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    <title>Dan Matheny's Blog</title>
    <link>http://activerain.com/blogs/dmatheny</link>
    <description></description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <item>
      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/305252/does-my-company-really-need-a-website-</guid>
      <title>Does my company REALLY need a website?</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://blog.inspiresmart.com/post/2007/12/Does-my-company-NEED-a-website.aspx"&gt;Does my company NEED a website?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A website is an extremely valuable tool that bolsters your existing marketing, sales, recruitment and communications effort. In fact, if your business is &lt;em&gt;not online&lt;/em&gt; or your existing site is &lt;em&gt;unprofessional&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;ineffective&lt;/em&gt;, then you are losing sales opportunities. A good website will help you reach and retain customers! &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But how do you go about finding out your companies needs and ultimately, finding out the need for a website?&amp;nbsp; Here are a few questions to ponder, with a few answers to go along with them... &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;1. Do you currently (or would you like to) use &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.inspiresmart.com/contact-us/webdesign/company/colorado/default.aspx" title="colorado web design, colorado website development, colorado website desgin, graphic design, colorado web development company, email, sms text messaging, blog, corporate branding, direct mail, direct marketing, event marketing, logo design"&gt;email&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; to communicate within your business and to your customers/vendors?&amp;nbsp; If so, you will need a domain name in order to send and receive corporate email, which is the first step to getting a website.&amp;nbsp; &lt;a href="http://www.inspiresmart.com/default.aspx" title="colorado website design, colorado web development, denver ad agency, direct mail, corporate branding, website design, creative marketing, direct marketing, tv radio, custom website design, event marketing, sms text messaging"&gt;InspireSmart&lt;/a&gt; solutions can develop a website tailored to your specific professional appearance and personal style.&amp;nbsp; &lt;a href="http://www.inspiresmart.com/default.aspx" title="colorado website design, colorado web development, denver ad agency, direct mail, corporate branding, website design, creative marketing, direct marketing, tv radio, custom website design, event marketing, sms text messaging, it services, web solutions, search engine optimization"&gt;InspireSmart&lt;/a&gt; strives to create a functional website designed to be completely user freindly while also giving a very professional look and feel to attract new customers to your business.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;2. Do the people in your business' target market spend time online?&amp;nbsp; If your customers are online part of the time, then they may be looking for your business online. This is an extra medium for you to capture their interest and inform them about your business and your &lt;a href="http://www.inspiresmart.com/default.aspx" title="design, colorcolorado website ado web development, denver ad agency, direct mail, corporate branding, website design, creative marketing, direct marketing, tv radio, custom website design, event marketing, sms text messaging, it services, web solutions, search engine optimization"&gt;products/services&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;3.&amp;nbsp; Do you seek a higher return on your investment than what you're currently using?&amp;nbsp; Determining your ROI can be very tricky online. A well designed and well managed &lt;a href="http://www.inspiresmart.com/default.aspx" title="colorado website design, colorado web development, denver ad agency, direct mail, corporate branding, website design, creative marketing, direct marketing, tv radio, custom website design, event marketing, sms text messaging, it services, web solutions, search engine optimization"&gt;website&lt;/a&gt; will help you to not only achieve these goals, but achieve the repetition of these goals.&amp;nbsp; If you sell to a customer once, that's great, but if you can &lt;em&gt;sell to that same customer 10 times or 100 times&lt;/em&gt; that's even better. It's far easier to sell to existing customers than to try to get new ones. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;4.&amp;nbsp; Once you put up a website, how are you found?&amp;nbsp; Three words: &lt;a href="http://www.inspiresmart.com/search-engine-optimization/webdesign/company/colorado/default.aspx" title="colorado website design, colorado web development, denver ad agency, direct mail, corporate branding, website design, creative marketing, direct marketing, tv radio, custom website design, event marketing, sms text messaging, it services, web solutions, search engine optimization"&gt;Search Engine Optimization&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp; This little phrase is the driving factor for customers finding you on the web.&amp;nbsp; Think of this, how many times do you search a product or service on Google and you click on the first few results?&amp;nbsp; Most of us can answer, a lot.&amp;nbsp; Ok, now ask yourself this, how many times have I gone to the 2nd or 3rd page of those same Google results?&amp;nbsp; Most of us have not.&amp;nbsp; That's where the &lt;a href="http://www.inspiresmart.com/search-engine-optimization/webdesign/company/colorado/default.aspx" title="colorado website design, colorado web development, denver ad agency, direct mail, corporate branding, website design, creative marketing, direct marketing, tv radio, custom website design, event marketing, sms text messaging, it services, web solutions, search engine optimization"&gt;SEO&lt;/a&gt; comes in.&amp;nbsp; InspireSmart can optimize a few words and phrases and put you at the top of those searches.&amp;nbsp; You don't have to do the work, they do it for you!&amp;nbsp; Why not call them to find out at 303-757-2800 ask for Dan&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Dan Matheny (SFG)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 12 Dec 2007 17:53:09 -0800</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/305252/does-my-company-really-need-a-website-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/104950/three-mistakes-we-see-most-every-real-estate-pro-make</guid>
      <title>Three mistakes we see most every real estate pro make</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;We&amp;nbsp;work with thousands of real estate professionals (RE agents, LO's, 1031 exch agents) across the country. We have found there are 3 common mistakes most all of them make.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;1) They have a tendency to "commoditize" their business. They look and to the prospect just like all the rest. Instead of finding new ways to differentiate themselves and create a USP (unique selling proposition), they use the same old sales tactics than seem to have worked for years. "Just sell yourself", "Create and develop at relationship with your clients/prospects". These are defiantly a must, but the&amp;nbsp;problem is the "average" prospect had advanced in their understanding of marketing. They do their own research and shop around. They&amp;nbsp;are demanding more. More service, more information and a more up-to-date look and feel.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;2) Their income and success is solely dependent on the local market. If the real estate market is hot, then they make good money. If it's flat or depressed, then they struggle to even stay in business. Income and activity shouldn't be tied to the local real estate market cycle. Your "farm" market must be the entire country.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;bull;3)&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; No existing systems to provide&amp;nbsp;re-occurring pipeline regeneration and&amp;nbsp;little to no residual income opportunities. Every day you have to start over. Where will your next prospect come from? Do you know? How are you going to pay bills when there are only sellers and no buyers?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;You must create and use systems. Systems are the key to long term success.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;We all want more. More clients, more income and more revenue.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;The problem is that all of these are end results.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;The key is to focus on 5 key areas of growth.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;(1) Number of Prospects &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;X&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;(2) closing ratio &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;=&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Number of clients&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;X&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;(3) Number of sales &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;X&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;(4) Average dollar sale &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;X&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;(5) Profit margin &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;=&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Revenue&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Just increasing each of the 5 key areas by just 10% &lt;br&gt;will increase your revenue by 64%&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Do the numbers yourself using last years figures.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;My job is to help you increase your 5 key areas with systems and ideas.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;I don't charge for this, and will be happy to help you, however I do have tools available to greatly assist you in all of the 5 areas to prevent the 3 common mistakes we see professional make. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;One of our tools is &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Register&amp;amp;ad_id=142" title="blocked::http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Register&amp;amp;ad_id=142"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;InvestorLINX&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;. It is an on-line real estate market and analysis tool that tracks migration, vacancy and absorption rates, as well as price and inventory changes on a weekly basis for every zip code in the country. It will assist you in all of the areas and issues described above.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Please check out my home page here on Active Rain and my web site at &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.sfgusa.com/"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;http://www.sfgusa.com/&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Please call me for a free consultation at 877-428-3030&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dan Matheny&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:Dan@sfgusa.com"&gt;Dan@sfgusa.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Dan Matheny (SFG)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Tue, 22 May 2007 15:42:02 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/104950/three-mistakes-we-see-most-every-real-estate-pro-make</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/99211/have-you-performed-your-real-estate-check-up-lately-</guid>
      <title>Have You Performed Your Real Estate &#8216;Check Up' Lately? </title>
      <description>If you invest in real estate, it's worth your time to perform a periodic portfolio performance evaluation.&amp;nbsp; NAR and OFHEO both released updated statistics supporting a current cooling of the housing markets across many cities nationwide.&amp;nbsp; This national cooling could be significantly impacting the performance of your real estate portfolio. &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;The questions you must ask are (1) whether, (2) how significantly and (3) what can be done if your current real estate holdings are being affected by these localized pockets of cooling.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Portfolio Compression Strategies&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Real estate investor, David Robertson is the perfect example of this situation.&amp;nbsp; David has owned an investment condo for the past 12 years.&amp;nbsp; The loan on the property is paid off, and David has a $100,000 line of credit open against the $400,000 condo.&amp;nbsp; During David's years of ownership, there have been certain times that the condo has increased significantly in value.&amp;nbsp; At other times, David has owned the condo through local economic periods that have caused higher vacancy, lower cash flow and more money out of his pocket.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;During both experiences, David held true to his original buy and hold philosophy.&amp;nbsp; It has paid off and today, David has nearly $350,000 available from this single investment.&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;But, has David's investment paid off to its full potential?&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; To answer this question you need to explore Portfolio Compression techniques within a real estate portfolio.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Portfolio Compression within a real estate portfolio is a blend of property and market selection strategies which over time subscribe to the traditional &lt;strong&gt;buy and hold approach with a slight twist.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; The twist: Don't buy and hold the same properties in the same cities over the entire life of your real estate portfolio.&amp;nbsp; In other words, don't subject your real estate holdings to the good and the bad of local market economics.&amp;nbsp; When local economic conditions are good; buy and hold.&amp;nbsp; Before or as local economic conditions change; sell and reposition your real estate holdings into other cities.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The 5 Steps to Portfolio Compression&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;An underperforming real estate portfolio can be improved.&amp;nbsp; Here are the five steps to evaluating and getting your portfolio back on track:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;bull;1.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Evaluate the performance of your current real estate holdings &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;bull;2.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Create a comprehensive personalized or corporate real estate plan &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;bull;3.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Research local market conditions where you currently own investment property &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;bull;4.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Choose cities across the country in which performance data is beating the average &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;bull;5.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Establish your advisory team to successfully implement Portfolio Compression&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Financial modeling of the traditional buy and hold real estate strategy versus modeling using Portfolio Compression techniques will clearly show you the potential for significant portfolio improvements.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Remember David?&amp;nbsp; Modeling his portfolio conservatively and assuming he had used Portfolio Compression techniques over the past 12 years, David's portfolio could be valued well over $3,500,000 today with cash flow potential in commercial real estate in excess of $75,000 per year.&amp;nbsp; His current situation is not bad; however a little planning and ongoing guidance to implement a Portfolio Compression strategy plan, his results today could be significantly better than the $400,000 value and $14,000 per year cash flow he currently has.&amp;nbsp; He is now implementing that plan for the next 12 years.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Portfolio Compression techniques create (1) greater real estate portfolio diversification, (2) increased internal equity and (3) significantly greater cash flow potential for investors investing in residential housing, land and commercial real estate.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For more information, please call me @ 877-428-3030 Dan Matheny &lt;a href="mailto:Dan@sfgusa.com"&gt;Dan@sfgusa.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;InvestorLINX Home Page- Nationwide Market Research &amp;amp; Analsys&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142" title="Tools to help evaluate markets" target="_blank"&gt;http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://%3ca%20href=%22http//technorati.com/claim/w4byz8vp4%22%20rel=%22me%22%3ETechnorati%20Profile%3C/a%3E" target="_blank"&gt;_&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Dan Matheny (SFG)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Tue, 15 May 2007 11:12:23 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/99211/have-you-performed-your-real-estate-check-up-lately-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/98371/is-salt-lake-city-still-undervalued-and-a-real-estate-investment-hot-spot-</guid>
      <title>Is Salt Lake City still Undervalued and a Real Estate Investment Hot Spot?</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;In 2006, Salt Lake City screamed to the top of the national appreciation list as values rose by about 20%.&amp;nbsp; On the heals of this national exposure, several recent reports promote the area as remaining undervalued.&amp;nbsp; Is it undervalued?&amp;nbsp; Is it still a good real estate investor buy?&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to weekly data compiled for over 12,000 cities by Signil, the median asking price of a single family home in Salt Lake City is hovering right around $315,000.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;The Wage Adjusted Median Home Price falls significantly below the actual median at only $267,000.&amp;nbsp; The local wage adjusted median home price is an adjusted median price calculation based on a ratio of the national to local median wages&amp;nbsp;multiplied by&amp;nbsp;the national median property value.&amp;nbsp; It is used as a quick glimpse into the affordability and the future appreciation potential of local real estate markets.&amp;nbsp; In Salt Lake City, it appears that real estate values have pushed toward the upper end of their current appreciation potential.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Weekly performance data for the Salt Lake City area further confirms a possible ceiling has been hit as the past six months suggest a steady rise in supply and relatively flat real estate values in both the median and higher price points.&amp;nbsp; The increase in supply suggests that local building has caught up with demand neutralizing last year's imbalance.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Real estate investors that bought in strategic zip codes in Salt Lake City beginning in the middle of 2005 through the second and even third quarter of 2006 have done well and will likely continue to experience lower vacancy and relatively easy selling options.&amp;nbsp; Rents have not kept pace with climbing real estate prices and, as a result, this weeks &lt;strong&gt;Cash Flow Rank on &lt;a href="http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142" title="blocked::http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142"&gt;InvestorLINX&lt;/a&gt; slides to a low 78 out of the top 89 national metro areas.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Flat appreciation week over week, high real estate prices and lagging rent increases suggest however, that real estate investors thinking it's time to jump in now may be in for an unwelcome awakening.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About Signil:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; Signil offers &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142" title="blocked::http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142"&gt;InvestorLINX&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, an online market research site specifically designed to help real estate investors pick the best places to invest whether locally or nationwide.&amp;nbsp; Weekly data updates, zip code mapping and easy to use ranking systems equip investors with the pinpoint data needed to invest for the highest returns.&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;Real estate professionals should help their clients make more money and&amp;nbsp;invest wisely by subscribing&amp;nbsp;and gaining&amp;nbsp;access to the monthly HOT SPOT Reports covering the best and worst by investment locations by zip code, nationwide - vacancy, migration, supply, demand, appreciation and absorption&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Market Research Team&lt;br&gt;877-428-3030 x 28&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Dan Matheny (SFG)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 14 May 2007 11:52:43 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/98371/is-salt-lake-city-still-undervalued-and-a-real-estate-investment-hot-spot-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/96566/should-you-invest-locally-or-nationally-</guid>
      <title>Should you invest locally or nationally?</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;This is a tough question and the answer depends on a few key factors such as:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What your real estate investment objectives are&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How your real estate plan maps your investment objectives&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What market conditions are currently like in your area&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What information sources you have to help guide your decisions&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;One of the first things to consider in developing your real estate plan is whether you are oriented towards an income or growth strategy.&amp;nbsp; In real estate terms this is simply appreciation or cash flow.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;All too often, real estate investors balance their portfolio too early toward an income strategy, thereby missing the &lt;strong&gt;leveraged growth potential&lt;/strong&gt; of rising real estate values.&amp;nbsp; This is typically the case simply because investors often times limit their investment portfolio to owning property exclusively in their own local market.&amp;nbsp; While this can be a positive in some respects, it often times leads to missed opportunity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, it is many times the case where an investor waits too long to transition from a growth strategy toward an income portfolio and therefore feels greater impacts of changing market conditions.&amp;nbsp; In either case, it is simply staying in tune with and monitoring current market conditions that will help you plan when to buy, how long to hold and when to sell.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Your real estate plan should map out a balance between growth and income based on your current investment capital resources, your investment timelines, current market conditions and your acceptance of potential risks and rewards.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Once you clearly define your investment object and map out your real estate plan; you must carefully &lt;strong&gt;consider the current market conditions in your local area.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; Is your market good for an appreciation strategy, does it offer maximum cash flow potential?&amp;nbsp; Is it over or undervalued?&amp;nbsp; How sustainable is your market for either short or long term investment plan?&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These are critical questions that you have to answer before you can truly determine whether your real estate portfolio is performing at its peak potential.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Real data regarding real estate market conditions can be difficult to find, often times expensive and most of the time out of date.&amp;nbsp; This leaves the real estate investor making decisions and always trying to determine if their gut feel is right.&amp;nbsp; That is, until now.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142" title="blocked::http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142"&gt;InvestorLINX&lt;/a&gt; is an online real estate market research site designed to help real estate investors maximize the potential of their real estate portfolio.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; With real time, up-to-date market condition data covering the entire country, real estate investors can easily determine whether their local market conditions are conducive for their investment strategy and how their local area stacks up to the rest of the country.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you find that your personal investment strategy should be geared toward cash flow, but your current local market conditions are heavily favoring an appreciation play - you may need to look outside of your local area.&amp;nbsp; Using the quick sort research features online, you can quickly and easily find &lt;strong&gt;the top cash flow locations to meet your needs&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;nbsp; Then, connect directly with a local professional real estate agent in that market that specialized in investment property transactions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Below is just a snapshot view of the market condition ranking system and up-to-date affordability and population figures.&amp;nbsp; An overview of each market condition ranking systems is available by continuing to scroll down.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In addition to the ranking system, weekly market &lt;strong&gt;performance data&lt;/strong&gt;, up-to-date migration, vacancy and absorption &lt;strong&gt;mapping at the zip code&lt;/strong&gt; level, executive &lt;strong&gt;market summaries&lt;/strong&gt; and comprehensive local &lt;strong&gt;economic reports&lt;/strong&gt; are all available online.&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;You can take a video tour of all of this by visiting the website and see how it all relates to both the local investor and the national investor.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table border="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Austin&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;, TX&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table cellspacing="0" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;
&lt;table cellspacing="1" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td width="20%"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a&gt;Median Asking Price&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td width="25%"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a&gt;Wage Adjusted Median Price&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td width="35%"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a&gt;Estimated Metropolitan Area Population&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td width="20%"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a&gt;Primary City Population &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td width="20%"&gt;&lt;p&gt;$245,000&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td width="25%"&gt;&lt;p&gt;$304,663&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td width="35%"&gt;&lt;p&gt;1,582,282&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td width="20%"&gt;&lt;p&gt;656,562&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table border="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;InvestorLINX Ranking System&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table cellspacing="0" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;
&lt;table cellspacing="1" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td width="20%"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a&gt;Vacancy Rank&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td width="25%"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a&gt;Migration Rank&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td width="35%"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a&gt;Supply &amp;amp; Demand Rank&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td width="20%"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a&gt;Cash Flow Rank&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td width="20%"&gt;&lt;p&gt;17&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td width="25%"&gt;&lt;p&gt;13&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td width="35%"&gt;&lt;p&gt;2&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td width="20%"&gt;&lt;p&gt;32&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here's what it all means.&amp;nbsp; The median asking price (current this week, May 2007) in Austin is well below the &lt;strong&gt;Wage Adjusted Median&lt;/strong&gt; suggesting that the area remains relatively undervalued.&amp;nbsp; The population figures are up-to-date estimates as of April 30, 2007 and are adjusted monthly.&amp;nbsp; Two ranking systems, the &lt;strong&gt;Migration and Supply &amp;amp; Demand rank &lt;/strong&gt;are indicative of appreciation potential and activity, whereas the &lt;strong&gt;Vacancy and Cash Flow rank&lt;/strong&gt; are indicative of income potential.&amp;nbsp; For each rank, a value of 1 is the best, ranked out of over 100 metro areas from across the country, &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Performance Rank by Area&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;table cellspacing="0" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="269"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td width="134"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Features Overview &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td width="134"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What it means for you &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td width="134"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Weekly ranking system that ranks all active cities from the greatest supply and demand&amp;nbsp;imbalance to the least supply and demand&amp;nbsp;imbalance (i.e. the greatest loss of inventory with the greatest&amp;nbsp;upward pressure on local housing prices) &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td width="134"&gt;&lt;p&gt;The higher the performance ranking, the greater the&amp;nbsp;imbalance between supply and demand exists with demand outpacing supply.&amp;nbsp;The lower the rank, the more balanced the supply and demand has become to the point that supply actually&amp;nbsp;exceeds demand creating a softer local market.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;Cash Flow Rank by Area&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;table cellspacing="0" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="269"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td width="134"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Features Overview &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td width="134"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What it means for you &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td width="134"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Weekly ranking system that ranks all active cities from the highest to the lowest potential cash flow potential based on current housing values and approximate lease rates. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td width="134"&gt;&lt;p&gt;The higher the cash flow rank, the more likely local rents are to cover or exceed local debt service and expenses. While not a direct indicator of commercial cash flow, commercial investments flourish many times as residential cash flow ranks begin to fall as a result of rising property values due to in-migration. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;Vacancy Rank by Area&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;table cellspacing="0" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="269"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td width="134"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Features Overview &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td width="134"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What it means for you &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td width="134"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Weekly ranking system comparing all active cites against each other from highest to lowest vacancy rates. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td width="134"&gt;&lt;p&gt;The higher the ranking, the lower the household vacancy rate. Typically indicative of shorter lease periods and rising lease rates. Searching for higher ranking vacancy areas typically leads to less cash flow fluctuation. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;Household Migration Rank by Area&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;table cellspacing="0" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="269"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td width="134"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Features Overview &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td width="134"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What it means for you &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td width="134"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Weekly ranking system that compares all active cities again each other from highest to lowest in-migration. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td width="134"&gt;&lt;p&gt;The higher the ranking, the more people by percent change are moving into an area. When in-migration exceeds the local building pace, inventories become tight forcing property values to rise. Searching for high ranking in-migration along with dropping inventories many times leads to rising values. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;Please visit our web site at &lt;a href="http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142" title="blocked::http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142"&gt;InvestorLINX&lt;/a&gt; and call me. &lt;br&gt;I will be happy to walk you thru the site explaining in more detail how &lt;strong&gt;InvestorLINX&lt;/strong&gt; can help you find the best markets anywhere in the country.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dan Matheny&lt;br&gt;877-428-3030&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Dan Matheny (SFG)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Fri, 11 May 2007 16:52:08 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/96566/should-you-invest-locally-or-nationally-</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/93778/when-it-s-hot-it-s-hot</guid>
      <title>When it's HOT, it's HOT</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;AP just reported that Raleigh NC is getting an additional 650 jobs. WOW!!&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;When it's hot, it's hot.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Over the last 10 months the average home has &lt;strong&gt;appreciated 11.93%&lt;/strong&gt; and the average price for a &lt;strong&gt;condo/townhome is up 12.80%.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; Just when &lt;strong&gt;NAR&lt;/strong&gt; (National Assoc. of Realtors) is reporting home &lt;strong&gt;prices will drop for the 1st time since 1968.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;North Carolina shows how select markets can and will buck the national averages. Another example why we all should educate our clients and prospects to market cycles and trends. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Market research, continued education, persistance are the key ingredents to success.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;"An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest." Benjamin Franklin&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For market research nationwide...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142" title="blocked::http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142"&gt;http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Good Selling&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dan&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Home prices are expected to finish down for the year, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said Tuesday, which would mark the first drop since the group started tracking values in 1968. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;NAR projects a 1 percent decline in the median price of an existing single-family home, to $219,800. The group, in a forecast made a month ago, had previously been expecting a 0.7 percent decline. Prior to that, it had expected a gain of 1.2 percent. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;AP&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;Network Applicance to Expand in N.C.&lt;br&gt;Tuesday May 8, 2:11 pm ET &lt;/p&gt;&lt;table cellspacing="0" border="0" height="4" cellpadding="0"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;Data Storage Company Adding Nearly 650 Jobs in North Carolina &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070508/nc_new_jobs.html?.v=1"&gt;http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070508/nc_new_jobs.html?.v=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Dan Matheny (SFG)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Tue, 08 May 2007 13:42:23 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/93778/when-it-s-hot-it-s-hot</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/93670/targeting-economic-centers</guid>
      <title>Targeting Economic Centers</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Key to an Institutional Investors Yield&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Commercial real estate is driven by economic centers anchored by population, commerce and distribution. Whether investment yields are derived from cash flow returns, equity gains or blended strategies, maintaining access to the most up to date and accurate information is key to a real estate manager making intelligent decisions. Real estate decision makers are often weary of real estate market evaluation and market selection. So often this is the case purely because market analysis can be a challenging task with information that is often times subjective in nature. The national real estate markets are driven by the economic migration of people and capital. Whether targeting acquisitions in single family housing, multi-family housing, retail, industrial or hotel sectors, each platform is subjected to the economic fundamentals of supply and demand.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Macro economic decisions of market selection are tied to the real estate market cycle which exist both at the national and localized levels. Micro economic decisions are property and yield target specific based on localized economic centers. Two steps should be taken in planning a higher yield strategy. First, assess macro economic markets based on an evaluation and identification of market cycle timing. Second, target micro economic centers with anchors foundationally embedded within supply and demand imbalances. In short - choose the best site locations in the best markets to maximize your real estate strategy. Signil Wealth Consulting Group tracks the weekly economic conditions of supply and demand in thousands of real estate markets nationwide.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In many cases, real estate consultants are limited to the macro economic data for the largest 50 or largest 100 census bureau MSA locations across the country. Given this fact, intense competition many times exists when trying to acquire the best sites in the largest cities. This competition drives up bid prices and reduces cash flow and equity yield potential.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Two solutions exist for the acquisitions and portfolio manager, identify earlier growth market opportunities based on a continuous tracking of the economic cycle and beat the competition to the largest locations, or look elsewhere. Often times, secondary and tertiary market choices offer better yield targets with less competition. The problem, most real estate and research consultants don't maintain a comprehensive data base focused on these smaller market locations and don't have the details to estimate market cycle positioning. Signil Wealth Consulting Group is a real estate consulting, market research and acquisitions company that monitors real estate cycles at both the national and localized levels and tracks, using a weekly database system, the supply and demand of over 900 metropolitan areas encompassing over 12,000 cities across the country. If it's happening in the US, Signil knows it and can help you maximize your yield targets. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Let's take an example of a REIT focused on a blended target of cash flow returns with yield increases through equity gains from selling certain portfolio properties. The macro economic choices made by REIT managers in selecting commercial real estate acquisitions have direct impacts on REIT strategies and the overall portfolio performance. If well positioned real estate investment property is acquired in cities based on the economic fundamentals of supply and demand, and consideration is given to the timing of the real estate cycle, yields can be strategically increased, risks can be minimized and diversification maximized.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Real estate markets cycle. At a simplistic level, real estate markets cycle between two general phases, growth and decline. These market phases are connected by two transitional zones, absorption and saturation. Commonly used theoretical terminology for the positions of the real estate cycle are Expansion, Hypersupply, Recession and Recovery.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Market cycles occur because of imbalances of supply and demand. As demand rises, the availability of supply is absorbed. New construction is generally launched and property, land and rent values remain level as long as new supply exceeds rising demand. This general equilibrium occurs for a period of time until demand surpasses supply resulting in a local constriction forcing values to climb. Real estate professionals seeking equity gains can target market locations with rising demand indicators leading to a constricting supply.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Once the macro economic market choices are made based on supply and demand fundamentals, the micro economic strategies of grid analysis and identifying economic centers helps guide site and property selection. Economic centers create an economic &amp;lsquo;tent effect'. Consider the center of a tent as the economic center. Moving away from the center is an area located within the economic path of growth. On the outer edges of the path of growth, many times located between economic centers, are areas of urban sprawl. By graphically representing weekly real estate supply and value data, income adjusted at a granular zip code level, market health and economic centers can be identified and ranked to target primary site selection grids.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you are a real estate executive, professional, consultant, builder, developer or institutional manager you can significantly increase your returns by setting a segment of your acquisitions budget to the efforts of monitoring and selecting market locations based on the real estate cycle. Signil Wealth Consulting Group can function along with your existing real estate team or can serve as your primary acquisitions group. Contact us to develop a scope and help you build a strategic real estate plan to increase your portfolio yields.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Dan Matheny (SFG)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Tue, 08 May 2007 11:33:41 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/93670/targeting-economic-centers</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/93667/maximum-profits-while-navigating-economic-change</guid>
      <title>Maximum Profits While Navigating Economic Change</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; "The Real Estate Cycle and its Impact on Your Wealth"&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Are You Limiting Your Wealth Potential?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Real estate investors that build wealth using the traditional long term buy and hold approach often overlook one of the most profitable and passive strategies of real estate - timing. Strategically building a portfolio based on timing focuses investment buying decisions in parts of the country with economic strengths support rising real estate values, regardless of the investor's hometown. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Real estate markets cycle based on the fundamental economics of supply and demand. As economic conditions in one city cause real estate values to rise, values in another city remain flat as vacancies climb. A few years' later economic conditions change in both markets, the cities swap place in the cycle and the opposite city now has skyrocketing real estate values. Signil Wealth Consulting Group tracks this cycle and monitors the economics of thousands of real estate markets weekly. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Building a real estate portfolio by timing investment property purchases in cities where economic conditions lead to rising real estate values will increase an investors net worth by millions of dollars. Strategically timing the buy and the sell of real estate investments is called Portfolio Compression and results in exceeding the growth of the traditional 15 year buy and hold plan. Portfolio Compression captures real estate growth in shorter segments of between 1 and 3 years resulting in increased diversification and a more linear equity growth curve. This allows investors to target a wealth building plan through the growth phases of 5 to 6 market cycles rather than limiting growth to any single economic location. Portfolio Compression incorporates a multi-market investment approach focused on:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Buying investment property in cities where economic conditions support rising real estate values &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Selling investment property as economic conditions change and a city moves through the cycle &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Incorporating the use of strategic releverage plans combined with a 1031 Tax Deferred Exchange &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Identifying next market growth phase opportunities for replacement investments &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Supply and demand imbalances create a trendable, trackable and predictable cycle. By monitoring economic fundamentals it is possible for investors to fully implement Portfolio Compression and time predictable cycles. For more information on incorporating the 4-Phases of Portfolio Compression, timing the real estate cycle and, knowing the economic conditions of over 12,000 cities nationwide, contact me for a one-on-one free consultation.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Dan Matheny (SFG)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Tue, 08 May 2007 11:30:22 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/93667/maximum-profits-while-navigating-economic-change</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/92782/have-you-performed-your-real-estate-check-up-lately-</guid>
      <title>Have You Performed Your Real Estate &#8216;Check Up' Lately?</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Have You Performed Your Real Estate &amp;lsquo;Check Up' Lately?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you invest in real estate, it's worth your time to perform a periodic portfolio performance evaluation.&amp;nbsp; NAR and OFHEO both released updated statistics supporting a current cooling of the housing markets across many cities nationwide.&amp;nbsp; This national cooling could be significantly impacting the performance of your real estate portfolio.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;The questions you must ask are (1) whether, (2) how significantly and (3) what can be done if your current real estate holdings are being affected by these localized pockets of cooling.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Portfolio Compression Strategies&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Real estate investor, David Robertson is the perfect example of this situation.&amp;nbsp; David has owned an investment condo for the past 12 years.&amp;nbsp; The loan on the property is paid off, and David has a $100,000 line of credit open against the $400,000 condo.&amp;nbsp; During David's years of ownership, there have been certain times that the condo has increased significantly in value.&amp;nbsp; At other times, David has owned the condo through local economic periods that have caused higher vacancy, lower cash flow and more money out of his pocket.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;During both experiences, David held true to his original buy and hold philosophy.&amp;nbsp; It has paid off and today, David has nearly $350,000 available from this single investment.&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;But, has David's investment paid off to its full potential?&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; To answer this question you need to explore Portfolio Compression techniques within a real estate portfolio.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Portfolio Compression within a real estate portfolio is a blend of property and market selection strategies which over time subscribe to the traditional &lt;strong&gt;buy and hold approach with a slight twist.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; The twist: Don't buy and hold the same properties in the same cities over the entire life of your real estate portfolio.&amp;nbsp; In other words, don't subject your real estate holdings to the good and the bad of local market economics.&amp;nbsp; When local economic conditions are good; buy and hold.&amp;nbsp; Before or as local economic conditions change; sell and reposition your real estate holdings into other cities.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The 5 Steps to Portfolio Compression&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;An underperforming real estate portfolio can be improved.&amp;nbsp; Here are the five steps to evaluating and getting your portfolio back on track:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;bull;1.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Evaluate the performance of your current real estate holdings &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;bull;2.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Create a comprehensive personalized or corporate real estate plan &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;bull;3.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Research local market conditions where you currently own investment property &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;bull;4.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Choose cities across the country in which performance data is beating the average &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;bull;5.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Establish your advisory team to successfully implement Portfolio Compression&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Financial modeling of the traditional buy and hold real estate strategy versus modeling using Portfolio Compression techniques will clearly show you the potential for significant portfolio improvements.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Remember David?&amp;nbsp; Modeling his portfolio conservatively and assuming he had used Portfolio Compression techniques over the past 12 years, David's portfolio could be valued well over $3,500,000 today with cash flow potential in commercial real estate in excess of $75,000 per year.&amp;nbsp; His current situation is not bad; however a little planning and ongoing guidance to implement a Portfolio Compression strategy plan, his results today could be significantly better than the $400,000 value and $14,000 per year cash flow he currently has.&amp;nbsp; He is now implementing that plan for the next 12 years.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Portfolio Compression techniques create (1) greater real estate portfolio diversification, (2) increased internal equity and (3) significantly greater cash flow potential for investors investing in residential housing, land and commercial real estate.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142" title="Tools to help evaluate markets" target="_blank"&gt;http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Dan Matheny (SFG)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 07 May 2007 11:36:39 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/92782/have-you-performed-your-real-estate-check-up-lately-</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/92350/two-things-every-real-estate-investor-must-have-</guid>
      <title>Two Things Every Real Estate Investor Must Have </title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://activerain.com/blogsview/91623/Two-Things-Every-Real" rel="bookmark"&gt;Two Things Every Real Estate Investor Must Have&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Confidence,&lt;/strong&gt; thats what every RE investor must have &lt;strong&gt;before&lt;/strong&gt; they &lt;strong&gt;decide to buy&lt;/strong&gt;. They want to feel good about the property, the market the property is in and a good idea where that market is heading. If their goal is appreciation, then&amp;nbsp;they must feel confident the growth rate is sustainable. If their objective is cash flow, then rental &amp;amp; vacancy rates&amp;nbsp;must not&amp;nbsp;move&amp;nbsp;against them, creating a negative cash flow situation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The only way to make the investor feel comfortable is to supply them with &lt;strong&gt;up-to-date information&lt;/strong&gt; that backs up statements from you and what they see and hear in the media. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The problem is gathering this information can be very time consuming. You may have a handle on your local market, but what about another city or a market across the country? Not to mention putting together the network required to purchase, close and manage the property purchased.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thats where &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Signil InvestorLINX&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; comes in. &lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;InvestorLINX&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; is an online market research and analysis site, updated weekly, that will help you and your clients pick the right cities for your next real estate investments and evaluate the performance of existing holdings. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Immediately access the online tool to sort, rank, analyze and pick from over 90 active metro areas including comprehensive market reports for all 374 MSA's nationwide. You will access national to zip code level mapping and ranking systems to help you make quick, informed decisions:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;diams; Find top appreciation &amp;amp; performance areas quickly&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;diams; Choose locations for maximum cash flow potential&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;diams; Monitor population &amp;amp; migration movement by state, city &amp;amp; zip code&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;diams; Research vacancy mapping at zip code levels&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Market research is time consuming. Cut your time to mere minutes by accessing the most up-to-date information as you pick the right locations for your next investments.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;diams; Monitor lower, median &amp;amp; higher property pricing trends&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;diams; Inventory &amp;amp; absorption trends&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;diams; Review executive summaries &amp;amp; market commentaries&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;diams; Weekly updates &amp;amp; ranking systems&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;diams; &lt;strong&gt;PLUS direct access to local investment professionals&lt;/strong&gt; to select specific properties, close the chosen properties and select property management companies.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Just call 877.428.3030 x 28 ask for Dan. &lt;br&gt;I'll be happy to&amp;nbsp;give you a tour of the site to&amp;nbsp;show you&amp;nbsp;how InvestorLINX&amp;nbsp;can be implemented into your business.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; or visit us online for a special offer at&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142" title="blocked::http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142"&gt;http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&amp;nbsp;</description>
      <dc:creator>Dan Matheny (SFG)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Sun, 06 May 2007 19:45:55 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/92350/two-things-every-real-estate-investor-must-have-</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/91637/welcome</guid>
      <title>Welcome</title>
      <description>Thank you for visiting my Group. I have created if so InvestorLINX members and others can share their experiences on the research and how they have been able to implement it into their business. Please let us know how you use the site and the best ways you have found to increase your pipeline and income.</description>
      <dc:creator>Dan Matheny (SFG)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Sat, 05 May 2007 17:10:33 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/91637/welcome</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/91623/two-things-every-real-estate-investor-must-have</guid>
      <title>Two Things  Every Real Estate Investor Must Have</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Confidence,&lt;/strong&gt; thats what every RE investor must have &lt;strong&gt;before&lt;/strong&gt; they &lt;strong&gt;decide to buy&lt;/strong&gt;. They want to feel good about the property, the market the property is in and a good idea where that market is heading. If their goal is appreciation, then&amp;nbsp;they must feel confident the growth rate is sustainable. If their objective is cash flow, then rental &amp;amp; vacancy rates&amp;nbsp;must not&amp;nbsp;move&amp;nbsp;against them, creating a negative cash flow situation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The only way to make the investor feel comfortable is to supply them with &lt;strong&gt;up-to-date information&lt;/strong&gt; that backs up statements from you and what they see and hear in the media. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The problem is gathering this information can be very time consuming. You may have a handle on your local market, but what about another city or a market across the country? Not to mention putting together the network required to purchase, close and manage the property purchased.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thats where &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Signil InvestorLINX&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; comes in. &lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;InvestorLINX&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; is an online market research and analysis site, updated weekly, that will help you and your clients pick the right cities for your next real estate investments and evaluate the performance of existing holdings. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Immediately access the online tool to sort, rank, analyze and pick from over 90 active metro areas including comprehensive market reports for all 374 MSA's nationwide. You will access national to zip code level mapping and ranking systems to help you make quick, informed decisions:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;diams; Find top appreciation &amp;amp; performance areas quickly&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;diams; Choose locations for maximum cash flow potential&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;diams; Monitor population &amp;amp; migration movement by state, city &amp;amp; zip code&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;diams; Research vacancy mapping at zip code levels&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Market research is time consuming. Cut your time to mere minutes by accessing the most up-to-date information as you pick the right locations for your next investments.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;diams; Monitor lower, median &amp;amp; higher property pricing trends&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;diams; Inventory &amp;amp; absorption trends&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;diams; Review executive summaries &amp;amp; market commentaries&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;diams; Weekly updates &amp;amp; ranking systems&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;diams; &lt;strong&gt;PLUS direct access to local investment professionals&lt;/strong&gt; to select specific properties, close the chosen properties and select property management companies.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Just call 877.428.3030 x 28 ask for Dan. &lt;br&gt;I'll be happy to&amp;nbsp;give you a tour of the site to&amp;nbsp;show you&amp;nbsp;how InvestorLINX&amp;nbsp;can be implemented into your business.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; or visit us online for a special offer at&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142" title="blocked::http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142"&gt;http://www.signilinvestorlinx.com/index.php?page=Home&amp;amp;ad_id=142&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Dan Matheny (SFG)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Sat, 05 May 2007 16:37:27 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/91623/two-things-every-real-estate-investor-must-have</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/90984/on-line-viral-marketing</guid>
      <title>On Line Viral Marketing</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;Last month MarketingShepra.com published a great report on Viral Marketing. It included charts, statsistics, tactics all designed to improve your results. I would highly suggest you read it. Below is the link, enjoy&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;Dan&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?id=29941" title="blocked::http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?id=29941 InvestorLINX uses Viral Marketing to increase your business" target="_self"&gt;Read More about Viral Marketing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Dan Matheny (SFG)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Fri, 04 May 2007 17:09:10 -0700</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/90984/on-line-viral-marketing</link>
    </item>
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