Ideas for Special Promotions
Why are special promotions important?
There are three major reasons for doing special promotions in general. First, you want to acquire new clients. Second, you want to remind your existing clients about your great service; and third, you are wishing for referrals. By offering something attractive to your target market, even strangers may suddenly be interested in what you have to offer. Same objectives apply to real estate agents.
Special promotions don’t have to be expensive and luxurious. It can be as simple as giving away tickets to a game, play or movie. Creativity is the key.
Here are just some ideas of special promotions that you can offer your buyers and sellers:
- Offer a free one year home warranty for each client that buy or sell his home with you.
- Go to a local restaurant and ask for coupons that you can scan and email to your leads.
- Conduct a monthly drawing for a home improvement gift card.
- Give away a book that might interest buyers or sellers. You can also do this via a monthly drawing.
- Offer a free trip or weekend getaway to those that buy or sell a home with you. There are tons of websites that offer inexpensive vacation package deals.
- If you are a big sports fan, you can probably offer free tickets to a game.
- Do the famous “on me” promo – your moving truck is on me, your first cable bill is on me, your housewarming is on me, and the list goes on.
Don’t forget the details.
Once you have decided on your promo, be sure to explain the rules to your clients. You can send an email with information such as the requirements, drawing date, contact method, trip destination, coupon attachments and more.
AccelerAgentTM Website subscribers are able to create offers like these in seconds through our Special Promotions tool. We encourage our existing website subscribers to take advantage of this feature. Please call our Tech Support Team at 800-743-5820 ext 2 if you need assistance. We also offer weekly webinar trainings for our customers. Click here to register.
For more information on AccelerAgentTM Website packages, free trials and demos, please call 800-743-5820 or visitwww.propertyminder.com.
Facebook for Real Estate
Build a branded social media community for your business.
In 2006, the total marketing spent on social media was $350 million, the forecast for 2011 is more than $2.5 billion.
Facebook was launched as a way for founder Mark Zuckerberg to connect with friends at Harvard. Today, Facebook has exploded online with nearly 200 million users, and a million new members joining each week in the U.S. alone.
Social networking platforms like Facebook provide the business community an ability to get repeat exposure with the people within your network. Clients, peers, and prospects can make up your network, and you can promote events, sales, special offers and more through your Facebook profile. It also makes it fun to connect with old friends, family and co-workers. Sharing an old grade school photo can create an instant bond with those from your past. Even personal connections have the potential to become new business opportunities.
Reaching a market of 50 million people would take 38 years by radio, 13 years by television, four years on the Internet, and three on iPod-but only two years via Facebook.
There are many social media styles and types; however, according to Riva Richmond, blogging for the New York Times, Facebook’s traffic this year increased 97%. In February 2009 a Compete.com study ranked Facebook as the most used social network by worldwide monthly active users, Facebook can help spread your brand and propel your business into the forefront of existing and potential customers’ minds.
How to start on Facebook?
Create a Powerful Profile
You account or user name must be tied with your real name, not your company or anything else. You can use your resume posted on your personal website with photos to describe your business practice, philosophy, mission and what you do. You can also include links to your website, blogs and other business resources. Be sure to include your photo so that others can recognize you online.
Build Your Contact List
Facebook is based on the concept of connecting with friends. You can send and receive friend requests and once accepted, your friend can view your profile and you can view theirs. To begin connecting with people that you know, you can either import your contact database or you can search Facebook for individuals.
You can also view the friends list for each person you are connected to. If you know any of your them (or you would like to know them), send a connection request.
Facebook Pages – Facebook “Pages” (that’s with a capital “P”) were created to give businesses their own profile on Facebook. Pages give your business an identity. With a Page, those interested in following your brand can become “fans”, and when they do so, all their friends will see this. You can store photos, videos, and information about your Real Estate business on your Page. All activities on Pages get posted back to your Mini Feed for all your friends to see.
Here are some ways to maximize Facebook for your business:
Communicate with Wall Posts
Each Facebook member has a “wall” where friends can post messages. This is a great place to post a quick note to those in your friends list. In the business networking world, this is the online equivalent of picking up the phone to say hello.
Update Your Status
At the top of your Facebook home page is a status box. When you post a status update, everyone in your friends list can see your update on their home page. This is a place to share tips, promote events and even boost sales. Effective business updates may include: “found a great article on foreclosures in San Jose,CA : www….” or “Joe at XYZ Realty in Saratoga is hosting a special Open House! Check out www….”
Networking is best when there is a two-way exchange. If you can help a new Facebook friend, they will likely want to return the favor.
5 Summer Marketing Ideas around Your Neighborhood
It’s that time of year again. Most of us have already planned a nice summer getaway both from work and from school. When it comes to your business, this is also the perfect time for you to do some networking and have fun at the same time. The best part is doing all these just around the neighborhood!
Here are some ideas for you to consider:
1. What to do where?
Search for various activities such as festivals and summer fairs in your area. Use your AccelerAgent™ Website and email the list of events to your contacts. To get additional contacts, create a simple summer calendar that includes all the events that you found. Walk around your neighborhood and distribute the copies. It’s a great way to reintroduce you as the local expert.
2. Let’s do some BBQ.
Encourage your neighbors to bring their food and grill for a fun BBQ event. Note that you do not need to provide the barbecue for everyone. You can conduct a drawing instead. Prizes may include a new BBQ grill, family tickets to a water park, gift cards, movie tickets and more. Create a lead capture form on your AccelerAgent™ website and tell them to register for the event for a chance to win a prize. Your website automatically adds them into your contact list. Not in the mood for BBQ? How about a yard sale event? This is a great way for everyone to make some extra cash and have fun. Follow the same steps from Tip #2. Don’t forget to include your event on the calendar that you send out. Be creative and have fun!
3. Business for business.
How about those small and usually family-owned businesses? Get your smile ready and start building your pipeline. Get some small jars filled with cookies or candies. Drop one jar on each small business (be sure to get their permission). Do not forget to attach your card on the jar, including your website. Ask if you can leave some of your business cards next to the jar. If you want to go the extra mile, you can come back every month to refill the little jars. It’s a great way to keep in touch!
4. Become an Avon® or Tupperware® Rep… or not.
Remember that person who constantly ask you to buy an Avon, Mary Kay or anything similar? We say find those sales reps and hold a ‘Hosted By’ monthly meeting. Invite your friends and family. Pick your date for hosting. Be sure to have that sign in sheet for the visitors, collect those emails and use your AccelerAgent™ Website to keep in touch!
5. The family that plays together wins together.
Ask each family in the neighborhood to submit their favorite family summer photo to you via email. Make them go to your website to find the best picture winner. Whoever wins gets a prize. Tell them that the complete contest rules are on your website. Create a custom page on your AccelerAgent™ Website for the rules.
We invite all our readers to test drive the AccelerAgent™ Virtual Office Websites at www.propertyminder.com. Ask us for a 30-day no risk trial by calling (800) 743-5820 today.
PropertyMinder continues to offer the TechMar Program to help agents to develop their Internet Marketing skills.
Since 2003, PropertyMinder has helped more than 30,000 Real Estate agents and brokers quickly adjust to post Internet revolution reality and take advantage of tremendous opportunities to secure success in Real Estate.
For more information about our TechMar Program, call (800) 743-5820 or visit us at www.propertyminder.com.
Get more online visitors and make them respond
Direct response marketing is the centerpiece of PropertyMinder’s money-making iMarketing System. The start of the Internet and its growing popularity has spawned a number of different marketing possibilities.
Direct Response online is built around motivating your website visitors to contact you at the very first opportunity.
Once the consumers are on your site, content is key to making them stay. Here are some ideas for content: neighborhood events, current market trends, newsletters, testimonials and local groups that you may belong to. Your AccelerAgentTM Website has so many lead capture forms available for visitors to fill out – from home search to free reports.
According to Aric Kazarnovsky, Executive VP and co-founder of PropertyMinder, “the most important aspect of Direct Response Marketing is the initial method that agents use to encourage visitors to give their addresses and contact info. Once this information is captured, agents can build a relationship with these potential buyers and sellers before they even personally look at a property or meet them in person.” Aric is also the creator of the iMarketing System.
Customers who took PropertyMinder’s TechMar Program report greater results from implementing direct response strategies.
“The TechMar clinics were unbelievable. I can’t believe they packed in so much information in such a short period of time. There are so many “secrets” that no one wants you to know and now I know why. My website traffic went from 50 hits per week to 1000 hits this week. I have gotten 15 leads that signed up on my webpage this past week.“- Joe Doman, Realtor®
There are numerous effective techniques for consumers to be interested and respond, but first, you need them to come to your site.
There are two primary methods of obtaining more hits or traffic to your AccelerAgentTM Website: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay per Click Advertising (PPC).
SEO is a way to increase your website’s organic or natural search ranking. By increasing organic rankings, agents gain more visibility, without having to spend on advertising. It does take time, but your traffic will definitely improve after you do some legwork.
Our TechMar Program covers SEO. It consists of two webinar-based classes that cover topics from identifying your vertical markets, modifying your meta tags, participating in social networking, getting more exposure for your listings, and much more. The program is built to ultimately get you more hits and let your site ‘exist’ on the web. You are given homework after each class so you get a hands-on experience.
Pay per Click is more for agents who do not have the time to make a lot of changes on the site and wants ‘immediate’ traffic from search engines such as GoogleTM and Yahoo!.
PropertyMinder valued customer discounts are available.
Marketing Ahead of Your Competition
Many agents who took advantage of PropertyMinder’s TechMar Program made the switch from image-based marketing to direct response marketing. Within a few months, they began to see fantastic results.
Image advertising is the creation of a particular perception for your service. According to allbusiness.com, “While there is definitely a role for image advertising in creating awareness, an entire marketing strategy built around image is not going to create loyalty because it is, by nature, a one-way communication strategy.”
Direct response marketing is designed to solicit a direct feedback which is specific and quantifiable. The delivery of the response is direct between the viewer and the advertiser (source: Wikipedia.com).
Any agent can start the road to direct response marketing by following these 2 tips on how to instantly generate interest through your website.
Numbers and Statistics: For example, if you save your buyers 12% on the purchase of a home on average, say it! Instead of having a slogan that says “I have the honesty, integrity and passion to make people’s dreams come true”, make your slogan “I guarantee to save you 10% on your next home purchase or you get $1,000.00.” Notice the first slogan is more focused on you, the agent, and the second is focused on the client’s desires.
In buyer marketing, a simple way to figure out your unique statistics is to go through the last 12 months of your transactions. Take the list price, subtract the final purchase price and the difference is the total savings.
Specialties: Become the expert. For example, you specialize in working with first time home buyers. Instead of having a slogan that says “Leading people to achieve their dreams with passion and expertise”, try using “An expert in saving first time home buyers thousands of dollars. It’s guaranteed”. Notice again that the first slogan is more focused on you, the agent, and the second is focused on the client’s desires.
It is also important to know where your audience is. List yourself on sites that get the most traffic, but most of all, those that are relevant to your real estate services.
PropertyMinder continues to offer the TechMar Program to help agents develop their Internet Marketing skills. PropertyMinder has helped more than 30,000 Real Estate agents and brokers quickly adjust to the post-Internet reality and take advantage of tremendous opportunities to secure success in Real Estate.
For more information about the TechMar Program, call (800) 743-5820 or visit us at www.propertyminder.com. Also ask us for a 30-day no risk trial today.
Co-branding can improve AccelerAgent™ website search engine ranking.
A RISMEDIA newsletter on March 11, 2009 stated “One-stop shopping promises a simpler and better experience for home buyers and sellers.” Studies show that most consumers want a single point of contact for the sale of a home and all related closing services. Partnering and co-branding with a loan officer makes you that contact. As a result, you will be growing your client base, improving customer service, build loyalty, and make extra money.
A great one-stop shopping experience isn’t just about introducing clients to your mortgage broker. It is about an effective marketing technique called co-branding.
Co-branding online means that you, as a real estate agent, will link your Real Estate site to a site of a trusted mortgage professional or firm. As a result, your website visitors can get both Real Estate and Mortgage related information and services at one stop.
How can you benefit from implementing co-branding strategy?
Your partnership with a mortgage professional will attract a greater number of qualified leads. You will be able to capture more leads as a result of additional lead capture forms on the AccelerAgentTM Website mortgage booster platform.
Secondly, you can improve your website’s search engine ranking for mortgage related keywords due to the mortgage content hosted on your own website. By driving more traffic from search engines and the loan officers site, the natural (organic) ranking of the website will eventually improve as a whole.
“PropertyMinder clients with AccelerAgentTM Websites co-branding with Mortgage Professionals realize that their superior technology does not prevent them from continuing to offer other mortgage choices to their clients”, said Aric Kazarnovsky, Executive Vice President and co-founder of PropertyMinder Inc.
Many agents do not understand the difference between co-marketing and co-branding.
Co-marketing is simply placing a link to a partner’s (loan officer or real estate agent’s) website on your site. Co-branding is a form of cooperation between two or more service professionals who are looking to build significant customer recognition, at the same time retaining their own brand names and distinction. Co-branding leads to increased loyalty and higher client retention rates. It will also disable competitor’s efforts to take your clients away. Co-branding is the science of alliance. It expands your scope of business and reaches more customers. It also leads to an increased value to the client, providing both services by a real estate agent on one hand and a loan officer on the other. When you share the cost of loyalty programs, your impact on clients is greater with pooled resources leading to a much higher return on investment.
With PropertyMinder REBridgeTM you can market your self and your loan officer as a “full service” team. The REBridgeTM connector tool connects a PropertyMinder hosted Mortgage site with a PropertyMinder hosted AccelerAgentTM Website.
PropertyMinder Mortgage Booster is ideal for agents providing both real estate and loan services. With a simple upgrade, agents with AccelerAgentTM Websites can supplement their existing sites with rich mortgage content including five of the most popular financial calculators, mortgage reports and articles, glossary of financial terms, mortgage lead capture forms such as requests for pre-qualification, financial consultation and online loan application.
Since 2002, PropertyMinder has been offering Virtual Office powered websites for individual agents, brokers and offices. With AccelerAgentTMWebsites, PropertyMinder clients are always in control. AccelerAgentTMsites offer a map-based MLS search allowing agents to exclude listings from displaying based on geography, list price, property type, cooperative compensation offered by the listing broker, or whether the listing broker is a REALTOR®.
Videos and Online Marketing
The National Association of Realtors® reported that 84% of home buyers considered property photos and virtual tours to be important in their “Profile of Home Buyers & Sellers” report. That was in 2005.
Today more than ever, videos could be very beneficial to your online marketing. Many tech savvy Real Estate agents have embraced the latest video technology as an innovative and engaging vehicle for connecting with their target audience.
People are watching hundreds of videos a day on YouTube.com and uploading thousands by the hours. In fact, every minute, at least ten hours of video files are uploaded.
YouTube is the leader in online video hosting, and the premier destination to watch and share original videos worldwide. It allows people to easily upload and share video clips across the Internet through websites, mobile devices, blogs, and email.
Creating a quality video today is easy and inexpensive. All you really need is a video camera, or sometimes even just a regular digital camera with video capability, and some editing software. Microsoft’s Movie Maker is a free video editing tool. With this program, you can even add voice-overs and music. Another option is the inexpensive and extremely simple to use “The Flip” video recorder. It gives you 60 minutes to capture videos for your listing presentations, local neighborhood events and other personal clips.
An agent who has done a great job in putting virtual tours, photos and supporting documents to their featured and sold inventories online is two steps ahead of the game.
Once you’ve created your videos, link and embed these to your AccelerAgent™ Website. Call our friendly Customer Support at 800-743-5820 for assistance.
Marketing Your RE Website 101 (part 1 of 3)
by Jane Ellsworth, VP of Sales
Times are tough. You know you have to promote your website in order to drive quality traffic, but your budget doesn’t allow for much more.
So the question is, how do you promote your website so that you stand out from all the others? Well here is the thing about having a website. If you don’t create the kind of website that promotes itself, you will always have to spend your time and money promoting the site.
So what exactly does this mean? Well let’s start with content. Oh sure content, content, content. We’ve all heard it before. But the reality is that content is the one thing any good SEO company will tell you to start with. Over the years, the search engines have not changed these criteria. You must have good original content. Original? Yes, original. You should take the time to develop articles, market news, city updates or a blog. Any one of these will do but the key will be to do it all in your own words. Best content comes from your own understanding and your own interpretation of a subject.
If you have a niche market, show it on your site. Write about it. Show the reader in your own words why you are the area specialist. Include photos. It is a known fact that women are visual. Statistics show that 72% of the home buying process is started by women. With this in mind, your site should include intimate details of your city along with photos to show the area. Show photos of the local golf courses, aquatic parks or yacht clubs if that is what are your area is known for.
Once this is completed tell everyone. Every single contact in your database should be emailed with an embedded link to your website announcing the changes to your website and inviting them to see it. Use a third level domain name (available in your PM site) to drive the traffic to a specific new page you’ve created or photos you’ve added. This will give you the reason you’ve been looking for to email your database and remind them that you are still in Real Estate. It will also drive more traffic to your website. The original content will also help you in the search engines and keep your site fresh with content.
Here are facts for you to draw your own conclusions.
Not so long ago I remember reading market analysis reports published by the oil industry’s top experts from top investment banks. Some of the reports were titled: Investment advice-buy. High price of oil is here to stay. Oil prices will reach $200 per barrel before year end. To defend their positions they cited depletion of “old” oil fields, unwillingness or inability to raise output by OPEC cartel, overall political instability in oil producing regions of the world, increased consumption in emerging economies, more specifically in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China). To sound even more convincing, they point to technical analysis with complicated mathematical formulas, equations and economical laws that I call pseudo scientific or voodoo craft.
I do not know what happened with the analysts that lost their high paying jobs after the investment firms that they represented went bankrupt. I am pretty sure that they found suitable employers and forecasting some other economical events defending their point of view with equal zealous.
In today’s modern economy, it is impossible to accurately predict it’s down or upward turn. The truth is that the brightest and smartest did not see this coming, all that one can hope for is to spot the trend and take advantage of that knowledge. The truth is that the majority of the so called experts and analysts know no more than you and I, and following their advice is a sure way to go broke fast. The truth is that top executives know no more than the attendant of the local gas station or coffee shop. How else can you explain the massive mismanagement from financial institutions to the auto industry to the airline industry to construction? When oil prices were high the blame was placed on speculators. Now oil prices are low and we blame the high interest rates. Today interest rates by FED is at a historical low at 1% and likely be slashed to .5%. Do you have anyone to blame now for your ill doings? I don’t.
It was a well orchestrated performance act done by the stewards of industrial and financial giants to impress and mesmerize you with their competence and experience. It is one of the many attributes of a power act to fly in a private corporate jet when the company in their custody is facing bankruptcy. Their sole purpose is to demonstrate uniqueness of vision and to build an invisible impregnable wall between you and them. Rick Wagoner knows less about car business than an attendant at a gas station. How else can one successfully run one of the pillars of the United States’ industrial strength and might such as General Motors into the ground? What specific quality did he posses? Why was the Detroit Big Three unable to compete? It makes me sick to my stomach when I hear nothing but complaints from them: union, oil price, credit crunch. Do I live on a different planet or what? From what I remember, the Europeans and Japanese are paying more for their gas than we are. The European Union has just as powerful an auto union if not more so. Labor laws and regulations are considerably stricter in EU than they are in the US. But our overseas auto competitors do not face bankruptcy.
It is difficult to see the obvious, but it is even more difficult to affirm it. Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake as a heretic for stating that the Sun was at the center of the Solar System and not the earth.
Here are facts for you to draw your own conclusions.
2008 estimated the number of house holds in the US at 112 million. The US homeownership rate is about 68 percent. In 2004 the number of homeowners in the United States reached 73.4 million, the most ever. BLS reports the number of Real Estate brokers and agents at 131,000 and 432,000 respectively and projected to grow by about 11% by 2016.
My conclusion: The number of Real Estate agents will decline for the next few months. You will have a once in a life time opportunity. Fewer agents, less competition and more business for you
Rhonda Duffy sold 819 houses in 2007 making her the number one agent in Georgia, reports the GA FMLS. How did she do it when the media reported an all time low of sales for 2007? Rhonda says that she does it by staying out of the media’s doom and gloom, by turning off bad news and engaging her sellers in a plan of action.
My conclusion: Have a plan of action. Become an expert in technology. Just because sales numbers are down does not mean that there are no activities. There is plenty of action to go around.
Sales of new one-family houses in September 2008 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 464,000, according to estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 2.7 percent above the revised August rate of 452,000. The median sales price of new houses sold in September 2008 was $218,400; the average sales price was $275,500. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of September was 394,000. This represents a supply of 10.4 months at the current sales rate.
My conclusion: There is not a shortage of homes for sale, nether shortage of buyers.
New Residential Sales data for October 2008 will be released on Wednesday, November 26, 2008,at 10:00 A.M. EST.
Boris Gruzman, CEO
Where Do We Stand Now? A new president, a new economic plan—what it means for real estate
When I was asked to write this article I did not know who would be occupying the White House for the next four years.
In June of 1949 the DOW Jones stood at about 167 points and was rising; in January of 1960 it was 640, on October 2, 1972 it hit a record high of 1,020 points. For the most part, from 1960 to 1982, the DOW Jones was going through typical up and down cycles. Periods of recessions were followed by periods of expansions. Since 1960 there were 4 recessions 1960, 69, 73, 81. For two decades the DOW Jones hung around 800 points, up until the computer revolution of the 1980’s. From 1982 we have witness relentless rises, and a record high of 14,093 in 2007
During Kennedy’s election campaign, he charged that under Eisenhower and the Republican Party , the United States was falling behind and he, as President, would “get America moving again.”
In his acceptance speech Kennedy stated: “We stand today on the verge of a new frontier- the frontier of the 1960’s, a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils- a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats.”
I have read headlines from the 1960 presidential election and they are strikingly similar with what we observed during the 2008 presidential campaign. I believe that we are experiencing a “”déjà vu”, this is familiar rhetoric.
For the Real Estate Industry it will make a little difference who will occupy the White House for the next 4 years. One thing is clear; taxes will most likely go up. Our last economic expansion which started in 2001 was fueled by cheap credits. We have borrowed heavily. As of February 2008, the national debt equated to $33,000 per capita or $60,100 per head of the U.S. working population.
According to a J.P. Morgan Chase forecast, we will see 3 quarters of recession followed by 12 quarters of slow growth. BLS reports “the median annual earnings, including commissions, of salaried real estate sales agents were $39,760 in May 2006. The middle 50 percent earned between $26,790 and $65,270 a year. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $20,170, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $111,500.
Median annual earnings, including commissions, of salaried real estate brokers were $60,790 in May 2006. The middle 50 percent earned between $37,800 and $102,180 a year. Many real estate brokers and sales agents worked part time, combining their real estate activities with other careers. About 61 percent of real estate brokers and sales agents were self-employed. Real estate is sold in all areas, but employment is concentrated in large urban areas and in rapidly growing communities. Employment of real estate brokers and sales agents is expected to grow 11 percent during the 2006-16 projection decades.”
I would argue that BLS fails to recognize the most recent trend. In the past, employment was growing because of the accessibility of low-cost credits and unprecedented economical expansion partially because of population growth. However, in the future we will see a number of agents and brokers decline because small businesses will be forced to consolidate into larger ones. Improvements in productivity, innovations and advancements in technology will make it possible for each agent to sell more. Stiffer completion and higher entry level (both financial and technological) into RE realm will lead to less number of agents and higher income per agents.
The availability of computers and proliferation of the Ethernet is creating a new paradigm: “Ethernet search-Ethernet tour-Agent demonstration-Ethernet mortgage-Ethernet closing”. In this new and brave cyber world, the agents with the biggest technological edge will win. It means new customer relations. It will be cyber Real Estate world with an increasingly larger budget to spend on Ethernet marketing, lead generation, office automations, SEO, etc. It also means a mobile world. We will see more innovations with real estate applications for digital cameras and smart phones, with a wider acceptance of smart phones.
Although I do not have a crystal ball, it is safe to predict that after a few dormant quarters we will return to periods of fast growth. Prices of properties have declined substantially, making many areas look very attractive now. Immediately after the buying period, the public will regain confidence and recessionary fears will subside; we will see frantic buying. I have mentioned on a few occasions at PropertyMinder’s blog posts that prices of oil and other commodities most likely will continue to slide down and may stay low for some time. This undoubtedly will have a positive effect on core US industries including construction, and will help maintain a high employment rate and stimulate consumer spending.
The United States has had public debt since its inception. Between 1980 and 1990, the debt more than tripled. By the end of 2008, the total U.S. federal debt will pass the $10 trillion mark. This is about $33,000 per capita. Adding unfunded Medicaid, Social Security, Medicare, and similar obligations, this figure rises to a total of $60 trillion, or $500,000 per household.
During the recession time, it is risky for the government to reduce spending. Reduction of spending may lead to deeper recession; therefore the next President will have very limited choices, they are either to increase taxes or reduce spending. And I believe that the new cabinet will do both. Some government programs will be cut, and some form of tax increase will be expected. RE industry is one of the pillars of the US economy, therefore the government will try hard to jump start it by continuing to offer low interest rates or some other incentives.
The unemployment rate among agents and brokers will be at a low of about 4%. New exciting opportunities in RE industry will be discovered on the junction between high tech selling and marketing, and old fashion salesmanship.
In conclusion, the next President will have very little effect on RE industry’s health. What fueled the unprecedented rise of the stock market during the past 25 years were innovations, proliferation of computer technologies and Ethernet. That in turn helped RE industry to grow. Within the next decade, I believe that we will see another expansion phase in our ever cyclic economy due to new discoveries and innovations with technological break throughs.
Boris Gruzman, CEO
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