Jason Donn's Blog

Miami Vice Realty and Leasing

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Thu, 06 May 2010 08:40:19 -0700

You know I will shoot them Tubbs! Tell them to sign the contract. We haven't sold a condo on South Beach in months and their about to repo my Ferrari if I don't earn a commission.

They've already taken the boat and their not taking my car.

Tell them I can get them a 100 per cent no doc mortgage - fixed for Pete's sake. Just make them sign so I don't have to shoot them.

eRealEstateSocial.com

9 Secrets to Successful Blogging

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:04:30 -0800

What’s that you say?! There are secrets to successful blogging! Well, heck… I thought I had this whole freakin thing figured out.

Not to worry my friend, some of these you may have already heard, yet others you may not have. Either way, it’s best to get yourself in the know now isn’t it?

New blogs are popping up everyday… Many of which are created by people with the intent on making it big on the internet but have now idea where or how to start to achieve their goals of online success. Sure you can set up your blog and simply start sharing your passion in the hopes that someone will listen but if you truly want to make money you may not know how to go about do so.

Here are 9 blogging secrets you must know before you can achieve the ultimate goal of blogging success.

Have a Plan

If you intend to generate any type of income online, let alone a significant one, you must plan for success. Treat your blog like a business and run it as one. As with any business, you need to have a business plan in place to help you meet your goals and achieve the success you desire. What are your short-term, mid-term and long-term goals and how are you going to go about accomplishing them. Spend a significant amount of time on developing your plan in an effort to provide yourself with clarity as well as a complete road map to success.

Share Your Passion

It is one thing to simply write content and post it on your blog. However, it is a completely different thing all together to share something you are passionate about with others. Passion attracts others and can help to bring your personality out in your blog posts making it easier for others to connect with you. If you aren’t passionate about your topic of discussion, your blog posts will seem mundane and boring to those who read them. Being passionate will also ensure you provide more detail and higher quality content your readership will greatly appreciate, and when they appreciate you, they will send others your way!
Be Committed

To truly succeed at blogging, online or any business venture for that matter, you must be truly committed toward achieving the success you desire. This means your commitment must transcend to each and every task necessary to achieving your goals. Stick to a regular posting schedule and commit time daily to write your blog posts, interact on social media sites, comment on other blogs, write guest posts for other blogs and all the other things a problogger does to run their business and achieve their goals of successful blogging. A strong commitment is an absolute must if you hope to succeed online.

Know Your Audience

As you probably know, you need an audience who is truly interested in what you have to say and listens to you by reading your blog posts, listing to your audio or viewing your videos. However, simply having an audience is not enough to allow you to achieve success with blogging. You must know your audience completely. Learn their desires and wants, learn how they are communicating and what they are saying. Read every comment on your blog posts and interact with your audience daily. Ask for their input into certain topics and share your appreciation for their continued participation with them. Getting to know your blog audience will go a long way in helping you craft appropriate products for you to sell to them.
Communicate Effectively

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen bloggers and internet entrepreneurs go to the trouble of establishing their internet presence then alienate their audience through ineffective communication. Study copywriting to learn how to write compelling headlines for your blog posts and learn how to effectively communicate with your audience through the various outlets available to you, such as your blog, social media and email communications. Never talk at your audience, but rather talk to them and with them. Successful internet marketing isn’t a matter of whether or not you can push as many of your products onto your audience as you can, but rather it is how well you can effectively communicate with your audience, build relationships and establish customer loyalty.

Interact with Others in Your Industry

As with effective communication, it is important that you dedicate quality time to hanging out where your audience plays on the internet and interacting with them. You must visit other bloggers within your industry and comment on their content, providing value to their readership. The more you comment and share quality the more likely you’ll build up a following and establish solid relationships with not only other bloggers but with their audience as well… Communicate and interact with others on Facebook and Twitter as well as other social networking sites. Always remember, interacting with others through social media is very much like a networking event or party. You wouldn’t go to either and start instantly selling your products. The most successful internet marketers are those who understand this and simply live their life, sharing value, quality and interacting with others. Those who are successful at this will be the most successful ones at the party ;-)

Have an Email List

If you aren’t actively building an email list on your blog and you have hopes of achieving internet fortune and fame, you mine as well quit right now! Any business needs a sales list. It is your life blood, your working capital if you will. Without an email list, your online business is practically crippled. Conduct a survey of the most successful bloggers in your industry and you will find that every single one of them has an email list. In the blogging community, Aweber is the preferred email list building and communication system. If you don’t have an account, I suggest you set one up now!
Sell Your Own Products

Many bloggers do well by marketing other people’s products through affiliate programs, but the truly successful ones sell their own products. Why, cuz you can keep all the money! Ask yourself what is one thing in your industry that people tend to come to you about in which they seek an answer or solution to a particular need and then turn the answer to that question into a product. Dave Navarrow over at TheLaunchCoach.com has a great blog post that is down right quick and dirty on how to create a product over the weekend. I suggest you read it and follow Dave as he has some great advice on his blog around creating and launching products.

Give Without Want Before You Can Receive

I can’t stress this enough! The whole point of blogging is to share your passion. Write a minimum of 10 blog post which contain your best content. These are known as your “Foundation Posts” and will serve as the pillar to your online success. Your foundation posts immediately provide your audience with value thus encouraging them to want to share your content with others inevitably driving traffic to your blog and increasing your audience. Blogging success is 90% give and 10% asking for something in return. Continue to provide your audience with valuable content and they will keep coming back for more. Here’s a little secret for you, as an example, many of my blog posts tell you what you need to do or what you should be doing, while many of the products I sell show you exactly how to do it. Can you see the value in that? I spend 90% of my time providing you with the knowledge and techniques of internet marketing you should be doing and the other 10% showing you how to do it. And believe me, that 10% can make you a whole lot of money. Find the balance in your blogging and give without want before you can receive. Doing so will increase your blogs readership, your email list and your bank account.

Maybe the above isn’t so secret, but if you found value in it and were enlightened, then I’ve accomplished my task :-)

Please retweet and share this post if you found it informative and valuable, thank you!

To Your Success!

Sean Smith

Social Media Today

Source Article Posted by Mark Waters on eRealEststeSocial.com

Your Client is Spending MORE Time on Social Networks

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:40:54 -0800

Via Ross Hair (Real Estate Advocate):

Take a look at how much more time your clients spent on social networks in 2009! That's right, your clients spent 82% more time on social networks compared to one year ago.

The latest figures released by Nielsen show that members spend 82% more time on social networks than they did just one year ago. That's an astonishing five and a half hours average per month and it confirms what everyone already suspects - that your customer is online and hangs out in social networks.

Facebook remains the leader of the pack and on Christmas day it finally unseated Google and celebrated its first day as the most visited site on the internet. Facebook also reported the registration of its 350 millionth user account as well as unique monthly visitors of over 109 million people.

It bears saying again and again that you need to adapt your business marketing to include social media and particularly Facebook.

www.rosshair.com

www.facebook.com/rosshair

www.twitter.com/rosshair

5 Steps to Using LinkedIn Effectively and a Hot Tip

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:34:50 -0800

By Jason Donn

LinkedIn is an incredible tool for the real estate industry in terms of networking with clients, qualified professionals and industry leaders. But without taking the proper steps, you may find yourself struggling to connect and grow your business to its highest potential. We’ve come up with some essential steps to follow to make sure you are getting the most out of LinkedIn.

Sell Yourself Through Your Profile

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. It’s true when you go on a blind date, when going on a job interview, and certainly when someone comes across your profile on LinkedIn. If your profile is incomplete or unclear, you can bet a potential client is moving on to find someone else to work with.

LinkedIn will guide you in providing relevant information about yourself, but it’s important to make an extra effort in filling out your profile. One to five-word answers are not helping your cause. You want to make sure that anyone who comes across your profile understands who you are, what you do and the types of services you can provide. You should also include:

• Professional Interests
• Goals
• Enriching Past Experiences

The Headline

One of the most important parts of the LinkedIn profile is the headline beneath your name. While it seems like an inconsequential blurb that tells people what you do, it may be the single most important line of text in your profile. Think of it as a newspaper headline.

Every Sunday morning you sit down with your coffee and start scanning the headlines for interesting articles. The story with the most interesting headline is usually where you start reading. It is also the story you are most likely to tell others about, as long as the story is complete.

You need to have a compelling headline with a completed profile backing it up. LinkedIn users are looking to connect with competent people whom they can benefit from. No one wants to try and find out more information about you, only to see that very little of your profile is actually filled out. If someone comes across your profile headline, your goal is to make them want to find out more about you by continuing to read down the page.

Example: John Q Public – Mortgage Broker – Trying to network with real estate agents and customers. His headline reads:

“Mortgage Broker with 20 years of experience.”

The above headline is pretty vanilla. It is what you would expect from about 80 percent of all mortgage brokers to have as their headline. John doesn’t stand out. If I’m a potential client, here are my assumptions based on that headline:

“John is an older man that’s been in the business a long time. He’s probably someone that is comfortable with existing loan programs that have gotten the job done in the past. He isn’t concerned about emerging opportunities or programs that might help save me some money should I do business with him. He might be at the end of his career and just trying to earn a few extra dollars before retiring.”

You are probably saying to yourself, “That’s not fair. You are making a lot of assumptions about someone you don’t even know.” And you would be right. However, the reality is, people make those snap judgements every day. It doesn’t make it right – but it happens. As quick as that judgement was made, I’ve moved on to someone else’s profile even quicker. So what should John have written?

How about…

“Experienced and cutting-edge broker providing innovative mortgage solutions to clients.”

What makes this better? The headline makes you ask some questions and piques interest in who John is, including…

“What makes John so cutting edge?”
“What kind of experience does John have?”
“What kind of innovative mortgage solutions does John know about?”
“Where does John work that allows him to be so innovative?”

All you want is to generate that little bit of interest that keeps your profile in front of a potential networking opportunity. Once they are hooked, a completed profile will give you the best opportunity to make some kind of connection. You may have a shared hometown, gone to the same college or maybe even worked in the same building and never knew it. If someone is making an effort to find out more about you, the chances of working together have exponentially increased.

Building Your Network

Important to remember is that networking is not a one-way street. Too many times people get caught up in the notion of, “What can you do for me?” Instead you should be figuring out ways to get in front of someone. Fortunately, when it comes to LinkedIn, you can let people know exactly how you can help through contacting them and asking people to be a part of your network.

Your easiest connections will be with those you already know. Co-workers, friends, business associates and even your significant other should be a part of your LinkedIn network. Once this first level of connections have been established, you will then be able to view the profiles of everyone they know. You can see how once you get the ball rolling, connections can be picked up easily as you start going down the hill of a broadening network.

Your initial connection with contacts that you trust gives you a better chance of growing a reliable network. If everyone works toward building their LinkedIn network methodically and carefully, everyone can benefit from stable business connections. Soon you will find yourself connecting across a broad range of industries. A friend of someone in your network may be looking for real estate assistance. Wouldn’t it be nice if they were referred to you or if they told them, “I know the perfect person who can help you.” If you got even one deal out of building your LinkedIn network, wouldn’t it be worth it?

Benefit From Your Connections

Your network has been established, but what’s next? There are many reasons why people use LinkedIn. Most popular is networking to find job opportunities. If you are in the real estate industry, the main objective is to grow your business. Look over all your connections and see who might be able to help you generate business.

If you are, for example, a real estate agent, you may be networked with a small-business owner or CEO of a company. You could offer your services to their employees who may be relocating to the area. Or maybe you are a lender that has connected with a homebuilder. He or she might need someone they can trust to offer financing to potential customers. In other words, don’t look at your network in such black and white terms of client or competition.

Talking with your connections will help you find out how they conduct their business. Learn about what works and what does not for others in similar positions as you. Conversely, take part in discussions and questions that are posed by your fellow LinkedIn members. You stand to benefit more if people in your network know that you are someone they can trust and provide answers. Sometimes just checking in with the people on your LinkedIn network can cut down on the cold, business aspect of life. People appreciate it when they are asked how life is going – especially if it isn’t followed up by a business proposal.

Social Networking Management

Changes in technology have caused people to adapt and generate new ideas. As a result, an expectation has been set that requires everyone to continuously be moving or risk being left behind. The same goes for your LinkedIn profile. Your situation changes sometimes daily, weekly or monthly. Your profile should reflect those changes and you can expect that changes by others could help you down the road. A connection of yours might have gotten a promotion and is now in charge of hiring for a company. Maybe a client you are working with is looking for employment. You can introduce the two parties and help grow your credibility in the meantime.

Any time you go to a Chamber luncheon or meet someone and exchange business cards, your next step is to check out their LinkedIn profile. What a great way to make an impression if you can immediately connect with them by sending them a message through LinkedIn saying, “It was great meeting you today. I am looking forward to helping you in any way that I can in the future. Let’s set up a time to meet for lunch and talk further.” Keep the focus on helping them rather than what they can do for you.

Join Groups

A great way to make yourself an expert in the LinkedIn world is through the world of groups. Groups are set up by fellow LinkedIn members and can cover a variety of topics from “small-business owners” to more focused groups such as “Miami Real Estate Agents.” By joining groups you have the opportunity to meet fellow industry leaders. You can discuss relevant topics and provide an avenue for people from across the country or in your own backyard to connect. The idea is the same. Answer questions and pose your own. Work together to create a solid group and an even better network connection.

Hot Tip on Groups

Join an open networker group. Become an open networker. What’s an open networker and an open networker group on LinkedIn? An open networker on LinkedIn is a user that accepts all invitations and should never respond to an invitation with “I don’t know”. An open networker group is a group that proclaims itself as such: TopLinked, LION(LinkedIn Open Networkers or Leading International Open Networkers), and the most important one to join if you have anything to do with the real estate industry is the Real Estate Open Networkers(REON) and Building New Real Estate Connections. REON is by far the largest open network group for the real estate industry. It ranks 157 out of ALL 430,000 groups on LinkedIn and is specifically for real estate and the related industries. Chances are if you are reading this you are already a member of the Real Estate Open Networkers group. Now share any of these groups with your connections. Someone will usually thank you and that in itself increases your online reputation.

Following the above steps will get your LinkedIn profile primed for developing network connections beyond your own belief. What might seem like a lot of work is actually a lot of common sense. Yes, you will have to be creative and write a little more about yourself than you may be comfortable doing. But the end result is definitely worth the extra time. After all, if you are not willing to put the time into branding yourself, why would someone who needs your help think you would have time for them?

Happy Networking!!! eRealEstateSocial.com

The Virtual Real Estate Brokerage and Office - WEB 3.0

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:14:26 -0800

Via Brad Andersohn ~ Community Manager (ActiveRain):

The Virtual Real Estate Brokerage and Office of the Future Today! - WEB 3.0

What does the future Real Estate Brokerage and Office really look like? If you decide to read on, it may change your perception of what the "Virtual Real Estate World" could look like in the future. While Secondlife is the Internets largest user-created, 3D virtual world community, and used primarily for Social Networking, eXp Realty has taken this same concept, and created a Business Model where the Real Estate Brokerage and Office is 100% Virtual. They are using the invisible walls of the Internet as their "Brick and Morter" office.

Their Business Model is defined as "The Worlds First Fully Immersive WEB 3.0. Real Estate Brokerage."

Last month, while at REBarCamp in San Diego, I got to meet and spend some time with Dale Kreiser, eXp REalty's Washington State Broker. He shared what their company was doing, and how well it was working for them. When I returned to the office, I did some research on their company and their site. I was "Blown Away" at what Glenn Sanford - Founder and CEO and their team have created! Could this really be the Real Estate Office and Business Model of the Future for Brokerages and even the smaller Mom & Pop offices?

Here's a video clip from a discussion held at that REBarCamp in San Diego. The topic? What does the Real Estate Brokerage of the future look like? It's an interesting discussion with Tom Ferry, Stefan Swanepoel, Wendy Forsythe, Sherry Chris, Dale Kreiser and others. What is the "New" strategy or tactic? Here's a hint of what you're about to see; The future is HERE now!
I've a strong suspicion that these guys may be onto something here...

So I called Dale and asked him for a "Virtual Tour" of their "Virtual Office." He and Glenn agreed to let me share that tour with you via this recorded video. For me personally, this was really the next best thing to actually being there. I felt like I was there. Now anyone that knows me well, also knows that I love all the new technology that is being introduced to our Industry, but I am also a practical person and want to be certain that this stuff really works. Don't just tell me it does....SHOW ME!!

This video is a bit longer than I wanted, but I edited out over 40 minutes of some really great stuff I wish I could have shared with you all, maybe another time. I would encourage you to watch the entire thing, I'd hate for you to miss any of this one. Sit back in that comfy chair of yours, relax, and enjoy this first ever virtual office tour...

Is this the way some Real Estate Company's and Brokerages will operate in the future? Yes, here's one already. Are these guys way ahead of their time? Maybe, but after today's tour, I realized that just talking with them about it, and then visiting their website was no comparison and nothing like "virtually being there!" I had no clue how well this was all put together. It was nothing short of interesting, fascinating, and awesome!

The Virtual Real Estate Brokerage and Office - WEB 3.0 So tell me what you're thinking at this moment...

"RainMaker" Special - Signup Here for New Member Discount
Visit RainCamp™ - "Because The Way We Do Business Has Changed!"

The Seven C's of Success

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:56:18 -0800

2010's choice comes from Brian Tracy and is simply called: The Seven C's of Success

Brian, after having studied top achievers and peak performers over the past 25 years, concluded that these unique men and women, have in most cases, mastered what he
calls The Seven C´s of Success.

1. Clarity - Eighty percent of success comes from being clear on who you are, what you believe in and what you want.

2. Competence - You can't climb to the next rung on the ladder until you are excellent at what you do now.

3. Constraints - Eighty percent of all obstacles to success come from within. Find out what is constraining in you or your company and deal with it

4. Concentration - The ability to focus on one thing single-mindedly and see it through until it's done takes more character than anything else.

5. Creativity - Flood your life with ideas from many sources. Creativity needs to be exercised like a muscle, if you don't use it you'll lose it.

6. Courage - Most in demand and least in supply, courage is the willingness to do the things you know are right

7. Continuous learning - Read, at the very least, one book a week on business to keep you miles ahead of the competition. And just as you eat and bathe, organize your time so you spend 30 minutes a day exploring e-mail, sending messages, going through web sites, because like exercise, it's the only way you can keep on top of technology. If you get away from it, you'll lose your edge.ur edge.

Jason Donn, Who am I?

Must Have FREE REAL ESTATE BLOG WIDGETS for your blog

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:44:09 -0800

Via Megan Faust (Virtu-Assist):

We have all seen the cool blogs on-line with flash animation and all kinds of extra goodies on the sidebar. If you want to add some awesome to your blog or website then take a look at this carefully comprised list of the TOP FREE REAL ESTATE WIDGETS!

You may have heard the word "widget" before but do you really know what a widget is? In simple terms adding a widget (sometimes also referred to as a badge or feed) to your website or blog is like inserting a window or a special box that can pull information from a third party resource.

Not only are all of these extras really useful they are all also 100% FREE! So here you go:

TOP 25 FREE REAL ESTATE WIDGETS & BLOG PLUGINS

BEST FREE BLOG WIDGETS:

Share on Facebook - A simple widget that allows your readers to share items from your blog on Facebook.

Add This - The popular social bookmarking button is available.

Twitter - Add your Twitter stream to your blog and display anywhere from your last tweet to the last twenty. Also gives a link for people to be able to follow you.

Skype - The official Skype widget allows you to create various buttons that can show your current status and also allows people to just click it and give you a call.

Meebo Me - Meebo Me will allow you to create a chat box that you can install on your Blogger page, giving you the chance to converse with visitors to your site.

Jaxtr - Create a widget that allows people to call you on the phone without revealing the phone number to them.

MyBlogLog - If someone visits your blog that is also a member of MyBlogLog, their avatar and username will appear in the box. You can then click on any person to check out their profile on the service.

LinkedInABox - LinkedInABox retrieves your LinkedIn profile to display on your blog, allowing people to look through things such as your specialties and experience.

Flickr- You can generate an HTML or Flash based badge of your photo stream to share your images with your visitors.

PollDaddy - PollDaddy lets you create beautiful polls in no time, and display them at your blog.

Odeo player - display an Odeo player for and podcast right there in your sidebar.

YouTube Video Gallery: showcase your YouTube videos (like property tours)

BEST FREE REAL ESTATE WIDGETS FOR BLOGS & WEBSITES:

Eppraisal Widgets

City Home Values: Include median home values for a city of your choice and an easy way for your visitors to look up their own. Including this widget in your site can reinforce your commitment to serve a particular market effectively and satisfy your visitor's curiosity all in one easy-to-use widget.

Home Values: Include this redesign of our classic home value widget to allow your visitors to quickly get an eppraisal home valuation for any address they choose.

Trulia Widgets (this links to the widget homepage so you can view all options)

Trulia Stats: Shows a graph of the median or average listing price and listing volume for any location you choose.

Trulia Map: TruliaMap is a free tool to help real estate professionals showcase their listings on an interactive, easy-to-use map on their Websites.

TruliaHomeroll: The TruliaHomeroll widget shows the latest properties for sale on Trulia in your local area.

Mortgage Rates Live rates for mortgages & mortgage rate calculators

Home Staging RSS Feed: Home Staging Ideas and examples

Slide allows you to quickly create an embeddable Flash graphic very quickly-which can be used for creating a virtual tour or listing presentation, etc.

Vflyer Listings Widget: Post classified ads on any website or blog through the vFlyer listing widget. Works like a self service banner ad. Simply get a vFlyer account (free for consumers), create attractive classified ads or "virtual flyers" and you are ready to syndicate them using the vFlyer listing widget.

Rentbits Widget: displays the current average rental price for up to any four locations for comparing rental prices.

Postlets.com: this is a property syndication website that is completely free which develops a single property webpage (branded with your information) that allows you to then use an embed code for your property flyer!

Facebook Listing Widget: By Realtor.com (display them on your wall for free with this widget on Facebook.)

Top Producer Market Snapshot: Free application (If you are a Top Producer market snapshot user) allows you to add your listings to your Facebook profile & Fan pages.

Still want more- check out this article: Social Media Marketing Tips

If you want to add more options to your blog but don't know how to use these applications feel free to contact me, your Real Estate Virtual Assistant, for help getting it all set up.

Megan Faust | Founder, REVA
VIRTU-ASSIST
Real Solutions For Realtors!
Phone: 1-251-216-4080
Fax: 1-888-222-7962
Email: megan@virtu-assist.com
Skype: Virtu-Assist
www.virtu-assist.com

You Should Set Up Five Twitter Accounts - Real Estate Social Media Power Tips

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 23:12:58 -0800

Via Ross Hair (Real Estate Advocate):

Here's how to be a power real estate social media marketer using Twitter.

Unlike Facebook or Linked In, Twitter allows you to set up multiple accounts. I'm not absolutely sure as to the number of accounts you can have but I know people with 50 plus accounts. You certainly don't need that many but I encourage you to set up at least five accounts.

To set up an account you simply go to Twitter.com and sign up for an account.

Naming your Accounts

You should name your first account after your own name - if it's available.

As an example, my name is Ross Hair and I have a Twitter account at http://twitter.com/rosshair. You should click on this link and follow me to see how it works.

Twitter asks for a "Name" and and "Username".

Your name will be your own name. It's important that you write your first name and last name as two words. If your name is Mary Smith you must write your name as "Mary Smith" and not "MarySmith".

You will notice that my username is @rosshair and my name is Ross Hair. I can use a different name than my username but I have not done so for my personal account.

Your second account should be a general account for your local real estate market.

I work primarily with real estate investors in Denver so my user name is @DenverProperty or http://twitter.com/denverproperty. However notice that I didn't name my account Denver Property but rather Denver Real Estate. The reason for this is that I want to be found by people who search using the keyword "real estate".

Your third account should reflect your specialization or expertise. If you're a short sale expert then get the username DallasShortSale and the name Dallas Short Sale.

Your fourth and fifth accounts should be variations of the last two accounts. Use a name that reflects your other area of specialization or a more focused or more local real estate area.

One quick tip! Focus most of your efforts into your primary account.

Ross Hair is the Real Estate Advocate.

Homeless Grants Awarded Nearly $1.4 Billion

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 23:01:47 -0800

The Obama Administration today announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is renewing grant funding needed to keep thousands of local homeless assistance programs operating. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said a total of nearly $1.4 billion will help an unprecedented 6,445 programs to continue offering critically needed housing and services to homeless persons and families.

The grants announced today are being awarded through HUD’s Continuum of Care programs. For the first time ever, HUD is quickly providing renewal grants to local programs to prevent any interruption in federal assistance and will announce funding to new projects in early 2010. For a local summary of the grants announced today, visit HUD’s website.

Originally posted on eRealEstate by Jennifer Griner

Jason Donn, eRealEstate

34 Interesting FaceBook Statistics and Facts

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:19:21 -0800

Lets put the spotlight on Facebook for a while.

We have gathered 34 interesting Facebook statistics and facts to help us learn more about this social networking giant (it’s updated).

Most of these statistics are taken from Facebook and independent studies that we have written on.

Catch the list below!

a. Statistics

1. It has 350 million users: Yes! Facebook has that many users. On average, 50% of its active users log on to Facebook everyday. The fastest growing demographic is the 35 years and older age group.

2. Fans: Everyday, more than 10 million users become fans of Pages. Join us here :)

3. Average number of friends: An average user has 130 friends on Facebook.

4. Time wasted spent: Alright.. more than 6 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide). That is twice as much as the time spent on Google.

5. Status Updates: There are more than 55 million status updates daily. (I bet Twitter has more!)

6. Photos: More than 2.5 billion photos are uploaded to the site each month

7. Videos: 14 million videos are uploaded each month

8. Content: More than 3.5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared each week

9. Events: More than 3.5 million events are created each month

10. Groups: More than 45 million active user groups exist on the site currently

11. Multinational: More than 70 translations are available on the site and about 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States

12. Applications engagement: Every month, more than 70% of Facebook users engage in Platform applications

13. Active Applications: More than 350,000 active applications are on Facebook’s Platform

14. Applications with more than 1 million users: More than 250 applications have more than one million monthly active users

15. Facebook connect: More than 15,000 websites, devices and applications have integrated Facebook Connect since its general availability in December 2008

16. Facebook mobile addicts: There are more than 65 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices. People who use Facebook on their mobile devices are almost 50% more active than non-mobile users!

17. Facebook Pages: More than 1.6 million active Pages on Facebook and have created more than 5.3 billion fans!

b. On average, a Facebook user:

18. has 130 friends on the site

19. sends 8 friend requests per month

20. spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook

21. clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content each month

22. writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month

23. becomes a fan of 2 Pages each month

24. is invited to 3 events per month

25. is a member of 12 groups

c. Facts

26. Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire: That’s according to the latest Forbes list.

27. Mark’s settlement: In June 2008, Mark Zuckerberg paid a 65 million dollar settlement to close a long-running legal battle, concerning whether Mark stole the Facebook idea from his former room mate.

28. Offices: Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif. U.S. offices: Atlanta; Chicago; Dallas; Detroit; New York; Venice Beach, Calif. International offices: Dublin, Ireland; London; Paris; Sydney; Toronto.

29. Facebook Disease: Psychologists have introduced the diagnosis FAD (Facebook Addiction Disorder), as a new kind of addiction disorder. Perhaps SMAA can help.

30. Facebookers are Tech lovers: Yeap, most Facebook users are attracted to tech related updates and links.

31. Facebook helps to nap criminals: Here is a burglar example.

32. Facebook Twitter background: It has a Twitter bird on it.

33. Facebook can cause jealousy: Research says.

34. Facebook has more men than women: This is according to Brian Solis’ data, an original thought leader of social media.

Posted by Angelina Hurst on eRealEstate

JASON DONN, eRealEstate Social Media

Ashton Kutcher and Real Estate Social Media

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:37:26 -0800

Via Ross Hair (Real Estate Advocate):

(Picture by Jill Greenberg)

I wanna be like Tiger, I mean Aston!

Ok, I know what you're thinking - "What's Ashton Kutcher got to do with real estate social media marketing? What can I learn from that half wit from That 70's Show?"

The answer is ‘everything"!

In the space of less than two years, Ashton Kutcher created the ultimate online social brand that now allows his new media company, Katalyst, to leverage social media and print money.

Ashton is the most popular guy on the internet, with over 4 million followers on Twitter (where he famously beat out Oprah in a race to be the first to 1 million friends) and 3 million friends on Facebook.

Check his profiles for yourself:

http://twitter.com/aplusk or @aplusk

http://facebook.com/ashton

Basically, Ashton did everything you need to do, just on a global instead of a local scale.

You need to be your local Ashton Kutcher!

You need to create an online social brand that will allow you to dominate your local real estate market. You need to be the most well known name in your market and be in a position where everyone wants to be your friend and begs you to take their business.

Just like Ashton!

To read more about how you can be the next local real estate superstar, take a look at this excellent article on Ashton by Fast Company.

About Ross Hair @rosshair

Ross Hair is bald. Ross is also the Real Estate Advocate and a real estate social media nut.

Four Easy Steps to Using Twitter for Business Coordination

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:22:05 -0800

Twitter's ability to streamline business practices is oft-cited when industry analysts try to predict what form the fast-growing microblogging platform will take and identify where the service's greatest benefits lie. For most of us, though, we don't have the faintest idea what they're talking about - because most people use Twitter as a sort of personal overlay over their lives, a digital layer which overlaps their workplace, their commute, the social events - just about anywhere the user chooses to let it. Using Twitter for business coordination is a very different concept, but it's significantly easier than you might think - especially now that Twitter has created the Twitter lists feature.

Here's how to get your team, project or business coordinated on Twitter, simply and easily, without the need for a third-party Twitter application for business coordination:

Step 1: Get your employees or team members dedicated Twitter accounts.

You'll want your team or company to be using dedicated Twitter accounts, not just using accounts they might already have. You'll probably want them all to have a prefix or suffix to their username to indicate their status as a team member. Each account should have its updates set to "Private" so that outsiders can't spy on your team's Twitter conversations. Each team member can share, briefly, his/her role and responsibilities in the Twitter profile.

Step 2: Get your employees or team members networked to one another on Twitter.

You'll want to collect all of your employees or team members' Twitter usernames in one central location. The easiest way to do this, probably, is to have one person collect all of the Twitter usernames and create a Twitter list containing the entire team or company. Then each team member can follow the list and approve the other team members to follow them. Once you're done with that, you now have a networked set of Twitter users whose tweets can only be seen by each other, and who can all see each other's tweets. The infrastructure is in place.

Step 3: Get your employees or team members familiar with a Twitter client.
If your team members are going to work together on Twitter, they're going to need to figure out how to get onto it. Your best bet is to choose a simple, straightforward Twitter client that accomplishes your team's purposes - most of the time people just need a basic Twitter client like Tweetdeck. Make sure your employees know how to customize the client's visual settings to create an optimal default configuration that's likely to match the skill level of your team. Once you've finished this step, you'll have a team or company, seated at their Twitter clients, connected to their private communication channel. Then what?

Step 4: Lay down the ground rules and get people trained.

Since Twitter is such a new and different communication medium, you're going to want to lay down some major ground rules before you get started. Make sure your employees or team members know that they shouldn't mix their company Twitter accounts with their personal ones; they should be enclosed bubbles that don't connect to one another. Decide ahead of time on abbreviations, slang, etc, that you're all going to use to communicate on Twitter. Being able to quickly understand what your teammates are saying is critical, so making sure everyone's using a vocabulary that they all understand is key to making this all work.

You'll want to spend a lot of time on this last step, since setting up the Twitter business coordination network itself is actually the easiest part, compared to the actual task of convincing your team members to use it and to make sure that they all use Twitter in a way that improves the quality or efficiency of the work being done.

Overall, using Twitter for business coordination with your company or team isn't particularly difficult to set up - especially thanks to the Twitter lists feature which allows team leaders to quickly create sub-teams or goal-oriented groups. The entire operation can be set up with no investment of capital (assuming that employees all already have access to a Twitter-capable device) and can be up and running in under a day. Once it's up, of course, you'll have a bigger job on your hands - managing your team in 140 characters or less.

Originally posted on eRealEstate by Peter Goldenrod

Jason Donn, eRealEstate

Top 10 Social Media Tracking and Analytics Tools

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:12:55 -0800

No one can deny the fact that today social media are great source of valuable marketing tools. But tracking the social media could be relatively new term for many people. Keeping track of your scores on social media and content outlets on the web is very important. One needs to understand the fact that by tracking you can respond quickly so as on what people are talking about you or your product/brand. For example, a business would like to track what is been discussed about his brand across the web – are they creating a buzz or they are criticizing the product? So here, by tracking the most vital conversations about the business product/service, you get a better chance to identify the influential people in the niche, and to figure out the best way to work out on the flaws.

Note – You must first make sure on what you have to track, as social media comprises various kinds of tracking. Set your goals, do you need to track on how people are sharing your blog/website/social networks? Whether you are interesting in tracking any specific social media message/campaign? Or, you just want to track the real-time buzz across the web and more like that. So, as the requirements are different, there are different social media tracking tools to be used. And to list out the most important, honeytechblog is sharing Top 10 Social Media Tracking Tools that you must try.

1. Bit.ly – You already know how interesting this tiny URL shortener is and if you haven’t tried it then go ahead you will fall in love with it for sure. This is a web tool that shrinks long URLs, along with statistical tools to track down the popularity of shortened links. Once you have an account there, it will be easy for you to track down the real time clicks that are made on those URLs that you shorten. Working with bit.ly is not only easy, but also fun to play with.

SocialToo – SocialToo can help you be a social networking power user. It let you keep your follower lists in sync across networks, and learn more about your relationships. Impressive features would include – creating surveys and sending them to multiple networks, track social media stats, auto follow, auto filtering and much more. You will also get daily email on who is following you and who unfollows you on Twitter. There is much more with this giant – get it now.

Twitteranalyzer – It is an interesting tool that helps to get all kind of statistic chart about you and your friends behavior at Twitter site. If you love using Google Analytics then this tool is sure to impress you. Some exciting features of Twitter Analyzer are – you can see how followers are online presently, who retweets your messages, what people are writing about you, Twitter following stats, your Tweeting habits and many more. It is pretty simple to use, so give it a try, I’m sure you won’t regret.

Xinureturns – This is one of the best social media tracking tool you would come across to get dashboard overview of your website on social networks and search engines. Once you run a report, you get the most in-depth information on Technorati, Googe Pagerank, Social Bookmarks, Indexed Page, Ranking and backlinks to your website. Just type in the URL and click “Go” there you have most of the report you would expect from Syndication to Screenshot.

Tweetstats - Ever wondered how your twitter stats graph looks like? Well, Tweetstats is the tool helps you analyze your tweets in various ways in form of graph. Twitter graph would include your tweets per hour, tweets per month, tweet timeline and reply statistics. You can also graph of “Today’s Top 10 Twitter Apps” and “Today Top @’ed Tweeps”. Another cool feature you would find is TrendCloud option to locate which word you use most in your tweets. And then there is color change option for the cloud also, so go ahead check your graph now.

Socialmention – Social Mention is a social media search and analysis platform that aggregates user generated content from across the universe into a single stream of information. It allows you to easily track and measure what people are saying about you, your company, a new product, or any topic across the web’s social media landscape in real-time. Social Mention monitors 100+ social media properties directly including: Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google etc. Social Mention currently provides a point-in-time social media search and analysis service, daily social media alerts, and API.

Twitalyzer – Twitalyzer is a free tool to evaluate the activity of any Twitter user and report on dozens of useful measures of success in social media. In other words, Twitalyzer is the tool that gauges your presence and popularity in Twitter. Some interesting features would be your virtual influence, Links to URLs, the signal-to-noise ratio, your clout, generosity, your tendency to share good info and tweets with others by retweeting and other useful measures of success in social media. All you need to try out this is input your screen and hit the button “Twitalize!

BlogPulse – This is an awesome tool for “buzz tracking”. BlogPulse Trend Search allows you to create graphs that visually track “buzz” over time for certain key words, phrases or links. Compare search terms/links in isolation, or use all three fields to compare search terms/links against others. Use the Trend search to create your own graphs that plot “buzz” about specific search terms (issues, people, companies, brands, sports, etc.) in the blogosphere. Choose from three different time parameters—one month, two months or six months. Be creative!

PostRank – PostRank originally known as AideRSS monitors and collects social engagement events correlated with online content in real-time across the web. PostRank gathers where and when stories generate comments, bookmarks, tweets, stumbles, and other forms of interaction from a host of social hubs. Publishers and people interested in their content use PostRank Data Services and Analytics to gauge influence and reach with audiences. It can do wonders for blogs/websites which are loaded with content.

Broadtracker – If you actively participate in forums then you would love this. BoardTracker.com, is an innovative forum search engine, message tracking and instant alerts system designed to provide relevant information quickly and efficiently while ensuring you never miss an important forum thread no matter where or when it is posted. Boardtracker brings the most targeted audience closer to the boards, by being a search engine only for boards and by supplying a categorized and highly effective searching and browsing experience to users. Create an account and get started.

Originally posted on eRealEstate by Peter Goldenrod

Jason Donn, eRealEstate

Loan Resets Projected to Cause Mortgage Crisis in 2010

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:04:53 -0800

By: Brittany Dunn

As many exotic adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) are set to recast in 2010, the Consumer Mortgage Audit Center (CMAC) is projecting a mortgage crisis in 2010 as large as the subprime.

“We’ve spoken to Florida attorneys who sit at the forefront of the U.S. foreclosure crisis and have learned that 53 percent expect recasting ARMs to present a mortgage crisis as large as subprime and 61 percent expect to work on more loan modifications in 2010 than they did in 2009,” said Sylvia Alayon, VP of operations for CMAC “The New Year is going to hold very rude awakenings for some homeowners, but there are things you can do to analyze your situation and get help if you need it.”

Option ARMs enable borrowers to make monthly payments that are interest and principal, interest only, or just part of the interest due. After months and years of paying less than their full monthly payment of both interest and principal, many homeowners accumulate negative amortization. This means the amount of interest due on a loan becomes higher than the amount of the actual loan itself. As the majority of ARMs begin to recast in early 2010, housing bills will inflate, and many homeowners will be forced to repay the negative amortized balances.

“Recasting will undoubtedly lead to another wave of foreclosures as payments begin to double and triple,” Alayon said. “When principal balances go up and house values continue to plummet, refinancing will no longer be an option for homeowners in negative amortization.”

According to Alayon, only a few option ARMS in existence have been modified, but she believes many more homeowners will rush to modify their loans as they slip closer to negative amortization. Homeowners who act now to modify exotic mortgages may be saved from negative amortization and eventually foreclosure, Alayon said.

“Depending on each homeowner’s unique financial situation, we’ve seen everything from lenders modifying mortgages lower to make them affordable again to Fannie Mae allowing homeowners facing foreclosure to shift from homeownership to home rental,” said Alayon. “Options are out there, but you have to do some work to get to them.”

The data used to create CMAC’s prediction of a major mortgage crisis in 2010 came from the responses of 150 Florida Bar Association attorneys from November 3 to November 6, 2009, in a survey sponsored by CMAC. Responding attorneys specialized in real estate, general practice, civil law, and foreclosure defense.

As a due diligence and consulting company, CMAC specializes in the field of mortgage forensic research and analysis. The company boasts a specialized team of mortgage experts who are also members of the American College of Forensic Examiners and represent a combined experience of over 80 years in mortgage finance and law.

from My website eRealEsate

Where do all the Disgraced Mortgage Bankers live?

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:04:43 -0800

In Florida of Course.

But not only do they live in Florida, they live in a special neighborhood just for these types of bank executives. They all live in an upscale subdivision in beautiful, sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida aptly named Shady Banks, where the homestead laws favor unsavory characters of this sort. Yes, this picture does not lie and many former mortgage executives live there. 21 of them to be exact.

Well, now it is 18. 3 are in Federal prison. As for the others - 7 are under indictment, 5 are under investigation and 6 are on house arrest.

Jason Donn of eRealEstate

If you have any other Humorous articles about real estate please visit me and post them on MY SITE

The Biggest Social Networks

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:30:41 -0800

Via Ross Hair (Real Estate Advocate):

Nielsen just released its latest data on the number of unique visitors per social media site. The numbers are staggering:

"Among the top 10 social media sites, Twitter.com was again the fastest growing, increasing 1,928 percent year-over-year, from 1 million unique visitors in June 2008 to 21 million unique visitors in June 2009-making Twitter the fourth most visited member communities site in June.

Facebook continued to lead as the No. 1 U.S. social networking site for the sixth month in a row, with 87.3 million unique visitors in June 2009."

Foreign Real Estate Investors Return To The Market

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:56:01 -0800

The 17th annual survey shows strong Interest In US Real Estate.

1. Foreign real estate lenders say they plan to increase lending by 58% in the U.S. in 2009.
2. Equity investors plan to increase investment activity by 40 percent globally and by 73% in the U.S. according to the results of the 17th annual AFIRE survey

Preferences

D.C. trumps New York as the top global city for foreign investment. London and New York were second and third position for foreign investment interest. Five of the top ten cities were American and the U.S. was ranked as the country with the most opportunity for capital appreciation.

US Real Estate Trends

Our system certainly can surprise, but politically, we are very stable. There is a great deal of faith in our ability to adjust and change. AFIRE members surveyed find the U.S. continues to provide both the most stable and secure real estate investment environment and the best opportunity for capital appreciation. see chart here

This year, foreign investors are eying the multi family sector, followed by offices, industrial, retail, and hotel properties. US property is showing signs of an approaching price equilibrium and the dollars decline has made real estate even cheaper for foreign investors. Fed assurances that interest rates will remain low until a full blown recovery virtually assures an inexpensive dollar and once in a generation opportunity for foreign investment.

NAR reports International investors bought 154,000 homes and condos in the 12-month period ending in May, down nearly 10% from 170,000 for the same period a year earlier.But Since June, the dollar has tumbled by 9 to 11% against currencies like the Japanese yen, the Euro and the Canadian dollar. Florida leads the country accounting for 25% of foreign purchases, followed by California, Texas, and Arizona.(via AFIRE)

Green Matters

When asked to what extent a buildings green attributes influenced their decision to purchase a property, 11 percent said significantly so, and 60 percent said somewhat so. In almost the exact same percentages, investors said that green attributes were worth a greater rental premium. This was the first survey in which these two questions were asked. (Via AFIRE)

Thanks for Readingwww.yourpropertypath.com" target="_blank">
www.yourpropertypath.com

Recent Articles
NAR Report Third Quarter
The official figures indicate recession has ended

Citigroup Suggests Mortgage Debt Forgiveness

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:43:28 -0800

Nearly one in four U.S. borrowers owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth, indicating that the housing recovery could see another wave of defaults. 23% of mortgage holders, were underwater in the third quarter, and 5.3 million have mortgages that are 20% higher than the value of their home since the recession began. Analysts expect prices to dip again this winter as foreclosures increase and economic growth remains modest. The Wall Street Journal reports.

Its not a new idea and many have always clamored for the banks to take some responsibility for loose lending practices that helped fuel the boom. But now it seems that a major institution is on board and will spearhead a push for mortgage debt forgiveness.

Citigroups quarterly reports on mortgage borrowers

As unemployment rises, more borrowers need principal forgiveness on their mortgages, not just restructured loans, Citigroup Inc.'s mortgage chief said. see chart here To date, Citigroup helped 130,000 homeowners with $20 billion in mortgages outstanding avoid potential foreclosure last quarter. But that number increased 20% from the second quarter. The sub prime debacle is behind us, the culprit now is unemployment.

Unemployment
The Main Cause of Delinquencies

The main problem of the mortgage industry changes from house-price depreciation to unemployment, the mortgage market needs more programs where there is principal reduction for borrowers with negative equity in their home, as opposed to just a loan restructure, Mr. Das said. (Via Wall street Journal).

Loan mods alone are not enough to avoid another tsunami of foreclosures. The housing recovery's momentum has slowed, and it seems likely that house prices will now resume their fall. Re-default rates on loans that had already been modified in the quarter were nearly 39 percent, up 10 percent from the second quarter. High unemployment coupled with a loss of home equity are too big a burden for many home owners and the temptation to walk away, may begin to look like good business sense.

Foreclosures initiated in the third quarter rose about 10% from the second quarter but fell about 11% from a year earlier. Completed foreclosures fell less than 1% from the second quarter and about 48% from a year earlier. Things appear to be moderating, although I dont think Citigroup is addressing the Alt A recasts, which are expected to add to the problem, in a big way, beginning this year and into 2012.

Citigroup Speaks Out

Citi proposes new programs to forestall impending foreclosures. Recognizing that existing programs are not enough, the bank wants to reduce the principal owed and to bring this down to a number homeowners could cover. In return for forgiveness of some debt, Citi wants to share any potential upside. Banks step up and take a hit along with the home owner, home owner gets to stay in the house, Home stays off the market helping home prices stabilize and bank gets equity share for the effort. Having the lenders in an equity share position with home owners is a solid idea.

Thanks for Reading
www.yourpropertypath.com

Originlly posted on my site by Howard Bell at eRealEstate

Seller Financing to the Rescue

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:33:11 -0800

The Problem

When it comes to selling real estate, one of the most difficult and frustrating situations for sellers is when market conditions make it nearly impossible to sell at the desired price point. A high initial listing price might be because the seller simply has an unrealistic idea of how their house stacks up against the competition in the area, or because the owner needs to sell for a set minimum price in order to pay off their loan against the property.

With traditional property sales methods, the only way to prevent the property from sitting on the market indefinitely is to keep dropping the price. Unfortunately, this technique doesn't always work - especially if the seller is unwilling to "discount" their house by much.

In areas flooded with homes for sale, reducing the asking price slightly will not bring the desired result. In fact, it's common that the property will continue to sit on the market without offers, alongside the multitude of other unsold properties with similarly reduced prices.

Anyone experienced in sales understands that making your product stand out from the crowd is a critical technique for success. But if there's too much competition offering the same attributes, the only logical way to attract the attention of serious buyers is to drop the price so that your property is a much better value than the competition.

In cases where the seller is too inflexible with their asking price, this is not a practical solution. Without an alternative strategy, the seller is forced to keep the house on the market for an extended period of time with an unrealistic asking price, hoping for the right buyer to come along. And as you know, that "Mr./Mrs. Right" might NEVER materialize!

The Seller Finance Solution

Property sellers who want to both obtain their desired price and close on the deal quickly should consider seller financing. Seller financing is a powerful tool to remedy real estate situations that otherwise look grim.

Many home sellers (and their real estate agents) do not see seller financing as a viable option. In actuality, seller financing can bring new attention to the listing and invite a different group of potential buyers - thereby opening up a unique, untapped market.

A large percentage of people throughout the country cannot get approved for bank funding to buy real estate because of their credit situation. Many of these people are still in the market to buy a house, however. The "credit-challenged" are often frustrated with the limitations of apartment living or being renters; as a result, many are willing to pay a higher price just for a chance to get seller financing and improve their quality of life.

A savvy property seller who recognizes this opportunity can salvage an unfavorable situation and turn it into a bonafide seller's market. By using this type of creative financing, the seller could actually end up getting more than the original asking price - without resorting to the questionable strategy of patiently waiting for the "right buyer".

Seller finance can enable homeowners to receive a favorable selling price despite bad market conditions. In addition, the real estate agent (if any) gets to close a deal and move on to other sales, while a home buyer with poor credit is able to become a home owner. It's one of those rare situations where everyone at the negotiating table gets what they want.

Paper Tigers

Many home sellers never consider seller financing because they don't understand the benefits. There are also common misconceptions that it's much too complicated to attempt to orchestrate a seller financed deal, or that there are no buyers willing to sign a private note.

Once a property seller takes the time to learn about the basic process, the advantages of offering financing instead of a lower price to sell their property become very clear. Plus, a little education about seller finance will make it apparent that drafting a secured private note is actually a very straightforward process.

The bottom line is seller financing can enable a home owner to "have their cake and eat it too" - i.e., sell at the desired price, close the deal quickly, and even receive additional income from interest payments as well.

Posted on my Site by Ater Ater

Fixer Uppers...Wise Investment or Money Pit

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:57:24 -0800

Would you spend $150,000 for a home with sagging shutters, no landscaping, peeling paint, old appliances, outdated wallpaper and a generally drab exterior? On paper, the house sounds less-than-desirable. But before you answer, consider that this potential fixer-upper is located in California at the bottom of the market. Drab as it may be, could this home sparkle one day? With a coat of paint, some "sweat" equity, and thorough revamping inside and out, could this property be an investment gem? All homes are different, but there are certain criteria which can help you spot a fixer-upper with good potential. Here are a few basic questions to ask: .What needs to be changed? There are some homes which are structurally sound that require only cosmetic changes -- say that worn carpet from the 1960's, the historic appliances, or that inefficient heating system which consumes more fuel than a high school. It makes sense to inventory a home to see what can remain and what must go...the bottom line is do your homework. We all know that Real Estate WILL go back up. If you are in it for the long run, don't be afraid of a fixer. Rent it out and let the equity grow. That's your cash cow for the future. Considering investing? I would love to talk with you

Gook Luck

Mark Sall, Broker
Keller Williams Realty-AV
661-965-4647
www.antelopevalleyrealtor.net
mark@servicefirstre.com

From article on eRealEstate

Fannie Mae Gets Into The Home Rental Business

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:48:52 -0800

Good News for foreclosure victims. Some homeowners will get an option to rent the home that they just lost. Its possible to stay in your home as a renter. Fannie Mae will give borrowers facing foreclosure an option to rent their homes for a year.

Foreclosed home owners will be able to sign a one year lease, with possible month to month extensions with Fannie Mae. Good for everybody.

Homeowners get a little relief and are able to remain in their homes for a year or more. This will buy them the time they need to regroup. It will also help keep neighborhoods from going missing. Rather than rows of abandoned homes with all the crime and destruction that vandals create.. Neighbors that have not lost their homes will not see more equity loss as squatters and criminals move into vacant homes. The banks are reluctant landlords and they are allowing property to decline.

It will keep supply off the market for at least another year and that is good for all the handlers, Fanne Mae because it can put off the expense of a foreclosure, the banks because less supply will protect equity in homes they are off loading and everyone one because it will help stabilize home prices. I dont think we can have a strong recovery without real estate.

To qualify, homeowners have to live in the home as the primary residence and prove that they can afford the market rent, which will be established by the management company running the program. In many cases, rents will be less than the mortgage because properties that are now worth far less than they originally paid.

The downside is seems to be that homes that might normally have been foreclosed and sold will now remain owned by taxpayers. Homes, according to Dr Shiller have risen faster in the last few months than he has ever seen. Perhaps Fannie will profit a little while doing a good thing for families that must be a little traumatized by it all.

And even if prices don't rebound quickly. Fannie Mae gets rental income, avoids foreclosure expenses gets to helps people.

Thanks for Reading
www.yourpropertypath.com

From Howard Bell's article on eRealEstate

Facebook your Listings (the right way)

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:41:26 -0800

Via Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant):

One of the first questions I get asked by an Agent who wants a Custom Facebook Business Page created is “Can you pull in my listings – here’s my IDX Feed”
The answer is No!

"Pretty Please?"

Still No.

Not because I don't want to. You see... Facebook does not like dynamic content in custom tabs and guess what your IDX feed is? Yup! “Dynamic”.

But wait there’s a workaround and a very pretty one at that. The folks over at RealBird have a slick application.

How slick? Check this out:

Play with it LIVE on Debbi Di Maggio, Piedmont Real Estate

If you have a Facebook Business Page and want something like this for yours – just contact me.

This post brought to you courtesy of Mike Mueller.
Feel free to ReBlog or ReTweet as you like as long as you credit the source (him).
Did you know? He's for hire! He builds Blogs, Graphic Images and Widgets and Facebook Pages and besides… He knows lots of really cool stuff.

Hire Mike (925) 456-4567

Social Media Revolution

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:03:26 -0800

Americans Have Tripled The Amount Of Time On Social Networks

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:51:52 -0800

Via Ross Hair (Real Estate Advocate):

If you still aren't convinced that social media is here to stay consider the following figures from a recent Nielsen study:

"Americans have nearly tripled the amount of time they spend at social networking and blog sites such as Facebook and MySpace from a year ago, according to a new report from The Nielsen Company. In August 2009, 17 percent of all time spent on the Internet was at social networking sites, up from 6 percent in August 2008.

"This growth suggests a wholesale change in the way the Internet is used," said Jon Gibs, vice president, media and agency insights, Nielsen's online division. "While video and text content remain central to the Web experience - the desire of online consumers to connect, communicate and share is increasingly driving the medium's growth."

It makes me think about the impact that email had on the way we communicated. When email first arrived it was the killer app that fundamentally changed the way we communicate with our friends and business associates. The same thing has happened with social media as more and more people are abandoning their email inbox for social network messages, instant messages and text messages.

Not only are your potential clients hanging out online but they've also changed the way they communicate.

Social Media Survey Results

Jason Donn (eRealEstate Social Media Group) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:51:06 -0800

Via Ross Hair (Real Estate Advocate):

Here are the results from a survey of 200 Realtors about using social media in your real estate business:

Feedback and Comments

Thanks to everyone who provided the comments and insights into social media marketing and it's impact on the real estate profession.

As promised, here's the feedback from all the comments we received on our Active Rain post and www.realestatesocialmediapro.com website.

Fears and Frustrations

The following fears and frustrations about social media marketing were identified:

•1.     "Overwhelmed" - many real estate professionals are overwhelmed by all the new technology, new social media forums and the shift in online consumer trends. There's just too much information, too much to learn and it all changes so quickly.

•2.     "Don't know where to start" - this is a huge obstacle and it's a brick wall for so many professionals.

•3.     "Don't know what to do" - most people are on Active Rain and Facebook but a common concern was they didn't know what to do. What should I blog about? Should I get an outside blog? How do I find potential buyers and sellers in my area? How often should I send messages to friends?

•4.     "Don't have a step by step game plan or system" - this was the number one request from the survey. Many professionals had started playing around with social media but just didn't have any direction or purpose to their efforts. They're looking for information and guidance - preferably a step-by-step playbook.

•5.     "Lack of information" - this relates to the previous concerns but it also ties into the fact that social media is such a new field that there isn't that much information about it - especially proven information that actually works.

•6.     "Time' - time was a big issue. It ranged from people who didn't have the time, to those who don't know how to allocate their time and to those who were worried they were wasting their time just wandering aimlessly or being unproductive.

•7.     "Haven't received any business yet" - this is obviously a major concern as the whole reason we market online is to get business. Some were concerned that they hadn't received business because they weren't sure they were doing the right thing Most people were optimistic that they would get business.

•8.     "Don't know if it works for business" - this is probably the biggest concern experienced by most professionals. They're concerned that social marketing just didn't work as a business tool. No one doubts its value as a personal tool to keep in touch with friends and family. Most comments acknowledged that social media also works for keeping in touch with your SOI (Sphere of Influence) but there's this underlying doubt as to whether it works for converting strangers into clients.

•9.     "Twitter" - Twitter is like the black hole of social media marketing. Few professionals "get it" or "use it" and most think it's nothing but a spam fest.

Success Stories and Things that Work

A number of professionals shared their success stories:

•1.     "Blogging" - Blogging is the primary social media forum used by most real estate professionals. Most people have a blog (usually on Active Rain) and many have numerous blogs. They use their blog to share information with their clients and to stay "front of mind" for the day the client enters or re-enters the real estate market.

•2.     "Active Rain' - just about everyone loves Active Rain and lists education, information and referrals as the main benefits. In terms of usage I would rank Active Rain ahead of Facebook followed by Linked In.

•3.     "Facebook" - most professionals who said they had closed business through social marketing credited Facebook as the source of the client. The successful agents talked about setting up groups or business pages on Facebook. No-one had anything negative to say about Facebook and viewed it as an essential network to join.

•4.     "Climbing the ranks on Google" - a number of people commented that social marketing has helped their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and placed them near the top of the page for local real estate search. Active Rain is credited for much of the success.

•5.     "Haven't spent a dime" - In a tough economy a number of professionals commented that social marketing is somewhere between free and cheap. All it costs is time. Conversely they noted that print advertising was expensive and increasingly ineffective.

•6.     "I found you on the internet" - The six favorite words that we all like to hear. It's a great feeling to get a phone call or email from a new client who utters the words "I found you on the internet". This is a validation of our online marketing efforts.

•7.     "I've seen a dramatic increase in internet leads" - many professionals noted that they were receiving substantially more leads from internet marketing, particularly from their blogs.

•8.     "I closed a deal from a social network referral" - these are the comments that we all like to read. A number of agents have closed multiple deals from social networking with some claiming commission well in excess of $100,000. A number of agents have deals in the pipeline and have active clients looking to buy or sell a home. Most agents also believe that at some point they will close a deal from a social network referral.

•9.     "I get 100% of my business online" - I found this comment very interesting. Although only a few people claimed to get 100% of their business online, a number of people made a reference to someone in their office who was "internet savvy" and "making a killing online". A common characteristic of these comments is that those who do well online always seem to very organized, set up systems and super motivated.

•10.     "I'm having so much fun" - I really got the sense that professionals enjoy social marketing and that they're having fun connecting with old friends and new clients. I even received an email from an agent who thought social networking was more addictive than crack cocaine (I'll leave the validation of that statement to the experts). It does however capture the essence that many people enjoy social networking and are hooked on it.

I trust that this feedback helps you with your social media marketing. Remember you can view all the comments online at http://socialmediarealestatepros.com - or add you own comments.

Ross Hair

RealEstateAdvocate.com

http://www.twitter.com/erealestate_com

P.S. - Don't forget to download the Social Media Mind Map to find out how to convert social marketing into more real estate closings.