Saul Klein To Head Point2 Technologies

Technology allows Saul Klein to run Internet Crusade while on the road three weeks a month. Now it can help him run Point2 Technologies as well.

Point2 first got on residential real estate's radar with free websites for agents and free uploads to the site's "NLS," a national MLS-type search feature for consumers.

But free isn't a compelling business model, even though the company boasts 165,000 subscribers to free services from over 85 countries. So the five investors at Point2 cleaned house of about 10 percent of its workforce, including upper management, and is starting over with a veteran of the real estate industry at the helm.

What's not known is how many agents are paying Point2 for upgrades to their free websites. Klein guesses about 80 percent, but if the company were really doing that well, it would be outperforming Realtor.com, the undisputed king of the free-to-upgrade agent/broker lead generation business model.

That aside, Klein says Internet Crusade and Point2 Technologies have enjoyed a strategic partnership for over a year. "We know them," he says, and he's very comfortable with the company's prospects.

Point2 got its start with Caterpillar providing the company with a means for equipment owners to post their heavy machinery for sale online. The model was scalable to real estate, but right now the field is crowded with "free" listing uploads.

How Klein plans to make a difference, he says, is:

1. people - staff is most valuable resource and of course, customers

2. customer service

3. revenue - finding opportunities within the company for creating packages and new revenue streams

4. alliances - within the industry of brokers, other companies

Klein says he will reduce his road schedule for 2008 and divide his time between Saskatoon, San Diego and his speaking engagements. He starts the first of January.

Real Estate Designers offers totally innovative solutions for your software development, Internet programming, real estate web design and hosting needs. Our service includes domain name registration and real estate web design. Real Estate Designers provides the complete solution including design, application development and marketing.

source: homes101.net

Inflation Report Signals Tougher Credit Ahead

It turns out the Fed was right and Wall Street was wrong. Inflation is a real threat, big enough to impact consumers more than previously thought.

The Fed was heavily criticized for not lowering short-term interest rates more than 25 basis points, and now it's probably glad it didn't.

The Labor Department reports that wholesale prices rose 3.2% in November -- that's the biggest growth since August 1973.

Not surprisingly energy costs are also at record highs. Since 2002, the cost of oil has more than tripled. The only surprise is that higher energy costs haven't worked through producer prices sooner.

The trouble is, the consumer is already overburdened with the responsibility to keep the economy going. We've been at zero savings for nearly three years. We're defaulting on our homes and we're starting to default on our credit cards, too.

Just when credit is about to get more expensive.

That's the worst news possible for housing.

Thanks to federal interference, money is about to flow a little easier, but that won't offset higher interest rates.

That means more pressure on buyers and sellers.

Keep in mind we're having a housing recession while mortgage interest rates are at near record lows.

This time, borrowing rates aren't going to save the day. The only thing that will help more houses change hands is less inventory and lower prices.

If you're a seller, get ready to negotiate, and stop thinking of your home as your ATM and retirement fund.

Buyers, get off your backsides. The cost of credit is not going to get better for a long time, if at all.

And Realtors, stop taking overpriced listings. You'll be doing your market a favor. The sooner houses start moving, even at lower prices, the better for all buyers and sellers down the road.

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source: homes101.net

Real Estate Outlook: Economy Solid and Encouraging

Despite the impressions you might get from the network news, the U.S. economy continues to churn out solid, even encouraging, numbers -- and that's important for anyone interested in real estate.

Last week the federal government reported retail sales up by 1.2 percent in the past month, strong growth in new jobs, exports and household incomes. These are the very economic fundamentals that create an underlying base for a national recovery in housing and real estate.

Take away these supports, and it would be much tougher to pull housing, which as we know is well into its post-boom correction cycle, out of the slump.

But all these positive federal numbers last week had a curious effect on the financial markets: When the economy looks like it's expanding a bit faster than Wall Street expected it to, investors sometimes begin to worry about the "I" word-inflation -- and interest rates tick back up a little.

That's precisely what happened, even in the face of the Federal Reserve's quarter-point reduction in short-term rates. Thirty year fixed mortgage rates edged up over 6 percent, and fifteen year rates jumped to 5.75 percent.

But the fact is: rates this low are great for anyone looking to buy a house. They are nearly at two year lows; and barely half a point higher than their 40 year lows. So maybe it was no surprise that despite the slight rate increase, mortgage applications rose last week rather than fell.

Maybe people are beginning to get the picture: Low home prices combined with low mortgage rates means potentially excellent buying opportunities!

Certainly the latest report from the National Association of Realtors bears this out: Pending home sales rose for the second straight month -- and were up by 16 percent in the Northeast region and 8.4 percent in the West.

We all know that housing still has a long way to go to full recovery, but Dr. Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, believes that "the worst of the credit crunch has already worked its way through" the system ... and home sales should not only bottom out but register a modest increase sometime during the next 12 months.

We'll keep you posted on all of this in upcoming reports.

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source: homes101.net

Mortgage Rates Tick Up Slightly As Housing Continues to Show Weakness

McLEAN, VA -- Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.14 percent with an average 0.4 point for the week ending December 20, 2007, up from last week when it averaged 6.11 percent as well. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.13 percent.

The 15-year FRM this week averaged 5.79 percent with an average 0.4 point, up from last week when it averaged 5.78 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 5.89 percent.

Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) averaged 5.90 percent this week, with an average 0.5 point, up from last week when it averaged 5.89 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 5.96 percent.

One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 5.51 percent this week with an average 0.6 point, up from last week when it was 5.50 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 5.44 percent.

"Stronger-than-expected inflation reports and retail sales for November put upward pressure on long-term interest rates late last week," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. "However, ensuing data releases suggested further weakness in the housing market over November and December and allowed interest rates to drift back down. The net effect left mortgage rates little changed this week."

"Both the producer and consumer price indexes jumped for the month of November, implying inflation may still be a threat to the economy while retail sales increased twice as much as market forecasts, reflecting healthy consumer spending. At roughly the same time, single-family housing starts fell 5.4 percent in November to 829,000, the slowest pace since April 1991, and homebuilder confidence in December held for the third consecutive month at the lowest level since records began in January 1985."

Real Estate Designers offers totally innovative solutions for your software development, Internet programming, real estate web design and hosting needs. Our service includes domain name registration and real estate web design. Real Estate Designers provides the complete solution including design, application development and marketing.

source: homes101.net

Filling a Realtor Seminar in a Tougher Market

Real estate seminars can be used to gain notoriety for a local affiliate or even a real estate company. Through the years, the seminars have been extremely successful for both, but a constant challenge remains -- filing the room.

We consistently hear the horror stories of some speakers who use the platform to sell their products all day or to deliver message that might not have been worth the time invested by the real estate agent. However, when the speaker is great and the speaker is on target, a real estate seminar can be just the ticket to inspire, motivate, recruit, give you instant name recognition, and cement alliances.

Here are the items that I always suggest to our clients on how to fill the room:

1. Make certain you have a passion for changing the lives of the real estate agents who will attend. Make certain that the speaker can customize the talk to the geographical area and the current business conditions.

Be sure that the talk is exciting enough to inspire top producers and add value to their business plans. The speaker's ideas need to be easy to implement so the newer and middle-of-the-road agents will walk away with career-changing tools, also.

2. Decide on a date that will not be competing against any other events. Golf tournaments, board events, and major franchise conventions are all potential items that can drain the "Realtor pool." Make certain there are no sales meetings or property tours. Usually a half day seminar seems to be the best attended, because hard working agents in a tough market find it difficult to block out an entire day. We have found that mornings usually work best for seminars with a schedule of 9 am to 1 pm.

3. Get a great room! The average real estate seminar is somewhere around 250 real estate agents. I have done numerous seminars where there are 1,000, but I've also had a few "clunkers" where only 35 show up! If you follow the items on this checklist, you can expect an attendance of 200 to 300 in average-sized cities. Be sure the room is big enough to accommodate your anticipated attendance, but also make certain that the facility is flexible enough to remove chairs, if needed.

We don't want a lot of empty chairs at the last minute. Even if the total seminar only has 100 people attendance, making the room set for 100 will give the room a full look and help to create an excited energy! Make sure there is enough parking and make sure the venue makes you look good. You don't want a venue that is dark, smelly, or depressing! Please consider the fact that you are going to be attracting Realtors® from around the area (especially when you choose a well-known, national speaker) so choose a venue that is centrally located.

4. Book a great speaker! There are a lot of great speakers who have been speaking for years. Try to book a speaker who has massive experience in buying and selling "in the trenches." Agents respect a practitioner more than someone who is simply filled with theory. Book someone with real-life systems, strategies, and ideas that will help them in buyer and seller lead generation, buyer and seller conversion, marketing, closing systems, and personal wealth building. Once again, a speaker who is world class in each of those items is who you need to lead your seminar.

5. Make sure to feed the top agent's egos by sending them a hand-signed letter. We have some great examples of these letters. When a top agent receives a personalized letter extolling the virtues of being an agent of their status and inviting them personally, you'll find that it will go a long way in exciting them about attending. Be sure to mention that their assistants are welcomed to attend since they will be integral in the implementation of the new ideas learned in the seminar.

6. Try to get the local MLS board involved. You can mention their name on the tickets, flyers, and all other promotional items. A board is very excited about providing value to its membership, especially about the time when dues are due! The board has access to the E-mail lists to every real estate agent in the area, and they can E-mail information about the seminar with links to your website. This support and backing is extremely helpful, and of course, the board would be doing a great service to its membership with an E-mail blast every three to five days. Furthermore, board involvement adds credence and class to any event.

7. Develop great marketing materials. (For samples, go to waltersanford.com). Make sure that the time, date, venue name, venue address and phone number, directions, contact information, and salient bullet points are all included.

Create a seminar based upon items that are immediately necessary for agents to thrive in the immediate market is something that can be accomplished in a phone conference between you and your speaker. You might also want to mention on the flyers that a continental breakfast and/or coffee will be served. These flyers can be developed from the E-mails and your web page as both of them have virtually identical information.

8. On all E-mails to potential attendees, please be sure to include a link to your sign-up page. The sign-up page can be a page on your website extolling the benefits of attending the seminar including some of the topic highlights, allowing the agents to sign-up by simply clicking a button. This is an easy job completed by your webmaster, and it will allow you to easily get a list of attendees to follow up with before the seminar.

9. Start looking for strategic sponsors who might also gain credibility and recognition by servicing a room of real estate agents.

We have already mentioned the board, but you could also include real estate brokers from major market share offices, lenders, title companies, termite companies, car leasing companies, cellular phone companies, technology companies, home warranty companies, appraisal companies, and others. Each of these might be interested in donating funds toward the cost. More important, you can add to your sales force in promotion of the seminar to obtain an agent's commitment to this career-changing seminar, giving you a "back-up army" in filling the room.

10. You might want to decide if this will be a "pay" or "no pay" event. For an affiliate seeking the agent's business, it has been difficult to get a real estate agent to pay for their attendance. The agents might look at the affiliate as if they are crazy, because the affiliate is trying to solicit their business ... yet the agent has to pay to attend the affiliate's seminar. It is a tough sell so if you are an affiliate, your pay day will come when some of the attendees start using your services which the speaker promotes during the seminar. Third-party endorsements are highly effective!

Many events have no ticket price or an extremely small ticket price. The only problem with this format is that many agents have become weary of these seminars thinking they are an all-day sales platform for the speaker. Make sure the speaker has a guarantee that very little time (less than ten minutes during the entire day) is used in promoting any of the speaker's materials. This guarantee could be put on flyers and tickets so the attendees will know that their time will be well-spent, having a head full of ideas rather than sales pitches.

11. For the people who commit to attending, either personally give them or E-mail/mail them a ticket. To the left is a sample of a ticket that was used for one of our seminars:

Real Estate Designers offers totally innovative solutions for your software development, Internet programming, real estate web design and hosting needs. Our service includes domain name registration and real estate web design. Real Estate Designers provides the complete solution including design, application development and marketing.

source: homes101.net