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When it comes to real estate marketing, don’t waste money on passive techniques

According to the National Association of Realtors’ newly released 2014 Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends report, only 4 percent of sellers and 9 percent of buyers found their agent on a website. If you’re spending gobs of money on pay-per-click, search engine optimization (SEO), and other online advertising formats with the idea of generating buyer and seller leads, your money may be better spent elsewhere.

As an agent, you are constantly bombarded with advertisements and recommendations about the various ways you can generate buyer and seller leads. Should you have a website? Should you spend money on online ads? Should you pay for Internet leads? Should you market using calendars, magnets and postcards? Here’s how to decide…

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10 Facebook Dos and Don’ts

Facebook is a powerful way to stay in touch with your past clients, friends, and sphere. It’s also a great way to show your network the multifaceted you. But Facebook is for friendship and sharing, not for selling, so be a personality, not a salesperson, when you post or update your status.

Read the dos and don’ts…

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Is your email marketing ineffective? 3 things it may be missing

Are you wondering if your real estate email marketing is effective? If there’s anything you can be doing to make it more successful?

And if you’re not doing any email marketing right now but are thinking about starting, this article is for you, too.

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Do You Really Understand Your Home’s Equity?

As a homeowner, you probably think you know all about what your home is worth, what your interest rate really means, what you are paying out every month, and how to access your equity if you needed to.

But do you really? If your home is worth $20,000 more today that it was when you purchased it, does that mean you are entitled to all 20,000 of those dollars? Does having equity in your home automatically mean you can sell for a profit? Would you know what your best option was if you needed some equity in a pinch? Check out the these scenarios for a quick equity tune-up…

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Be ready to buy your first home

Money

First-time home buyers have it tough. The supply of homes for sale is tight, and lenders are tightfisted.

Student debt, at an all-time high of nearly $30,000 per grad, is getting in the way of saving for a down payment, says David Stevens, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association. But it’s a great time to get your foot in the door.

“Interest rates remain the envy of even your grandparents,” says Keith Gumbinger, vice president of mortgage publisher HSH.com. First, make your finances sparkle.

Read the turning-point checklist…

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Here’s Why Owning Your Own Home Really is a Good Investment

Home

According to a recent Gallup poll, more Americans are beginning to view real estate as a viable long-term investment. Thirty percent of those surveyed early last month took this view, up from 25% just a year ago. Gallup credited an improving housing market as being the chief driver of the change in popular opinion on this matter.

But, wait. Some experts, notably Yale economics professor Robert Shiller, disagree heartily with this view. In interviews over the past couple of years, Shiller referred to his research in which he studied home price appreciation from 1890 to 1990. He found that, considering costs of construction and inflation, homes really didn’t appreciate in value at all.

Does that mean that buying a home is a lousy move? Not at all, and here’s why…

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A Kitchen Clean Up Pays When Selling Your Home

Martin kitchen

When it comes to selling a home, a kitchen clean up pays. You don’t have to do an expensive remodel to make your kitchen appealing to buyers. If you’re starting with a good kitchen space, then making a few inexpensive modifications can help you get your home noticed and sell for more money.

Here are a few things to start with…

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Mortgages may be easier to get than potential home buyers believe

Are you on the home-buying sidelines this spring because you think you won’t be able to qualify for a mortgage? Do you know what sort of FICO credit scores are being accepted by lenders at the moment — they’re lower than they were a year ago — and whether yours could now be good enough?

You may be part of the surprisingly large crowd of folks who fear the home-loan unknown. A new national consumer survey found that 56% of potential purchasers of homes say they’re out of the market because they don’t want to face the possibility of rejection by lenders. Even 30% of current homeowners believe that they wouldn’t pass muster today.

Many potential buyers think they need near-perfect credit scores to get a home loan. But lenders may be loosening their tight underwriting standards.

Read the details…

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10 Markets Where Homes Are Selling the Fastest

Family

Denver tops the list of more than 140 metros where homes are on the market for the fewest number of days, unseating Oakland, Calif., for that top spot, according to realtor.com’s National Housing Trend Report for March. Oakland had occupied the top spot for the fewest days on the market on realtor.com’s report since November 2013.

The national average for days on the market is 102 days, but in some markets, listings are typically on the market for a month or even less.

Realtor.com’s report shows the following 10 metro areas with the lowest median days on the market…

And see where Seattle is on the list!

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How Buyers Can Irk Sellers

Both parties have to come together in a transaction, and real estate professionals sometimes find themselves wedged in the middle of buyer and seller disagreements. Some sellers may accuse the home buyers of being too pushy with their demands.

Bankrate.com recently highlighted several ways that homebuyers have been annoying some sellers.