Your relationship with Instagram needn't be exclusive

 

Realtor Notebook

BY TERESA BOARDMAN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 2013.

Inman News®

The honeymoon is over image via Shutterstock.

I followed with interest the confusing changes to Instagram's terms of service that, for a while at least, seemed to indicate that parent company Facebook was claiming the right to license all public Instagram photos for commercial uses, including advertising.

The resulting outcry led Instagram to issue an apology and announce that it was going back to the original terms of use that they have had since they started up in 2010.

Over the years there have been rumors about Google+ owning my content, and Facebook owning it, and then Pinterest came along and staked a claim to it as well. 

I will admit that on those rare occasions when I do read terms of service, I rarely understand them completely. They are usually huge and complicated, but I am told that I have to agree to them before I get to use something that I want to use.

Honest marketing proposals get listings

5 basic expectations sellers and agents should agree on

BY ALISHA ALWAY BRAATZ, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012.

Inman News®

Agreement image via Shutterstock.

Journey back with me to those first few months after becoming a bona fide real estate agent: You had a desk full of brand-new file folders, a shiny name badge, and a go-get'em attitude that just wouldn't quit!

If you were anything like me, you'd also invested in a full-grain leather briefcase and some hoity-toity shoes, too. Fake it till you make it, right? Right!

Until the new excitement wears off and you find yourself shrinking in the back row of the office meeting and thinking please don't call on me!

Don't 'date' the real estate ingrate

How to spot would-be clients you should drop like a hot potato

BY ALISHA ALWAY BRAATZ, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2012.

Inman News®

Date image via Shutterstock.

I recently heard a radio host reading a piece on the subject, "Who not to date -- ever." It was so funny, and right on, that I tried to Google it for my husband to read.

Turns out there are millions of results for that search term. I never did find the right one. But after reading through the first 10 or so entries, I concluded that trillions of people the world over hate a nag, a know-it-all, and a money-grubber.

The stereotypes were spot-on, and it got me thinking about our real estate clientele. Because, you have to admit, courting a client is a lot like dating -- minus the butterflies, romance and tequila shots.

We dedicate weekends to these people, buy them steak dinners and have their number on speed dial. We practice making small talk in the rearview mirror on the way to pick them up. We dress to impress. We wash the car. And we never pass gas or burp in front of them (I hope!).

Forms auto-populate, but can agents explain them?

As industry moves to paperless, agents must understand contract provisions

BY BERNICE ROSS, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2012.

Inman News®

Robot wielding pen image via Shutterstock.

As the industry moves to becoming paperless, the new technologies are exacerbating a problem that has existed for years: agents failing to make sure their clients understand the contracts they are signing. Are you taking the necessary steps to protect your clients?

Your clients have found the perfect house but there are already two offers on it. They're in a hurry to submit an offer, so you take out your iPad, pop open the zipForms version of your purchase contract, and auto-fill the contract. The buyers digitally sign the contract, you obtain their deposit check, and you email the offer to the listing agent. The entire process took a little over five minutes -- isn't technology grand?

I have been interviewing managers and broker-owners regarding the major challenges they're facing with new agents. Every broker and manager I have spoken with has cited the same problem: A substantial proportion of all agents have failed to master the fundamentals of the business.

Responses to economic peril not grounded in reality

Commentary: Central banks can't make debt disappear

BY LOU BARNES, FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 2012.

Inman News®

Flying saucers image via Shutterstock.

This bizarre time resembles a sci-fi epic involving three alternate universes -- one real and two political -- at each change of scene each universe moving more distant from the others.

Reality first. Today's reported 163,000-job net gain in July has surprised markets expecting more bad news, and thus triggered a short-covering rally in stocks and a dumping of safety-bought bonds, with market moves magnified by thin attendance during vacation season.

The job gain was half-again the forecast, but other aspects of the report were as weak as prior months: more part-time workers unable to find full-time jobs, and fewer people in the workforce able to find any work at all.

The Institute For Supply Management reports for July were on the cusp of weakness, manufacturing shrinking slightly at 49.8, the service sector at 52.6 a hair better than hoped. June personal income grew 0.5 percent, spending not at all. June factory orders were expected to rise and instead fell 0.5 percent; excluding a nice month for aircraft, orders tanked 1.8 percent.

4 opportunities agents should cash in on Grow your real estate business in 2012

BY BERNICE ROSS, MONDAY, JULY 30, 2012 Inman News®

Sack of money image via Shutterstock.

Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series.

At the recent AFIRE (Awesome Females in Real Estate) conference, Deborah Falcone, real estate director for the Wall Street Journal, shared the Journal's latest research on the key trends currently shaping today's real estate market as well as ways brokers and agents can capitalize on these trends to grow their business.

1. Investors move the market
According to the National Association of Realtors, the number of homes purchased in 2011 by investors jumped 65 percent to 1.2 million. Investors represented 27 percent of all home sales.

Opportunity: Working with investors will continue to be a great source to expand your business whether you are an individual agent or a brokerage. Many Gen Yers are having difficulty finding employment or are so burdened with college loans that they cannot afford to purchase a home. As a result, "Gen Rent" will continue to drive the demand for rental properties and investments.

Don't wait for NAR to rethink the future Realtor Notebook

BY TERESA BOARDMAN, THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012 Inman News®

Man holding lightbulb image via Shutterstock.

It has been my observation that people who are not members of the National Association of Realtors are more supportive of the organization than many of its members.

To me, as a member, NAR is big and bureaucratic and seems out of touch with the average member. The average member is much older than the ideal member, more likely to be female, and may not have health insurance but still pays dues every year.

And every year, NAR launches some new initiative. The latest is called "Rethink the Future of Real Estate."

According to a dedicated website created by NAR, rethinkfuture.com, the Rethink initiative will launch in August. A number of workshops will be held with a goal of reaching 20,000 people before publication of a final report at NAR's 2013 annual conference.

4 tips for writing powerful real estate copy Use numbers, action verbs to appeal to buyers' senses

BY BERNICE ROSS, MONDAY, JULY 23, 2012 Inman News®

Lockbox image via Shutterstock.

The headlines you write for your listings, website, blogs and ads can make or break your business. How effective are you at writing a great real estate headline?

One of best tools available for writing ads, blog posts or articles is the Headline Analyzer from the Advanced Marketing Institute. The Headline Analyzer allows you to see how your headlines compare against those written by professional copywriters.

To use the Headline Analyzer, begin by entering your headlines, select "real estate" as the field in which you are interested, and the Headline Analyzer will evaluate how effective your headlines are based upon three different dimensions: intellectual, empathetic and spiritual. The most effective headlines appeal to all three groups.

Rising home prices bring 700,000 homeowners above water CoreLogic: Negative equity concentrated among homes under $200,000

BY INMAN NEWS, FRIDAY, JULY 13, 2012 Inman News®

Home on life preserver image via Shutterstock.

Rising home prices helped more than 700,000 homeowners regain equity in their homes during first quarter, but 11.4 million borrowers still owed more on their mortgage than their homes were worth, according to the latest reportfrom data aggregator CoreLogic.

The number of U.S homeowners with negative equity declined by 6 percent in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter, leaving 23.7 percent of all homes with mortgages underwater. That's down from 25.2 percent in the fourth quarter.

When the 2.3 million borrowers with less than 5 percent equity, which CoreLogic calls "near-negative equity," are included, 28.5 percent of mortgaged homes were either underwater or nearly underwater in the first quarter, down from 30.1 percent.

Traditional metrics don't capture the value of social media Measures need revising, or people will get burned by brand marketing

BY GAHLORD DEWALD, FRIDAY, JULY 13, 2012 Inman News®

Gauges image via Shutterstock.

Marketing online has, in many respects, been a battleground between two different camps of marketing strategy: branding and direct.

One camp brings years of cognitive science, psychology, and the language and imagery of narrative to the battleground. The other brings statistics, algorithmic math, and the language and imagery of systems. In between is almost every combination of those things you can imagine.

In a practical sense, direct marketing tends to focus on very clear metrics that obviously relate to the bottom line. The branding camp also has metrics, but their connection to the bottom line is seemingly more tenuous.

5 WordPress plugins to boost your blog | Engage your audience and improve SEO

BY TOM FLANAGAN, TUESDAY, JULY 10, 2012 Inman News®

Rocket image via Shutterstock.

As real estate professional, your blog is your publishing platform. It's an opportunity to distribute information, engage your audience and hopefully improve search engine optimization (SEO). Let's take a look at five WordPress plugins that will enhance your blog posts:

1. MediaElement.JS HTML5 Video and Audio Player

Creating cross-platform content is critical in the Post-PC era. It's imperative that real estate professionals publish content that can be consumed on multiple platforms and devices, especially mobile devices. The MediaElement.JS HTML5 Video and Audio Player allows you to quickly add cross-platform video and audio content to your blog post or WordPress website without having to be a programming ninja.

Will NAR govern .Realtor sites with a heavy hand? | Group's history enforcing trademark raises free speech concerns

BY INMAN NEWS, TUESDAY, JULY 10, 2012 Inman News®

Speech bubble image via Shutterstock.

By DAVID W. MYERS

That the National Association of Realtors would spend more than $500,000 in the hopes of obtaining the right to create and manage a trio of new top-level domains -- .Realtor, .realestate and .homes -- might seem like a sure-fire, "no-brainer" investment.

"Realtors are already the most trusted, valued sources for real estate-related information, and we believe that the .Realtor domain would extend that trust online," NAR said last month in announcing that it had applied to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to create and manage several new alternatives to the ".com" top-level domain commonly employed by businesses today.

Libor scandal is whitecaps in a thimble | Commentary: Rigging workhorse rate was stupid, and the stupid should resign

BY LOU BARNES, FRIDAY, JULY 6, 2012 Inman News®

Bored partygoers image via Shutterstock.

First some data, then Libor. Tempest or titillation? The effects from global markets to your adjustable-rate mortgage -- earth-shaking? Or teapot-tilting?

June jobs data are as-was in May and April: 75,000 new jobs, poor, but afloat!

The June data from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) is more concerning, the overall manufacturing index (PMI) falling to 49.7 percent from 53.5 (a reading below 50 percent indicates the manufacturing economy is generally contracting). "Internals" also crashing: new orders down 12.3 to 47.8, and prices of raw materials collapsed another 10.5 to 37 (inflation risk is zero).

Owners lose units in condo complex foreclosure | New owner terminates condo association, puts development up for sale

BY INMAN NEWS, FRIDAY, JUNE 29, 2012 Inman News®

Gavel image via Shutterstock.

Editor's note: The following story excerpt is republished with permission of AOL Real Estate. See the full story, "'This Is Crazy': Company Snatches Condos From Owners."

By TEKE WIGGIN

Teresa Fusco thought she had done everything that she needed to do to sail comfortably into her golden years. She owned a condominium unit in Reading, Pa., with an appraised valued of $101,000, and she had a rainy-day fund in case her health failed.

Expertise is granted, not proclaimed Build your brand on the value of relationships

BY GAHLORD DEWALD, TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2012 Inman News®

Child on phone image via Shutterstock.

This might be hard to take. But it might be true. And it might turn out to be helpful. That is, once the sting to your pride fades away a little bit.

Alright. Here goes:

You are not the expert.

There are so many kinds of marketing in the real estate industry that are focused on positioning agents and brokers as experts. Experts of neighborhoods. Experts of negotiation. Experts helping people understand their housing needs. Experts of marketing. Experts of technology. Experts of social media or SEO or radio advertising.

That's a lot of expertise.

Use your knowledge to close real estate sales No two deals go wrong in exactly the same way

BY BERNICE ROSS, THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2012 Inman News®

Handshake image via Shutterstock.

Real estate practitioners, as well as the companies and people who support them, are grappling with a problem that continues to elude their ability to solve it. We argue about who owns the data, whether we're worth the commissions we receive, and whether the boards, companies and associations are really "worth it." The underlying issues, however, are simply not being addressed.

When real estate professionals are ranked lower than used-car salespeople, it's clear that we are doing a poor job in articulating the value we bring to the people we serve, whether it's at the association, board, brokerage or agent level.

I recently attended a leadership training event designed to prepare the group to assume leadership roles at their board. Most of the people in the room had at least 10 years of experience. When the trainer asked, "What differentiates a Realtor from other agents who merely hold licenses?" half the room couldn't come up with anything.

Re/Max agents get automated content program EMerge platform generates emails, blog posts, social media pushes

BY INMAN NEWS, FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012 Inman News®

People hub image via Shutterstock.

Real estate franchisor Re/Max has partnered with Louisiana-based technology firm eMerge to provide Re/Max brokers and agents with an automated content program that generates two monthly email newsletters, six blog posts per month, and weekly social media pushes to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

The eMerge program also allows real estate professionals to supplement automated content with their own, personalized messaging and gain valuable feedback on what engages their users.

"We need to embrace online technology and not be intimidated by it," Re/Max CEO Margaret Kelly said in a statement. "With the proven success the eMerge program demonstrated with our franchise sales division in 2011, the natural next step is to introduce this powerful marketing tool to our brokers and agents."

"Our mission is to provide one program that consolidates and automates email, social media and blogging for Re/Max agents and brokers," said Bondilyn Jolly, founder and CEO of eMerge.

"The eMerge program saves valuable time by providing all of the tools and content needed to create and maintain a successful online presence."

Other eMerge offerings include professional campaign services, enterprise level platforms and support, education and training programs.

Agents: Are you an IRS audit target?

Real Estate Tax Talk

BY STEPHEN FISHMAN, FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012.

Inman News®

Every year, the Internal Revenue Service releases detailed statistics about who got audited the previous year.

The stats for 2011, covering 2010 returns — have recently come out and they paint an unpleasant picture for many real estate professionals — particularly the successful ones.

The percentage of business and nonbusiness returns that got audited in 2011 is shown in the following chart:

IRS Audit Rates (2010)

	Audit Rate
Sole proprietors
Income under $25,000	1.3%
$25,000 to $100,000	2.9%
$100,000 to $200,000	4.3%
$200,000 and more	3.8%
Partnerships	0.4%
S corporations	0.4%
C corporations
Assets under $250,000	0.9%
$250,000 to $1 million	1.6%
$1 million to $5 million	1.9%
$5 million to $10 million	2.6%
Nonbusiness Returns
Under $25,000	1.2%
$25,000 to $50,000	0.7%
$50,000 to $75,000	0.8%
$75,000 to $100,000	0.8%
$100,000 to $200,000	1.0%
$200,000 to $500,000	2.7%
$500,000 to $1 million	5.4%

This chart shows that in 2010, 4.3 percent of sole proprietors earning $100,000 to $200,000 were audited. Not even corporations with assets worth between $5 million and $10 million were audited as often.

Moreover, only 1 percent of taxpayers who did not file a Schedule C form, but earned $100,000 to $200,000, were audited. Thus, self-employed taxpayers were four times as likely to be audited as employees earning the same amount.

In fact, employees earning as much as $500,000 were less likely to be audited than self-employed taxpayers earning as little as $100,000.

These statistics undoubtedly reflect the IRS’s belief that sole proprietors habitually underreport their income, take deductions to which they are not entitled, or otherwise cheat on their taxes.

Employees have less opportunity to cheat because their income tax is withheld by their employers and income reported directly to the IRS by them.

Unfortunately, most real estate professionals fall into the high-audit category: They are self-employed businesspeople who file Schedule C. The lesson these numbers teach is that you need to take the IRS seriously.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take all the deductions you’re legally entitled to take, but you should understand the rules and be able to back up the deductions you do take with proper records.

If you’re really worried about getting audited, think about forming a business entity to operate your real estate business. This could be a pass-through entity, such as a limited liability company taxed as a partnership or an S corporation.

Such entities don’t pay taxes themselves, but do file returns with the IRS. Both have extremely low audit rates: only 0.4 percent of such entities were audited in 2011. Regular C corporations also have relatively low audit rates.

10 U.S. real estate markets drawing international buyers

Inman News report features data trends, analysis, commentary on popular areas

BY INMAN NEWS, FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2012.

Inman News®

Affluent international buyers, attracted by fire-sale prices, are snapping up real estate in some U.S. markets. In a report released today, Inman News identifies 10 markets where public records indicate foreign buyers make up the biggest share of overall buyers.

Most of the markets are located in sunny Florida, though areas in Nevada, Arizona, New York and Hawaii are also on the list. The report highlights the economic and personal factors that drive foreign buyers to buy; their preferred property types; top countries of origin; how they find the real estate professionals they work with; why the selected markets appeal to them; and relevant demographic and housing-related characteristics for the markets, including share of foreign-born population, distressed property footprint, home-price trends, and vacancy rates.

Among the findings in this report, researched and written by Inman News reporter Andrea V. Brambila:

• Population levels in the markets range from about 600,000 in Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla., to nearly 5.6 million in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Fla.
• Seven out of 10 markets had foreign-born populations above the national rate of 13.1 percent in 2010. The Miami metro had the highest share born abroad, at 39.2 percent.
• In six of the 10 markets, area inhabitants who were foreign-born and moved from abroad accounted for a higher-than-average share of overall inhabitants who reported moving in the previous year in 2010. New York County (Manhattan) had the highest share: 7.7 percent of the people who moved in that county were both foreign-born and hailing from abroad.
• In seven out of 10 markets, the median sales price for an existing, single-family home was lower than the national median of $163,500 in fourth-quarter 2011. In eight out of 10 markets, the median sales price for a condo was lower than the national median of $160,800 for that same quarter.
• Condo prices fell on an annual basis in the fourth quarter in seven out of 10 markets. All seven saw their prices decline by more than the national rate of -1.7 percent.
• Seven of the 10 markets had a higher share of distressed sales in fourth-quarter 2011 than the national rate of 23.7 percent. Eight of the 10 markets had higher foreclosure activity rates in fourth-quarter 2011 compared to the national rate.
• Nine of the 10 markets, except for Honolulu, had higher vacancy rates in 2010 than the national rate of 13.1 percent. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., had the highest rate, at 37 percent.