Why do you want your business to get listed in a web directories? If you don't know the answer to that question, you could be missing out on a big opportunity to drive traffic to your blog or website.
Before you start, it's important to know what a web directory is. Think of it as being like the telephone yellow pages, only for websites instead of for phone numbers. A web directory contains links to websites and divides those links into categories and sub-categories.
Next, it's important to understand why you should submit your website to a directory. The reason you should do this is to give your website credibility with major search engines. One-way search engines determine the legitimacy of a website is to count the number of one-way links. A link on a website that directs traffic to your website is called a one-way link. The more one-way links, the more credibility your website gains.
Knowledge is the name of the game, and thanks to the many online real estate portals, home shoppers now have easy access to lots of it via the web. The MLS is used by agents to show available, pending and sold listings, but now days home buyers dont necessarily have to work with an agent to get that kind of information; they can just go onto the web. For all-important property research and valuation, shoppers can now find out how much any home was sold for, gallery of pictures, street view, neighborhoods, ecenomic status, walkscore, and many more, instantly!
Is the traditional way of conducting real estate business threatened by this technological advancement? The answer depends on what you see your role in the industry to be. If you place yourself as merely a source of information, then you are now obsolete. Information is no longer available to a privileged few. Shoppers can now find the price, the size, history, and even take a virtual tour all while sitting at home in front of a computer. Why would they need to see you?
Instead of being a source of information, you can think of the Internet as a tool that makes your job as a real estate professional easier, and allows you to spend your time on money-making activities, not just answering phone calls to answer basic questions. Another example of time-saving graces of the ‘Net are your marketing efforts. Clients can now find you, 24 hours a day, instead of you searching for them. When they do finally reach you, you will not have to educate them about properties or details, just merely guide them through the buying process.
Posted by: Shirley_Brown in Real Estate Investment, Real Estate Agents, Pre Foreclosure, Offer, Investment, Foreclosure, Due Dilligence, Comps, Brokers Price Opinion, Bankruptcy, Bank Owned on
Jun 19, 2008
Everyone is always looking for a good deal. Real estate investors are no exception, which explains why the foreclosure market is booking for first-time buyers. These first-timers are seeing home prices at 10 to 40 percent below market value, which can make for an enticing offer, especially when the surrounding area is experiencing growth.
No matter what the talking heads on info-mercials and late-night cable TV say, not all foreclosures are what they're cracked up to be. While there may be some great foreclosure investments, you will need to know where to find it and how to make a fair offer in order to successfully acquire it. Lenders can practice more restrictively in markets where home prices continue to rise. When you couple that with the influence that home owners have over the selling price, it can create a situation that is less than friendly to buyers.
The purchase of a foreclosure property requires that the purchaser fully examine the property from every angle, financially and structurally. Patience really is a virtue, even in this robust market with many options that superficially appear to be bargains. In order to be considered a serious buyer, your offer to the seller should reflect this image. It is the well-researched offer that makes for a realistic starting point in the negotiation round.
Posted by: Shirley_Brown in Remodel, Rehab on
May 27, 2008
There are two main ways that home owners can add value to their homes: remodeling or adding on. Remodeling or adding an addition to a house will also help to get a home ready for sale. However, it is important to understand which of these approaches is the right choice in a particular situation so the owners should always consider how the changes will help and who will be most impressed by the changes.
Generally speaking, men pay less attention to the special, fancier features of a home like Jacuzzi tubs or well-lit bathrooms. They often prefer brown or grey decor, with a large work area and loads of privacy. It is also a common belief that men prefer "fixer-uppers," but they actually like low maintenance houses so they aren't constantly being asked to repair things. If left to their own devices, men would often prefer faucets, toilets, sinks, baths, floors, mirrors, cabinetry, appliances and furnishings based on their industrial strength qualities as opposed to their beauty.
While men are more influenced by a large garage/workshop and a secluded, it is the women who are responsible for 80% of all home buying decisions, so they are the ones to keep in mind most when considering these projects. The areas that generally influence the decisions are the kitchens and the bathrooms, so these areas should be highlighted in the improvement projects. If remodeling both isn't an option in order to get a property ready for sale, the owner should then look at which area needs the remodel more, while at the same time considering the costs of both options. Since men spend less time feathering the nest, we see that, contrary to popular belief, men really tend to follow the lead of the women.
Although these general observations will certainly not apply all the time, remaining mindful of these gender-preferences will help in the decision making process. By bearing these preferences in mind, owners find it wise to focus their remodeling towards the lighter, prettier options. Since the women are making most of the purchasing decisions, remodeling should focus on their interests.
Posted by: Shirley_Brown in Tenant, Landlord on
May 22, 2008
News about millions of homeowners losing their homes to foreclosure have been all over the news lately, but the outlook for renters is also alarming. According to a study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, even rental housing is too expensive for the vast majority of working Americans.
The problem isn't just affecting high-priced urban markets but is happening around the country, but virtually everywhere in the country. The conventional wisdom says housing in rural areas is more affordable than in metro areas, but the coalition's report found otherwise. The coalition's study, called "Out of Reach 2007-2008", found that no state could assure a full-time minimum wage earner access to affordable rental housing even in non-metro areas. Further, the report says that no minimum wage worker could afford rental housing and even workers making significantly more than the minimum are paying more than half of their wages toward rent.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates 30 percent of income to be the "fair market rent" (FMR) for an apartment a given area, and a worker making the median wage for most areas is paying a lot more than a third of his or her income. More than 9 million renter households paid 50 percent or more of their income for housing in 2006. That leaves less money to be used on insurance, food, and other necessities for these folks, who are mostly (98 percent) classified as low-income.
The study asked how much a family in a given community would have to earn to be able to afford a modest apartment. The answer was determined by comparing the "Housing Wage" in each area with the local wage and income for the residents of those communities. The Housing Wage is defined as the full-time hourly wage one would need to earn in order to pay that fair market rent for an apartment in each area.
The more you make does not necessarily mean the more you you keep (from the IRS). Reason? Taxes, of course. The more you earn, the more the government takes away from you. It is a crazy equation but there it is. More and more people are realizing that it makes sense to invest in real estate. The reason is excellent tax breaks.
Also, reflect on another fact. Capital gains' is taxed maximum at 15 percent and wage income at 35 percent. Of course, the tax benefit accrues to you providing you've held the property for twelve months or so by renting it out or living in it. Do you now wonder that an increasing number of people are turning towards real estate as a lucrative investment opportunity?
To be sure, there are definite tax benefits that accrue to you to if you are selling your home. Be mindful of the fact, though, that the residence would have had to be used in a ‘productive' capacity as in having lived there yourself or having rented it out. For sure, the real estate sector is on a downward trend but because it has enjoyed an unprecedented boom for so long, long-term home-owners need not worry. The longer time you own your home for, the higher the tax benefit. The tax applied would be a version of capital gains. The initial $25,000 is exempted from capital gains on the sale of your house. And if you are married, so much the better, your tax exemption goes up to $500, 000.
One of the ways to be considered as a successful real estate professional or an investor is to be a problem solver for your customers. Arming yourself with all the information you can absorb, experiencing and taking advantage of every opportunity to connect with new resources and potential customers, the more you are able to solve problems. You can also make yourself more available to people if you specialize in a particular problem solving area so they come to you for help rather then others that may be jacks of all trades. Attracting these people to your door first is a key element in self-marketing.
Decide your specialty; design a method that helps you zero in on your target audience and follow-up with a good method of attracting this target to you through the affective media vehicle.
Some examples of areas of expertise may be condos, vacation properties, single-family homes, apartments for up to four families, commercial and industrial avenues, farms, raw land, etc.
Locating opportunities in the above areas could involve a multitude of avenues. Let's explore some of them:
Suzie knows how to find what she wants. She lets her fingers do the walking - not in the Yellow Pages, but at Google.com. She wants to buy Real Estate in the Bay Area, and you have just written San Francisco Real Estate Market for Buyers and Sellers. Luckily, for you, Google and other search engines exist for one simple reason: to help people like Suzie find your Web site.
Google shows 20,200,000 resources on "Real Estate in the Bay Areas." Unless she finds what she wants on the first page, (or in the top 10 results), odds are she won't find your Web site - especially if it's listed as the 124th result!
The million-dollar question: How do you ensure that Suzie finds your Web site, given the googolplex of possibilities? You might have heard a lot about "search engine optimization," "ranking analysis" and "algorithms." All of this may sound complex at first, but it simply becomes a three-step process.
The first thing to remember is that search engines only show Web sites it has on record. Make sure to submit your site to key search engine directories. Get listed in the following directories: dmoz.com, yahoo.com, zeal.com, joeant.com, etc. You can do this - you need not hire someone.
How Google Page Ranks Affect Your WebsiteIt's true that only members of Google's inner circle understand the full intricacies of the Page Rank (PR) system. However, you don't have to be part of that elite group to acquire a sense of what PR is all about and where it fits into your efforts to boost traffic to your site. The following questions and answers provide an overview - in layperson's language - that should enable you to do just that.
What is Page Rank?
Quite simply, it is a numeric value that represents the importance of a web page. It's of vital significance to everyone who derives business from a web site because it is one of the key factors that determines a page's ranking in Google's search results. Google bases the Page Rank (PR) concept on the assumption that when one page links to another page, it is effectively casting a vote for the other page. Consequently, these "votes" can increase a page's importance and boost its Page Rank. More importantly, the prestige (i.e. PR) of the linking page influences how valuable its "vote", or link, will be. Both the number of links and the ranks of the linking pages are used to calculate your web page's Page Rank.
How important is it, and why?
To understand the significance of Page Rank, let's look at how Google originally explained it
Posted by: Shirley_Brown in Mortgage Fraud on
Apr 17, 2008
