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November 15, 2004
Real Estate Blogs—Where Do I Start?
We are getting more and more questions about blogs and how they impact real estate and, in particular, brokers and agents. Suffice to say that blogging has matured significantly in the past year and that ignorance of the power behind publishing on the Internet, could be as costly as thinking you didn't need a website a few years ago.
We will begin this series with a look at the basics and then add some meat to the discussions as the weeks go on. We will skip the history part, but do look for the links in this article as hints where to go to find the info you need.
There are a plethora of companies dedicated to helping you get your blog online and we will just mention two of the more notables here—Blogger the FREE kind and TypePad by Six Apart, the blog software Coach's Compass is using. Check out these vendors and others to get a feel for what is out there.
The next thing you will need is a News Reader. When I first looked at blogs I will tell you this—I was skeptical. When I learned about the news reader, well, that changed everything. From this blogger's perspective, the reader is the engine that makes publishing as often as possible, a reality. Here's a few sources for news readers to get you started.
- PC World has a list of readers for PC users.
- For MAC users the leaders is NetNewsWire
Now before you go out and get your first blog set up and install your news reader and subscribe to a few RSS feeds... I will answer the one question that most of you will want anwsered before you take the plunge—WHY!
The answer is you MUST! If for no other reason than to understand what this medium has to offer and whether or not you can benefit as a REALTOR or Broker. If you believe communicating with your customers is important, you will understand how blogging will contribute to your success. It is a journal, it is a publishing tool and it is a news aggregating resource. Blogging is the next wave in publishing.
Next week... a few real estate blogs and links to subscribe to. Now off to get your new toys!
by Glenn Davies
November 15, 2004 in Weblogs | Permalink
Comments or Questions
Please add your comments or questions here. You may remain anonymous if you really must ;-) Just add a 'handle' in the name box and your comments in the box provided.
i am a sales associate in florida governed by "FREC" rules. can i set up a blog without my brokers identity and/or including my broker's
name in the blog?
Posted by: ignacio baroso | Dec 5, 2004 9:14:30 AM
How can I get real estate bloggers to link to my web site and contribute to real estate problems/solutions?
Posted by: leon smith | Sep 3, 2005 10:55:07 AM
I am also a Realtor in Florida. It seems to me that you would not have to include the Brokers name. I am a member of many directories and discussion groups and do not include my brokers name.
I get a newsletter from RealTalk@InternetCrusade.com and the majority of the agents do not use the Brokers name.
Regards,
larry
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Victims of Mortgage Fraud
Fraud can take place at any point during a real estate transaction. Appraisers, loan officers, closing agents, lawyers, and even real estate agents have been found guilty of working with fraud facilitators in perpetrating real estate fraud crimes. It doesn’t matter whether the houses sell for $100,000 or $2 million – real estate fraud can happen to anyone.
If a house is not listed in the MLS service or the price is way out of line with other homes in the area, be suspicious. Most legitimate houses are listed on Multiple Listing Services, which is also a place to find out the prices of other houses in the same area.
If you want to buy a house, try to find out if you are buying it from someone who has owned it and lived in it. Property flipping is probably the most prevalent form of mortgage fraud. Property is purchased, then quickly resold at an inflated price, typically through inflated appraisals and/or doctored loan documents.
Know who you are doing business with. While many real estate agents work within a network of trusted colleagues and legitimately refer buyers and sellers to real estate attorneys, lenders and contractors, not all networks are based on honesty. Make sure your real estate agent is well established in the community.
Identity theft is sometimes part of real estate fraud. Read and review all documents involved with the sale. Make sure that you understand everything, and if you have any questions, ask. If you are unsure, or if the answers you are getting don’t add up, take the time to ask a trusted professional – CPA, attorney, or someone you know you can trust – to review the documents to make sure they are sound.
In real estate fraud, as in many schemes, high pressure tactics are a sure sign that something is not right. Do not be intimidated or charmed into a deal that does not feel right.
In a scheme known as a “silent second,” a buyer borrows the down-payment from the seller through a non-disclosed second mortgage, which may not be recorded. The primary lender believes that the borrower has invested his or her own money, in the form of false equity. While the buyer may tell you it’s okay, it’s not. Be aware that you are putting yourself at risk by pursuing this kind of a deal.
Homeowners who are at risk of defaulting or whose houses are in foreclosure are preyed upon routinely. They are solicited to transfer the deed to their home to a buyer who re-mortgages the property in exchange for a cash payment, and led to believe that they will work out a repayment plan with the new owner. The buyer then disappears – and homeowner is left with no hope of recovering their property. Never, ever transfer the deed to your home to someone without correctly documenting the transaction.
Most of the ads in newspapers offering easy, quick cash at the close of the sale of your home are from individuals engaged in mortgage fraud. Be suspicious if the ad or person involves makes incredible promises. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Individuals involved in mortgage fraud are generally likeable, appear to be extremely successful, and are very good at getting people to do what they want. They are sophisticated con artists. They are usually introduced to the buyer or seller through someone they know in common, and make the ‘mark’ feel like they are about to get in on a real good thing. But mortgage fraud is a con and a serious crime, with serious penalties attached.
Posted by: ralph r roberts | Oct 31, 2005 6:49:40 PM
Logical Investing to Make Money - A European perspective.
First - buy in a rising market.
Try to select a country or region where property prices are rising. A totally obvious statement, but this underpins most successful investment plans. It just makes everything easier.
People who buy in flat markets to make money have to work a lot harder to find property that is valued below the market price because it is less visible and so has been overlooked.
People who buy in falling markets must have motives other than making money.
Rising markets are driven upwards by demand exceeding supply. This usually happens in the early stages of the market’s development where builders cannot ‘tool up’ as quickly as the buyers rush in. When they do ‘tool up’, unless inhibited by restrictive planning laws, supply will ultimately match demand making for a flat market. After that supply will exceed demand for a while making for a collapse in prices and a period of stagnation before demand and supply rebalance.
We are seeing this over supply happen in some areas of Spain at the moment, most obviously on the Costa del Sol but in other areas property prices are still rising e.g. Costa Calida property Murcia.
Second - know when to sell.
Having decided to invest an exit strategy is needed. You need to be able to sell the property at a profit. This can be done in a rising market. If you purchased early in the rising market you can sell in a flat market and still profit. You can’t purchase in a flat market and sell in the same flat market and make a profit without first adding some value to the property, perhaps by refurbishment or building an extension, etc.
You must also take into consideration the selling costs although there are an increasing number of web sites offering free property sales services under the banner of “for sale by owner”.
The difficulty is in knowing when the market is going to turn flat. This can only be known with hind sight. The last year of a rising market is also the first year of a flat market if the year following turns out to be the same as its predecessor. This gives rise to the TWO YEAR rule – If you purchased within 2 years of the market going flat you purchased too late and into a flat market.
Third – recognise the market cycles.
A typical market cycle of ten years might be four years rising, two years flat, four years falling. The problem is that you don’t know that the market has turned until year six, when it is too late.
The answer is to be an ‘early bird’ investor. In a ten year market cycle you have just the first three years to stake a profitable claim and no more than the three following years to exit with your profits. This is the ONE THIRD RULE. Buy in the first third of a rising market.
Fourth – investing for the long term.
Some people invest for say twenty years ahead. The logic might be that although they miss out on the first market upswing, the following one will start from a higher base and the top of the second upswing will be even higher. The issue then becomes how can the property investment earn its keep in the years before it is sold?
The usual answer is to ‘rent it out’; buy-to-let investing has become very popular over recent years. This is also the plan of many investors who don’t have the capital to put down and finance the purchase on borrowings. There is a very simple calculation that tests the validity of this approach.
Start by ascertaining the realistic rental potential of the property. If it is a holiday property and it will only rent during the holiday season you will usually get a maximum of 90 days rent per year. From this you have to deduct any fees agents might charge. Good examples of this type of property are coastal holiday apartments in Bulgaria.
If it is a holiday property with added attractions e.g. golf, sailing, winter sports, theme parks and or a long or year round season; then the property can be rented out for longer, perhaps 60 – 80% of the time or more. Good examples of this type of property are Bulgarian apartments in the mountain ski resorts, property in the Canary Islands and property in Southern Spain.
If it is a year round rent it will be being offered in the local market at lower rates. Whichever is appropriate you will have a net figure to count as income. However, also remember that in most countries income is subject to tax and property taxes also apply, so the net figure has to be carefully considered.
Next, take this net figure and divide it by the rate of interest you have to pay for the money. Don’t worry, if you use a calculator the process is easy (if you are good with figures you can show off and do it in your head!). An example goes like this:
Net rental income £5,000 divided by the interest at say 5% = £1,000.
Now multiply by 100 to bring the figure to one hundred percent = in this example £100,000.
Thus your rental income of £5,000 will support £100,000 of borrowings.
If you paid more than £100,000 for your long term property investment you will have to make up the difference.
If the rate you are paying includes the repayment of capital then it will be higher – say 6.5%. Just divide the £5,000 by 6.5% and you get £769-29p. This will support a purchase of £76,900.
The above figures are based on UK interest rates and UK borrowing as this is a very common way people raise money to purchase property overseas. Interest rates in the euro zone are much lower and mortgages may be found with rates of around 3.5 – 4%.
Rental incomes usually track property value so, if you chose well, rental yields should increase making the above calculations better as time passes.
Fifth – What constitutes a rising market?
Basically when people are willing to pay more for a property than it was worth yesterday. Local people can drive up values within their own communities if their living standards are rising. However, as often as not it is richer ‘outsiders’ descending onto less prosperous regions that kick start a property boom. When a boom has been underway for long enough many of the less prosperous become as prosperous as the incomers, values rise and the lure of cheap property has had its day – along with easy capital profits.
This can clearly be seen in the more traditional overseas property locations of Spain and Florida. Whereas many areas of Turkey are probably still quite early on in the process.
An under developed property market exists when a country or local region has something to offer outsiders (with high value currencies looking for a better climate) and its pricing is based on local incomes. In Europe this equates to the previous Soviet Block states and to Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean. Taking the example of Turkey, property in Turkey is around five times cheaper than in the UK. It used to be this way with property in Spain but now on some Spanish Costas the prices are roughly the same.
Two tier pricing can arise here but if the markets (holidaymakers and locals) can maintain some physical differentials then two tier pricing can be sustained for some time. There will always be fuzzy boundaries that can be crossed and, over time, the two markets will merge.
For the ‘early birds’ buying in at local prices even before two tier markets emerge is the objective.
Sixth – Finally check out the Income and Property Taxes
Each country has its own rules on tax. Some levy capital gains tax and some don’t. You might be an ‘early bird’ investor, you might do all the right things, you might be showing a huge profit on your property but the taxman might want his slice too. In the UK capital gains tax is 40%; in Spain it is 35%; in Turkey it is zero after 4 years.
Happy Investing!
If you would like further information on any of the points in this article or on overseas property investing in general, please contact Mike Dunkerley, Regional Director, The Global Property Group
mike.dunkerley@thegpg.com
0044 (0)1242 524 081
www.thegpg.com
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Now that blogs have been extablished, marketers are expanding their value proposition by adding ghost blogging (a blog that is completed by ghost writers) to their list of services as well as including podcast resources in with the blog product offering. With these tools, a REALTOR can now leverage the power of a blog with little additional input and can even add a voice, and video to the messages that they send.
RJ
4MySales.com A Simple System to Help Agents Close Sales
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Why Start a Real Estate Blog?
You may have heard that a real estate blog can help your online marketing. Blogs -- web sites or web pages with entries arranged in reverse chronological order so that the most recent posts are on top -- are becoming more and more popular, but why should a hard working Realtor® devote the time to write a new web site entry once a month or once a week or -- horror of horrors -- every day?
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