Paula Higman Real Estate

Monday, April 9, 2018

Do you understand Loan-to-Value Ratio on a Mortgage....

Formulation:

Loan Amount ÷ Lessor of Appraised Value or Selling Price = Loan-to-Value Ration

Example:

You are purchase a home for $900,000 and approach a lender with a request to borrow $720,000. Then later the property appraises for the selling price and therefore establishes the property value at $900,000, and you want to know whether the property will qualify for the mortgage you're requesting.

$720,000 ÷ $990,000 = 80%

So what does an 80% LTV signify?

LTV signifies that the bank has an 80% equity position in your apartment property, and you have 20%. Whether it would be acceptable to the underwriters depends on the policies of the lender.

Good Rule of Thumb:

The real estate investor typically prefers to buy a rental property with as little cash down as possible. This is known as "leverage" because the investor is able to use more of the banks money to make the investment and thus leverage his or her investment. In some case, like with our example, the investor might not have a choice and might have to forsake leverage in order to make the acquisition.

Marketing strategies you may not have tried yet

If the old tactics to market your business aren’t working. It’s time you try some new strategies.

1. Offer an award for referrals

Oscar Wilde once said, “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

With 74 percent of consumers reporting that word-of-mouth recommendations greatly influence their purchases, you need to build some chatter around your business.

How can you encourage referrals and endorsements?

Give an added incentive by offering discounts and deals to current customers who refer your business to friends and family.

2. Combine email and social

Email marketing is your most powerful tool for gaining and retaining customers.

While social media platforms make algorithm tweaks that limit the visibility of your posts, email marketing allows you to reach your customers directly in their inboxes.

Turn your social media followers into engaged email subscribers by sharing a link to your email sign-up form or sharing your Text-to-Join keyword on your various social media channels.

3. Run a contest

Contests are an easy way to encourage audience engagement.

Organize a photo contest or raffle where potential customers can win prizes.

Just make sure the prize is something your audience actually cares about.

In addition to a valuable prize, every good contest needs a clearly defined goal that benefits your business.

Increasing social media followers, getting visits to your store, and building your email lists are all worthwhile contest results, as long as you clearly decide the goal beforehand and measure your success.

Announce your contest through social media and an email blast for maximum participation.

4. Boost value with content

What’s in it for your customers?

That’s the question you should constantly consider when deciding on the best marketing strategies to use. If you aren’t offering something the customer wants, they won’t give your business a second thought.

Attract potential customers while positioning your business as an industry expert by writing and curating content. This may include articles, images, and videos that appeal to your target audience.

Here’s how Paula Higman brings value to her real estate audience through content in her email newsletter:

5. Join (and lead) the discussion

Find places where you can discuss your industry with potential customers and show your expertise. This can be in-person on panels or online on forums.

The more exposure you get, the more top-of-mind you’ll be for your audience. When they need your good or service, yours will be the first business they’ll think of.

------

Thursday, April 5, 2018

FREE HOME EVALUATION…$495 VALUE

10 things you're missing out on by using a personal email account to do your email marketing

If you’re like a lot of small businesses and organizations, you may be using a personal email account...like Gmail...to communicate with a group of email contacts.

Chances are you’ve also noticed some limitations in what you can and can’t do with a personal email account.

One of the biggest limitations of using a personal account is in the design of your emails.

If you’re not a professional designer, it’s tough to create emails that actually match your brand and make your business look professional.

Other limitations include:

Problems getting messages delivered: Has anyone ever told you they didn’t receive your email? Sending mass emails from a personal account can result in more emails being sent to the spam folder.
Difficulty keeping track of your email contacts: Manually keeping track of new email addresses and people who have asked to be taken off your list can cause headaches and take up hours of your time.
No understanding of who opened an email or clicked a link: You hope your emails are getting opened and read, but personal accounts don’t provide that information.

Email marketing services like Constant Contact are built to make it easy to create beautiful emails that drive real business results.

They have the tools you need to manage your email contacts and provide in-depth reporting tools to track important metrics like opens, clicks, and shares for your emails.

They also provide tools and training to help you stay compliant with important email laws, which are easy to violate if you’re trying to do marketing from a personal email account.

One of the best ways to see how an email marketing service can benefit your business is to try it for yourself.

1. You’re not prepared to send bulk emails.

Many email accounts and most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) limit the number of emails that you can send at one time. This means that as your email database grows, you could run into more and more problems with getting your emails delivered.

Email providers like Constant Contact work diligently to maintain strong relationships with ISPs and establish reputations for sending permission-based emails. As a result, our customers see more of their emails delivered to their recipients’ inboxes, and less emails in the spam folder.

2. You’re putting relationships at risk.

When someone joins your email list, they trust you to protect their information. They also trust that you’ll respect their privacy and give them the option to opt-out.

But as hard as you try to fulfill these obligations to your audience, when sending email using Outlook or another email account, mistakes can happen. Perhaps the biggest mistake is exposing your entire list in the.

3. You can’t host and manage your list from one location.

An email marketing service hosts your email list and automatically performs critical list management functions. These functions include sign-up for new subscribers, editing capabilities so that subscribers can edit their own profiles, and the ability to unsubscribe with one click.

4. You’re on your own.

If you’re switching from a personal email account, they’ll give you the tools and training to help you get started — from uploading your existing email contacts to setting up your first email campaign.

5. You’re unable to deliver emails in the right format.

In comparison, your email account can’t tell which email format each recipient is able to receive — which can make your email unreadable or send it to the spam folder.

6. You can’t create professional-looking emails that match your brand.

With an email marketing service, you’ll have access to hundreds of professionally-designed email templates that make it easy to create great looking emails.

7. You can’t protect yourself from delivery problems.

A good email marketing service maintains strong permission policies and has an active anti-blocking team working with ISPs on your behalf to ensure that your email is delivered.

8. You can’t see who opened or clicked.

This will allow you to see what’s working and identify opportunities to make improvements, or identify potential issues that could put your business at risk.

9. You don’t have the newest tools and features.

members of groups like The Email Service Provider Coalition (ESPC). The goal of the ESPC is to provide unique and effective spam-fighting solutions that will optimize your email delivery and response and minimize the spam in your subscribers’ inbox.

10. You could be breaking the law.

You don’t have the time or resources to stay up-to-date with the latest email laws and regulations. Unfortunately, if you’ve been using a personal email account to send your marketing emails, there’s a good chance you’re already in violation of some important laws like Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM) and the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).

Don’t wait to make the switch.