Tag Archives: Cross River NY Homes

Would You Rather be Social or Interesting? | Cross River Realtor

Leave a reply

 

The “Interest Graph” is not the “Social Graph”. But what does that mean  and why should you care?

Despite the rapid ascent of Interest-based platforms, such as Pinterest,  Sulia, WeHeartIt and Wanelo, we rarely see dialogue about the Interest Graph  except in a Social context. However, The Interest Graph and Social Graph are two  fundamentally different infrastructures with different underlying assumptions  for marketers.

Sure, they often overlap, but it’s time we come to appreciate their  differences, so that we can be more effective marketers on a social web driven  by people’s passions and interests.

So should you be social or interesting?

The social graph is about who you “know”

Friends, followers and connections represent some degree of familiarity,  ranging from a spouse to someone you met once at that thing you went to. If you  think in High School terms, the Social Graph is all about getting in with the  cool kids, so you can multiply your reach and borrow from their swagger.

The basic assumption of “Social  Marketing” is:

“If someone knows someone else,  they will be interested in similar things”

The interest graph is about “passions”

In high school, the “Interest Graph” is like clubs or sports teams- a group  of people coming together because they love to do the same thing. They may or  may not be friends, may or may not know each other, but they share a common  passion that brings them together. The more passionate they are the more likely  they are to create, share and comment.

The basic assumption of Interest  Marketing is thus:

“If someone is interested in  something, people who are interested in similar things will be interested in  that thing”

Social marketing is about reach

The more people who see your message, the further it will spread. This means  you will need to continue to grow your social networks on Twitter to remain  ahead of the competition. It’s about building an online distribution  network.

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/03/14/would-you-rather-be-social-or-interesting/#bLk7jqXUxfOvfP54.99

Why the future of real estate is peoplework, not paperwork | Cross River Real Estate

Leave a reply

 

Nearly everything in our lives has migrated online over the past decade. We shop online, read books on our tablets and stream movies through Netflix. We book flights ourselves and rent cars from an app on our phone. Handshakes have given way to email and Facebook ‘likes.’

The world has undoubtedly changed, but relics of our old lives remain.

This is especially apparent in real estate with the prevalence of documents, whether deadwood or digital attachments. Real estate professionals must close the gap – to succeed in an industry where human connections and experiences now matter more than ever.

More of the Same Won’t Cut It

Think back to how agents and clients closed deals in the past. The buyer and seller would meet with their agents to negotiate until they either reached a deal, or didn’t. If they reached a deal, they would shake hands and then document it. Over time, however, the document became the meeting place. It was scanned, mailed and inefficiently tossed back and forth to close a deal. Layer on the past 30 years of digital innovations, from the fax machine and scanners to email and Google Hangouts, and our industry is left with a convoluted mesh of yesterday’s technologies that solve yesterday’s problems.

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/blogs/1-rewired/post/29259-why-the-future-of-real-estate-is-peoplework-not-paperwork

 

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

Leave a reply

 

21 images

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

Hudson River Greenway plan wilts Riverdale | Cross River Real Estate

Leave a reply

 

Residents of the affluent Bronx enclave of Riverdale have long dreamed about gaining easy access to their two-mile stretch of Hudson River shoreline.

No wonder, then, that they were thrilled by a recent proposal to connect that waterfront strip with the existing Hudson River Greenway. It was only when they looked at the fine print of that plan that some Riverdale residents said their dream had turned into a nightmare—into something that threatens the character of their leafy neighborhood while barely offering any additional river access.

As it stands, the Hudson River Greenway’s popular bicycle and pedestrian trail begins at Battery Park at the bottom of Manhattan and runs all the way up through Westchester County. Or at least it would if only a way could be found to close a three-mile-long gap along the waterfront in the Bronx and Yonkers, just to the north. To do that, the New York Metropolitan Transit Council, an organization of regional governments charged with studying transportation-related issues for New York City, Long Island and the lower Hudson Valley, is recommending an elaborate $75 million multistage plan.

The problem in Riverdale is that the tracks used by Metro-North and Amtrak run close to the water, making pedestrian access perilous.

Interim trail

The NYMTC’s plan, submitted to the community board in February, essentially dodged the problem. It calls for an interim path beginning just over the Henry Hudson Bridge and running north through local streets in Riverdale, affording users a visual but not a physical connection with the shore. Accommodating those cyclists and walkers would require some widening of roadways, installation of sidewalks where none exist and paving paths through Riverdale Park–steps that have many residents up in arms.

They note the area’s rich history, including the stately mansions built by generations of Manhattan moguls, as well as its historic churches and elite educational institutions, including the Riverdale Country School–the most expensive private school in New York City.

“What has been presented will change the visual character and bucolic nature of our neighborhood,” said Frank Anelante, chairman of the Riverdale-Spuyten Duyvil Coalition. “The reconstruction required would necessitate the taking of property from homeowners, obliterating front lawns and driveways.”

Gary Klingsberg, a resident of Palisade Avenue, a street along which a portion of the path would be built, said he recently walked the suggested route, from the Henry Hudson Bridge to Riverdale Park, and found the twists and turns of the terrain dangerous, with very little space to expand existing sidewalks without infringing on people’s property.

 

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20140310/REAL_ESTATE/303099988/hudson-river-greenway-plan-wilts-riverdale#

I Turned My Tiny, Dark, And Overpriced New York Apartment Into A ‘Smart Home’ For Just $300 | Cross River Homes

Leave a reply

 

The SmartThings kit has all the basics you need to get started connecting your home.

My apartment gets almost no natural light.

That’s one of the problems with living in New York. I spend about a zillion dollars per month in rent, and still have a teeny tiny apartment that faces the back of a bunch of taller buildings that block the sun. My bedroom window faces some other guy’s bedroom window across a narrow, dark alley.

So no matter what time of day it is, I always have the lights on in my apartment.

For the last several weeks, my apartment has been programmed to light itself up. Whenever I enter my building, my apartment knows I’m home and switches on the lamp in my living room so I don’t have to fumble around in the dark. When I leave the room, the light shuts itself off.

That’s because I’ve been testing something called SmartThings. SmartThings isn’t just one gadget, but a Web-connected system of everyday objects that can control everything in your home from your lights to your coffee maker. I tested one of the SmartThings starter kits, which sell for $199 or $299.

How It Works

SmartThings starts with the hub, a small white plastic box that looks sort of like a WiFi router. The hub plugs into your router and talks to the rest of the connected objects in your home. Since the hub is connected to the Internet, you can control everything from a computer or the SmartThings app, even if you’re out of the house.

From there, you set up the objects you want connected. My starter kit came with two motion sensors, two multi sensors that can tell you when a door or window is open, two presence sensors that you clip to your keychain so the hub knows when you’re home (the app can also double as a presence sensor using your phone’s GPS), a smart outlet for controlling lamps or appliances, and a moisture sensor that goes under the sink to alert you in case of a leak.

 

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/turned-tiny-dark-overpriced-york-164004491.html

5 Essential Steps to Success in Social Media Marketing | Cross River Realtor

Leave a reply

 

Social media accounts for 27 percent of all time spent online and has become a popular way for customers to discover and research brands, and for marketers to reach out to potential customers. 93 percent of marketers currently say they use social media for business, and in 2013 there was a surge in popularity of new networks like Pinterest, Vine, and Instagram. This year, expect more sites, specifically Google+, to gain additional traction and become a people’s daily lives. Before businesses jump into social media, here are the five essential steps to success in social media marketing.

1. Start with a Plan

1 in 4 small businesses have no strategy in place for social media marketing. If a business wants to be successful in driving sales and leads from social, they need to have a clear digital strategy that incorporates social media.

Each social network has different audience demographics, so businesses should strategically choose which outlets to utilize based on their target customers. Examples of demographic differences include:

  • 67 percent of people online use Facebook, making it the top social network
  • Facebook users are 60 percent female
  • The average Twitter user is a 28-year-old woman
  • Instagram users are most likely to be between 18 to 29
  • Pinterest skews heavily female, with 80 percent of users being women
  • Pinterest attracts women with more education and higher income

Think about your customer by outlining the personality types that are likely to purchase your product or service, including overall lifestyle, and add value for them online.

Once the appropriate social channels selected, take a look at what is working for competitors, and start to create a content calendar. This helps businesses organize, plan ahead and stick to a regular social content schedule.

2. Create Quality Content

Quality content engages audiences, is shared across multiple platforms, and garners more interest in a brand. It also makes a difference when it comes to SEO.

So what it quality content? It is:

  • Informative
  • Sharable
  • Actionable
  • Relevant to the target audience

Here is an example of quality social media content from Tic Tac.

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/02/10/5-essential-steps-to-success-in-social-media-marketing/#Rb7CM695FryTslY1.99

China’s housing market is looking ugly | Cross River NY Real Estate

Leave a reply

China’s surging property market might finally have hit the skids.

Sales have “showed a sharp decline” (paywall) in January, compared to Dec. 2013, according to China Confidential, a Financial Times research outfit, even when controlling for softness due to the Chinese New Year holiday. Official data show prices still high in December (the last month for which data were available), but those will likely be dragged down in the coming months.

A big blow to global markets

Housing investment is a big engine of China’s economy. And though slower growth could help end China’s dangerous reliance on credit-backed investment, an abrupt slowdown will freak out global markets and throttle commodity prices.

 

Devastating for China’s financial system

Property-sector loans accounted for one-third of total loans last year, equaling $380 billion. A slowdown would mean that real estate developers, many of whom borrow through shadow finance channels, would struggle to pay back retail investors who effectively loaned to them via wealth management products (more on those here). A lot of that investment has flowed one way or another through China’s shadow banking system, the unregulated credit that allows banks to shunt loans to dodgy borrowers.

But the threat to China’s financial system is much broader than that. Untold billions in corporate borrowing are supported by property used as collateral. There’s a cottage industry of auditors willing to appraise unoccupied or under-development property at whatever value is deemed necessary to get a bank manager to extend a loan. (In many cases, the borrower will turn around and lend to another business at a higher interest rate.) The fact that prices keep going up means there’s nothing challenging those face-value assumptions. A slump in prices would put a big dent in the value of that collateral.

http://qz.com/174029/chinas-housing-market-is-looking-ugly-which-is-scary-for-its-financial-system/#174029/chinas-housing-market-is-looking-ugly-which-is-scary-for-its-financial-system/

London housing market showing ‘bubble-like’ conditions | Cross River Real Estate

Leave a reply

 

London’s housing market is beginning to show “bubble-like conditions” as overseas investors bid up prices and buyers take on more debt to purchase properties, according to a report today by the EY Item Club.

Homeowners are now borrowing as much relative to their income to purchase real estate in the UK capital as they were before the financial crisis, the London-based economic forecaster sponsored by EY, formerly Ernst and Young, said.

The average London home will cost about £600,000 by 2018, it estimates. It is around £404,000 now, according to the land registry. Prices across most of the UK “remain well below their pre-crisis peaks and there seems little danger of a bubble,” Andrew Goodwin, senior economic adviser to the EY Item Club, said in the report.

“But London, which is suffering from a combination of strong demand and a lack of supply, is increasingly giving us cause for concern.”

Surging London home prices, buoyed by demand from overseas investors and government initiatives to aid buyers, have prompted economists, analysts and politicians to warn of unsustainable gains. Asia has been a particularly strong source of demand for the best London properties, EY Item Club said, citing brokers.

Investors from countries such as China and Singapore are taking advantage of the pound’s depreciation since the financial crisis to buy London homes.

 

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/london-housing-market-showing-bubble-like-conditions-1.1677825

Considering The Cloud: A Strategic Guide For Business | Cross River Real Estate

Leave a reply

 

It’s nearly impossible to turn a page in a business journal these days without seeing an article about the “cloud” or “software as a service (SaaS).” These topics are everywhere you look and a common reason is the impact they have on the bottom line: software as a service often provides a more cost-effective alternative for organizations to achieve their business objectives than traditional packaged applications. But the rising popularity of the cloud isn’t a sufficient reason to retool the underlying technology supporting your business. If you want to win more bids, increase your profitability and keep ahead of the competition, ignoring it isn’t the answer either.

Determining where cloud computing fits in your business and IT strategy is critical for ensuring you’re driving the most value possible out of both capital and operational expenditures and/or equipping your team with the best tools for the job. This whitepaper examines the business advantages of cloud computing, as well as practical barriers facing most organizations, and concludes with advice for implementing an effective solution. Our goal is to help you make pragmatic decisions about deploying a solution (or blend of solutions) that makes sense for your business—whether it’s in the cloud, on-premises or a little of both.

 

http://www.fieldtechnologiesonline.com/doc/considering-cloud-strategic-guide-business-technology-leaders-0001