Tag Archives: North Salem Homes

North Salem Homes

10 Tips to Create Killer Social Content that Gets You Found | North Salem Realtor

It’s no secret that in today’s business world, companies must constantly produce new content. But are you producing quality social content with a WOW factor that gets you found? The truth is it’s really not that hard to do. There are so many options to consider when it comes to creating quality content that stands out in a crowd. Blog posts, videos, eBooks, whitepapers, webinars, social media updates, Slideshare presentations…just to name a few. It just takes time, the right dedication and effort.

When done consistently and correctly, quality content will improve search engine rankings, drive new traffic to websites and nurture leads into customers for years to come. Below are 10 tips so that you can start creating killer social content with a WOW factor that gets you found!

Keep up with information relevant to your industry. Setting up RSS feeds, subscribing to industry newsletters and setting up Google Alerts on branded and non-branded keywords are all ways to keep up with news relevant to your industry. You can take these industry articles and create social content with your own spin that identifies trends your clients would be interested in reading and learning how it will affect them. For example, I might create a series of blog posts covering recent Google algorithm updates to teach potential clients about the changing needs and challenges of content marketing and SEO for their business.

Social media conversations are a reflection of your brand. Therefore, it’s important that you monitor and engage with your audience to humanize your brand and let them know you care about them and their needs. Tools such as Hootsuite and TweetDeck can help you manage, monitor and measure your social content marketing effectiveness. Below is an example of engaging social content in Twitter from Celsius, a healthy energy drink company. This is a great example of a company engaging with a customer, making this person feel important which in turn humanizes the brand.Twitter social conversation from @CelsiusOfficial

Gone are the days when content is just written by CEOs and managers. Everyone in your company can write social content around their individual areas of expertise. Create an editorial content calendar that maps out who writes what and when. An editorial calendar really keeps things organized and lays out your content strategy and plans. My area of expertise is SEO and content marketing, so I contribute blog content around topics such as how social media affects SEO results and Pinterest marketing tips. You could have your sales staff create a short video series on how best to choose the products and services you sell. You might even post Q&A with some of your customers like IT business and consulting services firm Tribridge did and how they benefit from your products and/or services.

When it comes to writing, sometimes you just feel tapped out for ideas. Or maybe you have an idea or concept but don’t know how to put it into words at the moment. Keeping a content backlog helps to save your ideas so that you can come back to them at a later time and write then. Keep bullet lists, product reviews, videos, photos, how-to guides and interviews in your backlog so you can write more social content pieces at a later date.

It’s perfectly alright to take content you’ve written in the past and republish it as a fresh, new piece. It saves time, resources and provides an updated spin on a topic. Add a short video and provide updated content to an old whitepaper. Use questions taken from a webinar or presentation to put together an eBook. Turn videos into blog posts or a blog post series. Turn one piece of social content into as many formats as possible – turn a whitepaper into a YouTube video, a shortened Slideshare presentation, a blog post series, a webinar. The possibilities are endless!

 

10 Tips to Create Killer Social Content that Gets You Found | Find and Convert.

Use One of These 4 Simple Garden Designs to Grow the 12 Best Kitchen Herbs | North Salem NY Real Estate

.The stunning flavors of culinary herbs make them star players in a healthy diet, and the best way to make the most of big-flavor herbs is to grow them yourself. This article includes plans for four herb gardens, each designed to fit into a 12-square-foot area, to help you make the best use of space near your kitchen door. See Top 12 Kitchen Herbs for more on the featured herbs: basil, chives, cilantro, dill, marjoram, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, tarragon and thyme.

You could grow kitchen herbs in a geometrical design dating from the days of medieval monasteries if you like, but there are easier ways to include culinary herbs in your landscape design. By following a few basic guidelines and choosing to grow the herbs you’re most likely to use, you can grow a generous supply of kitchen herbs in a surprisingly small space. Add some container herbs that are marginally hardy or prone to crowding out other plants, and you’re well on your way to a gourmet herb garden.

The first and most important step is to grow your herbs as close as possible to your kitchen door. “Accessing your kitchen herbs should be as easy as going to your pantry for the dried version,” says V.J. Billings, who grows herb plants by the thousands at Mountain Valley Growers in Squaw Valley, Calif. To find great places to grow herbs, simply walk out your back door and survey every space within 20 paces that gets at least a half day of full sun. As you plan, consider the times you will dash out to grab a handful of chives, dill or basil when it’s raining or something on the stove needs your attention. Having your herbs within easy reach of a walkway or well-placed steppingstones can also make a big difference.

Herbs need average or better soil and good drainage, but they are generally not as demanding as vegetables and flowers. With kitchen herbs, it’s better to make use of a convenient location than to move away from the house in search of better soil.

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/use-one-of-these-4-simple-garden-designs-to-grow-the-12-best-kitchen-herbs.aspx?newsletter=1&utm_content=05.17.13+GFSS&utm_campaign=2013+GFSS&utm_source=iPost&utm_medium=email#ixzz2TYpjyzJQ

18 Photos of FiDi When the Twin Towers Were the New WTC | North Salem NY Realtor

[Photos by Wil Blanche via National Archives. All captions are the 1973 originals.]

The tallest tower of the new World Trade Center reached its full height last week, 40 years after the Twin Towers opened as the original WTC. At that time, the Environmental Protection Agency hired photographer Wil Blanche to document the new giants and the changing Financial District. The Atlantic Cities recently highlighted the photos, which were taken in May 1973 as part of the Documerica project, a visual exploration of environmental issues around the country. The National Archives shared 87 of Blanche’s historic photos onFlickr, and we chose 18 to include in the gallery above.

 

 

18 Photos of FiDi When the Twin Towers Were the New WTC – Sepia Tones – Curbed NY.

Drones are ready for real estate | North Salem NY Real Estate

When real estate broker Phil Immel, leader of a seven-person team with Prudential California Realty, wanted to differentiate his luxury brand from others in Southern California, he thought of drones.

And two months ago, he came up with this:

Video shot from a drone to market a listing represented by Phil Immel’s brokerage.

“I wanted to feature and differentiate my listings and farm areas from every other agent’s,” Immel said.

Technology has advanced to a degree that small, remote-controlled drone helicopters are more affordable than they once were, and cameras and their image-stabilizing systems are better, making  aerial photography and video captured using drones an increasing phenomenon in a number of industries, including real estate.

Immel, who’s commissioned three videos of listings and four of neighborhoods from real estate visual marketing firm California Image Maker, is one of the first real estate brokers to enhance his sellers’ listings with aerial video imagery from small, technologically advanced remote-controlled helicopters, which feature multiple rotors and a stabilized location in their centers that holds a camera on a swivel.

 

 

 

Drones are ready for real estate | Inman News.

House prices increase in 89 percent of cities as recovery expands | North Salem Real Estate

BOSTON — Prices for single-family homes increased in 89 percent of U.S. cities in the first quarter as the housing market extends a recovery from a five-year slump.

The median sales price rose from a year earlier in 133 of 150 metropolitan areas measured, the National Association of Realtors said in a report Thursday. A year earlier, 74 areas had gains.

Buyers returning to the housing market are bidding up prices for a tight supply of listings. The national median price for an existing single-family home was $176,600 in the first quarter, up 11.3 percent from the same period last year. That was the biggest gain since the fourth quarter of 2005, according to the Realtors group.

 

House prices increase in 89 percent of cities as recovery expands | North Salem Real Estate | Bedford NY Real Estate | Robert Paul Talks Life in Bedford NY.

Reese Witherspoon Is Girl Next Door With Third Brentwood House | North Salem Real Estate

Source: IMDb

Source: IMDb

If you live in Brentwood Circle, there’s a good chance Reese Witherspoon is the girl next door. With two existing homes in the neighborhood, the Oscar-winning actress has purchased another for $3 million.

The ranch-style home is described by the listing agent as an “enchanted cottage” that’s “warm and inviting.” With a glass art studio and hillside gardens, the home offers a retreat from downtown L.A.

It isn’t surprising Witherspoon would choose a getaway outside the city center — her Ojai ranch provided the feeling of being in the country while only an hour removed from Los Angeles. And, with a recent trip to jail on a disorderly conduct charge, the actress is likely looking to steer clear of the paparazzi.

It also isn’t surprising Witherspoon bought a few houses down from her existing property; celebs have a track record for hopping around the same neighborhood or owning several properties within the same ZIP code. Actress Kate Hudson is known for buying a $5.8 million home next door to her longtime Pacific Palisades residence, and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison also recently added to his collection of homes on Malibu’s “Billionaires’ Row.”

While celebs typically move up with successive home purchases, however, Witherspoon paid less for this property than her two other Brentwood homes. It’s also the smallest of the three, measuring 3,053 square feet

 

 

http://www.zillowblog.com/2013-05-07

Housing Market Improvements: How Will You Adjust? | North Salem Real Estate

Wade Corbett

A very wise man named Obi Wan once said: “I feel a great disturbance in the Force.” OK sure, it’s a Star Wars quote, and I’m talking about the housing market and not a metaphysical power, but the overall message still applies! If you pay close attention, you’ll notice the market has begun to shift. Depending on your area, you may be seeing a little change, or you may be seeing a lot of change already. The latest numbers reflect this positive upturn and show that real estate is drastically improving.

If you’ve been in this industry for the last six or seven years, you know that selling real estate takes a certain amount of hustle. When the market is less than stellar, you’ve got to work harder in order to keep business alive. Maybe you’ve had to hold your transactions together with duct tape to prevent them from falling apart. Or maybe you’ve been working 60 hours to do what 40 hours used to accomplish. Either way, kudos to you! But with the market springing back to life, does this mean an end to the “hustle era”?

Two weeks ago, I had the immense pleasure of addressing a class full of aspiring new REALTORS®. If I had given my speech in 2009, this class would have had 25-30 students in attendance. In 2013, the class consisted of 50-70 eager students, all scheduled to take their licensing exam the following week. As I addressed the students, I began to notice that a large majority of these future REALTORS® were very young! Why are these young people hoping to join the real estate sales force? I believe they know about the shift! They know the real estate marketing is going to gather steam, and they want to get in before things really start to pick up.

As the stock market, jobs, and overall economy continue to improve, the real estate market will inevitably follow suit. But is your business model prepared to handle the improving market demands? Do you have your systems in place to take on a larger work load while still trying to hold those difficult transactions together? You may want to consider tweaking the way you run your business to accommodate for the changes that are to come. Foresight is essential to success.

 

 

http://ypnlounge.blogs.realtor.org

Construction Spending, ISM Index, ADP Payroll, Mortgage Purchase Applications | North Salem Real Estate

In each Economic Update, the Research staff analyzes recently released economic indicators and addresses what these indicators mean for REALTORS® and their clients. Today’s update discusses construction spending, the ISM index, ADP payroll figures, and mortgage purchase applications.

 

  • A stream of fresh economic data appears on the first day of every month. Here is a quick summary of today’s data and what it may mean to you.
  • Construction spending on residential buildings rose, but activities on new commercial buildings and government-funded projects declined. This means there is and will be more construction job opportunities for homebuilding.
  • The manufacturing sector is barely holding on. The ISM index, which measure activity in this sector, fell for the second consecutive month. The latest reading of 50.7 is only marginally above the critical 50 mark, which separates expansion and contraction. This means job gains in the manufacturing sector will slow or even possibly reverse in a few months.
  • ADP, a company that processes payroll checks for many firms, revealed 119,000 net new jobs in April in the private sector. This data has smaller coverage than the official employment data from the government, which is scheduled to come out this Friday. This likely means that official job gains will be comfortably positive, but the job creation pace is still not strong enough to meaningfully bring the unemployment rate down.
  • Mortgage applications for a home purchase fell slightly, though are up by 13 percent from one year ago. Applications for refi rose and are up 31 percent from one year ago. This means that home buying demand remains strong, but mortgage brokers need to prepare for a potentially sharp decline in mortgage refi activity in 2014.
  • Finally, the big cities are creating jobs. The L.A.-Santa Ana region added 116,000 net new jobs in the past 12 months. The Greater New York City area put 106,800 new people to work. However, La-La land and the Big Apple have huge populations so the job growth rates were only in line with the national pace. Dallas and Houston are the true stars. Dallas added 101,000 net new jobs in the past 12 months, while Houston put 102,300 more people to work. These Texas job growth rates were triple the national job growth rate. This means there will be greater housing demand per each REALTOR® in Texas versus other parts of the country.

 

 

 

http://economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org/2013/05/01

Big investors push up housing prices, make it tough for regular buyers | North Salem NY Homes

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., April 22 (UPI) — Investment firms are scooping up homes in distressed real estate markets, like Florida, blocking out individual bidders, experts say.

“There is the possibility that Wall Street and the banks and the affluent 1 percent stand to gain the most from this. Meanwhile, lower-income Americans will lose their opportunity for the American dream of building wealth through owning a home,” said Jack McCable a real estate consultant in Deerfield Beach, Fla.

The Washington Post reported Monday that some big investors are submitting bids for hundreds of homes a day, muscling in on about 70 percent of the market in certain areas.

“The investors are making it hard for a regular homeowner to buy a property. They are getting outbid by people with cash,” said broker Robert Russotto, at Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate in Fort Lauderdale. Fla.

Russotto said he had 20 deals in the works and 17 of them were purchases by institutional investors.

One company, Title Capital, researches homes and assesses them for the size, the price and any special features they may have, does a quick legal check, searching for liens — and ends up with bids on 200 properties a day, the Post said.

RealtyTrac said one out of every 104 homes in Florida received a foreclosure filing in January through March of 2013.

That will put a lot of of them up for grabs at rock-bottom prices.

And more inventory is on the way. Close to half of Florida’s homes are considered underwater, which means that homeowners owe more on the mortgage than the value of the property. That situation prompted many homeowners to opt for foreclosure in recent years to avoid pouring money into a perceived sink-hole.

The conditions could be considered ironic. Banks that wrote risky subprime mortgages and investors that bought securities and derivatives set up the financial crisis that caused the housing market to go bust.

As a result, millions of jobs were lost and banks tightened restrictions on lending. So many people who were forced out of their homes are now blocked from returning to home ownership while cash-rich investors are buying the properties out from under them — and pushing prices higher.

When jobs return, the investors are expected to cash in on the increased home prices and get out of the rental market.

“If I had a way of buying a couple-hundred-thousand single-family homes, I would load up on them. It’s a very attractive asset class now. I could buy them at distressed prices and find renters,” said billionaire investor Warren Buffett in 2012.

Equity firm Blackstone Group came to the same conclusion. It now owns 20,000 rental homes worth $3 billion, said Peter Rose, a spokesman for the company.

Florida is not the only state where investment firms are driving up the price of properties.

Home prices in the past 12 months are up 23 percent in the Phoenix area and 15 percent around Las Vegas.

There is considerable worry that investment firms, banking on low interest rates, are creating another housing bubble — but many of them are paying cash, which explains why prices are soaring in some areas, but lending to homeowners is flat, the Post said.

Housing markets characterized by ‘egotistical’ prices, gun-shy buyers | North Salem NY Homes

his post — the first of what will be a regular series — is based on an email response from real estate agent Mary Giroux to this week’s “Taking Inventory” Facebook post. Every week, Inman News invites readers to share thoughts and insights about the real estate sector. Your input helps Inman News shed light on the latest issues and trends that are redefining the industry.

Today’s housing market is a weird animal.

Consumers traumatized by the housing crisis are treading with caution as they wade into a market that, to many observers, is still brimming with once-in-a-lifetime deals. At the same time, many sellers are seeking to capitalize on the inventory shortage, pricing their homes unreasonably high, in the opinion of some agents.  

The tendency is so strong that some sellers are listing their homes at prices one agent has described as outright “egotistical.” 

Perhaps that isn’t so surprising. People who saw their home values plummet during housing bust are probably more than eager to demand a price that pushes the limits of fair value — and recoup some of the wealth that they lost.    

But the specter of the housing crisis is also sharp in buyers’ minds. Once lured by the promise of a “buyer’s market,” many are now finding themselves locked in bidding wars.