Tag Archives: Chappaqua NY Realtor

Chappaqua NY Realtor

Agents: Do not be afraid to set yourself on fire | Chappaqua NY Real Estate

Leave a reply

“Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You have to set yourself on fire.”

That’s a quote by Arnold H. Glasow I came across years ago that always stayed with me.

I speak with agents almost every day. Selling real estate is a tough business.

Between navigating the shifting expectations from buyers and sellers, building your brand presence online and trying to keep up with all the shiny new tech and social media tools in our space, pushing yourself to innovate your business and experiment with your marketing strategies can be daunting.

That’s why HomeFinder.com set out to find some of the most creative agents across the country who blaze their own trails and find success using digital marketing across YouTube, Instagram, Blogging, Facebook and Single Property Websites. For these agents, success meant actual sales, marketing credibility and lasting client relationships.

We put their stories together in this free E-book, Five Agent Success Stories – Close More Business Using Digital Marketing.

Article continues below

Advertise with Inman Next

–>

Five Agent Success Stories – Close More Business Using Digital Marketing

In each story, you’ll learn:

  • How that agent uses that specific marketing channel or tactic in his/her business
  • Detailed success stories that led to a sale
  • Advice to get started or recharge your past or current efforts

Here’s a sneak peek and a few excerpts from one of our fire-starters – Kendyl Young.

Kendyl is an agent with Teles Properties in Glendale, CA. She has produced videos for her business for three years and has more than 146 videos on her YouTube channel for her listings and neighborhoods.

Kendyl constantly gets into situations in which she knocks on someone’s door or
sees someone out at a restaurant and they recognize her from her videos. One such instance happened at a pizza place, where a fellow patron instantly recognized her.

This man watched her market report videos and said he’d always wanted to meet her because of them. He thought she was very smart and would always forward her videos to his
friends who were interested in real estate.

By using YouTube like this, Kendyl made invaluable inroads to this potential client’s insular community without ever having met him or any of his friends.

“It’s made me realize my videos have far more reach than I would have thought,” she said.

A few of Kendyl’s YouTube tips:

  • Resist the temptation to turn on your smartphone and shoot whatever comes to mind and post.
  • Watch as many real estate videos as you can. Note what you like and what you don’t.
  • If you are not willing to learn how to make good videos yourself, find a professional. Everything you put out there is a reflection of the quality of your business.
  • Good sound is more important than good visual.

Kendyl’s story continues in this E-book, along with four others.

Take a cue from these agents who have already tried and succeeded. Learn, borrow, adapt.

And don’t forget to keep those matches handy.

via next.inman.com

Home Warranties Take Some of the Worry out of Home Buying | Chappaqua Homes fo Sale

Leave a reply

If you buy a silk blouse and the sleeve falls off after just one wearing, you’re likely to get your money back — or at least an exchange — from the retailer who sold it.

If you buy a house and the furnace stops working two weeks after you move in, you’re out of luck — unless you purchased or received a home warranty.

Two products — the home warranty and the builder warranty — can take some of the worry out of buying or selling a home. These warranties typically insure appliances and major systems in a home, whether it’s new or just new to you.

Builder warranties

Most builder warranties cover a new home’s materials and workmanship for one to two years, with coverage that lasts up to 10 years on major structural elements.

Rules vary from state to state, but generally these warranties only apply to the sale of a new home from the person or company that constructed it, to a new owner-occupant. Your state attorney general’s office can help you determine whether your builder is offering all the warranties required by state law.

Home warranties

A homeowner who gets a builder warranty with the purchase of his new home may also opt to add another layer of coverage by purchasing a home warranty. Additionally, home warranties can provide protection for those buying older homes. Home warranties generally cannot be purchased for mixed-use properties or mobile homes.

A basic one-year warranty can cost as little as $200 and will generally cover plumbing, heating and some appliances. The price of a warranty will increase as additional items and coverages — such as a swimming pool, washing machine or garage door opener — are added.

Home warranties may be purchased by sellers, who often add them to their closing costs, but they may also be purchased by buyers. Some real estate agents will give buyers a home warranty as a gift at closing.

Home warranties are not the same as homeowners insurance. Insurance protects against perils including fire, hail, property crimes and certain types of water damage. A home warranty does not cover these perils but, rather, covers specific components of the home.

A home warranty is a contract between a homeowner and a home warranty company that provides for discounted repair and replacement service on named items. When something that is covered by a home warranty breaks down, the homeowner calls the home warranty company, which dispatches one of its contracted service providers to examine the problem. If the necessary repair or replacement is covered by the warranty, the homeowner only pays a small service fee (in addition to the money already spent to purchase the warranty), and the service provider completes the work.

If you’re thinking about purchasing a home warranty, do your homework. Shop around for the coverage and pricing that best fits your needs. Ask the warranty company:

  • What is covered?
  • What is excluded from coverage?
  • When does coverage begin? Some companies provide coverage on closing day, while others don’t take effect for two weeks to a month.
  • How long does coverage last?
  • What is the claim-filing process?
  • Is there a cost to file a claim?

Knowing your warranty options and doing your research ahead of time can provide peace of mind when moving into your new home.

via zillow.com

The Social Media is Not Only For You “Marketers” | Chappaqua NY Real Estate

Leave a reply

The Social Media is Not Only For You “Marketers”

Social-media-marketingWith most companies nowadays running social media marketing campaigns, it’s safe to say that the majority of them aren’t running them up to their full potential. That’s because in many companies and offices, the only people actually using social media for anything at all is the marketing team. This is because of a common misconception that has to do with the speed with which social media marketing came upon the world and its unfortunate name. While it is indeed marketing, leaving it to the sole use of the marketing team is a huge waste of potential resources.

So who should be using it? Everyone.Involving and integrating the whole company into a multi-faceted social media blitz will not only increase profits, but it will open new doors to thinking outside of the box that could give your company the edge when it comes to competitiveness in your industry. So, instead of leaving it to the marketing team to come to you with a plan for integration across the boards, take the initiative and push cross-functional social media marketing upon your company.

Why Does Everyone Have To Be Involved?

Since social media has dug in firmly and is here to stay, every department in the company should be looking at how they can use it to make the whole entity run better. Ideally, this will involve representatives from each department meeting up for social media brainstorming sessions, but here are a few suggestions to help get the ball rolling.

The Sales Team sales-team

Perhaps the biggest untapped resource of social media marketing is the sales leads which are out there. You have at your disposal a targeted marketing list: either people who already like your service or product or people who like your competition’s. Go after them! In your monitoring tool, implement a smart keyword search and get new leads.

Customer Service

customer-serviceEvery B2C has a customer service department that is typically only using traditional methods to make themselves available to customers. In the future, social media outlets will be used, so start to plan ahead (or even implement them now) and you’re sure to stay at the forefront of the competition. Be certain you have a strategy, good management tools for social media and a clear plan and then see how social media can help build trust amongst your fans and followers.

Marketing and Communication Departments Marketing-Communications-Team

Because traditional media is actually quickly becoming outdated media, it’s important that the marketing and communications departments stay on top of the latest trends, but also not forget what works. Campaigns shouldn’t always solely be aimed at social media; at times there should be some integration with standard media methods. Regardless, finding the mix of the perfect combination is what it’s all about.

Social media has one huge advantage in that you can instantly get feedback on the campaigns from the target audiences (i.e. likes, shares, comments, edge rankings, etc.). Applying this to your current and future campaigns helps you build a more responsive and non-plastic approach to monitoring and adjusting your sales and reputation. Be sure you’re using keyword searches and monitoring tools to do so.

Public Relations

PR-TeamThe PR team should be closely monitoring this same feedback as well, but taking it a step further, scouring blogs, newsletters and other forms of lesser known social media to stay on top of public opinion. Having an extra set of ears to the ground will help the marketing team and vice versa, as both teams work hand in hand to create the exact public image and branding your company needs to succeed.

Purchasing Departments

If you’re in one of the larger companies that have purchasing departments, they can use research tools available online to monitor and assess the companies they will be making acquisitions from. Tracking their sales and other stats through social media is simple, fast and efficient.

Essentially, the possibilities are endless with each department and how they can use social media to boost their productivity. Consider getting the best and brightest together for some brain storming and expand upon some of the things we’ve touched on here

via blog.socialmaximizer.com

The Time-Honored Art of Splitting Wood | Chappaqua NY Realtor

Leave a reply

Chopping stovewood to size by hand may, at first glance, appear to be a ponderous, imprecise activity that requires little more than pure brute force. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. There is, instead, a distinct art to splitting wood. The skilled woodsman or -woman who works with — rather than against — the rounds he or she is handling can split up a lot more fuel in a given time than can some muscle-bound ox who tries to club the wood pile to smithereens. In fact, a great many experienced splitters (both chore-laden homesteaders and briefcase-laden urbanites) have honed their skills to such a point that they look upon billet-busting as one of life’s more enjoyable tasks.

Make removing ice from a windshield easier with an onion, keep a candle in the car for emergencAnd even if you’ve never split a stick, you can become an accomplished woodcracker yourself. To do so, you’ll need a few commonly available tools, the how-to basics I’ll share in this article, some rounds of ripe-for-the-opening wood — and practice.

The Tools

The instruments most often used for working up wood by hand are the single-blade splitting axe, a pair of three- to five-pound steel wedges, a middle-sized sledgehammer, and an eight-pound splitting maul. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Several manufacturers have devised variations on the standard hand tools — we’ve sized up a number of woodcracking aids in The Great Wood-Splitting Contest II]

However, it isn’t necessary to have all of these tools to begin work. I recommend starting out with a pair of wedges and that workhorse of the log-busting trade, the splitting maul (or “go-devil”). The blade of the latter implement can crack open many a billet, while the tool’s back end can be used for driving wedges. (By the way, never use the butt of an axe for pounding — its thin head may crack!)

The Technique

Probably the single most important wood-splitting rule is this: Always place your to-be-broken rounds on a short chopping block. Such a base will provide solid resistance to the blows, increasing your stroke’s penetration and guaranteeing that when your maul breaks through the billet, the tool’s blade will land in wood instead of slamming into dulling earth or stones.

Once you’ve set your piece of tree up on its chopping block, stand back with your arms extended and feet planted squarely apart. (And, for safety’s sake, be sure to wear boots and sturdy long pants!) Then line up the go-devil over its intended target, wind ‘er up and swing!

Now some folks go for pinpoint accuracy by lifting their mauls straight up overhead, while others feel they gain more power by swinging the implements back around their shoulders. And one person will let his or her top gripping hand slide up toward the splitter’s head on the upswing, but another will keep both hands clenched together in a grip similar to that used by a golfer. You’ll have to experiment until you decide just which technique is best for you.

via motherearthnews.com

Tory Burch’s Hamptons Mansion Sells at Deep Discount | Chappaqua Real Estate

Leave a reply

Source: Wikicommons

Eleven million may sound like a lot of money, but for a South Hampton waterfront mansion, it’s spare change.

Tory Burch’s home has finally sold after a series of price cuts, and it represents a steep loss: The apparel, shoe and handbag designer bought the home in the wake of her divorce for $22.5 million.

The deeply discounted selling price not only hurts Burch, but according to the NY Post, it hasn’t made some of her neighbors too happy either. The waterfront estate is located at 2080 Meadow Ln, Southhampton, NY 11968, a prestigious area that is home to big names like David Koch, Calvin Klein, Janna Bullock and Rachael Ray.

A source told the New York Post:

Everyone in the neighborhood is staggered that she sold it at such a low price. It has sparked a lot of worry if this will affect the market and their own homes, but also a lot of speculation as to why she sold it off so cheaply.”

The home did have water damage from burst pipes, and Curbed called the home a “tear-down,” but $11 million for the property, in an area where homes sell for $30 to $50 million, still has the neighbors concerned.

via zillow.com