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Today’s Top Story Archive


New Real Estate Poll: Americans Increasingly Optimistic about Homeownership

Americans are significantly more optimistic about homeownership than they were a year ago. That’s according to a new national survey released this week from Prudential Real Estate, a Brookfield Residential Property Services company. According to the second-annual Prudential Real Estate Outlook Survey, a full 60 percent of Americans have favorable views toward the real estate market. That's up 8 points since last year. The survey shows that signs of increasing optimism are widespread: • With interest rates at historically low levels, 96 percent agree or somewhat agree that now is a good time to buy.


Consumer Attitudes Stabilize, Positivity Spreads

Americans' concerns about key economic and housing issues are beginning to subside, according to results from Fannie Mae's February 2012 National Housing Survey. Consumers' attitudes have stabilized across most indicators—including personal finances, housing, and employment—demonstrating their sense that downside risks have abated somewhat compared to late summer and fall of 2011. While Americans' confidence in the direction of the economy has been the most pronounced (35 percent think that the economy is on the right track,


How to Read Your Prospect Like a Book

Top salespeople and the most successful managers recognize the importance of nonverbal communication in the selling process and have learned to "listen with their eyes." They understand that one of the easiest and most effective ways to close sales is to be aware of their prospect's "buy signals." Are you aware that your body language reveals your deepest feelings and hidden thoughts to total strangers? It might surprise you to know that research indicates over 70 percent of our communication is done nonverbally. In fact, studies show that nonverbal communication has a much greater impact and reliability than the spoken word.


Where Next? Following Boomers to Their Next Real Estate Purchase

Baby boomers are becoming seniors at a rate of 10,000 per day, 4 million per year. By 2020, 80 million people in the U.S. will be 65 or older. Many will uproot to flee ice storms and frost heaves, move closer to kids and grandkids, or seek gated retirement communities for security and social activities. It should matter to REALTORS® where boomers choose to live. Seniors commit fewer crimes and drive less, but require more medical facilities, which will increasingly affect municipal and federal spending. A study from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University states


What You Need to Know about Cancellation of Mortgage Debt

This column is brought to you by the NAR Real Estate Services group. A lender will, on occasion, forgive some portion of a borrower’s debt. The general tax rule that applies to any debt forgiveness is that the amount forgiven is treated as taxable income to the borrower. Some exceptions to this rule are available, but, until recently, the borrower was required to pay tax on the debt forgiven. A new law enacted in December 2007 provides relief to troubled borrowers when some portion of mortgage debt is forgiven. However, this relief expires on December 31, 2012 and NAR will be working to obtain an extension throughout the year.


Marketing Strategies: Do You Need to Be Lucky to Succeed?

While helping a client release her self-limiting beliefs, she brought up the old belief that she has to be lucky to succeed. I asked her how she would benefit from releasing and reprogramming that belief and she answered, “I would be more motivated to take action.” During the reprogramming process, I asked her to go back to the origin of this belief, and she vividly recalled sitting in the living room with her parents and watching TV. When shows would come up that would showcase a successful person, her parents would always say, “look at them, they are so lucky.”


5 Leverage Points to Close More Sales

As the first quarter of 2012 draws to a close, you may be thinking to yourself, “Gosh, I gotta step this up! I am not on target for the goal that I set to improve my sales volume this year.” If this sounds like you, the following checklist will help you focus on the areas where you need to improve in order to get yourself on the right track to closing more sales this year. 1. Get more leads. As our market changes, buyers and sellers keep evolving in the way they look for real estate and make decisions, therefore, we constantly have to be on the hunt for pumping more leads into the organization.


5 Ways to Boost Your Online Marketing with REsource Real Estate Content

Combine our technology-driven world and today’s challenging real estate market and you have a good recipe for one overwhelmed real estate professional. In addition to the daily challenges of listing and selling properties, you now have the added must-do’s of keeping your website up to date, blogging, creating and posting to your social media pages and sending mailers. What are you going to blog about? What types of information should you post to social media pages? And where are you going to get the content?


Selling to the Four Temperament Styles

Have you ever wondered why you seem to hit it off right away with some customers, while with others it's more like oil and water? That's because we respond intuitively to the natural chemistry, or lack thereof, between temperament styles. Our temperament style not only determines our behavioral traits, body language patterns and buying style, but it also influences our compatibility with other people. Today we have access to innovative tools such as the Internet, cellphones, faxes and voice mail all designed to enhance our communications and support us in selling more effectively. Nevertheless, even with all of these technological tools at our disposal,


Marketing Strategies: Easy Ways to Turn a Scarcity Mindset into a Prosperity Mindset

What do you do when you notice a gap between where you are and where you want to be? If you’re like most people, you probably dwell on what isn’t happening. You might start saying things to yourself like: • My bank account is so low, I’ll never be able to save for retirement • People just don’t want to do real estate right now, there just aren’t enough clients • I’m just not good enough to make it in today’s market


Housing High Point: Pending Sales of Existing Homes Up to Nearly Two-Year High

(MCT)—More Americans are signing contracts to buy existing homes than at any time in nearly two years, boosting the housing industry’s slow recovery, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’ index of pending home sales. The measure is up 2 percent to 97 in January after slipping 1.9 percent in December. The index of deals for previously owned homes is up 8 percent compared with the 89.8 level from January 2011. Last month saw the highest point on the index since April 2010, when consumers drawn by a home-buyer tax credit


What Are You Selling?

When I ask sales reps to boil down the entire "selling process" into a one word answer, I get a wide variety of interesting responses such as service, education, or consulting. Seldom do I get the answer that I'm expecting to hear: relationship. Regardless of your industry, at the end of the day you're in the "people business." As the old saying goes, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. The key to making a successful sale is not a transfer of information, but the establishment of a working relationship.


How to Tell When Your Seller Means Business

Being in real estate has always required a certain level of hand-holding and diplomacy. Yet today, more than ever, those of us who work with sellers are putting our counseling skills to the test, due to consumer confidence that’s taken a beating in a down economy. Before aggressively investing time in sellers who may never be ready to price their homes realistically for today’s buyers, get to know them and establish routine communications. If you connect with prospects effectively and provide a full picture of the market, the true sellers will eventually signal when they are prepared to make the move.


Economy Grew at Faster Rate at End of 2011

(MCT)—The nation’s economy grew faster in the final months of last year than initially estimated as consumer spending and business investments for things like equipment and software were stronger than previously thought. Moreover, incomes were revised sharply higher, as was the nation’s savings rate. In its report Wednesday, the Commerce Department said the nation’s gross domestic product expanded at a healthy pace of 3 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with its initial estimate of 2.8 percent.


Let’s Shake on It

The handshake gesture has been used by many cultures over the years and is depicted in Greek carving dating from the 5th century BC. The handshake is traditionally used by people around the planet as a gesture of greeting, departure, offering congratulations, or finalizing a business transition. In sports, a handshake after the game between opposing team members is considered good sportsmanship. Is your handshake style helping you create rapport or sabotaging your sales and costing you thousands of dollars per year?


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