The Best Pinterest Group Boards for Real Estate Agents

Posted on October 24, 2016 by robertjrussellcompanies

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If you are a real estate agent who has a blog and are not using Pinterest as part of your social media marketing strategy then you are missing the boat! If you ask most real estate bloggers who have adapted Pinterest as one of their social networks, more than likely you’ll hear rave reviews of just how good the traffic can be. One of the unique things about Pinterest is the length of time in which something that is shared can drive traffic. When you share something on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other social site there is usually a good rush of interaction over the first few days and then your exposure quickly dies down. This is not the case with Pinterest – in fact, it’s quite the opposite!

Pinterest is the number one source of social media traffic to Robert J Russell Real Estate, my combination blog/real estate site. One of the reasons for this is the “shelf life” of the pins you share. Pinterest sharing is an endless cycle that continues to generate more traffic when the content is exceptional. Outstanding real estate content on Pinterest can be shared for months and months even years.

There are a number of ways to ensure that Pinterest will become an important place for real estate social media exposure. The first piece of advice is to be sure that your mindset is not on your real estate listings. I see this mistake all the time from real estate agents. Very few people are going to share them unless you are marketing a luxurious mansion. Instead, show off your knowledge as an agent.

Here are some quick tips to make Pinterest work for you as a REALTOR®:

  • Like any other social network make sure what you are sharing is quality content.
  • The most shared pins are those that are “tall” and not squares. Pay careful attention to this.
  • Reciprocate with others. Social media is not just about sharing your own content. The best social media marketers readily share other people’s content.
  • Don’t just share real estate content. Make sure your boards are well rounded with other appealing content. In fact, you can check out my Pinterest profile to see how my boards are constructed.
  • Make listings a small part of your focus. Most people couldn’t care less about the 3 bedroom ranch you just listed. Unless the property is a glamorous luxury home it won’t get pinned.
  • Apply for “Rich Pins”. This adds html mark-up to your pins that make them stand out from others.
  • Join the best real estate group boards!

Why Join Group Boards?

Once you have gotten your feet wet on Pinterest it will be time to really ramp up your exposure. There is no better way of doing this than by joining some of the top Pinterest real estate group boards. Group boards allow anyone who has been invited to collaborate together. They typically have rules that must be followed in order to keep the board on topic and focused.

The beauty of group boards is they typically have a massive following, far more than an individual would have. Why does this matter? The keyword here is, again, EXPOSURE. When you share your best content to group boards it gets seen by far more people. The opportunity to have your content shared by a focused group of people, like real estate professionals, goes up exponentially. This creates opportunities for you to grow your following very quickly. If you share something interesting on a group board many of the people looking at it could end up following you.

What Are The Real Estate Groups to Join?

So what are the best Pinterest group board for Realtors® to join? Below are some of the largest and most active real estate boards found on Pinterest.

  • Pinterest Real Estate Group Board – This is one of the largest real estate boards found on Pinterest with just under 12,000 followers and 300 members. This board encompasses a variety of real estate topics from general sales advice, financing, staging, home improvement, marketing, technology and social media. Invited members are highly influential in the real estate industry and often are seen in other social networks. There are some strict rules including not being allowed to pin listings, market reports, news or local information. There are over 7,100 pins!
  • Real Estate/Home Improvement/Realtor® Advice – This board is similar to the above mentioned board and has many of the same rules that need to be followed. There are currently 8,300 followers and 102 members. There are 2,400+ pins.
  • Real Estate/Mortgage/Social Media – This is an up-and-coming board that is just starting to grow in size and stature. There are just under 7,000 followers with only 15 active posting members. Let’s get this one growing people! There are 700+ pins.
  • Buying a home and mortgage advice – This is another excellent group board not only for real estate agents, but mortgage professionals as well. Much of the content focuses on home buying along with finance and mortgage topics. The board is quite large with just under 16,000 followers and 140 members. There are 1,600 pins.

If you have not added Pinterest group boards to your social media arsenal, I would highly recommend you do so. By joining these boards, your content will be exposed to a large, active group of people currently using Pinterest as part of their real estate content marketing strategy. You can join these real estate boards by emailing the respective owners. This information can be found by visiting the boards. Just remember to make sure you are respectful of the group board rules!

Other Pinterest Resources Worth a Look

  • Using Pinterest For Real Estate via Placester.
  • How to master Pinterest as a real estate agent via RESAAS Blog.
  • Using Pinterest for social media exposure via Real Estate News.

Use these additional resources to learn how to use Pinterest well as a real estate agent. Once you have some of the ground rules down for Pinterest, you will find it a fantastic place for drawing web visitors back to your blog or website. Best of luck on your Pinterest journey!

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Seguro de Automovil Espanol

Posted on October 23, 2016 by robertjrussellcompanies

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Serving the Hispanic Community in Texas

Las Tasas de seguros de automoviles mas asequibles para personas con o sin una licencia de conducir.

CLICK HERE

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Are you looking for a Real Estate Deal ?

Posted on October 22, 2016 by robertjrussellcompanies

I spend my time hunting down opportunity to buy low and make a killing from real estate buys overseas. I always have a strategy in mind when I scout out a location for those opportunities.

Finding the best opportunity is not a matter of rocking up in a pretty place and recommending the first thing to catch my eye. I need to know how the market is likely to play out. And, whether the right real estate buy will appreciate in value—or have a significant rental yield angle.

A lot of research goes into identifying opportunity before I ever set foot in a destination. Months—even years—of research.

One of the elements of that research is watching market and economic trends. It’s the kind of big picture information that I don’t ever make a real estate recommendation without. Having that big picture information tells me whether a real estate buy will be worth more in the coming years. If I can’t see the potential for significant upside on a buy in a particular location, I don’t make a recommendation. I move on.

If you’re interested in investing well in real estate overseas, it’s the kind of information you need to have to hand before you even consider making a purchase.

One of the trends I look out for is what I like to call a “Path of Progress.” What that means is that a market is set for a massive rise in real estate values. It can happen for a number of reasons—a previously hard to reach area has got a new airport or roads that will open it up. Or, new government or business investment is being poured into a location that will bring new jobs and economic growth.

When you get in at the right time of a Path of Progress story, you’re set to do seriously well on real estate. You buy while real estate values are still low—and benefit as real estate prices rise.

One of the best examples on my beat of how this angle works in practice is Mexico’s Riviera Maya. The Riviera Maya is the stretch of Caribbean coastline that runs from Cancun to the chic town of Tulum, 80 miles away.

Along this coastline, the Mexican government is investing heavily. It wants to repeat the success it saw with its master-planned resort city of Cancun. And the efforts are working. The Riviera Maya is on a tear. It’s seeing massive tourism growth. In some parts of the Riviera Maya, you could spend $3,000 a night to stay in a room by the beach.

Hotels are struggling to keep up with the tourist numbers. Development can’t happen quick enough to deal with that growing demand.

Now is the time to buy on the Riviera Maya. Get in on the right buy now and you could see strong income renting your place out to that growing vacationer market. And profit from serious capital appreciation on your buy as it rises in value.

Want to know more? Visit: http://www.robertjrussellcompanies.com

 

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Working Remotely

Posted on October 21, 2016 by robertjrussellcompanies

How can your workforce benefit from remote work? (Photo: iStock)

Virtualization has been a proven game changer for all of us, in practically every aspect of our lives. Just think of all the tasks that once required us to be on-hand and on-site to perform — opening a bank account, paying a bill, applying for a job, completing our taxes, taking a class.

Today we use virtual capabilities for storing documents, booking travel, making household purchases, and even taking video game playing to the next level.

With all of this in mind and on the forefront, perhaps it’s no surprise that virtualization continues to alter the reality of work. Gallup reported last year that the typical professional who telecommutes does so two days a month.

Flexible schedules mean better parents, better spouses, and generally happier employees says a new poll.

Overall, nearly 40 percent of workers have telecommuted — a figure four times greater than in 1995. And recently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released numbers showing that about a quarter of all professionals perform some or all of their work from home.

I’m a member of an organization with a 100 percent remote workforce. As such, I’ve gotten an up-close-and-personal look at how home-based professionals perform, produce, and propel an organization forward.

While there are many pro-company reasons to build a virtual workforce — productivity, cost savings, engagement, and retention among them — employees, too, benefit in priceless ways as well.

As I began thinking about these positives, here’s what came to mind:

Photo: iStock

Checked up

I recently heard on the news that a considerable percentage of American workers use paid time off for mundane, essential tasks like routine doctors’ visits. The argument was that their workdays are so maxed out, and employers remain so rigid, that workers are unable or fear taking time out of their workdays for even staying on top of their medical well-being.

Home-based workers typically benefit from more fluidity in their workdays. They are better able to self-manage their schedules, even if it means squeezing in time for a necessary visit for a dental cleaning or annual physical.

Social cues

From the break of dawn to the beginning of dusk, so many professionals are running on fumes. They race to get ready in the morning, muster sluggish commutes, maintain focus throughout the work day and come home stressed and zapped.

Operating at such a breakneck pace, some workers find their social lives suffering. Virtual employees, however, are positioned to strike a better balance between their professional and social lives. This keeps friendships and hobbies off the backburner.

Marital bliss

Marriage has been linked to various health benefits, from improved social connections and safer decision-making to greater survival after heart bypasses and general increases in longevity. But the caveat is that the marriage must be a happy, fulfilling one.

And it’s more difficult to achieve that bliss for the overworked and imbalanced. Remote employees, who enjoy some degree of latitude in their work location and sometimes their work hours, can better accommodate a lifestyle conducive to positive intimate relationships.

Photo: iStock

Stress reliever

If employers knew that by requiring a face-time culture, they may be giving their workers a prescription for headaches, fatigue, sleeplessness, anxiety, chest pain and upset stomach, would they reconsider?

After all, these are just a few of the symptoms of stress, according to the Mayo Clinic. The daily stressors necessary to negotiate a schedule that requires an office presence can be immense. Sadly, the American Psychological Association has found that more than one-third of U.S. employees experience work-related stress regularly. We can surmise that the majority of these affected workers do not currently work on a virtual basis.

Better nutrition

When people work from home, they have greater and more consistent access to healthier food in their kitchens. Home-based employees feel less of the lure of a quick trip to a fast food joint, and they don’t endure the social pressure to eat at the greasy spoon with colleagues several days a week.

Plus, they are more apt to experience better nutrition by virtue of actually having time to eat breakfast and lunch — not skipping meals or subsisting on vending machine fare — on account of their flexibility.

Fewer germs

Just think of all the objects people touch at work that have been handled by others. There are doorknobs, elevator buttons, office supplies, computer keyboards, coffee pots, telephones and more. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 80 percent of all infections are spread by hand contact and by touching contaminated surfaces.

Add to this those ill coworkers who don’t take time off to recover, and you have a recipe for potential sickness. Those who work from home come into contact with fewer unfamiliar germs that could knock them off their feet and take them off their A game.

As companies look toward ways to augment medical coverage with wellness programs, I am optimistic that we will see more organizations make the connection between flexible work and its holistic benefits to staff. Additionally, as technology continues to transform how and where we can work, the business and practical case for the virtualization of many knowledge-based professions becomes inarguable.

 

 

 

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Renters losing buying confidence

Posted on October 20, 2016 by robertjrussellcompanies

Renters losing confidence in ability to buy
There’s a growing disparity between the confidence of homeowners and would-be homebuyers according to a new poll by Zillow.

While owners are increasingly confident that now would be a good time to sell their home, the belief that first-time buyers can afford to make the move from renting is weakening.

Just 38 per cent of renters say now is a good time to buy and even among existing homeowners the proportion who agree has been declining over the past 2 years and now stands at 65 per cent.

That compares to 70 per cent of owners who are confident that selling now would be the right move, however they may still be reluctant to list their homes as Zillow chief economist Dr Svenja Gudell explains:

“Even though the majority of homeowners are confident and believe now is a good time to sell, they’re holding off because they expect home values to continue to appreciate and want to ride the wave. They also don’t want to turn around and become buyers in a competitive market.”

Mortgage rates edge higher in the coming months
Freddie Mac says that average mortgage rates have increased in the past week following Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s speech last Friday.

The average 30-year FRM was 3.46 per cent in the week ending Sept.1 compared to 3.43 per cent a week earlier.

Average 15-year FRMs were up to 2.77 per cent from 2.74 per cent and 5-year ARMs averaged 2.83 per cent from 2.75 per cent.

International buyers have spent $10 billion in this market
International home buyers have spent $10 billion on property in Texas in the period from April 2015 to March 2016.

Texas Association of Realtors says that international buyers accounted for 7 per cent of national home sales and 10 per cent of those sales were in Texas, a 2 per cent rise from the previous year.

“Texas is now home to the second-largest foreign-born population size in the nation and has the seventh-highest percentage of foreign-born residents compared to statewide population,” noted Leslie Rouda Smith, chairman of the Texas Association of Realtors.

Buyers from Asia (especially China and India) made up the largest proportion of international purchases at 36 per cent, closely followed by Latin America (including Mexico) at 34 per cent.
European homebuyers made up 12 per cent, African buyers 8 per cent and Canadians 4 per cent.

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Companies are getting serious about financial wellness

Posted on October 19, 2016 by robertjrussellcompanies

Large employers have the resources to help employees with a financial wellness program, according to a new study. (Photo: iStock)

Companies are getting serious about financial wellness among employees. This comes amidst increasing awareness of the role that employers can play in educating their workers about how to better safeguard the wages they earn.

A new survey by Norwalk, Connecticut-based business services company Xerox of 500 benefit managers from large employers found that just over half are either planning on putting in place a financial well-being program for employees or are already in the process of implementing one.

Thirty-eight percent of employers already have a financial wellness program in place, such as financial health assessments, workshops, or presentations on financial planning or retirement planning calculators.

More than three-quarters of employers surveyed viewed such benefits as very effective in helping employees achieve financial stability.

Five ways employee needs are sharpening the focus on finances in wellness programs.

Employers view financial planning assistance as a way to help employees reduce stress and keep them focused on their jobs. Past studies have highlighted the amount of work time lost by employees who are preoccupied with financial problems. Calculating the productivity lost from money-related worries is near-impossible, but clearly employers have determined that it’s a problem big enough to do something about.

“It’s safe to say finances are a major concern for the modern-day workforce and employers can help alleviate the entire gamut of stress by providing a more robust voluntary benefits package that addresses an employee’s overall well being,” says Tom Kelly, principal of Xerox HR Services, in a press release announcing the study results.

Decades after beginning to shift away defined-benefit pensions towards 401(k)s, employers have also belatedly realized that many of their employees are woefully ill-equipped to deal with the complexities of retirement planning. What is the good of offering employees a generous 401(k) if they don’t understand how much they should be putting away for retirement and how they should invest it?

While large employers have the resources to bring in expert advisers to take employees through the steps of responsible retirement planning, financial wellness initiatives will likely continue to be rare among midsize or small employers.

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Big Profits in International Real Estate

Posted on October 18, 2016 by robertjrussellcompanies

Big real estate profits. That’s where my attention is. Because if you buy at the right time at the right price in the right market, you could as much as double your money in five to seven years’ time. This is something I’ve seen play out time and time again. It’s what I seek out in my capacity as a global real estate scout.

Take Northeast Brazil as an example. If you’ve been watching the news lately, you may be aware that things don’t look positive for Brazil. Recently, the Olympics have featured heavily in the news. Now that they’re over, the media is free to focus on the doom-and-gloom story it had before the Olympics: The impeachment and trial of President Dilma Rousseff and the recession in Brazil.

If that’s all you read about Brazil, it would be easy to get the idea that there’s no opportunity here. But that’s not true. In fact, Brazil—or more specifically Northeast Brazil—offers one of the strongest opportunities on my beat right now.

In the northeast, the economy is strong—and still growing. Tourist numbers are growing—and the port and free trade zone of Pecem continue to be major boons to the Northeast’s economy. But, because locals are gripped by fear, they’re not buying real estate. And those who need to sell fast are having to drop their prices to entice a buyer.

That’s creating the kinds of deals Brazilians call a “galinha morta” deal—literally a “dead chicken” deal. A “dead chicken” may not sound too appealing to you. But for Brazilians, that term signifies a no-brainer deal; a meal you don’t have to chase. Something we would think of as “low-hanging fruit.”

Get in now on one of those no-brainer deals and you could save 30%, 40%, even 50% on pre-crisis pricing. Then, as things pick up in Brazil again and values rise, you’re sitting on something that’s worth a lot more than you paid for it.

And with a weakening of the real, Brazil’s currency, and a strengthening of the dollar, your investment dollars go much further now. Your dollars buy much more than they did a couple of years ago.

Take one stand-out example I’ve got word of in recent months. A contact on the ground told me about a spacious and luxurious condo on the prime boardwalk that was listed for sale in Fortaleza—Northeast Brazil’s most popular tourist destination. And a thriving city in its own right. Fortaleza is a First-World city…and home to 3 million people. It’s a domestic tourist favorite—attracting 4 million visitors in 2014. That number is growing every year.

The condo is spread out over more than 1,900 square feet and takes up its own (17th) floor. Before the crisis, its stunning views would have set you back 3 million reais ($1.5 million at the exchange rates before the crisis).

But the owner needed out quick. He listed for 1.9 million reais. In the end, he sold for 950,000 reais. At the time, that wasn’t much more than $250,000 for a primo condo in a world-class city in the middle of a medium-term upswing.

That’s less than a fifth of what it would have sold for pre-crisis. And, as the market starts moving again in the future, the value of that condo will rally. You could easily see the value of that condo double in the next five to seven years.

That’s just one example of the kind of “dead chicken” opportunities available in Northeast Brazil at the moment. And just one example of the places on my beat where you could double your investment in the next five to seven years by buying right.

 

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Your business has major liabilities that need to be addressed

Posted on October 17, 2016 by robertjrussellcompanies

Businesses that offer outdoor sports and recreation face special risks. The most important thing they need is an insurance agent who understands what those challenges are. (Photo: iStock)

Are you prepared for the unexpected? What about your business? Whether you manage a whitewater rafting excursion, a horseback-riding stable or a hunting grounds, it can be all fun and games until someone gets hurt — or dies.

Simply put, your business has major liabilities that need to be addressed. The biggest challenge to your outdoor sports business may be finding the right insurance plan.

Common types of incidents at outdoor sports locations include auto accidents, and motorized vehicles such as ATVs, snowmobiles and snowcats, with most cases occurring when the client does not follow guide instructions or make a poor decision.

For example, in the whitewater rafting industry, “serious accidents resulting in death usually include a client coming out of the raft and being caught in a foot entrapment between submerged rocks,” said Jim Sattler, president of Cbiz Sattler Insurance. “Additionally, many fatalities are influenced by the physical condition of the participants. We see many fatalities related to heart conditions and cold water immersion.”

Recent data from the from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its Wilderness and Environmental Medicine Journal showed that snowboarding is the most dangerous outdoor recreational activity by a wide margin, followed by sledding.

The research, which gathered data from 63 hospital emergency rooms nationwide, also revealed that more than 68 percent of accident victims are male — which is to be expected, because men and boys have higher rates of participation in outdoor activities. A quarter of the victims were identified as age 14 or younger, and a third ranging from 15 to 24.

Here are five tips from Sattler for outdoors sports businesses to avoid an insurance pitfall:

Horse-riding instructor

Make sure your staff is properly trained and maintain a high level of professionalism.

1. Educate your employees

When hiring your staff, make sure your guides are trained and maintain a high level of professionalism.

When you place an employee out in the back country, don’t put them on a horse that they’re not capable of handling. Never equip them with firearms when they have never used a gun before and you certainly should never hand them the oars to a raft if they can’t identify a rapid.

Not having a properly trained staff could lead to a major lawsuit.

Drought in California

California’s 2014 drought exposes the 180- to 200-foot drop in water levels.

2. Be prepared for a drought

When water and snow are involved, always financially prepare for a time when Mother Nature does not act accordingly.

Whether it’s a drought in California, or snowless winter in Alaska, the weather may not always cooperate. If you manage a mountain or river resort, make sure your policy covers you during times when there is no snow or water. This will help you maintain your expensive outdoor resort permit during seasons that are not as popular or lucrative.

Insurance agent

Choose an agent who understands your potential risks.

3. Find an insurer who understands your business

While you search for the best insurance coverage, be sure your agent understands your potential risk.

Look for a company that has been in the outdoor sporting industry for some time. It is essential that the insurance provider shares your same level of expertise.

The ideal agent would be someone who has been on the water, who knows the outdoors and is an advocate for your industry on a personal or even political level.

Incident management

Create your incident response plan for the most serious accident.

4. Create an accident/incident response plan

Have an incident/accident response plan in writing and assign staff to address specific aspects of the plan.

Include an action plan for who calls whom. Include legal and insurance contacts as part of the first contacts. Plan for the most serious accident and be prepared to respond promptly and professionally.

Talking to the media

You want to have one person who will speak to the media in the event of an accident where people are harmed or killed.

5. Be ready to talk to the media

Have one person assigned to address inquiries from the media in the event of a serious accident.

Practice how to address the media with respect to family and friends of the injured or deceased party. And pay attention to the injured as well as the family and friends on the trip. If there’s a fatality, cooperate with the governing bodies, sheriff, coroner, permitting agency and be accessible.

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Your basic resource is Time

Posted on October 16, 2016 by robertjrussellcompanies

How much time do you waste in a typical day? Have you kept track of your time by recording everything you do every 15 minutes?

What is your most basic resource? It’s not money, not brains, not who you know. Your basic resource is time. Unless you use your time well, you’ll never even get a glimpse of what your potential is. Using your time well isn’t easy — which is why so few people do it. We all have challenges with organizing our lives, setting priorities, and planning our time.

Regardless of what you do in life, time is money. If I gave you a check for $86,400 and said, “From this moment you have 24 hours to invest it. You can invest in anything you want to with this money. Whatever you don’t invest, I get back tomorrow at this exact same moment.” What would you do during the next 24 hours? You’d be out there working hard and fast to invest that $86,400, wouldn’t you?

That being your attitude, why aren’t you busily investing as much as you can of the 86,400 seconds given to you every day? That’s right — at the beginning of every day we’re all given 86,400 seconds. As each second ticks by, we’ve lost the benefit of it forever unless we find a way to invest that moment in the future.

The seconds of your life — and that’s the way you live it, one second at a time — can be invested in countless ways that will bring you a future return. Many of these ways will give you repeated returns stretching over many years. You can invest your seconds in the creation of future income, in gaining new knowledge and acquiring useful skills, in making contacts, in enhancing your personal life. The methods of gaining future benefits from present time are myriad. And so are the ways of wasting time. The seconds you squander vanish forever with no potential return. If you don’t invest your daily treasure of 86,400 seconds wisely, in essence you hand them back at the end of each day to the force that gave them to you. So, invest your time wisely.

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Should you buy an Immediate Annuity?

Posted on October 15, 2016 by robertjrussellcompanies

Problem: Living Too Long

An immediate annuity is the most efficient way to address the risk of living too long. It provides a high level of income and is guaranteed for the life of the “annuitant.” This allows a retiree to increase their consumption rate and at the same time eliminate risk. There isn’t market fluctuation, nor is there a risk of exhausting capital.

Solution:Immediate Annuity

The purpose of an immediate annuity is to establish an income stream that you can’t outlive. Most people who buy immediate annuities are retired and concerned that their money may run out. While there are variable immediate annuities, fixed annuities are more often used for this purpose. Since interest rates are currently very low, you may want to consider adding an inflation rider on your annuity. The inflation rider will allow for some increases in your monthly income over time to keep pace with rising inflation.

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