Category Archives: Waccabuc NY

Home inventory rises sharply in April | Waccabuc NY Real Estate

Housing inventory rose significantly in April, easing a supply shortage that some experts say has constrained home sales.

Meanwhile, existing-home sales edged upwards in April. Still, sales remain hampered due to limited supply and tight credit, according to NAR.

Housing inventory rose 11.9 percent to 2.16 million homes in April, representing a 5.2-month supply of homes at the current rate of home sales. That’s up from 4.7 months in March. But inventory still remained 13.6 percent below a year ago, when there was a 6.6-month stock.

Existing-home sales ticked up 0.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million in April from an upwardly revised 4.94 million in March, according to NAR. That put sales at their highest level since November 2009, when a tax credit stimulated purchases, NAR said.

“The robust housing market recovery is occurring in spite of tight access to credit and limited inventory. Without these frictions, existing-home sales easily would be well above the 5-million-unit pace,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “Buyer traffic is 31 percent stronger than a year ago, but sales are running only about 10 percent higher.  It’s become quite clear that the only way to tame price growth to a manageable, healthy pace is higher levels of new-home construction.” Source: realtor.org.

 

 

Home inventory rises sharply in April | Inman News.

Vacation home sales shift to rentals | Waccabuc Real Estate

Low mortgage rates, returning consumer and investor confidence, and the new migration from New Jersey are all combining to turn this Maryland market around, writes CNBC. “We’re getting the calls again from people looking to really buy — buy into the market and start renting again,” said Deborah Lipscomb, owner of Eastern Shore Vacation Rentals.

 

Vacation home sales shift to rentals | HousingWire.

MYRTLE BEACH: Better real estate market means scattered tight inventories | Waccabuc Real Estate

There was a time not that long ago when Grand Strand Realtors were pleading for a lower inventory of foreclosures so sales of traditional homes could pick up.

That’s happened, as remains clear in the April real estate activity report by SiteTech Systems.

But behind the numbers, another potential problem could be lurking: low inventory.

The new low inventory, though, involves the number of traditionally-marketed homes for sale and available lots to put them on. While it’s not a crisis and no one’s saying it’s going to get that way, a tightening of available properties to sell to eager buyers could raise prices which, at some point, could suppress demand.

“The inventory is being pressured in all segments on the south end,” said Lee Hewitt, broker in charge at Garden City Realty.

Hewitt said he believes buyers will accept some price increases, but he’s not sure how much is too much that will cause them to put their money back in the bank.

“It’s going to be interesting how it plays out in the next three, four, five months,” he said.

It’s not just the Murrells Inlet area that is seeing a shrinking inventory, said Todd Woodard, SiteTech’s owner.

Inventories are tight in the Carolina Forest and Forestbrook/Socastee areas as well.

The situation has gotten serious enough, though, that it has prompted one Realtor to send an email seeking potential sellers.

Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2013/05/21/3498105/better-real-estate-market-means.html#storylink=cpy

 

 

MYRTLE BEACH: Better real estate market means scattered tight inventories | Real Estate | MyrtleBeachOnline.com.

Tips for Commincating with Leads | Waccabuc NY Realtor

AS DISCUSSED IN THE EMAIL, HERE ARE SOME GREAT TIPS FROM THE TIGER LEAD SUMMIT.

Succeed with 8 magic words:

1. Because (“Because we haven’t had a second showing, we’re going to have to reset the price”)

2. Now

3. Imagine

4. Thank you

5. Please

6. Use their name only twice (any more than that and they won’t trust you)

7. You are in charge or in control

8. With your permission

– Sandy Raines

Make a short video to introduce yourself. “Hi, I’m Trevor Ainsworth. I just wanted to let you know I’m a real person and I hope you are too.” – Trevor Ainsworth  

I had a great conversation with Trevor on Saturday about this technique.  It’s simple, builds rapport and generates great results.  Programs like Bomb Bomb allow for quick and easy recording right on your phone.

Guide the lead on a path and they will follow you. Make sure the agents ask open-ended questions. If you’re the person asking questions, you’re in control of the conversation. – Tiffany Lachnidt

If you can’t get through to someone on the phone, immediately send them a text. For example, “Just a quick question: would you like me to send you listings from area xxx?”- Trevor Ainsworth

If you don’t get a response to someone, text them “I’m really sorry, have I done something to upset you?” Your phone will ring really fast! – Tiffany Lachnidt

“Whether you’re looking to buy in 2 months or not for 2 years, I’m ok with that.” – Unknown, but this is a great line!!!!

 

 

Tips for Commincating with Leads | Tech Savvy Agent.

Connecticut mansion becomes most expensive home on market | Waccabuc Real Estate

This 50½-acre property includes a 12-bedroom Victorian, French-renaissance mansion, 4,000 feet of water frontage on Long Island Sound and two offshore islands, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The listing marks the latest test of the ultra-high-end property market, which has seen several record-setting sales in recent years. Pricing in this stratosphere is an imprecise science, however, and it can be difficult for sellers to predict whether a nine-figure listing will lead to a nine-figure sale.

 

Connecticut mansion becomes most expensive home on market | HousingWire.

Is It Better to Rent or Buy? It Depends on Location and Time | Waccabuc NY Real Estate

There are many difficult choices to make when deciding whether to rent or buy a home, but one of the most important factors is also among the easiest to determine: How long do you plan on staying in the home or neighborhood under consideration?

It has long been a rule of thumb that if you plan on staying in a home “long-term,” then you should buy instead of rent. But how long is “long-term,” really? Just how long does it take to recoup the upfront costs of buying, or to realize the savings inherent in a mortgage payment instead of a rent payment?

In some places, the answer is as short as one year – or as long as 20 years.

Zillow’s breakeven horizon incorporates all possible costs associated with buying and renting, including upfront payments, closing costs, anticipated monthly rent and mortgage payments, insurance, taxes, utilities and maintenance costs. It helps renters or prospective buyers determine the point, in years, at which buying a home becomes more financially advantageous than renting the same home. Because neighborhood selection is such a critical part of the home shopping process, the breakeven horizon is now available at the ZIP code and neighborhood level within individual cities and towns, and can often vary widely from neighborhood to neighborhood.

Maybe you’re trying to decide whether to buy or rent in New York City. The breakeven horizon for New York City as a whole is 6.1 years. But at the neighborhood level, the breakeven horizon ranges from a low of 2.5 years in the Parkchester neighborhood in the Bronx, to a high of 11.9 years in the Carnegie Hill section of Manhattan.

Nationwide, the neighborhood with the lowest breakeven horizon is the Shelby Forest-Frayser neighborhood in Memphis, Tenn., at just one year. The neighborhood with the longest breakeven horizon is the Sandbridge area of Virginia Beach, Va., at 20.3 years.

So, if you’re thinking of moving to the Shelby Forest-Frayser part of Memphis in the next few months, and you think you’ll be there for at least a year, you should consider buying a place there instead of signing that one-year lease. And if you’re looking to find that perfect place in beautiful Sandbridge, well, you should feel comfortable signing that multi-year lease, or get ready to live there at least 20 years if you want to break even.

5 neighborhoods with shortest breakeven:

Neighborhood

City, State

Breakeven Horizon (Years)

Shelby Forest-FrayserMemphis, Tenn.

1

FairhillPhiladelphia, Pa.

1

La GrangeToledo, Ohio

1

CorlettCleveland, Ohio

1

Sulphur SpringsTampa, Fla.

1

5 neighborhoods with longest breakeven:

Neighborhood

City, State

Breakeven Horizon (Years)

SandbridgeVirginia Beach, Va.

20.3

College HillProvidence, RI

13.3

WiltonRichmond, Va.

13

Arts DistrictDallas, Texas

12.3

Windsor FarmsRichmond, Va.

12.3

 

http://www.zillowblog.com/2013-05-16

How to Generate More Leads With Your Blog, 5 Tips | Waccabuc Realtor

Does your business have a blog?

Would you like your blog to bring in more leads for your business?

You already know you need to create awesome blog content, but there’s more to business blogging than just that.

You also need to include a few tactics to help you bring in the leads you want.

Here are some useful tactics to entice and capture leads used by top marketing business blogs!

#1: Place Opt-In Forms Around Your Blog Content

There are several areas on your blog that you can use to introduce visitors to calls to action such as free trials, free consultations or a simple mailing list opt-in form. These areas include your header, sidebar, the end of blog posts, your About page and your footer.

Unbounce, a landing page software creator, encourages people to try their software or sign up for their mailing list in their sidebar and post footers.

unbounce options

Unbounce has lead generating calls to action in their sidebar.

KISSmetrics, a web analytics software company, uses their blog footer along with the sidebar and ends of posts to encourage subscriptions and free trial signups.

kissmetrics footer

KISSmetrics has lead generating calls to action in the footer of their blog.

While it might seem like overkill to put lead capturing options in so many places on your blog, it’s really not if you consider the fact that a visitor may only notice them at certain points during their visit.

While reading a blog post, for example, readers may ignore your header and sidebar. But if they are impressed by your blog content, then they will notice a subscription option at the end of the post.

Alternatively, if they make it to the homepage of your blog and scan all the way down the latest post titles and summaries, they might be interested in subscribing in the footer.

The key is to place your opt-in form in various locations on your blog where you have captured your readers’ attention.

#2: Regularly Create Free, Downloadable Content

HubSpot has the leading inbound marketing blog to complement their marketing platform. If you follow their blog, you know that they are constantly creating free, downloadable marketing content in the form of ebooks, whitepapers, templates and other valuable digital material. They not only promote their free content on their blog, but on their social networks as well for additional traction.

hubspot free ebooks

HubSpot markets free content on their blog and social networks.

In exchange for all of these downloads, people must provide their name, email and additional information about their business. Free content is the perfect lead generator!

The key to getting the right kind of leads with your free content is to create content that will attract your target customer base. You don’t want to capture just any subscriber—you want to capture someone who will want to learn more about your products and services.

#3: Incentivize Sharing With a Referral Program

What’s better than offering free content to capture leads for your business? Offering more free content to those who help you build leads.

Marketo, a marketing automation software business, created a free coloring book for marketers. Their incentive offer was a free hard copy coloring book—and crayons—for each person who referred five people to download the digital copy.

referral for free content

Using referral incentives to generate leads.

Now, instead of just one new lead from their blog, they have the opportunity to capture five more!

Consider ways you can incentivize your readers to refer more leads to your business.

 

 

How to Generate More Leads With Your Blog, 5 Tips | Social Media Examiner.

Hong Kong Home Prices at Record Gap to Sales | South Salem Real Estate

Bloomberg

The gap between Hong Kong home prices and sales is the widest on record as new taxes, rising supply and the prospect of higher mortgage costs deter buyers in the world’s most expensive housing market.

Residential buildings stand in the Mid-levels area of Hong Kong. Photographer: Lam Yik Fei/Bloomberg

The CHART OF THE DAY tracks Centaline Property Agency Ltd.’s weekly index of home prices against monthly sales of residential units, according to data compiled by Bloomberg dating back to 1996. Prices have fallen 4.2 percent from a record reached in mid-March, compared with a 77 percent contraction in sales from their post-global financial crisis peak in 2010. The lower panel shows the U.S. benchmark interest rate compared with America’s unemployment rate.

The Hong Kong dollar’s peg to the U.S. counterpart has kept borrowing costs in the city at near-record lows, underpinning a 109 percent gain in home prices since the beginning of 2009, even as the government imposed several property curbs to cool demand. The city’s housing market got an additional boost in January 2012 when the U.S. Federal Reserve pledged to keep interest rates low through at least late-2014.

“When people were expecting prices to rise, as they had been over the last couple of years, none of the government’s measures could deter buyers because borrowing costs were low,” said David Ng, an analyst at Macquarie Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong. “Now, the opposite is happening.”

Since 2010, Hong Kong has charged an extra tax of up to 20 percent of the value of homes on buyers who resell them within three years and raised the minimum down-payment on mortgages for homes costing more than HK$7 million ($902,000). In October, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying imposed an extra 15 percent tax on all home purchases by companies and non-residents, and promised to raise land supply

 

 

Hong Kong Home Prices at Record Gap to Sales – Bloomberg.

North Jersey Data Center Industry Blurs Utility-Real Estate Boundaries | Waccabuc Real Estate

The trophy high-rises on Madison, Park and Fifth Avenues in Manhattan have long commanded the top prices in the country for commercial real estate, with yearly leases approaching $150 a square foot. So it is quite a Gotham-size comedown that businesses are now paying rents four times that in low, bland buildings across the Hudson River in New Jersey.
Why pay $600 or more a square foot at unglamorous addresses like Weehawken, Secaucus and Mahwah? The answer is still location, location, location — but of a very different sort.
Companies are paying top dollar to lease space there in buildings called data centers, the anonymous warrens where more and more of the world’s commerce is transacted, all of which has added up to a tremendous boon for the business of data centers themselves.
The centers provide huge banks of remote computer storage, and the enormous amounts of electrical power and ultrafast fiber optic links that they demand.
Prices are particularly steep in northern New Jersey because it is also where data centers house the digital guts of the New York Stock Exchange and other markets. Bankers and high-frequency traders are vying to have their computers, or servers, as close as possible to those markets. Shorter distances make for quicker trades, and microseconds can mean millions of dollars made or lost.
When the centers opened in the 1990s as quaintly termed “Internet hotels,” the tenants paid for space to plug in their servers with a proviso that electricity would be available. As computing power has soared, so has the need for power, turning that relationship on its head: electrical capacity is often the central element of lease agreements, and space is secondary.
A result, an examination shows, is that the industry has evolved from a purveyor of space to an energy broker — making tremendous profits by reselling access to electrical power, and in some cases raising questions of whether the industry has become a kind of wildcat power utility.
Even though a single data center can deliver enough electricity to power a medium-size town, regulators have granted the industry some of the financial benefits accorded the real estate business and imposed none of the restrictions placed on the profits of power companies.
Some of the biggest data center companies have won or are seeking Internal Revenue Service approval to organize themselves as real estate investment trusts, allowing them to eliminate most corporate taxes. At the same time, the companies have not drawn the scrutiny of utility regulators, who normally set prices for delivery of the power to residences and businesses.
While companies have widely different lease structures, with prices ranging from under $200 to more than $1,000 a square foot, the industry’s performance on Wall Street has been remarkable. Digital Realty Trust, the first major data center company to organize as a real estate trust, has delivered a return of more than 700 percent since its initial public offering in 2004, according to an analysis by Green Street Advisors.




North Jersey Data Center Industry Blurs Utility-Real Estate Boundaries – NYTimes.com

 

 

North Jersey Data Center Industry Blurs Utility-Real Estate Boundaries | Waccabuc Real Estate | Bedford NY Real Estate | Robert Paul Talks Life in Bedford NY.

Denver housing market recovers but sellers remain scarce | Waccabuc Homes

Denver’s housing rebound is in full swing, but sellers are acting as though they didn’t get invitations to the party.

“The question each and every day is: Where are the sellers?” said Gary Bauer, an independent real estate research analyst.

At the end of April,metro Denver had just shy of 7,000 pre-owned homes available for sale, a third fewer than a year earlier and less than half the 15,000 to 20,000 homes that Bauer said would represent a normal market.

“I can’t figure out why people aren’t listing,” said Brenda Yates, a broker associate with Keller Williams DTC.

Yates and her husband plan to put three properties on the market, after finally seeing enough appreciation to make it worthwhile, and they don’t expect it will take long for them to sell.

The median price of homes sold in metro Denver last month rose to $280,000, up from $268,200 in March. The latestStandard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price indexreports 14 straight months of price increases in Denver, with prices up nearly 10 percent year-over-year as of February.

Scarcity is triggering bidding wars and causing homes to move quickly, often on the first day, brokers report. The median time a new listing in April remained available before going under contract was four days, reports Jim Smith, owner of Golden Real Estate.

 

 

Denver housing market recovers but sellers remain scarce – The Denver Post.