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Westchester NY Homes

How Your Business Can Use the New Facebook Cover Photos | Katonah Realtor

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Are you familiar with the new Facebook cover photo rules?  You are now able to put calls to action and your website or address information in your Facebook cover photo, but there are still text restrictions.
Would you like some inspiration for what your business can do with a cover photo?
Many people have not updated their cover photos to be in compliance.
In this article I’ll tell you what’s changed and show you 9 examples and how you can leverage the new rules to boost your business.

Facebook’s New Rules

As of March 6, Facebook’s rules state that cover photos may not include more than 20% text. But the previous restrictions that were in place were removed (i.e., no calls to action, no websites and no address information).
The maximum 20% text rule also applies to any photo in a Facebook ad as well, so keep that in mind with your next ad campaign.
There was some initial confusion about how the 20% text area was measured, so Facebook came out with a post that clarified how this area was calculated and what was acceptable.
cover compliance

Check your Facebook cover photo with the Cover Compliance Tool.
Facebook Cover-Photo Compliance Tool
Use this tool by Paavo to help you see if your cover photo is in compliance. All you need to do is to put the link to your Facebook Page (or your Fan Page ID, whichever is easier for you) in the box labeled Fanpage ID and click the blue check mark. Then select the boxes that have text in them.
For cover photos, they have a grid of 25 blocks (5 x 5) over the photo. If there is text in more than 5 of those boxes, your photo is out of compliance.
One thing that is confusing in the example provided by Facebook is that there are a couple of boxes that have text extending slightly into the box and Facebook did not mark them as having text. Hmmm.
Also worth noting is that the 20% text policy doesn’t apply to pictures of products that include text on the actual product. But Facebook goes on to say that they aren’t allowing images that are edited to include text as a “loophole to policy.”
Some of these 9 examples may have a little text that appears in one other box (similar to Facebook’s own examples). The examples are for your inspiration and we recommend you comply with the 5-box maximum guideline to avoid any problems.

 

 

How Your Business Can Use the New Facebook Cover Photos | Katonah Realtor | Bedford NY Real Estate | Robert Paul Talks Life in Bedford NY.

8 Steps To Reduce Property Taxes- Richard Kilfoil | Bedford Homes

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As the sluggish economy drags on, county boards everywhere are looking for ways to replace lost income–re-assessments of residential real estate taxes is just one of those ways. Sometimes it’s fair, other times it avoids belt-tightening. If your property taxes have been raised and you feel it’s unfair, here is how to prepare to meet your assessor for a review to lower them:

1. Look for reporting mistakes. Examine the assessor’s entire property description. Note discrepancies and document them with blueprints, surveys, photos or other inspection reports.

2. Compare neighborhood assessments. Are other homes in your neighborhood assessed similar to yours? Check the web first; some counties post assessments online.

3. Compare current sales. Talk to a local real estate agent (if you need a referral, I’m glad to help) and get a report of comparables sold within the last 6 months. Sold homes count, listings don’t.

4. Take pictures. Document where your home needs repair compared to other homes in better shape in your neighborhood.

5. Get a new appraisal. If your home is unusual or hard to “comp” this is the one time it can work in your favor. If you recently refinanced and the value is lower, use that report instead.

6. Get your contract. If your taxes increased soon after you purchased, values probably haven’t changed that much. Document with your purchase agreement.

7. Are you exempt? There are many special exemptions: homestead, mortgage, senior citizens, veterans, disabled persons, and even energy-efficiency. Check with your county and check them all.

8. Prepare your case. In writing, briefly and professionally describe why you are entitled to the reduction, followed by documentation of your reasons. Make sure you have any required forms completed and know all deadlines for your appeal.

 

 

8 Steps To Reduce Property Taxes- Richard Kilfoil | Bedford Homes | Bedford NY Real Estate | Robert Paul Talks Life in Bedford NY.

Podcasting is a great content play | Pound Ridge Realtor | Bedford NY Real Estate | Robert Paul Talks Life in Bedford NY

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Podcasting is making a comeback thanks to a growing consumer demand for content. If you’re not listening to podcasts, or better yet, producing your own audio content, you better reconsider.
podcast

photo credit: Bill Selak via photopin cc
I’ve been publishing the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast since 2005. I got into podcasting as a way to create content and unlock opportunities to get in front of leading authors and industry experts.
Back then, podcasting was new, iTunes had just burst onto the scene and an army of podcasters embraced this new RSS driven way to syndicate content. But then social media came along and things like Twitter and Facebook made podcasting seem so last decade. (Heck, people even starting suggesting that blogging was dead!)
But then, a funny thing happened on the way to the evolution of all things digital. People started to rediscover podcasting as a tremendous way to package and deliver content in a new and intimate way. All of a sudden, everyone had a podcast listening device in their pocket (otherwise known as a smartphone), and the new iPhone even came with the iTunes Podcast app preloaded. As a result to the easy access, podcast listening again began to surge.
Some people still shy away from the term “podcast” much like they did “blog.” Here’s the deal, just like a blog, forget what you call it, creating audio content is a great way to tap the fact that people want to listen to content on their most personal device – their phone – and why wouldn’t you work your tail off to get invited into that place.

How I podcast

There are dozens of ways to podcast and I am by no means an expert on every aspect of the technology, but I will share what seems to work for me.
Blue Yetti USB Mic – This a high quality microphone with lots of professional type settings and will set you back about $100, but the quality sound is worth it.
Skype – I do all of my interviews over Skype as my guests are from around the globe. I use a SkypeIn 9 didget phone number so my guests can call from a phone if they like but more and more people connect directly via Skype these days.
I also use a Skype add on called Call Recorder so I can record directly in Skype and it also lets me split the tracks so I can edit them independently.
Garage Band – I edit on a Mac and Garage Band does a great job. I level the sound, add music, and edit some things out before saving to iTunes.
Libsyn – I use Libsyn to host and stream my podcast. I pay about $10 a month for this and it keeps my podcast separate from my web hosting.
Blubrry PowerPress – This WordPress plugin creates a player for my blog and handles the RSS technical stuff including passing the podcast to iTunes. I run my podcast on my regular blog and use the category RSS feed to splice those posts off.
Rev.com – Sometimes I will transcribe my podcasts as a way to essentially take one form of content and make another. Rev.com is fast and very affordable.
If you want to learn more about the technical aspects of podcasting, check out Podcast Answer Man – Cliff Ravenscraft.

My personal listening list

2012 became the year that a number of very well-known content producers embraced the podcast format, producing and distributing audio content in a very big way.
The following podcasts have become very popular in iTunes and offer tremendous content for those inclined to consume their content while driving, working out or simply hanging out plugged into a pair of earbuds.
Seth Godin’s Startup School: Recently launched on the Earwolf network, the Startup School podcast features highlights from a workshop Godin conducted with 30 up-and-coming entrepreneurs.

 

 

Podcasting is a great content play | Pound Ridge Realtor | Bedford NY Real Estate | Robert Paul Talks Life in Bedford NY.

Home prices near most affordable levels in over 30 years | Bedford Corners NY Real Estate

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NEW DELHI, MAY 12:  

Home prices may have been on an upward spiral for many years, but the cost of owning a house in India remains near the most affordable level in over three decades, shows data compiled by mortgage giant HDFC Ltd.

The average price of a home, purchased with a housing loan, rose to over Rs 45 lakh in the 2012-13 fiscal – marking the fourth consecutive year of uptrend from about Rs 25 lakh in the year 2008-09, HDFC has said in a presentation.

However, factors like an even greater surge in the personal income levels, tax incentives and lower interest rates, have resulted into houses becoming more affordable to purchase, it said.

As per an ‘affordability’ ratio compiled for over three decades by HDFC, the average cost of owning a house stood at 4.7 times of the annual income of the home buyer in 2012-13.

The affordability ratio, which takes into account the annual income of the home buyer along with the price of the house, stood at as high as 22 in the year 1994-95, but has been mostly on a declining trend since then.

This means that a home buyer, on an average, needed an amount equivalent to nearly 22 times his or her annual income in 1994-95, but an amount less than five times of the annual earnings is required for purchasing a house now.

HDFC has released this dataset as part of an investor presentation on its latest fiscal financial results.

Explaining the improved affordability in the housing market, HDFC said it has been possible because of rising disposable income, tax incentives (on interest and principal repayments) and affordable interest rates available to the home loan customers.

The lender further said that the mortgage market was also witnessing a high demand growth because of increasing urbanisation and favourable demographics of the country, where 60 per cent of population is below 30 years of age and there is a rapid rise in new households.

Interestingly, the affordability ratio has remained in the range of 4.5-4.7 for the five consecutive years now, although the home prices have nearly doubled in this period.

Excluding a temporary dip during 2008-09, the home prices in the country have been rising for 11 years now, after hitting the lowest level in two decades at below Rs 15 lakh in the year 2001-02. However, the average annual income of a home loan customer has almost tripled during this period from less than Rs 4 lakh to close to Rs 12 lakh currently.

To be precise, the affordability ratio of 4.7 during the the last fiscal 2012-13 is the fourth lowest ever figure, after 4.3 in the year 2003-04, 4.5 in 2008-09 and 4.6 in 2011-12.

 

 

Home prices near most affordable levels in over 30 years: HDFC – Business Line.

Iraqi Kurdistan Real Estate Market Makes a Comeback | Cross River Real Estate

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The economy of the Kurdistan region of Iraq fluctuates according to the state of relations between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government.
The mostly stable and now improved security situation has allowed economic progress and prosperity in the Iraqi Kurdistan region. Until recently, the economy and real estate market had been in a funk. Many Iraqi families have moved away from central and southern regions of the country, in addition to Iraqis living in Syria who left following the political crisis and armed operations between the state and the opposition in order to settle down in Kurdish regions. The last dispute between Baghdad and Erbil, however, has shaken their trust in their safety.A key indicator of the region’s economy, real estate, has been sluggish but has seen a dramatic improvement in just the last few weeks since KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani negotiated an agreement with Baghdad in late April to end the boycott of the Iraqi government and Council of Representatives by Iraqi Kurdish ministers and members of parliament and cool tensions in Kirkuk and disputed areas.
Nariman Sadeq, owner of a real estate agency in Erbil, explained to Al-Monitor, “Lately, citizens have lost their trust in the market, and consequently real estate prices have dramatically dropped.”
Added Sadeq, “The prices of real estate in some regions of Iraqi Kurdistan have dropped by 30-40%, as the buying and selling process came to a halt a month ago.”
Sadeq, nonetheless, affirms that the market has been revived once again due to news about improved relations between Erbil and Baghdad. Sadeq expects an economic boom in the near future. “Earlier, properties were put on the market, but no one wanted to buy. Currently we see activity and signs foretelling an improvement in the market.”
Sadeq attributes the improvement to the detente between Erbil and Baghdad and the decision made by both parties to revive their former, amicable relationship.
A significant number of middle-income citizens in the Kurdistan region invested most of their money in the real estate market, which witnessed skyrocketing growth and a rise in prices, encouraging many others to follow suit

 

 

Iraqi Kurdistan Real Estate Market Makes a Comeback | Cross River Real Estate | Bedford NY Real Estate | Robert Paul Talks Life in Bedford NY.

Newsmakers May 12: Houston’s hot real estate market | | Bedford NY Real Estate

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The hot Houston real estate market is not likely cooling any time soon!
The Houston real estate market has been smoking hot for months. Experts said they expect the torrid pace will continue and several of those experts are guests on this week’s Houston Newsmakers with Khambrel Marshall.
Joining Khambrel this week was Danny Frank, the president of the Houston Association of Realtors, who said he expects the latest data will show that homes sales will show an increase of “upwards of 20 percent higher than it was [at] this time last year.”Quick Clicks
Will Holder, the president of Trendmaker Homes and the Immediate Past President of the Greater Houston Builders Association, said from what he’s seeing, there’s no slow down in sight.John Guess is the president of the Guess Group Incorporated, a real estate services company that specializes in commercial real estate. He said he “started seeing a change in the commercial market in the last quarter of 2011,” which led to 2012 being one his biggest years ever and 2013 is starting out the same way.
”We’ve got a bunch of pent up demand that has not been satisfied in the last two or three years so frankly I don’t think it can stop,” he said.
Even with the hot market expected to continue, there are ways you can navigate to a position where you can buy the home of your dreams, according to Steve Kyles, the Senior Loan Officer for Legacy Mutual Mortgage. He said one key is to make sure your realtor and lender are working together and then has three nuggets of advice.

 

 

Newsmakers May 12: Houston’s hot real estate market | | Bedford NY Real Estate | Robert Paul Talks Life in Bedford NY.

Surging market fuels growth of ‘pocket listings’ | South Salem Real Estate

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How hot is hot when it comes to housing markets across the country right now? Crazy hot: Some houses sell within days, sometimes within hours, of listing.

Then there are the growing numbers that sell even before they formally hit the market — sold through a controversial technique known as “pocket listings.”

Essentially it’s a private, “off-market” listing, often of short duration.

Instead of putting the house on the local multiple listing service — which exposes it to a vast number of shoppers and agents via real-estate websites — agents restrict access to information about the house to their own buyer clients or colleagues in the same brokerage, hoping for a quick, full-price sale.

Pocket listings are surging, real-estate experts say, because of historically low inventories of homes for sale in major metropolitan areas, along with strong buyer demand and low mortgage rates.

This combination has made control of upcoming new listings a powerful, highly profitable asset for agents in the most competitive sellers’ markets.

If agents can sell their off-market listing to a buyer-client they bring in on their own, they can collect both sides of the commission rather than splitting it with another agent. If they can sell it through colleagues in their own firm — even at a slight discount to regular commission rates — the full commission remains inside the brokerage.

Though no organization or research firm publishes statistics on the subject, top brokers in some highly competitive markets say pocket listings are becoming a significant factor in the business.

Bill Podley, broker-owner of Podley Properties, a Pasadena, Calif.-based firm that specializes in middle- and high-end communities, says he has heard estimates that as high as one-third of luxury and upper-cost homes selling in northeast Los Angeles County now involve pocket listings.

David Howell, executive vice president of McEnearney Associates, a large brokerage in the Washington, D.C., area, says he heard a recent estimate that such listings may now run as high as 20 percent nationally.

Glenn Kelman, CEO of Seattle-based Redfin, an online real-estate firm, said, “We are seeing more pocket listings across the U.S. In Boston and Los Angeles, we also see listing agents refuse to allow any showings of the home until the weekend open house.”

Real-estate executives such as Podley, Howell and Kelman are all critical of pocket listings. They argue that by restricting access to information about homes available for sale to relatively small numbers of potential buyers, agents are not fulfilling their core duties to their seller clients and not obtaining the highest possible prices.

 

Surging market fuels growth of ‘pocket listings’ | Homes & Real Estate | The Seattle Times.

AFP: Obama claims credit for ‘healing’ US housing market | Katonah NY Homes

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President Barack Obama on Saturday claimed credit for the country’s improved housing market and urged the US Congress to approve a new head of an agency that oversees housing loan agencies.

Seven years after the real estate bubble burst, “triggering the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and costing millions of responsible Americans their jobs and their homes, our housing market is healing,” Obama said in his weekly Saturday radio and online talk with the US people.

“Sales are up. Foreclosures are down. Construction is expanding” and prices are slowly rising. he said.

Since taking office. “I’ve made it a priority to help responsible homeowners and prevent the kind of recklessness that helped cause this crisis in the first place.”

According to Obama, his housing plan has helped more than two million people refinance their mortgages, saving an average of $3000 per year, while his new consumer watchdog agency “is moving forward on protections like a simpler, shorter mortgage form that will help to keep hard-working families from getting ripped off.”

The president acknowledged that there was “more work to do,” including providing more help for “responsible homeowners” who for different reasons cannot refinance, and working families “who have done everything right, but still owe more on their homes than they’re worth.”

 

AFP: Obama claims credit for ‘healing’ US housing market.

The real estate market must be totally regulated in Qatar | Bedford Corners Homes

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Rents stabilising in Qatar are a clear indication of the upbeat mood in the market about medium- to long-term national economic prospects.

In the last few months, many commercial and residential properties have come to the local market and many more are expected in the months ahead.

For investors, a key factor that drives their business strategy is the projected return on investments (ROI). Obviously, return on investments is decided by the demand and supply situation.

With Qatar economy witnessing rapid growth and many infrastructure projects being taken up, national economic prospects look good.

Population growth has been accelerating mainly because expatriates come to work on new infrastructure projects.

This is bound to put pressure on both commercial and residential properties with the result that rents may go up considerably.

Rents are likely to be a major swing factor in forecasts of consumer price inflation for 2013, experts have already warned.

Historically, from 2005 until 2013, Qatar’s inflation averaged 4.05% reaching an all time high of 16.59% in June 2008 and a record deflation of 9.96% in December 2009, a study by Standard Chartered Bank has shown.

According to QNB, overall inflation increased 3.6% year-on-year and 0.4% month-on-month to 2.4% in March this year.

Since the housing component has the largest weighting in the inflation basket (32.2%), escalating rents are sure to drive inflation in Qatar.

Rising inflation will certainly take the sheen off the real GDP growth, which no economy can afford.

In the past, when inflation surged and touched double digits, the government took very strong measures to contain it.

They included putting a ceiling on the annual rental increases and starting new low-cost residential projects. Many nationals and expatriates have then benefited from the pro-active measures taken by the government.

 

 

The real estate market must be totally regulated.

Australian Properties start moving as real estate market returns to form | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Estate agents yesterday said since the rate cut there had been a sharp increase in activity, with phones running hot the moment the cut was announced.

Zak Smith from LJ Hooker Everton Park said he had noticed an increase in buyer interest immediately after the RBA announced the cut.

“The moment the announcement was made my phone started ringing,” Mr Smith said. “I had three calls on the same property within three hours of interest rates dropping. It’s a great boost because normally this is when the market can slow down.”

Mr Smith said a home at 903 South Pine Rd, Everton Park, had received a lot of new interest since the announcement.

“It’s a brand-new, massive two-storey home, so there’s a lot to like about it,” he said. “It’s just been reduced to offers over $499,000, which is a great deal. The buyers are out there still and with the interest rates cut, they now have a lot more incentive.”

New figures from RP Data show the property market is now a lot more positive than last year.Home sellers in the northern suburb of Deagon faced a bleak prospect last year. Median house prices were down 17.8 per cent, and the time on market was a frustrating 132 days.

Newstead house

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.theaustralian.com.au