| Sunday, May 20, 2007 |
| Website Review of My Moving Quote.com |
I've accepted a ReviewMe.com job, reviewing a website about Moving Companies , MyMovingQuote.com.
This is a great clean, easy to use website that should very useful to anyone who wants to find a good moving company when relocating.
The site is packed full of really useful information. I've never used a moving company, so it's all interesting to me. Would you know what to do as a large family, packing up a 5-6 room home full of family articles and memorabilia to move from California to say...New York? I wouldn't have a clue!
They have great information resource pages...General moving tips, how to pack your boxes for minimal breakage...How to keep your kids helping instead of hindering, and my personal favorite, Moving With Pets! This information would be invaluable to me. I've moved a few times by myself, with my cat, and with just my own belongings, it's always been a nightmare.
The website writers explain that the moving company itself has liability insurance, but there are additional insurances that would benefit everyone to purchase. I can sure see that would be something to look into.
Then the meat of the website...finding a company in your state or city to do the job for you. They start out with each state, which then has a good list of the important cities in the state, and that sends you to a page with the moving companies that services that area. There are short descriptions of the companies listed, with their ICC and DOT numbers, and a button to contact the company for a quote. I myself would find this extremely useful...I could get quotes from 4 or 5 different companies and do my part in the wee hours when I have time, instead of taking my busy daytime schedule to use on the phone, trying to locate and call several companies and keep the quotes straight from phone messages. The pages load lightning fast and are easy to read, making an overall quick and easy job finding your location.I did a quick search for Atlanta GA moving companies, and was very impressed.
The site also lists Office movers, Long Distance moving companies, and even those who will help you relocate to another country altogether. What a nightmare that could be. I can't even imagine trying to pack up my belongings to move to England or somewhere...wow. There were instant results in the Atlanta area for international movers.
They have a form available for movers to add their business to the site, and even information about truck rentals, and self storage companies to add to the alternatives.
This is altogether a useful and even amazing website for anyone searching for moving companies to help make an extremely stressful time just a little bit easier. I would recommend www.MyMovingQuote.com to anyone. Good job, guys!
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Labels: moving companies, real estate marketing, relocation services |
posted by Myrtle Beach Web Design @ 4:47 PM  
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| Friday, April 20, 2007 |
| New Scottsdale Real Estate Website |
I have accepted a paid review offer from ReviewMe.com, and found this Scottsdale Luxury Home site a pleasure to review. What a beautiful website!
Scottsdale, Phoenix, Tucson, and some other Arizona cities have become playgrounds for the mega rich and quite a few celebrities live there. If I'm not mistaken, I think a friend of mine who lives in Scottsdale told me that Paul McCartney had a beautiful ranch close by there. I have a realtor friend in Tucson that also is in the luxury home market, so this must be where the big boys like to play.
The homepage of ScottsdaleFineProperties.com is gorgeous. It really sets the mood for someone looking to find a paradise getaway. I like the dark background and more colorful look, instead of the oranges and browns that so many of the Arizona websites tend to incorporate in their look.
About ScottsdaleFineProperties
They have a very detailed page describing their services to sellers and buyers, which is impressive with the marketing services they describe. They will advertise these properties in the Wall Street Journal and some other important publications, as well as spending the dollars necessary to have virtual tours and other media representations for a listing seller.
In these days of so many websites for so many properties, marketing, virtual tours, beautiful large and detailed photos and slideshows are absolutely necessary, and buyers require them.
The little small MLS listings with a couple of photos and nothing much else will not inspire someone to buy a luxury property. It's very important to make a buyer "feel" the ambiance of a property. Also, the various kinds of media work together to market a luxury property in particular. It appears the company knows this and knows how to market their product.
Their MLS Search feature seems to be easy to use and well integrated. This is very important for a real estate website, and many of them are so complicated and full of bugs that it will run a potential "looker" to another site. This one seems to be quick yet powerful.
The Featured Properties page....WOW. Talk about some beautiful homes! They have the properties displayed in very eye-pleasing ways that almost demand the viewer to see these unbelievable houses.
They also have a "Luxury Showcase" page, which is even more detailed for their most important properties, and it has links to pages that describe each property in detail with beautiful LARGE photos to attract the buyer. I've been in this business a few years now, and one thing I have learned is how important these eye-candy photos are for selling a home or property. Even better, a nice fading slideshow with rooms and views would make those good pages really sing.
They have some pages for new construction and home developments, which is important, and a special page for Investors to contact certain agents that are specialized in that area.
This leaves a Client Login, their press articles, a special page for a builder that they must have an affiliate relationship with, a SMALL links page (keep it local and small, guys!) and a nice Site Map.
Overall, a very impressive and outstanding website for a very wealthy, high end real estate area such as Scottsdale. Great job!
As a last mention, since I do real estate marketing and SEO, I feel the need to touch on that aspect of the site.
A few tips...on the homepage, I personally would not be repeating "Scottsdale Fine Properties" more than once. I checked, and this is definately not a highly searched term (didn't even show at all). I think it might serve better to target the term "Scottsdale Luxury Homes" and use that term several times on many pages of the site...especially with headers. When bringing incoming links in, I would use that term, as well as Scottsdale Homes, Scottsdale Property, and perhaps Scottsdale Investment Property. Make the inside pages more closely aligned to each of these terms, and put them into some homepage text, linking to that inside page that corresponds to it.
Be careful to ALWAYS have "ALT tags" on all graphics...especially that banner at the top that links to your homepage...and something else very important....
Banish from all links to the homepage that extension of "index.html". You want all links to your homepage and from everywhere to point to your domain name alone. You will confuse the search engines by having an extra version of the homepage linked as "index" and possibly have your page rank steered to IT instead of to the domain name as it should be.
That's about it. A truly beautiful site that is a pleasure to view, and should be a great marketing tool for the company and its clients alike!Labels: real estate marketing, scottsdale fine properties, scottsdale luxury homes, scottsdale real estate |
posted by Myrtle Beach Web Design @ 2:44 PM
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| Wednesday, March 14, 2007 |
| Top 10 Tips For Your Most Powerful e-Mail Marketing |
The latest column from my friend Bill Koelzer in San Clemente, CA. Bill is a Web marketing consultant for realty-related corporations. He is co-author, with Barbara Cox, Ph.D., of the Prentice-Hall books, "Internet Marketing in Real Estate" and "Internet Marketing".
He maintains and promotes his wife's Orange County Real Estate website, Debbie Ferrari.com. Debbie was actually quoted in Donald Trump's most recent book. Very impressive, Debbie!
They are good friends, and Bill and I often collaborate on the latest search engine news and what it means to our clients and business associates.
Top 10 Tips For Your Most Powerful e-Mail Marketing
Effective e-mail communications don't just happen. They require some thought about the audience, the purpose of the message, and what the message should include to accomplish that purpose.
Here is a short list of steps and tips for writing clear, unambiguous e-mail messages that will not be misunderstood - and that will help you get the results you want...
Plan. Know your purpose. Are you making a complaint or answering one? Are you trying to stimulate trials of a product? Are you providing some facts and figures in response to an inquiry?
Plan. Know your audience. The amount of background information or detail you provide should be appropriate for the recipient. Be sure each recipient has sufficient information to do what you want him or her to do.
Too much information, on the other hand, will bore some readers. Worse, telling someone a lot of information that they already know can be interpreted as being condescending. Also, knowing your audience will help you use an appropriate tone or level of formality.
Do the buyers of your products or services tend to be rather formal? Do you know them on a first-name basis? The rule of thumb here is: when in doubt, follow the same business correspondence style that you would use for a letter.
Use short sentences. If a sentence gets too long, reword it and make two sentences. Use a simple, active subject-verb-object sentence structure when possible - more like Hemingway than Shakespeare.
Short sentences are easier for most readers to absorb and remember.
Use plain language - clear words that your reader can relate to. Look for terms that could be misunderstood and replace them or give an explanation.
Eliminate fuzzy wording that could be interpreted as sarcastic, egocentric, critical, etc. A sentence that sounds fine when spoken may lose its intended effect when read by a recipient.
Use short paragraphs and skip a line between paragraphs to make the message easier to read and to emphasize main points.
State clearly what you want the recipient to do! Answer a question? Visit a Web site? Give you an opinion? (Don't assume that sending someone a list of facts will lead them to do something about them!
Avoid long, involved descriptions and explanations. If sending this information is critical, send it as an attachment or post it to a Web site and send the link.
Use "you," "your," or the person's name. This produces empathy!
Read what you write! Always check any e-mail addresses or Web site addresses that you have included. Incorrect Web addresses are "unreachable" and will irritate your contacts.
Until you gain experience, read each e-mail message aloud to yourself before you send it. This technique will help you identify statements or phrases that are vague or that could be misinterpreted. Never write and send an email while angry.
Also, Answer Promptly: Fast Follow up says "good service" to customers. When you receive e-mail - or send out your e-mail to a target audience and responses start to come in - what's next? Fast follow up is what helps make a sale, satisfy a customer need, or move your recipient to whatever action you desired of him.
And keep following up. Most sales are not made in the first contact; they are made through follow-up. The importance of following up is made clear in these statistics from the Association of Professional Salesmen and the National Sales Executive Association:
2% of sales are made on the 1st contact
3% of sales are made on the 2nd contact
5% of sales are made on the 3rd contact
10% of sales are made on the 4th contact
80% of sales are made on the 5th-12th contact
You can see from the above data that firms who market online using one-time mass e-mailings might have only limited success. Help prospects reach a decision by presenting a viable, valuable useful possibility that they might not have considered before.
Follow up quickly to inquiries - even if you think you answered a question previously!
Use every reasonable opportunity to provide information or service.
Do that and your e-mails will produce far better results.
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Excellent advice, Bill.
Bill can be contacted at Bill@Koelzer.com or visit his website at www.koelzer.com
Myrtle Beach Web Design and Real Estate MarketingLabels: internet marketing, myrtle beach, Orange County Real Estate, real estate marketing, San Clemente Real Estate, Web Design, Web Marketing |
posted by Myrtle Beach Web Design @ 3:46 AM
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| Tuesday, February 27, 2007 |
| Our Orange County Realtor Friend Speaks Out in Inman News |
One of my real estate partners and friends, Debbie Ferrari was quoted in an article on Inman News today. Several months ago she was also awarded a chapter in Donald Trump's new Book.
This group of realtors and marketers that I'm affiliated with is the best of the best. I'm proud to know them all.
Below is the Inman column...
Stats, lies and real estate
Web innovations surface new forms of real estate data
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
By Glenn Roberts Jr.
Inman News
Real estate can be a numbers game, whether you are setting a listing price, making a purchase offer, choosing a mortgage product and down payment, locking in an interest rate, or negotiating the cost of a real estate agent's services.
And there is no shortage of numbers. Trade groups, agents, bloggers and online communities, brokerage companies, media, institutes, economists and Web sites are among the sources of real estate statistics and information that generate reports, commentary, charts, graphs and maps about the state of the real estate market for a given area. In this era of electronic information and Internet innovation, consumers have more real estate information at their fingertips than ever before.
The real estate obsession that swept the nation during the latest housing boom inspired some creative new ways to gather and display real estate statistics: heat maps, bubble maps, and a wave of new indices (including a "Zindex") and online tools. While industry statistics have traditionally lagged behind present-day market conditions, Internet-savvy companies are finding new ways to generate real-time snapshots of market conditions.
So many data sources can be overwhelming, though, said Debbie Ferrari, a Realtor in Orange County, Calif. "It's really an ironic problem -- there's more data out there to study but how do we know which study to study? It is getting harder to get pure data based on real research because now almost every grown-up blog and Realtor Web site has some statistics on it," she said, adding that many sites carry outdated statistics.
In the past there were fewer sources for real estate research reports, she said, but when you searched for them you would find "just what you wanted. Now, you get a mixture of pure and not-so-pure data being reported." Ferrari said she recommends that consumers seek out independent studies of the real estate industry that relate to a local market area.
"Studies of a local real estate market by most respected universities tend to be valid. So do local-area studies done by (companies) in the data-gathering business, especially when they quote their study methodology," she said. Also, it may benefit consumers to monitor multiple sources to determine which sources have the best information for a given area, she said. "Being cynical here is a good idea."
The National Association of Realtors and its counterpart state and local Realtor groups are a major source of real estate statistics, as the trade groups have access to a wealth of property information collected by its members through associated multiple listing services. NAR's stats are used by the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department, Chicago Board of Options Exchange, and many economists. "Our data are also remarkably accurate and we work hard to make them so," said Steve Cook, an association spokesman.
A potential problem with sources of real estate statistics is the accompanying analysis, said Jonathan Miller, president and CEO for Miller Samuel Inc., a real estate appraisal and consulting company that prepares real estate market reports.
"My pet peeve is 'spin.' The biggest problem with information available to the real estate professional today is not the data itself, it's the interpretation," Miller said. "If a real estate professional senses spin in something they are reading then the consumer will too. The consumer wants real information, not hyperbole. They want the straight story and then they will figure it out on their own."
He said it's best to be cautious about any source of real estate information "that is generated by a trade group or is produced by a firm with something to sell. It doesn't mean it's not usable, just be wary. Because something is printed on paper or on a Web site doesn't mean it's reliable. I am amazed at how much the consumer takes the words of others at face value."
As for the growing volume of real estate statistics, Miller said that the key is to find some trusted sources of data and "filter out everything else except for new sources or analysis entering the mainstream and off the beaten track. New information will never stop coming to your doorstep -- the problem is 90 percent of it is useless or misleading."
Miller said the most popular reports his company produces are for Prudential Douglas Elliman, a major New York City brokerage firm, and the target audience for his company's reports includes consumers, clients, government, peers and media. Miller said that portions of the data that he reports are not available in the public domain.
Daniel Baum, president of New York-based The Real Estate Group NY, a brokerage firm that specializes in the city's rental market, noted that Manhattan is an island in more ways than one, as the rental market is fragmented and lacks transparency. Data that is released to consumers about the rental market is typically representative of a cross-section of the market, such as luxury high-rise rentals, he said, which can skew the statistics.
"It always made people feel like there was less inventory than there (actually) was -- at the end of the day it's really not helping the general public at all," Baum said. His company assembled a database of about 3,000 rental properties and combined that with statistics for a roughly equivalent group of rental properties to produce a monthly Manhattan Rental Market Report on average rental prices. The first version of this report launched in January.
The report gathers information for 14 different neighborhoods in Manhattan, and Baum said, "I do try very hard to make sure the data I'm providing is substantial and quantifiable," adding, "I'm very much forthcoming when we don't have data."
Consumers, he said, should take all of the real estate data "with a grain of salt," and he encourages them to "read the fine print -- they have to understand where this data comes from."
An emerging trend is the creation of interactive data-visualization tools at real estate-related Web sites. Sites such as HotPads.com, Neighboroo.com, PropertyShark.com, Trulia.com and Zillow.com offer new ways to view real estate information.
Property-search portal Trulia.com, for example, this month announced the launch of new real estate mashup sites in conjunction with the public release of programming tools that are intended to spur the creation of other mashups that use the company's data. Truliaholic.com allows users to compare the volume of search traffic and average listing price information for two county and city areas across the nation. And another Trulia-generated mashup, plotornot.com allows users to compare a variety of statistical sources for a given area, such a traffic, crime, rainfall and demographic statistics to median listing price statistics.
The company also produces heat maps that reflect price differences, and publishes monthly real estate trend reports.
"The feedback we've heard is that consumers like that we provide data. There are mountains and mountains of data behind Trulia's screen," said Heather Mirjahangir Fernandez, Trulia's director of marketing. "What we try to do is simplify it. It's very hard to satiate the appetite both by consumers and the real estate community (for information)."
The company's reporting is limited to the data available at the site -- Fernandez said the Web site passed the 1 million-listings mark in November. "That data continues to get more representative of the nation as a whole," she said, as the listing database grows.
"The thing that has certainly been proven over the past year is that data can be fun -- it doesn't have to be serious. And people can be entertained by data," said Amy Botuhinsky, a spokeswoman for home-valuation and property marketing site Zillow.com. The company, like Trulia, offers heat maps that color-code map areas based on price trends. An area with high listing prices would show up as red, for example, while the lowest-price areas show up as green and blue.
Zillow also offers quarterly "Zindex" reports that are based on the estimated value of all homes for a range of markets across the country -- including homes that aren't for sale. The value is based on the company's algorithms.
More information is better, said Botuhinsky. "The more data you have, the more information you can build on to make more educated decisions and to become smarter about the process. Different data sources are all useful in different ways." She said that Zillow initially offered some analysis in reporting the data it released but lately has left it up to users to crunch the hard data on their own. "That was a little more in line with who Zillow is: a source of data to help people become smarter, but acknowledging that the real experts are hyperlocal," she said.
"It makes sense," she said, that consumers are hungry for real estate data. "Real estate is the backbone of Americans' lives," she said, and there is an attraction from both an emotional and a data perspective.
Ryan Slack, CEO for real estate information company PropertyShark, noted that real estate statistics that show extremes are particularly popular. The company's Web site shows areas that are experiencing price depreciation (the site features a "Double Bubble Trouble" map) and super-heated markets, for example. "Neighborhood-specific sales trends are also of obvious interest. Distress property reports are a hot area right now." And site users can generate their own customized reports for a given area based on selected criteria such as "all vacant lots in Brooklyn" or a list of owners who bought over two years ago, for example.
The company produces quarterly foreclosures reports, mashup maps down to the parcel level with information such as recent sales and zoning types, and housing-stock analyses for cities and neighborhoods.
PropertyShark is an unbiased third-party data resource for the industry, Slack said, "so none of our statistics or data are tweaked to build a particular market perception."
He added, "There is a revolution going on with the availability and transparency of real estate information, and our audience is no longer dependent solely on silos of information tightly held by government agencies or individual companies."
His advice for consumers and real estate professionals who are navigating the ocean of real estate information: "The old saying, 'Consider the source,' comes to mind. The user should try to understand if it is in the interest of the information provider to tell a certain story or spin the numbers in a certain direction."
***
Send tips or a Letter to the Editor to glenn@inman.com or call (510) 658-9252, ext. 137.
Copyright 2007 Inman News
Real Estate Marketing by Myrtle Beach Web Design
See my friend and Debbie Ferrari's Husband, Bill Koelzer,
if you need a Small Business Consultant
Promote your real estate on Condos and Resorts .com
Myrtle Beach Real Estate, David O'ConnellLabels: Orange County Real Estate, real estate marketing, realtor websites |
posted by Myrtle Beach Web Design @ 6:09 PM
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| Wednesday, February 07, 2007 |
| Myrtle Beach Real Estate Sales News |
According to our resident real estate expert at the Sun News, Jenny Burns, our real estate agents are seeing an increase in sales interest from January. My clients and websites are reflecting that as well.
Sales of Myrtle Beach condominiums are still low, but that is to be expected until the glut of building and large amount of available new condos is taken care of.
Myrtle Beach condo rentals are at an all-time high. My friends at Condolux had the best year ever in 2006, and are geared up for 2007 with about 10 new projects to add to their rental lists...from Kingston Plantation (seemingly the hottest place down here for rentals) to the recently completed resorts like Bay View Resort in Myrtle Beach.
This could very well translate into a better environment for sales...and certainly more traffic to the condos that have on-site sales offices.
According to Jenny, new homes sales fell more than the prophets expected it to. I guess even though they "created" the bubble in the first place, they aren't always powerful enough to control the market just by the word of their predictions. And yes, I said they created the bubble. I am firmly convinced that it never would have happened anywhere if they hadn't kept screaming about it ad nauseum for the whole year that sales were so high. It was a self-fulfilled prophecy.
They report that single family home sales fell 24 percent to 296 from 389 last January. Sales of condos in Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand fell 35 percent to 276 units from 425. This according to the local MLS people.
It was also noted that some home prices dropped, but CONDO prices jumped 32 percent in average and 25 percent in median.
Days it takes to sell a condo increased from 160 to 345 days, while homes seem to sell much faster...only increasing to 160 from 143.
My friend Diann Tonnesen in Las Vegas predicted the turn around to take about 17 months from last summer. She's been in the business for more than 20 years, so I value her opinion. My group around here are perhaps a bit more optimistic. Myrtle Beach real estate sales tend to run much differently than some place like Las Vegas...or even the Florida beaches.
Also, our insurance crisis on condos is so in the news that I think buyers are waiting to see how that turns out. I'm seeing the leads and the interest, but there is more hesitation to buy unless they are looking for a personal vacation condo and feel like they can handle the price. And with rentals being so good, perhaps they can increase the price for them to help assuage the extra costs for HOA and insurance fees. People are going to come and vacation at Myrtle Beach regardless. It may slow down the spring breakers (no loss there) and maybe limit the number of days people stay. Perhaps in the future these condo rental places may need to make an availability for 3-4 day stays instead of requiring a weekly deal.
At any rate, it's very heartening to see more leads coming in and the various real estate websites doing well. Since I do real estate marketing, I appreciate it!
 Labels: condos, condos for sale, myrtle beach condo rentals, myrtle beach condos, myrtle beach homes, myrtle beach real estate, new condos, preconstruction condos, real estate marketing |
posted by Myrtle Beach Web Design @ 2:55 PM
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| Tuesday, September 12, 2006 |
| The housing boom is over, but creative investors still make profits |
By Robyn A. Friedman
The Sun Sentinel
Special correspondent
Posted September 11 2006
Vicky Kaye is accustomed to making a double-digit annual return in the oceanfront real estate market. And unlike many other area real estate investors, she's still doing so.
"I do about two or three deals a year," said Kaye, a licensed massage therapist who lives in Pompano Beach.
Kaye is a private lender who provides short-term financing for other real estate investors. She's been investing that way for five years and making 12 to 14 percent interest on each deal, as well as the return of her principal in less than a year.
"It's collateralized, and there are no complications," she said of the transactions.
Over the past few years, South Florida's housing boom has spoiled real estate investors, many of whom unabashedly brag about the killing they made flipping preconstruction condominiums, rehabilitating foreclosed properties or buying apartment complexes to convert to condos. But now that the housing market has tanked -- the inventory of unsold homes skyrocketed and sales have screeched to a virtual halt -- investors are becoming creative, segueing into new types of deals and properties in an effort to wring out profits in a challenging market.
"The latter part of 2002 to the second quarter of 2004 was the period of time when everybody jumped on the bandwagon, and all those condo flips occurred," said Michael Y. Cannon, managing director of Integra Realty Resources South Florida in Miami. "That was when the market actually peaked."
Today, Cannon said that many people don't know where to put their money.
"They're starting to put their money back into savings accounts, CDs and treasury bills," he said. "Instead of a 2 percent return, they can now get 5.5 percent, and although that return is less than the promised return they'd get on real estate, they want safety."
Others say that moneymaking real estate opportunities still abound in South Florida.
"There are more opportunities now than there have been in years," said David Dweck, a real estate agent with Re/Max Professionals in Coral Springs and an active investor the past 14 years. "With the market shifting, sellers are becoming more realistic and motivated. A motivated seller can mean a buying opportunity for an investor."
Where are area investors putting their real estate dollars now?
Commercial properties. Cash flow is the name of the game. Since investors can't count on short-term appreciation and a quick sale, many are seeking an income stream.
Michael S. Weiner, a zoning attorney in Delray Beach, has been purchasing buildings since 1991. He owns several buildings on Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach that have retail and office space. He targets properties with "intrinsic value" and always buys to hold long-term. Weiner only buys properties in Palm Beach County. He recently bought a medical office building and is considering a post office.
"Real estate's the most intensive investment you can possibly have," Weiner said. "You've got to watch it."
Foreclosures
Michael Perlmutter has been a full-time real estate investor for more than six years. He's referred to in the industry as a wholesaler -- someone who spots homes in foreclosure or preforeclosure and then resells them to one of the 3,000 investors in his database, typically at a profit of at least $15,000. The buyer then rehabs the property and resells it for an additional profit. Even with his well-oiled machine, Perlmutter has had to adapt his buying strategy.
"Eighty percent of the part-time weekend investors who dabbled in real estate have folded," he said. "Now, I've got to work harder." Still, Perlmutter said he gets five to seven calls a day from people in financial difficulty looking for someone to buy their houses. "There's never been a better time than right now because of the supply," he said.
Preconstruction condos (yes, preconstruction condos).
Gone are the campers, the speculators who lined up -- sometimes for days -- to snap up prime condo units at early prices. At least one local expert thinks a market still exists for some of these condos. Mark Zilbert, president of Zilbert Realty Group Inc. in Miami Beach, said that half the buyers who hold contracts on preconstruction condos -- most of them real estate speculators -- don't want to complete the purchases on their condos.
"They just want their deposit back to get out of it," he said. "So an opportunity lies for someone approaching a buyer who bought an apartment in 2003 or 2004 and offering them their contract price."
Zilbert said that the investor has to be prepared to settle on the unit and hold it for a year or so. After that, he says, they should be able to resell the condo at a profit. "They'll probably see a 50 to 60 percent return on their money, which is a far cry from the 200 to 300 percent we used to see," he said.
Invest in a vulture fund. Many people are putting aside money to plunge into the real estate market in an attempt to swoop up bargains when they think the market has hit bottom. One of these is Deerfield Beach real estate analyst Jack McCabe, who has formed McCabe Acquisitions LLC for such investments. McCabe said that accredited investors of high net worth, institutional investors and other entities can participate in his acquisition firm as nonmanaging members. A minimum investment of $5 million is required. He plans to acquire blocks of condos in multifamily developments -- or entire projects -- in many markets in the country, with a special emphasis on Florida. And he hopes to purchase these properties from anxious sellers at a discount. "My acquisition group will acquire at early 2004 prices from developers and builders, or debt value from lenders," he said. McCabe said he's prepared to hold these properties for up to 10 years.
Invest in your own property. Consider remodeling your own home but do it wisely. With the right remodeling project, you can increase your home's value. According to Remodeling magazine, the average price of a midrange bathroom remodel is $10,499. When you sell, however, you'll recoup 102.2 percent of the cost of that remodeling job. Kitchen and bath remodels, as well as siding replacements and home additions, yield the highest return on your investment. Add a sunroom, on the other hand, and you'll recoup just 74.5 percent of your cost.
Look into other regions. Although South Florida is experiencing a housing market slowdown, markets in other parts of Florida and the United States remain robust. Many investors are flocking to Orlando to purchase condos and vacation homes for investments. Some are investing in commercial properties in Ocala and Jacksonville. While other areas may offer opportunities not currently available here, experts warn investors to be careful.
"If you're a small investor, you should never invest in anything that you can't visit in one day," said Integra's Cannon. "Stick to the neighborhood that you know or else invest in a REIT (real estate investment trust) or mutual fund that invests in real estate. Use common sense."Labels: condo sales, myrtle beach condos, real estate, real estate marketing |
posted by Myrtle Beach Web Design @ 12:55 AM
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| Monday, July 10, 2006 |
| Real Estate Marketing? |
This is an old article from the Union Tribune that I just ran across, but it was so funny I wanted to share, and it didn't appear to be in the search engines.
I went to Florida recently and visited all the main beaches from Boca Raton on up, back to Jacksonville...trying to decide if I'd like to live there. One of the odd things I noticed was the signage on their conversions and preconstruction condos.
All the condo-hotels in Daytona had these huge things like sheets...sort of like what you see at a rock concert when a group of groupies holds up a sheet that says "WE LOVE YOU DAVY JONES!" or similar. These "sheets" were really really big...stretched across 5 or 10 balconies, and they all said CONDOS FOR SALE!
So this city, wherever El Cajun is, (near San Diego?) has LIVE signs for selling condos. I just think it's a hoot....
Developers challenge ban on spinning ads
By Liz NeelyUNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 13, 2006
EL CAJON – City leaders have rolled out the welcome mat for condominium converters, but they draw the line at plunking a person on the sidewalk with a giant arrow to advertise the properties. Sign spinners, logo flags, banners and similar attention-grabbing tactics fall into the category of temporary signs. They're illegal here, outlawed decades ago along with inflatable objects, streamers and bunting as a way to control the myriad signs cluttering up the city.
El Cajon's condominium conversion task force, made up almost entirely of people connected to the business, is asking the City Council to ease the restrictions. There's a glut of conversions on the market and converters say they need sign spinners, or “human directionals” as they like to call them, to help draw potential buyers.
The spinners wouldn't be so popular among converters and other businesses if they weren't effective, said Greg Neville, president of Pacific Land Group and a member of the task force.
Rules under review El Cajon bans the use of temporary signs with some exceptions.
Condominium converters are asking the city to change the rules to allow for sign spinners, logo flags and other advertising methods. The City Council will discuss the issue April 25. The council meets at 3 p.m. at City Hall, 200 E. Main St. Neville's company is involved in three conversion projects in El Cajon as well as others around the county. He said potential buyers often say the sign spinners lured them in.
Spinners like those who work for San Diego-based Aarrow Advertising wear uniforms and are encouraged to smile and make eye contact with passersby, said Max Durovic, who started the sign-spinning company in 2002.
“Our goal is to really work with towns and cities to make sure this doesn't become a visual nuisance,” Durovic said.
His company pays sign spinners $8 to $20 an hour to work tricks they've learned from “spinstructors.” Despite El Cajon's ban on spinners, Durovic's people still hold practice sessions in the city, perfecting moves like the “helicopter spin” or the “Bruce Lee spin.”
Durovic said El Cajon's limits are hurting his business.
The council will discuss the issue April 25. But there's wariness among some city officials who remember the contentious debate surrounding the city's overhaul of its sign ordinance in the late 1970s.
“What most people don't understand is if you change the sign ordinance you can't restrict (the changes) to one group,” Councilman Dick Ramos said.
Before the sign ordinance was changed, there were no limits on temporary or permanent signs in El Cajon. Businesses were required to get permits for permanent signs, but there were no rules about the size, height or number of signs allowed. There were neon signs, rooftop signs and rotating signs, some trimmed with flashing lights.
“It was terrible, absolutely terrible,” Ramos said.
Limits were proposed by the local chamber of commerce and city officials because the city “was starting to look like Las Vegas,” said Community Development Director Jim Griffin.
The issue was contentious among business owners, who didn't like the new restrictions. As a compromise, businesses with the most expensive signs were given more than a decade to comply, Griffin said. But temporary signs were no longer allowed.
There are some exceptions. Newly opened businesses can display temporary signs for up to 30 days. And within the past eight years, the city has allowed temporary signs for about two weeks around certain holidays. Businesses can also get permission to display them for two weeks twice a year for a sale or other event, Griffin said.
These days a number of converters and other businesses want a little leeway. They complain that several businesses break the rules, often planting sign spinners on busy streets, and that the city selectively enforces the law.
Griffin said the city has received several complaints about spinners. It has been difficult for the city to crack down on them because the spinners work weekends, when there's no code enforcement officer on duty. A part-time person is expected to start patrolling on weekends this month, he said.
Converters say they want the city to immediately suspend the rules about temporary signs for at least six months and then consider a permanent change, specifically for real estate signs. The changes are especially needed now, they say, as sales of condo conversions have slowed throughout San Diego County.
“Six months ago to a year ago all you had to do was put a sign up on a project and (condos) would sell,” said Ron Pennock, chairman of the East County Construction Council and head of the task force.
But now there's a larger inventory of conversions and the market is flattening, Pennock said, “so we need to focus our attention on putting buyers into these units.” Elected leaders here have encouraged converters to bring their projects to El Cajon, approving more than 2,946 units as of April 1. Council members say they help boost property tax revenue and will eventually help change the demographics here, where apartments outnumber houses.
The officials say they have some concerns about changing the sign ordinance, but they want to be business-friendly.
“We have a mutual interest in bringing homeowners to the valley,” Mayor Mark Lewis said, adding that he would support a pilot program to monitor the use of temporary signs and whether they make a difference in sales.
“We need to do what we can to work with them to help them succeed,” Councilwoman Jillian Hanson-Cox said.
But she and others are concerned about sign spinners distracting drivers, dropping signs or blocking the path of pedestrians. If the ordinance changes, they acknowledge, the city won't be able to limit which companies spin here or which businesses are allowed to employ them.
“In my opinion, once you open the door it's going to be very difficult to return to where we are today,” Griffin said.
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Liz Neely: (619) 593-4961; liz.neely@uniontrib.comLabels: real estate marketing, real estate signage |
posted by Myrtle Beach Web Design @ 7:13 AM
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| Friday, October 14, 2005 |
| Real Estate SEO tips |
I got an email from a realtor that I exchanged links with the other day and answered it. It was a pretty good Q & A, so I thought I might post it here.
From: A Realtor
To: Jan
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2005 8:14 AM
Subject: RE: My Realtor® agent site links to your site
First off I sincerely appreciate the fact that you have taken the time to share your knowledge with a total stranger. I would be more than happy to exchange home page links with you.
If I could quickly ask you a few more questions you may be able to steer me in the right direction.
Here is a list of things I am trying now to promote my site. Please tell me if they are a waste of time.
1.Generating XML sitemaps and submitting them to google weekly
Excellent, except you don't need to "submit" them. That's what RSS and XML do automatically.
2. Using web position4 to optimize my site for certain keywords and to track my performance
Would not use any kind of software at all. It's against the TOS of all search engines.
3. Just starting to use RSS Feeds to display my listings for newsreaders.
Excellent
4. Thinking about writing real estate blogs or using a real estate message board on my site.
The very best thing you can do is a real estate blog. See mine...
www.myrtlebeachwebdesign.com/blog/real-estate-web-blog.html
5. Reciprocal linking with every large directory I can find like Reals.com and Realestateabc.com etc...
Not every one. Be sure the links are straight html anchor text and not redirected or javascript. Most are.
6. Linking to a handful of top 100 lists
I've not seen any that helped or were very good PR. Only good if they are permanent.
7. Paying a few local web directories for animated gif links www.directory.com www.another-directory.com I doubt if any graphic link does you much good. Maybe a little if you be sure to use Alt text with keywords. Probably a waste unless it's for advertising and not SEO.
8. Paying realtor.com to be able to "enhance" our listings (add more photos and text)
Again, be sure it's not a redirected link. Check the PR of the page your link is on. That said, Realtor.com is a very highly popular website, so for advertising potential, it might be worth alot. I don't advise my customers to do it, but many do. I don't advise against it if the links are done right. I think REALS.com and most of its affiliate sites are the best directory links, and they are free. There are some other excellent free real estate directories out there, too.
9. Submitting to every free search engine I can find.
Directory maybe...search engine, I wouldn't. See above.
Is google still using PR links? Where can you find out your PR Rating.
Download the Google Toolbar from Google site and you can see the PR of every site in your browser. Yes, links are just as important as ever with Google, if that's what your question is.
I've been using Alexa to get a general feel for how well my competitors are doing. Are there any other methods you would recommend for tracking both your progress and that of your competitors?
I don't use Alexa nor track progress. When it shows, it shows...and I cheer...:-)
Thank you for the suggestions. It is difficult learning all of this from scratch, never knowing if the things I read on the web from various sources will actually help promote my site or are a waste of time. One last question, how much should I expect to pay a good real estate SEO and how often will they have to update the site?
I have been paid as much as $10,000 on one site that wanted me bad enough. Thank God I was able to do the job! It was a scary few weeks. I wouldn't take full payment until it was done, either. A good average might be about $1000-5000, depending on whether they do the site from scratch or just go over yours for you or your webmaster to make the changes.
There are not very many (if any) good real estate SEO companies per se. There are a several outstanding SEO companies that don't necessarily specialize in real estate. They can do an excellent job, but some still use interior link pages and charge an ongoing fee to obtain hundreds of links. Getting a company to optimize your text is a good idea. Getting an SEO copywriter is even a better idea. The links you should either do yourself or even better, do press releases, post on forums, write articles, and other ways of getting your links out there. Be sure to get on Google and Yahoo LOCAL listings.
I do not recommend interior links pages for real estate site optimization any more. That's just my personal opinion, as I see pages full of links being downgraded by Google every day. Yahoo despises large numbers of links, too. You can check the PR of the page your site would be on, but it's just as likely to be dropped to near nothing in the next update. The best thing to do other than what I mentioned above is to contact fellow realtors and create a referral network.
That way it serves you both ways. Most web-savvy realtors are now doing this.
It doesn't hurt to have SOME interior page links, but I wouldn't waste my time and money having an SEO company to do them. I don't even create links pages on my new sites. Haven't for over a year.
Make sure your titles use the correct keyphrases, research WHICH keyphrases to use for your city/area, and make sure each individual page has it's own metatags.
Newsflash for Newbies: Google does NOT count Metatags except for the title and possibly the description tag. Yahoo is the only one that does, as far as I know.
Hope this is good information for those who might ask the same questions....:-)
Most of my stuff is about Myrtle Beach Condos. Pay attention to the links in this blog. That's why blogs are so good!Labels: myrtle beach real estate, real estate marketing, real estate SEO |
posted by Myrtle Beach Web Design @ 12:58 AM
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| Friday, September 16, 2005 |
| A Word About SEO That Realtors Should Know |
For those that are here to learn about preconstruction, this posting is probably not of interest.
But I do feel there are some realtors that look at this blog every now and then, and probably most have websites and are interested in that website's search engine ranking, and of course, Google is the big dog in search engines.
Those of us who do SEO for a hobby or for a living are all familiar with "Google Guy", this mysterious employee at Google who has acted as a go-between for us and our "godhead". His name is Matt Cutts, and he's now got his own EXCELLENT blog, in which he tries to answer questions that he's asked hundreds of times , and in such a way that it can be referenced later.
I recommend his blog for EVERYONE that has any interest in search engines or Google. He's a funny guy, an excellent writer, and thank goodness, someone that we can finally take as the gospel when he speaks.
That being said, I found this post on his blog today, and for realtors everywhere, you really SHOULD take note of this. I suffer from BO (Backlink Obsession...as he so cleverly quips) as much as anybody. I dream of PageRank at night. And this is something I've always thought, but never knew for sure. Now we know! Matt, if you see this, I love you! Haha.
From www.mattcutts.com/blog
What’s an update?
September 8, 2005 @ 12:01 pm · Filed under Google/SEO
(Normally I, you know, think before I post. I’m experimenting with the quick-post-with-very-little-thought technique here.)
What is an update? Google updates its index data, including backlinks and PageRank, continually and continuously. We only export new backlinks, PageRank, or directory data every three months or so though. (We started doing that last year when too many SEOs were suffering from “B.O.”, short for backlink obsession.)
When new backlinks/PageRank appear, we’ve already factored that into our rankings quite a while ago. So new backlinks/PageRank are fun to see, but it’s not an update; it’s just already-factored-in data being exported visibly for the first time in a while.
Google also crawls and updates its index every day, so different or more index data usually isn’t an update either. The term “everflux” is often used to describe the constant state of low-level changes as we crawl the web and rankings consequently change to a minor degree. That’s normal, and that’s not an update.
Usually, what registers with an update to the webmaster community is when we update an algorithm (or its data), change our scoring algorithms, or switch over to a new piece of infrastructure. Technically Update Gilligan is just backlink/PageRank data becoming visible once more, not a real update. There haven’t been any substantial algorithmic changes in our scoring in the last few days. I’m happy to try to give weather reports when we do our update scoring/algo data though.
Um, that’s all I can think of regarding taxonomies of updates, so I guess I’ll publish it.
Labels: google, matt cutts, real estate marketing |
posted by Myrtle Beach Web Design @ 7:04 PM
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