Professionalism In Your Listings

Why Photographs for Your Listing Are Important

To market your property, you are going to need to have some choice photographs. Before whipping out the camera, however, you need to give some thought to the process. 

Why Photographs for Your Listing Are Important

One of the most important things that will set your property out from others is photographs. When a buyer is looking in MLS, on the internet or in some other location, photographs draw their attention. Is this shallow? Well, yes and no. 

Unless you are talking to a lawyer or psychiatrist, words are cheap. Indeed, the real estate world has its own lexicon of terms that don’t really mean what they say and are the basis for some snide remarks. For instance, a “cozy” home is a real estate methodology for saying a property is SMALL! The question, of course, is how small are we talking? This is why photographs are key to your marketing efforts. 

In the view of most buyers, the initial proof in the pudding is in photographs. Almost nobody really believes any of the adjectives used in real estate advertisements. Frankly, they words could mean anything. Much like a dating site, however, photographs tend to shed a more objective light on the subject. Unlike a dating site, a property doesn’t tend to dramatically age over five years, change hair color, go bald or gain some unwanted pounds. Put in practical terms, buyers don’t believe your words, but do believe your photographs. 

If you give some thought to what I just said, you will realize that I am suggesting that most buyers assume you will lie about your property in advertisements. Don’t take it personally. They don’t know you, so why should they trust you? Frankly, they should not. That being said, you can use this distrust to your advantage.

You would be shocked how many people put little or no effort into the photographs of their property. As an old commercial slogan stated – Image is everything. A shallow statement, but true. Your photographs represent the first curb appeal impression buyers will get of your property. 

This means you need to strongly consider hiring a professional photographer to take the photographs. They understand lighting, angles and so on. It may sound like an unnecessary expense, but it can be the difference between a sale and sitting on the market for month after month.

Why Real Estate Investors Have Their Own Investment Criteria

Writing down your real estate investment criteria means writing down your needs and wants in a real estate deal. It means outlining what you are looking for in a real estate opportunity. Having written criteria can help you grow as an investor and can make it easier for you to land the best real estate deals.

If you to join the ranks of real estate investors, you might want to have formal written investment criteria set out for yourself. Putting your investment criteria in writing allows you to see at once whether possible investment opportunities do or do not fit your future plans. This allows you to quickly sort through potential opportunities to pinpoint the right ones. 

Writing down your investment criteria also hones your focus and ensures that you have an easier time finding the best possible deals. Having written criteria also allows you to share your criteria with other real estate investors, so that you can learn from them. If you haven't yet outlined exactly what your criteria are for selecting an investment property, now's the time to put pen to paper.
When developing your written criteria, consider when you do not want to make an investment. What is the bottom line? Do you not want to make an investment at any time if you don't understand it? Do you want to never make investments that you cannot pay for if everything goes wrong? Do you never want to make an investment where you cannot handle the worst-case scenario? Determine your comfort boundaries and the level of risk you are willing to accept or not accept, and put this in writing.

Next, when developing your written investment criteria, consider what your ideal investment would be like. What do you do to make sure that your investments are the best possible deals for you? Do you do a certain amount of research using specific sources? If so, write this down. Outline on paper the best real estate deal you ever put together. What were the steps you to that in to be an outstanding investor in that situation? What if you applied the same steps to every real estate deal you made? Would you generate more success from other opportunities? If so, outline exactly what you do when you are at your investment best, and add this to your written criteria. This will help ensure that every deal will at least have the opportunity of becoming as successful as your best deal ever.

Write down your money criteria. Where are you willing to go for financing? How much capital are you willing to put at risk? How comfortable do you feel taking risks with your money? What levels of risk are you willing to take? How are you going to secure your deals? Knowing how you will handle money is very important to you as an investor.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, outline the standards by which you wish to live as an investor. What are the ethical boundaries you're not willing to cross? What you want to stand for as an investor and what sort of person do you want to be as an investor? This may seem abstract and very much up in the air, but it will help you outline exactly the sort of investment opportunities you want to capitalize on. The best real estate investors have a code of conduct, so you should, too.

Why Realtors Need a Website

The real estate market is very good right now and home prices are still rising steadily. Most real estate buyers these days are well educated about the process and have done their research. This is why realtors need to keep up with the times and be able provide clients with the latest information. 

More and more people are using and accessing the Internet. The National Association of Realtors contends that 96% of the Americans who would buy houses will access the Internet to find their dream homes. Most realtors do not understand the power of the Internet in generating the sales that they need. They do not realize that the generation of leads through the Internet can significantly increase your sales.

The easier it is for potential buyers to find you and your properties, the more likely it is that you will gain clients. Having an Internet presence will allow your clients, potential clients, or other interested parties, get in touch with you and the information you have to offer anytime.

However, creating your own web site requires some work. There is a lot that goes into it such as design, hosting, search engine marketing and updates. The good websites often require a professional to get it off on the right track and optimized properly. http://www.fixpad.net is a good place to start if you need help with your website.

Having an experienced webmaster will really help. There are several things you need to do in order for your website to be found among the millions of sites out on the web. An experienced webmaster will be able to optimize your site for the search engines and get you listed in the top results for your area. The webmaster will help you with your email newsletters, link strategies, marketing and advertising. It's a lot of work, but the payoff is great once everything is in place.  

Also, it is important to keep your website interesting and full of information. If your website is just an advertisement people won't stay on your site for long. However, if you provide useful information for your potential clients such as the latest mortgage rates, mls search, home buyer tips, articles and other useful information visitors will stay on your site and come back for more at a later time. Search engines, such as Google, like constantly changing and updated websites and rewared those sites by giving them top search results. Since most people only look at the first page of search results it is important to be there.

Another way to reach potential customers is by blogging. If you want to develop a rapport with your customers, make regular postings about the local real estate market and gain interest from other media outlets or potential customers. You would certainly benefit from starting a blog. Because blogs by nature are considered a source of information rather than a commercial advertisement it makes perfect sense for a realtors to use blogs as a means of establishing a reputation in their market.  

A website should be the primary marketing tool for every realtor. Almost everyone who looking for a new home searches the internet first. If you are not there you are missing out on a lot of potential clients.internet first. If you are not there you are missing out on a lot of potential clients.