REAL ESTATE ADVERTISING: HOW TO MASTER SELF-PROMOTION

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One of the key tenets of sales is "Always be closing." Another could be "Always be promoting." After all, if you're not going to promote your business, who will? The more you promote your business, the more leads you'll generate. Now, this doesn't mean bore your friends, family and anyone within earshot with the minute details of your business. Most people don't want to feel like they're being sold to, even if they already know you.

Traditionally, agents spent all their resources on conventional promotional materials-billboards, advertisements in the newspaper and ads on bus benches. With the advent of social media, many agents are spending more and more time online, posting ads on social media. While these are important avenues for promotion, when you work by referral, your top promotional tool are your relationships. Here's the promotional mix for business success.

Spend 70 percent of your resources on relational promotion.

The most important way to promote your referral-based business is by building your relationships with your clients, so keep in touch. Pick up the phone, call your best clients, follow it up with a personal note, and deliver small gifts of appreciation to your top referring clients. The most important thing is to maintain consistent contact and ask for the referral.

Spend 20 percent of your resources on conventional promotion.

Even when you work by referral, there is a place for conventional promotion; it just shouldn't take up all of your resources. So, go ahead and invest in billboards and newspaper advertisements to get your name and business out there and reinforce your spot in the community.

Spend 10 percent of your resources on digital promotion.

Digital promotion is anything done online, whether it's social media, your blog or your website. While it's important to have a presence, don't spend all of your most productive time there. There's a difference between updating your clients about the state of the market and wasting time playing games and looking through photos of your friends from high school. Try to make your time online as productive as possible to help you generate more leads.

Your resources-your time, money and energy-are important. If you want to generate a stream of high-quality leads, you have to be smart about promotion. If you're working by referral, invest the majority of your resources into your relationships and it'll come back to you in people you want to work with. Nurture those leads by staying in touch, offering great service and finding needs to fill. And, always remember to ask for the referrals.

For more information, visit www.buffiniandcompany.com.

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All-Cash Investment Home Prices Rise 5.4 Percent

Prices for investment properties purchased without leverage increased at a greater rate than traditional housing, according to June data released by HomeUnion. All-cash prices jumped 5.4 percent year-over-year to a median price of $160,000, while the owner-occupied median sales price grew 3.3 percent to $253,600.

"As global economic upheaval weighed on investors decisions, single-family rental (SFR) investment homes remained a safe haven for many investors," explains Steve Hovland, director of research for HomeUnion. "Prior to the recent Brexit vote and ongoing uncertainty in the global equity markets, investors parked capital in real estate for its stable returns, which has resulted in higher investment home prices."

"Owner-occupied home prices are hovering near all-time highs, which is keeping many potential buyers on the sidelines and slowing price growth," adds Hovland. Sales price increased at a healthy clip, indicating ongoing stability in the housing market, partially fueled by historically low interest rates. The overall median sales price - including both owner-occupied and investment housing - increased 3.9 percent year over year to $234,500 in June.

For more information, visit www.homeunion.com.

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Shoppers: 5 Ways to Find the Best Deal

The best part about scoring a deal is feeling like you did! From ad-watching and coupon-saving to dedicated comparison shopping, there are many ways to get a deal when shopping. According to the Huffington Post, these five ways are best:

1. Black Friday Sales - Officially opening the holiday buying season, Black Friday sales in-store and online offer some of the year's best prices on everything from electronics to household goods. Both online and brick-and-mortar retailers often publish prices in advance, and quantities are sometimes limited, so the early bird nearly always gets the buy.

2. Craigslist - The online classified service, now available globally, boasts bargain prices on new and used goods right in your neighborhood. (Keep in mind, however, that face-to-face interactions with strangers can be risky-if you are purchasing an item off Craigslist, insist on meeting the seller in a public place to conduct the exchange.)

3. eBay - The leader in online auctions, eBay remains the source for deals on everything, from appliances to xylophones. Once you open an account, you can bid on auctions, purchase an item immediately with the "Buy It Now" price, or use eBay's "Best Offer" tool to negotiate a deal.

4. Honey - Honey is an app that does the coupon-clipping for you. Once installed, the app searches for and applies coupon or discount codes to your shopping cart when you're ready to check out. It works with well over 100 stores, including Home Depot.

5. Retail Price-Matching - Retailers are losing out to online sales, so if you find a deal you like online, try matching the price in-store. Each retailer has rules about price-matching, but if you print out the online offer and bring it with you (or open it on your smartphone in the store), you may find you can snag the better price.

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LOW-INCOME EARNERS STRUGGLE MOST WITH MORTGAGE PAYMENTS

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​​People with low incomes spend nearly 23 percent of their income on monthly mortgage payments, compared to high-income earners, who spend 11.5 percent of their income on monthly house payments, according to a new Zillow(R) analysis.

Compared to the past, mortgage payments are very affordable for the average American because of persistently low mortgage rates. But that doesnt tell the whole story. To see how different groups are faring in terms of housing affordability, Zillow divided income earners and homes into three tiers, assuming that low-income earners buy less expensive homes, median earners buy median homes, and high-income earners buy more expensive homes in the top third of the market.

The results show that lower earners carry a heavier burden when it comes to making monthly payments. Their incomes have been largely stagnant, while low-priced homes are gaining value fastest.  Low-income earners could expect to spend nearly 40 percent of their income on housing in 2007. For people in the top third of incomes, the peak was in 2006, when they could expect to spend just over 20 percent of their income on a mortgage. 

In some large markets, the amount low-income workers spend on housing is much greater. In Los Angeles, people who earn the least could expect to spend more than three-quarters of their income on housing alone. For the top earners, mortgage payments only took up 27.5 percent of their income - a difference of nearly 50 percentage points.

"Housing affordability is a different story for low-income Americans than for median and high-earning people," says Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Svenja Gudell. "They are spending much more of their income on housing, even when they buy the least expensive homes. On top of that, we know that the least expensive homes are gaining value the fastest and are the most scarce, making it hard to find a home to buy even if you can afford one. From a high level view, mortgage affordability looks pretty good across most of the country, but its not good for everyone."

The cost of housing exceeds 30 percent of the median income, the traditional rule for housing affordability, in about one-third of major markets for lower wage earners, and is above 50 percent in Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco, and San Diego. By contrast, San Jose is the only place where high-wage earners can expect to spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing.

For more information, visit www.zillow.com.

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3 TIPS FROM THE RICH TO BUILD WEALTH

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​The overwhelming majority of affluent Americans accumulated their wealth not through inheritance, as is commonly believed, but through earned income and investments.

The financial editors at Money Magazine recently interviewed a sample of well-off individuals, coming up with three universal tips that may help average folks to build wealth:

1. Get There Slowly - While some attained wealth fairly quickly by starting the right business at the right time (or developing a killer app), most entrepreneurs say you can amass the better part of $1 million if you start to earn at a young age and remain persistent about saving for the long haul.

 A 25-year-old beginning at $40,000 a year, for instance, who gets 2 percent annual raises and contributes 12 percent of his/her salary each year to a 401(k), would end up with an account worth more than $1 million at age 65, assuming a 6 percent annual return and an employer match of 3 percent per year.

2. Stick with the Basics - Many wealthy people own non-traditional investments, including hedge funds, timberland, and art, but when they were asked by Money how they made their greatest investment gains, 89 percent said traditional stocks and bonds.

3. Don't Try to Out-Guess the Market - With pundits constantly predicting which stocks are heading up or down and which sectors will sizzle or fizzle, it's easy to get the impression that success lies in shrewdly shifting your money around. The majority of the rich don't buy that.

Just 14 percent asked by Money said they made the bulk of their investment gains by timing the market; the other 86 percent credited their success to good old buy-and-hold investing. They key, they said, is investing in a diversified mix of stocks and bonds, and riding the long-term upward sweep of the market.​​

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STUDENT DEBT AND AFFORDABILITY CREATE RIFT BETWEEN HOMEOWNERS AND RENTERS

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​​​​​​​​​​Despite lackluster economic growth and stark home-price appreciation in several parts of the country in recent months, roughly three-quarters of surveyed households still believe now is a good time to buy a home, but there's a considerable gap in morale between homeowners and renters, according to the latest installment of the National Association of REALTORS(R) Housing Opportunities and Market Experience (HOME) survey. The survey also found that roughly half of young adults with student debt are uncomfortable about taking on a mortgage.

In NAR's second quarter HOME consumer survey, respondents were asked about their confidence in the U.S. economy and various questions about their housing expectations, including questions on if carrying student debt is tempering their ability and appetite to take on mortgage debt.

Through the first half of the year, NAR's survey found that the share of homeowners and renters who believe now is a good time to buy a home is mostly holding steady, with 80 percent of homeowners (82 percent in March) and 62 percent of renters (unchanged from last quarter) saying it's a good time to buy. However, the share of renters who think so is down from 68 percent in December 2015, and those under 35 were the least confident that now is a good time to buy.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says the survey brings to focus the ongoing disparity in buyer confidence between current homeowners and renters. "Existing-home prices surpassed their all-time peak this spring and have climbed on average over 5 percent nationally through the first five months of the year and even faster in areas with severe supply shortages," he said. "Most homeowners appear to realize that if they're ready to sell, they'll likely find a buyer rather quickly and be able to use the sizeable equity they've accumulated in recent years towards their next home purchase. Meanwhile, renters interested in buying continue to face minimal choices, strong competition and home prices growing faster than their incomes."

Adds Yun, "Given these affordability pressures, it's no surprise respondents earning over $100,000 and those living in the Midwest - the most affordable region of the country - are the most optimistic about buying right now."

This quarter's HOME survey also revealed that carrying student debt is causing many to be uneasy about taking on additional debt. According to the survey, roughly two-thirds of non-homeowners and half of respondents under 35 with student debt said they aren't comfortable also having a mortgage. Furthermore, of those with student debt, non-homeowners and younger adults were less likely to believe they'd be able to qualify for a mortgage if they applied.

"It's becoming very evident from this survey and our research released last month that the financial and emotional impact of repaying student debt is contributing to a delay in purchasing a home for many would-be buyers," adds Yun. "At a time of quickly rising rents, mortgage rates at all-time lows and increasing housing wealth, a lot of young adults in their prime buying years are struggling to enter the market and are ultimately missing out on the stability and wealth accumulation that owning a home can provide."

Mostly unchanged attitudes about direction of U.S. economy, personal financial outlook
A tick under half of all households in the survey believe the economy is improving (49 percent), which is mostly unchanged since the inaugural HOME survey in December 2015. Renters, respondents living in urban areas, and those in the West were the most optimistic. On the other hand, nearly two-thirds of those living in rural areas don't believe the economy is improving.

Reflecting somewhat lessening confidence that respondents' financial situation will be better in six months, the HOME survey's monthly Personal Financial Outlook Index of all households slightly decreased (to 57.7 in June) since March (58.1), but is unchanged from June 2015.

Expanding belief that now is a good time to sell
With strong price growth prevalent in most of the country and homes selling at a quickened pace, more current homeowners (61 percent) believe it is a good time to sell compared to the first quarter of this year (56 percent). Respondents in the West were once again the most likely to think now is a good time to sell, while also being the least likely to think now is a good time to buy.

"More homeowners acknowledging this pent-up demand may perhaps mean we begin to see more supply come online in the near future," adds Yun. 

When asked about their outlook for home prices in their community in the next six months, almost all believe that prices will stay the same or rise (93 percent), which is consistent with last quarter (91 percent). Respondents from the West, those living in urban areas and renters are most likely to believe prices will go up in their communities.

For more information, visit www.realtor.org.

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WHAT'S BEHIND THE GATES? HIGHER-PRICED HOMES

Homeowners behind gates can expect an average $30,000 more for their home come sale-a premium, however, that can be offset by costly community amenities, according to research from the American Real Estate Society (ARES). The premium is due to actual and perceived benefits, such as privacy and safety, on the part of the buyer.

"This [research] provides clear evidence that homes in gated communities sell at a premium relative to comparable homes in non-gated communities," said ARES Publication Director Ken Johnson in a release. Johnson is a real estate economist at Florida Atlantic Universitys College of Business.

The premium may be less in gated communities where amenities like a clubhouse, pool or tennis court drive up maintenance costs for residents, ARES researchers found. Examining a sample of gated communities, researchers discovered a $19,500 decrease in sale price in communities with these types of amenities.

"Additional maintenance costs associated with these amenities often outweigh their benefits, and it appears that while a gate has value, additional neighborhood amenities do not always provide additional value," explained Mark A. Sunderman, one of the ARES researchers.

"From the perspective of both the buyer and the seller, this information should help each to better price property," Sunderman continued. "A good understanding of what adds value and what does not should help create increased marketability of gated homes."

"The long-held belief that gates add value is supported by the data, as long as the impact of the amenities is properly factored in," Johnson added. "This should set buyers minds to rest as to whether or not they are actually receiving a boost in value when they purchase inside a gated community."

Source: Florida Atlantic University (FAU)

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