Category Archives: South Salem

6 ‘About Us’ Pages That Are Probably Better Than Yours | South Salem NY Realtor

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When you’re building a website, it’s tempting to get distracted by all the bells and whistles of the design process and forget all about creating compelling content. But having awesome content on your website is crucial to making inbound marketing work for your business.

So how do you balance your remarkable content creation with your website design needs? Why, with your ‘About Us’ page, of course! For a remarkable ‘About Us’ page, all you need to do is figure out your company’s unique identity, and then share it with the world.

I know … easier said than done.

Still, there’s no excuse for you to neglect one of the most important pages on your website — which also happens to be one of the most commonly overlooked pages. Let’s read on to discover six companies with awesome ‘About Us’ pages and see how you can emulate them on your own website. By the end of this post, showing off how awesome your company is won’t seem like such a challenging feat.

1) Yellow Leaf Hammocks

Why the ‘About Us’ Page Rocks: It tells us a story.

Have a cool story about how your product or service was created? Put it on your ‘About Us’ page. Good stories humanize your brand and provide context and meaning for your product. What’s more, good stories are sticky — which means people are more likely to connect with them and pass them on.

Yellow Leaf Hammocks does an amazing job of telling you about its product by describing the founder’s journey to Thailand and the birth of his “big idea” for the brand. Like any good storyteller, Yellow Leaf Hammocks uses words to paint a picture, rather than simply describing the events that happened. Sentences like “the hammock wrapped around him, cocooning him in its cloudlike embrace” immediately give you a mental picture of what’s happening.

Yellow Leaf Hammocks

Our_Story_

Every company has a story to tell, so break out your storytelling skills from that random English class you took years ago and put them to work on your ‘About Us’ page. Using descriptive and emotive copy, an ‘About Us’ page with a story works harder for your business than a generic one.

2) LessFilms.com

Why the ‘About Us’ Page Rocks: It shows some personality.

You’re not like everyone else — so why should you sound the same as everyone else? Stand out with an ‘About Us’ page that shows off who you really are with witty headlines and a real brand voice.

That’s exactly what video production company LessFilms accomplished on its site using witty copy and the image of a large wrestler (yes, a wrestler). Although the wrestler dude and the funny headlines have nothing to do with LessFilms’ business model or product, they show off the founders’ sense of humor and give the brand a personality.

LessFilms

For your ‘About Us’ page, you don’t need to pretend to be a comedian if that isn’t part of your brand’s personality. Find another aspect of your brand’s personality to showcase and make a lasting impression by being yourself.

3) Eight Hour Workday

Why the ‘About Us’ Page Rocks: It’s human.

People tend to think that ‘About Us’ pages have to sound formal to gain credibility and trust. Most people find it easier to trust real human beings rather than a description that sounds like it came from an automaton. Trying to sound formal on your ‘About Us’ page results in stiff, “safe” copy and design — the perfect way to make sure your company stays invisible.

Eight Hour Day does a great job of showcasing the people behind the company to make the brand seem human. Including the founders’ names in the header of the website and featuring the photos of them on the ‘About Us’ page drives home the point that Nathan and Katie are a “couple that loves to create.” Even the picture of their dog makes you think Eight Hour Day has real people behind the brand.

Eight_Hour_Day

 

6 ‘About Us’ Pages That Are Probably Better Than Yours.

Housing looks even better today than yesterday | South Salem Real Estate

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The chief US economist for Deutsche Bank, Joseph LaVorgna, tweeted some great news a little while ago.

He push-posted an economic review of the housing industry that shows the recovery is doing even better than originally thought:

“We believe investors still do not fully appreciate the direct positive effects a rejuvenated housing
sector will have on the economic outlook,” according to the report LaVorgna is tweeting about.

“When combing through the GDP accounts, we estimate that total housing-related spending — beyond just residential construction — accounts for a much larger share of the economy than some market participants currently may believe,” the analysts write.

So the outlook remains bright, as HousingWire yesterday reported, but it’s still not as good as it once was, Deutsche Bank notes.

 

Housing looks even better today than yesterday | REwired.

Eight Kitchen Counter Options That Will Make You Forget Granite | South Salem Real Estate

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Its use in residential applications has skyrocketed in recent years. A 2012 survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of The Marble Institute, found that 75 percent of homeowners who intend to remodel their kitchens in the next two years indicated they want granite countertops Denver.

Granite’s durability, longevity and good looks make it ideal for kitchen countertops and other heavily used surfaces, including table tops and floors. Still, it’s expensive (typically $60 to $100 per square foot installed), it’s extraordinarily heavy (requiring reinforcement of base cabinets) and requires considerable upkeep.

Beyond granite, there are a multitude of countertop options available and their number just increases over time. If you’re in the market for a kitchen makeover, you may find one of these great, non-granite surfaces is just what you need:

Marble countertop

Marble countertop

Carrara marble

Marble is softer than granite, which means it stains and scratches. “But it creates its own patina when it does that,” says Alan Zielinski, immediate past president of the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) and president and CEO of Better Kitchens Inc. in north-suburban Chicago. “That aging process gives the marble a nice, warm look. That warmth appeals to some people – if you’re not one of them, you probably should avoid marble.”

Wood countertop

Wood countertop

Wood

Wood countertops are enjoying a resurgence in popularity, largely due to their durability and style. Adding a wood top to an island, while using a contrasting material for perimeter counters is a great way to add interest to the kitchen.

Butcher block is the most common type of wood countertop, but slabs can be crafted from a variety of woods, ranging from cherry and bamboo to zebra wood and iroko. Wear will give wood counters a charming patina, but you’ll need to periodically oil them to prevent drying.

Soapstone counter

Soapstone countertop

Soapstone

Soapstone is a smooth, matte natural stone that comes in a hues ranging from soft grey to charcoal. It is one of the only natural surfaces that is not affected by acids, so spilled coffee or orange juice won’t leave a stain. Soapstone is also heat resistant.

No special cleaners are needed to keep soapstone clean but mineral oils can be used to enhance the stone’s natural beauty.

Quartz counters

Quartz countertop

Engineered Quartz

Although some quartz countertops are actually made of quarried slabs of stone, the new engineered material is created through a manufacturing process that mixes approximately 95 percent ground natural quartz with 5 percent polymer resins. The result is a super-hard, low-maintenance, natural looking countertop that’s available in a wide range of colors.

“Because quartz is a composite material, it brings with it both the practicality of natural stone and the consistency of a manufactured product,” says Zielinski. “It’s resistant to scratching, but it can be scratched and it’s resistant to heat, but you don’t want to set a hot frying pan on it.”

Eight Kitchen Counter Options That Will Make You Forget Granite | Zillow Blog.

Watch Out For Coyotes In Westchester This Spring | South Salem NY Real Estate

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WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N.Y. – While coyote incidents are on the decline overall, Westchester County experts say that coyotes are typically more active during the spring season and it could be the reason for an increase in coyote attacks on small pets in Westchester County.

Two recent incidents involving pets caused New Castle Police to send out an alert to residents about coyotes Monday, but the latest statistics on coyote reports to the Department of Enivronmental Conservation show that incidents in New York are on the decline. There were at total of 36 incidents reported to the DEC in 2012, down from 39 in 2011 and 80 in 2007, according to the latest reports released by the DEC.

Statistics may not be helpful for the Westchester families who have recently lost pets to recent coyote attacks. But Maggie Ciarcia, a licensed NYS wildlife rehabilitator who serves Westchester County, said there is a strong correlation in coyote attacks on small pets during the spring season.

“Right now is the time of year when coyotes have their babies,” Ciarcia said. “The coyote pups are typically born in late-March into early-May so they’re more likely to hunt for any food they can find in the spring. They’ve been here all along, not just to have their pups, but they’re typically more active in the spring.”

Coyotes view domestic dogs as a threat to their young during the “spring denning season,” according to the DEC. Ciarcia said the incidents in Chappaqua were most likely the result of one mother looking to feed and protect its young.

“My guess would be those all involve the same coyote family,” Ciarcia said. “Normally they eat mice or rodents and do a great job of keeping the rodent population down but coyotes can become very situated to humans and to easy food. So we always warn people not to feed coyotes or leave food for outdoor pets.”

 

 

Watch Out For Coyotes In Westchester This Spring | The Bedford Daily Voice.

Purchase loan demand eases as mortgage rates rise | South Salem Real Estate

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With rates headed up, demand for purchase loans fell a seasonally adjusted 4 percent from the week before during the week ending May 10, but was still up 10 percent from a year ago, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in releasing the results of its latest Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.

After declining for seven weeks in a row, rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($417,500 or less) averaged 3.67 percent, up from 3.59 percent the week before, the MBA said. Points also increased to 0.41 from 0.33 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans.

Applications for refinancings were down 8 percent from week to week, but refi requests still accounted for 76 percent of all mortgage applications. Source: mbaa.org.

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/wire/purchase-loan-demand-eases-as-mortgage-rates-rise/#sthash.WkQbJNTm.dpuf

 

 

Purchase loan demand eases as mortgage rates rise | Inman News.

Hong Kong Home Prices at Record Gap to Sales | South Salem Real Estate

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Bloomberg

The gap between Hong Kong home prices and sales is the widest on record as new taxes, rising supply and the prospect of higher mortgage costs deter buyers in the world’s most expensive housing market.

Enlarge imageHong Kong Home Prices at Record Gap to Sales

Residential buildings stand in the Mid-levels area of Hong Kong. Photographer: Lam Yik Fei/Bloomberg

The CHART OF THE DAY tracks Centaline Property Agency Ltd.’s weekly index of home prices against monthly sales of residential units, according to data compiled by Bloomberg dating back to 1996. Prices have fallen 4.2 percent from a record reached in mid-March, compared with a 77 percent contraction in sales from their post-global financial crisis peak in 2010. The lower panel shows the U.S. benchmark interest rate compared with America’s unemployment rate.

The Hong Kong dollar’s peg to the U.S. counterpart has kept borrowing costs in the city at near-record lows, underpinning a 109 percent gain in home prices since the beginning of 2009, even as the government imposed several property curbs to cool demand. The city’s housing market got an additional boost in January 2012 when the U.S. Federal Reserve pledged to keep interest rates low through at least late-2014.

“When people were expecting prices to rise, as they had been over the last couple of years, none of the government’s measures could deter buyers because borrowing costs were low,” said David Ng, an analyst at Macquarie Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong. “Now, the opposite is happening.”

Since 2010, Hong Kong has charged an extra tax of up to 20 percent of the value of homes on buyers who resell them within three years and raised the minimum down-payment on mortgages for homes costing more than HK$7 million ($902,000). In October, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying imposed an extra 15 percent tax on all home purchases by companies and non-residents, and promised to raise land supply

 

 

Hong Kong Home Prices at Record Gap to Sales – Bloomberg.

Obama Weekly Address: Growing The “Healing” Housing Market | South Salem Real Estate

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Obama Weekly Address: Growing The “Healing” Housing Market

WHITE HOUSE: In this week’s address, President Obama said seven years after the real estate bubble burst, our housing market is healing. The administration’s policies have helped responsible homeowners save money on their mortgages and stay in their homes, and the President’s consumer watchdog agency is working to protect consumers from being taken advantage of on their mortgages, but there is still more work to do. The President urges Congress to quickly confirm Mel Watt to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and take action to give every responsible homeowner the chance to refinance and save money on their mortgage, so that we can keep growing the housing market, support working families, and strengthen the economy.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Hi, everybody. Our top priority as a nation is reigniting the true engine of our economic growth – a rising, thriving middle class. And few things define what it is to be middle class in America more than owning your own cornerstone of the American Dream: a home.

Today, seven years after the real estate bubble burst, triggering the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and costing millions of responsible Americans their jobs and their homes, our housing market is healing. Sales are up. Foreclosures are down. Construction is expanding. And thanks to rising home prices over the past year, 1.7 million more families have been able to come up for air, because they’re no longer underwater on their mortgages.

From the day I took office, I’ve made it a priority to help responsible homeowners and prevent the kind of recklessness that helped cause this crisis in the first place.

My housing plan has already helped more than two million people refinance their mortgages, and they’re saving an average of $3000 per year.

My new consumer watchdog agency is moving forward on protections like a simpler, shorter mortgage form that will help to keep hard-working families from getting ripped off.

But we’ve got more work to do. We’ve got more responsible homeowners to help – folks who have never missed a mortgage payment, but aren’t allowed to refinance; working families who have done everything right, but still owe more on their homes than they’re worth.

Last week, I nominated a man named Mel Watt to take on these challenges as the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Mel’s represented the people of North Carolina in Congress for 20 years, and in that time, he helped lead efforts to put in place rules of the road that protect consumers from dishonest mortgage lenders, and give responsible Americans the chance to own their own home. He’s the right person for the job, and that’s why Congress should do its job, and confirm him without delay.

And they shouldn’t stop there. As I said before, more than two million Americans have already refinanced at today’s low rates, but we can do a lot better than that. I’ve called on Congress to give every responsible homeowner the chance to refinance, and with it, the opportunity to save $3,000 a year. That’s like a $3,000 tax cut. And if you’re one of the millions of Americans who could take advantage of that, you should ask your representative in Congress why they won’t act on it.

Our economy and our housing market are poised for progress – but we could do so much more if we work together. More good jobs. Greater security for middle-class families. A sense that your hard work is rewarded. That’s what I’m fighting for – and that’s what I’m going to keep fighting for as long as I hold this office.




Obama Weekly Address: Growing The “Healing” Housing Market | RealClearPolitics

 

 

Obama Weekly Address: Growing The “Healing” Housing Market | South Salem Real Estate | Bedford NY Real Estate | Robert Paul Talks Life in Bedford NY.

Buying a home after short sales and foreclosures | South Salem Real Estate

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Back when the Great Recession began, Cary Schneider lost a wife and a job. Because of that, he lost his house, too.
He’s since replaced all three. His is a tale of loss and recovery, both in love and finance.
This being a personal finance column, we’ll stick to the money part. Schneider is proof that people can pick themselves up and become homeowners again after foreclosures and short sales.
More of that is happening these days. The giant mortgage players — Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration — require people who defaulted on mortgages to spend years in credit purgatory before they can get another house.
Six years after the bursting of the housing bubble began, those sentences have expired for millions. In the meantime, they’ve found jobs and built some savings.
Now, some are ready to buy.
“I’ve done more FHA loans for people with foreclosures in the past six months than in the past 17 years,” says Jeff Griege of Paramount Mortgage, who handled Schneider’s loan.
And so Schneider is now the happy owner of a newly built home in Imperial, which he shares with his new wife and her children.
“All my friends and family are amazed,” he says.
Back during the real estate boom of the last decade, Schneider and his former wife bought a new house in Jefferson County. They bought before they had managed to sell their previous house.
So, they signed up for an adjustable rate mortgage. The rate started low, but would jump much higher after two years. “I was leveraged and gambling,” he said.
But he thought the odds were with him. The plan was to refinance into a long-term mortgage once the old house sold. Then things started to fall apart.
His marriage broke up, and Schneider no longer had two incomes to support the mortgage. He lost his job.
The old home did sell, but Schneider no longer had the income needed to refinance. After two years, the rate on the mortgage reset and the payment jumped from $1,500 to $2,200 per month. He fell behind.
“I couldn’t do it. I called the finance company and begged. They said there was nothing they could do,” he said. By 2008, he was facing foreclosure.
“I was sitting on the couch, drowning my sorrows. I’d just received my first foreclosure notice,” he said.
Then a real estate agent knocked on the door, suggesting that he try a short sale. That’s a deal in which a buyer pays less for the house than the seller owes on the mortgage. The bank agrees to eat the difference, calculating that it would lose more money by foreclosing and trying to sell the house.
Banks have become much more amenable to short sales in the last two years. But in 2008, they were hard to get. Schneider owed $300,000. The bankers accepted a second offer for $260,000.
“I felt bad. It’s unfair to make a mistake and walk away,” he says. But he thinks the bank is also to blame for making him a risky loan. “There’s no way I should have been in that house. I couldn’t afford it,” he said.
Schneider started working again. He did a smart thing; he kept up payments on his other debts even as he was losing his house.
Foreclosures and short sales are hell on credit scores, and a decent score is important in getting a mortgage. A foreclosure can knock 85 to 160 points off your credit score, and people with high scores suffer most, according to illustrations supplied by the FICO scoring company.
But if you pay other debts on time, your score starts to improve in as little as two years, FICO says.
“If you have late payments after a foreclosure or short sale, that’s really going to make it difficult to get a new mortgage,” says mortgage lender George DeMare, managing partner of Midwest Mortgage Capital in west St. Louis County.

 

Buying a home after short sales and foreclosures | South Salem Real Estate | Bedford NY Real Estate | Robert Paul Talks Life in Bedford NY.

Surging market fuels growth of ‘pocket listings’ | South Salem Real Estate

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How hot is hot when it comes to housing markets across the country right now? Crazy hot: Some houses sell within days, sometimes within hours, of listing.

Then there are the growing numbers that sell even before they formally hit the market — sold through a controversial technique known as “pocket listings.”

Essentially it’s a private, “off-market” listing, often of short duration.

Instead of putting the house on the local multiple listing service — which exposes it to a vast number of shoppers and agents via real-estate websites — agents restrict access to information about the house to their own buyer clients or colleagues in the same brokerage, hoping for a quick, full-price sale.

Pocket listings are surging, real-estate experts say, because of historically low inventories of homes for sale in major metropolitan areas, along with strong buyer demand and low mortgage rates.

This combination has made control of upcoming new listings a powerful, highly profitable asset for agents in the most competitive sellers’ markets.

If agents can sell their off-market listing to a buyer-client they bring in on their own, they can collect both sides of the commission rather than splitting it with another agent. If they can sell it through colleagues in their own firm — even at a slight discount to regular commission rates — the full commission remains inside the brokerage.

Though no organization or research firm publishes statistics on the subject, top brokers in some highly competitive markets say pocket listings are becoming a significant factor in the business.

Bill Podley, broker-owner of Podley Properties, a Pasadena, Calif.-based firm that specializes in middle- and high-end communities, says he has heard estimates that as high as one-third of luxury and upper-cost homes selling in northeast Los Angeles County now involve pocket listings.

David Howell, executive vice president of McEnearney Associates, a large brokerage in the Washington, D.C., area, says he heard a recent estimate that such listings may now run as high as 20 percent nationally.

Glenn Kelman, CEO of Seattle-based Redfin, an online real-estate firm, said, “We are seeing more pocket listings across the U.S. In Boston and Los Angeles, we also see listing agents refuse to allow any showings of the home until the weekend open house.”

Real-estate executives such as Podley, Howell and Kelman are all critical of pocket listings. They argue that by restricting access to information about homes available for sale to relatively small numbers of potential buyers, agents are not fulfilling their core duties to their seller clients and not obtaining the highest possible prices.

 

Surging market fuels growth of ‘pocket listings’ | Homes & Real Estate | The Seattle Times.

Another Housing Bubble Ahead? | South Salem Real Estate

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HOUSE PRICES in the US are heating up, as the flow of new homes and permits continue to steadily increase and the attraction of historically low mortgage rates motivates buyers, writes George Leong of Investment Contrarians.
The buyers that are driving up the housing market are not only the buyers of principal homes, but also the investors who are attracted to the relatively lower home prices and cheap financing.
What is interesting is that we are seeing major buying from not only the smaller investor who may dabble in an investment property, but also the large institutions and hedge funds that are getting into the swing of things, gobbling up hundreds and thousands of properties at lower prices.
The S&P/Case-Shiller index, comprising the 20 largest US metropolitan cites, increased a better-than-expected 9.3% in February, representing the 13th straight up month for prices.
While the housing market is far better than it was a few years ago, when the sub-prime mortgage crisis crushed the housing market and left a trail of destruction, my view is that there may be a bubble building as much of the current surge in prices is due to the cheap money.
Just consider the S&P/Case-Shiller index and notice the major jump in home prices in the housing market. For example, home buyers in the Phoenix housing market saw home prices surge 23% year-over-year, while those living in San Francisco reported an 18.9% surge in home prices.
My problem is that much of the buying in the housing market is being triggered by low-financing costs that can inevitably get homeowners in trouble once interest rates begin to ratchet higher—and they will go higher. For instance, carrying a $100,000 mortgage will become more expensive for many homeowners who were initially able to enter into the market only because of the low rates.
Even Robert Shiller, co-creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller index, is not that enthusiastic. He feels that the current housing climate is occurring in an “abnormal economy” that has been created by the money printing by the Federal Reserve. Shiller actually believes that home prices will do very little over the next decade. (Source: Napach, B., “Robert Shiller: Home Prices Will Remain Relatively Stagnant For Next 10 Years,” Yahoo! Finance, April 30, 2013.)
Years ago, after the last housing bubble, I said that if you have the money, go out and buy an investment property—you would be buying homes when they were cheap and, best of all, the money was cheap.
So as long as the Federal Reserve continues to pursue its bond-buying program and place downward pressure on financing rates, the housing market will continue to improve.

 

 

Another Housing Bubble Ahead? | South Salem Real Estate | Bedford NY Real Estate | Robert Paul Talks Life in Bedford NY.