When examining the different asset classes, real estate is generally far less volatile than shares and real estate tends to be the haven that investors flock to when other asset classes are suffering.

It is true to say that investment properties can have many benefits in terms of building long-term wealth, but we must never forget that this wealth is not guaranteed!

Following the global real estate boom of the late 1980’s many investors learnt this hard lesson when they found their properties were worth far less than they had actually paid for them and the bottom seemingly fell out of the over-inflated market. The bottom did not truly fall out of the market however as all real estate retained value; the real estate market simply experienced an overdue rebalance and has gone on to build from this point of stability.

Since the booming 80’s ‘sensible’ investments in real estate have still offered major attractions and advantages, and it is back to real estate that investors have turned in recent years.

With real estate prices in some countries soaring, and first time buyers struggling to get onto the first rung of the real estate ladder, many people are looking further a field for investment property opportunities.

A recent report in the UK highlighted a 130% rise in the value of farmland since the 1990’s for example – fuelled entirely by a new breed of non-farming buyers. With bricks and mortar real estate prices in the UK now so exorbitant, these non-farming buyers are looking for alternatives for their money.

They may be unable to afford real-estate investments and unwilling to risk their cash on the ever volatile stock market and so they are buying up fields and pastures to get in on the real estate investment game!

Others interested in property investment have been examining the real estate markets around the globe for value for money, return on investment, potential for growth and development, rental market opportunities and basic stability. With current research showing that up to one in eight Britons intend to purchase an overseas real estate within the next five years you can see that overseas real estate investment is very big business.

Relatively newly discovered property markets are opening up or expanding in countries such as North Cyprus, South Africa and Bulgaria for example – where potential buyers are afforded incredible value for money when it comes to real estate. The real estate market in countries such as these has been artificially restricted through the threat of war or political instability, and now with their recent history showing that they are stable countries with strong economies and populated and governed by those with a first world perspective, property investors are finding markets rich in diversity and potential.

Dubai is another country offering interesting real estate investment opportunities. Since May 2002 when the crown prince of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoom issued a decree allowing foreigners the right to buy freehold real estate there, the real estate market has exploded!

Properties available in Dubai range from modest one bedroom flats to freehold exclusive islands! And property there still offers very good value for money – furthermore the tax and business advantages in Dubai are very appealing and so real estate investment in Dubai is enjoying a buoyant upward trend.

And then there are the ‘old’ favourites – France, Florida and Spain for example are all countries with a long history of investment real estate appeal - especially for Britons and Northern European residents looking to escape the weather and invest in a home in the sun. Whether you are looking to secure a home for holidays, your retirement or you are looking for a long term investment opportunity these countries still offer the investor potential for real estate growth.

When it comes to considering real estate as an investment vehicle it is a tried and tested method used for attempting to secure long term gains – but as with any investment, gains, returns and security of investment are not guaranteed. Whether real estate investment is right for you and matches your circumstances and attitude to risk is something that you need to consider.

For everything there is a time and a season — and late fall isn’t the season to be selling a home.

When thoughts turn to turkey, mistletoe and cozy evenings by the fire, the last thing people want to do is get out boxes and start throwing things in them — except, of course, when they’re wrapping last-minute holiday gifts. Moving seems like too much of a hassle during the holidays. If ever there was a time to take your house off the market and let your listing “refresh,” this is it.

Why should this matter when think you’re going to sell to a builder? Because you probably won’t — at least not directly. Unless your house sits on a large, subdividable parcel of land, you will likely sell to a buyer who’ll hire a contractor later.

With the housing market cooling very rapidly, finding a builder who’s willing to take on a speculative project is going to become more and more difficult. The rate of single-family starts fell 41.2% to 1.53 million this month, and permits have nose-dived, according to the National Association of Home Builders. New single-family home sales hit an annual rate of 1.075 million in September, down 14.2% from the same month a year before, according to government statistics. Until the housing market recovers from its current slump — which some housing economists don’t think will happen until 2009 — even small builders will be fixated on getting rid of their existing backlog of properties, not starting new ventures.

Which is why I wouldn’t spend the holidays baking sugar cookies if I were you. Use the time while your house is off the market to create a more aggressive marketing plan, one that throws your net as wide as possible. Yes, you or your real estate agent should be contacting local builders who have customers in the pipeline and just need a lot, but you should also be canvassing remodelers, antique-store owners, neighbors and others who might know someone who’d like a smaller, older home. After all, you can’t be sure your house will be torn down — new owners might decide to renovate it instead.

With that in mind, spend some time cleaning and decluttering your home and keeping the landscape trimmed, even if you don’t want to spend the money and effort to replace outdated items that buyers care about, like flooring, countertops, roofing and appliances. If the new owners only care about the land and don’t plan to keep the house, they’ll likely pay more for a property that you obviously have loved.

– June Fletcher is a staff reporter at The Wall Street Journal. Her “House Talk” column appears most Mondays on RealEstateJournal.com.

Mastering effective phone selling techniques can be a challenge, but if your business depends on your ability to be a dynamic phone salesperson, you can learn the skills required to succeed. There are a few rules to follow that will increase your telephone sales 10 fold, and present you to clients on the phone as professional, organized, friendly and informative.

Organization Skills: If you are organized, you will always have a better sales call. Have all your paperwork at the ready including sell sheets and product information. This will also allow you to answer questions quickly and accurately.

Grad Attention in Seconds: You only have 5 seconds to grab the attention of the person you are calling and establish an easy rapport. Since you cannot use your smile or body language to put the caller at ease, it must be conveyed through the tone and confidence of your voice. Know your product and do not sound scripted. This is the fastest way to end a sales call. Prepare your sales script carefully and ensure the first 5 seconds of the call are productive and allow you to continue.

Be Mindful of the Time: Remember that when you call a potential client, you have interrupted something else they were doing. Be respectful of the time. Let them know you are aware of this and appreciate the time they are spending talking with you.

Don’t Ask Yes or No Questions: Always ask open ended questions that help you move the sale along. Do not ask yes and no questions that will set you up for a short call. The client will also sense that you care about what they need through the use of open ended questions, and they will be more likely to listen to you and possibly buy what you are selling.

Calls with a Purpose: Always let the person know immediately the reason you are calling. This will set the stage form the beginning and the person will know what to expect. Remember that if the person is truly not interested, there is no point wasting your time or theirs. Always keep in mind that it is a business call. Although you may want to warm up the conversation with a little friendly banter, as soon as possible get right down to business. The longer you keep someone on the phone without a discussion about the product, the less likely you are to make a sale. Efficiency also builds credibility with the client, letting them know that you value their time and want to assist them as quickly as possible.

Leave the Door Open for Recall: Even if you have made a sale, you should always leave the door open to place a follow-up call to the client. You do not need to make another appointment to call unless you did not make the sale. However, having the person’s permission to call again, if necessary makes it that much easier the next time you have a product that you may want to present.

Always Follow Up: Always be true to your word. If you have told a client you will call back on Tuesday at 5pm, make sure you call back on Tuesday at 5pm. After spending a great deal of time and effort on this person, the last thing you want to do is loose credibility because you did not follow through on your commitments.

The primary objective of customer service is to answer client questions and resolve issues to make your clients experience buying from you as pleasant and as painless as possible. It is also an ideal opportunity to sell to the client if done with tact and professionalism. Since the company long term goal is keep the client and ensure their satisfaction, customer service selling must be done with a soft sell approach, one which the client regards as being helpful instead sales oriented. There are several ways to strike a healthy balance between customer service and sales. Here is some excellent customer service selling tips that might help you!

Customer service selling requires that you have intimate knowledge of the business, the product line or services, pricing and terms. It is crucial that you appear professional and knowledgeable when trying to sell a current client a product or service via your customer service role.

Maintain a good relationship with customers from the start, always holding a balance between your customer service role and your sales role. This can be difficult to achieve but once accomplished will lead to many successful sales.

Don’t use a sales approach with existing clients. Instead treat them like an old friend, using a friendly, non-sales tone of voice. Avoid using jargon when describing products and benefits and go easy on the sales hype. Existing clients are much easier to sell to if they feel that you are offering something of value that they need. Never talk down to the customer or make the customer feel patronized. It is the quickest way not to make a sale.

Never promise something that you cannot deliver. If you offer the client free warranty for 24 months and free delivery, you better make sure that is what the client receives. A client that is dissatisfied or feels cheated is hard to turn around. It is a lot easier to get it right the first time. Never make empty promises that you cannot fulfill, just for the sake of making a sale.

Always make the customer feel that you are presenting something that will add value or benefit existing products or services. Take the time to explain the advantages to the client and why you are offering this ‘special deal’ to them at this time. By making the client feel that you are concerned about their overall satisfaction, you have won half the battle. Courtesy and genuine concern costs you nothing but could gain a great deal of repeat business, on this call and in future.

Be clear about what the client is purchasing and at what cost. Make sure your customer has a firm understanding. What you don’t want is a customer calling back and speaking to someone else, perhaps a supervisor, because they feel they were bamboozled into buying something that they didn’t need in the first place.

Remember always that the first priority is to keep the client. The second priority is to up sell this client and sell additional company product or services.

More American homeowners are slipping behind on their monthly mortgage payments, especially those who had subprime credit histories and scores when they applied for their loans. Roughly one of every 20 homeowners with a mortgage — 4.7 percent — was at least 30 days late during the third quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s national delinquency survey released last week. The survey examined payment performances on over 42.6 million active home mortgages.
One of every eight borrowers with subprime credit histories was late during the same quarter. Subprime borrowers who took out adjustable rate mortgages were even more likely to be behind — one in every seven were delinquent last quarter.
In economically hard-hit areas, such as the industrial upper Midwest, late payments were far more commonplace. In Michigan, for example, 21.5 percent of all subprime homeowners with adjustable-rate loans were delinquent, and one of every 10 were in the process of foreclosure. In Indiana and Ohio, 17.5 percent of subprime ARM borrowers were late, and more than 10 percent of them in foreclosure.
Katrina-ravaged Mississippi (27.3 percent delinquency rate) and Louisiana (24 percent) also registered exceptionally high rates of late payments on subprime ARMs.
Even homeowners with the best credit — so called prime borrowers — saw their delinquency rates inch up in the latest survey: 2.4 percent were 30 days late or more during the third quarter versus 2.3 percent in the preceding quarter. Prime borrowers in a handful of states — primarily in the Western region — continued to lead the nation in on-time mortgage payment performance.
In California, just 1.1 percent of prime-credit homeowners were late on their monthly payments — less than half the national delinquency rate. In Hawaii, the rate was 1.2 percent and in Oregon 1.3 percent.
Contrast that with prime borrowers in Puerto Rico, where 8 percent were delinquent by 30 days or more. Or Mississippi (6.1 percent), Louisiana (5.6 percent), Michigan (3.8 percent), Ohio (3.7 percent) and Indiana (3.6 percent.)
Though the overall trend in delinquencies is upward, Mortgage Bankers Association chief economist Doug Duncan said the slightly higher rates were expected as the housing boom wound down. They are also well below the recent high points reached during the 2001-2002 period.
The subprime late payment jumps, however, “were noticeably larger” than projected, “particularly for subprime adjustable rate mortgages.” The reason for the spike: “subprime borrowers are more likely to be susceptible to the cumulative increases in (short-term) rates we’ve experienced, and the slowing of home price appreciation that has resulted,” said Duncan.
But “it is important to remember,” he added, “that delinquency and foreclosure rates have been quite low the last two years.”
The national foreclosure rate of 1.05 percent during the third quarter was up slightly compared with the same period the year before. But today’s rate is well below the 1.6 percent level reached in early 2002, when subprime foreclosures hit 8 percent.
The practical effect of the higher delinquency rates in the subprime sector: Higher rate quotes for new subprime mortgage applicants. Subprime loans traditionally have been priced at 2 to 3 percentage points above prime. Now that gap is likely to increase, said Duncan, as “investors demand higher returns in the form of wider credit spreads, particularly for (subprime) loans originated in the second half of 2006.”
http://www.RealtyTimes.com

Designing a good brochure is not work of a single individual. It combines the work of knowledgeable and proficient writers, designers, and printers. It is a collective process. To have a good brochure for your store is a first step and decisive step in marketing. As saying goes “Well begun is half done”, your marketing efforts are on a right footing with a brochure. Brochures help you in advertising your supermarket in the best possible way. Read the rest of this entry »

The population of the United States reached 300 million on Tuesday at 7:46 a.m. EST

Population hit 200 million in 1967. Here’s a quick look at how the U.S. has changed in 39 years, in terms of new home prices, population density, and household growth.

1967 2006

US Households (Millions) 59 113

Price of a new home (dollars) 24,600 290,600

Home Ownership Rate 63.6 68.9

People Per Sq. Mile 57 84

One-Person Households 15.5% 26.6%

Five-Person Households 10.6% 6.3%

Source: Associated Press (10/14/2006)

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Oct. 16, 2006-

A recent survey conducted by Move, Inc. reveals that homebuyers and renters in the pre- and post-move cycle spend approximately $170 billion annually on move-related products and services.

Move’s 2006 Mover Survey examined nearly 40 purchase categories and found that, in the months surrounding a move, the average household spends nearly $9,000 on products and services that are linked directly to the move.

Approximately half of the moving-related expenditures are spent on a variety of household goods and services, including home decorating, improvement and repair. Movers spend 60 percent more on such purchases than non-movers. The rest of the moving-related expenditures are spent when switching to new merchants for services like banking, cable or satellite TV, telephone service and Internet access. Movers also switch to new grocery stores, insurance companies, auto mechanics and pharmacies. Read the rest of this entry »

Article of the Week: Real Estate Industry

Boomers are redefining the ‘golden years’ by buying into communities that feature Pilates over shuffleboard, moving back downtown—or even staying put

By Daniel McGinn and Andrew Murr – Special to NEWSWEEK/MNBC

Oct. 23, 2006 issue - The 3,000-acre site west of Phoenix isn’t much to look at—not yet, anyway. Far from urbanity, past a highway sign warning no services next 38 miles and amid acres of saguaro cactus and creosote bushes, only a few streets have been built and a few foundations poured. But last week the Del Webb division of the homebuilding giant Pulte Homes Inc. closed on its first house here at the foot of the White Tank Mountains.

The company hopes 7,200 other “active adult” households will join this new neighborhood, called Sun City Festival. There will be no shuffleboard courts or bowling alleys, the hot amenities when retirees began coming to communities like this nearly a half century ago. Instead, there will be the accouterments better suited for modern-day retirees: Pilates classes, home offices, high ceilings and marble countertops. They’re all part of the plan builders are using to custom-build a lifestyle that calls out “Home Sweet Home” to aging baby boomers. Read the rest of this entry »

Nightmare Mortgages

They promise the American Dream: A home of your own — with ultra-low rates and payments anyone can afford. Now, the trap has sprung…

For cash-strapped homeowners, it was a pitch they couldn’t refuse: Refinance your mortgage at a bargain rate and cut your payments in half. New home buyers, stretching to afford something in a super-heated market, didn’t even need to produce documentation, much less a downpayment.

Those who took the bait are in for a nasty surprise. While many Americans have started to worry about falling home prices, borrowers who jumped into so-called option ARM loans have another, more urgent problem: payments that are about to skyrocket.

Read the rest of this entry »