Powerpoint, Google Maps & Localism: What A Useful Combination For Real Estate!

I'm always looking for ways to illustrate my topic with visual images.  The reason?  We think visually ~ in images, and an image conveys immediate understanding in a way that words alone cannot.

This morning, I'm hiking in Agua Caliente Park.  It's an hours' drive across Tucson from my home in the Tucson Mountains.  I'll be photoblogging about it later, and I'll want my readers to have a sense of the physical and ecological context of the photos.

Google Maps will provide the tools I need for my Localism readers to understand what I want to convey:

• Where the park is located
• What the surrounding terrain is like
• How they can get there from anywhere in or around Tucson

___________________

TUTORIAL:  How to make a map like this for your Real Estate business:

Use this method to bring people to you ~ to your open house, your listing,
a favorite restaurant in your town or city ~ in short,
to any place you want your reader to find.

Step by step

1.  Google your destination.  I googled "Agua Caliente Park Tucson."

2.  Click "Get Directions."

3.  Zoom in and out until you have the map level of detail that you want.

4.  Use Snagit or Print Screen to capture and save your image as a .jpeg file.

The fun part:

5.  Open Microsoft Powerpoint to a blank slide.

6.  Import your picture, and size it to fit the screen.

7.  Using the powerful tools available in Powerpoint, give the image a border, add text boxes, photos, word art, etc. to create the final image.   (You can bring any element of the final image forward or backward until you're satisfied with the final result.)

8.  Once again, use Snagit or Print Screen to crop your final image and save it in a folder.  Since I started blogging for Localism, I've created Community Folders to organize my images.

That's it!  Go forth and blog!

EDIT:  I used this method to create my AR Profile Photo with the signature.

EDIT:  To answer your questions on this post, here's Part 2

How Do Automate The Process of Publishing Your Active Rain Post to FB, Plaxo, LinkedIn...

___________________ 

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson Mortgage Lender.

NMLS #223495

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE llc ~ Mortgage Bankers, Not Brokers!
Offices in Scottsdale, Tucson, and Nogales, AZ, and Albuquerque, NM.

Call me on my Blackberry  (520) 349-9090

photos copyright Mike in Tucson

terrain map courtesy Google

What's the Max DTI? 28%, 36%, 41%, 43%, 50%...???

We get a lot of questions about debt-to-income ratios these days.  Here are the underwriting guidelines for the various types of loans: 

Conventional (non-government) loans:

• If the loan is underwritten manually (by a person), the debt-to-income ratio (DTI) is 36%.  If the borrower has strong compensation factors, the DTI can be as high as 45%.  Compensating factors include such things as very high credit scores, large down payment, large amount of reserves (money in the bank), etc.
• If the loan is underwritten by the underwriting software that is available to some lenders, the DTI ratio is 45%, and it can go as high as 50% with strong compensating factors.
• IMPORTANT NOTE:Individual lenders are allowed to impose their own, more restrictive DTI guidelines on top of Fannie Mae's, so make sure you are using a lender who does not do that.
• SUPER IMPORTANT NOTE:Private mortgage insurance companies impose their own, more restrictive DTI guidelines on top of the lender's guidelines and Fannie Mae's guidelines.  At the moment, 41% is the maximum allowable DTI at most private mortgage insurance companies.  Their guidelines change constantly, so this needs to be checked every time a loan is originated.
• In the old days, there were two DTI ratios for conventional loans - one for the housing expense ratio and one for the total expense ratio.  Fannie Mae no longer uses two DTI ratios.

FHA loans:

• Unlike Fannie Mae, FHA uses two DTI ratios.  The front-end DTI ratio (housing expenses) is 31% and the back-end DTI ratio (total expenses) is 43%.  This only applies if the loan is manually underwritten.
• If the loan is underwritten by the software FHA provides to some lenders, then the ratios are not specified.  It depends on credit scores, down payment, reserves, etc.  We commonly get approvals from the software for ratios of 40-46% for the housing ratio and 50-55% for the total expense ratio.
• Lenders are allowed to add their own, more restrictive guidelines on top of FHA's, so it is wise to use a lender who does not.
• Mortgage insurance is not an issue with FHA ratios because FHA insures the loan.  There are no additional restrictions for mortgage insurance with FHA loans.
• If a borrower is using alternative credit (they have no credit scores and are using other trade lines to establish credit - rent, utilities, etc.), then they are restricted to the manual underwriting guidelines - 31% front-end and 43% back-end.

VA loans:

• VA only uses one, total expense ratio as well.  It is 41% if the loan is underwritten manually.
• If the underwriting software that VA supplies to some lenders is used, then the DTI ratio is not specified.  We typically see loans approved with DTI ratios in the 45% - 55% range.  It all depends on credit scores, reserves, etc.
• Lenders are allowed to add their own, more restrictive guidelines on top of VA's, so check with your lender before assuming VA's guidelines can be used.
• There is no mortgage insurance with VA loans, so there are no additional restrictions related to mortgage insurance.

Do You Play To Win Or Do You Play Not To Lose?

What do I tell my 5 year old?

Embeddable Edible Content

Embeddable Content?  ....edible refers to the content of the article, foursquare...  are you using foursquare?  Telling people where you are eating and drinking? I guess shopping, playing and doing other things than eating too. I am a member of foursquare.  I have never checked in. Not once.  Today foursquare says to me:

"You haven't added any tips near Columbus, OH yet. Get to it!

It is an interesting article on Business Insider about Pepsi and frozen treats...  edible stuff and foursquares business model.

Really the fact that the content is embeddable is more interesting to me than foursquare.  Have you seen embeddable content online with other sites?  Have you seen anyone else doing this?  I saw the post on Business Insider and the Embed This Post link thanks to a tweet from Jay Thompson the Phoenix Real Estate Guy about foursquare sharing the link:

Reading: Foursquare Plots Its Business Model http://bit.ly/9uLJft [location based marketing - obvious applications for RE]

I won't reconstitute Jay's link in the tweet to the Business Insider article since I am embedding the Business Insider article here.

Embeddable Content

With "Embed This"  rather than sharing a link here on ActiveRain and excerpting a quote or two I can embed the whole article here. You get to choose the size. Initially I chose the narrower size.  The 400 looks better than the 300 width.

Would you feel comfortable sharing this way on ActiveRain?  Would you feel comfortable with others embedding content on ActiveRain or is it cheating? Do you think by sharing this content this way I am cheating?  Sharing unoriginal content? Do you think I am I  just doing it for the points?  Am I being a "Robotic Point Pig?" or a "PointWhore?" ;-)    

You embed the article just like a YouTube Video, a PollDaddy Poll or other Embeddable content. On this article Kumur Patel gets his byline.  It is easier to read than clicking the link to get to Business Insider isn't it?  Andrew Fleming Operations Manager of Business Insider explains all about Embed This on  Go Ahead, Embed This Post!

Embeddable Content or all original all the time?

ActiveRain is for original content...there's that whole fighting over whether a post is worthy of points thing on ActiveRain.  If you "share" something with permission you are not able to take points for it.  If you just embedded content without commentary I don't believe ActiveRain would give you points. 

Andrew Fleming instructs what to do once you've embedded the post: 

"Once you've embedded our posts, you can do what you usually do--explain why you agree with us, trash us, or scream that we're just a bunch of morons.  And now your readers will know exactly what you're talking about!"

Anyone think I should be taking the Kersplat here?    The little yellow circle with a red x through it that you get when you check  "This is not my content but I have permission to repost it"

I believe ActiveRain member Morgan Evans coined "Robotic Point Pig" and I am not sure what the definition is but I gotta say I love it.  I think it has to do with efficient comments but maybe I am one.  Monika McGillicuddy coined "Point Whore" long ago.  I prefer the web 2.0 spelling PointWhore.

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Connect with me, Maureen McCabe

 

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A (Tongue-In-Cheek) Common Man's Dictionary to Real Estate Advertising

Let me start of by saying that this is satire. And this should be read with that idea in mind. It is intended to be humorous. Nothing more. Ok?

As long as we understand one another, you can keep reading...

If not, please push ALT + F4 now. :-)

Common Man's Dictionary to Real Estate Advertising

1 car garage: Sure, you can drive your Ford Escort into the garage but there is no room to open the door.

Advertisement: A tool used by business to get money out of people that don't have it for something that they don't really need.

And much, much more: Truthfully, nothing else comes to mind. But, we can't tell you that.

Auditor: Person that arrives after battle to finish off the wounded.

Bank: Loan shark.

Beachfront property: No hurricane insurance available at any price.

Bedroom in basement: The basement has a 1' by 2' window you might be able to squeeze yourself through as an alternative to burning to death in a structure fire.

Bright and sunny: No window treatments or venetian blinds are included because previous owners simply nailed Pikachu blankets to the window frames.

BRILLIANT CONCEPT: Do you really need a two-story live oak tree in your 30-foot stained-glass sky dome?

Broker: What buying a house is going to make you.

Budget: Written proof that you can't afford the things you want.

Build sweat equity: The house is not habitable currently and unless you plan on working your hind end off to make it livable, it would be easier to bulldoze this place and live in a tent.

Cape Cod: Stylized after a 74 yr old lobster fisherman's garage.

Cash Flow: The movement your money makes as it disappears down the toilet.

Cathedral Ceiling: You will go broke trying to heat this place. It would be easier to set fire to the couch.

Charming: Small. See also, "Tiny". Snow White might fit, but five of the dwarfs would have to find their own place. See also "Cute," "Enchanting," and "Good Starter Home."

Close to all amenities: The backyard is a shopping mall parking lot.

Close to Schools: You will spend a generous portion of your morning and evening commute stuck behind buses in just about every street you attempt to take to avoid them.

Comfortable: One coat closet larger than the "Charming" home.

Commuter's Dream: Located at the bottom of an off-ramp right beside a truck stop.

Completely Remodeled: Not only does this statement give the company attorney a stroke, it also usually means new kitchen counter tops and a vanity sink in the bathroom.

Complete remodeling in 1992: Hurricane Andrew...'nuff said.

COMPLETELY UPDATED: At the advise of the listing agent, the seller has decided to remove the metallic gold shag carpeting from the living room and replaced the avocado colored stove.

Contemporary: The house is at least 15 years old.

Country living: Too far from anywhere to drive to work...or to shop...or get to an emergency room in time to prevent bleeding out from a paper cut.

Country in the city: A grotesquely overpriced large lot with a 2 bedroom house built before World War I that used to be on 100 acres that have been split off and sold to a Home Depot and a car dealership. Yes, there is a Starbucks in the parking lot.

Cozy: Not a single room could fit a full sized bed. And, the toilet doubles as a kitchen counter when you close the lid.

DARING DESIGN: It's a warehouse.

Desirable neighborhood: This "charming" house is extravagantly overpriced thanks to being located next to a neighborhood where the snobs live.

Doll-house: Tiny place filled with ugly knick-knacks.

Easy Care Yard: Acres of Red or White rock used to systematically cover actual useful space.

Easy freeway access: Located right on the noisiest arterial street closest to the freeway.

Easy to heat: See “cozy”.

Efficiently designed kitchen: The kitchen is too small to fit two people at the same time and everything you need to reach is simply done so by turning around. The down side is that in order to open the stove, you have to step into the living room.

Everything's Been Updated: Sure, they updated all the things inside the house...but the house itself has been condemned.

Executive neighborhood: Everyone's last name in this area is Jones. And yes...you are required to keep up with them.

Extra Storage: Four coat hooks nailed on the back of the front door.

Gated Community: There is a reason it is gated...Every seen 'District 9'???

Great Starter Home: House has 4 rooms. Two of which are additions.

Handyman Special: Forget It! You don't have the skill required to make this home livable.

HI-TECH/CONTEMPORARY: Lots of steel shelving with little holes. You know...the kind your dad used to store tools on in the basement. There is also a lot of glass in places most people wouldn't put it.

Wont last long!: This home hasnt sold in 374 days after two price reductions and the sellers have finally given up hope on making any money on this sale so they dropped the price another $20K.

Immaculate: Remove your shoes. Chances are the carpet is white along with the walls, furniture, cabinets, appliances, and the family pet.

In-city living: The house comes with a deadbolt lock on all windows, a bar across the door capable of stopping a battering ram...and a moat. Being outside in this neighborhood after dark will probably require an armed escort.

Institutional Investor: A active housing investor from 2006 who is now locked up in a mental institute.

Just available: The previous owner just died on the premises. That is the only way anyone would want to sell a home in this market unless they are trying to save a foreclosure. Hope you don’t believe in ghosts.

Large family room: The basement can hold a couch and a chair...which is more than can be said for the living room. Just try to keep the kids from eating the exposed insulation.

Lots of storage space: The basement is too small to be called a family room.

Low maintenance lot: No yard. The kids will have to play in the street. Or, maybe in the shopping mall parking lot.

Luxury Living: It has a Jacuzzi tub. It's leaning against the wall of the garage. But, at least it has one.

Market Correction: The day after you buy a house.

MUCH POTENTIAL: Steer clear unless you have a lot of money and actually believe your blind dates really did have nice personalities. See "Ready to Rehab," and "Fixer Upper."

Must see inside: Yeah...that's cause the outside is ugly.

MUST SEE TO BELIEVE: An absolutely accurate statement. It is hard to drive that kind of pain home through the eye without actually using a sharp instrument and a forceful thrust.

Market Correction: The term your broker/agent uses for a market crash while telling you that your house is worth 37% of what you paid for it.

Meticulously maintained in the original condition: The avocado-colored appliances are 50 years old. Minimum.

Modern: It doesn't have a dirt floor and it is insulated with something other than beaver pelts and flour sacks.

Motivated sellers: Subtract 15% from the asking price and see if they counter.

Natural setting: Forget about planting anything because the deer will eat everything in your yard but the sagebrush and knapweed.

Near transportation: an Amtrak train goes through the backyard roughly every 15 minutes, day and night.

Neighborhood Watch: Your next door neighbor has binoculars trained on your house. Your movements are tracked and reported to the police any time you have company.

Newly remodeled kitchen: The 50-year old cabinetry and faucets have been replaced with cheap modern equivalents.

Nice Condition: Apparently "nice" means different things to different people. See also: "Lipstick on a pig".

Nighttime Security: The street lights located on all corners of the home completely eliminate darkness 24 hours a day. Sleep is impossible.

No need to preview: Yeah, because if you did, you wouldn't show it!

Old charmer: Herbert from Family Guy lives next door.

ONE-OF-A-KIND: Ugly as sin. The neighbors hope the place burns down so their property value goes up.

Park-like setting: There is a tree located somewhere on this block.

Partial mountain view: You can see the tip of (insert name of local mountain) if you climb the roof and stand on a chair.

Pet friendly neighborhood: Various forms of organic matter are constantly deposited in your front lawn despite the fact that you don't own any pets.

Plenty of Parking: The stadium across the street has ACRES of parking spaces available.

Practicing Water Conservation: Yeah, the lawn is died. No one watered it. Ever. (Thank you Steve and Heather Ostrom!)

Prestigious: Expensive. Probably not worth it, either.

Prime Location: We have already had better offers from more qualified people than you...don't ask.

Quaint: Buy a wall paper steamer so you can get that crap off the wall without having to gut the entire place.

Ready to move in: The interior has been painted with one coat of cheap paint and the shag carpeting has been raked and shampooed.

Ready to remodel: This place is about to collapse; you will have to invest twice the asking price in remodel before you can move in. Seen the movie "The Money Pit"??

Recreation room with wet bar: Basement has been sheet-rocked, painted and has a faucet.

Reduced To Move: See also: "Walmart Rollback"

Rent With Option to Buy: We know you wont be able to qualify for crap...But, if you can make steady payments, it works for us.

Safe Neighborhood: Regardless of your attempts at privacy, your neighbors will continue to attempt to peer through the slits in your Venetian blinds. See also: "Neighborhood Watch"

Seasonal creek: There is a 4 foot wide, 6 inch deep muddy ditch that runs across the property...And it only fills up after a good rain or during spring thaw.

Secluded setting: The only thing further away from civilization is a polar ice cap. Grizzly Adams once lived here.

Show and Sell: In other words, the listing agent will be doing no marketing and the stubborn seller doesn't want it staged.

Shows Well: The seller actually cleans the place up before you bring your buyers over.

Sophisticated: Plain. White walls with zebra print rug and furnishings. A large piece of abstract art is in the dining room and a canvas the size of a Chevy hangs on the wall covered in what appears to be pantyhose, tin foil, and computer diskettes.

Spacious: We knocked out a wall and expanded the living room into the garage.

Sprawling ranch: Inefficient floor plan that appears to have been designed by a drunk monkey.

Storybook: This house is old and the roof is not flat. See also: "Little House On The Prairie"

Stunning house: The house is not ugly...the interior, on the other hand...

Sunny corner lot: There are no trees anywhere near this property located on the corner of the two busiest streets in town.

Sunken Tub: The tub isn't sunken...it fell through the floor. The remaining structure is only capable of holding water or a body. Not both.

Territorial view: Great view of your neighbor’s bedroom window and "private" hot tub with the glass roof. If you lean hard against the glass and look hard to the left, you can see a broken down Pontiac in the alley.

Three season sun room: Putting screen up around your front porch does not make it a "sun room".

TLC: Tear down, Level and Condemn!! (This after a Realtor told me her country property needed just a little TLC...Upon visiting, I promptly fell through the front porch up to my knees!)

Townhouse: A 3 story walk-up on the north side that is sandwiched between two others that look exactly the same. Not only can you hear your neighbors fight, but you hear when they play music, watch TV, use the bathroom, or blink.

Tudor: A quaint two bedroom where both bedrooms are now in the attic which is not insulated.

UNIQUE CITY HOME: Used to be a warehouse.

UPPER BRACKET: No, this doesn't include you. See also: "Executive Neighborhood" and "Prestigious"

Usable land: Vacant lot. Probably filled with broken glass, nails, large rocks, bicycle parts, and Jimmy Hoffa.

Victorian Sweetheart: Once you steam off the wallpaper, you will need to strip off 14 layers of lead-based paint.

Walking distance to (insert noun here): There is nowhere to park your car within 20 minutes of this house.

Well Below Market: We keep having to reduce the price on this shanty because nobody wants it.

Will Help Finance: Soooo....the owners know they're asking too much. And, taking that into consideration, they are more than willing to "help" you get into this house that you can not qualify on your own.

YOU'LL LOVE IT: No. No, you wont.

 

Feel free to add your own in the comments!!! Id love to see them!!

 

Follow Clint on Twitter and make sure you go to the RECR fanpage and become a fan!! If you have any questions about RECR, please call Clint at 800-977-7058.

Google's Wonder Wheel is Addictive

Don't read this post until you're ready to have some fun.

The advice to use keywords when you write is everywhere. Using a few phrases consistently is great for search engine optimization and it can focus your writing. On the other hand, it's easy to start sounding stale if you don't add some variety to your word choice.

Google's team developed a search and keyword tool called Wonder Wheel that generates a graphical mind map (look up Tony Buzan) of keywords and related links.  It only takes a few steps to get started. I want to warn you that this tool is so interesting and fun to work with that you are going to seriously burn some time off the clock once you begin.

Start by doing a Google search for a keyword term that you want to use on your web site or blog. I used the word "bungalow" for my example. Near the top of the page under the Google icon and just in from the left side of the page is a "show options" command with a big PLUS sign to click on. Go ahead and click the "Show options" link.

You will get a new menu running down the left side of the page. Near the bottom, circled in blue on the folowing screen shot, is the term "Wonder Wheel". Click on that.

 

Check out the completely new graphical display of information.

There's no doubt that Google knows more about keywords and related search terms than anyone else on the planet This tool lets them share that information with you in a new and mind-stimulating fashion.

Working with Wonder Wheel is easy.

If you're following along in a separate window, you should now have a circle with your initial search term in the middle and a bunch of spokes reaching out to new, but related terms.  In my case I'm searching for "bungalow" and we can see what related search terms pop up.

On this screen shot I have drawn the blue circle around the term "Craftsman bungalow" a clickable link, but you will be able to choose whichever term most interests you after you do your own search for keywords. Even at this first level of the tool, the extra terms at the end of each spoke should trigger ideas for you about keywords you can add. I find entirely new post ideas from many of the terms that are suggested. So far, a lot of fun, but once you start clicking on the links at the end of each spoke, the circle of keyword and post ideas keeps expanding.

So, I have a final screen shot that shows a second circle created by clicking a link from around the first circle. This second circle extends the the process of finding new keyword and links all over again, but the origin with your initial keyword is still intact and you can go back and click on a link from the first circle or keep adding new circles by clicking on new links.

Remember, you can always switch back to the regular web interface to see what all these links have uncovered by going back to the top left of the page and clicking on "Web".

Don't say I didn't warn you how much fun this would be.

Please enjoy visiting any of my sites

• Sonoma County Blog
• Search for Property in Sonoma County - Maps
• Search for Property in Sonoma County - Advanced
  
• REO property in Sonoma County

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