A benefit in the current real estate market correction is that there is time to check your real estate connections. Invest time and energy in your lead generation tracking and cleaning up your client database.

A good leads database is 400 contacts, give or take 100. Most agents do not have clean usable lists. With the real estate technology tools, having email addresses for all your contacts is necessary. Most real estate agents only have email addresses for 50% of their contacts. Upgrading your contacts database is key to streamlining your connecting to your active client pool. Sending monthly touch-base emails on market opportunities and trends is a way to keep the referral and connection pot simmering.

In times of down market, the tendency is to cut expenses, such as marketing expenses. However, down markets are the prime time to make sure everyone is aware of your real estate business. Try doubling the mileage on your real estate website with the following simple two step program. First step, add pages of content regarding the local real estate market and insightful entries on your real estate blog. Second step, email a list of your connections and invite them to check the new material on your real estate website, add a note of appreciation for past business and referrals and then ask them for any new referrals or to forward your website link to friends. Be specific about the material on the website so your contacts know there is “must read” content, not just something new.

Even though financial experts think that the tightening of mortgage lending standards will drop 25% of the population out of the home buying market and into the rental market, it still leaves 75% in the real estate market who can meet the tighter mortgage standards. Best of all, by getting your connections database cleaned up, you are better positioned for when the market picks back up steam as expected in the end of 2008. And more people will have your real estate website’s address.

In a softening commercial real estate market, an opportunity exists for investors interested in building or retrofitting commercial property to energy efficient standards. Where opportunity exists for investors, it also exists for real estate agents specializing in the commercial real estate market.
The Wall Street Journal reported in September 2007 that “Overall, the number of U.S. buildings certified under the U.S. Green Building Council’s elite Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard stands at 6,000 and is forecast to top 100,000 over the next four years.” Besides energy efficiency, large corporations are also including sustainability factors in their commercial property retrofitting, such as using recycled materials.

Citigroup Inc., which has 92 million square feet in its real estate portfolio, is in the process of going green with its commercial real estate. Citigroup had energy audits conducted on its property and has adopted various power-saving measures. Also in the works is the redesign of Citigroup’s bank branches to allow in more daylight and use more recycled materials. Kaiser Permanente, twenty seven new and existing hospitals in its real estate inventory is also embarking on a plan to green their buildings.

Howard Liggett, President of Distressed Real Estate Consulting Services, recently wrote “The [LEED] designations are conferred by the US Green Building Council and the labeling of a commercial office or professional building as LEED certified has created a new value-added marketability for the leasing agent. Simply put, LEED certified buildings are attracting greater numbers of tenants.” Part of the draw of LEED buildings is the greater amount of natural lighting and better air quality.

The Urban Land Institute foresees that the “income-generating industrial and apartment sectors remain favored investment categories.” Part of the market push behind the apartment sectors is that experts figure demand for rental housing will go up due to the tightening residential mortgage market.

By marketing to the commercial real estate trends on their real estate website, Realtors who specialize in the commercial markets can increase their presence on the search engines. Buying and leasing trends translate into the specific keywords which buyers and investors are using to find commercial property. Web pages and blog entries covering the market trends in buying and leasing of commercial property in your area boost your real estate website’s visibility. Position part of your website’s marketing to capture the greening of commercial real estate.

A home buyer’s mortgage can benefit from buying real estate with plans to improve the its energy efficiency. Traditional frame homes built prior to the 1970s were not built with energy efficiency of today’s houses. Houses built in the days of low heating costs may have little to no wall and ceiling insulation and heat transferring wooden exterior doors. This leaves a large market of houses that can qualify for a Energy Efficient Mortgage (EEM).

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA), a federal agency which insures private loans, backs EEMs that allow mortgage lenders to add 100 percent of the additional cost-effective energy efficiency improvement costs to an approved home mortgage loan. The FHA limits are a cap of $4000 on homes under $80,000 or 5 percent on homes over $80,000 with a cap of $8000.

Fannie Mae also offers an EEM. Fannie Mae, a federal government chartered company, works “to reduce mortgage interest rates for consumers, expand homeownership and affordable rental housing, and improve the liquidity of the mortgage market for investors and consumers.” Fannie Mae has a loan that offers to finance not just home ownership, but also the energy efficient improvements home buyers want to make. Fannie Mae’s HomeStyle Renovation Mortgage is a cost-effective way to combine a client’s home purchase or refinance with the home renovation costs in one loan with only one closing.

Real estate agents selling homes in housing markets such as Colorado Springs, Colorado, San Diego, or Pensacola Florida with a large military presence should be aware of the Veteran Administration’s (VA) EEM. The VA mortgage is available to qualified active and retired military personnel, reservists and veterans for energy efficiency home improvements when buying their home. The VA caps the energy improvements between $3,000 and $6,000.

The key to getting the EEM loan is getting the house energy audited. Most certifying companies are certified in the Mortgage Industry National Home Energy Rating Standards that sets the national procedures for home energy ratings. Make sure they are also a professional accepted by the secondary mortgage company, such as Fannie Mae, that the mortgage company is using.

The audit creates a report with a list of home improvements necessary to bring your house to the level of energy efficiency necessary. Usual recommendations are improved insulation, tighter and better insulated windows, and better sealing on ductwork and weather stripping. If the hot water or air conditioning system is aged, it may also be on the list of items to be replaced.

Awareness of EEMs helps the real estate professional creatively approach “fixer upper” homes and may help the first time home buyer afford a house more in the size they need. The EPA and Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) have websites with information on the certification standards and energy efficient home repairs for researching articles to provide information on your real estate website.

The age of environmentally friendly homes is the growing real estate market on the horizon. Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington are a decade into the green trend of minimizing or eliminating a house’s negative ecological footprint. Driving the trend is not just a desire to clean up the planet; home heating costs consume over 30% of America’s energy! With California dealing with summer energy shortfalls due to increased air conditioning loads, housing construction techniques in the California real estate market have more than just a “save the trees” feeling driving the market. When the Pentagon spends $1.5 billion to environmental and energy efficiency renovation, you know a trend is well into its maturing phase.

In an effort to further prod the energy efficient house market, Congress passed the 2005 Energy Policy Act. providing for a tax credit for building energy efficient homes to building contractors.

Components that create energy-efficient environmentally-friendly houses are wide ranging - from construction techniques, water usage, to the house’s power source. States, such as Florida with its Green Home Program, have green home certification programs that allow home sellers to list a third party verification of their green home. Interestingly, in 2006, over 60,000 Energy Star-rated houses were added to the Texas real estate market with many of them costing the same as less energy efficient homes in their same markets.

Green home construction techniques are noted for walls and roofs with high insulation factors, recycled building materials, low power lighting, insulated windows and doors, solar exposure positioning, toxin reducing low VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) paints and formaldehyde-free carpet and plywood. At comparable pricing, green homes are a natural fit for first time home buyers who are looking for the most house for their mortgage payments. With lower energy costs, the first time home buyer, usually on a tight budget, can stretch the income farther with a green house.

The effect of the greening effort has caused construction changes, even with companies that do not see themselves as green home builders. With the rise in LP and electricity costs, traditionally constructed homes have begun to use 2 x 6 external wall framing versus the 2 x 4 framing. The additional two inches of insulation translate into year-round energy savings. With the building techniques able to construct air tight houses, builders are taking care that the air/moisture barrier and insulation layers are done correctly so that mold problems are not created by moisture trapped in the walls.

Between energy costs rising and Hollywood celebrities keeping the climate change problems in the news, more buyers are paying attention to the EPA’s Energy Star program. Whether it is regarding an appliance or an entire house, the real estate market is getting greener. Make sure you include information on your local green market on your real estate website!

The real estate market has the Federal government trying to pass legislation helping mortgage lenders and home owners survive the sub-prime mortgage market correction on one hand. On the other hand the Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched investigations into the real estate brokerage industry.

Last Fall, the DOJ unveiled a new area on its Anti-Trust Division website aimed to educate real estate buyers and sellers to the DOJ’s view of the real estate brokerage situation. One area the DOJ took into account in their process is the Internet’s affect on buying and selling real estate.

The DOJ notes “the Internet helps consumers to educate themselves about other areas of home buying and selling. For example, consumers can use the Internet to research brokers, mortgage and lending options, and recent home sales and home valuations in their community. Consumers also can find information about schools, crime, and other variables related to home purchase decisions through a host of online sources, including websites hosted by their municipalities.”

One real estate broker commented at the DOJ public hearing that “Today’s sellers and buyers are more educated and more knowledgeable thanks almost entirely to the growth of the Internet.” Hopefully, your real estate website is one that is educating your market.

Like many real estate buyers, the DOJ also scanned the National Association of Realtors’ research on its website to find what real estate research people are doing on the Internet. “Features ranked as most useful among home buyers searching for a home on the Internet were photos (identified as very useful by 83 percent of home buyers), detailed property information (81 percent), and virtual tours (60 percent).”

When the Federal government realizes a trend in the real estate market, it must be a well set trend. Indeed real estate agents can review the DOJ’s April 2007 Competition In The Real Estate Brokerage Industry Report’s Section II on the Internet’s Affect On Real Estate Brokerage to see if their real estate website is offering many of the tools the DOJ has found helpful to real estate buyers and sellers.

The DOJ’s conclusion is that with greater education, broker’s fees should decrease, which, for some reason is what they are interested in seeing. A real estate agent’s conclusion from the same facts would be to make sure their real estate website is getting a good share of the potential clients’ growing use of the Internet to find agents, view property and get educated on the real estate process.

An effective website can sell mortgages and real estate in this economy, but real estate agents and mortgage lenders can also improve their market standing by using their websites to educate home buyers in several areas to help the buyers’ positioning in the mortgage process:

• Get credit scores above 720 - give tips on how to clean up credit and position credit card debt to look the best,
• Stay with their current job until the mortgage closes on the house - length of work and steadiness is now a larger part of the lending equation, and
• Build a financial war chest in some way (”Mom I know I haven’t asked for money since I left college…”) - be prepared to put 5 - 10% down on the house.

Some experts are predicting that the current real estate market will not turn around until 2009. If the dollar continues its downward slide, it may be that new niche markets are created as the US economy gets boosted by petro dollars, Fire Ring currencies, euros and rubles invested in the real estate market, most likely luxury homes and commercial real estate. Real estate websites have a tremendous advantage over traditional advertising in that their market is international. Google searches in Tokyo for “[your town] real estate” may come right to your website.

Historically, Americans prove to be smart shoppers in the long term. As the saying goes, “Bad money chases out good money”, wealth flees from the falling greenback to financial solid ground, such as real estate. With the help of the Fed, second homes or vacation cabins are being viewed as a better long term investment than savings accounts.

All the turbulence in the market is a strong argument for a well designed real estate website or mortgage website that positions itself in the minds of the active local real estate market. Use all the available website tools to educate and make known your expertise and availability. As your 24/7 calling card, your website can make it easy to do business with you!

The national real estate economy, as regularly reported in the news, is a fiction. Several real estate economy fallacies continue to exist that main stream media regularly report and treat as facts. Being aware of these misleading “facts” can help you deal with unrealistic fears or hopes that your clients may bring to a real estate transaction. What are these smoke screens?

First: There is no “national” real estate market. Real estate agents have long known that there are only local or niche real estate markets based on location. In the national real estate economic picture, the sum does not reflect a good portion of the parts.

Word on the street is that the Miami condominium market is caput in 2007 and 2008 due to speculation buying and overbuilding. True to a certain extant. However, the Miami condominium market is actually three markets based on location, the size of the condominium, and the income/wealth of the prospective buyers. The top end condominium market for large square footage and a large balcony is hot property in this down market. The buyers are not speculators, but overseas buyers who want the warm climate and relative low prices (due to central bank downward manipulation of the dollar).

Staying aware of the real trends in the market and not allowing the press to blind you to selling opportunities allows you to tailor your website and advertising to the active markets. But then, even the down markets have their buyers in investors looking for undervalued properties.

Second nonsensical fact: The real estate market has boom and bust cycles like the stock market. Stocks can be bought and sold in seconds, even programmed to have computers automatically react to stock price changes. So the stock market can have wild swings even within its long term trends. However, the real estate market moves to a much slower drummer.

The real estate market trends never boom or bust. They move slowly up or down, but in the end, usually trend upward. Even with in the overall trend the commercial and residential markets move in different directions. Unlike stocks, properties take days and months to change hands. Taking a bare plot of land and developing a house or subdivision takes months to years. Also, as long as central banks and governments play with fiat currency to keep the slow boil under the frog, real estate and commodities will always be a safe and sage harbor for wealth.

Also, with a longer buy/sell cycle, the demographic changes in the market cause the local markets to continually move counter to the general trend. In today’s market, most baby boomers are moving out of the colder climes affecting the slump in the California, Nevada and Florida real estate markets and heating up the small house and condominium markets. People are getting married later in life leading to more demand in rentals, small houses and condominiums for singles. Another big question in the market is the rate of immigration. Given the fickleness of Congress, another “amnesty” is most likely in the works, allowing millions to legally buy property.

Third misleading idea: There are times when it is bad to enter the real estate market. There is always a time to ignorantly enter any market. But to an educated real estate investor, any market has its buying and selling opportunities.

As an experienced real estate agent, always trust your knowledge and instincts on the real estate economy instead of the statistics quoted in the news. So when you read the news on the economy remember Evan Esar’s observation that statistics is “The science of producing unreliable facts from reliable figures”. That remains as true as ever in regarding today’s real estate economy.

As a Realtor, how do you position your real estate website to stay relevant in a sea of constant changes? The nature of the real estate market is that it is constantly moving. Houses go up for sale, houses get sold. Match your website marketing to your real estate market.

According to the US Census Bureau, in 2005 - 2006, 61% of the people who moved in the United States, moved to another home within the same county. Since someone you helped move three years ago may be ready to move again, position part of your website marketing to the target market of past clients. Does your website have something to attract former clients or their referrals?

Remember, your real estate website’s key asset is its ability to target specific markets through the use of keywords and key phrases. A keyword is simply a word internet users type in to a search engine to find your website. Make a list of all the possible markets and check to see if your site has a page that addresses that market. A sample list might read:

• retiree market looking to buy a smaller home closer to grocery stores and safe evening activities;
• growing families looking for larger home in area with good schools;
• counter culture herbologists looking for large basements; (OK, take a pass on that)
• aging families looking to move to neighborhood with better high school or closer to the university;
• successful businesses ready for bigger quarters or a new store near a growing market; or
• job change related moves - closer to mass transit.

Each of these markets can be addressed with a content-rich web page, out-bound links to local community and school information websites, or in-bound links from sites that are highly ranked by the search engines, such as a chamber of commerce.

Discipline your marketing to only address one real estate market per page. If you target several real estate markets on one page, the search engines do not discern one clear keyword to rank on which to rank the page.

Once you have your list of markets, develop a list of keywords for each market. Use a search engine, like Google or Yahoo, to test and refine your keywords. Type in the keywords and see how many pages come up. You can also research with Google Adwords or WordTracker. An example of keyword refining is to see if more people in your area search for a home under “California real estate” or “California homes for sale”. It may seem that the keywords would rank the same, but we have found that the East Coast and the Rocky Mountain states tend to have very decided preferences on their keyword searches.

Your real estate website is the rock in the stream of property changing hands. Cast as many fishing lines into that stream as you can think up. Make sure the stream doesn’t pass you by.

The real estate economy is one of the most fragmented markets in world. The use of an experienced real estate agent is the greatest aid to understanding the real estate trends in the local economy. While headlines report the up or down movement of the broad real estate market trends, neighborhoods and niche markets can be moving against the major trends. Make sure the home for sale you are interested in is on an upward trend.

Though the real estate economy can suffer downturns or “corrections”, real estate is a durable investment - well-constructed buildings can last for decades and the land itself has a proven track record of staying power. For this reason, real estate tends to be a long-term investment. The two main areas of an area’s real estate economy are the residential and the commercial real estate market. These markets usually have different boom and bust cycles.

Commercial real estate has a longer economic cycle. The added feature of commercial property, besides its equity accruing property is that during the life of the building its commercial use also brings a financial return.

Residential real estate markets often lag the surrounding commercial building cycle. The influx or loss of area businesses acts as a market driver or brake for the local economy, affecting real estate transactions and new construction.

An unofficial way to check on an areas real estate economy is to check on Google Adwords to see how often people search for real estate or homes for sale in a certain area. A lot of keyword searches for a particular suburb may mean that the pricing is higher, but that the properties in that area are more desirable.

Three additional drivers of a an area’s market trend is the type of economic returns that investors are looking for when acquiring property:

• Its equity appreciation;
• Its positive cashflow (buying an industrial or multi-family rental property), or
• Its tax advantages.

A downturn in the property prices has long term repercussions since a home buyer or property investor may owe more on a property’s mortgage than the property is worth. This slow-down in property buying causes a further decrease in value of area properties. On the other hand, governments have long realized the value of a successful urban renewal and giving tax advantages to neighborhood developers. The amount of investment into an area causes positive effect on the area property values, leading to more healty market-driven investments.