Chicago's Best Realtor Follows on Facebook

There are numerous ways to stay up-to-date with the housing market in Chicago these days and Facebook is certainly near the top of that list. A simple status update from local real estate agents can inform home buyers of a hot new condo listing to hit the market or what neighborhood you should consider for your next home.

But with Facebook now being so mainstream among agents in the industry, who exactly is worth following? If you're looking for quality updates on a regular basis without going overboard, we recommend the following Chicago agents or brokerages:

• Baird & Warner-Real estate is more than just the home you live in ' it's the life you get out of it.

• Resurrecting Real Estate- Resurrecting Real Estate was established for the sole purpose of preserving, managing and selling REO assets. Our goal is to bring innovative and efficient systems into our market place, to service our Clients in a way which has not been seen before

• Ashley Authurs- Ashley Arthurs is focused on providing her clients with a successful and seamless real estate experience. Through her client focused approach, she uses her keen understanding of the marketplace and city trends to guide her clients to the best decisions.

• See Chicago Real Estate- For more than 25 years, Ted Guarnero has been a leader in downtown Chicago's residential real estate market, developing a loyal following of homebuyers and sellers, developers, and community leaders.

• Sobborgo- Sobborgo.com is suburban Chicago's most comprehensive real estate website. Contact their team of real estate pros for more info on homes for sale in your Chicago suburb.

• Luxury Living- Luxury Living Chicago is a boutique marketing and apartment finding resource. We work directly with the newest full amenity high rise buildings in downtown Chicago and provide the most professional experience.

• Tessi Neuhauser- Tessi Neuhauser is a Real Estate Broker specializing in The Gold Coast. Her love of people, Chicago and Real Estate makes her the perfect combination for helping you find your next home.

• Danielle Dowell- Danielle has been a Chicago real estate broker since 2006. She provides her clients with firsthand, thorough knowledge of the city while offering market expertise that expands over Chicago's neighborhoods

• Sherri Kramer- Sherri has been a realtor in Chicago since 1986 and top producer with Coldwell Banker Residential's Lincoln Park Plaza office for 16 years. Her business is based on repeat and referral clients, providing the best marketing support to Sellers and helping Buyers through the complicated process of purchasing a home.

• Christine Hancock- Christine is very internet savvy and offers the most cutting edge and effective real estate technology tools currently available. Along with that, Christine believes that the best use of technology will save time and money for both her and her clients.

• Urban Real Estate- Creatively mixing Chicago Real Estate and Technology for all Chicagoans!!

• iMove Chicago- Bringing Chicago home' iMove Chicago is a full service real estate brokerage working each day for you. Together, let's move.

• Skipper Denton- A Real estate professional ' integrity, in-depth community and market knowledge, marketing savvy, effective negotiation skills and a high-quality professional network, all of which are hallmarks of how I work.

 

Main image courtesy of Franco Bouly via Flickr.com

How to Use Yelp for Real Estate Agents

In a digital world where everything is online, agent reviews can sometimes be an under-rated, under-appreciated lead generation resource. When someone runs a search for 'good real estate agents in [city name],' often times Yelp will be a top search result. So when users click on Yelp to find a local agent, wouldn't it be nice if a link to your contact information was the first thing they see?

Over 25 million people access Yelp's website each month to find local businesses and services; so believe it or not, gaining new clients because of Yelp reviews is actually more common than you may think. But in order to take advantage of this free, and sometimes lucrative, resource, real estate agents need to treat their Yelp account just as they would their Facebook and Twitter accounts.

So If you don't already have a Yelp Business account, start one for free and follow these simple rules to help grow your business today:

1)      Be Specific & Provide Details

If your Yelp profile isn't comprehensive and complete, the chances of it being beneficial are slim to none. The objective here is to attract home buyers and sellers by explaining your skills and expertise as an agent. So under the 'Business Information' tab, write a minimum of four paragraphs of quality content that explains your history as an agent, specialties, qualifications, and background.

2)      Don't Forget Photos!

You don't go a day without adding photos to Facebook, so don't forget to add these pictures on Yelp as well. Along with a professional headshot as your profile picture, add some images of your office, favorite listings, and even of your past clients (as long as you have their consent). Pictures can go a long way in potential clients feeling comfortable contacting you, so don't hold back here.

3)      Promote Your Yelp Account

You've spent all this time bulking up your Yelp account and dozens of your clients have taken the time to write positive reviews about your real estate business. Now what? Add some Yelp badges on your website or hyperlink your Yelp account within your web content. Just some of the Yelp buttons web developers can use to post on your real estate website can be found here.

4)      Respond & Communicate

Yelp Business accounts allow users to respond and communicate with clients who have reviewed your business. As each review comes in, positive or negative, always thank those who took time out to leave a response. And in the case of a negative review, be polite and simply engage this person with questions relating to what you could have done better to serve them during their new home search.

5)      DON'T SPAM

Perhaps the most important factor when building your Yelp profile is to avoid the temptation of creating false reviews just to fill out your profile. More often than not, consumers can easily tell the difference between a bogus review and a legitimate one'so don't waste your time creating something fake. In the long run, creating false Yelp reviews will only hurt your business and likely turn off potential new clients instead of attracting them. Don't believe me? Check out the following example and tell me how likely you are to use this company during your next apartment search after it's clear they've manufactured their own reviews.

 

Joe Heath is a graduate of Indiana University and also holds a Graduate Certificate in Real Estate Development from Drexel University. After working as a Market Research Associate and writing published Market Snapshots for Hanley Wood Market Intelligence in Chicago, Joe now works as a Web Marketing Specialist and is a managing partner at Real Estate Web Creation, LLC.

7 SEO Must-dos for Every Real Estate Website: No Excuses

Consider this: In 2011, according to J.D. Power reports as noted on an AGBeat release, only a measly 58% of home sellers use websites and website listings to promote properties. This number was peaking at 82% in the year 2010.

The total percentage of sellers listing homes on websites could be attributed to homeowners doing it themselves or real estate agents doing it on their behalf. The numbers are shockingly disappointing given the growing importance of web presence and Internet marketing for all businesses.

As a real estate agent, there's plenty of opportunity to add value to your businesses by promoting online. Evidently, search marketing proves to be a behemoth with long-term returns. Every real estate agent, however, has a learning curve. If you are looking to make your real estate website work for you, here are at least 7 SEO Must-dos for your website:

Preliminary Checks 

Before you spend a lifetime with SEO, your website needs a preliminary check. Google Webmaster tools provide you with everything you need to know about how your website is indexed by Google, how many links point to it, and how many pages are indexed. If you have too many pages but Google indexes only a few, there could be a problem of duplication of content or anything related. You may also use SEOmoz's tools (free and paid) such as On-Page Analysis, Link Analyzer, Keyword Analysis, and Crawl test to get a diagnostic of your real estate website.  

Keyword Research and Content Inclusions 

Create compelling, industry-leading content for your real estate website. In time, your website should become the 'go to' resource for all things real estate or perhaps gain local, regional, or national authority. Great content automatically leads to other websites and bloggers pointing to your real estate website as a resource which helps you to gain authority which in turns boosts the probability of your website getting found on search engines for keyword phrases or terms that pertain to your real estate business.

While you focus on developing great content, fish out keyword groups or key phrases that customers are most likely to search for and include them in your posts, articles, and other content you are likely to publish. Ensure that you don't overuse keywords to the point that your posts don't make any sense for humans.

Google already provides you with Google Keyword Tool. You may also use third-party keyword tools such as the Free Keyword Tool from Wordtracker.

For instance, if you are a real estate agent in Ohio, Athens, U.S., some of the keywords that relate to your business could be:

Condos in Ohio

Apartments for rent in Athens Ohio

Homes for sale in Athens

 Find ways to insert these keyword phrases creatively into your content. The keyword tools help you find the exact keyword phrases and also many 'opportunities' ' in essence, many other keyword phrases close to your search ' which you can use.

 Get linked, the right way 

As relevant links point to your website appropriately, it gains authority and relevance ' a few of the many parameters that search engines value. As a real estate agent, you also have more enterprising opportunities available to hasten link building for your website apart from creating content that's automatically shared on social media or linked to by bloggers and other publications.

For instance, start with your local chamber of commerce and have them link to your website (you might even want to pay them a visit as it's well worth it). You could become a member of local real estate associations and have them list your website on their membership guild or leader board. Create a buzz, have local bloggers mention your business, launch innovative schemes, launch a walking tour for potential customers, and use contests. Get them talking online and you'll build links faster than what seems possible.

 It's Real Estate. So, Go Local 

Google Places allows you to take advantage of the local search scene. More often than not, Google Places listings precede normal search listings. Google Places Support pages are a great place to start with the basics. Follow Rand Fishkin's post on Google Places SEO if you'd like a more technical explanation. Real estate makes a resounding case study for going local and using the 'local search' advantage since the nature of business is such.

Dress up every page 

On-page SEO is where you could stumble and swagger. Yet, it's crucial to make sure that a few wrinkles are ironed out:

• Avoid too many links on your web pages. Instead, judiciously choose which links are to be displayed on your website or blog since Google search bots (also called as crawlers or spiders) cannot possibly visit every link on every page.
• Link to every important page (originating from your home page).  Links are the only way for crawlers to find your pages.
• Your important content should never hide behind 'Sign-up Forms', 'Contact Forms', or other page elements such as Flash, JavaScript, jQuery, etc. That is unless you purposely want to keep it that way (for premium information for members, for subscription-based sites, etc.).
• Every page or blog post should have its own title (along with a meta title). As such, every page or post should also have tags, a specific category that this content relates to, Meta description, and search-friendly URLs.
• If you use images for your real estate blogs or web pages, include keywords or relevant descriptions while uploading every image.

 

Press Releases (Every real estate listing is news)

Press releases are great for your SEO efforts as they are search engine fodder. Since search engines always look for new information, sending out press releases helps promote your brand, increase exposure, allow you to capture new audiences, and gain massive traffic windfalls to your website.

Further, since press releases are published on news aggregator sites, PR sites, and even picked by Google News, you'll create a rich group of inbound links from these authority news sites to your website.

Now, many business owners and real estate agents think that press releases make sense only if you have to publish something that's 'newsworthy'. Every new property listing on your real estate website is 'news'. Likewise, new real estate services, updated property listings, etc., will all make for great content to publish as press releases.

To be social is plain nice (and potentially profitable)

 Create accounts on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, and any of the other leading social media platforms. Create a content schedule (separate from your blogging, Press release, and other content creating schedule) and post content on your social media sites related to your real estate business.

You can share news, comment on published articles, and share information on everything that relates to your business. Search engines also capture social media signals, although no one's sure as to how social media contributes to search). The rising importance of Google+ and the fact that Google includes Google+ posts in searches is a strong clue that social media also adds to your SEO efforts.

Are you doing enough justice to your SEO efforts? Do you invest in long-term search engine marketing? As a real estate agent, does SEO work for you?

About the author: Pratik Dholakiya is the Lead SEO Strategist and VP of Marketing at E2M Solutions, a fastest growing internet marketing startup providing post panda/penguin era SEO services to their clients. Get in touch with him through Twitter @DholakiyaPratik.

UK Real Estate Asking Prices on the Rise

UK property asking prices went up by 2% in January froth their December level, leading to a 2.4% year on year increase, as shown by Rightmove data. The property website forecasts that both prices and transaction numbers for real estate will moderately grow in 2013, based on their increase in traffic in the new year. Rightmove also reported that the average asking price of January was of £229,429, a mere 0.4% (or £999) under the highest January figure ever of 2008, £230,428.

While overall data show an increase, there is a regional devide, with a higher increase for property asking prices in London (3.6%), the South East (3%) and the West Midlands 92.6%). At the other end of dropping asking prices are Wales with a 3.5% decrease, East Anglia (2.5%), the North West (1.8) and the Northern region (0.1%). The only Northern regions reporting an increase were Yorkshire and Humberside.

'Those coming to market this month have taken a pragmatic pricing approach and kept their asking prices pretty much the same as sellers in December. Sensible pricing will help buyer affordability, one of the factors needed to help warm up the market and encourage a recovery from the credit crunch freeze in transaction volumes,' said Miles Shipside, director and housing market analyst at Rightmove.  'The thaw will also be helped by growing confidence that prices are more likely to go up than down. There is an increasing body of evidence suggesting genuine green shoots of recovery after a prolonged period of the housing market bumping along the bottom.'

According to the newly released data, the weekly run rate for new properties listing in January was 11,153, 22% higher than last years value. While overall it is still down 37% compared to figures from before the credit crunch recorded five years ago, this is still the highest level in the beginning of a year since 2008.

'While the number of sellers financially fit enough to come to market is still well down on pre credit crunch levels, there appears to be an increased willingness among those that can to give it a go. With Rightmove breaking traffic records, the chances of selling are on the up for sellers whose properties match the price, location and finish requirements of the greater numbers who are searching for a property to buy,' explained Shipside. 'Agents in many parts of the country report that the market remains patchy depending on where you live and what type of property you are selling. However, they are all consistent in noting that it is the best finished properties that are the most in-demand, especially as buyers do not have the spare cash to improve their new home so are hunting for the finished article.'

Rightmove's latest data also showed that those who are going to put property on the market throughout 2013 are primarily driven by discretionary factors. 7 in 10 sellers are in this situation and not forced into the sale by factors such as the three Ds of death, debt and divorce.  Moderately greater mortgage lending might be in play for this year to support the increasing transaction volumes. According to the latest mortgage statistics released by the Bank of England, approvals were up by 3% from November 2011 to November 2012, the highest number of approvals recorded in November since 2007.

'Those on the wrong side of the minimum deposit borderline are still marginalised, but those that have the funds and earning capacity to trade up will find some lenders offering fixed rate deals at their most attractive ever levels. Lenders are also courting buy to let investors as some areas offer a low risk combination of historically cheap purchase prices and attractive rental income. Rightmove research of professional landlords shows that 74% of those surveyed intend to buy and increase their portfolios within the next 12 months,' Shipside explained further. 'A further sign of market recovery is when investors look to property to achieve good returns. The majority of professional property investors appear to have spotted that now is the time to increase their investment, and they are obviously confident that prices are not going to get cheaper.'

While Rightmove comes with a bright forecast for property transactions and the real estate field in general for 2013, not everyone shares their enthusiasm. Nick Hopkinson, director of property company, PPR Estates, painting a very different picture.

'Seller numbers, whilst up on last year, are still around half the numbers needed in a functioning market with an average of only 64 properties per agent in December 2012. Buyers still require huge deposits going into 2013. Typically they still average 20% according to the latest industry data and, of course, a perfect credit score remains essential for any borrowing. Also, potential buyers are not so easily excited about house prices and actual buying prices remain slightly down at best, excluding the London bubble, when you look at the most recent completion statistics,' he said.

Why Buying Foreclosures Is Not A Real Estate Investing Strategy

When it comes to hot real estate investing topics, 'foreclosures' is one of the hottest buzz-words out there. We've had several million foreclosures since 2008, and a few million more are out there in various stages of delinquency or default.

 

© alexskopje ' Fotolia.com

'Ex-Wall Street executives' as they are called in the media, have formed dozens of new capital investment companies and Real Estate Investment Trusts for the purpose of buying up foreclosures by the tens of thousands. The general idea is that all these foreclosures will be rented to people who can no longer obtain a mortgage. But this is not a foregone conclusion for all foreclosures.

Buying foreclosures is not, in and of itself, an investing strategy, whether you intend to rent them or not. Foreclosure is a fundamental. It is a fundamental because it represents the status of a property. It is a circumstance if you will, not a plan for making money.

Renting a property for cash flow is an investing strategy because it is one of a number of choices you may have, with regard to how you will make money with a particular property. Foreclosed properties are a source of potential leads, but even after you buy the foreclosure, there is no guarantee that you'll make money with it.

People seem to think that simply buying foreclosures guarantees that they will automatically make money, but that is not true. I've seen dozens of cases where a property was purchased after a foreclosure, but the plan to make it cash flow or produce a profit did not pan out as expected. This usually happens because other fundamentals were ignored, and the strategy that was chosen was ultimately undermined by the fundamentals.

Strategies are the choices you make about how to buy, sell or hold a property. Fundamentals are the circumstances pertaining to the specific property or the local real estate market, that cannot be changed. You don't have a choice about fundamentals, they are what they are. (For a detailed explanation of real estate investing fundamentals and strategies, you can watch my videos on youtube, here). A property that has been foreclosed on has the fundamental issue of being a foreclosure. That may mean you can get a better deal on it, but this is not guaranteed.

Foreclosures are a large pool of available properties which are relatively easy to find these days, but making money with them depends on your abilities as an investor, and your choice of investing strategy. For example, what if I told you I can sell you a 3 bedroom, 2 bath foreclosure for only $40,000. Is that a good deal?

It may sound like it. But what if I also mention that there is significant termite damage and other items that will require another $45,000 for repairs? Is that still a good deal? (repairs are another fundamental issue). If the property happens to be located in a very high income area, and will resell for $200,000 after those repairs, is it a good deal now? (location is one of the most important fundamentals).

Or, what if you find out that you can't get a permit to renovate this foreclosed property because your desired renovation is a violation of the neighborhood zoning laws. That is another fundamental issue. I've seen folks buy a foreclosure because they thought it was a good strategy to buy a foreclosure, only to discover that unanticipated repairs or other problems completely ruined the profit potential.

What if the foreclosure you bought does not fit well with your choice of strategy? Rental is all the rage right now, because everyone seems to think that everyone else is going to have to rent a home. But what if you bought a foreclosure, then discovered you can't rent it because there are 25 other houses in the same neighborhood that are also for rent. There are lots of fundamental issues that can lead to your success or failure; supply-and-demand-ratio is a big one.

Buying a foreclosure does not guarantee that you will automatically make a profit from renting it, especially if your mortgage payment is $900 per month and you discover that you can only rent the property for $700 a month. Oops'that mistake is more common than you think.

So when you see those tantalizing advertisements offering you a 'great deal' on a foreclosure, don't assume that this is a 'great opportunity'. Do your due diligence, and determine the ideal strategies you may use to cash flow that foreclosure if you do buy it. There are limits on what you should pay for any specific foreclosure, and the fundamentals in your particular area will help determine whether you should rent it, sell it, or stay away from it.

You can't be sure that any foreclosure is a great opportunity for an investment until you have done your due diligence, run your numbers, and checked it out thoroughly. Then you can make an informed decision about the right choice of strategy, once you are aware of all the fundamental issues involved.

The key to profitable real estate investing strategies lies in knowing the fundamental issues in play, and then choosing the correct strategy that will work with those fundamentals. As fundamentals change over time, so also, will your strategies.
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Donna S. Robinson is a real estate investor, author and investing coach located in Atlanta, GA. Follow her on twitter at donnaconsults, Facebook.com/RealtyBizConsulting and watch her videos on youtube. Her latest book, Basics of Real Estate Investing, is now available for Kindle on Amazon.com

Mortgages Become More Affordable in Scotland

Reduced mortgage rates and decreasing house prices in Scotland have led to a significant improvement in mortgage affordability, according to new research released by the Bank of Scotland. Mortgage payments as a proportion of income have dropped by over two fifths in recent year from the record 38% level reached in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Q4 2012 brought mortgage payments to a much lower 22% proportion. That means the average monthly payment is of £424,m while the average wage in Scotland was of a little under £2000. Mortgage payments for new borrowers are still at their lowest level as percentage of earnings and have been so for close to a decade. New borrowers, category that includes both first time buyers and home movers, have seen a 21-22% ratio (long term average loan to value ratio) of disposable earning for the past two years, the lowest level since 2002 to 2003.

Across the UK, Scotland ranks second when comparing proportion of disposable earning, mortgage payments recording a lower ratio in Northern Ireland (20%), while the UK average is of 28%. Also, seven of the 10 most affordable local authority districts in the UK are in Scotland.

'Mortgage payments in Scotland account for a lower proportion of disposable earnings than anywhere else in the UK, bar Northern Ireland. In addition, seven of the ten most affordable local authority districts are in Scotland with West Dunbartonshire the most affordable. Mortgage affordability has improved significantly over the past few years as a result of falls in house prices and cuts in mortgage rates. This development has been a key factor supporting housing demand and is expected to remain so in 2013 as interest rates remain low,' said Nitesh Patel, housing economist at Bank of Scotland.

The improvement in mortgage affordability would favor both those who are already making mortgage payments and those who want to obtain a new loan and can afford the required deposit. Yet Patel still expects the number of home buyers and movers to remain low as the affordability is countered by higher deposit requirements and low housing equity.

Foreclosure Buying By Wall Street Providing Hot Air For New Housing Bubble

Hot air rises, and so are housing prices. It appears that Bernanke's efforts to fund the housing market are beginning to gain some traction. An army of 'ex-Wall Street executives' has had more than two years now to re-trench themselves, and move in, to essentially take over the foreclosure and investment property market in the US.

© David Gn ' Fotolia.com

The Fed is providing 45 billion dollars per month in 'hot air' liquidity for the housing market. Billions of these dollars are being loaned out to newly formed capital / investment entities whose goal is to buy up as many foreclosures as possible, along with any other desirable properties that may be available.

A number of industry professionals are telling me that prices are beginning to rise significantly and the inventory of available foreclosures is dwindling. This is creating a demand for housing that is resulting in a tighter supply and driving selling prices upward like a balloon. But when the hot air runs out, the balloon falls back to the ground.

These buyers are not end users. A housing market driven by investment activity could prove to be much more volatile than a housing market driven by more traditional owner occupant activity.

Some of these businesses, formed as 'early' as 2011, have already gone from start-up investing operations to publicly held companies. There is no mistaking what is happening here. Wall Street sees an unprecedented opportunity to profit from the housing market once again.

The Fed wants to keep interest rates low and 'create jobs' by liquefying the housing market just as they did in the early 2000's. The banks hope that all of this activity will result in improved balance sheets via profitable loans and improving housing prices. And those who made money during the housing boom see another opportunity to profit from the housing bust and the resulting foreclosures.

Indeed one of the interesting aspects of real estate is it's ability to generate cash flows in a variety of ways. Shelter is a high demand item, desired by virtually everyone in the world. It's high dollar value, perhaps $9 TRILLION at this point, makes the US housing market one of the wealthiest sectors on earth, even after the housing bust.

Stock market savvy investment companies are using 'Bernanke Bucks' to buy tens of thousands of foreclosures which they plan to rent or sell, while turning this cash flow into a profit bonanza via a stock IPO. There are a handful of these companies which are already public or nearly public, making much more off of the stock sale than they would as ordinary real estate investors.

Could this be the beginning of a new investment bubble? I think the answer is 'yes'. Fundamentally we are talking about the power of none other than the Federal Reserve, the Wall Street banks, and investment companies created by guys with Wall Street connections. They have the ability to monetize the cash flows into the stock market. This promises to be the biggest real estate investment innovation since derivatives were invented.

This is the same methodology that gave us the original housing bubble. Wall Street has learned a lot about manipulating the housing market. And with the development of stock market oriented real estate investment companies, they are developing the ability to 'manufacture' a housing recovery.

I expect you'll hear lots of news in 2013 about how the housing market is improving, and prices are rising. As long as the Fed remains willing to keep the bucks flowing, we're going to see more and more foreclosed properties flowing to large scale investing operations. This is a fundamental transformation in the housing market that is unprecedented.

It's going to take a few more years for this entire scenario to unfold, but at some point, it's safe to say that prices and ownership costs may reach unsupportable levels once again, leading to another bust. Only time will tell how big this bubble will become and how much hot air will be necessary to inflate it.
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Donna S. Robinson is a real estate investor, author and investing coach located in Atlanta, GA. Follow her on twitter at donnaconsults, Facebook.com/RealtyBizConsulting and watch her videos on youtube. Her latest book, Basics of Real Estate Investing, is now available for Kindle on Amazon.com