Mortgage rates have never been lower, but they most certainly have been higher.
The latest infographic provided by Loans.org takes loan rates back in time from the last decade, to the ’90s and even back to hte ’80s — these efforts that would make the Doc and Marty McFly proud.
For instance in 2013, a homeowner pays $1,347.13 a month for a four bedroom and three bathroom home.
But if you take the same home and go back to 2008 when the Great Recession begins, the average interest rate is 6.03% and your monthly payment would’ve been $1,503.70.
AS DISCUSSED IN THE EMAIL, HERE ARE SOME GREAT TIPS FROM THE TIGER LEAD SUMMIT.
Succeed with 8 magic words:
1. Because (“Because we haven’t had a second showing, we’re going to have to reset the price”)
2. Now
3. Imagine
4. Thank you
5. Please
6. Use their name only twice (any more than that and they won’t trust you)
7. You are in charge or in control
8. With your permission
– Sandy Raines
Make a short video to introduce yourself. “Hi, I’m Trevor Ainsworth. I just wanted to let you know I’m a real person and I hope you are too.” – Trevor Ainsworth
I had a great conversation with Trevor on Saturday about this technique. It’s simple, builds rapport and generates great results. Programs like Bomb Bomb allow for quick and easy recording right on your phone.
Guide the lead on a path and they will follow you. Make sure the agents ask open-ended questions. If you’re the person asking questions, you’re in control of the conversation. – Tiffany Lachnidt
If you can’t get through to someone on the phone, immediately send them a text. For example, “Just a quick question: would you like me to send you listings from area xxx?”- Trevor Ainsworth
If you don’t get a response to someone, text them “I’m really sorry, have I done something to upset you?” Your phone will ring really fast! – Tiffany Lachnidt
“Whether you’re looking to buy in 2 months or not for 2 years, I’m ok with that.” – Unknown, but this is a great line!!!!
When you respond to these leads with the only form of contact they usually give you, email, are they opening your responses?
Do you even know if they opened your email or clicked any links? If not, go here first.
Now we have that out of the way, lets talk about how to increase that open rate.
I presented at the Agent Reboot conference in Seattle and had the opportunity to watchDarin Persinger from Productivity Junkies talk a bit about leads and how to respond to them. He explained the process of how a consumer searches on Realtor.com and connects with the site. That consumer then fills out a form and is then presented with an email from “Kelly Agent”, which might not ever get read. Why you ask? Watch the video below to find out and learn what to do to overcome this dilemma.
From 2008 to 2011, renters’ housing costs increased almost 6%, while their income fell 3.2% according to the Center for Housing Policy. More than 26% of working renters spent at least half their income on housing in 2011, up from about 23% in 2008, writes Bloomberg Businessweek.
One reason: There just aren’t enough affordable rental units to go around. In 2010, there were 5.1 million more low-income families than there were affordable units.
Prices nationwide rose nearly 6% last year — more than most ever expected, writes CNNMoney. While that has continued so far this year, leading builders to build again, prices in some places have risen faster than incomes. Eventually, they could fall back as homes become less affordable.
“If prices keeps going up at this rate for another six months, we will have a bubble, and people will get hurt,” Dean Baker, co-director of theCenter for Economic and Policy Research recently told Bloomberg.
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.
This 50½-acre property includes a 12-bedroom Victorian, French-renaissance mansion, 4,000 feet of water frontage on Long Island Sound and two offshore islands, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The listing marks the latest test of the ultra-high-end property market, which has seen several record-setting sales in recent years. Pricing in this stratosphere is an imprecise science, however, and it can be difficult for sellers to predict whether a nine-figure listing will lead to a nine-figure sale.
American Banker is reporting that Wells Fargo($39.88 0.62%) andCitigroup($51.45 0.84%) ‘halted’ most of their foreclosure sales in several states after evaluating the process against the backdrop of new guidance from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Reporters Jeff Horwitz and Kate Berry wrote that within two weeks of the OCC’s release of new guidance on minimum standards for foreclosure sales, Wells, Citi and JPMorgan ‘all but stopped’ foreclosure sales.
Since then, JPMorgan has picked them back up again.
A video is never guaranteed to go viral, but a few factors make it significantly more likely.
In the first few months of 2013, viral videos covered all kinds of topics: a serious look at female self-esteem, a silly competition between two Star Trek actors, and more. But according to Brian Shin, CEO of video analytics service Visible Measures, these and most other viral videos share at least two things in common: “discussability” and “relatability.”
For a video to be “discussable,” it usually features something shocking or surprising, which compels viewers to share it with others. Likewise, if a video contains something deeply human to which we can relate — even if it’s cuddling cats — we’re more likely to share it out. The two factors often go together.
We chatted with a couple viral video experts to learn what made these clips the biggest hits of the year, so far.
Dove Experiment
Dove’s “Real Beauty Sketches” video is by far the most popular video of 2013 to date, with nearly 54 million views on YouTube and about 68 million views across the web, according to data from Visible Measures. That’s more impressive considering the video was released only a month ago.
Shin believes a few factors played into this video’s success. It’s deeply human, it sparked multiple spin-offs and it shares an incredibly powerful and positive message about the way women see their bodies, which people felt compelled to share.
“The message is something you really can’t be against,” he says. “That’s something everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon and feel good about. It’s a message that can’t be not shared.”
Jeff Gordon Prank
Pepsi and others have pulled pranks in their ads, but this video was in a league of its own. Jeff Gordon dresses in disguise to take a car salesman for a wild ride.
“‘Prankverts,’ in which brands create their own stunts involving supposedly innocent members of the public, have been a really hot trend this year,” says David Waterhouse, global head of content and PR at Unruly Media, a video marketing company. “And the most successful of these new wave of commercials is Pepsi ‘Test Drive.'”
The secret sauce behind the video’s success, according to Waterhouse, is that it elicited so many different emotional reactions for viewers. “For most ‘prankverts’, the most common emotional responses are ‘hilarity’ and ‘surprise,'” he says. “However, when we tested ‘Test Drive,’ we found that it went one step further by adding ‘exhilaration’ into the mix. That meant, even if you didn’t find it funny or particularly surprising, you could still be exhilarated by the intense action and the awesome driving skills.”
As if that wasn’t enough, Waterhouse notes there was also a debate about whether the car salesman in the video was aware of the prank or not. That increased the number of people talking about and watching the video.
Harlem Shake
For a few weeks, the “Harlem Shake” was almost inescapable. Waterhouse says 40,000 “Harlem Shake” videos released in the first 11 days after the meme exploded; people viewed them 175 million times, collectively.
The reason for this success, according to Waterhouse, is because it was “so easy to replicate. It’s short, has a very easy structure to follow and a catchy song intro that makes it instantly recognizable,” he says. “Its simplicity is the cornerstone of its success.”
The Maker version of the “Harlem Shake,” seen above, was the most popular take on the meme early on, according to data from YouTube. Shin suggests this was a combination of good timing — it was one of the earlier videos in the meme — and the fact that it served as an inspiration for many of the videos that came after.
