Tag Archives: South Salem NY

Seth’s Blog: Thank you, Zig | South Salem Real Estate

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My teacher Zig Ziglar died this morning. He was 86.

Thanks for teaching me how to sell and why it mattered.

Thanks for reminding me how much it mattered to care.

Thanks for telling us a fifteen-minute story about Johnny the Shoe Shine Genius, so compelling that I flew to the airport just to meet him.

Thanks for 72 hours of audiotapes, listened to so many times I wore out the cassettes twice.

Thanks for that one day we spent backstage together in Milwaukee.

Thanks for making goal setting so clear.

Thanks for elevating the art of public speaking, and making it personal, not something to be copied.

Thanks for believing in us, the people you almost never met in person, for supporting us with your voice and your stories and your enthusiasm.

Thanks for teaching so many people, people who will continue to remember you and to teach as well.

You’ll be missed.

via sethgodin.typepad.com

Credit Conditions Continue to be Tight South Salem Real Estate

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Each month, the National Association of REALTORS® obtains up-to-date and on-the-ground incisive comments from REALTORS® who participate in the REALTORS® Confidence Index (RCI) survey. The RCI survey tracks expectations about overall market conditions, buyer/seller traffic, price, buyer profiles, and issues affecting real estate.

The selected comments reflect the general sentiment expressed by REALTORS® who participated in the October 2012, conducted during October 22 through November 5, 2012. All real estate is local and conditions in specific markets may vary from the national trend.

Tight Financing/Credit
REALTORS® reported that access to financing remains tight, so cash buyers, who are typically investors, are winning the bids against first-time homebuyers. There are reports that banks are asking for higher credit scores, with a report of a bank rejecting a score of as high as 800. It also appears that self-employment can be a problem in obtaining a mortgage. The mortgage application process continues to be deemed as too drawn out to the point of thwarting or jeopardizing the sale. There is also lack of assistance for helping current homeowners who are slightly delinquent to modify keep their homes.

  • “Banks are ignoring settlement dates and can’t even give you a reason for a delay. There is no accountability on their end of the transaction. Three settlements in October were delayed due to lender issues.”
  • “1st time buyers finding it difficult to qualify for loans”
  • “I had two buyers with over 800 credit score and the bank would not loan. They ended up paying cash and looking for a loan after the closing.”
  • “The lack of assistance from the mortgage companies for helping current home owners modifying their loan due to being underwater or slight delinquency to help them stay in their homes!!!!”
  • “Cash buyers are winning bids. FHA buyers hardly have a chance.”
  • “Concerned about purchases by investor groups – hundreds of homes purchased from Fannie/Freddie – basically no information forthcoming regarding this – concerned about what effect this will have long term in our area – are we going to have no “real” home owners for years to come? Not a good plan – list with realtors, to be purchased by home owner.”

Jed Smith, Managing Director, Quantitative Research

Jed Smith is Managing Director, Quantitative Research with the National Association of Realtors®. He has worked on real estate issues for the past 20 years, providing input on a variety of housing, commercial real estate, tax, and planning issues. Recently he has been involved in several international studies.

via economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org

4 steps to goal setting 2013: Uncover your best year yet! | South Salem Real Estate

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We love tools! We love technology! The best business strategies are inspired by both of these. But, implementing and applying new goals can sometimes be lost in the fast-moving pace of bright and shiny, and we can lose focus. As the old Robert Burns quote says “The best laid plans of mice and men go awry.”

So, for Week 3, of 10 Weeks and 10 Strategies, we will be using a classic business tool that provides 4 steps to quickly assessing where you should be setting your NEW goals of 2013. This will involve some critical thinking skills, so if you aren’t up for the challenge, you might want to move on.

Tips: Print the downloadable PDF to work on, or use this as a whiteboard brainstorming session:) This is meant to be a quick tool, don’t over analyze! 

The S.W.O.T. Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats in your real estate business


The basics: In business we all have strengths and weaknesses, these are internal to your business. We also have threats and opportunities; these are the external factors. When you step back to answer what these are, you can uncover some amazing things about you and your business, that can help you prioritize and focus your efforts on the areas that will provide the most ROI for you, and your business. For example; should all your focus be on social media? What is having a bigger pay off; online activities or offline?

Build on what you do well; learn from what you don’t

Strengths:

  • What do you do better than your competition? (social media presence? better video marketing?)
  • What do your colleagues, team members, clients see as your strengths? (knowledge of the market? tech-savvy? great at using the phone?)
  • What is your best personal strength?
  • What factors help you get the listing, sell the home, or close the deal?

Weaknesses:

  • What could you improve?
  • What service could you add to stand out in your market? Be a paperless agent?
  • What should you delegate to someone else?
  • What should you avoid doing?
  • Is there something your competitors are doing better?

Is there a better way?

Opportunities:

  • Is there a trend with your buyers and sellers that you can act on? Lifestyle changes? Use of social media? Reviews and feedback websites?
  • Is there an area that you stand out in in your market that you can really become the expert in?
  • Is there an untapped resource you can utilize more? (relationships with local businesses? New networking possibilities?)

Be proactive, not reactive

Threats:

  • Is technology threatening your market position?
  • Are there more tech-savvy agents accomplishing more in year?
  • What are your obstacles to achieving your goals?
  • What is happening in the real estate industry? Nationally? Regionally?
  • How do these threats affect your strengths and opportunities?
It’s time to set some goals. Prioritize your goals based on what you’ve learned, and add them to your weekly, monthly and yearly goals. Set some milestones to have each goal implemented and break them down into implementable steps. You’ll have some built-up excitement and momentum going into 2013, and some awesome clarity! One app I love for finding new exercises for business strategizing is Mindtools.com

I’d love your thoughts and to know one goal you are implementing next year, leave us a comment! Did you miss Week 1 or Week 2? << There ya go! Until next week!

via next.inman.com

Atlanta Fed graphs show regional housing demand outstrips mortgage financing | South Salem Realtor

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Even though mortgage brokers and homebuilders report stronger home sales in the Southeast, mortgage financing remains short of demand in the region for October, according to senior analyst Whitney Mancuso of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

With the housing market in Southeast bumping along the bottom for a long time, the increase in sale gains and new home sales on a year-over-year basis indicates the market is turning positive. The lack of financing, however, does remain a headwind.

Click on the graph for October homes sales for builders and brokers compared to the previous year.

The availability of mortgage finance for homebuyers in the market was more than 50% short of demand, according to builders and brokers in the region.

Click on the graph to view accessibility of mortgage finance in the market.

Available credit also fell short of demand in regards to accessing finance for construction development. More than 80% of homebuilders perceived construction development challenging as a result of credit shortfall.

Click on the graph to view the construction development finance in the market.

Home inventories continue to decline from a year-over-year basis, with home prices increasing in October. This also indicates that home prices improved from last year.  As a result, homebuyer traffic is ahead of last year levels and is expected to rise throughout the rest of the year.

Click on the graph to view homebuyer traffic levels compared to a year ago.

The results posted are based on responses from 58 residential brokers and 25 homebuilders throughout the region, according to the Atlanta Fed’s SouthPoint blog.

via housingwire.com

Arizona’s Economy, Real Estate Market Improving | South Salem Real Estate

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The Arizona economy is in recovery mode, with home prices on the rise and construction activity moving higher. Real GDP should grow at an above-average 2.5 percent this year, and hold that momentum into 2013 as the housing recovery strengthened according to the State Monitor Report by BMO Capital Markets Economics.There is increasing evidence that the housing market has stabilized. According to the S&P Case-Shiller Index, prices in Phoenix plunged 57 percent before bottoming last September, but they have surged nearly 20 percent.

This upward movement comes amid a significant drawdown in the months’ supply of homes available for sale, to just 2.3 percent in Q2, or back to pre-recession levels. Arizona suffered a deep housing recession, but upward price momentum is quickly alleviating the relatively high stress on the Arizona market.

via gayapolis.com

Pinterest Business pages for real estate: an overview | South Salem NY Real Estate

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By now you’ve probably noticed that Pinterest has introduced business accounts. Not much is new, but now there’s an easier transition if you’re a business versus an individual person. It doesn’t look as if there are any added SEO or analytics at this point, but in my opinion, it’s definitely a step in the right direction for this popular social media platform.

In terms of business, imagine the more businesses that join Pinterest and how large this community will grow and be willing and able to share your content. This will be a huge source of reach and growth for businesses alike.  Think of it as a vision board for potential clients, not just yourself.

There are new terms of service too so make sure to check those out if you’re thinking of starting a business page or converting from a personal account.

Pinterest also gives a handy list of best practices to consider when you convert to your business page:

  • Verifying your website
  • Creating inspiring boards
  • Sharing your business values (what you care about)
  • Highlighting specials
  • Celebrating seasons and holidays
  • Adding a personal touch
  • Take the time to write a good description
  • Link to useful webpages
  • Collaborate with other pinners (perhaps someone in your community or on your team)
  • Ask questions
  • Promote your pins on other social media sites
  • Add the Pinterest follow and share button
  • Create Pinterest tabs on other social media sites

Like any personal Pinterest account, businesses have access to the newly released secret boards. The possibilities are endless – get creative with it. Don’t forget to check out the Goodies section too. The Board Widget looks like an awesome feature you can put up on your website.

via next.inman.com

44 Reasons Why You Should Use Social Media for Your Personal and Business Brand | South Salem Realtor

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Why would you want to waste your time blogging and building a following on social media networks? Why would you bother? It all seems like a lot of hard work really.44 Reasons Why You Should Use Social Media for Your Personal and Business Brand

For hundreds of years expressing yourself and displaying your passion and talents was confined to writing, drawing or painting on a piece of paper and then begging a publisher or someone of influence to tell the world or publish your work or display it.

It took time, money and often access to powerful social and business networks. Being rich or royal was often a prerequisite to being noticed. It also took a lot of time with death often happening before fame kicked in. Many musicians and artists didn’t achieve fame until centuries later.

Artists and creatives often needed access to kings and queens and their benevolent attention to break through the barrier of anonymity.

Gatekeepers to Fame and Influence

Television, radio and modern mass media made it easier to be discovered and break through the influence glass ceiling. In reality it still required money and other people’s networks and the new kings and queens were now the journalists, editors and media moguls. They were the new gatekeepers to fame and influence.

Blogs, social media and social networks have turned this traditional and glacial model of influence, attention and self expression on its head. It is mobile, multimedia rich and its free. The power is now in your hands.

The challenge now is not having access to the media because social media has provided the tools and means to take control. They are now Your” media and you have control. You just need the passion and the motivation to make it happen.

The “real” challenge now is breaking through the conversations and clutter of billions of personal publishers in an increasingly online world.

Why Use Social Media?

So why you should you blog, create valuable content and build networks on social media? Is social media just about being superficial or is it much deeper than that? Social media has touched something in human consciousness that goes beyond just online conversations. It has provided a global connectedness that is culture and nation changing. It has given us as individuals control over our lives and how we express ourselves.

That is what is exciting.

The power of media now resides in your hands and everyone can express themselves to the world and carve out and create their own corner of influence.

The democratization of media that is social media, allows everyone to express themselves globally in full color and rich multimedia. No longer do you need to beg a book publisher for access. You can now self-publish and place your book in the Amazon or Apple book store.

Here are a few reasons why you should tap into the power of social media that may resonate with you.  This may motivate you to take control of your life and business with the new world of online publishing and marketing via blogs and social media networks.

  1. Turn your passion into a business
  2. Take control of your life
  3. Take control of your publishing
  4. Take control of your marketing
  5. Become a thought leader
  6. Travel
  7. Be paid to speak
  8. Become influential
  9. Make a difference
  10. Leave a legacy
  11. Build trust
  12. Earn respect
  13. Build an online asset that will show up in Google search results for years
  14. Build a business online
  15. Create independence
  16. Meet cool and influential people both virtual and face to face
  17. Grow your own network of influence
  18. Open up business opportunities
  19. Accelerate the rate of growth both personal and business
  20. Become well known or even famous
  21. Be wanted and even demanded
  22. Be valued
  23. Develop self respect
  24. Turn your life form ordinary to extraordinary
  25. Become an author
  26. Change people’s lives
  27. Change your own life
  28. Grow
  29. Be able to leap out out of bed instead of crawl
  30. Learn more about passion instead of just showing up
  31. Gain energy
  32. Learn more about yourself through self expression
  33. Leave your day job behind
  34. Fire your boss
  35. Make your mum proud
  36. Make your friends jealous
  37. Put a smile on your face
  38. Put a spring in your step
  39. Discover skills you didn’t know you had
  40. Sing in the car or shower
  41. Find purpose in your life
  42. Overcome the fear of public speaking
  43. No longer have to worry about the fear of rejection
  44. Connect to global markets

What About You?

How has social media changed your life or business? Has it been transformational?

Do you think that the social web is the biggest change to self expression, influence and publishing since the printing press 500 years ago?

What have I left out?

Look forward to your feedback in the comments below.

via jeffbullas.com