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Westchester Homes

How to Optimize Your YouTube Video for Maximum Traffic | Cross River Realtor

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When companies plan their marketing strategies, they often make the mistake  of ignoring YouTube as a possible channel for lead development. Social media,  PPC and other fields are accepted as vital, but YouTube? How much marketing use  is the world’s foremost provider of cute kitten videos?

Actually, YouTube represents fertile ground for lead generation. People tend  to forget YouTube is in fact a social platform just like as Facebook and Twitter  with sharing capabilities, comments and likes as part of its features. While the  video site’s search page is now the second most popular search engine (and  thanks to Google’s acquisition of YouTube, intricately connected to the number  one search option).

Why Upload to YouTube?

Many companies choose to host their videos on their own websites instead of  uploading media to YouTube and then linking within the website. This is, quite  frankly, a mistake.

Why?

  • The video adds value to your website, but only enriches user experiences if  people visit the site.
  • A video hosted on your own website only gets viewed by people who come to  your site, limiting how many people find and view it.
  • If you let YouTube host your videos, people are more likely to find them,  and if their response is favorable, they’re more likely to visit your site for  additional information.

Social Media Strategies and YouTube

Many of the social media strategies used on Twitter and Facebook work equally  well on YouTube. YouTube users can:

  • “Like” and “Favorite” individual videos
  • Leave comments
  • Subscribe to channels

This much like following Tweets or Liking a Facebook page. These  features offer opportunity to engage your audience in dialogue, and not just in  the comments section. Your videos give your company a human face no amount of  tweeting and Facebooking can match, because the viewer sees and hears you. Some  videos spark video responses, offering opportunity for a very public and  interactive dialogue.

 

 

 

 

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/11/26/how-to-optimize-your-youtube-video-for-maximum-traffic/#LSB1b7Q3bqLuDDpS.99

How Many Homes in the Country Are Still Underwater? | Armonk Homes

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In addition to low housing inventory, the unprecedented amount of monetary easing from the Federal Reserve has acted like a life preserver to the real estate market. However, many Americans still find themselves underwater or anchored to their current homes.

In the third-quarter of 2013, the national negative equity rate declined at its fastest pace on record to 21 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage, according to Zillow’s latest Negative Equity Report. In comparison, 23.8 percent of homeowners with a mortgage were underwater in the previous quarter. The peak was made in the first quarter of 2012 at 31.4 percent.

The national negative equity rate has now declined for six consecutive quarters, and fell below 25 percent earlier this year for the first time since Zillow began using its current methodology in 2011. In fact, around 1.4 million American homeowners were freed from negative equity during the third quarter. While this is a significant improvement, many people are still trapped in their homes.

 

 

http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/how-many-homes-in-the-country-are-still-underwater.html/?ref=YF

 

Pending Home Sales Continue To Tumble | Bedford Hills Real Estate

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Pending home sales fell 0.6% month-over-month in October. This was worse than expectations for a 1% rise.

Meanwhile, pending home sales were down 2.2% on the year, worse than expectations for a 1.1% fall.

Last month’s number was revised up to show a 4.6% fall, compared to an initial reading of a 5.6% monthly fall.

Year-over-year the index was revised up to show a 2% rise, compared with an initial reading of a 1.1% rise.

“The government shutdown in the first half of last month sidelined some potential buyers,” Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist said in a press release.  “In a survey, 17 percent of Realtors reported delays in October, mostly from waiting for IRS income verification for mortgage approval.”

Limited inventory and declining affordability can continue to weigh on the index. Yun thinks the housing recovery is still at a healthy pace and attributes the decline in pending home sales to a cooling down of run up we had seen in housing recently.

Here’s a look at the regional breakdown:

  • In the Northeast, the pending home sales index (PHSI) up 2.8% on the month, and is up 8.1% from a year ago.
  • In the Midwest, the index is up 1.2% on the month and up 3.2% from a year ago.
  • In the South, the index fell 0.8% on the month, and is down 1.5% from a year ago.
  • In the West, it is down 4.1% on the month and 12.1% from a year ago.

Pending home sales have been falling for some time now and the index is considered to be a leading indicator for future existing home sales. The Commerce Department expects that 80% of signings will become existing home sales transactions within two months.

 

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/comes-pending-home-sales-144016650.html

Genworth Mortgage Insurance will offer discounts on ‘green’ homes | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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Mortgage insurers have statistical evidence that people who buy homes with energy-saving components present a lower risk of default, and Genworth Mortgage Insurance is determined to reward those homeowners by incorporating that knowledge into its underwriting procedures, syndicated housing columnist Ken Harney reports.

Genworth already offers Canadian buyers a 10 percent “energy-efficient refund” on their premiums, and more leeway on debt-to-income ratio calculations used in underwriting.

On a $300,000 mortgage with a 5 percent down payment, Canadian homeowners can qualify for an $825 refund, and have savings on heating bills factored into debt service ratios. Source: courant.com.

 

 

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/wire/genworth-mortgage-insurance-will-offer-discounts-to-owners-of-green-homes/#sthash.6DOcnD4E.dpuf

Doors to single-property investing could be thrown open to all | Armonk Real Estate

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Sometimes, when you cover your ears to escape all the chatter about real estate crowdfunding, you may ask yourself, “What is the big deal?”

After all, crowdfunding is not new. Indeed, it’s ancient.

“At the end of the sermon, they’re passing the plate,” crowdfunding expert Sydney Armani said at a recent crowdfunding conference hosted by The Soho Loft, a financial adviser for crowdfunders.

Real estate finance is also no stranger to crowdfunding. For decades, intermediaries have aggregated and funneled money from investors to real estate companies that use the money to purchase or develop property.

But the fact is, the technology-fueled method of pooling money for real estate investments that has come to hog the label of “crowdfunding” iterates on its predecessors in a fashion that could transform real estate finance in a big way, particularly once the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fully implements new regulatory changes.

As a result, the differences between crowdfunding and its ancestral forms may be worth exploring. If you’re interested, they boil down to two words: access and transparency.

 

 

 

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/11/25/real-estate-crowdfunding-why-its-a-big-deal/#sthash.3q46y8J9.dpuf

JPMorgan settlement gives glimpse into mortgage machine | Bedford Real Estate

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The historic settlement with JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM) over the bank’s mortgage practices offers a unique look at how the bank packaged and marketed the mortgages it sold as securities, according to The New York Times:

At the heart of the civil settlement, which materialized after months of wrangling, is a statement of facts negotiated with the government that provides details into how JPMorgan assembled mortgage securities sold from 2005 through 2008. While the bank did not admit any violations of law, its decision to approve the statement was one of a few critical concessions it made in order to strike the deal.

The statement shows that as JPMorgan packaged the residential mortgages into complex securities, the bank promised to alert investors to any flaws that might raise questions about the loans, according to the statement.

Of course, the real news about the settlement is that it isn’t really about JPMorgan Chase at all. It’s about the crappy loans sold by Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual:

Many of the mortgage securities included in the settlement are not JPMorgan’s. Instead, they belong to Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, which JPMorgan bought in 2008.

On a conference call on Tuesday, Marianne Lake, the bank’s chief financial officer, said that roughly 80 percent of the losses at issue in the settlement stem from Bear Stearns.

Bet JPM feels great about those purchases right about now.

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/28047-jpmorgan-settlement-give-glimpse-into-mortgage-making

Bedford Real Estate weekly report | #RobReportBlog | Bedford NY Homes

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Bedford   NY Weekly Real Estate Report11/20/2013
Homes for sale78
Median Ask Price$1,537,500.00
Low Price$415,000.00
High Price$14,500,000.00
Average Size4701
Average Price/foot$409.00
Average DOM159
Average Ask Price$2,013,776.00

10 Affordable Big Cities for Renters | Mount Kisco Real Estate

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Homeownership isn’t for everyone. Some, including many young adults, simply  don’t have the money for a down payment on a house. Others covet the  flexibility of renting, which makes it easy to move across town for a  better apartment or cross-country for a better job.

Renting is an especially popular option in big cities, where career, social  and educational opportunities tend to be clustered and populations tend to be  more transient. In fact, renters outnumber homeowners in six of the ten  most populous cities in the country, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.  But not all rental markets are created equal. An apartment in Manhattan goes for  an average of $3,350 a month, more than triple the typical American’s mortgage  payment.

That’s why we went in search of the most affordable big cities for renters.  To pinpoint these promising places, we started with the nation’s 75 largest  metropolitan areas and ranked them based on average monthly rent, median  household income for renters, residential rental vacancy rate and overall cost  of living. Our top ten cities exhibit an appealing combination of  affordable living expenses, including rent, relative to the typical earnings of  renters. Take a look.

 

 

 

Read more at http://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/real-estate/T006-S001-affordable-big-cities-for-renters/index.html#JL1FdUKlUHrD8dvx.99

Nine Über-Grandiose Rentals and Their Mod Complements | Waccabuc Real Estate

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Say what you will about rentals—that they’re hard to decorate, expensive, orders of magnitude too small—there’s at least a smörgåsbord of options in any given locale. If variety is the spice of life, then the rental market is the most well-stocked and poorly organized spice drawer the world has ever known, wherein wasabi snuggles up next to vanilla bean. And, indeed, what field more convenient to have a jumble of balls-to-the-wall offerings than that of temporary homes? Take, as proof, these two listings in London. One (at left) asks £40,000 ($64,440) a week and comes with gold ceilings, two gazillion (an exact figure) pounds of drapery, and a ballroom with three massive crystal chandeliers and two equally monstrous flanking fireplaces. Oh, and let’s not forget the two elevators, 14 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, and 11 reception rooms. In the same city: a penthouse apartment—also on the rental market, though at 12 percent of the cost—done up in clean lines and a much more pared-down (to say the least) aesthetic. Below, eight more odd couples:

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Grandiose house: Location: Paris Price: $54,100 a month Highlights: Architecture by Charles Garnier—the mastermind behind the Opera de Paris—plus a suite of yummy salons and reception areas, winter garden, steam room, and indoor pool.

Pared-down house: Location: Paris Price: $5,990 a week Highlights: Interiors like “a rocket ship of luxury,” with lots of angular upholstery and a rooftop patio.

 

 

 

 

 

http://curbed.com/archives/2013/11/18/nine-grandiose-traditional-rentals-and-their-mod-complements.php