Monthly Archives: January 2018

Marketing Campaign How To Come Up With One

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Any business will never be able to survive without any form of marketing. But staging a marketing campaign isn’t easy. If you aren’t careful, it can bring your business down and drain all your finances.

To come up with a foolproof marketing campaign for your business, take note of these tips:

1. Create a marketing plan. What’s the main use of a marketing plan? With it you can answer the following questions:

Who are your target market?
What kinds of marketing strategies will work?
Where are the best places to promote the product?
How do you present the product to the target market?

You also need the marketing plan when you have to assess your marketing objectives. This is how you’ll know if you’re still in line with your business goals. You can also evaluate if your business goals are still sound or if you need to change them.

2. Combine online marketing and local marketing. Because the Internet is the rave, it’s common for businesspeople to solely depend on it for the marketing of their products and services. Don’t. There are still thousands of people who are not in the World Wide Web.

You also have to create and perform local marketing strategies, including giving away of business cards, putting up tarpaulins and signs, sending samples, joining fairs, or convincing friends and family to spread good words about your business.

For your online marketing, you can consider doing the following:

newsletters
e-books
website
blog
microblogging platforms like Twitter and Plurk
Facebook
article directories
directories and search engines
social bookmarks
e-mail blasts

3. Come up with a USP. What’s a USP? It stands for unique selling proposition. You have to determine what sets your product or service different from your competitor’s. Price doesn’t count as a USP, since it’s proven that customers are always willing to pay more just to get quality products or services.

Coming up with your product’s USP is very important and should be accomplished with thorough product knowledge and research. Take time. Ask for help.

4. Use subliminal messages. Do you know that you can use subliminal messages to promote your business? Many experts say that subliminal messages don’t really work in the world of advertising. I say it’s completely not true. We have already seen how it works. You hear the words “Just do it,” and you don’t think about an inspirational phrase. You think about Nike.

It’s fundamental for businesses to have their own tagline, logo, and other marketing gimmicks that customers can associate to their products and services. Don’t forget to add them to your marketing materials too. For subliminal messages to work, the customers have to be exposed to them a lot of times.

5. Keep track of your marketing campaigns. A lot of marketing campaigns require money, and all of them demand time. It’s not a good idea to spend both on those that don’t really work. You can identify which strategies are not by monitoring your marketing campaigns.

WORLD CLASS HOME STAGING COURSE WITH ACADEMIES HAVING ONLINE PRESENCE

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The home staging business is never-ending and the most victorious stagers are the ones who become aware of and acclimatize to the changes in the market. There are many online firms offering home staging course which are designed to give home staging consultants a marketing edge, along with in-depth information. Some of these courses include: Color certification, Marketing Staging expert, Diversity Sales Specialist and so on. The concentrated course is for qualified home stagers who want to put up a home staging business .

Home staging course is a mix of finding out internal and external designs which goes the best with the house. An exceptional house staging expert will be able to think a look at a house and set up the most effectual approach to reorganize furnishings and components to appeal to the widest variety of customers.

The online staging course is particularly for home-based professionals who want to create, put up and run a money-making staging business or for professionals concerned in further adding their designation in the real estate or design business.

The online home staging certified academics have proficient members which teach their trainers to become staging professionals and help them understand how to grow relationships with the same customer again and again. The training is given in such a way that each and every trainer presents himself professionally when dealing with any customer. Convincing the seller can be the tough part so one can also learn how to enlighten his/her clients so that they can appreciate the worth of staging services. Staging is not about just buying new things but rather using the existing things in the house and using the originality to do the top probable work to serve the clients.

These online home staging academies are the foremost real estate home staging tutoring provider in the world. It is recognized by real estate professionals, builders, decorators, home stagers for its brand status of brilliance. It identifies home staging consultants who have earned a certificate in the staging industry that includes quality training with dynamic testing. The online home staging training institutes are very confident of the practice and prosperity of knowledge all their trainers bring to the classroom.

Check out http://www.apsdmembers.com now!

Law Beyond Criminal Law

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Makers of several crime based shows would portray that law is all about dealing with crimes and criminals. However, the fact of the matter remains that law is far beyond all the blood, gore and murders that such shows might depict. There are several facets to law and these range from civil to laws related to domestic abuse. There are laws related to international trade and even those related to animal rights!

In most countries, a family is supposed to be the most sacred of units that exists within a society. This is exactly why there is a strong need to ensure that it is protected at all times and it comes as no surprise that most countries of the world have a strong Family Law in place. While there are several tenets within the law of each country, most of them look at protecting children and women.

Today, more and more countries are understanding the need to protect the weaker members of the society. This is why there are innumerable laws being created to ensure the same is done. For instance, there are laws against violence against women and children, especially within the confines of a home. Some nations even allow children to go to court, against their parents, should they hit the former or punish them in a manner generally unacceptable in society.

Similarly, there are laws against marital rape, which ensure that no husband can forcibly indulge in intercourse, with his wife. While many might be of the opinion that acts like this should be brought under Criminal Law, as of now, acts like these are under family related laws. There are some countries that even have laws protecting the property and rights of the elderly.

Today, the European Union has become a power to reckon with, but what is most interesting is the fact that EU Law is quite different from the rest of the world. Certain social laws allow parents to take parental leave from office, as and when required. Laws related to labor and trade are somewhat similar to the rest of the world, because at the end of the day, countries of this union have to dabble in international trade! Interestingly, there are also laws against toxic waste in the European Union.

There was once a time, when law was equivalent to being written on stone, but those days are now long gone. In today’s world, laws need to change with the changing times!

The author is an experienced Content writer and publisher for Business Development. Visit us to know more about great knowledge about Contract Law, Family Law and more about EU law .

A Brief Note On Noida Real Estate Scenario

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Known to be the largest planned industrial township of Asia, Noida witnesses an ever expanding real estate market. The town is an emerging destination for foreign direct investments. The projected development of civil society has initiated rapid construction of state-of-the-art housing and commercial complexes in the city.

Due to the sealing drive against the unauthorized establishment of commercial businesses in Delhi, Noida authority has sold around 304.5 acre plots worth Rs 2,557 crore to five of the top notch real estate developers. The following are some information on the latest activities in the Noida real estate arena.

Noida Real Estate Scenario

The plots that are alloted to the five developers by the Noida development authority are in sectors 112, 113, 115, 116, 117 and 118. Unitech has been alloted with two plots 71 and 54 acres at the cost of Rs 1,050 crore. For 72 acres, Parsvnath Developers has paid a sum of Rs 602 crores, Omaxe has paid Rs 307 core for 37 acres, Ambience has paid Rs 323 crore for 37.5 acres and IVCRL has paid Rs 274 crore for 33 acres.

According to Rakesh Bahadur, chairman Noida Authority, the demand for office and commercial spaces in Noida. MNCs and big corporate houses are gradually expanding their bases in the city.

According to real estate experts, the insufficient availability of land in Delhi has caused the development of real estate in the suburbs. Noida scores over all other suburbs like Gurgaon and Faridabad due to the advantage of better connectivity. Noida is well connected to Delhi through the toll bridge and the expressways.

Not only good connectivity, the well developed social infrastructure of the city is far better than the rest of NCR. Hence, the future prospects of Noida are really fine.

The price for residential real estate in the newly developed areas varies from Rs 25,000 per sq m to Rs 50,000 per sq m, while the reserved parking for grouped housing is Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 per sq ft. while the price ranges from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000 per sq yrd. in case of commercial spaces.

With the completion of the Taj Express Way by 2013, the real estate prices are estimated to be increasing even further.

Real Estate Slow Down In India

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There has been an overall slowdown in real estate industry and various industry players have been affected. Some factors responsible for this slowdown can be increase in interest rates, slowdown in IT industry, increase in property prices, and increase in interest rates loan rates because of which many property buyers have stepped out of market. But somehow this slowdown can bring happiness to those middle class buyers who have been eagerly waiting for the property prices to come down. In major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad real estate market has come down. Also because of increase in cost of raw materials like steel, iron and building material builders are facing difficulty of constructing property at agreed prices.

Real estate slow down in Bangalore

As realty business in Bangalore has been hit by global financial crisis because of this uncertain condition in Indian equity market and property prices builders have come in formidable situation .The condition is that approximately 400 flats or more are still vacant despite of advertisements .And the situation is same with may top builders of country. Many builders developers said they have faced a drop in new projects as compared to last year because of which condition has become worse in the market.

Real estate slow down in Hyderabad

Because of Realty business is facing a slow down developers have decided to launch special schemes to attract buyers like launching special incentive prices etc. Also prices which were at some time had gone up are now cooling off because of which there is low growth rate. There are many factors that have contributed to the present scenario and may small buyers have backed out from the scene because of high interest rate, increase in input cost and strict rules. Indias largest real estate company DLF which has built may commercial and residential projects has announced that they will make high end luxury apartments at affordable prices in Hyderabad after seeing IT and real estate slow down.

Real estate slow down in Delhi

Delhi/NCR has also been badly affected with this realty slow down .Some real estate developers or agents have shut down their business and switched to other business because of this slowdown as it was being difficult for them to survive in these conditions.

Real estate slow down in Mumbai

Mumbai Real estate is a very large market with many Top builders and developers under its belt. But there also Developers have to cut down their prices for new homes for sale as condition of market has still not improved yet. As Mumbai has a large market for supply of high-end apartments as compared to other cities still there is a fear that of oversupply as many buyers have backed out.

This may be the current situation of Realty business in major metropolitan cities but there was also a time when a handsome salary package of six figures meant a home in the heart of metropolitan city .But the property boom turned down this dream of many people .Now we can say that only rich people are finding a home for themselves in theses metropolitan cities. With trembling condition of sensex and liquidity scare in banking sector the real estate industry has to come up with ways for attracting buyers. But sources are saying that this is a temporary condition and real estate developers are hoping the conditions will improve soon

Dale Davidson LLC has adopted emPower eLearning Solutions’ Dragon Legal Complete Training Course.

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emPower – a leading provider of comprehensive Healthcare Compliance Solutions through Learning management system (LMS) has announced today that Dales Davidson LLC located in Thomasville, Georgia has adopted Dragon Legal Complete Online Training Course in order to improve their productivity in transcription process.

Dale Davidson as a practicing litigation attorney at DALE DAVIDSON, LLC was looking for technology that is easy to implement and has real utility. He adopted Dragon Naturally Speaking Legal version so that he can just speak rather than type or have some type the documentation. The concept of simply dictating to the computer to produce documents, open applications, and search the internet or my computer without using a keyboard or mouse is amazing. Mr. Davidson wanted to leverage something similar and hence he adopted Dragon Legal. However, like many others he faltered in the beginning trying to use the software and that is when he worked with emPower to get a detailed training solution for Dragon Legal. The training provided him step by step guide to use the software. The interactive videos did wonder to increase the productivity and the quizzes helped him to retain the knowledge. The power to leverage specific legal words was indeed released.

But the most important thing was it provided a solution to do work in an efficient manner conveniently.

About emPower

emPower is a leading provider of comprehensive Healthcare Compliance Solutions through Learning Management System (LMS). Its mission is to provide innovative security solutions to enable compliance with applicable laws and regulations and maximize business performance. empower provides range of courses to manage compliance required by regulatory bodies such as OSHA, HIPAA, Joint commission and Red Flag Rule etc. Apart from this emPower also offers custom demos and tutorials for your website, business process management and software implementation.

Its Learning Management system (LMS) allows students to retrieve all the courses 24/7/365 by accessing the portal. emPower e-learning training program is an interactive mode of learning that guides students to progress at their own pace.

For additional information, please visit .

Employment discrimination attorney San Diego- meets all your legal needs economically!!!

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To safeguard the rights of an employee in an organization, we need a supporting hand which can able to understand and tackle all the issues effectively and carefully. For this purpose, the employment discrimination attorney San Diego facilitates the clients’ with best and reliable legal services in an economical manner. There is a team of well-experienced, highly skilled and trustworthy professionals who are having a deep understanding of the law and provisions in this aspect. Its main goal is to fight and protect the clients’ right and support them at all levels. It also makes the client aware of the importance of their legal rights and help them to choose the right path. It always treats the clients’ as the main priority and tries to overcome the best possible outcome of the situation. It facilitates personal attention to each and every client so as to have a clear view of the specified issue and enable to resolve it as soon as possible.

Assures trustworthy and skilled services

Besides this, it also facilitates the client various legal services like overtime claims, time and wages issue, job contract matters, discrimination and many others. It also deals with the cases of sexual harassment mostly taken place at workplaces. It provides a trustworthy legal representation in the court and will fight on behalf of the client in a skillful manner. It also assures the client of the maximum recovery to be granted; if in case there is no recovery then the client would have to pay nothing. Thus, it gives one full assurance of the justice before the court of law. In case of sexual harassment, it also offers regular visits to the clients’ place from time-to-time and provide them full support and care.

Enables to fight for the justice

Furthermore, the personal assessment and guidance is also provided to the clients without any additional cost. The employment discrimination attorney san diego also facilitates various motivational and training development camps so as to ensure one of the best and quality legal services with a quick and timely response. It also provides emotional support to the client so that he/she can able to face the situation bravely. In addition to this, it also facilitates the skillful representation to the client during the administrative hearings so as to ensure the requisite compensation is to be gained in accordance to all the pain and sufferings of the employees. So we can say that it undertakes every possible step by the virtue of the knowledge and competency.

It helps to provide you all the legal services in a reliable and cost-effective manner.

Reading the reviews provided by the author is one of the best ways to gain necessary information on wrongful termination attorney san diego.

Call Criminal Law Leaders to get justice

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Lawyers can be positioned just after the doctors as you know not when they are required in you life but their absence can let your life go for a toss. It is always expected that you knock them at the right time before things worsen and explain the issues clearly to the DUI Lawyer Ft Lauderdale and Criminal Defense Attorney Broward FL without hesitations.

When it comes to lawyers then people often take a back seat as they feel that law and court is always a thing of complexity and do not want to sort out the issues at early stage. South Florida Felony Trial Attorneys have an altogether different perspective of this viewpoint. They have a group of most efficient Florida Criminal Defense Lawyer and South Florida Felony Trial Attorneys. This group of experts, they feel, can bring back peace into your life and give you justice without much hassle.

In our daily life you never know when life change and what issues might crop up. Any normal person in his daily activities can become a prey of issues like criminal cases, DUI, drug cases, warrants and probation violations are some of the common issues. People with youngsters at home are also victims of such issues. At this point of time, without wondering what to do you should approach a Probation Violations Ft Lauderdale, DUI Lawyer Ft Lauderdale or a Broward County Criminal Traffic Attorney. Criminal Lawyer Leader has a host of such lawyers available to meet the requirements of ordinary people not only in Florida but in the nearby areas also so that their life can become easier.

Most of these lawyers are qualified enough to meet all the requirements of the people and get things done by them without much issues. The group has earned recognition and acclamation from all over the country. The experts at this law firm analyze the requirements of each of the clients in details and then provide the right kind of suggestions. It often happens that most of the people are not aware of the type of lawyer they need to approach. Here, in this firm, they will get that consulting service as well. They are available over the phone. You can fix an appointment and set up a visit at your convenience.

Free consultation is one of the most mentionable services offered by this firm. You can call them up and get answers to different types of queries you have regarding a case files against you. They are simply the experts who know the how to find the finest loopholes of law and let you go scot-free. Fort Lauderdale Criminal lawyers have a class of their own and they have earned a lot of name in the process. You can go through some of their recent verdicts which are no wonder worth mentioning, in their firm website. This will enable you to fetch some qualitative information on this group and their objectives.

Real Estate Agents and the Internet – How to Buy and Sell Real Estate Today

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Then and Now

Ten years ago, a search for real estate
would have started in the office of a local real estate agent or by
just driving around town. At the agent’s office, you would spend an
afternoon flipping through pages of active property listings from the
local Multiple Listing Service (MLS). After choosing properties of
interest, you would spend many weeks touring each property until you
found the right one. Finding market data to enable you to assess the
asking price would take more time and a lot more driving, and you still
might not be able to find all of the information you needed to get
really comfortable with a fair market value.

Today, most property
searches start on the Internet. A quick keyword search on Google by
location will likely get you thousands of results. If you spot a
property of interest on a real estate web site, you can typically view
photos online and maybe even take a virtual tour. You can then check
other Web sites, such as the local county assessor, to get an idea of
the property’s value, see what the current owner paid for the property,
check the real estate taxes, get census data, school information, and
even check out what shops are within walking distance-all without
leaving your house!

While the resources on the Internet are
convenient and helpful, using them properly can be a challenge because
of the volume of information and the difficulty in verifying its
accuracy. At the time of writing, a search of “Denver real estate”
returned 2,670,000 Web sites. Even a neighborhood specific search for
real estate can easily return thousands of Web sites. With so many
resources online how does an investor effectively use them without
getting bogged down or winding up with incomplete or bad information?
Believe it or not, understanding how the business of real estate works
offline makes it easier to understand online real estate information and
strategies.

The Business of Real Estate

Real estate
is typically bought and sold either through a licensed real estate agent
or directly by the owner. The vast majority is bought and sold through
real estate brokers. (We use “agent” and “broker” to refer to the same
professional.) This is due to their real estate knowledge and experience
and, at least historically, their exclusive access to a database of
active properties for sale. Access to this database of property listings
provided the most efficient way to search for properties.

The MLS (and CIE)

The
database of residential, land, and smaller income producing properties
(including some commercial properties) is commonly referred to as a
multiple listing service (MLS). In most cases, only properties listed by
member real estate agents can be added to an MLS. The primary purpose
of an MLS is to enable the member real estate agents to make offers of
compensation to other member agents if they find a buyer for a property.

This
purposes did not include enabling the direct publishing of the MLS
information to the public; times change. Today, most MLS information is
directly accessible to the public over the Internet in many different
forms.

Commercial property listings are also displayed online but
aggregated commercial property information is more elusive. Larger MLSs
often operate a commercial information exchange (CIE). A CIE is similar
to an MLS but the agents adding the listings to the database are not
required to offer any specific type of compensation to the other
members. Compensation is negotiated outside the CIE.

In most
cases, for-sale-by-owner properties cannot be directly added to an MLS
and CIE, which are typically maintained by REALTOR associations. The
lack of a managed centralized database can make these properties more
difficult to locate. Traditionally, these properties are found by
driving around or looking for ads in the local newspaper’s real estate
listings. A more efficient way to locate for-sale-by-owner properties is
to search for a for-sale-by-owner Web site in the geographic area.

What
is a REALTOR? Sometimes the terms real estate agent and REALTOR are
used interchangeably; however, they are not the same. A REALTOR is a
licensed real estate agent who is also a member of the NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS. REALTORS are required to comply with a strict
code of ethics and conduct.

MLS and CIE property listing
information was historically only available in hard copy, and as we
mentioned, only directly available to real estate agents members of an
MLS or CIE. About ten years ago, this valuable property information
started to trickle out to the Internet. This trickle is now a flood!

One
reason is that most of the 1 million or so REALTORS have Web sites, and
most of those Web sites have varying amounts of the local MLS or CIE
property information displayed on them. Another reason is that there are
many non-real estate agent Web sites that also offer real estate
information, including, for-sale-by-owner sites, foreclosure sites,
regional and international listing sites, County assessor sites, and
valuation and market information sites. The flood of real estate
information to the Internet definitely makes the information more
accessible but also more confusing and subject to misunderstanding and
misuse.

Real Estate Agents

Despite the flood of real
estate information on the Internet, most properties are still sold
directly through real estate agents listing properties in the local MLS
or CIE. However, those property listings do not stay local anymore. By
its nature, the Internet is a global marketplace and local MLS and CIE
listings are normally disseminated for display on many different Web
sites. For example, many go to the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS Web
site, http://www.realtor.com,
and to the local real estate agent’s Web site. In addition, the listing
may be displayed on the Web site of a local newspaper. In essence, the
Internet is just another form of marketing offered by today’s real
estate agent, but it has a much broader reach than the old print
advertising.

In addition to Internet marketing, listing agents may
also help the seller establish a price, hold open houses, keep the
seller informed of interested buyers and offers, negotiate the contract
and help with closing. When an agent provides all of these services it
is referred to as being a full service listing arrangement. While full
service listing arrangements are the most common type of listing
arrangement, they are not the only option anymore.

Changes in the
technology behind the real estate business have caused many agents to
change the way they do business. In large part, this is due to the
instant access most consumers now have to property listings and other
real estate information. In addition, the Internet and other
technologies have automated much of the marketing and initial searching
process for real estate. For example, consumers can view properties
online and make inquires via email. Brokers can use automated programs
to send listings to consumers that match their property criteria. So,
some agents now limit the services they offer and change their fees
accordingly. An agent may offer to advertise the property in the MLS but
only provide limited additional services. In the future, some real
estate agents may offer services in more of an ala carte fashion.

Because
of the volume of real estate information on the Internet, when people
hire a real estate agent today they should look at the particular
services offered by the agent and the depth of their experience and
knowledge in the relevant property sector. It is no longer just about
access to property listing information. Buyers and sellers historically
found agents by referrals from friends and family. The Internet now
provides ways to directly find qualified agents or to research the
biography of an agent referred to you offline. One such site,
AgentWorld.com, is quickly becoming the LinkedIn or Facebook for real
estate agents. On this site an agent can personalize their profile,
start a blog, post photos and videos and even create a link to their web
site for free. Once unique content is added to their profile page the
search engines notice!

Some have argued that the Internet makes
REALTORS and the MLS less relevant. We believe this will be false in the
long run. It may change the role of the agent but will make
knowledgeable, qualified, and professional REALTORS more relevant than
ever. In fact, the number of real estate agents has risen significantly
in recent years. No wonder, the Internet has made local real estate a
global business. Besides, Internet or not, the simple fact remains that
the purchase of real property is the largest single purchase most people
make in their life (or, for many investors, the largest multiple
purchases over a lifetime) and they want expert help. As for the MLS, it
remains the most reliable source of real estate listing and sold
information available and continues to enable efficient marketing of
properties. So, what is the function of all the online real estate
information?

Online real estate information is a great research
tool for buyers and sellers and a marketing tool for sellers. When used
properly, buyers can save time by quickly researching properties and,
ultimately, make better investment decisions. Sellers can efficiently
research the market and make informed decisions about hiring an agent
and marketing their properties online. The next step is to know where to
look online for some of the best resources.

Internet Strategies

In the sections that follow, we provide
strategies and tips on how to use the Internet to locate properties for
sale and research information relevant to your decision to purchase the
property. There are many real estate Web sites from which to choose and
although we do not mean to endorse any particular Web site, we have
found the ones listed here to be good resources in most cases or to be
so popular that they need mention. One way to test a Web site’s accuracy
is to search for information about a property you already own.

Finding Real Estate for Sale

Despite the
widely available access to real estate listings, many believe that MLS
databases continue to offer the most complete and accurate source of
real estate information. Most MLSs now distribute content to other Web
sites (primarily operated by real estate agents). An excellent starting
point for MLS originated content is the national NAR Web site,
realtor.com, which is also the most popular web site for searching real
estate listings. Virtually all local and regional MLSs have an agreement
with realtor.com to display much of their active listing inventory.

Some
local and regional MLS systems also have a publicly accessible Web
site. However, to get complete information you will most likely still
need to find a qualified local REALTOR. Many local real estate agents
will also provide their customers (via email) new listings that are
input into the MLS that match their predefined criteria. This can be
very helpful to a busy buyer.

There are also many Web sites that
display both real estate agent listed and for-sale-by-owner properties.
Some of the more popular Web sites include zillow.com and trulia.com.
These sites offer other services too. For example, zillow.com is best
known for its instantaneous property valuation function and trulia.com
for providing historical information. Another source of properties for
sale is the state, regional, and local Web sites associated with
brokerage companies; for example, remax.com or prudential.com. Search
engines like yahoo.com and classified advertising sites like
craigslist.com also have a large number of active real estate listings.

One
key difference between these sites is how much information you can
access anonymously. For example, at trulia.com you can shop anonymously
up to a point but then you will need to click through to the agent’s Web
site for more information. Many new real estate search engines allow
you to sift through listings without having to fill out a form. The best
strategy is to browse a few of the sites listed above to find
geographic areas or price ranges that are interesting. Once you get
serious about a property, then that is the time to find a qualified
REALTOR of your choice to conduct a complete search in the local MLS.

It
also never hurts to search the old-fashioned way by driving through the
neighborhoods that interest you. There is no substitute for physically,
not virtually, walking the block when you are making a serious
investment decision. In this sense, real estate is still a very local
business and standing in front of the property can lead to a much
different decision than viewing a Web page printout.

Valuing Real Estate

As
we mentioned, one of the most popular real estate tools is zillow.com’s
instant property valuation. Just type in an address and in and you get a
property value. It even charts the price ups and downs, and shows the
last date sold (including price) and the property taxes. There are other
sites that provide similar tools such as housevalues.com and
homegain.com. Unfortunately, many people use these estimated values
alone to justify sales prices, offers and counteroffers. However, these
are only rough estimates based on a formula that incorporates the local
county sales information. These estimates can swing wildly over a short
period of time and do not appear to always track actual market changes,
which are normally more gradual. In addition, these estimates do not
automatically take into account property remodels or renovations or
other property specific or local changes. This is not to say these sites
are not useful. In fact, they are great starting points and can provide
a good ball-park value in many cases.

When it comes to getting a
more accurate value for a particular property, there are other
strategies that are more trustworthy. One is to go directly to your
county’s Web site. More often than not the county assessor’s area of the
Web site provides sales and tax information for all properties in the
county. If you want to research a particular property or compare sales
prices of comparable properties, the local assessor’s sites are really
helpful. When you visit a county’s Web site you are getting information
straight from the source. Most counties today publish property
information on their Web sites. Many times you cannot only see the price
a previous owner paid, but the assessed value, property taxes, and
maps. Some county assessors are now adding a market and property
valuation tools too.

Given the importance of valuation to
investing, we are also going to remind you of the two most important
(non-Internet) valuation methods: real estate agents and appraisers.
Working with a local REALTOR is an accurate and efficient way to get
value information for a property. While one of the primary purposes of
the MLS is to market the active property listings of its members, the
system also collects sales information for those listings. REALTOR
members can pull this sales information and produce comparable market
analyses (sometimes called CMAs) that provide an excellent snapshot of a
particular property’s value for the market in a particular area.

Finally,
the most accurate way to value a property is by having a certified
appraiser produce an appraisal. An appraiser will typically review both
the sold information in the MLS system as well as county information and
then analyze the information to produce a valuation for the property
based on one or more approved methods of valuation. These methods of
valuation can include a comparison of similar properties adjusted for
differences between the properties, determine the cost to replace the
property, or, with an income producing property, determine a value based
on the income generated from the property.

The Neighborhood

There
are many ways the Internet can help you get the scoop on a particular
neighborhood. For example, census data can be found at census.gov. You
can also check out the neighborhood scoop at sites like outside.in or
review local blogs. A blog is a Web site where people discuss topics by
posting and responding to messages. Start by looking at placeblogger.com
and kcnn.org/citymediasites.com for a directory of blogs. Trulia.com
has a “Heat Map” that shows how hot or cold each neighborhood is based
on prices, sales, or popularity among the sites users.

Schools

When
it comes to selling residential property or rental properties that
cater to families, the quality of the area school district makes a huge
difference. There are many Web sites devoted to school information.
Check out greatschools.net or schoolmatters.com. Most local school
districts also have their own Web site. These sites contain a variety of
information about the public schools and the school district, including
its district demographics, test scores, and parent reviews.

Finding the Right Real Estate Agent

A
recent addition to the Internet boom in real estate information is Web
sites that let real estate agents market their expertise and local
knowledge by displaying their professional profiles and socially
networking with blogs. You can search to find an agent with a particular
expertise, geographic area of specialization, or an agent offering
specific services. The web site AgentWorld.com lets users quickly and
easily find an agent with the right expertise using keyword searches and
clean and simple agent profiles. AgentWorld.com also enables agents to
post personalized blogs, photos and videos to help consumers find the
best agent for their needs. Plus, many agent profiles include a direct
link to the agent’s web site where you will likely find the local MLS
listings.

Maps and Other Tools

The Internet has made
mapping and locating properties much easier. To get an aerial view or
satellite image of a property or neighborhood, go to maps.live.com or
maps.google.com or visit walkscore.com to see how walk-able a particular
property is. These sites can give you an idea of the neighborhood
characteristics and the types of entertainment, restaurants, and other
facilities that are within walking distance of the property.
Maps.Live.com provides a view at an angle so you can see the sides of
houses and Maps.Google even gives you a 360 degree street-level view for
certain neighborhoods. If you have not tried one of these satellite map
Web sites, you really should if only for amusement.

Final Thoughts on Internet Strategies

The
Internet is a very effective research and marketing tool for real
estate investors but is not a replacement for a knowledgeable
experienced real estate professional. The Internet can save you time and
money by enabling quick and easy property research and marketing
options. Sites like AgentWorld.com also help you efficiently find a
REALTOR who fits your buying or selling needs.

Always remember,
when it comes to Internet strategies for real estate: More knowledge is
better. You need to use the Internet to build your knowledge base on a
target property or to find a real estate agent with expertise you need.
However, the big caution here is that the Internet should not replace
human judgment and perspective, expert advice or physical due
diligence-keys to successful investing.

Law office of Michael Levitis Keeping Pace with Changes in Debt Settlement Laws

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