How many times have you handed out flyers, programs, or informational brochures only to find them sitting on chairs, placed on tables, or falling out of waist baskets shortly thereafter? The hazard is real. I hosted an event last week with almost 100 attendees. After making my rounds, speaking with each person, and thanking them for their attendence, I noticed that one of them was passing out 8.5x11 sheets of paper that had beautifully printed in full color with an advertisement for another local event. The event looked fantastic and I decided that I would not only attend, but help promote it. So, to that end, her strategy worked. At the end of the night, however, the advertisements were laying around the rooms, folded or crumpled. I've been told since then that people didn't really know what to do with the papar. Do you take it home? Put it on your refrigerator? Do you fold it? Stuff it in your pocket and hope that you find it before you do laundry or drop your trousers off at the dry cleaners? Most of us don't carry folders with us. Most of us don't want our pockets full of stuff that we aren't sure we'll ever look at again. And, in reality, most of us need more than a single point of contact before we decide that we want to be a part of any event. Where is that second point of contact? Where is the reminder that would come from reading the advertisement again? If you've chosen to keep the flyer intact and place it under a magnet on your refrigerator, congratulations, you've done more than most people will. What the average person needs is a "takeaway" that is easy to take away.
These are the rules of the road. There are two kinds of people that you will encounter. One person will be too thick headed to be reached by any sort of marketing and the other will be so willing that they can be sold on anything, including your current campeign. Neither of these characters are your target audiance. You cannot gain business from either of them. So who is your audiance and how will you reach them?
Allow me to guide you through this thicket and help your vision become a reality. I have takeaways that are taken and reviewed. I have systems for focusing your efforts into laser-effective campeigns.
I wish you all the best and look forward to hearing from you.
Young Professionals of Central Virginia was trying to serve local businesses by helping to attract or keep young, skilled workers in the Lynchburg area.
In its first several years of existence, however, the group has earned a reputation mainly as a social club.
Abe Loper, the organization’s new executive director hired in October, said that’s not necessarily bad because it shows the group’s ability to bring people together. But the organization has to change in order to secure a skilled work force in the region for years to come, he said.
That’s a challenge he was looking for in his career.
“I wanted to be able to cast (a) vision, and take an organization somewhere where it hasn’t been before,” Loper said.
“What we’re trying to do is take our strong social history and pair that with some good social purposes.”
Other leaders in the organization agree YPCV needs active steering to refine its focus and help it reach more potential members. They think Loper is the man for the helm.
“We don’t want to be just a social organization for young people,” said Christine Kennedy, a member of the YPCV board of directors. “We want to give back. We want to get involved.”
In 2006, the Region 2000 partnership took YPCV under its wing. With the baby boomer generation about to retire, the goal was to help the community compete for the rising generation of workers. Region 2000 helped the group hire a full-time executive director for those efforts.
After just over one year with YPCV, that director, Jamie Quetglez, resigned from her post and took a job with a local company in April.
Loper applied for the executive director’s position in July. He was in Chicago working for a telecommunications company, but he was about to become engaged to a woman who lives in Lynchburg.
Loper, age 30, was one of 29 people who applied for the job, according to the Region 2000 partnership.
The next couple of months were a whirlwind: Loper and his fiancée Emily made wedding plans, he moved to Lynchburg, bought a house, and got married in September. All along he wondered when he’d get a job.
YPCV didn’t call him in for an interview until the week before his wedding. “That was a crazy week,” Loper said. Then he was offered the job while he was returning wedding gifts at Bed Bath & Beyond.
Kennedy said Loper has plugged into the region in his first two months on the job.
Loper “has really reached out to our membership and key stakeholders … to find out what they want to see in the organization,” she said. “That’s something we have needed for a while, since we have not had an executive director.”
Loper said attracting young professionals to Central Virginia doesn’t happen by accident. He compared the region to a business that must reach its target demographic.
One of Loper’s early proposals was to have YPCV co-sponsor “The Affair of the Season,” an event that took place Saturday. It was organized by local developer Oliver Kuttner to celebrate downtown Lynchburg revitalization.
Loper wants to work more with local colleges to encourage graduates to stay in the region. There is room for improvement there: Only 15 percent of all Liberty University alumni live locally. Of recent graduates, about 13 percent from Randolph College and 30 percent from Lynchburg College live in the area now.
Loper wants to undo YPCV’s image as a social club by increasing the number of service and professional development activities until they take place monthly, like the social events.
The social activities will continue. Loper sees them as a way for him to meet and befriend more young professionals, and motivate them to participate in events that help the community.
Kennedy said that is one of Loper’s strong points. With young workers being a tech-savvy generation, it’s easy to use mass e-mails to promote events. But Loper goes beyond that by reaching out to people one-on-one.
“He has the ability to motivate and inspire (people) to serve,” Kennedy said.
“If there’s one thing that I really feel is important, (it’s that) people matter,” Loper said.
“My parents are incredibly hospitable,” said Loper. “They have always taught me that people are worth bending over backwards for.”
Loper went to high school in Bowling Green, Ohio. Money was tight, but he remembers his parents feeding many people who needed a meal.
When he attended Albion College in Michigan, Loper joined Campus Crusade for Christ. He worked for that nonprofit for five years after he graduated. Then he took a spin in the commercial world, in real estate, then information technology.
Coming to YPCV was a move back to what he enjoys: trying to make a positive difference.
“I like being able to change people’s perspectives, to change people’s lives for the better,” he said. “If I can do that while I work, I’m happy.”
If you've ever looked over my REI profile page thouroughly, you've noticed that I do a small bit of day trading. That trading is in the currency markets called FOREX (Foreign Exchange). I usually have two laptops in front of me all day long. One is of my forex market positions and the other is where I do my mortgage work. There has been a lot of action this week on both fronts. The fun thing is, they seem to be related. That's not much a surprise, but it's been fun to see exactly how closely they do shadow one another. Here's an example.
When my line graph on my Dell (Forex computer) shows me that the U.S. Dollar is getting strong against the Euro, I turn on my radar for any interesting news in the mortgage world. Sure enough, about an hour later (assuming the dollar continues to stay strong and it wasn't just a spike), I get 10 emails from my company telling me to suspend my rate locks because Chase is pricing for the worse, and Citi is pricing for the worse, and, and, and, etc.
At first, it seemed like a fluke. But then a couple days later I was able to witness the opposite. I saw the dollar get weak. And, sure as can be, I got emails saying "suspend, Citi is pricing for the better", etc, etc.
Now, if you're wondering why high rates come with strength in the dollar, let me put it really simply. When Americans make lots of money and have a strong economy, they spend lots of money. When we spend lots of money, we can afford higher rates. When the dollar is weak, we travel less, spend less, and get stingy with our wallets. When that happens, lenders lower rates.
I think it's fascinating, and I haven't even begun to get into how the Fed perceives the whole situation. Luckily for us, there's very little correlation between what the fed does to interest rates and what mortgage rates do (except for in the case of Home Equity Lines Of Credit). The Fed's rate changes only directly affect revolving credit, not closed end cretid. For a concise definition of closed end and revolving credit, see a future blog of mine.
I'm not gonna go on and on here and I'm not going to take out a magnifying glass and wax eloquent on the intricacies of mortgage backed securities. I just want to give you all a little corner of the information that mortgage people like myself use to help forecast the future of our markets. I'm going to work through this deductively and from a very general perspective. So please resist the urge to nit pick me to death if you know of exceptions to what I'm saying.
1) More people buy and refinance houses when rates are low. (I think we can agree on that.)
2) Rates tend to drop when the economy is doing poorly. Take, for example, the post-9/11 real estate boom that was the result of record lows in rates. And, take the 80s, as a decade, as an illustration of the opposite effect of the same rule. When Americans are spending lots of money, rates can be higher because we can afford to pay them. When we are not traveling, consuming, and splurging as often, rates are lowered in order to help us out a bit.
3) Based on what you think the economy is going to be doing in December (or whenever), you can make a decent guess as to where rates are going to be and whether or not you should be locking in your purchases now, or waiting for rates to drop a bit.
I'm not claiming that this is an exact science, but you should consider these things when you're purchasing properties. Especially those of us that do more "buy and hold" stuff and could be at risk of needing a refi in 3-5 years. It may be better to lock into a relatively "high" interest rate of 7% on a 30yr then to sign on a 6.25% loan that will become an 8.25% in 3 years. As always, each transaction and buyer is different. You need to do what's best for your situation, but it wouldn't hurt you to run your scenario through this filter and see what you come up with.
If you have other questions about rates and the economy, I can answer them for you. Shoot me an email or a comment and I'll get right back to you. I just don't want to write anything long on here. I, personally, tend to skip over the longer blogs and I assume that's the case with most of you.
Leave me comments. Let me know if this info was helpful. Let me know what else you'd like to hear a blog on. I'll write it for you. Even if I have to do some homework beforehand. Thanks everyone.
I'm gonna make this short. It's not a rant against any agent. I love the agents that I work with and they generally do their homework when they start working with a buyer. Now, maybe you can help me out. I don't know what sort of questions you usually ask your clients the first time that you meet with them, but let me make one quick suggestion. Please ask them if they think they are in a position to buy a house. That's it. Some people will be mistaken and misinform you, but maybe this will help sift through some of the clients I've been getting. I had an agent send me a buyer this week that was looking to buy that particular agent's home. So, I understand that he was really hoping the best for his buyer. But after lots of calls and voicemails and emails, etc, I pulled the buyer's credit and found that the buyer has NO CREDIT SCORES. And, to make things worse, the buyer has 8 COLLECTIONS in the last 3 years (2 of which are less than 2 months old). Clearly, this person cannot buy a home. It would have saved us all a lot of time and energy if the agent had maybe deduced some of this info ahead of time.
I can already see some of you getting upset and telling me that it's MY job to find this info out and that it's not the agent's responsibility. I fully agree. I don't want you to think that I'm implying that this is a must. It's just a request...as the title of the blog implies...it's a favor. What do you all think about the predicament? Let me know, I'm excited to hear.
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"Abe has been one of the best people for me to know in purchasing and financing my home. He introduced me to my fantastic realtor, helped me with any questions I had or pointed me to who I could talk to, and helped make my closing go as smoothly as it could have. With some of the recent changes in rates, he's even working with me to refinance my mortgage to take advantage of that and he's eager to do it, helping me all the way through it."
Hey guys! I wanted to shoot you all a quick blog about renting out rooms and condos (I don't know if this will work with single family homes).
If you live near a college campus or in a larger city, you have an even better opportunity to take advantage of this advice.
Sometimes, those of us who own rental property have trouble getting people into our rental units/houses. In my case, it's a condo. I've found that, at least in my case, there's a sure-fire way for me to fill the unit in a matter of days.
What I do is pretty simple. I offer the unit as "month-to-month". I don't ask them to stay long term. The lease is month-to-moth and I tell them that if they want to leave, I need 30 days notice and that I'll give them 30 days notice if I want them out. In return for this great feedom that I offer to my renters, I'm able to raise rent by 20%.
I make sure that I take at least one month's rent up front as a security deposit (in case they don't give me the full 30 days notice). Also, I try to keep the unit furnished. Furnishing units is something that my Hawaiian friend Donovan has mentioned in his blogs at realestateinvestor.com as a strategy that he's implemented in order to make move-in and move-out (or evictions) more convenient for both him and his renters. Keeping the unit furnished also alows for the higher asking price for rent.
I had a room open up on Friday afternoon. I listed it on CraigsList as "month-to-month" and had 3 responses within 1 HOUR!!!! I got 9 replies in 24 hours.
Is there more risk in renting month-to-month? Absolutely. But I think that the additional rent that you will get is a great way to help pad that risk.
Hopefully this will help some of you fill your empty houses, empty units, and empty rooms. After all, we all know that empty rental property creates empty wallets.
The following is a clipping from a much longer article that can be found at http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-070504mole,1,5235800.story?track=rss. As a loan officer, I think it's great the government is out there, watching us, and making sure that the "snakes" are caught. They're watching out for the consumer and eliminating some of my competition. Which, in a way, is a reward to those of us who do things right.
TRIBUNE INVESTIGATION Developer was mole for feds Dealmaker led double life amid financing probe
By David Jackson Tribune staff reporter Published May 4, 2007, 11:37 PM CDT
John Thomas bought and sold downtown office buildings and helped other property developers secure multimillion-dollar mortgage loans.
But the high-living dealmaker had a double life.
Thomas, who was convicted of federal business fraud in New York in 2004, has been serving as an undercover government mole in Chicago for at least a year as part of an ongoing federal investigation into fraud in the financing of large-scale commercial real estate deals, the Tribune has learned.
Records made public so far do not identify the targets of the federal probe, and the FBI and U.S. attorney's office declined to comment for this article.
But the case could send ripples through Chicago's huge financial and real estate industries because Thomas' business clients and associates include several well-known commercial and residential developers.
For those of you looking to enrich your knowledge of history and current chicago markets, these events may prove helpful.
Abe
The Survival of Yerkes Observatory
What: Part of the Eric R. Multhauf Lunchtime Lecture Series, you'll hear from Carol JH Yetken, CYLA Design Associates, Inc. and Walker C. Johnson, Johnson Lasky Architects.
Who: Chicago Architecture Foundation
Where: The John Buck Company Lecture Hall Gallery, 224 S. Michigan Ave.
When: May 2, 12:15 to 1 p.m.
Cost: Free and open to the public, no RSVP required
What: Mr. Ken Price, Director of Public Relations of Hilton Hotels will offer a history of the Palmer House; Ms. Mary Ann Cronin, Director of Development of Thor Equities, will discuss the challenges of converting a landmark building.
Who: Friends of Downtown
Where: Millennium Park Meeting Room, Chicago Cultural Center
In the aftermath of the recent storm of foreclosures, I've heard and read a lot of people sharing their thoughts on who is responsible and what caused the problems, how to fix the problem, how not to fix the problem, etc. More often than not, it's lenders and adjustable rate mortgages that take the brunt of the blame. And, certainly, in many cases, that is absolutely the case. But, I want to introduce a new perspective to the mix.
Though I agree that 30yr loans are best, and that there ARE "slick" and "greedy" lenders out there, it's important to note that ARMs have been around for a long time and are not inherently bad. They are NOT good for everyone and they are NOT a way to avoid fiscal responsibility. However, they are incredibly useful if you are a medical resident, or if you've just started a job that will allow you to earn more money in the near future, as well as if you have no intention of living in that home for longer than your ARM term. Most of the ARMs that have been closed in the last couple of years have been 3-5yr ARMs (only about .5% lower than 30yr fixed rates), which provide the client with a good bit of time to get their finances, debt, and income into good shape before their rates change at all. I was the victim of a predatory lender when I bought my first home. I know what it feels like to be the client, and now that I know the industry as a broker, I know what a sleezbag looks like from the inside. Putting people into ARMs isn't bad. Putting people into mortgages that they can't afford is. That being said, it's just as likely that a client will be placed into a 30yr fixed rate loan that they cannot afford as it is that they will be placed in a 5yr ARM that they cannot afford. Without justifying the terrible people who pray on their clients, it's important to realize that the rise in foreclosure has more to do with increasing rates of spending and consumerism in America. We, as a nation, have lost our sense of self control and are living beyond our means. This knowledge should be used by brokers like my self to hlep people understand the gravity of their choices. Those who don't counsel their clients in such a way are irresponsible as lenders. However, I think you'd be shocked to see what sorts of unnecessary things many people charged to their credit and debit cards during the months leading up to their foreclosures.
I hope my heart for the client is heard here and not an attack or defense of any position. I'm just trying to bring some balance to what seems to be an unbalanced discussion. Thanks for reading.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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