Bedford NY Real Estate | Robert Paul Talks Life in Bedford NY

via inman.com

9 startups that are out to change the real estate business Company founders, CEOs detail their thinking At Real Estate Connect New York City, the founders of these technology startups shared how they intend to change the real estate business. Featured on this panel discussion are: Imraan Ali , co-founder and CEO, NuOffer Tony Cappaert , co-founder, Contactually Pierre Gaubil , CEO, Sensopia John Kobs , co-founder and CEO, Apartment List Anthony Longo , founder, BlockAvenue Bill Lyons , CEO, Revestor Jimmy Mackin , co-founder, Curaytor.com Drew Uher , co-founder and CEO, HomeLight John Williamson , CEO, Ucloser Real Estate Connect San Francisco takes place July 10-12 at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square. via inman.com

Once the hottest trend in real estate, single homebuyers find themselves trapped between soaring rents and stiff underwriting standards that make it tough for a single income-earner to qualify for mortgages that buy homes that will cost more tomorrow than they do today. In 2001, 27 percent of all homes were purchased by single homebuyers the real estate industry, from builders to brokers, catered to the new market with security features, gourmet kitchens and yards with little or no maintenance required, and sales promotions targeted at single buyers. However, the salad days of single buyers apparently are over. For 2012, the National Association of Realtors reported the highest share of married couples and the lowest share of single buyers since 2001. Sixty-five percent of recent home buyers were married couples-the highest share since 2001. Sixteen percent of recent home buyers were single females-the lowest share since 2001. Women always have dominated the single buyers’ mark...

Q: We own several large apartment complexes. After all that's happened recently, we have decided that we do not want firearms on the property. Can we prohibit tenants from keeping them on the premises? Our manager says no, that people have a constitutional right to keep arms. --Dave and Bea M. A: You do have a legal right to prohibit the keeping of firearms at your properties, just as you can prohibit tenants from keeping pets or parking oversize vehicles in your parking lots. Your manager's concerns are a bit off the mark: The United States Constitution (specifically, the Second Amendment, which concerns the people's "right to bear arms") is aimed at the government, not at individuals like you. So, while recent Supreme Court decisions have struck down attempts to restrict gun ownership, these cases have all involved states or localities whose laws have been found to infringe on the amendment. You are neither a state nor a locality. You are simply a...

Q: We own several large apartment complexes. After all that's happened recently, we have decided that we do not want firearms on the property. Can we prohibit tenants from keeping them on the premises? Our manager says no, that people have a constitutional right to keep arms. --Dave and Bea M. A: You do have a legal right to prohibit the keeping of firearms at your properties, just as you can prohibit tenants from keeping pets or parking oversize vehicles in your parking lots. Your manager's concerns are a bit off the mark: The United States Constitution (specifically, the Second Amendment, which concerns the people's "right to bear arms") is aimed at the government, not at individuals like you. So, while recent Supreme Court decisions have struck down attempts to restrict gun ownership, these cases have all involved states or localities whose laws have been found to infringe on the amendment. You are neither a state nor a locality. You are simply a...

Home prices in Pasadena rose last month, reflecting an ongoing trend in which a dwindling number of homes on the market has sparked bidding wars that drive up prices, according to the latest real estate figures. Despite the trend, median prices in surrounding communities did not fare so well. The median price of a single-family home in Pasadena was $599,000 last month, an 11% climb from $538,000 in December 2011, according to statistics compiled by Realtor Keith Sorem with Keller Williams Realty in Glendale. The median price of a condominium also increased slightly, from $400,000 in December 2011 to $404,000 last month. Meanwhile, the number of single-family homes on the market continued to slide. There were 115 homes on the market last month, a 54% tumble from the 249 homes a year ago. Condos saw a similar decline, from 174 in December 2011 to 99 last month — a 43% drop. But in San Marino , the median price of a single-family home fell nearly 17%, from $1.81 million in Decemb...

Last week Facebook launched Graph Search.  This is an attempt to turn Facebook into Google – i.e. make it a place where people go to ask questions, but with the supposedly added bonus that the information you receive is endorsed by people you know rather than people you don’t. This is a very important step, not just for Facebook, because it could come to be understood as one of the critical opening skirmishes in the Battle of Big Data.  How it plays-out could have enormous implications for the commercial future of many social media properties, including Google. This is how the Battle of Big Data squares-up.  On the one hand you have platforms, such as Google and Facebook, amassing  huge behavioural data sets based on information that users give out through their usage of these infrastructures.  Googlebook then sells access to this data gold mine to whom-ever wants it.  On the other hand you have the platform users, who, up until this p...

via businessinsider.com

The search engines are always changing, but link baiting strategies never die. Here are the three core elements of an effective link bait campaign, which will only be more vital in the year ahead: 1. Understand Shareability A link is, fundamentally, really just a social share from somebody who happens to run a website. While the platform (HTML) is different, the psychological forces in play are the same. Content that goes viral on social networks will tend to attract links as well. And, if you pay attention to social networks, you’ll notice that there are definite patterns. Most viral content has at least one of the following attributes: It’s opinionated The popularity of conspiracy theories on the Internet is perhaps one of the best examples of how bold opinions attract attention and propagate rapidly. A strong stance can alienate you from a large portion of your potential audience, but it can also expand your existing reach and strengthen your following. I...

Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed mortgages were unchanged this week, with the current rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace at 3.24 percent. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate hovered between 3.2 and 3.25 percent for the majority of the week, rising to the current rate this morning. “This past week rates remained flat, still buoyed by optimism that lawmakers might be able to reach a compromise on the fiscal cliff before year-end,” said Erin Lantz, director of Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. “However, as we enter the last week of the year rates may reverse course back downward unless lawmakers are able to quickly agree on a plan” Additionally, the 15-year fixed mortgage rate this morning was 2.59 percent, and for 5/1 ARMs the rate was 2.52 percent. What are the rates right now? Check Zillow Mortgage Marketplace for up-to-the-minute mortgage rates for your state. *The weekly rate chart illustrates the average 30-year fixed interest rate in six-hour interval...

Below is a list of cliches every creator should know when developing a web show or web series. Development is the first chance a show has to "get it right" or "get it wrong" before entering into production and ultimately published online. These tips on programming, format, audience and overall strategy will help you save time, money and increase your chance for web show success: 6 Cliches You Need to Develop Killer Web Show Content 1) "Two's a failure, three's a success" Your content should satisfy your brand, your audience and you personally. These 3 areas are the sweet spot of successful web content. Your brand is the channel, business or identity that you've created that exists when you're not in the room. Your audience is someone specific (#3 below). And YOU are the one who needs to be inspired to create the content consistently. A perfect example of this is ReelSEO's very own Creator Tip series. 2) "For every $1 spe...

Inventories continued to fall in November to record lows and the age of the nation’s listings inventory declined, but asking prices failed to rise as housing markets prepared for their annual wintertime hibernation. The total U.S. for-sale inventory of single family homes, condos, townhomes and co-ops dropped to its lowest point since 2007, with 1.674 million units for sale in November, down 16.87 percent compared to a year ago and more than 45 percent below its peak of 3.1 million units in September 2007, when Realtor.com began monitoring these markets. The median age of the inventory was also down by 11.4 percent on a year-over-year basis. The national for-sale inventory in November (1,674,412) decreased (4.69 percent) from what it was in October and was down by 16.87 percent on an annual basis. The large year-over-year decline in inventory is a positive sign that the market may have worked through much of its excess inventory, which should help to bolster housing prices and pote...

via usatoday.com

Nearly twice as many homes priced over $10 million were sold to Asians as Western Europeans in the US last year, while buyers from the Americas dominate a far greater share of the international sales for all price tiers than either Asians or Western Europeans. Of the 28 percent of international buyers measured by a recent Coldwell Banker International Previews survey of its agents, 39 percent come from Asia and only 20 percent come from Western Europe.  Coldwell Banker did not break down its data by country of origin. Asians have been gaining in their share of all price ranges but are not nearly as dominant as the lower tiers as they are in the ultra luxury category, as reported by last June by the National Association of Realtors in its annual Profile of International Home Buying Activity.  According to the NAR report of all price ranges, market share of purchases by buyers from China, Japan and India have increased from 12 to 18 percent since 2007.  Chinese purchas...

via housingwire.com

via marketwatch.com

via readwrite.com

Reading the headlines this week, you might get the impression that the country was hurtling towards a huge deficit catastrophe on Dec. 31. From the front page of Thursday’s New York Times (“Back to Work: Obama Greeted by Looming Fiscal Crisis”) to today’s Wall Street Journal (“Pressure Rises on Fiscal Crisis”), the rhetoric suggests that the U.S. is facing a crisis akin to problems that have engulfed Europe. (A Yahoo  headline  from 2011: “The U.S. Fiscal Crisis: Just Like Greece, With One Exception.”) In fact, the problem with the fiscal cliff is precisely the opposite: The tax hikes and automatic spending cuts that would kick in after Dec 31 would sharply curb our federal deficit through enacting major, sudden austerity measures that would save the U.S. government about $720 billion in 2013 alone, according to the Bank of America’s estimates, which would be about 5.1 percent of GDP. “If we let all of those changes [happen], there would be a sharp reduction in the...

Entrepreneurs, by nature, are do-it-yourself people. Not a bad thing. While that trait may serve you in many areas there’s one where it actually works against you: Marketing. Here’s five reasons why. 1)   You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know. While you might feel savvy after reading a couple marketing books or listening to a savvy marketing guru, it doesn’t compare to working with a qualified team or consultant with great experience and a great record. You simply don’t know what you don’t know, and if you do it yourself, what you don’t know will hurt you. Like having a tag-line that makes no sense, or sends a wrong message. Like pouring money into SEO or your website when the better focus is Content Marketing and improved organic search. Like not realizing you need video. Or having a self-produced video that’s so unprofessional it works against you. The list goes on. 2)   A Business Owner Can’t Be Objective. Passionate business owners tend to be absorbed by the...

If all you wanted to do was to reduce the deficit as quickly as possible, here’s one very simple way to get it done: Go off the fiscal cliff. (Source: Mark Lennihan / AP) Do so would result in about $720 billion in total austerity in 2013, and it would bring down the deficit that year in some of major ways, including $180 billion from income tax hikes, $120 billion in revenue from the payroll tax, $110 billion from the sequester’s automatic spending cuts, and $160 billion from expiring tax breaks and other programs, according to Bank of America’s estimates . So when businesses and politicians fret about the economic fallout from the fiscal cliff, they’re reacting to the consequences of dramatic deficit-reduction in the short-term. It would save the government hundreds of billions of dollars next year, but would also take away the equivalent 4.6 percent of GDP through tax hikes and spending cuts—a sharp fiscal contraction that economists say would be a drag on growth in a stil...