Archive for May, 2011
Posted on May 31, 2011. Filed under: Real Estate Housing Trends, News and Information |
I read an article by Greg Robb, MarketWatch, May 31, 2011,”U.S. Homes Prices in Double Dip Recession…Case-Shiller”.
Robb stated, “The prices of single-family homes in 20 major cities fell for the eighth straight month and confirmed that there is a double-dip in the housing market, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday by Standard & Poor’s.
Home prices fell a non-seasonally adjusted 0.8% in March. Prices have moved down 3.6% in the past year. Home prices declined in 18 of the 20 metropolitan areas tracked by Case-Shiller in March compared with February. Washington D.C. and Seattle were the only markets where home prices increased in March.”
As I read I began to think about all the home buyers and sellers reading this report, I wondered how the continuation of negative news affects them. I thought about if they worried whether their homes would continue to lose value, or are they so despondent that they no longer believe their homes will ever sell? I could almost feel the acid building in their bellies with worry.
I asksed myself, “What would I do if I was still selling homes?” I’d blog, email the Housing Trends eNewsletter with a” buy now” personal message, post my opinions on all my social media sites, and call everyone I know to say that “it’s time to buy a home, time to stretch your dollars to spend less and buy more. Times are good for those with credit.”
Successful REALTORS are savvy enough to inform the consumer what their reading in the news has positive benefits for them. Reliable information is an opportunity to examine, study and explain the market trends to consumers.
Here’s what I’d do:
Interest rates are still very low, but all indications point to an increase. With good credit the consumer is in prime position to purchase more home in move up neighborhoods with better schools by buying now.
Use this example of the increase in interest rates. According to an example in Houston Chronicle by Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market survey (05/31/2011)
Loan Amount: $200,000
Interest Rate Principal & Interest Monthly Payment
4.75% $1,043
5.00% $1.074
6.00% $1,199
7.00% $1,331
“If you are the Seller, you will be able to take advantage on the Buying side if you act while interest rates are down. Low interest rates mean more available buyers in the market to buy your home. Plus, every day you linger in your home debating your selling decision, your asset, your home, loses value, but costs you the same amount to maintain it each month.”
According to Clifford Crabtree, CEO, First Continental Mortgage, “Mortgage rates aren’t expected to spike tomorrow. But as the economy improves and if inflation begins to affect more segments of the economy, rates should start to tick up.”
Agents, you should also learn about your state and local down payment assistance to assist your buyers and sellers. Watch for more information on Down Payment Assistance Programs.
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Posted on May 27, 2011. Filed under: Real Estate Housing Trends, News and Information | Tags: Agent, Brokerage, Buyers, commercial real estate, communications, e-zinc email, email, Ezine, free articles, Frog Pond, frogpond blog, green, green marketing, housing data, housing trends, Houston, Internet, Internet Marketing, marketing, marketing tips, news, Newsletter, Paperless, press releases, readers, Real Estate, real estate content, Realtor, Sellers, Susie Hale, sustainability, tv |
40,000+ subscribers nationwide utilize FrogPond products, services
HOUSTON, TX – May 27, 2011 – Showcasing a wide range of publishing, software, and communications and marketing solutions for the real estate industry, FrogPond.com has relaunched with updated graphics and multimedia features. The site contains 3,500 free reprintable articles, profiles of industry leaders, videos detailing current marketing trends and tools, and a link to the Housing Trends eNewsletter, which has more than 40,000 subscribers nationwide.
“Content is King! FrogPond.com has always been about providing outstanding free real estate content for the industry. Today, the consumers are driving the market with their desire for housing information. FrogPond’s Housing Trends eNewsletter was designed for the real estate professional to provide the ‘numbers’ from a national to micro local perspective to help the agent stay front and center with the consumers” , said Susie Hale, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of eFrogPond Inc.
FrogPond.com began in 1994 as a site for booking real estate and motivational speakers and later was where agents could “cut and paste” articles aimed at homebuying and selling consumers. Today, reprintable, royalty-free articles are aimed at agents, brokers and other business owners, with information on sales and marketing strategies, personal excellence, customer service and business planning.
Agents who want timely and accurate information to send their past clients, homebuying and selling prospects now subscribe to the Housing Trends eNewsletter (HTEN). Hale launched HTEN in 2010 as a monthly, free-subscription publication containing timely and accurate consumer-oriented content on national and regional housing sales, economic trends, mortgage rates and calculators, home improvement and maintenance, taxes and insurance.
The electronic publication is customizable for the subscribing agent’s franchise colors and logos and includes a personalized messages section. Agents can e-mail the newsletter or post it on their Facebook page or Website. It has been very successful – today having more than 40,000 subscribers across the spectrum of real estate franchises and brokerages. Those subscribers are many of the long-time – as well as the new – readers of FrogPond.com.
Other new features on the redesigned FrogPond.com Website include “picks” from the well-read Hale for motivational and real estate books, as well as a sidebar showing her Twitter feed and entries from the Housing Trends eNewsletter Facebook page.
Hale has a 23 year career in the real estate industry, with wide and deep experience as a licensed residential agent, a title company marketing officer, a mortgage broker and a mortgage banker, prior to her founding eFrogPond. Known as “The Frog,” Hale’s insightful technology and communications solutions have earned her the respect and affection of real estate professionals at all levels across the country. In 2008, she was named one the Top 25 Most Influential Women in Real Estate Leadership by the Active Rain online community for real estate professionals.
NEWS from eFrogPond.com
Contact: Susie Hale, President/CEO
101 Westcott, #102,Houston,Texas77007
(o) 713.880.1010 (c) 832.428.8482
Susie@frogpond.com
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