Generate Real Estate Leads While Helping Consumers (investment property specialist)
No commentsBy Brandi Cummings
Now more than ever consumers in the market to buy or sell a home are looking for help in how to go about doing that. Many homeowners are on the verge of foreclosure while others may be looking to take advantage of the low housing costs to upgrade or add to their property. The top priority in these consumer’s minds is to make sure they are making informed decisions that won’t come back to bite them later on.
At the same time, it is becoming increasingly difficult for real estate agents to generate the leads they need in this depressed market. When you combine the 2 problems - the consumer’s need information and the agent’s need for leads - you will find a solution that benefits both parties.
Just a few short years ago, consumers needed to consult with a real estate agent to get information about houses for sale, pricing, neighborhood and surrounding community features, how to choose the right mortgage, etc. Today, consumers look on the web. So as an agent, it would make sense to ensure that you are source for the information they seek and that you can be found where they are looking. Helping consumers by becoming an information provider is a win-win situation for the consumer and the real estate agent. Here are just 3 of the benefits of becoming an information provider in this tough economy:
1. Positioning yourself as an information provider is a great way to generate leads. Agents can generate leads by offering free reports through a toll free call capture system. This way when consumers call in to receive your reports you are able to capture crucial information needed to start developing that lead into a client. You will be able to capture their name, address, telephone number and know what they are in the market for based on the report requested.
2. As an information provider, you can begin to build rapport and trust until the consumer is ready to take action. Many consumers in the information gathering phase will not be ready to act right away. By putting yourself in front of them early in the decision making process, you can start to build a relationship with them. Then when they are ready to make their move, you will be top of mind.
3. An informed client is one that already knows what they want. As real estate agents know, a client that already knows what they want is much easier to work with than one that has no idea what they are looking for. Keeping them informed and up to date on properties available, options for financing, ideas for how to get their house sold fast, etc, will cut down on the time from contract to close.
The current state of the real estate market is tough on both consumers and agents. Real estate agents are in a position where they can reach out to consumers and offer a helping hand. With their knowledge and expertise they can help consumers make informed decisions while helping themselves weather this real estate recession.
Brandi Cummings, an expert author on the unique issues facing small businesses - including real estate agents, recommends RealtyOne800.com for more on becoming an information provider using call capture.
Treasury Turns Against Buying Bad Mortgages
By ratetake
Treasury will not longer purchase bad mortgages from banks after all. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson backed away from the long time awaited plan and suggested that Treasury will inject more capital into financial institutions.
Now that government will not buy banks’ bad mortgage assets as originally planned further discouraged investors today as Dow Jones moved again into negative territory in the third day of decline.
Paulson said that the plan would have taken too much time, and that the Treasury instead will rely on buying stakes in banks and encouraging them to resume more normal lending.
There have been a lot of criticisms of banks receiving injected capital as they were buying other smaller banks and sitting on the rest of the cash, not lending. Lending guidelines has changed and banks will stick with those guidelines until market improves and since government is not purchasing bank’s bad assets, they will not lend any time soon.
However, Wall Street analysts generally believe that the Treasury is now on the right path. In most cases banks need to survive and deal with their own problems when it comes to bad debt. With capital injections of funds from treasury banks can expand their portfolios, sell and package deals that can be sold to investors on Wall Street and than start lending.
With current, rather fast bailout plans announced earlier concern is that bailout money of $700 is being depleted quickly.
Paulson also announced a new goal for the program to support financial markets that supply consumer credit in such areas as credit card debt, auto loans and student loans. He said, “with a stronger capital base, our banks will be more confident” to support economic activity.
Treasury will now use the bailout money to buy securities backed by credit card debt, student loans, auto loans, housing and government agency debt. Paulson said that 40 percent of U.S. consumer credit is provided through such securities.
The new plan calls for buying some of these consumer-debt securities whenever the price fell far enough to push the yield up to a certain level. If government likes the yield they would buy those assets. These debt securities have a fixed interest rate, so their yield changes according to whatever price investors are willing to pay for them. Lower yields indicate stronger demand.
With this plan the price of securities will go up and yield would decline. Than the market for that security would unfreeze and allow consumers to get mortgages, loans and credit cards. With credit cards interest rates would decline.
Automakers are in a red zone and they need to turn their wheels into positive results. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants Congress to support a financial bailout for auto industry with $25 billion loan for General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.
Retailers such as Macy’s announced loss of $44 million in the third quote. American Express Co. is said to be seeking about $3.5 billion from the government to help boost its balance sheet.
Currently there is approximately $1.4 trillion, or more than 10 percent of U.S. economic output in losses from credit markets. As the economy weakens consumers concentrate more on repaying debt that any other purchases.
New holiday spending projects some returns for retailers. But with already slashed prices retailers can only push so much.
Susan Duey represents RateTake Refinance marketplace. RateTake matches consumers with multiple lenders offering low mortgage rate quotes. RateTake also operates Home Improvement Services
Do You Really Need Real Estate Training?
By Peter Vekselman
Real estate, like just about anything in real life, is something that you can succeed in without studying it in school. It’s not like becoming a lawyer or engineer; your success depends on your own mettle.
Knowledge can be acquire d through experience and amplified through good, old-fashioned common sense. Many people have become very successful in real estate investment entirely on their own, with no help or advice whatsoever. You may be able to do that too.
However, one thing that is inevitable if you jump right in-you will make mistakes. Some of these mistakes will turn out to be quite costly in terms of both money and time. Chances are, many people have already made these mistakes. Wouldn’t you rather learn from other people’s expensive mistakes than have to make these mistakes for yourself?
The first kind of knowledge you need to acquire is a working knowledge of the basic concepts of the real estate business. You need to become aware of the various approaches to real estate investment strategy, and decide what approach and type of real estate investment strategy best suits you, yourself and your resources. For example, if you were to choose to invest by acquiring foreclosed properties, you’d have to learn about how foreclosure works, learn about real estate law, learn about zoning, learn about the market for the kind of properties you want to acquire, and more.
Much of this you can learn from books, public documents, and the Internet. However, one disadvantage of learning this way is that it isn’t very selective.
How will you know what you will and will not need to know until you actually succeed as a real estate investor? It’s kind of a catch 22-you won’t know something is useless until you learn it and don’t use it. This is one advantage of learning through
training-you work directly with successful real estate investors who are experienced in the local area you want to invest in, and the type of investing you want to do. They have already vetted what you do and do not need to know well in advance for you.
Training with real live people has many advantages over books, the Internet or learn-at-home courses. Real live human beings can give you feedback on the fly. They can apply their knowledge and experience directly to your own unique situation, and best of all, can give you objective, expert critiques. If you choose to go “all the way” with your real estate training and hire a coach or mentor, they can help you in many unique ways. For example, they can help you not only set clear, achievable goals but also they can keep you honest about working toward them. When you are working with a real estate coach, there is no wiggle room for passing the buck or making excuses.
They can also help you plan your business well into the future, and give you the benefit of their knowhow and experience to work toward your dreams.
Peter Vekselman has been successfully investing in real estate since 1996. He has completed over 1000 real estate deals, owned a construction company, been a private lender, and owned a property management
company. To learn more about Peter please visit
http://www.coachingbypeter.com.
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Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 11:00 pm and is filed under realestate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
