A well-prepared, quality video is the basis for this whole process. We use either a script or a series of bullet points to make the recording. I personally enjoy using a script with a DIY teleprompter, because of my radio background. Cheesycam.com is an awesome resource for DIY ideas and equipment—a lot of it DIY or reasonably priced new gear.
  2. The recorded audio track becomes a podcast which is embedded on our blog, and most often is uploaded to our Living on Purpose iTunes podcast channel as well. There are many other podcast sites to upload to, but we choose just iTunes. If you are unable to create video, the podcast can become the audio for a Slideshare video presentation, so give the audio the same good preparation as you would a video.
  3. We send the mp3 audio recording to a transcription contractor hired through eLance.com for transcription at $2 per recording. From this transcript, we create a blog post for our site, a guest post for another website, or an article for a site like ezinearticles.com. This invaluable piece of text is also used as a caption or transcript with our videos on Youtube for SEO purposes. Because it’s accurate, we gain the additional traction of having hearing-disabled people able to enjoy your video using the Youtube subtitles feature.
  4. The video we have created, if it’s not placed on our YouTube channel, can now form part of a multi-part video ecourse. We use an Aweber autoresponder to give this away for free and gain subscribers to our blog, but it can be monetized in the form of a paid video ecourse. You can determine the value or purpose of the content here.
  5. We again take the transcribed text and repurpose it into a ten-part ecourse delivered in the same way as the video ecourse: as a bonus for signing up as a subscriber to the blog. This method has been extremely successful—we’ve signed up thousands of subscribers to our blog this way.
  6. The transcribed text now adds real value when it is compiled into a section or chapter of an ebook to be used as a giveaway or sold on the blog as a free download. This is where the value of the method comes in, because many bloggers battle to get into writing an ebook. We edited, added and modified a lot of the text to create an ebook, but what this method did was give us a great quantity of raw material to work with. We had created more than 140 podcasts by the time we woke to the fact that we could compile a quality ebook using that material.
  7. I am in the fortunate position of being a breakfast show producer for a local radio station, so the podcast becomes a regular slot on our community radio station, Radio CCFm, which has 250 000 listeners. But before you say this is a privileged position, I can assure you that, as a producer, I can say most local radio stations are always looking for quality content, especially if it is free. So short podcasts with a good intro and outro may become a regular feature on radio stations and give good traffic to a website.
  8. With the advent of HD video DSLRs it is possible to produce high-quality video footage for TV programs. We repurpose our five-minute content creation session again in the form of a short TV program for a local community TV station, Cape Town Television. If it’s quality content and free, TV stations will take your show—especially if it’s relevant to their viewers.
  9. When we repurpose the transcribed text into an ebook, the audio becomes part of an audio book. You might say that this is pushing it, but I use the audio as a companion free audio book to the photography ebook I sell on my website. It’s a bonus for the buyer and for me, because I didn’t have to do anything extra to create it.
  10. Finally, blog posts, audio, and video make an amazing weekly or monthly newsletter. I do this using Aweber templates, which are free with the subscription. We try to do it on a two-weekly basis, as we don’t always have enough content for weekly mailings. It works perfectly for a monthly newsletter and I would advise this when you’re starting out. The amount of content you generate will determine the frequency.

Ten points sounds good, and I thought that adding an eleventh point might be a bit much, but here’s a bonus idea. What we’ve done is created a boxed DVD set for offline and online sales as training modules. Not all people are excited about online, and some like a physical product in their hands. In our business we use all of the above content in its different forms as part of a DVD boxed series for sale to our coaching clients. They love it and we love it—especially the time it takes to create!

Unlimited content

There are no limits to how you can use your content if you begin with the end in mind, but the emphasis must be on quality content. When you sit down in front of the camera and microphone, think “end product,” and design your process to get the most out of the content creation session. I’m sure that most people can easily create seven of these ten pieces of content out of just one five-, ten-, or even 30-minute recording session.

So, think big in your content creation, begin with the end in mind, and maximize your time and effort to produce content that will attract the best traffic and convert those people into buyers. Your success will result from the quality of content you produce. So give it your best!

via problogger.net

Clients are Worth More than Customers | Cross River Homes

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Many real estate agents today create temporary relationships with home buyers and sellers. Agents provide transaction services, take buyers from property search to home closing; or take sellers from property listings to home closings. But when the closing is completed, most agents hand over the house keys and move on to the next hot prospect. It’s the nature of sales.

Some agents keep in touch with past customers by sending trinkets, jam, calendars, anniversary cards and holiday greetings. But too often, past customers are neglected as a prime source for future transactions.

When you neglect or ignore a happy, well-treated, well-served customer, you give up a great deal of hidden value in the form of client goodwill. Immediately after a successful real estate transaction, a satisfied customer is prepared to become your client for life. A customer becomes your client when you pro-actively provide products and services distributed throughout the years in between transactions: newsletters, information reports, market alerts, product discounts, seminar invitations and other useful information about your local housing market.

You now have a long-term, professional relationship with these home owners or sellers. They’re impressed that you treat them well and fairly, even though the transaction is complete. You become their real estate agent – the name they know and the professional they recommend.

Indeed, past clients recommend you to family, friends and neighbors, generating quality referrals and prospecting leads. And expect these well-maintained clients to buy or sell more real estate using you as their “insider” authority. The goodwill factor stays with happy clients years after the sale, when you reach out and maintain interest and contact.

Now, this sounds good in theory, but you don’t have enough time to provide services to past customers. You have to cut expenses, generate and convert leads so that you generate income today, not five years down the road.

Not to worry, the client approach gives you the best of both worlds. You focus on making money today, while obtaining clients for tomorrow. You do both because the time and cost of client management is insignificant when weighed against the benefits you derive.

Agents continue to use traditional marketing channels such as online lead generation services, postcards and mailers, open houses, local newspaper advertisements, local real estate listing hand-outs and telemarketing to focus their near-term activity on converting leads to customers and fulfilling customer transactions.

Now let’s look at the client-based approach. Growing a client business is based on the concept of “self generating” referrals and leads, accomplished by creating a large network of exposure points, which, in turn generate more referrals and leads naturally, organically.

For example, an agent who conducts a seminar on foreclosure sales to an audience of 100 people creates an exposure point because once the seminar is over, the power and reach of your expertise and authority spreads by word of mouth – the best advertising an agent has.

One hundred seminar attendees now have a favorable opinion of the agent. Each tells family, friends, neighbors and colleagues about the agent. In turn, some of these people tell others and your reputation grows virally. A one-hour seminar creates a self-generating process of referrals and leads.

The fact that a client-based approach creates self-generating referrals is a bonanza for today’s ambitious agents. According to a recent survey conducted by HomeGain, real estate agents believe that referrals are the most effective marketing strategy to acquire new clients.

Clients Eventually Generate More Business

If you keep clients for life, they’ll ultimately naturally generate more commission income for your business practice, while you are focused on generating short-term customer business. Here’s why:

A meaningful percentage of an agent’s book of clients will eventually purchase a trade-up or trade-down property, organically generating more business for the agent and agency.

A percentage of clients will eventually purchase a resort property, giving the agent the referral fee from another agent in a different location.

A percentage of clients purchase investment properties, giving the agent all of these transactions.

Satisfied clients refer their agent to family, friends, and neighbors, growing the agent’s client base. This word of mouth exposure expands on its own as the agent continues to provide advice and counsel.

And finally, serving a large number of clients in a relatively small community gets the agent recognized as highly credible with a solid reputation.

Simply stated, clients are worth more than customers-over time.

via realestateeconomywatch.com

Good and bad news for multifamily housing | Waccabuc Realtor

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“At a 4 percent cap rate, all you need is rates to bounce by 100 basis points and you are going to wipe out an investor’s equity”
–Matt Galligan, CIT Real Estate Finance

Of the top 180 metros in the country, 44 doubled the amount of multifamily construction in 2012, according to a study by John Burns Real Estate Consulting that was released toward the end of last year.

To quote the study, “Among the major markets, the growth is staggering.”

I checked in with Lesley Deutch, a John Burns vice president, who worked on the report.

One has to look closely at the data, Deutch said, because smaller markets are included and, on a percentage growth basis, they can distort the picture.

For example, Bend, Ore., saw only two multifamily permits in 2011, but issued 120 in 2012, so the percentage of growth looks astronomical. The same would be for cities such as Huntsville, Ala., Pensacola, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., all of which had fewer than 30 permits in 2011, but more than 100 in 2012.

This isn’t to say some larger markets weren’t showing extraordinary growth.

Durham, N.C., saw multifamily permits increase more than 400 percent in 2012 compared to 2011; West Palm Beach, Fla., close to 250 percent; and such cities as Charlotte, N.C., Jacksonville, Fla., Austin, Texas, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Fort Worth, Texas, Raleigh-Carey, N.C., Atlanta, Ga., and San Jose, Calif., more than 100 percent.

In terms of number of permits issued in 2012, Austin and Atlanta led the pack, issuing almost 5,000 permits in 2012; and then came Charlotte and San Jose at about 4,200 units.

“In certain markets, we are seeing more multifamily construction than single-family construction,” Deutch said. New York leads that group, but there is always more multifamily than single-family built in New York. Nevertheless, this list is a long one, including such markets as Los Angeles, Dallas, Seattle, Miami, Denver, Chicago, Columbus, Baltimore, Daytona Beach and Newark-Union, N.J.

One of the big reasons for the growth, Deutch said, “is that banks are starting to loan again to multifamily. There is a lot of private equity out there because lenders realize how strong the sector is. The banks were a little nervous at first, but they opened up their lending windows for multifamily.”

Despite all the construction, “rents are still going up,” which is a positive signal for lenders, Deutch said.

With good times abounding, one would think the multifamily lending market would all be on the same wagon, but that’s not the case.

At the end of 2012, the National Multi Housing Council and National Apartment Association issued a white paper outlining key principles to stabilize financing for the multifamily sector.

The white paper makes a number of key points: the industry supports a return to a system dominated by private capital; private capital-only finance distorts the market because it mostly plays in the high-end side of top-tier markets; and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac even out the market.

One of those private lenders in multifamily is CIT Group Inc. of New York, and Matt Galligan, group head of CIT Real Estate Finance, said his company expects to do $150 million in lending to the multifamily market in 2013.

Although CIT Real Estate does new-construction financing, Galligan has been focusing more on refinancing B-quality apartments with experienced developer/owners that are trying to upgrade to A.

“We like the fact that these apartments might trade at a 6 percent or 7 percent cap rate (capitalization rate, or rate of return on an investment property based on expected income property will generate),” Galligan said.

To which he added, “If you are going to be building new units, those are going to be Class-A; and that is where the competition is, and cap rates are at 4 percent,” which is a small return that could be endangered if mortgage rates rise even a small amount, say, 100 basis points.

Despite private equity back in the multifamily lending game, to some extent Fannie and Freddie have been the dominant players, setting mortgage rates low.

Galligan doesn’t trust the two GSEs, and believes they should not be in the multifamily market.

“They are subsidizing the multifamily lending business, causing all sorts of wildness. People are flooding the market because of below-market rates.” Galligan said. “Either do something with the GSEs or crank rates up by 200 basis points. If these things are being underwritten at a 4 percent cap rate, you now have yields at 2 percent. Then all you need is a little bit of vacancy or a decrease in reserves and you have problems.”

When I told Galligan about the John Burns numbers, he was more concerned than thrilled.

“Fourty-four markets? Let’s make the assumption there are 12 primary markets in the country, that leaves 32 other markets with a lot of new construction,” he said. “You are probably going to need $1,200 to $1,500 a month in rent to make new construction work, which is harder to get to in secondary cities. And there’s competition in those cities already. Maybe your product steals market share, but it is going to force a glut.”

He added, “At a 4 percent cap rate, all you need is rates to bounce by 100 basis points and you are going to wipe out an investor’s equity. That’s been our concern.”

via inman.com

New social search engine focuses on real estate | Cross River Real Estate

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When searching on social media networks, it’s often difficult to decipher what’s legitimate and what isn’t. However, a new search engine is entering the scene, one that is powered entirely by the Facebook API.

Curaytor organized tens of thousand of conversations from various groups on Facebook about topics such as technology products worth investing in, business tips and companies that should be avoided at all costs. The engine also allows web users with an interest in real estate to find conversations related to housing.

The latest search engine also hand picks its favorite discussions, which will be labeled as “staff picks.” Curaytor also uses a simple tagging system to make groups of conversations on the same topic easily findable.

Curaytor will begin by focusing on the real estate industry, but plans to eventually expand to other topics.

To get a better understanding of the search engine, watch the video below.

via housingwire.com