Everything you need in a Home

Excellent home in perfect condition. In one of the best areas of Paterson, Hillcrest Section of Paterson. The neighborhood is already great, but I have been getting even more involved to solve the inconvenience of the lack children activities. Things are changing in Paterson and their starting in the Hillcrest Section of Paterson.

Children activities in Paterson, NJ, (Boy Scouts)

So far the young girls and young ladies have had the advantage of having the Girl Scouts of America and have reaped the rewards, as the program keeps getting larger and stronger. 

Because of the success that the young ladies have had with scouting, the Boy Scouts of America is now stepping in for the City as well.  The Boy Scouts of America is starting in the Hillcrest Section of Paterson and is slowly going to spread throughout Paterson.  I'm very excited to be a part of this great addition for our young boys.  We are in the process of filling out applications and finding volunteers to head our outstanding program.  With this program, we are able to do plenty of fund raising and volunteer activities for the City of Paterson.  After we set up the program in School 27 of the Hillcrest Neighborhood Association, we will start planning more activities, like Basketball tournaments and Soccer tournaments.  We need more membership for the association to become stronger and more influential in the City.  This is all volunteer work, but the benefits that are returned are more valuable than any salary being paid at the moment.  Lets get together and get our children to help our city restore itself.

Children activities in Paterson, NJ, (Girl Scouts)

In the City of Paterson there was a lack of activities for our children, but fortunately things are changing for this great historic city.  So far the Girls Scouts is getting stronger and stronger and is already in most schools throughout the city.  The Girl Scouts of America is not just a camping or hiking group, it's a support for the city in which other activities can be easily formed for the girls.  So far there is a cheerleading team, swimming team, dance team, soccer team, etc all because the Girl Scouts of America has given the City the support needed to make such a program successful.  This program is a non profit program, which is why the costs are so low, but since it is inexpensive, the support of the parents is imperative.  Get involved with your daughters and the school and volunteer to make the program even more successful than it already is.  Lets keep our kids out of trouble and keep their minds busy.

Cub Scouting is starting in Paterson. Join and help our youth

 

 Cub Scouting is starting in the Hillcrest Section of Paterson.  Hopefully by the Summer of 2008 we will have an active Troop 27 starting for the boys of Paterson.  This is something really really huge for Paterson and for it's children.  We need support from the parents to spread this great addition to a much needed city.  If you need more information don't be afraid to contact me, Dennis Sanchez, at my office Coldwell Banker Susani Realty 973-790-6996

Paterson Future Train Station (Planned)

These are the maps of the Planned Train Station Village that is already approved by the Planning Board of the Paterson, NJ. There will be a future meeting with NJ Transit and the residents to speak about the possible repurcussions that this project may bring to the city. Please we need the residents of Paterson to step up and ask all the questions before this project is finalized. The meeting is not yet planned but I am in contact with key people that will know the exact date of the meeting.

WOW $264,900 IN HILLCREST!!!!

WE JUST DID AN INCREDIBLE PRICE REDUCTION 6/10/2008. THIS HOME IS NOW UNDER MARKET VALUE. NOW TAKING HIGHEST AND BEST OFFERS. MAKE YOUR OFFER BECAUSE THIS HOME WILL NOT LAST. GIVE ME A CALL OR EMAIL ME AT DSPERU01@HOTMAIL.COM TO SHOW YOU THIS BEAUTIFUL HOME AT SUCH A GREAT PRICE!!!!

great real estate stats. 39% first time homebuyers in 2007!!!

First-Time Home Buyers: NAR Survey of Home Buyers & Home Sellers
By: Karen Deis

Around this time every year, the National Association of Realtors® publishes a report on the home buying and home selling habits, ethnicity, age, income and demographics of different areas of the country. 

This survey has been published for over 12 years (that I know of) and while it is written specifically for the real estate industry, the information is invaluable for both loan officers and agents because it helps identify niche markets and trends, so you can target where it might be best to spend your marketing efforts and advertising dollars.

I can also assure you that not many people even know that this survey exists. This article gives you all the facts but more importantly, interprets them for you, so you know exactly what to do next.

Over the past twelve years, first-time homebuyers were responsible for buying 42% of all the homes purchased in the US.  In 2006 that number dipped to 36% but in 2007 it again increased to 39%.  Overall, 12% of first time buyers were NOT born in the United States, versus 8% of repeat buyers.  And 70% bought a home because they wanted to own real estate and establish a household. 

The National Association of Realtors® mailed 150,000 questionnaires and received 9,966 responses.  They obtained names and addresses from Experian, who maintains a database of recent buyers derived from county records.

First-time homebuyers made 39% of all home purchases.

If you don't have a system to attract first-time homebuyer prospects, you are missing almost 40 percent of the purchase market.  Yes, you can have more than one niche, however, your marketing, seminars and the way you sell to FTHB has to be unique and different. 

Living Arrangements Prior to Buying their First Home

• 75% rented an Apartment or Home prior to purchasing
• 18% Lived with Parents

Now you know where to find them. Over three-fourths are living in apartment complexes or renting single-family homes.

For 18% who are living with parents, consider marketing to your database of clients, who have children within the 24-35 age group.  Parents will recommend people they feel comfortable with and have a big influence on whom they choose.

The marital status of first time home buyers is: 

• 51% Married Couples
• 11% Unmarried Couples
• 25% Single Female
• 11% Single Male

Holding first-time homebuyer seminars is another method to attract prospects interested in purchasing a home.  However, buyers who are single, have different issues and concerns than married couples.  Consider holding "Women-Only Home Buying Seminars" or "Couples-Only" events instead of trying to be all things to all people. 

Medium Age of First-Time Home buyers.

• 52% were age 24-35 years old
• 21% where age 35-44 years old

Ages 24-35 are considered Generation X.  In Joe Burslem's blog called "Meet the New Real Estate Customer" he says that they've grown up with computers and understand technology better than Generation Y.  87% shop online and 50% do all their banking online.  Since they were raised with little or no supervision (both parents worked) they are fiercely independent, blunt and skeptical.  They've been bombarded with marketing messages since birth so they have sophist acted BS radar.

A majority of them are planning for their financial future.  They have always had easy access to credit and have been warned about Social Security not being around for them.  They don't expect a free ride and have been investing at an early age. 

When planning your marketing tactics, an awesome website is critical but you need to "tell it like it is" or they will move on!

The Average Income For First Time homebuyers

• $68K Married
• $68K Unmarried Couple
• $44K Single Female
• $52K Single Male

While this is the medium income reported, the income earned versus the price of a home in your area will vary greatly. Single females earn an average of $8,000 less, but purchase 14% more homes than single males.   

Ethnic Distribution of First Time Homebuyers

• 76% White/Caucasian;
• 10% Black;
•  8% Hispanic
•  6% Asian/Pacific Islander
• (88% were born in the US and 12% were not born here)

The responders were permitted to select as many races and ethnicities as they felt applied, so the sum exceeds 100%.  When developing your marketing pieces, consider creating them in different languages, especially for the Hispanic and Asian market! You can find websites who will translate your word docs into another language but be sure to have someone review it to make sure the translation applies to the real estate and mortgage industry. 

Purchase Price Range of First-Time Homebuyer

• 38% purchased a home in the price range of  $100K to $175K

Some areas of the country are more affordable than others.  If your MLS statistics indicate that your housing prices are out of the buying range of first time homebuyers, you may not want to add this niche to your marketing plans. 

Expected Length of Time to Buy Another home

• 28% plan to move within 5 years

In fact, 8% of those first timers plan to move within 2-3 years.  If you keep in touch on a regular basis, you stand a good chance of both listing their home and selling them another one.

Only 17% of repeat buyers plan to move within 5 years!  In working with first time homebuyers, they will buy another home within a shorter period of time than a repeat buyer, who moves every 7 to 10 years.

Information Sources For First Time Homebuyers

• 87% used the Internet to gather information
• 49% Used Newspaper Ads
• 44% Open Houses
• 30% used Home book or magazine
• 29% found they home they purchased on the Internet;
• 56% did a virtual tour online
•  9% TV

Unless you can say without a doubt that you get most of your leads by advertising in the local homes magazine, you may want to consider switching your marketing dollars to developing an awesome website.  Be sure that you have a first-time homebuyer toolbar and plenty of resources for them to read and download.  Use your marketing dollars to drive eyeballs to your site through traditional marketing, business cards, ads, etc.

How First-Time Buyers Found Agents to Work With.

• 54% relied on family, friends to help them find a real estate agent
• 32% interviewed 2 to 3 agents before choosing one to work with.
•  9% found their real estate agent on the Internet
•  1% Thru Newspaper and Home Magazine Ads

The name of the game here is networking and developing a referral-based business.  For repeat buyers, only 68% of people would DEFINITELY use their agent again, meaning that 32% are asking others for referrals all over again. 

Financing the Home Purchase

• 73% used own savings as down payment:
•  22% received gift funds
• 98% used a mortgage to finance the purchase
• 81% chose a Fixed-Rate Mortgage

Single males accumulated more of their down payment from savings than single females.  Single females relied on gifts of money.  The third source of down payment funds was from the sale of stocks and bonds.  It's important to consider this information when creating the content for first time homebuyer seminars, your website and print ads.

shorten up your URL size, VERY USEFUL!!

URL Size Does Matter By: William Koelzer Did you ever wish that the web site address (URL) that you needed to send to a home buyer was not 300 to 500 or more characters long.  Sure, in HTML mode on your email client, you could embed the URL in a hyperlink in your text, but some buyers are clueless about what a link looks like and they might miss it, right? And many Realtors, much less most buyers, won't even understand what I just said at first reading. It needs simplification. So maybe its better to just send clients a really short URL. How about shortening a long MLS address of a home you have for sale. This one is 144 characters long: http://socallistings.marketlinx.com/SearchDetail/Scripts/PrtBuyFul/PrtBuyFul.asp?emailGUID=ab32821d-9d11-4672-a749-88d32d247034&AgentId=SFERRDEB Wouldn't it be nicer and safer to just send the client a shorter URL? Say one that is only 25 characters long? How about: http://tinyurl.com/48qh4t.  See, long URLS are dangerous because clients can make mistakes typing a long URL, or even in copying and pasting one, and an error means that the link would not work. Meaning YOU have to waste time resending the link. Some Mapquest.com links are interminably long...although the one below is only 109 characters long: http://www.mapquest.com/maps/240+Calle+Pintoresco+San+Clemente+CA+92672-7504/3000+paradise+road+las+vegas+nv/ But even then, a 25-character one that goes to the same place would be much nicer, huh? How about: http://tinyurl.com/3rrd2g Small URLS are also important now on sites like www.Twitter.com which many web-savvy agents use to enhance their positions on the search engines which often read certain kinds of twitter and twitter-related entries.  You can even have your twitter entries appear on your blog to give you extra key word value if you want. On these Twitter-esque sites you are limited in each post to, say, 150 characters. Well, the value of a tiny URL is obvious here. You can relay far more info if your URL chews up less characters. Some of you are way ahead of me in already figuring out where to go to get your long urls made tiny. Yes, Virginia, you DO go to http://TinyURL.com which is the same site as www.TinyURL.com. Just go there, paste in your long, obnoxious 500 character URL, and TinyURL instantly changes it into one that is usually about 25 characters long or less. Then, that URL, when clicked upon, takes you to the same place that the long URL would have taken you. You can even drag a link, that is on TinyURL.com's home page, to your "Links" section of your browser toolbar and thereafter, whenever you click on your links menu, TinyUrl will be a clickable choice that takes you fast to http://TinyURL.com. Look at this next cool feature that TinyURL talks about on their site: Redirection to any page in your site! With TinyURL, you can also make a smaller URL that will work for any page on your site. Let's say that you have a website with the homepage that is at: http://www.my-internet-isp.com/~myusername Entering that URL into TinyURL will create a URL like http://tinyurl.com/3 With this, you can then redirect someone to anywhere within your site by appending a slash and the page's file name to it. Therefore, if you have a page at http://www.my-internet-isp.com/~myusername/my-links-page.html, you can use the URL http://tinyurl.com/3/my-links-page.html and going to this URL will forward the visitor to the page in your website. Maybe you're posting a link as an affiliate of a manufacturer and you do not want your site visitors to know from the URL that you're an affiliate. Then just turn the affiliate link into a TinyURL, hiding it that way, and you're done. As we get more into Web 2.0 and social networking sites, the value of shorter URLS will become even more important.  And if you are one of those belligerent ones who insist on keeping their 50-character web site address that every expert told you a million times to get rid of, take hope.  Yes, I'm talking about that monster home page address that you've stretched in 6 point type across half your business card---so that no one can read it anyway; well, now you can now KEEP that wretched long URL.  Just use the tiny URL address as a stand-in.

mistakes agents make

Top 5 Biggest Mistakes Agents Make By: Tim and Julie Harris 1. Thinking Real Estate Is Only A Numbers Business. That's very old school thinking. Yes, numbers are important for tracking your business. However, this is a people helping business. Always focus on what you are here to give. The numbers always follow. 2. Thinking of their Commission first. Too many agents focus on ‘making money'. In other words they don't put ‘being of service to others' ahead of ‘earning a commission. Learn how to help others in this market. All the rules have changed. Learn those new rules and the money will always follow. 3. Failing to Create Multiple Sources Of Leads. Think of it this way, if your only source of leads is over the phone prospecting, calling FSBOs, Expireds etc...what happens to your business when you decide to take a day off? What happens if you can't make the prospecting calls because maybe you have laryngitis? Simple answer, no new business. You must have at least 3-4 predictable sources of new leads. 4. Only Working When You Feel Like It. ‘I am not motivated' is one of the top excuses agents use to not take action. Here is a little secret for you: No One Feels Motivated Every Day. The successful agents work every day regardless of how they ‘feel'. 5. Confusing Busy Work With...Work. Listen, if you don't have the consistency in your real estate business its because you don't work consistently. There are 5-6 things you must do every day to be successful long terms in this (or any business). You must: Generate new leads, follow up with your existing leads, sift and sort your current leads for motivation, Negotiate contracts, and Present to Buyers and Sellers. Work in these areas daily, with consistency, to achieve consistent income.

PRICE REDUCTION!!!

I JUST GOT THE PRICE REDUCTION TODAY 5/30/08. GETTING PLENTY OF PHONE CALLS ALREADY!! THIS HOME IS DEFINITELY A HOT HOME. CALL AS SOON AS YOU CAN TO GET YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO VIEW THIS BEAUTIFUL HOME. YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!!!