Tag Archives: South Salem Luxury Homes

4 sexy trends to add fun and inspire visitors to your real estate website | South Salem NY Homes

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Sometimes it’s just too easy to let your website presence slack off a little. Especially with today’s fast-moving market. There are many mixed messages about what you should have on your website; content; videos; or even if you should HAVE a website. Blogging falls off; we don’t add our listing photos or videos; and there it sits. Yawn.

But, there are some exciting new trends happening, and, truth be told, agents are business owners who need to market their services online. It’s the billboard, the storefront, the treasure trove of your expertise and personality. It could be time to find ways to inspire your website visitors in NEW ways, with new content, and shift the perspective of the old website. Engaging your visitors in new ways can increase traffic, inspire them to take action, and give them a little fun at the same time. Below are some colorful finds with fresh ideas that turn old websites into new, sexy, trendy places to find a home.

1. Check out the newest website trends: FUN! Color! Action!

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DC Lifestyles by Real Living at Home

Some of the newer WordPress or Tumblr themes (or custom-developed ones) have fun new layouts. For the most part, they take the “categories” of your website and turn them into visual destinations, rather than the old drop-down menus in navigation menus. Add in some fun graphics or photography, and suddenly you have eye-catching calls to action that are discoverable rather than just “Communities.” Check out DC Lifestyles’ new home page. As a site visitor, my eye draws me in to all the things I can search; I want to stay and play, and see what’s under all the fun “windows.”

2. Bring in your reviews from other sources.

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GlendaleandBeyond.com

Reviews on sites like Google, Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia and Yelp are yours and yours to keep. Display them proudly on your website. Kendyl Young of GlendaleandBeyond.com has integrated her reviews with a WordPress plug-in, and then LINKS BACK to the original review on the associated site. This is a great way to add some extra SEO juice to your site as well. Alternatively, using your own user-generated reviews through a service like RealSatisfied, you can bring in widgets, plug-ins, and other tools to display your great service. Make your visitors search easier by giving them exactly what they want: information about you.

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/next/4-sexy-trends-to-add-fun-and-inspire-visitors-on-your-real-estate-website/#sthash.UxHJVeH5.dpuf

 

4 sexy trends to add fun and inspire visitors to your real estate website | Inman News.

New Google+ Website Plugins: This Week in Social Media | South Salem Realtor

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Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.

What’s New This Week?

Google+ Launches New Plugins for Your Website: Google+ launches “a bunch of new plugins that help visitors to connect with you on Google+, directly from your website.”  There’s an updated Google+ Follow plugin and updated badges for your Google+ Profiles and Pages.  You can now also create a badge for your Google+ Communities.

Check out the updated Google+ Page badges.

LinkedIn Adds the Top Requested Features to Their Mobile App: LinkedIn has “added the top requested features — the ability to search for jobs, companies, groups and people on-the-go. In addition they have added a few tips to help you be more productive from wherever you may be working.”

With LinkedIn mobile, you can now find and discover people, jobs and groups.

Discussion From Our Networking Clubs: Thousands of social media marketers and small business owners are asking questions and helping others in our free Networking Clubs. Here are a few interesting discussions worth highlighting:

How are the Facebook Hashtags going for you so far?

Are you drowning in social media?

Facebook Announces a New Review Policy for Pages and Groups: Facebook will “implement a new review process for determining which Pages and Groups should feature ads alongside their content. This process will expand the scope of Pages and Groups that should be ad-restricted.”

For example, Facebook “will now seek to restrict ads from appearing next to Pages and Groups that contain any violent, graphic or sexual content [content that does not violate (current) community standards]. Prior to this change, a Page selling adult products was eligible to have ads appear on its right-hand side; now there will not be ads displayed next to this type of content.”

Twitter Decides Auto-Follow-Back Is Now Taboo: SocialOomph reports that “Twitter changed their terms of service and outlawed automated following back of people who followed you first.”

Bing Integrates Search Prevalence Into the Klout Score: Klout announces “the official integration of Bing search results into the Klout Score.” This means that “the number of times you are searched for on Bing will now contribute directly to your Klout Score.”

 

New Google+ Website Plugins: This Week in Social Media | Social Media Examiner.

CoreLogic: 4.2 million homes in path of hurricane storm-surge | South Salem Real Estate

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More than 4.2 million U.S. homes are located within the risk-zone of hurricane-driven storm-surge along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, CoreLogic concluded in a study this week.

After analyzing residential property risk on the national, regional, state, metro and ZIP code level, CoreLogic ($26.430%) produced a Storm Surge Report, noting that $1.1 trillion in U.S. property is situated within at-risk areas.

Unfortunately, risk-prone areas are only increasing.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency released a revised flood map for New York suburbs, adding another 35,000 homes and businesses to the list of at-risk properties along the coast.

“Public awareness of the risk hurricane-driven storm surge poses to coastal homeowners has never been higher coming off the heels of Hurricane Sandy last fall,” said Dr. Howard Botts, vice president and director of database development for CoreLogic Spatial Solutions. “Sandy was a harsh reminder of the potential destruction associated with storm-surge flooding, and of just how many communities are vulnerable to that risk, in areas typically assumed to be relatively safe from hurricanes along the northeastern Atlantic shoreline.”

Of the $1.1 trillion in property at-risk, $658 billion is located in 10 major metro areas.

States high on the list include Louisiana with 411,000 homes in storm-surge zones. Not to mention, New York with $135 billion in property at risk.

Long Island, N.Y., alone has an estimated $200 billion in residential property exposed.

CoreLogic says for the first time the report incorporates a climate-related rise in sea levels – a factor putting more neighborhoods at risk.

“These findings show that the Miami area could potentially have the highest increase in the number of homes at risk of the cities discussed in the report,” CoreLogic said. “Given a one-foot rise in sea level, total properties at risk would nearly double from just under 132,000 to almost 340,000, and estimated value would increase from an estimated $48 billion to more than $94 billion overall.”

 

CoreLogic: 4.2 million homes in path of hurricane storm-surge | HousingWire.

Mortgage-Bond Yields Soar to Highest in Four Months on QE Doubt | South Salem NY Real Estate

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Yields on mortgage securities that guide U.S. home-loan rates jumped to the highest in almost four months as the minutes of a Federal Reserve meeting signaled the central bank’s bond buying may end this year.

A Bloomberg index of yields on Fannie Mae-guaranteed mortgage bonds trading closest to face value rose 0.07 percentage point to 2.34 percent as of 3 p.m. in New York, the highest since Sept. 12. That was the day before the central bank announced plans to add $40 billion more of government-backed home-loan securities to its balance sheet each month.

Fed policy makers said they will probably end their purchases of the debt and $45 billion of Treasuries each month sometime in 2013, with Federal Open Market Committee members divided between a mid- or end-of-year finish, according to the record of its Dec. 11-12 gathering released today in Washington. That assessment of its so-called quantitative easing, or QE, program was a “big surprise” to the bond market, according to Jim Vogel, a debt analyst at FTN Financial in Memphis, Tennessee

Higher bond yields “point to the Fed’s very real QE dilemma,” Vogel said in a note to clients. “When it signals an end to QE, higher rates could endanger the very recovery that is improving the labor market conditions. Look no further than how many bullish economic forecasts for 2013 lead with a better housing market.”

Yields on the Fannie Mae bonds widened about 0.03 percentage point relative to an average of five- and 10-year Treasury rates, to 0.99 percentage point, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s 0.01 percentage point less than the average during the past three months, and up from a record low of 0.55 percentage point on Sept. 25.

The Fed minutes were “somewhat bearish” for spreads and an end to its buying in the third quarter may mean they “find a floor at current levels,” Nomura Securities International analysts led by Ohmsatya Ravi wrote in a note. “Most” traders and investors had been “expecting the Fed’s purchase program to continue at least until the end of 2013,” they said.

via bloomberg.com

7 Factors To Consider Before You Follow Someone On Twitter | South Salem NY Homes

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via b2bbloggers.com
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Lewisboro Wolves Benefit Hosted by Richard Gere | Lewisboro NY Homes

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wolves at bedford post by r paul

Lewisboro NY Residential Real Estate    |    RobReportBlog

via trulia.com
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Existing home sales jump 12% | South Salem NY Homes

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(Via CNN Money)

Sales of existing homes jumped in December, marking the fifth month of gains in the past six months, based on an industry report released Thursday.

Previously-owned home sales climbed 12.3% in December to an annual rate of 5.28 million, from 4.70 million in November, according to the National Association of Realtors.

That puts sales at the highest level since the homebuyer tax credit expired in June, said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group.

The December rate came in much higher than expected. A consensus of experts surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast an annualized sales rate of 4.8 million. However, sales were down 2.9% from 12 months earlier and fell 4.7% in 2010.

Foreclosure glut threatens housing recovery

“December was a nice finish to the year, but looking at the bigger picture — home sales and prices have been scraping along the bottom for the last three years,” Hoffman said. “So, while we’re not digging a deeper hole — the housing market is still quite weak, and there are still more homes available on the market than there are likely to be buyers.”

The median price of all existing homes sold in December was $168,800, down 1% from a year ago.

Meanwhile, the inventory of homes on the market fell 4.2% in December to 3.56 million units. That’s enough inventory to last 8.1 months, and is down from a 9.5-month supply in November.

While that’s an improvement, Hoffman said that data doesn’t reflect the large number of foreclosures that could soon enter on the market.

“What’s hidden behind the curtain are potential foreclosures adding to those inventory levels,” he said. “Even as we have jobs growing, inventory is still large and more foreclosures are going to be coming on the market. Prices will go down and it’s going to continue to be very much a buyer’s market.”

That said, Hoffman expects sales to gradually improve — rising about 4% or 5% — by the end of 2011, as the employment picture improves.

“I do think there will be more sales in 2011, because job growth will support homebuyers,” Hoffman said. “We’re getting back to the underlying demand without the homebuyer tax credit, but housing is still not contributing much to the overall economic improvement in the economy.” 

 

 

Full Story on CNN Money