Real Estate Marketing SEO Blog

Persuasion in Real Estate

PBS recently aired a fascinating documentary about the Advertising industry.

The entire show can be viewed here.

Latino Real Estate

The Latino Community is proving that there are riches in the niches.

According to Tomas Rivera Policy Institute of the University of Southern California, in a survey of 1,400 Mexican Americans in Atlanta, Houston, and Los Angeles showed that at least 1.5 million Latino households will buy homes by 2010.

Here is the Giant scream for help from an underserved populatuion:

More than half of Latino homebuyers report that one of their chief barriers to homeownership is finding a trustworthy adviser who can guide them through the homebuying process.

The survey showed that the lack of trusted sources of information is a key barrier to homeownership facing Mexican American families. Other obstacles include unfamiliarity with the mortgage process, saving for a downpayment, and finding a trustworthy adviser.

According to NAR who announced the study, REALTORS® who help buyers overcome such obstacles will stand to gain in the coming years as minority populations and their buying power increase rapidly.

In another sudy released at the NAR convention, indicated that the combined buying power of the total minority group—including African Americans, Natives Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans—would exceed $1.5 trillion by 2009, constituting the fifth largest economy in the world.

More data from the article:

Asian Americans are the fastest growing ethnic population, numbering more than 12 million or approximately 4.5 percent of the total U.S. population, expected to triple in size by the year 2050.

If you would like to explore ways to capture market share of the Latino, Asian , African American real estate market, contact Spiderworkz.com

More references:

more resources on hispanic buyers, Pew Hispanic Center, How The Wealth Gap Impacts Real Estate,National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP)

Real Estate Blog

The Real Estate Blog is quickly becoming recognized as a viable marketing method. Blogging will be the norm for a number of reasons already mentioned in the very new future. In fact, many online portals that offer article type content are blogging like about.com.

It is easy to set up a blog. However, If you would like to find out how to use the real estate blog to explode in the search engines. Contact us at 310-533-9145.

A good article on blogging.

Real Estate Marketing and SEO

MSN is launching their new search engine Thursday. The Redmond, Wash. software maker on Thursday will open to the public its service for searching the Internet after eighteen months of development. The implications for the Online Realtor-Marketer is significant.

Up untitl now, the only game in town has been Google's and Yahoo's own engine and their "affiliate" feeds. In fact, MSN has licensed Yahoo's search data until the end of the year.

Now the online real estate marketer has another chance to capture high search positions for their real estate websites. Higher search positions across a large variety of keyword phrases can increase traffic significantly.

Homebuyers favor easy commutes

The prospect of lengthening commutes is leading more Americans to seek walkable neighborhoods in close-in suburbs and cities, according to the 2004 American Community Survey sponsored by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS(R) and Smart Growth America.

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The size of the existing-home market has doubled since the real estate boom began in 1992 and while sales may drop slightly from the record 6.55 million for 2004, the current real estate boom "will not bust," NAR Chief Economist David Lereah told attendees at the Economic Issues & Residential Real Estate Business Trends Forum on Friday.

"You need a bubble to bust and except for a few local markets, we don't have one," he said. Lereah noted several reasons that with the exception of a few local markets, a real estate bust didn't exist. Housing prices may have appreciated faster than income in the last few years, but they significantly lagged income during the 1980s and early 1990s. "Now we're just playing catch-up," he said.

Home prices have jumped, with an annual average nominal increase of 4.2 percent between 1992 and 2004. Yet the real news is the average annual real increase of 2.5 percent, compared with only a 1 percent to 1.5 percent increase during the 1960s through the 1980s. "That's the real boom," said Lereah.

Even better news, he said, is that the continued expansion of the real estate market should last for another decade, fueled by several solid underpinnings: low interest rates, strong demographics, immigration, a lean housing supply, and recent innovations in housing finance. He predicted that between 2005 and 2014, existing-home sales should average between 6.1 million and 6.4 million units annually.

But while good markets will continue, the recent pace of price appreciation isn't sustainable, said Lereah. Recent average sales growth has been 7 percent for existing homes and 8.2 percent for new homes, while a healthy boom can sustain an average 5 percent growth. "We want healthy growth so the market can be sustained, not frenetic, double-digit growth that can't last," he said.

Some factors that could derail the boom include oil prices rising near $80 a barrel, interest rates rising to 9 percent, or a resurgence of inflation brought on by a burgeoning budget deficit. The deficit poses "the single biggest enemy to our industry," said Lereah. The current deficit of $420 billion represents 3.6 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, less than the all-time high of 5 percent during the Reagan years.

Other threats include pressure on mortgage-interest deductions as part of tax reform, a Bush administration that favors banks over real estate, and a weakening or privatization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Still, Lereah expects the real estate boom to continue for the next decade. He predicts that mortgage rates will not rise above 7.5 percent in the next decade and that existing-home sales will remain between 6.1 million and 6.4 million annual units as long as economic expansion continues.