CONDO, WHAT IS IT??

For those readers who are not from the USA or Canada, this is an article about the Condos that are up for sale in Calgary. If CONDO sounds like a word from out of this planet, please remember that a Condo is not different from a Private Apartment. Just as a number of apartments are built in a real estate, a Condo is a collection of individual home units along with the land upon which they sit. Individual home ownership within a Condo can be interpreted as owning only the air space limited to the boundaries of the home. The boundaries of that limited space are specified by a legal document known as a Declaration, file of record with the local governing authority.

WHY CALGARY?

Calgary, lying at the tip of the Alberta Province in Canada was well known until the 19th Century for its Cattle ranchers. It was also nick named the Cow town. It was also widely popular for its 10 days event called Calgary Stampede attracts around a million tourists annually in July. But ever since the discovery of the rich oil reserve beneath this city, there was an exponential growth in the economy and subsequently, an increase in people’s standard of living. Unlike the big and developed cities like Toronto and Vancouver, Calgary is still in the development phase. Its exponential growth makes it a potential market to invest on real estates and the popular concept of putting up Condos for sale.

WHY BUY CONDOS IN CALGARY?

There are two potential reasons which could prompt you to buy a condo in Calgary:

a. The economic growth in this part of Canada is so huge that this city is constantly expanding across its breadth and width. Therefore, the prospect to build excitingly innovative Condos makes its even more interesting place to buy your property in that place of Calgary which might be easily accessible to your workplace

b. Also, people from outside Calgary would still want to look for Condos for sale in Calgary purely from an investment point of view. There is a huge demand for Condos especially from the international immigrants who come to Calgary to work in the Petroleum Industries.

c. Famous for the Greatest Outdoor show on earth, the Calgary Stampede during summer, many foreign tourists look for a place to stay to witness the famous 10 day event and the Condo type accommodations would suit them perfectly well. Also, during winter, quite a few tourists from the neighboring countries visit Calgary for skiing.

With the scope for an exponential growth in Calgary, purchasing a Condo of your choice in the location that you desire is without a doubt worth every penny you invest on!!

By: Mike Johnnson

If you think there’s no good way to increase your listings and sales you need to think again. The best real estate marketing idea going may be farming expired listings. Here’s why!

Expired Listings Are Hardly A Secret, But…
Expired listings are probably expiring from your Multiple Listing Service even as you read this article. It’s a common occurrence that happens daily, from coast to coast. Many agents know about them, yet choose to do absolutely nothing about it!

Many agents assume other agents will be farming them, which is exactly why farming expired listings can be so lucrative. If a majority of real estate agents assume other agents are pursuing them there’s no limit to how many you can covert to new listings!

So, although expired listings are hardly a secret, they are hardly over worked!

Expired Listings Are Plentiful
Just how plentiful are expired listings in your area. Let’s take a moment and find out.

1. Log into your listing system

2. Do a search for expired listings for all of last month

3. Now divide that number by the number of days in the month to get a sense of the average number of listings that expired daily.

No matter what the number is it represents an opportunity for an entrepreneurial type agent to create business where they had none before. Unlike what you might think, owners of expired listings are usually eager to get on with the business of re-listing and selling their properties.

Many are willing to make the kinds of concessions needed to get their homes sell during a new listing period. For example, they may be willing to paint the exterior of the house and do other things that create curb appeal, or reduce the price on their properties to make them more competitive during a new listing period.

Owners of expired listings can be some of the nicest people you’ll meet, and they make great clients. They’re usually Realtor friendly, knowledgeable about the listing and selling process and have a better appreciation of what it will take to get their properties sold during a new listing period.

Expired Listing Systems

When farming expired listings I recommend that you go with a proven real estate marketing script. Essentially, the system will contain step by step instructions on how to effectively convert expired listings to new ones. The better ones contain all of the letters, tools and information you’ll need to succeed!

Some expired listings can be pretty costly, but don’t get caught up in the mistaken belief the more expensive a product is the more effective it will be. On the contrary, simple and inexpensive can be deadly effective!

Conclusion

There are many good reasons why farming expired listings is a good real estate marketing idea, but it basically comes down to this! When you have listings you double your chances of making money, whereas no listings could amount to a short career in real estate sales.

By: Lanard Perry

Prospecting expired listings can be the core of anyone’s business in the real estate field. You can create a system that will give you repeatable results for your effort. Let’s look at these three very positive characteristics in prospecting expired listings.

They are easy to find: Expired listings come up everyday, so you will always have a handful that you can work with on a daily basis. They provide a steady stream of new leads to contact for listing appointments. There are also usually a few very heavy days each month. You will need to set your schedule to take advantage of these heavy days. The end of the month is one of the heaviest times for expired listings; up to 25% of the expired listings for the month may occur in just one or two days.

They want to sell: Expired listings were on the market at one time, unlike many other types of clients you will contact. The owners had a plan laid out to sell and move. Unfortunately, their plan did not work out, but, in most cases, they wish it had. There will be some expireds that were listed by clients who are now tired of the process, but the majority of them still want to sell.

The bulk of them are looking for an Agent: If the prospect still has the desire to sell, as most do, then they are searching for a new Agent. They are looking for someone who can solve their previous problem. Most do not know why their home did not sell, but they are frustrated with their previous Agent and sometimes all Agents. They will rarely return to their previous Agent.

The successful way to work expired listings is the CAP system:

Consistency

Attitude

Persistence

The first part is consistency: You must consistently work expired listings. For you to achieve a large return on your time invested, you must work diligently for a minimum of four weeks straight. Expired listings cannot be started and stopped without losing momentum. There is a rhythm and a flow to them. They must be a daily discipline that you work on. If you prospect them for two weeks, then take a week off, you are back to zero. I did not prospect weekends, but I did diligently call Monday through Friday.

Your leads must build, and your follow-up must grow. When you get down the road 30 plus days, you will begin to receive calls for listing appointments from your work earlier in the month as well as your appointments from new expireds. You must work to create a pipeline of expired listing clients.

The second part is attitude: Your attitude plays a crucial role in your success working with expired listings. You need to convey to the seller an attitude of compassion and problem solving. They are not just looking for someone to pound a sign in the ground; they are looking for someone to get their home sold; they are looking for someone to solve their problem. They can get even more resentful due to the high volume of Agents that may call them.

Many expireds feel that everyone else is the problem, when it is actually them and their price. When it comes to expired listings, price is the problem 90% of the time. You have to read the people you are meeting with regarding their home. Too many Agents who work with expired listings hit their prospective clients with a ball peen hammer between the eyes when it comes to the price. That will work with some and will fail miserably with others. You must be able to adjust your delivery.

You need to read the prospective clients, and, most importantly, you need to exude an attitude of caring and compassion for their situation, while conveying confidence in your ability to get the job done. Sometimes, the only way to get the price down is to convince them you care, and it pains you that they have to sell for less, but there is no other way. It is like the doctor who tells his patient she has cancer. He does not like it, but he has to do it, so he can cure her.

The last, and at times most critical, is persistence: Your persistence or ability to stick with it can have the most positive results of all. Many expired listings do not set appointments right away with Agents. Sellers will wait a week or two, maybe even a month. The number of calls they receive about their home drops dramatically as the weeks tick by. Do not be one of the Agents who drop off unless the sellers have low motivation or are unreasonable. Be one of the ones left standing at the end of a week or two.

Be persistent in your calling. Call them a few times a week. All you are doing is trying to set an appointment. You are not doing a listing appointment over the phone; just close for an appointment. That is what the call is for. You just want to be one of the three or four they interview. If you keep that as your goal, you will get plenty of salable listings.

Focus on the CAP system daily. Work both today’s expired listings, and the ones you gathered in the past. Effectively follow-up with your hot leads daily. Remember consistency, attitude, and persistence are the keys to prospecting expired listings.

By: Dirk Zeller

Commercial real estate is a special type of property that is normally marketed to an investor or a business. Failure to tap into that exclusive target means that the property will remain on market for some time and can become stale.

You have only one chance to sell or lease the property so the impact of your marketing campaign is absolutely critical in a short period of time.

So how long should a commercial property be on the market? Most properties should be structured to an intense marketing campaign of 6 to 8 weeks. If the property has not sold or leased during that time, then it should be removed from market for bringing back at a later time when circumstances have changed.

From the real estate agents perspective, a property marketing campaign has to satisfy a number of objectives. They are:
Build a significant long-term image of your real estate office in the current market. Sell the real benefits of the client’s property in a clear and precise way. Convey sufficient detail of rental, size, improvements, and opportunity that the property supplies the buyer or tenant. Strengthen and establish the attitudes of the market and the reader towards the property and its features. Ensure that the readers perception of the property is clearly established with accuracy and then encouraging them to make further enquiry. Ensure that a marketing campaign covers all the best media channels including both the traditional and the evolving electronic media. It is of note that newspaper marketing of commercial property is becoming less popular and less effective as the Internet and email takes over. At the end of the day, the best channel of property promotion is that which gives the best exposure and produces the best levels of enquiry in the available time frame. All good advertising campaigns are simply structured programs yet featuring the key and clear advantages of the property. Wordy adverts are usually not read and are counterproductive. Time is of the essence when someone reads your property advert. The marketing of a property should not simply be left to generic adverts placed in the media channels. The best property enquiry is sometimes generated from your own database and personal efforts. This then requires direct letters, direct telephone calls, and personal meetings. The quality of marketing material should be of the highest level at all times. Brochures, flyers, and information memorandums should be carefully laid out so that they communicate the correct message and attract the right enquiry. With all Property Marketing and particularly with commercial real estate, it is wise to test and measure the results that you achieve as you go. It is not unusual to change tactic midstream in the marketing campaign when enquiry is not being generated. Motivation is the key word when considering the marketing of property. If the advert doesn’t generate reader motivation to call to enquire about a property, then it is not achieving its primary focus. If this is the case, have a look at the message and the features of the property so that adjustments can be made in the advertising layout and the channels of media used.

To sell or lease a commercial property in a timely way, do not simply rely on the generic marketing processes. Take steps to sell the benefits of the property, and tap into its target market on a personal contact basis.

By: John Highman

As a real estate agent your business may be hitting hard by the current economic downturn. Your listings no longer sell and your buyers are taking forever to make purchase decisions. Meanwhile you still have to pay office expenses, broker fees, MLS subscriptions, board dues, etc. In this article I will discuss how you can earn extra income with your real estate license in addition to selling houses. Specifically I am talking about performing Broker Price Opinions (BPOs) for banks. I will also reveal a technique I personally use to grab those BPO orders before other agents do.

BPOs are basically mini Comparative Market Analysis (CMAs). Banks order BPOs whenever they want to know the value of the properties. This could happen in many occasions; for example, the owner could be applying for refinance, or the owner could be in default, or the property could be in foreclosure or in need of a short sale. Currently there is a huge demand for these BPO orders due to the foreclosure crisis. Since banks require BPOs to be performed by licensed real estate professionals, you can put your hard earned license to good use.

There are two types of BPOs. An exterior BPO does not require you to get into the property and typically pays $40 – $50. An interior BPO requires interior pictures of the property and typically pays $60 – $90. Granted you don’t earn a whole lot with each BPO order but keep in mind that a BPO can be completed in under an hour or so. Just do 3 to 5 BPOs a week will help pay for your basic expenses.

“Where do I find BPO orders?”

Although BPO orders are placed by banks, contacting banks directly would actually be a waste of time since most banks don’t handle them directly. Instead, they order BPOs through asset management companies. A quick way to find these companies is to Google “asset management companies bpo.” During your search you will come across some companies that are actually just directories. They usually require you to pay a fee to be listed as a BPO agent. They claim by listing on their directories the asset managers will find you. I have never had any luck with them so my advice is to save your money.

Once you find these companies you simply log on to their web site and register yourself as a “vendor.” You will be asked to fill out an online application with your information. Most companies will require a copy of your real estate license, your E&O insurance information, a W-9 form, and a list of zip codes or city names of the area you covered. Once you are registered, you will begin to receive emails whenever a BPO order becomes available. To maximum your chance of getting orders, you should try to register with as many companies as possible. I personally have registered with 15 companies and I know some agents have registered with over 50 companies.

One thing to pay attention to is that some of these asset management companies are so called “BPO shops” where they only handle BPO orders. Clear Capital is a well-known example of such company. On the other hand, some companies may also handle REO properties for banks. If you do a good job with your BPOs for these companies, you will have a chance of getting REO listings. Some companies such as Integrated Asset Services will give you the listing of the property that you performed a BPO on if that property ever becomes an REO. Thus if your goal is to eventually become an REO agent (which it should be as listing REO properties is EXTREMELY lucrative), then you may want to avoid those BPO shops and focus only on companies that can give you REO listings.

“OK. I got registered but I can’t get any BPO orders! What should I do?”

So you started to get emails of BPO requests. You were excited but when you replied to those requests you found the orders have already been taken by other agents. What happened? Well, when most asset management companies send out BPO requests, they don’t just send to one agent but to all agents that cover that particular city or zip code. Whoever answers the email first gets the order. You may be answering your email the second you get it, but your email program may only be querying the mail server every 30 minutes. So you could still be too late by the time you respond.

What can you do about it? Do you need to sit by your computer all day to respond to emails? Here is my solution. I use a separate email address specifically for BPO orders. Then have all emails sent to this address also forwarded to my cell phone email address. Most cell phone numbers have email addresses associated with them. For example, a Verizon Wireless cell would have an email address in the form of cellphonenumber @ vtext.com where “cellphonenumber” is the phone number. You can contact your cell phone service provider to get that information. Once it’s set up, every time a BPO request comes in, I get a text message to my cell immediately. I can then respond to the email right away. I have been able to get over 90% of BPOs since I implemented this technique.

You now have enough information to get into the BPO industry and the knowledge to beat out competitions. Start earning the extra money with those BPO orders when your regular business is slow and you may even be getting hundreds of REO listings in near future!

By: Leo Liu

Sun, sand and a whole bunch of fun stuff. If that is your cup of tea, then Virginia Beach is the place for you to be! A resort city, with miles and miles of beaches, excellent hotels and restaurants all along the oceanfront make it an ultimate long-vacation spot! Many of these hotels offer bay-view rentals. It is more optimal for you to rent a home in Virginia Beach if you want to explore all that the city has to offer.

You can rent a home in Virginia Beach or in any of the surrounding independent cities like Chesapeake, Hampton, Portsmouth and Norfolk. There is lots of recreational stuff in store for you. The numerous parks that the city offers have something for everyone. The city also has a few wildlife parks and a couple of museums to keep you entertained while you go hunting for those homes for rent in Virginia Beach.

Rent a home in Virginia Beach, Virginia and you get access to what is said to be the world’s longest pleasure beach! The beach has many water sports like kayaking, surfing, sailing, snorkelling, parasailing, etc. There are dozens of neighbourhoods where you could also search for homes for rent in Virginia-Beach.
You rent a home in Virginia, and you can experience a wide variety of entertainment.

Virginia-Beach is a great place for vacationing, for the young and old alike. You can catch a concert performance by internationally acclaimed artists at the Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach Amphitheatre. You may also want to check out the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Centre, which has a huge Norfolk Canyon Aquarium, containing deep ocean dwellers like sand tiger, different types of sharks, stingrays, etc. It also boasts of a huge sea-turtle aquarium, a jellyfish and octopus aquarium. You may also visit places of historical importance.

Virginia-Beach has retained its old world charm of the rustic lifestyle. So if you rent a home in Virginia, be prepared to leave behind your city life and to have a life of relaxation coupled with lots of fun. You can chose from a variety of mansions, condos, villas, private homes and other quality rentals. If you were into vacationing for quite a while, then it would be ideal for you to rent a home in Virginia-Beach, rather than getting into a hotel.

A walk along the nearly 3 miles boardwalk with its many street parties, games and rides, the Ocean Breeze water park, motor world, dolphin and whale sighting, and of course the long stretch the Atlantic Ocean, makes a stay at Virginia Beach a must. It is reasonable for you to just rent home in Virginia Beach, rather than book yourself into a hotel. Such rentals are perfect choices for accommodations.

By: Albert Caddick