Debt to Income Ratio - New Article Available

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Note: This entry contains outdated information. The article-distribution center has been moved over here: http://www.adviceforagents.com

I've just published a new article to the Free Articles Center. This is another lesson that reflects our current economic situation. It explains the (A) concept of debt-to-income ratio, (B) how mortgage lenders use that ratio when qualifying borrowers, and (C) how all of this has been affected by the current financial mess.

If you're not familiar with our publishing guidelines, please start by reviewing those.

Here's an excerpt of the new article:

Today, lenders will require better numbers across the board before they'll give out loans. So as a home buyer, you must have a stronger credit score and a more favorable debt-to-income ratio to qualify. Many financial institutions today are also operating in "self-preservation mode," which means their underwriting criteria are in a state of flux...

More Article Details:

• Length - About 600 words
  
• Audience - Home buyers who plan to apply for a mortgage loan
  
• Date created - September 30, 2008
• Please see our publishing guidelines if you are new to this process
  

I hope you find this article on debt-to-income ratio and mortgage approval useful, and I hope your readers find it helpful as well.

21 Content Ideas for Your Real Estate Blog

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Have you been publishing a real estate blog for a while? If so, there's a good chance you've fallen victim to a condition known as content staleness. It happens to the best of us. After a while, you run out of things to blog about and your content becomes stale as a result.

Or worse, you stop blogging altogether. You throw up your hands in frustration and say, "The heck with it. What's the point? I'm tapped out. I have no blogging ideas left in me."

But then you remember the many benefits of publishing a real estate blog. You remember that it adds value and freshness to your website ... that it helps to engage your readers and move them toward contacting you ... that it helps you improve your search engine traffic, etc. So you regroup and decide to start blogging on a regular basis again.

Then you sit down in front of the computer. You log into your blog account. And you stare at a blank post. Nothing comes to you. Ideas evade you. The cursor blinks in a white field of nothing, as if to mock you.

You are, quite simply, stuck.

Blog Content Ideas for Real Estate Bloggers

Here is your key to getting unstuck. Bookmark this page, or print it out for future reference. Come back to it often for blogging ideas. If you do, you'll never be at a loss for blog content ideas, and your real estate blog will thrive as a result.

Here are 21 ideas for adding fresh new content to your blog on a regular basis. In doing so, you 'll also be improving your search engine rankings, traffic levels, readership, lead generation, and overall marketing success.

1. Repurpose your email content. Think of all the questions you have answered for your clients through email. Each one of those could serve as a blog post, perhaps with a minor amount of expansion. Why delete your old emails when you can use them for real estate blog content?
2. Blog about current events and how they relate to your readers. Do you primarily help buyers? Then use your blog to help them make sense of the current economic crisis, as it applies to home buying. Thus, your real estate blog becomes a valuable resource.
   
3. Use a keyword research tool such as WordTracker to identify real estate topics that pertain to your market area. This research will show you exactly what your target audience is typing into the search engines each day. Your list of phrases can serve as a content plan for your real estate blogging efforts.
   
4. Let your readers dictate your blog content. Reader-driven content is the purest essence of Internet publishing. You can even put an "Ask a Question" box onto the side of your blog, like the one I have on this blog. You'll never be at a loss for blogging ideas if people keep sending them to you!
5. Create a content series such as "21 steps to buying a home," where each item in the series serves as an individual post / article. Take this series of tips for example. Instead of compiling these content ideas into one blog post, I could have turned each one into a separate post. By the time I finished the series, I would have had 21 pages of new content. Here's an example of where I did exactly that.
   
6. Here's another idea for a blog content series. Create a list of reasons to buy real estate in your city or town. Example series: "50 Reasons to Buy Real Estate in Sarasota." Each reason is a separate blog post. You don't have to know them all in advance ... just identify (and write about them) as you go along. One reason per day.
   
7. Another idea for a content series. 50 little-known facts about your city. 25 questions to ask your agent about buying real estate in your city. 15 things to understand about the current economy. Once you have a plan, the blog material practically writes itself.
8. Get out a piece of paper and brainstorm. Right down your city name (or cities) along with the word "real estate." Jot down relevant topics that come to mind. Blog about the home prices in your area, as they compare to other parts of the country. Blog about the local schools or neighborhoods. You get the point.
   
9. Set up some Google alerts for real estate phrases related to your city. When news breaks online about your chosen topic (press releases, news articles, etc.), Google will send you an email with links to the source. Hello, endless stream of blogging ideas!
10. Follow the media. Nothing drives Internet search patterns like the mass media, particularly the television news channels. So if you keep pace with real estate-related news topics and address those topics on your blog, you stand to gain more traffic and visibility.
11. Blog about real estate developments in your area, such as new neighborhoods being built. If you "get in early" with your blog content, people will easily find your blog when doing Google searches for the name of the new neighborhood. And thus, they will have found you as well.
12. Blog about new homes listed in the area. This is a modern, web-based take on the "Just Listed" postcards that real estate agents have used for decades. You could even make your blog the place to go for information on new homes. Break out your digital camera and get to it!
13. Do profiles on local home builders, with their permission and involvement.
14. Invite guest authors to contribute to your blog, such as builders, home inspectors, mortgage folks, etc. You can motivate your guest authors by explaining the value they get out of it (free exposure).
    
15. As a twist on the content idea above, you could even create a multi-author real estate blog focused on your city. It would be a joint effort between you and other motivated people who realize the value of Internet visibility.
16. Explain the pros and cons of some real estate-related topic. Maybe the pros and cons of certain types of mortgages, the pros and cons of different neighborhoods in your area, the pros and cons of renting versus buying ... you get the idea.
    
17. Create a second blog with a different angle from your current one. For example, create a lifestyle blog that covers a broader range of topics for your area (in addition to real estate topics). Of course, you would feature your real estate services in the main menu area. Two popular blogs are better than one! Twice the traffic, twice the exposure, and -- ultimately -- twice the business.
18. Use our Free Articles Center to add some quality real estate articles to your blog. You could publish one article a week, in addition to your own blogging efforts, to increase the value and usefulness of your blog.
19. Use testimonials as blogging material (with the client's permission of course). To take this a step further, you could even...
20. Do client profiles / success stories on your blog. Each time you complete a transaction with a client, have them share their story through your blog. This will add more life and credibility to your testimonials. It will turn them into real-life stories of real estate success.
21. If you have a steady stream of traffic to your blog, you could conduct surveys for reader interaction. There are a lot of free online survey programs available these days, such as Survey Monkey.
    

I will add to this list of content ideas over time. But I think we can all agree -- there are enough ideas on this list to keep you blogging steadily (and effectively) for a long, long time. Good luck.

Best Company for Real Estate Flyers

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Reader Question: I have used those flyer companies and I wonder if the flyers got anywhere. I asked some friends and they didn't receive one. Do you know which flyer company is the most reliable?

You were right to add the names of some friends to your mailing list. This is a good practice in direct mail marketing. It's referred to as "seeding" the list. If you seeded your list with legitimate addresses, but the real estate flyers did not reach some recipients, then there's a problem.

Sometimes you can have a legitimate mailing address that is formatted differently from postal specifications -- at least, as far as the flyer company is concerned. Some direct mail companies will validate your mailing list when you upload it to their website. This is a useful process, because it flags any addresses that might be a problem for some reason. Often, the street name will be written differently than how it's listed in the U.S. postal database. This validation process alerts you of such problems and gives you the opportunity to correct the problem.

My advice is to do a bit of list maintenance and verification to make sure all of your addresses are good. I also recommend using a direct mail / flyer company that offers an address validation service of some kind. Some companies allow you to purchase a mailing list during the flyer ordering process. Most of them get their data from a partner company such as InfoUSA.

To the best of my knowledge, Express Copy offers this kind of mailing list service. You can find some deals on their printing services through this site. You'll have to do some homework to find out if they offer the real estate flyer format you're after.

Promotional Ideas for Real Estate Listings

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Reader Question: What is a great promotional idea to get a real estate listing sold?

When it comes to promoting a real estate listing, the best ideas are the simplest ones. Price the home effectively, help the seller prepare it properly, and promote the listing to as many qualified buyers as possible.

Of course, all of the property marketing techniques in the world can't change the real estate market you are in. Today, in fact, I read an article on CNN Money about the shrinking buyer pool. Even when real estate prices are falling in most areas, there are fewer buyers today. Obviously, this makes it harder to promote a real estate listing ... and to get it sold quickly.

Now more than ever, it's important to price a listing effectively based on decreasing demand. It's also a good idea to recommend some serious home staging to your clients. It's important that sellers understand what's happening in our economy right now. Consumers are nervous about the future, and that goes for home buyers too. It calls for aggressive pricing, proper staging and comprehensive marketing.

Nobody can predict the future. But from where I'm sitting, the housing market is going to get worse before it gets better. So real estate listings may "linger" more than they have in the past.

Real Estate Blogging for a Better Image

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

What does the general public think of those in the real estate profession? Ask 50 different people this question, and you'll probably get 50 different answers. In truth, it's hard to roll the perceptions of so many into such a simple assessment.

But it's not hard to find the negativity:

John Tuccillo, former chief economist for the National Association of Realtors(r), was quoted as saying: "With the expansion of the number of Realtors, the level of competence has fallen to its lowest point ever."

In 2006, a consumer poll by the global research company Harris Interactive ranked various occupations by how prestigious consumers thought they were. Real estate agents were at the bottom of the "prestige scale."

Hey, don't shoot the messenger! I'm just reporting what I found on this subject. But it's not the point of this article to support or refute any of these perceptions. They are what they are. So let us simply agree that real estate agents -- like any other service professionals for that matter -- can benefit from inspiring a higher level of consumer confidence.

How Real Estate Blogging Can Help

I would like to offer a suggestion toward the above-stated goal. Blogging. That's right, publishing a blog. Based on my experience over the years, real estate agents can build trust and improve consumer perception by doing the following:

• Publishing quality information online
• Doing it on a regular basis
• Engaging in a dialogue with their readers
• Showing some personality
• Demonstrating their professional skills and talents

And what better tool to accomplish these things than a blog? Now, I'm not going to tell you that a real estate blog will perform some act of magic and transform the public's perception of you overnight. In fact, I'm not even saying you need to change public perception at all. I don't know anything about you. As an agent, you could be doing just fine in this department.

But I will tell you this. Any real estate professional can benefit from demonstrating knowledge, skills and competence, and a real estate blog can help you do exactly that.

Think about it from a consumer's perspective. If somebody visits your website only to find the standard resume or bio page, they really haven't gotten to know you at all. But if they find your blog -- and you've done a good job blogging in your natural voice, and on a regular basis -- then the reader will feel almost as if they know you. As a result, they'll also be more likely to contact you about your services.

Of course, there are many other advantages to publishing a real estate blog. You can use it to start a dialogue with your visitors (through the comment feature). You can use it to keep people informed about your local housing market. You can use it to boost your search engine traffic by publishing keyword-rich content on a regular basis. The benefits of blogging are nearly endless. So why not start a blog today?

Starting a real estate blog is fairly straightforward. Of course, it's easy for me to say that because I've created many blogs for clients over the years. For some, it can be a frustrating and time-consuming process. If you want to get your blog up and running fast, and it you want a custom design that matches your website, check out our blog setup services.

Home Equity Loan Information - Free Article

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Note: This entry contains outdated information. The article-distribution center has been moved over here: http://www.adviceforagents.com

We just posted a new mortgage article to the Free Articles Center on the main website. This new piece explains some of the common scams associated with home equity loans and lenders. It will make a nice addition to your website, in the sense that it provides quality information from a consumer advocacy angle.

If you're not familiar with our publishing guidelines, please start by reviewing those.

Here's an excerpt of the new article:

Home equity loans remain one of the most popular financing tools among homeowners. It can give you quick access to cash by leveraging the equity (or ownership) you have in your home. Unfortunately, however, there are quite a few scams associated with home equity loans and lenders. Here's a summary of some of the more common scenarios you should watch out for...

More Article Details:

• Length - Approximately 725 words
  
• Audience - Homeowners researching home equity loan information
  
• Date created - September 2, 2008
• Review our publishing guidelines if you are new to this process
  

I hope you find this home equity article useful in your web publishing efforts.