FNT- Title Talk

FNF Title Brands Remain Largest and Most Profitable in Industry

2012-01-31T14:41:00.000-08:00

According to the 2012 edition of Demotech Performance of Title Insurance, released in December 2011, the title industry met with $18.9 million in losses in the third quarter, following two quarters of increasing operating results.

Collectively, the FNF title brands remain the largest and the most profitable in the industry. As a company, we produced another strong quarter despite the continued difficult real estate market. This achievement can be attributed to our local employees’ ability to manage challenging market conditions and take advantage of opportunities as they arise. One such opportunity came with the meaningful decline in residential mortgage rates beginning in August.

This decline led to a significant increase in refinance order volumes. Total refinance open orders per day in August increased nearly 30% over July, and September totals remained nearly equal with August levels. As a result of the decline in mortgage rates, the quarter’s mix of business favored refinance transactions. Overall, during the quarter our direct operations opened 596,000 total orders and closed 378,800 orders.

Our commercial title business was strong again during the third quarter and generated over $99.1 million in revenue, which accounted for more than 26% of total direct title premiums in the quarter compared with 19% in the same quarter of 2010.

As always, we remain committed to managing our business with discipline, providing the best possible customer service, and remaining the financially strongest title insurance provider for our policyholders, clients, and partners.

Fidelity National Title Insurance Company is a member of the Fidelity National Financial family of companies (“FNF”); the leading provider of title insurance through its title insurance underwriters - Fidelity National Title Insurance Company, Chicago Title Insurance Company, Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Company and Alamo Title Insurance. FNF underwriters issue more title insurance policies than any other title company in the United States.

iPhone-based Tracking System Makes Sure Nothing is Ever Lost

2012-01-25T09:15:00.000-08:00

There’s a lot out there you can lose… the football in your arms… the ability to kick a simple field goal… an entire season’s worth of... sorry, sorry.

But by far the worst is your phone. Who of us hasn’t misplaced their phone – probably more than once?

Which brings us to Bikn (bee'-kin), an iPhone-based tracking system for your phone and all your other important stuff, available soon.

You’ve got three elements here: an app, an iPhone case with a mind of its own and a bunch of little tags to put on the other things in life you couldn’t stand losing. All these elements come together to make sure nothing is ever lost around the house.

It’s super easy: you’ll download the app and slip your phone into the case. The case sends out a signal even if the phone is dead. Then you’ll attach the tags to other valuable stuff (your lock box key, iPad, the dog, tiny family members, crown jewels you’ve been bequeathed, the list goes on).

If any of it goes missing, the app will tell you the direction and how many feet away it is on a sort of digital treasure map. If the phone itself goes missing, the tags will send out a signal that makes it beep until you find it. Kind of nifty, don’t you think?

Find out more at http://www.bikn.com

Source: UrbanDaddy

Fidelity Phoenix Supports Upcoming Brokers for Kids Dinner

2012-01-20T07:25:00.000-08:00

Fidelity is proud to support the upcoming Brokers for Kids Dinner at La Bocca, January 25th. Brokers for Kids is one of the many events of The Scottsdale 20-30 Club, which was founded with the single objective of supporting children's charities.

In continuing efforts toward supporting our community, Fidelity has donated $5000 total to various teams towards their charity for the Olympiad championship during the event and will be presenting a lucky winning team $3000 (from the total) during the dinner to their team charity.

Two Fidelity partners, Brian Ackerman and Chris Karas, are both actively involved in Scottsdale Active 20/30 and also host Niteflite, another of their annual events.

By hosting special events, the Club draws the community together to raise funds for, and to educate our citizens about the financial, medical, and emotional needs of Arizona's children. The Scottsdale Active 20-30 Club members come from all professions and walks of life. It differs from other service organizations in that they not only raise money for children's charities, but also encourage "hands on" interaction with the children they support. This active participation serves to strengthen their relationships with those they serve, maintains motivation, and produces a high degree of personal satisfaction.

Broker for Kids is a year-long contest involving valley commercial real estate teams in a fundraising drive that culminates with the Brokers for Kids annual event. The coveted Broker’s Cup is awarded to the top fundraising team. Teams also compete for the Olympiad Championship during the event in a series of fun physical challenges. Refreshments are served throughout the day, with a live band performing post-Olympiad for a party that continues through the evening.

Brokers for Kids’ charity partner, Boys Hope Girls Hope (BHGH), helps academically capable and motivated children in need to meet their full potential. They help these children succeed by providing value-centered family-like homes, better opportunities and education through college. BHGH profoundly impacts the lives of low-income, at-risk, academically capable and motivated children ages 11 to 18 who come from financially and socially challenged backgrounds. Through residential and community-based programs, BHGH offers the comprehensive services and support systems that nurture the self-confidence, discipline and focus required to test children’s academic limits and allow them to achieve dreams they once thought were out of their reach—including graduating from college.

Panel at Chader Event Share Insights on Leadership and Success

2012-01-18T07:23:00.000-08:00

Steve Chader, having built a powerful team at Keller Williams in Arizona, and now having gained national attention as a leader and speaker, brought his business knowledge and leadership talent to a broad local business audience here at the Tempe Center for the Arts. The two day event, “Leading Your Business Through Today’s Market – The Chader Event”, with 450 business owners in attendance, was held at the Tempe Center of the Arts on January 12th and 13th, kicking off 2012 with a variety of respected speakers and leaders.

In a feature event, Ilana Lowery from The Phoenix Business Journal moderated a Panel of Experts including our Senior Vice President, Steve deLaveaga; Short Sale Expert, Jesse Herfel; Attorney Dax Watson; and well known Top Producer Russell Shaw. The panel shared their insights on leadership and service including how they lead their business to astonishing levels of success. Among the questions put to the panel:

1. Each of you is recognized as a leader and successful in business. That can't be accomplished without a strong vision. What is your vision for your business, what do you do to keep it strong and talk about how your leadership impacts your success?

• Herfel: Make a great team; the sum is better than the individual parts.
• Shaw: You have to really want it.
• Watson: Good affiliates.
• deLaveaga: Good service is the expectation so we can’t say that’s what sets us apart; we are stakeholders in your business. It’s never the people that you fire that hurt you, it’s the people that you keep. Never settle and the people around you won’t settle.

2. We have talked about the difference between having a job selling real estate and leading a business and/or professional practice. Give us an example of how you have done that and what was required in order to be successful.

• Watson: Culture is created by the leader in the company; like attracts like.
• deLaveaga: Do the right thing every day – FNT experienced a 734% increase in revenue because we have unapologetically and without malice changed the culture and do not tolerate any divergence from it. Don’t become a silo in your business.

3. This is a two part question. In leading your business you have had to adapt your strategy in order to be successful; a) Please tell us the most important things to you did to get where you are today, and b) Given the shift in the current market what is your strategy to take your business to the next level this year?

• Herfel: Make the decision to change your mindset and have the right people around you.
• Shaw: Start to listen and make an IMPACT.
• Watson: Treat clients how you want to be treated; create deeper relationships. Be able to deliver what you are selling; deliver results.
• deLaveaga: Create a culture of success and demand accountability. Our focus is helping Realtors access inventory in non-traditional ways through leveraging our relationships within the banking industry.

4. What do you do to create an Environment of Success in your business?

• Herfel: You have to earn it; have a great team and stay educated. Who you have in your environment is key.
• Shaw: A key skill you can’t delegate is lead generation – you must see yourself as already successful and stop looking UP at agents and start looking ACROSS.
• Watson: Spend 5 minutes a day connecting with people; listen to them and hear what they like and connect with them on that level.
• deLaveaga: Sales executive vs. business owner – it’s the ship builder vs. the ship captain mentality doing vs. mentoring- it’s a constant process.

5. What would you say are the biggest opportunities in this market and how would you take advantage of them?

• Herfel: Short sales will take over the market – they will also focus on creating their own inventory through flipping.
• Shaw: Listing based business.
• Chader: Sharing inventory with your agent relationships- utilizing your relationships vs. the MLS to advertise and find properties. Also focus on multiple transactions with the same people vs. a large group that you may only do one with.
• deLaveaga: Growing organically by getting deeper with our current stakeholders.

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage SVP Shares Market Insights

2012-01-17T08:45:00.000-08:00

At November’s Crystal Ball event, our esteemed panel shared with us their insights regarding the current market and what their respective companies are doing to aid consumers in this challenging time.

JK Huey, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Senior Vice President REO and Short Sales, is a 29-year veteran of the mortgage industry. Huey cited many positives at Wells Fargo, regarding the current market:

- WFHM maintains a strong performing loan level; about 94% of loans they service are not delinquent.

- Over 700,000 WFHM loan customers have been helped to remain in their homes and not lose them to foreclosure. This has been accomplished with loan modifications, including principal forgiveness and deferral. Huey cited that WFHM has forgiven about $4 billion in home loans, and deferred about $2 billion.

For the other 6%, the delinquent accounts, WFHM continues to make concerted efforts to help home owners keep their homes. Those 150 or more days delinquent are most at risk of liquidation. WFHM works with these homeowners to find an alternative to foreclosure, such as short sale or deed in lieu. Huey cited their Home Preservation events and centers that help educate homeowners about all available options and opportunities to avoid foreclosure.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a viable alternative to foreclosure in every situation. However, some good news for Arizona residents, Arizona is no longer in WFHM top ten states for late stage delinquency and REO. Additionally, WFHM’s REO inventory is down 71% since the first part of 2011. Huey feels strongly it is die in large part to WFHM’s strong commitment and effort to help homeowners keep their homes, as well as more and more being liquidated through short sale as agents become more knowledgeable of and utilize that option for their clients.

Contracts Canceled As A Result Of Low Appraisals

2011-12-19T11:04:00.000-08:00

Walt Molony of the National Association of Realtors reported that as recently as October, one in 10 member agents said they'd had a contract canceled as a result of a low appraisal, 13 percent said they'd had a contract delayed, and 16 percent said they'd had a contract negotiated to a lower sales price as a result of a low appraisal.

New and proposed federal rules governing appraisals, changes in the way appraisals are conducted, and a still uncertain housing market have hit the appraisal part of the home buying and selling process in a way that is adding to housing market instability.

The world of home appraisals changed on May 1, 2009, when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac adopted the Home Valuation Code of Conduct. These new rules prohibited lenders from hand-picking appraisers. To comply with those rules, many lenders have started using appraisal management companies that afford them an arm's length relationship with the appraiser. The appraisal management companies hand out assignments to their participating appraisers on a random basis. And they get a significant slice of the appraiser's fee, cutting the amount that actually goes to the on-the-ground appraiser.

It's not an arrangement that traditional appraisers -- who may have built long-term relationships with brokers and lenders -- like. "They want appraisers to produce a product and we provide a professional service," complained Francois Gregoire, a Saint Petersburg, Florida, veteran appraiser. "And they want it turned around in 24 or 48 hours. All those personal relationships that I built over the years are out the window."

Gregoire, who has stopped doing mortgage appraisals because he says they are no longer profitable, asserts that the new rules are resulting in a reliance on appraisers who are inexperienced and willing to travel significant distances to conduct those home inspections. And that results in appraisals that are less sensitive to neighborhood nuance, and less useful to borrowers and lenders.

Borrowers are watching their "locked in" low rates expire -- while they pay for one appraisal after another. Lenders are afraid to trust the appraisals they get, and are ordering more and more of them. Underwriters want more comparables. They want more narrative and more photos. Meanwhile the clock is tick tick ticking on your loan. The appraisers themselves say they're being paid less to work faster in a more confusing market than they've ever faced.
The lenders say they are just playing defense, in order to ensure that the value of the collateral supports the loan amount.

The biggest issue for appraisers, lenders and ultimately, borrowers, is how to evaluate properties in neighborhoods with foreclosures, short sales, and not enough solid sales to provide comparable data. The question becomes, when appraising a market that is so volatile and different from anything ever seen, with one-third of the neighborhood in foreclosures, and another third is short sales, and another third is regular, how do you even determine what is fair market value?

Many mortgage brokers contend that appraisers should mark up the value of homes when comparing them to foreclosures and short sales, because many of those distressed properties are in disrepair or are so complicated to buy that they command unrealistically low prices.

Further complicating the process, appraisers who for years mainly faced pressure to preserve deals, now are facing pressure in the other direction from lenders who want to make sure they have enough equity to cover them even if home prices fall further. Mortgage rates have been near record-low levels, and lenders don't want to commit to bargain rate deals unless they are a sure thing.

Home buyers and refinancers can't always fight the troubling appraisal. Pros are telling consumers to peer carefully over the shoulders of those appraisers. It's important to look at the comparable sales that were used, and if you don't think they are reflective of market, make the lender aware of that, and be more involved in the process.

If an appraisal comes in too low, you can appeal it, and order up (and pay for) another one. However, as many have found out, you still may not be able to get the loan you want.

On December 2, several U.S. regulatory agencies issued new guidelines for appraisals used in mortgages which originate from federally regulated banks, along with a statement noting "financial institutions are responsible for selecting appraisers and people performing evaluations based on their competence, experience, and knowledge of the market and type of property being valued." The statement also noted that these guidelines might be rewritten once again, once the Fed's rules are made final.

Source: Linda Stern, Reuters

New and Improved Website to Better Serve You Coming Soon!

2011-12-14T08:28:00.000-08:00

We are excited to announce the upcoming release of our newly redesigned website http://www.fntarizona.com/. The new and improved website reflects a lot of thought as to how we can better serve you, our partners in success. You’ll experience a different look and feel, and we believe, find the site more intuitive and easier to navigate, and get to the information YOU need, with links specific to your needs as an agent, investor, or lender.

Our redesign provides you a more efficient Marketing Center, allowing you to more rapidly find the products and services you need, from our various reports available to ordering your print materials.

You’ll more easily be able to stay up to date with the latest in improved services and critical industry news with the improved deeper social integration of the website.

Watch for more news regarding the official launch date of our redesigned website!

Leading Your Business Through Today's Market

2011-12-08T08:01:00.000-08:00

You won't want to miss this Chader Event - Leading Your Business Through Today's Market

Important News About The Cromford Report

2011-12-06T09:55:00.000-08:00

Effective January 1, 2012, access to The Cromford Report will no longer be a free member benefit for ARMLS® Subscribers. But you can still receive the Cromford Reports from Fidelity Phoenix. Please contact your Fidelity National Title Sales Executive today and sign up to receive monthly Cromford Reports emailed to you directly!

Announcement from ARMLS®
Effective January 1, 2012, access to The Cromford Report will no longer be a free member benefit for ARMLS® Subscribers. ARMLS still remains a fan of The Cromford Report and its insightful local content.

The ARMLS Board of Directors weighed its cost against the limited number of Subscribers fully utilizing The Cromford Report, and decided they could no longer justify the cost. Subscribers who regularly utilize The Cromford Report’s valuable in-depth analysis may purchase a subscription directly from Cromford.

In early 2012, ARMLS will launch a new market statistics product as a free member benefit. This product more closely meets the statistical appetite of a majority of ARMLS Subscribers. We are currently in negotiation on the final details of the contract and are planning on making it available for Subscriber use by the first quarter of 2012.

Michael Orr, President and Founder of The Cromford Report, has generously agreed to continue to provide the statistical data panels associated with each listing until new panels provided by the new vendor are operational.

Earn 12 C.E. Credits and your CDPE Designation

2011-11-29T07:39:00.000-08:00

Would you like to learn how to reduce short sale processing time by 50%? Or learn to close four times as many deals?! Join the over 30,000 Certified Distressed Property Experts® who have discovered the secret to surviving this real estate market!

Fidelity National Title, your partner in success, is making an exclusive offer for a huge savings of $150.00 on the upcoming 2-day CDPE course, November 30th and December 1st, 2011. Registration is November 30th, 8:00am, classes run both days 9:00am to 5:30pm.

Earn 12 C.E. credits and your CDPE designation, which includes:

Ø 320+ page field manual

Ø One year CDPE membership

Ø Complete short sales forms

Ø Short sales submission guidelines

Ø Complete sample short sale package

Ø Foreclosure solutions flowcharts

Ø Monthly coaching calls

Ø Forum and website access

Ø Use of the CDPE logo

Ø Bonus section on HAFA

Ø HUD short sale acceptance ratios

Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to save money on this exciting course! And to make it even easier, you can make 3 easy payments of $158.00 or one payment of $449.00.

Course takes place at Fiesta Resort Conference Center, 2100 South Priest Drive, Tempe.

Just 'Glympse Me'

2011-11-18T10:51:00.000-08:00

Imagine, you’re at the NAR® convention, among 1000’s of people, and an associate is trying to find you…

Or you’re at a listing, about to show it to potential buyers, but they’re new to the area and lost.

Just Glympse™ them! Huh??!

Glympse™ is a brilliantly conceived mobile application that lets you share your real-time location via SMS, email, Twitter, or Facebook. It's a useful, easy-to-use tool that doesn't require you to sign up, create any profiles, or invite contacts. Your location is only shared for the duration you specify and then stops.

With Glympse, you don’t send the address; you merely send a Glympse of your current location, and with a tap on the recipient’s screen, they navigate their way there. Or if you're not yet at the location, you might send them a Glympse showing it on a map, as well as your real-time location as you make your way there. There are so many possibilities with such a powerful, location-aware application.

The Glympse app is clean and refreshingly simple to use. To get started, launch the app, hit Menu, then Send a Glympse. Next, input a phone number or e-mail, or choose to share a Glympse with Facebook or Twitter. Set the duration (anywhere from 10 minutes to 4 hours), and that's it. For the allotted time frame, your contact(s) will be able to view your real-time location on a map, from a mobile device or desktop browser. If you're on the move, you can also input your destination, so your contact can see where you're headed.

For those who routinely use Glympse to transmit a location (e.g., children with eagle-eyed parents), the app includes a nice Favorite feature, which saves the recipient(s) of your Glympse, duration, and destination, all for easy sending later. The app also comes with an optional home-screen widget, which puts Favorites, Glympse History, and Send Glympse functionality right on your home screen.

Glympse is an incredibly useful app that has the potential to become incorporated into many of our daily routines. Try it out for yourself, and see if you and your friends start saying, "just Glympse me."
It’s available for Android, iPhone, WinPhone7, and Blackberry. http://glympse.com/get_glympse
Sources: CNET, Glympse

2012 Crystal Ball Conference Recap

2011-11-08T15:40:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, November 3 Fidelity Phoenix held a Crystal Ball Conference at the Tempe Center for the Arts. Over 500 Realtors were in attendance, and attendees were able to interact with the panel. Below is a brief recap of the event. A video of the event and the Power Point Presentation will be made available soon, if you would like the video and/or presentation please contact your Fidelity Phoenix Representative.

·The Power Point Presentation was created with data from Mike Orr of the Cromford Report

·Data showing that REO market is slowing down and that Short Sales will dominate 2012

·Bank panelists concurred that they want to increase their short sale approvals for 2012 and are hiring more people on their teams

·Banks would rather approve short sales than foreclose

·Possible trend upward trend in prices b/c SS tend to sell for higher prices than REO in AZ

·Only 2 years ago, banks handled delinquent mortgages almost exclusively by foreclosure so a shift to SS is momentus

·AZ Mortgage Delinquency rate is down 32% since 2009 which is a bigger drop than any other state in the nation

·There is no longer a glut of future foreclosures looming over AZ

Social Media's Impact on Brands

2011-10-31T12:23:00.000-07:00

Social media has infiltrated the purchasing funnel, helping consumers make informed decisions, from what to have for lunch to where to go on vacation. Depending on the decision, sometimes you turn to your social media, and sometimes you turn to Google. So, as a brand marketer, you want to know what online channels you should be targeting in order to reach the perfect audience for your product.

To better understand the new social consumer, Beyond and M Booth conducted a study of 1,500U.S. consumers, asking about the two products and services they had most recently researched online and how they went about it. They were then categorized as either a high sharer or a low sharer, each utilizing various digital channels differently, depending on whether they are researching and interacting with high or low involvement products.

Of the 1,500 consumers polled, 53% use Facebook to interact with a brand, with 42% going so far as to write a post or comment about a brand, and 40% ‘liked’ a product. 33% wrote a product review, and 20% use Facebook to research a product at least once a week.

Products research or purchased were categorized as either high involvement or low involvement. High involvement products such as photography equipment, other electronics including computers, and vacations, were less frequently purchased. This due to them being more complex and expensive, requiring more time and effort in the research phase. Low involvement products, such as cosmetics, baby supplies, and food were bought more frequently with less thought and research effort, due to the lower cost.

High sharers tend to be the most valuable to brands as they recommend products three times more often and influence other’s buying decisions. They make up 20% of online consumers and tend to be younger, have stronger brand loyalty, own multiple internet devices, and research low involvement products.

Low sharers make up about 80% of online consumers and tend to be older, are more open to changing brands, care more about quality than brand image, are more likely to purchase researched products, and research high involvement products.

The three channels that influence the social consumer are Earned, Owned, and Search. Examples of Earned are rating and reviews sites, news articles, word of mouth, and blog posts. Owned channels are brand websites, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Search channels are paid search and organic search.

Channel influence on products is very similar for all three channels, with baby products the most influenced, with personal finance products the least influenced. Facebook has the most influence on baby brands, YouTube on music brands, and review sites on electronics.

After online interaction, 31% are prompted to purchase, 26% take no action, 20% are prompted to recommend, 9% are encouraged to visit, 8% have an increased awareness, and 3% had their product impression changed and were encouraged to contact.

All digital channels play a role in a brand’s marketing strategy; looking at the channel your consumer is most influence by will lead to an increase in your digital ROI. With Search acting as the gateway of influence on today’s consumer, creative digital content is essential within Earned and Owned media channels to boost a brand’s organic search relevancy. Identifying high sharers in the most effective digital location, and engaging them with sharable content, will help lead to a cycle of recommendation, loyalty, and purchase.

Sources: Lauren Drell, Mashable, and data from M Booth and Beyond

Our Christmas Wish Golf Tournament Is Coming Up!

2011-10-20T07:54:00.001-07:00

What better way to give back to our community while having a lot of fun, than by joining us at the 2011 Christmas Wish Charity Golf Tournament, Saturday December 10th at Talking Stick Golf Course in Scottsdale. If you are unable to participate in the tournament, please also consider the underwriting sponsorship opportunities available.

· 8:00 a.m.—Registration & Breakfast

· 9:30 a.m.— Shotgun Start

· 2:30 p.m.—Tournament Concludes

· 3:00p.m.-5:00p.m.—Awards Ceremony, Food & Cocktails @ Shadows Lounge

Tournament:
Talking Stick Golf Course
9998 East Indian Bend Rd
Scottsdale, Arizona 85256

Lunch/Awards:
Shadows Lounge - Talking Stick Resort
9800 East Indian Bend Rd
Scottsdale, Arizona 85256

Fidelity National Title is proud to partner with the Johnjay and Rich Care for Kids Foundation that assists and serves children in need by creating uplifting experiences for families facing difficult life challenges. The funds raised will directly benefit the Johnjay and Rich Care for Kids Foundation which helps children and their families in the local community. With these donations, this foundation will be able to “grant” the wishes of over 100 families this holiday season with gifts, food, clothing and bill payments. Both Fidelity National Title and Clear Channel Communications deeply believe in giving back to our local community.

The Christmas Wish Program grants wishes and offers assistance to families in extreme need. It can be heard on the radio and online during the Johnjay and Rich Morning Show on 104.7KISSFM primarily during the holiday season, between Thanksgiving and Christmas. A “wish” is delivered each day (Monday-Friday). Special 12-hour “Wish-a-thons” are held in various markets to increase donations and awareness. During these wish-a-thons, multiple families are granted wishes throughout the day.

For more information, sponsorship form, or registration, please visit https://www.facebook.com/FidelityPhoenix?sk=app_182667455607.

Using Google Analytics In Social Media

2011-10-14T07:54:00.000-07:00

In a recent interview Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner did with Avinash Kaushik, the digital marketing evangelist for Google and author of Web Analytics 2.0., Avinash shared how the free enterprise-class tools available through Google Analytics affects businesses today. He explained how your social media activity influences the behavior of your business audience to help you improve your results.

Think about 3 buckets:

Acquisition – It provides details about where people are coming to your site from. Was it from SEO you’ve implemented, from your Twitter, etc.

Behavior on your site - Bounce rate, the percentage of people who somehow landed on your site, but went (clicked) no further. It’s pretty valuable information, as it can help you identify weaknesses at the floor level of your site. From seeing what pages they’re landing on and immediately leaving, it may suggest broken links or landing pages, or campaigns/content that may not be enticing enough to make them WANT to go further.

Conversion or outcome for you – This is where Google Analytics goes deeper. Did they land, click on an e-report to be sent to them, and thus become a lead? Did they leave a comment on your blog thus adding value to your site as well as to SEO and the conversation? You can measure the number of people who follow you on Twitter, who sign up for your RSS feed, who come back repeatedly, etc.

Google Analytics can also help you understand your social media results, particularly when used in your business branding and marketing. Not only do you want to know when your Tweets or Facebook posts, etc. cause activity and engagement, but most important, what was the value of that activity? Did that activity drive more website visitors, more website engagement, more prospects? Knowing these things, by Google Analytics measurement, quantifies your social media efforts. This enables you to compare the value of your social media efforts against that of other avenues, i.e. display ads, SEO, etc.

One of the things you can easily do in Google Analytics is to create and track what they refer to as advanced segments. This could be your Twitter segment, another for Facebook, another for YouTube, etc. It takes you literally about 3 seconds to create a segment, then once created, all the same stats and details you can find out with Google Analytics, are than drilled down to specific segments. You can than compare the value you’re getting from one segment to another, and make adjustments of time invested based on that. If you’re getting say 23% more comments on your Tweets than your are on your Facebook posts, might knowing that direct where you apply the larger percentage of your social media effort and time? Super valuable information!

In terms of which metrics of social media provide the greatest value to you, while it’s great to know how many Facebook followers you have, how many Tweets you’ve been mentioned in, etc, it’s of more value to you to move beyond those basic numbers. For example, with your Twitter segment, look at the number of re-Tweets. Think about it like this, each of your Tweets is like a drop in a lake. What matters more than the number of Tweets you’ve made, is the wave caused by that drop; is it a big wave or a small wave? If your Tweets provide value to your followers, they validate that by re-Tweeting, and now that value goes out to others who aren’t perhaps already following you or even know who you are. You’ve just been introduced to perhaps countless other prospects!

The follower re-Tweet percentage is also important to measure and look at. Is it just your Mom and Dad re-Tweeting your brilliance, or is it a growing number of followers that you have? If you analyze these metrics, it enables you better know who the people are who follow your Twitter account, what are their needs, what do they respond to?

Another important metric to look at is conversation rate; on Twitter this would specifically be the number of replies you sent each day, and the number of replies received each day. Basically, it’s measuring more one-on-one or one-on-few conversations. Social media is not a medium where simply shouting creates value. The real value comes when that “connection” is made by people with your brand. THAT is the real gift of social media.

To learn more about Google Analytics in social media, you can follow Avinash on Twitter, @avinash, or go to http://www.google.com/analytics.

Highly Anticipated 2012 Crystal Ball Conference

2011-10-10T06:54:00.000-07:00

Where, on November 3rd, will you find 600 of the top thought leaders in the real estate market, as well as the top 25 brokers and the top 50 agents in Arizona? At our Crystal Ball Conference! You won't want to miss this amazing event!

For the first time in history, every major bank, servicer, and asset manager will be participating on a speakers’ panel, sharing their thoughts regarding the future of distressed property in Arizona for the next 12 months.

This is the most highly anticipated real estate event of the year! You’ll gain insight into how servicers and banks are liquidating property in Arizona. New programs, philosophies and trends of the Arizona distressed market will be discussed. Inside tips and information on how to navigate the REO short sale and pre-foreclosure market will be shared.

The illustrious panel includes:

Bill Borda, Senior Vice President with Bank of America’s Short Sale, Deed In Lieu and Real Estate Owned organization. Bill’s team is responsible for gathering voice of customer data and using that data as a catalyst for process, policy and technology changes to close more short sale transactions and improve the real estate agent and homeowner experience. Bill’s team is also responsible for conducting education on the Bank of America short sale process for real estate agents.

Bill has been with Bank of America for 12 years and served in a variety of sales, marketing and process design roles at the bank. His key accomplishments within the Home Loans organization include building a broker loyalty program, transitioning more than 5,000 banking centers from a mortgage origination channel to a referral channel and earning his Six Sigma Greenbelt Certification. Bill is a graduate of the University of Delaware and earned a Masters of Business Administration from the University of North Carolina Charlotte. He is based in Charlotte, NC, where he lives with his wife and four children.

Alex Charfen, Co-founder of the Charfen Institute, LLC, is an entrepreneur, teacher, author, speaker—and is on a mission. Has made a career out of helping agents grow their businesses by learning to cope with shifting markets and better serving their clients. Since the Institute's inception in January 2008, tens of thousands of real estate professionals have attended his education courses and achieved the Certified Distressed Property Expert® (CDPE) designation, making it the fastest-growing designation in real estate industry history.

Charfen Institute continues to set the pace for the real estate industry by leading the next wave in the market – real estate investment. The company made history again in October 2010 when it launched the only designation specifically addressing the needs of residential real estate investor clients, the Certified Investor Agent Specialist™ (CIAS) Designation.

The CIAS Designation trains real estate agents to find, create, and close with residential real estate investors, providing the necessary tools and strategies to help them make sound investment decisions for their future.

Reginald H. Givens, Foreclosure Assistance Administrator with the Arizona Department of Housing. Currently Reginald is working on the implementation and continuing development of the State’s foreclosure prevention program, Save Our Home AZ, which is part of the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Hardest Hit Fund.

Reginald successfully coordinated the State’s Your Way Home AZ program which is part of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Additionally, Reginald works on the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program, designed to help homeowners facing foreclosure by providing them with much needed loss mitigation counseling. Through the combination of these programs, Reginald is helping to bring stability back to our housing market.

Bob Hora, Short Sale, Deed In Lieu, Real Estate Owned, BAC Field Services & LandSafe Default Executive for Legacy Asset Servicing, Bank of America Home Loans, one of the world’s leading financial services companies and the nation’s leading mortgage servicer. He leads a team of approximately 5,000 associates dedicated to assisting customers with property liquidation and foreclosure prevention strategies.

Mr. Hora has more than 27 years of leadership experience in the financial industry. Most recently, he served as Vice President and Officer for Default Management at Fannie Mae. In this role, he was responsible for supporting Fannie Mae’s servicing portfolio managing loss mitigation caseloads and preferred loss mitigation strategies, as well as managing foreclosure, bankruptcy, and retained attorney activities and related third-party support.

Prior to joining Fannie Mae, Hora was Senior Vice President at GMAC ResCap. His responsibilities included managing the special servicing and subprime loss mitigation platform for first and second liens, including instituting the HAMP program.

JK Huey, Senior Vice President REO and Short Sale, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage REO and Short Sale, headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. In her role, Huey is directly responsible for managing all REO, Short Sale and Deed-in-Lieu activities for the servicing channel.

Huey, a 29-year veteran of the mortgage industry, joined Wells Fargo in 2009. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, she was the servicing manager at IndyMac Bank and held senior management positions with Washington Mutual and HomeSide Lending. Huey has managed Customer Service, Default Management, Escrow Administration, Cash Management, Investor Reporting, Acquisitions and Retail Production.

Along with being a Certified Mortgage Banker, Accredited Mortgage Professional, a member of the MORPAC and Loan Administration Steering Committees with the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, Huey was the President of the Texas Mortgage Bankers Association from 1998-1999, the past Chairman of multiple committees, and the recipient of the Young Mortgage Banker of the Year in 1992.

Brent Taggart, Senior Vice President of business development and client relations at Green River Capital LC (GRC), a leading REO asset management and loss mitigation provider.

The real estate and mortgage trading industries are familiar ground for Taggart, who has more than 14 years experience. Before joining GRC, Taggart was the SVP of trading at 406 Partners where he was responsible for pricing, business development, and client management. He also worked for Credit Suisse in New York, where he managed pricing, due diligence, portfolio management and the portfolio’s servicing oversight as vice president of Scratch and Dent Trading.

Taggart began his career at Fairbanks Capital Corp., where he discovered a penchant for the mortgage business and began to learn the fundamentals of default servicing. He quickly moved up the company from operations to the analytics department, becoming a senior analyst who meticulously dissected large data sets for clients as well as the senior executive team and served on the Pricing Committee.

Facebook Best Practices

2011-10-05T07:30:00.000-07:00

We previously shared 5 of our 20 Facebook best practices and today we share the next 15 best practices.

#6: Put a fan page widget on your blog or website: You’d be amazed at how many people simply don’t know about your fan page. Putting it on your website (i.e., your home base) will get it in front of all of your website visitors. My favorite example of this is from Klout. It got me to Like them!

#7: Customize your fan page URL: Vanity URLs are a fantastic way to make your fan page memorable. Check this awesome fan page http://facebook.com/awesomefanpage. Vanity, baby!

#8: Put your fan page URL on your business cards: Combine offline and online by letting the people you meet IRL know about your fan page.

#9: Put a link on your personal Facebook profile: Put this under the “links” section. This is a “soft sell” of sorts, letting your friends passively know about your page. You might have forgotten that people actually check that part of your profile!

#10: Harness the power of your team: Have everyone in your organization put your fan page link on their personal profile.

#11: Ask fans to post a link: Ask all of your current fans to post a link to the fan page on their personal profile. As long as you don’t ask this often, I’ve found that people love to help out. Leverage the power of your existing audience and get results! For instance, at Monk Development, we simply asked everyone to post a link to our company fan page on the same day. We doubled our average daily Likes because of one simple step.

#12: Put a tag in your YouTube videos: If you make compelling videos as a part of your content marketing strategy, throw in a well-timed fan page link at the end of your YouTube videos. The Gregory Brothers, the geniuses behind “Auto-tune the News,” are some of the best social marketers around. They always include a link to their fan page (and other social networks) at the end of every video and make it a welcome addition to their content.

#13: Put your fan page URL on your Twitter profile background: Lots of tweeters still use the web-based version and your profile background is a prime piece of web real estate. Cross-advertise and use one social network to promote another! CenturyLink does a great job of this. If you go to their Twitter page, you can clearly see where their fan page is located. They don’t make you guess, which leads to conversions!

#14: QR codes for your page: I bought the furniture for our house mostly because the store used QR codes to get me to their fan page. Once I got to the fan page, I was welcomed with a custom landing page that welcomed me to the store. It wasn’t elaborate, but it was creative and it worked! They engaged me as a customer both online (QR code leading to fan page) and offline (sales agents in the store), making sure I knew I was welcome. Smart!

#15: Use your fan page: Use the “Tell Your Fans” feature. With the tools built in to the fan page, Facebook allows you to import a contact file or import your contacts from Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. Good for when you’re just starting out and want to tell people you already know.

#16: Add a Like box: Place this in your blog/website sidebar. This is a given. A must. But when you do this, make sure you set the options to include face pile. That way, your Like box will show your readers how many of their friends like the page as well. Genius.

#17: Use targeted keywords in a Google AdWords: Use a keyword-based ad and direct people to your fan page. This is like Facebook ads on steroids. If you’ve never used AdWords before, it’s fairly straightforward.

#18: Redirect your webinar guests to your fan page: If you use GoToWebinar, you can choose to send registrants to a URL of your choosing after they sign up. This is where you let them know of the awesomeness that is your fan page.

#19: Put your fan page URL in your Keynote/PowerPoint slides: When I present, the last slide I show is my contact info, complete with our organization’s fan page. Most people are already on Facebook, so it’s a no-brainer to give them an easy way to connect with you.

#20: Last, and certainly least, invite all of your friends (if you must): This is at the end for a reason. Pester your friends only as the nuclear option. I’ve given you 19 other ways to let people know about your fan page. Give your friends a break!

Don’t let the list stop there. There are hundreds of different ways to let people know about what you and your online community are up to on Facebook. Why not get creative and start a list of your own? What are some of the most interesting ways you’ve seen people or businesses promote their fan page? Let us know; share what you’ve found!

Source: Social Media Examiner, Justin Wise

Facebook Best Practices

2011-09-23T09:08:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our series on Facebook Best Practices. Today we share a little information about Facebook with you along with the first 5 of the 20 best practices we will share with you throughout this series - so be sure to check back!

If you build it, they will come? Perhaps in baseball, but not necessarily when it comes to people (i.e. potential customers) finding your Facebook page. Those potential consumers ARE using social media…. but it’s up to YOU to make sure they can find you. Your fan page can be one of your organization’s richest sources of interaction, R&D and lead generation…. as long as you’ve done a good job of making people aware of it!

First, go to facebook.com/username and secure a custom URL for your Facebook page. Then, put that URL everywhere it’s appropriate: your website; TV, radio and print ads; signs, banners, table tents and window clings, door flyers – all marketing pieces; and your email signature.

Don’t just tell people “Find us on Facebook!” If they conduct a search for your business on Facebook, they may find many similar pages that are not yours. Make it easy for people – direct them to your URL.

The numbers associated with expertise in integrating social media into your business marketing can be mind-blowing! And with social media continuing to grow, the numbers can only get better, as businesses better understand how to effectively engage people.

A report from Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate reveal people feel more inclined to purchase from the brands they are fans of on Facebook. 51% of Facebook fans said they are more likely to purchase from at least a few brands they are fans of on Facebook. 60% said that being a Facebook fan of a brand would cause them to be more likely to recommend that brand to a friend.

Unless you have a built-in audience like the huge brands (think Nike, Coca-Cola), you’ll need to help drive traffic to your fan base. There are myriad creative ways to promote your Facebook page, one of the most complete lists below, put together by Justin Wise on Social Media Examiner:

#1: Put your fan page URL in your email signature: How many emails do you send per day? Now imagine each email you send is a chance for someone new to find out about your awesome fan page! This URL goes out on every email I send! Talk about free publicity!

#2: Write a blog post about your new fan page: Give your readers five compelling reasons why they should join your fan page. Don’t beg; just give reasons they’ll benefit.

#3: Tag other, well-trafficked fan pages in your updates: Their fans might see your page and you may get some cross-traffic.

#4: Ask your Twitter followers to join your fan page: Give some compelling reasons why your Twitter base should join your Facebook community. If Twitter is the new water cooler, think of your fan page as an invite to come in and chat. For example, tweet something like, “Wanting more conversation than 140 characters will allow? Join us on Facebook at http://fb.me/awesomefanpage.” A nice and simple ask that will get results.

#5: Invest in Facebook ads: They’re easier than you think and you can spend as little (or as much) as you’d like.

Source: Social Media Examiner, Justin Wise

Five Star Conference

2011-09-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

Our Fidelity Phoenix team attended The Five Star Conference in Dallas last week. Highlights included a variety of high profile speakers, lots of informative meetings and the happy hour cigar lounge hosted by Fidelity Phoenix.

Melissa Shapiro, AVP/Director of Sales for Fidelity Phoenix attended the conference and provides a recap:

Overall general consensus of big servicers and banks is that inventory is being released now and will continuously grow over the next few months. The past 18 months has been a series of stop and go due to government involvement and regulations like HAFA and HAMP, the class action lawsuits against the banks with ROBO signings and MERS and the banks freezing all activity in order to look at their processes under a microscope to mitigate future risk. Homeowners who have stopped paying their mortgage has now had ample time to be given every opportunity to save their house with loan mod, SS, deed in lieu and government assistance programs. The sand has finally run out and the banks are filing foreclosure proceedings. Bank of America has started first and already in the Western States, including AZ has doubled in foreclosing filings.

An entire breakout session was dedicated to non traditional ways of liquidating REO’s with non profits and bulk sales. And below are some of the main takeaways from the conference:

· Asset management companies are revamping their existing preferred agent list based on expired information.

· Update your applications and resume’s regularly.

· BPO’s are extremely important. The highest isn’t necessarily the best, accuracy is what gets you the best scorecards.

· When applying to outsourcers/banks, send a recent copy of your score card to get noticed.

· Short sales are becoming more aggressive and easier to get through. The banks would rather liquidate through a SS than an REO. Better overall PR and always is a cost savings.

Part 2: What You Need To Know About Google And Google+

2011-09-14T07:15:00.000-07:00

If you’re still looking for an invite, ask on Twitter or among your techie friends; post your request on your Facebook wall. You’ll soon be swimming in them.

Then what? First off, edit your profile page. Click the red “About” Link, click the blue “Edit Profile” button in the corner. Put in a photo. Add some information to your “introduction.” Add some links to the links area to the right, but don’t overdo it.

Probably the most important part of profile editing that people don’t know much about is to go to where it says “Employment”, and write something REALLY interesting in the “current” one. Your writing needs to let people know who you are, what you do, and where. Why is it so important? Because when someone sees your name anywhere on Google+ and they hover their mouse over that content, that’s what they see as the representation of you. That little bit of text explains who you are to them at a glance. Don’t write a novel, but don’t leave it blank or put something lame there. It’s a power move; first impressions count!

Everything else in your profile section is up to you.

Circles are how you group and organize people on Google+. The first thing most people do is rename the circles into something more useful. Name as it makes sense for you and your business and interests; everyone thinks differently. But make sure you do this step. Organizing people LATER is painful, and it is important to put people into lists that match your interests and needs. Editing circles is reasonably easy.

Now, find interesting people to connect with on Google+. You can go to FindPeopleOnPlus.com. There’s also group.as. Those are great for just striking out into the wild to look for people.

Once you add a few interesting people, go to THEIR profile page and see who they’ve added to circles. Now, you’re finding some interesting people.

To be an active participant, post interesting things. You can create 4 types of posts in Google+:

1. Link posts.

2. Video posts.

3. Photo posts.

4. Location posts.

You can write a post and offer a link to something interesting (like your latest blog post). You can upload a photo and write something to go along with it. You can point to YouTube videos or upload a video. And you can post location information, if that’s your thing.

The other thing you can do is share other people’s interesting posts. There’s a “share” button below most posts. That lets you find the good stuff and share it with your growing community. One point: If someone else has shared something, and you see it in your stream, and then you decide to share it, it’s nice form to credit the person who shared it with you via the text above the share. (So, if Chris posts a funny photo, and Dave shares it, and then Margie finds it in Dave’s stream and decides to share it, Margie clicks share, and says “found via Dave” in the text). Make sense? It’s a nice thing to do.

The advantage that Google+ has over Twitter is the comments. People are having really great time contributing to really good conversations in the comments sections. Comments on photos are just amazing, and in other forms, it depends on what you’re putting out, but people seem to really enjoy the back and forth. Try to be the #1 commenter on your account. Respond as often as you can.

Video Hangout is basically Google’s group chat feature. Instead of directly asking a friend to join a group chat, users instead click “start a hangout” and they’re instantly in a video chatroom alone. At the same time, a message goes out to their social circles, letting them know that their friend is “hanging out.” Friends can then join the hangout as long as they have been placed in a circle that was invited by the person who created the Hangout. You can do some fun things with them. Michael Dell (yes, THAT Michael Dell) does all kinds of conversations with his. It’s really a great way to see what Google+ might be able to do for you as a platform.

The reasons to love Google+ are that it’s clean, it’s fast, it’s useful, people are very engaged, and it’s got a strong boost to you being found in web searches.

Sources: Chris Brogan, chrisbrogan.com

What You Need To Know About Google And Google+

2011-09-12T15:37:00.000-07:00

With the recent launch of Google+, there’s been considerable focus paid to debating the merits of Google+ vs. Facebook. However, beyond direct comparison of apples and oranges, there’s a bigger story at play here for Google+.

Since its start in 1998, Google has been building and amassing an entire universe of web tools. From email and calendars to Google Docs, advertising, payment processing, site analytics, mobile, and third party apps for everything in between, the ‘Google Universe’ now offers a complete hub for its users.

The missing piece in this Google Universe has always been social…until now. Google+ has the capacity to bring all these tools together with people at the center of their new social hub. One key element of Google+ is a focus on targeted sharing within subsets of your social group, which are what Google calls Circles. Circles are simply small groups of people that you can share with.

With the addition of Google+, small businesses now have a complete hub in Google that extends far beyond document sharing. Google offers a viable web-based alternative for all that’s needed to keep the wheels turning day in and day out. In short, many feel it’s becoming possible to run an entire business based on the Google ecosystem alone.

Google Apps Marketplace and Google’s Chrome Web Store are extensive marketplaces for web applications that host everything from accounting to project management applications, CRM to full blow ERP applications. Google+ Circles provides the social glue for co-workers who are using Google’s business apps.

Google+ has the potential to become the feed or conversation manager for all the apps that are managing activity inside of a business. It offers an expansive, easy to manage, easy to unite all business communications within a Google+ feed.

Small businesses are migrating, over 3 million so far, away from expensive on premise software solutions to Google Apps for their IT infrastructure in the cloud.

When we look back over the history of computing, we see a recurring trend where users migrate from individual tools to a unified platform. It’s a similar pattern with every computing platform since the mainframe.

This same pattern is set to repeat with Google, particularly in the small business segment. It’s no secret that small businesses have already been looking to replace desktop software and move toward a web-only environment. Online tools offer an ease of use, accessibility, and low cost that typical enterprise software just can’t match. And even web-based apps can be cumbersome if users are required to jump back and forth between apps and vendors to access point solutions for each bit of functionality.

For the small business, we know that simplicity is best. With Google, capital spending goes way down as users can access these tools on the web, and largely for free. Even more importantly, life is much easier for the small business as the full suite of tools is in one place, and integrated right out of the box.

Unlike Facebook, Google+ is less about a place to hang out and connect with friends. Rather, it’s a way to tie all the pieces of the Google Universe together and give easy access to the full suite of Google tools through a single toolbar. History shows that the benefit of an integrated system will draw small businesses away from point, best-of-breed solutions.

Sources: Ray Grainger, Mavenlink; Mashable

Twitter Stats That Will Get You To Tweet Your Brand

2011-09-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

Twitter is a fairly "leveling" medium. While it is true that large corporations can put more resources behind their social media efforts than small businesses, Twitter's strength is being able to have a one-on-one conversation that just happens to be in front of tons of people.

Perhaps the best use of Twitter for brands of all sizes is to communicate with their customers and clients. They no longer send emails or call the 800 number with a complaint. They tweet. It is fast and easy. If small businesses set up a Twitter account only to be ready to engage with their customers who have something to say about their brand or services, they are ahead of the game.

Are you unsure about setting up an account on Twitter? Maybe you feel like it’s not right for your brand or your line of work, maybe you think that anything you would have to say would fall on deaf ears because your target audience don’t use twitter. Maybe you’re wrong…

The following statistics indicate that Twitter is fast and furiously becoming the social media platform used by everyone. The stats should show that it doesn’t matter if you are female, male, have kids …if you are wealthy, broke, employed or looking for work – you still have an audience on Twitter. Take a look and see for yourself – the stats also show that even if you haven’t got a presence on Twitter, people could still be talking about you….so maybe you should be listening?

Over the last 5 years -

· There are 200,000,000 registered Twitter users

· Almost 88% of people have awareness of Twitter and its existence

· There are 450,000 new Twitter accounts created everyday

· Meaning there are 5.2 accounts created every second of everyday

So we can longer claim that’s it unknown – there is a huge audience out there, right at your fingertips. That is a lot of people in a short space of time that have been convinced by its power.

· There are one billion tweets posted every week

· 180,000,000 every day

· 138,888 every minute

· Over 1,650 every second

· Just 5% of Twitter users create 75% of the content tweeted

· There are 1.6 billion search queries everyday

· Meaning that there are 18,000 search queries every second

Still worried that you’re too old to be using it or that your brand or company is the wrong sort to be using twitter? Take a look at the numbers then…

· 46% of Twitter users are female

· 54% are male – very equal demographics

· 53% don’t have children

· 47% do have children – time doesn’t seem to be an issue

· The majorty of twitter users are aged between 30 and 49 - perfect age group

· 43% of people follow a brand on Twitter for special deals/offers

· 75% of users are more likely to purchase from a brand they follow – good headstart

· 67% of users are likely to recommend a brand they follow to other users

Ok….but maybe you’re still worried about the freedom of speech that users have. The fact that anyone can write anything about you, your brand, your services or your skills…

· 1,000,000 people view tweets about customer service each week

· 80% of those tweets are negative and critical

· As much as 75% of traffic comes from sources outside Twitter

We’ll let you in on a secret – whether you have a twitter account or not people can write whatever they want, whenever they want – they will get heard and it will get commented on and it will get passed on. Surely it’s better to be listening in on those criticisms, dealing with them and changing things for the better. Let people know you’re listening.

Maybe you don’t have a brand or a company or even a job – we’ve got a stat that should get you tweeting nonetheless:

· Up to 85% of companies are using social media as part of their recruitment

Or maybe you don’t have the time to be on twitter in the middle of the day and therefore think you would miss out on most activity anyway….

· 5pm is the best time to be retweeted

So no excuses then? Looks like Twitter has an answer for everything….

With the social media monitoring tools out there, it is easy to stay on top of the relevant tweets and help your brand. Through these tools, brands can search for key words (like their brand name or products they sell) to find places where they can start or participate in a conversation. And it is through these conversations where relationships can start, consumers can turn into customers and one-time customers can turn into loyal customers. Twitter is huge, just look at the stats again. But don’t let it overwhelm you -- focus on the small part where you live.

Stats Source: Michelle Carvill, socialmediatoday

Leveraging Foursquare For Your Real Estate Practice

2011-08-31T09:05:00.000-07:00

In mid-June of this year, the location-based social network, Foursquare announced they had reached a major milestone: 10 million users! This is particularly amazing in that they’re pretty new in the social media realm, having started in March 2009.

Of those current 10 million users, about 3 million check-in somewhere each day, and about 400,000 businesses use Foursquare as a marketing tool.

Checking in is becoming more and more popular. The latest ComScore report released in May 2011 revealed that nearly 1 in 5 smartphone owners access check-in services via their mobile device. Foursquare had 381,576,305 check-ins in 2010 alone.

So how exactly does this affect real estate? We are starting to see brokerages adopting creative social media strategies, like the ‘Race for the Home’ event that Prudential Georgia Realty did. Based in metro Atlanta, they teamed up with property search site HomeFinder.com and mobile gaming platform SCVNGR to offer some 500 prospective homebuyers the chance to compete for a $15,000 down payment on a home purchase. We’ve also seen The Corcoran Group, a New York brokerage, embrace Foursquare and is now a major brand on Foursquare. Foursquare fits beautifully into Corcoran’s core brand ideas in that the process of searching for a home is just as much about what’s outside of the 4 walls than it is inside.

What are some of the ways you can start leveraging Foursquare in your own business?

Add your own business location to Foursquare - Provide clients who check-in to your location regularly with loyalty rewards. Offer incentives for people to write tips that mention you by name e.g. “Go to Jones Realty and ask for Sally Jones. She knows Jonesville like the back of her hand.” It’s a great way to generate word-of-mouth referrals.

Check-in when you’re doing an open house - If you are a Realtor sitting at an open house, do you have a Foursquare special set up? Think of it as just one more way to market to the people who are in the immediate area and just may be looking at open houses on your block. Remember, EVERYONE who checks in somewhere nearby (the local coffee shop, hardware store, etc.) sees not just the place they’re checking into but other places nearby; including your open house IF it’s there to be found! Your Foursquare check-in provides a map to your location. Conversely, it also works the opposite way. If someone comes to your open house by way of seeing it in an ad, but are unfamiliar with the area, they can use the ‘Explore’ tab on Foursquare to check out nearby places friends have visited or are popular with locals. It’s a fantastic way to go somewhere new and try something different. You can even filter it by the type of venue you’d like to visit – the type of food you like for example. Their vast inventory of user-generated tips is the content that ultimately describes what those experiences are going to be like prior to actually going there. If you’ve never tried it, it’s a powerful form of suggestion-based marketing that often leads to some amazing recommendations. Most importantly, it keeps people engaged with you and your content in a meaningful way. The unexpected search result or experience in a sea of noise, that creates real value related to what the user was originally looking for, can be a very powerful place to position your services.

Advertise that the property is open for review on Foursquare - Mention in your web advertising that you’ve added the property location to Foursquare. Invite home open visitors to write a review. Their review will be available to other Foursquare users.

Ask your colleagues to check-in when they show the property - Get them to add a brief review while they’re at the property on an agent caravan or when showing buyers. And reciprocate by doing the same for them.

Sources: Mashable, Tech Savvy Agent

Five Email Design Must-Haves

2011-08-25T08:35:00.000-07:00

Even with the mad rush to embrace all the growing social media platforms into one’s marketing, there remains value in a good old email marketing campaign… if done correctly. The average email subscriber faces an inbox filled with clutter. Once they sort through a variety of personal, professional and marketing messages, they won't look kindly on messy or incoherent email offers. "Without a well-crafted, clear and consistent design for your brand, your email is going nowhere in a hurry," says John Murphy in an article at MarketingProfs.

Here's how to avoid such a pitfall:

Use a good balance of text and images. Many spam filters consider an email's text-to-image ratio when deciding if it will reach a recipient's inbox. If there's too much text or too many images, it risks banishment to the spam folder.

Assume that images will be blocked. There's a good chance your subscribers will only see embedded images if they actively click on a link to display them. Because of this, the text in your message has to make sense even if its images don't show up.

Provide a back-up option for image-rich backgrounds. A number of clients—Gmail and Microsoft Outlook, for example—don't support background images. But there's a workaround. HTML allows both an image and a color to be coded in the same tag, which means that if a mail client supports background images, the images will be displayed; if it doesn't, then the chosen color will appear as the email background instead.

Include a table of contents for lengthier messages. When an email has several sections, ease its navigation with a simple table of contents that links within the message to the topics a subscriber wants to read.

Remember a call to action. You've sent the message because you want your recipient to do something—so make sure they can.

How it works matters as much as how it reads. Don't sabotage your strong content with weak email design.

Source: MarketingProfs

Social Media's Impact On Business

2011-08-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

If you’ve still any doubt social media is an indispensable tool for business, check out these staggering statistics of what social media campaigns accomplished for these businesses:

An Old Spice campaign resulted in a 60% increase in Facebook fans, with between 500,000 to 800,000 new fans in one month’s time. Twitter followers jumped an astounding 2,700%, and YouTube subscribers more than doubled to over 150,000.

Under Armor’s campaign to find their “Ultimate Intern” resulted in a 130% in Facebook page Like’s, a 25% increase in Facebook active users, and a 45% increase in Newsfeed impressions.

Coca-Cola got 86.5 million impressions for a Promoted Trend on Twitter. Yes, MILLION!

Evian’s video “Roller Skating Babies” received 65.5 million plays in two years.
20 million impressions came from Network Solutions “Go Granny” Super Bowl tweets.

McDonald’s showed a 33% increase in check-ins (Foursquare, Places, etc.) from a one day campaign randomly rewarding $5 and $10 gift cards for check-ins.

There were 184,000 players checking in during a scavenger game campaign at Buffalo Wild Wings.

In general, Foursquare had 381,576,305 check-ins in 2010 alone.

Are you beginning to get the picture? The numbers associated with expertise in integrating social media campaigns into your business marketing can be mind-blowing! And with social media continuing to grow, the numbers can only get better, as businesses better understand how to effectively engage people (I.e. = potential consumers). Those potential consumers ARE using social media…. Are YOU?

Source: Mashable's Todd Wasserman and Lauren Drell

Is Your Website Mobile? Part 2

2011-08-15T08:44:00.000-07:00

People are so entrenched in the information they can gather from their mobile devices these days that they expect to be able to get what they are looking for on a mobile device… exactly when they want it. This is the case even though most real estate websites are not formatted for use on the mobile device. People have turned to apps from companies like Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com. There’s nothing wrong with this… in fact they have great apps, however, it presents an opportunity for you as the agent to take back this consumer.

There is a good chance that the real estate consumer who texts-in for information was not aware of you or your firm prior to that text message. Now you have just provided them the exact information they wanted at the precise time they wanted it by incorporating a text message solution on your listings. In addition, if you had a mobile website, where they were able to not only get information on the property that they were looking at, but search the entire MLS, use GPS to see the 10 closest listings to the one they just looked at and get all your contact information as the agent who has provided them this information, they would be thoroughly impressed. I would go so far as to say that if you were able to provide this experience to a potential real estate consumer, the chances you could convert them to a buyer or seller have just increased dramatically.

However, if standard practices are not adhered to, potential pitfalls can occur. A poor mobile website portrays a bad impression of you and your business, potentially turning away customers. You must recognize that the needs of mobile browsers are different from PC Internet users. Based on knowledge of your customers, you should focus your message, so that it is contextual to the mobile arena and targets your mobile browsers’ needs. This must be achieved while also keeping your brand identity and marketing message consistent with your other communication media. A poorly designed mobile website will not be credible. As with the PC Internet, it is vital that mobile websites are easily accessible and are optimized for search and discovery tools.

Due to issues such as small screen sizes, slower download speeds and device incompatibility, industry standards around the Mobile Web are imperative. With the rush to create mobile websites we are seeing a wide variance in the quality of the websites created - from the captivating to the single static page.

Guidelines for mobile website development have been released by The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an international community where member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop web standards. dotMobi engaged with the W3C Mobile Web Initiative (MWI) to help formulate the MWI Best Practices for mobile content. The practices outline a number of ways to achieve good user experiences on mobile Web-enabled devices, and recognized several methods of implementing these practices. These are intended to communicate to website developers how to improve the user experience, thus ensuring that the Mobile Web is more reliable and accessible.

The unique challenges inherent to Mobile Web include:
• Size of screen on most mobile devices.
• Scrolling on a mobile phone.
• Typing on a mobile phone.

In addition, there are wide variations in the capabilities of mobile devices; from the smallest mobile phone, to PDA handsets, to laptops with mouse and QWERTY capabilities.

The W3C and dotMobi guidelines include catering for these challenges as well as a renewed focus on website efficiency. These key elements are:
• Minimizing the number of clicks. An additional click may be a minor irritation on a PC, but on a mobile phone it is a bigger issue, information is expected quickly.
• Reducing the number of kilobytes in each downloaded page.
• Delivering specific information. Mobile devices are currently less likely to be used for general browsing but more for retrieving specific information.
There are many mobile services that provide mobile web technology that complies with the “W3C Mobile Web Best Practices”. Some optimize an existing non-mobile website for mobile use, and recognize when someone has come to the website from a mobile browser and redirects them to the mobile version. There are stand alone mobile sites. Determine which works best for you and GO MOBILE! Real estate agents with standards-compliant search-optimized mobile websites will clearly have a competitive advantage. You can become the destination for real estate information mobile devices of consumers in your local market if you format your listing information for mobile.

Sources: Sybase, a SAP mobile intelligence company; Google Insights; Nubiq; REALTOR.com®; RISMedia

Is Your Website Mobile? Part 1

2011-08-11T13:18:00.000-07:00

According to comScore, 36% of Americans browsed the mobile web in December 2010, and this is particularly important in real estate, where mobile buyers are looking for quick access to the best property listings available. Demand for these types of sites has grown substantially and if you would like to see your real estate business stay above the curve, you need to understand the importance of using simple mobile websites for it. You must be able to anticipate what your customers needs are and then meet them.

Bottom line though, you’re a real estate agent, you aren’t, nor should you be, a technology guru. Technology tools are to help you be a better real estate agent; because if you don’t do transactions, you don’t make money. But no matter how much technology one embraces, real estate will always be a people business. Mobile web is simply about finding them differently, communicating with them differently, and leveraging consumer-demanded technology to generate leads differently.

Consider these statistics:

• Over 70% of the world population now has a mobile phone, that’s over 5 billion mobile subscribers, and in places like the US, it’s 9 in 10 people. Apple has sold almost 60 million iPhones world wide, while Google’s Android OS is growing at 886% year on year and now activating over 160,000 devices a day, across 60 devices in over 40 countries.
• In 2014, mobile internet usage will overtake desktop internet usage and already in 2011, more than 50% of all “local” searches are done from a mobile device. Mobile search has grown 400% in the past year.
• 85% of mobile devices will be web-enabled by 2012.
• There are almost 5 times more mobile devices than there are computers. Text messages have a 95% read-rate, and are read in an average of 4 minutes.
As Realtors use social media more and more in their marketing, the following stats become even more important to pay attention to:
• Over 1/3rd of Facebook’s 600 million+ user base uses Facebook Mobile.
• 50% of Twitter’s 165 million users use Twitter Mobile.
• 200 million+ YouTube views occur on mobile devices per day.

It's time for your business to make its next Internet visibility and marketing investment in a mobile website. Your current website is probably available on a cell-phone, but is it readable? Is it user-friendly? Really?? Tiny print, tiny pictures, and impossible to click navigation will not cut it. The biggest user frustrations with the Mobile Web are:
• Site Load Time.
• Site Navigation.
• User Friendliness.
• Web Page Layout.

The stakes are higher in terms of providing a good user experience. If a user’s time is wasted on their mobile phone, they are less likely to be forgiving.

By establishing a good mobile web presence, you are opening up a new window of opportunity and are providing a richer user experience to your mobile customers.

Sources: Sybase, a SAP mobile intelligence company; Google Insights; Nubiq; REALTOR.com®; RISMedia

Now is the Time to Buy and Hold Real Estate

2011-08-05T13:12:00.000-07:00

As part of our Guest Blogger series we're pleased to introduce James Guajardo, Managing Partner with Arizona Equity Partners LLC. James provides his insights on the Arizona investment market.

Dow Jones Loses More than 500 Points August 4th 2011 yet Arizona is a “Bull Market” in Single Family Cash Flow Investments..
National investment strategists eye the Arizona single family cash flow investment market.

Now is the time to buy and hold real estate. Why? Rent rates are stable and the ability to buy single family homes at liquidated values makes for very promising investment returns of up to 25% not including the future appreciation potential plus depreciation expense on your taxes!

How does this make for a perfect real estate investment market? Answer: The increase in foreclosures and the tightening of lending standards has created the greatest opportunity for positive cash flow investments in our lifetime.

This decade long cycle will have long term financial impact on our next generation of college graduates as well as current baby boomers who are renting and not buying.

So, which side of the fence are you on?

James Guajardo
Managing Partner
Arizona Equity Properties LLC
www.azequityproperties.com
480-588-2211 ext. 9

QR Codes for Real Estate - Part 4

2011-08-05T09:19:00.000-07:00

Today is the last installment of our QR Codes for Real Estate Series. Earlier in the week we provided an overview of QR codes, and throughout the week we provided ways in which you can use QR codes in real estate. Today we share the final two ideas for using QR codes to bolster your real estate practice. If you put these ideas to paractice, we'd love to hear your feedback!

4. Property Flyers – Considering all of the information about the listing is on the flyer right there in front of them I think that this is another opportunity to leverage video. If you have a full video tour of the home on YouTube link to that. If not create an Animoto video or something slideshow esque, upload to YouTube and link to that. If you are uncomfortable with video then link to a Vyoo.it listing page where they can then see additional photos and information that would not fit into a single page flyer. I have walked past 1000′s of real estate offices and have seen none of them leveraging this idea which again seems to fall into the no brainer category.

5. Your Vehicle – Hear me out on this one. I polled our Facebook fans a while back to see how many of them were leveraging their contact info and domain name on their ride. Seemed to be the majority. That being said how many agents have taken it to the next level and actually placed a QR Code on their car? My guess is zero, but hey I could be wrong. The strategy with this QR Code should be similar to the business card. Again, address in the video that you link to that you appreciate them taking the time to scan the QR Code on your vehicle and that if they are looking for a tech savvy agent to help them with their buying or selling needs you are the one they should contact when they are ready. An additional bonus is that if it replaces the current headshot you have on the window of your Camry I have made the world a better place!

Source: Chris Smith, Tech Savvy Agent

QR Codes for Real Estate - Part 3

2011-08-04T10:36:00.000-07:00

QR Codes for Real Estate - Part 2

2011-08-03T08:29:00.000-07:00

QR Codes for Real Estate - Part 1

2011-08-02T08:07:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our QR Codes for Real Estate Series. As QR codes gain in popularity and usage, we want to share some information about QR codes and ways they can be utilized in your real estate practice. Today is an overview of QR codes and the first of 5 ways you can use QR codes in real estate. Stay tuned the rest of the week as each day we share a new idea on using QR codes to bolster your real estate practice.

You can’t pick up a magazine without seeing them embedded in ads. Most of the print marketing materials in your mailbox each day contain one. Every big brand is using them, from Best Buy to Calvin Klein, to Google Maps. Those funny little square barcodes: QR codes (abbreviated from Quick Response code), encoded with text, URLs, or other data.

Although still considered “new” technology, QR codes have been around since 1994 (primarily in Japan, the Netherlands, and South Korea) and are quickly gaining popularity across the world when it comes to promoting, branding, and marketing businesses. Relevant and immediate facts acquired from “reading” a QR code, facilitates convenience for the end-user when it comes to getting more information about your business or offer. No longer do they have to wait until they get home to look at your website to get the information they want.

Businesses can use QR codes to promote special offers, coupons, discounts, or build a list of mobile subscribers. They can be used to direct people to your website, online videos, Facebook page, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Specific to the benefits of using QR codes in your real estate business, rather than reinvent the wheel, one of the best resources we’ve come across about this was written by Chris at Tech Savvy Agent, reprinted, in part, below:

Just like with Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, Mobile, Video and any other buzz worthy platform or new technology some will adapt it quickly and pick up market share, most will fail and simply use it because the other agents in their office are. So below you will find what in my opinion are the 5 best ways to use QR codes for real estate right now. I would never assume these are the only ways and would love you to add your own creative ideas in the comments below.

Quick note before we get started with the list. A QR Code is simply a bridge to a website that when scanned with a mobile device takes a consumer on a journey beyond the paper it is printed on. One of the major perks is that all of the scans are tracked and thus the ROI is fairly easy to detect, critical to any high level marketer. I also think there are 2 key things to consider when using QR codes:

1. The web page that you direct the consumer to MUST be optimized for viewing on a mobile device. Due to this I am recommending 3 sites that will cover all 5 strategies. The first is Vyoo.it which will create a mobile friendly landing page with all of the details of the property of your choosing including price, photos and of course your contact info. The second site is Goo.gl which allows you to turn any URL into a QR Code in seconds, again all scans are being tracked. The third is YouTube which is not only optimized well for mobile but will allow you to bring a video element to your QR code marketing. To make a long story short when I recommend a video be used as the destination simply go to YouTube and grab the URL of the video and then visit Goo.gl to generate the QR Code.

2. This is a new, rapidly evolving technology (visit Best Buy, public transit, hospitals, etc lately?) that requires further explanation than just slapping a weird looking icon on your print marketing. Anytime you use a QR Code be sure to in small text explain that it requires a QR Code Reader which can be downloaded for FREE to their phone NOW by visiting their app store. It is also critical that you provide a tiny URL as an additional option below the QR Code so that those who just can not figure out the whole scanning thing can type the shortened URL directly into their mobile browser and end up in the same place anyways. Both Vyoo.it and Goo.gl provide a tiny URL along with the QR Code making this very easy to execute.

One of the top 5 ways to use QR Codes for Real Estate:

1. Lawn Signs – This would be the most obvious usage in my opinion and this is where Vyoo.it will come into play handily. Consumers like to get as much information as humanly possible before calling a sales person (you BTW). By placing the QR Code on your sign riders you will be providing potentially the hottest leads, those driving around looking for homes to buy, with all of the information needed about that property instantly. Price, interior photos and community info are typically things that a lawn sign does not provide and by leveraging a QR Code you are really giving the consumer what they want when they want it. I know some Realtors would argue that there is no longer a need to call you if you give away all of that info through the QR Code on the sign. I would argue there is already no need to call you to get that information (think online portals like Realtor.com, Zillow and Trulia all of whom have mobile apps that provide those details). People work with people they like, they will like you more if you give them more of a reason to and stop holding back data that is easily obtained without you. Again, follow the guidelines I mentioned above by further explaining the technology and providing a URL alternative on the sign rider.

Introducing The Fidelity National Title Luxury Package

2011-07-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

Real Estate 101…. prospective buyers are overwhelmingly attracted to listings that:

Give an informative and VISUAL impression.
-Have top-quality images
-Have a wide variety of images and views
-A powerful visual presentation is that all important “first impression” of your

property that can make a difference whether your property is seen and sold! As buyers begin to search and narrow down the margins of their search, the key enticing element of their initial search will be a strong visual appeal with superior photos, tours, and print materials.

We are pleased to make available our EXCLUSIVE Luxury Package. The Luxury Package is available only through us, and only to Fidelity National Title Luxury Partners, at a huge savings! Let Fidelity help you stretch your marketing dollars; out-shine, don’t out-spend your competition!

Each Luxury Package To Include:

• Tours posted to Realtor.com, MSN, Google, Trulia, Zillow, Yahoo, Top Producer, Frontdoor, VisualTour, UniqueGlobalEstates.com, craigslist.org, Vast, Overstock, oodle, The Real Estate Book, & LuxuryHomeVideosOnline.com.

• 50 Premium Flyers 8.5X11 (2-sided, Full-bleed Color, UV Coated Front/Back, 111# Gloss Cover Stock)

• 100 Jumbo Postcards 8.5x5.5 mailed to 100 properties surrounding the properties. (2-sided, Full Color, UV Coated Front, 16pt Cover Stock)

• This tour is only available to Fidelity National Title Luxury Partners

Daytime Package:
FNT Price: $249.00* High Res Media Current Price: $539.45

Twilight Package:
Up to 5,000 sq ft
FNT Price: $390.00* High Res Media Current Price: $724.45

5,001-10,000 sq ft
FNT Price: $490.00* High Res Media Current Price: $824.45
* Must be ordered through FNT for discount to apply.

Get a one of a kind luxury tour for half the price you are paying now! Order a Fidelity National Title Luxury Tour Today, visit our website!

Buy-Fix-Flip - What is the Normal Return on Investment for a Foreclosure Property in the Phoenix Market?

2011-07-20T07:16:00.000-07:00

We asked some of our key clients, contacts, stakeholders and industry experts to contribute to FNT Title Talk as guest bloggers. We are pleased to introduce Cari Dandy as our next contributor in our guest blogger series. Cari is a Realtor with Realty Executives Premier Marketing Group and provides valuable information about investment property in the Phoenix market.

If you want to know what the current normal return on investment for a foreclosure property in the Phoenix market, I have the latest news. Investing is RED hot! Resales recorded in the Arizona Regional MLS (ARMLS) were the highest ever in June 2011 with 11,125 sales compared to June 2010’s 9,809 sales – an increase of 13%! It is estimated that at least 40% of the properties sold were purchased by investors.

Investor traffic at auctions is growing! “On an average it takes 13 tries to get a property at auction before an investor can purchase one,” due to the amount of competition at the auctions and lower inventory, said Dustin Gaskey of Fidelity National Title. Gaskey was on a panel of foreclosure auction experts at last week’s NAHREP (National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals) Arizona Real Estate Marketing Conference. The panelists talked about their experience with helping investors purchase foreclosure properties at auction, the process of fixing and flipping, and the return on investment for a foreclosure property in the Phoenix market.

Along with Gaskey, the panelists included Frank Gerola with Posted Properties and Bobby Ghisolfo with Vineyard Homes. Posted Properties helps investors bid on properties at foreclosure auctions, along with checking out a property the morning of the sale for an investor, and providing other services like “cash for keys” to motivate an occupant to leave the property once purchased at auction. They partner with Fidelity National Title Insurance Company who checks lien positions, lis pendens, HOA liens, judgments, and IRS tax liens on every property. If there is an IRS tax lien the property cannot be sold until 120 days after investor purchase. Fidelity National Title also offers title insurance after the property is purchased, and the investor will receive a preliminary report before the property is actually purchased. Vineyard Homes has rehabbed hundreds of properties for investors throughout the years. They will get an estimate on properties within 48 hours. Rehabbing a property can certainly bring an investor more return on his investment. The average sales-to-list price for an investment property is 102% versus 94% for a non-repaired property. The average price for a property purchased at auction is about $143,000, said Gerola, and a typical investment to rehab might be $20,000 - $30,000.

Investors will need some capital to do a fix and flip. Buyers at auction can purchase with cash, or get a hard money loan with a typical interest rate of 18% with 20-30% down payment. The normal fee for origination is $800 - $1000, with a 6-month term with no pre-payment penalty. A hard money loan can be a great way to leverage your investment for your foreclosure property in the Phoenix market, but you want to be sure to purchase the property right with no big negatives – no power lines nearby, no major roadways; a relatively newer property is ideal (within past 15years is ideal) and look for one without add-ons to construction (these may not be permitted or done to code), said Bobby Ghisolfo of Vineyard Homes. Ghisolfo said that the average turnaround time for a fix and flip is 45-60 days from acquisition – to rehab – to resale.

Current Return on Investment: Investors need to have realistic expectations. Because of the amount of competition for investment properties in the Phoenix market, and the rising prices at auction, whereas investors used to see a 20% or more return on investment a few years ago, now it is more normal and realistic to see an 8% - 10% return on investment, said Gaskey of Fidelity National Title. If an investor would rather buy and hold the property, look for a property with a cap rate of 10%. If you purchase a property for $100,000, you should be able to get $1000a month for the rent.

Some other interesting information I learned? “Most homes will have the sale date postponed at the auction 3-4 times before the property actually sells,” said Gerola. And the fastest selling properties are condos and townhomes – many being purchased by Canadians looking for a great little winter retreat.
Investing in foreclosure properties in the Phoenix market can bring a nice return on your investment – with the right team of experts to help you. Use a Realtor who knows the area to give you relevant comparables and information, a bidding service to help you get the right property for your business model, a title company such as Fidelity National Title, and a great contractor to get the most return on your investment.

For more information contact Cari Dandy, Realtor, GRI, ABR at Realty Executives Premier Marketing Group, 480-980-3577 or cari@caridandy.com.

FNT: The Next Generation

2011-07-19T07:15:00.000-07:00

A sneak peak to what's coming in Q3 2011

June Coffee With Melissa

2011-07-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, June 30 Melissa Shapiro, AVP/Director of Sales for Fidelity Phoenix, held her monthly "Coffee With Melissa". Melissa provided an invaluable REO Market Update on:

 What’s happening in the Market Right Now
 New Information from REO EXPO June 2011
 The “Inside Scoop” on Working with the Banks
 Diversifying your Bank Business
 Becoming a Marketing Liaison for the Bank

Below is a recap of what was discussed.

• 203k loans are now able to be obtained easier and take only a little longer than a regular loan

• Short Sales are here to stay:
o The process has gotten easier
o Banks are listening more
o FNT can escalate your short sale files with major banks and guarantee an immediate response from executive level management
o FNT has an 85% success rate in the escalation process – it’s matter of getting to the right person and creating relationships which FNT has done
o Consider building a Short Sale division in your business

• What constitutes an escalation? It’s a roadblock with a legitimate offer

• How to be successful with Short Sales:
o Use and collaborate with other agents
o Join organizations and attend their events
o Leverage your partnerships and their resources – FNT has a master asset management list

o Build a good portfolio (resume & business cards)
 Always include history in your resume and current group involvement
 Make sure your business cards show all certifications
 Putting together specialized resume gives credibility

o Align yourself with property preservation

o Make it known you are a team, not just one person and have special certifications

o If you are a minority or a women-owned business there are government programs and tax breaks available – educate yourself!

o Apply everywhere especially local banks as local banks are leading listings on ARMLS

o Create a system to track everything you do including expirations

o Enlist help if needed to stay organized and on top of action items

o Leverage your social networks to better market your REO listings

• Commercial Distressed Assets is a wave coming in the future. Banks are starting to build their commercial agent list. This is an opportunity to act on NOW!

• REOMAC has opened their application process –
o Must include 3 lender referrals
o REOMAC has small ratio of agents to lenders and banks

• Asset management companies are graded and will grade agents so you must know your success

Part 2: Active Rain Best Practices

2011-07-13T10:03:00.000-07:00

One of the keys to effective use of social media for business is engagement with your peers and targeted demographic. Besides the great relationship building it does, because your comments on others’ pages, profiles, etc., are indexed by the search engines and increases your ranking, it’s also one of the fastest ways to build your business and get referrals. Think of your comments as active links to your Active Rain profile. Some tips when it comes to commenting:

>NEVER include links in your comments on others profiles and pages, and never, EVER advertise. Hard sell simply doesn’t work in the social media sphere.

>Make sure your comments add VALUE, no generic “great post!” comments. Adding value positions you as a beneficial source of knowledge.

>Answer questions, be helpful.

>Ask questions, and don’t be afraid to take an opposing view, just be non-adversarial in your manner.

In terms of creating business from your own profile posts and content, again, the key is to add value for your industry and targeted demographics. Tips for posting:

>Post multiple times a week. But again, adding value. Don’t post just for the sake of posting.

>Incorporate low-demand keywords that are relevant to you and your business expertise into many, but not all of your posts.

>Change things up from post to post. Maybe an industry-related post, followed by a personal post about life, family, hobbies – you may be surprised how you will connect with other gardening lovers if you talk about your garden!

>Write with personality, humor, etc., especially on the personal posts. Let folks get a real sense of who you are.

>Post one new testimonial each week. And as discussed in a previous post, the more specific the testimonial speaks to how you helped in a difficult transaction, or to resolve an issue or sticky situation, the more effective.

With any social media, the more you GIVE, the more you GET BACK!

FNF CEO, George Scanlon, Visits With Fidelity Phoenix on West Coast Tour

2011-07-10T13:45:00.000-07:00

Our corporate office recently had the privilege to visit with George Scanlon, CEO of Fidelity National Financial (FNF). On a road trip to several of our corporate offices in the West, Mr. Scanlon shared company wins and challenges and also opened up the floor to employee questions and concerns.

Appointed CEO of FNF in October 2010, Mr. Scanlon is charged with Investor Relations and handling the corporate budget in addition to his numerous other duties and responsibilities as he leads a Fortune 500 company. He stressed that no matter what we as a company face, integrity is always at the heart of all we do.

Although there were some challenges industry-wide coming into 2011, he shared his philosophy that “adversity creates opportunity.” Embracing that philosophy, the company as a whole and specifically Fidelity National Title(FNT) has experienced a strong year. Some of the highlights include:

• Consistently and historically FNT continues to lead the market
• In our industry we have some of the strongest reserves and strongest partners
• As the company continues to look ahead to the 3rd and 4th quarter of 2011 and 2012 the outlook is very positive
• Refinances are showing strong increases while the Commercial Market is having a great year with confidence being high

CRE Finance Council June Convention, New York City

2011-07-07T11:32:00.000-07:00

By Kerrie Addante-Jacobs, Distressed Commercial Sales for FNT

The announcement that we have already experienced, on a national level, the worst in the commercial real estate market created a positive energy surrounding the convention. Commercial real estate values appear to be stabilizing, and the debt capital markets have become far more accommodative over the past several months.

The uncertainty that surrounds the ability of maturing loans to be refinanced is still a major concern to many legacy CMBS (Commercial Mortgage-Backed Security) investors. The “maturity wave” has already begun to ramp up.

-Nearly $60 billion of fixed–rate CMBS loans have matured since 2009, including $6.4 billion in 2011.

-An additional $26.8 billion is scheduled to mature before year end, with another $47.2 billion slated to mature in 2012.

-Whether these maturing loans perform, default or are modified, they will most certainly impact a large amount of CMBS investments over the coming years.

-Although lenders will likely continue to focus on debt yield when resizing loans, they may place more emphasis on DSCR (Debt–Service Coverage Ratio) if commercial mortgage rates begin to rise.

Different property types are recovering at varying rates, but the path is decidedly positive for net operating income.

-Office vacancies have fallen from 17.6% to 17.5% in the first quarter of 2011. This is the first time in three years this sector recorded a dip nationally.

-Retail properties continue to remain slightly distressed with shopping center vacancies at 10.9% nationally, a 19-year high. However, with retail sales picking up due to increased consumer spending, this should be beneficial to retail tenants. Retail properties may need another quarter or two before occupancy rates stabilize, but are still considered a great investment with tenants locked into long term leases.

-Multi-family properties vacancies declined sharply in 2010 to 6.6% from a 30 year high of 8.0%. Vacancies are expected to dip again to 5.5% by the end of the year.

-Rent growth for some supply-constrained submarkets may exceed 10%. There is a concern due to the positive press for multi-family assets that bidding wars may be more common and lead to the temptation to overpay.

Overall, commercial real estate properties are expected to generate total returns of about 9.3% per year from 2011 to 2015. Being cognizant of market trends and property types and focusing on assets that provide the optimal blend of returns from income gains and value appreciation are the basic rules of good real estate investing.

*Figures provided by Trepp and Citi Investment Research and Analysis

Active Rain Best Practices - Part 1

2011-07-06T11:30:00.000-07:00

For you active rain users, in terms of your profile page, did you know:

… that your profile gets indexed and ranked by the search engines?

… that links most often go to your profile page?

… that Google sends traffic to your profile page?

… that prospects read EVERY word of your profile to determine if you are someone they want to consider working with?

… that agents who don’t already know you will read your profile to help determine if they want to refer business to you?

So if you hastily dashed off a profile page when first setting up your active rain account, it’s pretty important, based upon the above points, that you give thought to developing a more robust profile page; one that truly speaks to who you are as both an Agent and a person. Beef that profile page up!

To help with indexing, consider using the first and last name fields in a slightly different manner, by incorporating keywords relevant to you and your business. Put both your first and last name into the first name field. Use the last name field for a very short tagline using those keywords relevant to you; i.e. Phoenix foreclosure specialist... or Scottsdale retirement community expert.

The opening of the description field should compel readers to WANT to know more about you, and the remainder of it should indeed give a great picture of who you are, both professionally and personally. Be professional, but be YOURSELF, let it show through your writing.

Your contact information should include ALL means they can contact you: office and mobile phones, email address, and links to all your social network pages, including active rain, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Use video if possible – and as much as possible. People LOVE video, and will view it before reading text. When placing video, be sure to place it so it falls ½ above the page fold, and ½ below. That helps to ensure the reader scrolls and sees everything on the page.

We can all tell the world all about our expertise, ethics, etc. all day long, and the reality is, it won’t hold a candle to the impact that third-party testimonials provide. Use as many as possible. Make sure they are as detailed as possible, not the generic, “Joe Agent did a fabulous job selling our home!” If they are detailed about how you truly helped in a sticky or difficult situation, they are far more impactful to readers.

Next week, we’ll discuss how engaging with your peers on active rain can help build YOUR business!

Common Mistakes on Twitter

2011-06-30T15:47:00.000-07:00

When it comes to Twitter, mistakes lie in the eye of the beholder, or the tweeter. But if you’re serious about blogging, you need to understand the role Twitter plays in your online presence.

First of all, it’s a communication tool. We make friends, we follow celebrities, we network. We have fun on Twitter, offer support, provide a laugh. We help spread news, both good and bad. And we come together in a crisis.

To make Twitter valuable build your following the old-fashioned way. Follow people you like and then follow the people they follow. Engage in conversation. Start it or jump right into it.

Common communication mistakes on Twitter
1. Begging or bragging about followers

“I’ll follow you if you follow me.”

“Wow, I just hit the 8000 follower mark!”

Exceptions:

If you have a new friend who has just joined Twitter, invite your followers to welcome them.
“My friend @John finally joined Twitter. Follow him so he can finally see what the fuss is all about.”

Also, if you are approaching a significant number and want to round up, it’s okay to ask for followers.
“I’m at 798 followers. I only need 2 more followers to achieve my lifetime goal.”

2. Never answering back

My mother is on Twitter. She’s actually starting to get the hang of it. Since she is following so few people, she sees it more like a direct line to me and my tweets (Note to self: be careful of what I say online).

When I recently asked for a shout out for my mom’s birthday, I wonder why she never responded to any of her tweets. She never knew about checking her “Mentions.” I know she’ll kill me for admitting this to you but she had an excuse. Most of you don’t.

If you’re using Twitter for your own little circle of chit-chat and never respond to anyone except those that you already know well, don’t expect your followers to follow you to your blog. Your blog should be a community and Twitter is a great place to welcome people into it.

Twitter can be a lot of fun. But make no mistake, it’s also a powerful marketing tool. If you haven’t figured that out, let me know and I’ll fill you on the basics. In the meantime, there are lots of mistakes being made in this arena too.

Common marketing mistakes on Twitter
1. Tweeting only links.

A good rule of thumb, if you really get down to the business of it, is nine non-business tweets for every one business tweet. For a blogger, your blog post links are your business tweets. Don’t overload people with them. Typically, tweeting them three times per day is effective. Otherwise, they’re just annoying.

2. Setting up an automated Facebook feed

Don’t worry. I’m not entirely against this practice. I use it on several of my Facebook pages. It ensures at the very least that my page updates are tweeted. It updates my followers and also can help drive my followers to my Facebook page.

However, I have seen many Twitter accounts set up simply as a feed. And that’s it! It doesn’t make much sense to push content onto Twitter which encourages engagement if you are only on Facebook and never on Twitter. I know that sounds overly logical but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this. And yet these people follow me!

3. Not monitoring your content

When I say monitoring your content, I mean monitoring YOUR content. What are you saying on Twitter? What kind of language do you use? How much are you sharing (or oversharing)? Are you drinking and tweeting (a sometimes deadly combination)?

I’m not suggesting you should become someone you’re not. Be your silly, goofy, sexy, funny, passionate, raunchy self. Just understand that your Twitter stream is a big part of your online presence. Don’t say something you don’t want a brand, business, boss, or even your mother to read. Sometimes too much is too much.
Did you catch all that? Are you doing it all correctly? There’s a lot more to learn even if you’ve been on for years. For those of your just getting started, I recommend you read one of my all-time favorite posts at the new Momcomm.com blog, Making Sense of Twitter – It’s the Never-ending Cocktail Party.

Now go tweet your heart out!

Adapted from an article by Fadra Nally on May 3, 2011 on socialdialect.com

Fidelity Phoenix Celebrates 3 Year Anniversary in The Hayden Ferry Building

2011-06-24T07:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Fidelity Phoenix celebrated 3 years in one of the most recognizable buildings in Tempe on the shore of Tempe Town Lake, The Hayden Ferry building. In honor of our anniversary the Administration team hosted an employee recognition luncheon to celebrate and say "thanks" for a job well done.

The corporate offices for Fidelity Phoenix reside on the 11ths floor of The Hayden Ferry Building. Over the course of a month, the average traffic including staff and visitors is in the thousands.

REO Expo Recap

2011-06-23T08:29:00.000-07:00

By Melisssa Shapiro, AVP Director of Sales Fidelity Phoenix

The mood was optimistic last week at the big REO conference in Dallas, REO EXPO. Experts believed that we are nearing the bottom of the housing crisis, with a long way to recover, but starting to move the needle north.

Banks and outsourcers alike believed inventory was going to increase by end of third quarter and into the fourth quarter, steadily all the way up to the holidays. Releasing toxic assets, getting them on the market and liquidating them is the only way to begin our recovery. There has been such a stop and go across the nation with releasing assets and then pulling back. Much of this has been due to the moratoriums put into place caused by the national loan modification push, the robo signings and the MERS issues. Banks want to be sure that they are crossing all t’s and dotting all i’s. The banks that are consumer backed with banking and depository relationships are especially sensitive to their image and “doing the right thing”. What everybody does realize is that our problem is not getting any better. The message between the banks is that they are committed to moving these assets any way they can, either with short sale, deed in lieu or foreclosure. There were more panelist at the REO EXPO speaking of an aggressive push toward short sale than ever before. Each of the big banks, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Chase have all placed time and resources into call centers and education on how to successfully close short sales. In many cases, a home sold as a short sale is a better price than a foreclosure and the realtor is paid higher commissions.

The problem still remains that homeowners are still not paying their mortgages and housing prices are still upside down. In Arizona 1 out of every 4 loans is seriously in default (more than 60 days late). There are still over 40 thousand properties with no running water, no electricity and not claimed by the bank. Inventory on MLS in Maricopa county is just under 22 thousand, an all time low. The positive side to this is that due to the elementary theory of supply and demand, prices are going up with multiple offers on most listings.

With the big push of releasing inventory, aggressive stands on closing short sales and home prices at an all time low, a push toward recovery is sure to be near in our future.

Jay Butler Discusses Economic and Real Estate Activity

2011-06-22T20:05:00.000-07:00

ASU Professor of Real Estate, Jay Butler discusses economic and real estate activity.

To view the entire power point presentation visit our Facebook page

Vote Fidelity Phoenix The #1 Title Company in Arizona!

2011-06-21T07:21:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again, time to vote for your favorite Arizona companies for the 2012 publication of Ranking Arizona.

Ranking Arizona is the outcome of the largest business opinion poll in Arizona. Each category is selected by the staff of AZ Big Media for the general public to vote on and are based upon business and leisure activities of Arizona's business professionals.

Please support Fidelity Phoenix by casting your vote, it's simple:

Go to ranking.aznow.biz
-Choose the 'To Vote Search by name' button
- Type in Fidelity National Title
- Enter your email address

Only 40 more days to vote for the 2012 publication! Thanks for your support!

Utilizing Social Media Marketing For Your Real Estate Business

2011-06-17T09:09:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to introduce Matthew Coates as our next contributor in our Guest Blogger Series. Matthew is an Agent with West USA Revelations, a blogger and social media guru. We asked him to provide his thoughts about utilizing social media in the real estate industry. Please enjoy his article below.

Real estate has been one of the slowest adopting industries for taking on social media as a marketing platform. Why is this? I believe that since average Realtor has been in the business for a long time, maybe 10 or more years (I see from statistics that the median age of an agents is in their 50s), they believe they have pretty much got it figured out and don't need to change their model or make adjustments that will improve their game.

That being said I tend to see the young-spirited agents (notice I didn't say young as in age) embracing social media as a way to expand their sphere of influence and capture more sales. These "early adopters" I believe are going to leave traditional agents in the dust as they wonder "what happened"?

You can no longer argue that social media is a fad. The fact that Facebook is approaching 700 million users globally should be a huge wake-up call that people want to connect in ways other than phone and in-person. Social media is a way to bridge the gap in time with those you care about during the off hours, not to mention those that live far away.

Notice I didn't say that social media REPLACES what you are doing, rather complements it in incredible ways. If you are still working expireds, knocking doors, printing flyers for your listings, using call and text capture.

First and foremost the goal of social media is to get more clients, right? So if you are using it why aren't you pointing people to your website? Why are you marketing your listings ALL the time? Big mistake - unless someone is in the market right now at this moment you are going to annoy them with constantly posting your homes for sale.

So let's talk about a few social media platforms and how they can enhance your current real estate business:

Facebook
Facebook has got to be the foundation of your social media. If you don't have a Facebook account, get one, immediately!

Facebook helps connect you with those you know and those from your past. Regardless of how you feel about people you attended high school with you need an account. You also need to be active. What does that mean? Probably posting a status update once a day would be appropriate - the level is up to you.

But equally important is jumping into your friends lives. Do you read your news feed? I don't mean everyone, but do you scan back on previous updates of those important to you and comment when they said their kid was admitted to the hospital. It goes back to the old addage

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

So you say "I'm too busy to do that, it doesn't make me any money." That may be true for the short term, but how about the long term? That person could send you 5 clients over the next 10 years. How about that expired listing that you cold call? Not likely. By the way, if you complain about using social media and that it's too much work, how's your current plan working for you? If you are doing what you think you should be doing in business, perhaps a change is in order.

LinkedIn:
In my opinion the most unless of the 3 social media platforms. I'm sorry if that offends but I can't think of one client that has come from it. It seems to be a static billboard, a way to connect with those you value in the business world, but the social interaction is extremely limited and cumbersome. Yes, people post status updates, but they are very rarely read. Of the last 10 updates I did to my LinkedIn page, I would be hard pressed to say that even 3 people said something, and I have over 1,000 connections!

That being said I believe LinkedIn to be more effective in companies that do business with other companies. In real estate we do business with individuals. So perhaps if I was a graphic designer, it would be more effective.

Although at this point I don't see alot of value in LinkedIn, I believe you should still have the page. After all, clients may check you out online and if you don't have LI page, they may doubt your professionalism. It is interesting the opinions that others form based on your online presence, or lack thereof.

Twitter:
Twitter is the most misunderstood form of social media, yet I believe the most powerful. The beauty of Twitter is you can make a one-sided connection with someone. What does that mean? You can stay in touch with them without them having to reciprocate. Unlike Facebook, where both parties much agree to be friends, on Twitter only one party must do this.

As a result you can digest valuable information straight from top global marketing figures like Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, and Chris Smith ( @chris_smth). I read several blog posts every day about marketing, the changing real estate market, building relationships, and social media. The amount of valuable information is immeasurable.

Combine that with the vast networking potential and the ability to get a message out in seconds and you have got a potential gold mine, if you use it properly. That's another topic altogether.

YouTube:
YouTube is a very interesting platform. An attention-grabbing video will be watched millions of times, where an ok one might only get 15 hits. While I use YouTube to an extent with about 50 videos up ( My YouTube channel), I haven't had much success there yet. As my wife says "Unless I see 3 or more people share a video on Facebook I probably won't watch it" Bingo.

Videos have to be extremely entertaining combined with wildly informative for them to work in real estate. I do know of a couple of local agents I believe are doing well with video, but that is the focus of their marketing campaign, whereas it is just a piece of mine.

I also believe the average person doesn't have the patience to sit through a 2-3 minute video unless it's a topic they feel strongly about. And typically real estate isn't it.

I do plan on revisiting this campaign in an attempt to create more interesting videos, and this will take more time and effort.

To sum up social media has revolutionized my business. I have clients that would never have come about without it, and I don't miss old/ traditional marketing methods, as I believe consumers are becoming less receptive to them as technology advances. Just yesterday I had a client in the car that came from one of my Facebook high school friends that I have kept in contact with the last few years since getting on Facebook.

Just remember anything worthwhile takes time and effort. Social media is no different. You are just "working" in a different way. It's not enough to have a social media presence - you have to engage with others. And don't throw in the towel if you don't land a million-dollar buyer within 3 months. It works if you work it.

With warm regards,
Matthew Coates
West USA Realty Revelation

Keep up with Chandler real estate http://livingchandler.com/
602.332.3321 cell
866.715.9284 fax
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/realtormatthew
LinkedIn profile:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewdcoates

"King of Lead Generation" Craig Proctor Live Training Session Sponsored By Fidelity Phoenix

2011-06-16T09:03:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, June 7 Fidelity Phoenix hosted a very special live training event with North America’s leading Real Estate Coach and “King of Lead Generation”, Craig Proctor. Over 300 Realtors attended the intense six hour event that was held at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort and Spa and raised over $1200 to benefit The Boys and Girls Club.

The training session conducted by Craig Proctor highlighted the least expensive and most effective strategies, ads and systems Realtors must be using right now that will guarantee at least two new escrows in the next 30 days.

A panel of top Agents were interviewed and lot of great information was provided, attendees left with a wealth of new knowledge. Below is a video of Steve de Laveaga's opening remarks and some key takeaways from the training we’d like to share.

· Realtors are in the Marketing business, not the real estate Business

· It is important to drive all traffic through a 1-800 hotline or website to capture information

· The biggest Realtor mistake is not setting themselves apart from the crowd

· It is important to know your Unique Selling Point and what makes you different

· Consider creative “guarantee” programs in which you guarantee to sell or buy the home

· Use the “triple M” formula: right Message, right Marketplace, right Medium

· Do you have a “library” website or a “lead generation” website- must have a lead generation site to capture visitor info

· It is important to have a website that tracks visitors so traffic can be measured, if your site doesn’t track visitors it’s useless

· Small twist on an old idea: Creative open houses in which multiple homes held open for 15 minute increments

· Group homes together and offer transportation

· Must haves: system for attracting prospects, for converting appointments to clients, to provide clients with superior service and to turn them into lifetime clients

· Live your life not just your business

· Show your value

· Offer your clients “ key benefits” free of charge

· Buyers really want choices and ACCESS, not an agent

For information about our other upcoming events visit http://www.facebook.com/#!/FidelityPhoenix?sk=events

9 Reasons To Use Brand Advocates

2011-06-13T15:04:00.000-07:00

What would you say if you could add 5, 10, 100 or 1000 marketing reps to your team? For free?

What if these marketing reps would freely write about your brand and tell their friends and all they expect in return is recognition and access to insider information?

Who are these free marketers? Brand advocates. By definition a brand advocate is any customer who has been officially commissioned to speak on behalf of your brand without compensation.

Who are brand advocates and what motivates them?
A recent study identifies many attributes of brand advocates. Below are nine of the attributes that will help you think through how to effectively engage advocates for your business.

#1: Advocates are prolific creators of information
Internet users are becoming increasingly comfortable sharing their experiences with products and services through social media. What makes a brand advocate stand apart is his or her prolific communication about these experiences.

The survey found that brand advocates create and curate more than twice as many communications about brands as the average web user. They are savvy in writing meaningful content and sharing it on highly visible sites.

#2: Advocates influence the opinions and purchases of their friends
In Malcolm Gladwell’s classic book, Tipping Point, he identifies three unique kinds of people who make social movements possible: connectors, mavens and salesmen.

Brand advocates blend the strengths of a connector and a maven. They love connecting people with others of similar interests. But they are also information storehouses who love to share their knowledge.

The study found advocates are 70% more likely to be seen as a source of reliable information.

Additionally, brand advocates are 50% more likely to create content that influences a purchase.

#3: Advocates love to talk and are probably already talking about your brand
Brand advocates are 83% more likely to share information than the average internet user. What’s more, 54% of advocates view information-sharing as a form of relaxation.

Notice that brand advocates are also motivated to make decisions, solve problems and contribute to a pool of information.

Smart businesses make it easy for brand advocates to share information about their brand. Provide relevant information through your blog, Facebook page or through exclusive emails and watch advocates share it.

Find the people who are already talking about your company (here’s a great article for tips on seeing who is talking about you), find out what motivates them (survey them?) and give them valuable information worth sharing.

#4: Advocates like to use social media to help people
At their core, brand advocates like to help others. They don’t hoard information to inflate their egos; they want to be seen as useful.

Advocates love to meet new people through social media. In fact, they are 2.5 times more likely to use social media to expand their circle of friends.

In case you’re skeptical, be forewarned that advocates are not purely altruistic. They also want to get something out of this. Be willing to give them what they’re looking for.

Notice that receiving free products and other incentives rank at the top of their list. But deep satisfaction also comes from helping others make good decisions.

Not all advocates will be enticed by discounts and rewards. Some of them will even find it offensive and inauthentic. Word-of-mouth marketing expert Andy Sernovitz says that you shouldn’t mix love and incentives. Make sure your advocates don’t feel like you’re forcing them to praise you without having freedom to voice concerns and critiques.

#5: Advocates want to be known for their valuable insights
Advocates like helping people and getting free stuff, but they’re deeply motivated by recognition. In fact, they’re 150% more likely to value being seen as a reliable source of information.

Find creative ways to recognize your most valuable contributors.Social Media Examiner does this well through their Fan of the Week program.

#6: Advocates are most likely to use social media for sharing their opinions
Advocates are twice as likely to share product information on social networks than average web users. In fact, social media is their first choice for sharing their insights.

Solicit feedback from your advocates where they’ve already built an audience. Don’t expect them to go somewhere else.#7: Advocates have a broader reach
Here’s something that sets brand advocates apart from the crowd: advocates are 3 times more likely to share brand information with someone they don’t know.

Brand advocates love meeting people online. Given their desire to influence people and share information, it’s predictable that their messages will reach a much broader audience than the average web user.

#8: Advocates like talking about their product choices.
Advocates love to talk about their daily product and service decisions. Their top three topics to discuss are: food or dining, personal care products and household products.

How do these topics relate to your products or services? If your company’s deliverable is not on this list, you may need to work harder at giving advocates a reason to talk about you.

#9: Advocates are loyal to brands with which they have a relationship
Why do advocates do what they do? They appreciate the incentives and rewards, but at the end of the day, they want to be known as a trusted agent of the brand. The relationship is important to them.

Advocates are your friends, not your employees. They want to know you value their friendship as a mutual exchange. Show them love in as many ways as you can and let them be themselves.

Source: Adapted from an article by Phil Mershon on jeffbullas.com, published 6.13.11

Fidelity Phoenix Welcomes New Director of Marketing

2011-06-08T07:56:00.000-07:00

Fidelity Phoenix is pleased to introduce Chelsea Peitz, our new Director of Marketing. As Director of Marketing Chelsea will be responsible for overseeing and managing the Fidelity Phoenix Marketing Department, including all the marketing tools and services we offer our clients. Fidelity Phoenix offers comprehensive Realtor marketing tools and market trend reports, which will fall under Chelsea’s supervision.

Additionally Chelsea will work to create advertising and marketing pieces with key partners, gather and interpret available data and anticipate market trends, and grow the Fidelity Phoenix brand through social media, public relations and strategic focus. It’s a big job but we have no doubt Chelsea is up for the challenge and will excel in these efforts.

Chelsea brings 10 years of business management and administration experience with her as well as 8 years of residential resale experience. Her real estate background and experience insures Chelsea keenly understands the needs of our clients and is able to provide the best solutions to meet those needs.

Originally from Southern California, Chelsea moved to Arizona in 1993 and is graduate of ASU. She lives in Phoenix with her husband and 2 Chihuahuas.

Please join us in welcoming Chelsea to our Fidelity Phoenix team, we are thrilled to have her join us. You can reach Chelsea via email at Chelsea.peitz@fnf.com or by phone at 480.214.4540.

Craig Proctor Live Training Event

2011-06-06T15:17:00.000-07:00

Are you getting beat up by real estate market? Are you fed up with the real estate recession and tired of its bad news controlling your life and your income?

You should know there ARE Phoenix agents “refusing to participate” in the majority’s pain and suffering, who are enjoying good incomes and success right now by following some simple strategies (battle-tested in good and bad times). Join us for a very special event Tuesday, June 7, 2011, 12:00 to 6:00PM, where we’ll reveal how you can implement strategies in your own business on a poor-man’s budget. This special live training event is with North America’s leading Real Estate Coach, Craig Proctor. No other coach, trainer or consultant will tell you the unvarnished truth about what it takes NOW to work with buyers and sellers — without cutting commissions or otherwise being abused.

In today’s market, it’s not enough to learn theory, or ideas that may have worked in boom times but just aren’t cutting it in the current recession. During the six intense hours of this event, we’ll highlight the least expensive and most effective strategies, ads and systems you must be using right now that will guarantee you at least two new escrows in the next 30 days.

This 6 Hour Seminar Will Teach You How to:

• Generate 3 highly qualified, motivated prospects EVERY day consistently and predictably without spending a dime!

• Stop making the 3 HUGE mistakes that are responsible for 80% of failure in 2011

• STOP wasting money on advertising that brings ZERO $ in return

• Properly track your advertising so you know what’s working and what’s not (Stop doing what’s not working, do more of what is and watch your business triple without spending a penny!)

• Easily attract the best buyers and sellers by giving them what they really want vs. what most agents think they want (This allows you to CHOOSE who you want to work with and discard the time wasters!)

• Deliver listing and buyer presentations that don’t just get you the client, but position you as the EXPERT!

• Leverage strategic partners to multiply your bottom line

• Walk out the door at 6pm armed with ads and strategies you can use RIGHT AWAY to make you NOW MONEY!

Craig Proctor (the top agent for RE/MAX Worldwide for several years) is known within the industry as the King of Lead Generation, and not only sold over $1 Billion of real estate himself in his 20+ year career, but he’s also coached more agents to millionaire status than any other trainer. By openly sharing his step-by-step approach, he teaches agents not only how to dramatically increase their results, but also how to vastly improve their quality of life.

Seats are limited for this sponsored event. $25 OR RSVP to events-fntmarketing@fnf.com to reserve your seat and receive the specially discounted rate of $10 at the door. Full Proceeds to the Boys And Girls Club of Arizona. Event held at JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa 5350 East Marriott Drive, Phoenix.

State of the Market - June Update

2011-06-02T19:28:00.000-07:00

Steve de Laveaga, SVP of Sales & Marketing, Fidelity National Title discusses the positive changes we're seeing in the market .

Dustin Gaskey Honored as The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals Member of the Month

2011-06-01T13:46:00.000-07:00

Hearty congratulations to Dustin Gaskey from our Fidelity Phoenix team, for being honored as The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) Member of the Month, for June 2011.

NAHREP is the "voice of Hispanic real estate" and a champion for homeownership for the Hispanic community. As the largest minority trade group in the real estate agency, NAHREP is influential at both the national and local levels. Over 16,000 members across 48 states belong to NAHREP. This national organization is dedicated to empowering Hispanic families in their quest for a piece of the American dream: sustainable homeownership.

A founding member of Fidelity National Title’s Strike Force, Dustin Gaskey and his team of professional sales executives have produced record profits while growing REO, Investor and Short Sale Markets. His 12 years of sales experience and his commitment to providing exceptional customer service has led to his success in a declining market and the growth of Fidelity’s market share every year since his hire.

With a prosperous background in real estate development, Mr. Gaskey shifted to the other side of the real estate industry focusing on Sales and Marketing Management, where he gained instant success helping Valley developers sell their new home product. Faced with a distressed real estate market in 2007, Mr. Gaskey rose to the challenge and joined forces with Fidelity National Title, a Fortune 500 company. An integral member of Fidelity National Title’s Sales Team, Mr. Gaskey is responsible for building dynamic relationships for Fidelity National Title’s REO and Investor Division while generating significant earnings to shareholders. A strong desire to help individuals in the real industry accomplish their goals, while being part of the solution, has earned him both personal and professional success.

A resident of Scottsdale, Mr. Gaskey plays an active role with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, NAHREP Arizona and Scottsdale Association of Realtors. When he’s not working, he enjoys travelling with his fiancee, spending time with his dogs and enjoying the outdoors.

5 Secrets to Being Successful on Twitter

2011-05-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

Can you sell on Twitter? Sometimes.

Can you get more web traffic? Absolutely.

Can you build a brand? Without a doubt.

Can it be all about you? No way. No how. Never.

The truth is – success on Twitter is so much more than how many followers you have. That only tells part of the story. For a long time, I was focused on those numbers. How many followers. How many re-tweets. How many likes. How many unlikes. If you look at those numbers long enough you start to go crazy. Then something pretty cool happened. The more I tweeted, the more I focused less on the numbers, the more people I met, the more I enjoyed it, and the more I saw the tremendous value of it.

Let me tell you – being an independent contractor in any business, especially real estate, is lonely.

One of the biggest benefits I have seen with Twitter is the camaraderie and support with people who love this industry all over the world. In my eyes, that is a huge benefit. But let’s face it, we don’t just want to sit around and just tweet with other Realtors. There are people right now in your community, in your town talking about things that are relevant to you – local news, local events, hot spots around town, and yes people who are moving to your city or town. Go into Twitter and type “moving to _____” in the search field and you’ll be surprised at how many search results come up. Does that mean you should instantly Tweet them and say “HI! I’m a Realtor!!!!” No of course not – you wouldn’t do that in real life, so don’t do it on Twitter.

Seriously, don’t even think about it!

The point is that Twitter is like the Chamber of Commerce mixer. Remember those? You went, had a drink and came home with 10 business cards. But now, you get to stay at home, be in your PJ’s, and “collect” followers that you can connect with. It’s the same networking we’ve always done – it’s just done a little differently now.

So how do you jump into the conversation? How do you get people to start noticing you and engaging with you? There are definitely a few “secrets” that no one ever told me when I first started on Twitter that can really help jump start your Twitter fame!

1. Don’t use all 140 characters. I was in Seattle earlier this year when my friend Dale Chumbley reminded me, “Katie, I’d re-tweet you more if you didn’t write such long tweets!!” DOH! I had forgotten that so simple but golden rule. Don’t use every single space. I know 140 characters isn’t very much to begin with. So if you fill up that whole space and then someone tries to re-tweet you – there will be too many letters. If it’s a good tweet, some people will take the time to edit it – but most won’t. See if you can keep your tweets to 50 characters max!

2. Re-tweet a lot. We have a joke in the Inman News office – it’s all about the re-tweet! That’s right! You want people to stand up, notice you, follow you, and engage you? Then re-tweet a lot! Re-tweet 15-20 things a day. Re-tweet interesting articles, follow hashtags (like #agentrb or #icsf) and re-tweet things people are talking about. The more you re-tweet, the more people are likely to re-tweet you and take notice of you! Here’s a bonus secret – don’t re-tweet 15 things in a row (unless you want to annoy the heck out of your followers). Re-tweet 15 things but use my favorite app HootSuite and schedule out those re-tweets – once a hour so they “drip” out over the course of the day. Now instead of impacting a few people who happen to be on Twitter at the exact time you are on, you are impacting people at different times of the day.

3. #FF. I love Friday Follow. Every Friday pick 10 people to mention for #FF. Recognize people you enjoy following. Twitter is a very giving medium. You need to give, give, give if you want to receive anything back. Some of the people I have engaged with and talk to the most started with a #FF.

4. Post content you like to read. We all subscribe to email newsletters right? Well before you delete them all every morning, look at one or two in your inbox and make it a point to tweet out a couple things from those emails – interesting articles or tidbits of knowledge.

5. Don’t get so caught up on what to say. Don’t over think things. Post something if it’s interesting to you, but don’t spend too much time worry about everything you post. Be smart, if you wouldn’t say something on stage or in a crowd, don’t say it on Twitter.

Source: Adapted from article by Katie Lance, Social Media Director, Inman News. Posted: 24 May 2011 11:37 AM PDT

Effective Facebook Wall Posts

2011-05-20T08:50:00.000-07:00

As brands increasingly make Facebook a key hub for their marketing and communication strategies, it is crucial to understand what drives engagement.

Recent research data published by Buddy Media indicates the following:

· Less is more! Posts 80 characters or less in length have a 27% higher engagement rate. Yet only 19% of all Facebook posts fall into the category; do yours?

· Engagement rates are three times higher for posts that use a full-length URL. Why? It’s likely the “indicators” one would get from reading a full-length URL are missing in a shortened URL. To still keep the “less is more” philosophy, use a brand-specific URL which still provides some brand indicators.

· Brands that post outside of normal business hours (very early morning, at the end of the work day, or very late at night) have a 20% higher engagement rate.

· Engagement rates on Thursday and Friday are 18% higher than other days of the week. Engagement rates on Saturday fall 18% below average. Data recently revealed by Facebook shows the “happiness index” raises 10% on Fridays.

· Business and Finance Industries specifically experience engagement rates that spike Wednesday and Thursday and decline Friday through Tuesday.

· Fans follow instructions well; the simpler the better. Outright requests to “Like” or “Comment” work most effectively. The top two keywords, “like” and “post” both have positive “comment” and “like” rates.

· Posts that end with a question have a 15% higher engagement rate.

· Keywords “where”, “when”, “would”, and “should” drive the highest engagement rates. “How”, “who”, “what”, “did”, and “why” have the lowest engagement rates, with “why” being the very lowest.

Keep these points in mind when creating content to drive higher engagement and to maximize your brand or organization’s presence on Facebook. And when it comes to Facebook publishing strategies, it is imperative that you keep things simple and in line with your fans' needs.

Using Google Keywords To Drive Traffic

2011-05-16T13:24:00.000-07:00

Do you know and understand how to effectively use the Google keyword search tool to step things up with your social media?

In this example, we’ve searched the term phoenix foreclosures. It displays that and similar terms, and provides you with some powerful statistics: Local Monthly Searches and Global Monthly Searches columns. These statistics show the approximate number of search queries matching your keywords that were performed on Google for a month (this is an approximate 12-month average).

Also, notice the column labeled Competition. This column shows the number of advertisers worldwide bidding on each keyword relative to all keywords across Google. The shaded bar represents a general low-to-high quantitative guide to help you determine how competitive ad placement is for a particular keyword.

How can this information be useful to you even if you’re not buying ad words? Give consideration to your target market, and do a search based on terms relative to that target market. Use (but don’t over-use) these keywords in your blogs, website, Facebook posts, etc. to leverage content and help gain more followers.

When reviewing the results, your natural inclination may be to pay attention to the most competitive terms, however, the more competitive the term, the harder it is for those searchers/consumers to zoom in on YOU in their search results. Consider using terms that aren’t quite as competitive, but still show a good number of monthly searches. In our example, phoenix az foreclosures shows a good volume of monthly searches, but with much less competition than phoenix foreclosures. Integrating the term Phoenix AZ foreclosures into your social media content gives you the chance of 1,300 local and 1,600 global eyes upon you; not bad for a zero dollar investment and a few minutes of your time!

You can find the Google keyword search tool at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.

Marketing Tools That Are Paying Off

2011-05-13T15:46:00.000-07:00

Jennifer Weller, veteran Sales Executive at Fidelity National Title discusses Marketing Tools that are paying off

Interesting Facts About The REO Market

2011-05-13T15:38:00.000-07:00

By Jean Clements
Marketing Director, Fidelity Phoenix

On Wednesday I attended Coffee with Melissa at the REMAX Professional’s Office where I learned some interesting things about the REO market.

Here are Melissa Shapiro’s highlights from REOMAC

1. Chase is has not evicted tenants from there REO's nationwide in 6 months, This was lifted in 9 states this month. Arizona should be lifted within 30 days.

2. Chase has pulling out of the equator system for managing their REO assets.

3. Freddie Mac's Reo inventory grew 145.7% Percent from 2008(29,346 Units) to 2011(72,093). This is why they had to add Atlas and Greenriver into the mix.

4. Wells Fargo will begin Principal Write downs in Arizona through the Hardest Hit Fund(HHF), Bank of America began doing this last month by sending out over 8,000 letters to eligible borrowers.

5. Rep. Maxine Waters, is pushing a bill that would require the Federal Housing Finance Agency to review how FNMA and Freddie add REO vendors and improve the process to keep it local.

6. REO is truly relationship based first.

If you are interested in Melissa Shapiro, FNT’s director of Sales, to come to your office, please send an email to info-fntarizona@fnf.com

Vote Fidelity Phoenix The #1 Title Company in Arizona!

2011-05-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again, time to vote for your favorite Arizona companies for the 2012 publication of Ranking Arizona.

Ranking Arizona is the outcome of the largest business opinion poll in Arizona. Each category is selected by the staff of AZ Big Media for the general public to vote on and are based upon business and leisure activities of Arizona's business professionals.

Please support Fidelity Phoenix by casting your vote, it's simple:

Go to ranking.aznow.biz
- Choose the 'To Vote Search by name' button
- Type in Fidelity National Title
- Enter your email address

Thanks for your support!

2011-05-10T12:39:00.000-07:00

On Monday, May 2 Fidelity Phoenix sponsored a Luxury Forum at the Gainey Golf Club. The forum provided an in depth look at Arizona's luxury market. With over 500 million dollars in luxury property sold and lent in the last 12 months the timing couldn't have been more perfect.

The forum was moderated by Bill Gray from the Arizona School of Real Estate. Our own Steve de Laveaga presented a luxury market trend report.

Panelists for the Luxury Forum included:
Walt Danley, Realty Executives
Tom Locati, Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty
Sandra Wilken, Sandra Wilken Luxury Properties
Joan Levinson, John Hall & Associates
Don Matheson, ReMax Fine Properties
Appraiser- Sue S. Miller, SRA Miller Pipher, Inc.
Mark Monson, Primary Residential Mortgage
James Voorhees, PMB Branch Sales Manager,
Wells Fargo Mortgage Banking

Below are some key notes from the discussion and our panelists:

· Flyer attached---Panelists agree, Scottsdale Inventory is dropping although some argue that there is a lack of quality inventory out there.

· When asked how their business has changed in the last 3 years and what are they doing different today, Sandra Wilken, Sandra Wilken Luxury Properties said “she has built a distressed property division and 50% of the business is now bank owned”

· Great to have an appraiser on the panel, as Ms. Miller put it, “from the appriaisers perspective, we can’t forecast, we have to look at the trend. We have to look at the road already travelled, not what is expected to come when it comes to market conditions”. Because of this, it is essential that your appriaiser is knowledgeable about your market area.

· Walt Danley, from the Walt Danley Group, Realty Executives, stated if you are not doing open houses, you are missing the boat. Additionally, Walt shed some light on the Luxury rental market, by noting he is seeing rentals on the market for 48-72 hours only in the 5K-10K range. Sandra agreed.

· When asked is now the time to buy in the Luxury Market: Mark Monson noted, “lots of buyers trying to get out of the cold, weather and fair prices are great motivators”. Susan said “she is concerned about the number of foreclosures, buy now if you don’t mind being close to the bottom” and James with Wells Fargo said “If you like it, buy it”.

· The group also agreed that they were seeing more and more strategic foreclosures; first it was spec homes, then walk aways, those that refied and can’t make payments anymore or overlevearaged themselves. It is much more socially acceptable now.

· When asked where do buyers come from?: Lenders on the panel noted referrals. 50% of the panel agreed that open houses bring buyers and 75% of the panel said they get most of their leads from referrals as well, about 55-70% and the rest come from their website.

· 80% of luxury buyers are cash buyers

Fidelity Profits Jump In Q1 Earnings Report

2011-05-04T08:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks to aggressive cost-savings initiatives, a more robust and profitable commercial pipelines and more closed orders, Fidelity National Financial’s title insurance segment brought in pretax earnings of $102 million in the first quarter (9.3 percent margin) and $1.1 billion in revenue. In Q1 2010, the company’s title insurance segment generated $1.08 billion in revenue and a pretax margin of 2.2 percent ($24 million).

“This was our strongest first quarter in a number of years, as our direct operations benefited from strong refinance closings early in the quarter and consistent closings throughout February and March," said Chairman William Foley II.

Order counts were relatively stable throughout the quarter, despite coming in under the open order count from 2010. But the open orders came through at a higher rate.

"It is clear our company's overall focus on the resale and commercial shares of the market has paid dividends, we are seeing a higher Fee Per File, due to the commercial and resale closings and our ability to staff accordingly puts us in a very competitive position over our competition. Also, we have really started to move towards more of a Real Estate Services Company, not just a Title Company" said Steve de Laveaga, SVP of Sales and Marketing of Fidelity National Title Maricopa County.

Source: The Title Report 4/29/2011

Monthly Investor Series

2011-05-02T07:48:00.000-07:00

Check out our new monthly Investor series featuring our own Robert Joseph, Director of Business Development.

Join us May 2 for our Luxury Forum

2011-04-29T10:10:00.000-07:00

Very different from last year’s desperately sticky sales scenario in the midst of foreclosures, short sales, high inventory and plummeting prices, 2011 has seen signs of an upward swing in the luxury home market:

- Over 500 Million Dollars in luxury property sold and lent in the last 12 months

- 10% variance, list to sales price

- Increased activity month over month in 2011

- In Paradise Valley, Scottsdale and other luxury areas, days on market is now under 365 days!

- February 2010 Paradise Valley had 6 closings, compared to February 2011 there were 38!

In light of this, we're pleased to be hosting a Luxury Forum, May 2nd, from 1:30-3:30at Gainey Golf Club in Scottsdale. The forum will provide an in depth look at Arizona's luxury home market and will be moderated by Bill Gray with the Arizona School of Real Estate. A luxury market trend report will be presented by Steve de Laveaga, SVP of Sales and Marketing of Fidelity Phoenix. The panelists for the forum include:

Walt Danley, Realty Executives

Tom Locati, Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty

Sandra Wilken, Sandra Wilken Luxury Properties

Joan Levinson, John Hall & Associates

Don Matheson, ReMax Fine Properties

Appraiser- Sue S. Miller, SRA Miller Pipher, Inc.

Mark Monson, Primary Residential Mortgage

James Voorhees, PMB Branch Sales Manager, Wells Fargo Mortgage Banking

RSVP is required, to events-fntmarketing@fnf.com.

More exciting related news, please watch next week, as we publish details of our new Luxury Marketing package!

New Short Sale Bill Aims to Speed Up Decision Making Process

2011-04-27T15:07:00.000-07:00

The prevalence of short sales and foreclosures, and the process in place now for short sales, which is said to be time-consuming and inefficient, has prompted a new bill to be considered in Congress. On April 12 a bill regarding short sales was introduced into the House of Representatives. H.R. 1498, "Prompt Decision for Qualification of Short Sale Act of 2011", was submitted by Representatives Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) and Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) Its purpose is summarized, "To require the lender or servicer of a home mortgage, upon a request by the homeowner for a short sale, to make a prompt decision whether to allow the sale."

The general idea of the bill is that a mortgage servicer must respond with a decision to a borrower within 45 days from the time the short sale request is received by the servicer.

The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) immediately responded with a supportive press release. NAR President Ron Phipps commented enthusiastically and, according to the release, "praised Reps. Rooney and Andrews for their efforts on the bill and urged Congress to pass the bill quickly." Phipps said, "Streamlining short sales transactions will reduce the amount of time it takes to sell the property, improve the likelihood that the transaction will close and reduce the overall number of foreclosures. This benefits sellers, lenders, buyers and the entire community."

Our own Steve de Laveaga, SVP Sales and Marketing of Fidelity Phoenix comments on this proposed bill:

“There is no doubt this is a step in the right direction, but remember, today, most of our major servicers are at this time frame on current files. There are definitely properties that slip through the cracks but we have seen in our state of Arizona that Bank of America, Wells and Chase have all SIGNIFICANTLY increased their response times and turn times, which has resulted in more buyers and sellers getting deals done and less frustration as well on both sides. Also, what has made one of the biggest differences is the improved knowledge, process and understanding of our Realtors, who have improved here by leaps and bounds!! So, it is a good step by the government to push this forward, but the truth is, the major servicers have worked hard over the last several months with their staff and processes and are drastically improved.

Something the government could assist with is helping our Lenders find a good, jumbo, conventional lending product. We need to be able to lend to folks who want to buy an 800K house and want to put 20% down and get a good rate.”

What are your thoughts about this new bill? We’d love to hear your comments.

Green Real Estate

2011-04-22T08:04:00.000-07:00

Environmental protection has gained the support of the population at large. Living green is no longer a fad, nor a trendy “statement” or “alternative lifestyle”. According to the Green Outlook 2009: Trends Driving Change, McGraw-Hill Construction, green real estate is altering fundamental market dynamics, with 70% of home buyers saying they were more inclined to buy a green home in a down economy than a non-green home.

The benefits range from tangible, i.e. financial and tax-related, to the less empirical, i.e. better health and quality of life.

There is a laundry list of tax rebates and other financial incentives designed to encourage individuals and businesses to go the greener mile. At the federal level in the U.S., individuals can reap the rewards of no less than eight different financial incentives ranging from tax credits and home loans for replacing windows and installing insulation around the house to tax rebates for hooking up a solar hot water heater.

Besides these federal incentives, nearly every U.S. state has additional state or local incentives available. Many require utilities to rebate consumers who save electricity. Some utilities even offer “net metering,” whereby consumers who generate some of their power through rooftop solar panels or other technologies can sell electricity back to the utility, thus reducing or zeroing out their electric bill—even earning money.

Both residential and commercial buildings retain a higher resale value if they include sustainable design components. The value to prospective buyers comes from knowing their utility and maintenance costs will be lower in green buildings that outperform non-green buildings.

There are various avenues for learning green real estate concepts, principles, practices and benefits from the ground up, and that offer “Green designation”. The tipping point has occurred and green, sustainable real estate is here to stay. As more and more people (including many home buyers!) are adopting a personal responsibility to "think globally and act locally" as environmental stewards of planet Earth, there has never been a better time for real estate professionals to become ambassadors in this ever-changing green world.

Are you incorporating green practices in your business, we’d love to hear about it!

First Quarter Brings Positive Changes to the Market

2011-04-21T12:32:00.000-07:00

Steve de Laveaga, SVP Fidelity Phoenix, tells the story.

Strengthening Our Community and Helping Others

2011-04-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

Believing Business has a powerful role to play in strengthening our communities, Fidelity National Title maintains a culture of service and an authentic desire to make meaningful social impact that also delivers significant business value.

We are very pleased to be a sponsor for the annual Renewal Hours for Charity Dollars, an event designed to not only allow Arizona agents to obtain their required renewal hours but also designed to raise awareness about Cystic Fibrosis and collectively raise money for the CF Foundation. Every dollar raised during the event series will go directly to the CF Foundation of AZ.

Renewal classes start April 19th, going through May 27th. For more class details, visit http://www.fntarizona.com/, Calendar of Events, or visit us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/fidelityphoenix, and click the Events tab.

Another upcoming event we are pleased to be sponsoring is the first annual Steve Horn Charity Golf Tournament. This event benefits Streetlight PHX, whose mission is to provide safe housing, prevent further risk of exploitation and promote healing for victims of child sex slavery. Although Phoenix is a major tourist town, most people don’t realize it has become a magnet city for child prostitution and human trafficking. Human trafficking is often identified as an overseas issue; however, this nightmare exists in our very own backyard. Nearly 3 years ago a group of individuals began asking a series of “what if” questions: What if Phoenix could become an example to other cities in our nation and around the world of the enormous potential when market place leaders, city leaders, young people, churches, faith based and non-profit organizations work together to eradicate child sex slavery? What if one of our greatest testimonies to society became a unified, loving effort that not only talked about issues of injustice but also helped solve one?

This event takes place April 29th at Kokopelli Golf Club in Gilbert. Registration 6:30a – 7:15a, Shotgun Scramble 7:30a. For more information and to register please visit www.stevehorncharity.org or call 480-706-7215.

We applaud both these efforts and are proud to be a part of these events. Helping people and communities thrive is at the heart of all our community involvement initiatives.

A Look At The Phoenix Market

2011-04-11T21:10:00.000-07:00

Steve de Laveaga, SVP of Sales & Marketing at Fidelity Phoenix opens the Realty Executives Phoenix Executive Event with a look at the Phoenix market.

5 Tips to Create a Social Media Policy

2011-04-08T13:23:00.000-07:00

There’s no doubt about it—social media has evolved. Social media and social networking have gone from a way to connect with high school buddies and swap reviews about the new restaurant in town, to a powerful and viable marketing platform for business. What’s more, social media is growing and changing so fast, it’s hard for anyone to keep up.

Social media presents a great opportunity for real estate firms to leverage their visibility and reach a vastly larger group of people and, in turn, entice those groups to gravitate toward their brokerage.

Real estate firms can get into potential trouble with social media, however, because most brokers have not yet created strategies or documented plans as they have with traditional forms of marketing. In today’s world, where many like to litigate at the drop of a hat, real estate companies have become risk management-savvy as it relates to traditional forms of communication, staying abreast of the laws and interpreting them for agents. When it comes to social media, however, most brokers and managers are in the same part of the learning curve as their agents. The legal risks surrounding social media are uncharted waters for all of us.

The risks inherent in social media run the gamut from minor embarrassment to seriously damaging your firm’s reputation by simply saying something stupid, inadvertently bashing a competitor, posting incorrect information, bad grammar, inappropriate photographs, etc. That’s why the first step in creating a social media policy for your firm must focus on eliminating the “play time” and focusing on the content put forth.

I’m not suggesting you start over; I’m suggesting you go back and amend some things and make some further additions to your current company policy within the subsets that make sense for social media. Whether you call it your “code of content” or professional responsibilities, make it clear that you expect your team to, at all times, be honest and professional in representation of their company as it applies both to offline and online activities.

You need to talk to your team about posting things that are meaningful and thought provoking in a beneficial way that is respectful of viewers and listeners. They also need to be informed that the sharing of information needs to take into consideration the confidentiality issues of consumers, clients and the company. You need to make sure your associates are including sources and disclosures and disclaimers as necessary.

Use the following guidelines in your social media policy for all employees:

1. Sharing information. Explain what is meant by “posting,” then break that down into content, photography, statistics, etc. As it cascades down, make sure agents are being respectful, that their information is correct and that they are providing sources where appropriate.

2. Ethics. Make sure your policy has friendly reminders not to say something about another real estate agent through a Tweet, post, etc. This can always come back to bite you later on.

3. Legal cause and potential liability, such as antitrust. Make sure the policy clearly states that commissions cannot be discussed through social media. All copyright laws, such as those through Google images, must also be enforced.

4. Disclosures and disclaimers. If agents are expressing views more narrow in focus than perhaps the standard opinion, a disclaimer along the lines of, “My personal views do not reflect the views of the company,” might need to be enforced.

5. Approval of social media marketing materials. Just as you have rules governing newspaper ads and newsletter templates, there should also be policies in place regarding blog sites and websites to ensure they meet company standards.

Be sure to keep your company policies concerning social media dynamic, so that you’re able to make timely changes as the medium evolves. Because of the vast exposure involved with social media, brokers must be more proactive to ensure their company always gets painted with the same brush.

Source: RISMEDIA, March 12, 2011

Steve's Comments on REOMAC

2011-04-04T16:20:00.000-07:00

Steve de Laveaga and members of the Fidelity National Title Arizona team are attending the REOMAC conference being held this week in Palm Springs, CA. Below are Steve's observations and comments about the conference.

This is a very different conference than in years past. There are less Realtors here than in previous years, which shows that unless you have been committed you probably aren't able to do the distressed business. The Real Estate professionals I see here are all first class individuals who have built very talented teams and processes for this space.

We have had two good nights of networking and it is clear that we are seeing a dent made in the Distressed market, and the larger Servicer's are all moving towards a Pre-foreclosure model, of getting to the consumer earlier in the transaction. I am going to say this, the VERY SMART Realtors are the one's who are LISTENING and in turn getting to the front of the transaction as well!!

Thank you to all our Fidelity Arizona and National Partners for joining Fidelity National Title Arizona for a lovely evening at The Parker Hotel. Have a great conference.

Steve de Laveaga
SVP Sales and Marketing FNT Maricopa

Fidelity Marketing Spotlight of the Month - Virtual Tours

2011-04-01T13:37:00.000-07:00

If “a picture is worth a thousand words”, than what do you suppose a virtual tour is worth? Do you know that statistics from REALTOR.COM show that listings with multiple photographs and virtual tours get clicked on 40% more than listings without? Do you know that in The 2009 National Association of REALTORS® profile of home buyers and sellers 63% of buyers “deem very useful” virtual tours when searching for homes? According to “How to Photograph Houses by Stan Barron:” “Selling a house is not a real estate function… it is a marketing function, and pretty photographs sell more houses. Think about the marketing used for professional products you are exposed to. Have you ever seen a bad photograph (taken with a point-and-shoot-camera) in an ad for a BMW? Of course not. Ever seen a badly composed shot in a cosmetics ad? Never. Good photographs are worth the effort.” The rewards will be well worth it: you’re branding yourself as the area real estate marketing expert, getting more exposure and noticed by more potential sellers and buyers that will take note of your great photos, superior virtual tour, and expert marketing skills, and thus selling properties faster. Don’t get run-over by those on your heels, those staying abreast of and using the latest and best real estate technology that buyers and sellers demand. However, all that said, buyers that look at these tours want to see the important parts of the house: the kitchen, the bathrooms. They want to get a sense of the flow, so a tour that shows the walk from the entry to the kitchen, from the garage into the house, from the living room out to the yard, and isolated rooms is a waste of bandwidth. There is nothing to be learned from tours like that or dark, distorted or wavy pictures of empty rooms. A bad virtual tour is worse than bad pictures. Is that the image you want representing you, your brokerage, and your marketing skills? Don’t take chances on quality, let Fidelity National Title and Arizona Imaging help you market your listings in the best light; day and night. You’ll have quick turn time, with low res stills sent the morning after shooting, for your review. Unlimited photos are included in all tours, and there are no added costs of membership or hosting fees. With price plans from $59.95 to $299.95, there’s a plan to fit your needs. For more information on this service as well as Fidelity’s suite of other services for you and your listings, go to www.fntarizona.com, or contact your Fidelity sales executive today!

Green Financing Program

2011-03-25T15:25:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, March 23rd, we had the privilege of attending an event that Fidelity Phoenix co-sponsored for Guaranteed Rate Mortgage (GRM). The event was held at Boojum Tree’s Hidden Gardens, a beautiful venue and the perfect setting for a discussion on Green Financing.

Green Financing Program as discussed at this event, in a nutshell:

· 100% of the cost of an energy pack above and beyond what the buyer is paying for the home

· No re-appraisal needed

· Maricopa County- 163K or higher up to 9300 and 163000 or below is 5% of property value

· Based on appraised value

· Single Family, New Construction, Current Construction, units 1-4, and duplexes all qualify for this FHA Financing

· The Green Financing Program through GRM is for FHA loans only. Considering 24% of the National Market Share is FHA’s, this is a no brainer.

· The goal of this program is to achieve national energy goals and create affordable housing

· Tax breaks at the Federal, State, Local, Utilities and Energy Star and all apply!

Other highlights and talking points on the program:

· Great tool for REO Listing Agents-make the upgrades and get your FHA loan

· Use yard signs that show energy assistance savings

· Here is how it would look:
1. Yard Sign

2. Call off of Sign

3. Lender/Energy Efficient Mortgage Chat

4. Lender Refers client to a Vendor to discuss Tax Credits and a bid estimate

5. HEERS (Home Energy Rating System) Inspector takes bid, reviews loan type, sales price and bid price and gives a yes or no

6. Lender Takes Back Loan

7. Sends to Fidelity National Title

8. Lender holds money to pay for upgrades and gets the job done quickly

9. Inspector Certifies

10. Vendor gets paid

11. Home Closes

12. Homeowner Saves Money!

For more information, please send an email to info-fntarizona@fnf.com

Phoenix Real Estate Market Is On The Rise

2011-03-21T14:32:00.000-07:00

Phoenix Real Estate Market is on the rise! Our own SVP of Sales & Marketing here at Fidelity Phoenix, Steve de Laveaga, gives a quick snapshot of how our market is shaping up in the first trimester of 2011.

Why Use Social Media for Your Business?

2011-03-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Part 2 of our social media series. Today we discuss why you should be using social media for your business.

Location, location, location. Retail locations don’t set up shop where there's no foot traffic. As more and more evidence demonstrates, consumers are using social media and increasingly prefer it over active marketing. In addition to being where the consumers are, the following outlines why it is important for businesses to incorporate social media into their marketing strategy:

*You can reach your market by simply engaging in the right conversations with the right people. This is more effective than advertising.

*If your business can’t be found, isn’t engaging with the market or worse yet ignoring the market you are not likely to be creating transactional opportunities while your competition does.

*Communications is a system to leverage your organizations ability to communicate with your market. Social media is the new communications system.

*Social media saves time and money if you use it right for the right things.

*If you learn “how” to use social media correctly then you’ll understand “what” your market is looking for and “where” they are looking. You want them to look for you.

*When your customers and prospects are engaging about you, your industry or your products and services, you need to be there listening. Otherwise how will you gain the necessary market intelligence, be enabled to respond or even be aware of problems or needs? If you are not present when and where the conversations are occurring you are basically out of touch with your market.

*Communications is about reach. Communicating is about relational dynamics between people. Social media provides the means to effectively communicate with your market, communicating in human rather than institutional terms.

One of the key components in successful social media marketing implementation is building "social authority". Social authority is developed when an individual or organization establishes themselves as an "expert" in their given field or area, thereby becoming an “influencer” in that field or area.

It is through this process of "building social authority" that social media becomes effective. That is why one of the foundational concepts in social media has become that you cannot completely control your message through social media but rather you can simply begin to participate in the "conversation" in the hopes that you can become a relevant influence in that conversation.

However, this conversation participation must be cleverly executed because while people are resistant to marketing in general, they are even more resistant to direct or overt marketing through social media platforms. This may seem counter-intuitive but is the main reason building social authority with credibility is so important.

State of the West Side

2011-03-16T14:48:00.000-07:00

Fidelity National Title and Bank of America were proud sponsors of "2011 west valley market trends and an in depth look at the west valley distressed market" held on March 15 at the Renaissance Hotel in Glendale. Speakers included Mike Orr from the Cromford Report and Brandi Johnson from Bank of America. Below are the key points form the presentation given by Mike Orr. To see video clips of the presentation visit our Facebook page.

POSITIVES:

· Economy/Jobs getting better
· DEC/JAN/FEB stronger performance than historical trend
· Lower prices growing strong demand
· Best purchase prices in 15 years
· Rental prices more likely to go up
· Supply drying up
· Great time to be a landlord
· Property over $300k: Hit bottom Nov 2010, price points gently climbing

NEGATIVES:

· Fewer buyers-more renters
· AZ population peaked in 2009
· Out-Migration started in 2007 (largest impact in South & West “Inner” Valleys

SUPPLY & DEMAND:

****Pricing tells what already happened*****

****Supply & Demand provide data to speculate what WILL happen****

Active Listings –

46k peak on Nov 21, 2010, now below 40k

Rentals – “Normal” inventory has been 8k-10k – TODAY: only 5k

-More hard hit are condo rental inventory, “normal” 3.5k-4k- TODAY: only 2k

Pending—

Last 2 years-steep upward trend (Tax Credit)

Glendale doing slightly better than last years pendings

ACTUAL CLOSINGS-

Very active market

2011 well ahead of past 2 years performance in the same time period

FORECLOSURES- (includes commercial properties, but 95% residential)

-# of notices on decline
-# of sales constant
-# of pre-foreclosures going down

· Currently 38k Pre-Foreclosures, used to be 52K – still a problem but a downward trend.
· Mike Orr uses 2003 as a representative of a ‘normal’ amount of pre-foreclosures = 8k

Mike speculates there is no shadow inventory and it would be impossible to measure, REO is on the decline, diversify your business.

SHORT TERM OUTLOOK

· Demand outpacing Supply—creates an active market and should show an improved real estate market pending other impacts don’t throw a curve ball. Regardless, may be bumps in the road.
· Don’t expect prices to show the trend right away – remember price indicates what’s already happened
· Investor Demand key, especially in low-end markets and price points
· $300k and up price points showing signs of recovery (these are usually primary residence purchase or 2nd home purchase

Other Data:
Canadians:

· Last 3 months: 1 in 20 homes purchased were by Canadian
· 6 years ago: 1 in 250 homes purchased were by Canadian
· Canadians are the substitute for the California buyer market we experienced some time ago.

OUT-MIGRATION & SCHOOLS

Important tool to see trends in Out-Migration and hardest hit areas, ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORTS. Google “Arizona schools in roman”, leads to government school data. Reports show registration #s, ethnicity, ages, demographics – Out-Migration areas will take the longest to recover

SHORT SALES

AWC difficult to measure due to the qualifying process on each “AWC”

SS success indicates 3X better than it was in 2008

52% increase from 2008

HUD

Mike’s stats for REO includes HUD homes

1000 active HUD listings right now, 1 in 7 listings is a HUD home

Notice of Defaults

1 million homes in Maricopa County, 1 in 4 have received a NOD/NTR

Speculation on where to FOCUS & MARKET….

· REO has peaked – will be on the decline as more lenders turn to Short Sale programs
· SS – longevity, will be around for many years to come. SS will never take a large amount of market share since they take so long to close, but as banks streamline SS standards and have less Foreclosure/REO it’s very real for SS market share of closings to grow
· $300k and over market

Arizona Imagaing - Another Great Fidelity Phoenix Tool

2011-03-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

Consider the folowing:
• Professional photos attract more buyers, 89% of buyers start their search online
• 88% of the listings on MLS do not have 25 photos or a media tour
• More and more REO banks are requiring agents to have 25 photos, virtual tour links, and flyers

With statistics like these, we’re happy that we’re able to provide a great service that allows us to help our agents save time, money and gain more exposure. We’ve partnered with a local photography company, Arizona Imaging, to provide our clients with high quality photos and video tours with a quick response time. When an agent orders a Realtor Advantage Package they receive this HD Virtual Tour free of charge along with high resolution images which are used to create their flyers, populate their MLS listing and “Custom listing Website,” and are then used to gain additional exposure on top sites 24/7 such as Google, YouTube, Yahoo, Zillow, Trulia, Oodle and Realtor.com. Arizona Imaging has also recently added some new features to save even more time and help drive our agent’ business which we’re excited to share -

• The ability to save valuable time when loading stills to MLS. Agents never have too much time and now because Arizona Imaging fully names their images, when an agent goes to load these to MLS, they don’t have to rename every photo.
• They can also now build tours in HD format such as Tour Factory or in the agent software at no added cost.

For more information go to http://bit.ly/eXpoEl or contact your Sales Representative.

The Power of Social Media

2011-03-10T11:19:00.000-08:00

Welcome to part 1 of our social media series. In this series we will be discussing the power of social media, social media trends and the best ways to use social media in your business.

Are you a part of and leveraging the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? Social Media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way the world communicates. So what is all the hoopla about, what exactly IS social media? Social media is any form of online communication or presence that allows end users to engage in multi-directional conversations. Some of the most popular are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Active Rain.

Why is social media important to you and your business? It has emerged as a deceptively powerful business tool -- especially for professions like Real Estate where you live and die by your network, and word of mouth means everything. You'll find that social media can be a convenient, ambient, mobile way to get things done, extend your personal brand, help opportunity find you, and find answers to everyday, real-world business problems -- FAST.

The “why” of doing business is the same it has been for centuries - to create value, attract a market who wants the value and engage the market in transaction. However, the “how” of doing this has changed dramatically over the past few years from “push marketing” to “pull marketing”.

“Push marketing” or active marketing, refers to marketing in which businesses actively expound and assert their message through mediums such as TV, radio, direct mail, outdoor advertising, print advertising etc. Push marketing has a clear call to action, most often to sell the target something. “Pull marketing”, inbound marketing or passive marketing doesn’t directly tell the target what to do, but instead builds a relationship with the target.

An increasingly important component of effective marketing strategies, pull or passive marketing is quickly becoming the preferred method of communications for consumers.

Inbound marketing, marketing that does not need to be intrusive or interruptive, is one of the most organic and effective ways to accomplish the two primary goals of business today: to be found easily on the web and to establish the business as an authority in the market.

Social networking is THE prime example of effective inbound marketing. By plotting and managing a social networking strategy, you can define yourself as a true resource on the web – the place where a pool of prospective clients continues to grow each day.

Still unsure it’s not simply a fad? Ponder on these stats:

*Social Media is now the #1 activity on the Web.

*Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the U.S.

*As of January 2011, Facebook has over 550,000,000 users, with over half logged in on any given day.

*62% post updates related to their work life, activities or interests, with 12% doing so on a daily basis

*LinkedIn now has 90 million members.

*34% of bloggers post about products, brands, & services, including what they think about YOURS.

What are YOU doing to leverage the power of social media in your business? We’d love to hear your comments!

The Passion in Real Estate is Back

2011-03-07T12:04:00.000-08:00

By Steve de Laveaga, SVP Sales and Marketing FNT Maricopa

The Passion in Real Estate is BACK!!! I had the privilege to attend the Keller Williams annual "Family Reunion" last week and as we speak, I am in Las Vegas attending the National RE/MAX Convention. The energy at both of these conferences is higher than at any time I can remember in the last 3 years!!

One of our best partners, Brett Tanner of KW, said, "Real Estate is FUN AGAIN, this new normal is now something we are starting to understand and embrace, it is great!!" I also spoke with two of our top RE/MAX Brokers, Howard Lein and Bill Ryan who also said, we are starting to see confidence again from our associates and their buyer activity has been off the charts!!

Seeing and hearing this passion makes me feel so lucky to be in the Real Estate space, we just need to continue to educate the community that we have unprecedented buyer opportunity and now is the time to take advantage of it!!

And to our RE/MAX Partners, see you tonight at our Private event to celebrate YOUR SUCCESS, can't wait to share an adult beverage with you all this evening!!

There is no better time for Investors!

2011-03-03T13:31:00.000-08:00

Fidelity was one of two sponsors for the February 24th and 25th CIAS (Certified Investor Agent Specialist- http://www.cias.com/) training series. As a long time sponsor and friend to Alex and Cadey Charfen with the Distressed Property Institute, we want to congratulate all those Real Estate Professionals that have gone through the training, are going through the training and will be going through the training in the future.

Here are some great stats from the event:

*In 2009, 20% of purchases were Investor purchases.

*Short Sales have increased 126% since 2009.

*Foreclosure sales accounted for 31% of all residential sales nationwide.

According to NAR:

· 2009 49% of Investors used an Agent of Broker…that means that over 50% of Investors did not use an Agent in 2009

· 1 in 5 residential transactions in 2009, 20%, of the market, was comprised of investor purchases

Additionally, it is said that the last option ARM wave will hit October/November 2011 and an estimated 68% will default on their mortgage, 38 billion dollars. There is no better time for Investors!

To sign up to become a CIAS visit our website at http://www.fntarizona.com/

Here are some other program highlights and market data discussed at CIAS.

· Best time to be in real estate in 20 years- Sellers Need You, Buyers Need You, Investors Need you and The Market Needs you! Everyone is affected by the Distressed Market.

· CIAS helps connect investors to communities that need help. In Arizona this is especially relevant.

· Don’t purchase for appreciation when buying a home. Purchase for cash flow. This is why so many Arizonians got in over their head 2005 and 2006.

Arizona Home Prices

2011-02-28T10:12:00.000-08:00

By Steve de Laveaga, SVP Sales and Marketing FNT Maricopa

I have heard some really ridiculous statements of late from some media outlets and scholars who I am sure have not sold a home in a very long time about pricing possibly dropping another 20-22% in Maricopa County. The reality is there is NO WAY, pricing will be dropping across the board by anywhere close to that amount.

We at Fidelity Phoenix close approximately 2,000 transactions a month and it is clear we have more buyer activity right now, than we have had in the last 9 months, since the buyer credit went away. Secondly, we have cash investors and financed money investors that right now, are trying to get their money deployed but don't have enough product, so even if inventory increased by 10%, it would be grabbed up so quickly, it would not create a drop in prices. We are seeing again, multiple offers on homes and prices have actually ticked UP each of the last 8 weeks.

To do any true analysis, you really need to go zip code, by zip code, or suburb by suburb, but to say prices could drop another 20% is flat uninformed and wrong. The reality is, if you are IN THE BUSINESS and look at the data, it is clear, the Real Estate market in our state is improving and we are seeing good transactional volume with strong buyer interest, and the first good Media outlet to get on this story, will prove to be the RIGHT one!!

Nuts and Bolts of Short Sales

2011-02-25T07:52:00.000-08:00

In Part 5 of our short sale series we go back to the basics with a look at the nuts & bolts of short sales.

Nuts & Bolts:
• When it comes to home-equity lines of credit you need to correctly counsel your client: Short sales disqualify.

• Fooled into thinking that higher-end sales are more difficult? Think again. They are much easier (portfolio deals, no mortgage insurance, etc) and are on the rise – a win-win.

• Hardship letters: Don’t oversell; keep it short and to the point. Think Reader’s Digest.

• 1099’s: Tax season is fast approaching and all short sale and foreclosure clients will be receiving 1099’s. Stress to your client that this DOES NOT mean debt forgiveness. When it comes to negotiating/modifying these – don’t work outside your area of expertise. Do what you do best and pull in an expert.

• A good tool of the trade is to have your client sign an expectation letter up front. Lay out what you expect from them. Include that they will keep current on HOA payments. If they don’t, this becomes a personal debt and opens a whole new can of worms.

• Your best friend in short sales is email. DOCUMENT EVERYTHING! You’ll be surprised at what having a good e-paper trail can do for you.

• You may have gotten the run-around trying to find out who owns your clients loan. Your life just became a lot easier thanks to Fannie Mae Loan Lookup and Freddie Mac Loan Lookup.

Armed with an arsenal of info and tools thanks to the valuable input of Wendy Shaw, of The Russell Shaw Group and attorney Mark Windsor of Winsor Law Group, REALTORS are now left with the question: 2011 is going to be a high distressed year – what will you make of it?

Posting to Your Facebook Business Page While of the Fly

2011-02-23T11:01:00.000-08:00

We're proud to introduce Tyler Lein, General Manager and IT Director for RE/MAX Excalibur, as our next guest contributor in our gust blogger series.

Posting to Your Facebook Business Page While of the Fly

My one gripe with FaceBook Business (Fan) pages has been the inability to post from anything other than a computer. Fortunately, this has been addressed and the solutions are relatively good.

There are four ways to post to your business page from a mobile device.
1. email your post to your page
2. visit your business page through your mobile browser and post from there
3. the iPhone app has the capability
4. send your update via text message

To e-mail your post, here is what you need to do. You need to find out the e-mail address for your page. To do so, go to your business page and then click on the Edit Page link at the top right of the screen under “Home” / “Profile” / “Account”. From there, click on “Mobile” on the left side of the page. You will then be shown your page’s e-mail address. Save this information in your address book and any time you want to post an update or a photo to your page (you can’t send video or post website links yet), all you have to do is send the e-mail to the address, and put the information in the subject line. DO NOT put information in the body of the message.

To use your mobile browser, just enter in the url of your page (ie. www.facebook.com/sony) and you can post your information through the web interface. If you don’t have a Vanity URL, here is a link to a post I did a while back explaining how you can get yours, http://tystechblog.com/2009/10/06/facebook-vanity-url/. You can also find more information on Vanity URLs on FaceBook.com at http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=900.

To post via the iPhone app, install the Facebook application and login. Click the “+” sign on the top left corner and then Click “Pages” on bottom right. Select your Page — it is now a favorite on your home dock. Now click your Page’s icon. To post a photo, click the “camera” icon. To post a status update, tap the “What’s on your mind?” field.

Finally, to post via text message, within the Mobile page as reference above, click on the green “Sign Up for SMS” button on the right side of the page and follow the instructions. You will then be given a 5 digit number to send your updates to. At this time you can only send text via this method. So no photos, videos or website links yet.

By being able to post photos on the fly, you can get really creative, like posting a photo of a new listing or smiling clients after a closing. Let your imagination run wild! Just don’t let your business page sit there and rot.

It is important to keep your business pages active in order to generate interest and business. If you can update them while you are on the fly, you are able to stay engaged and top of mind of those following you without having to wait until you get to the office or home. So no excuses, make your business pages come to life!

About Tyler Lein
Tyler Lein is a General Manager and IT Director for RE/MAX Excalibur which has 235 associates and four offices between Scottsdale and Tucson. His blog http://www.tystechblog.com/ covers technology tips, tricks, product and service reviews and recommendations that can be applied to the real estate profession and life in general. The goal is to increase agent productivity through low-cost or no cost tools that are available on the open market with an emphasis on Social Networking services.

Market Trend Reports

2011-02-21T09:09:00.000-08:00

Fidelity National Title was pleased to welcome, Mike Orr with the Cromford Report (http://www.cromfordreport.com/) to join in the monthly Sales Meeting on Monday February 14th to review 2011 Market Trends. Below are some highlights from his presentation:

· Sales Per Month down due to cancellations

· Demand is slowly outpacing supply

· Downward pricing pressure eased

· Investor demand is key to low end market

· Signs of slight recovery in some areas, mostly 250K-800K

· Prolonged blight in areas with highest population declines (Arizona hit population peak in 1Q 2009 and outmigration started in 2007, significantly effects South and West Valley)

Fidelity National Title is a proud Partner of Mike Orr’s and the Cromford Report. For monthly updated reports, the best data in Arizona go to http://www.fntarizona.com/pages/market-trend-reports-247650?loggedin=yes

Challenges in the Short Sale Process

2011-02-18T08:29:00.001-08:00

As with everything, Short Sales will present their share of challenges. In Part Four of our series on short sales, Wendy Shaw, of The Russell Shaw Group along with attorney Mark Windsor of Winsor Law Group addresses some of the most common challenges you’ll face.

Challenges in the Short Sale Process:
Held back by the fear of liability? Don’t be. The fear of being sued is the same as with traditional markets. Do everything in your power up front to mitigate loss. Educate yourself. Read everything and anything you can on short sales. A seminar on short sales? Be there. Be proactive and connect with a good attorney. For a nominal fee, attorneys will conduct an initial consult looking at the big picture, and then lay out your client’s best options. To be successful you must find a GOOD attorney – one who is driven by the client’s best interest.

Bad BPO’s are something everyone who is involved in short sales will face at one time or another. The banks want you to escalate - DO NOT unless absolutely necessary. If you have time on your side, this is the easiest and most effective solution. Even better, avoid them in the first place by blocking access to property. You want to head off the agent so that you can have a dialogue. Realistically you may not be able to literally remove the lock box, but you can put this in the MLS listing which means they have to contact you directly to gain access, thus = dialogue. When you get the dialogue going, remember that empathy and respect go a long way in making things happen. Agents are often underappreciated – don’t do the same.

When it comes to strategic default you want to take a two-pronged approach –front end and backend. Let them know up front it’s going to be a difficult process and they have to commit. Address the fact that there are 3 parties involved – the servicer, the investor and the mortgage insurance company. And of course follow up at the end of the process.

Challenges in the Short Sale Process

2011-02-18T08:29:00.000-08:00

Important Notes and Highlights from Short Sale Mastermind Group

2011-02-17T08:22:00.000-08:00

By Jennifer Weller, Marketing Representative Fidelity National Title

Notes from our Short Sale Mastermind with Tina Tamboer-Glatfelter with The Cromford Report

-Feb 2nd, 2011 Phoenix was 4th from the top in Job Growth

-Phoenix’s unemployment rates are below national averages

Pending Listings:
-Every year since 2001, January is the lowest month in pending listings

-January is the best time to list your house for sale due to more offers being written between January and July

-“Buyer Season” for Sellers: Jan-May

-“Off Season” for Buyer’s: come June you may get more seller concessions due to less buyers purchasing in summer months

Buyers and Inventory
-2002-2010 Canadian Buyers, since 2006 it has risen every year

-April 2010 we hit a peak of just over 25% of out of state buyers (including California and Canadians)

-Shadow Inventory: often is released about every 3 months, i.e. January, March…etc, banks stagger their losses

-400-800K priced homes that are Short Sales have had a great chance of closing compared to lower price points, many have just one lender, specifically North Scottsdale

-Focus on 200-400K price points or 400-800K price points if you are a Realtor and focusing on Short Sales

-High percentage of bank owned properties=Seller’s market, due to high demand, 2009 many areas were a seller’s market in phoenix due to REO

Fidelity’s Cromford Reports
Contract Ratio: anything above 40 is a hot market (high demand), below 20 is cold (low demand) 30+ is Balanced (supply vs. demand)

Marketing:

1. Use and e-Newsletter to send to your sphere

2. Post Teaser stats on your Facebook Fan Page status to create discussion or comments

3. Support or challenge media new coverage on the real estate market in your blog

4. Send to your active sellers every month

5. Use it on your website as bait to entice consumers to submit their e-mail addresses

6. Copy it to the back of your listing flyers

7. Use it in your listing presentation to compare your seller’s area to other in activity and distressed levels and show how their home competes

Important information from Thompson Law Firm:
MARS (mortgage assistance relief services)

Without a financial license, you are no longer allowed legally to obtain any fees up front for negotiating a short sale. If a complaint is filed against an agent, the fine is $10,000 A DAY!!!

All the more reason to utilize an attorney to protect you.

Guest Blogger Series - Can They Find You?

2011-02-15T07:24:00.000-08:00

We asked some of our key clients, contacts, stakeholders and industry experts to contribute to FNT Title Talk as guest bloggers. We are proud to introduce Nick Bastian as our first contributor.

Can They Find You?

I recently attended a sales pitch / real estate seminar where one of the topics was on-line marketing. Of course, you really can’t attend one of these seminars without hearing someone say that social media is where all of the cool kids want to play. Without a doubt, the real estate industry has changed quite a bit in just the past few years. We are constantly told that approximately 90% of home searches begin online. If people are searching online, we darn sure better be there, right?

Maybe the internet isn’t your thing. You have a great sphere of influence, keep in contact with them and follow up better than the average agent. Awesome. The question is this. Do the people in your sphere use the internet to find information?

Having believed in the power of being found on the internet for quite some time, I have enjoyed many of the debate-able issues that come with it. For instance, many hard core search engine professionals will tell you not to use your name as your web site address. After all, what consumer will know to look for you when beginning their home search or when looking to sell a property? They say, get a good domain name with key words in the address. ie; HomesInMyFavoriteCity dot com. While many of the good domains are taken, you can still probably pick a niche and serve it well to rank in the search engines. However, if you own YourName.com, you can still have success marketing online.

What’s all of this got to do with you? Why might a real estate agent want their name to be able to be found on the internet? I recently heard a good analogy, it went something like this:

Let’s say you are thinking of selling your home. Since everyone in America knows approximately 9.3 ( just a guess ) real estate agents, you are sure to be able to find at least three candidates to interview. In the past, you might interview multiple agents and then choose the one who best fits your needs. The problem was, you had to say “no” to the agents that didn’t get the job. What if that person is a friend or relative? Awkward, right? Today, you might take a list of three or four agents and go online to see how your prospective new agent works or markets properties online. Basically, you can choose an agent based on what kind of information you find from the all-mighty Google.

So… Have you ever done it? Have you ever Googled yourself? Maybe you should! Hopefully, you will be able to find yourself and you will be happy with what is listed. Obviously, you will want prospective clients to see you as an expert in your field. Maybe you are a great negotiator, a great marketer, a great asset to your clients. Can anyone tell that from your presence on the internet? Let’s say the answer is no. Now what? Is that the end of the world? Probably not.

What are a few simple things you can do?

Most agents have a web site. Some are good, some are not so good. Finding your website should be easy. I’m a believer in owning your own content. Your web site or blog should be the center of your online world, the place where all other profiles point back to.

Once you have your web site properly optimized for whatever it is you want to be found for, add yourself to popular and well ranking sites like your Google profile, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and more. You don’t need to spend a lot of time on these, the set up is easy. I guess that will be another blog post for another day.

But this stuff is not hard, I promise.

About the author: Nick Bastian sells real estate in Tempe and works with Realty Executives. In his “spare time”, Nick writes a fun and informative blog about things happening along the Phoenix light rail line.

Time and Cost Effective Answer to Your Marketing Needs - FNT Online Print Shop

2011-02-11T09:05:00.000-08:00

If you’re like most people, your plate is MORE than full and you could benefit from shortcuts that streamline some of the time-consuming and often mundane, but never-the-less important facets of your life and/or job…

Well hold onto your SuperAgent capes, folks, and step into the wonderful world of Fidelity National Title’s Online Print Shop to answer your marketing needs in a snap! Or at least in a lot less time (and less $$$ ~ hooray!!) than one would usually spend!

The Fidelity National Title’s Online Print Shop offers stunning flyers, jumbo and quarter postcards, door hangers, business cards and mail merge letters - with 3,500 custom templates to choose from. Just sit back, enjoy your late night popcorn or morning latte, and as quickly as it takes you to choose your template, upload your photos, and add your text, you’ve just created a masterpiece of marketing! Addressing and mailing are also available.

Contact your Fidelity Sales Representative for more information or go to www.fntarizona.com and click Realtor Zone. Are you already in the know about and using this fabulous time saver?! If so let us know how the Print Shop has helped your business.

How Do I Market Short Sales?

2011-02-08T08:38:00.000-08:00

In Week Three of our Short Sale Series, we take a look at the question that plagues many REALTORS: How do I market short sales? Wendy Shaw of The Russell Shaw Group gives some firsthand advice.

Marketing Short Sales:
Looking for a secret recipe for marketing success? You’re out of luck. Think back to what you did to bring in traditional sellers. Do the same! You can choose to market, prospect or a combination of both. What does this mean? Marketing means getting your name out there and drawing the sellers to you. Prospecting is reaching out to the customer. Shaw recommends a platform where you employ marketing backed by prospecting for the best results. Marketing tools she has personally found to be effective -

• Short sale seminars: For sellers to even show up shows a level of commitment. Take advantage of this to feel out the possibility for a relationship, the level of commitment and then educate.

• Education: It can’t be stressed enough how important it is to educate your client. A shockingly high number of those who foreclose have not even spoken to an agent. Sellers don’t know their options. They don’t know what programs are available. This is where REALTORS come into play. REO agents MUST diversify their marketing efforts as it was discussed at the December Fannie and Freddie Panel at REOMAC that 50% of consumers default without ever talking to mortgage servicer. And about 60% of homeowners get foreclosed without even talking to REALTOR”.

• Educate, educate, educate!

Are Short Sales For You? Contract Philosphy

2011-02-04T10:03:00.000-08:00

In Part Two of our five-part Short Sale Series presented by Wendy Shaw, of The Russell Shaw Group, we take a look at contracts and identifying your contract philosophy.

Contract Philosophy:
When it comes to contracts, you can take three different approaches. You can choose to 1) Submit the first offer you receive and place additional offers in the queue, 2) Take the highest/best offer, 3) Require non refundable earnest money. You must decide the level of commitment you require to identify your contract philosophy– do you want to be married to your client (i.e. earnest money) or do both you and the seller agree to see other people (i.e. first offer submitted)?

Are Short Sales For You?

2011-01-27T09:15:00.000-08:00

Part 1 of our 5 part series "Short Sales in 2011"

Once unfamiliar territory for many agents, short sales are not going anywhere. At least, not anytime soon. Since 2007, the real estate market has experienced a definitive shift; more and more REALTORS’ business focuses on short sales and REO. If you’re a REALTOR you need to ask yourself - are you in the game? And if so, what can you do to take your business to the next level?

To help you take your business to the next level, we’ve taken the key leanings presented from a recent Fidelity National Title Short Sale Mastermind Group and created a valuable, exciting series that we’re excited to share. Wendy Shaw, of The Russell Shaw Group, a top expert in the field of short sales, along with attorney Mark Windsor of Winsor Law Group, lent their expertise to this frank discussion that takes a look at what’s on the minds of local REALTORS – challenges, successes, best practices and looking ahead to 2011. Here’s the first in a series of five that takes a look at Short Sales in 2011.

Are Short Sales For You?

Do you want a good year? Or a good career? Before deciding if short sales are for you, you must answer this question. If you’re looking for a good, or a great career, then embrace short sales. If you do your job, you’ll have a loyal group of clients for years to come.

If you’re already in the game, ask yourself: are you in a cul-de-sac or a dip? If you’re just going round and round in circles, maybe short sales are not for you. Or maybe you need to make some changes – i.e. revamp your admin staff, marketing dept, etc. At times there are definite lulls or “dips” but accepting those and looking to the future is the key to a skilled agent. If you decide short sales are for you, then commit! Now is the time for action; many agents have gotten out of the market and short sales have become much easier.

Do You Want To Be A Short Sale Expert?

2011-01-25T08:19:00.000-08:00

Fact: Distressed homes rose to a 36% market share in December from 33% in November, and 32% in December 2009. (RISMEDIA, January 21, 2011).

Fact: According to the National Association of Realtors’ most recent Realtors Confidence Index, 12% of all recent home buyers purchased their home through a short sale. (RISMEDIA, November 11, 2010)

Are you fully prepared to assist your buyers and sellers with the specialized area of short sales? Fidelity is pleased to inform you of an opportunity to participate in an open forum to assist you with your short sale challenges, presented by Brandi Johnson, a Bank of America senior negotiator. Some of the topics covered will be:

· The biggest mistakes agents make and how to avoid the pitfalls

· What you can do to expedite the short sale process!

· What are lenders really looking for?

· What is a short sale “deal-breaker”??

· Hot tips for your seller

· Does the Equator program make a difference?

Bring your questions and challenges, your appetite too, as lunch will be served. Seating will be limited; for reservations, please immediately call Jo Anne Atkins at (480) 308-9059.

When: January 25th, February 1st or February 2nd 12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Where: Bank of America Home Loan Center, 14850 North Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd., Scottsdale, AZ 85260

RE/MAX Panel of Stars Shined Bright

2011-01-24T07:27:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago we had the privilege of sponsoring the RE/MAX Panel of Stars. The event, held at the Renaissance Glendale Hotel and Spa on January 12, featured a panel of CyberStars and StarPower Stars that shared information on how to supercharge your business in 2011. Two of the panelists, Brett Ellis and Michael Maher provided great advice worth sharing.

Brett’s team consistently closes over 400 properties each year and is the Top Residential Real Estate Sales Team in Lee County, Florida. An accomplished author and a well-known national speaker focusing on Marketing Real Estate with Today’s Technology, Brett spoke about the importance of becoming an expert in your market by utilizing social media such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. He also stressed the the use of video in your real estate practice. His advice is to keep your videos simple and authentic, and to run your name and contact info at the bottom of the video.

Brett also spoke about the importance of blogging as the number one way to reach clients, pointing out that it is important to provide credible content.

Michael Maher is Tulsa’s youngest and most successful Realtor. He laid out a 7-Step Fresh Start – RESET Yourself plan:.
1. Define Your ‘Why’ – What provides you real satisfaction? Your 'Why' helps you persevere, provides a purpose and avoid burnout.
2. Stay Focused – Make your business fit your why; reduce interruptions, eliminate bad ideas, and realize good ideas might be bad for you (because they don’t fit your 'Why')
3. Set Up For Success – Obtain the tools you need to be efficient
4. Website Components – Make sure you have a good accessible menu bar; include video on website, add links that create trust and credibility. Clients come to websites for information, so don’t make your site all about you. Your homepage should have your contact info and links to social media pages.
5. Blogging is most important! – Blogging is more important than your website. Blogs help you build and maintain credibility, some people are using blogs as their homepage.
6. Include video on your website – This helps build credibility
7. Expand your network & knowledge

All good advice from top Real Estate Stars that you can implement in your own business!

Featured Tool of the Week - FIT

2011-01-19T08:27:00.000-08:00

Gone for the most part are the days of looking up a local business in the Yellow Pages… we go to the Internet instead. Who hasn’t used the ‘Net to check out restaurant reviews… book travel… shop… and that includes shopping for real estate. Consumers are searching the Web 24 hours a day, 93% of home buyers start their home search online.

And consumers are not just searching online, their online activity leads to transactions. Today 80% of all real estate transactions are generated on the internet. While the majority of real estate professionals have websites these days, 90% of Agents are not successful online. Only a small percentage of Agents are successfully generating business from their websites. The reason the vast majority of Agents don’t have the same success is because they don’t have the right tool in place to successfully market themselves on the internet at the highest level, and capture those valuable internet leads. Just being online doesn’t cut it anymore – you have to have the RIGHT tool.

To ensure you have the right tool in place that consumers most demand, and one that also provides the opportunity for you to leverage the abundance of online real estate leads and convert them into business, check out Fidelity Intelligent Technology ~ FIT.

FIT includes the following features:

- Full MLS search that includes state of the art mapping features and brands all of the MLS listings to YOU.

- Lead generation tools to capture those highly coveted internet leads.

- Pages that can be fully customized and countless widgets can be added.

- Blogging software and a blogging network that allows you to blog your own content or automatically pick up content from the network so you don’t need to do a thing!

Internet home buyers today aren’t just window shopping, they are taking action! 72% drove by a home they found online. 46% walked through the home. 90% of internet searches used an Agent, with close to a quarter finding their Agent online. Contact your Fidelity rep today to see how FIT can assist you in shaping up your Internet marketing strategy to market yourself at the highest level online!

Fidelity Data Shop

2011-01-15T14:21:00.000-08:00

It’s 11:30p, you’re still wide awake, and need to finish prepping for a listing appointment in the morning. Or perhaps you’re anxious to get underway finding a buyer for the new listing you signed tonight ~ hooray for you! But as available as your fantastic Fidelity Rep always is, you’re thinking perhaps it might be pushing it a bit to call at this late hour and request a Listing Kit… what to do, what to do?

Sign up for the upcoming Fidelity Data Shop webinar, and learn how YOU can pull online Listing Kits with property information. It couldn’t be easier ~ by simply submitting an online request form, within 2-3 days you’ll receive your user name and password which then provides you 24/7 access to obtain property profiles, comparables and neighborhood information. Pull and print at your convenience!

Learning more about this fabulous tool also couldn’t be easier ~ take the training online from your home or office. So mark your calendar for Wednesday, January 19, 2011, 2p – 3p. To sign up and reserve a spot, please RSVP by sending an email request to events-fntmarketing@fnf.com. We ask that you request a copy of the "Meeting Request" be sent to you. Once you receive and accept the meeting request it should automatically drop into your email calendar. You will also have the access information in the notes section of the meeting request. If you are unable to view the meeting request or it is a challenge to find the information in the meeting request - we can send it to you in a separate email.

Contact your Fidelity Sales Representative for further details.

Greening Your REO & Short Sales

2011-01-13T07:07:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, January 18, 2011, Class: 1pm – 4pm; Networking: 4pm – 5pm.

Held at Fidelity National Title, 11th Floor, 60 E. Rio Salado Pkwy., Tempe, AZ

Learn how to help your buyers and sellers use tax incentives, grants, utility rebates and energy efficient financing to purchase or sell distressed properties from Cheryl King, EcoBroker® certified, CDPE and licensed broker.

You’ll learn:
-What an energy audit is & how it can help sell more distressed homes.
-What an energy efficient mortgage is & how it can help sell more distressed homes.
-How to incorporate these powerful tools into your listing & buyer presentations.

Completion of this class provides 3 hours of General CE Credits in Arizona. Course cost: $25.00. Seating is limited to 50, please call 888.874.0574 to register.

Another exciting Webinar Wednesday: Preferred Text Network

2011-01-12T07:36:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, January 12 · 2:00pm - 3:00pm – online training

Technology is a beautiful thing… the ability to simply log on to your computer and participate in training about new and innovative tools, well, it’s just about as cool as shopping from the convenience of your own home. Almost!

This training provides you a tool that offers something valuable to your buyers & sellers! For buyers, this is a hassle free shopping tool, while providing you a buyer activity trail to see who is serious about buying and who isn’t yet, and incubates the shoppers. For sellers, it gets you in front of buyers, not shoppers and provides a more informed sale!

You’ll receive real-time buyer lead inquiries. Get to buyers before they’ve made a decision about financing.

And you’ll love that it’s FREE to you ~ yes, FREE!

This is 3-tools-in-one, all super simple to use: contact management (CRM), lead generation, and online marketing.

Free app store like the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android...many other apps coming that plug-in and are ready-to-go!

You can also get other professional info from your mobile: Retail/wholesale mortgage rates, property value, calculators, title fees—and more—via text, mobile web.

Please RSVP by sending an email request to events-fntmarketing@fnf.com. We ask that you request a copy of the "Meeting Request" be sent to you - Once you receive and accept the meeting request it should automatically drop into your email calendar. You will also have the access information in the notes section of the meeting request. If you are unable to view the meeting request or it is a challenge to find the information in the meeting request - we can send it to you in a separate email. Contact your Fidelity Sales Representative for further details.

Twitter: Why You Should Be Using It and How

2011-01-11T12:02:00.000-08:00

Twitter currently has about 15-20 million users and is continuing to grow rapidly each month. Starting as a simple messaging vehicle Twitter has now become one of the more common forms of communication for B2B, B2C and C2C. Twitter averages almost 40 million Tweets per day, and according to a survey conducted in May 2009, 51% of Twitter user respondents were between 35 and 54 years of age.

Millions of people actively use Twitter as a regular form of communication or medium for news, information and entertainment. In addition to the widespread usage of Twitter, the platform acts as a fantastic way to directly communicate with prospects and clients, and vice versa. Once an attentive audience is developed Twitter becomes a low cost marketing tool for communicating business related information to attain new clients and generate more revenue.

The first step is to set up a Twitter account and customize the Twitter page for consistent branding. Now it’s time to start tweeting! Much like every other aspect of social media, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to how you should run your Twitter account. However, there were some themes that held true in every conversation:

-Twitter has a 140 character maximum for tweets, so tweets need to be a single thought, link, or question
-Your tweets should fit with your brand’s voice.
-Your tweets should have a personal voice that meshes well with the brand voice
-Twitter is meant to be genuine and in real time, information you tweet needs to be current

Just keep in mind that Twitter, like all social media, is a great way to further engage customers, open up new conversations and keep information flowing.

One of the most overlook benefits of Twitter is the ability to do some search engine optimization. As the search engines continue to push forward with real-time search results and social search results, Twitter becomes increasingly important. So what are you waiting for, start tweeting!

You can follow us on Twitter @FidelityPhoenix.

Rise of New Home Sales in November Provides Positive Outlook for Home Builders in 2011

2011-01-06T07:51:00.000-08:00

Sales of newly built, single-family homes increased 5.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 290,000 units in November, according to newly released figures from the U.S. Commerce Department. The gain represents a partial bounce-back from a near-record low, downwardly revised number of new-home sales in October.

“While builders continue to face a great deal of competition from short-sale and foreclosure properties, the improvement registered in new-home sales in November is a good sign,” said Bob Jones, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). “With consumer interest in new homes expected to continue to revive as the economy and job markets improve, and inventories of new homes for sale near record lows, our concern now is that a lack of construction financing will keep builders from being able to expand the selection of what they have to offer buyers heading into the spring.”

“Builders in our latest surveys have indicated that they are starting to see more buyers who are seriously considering a new-home purchase, and the numbers showing that sales headed in the right direction in November bode well for what the future may hold,” agreed NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “The extremely low inventory of new homes on the market is also a positive sign that builders have been exercising tremendous caution with regard to new construction activity. That said, unless builders’ access to financing for new development improves, many will not have a product to sell when the opportunity arises, which in turn would slow a market recovery as well as potential job generation from new home building.”

This rise is attributed to sales increases in both the South, the nation's largest housing market, which saw a 5.8 percent gain, and the West, which saw an impressive 37.3 percent rebound over October.

According to the National Association of Home Builder (NAHB) the inventory of new homes for sale is now at an 8.2-month supply, at 197,000 units. This is the first time in 42 years the inventory has fallen below the 200,000 level.

Source: nahb.com

Real Estate Provisions Included in the Newly Passed Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act

2011-01-03T14:47:00.000-08:00

The recently signed HR4853, otherwise known as the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act, will extend Bush era tax brackets and a capital gains tax rate of 15 percent through 2011 and 2012.

It will also extend numerous energy efficiency credits through December 31, 2011 -- the Energy Efficient New Homes, Energy Efficient Existing Homes, and Energy Efficient Building credits. According to NAR the provisions included in HR4853 are as follows:

Energy-efficient New Homes Credit: A tax credit, based on numerous energy efficiency milestones, has been available to some home construction activities since about 2008. That provision had expired, but is now renewed through 2011. The credit is available to builders/manufacturers of new homes that meet the various milestones.

Energy-efficient Existing Homes: The tax credit for homeowners who make specified energy-related improvements to existing homes was scheduled to expire December 31, 2010. It has been extended through December 31, 2011. The qualified investments include replacement windows, doors, or skylights, some roofing materials and some heating and cooling equipment. The amounts of the credit vary depending on the asset and its energy rating as determined by the Energy Star program. The standards for qualified property are tougher than they were in 2010, so homeowners will need to exercise great care in their acquisitions. The credit is available only for improvements to a principal residence and only if the improvement is original to the property and only if the property will last for at least 5 years. The credit is not available if the improvement is financed using any form of subsidized energy program.

Energy-efficient Buildings: Owners of commercial buildings may qualify for tax credits for investments in designated insulation, windows and roofing improvements. Improvements to the heating/air conditioning systems, water heaters and air circulation fans may also be eligible for the credit. As with the home improvement credits, these credits require compliance with a variety of energy efficiency standards. Investors should exercise great care in determining what assets will satisfy the given criteria. The improvements must be in place on or before December 31, 2011.

NAR 2010 Homebuyer Survey Results

2010-12-15T12:29:00.000-08:00

NAR conducted their annual Homebuyer survey and the results for 2010 were just released. If you haven’t had a chance yet to review, below is an overview of some of the key findings.

- In 2010, first-time homebuyers constituted 50% of the market. There are a number of factors to explain this significant increase, one of which is that first-time buyers don’t have to sell a home before they can buy. Moreover, prices have been dropping while interest rates remain low by historical standards. Especially, government policies such as tax credits have played a major role.

- Only 4% of buyers purchased a home that had been foreclosed or that was in the process of foreclosure. That is actually lower than a couple of years ago. In 2010 a full 39 % of buyers did not even consider buying a home in foreclosure. Of those who did consider making such a purchase, but did not ultimately do so, the primary reason (26%) was that they simply could not find a home that was right for them. Nineteen percent did not purchase a foreclosure home because the process was too difficult or complex. Another 17% did not buy because the house was in poor condition.

- This year 74% of buyers said that they used the internet frequently during the search process, about the same as 76% last year. In 2003 that number was 42%.

- 36% of buyers went to the internet as the first step in the home search process. 19% contacted a real estate agent first, and 7% began by driving through neighborhoods looking for homes for sale.

- Buyers use multiple sources of information in the process of looking for a home. Far and away the most used sources are the internet (89%), real estate agents (88%) and yard signs (57%).

- Multiple Listing Service (MLS) websites were the primary source of information for buyers who used the internet in their search process. 59% of those buyers went to MLS sites. 45% used Realtor®.com, 43% went to real estate company websites, and 42% went to sites hosted by individual agents. Aggregators such as Zillow, Homegain, and Yahoo were visited by 41% of buyers.

- In 2001 only 8% of buyers found their home on the internet. In 2010 37% of buyers learned about their home through the internet.

- In 2001, a yard sign was the third most likely source of information leading to the home that was purchased (15%). This year it is still the third leading source at 11%. Print media may not be dead, but it has shrunk to insignificance in this arena. In 2001, 7% found the home they purchased through a newspaper ad; in 2010 it was 2%. Fewer than 1% found their home through a home book or magazine.