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Real Estate Plugins Can Help Home Buyers Who Need Roommates To Pay Their Mortgages

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real estate map tool

Real estate plugins can help young home buyers attract renters to help with their home loan payments.

Let’s face it, living in urban areas is incredibly expensive and the use of real estate plugins is one way to help home buyers get into a property with the idea of renting out part of it.

Yes, home prices and rental rates are going through the roof in some markets. San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles are seeing record highs for prices. Ironically, Millennials want to move to urban areas more than ever. They are in essence, creating their own dilemma.

In addition, Millennials in most markets have held off the purchase of any property. They didn’t want to commit to a mortgage (even though, in another irony, mortgage rates are near record lows. A rate of 4% is still incredibly attractive compared to the 9% rates and higher we’ve seen).

One solution that is growing is a trend called “Co-Living.”

“What is co-living? It’s a concept that multi-family developers are now using to create “common” areas where several people can live together in one unit. Very similar to a dorm.

What does this have to do with a broker or agent?

Many home buyers today are looking at properties with the potential to rent part of the property out to help cover the mortgage.

It’s a smart strategy. The rental market is super-hot right now. If you own a home or condo in a decent location and can offer an attractive rate, you will get inquiries from renters.

This is where a real estate pro can paint a picture of how a property can be a good source of income.

And one of the best ways to paint that picture is with real estate plugins, such as the widgets offered by real estate data providers such as Home Junction.

Choose from a suite of real estate plugins

Sure, you can tell a home buyer this is a great location.

But why not SHOW them how that property is an ideal location on a map embedded on your website? Get the wheels spinning in the buyers head on how they can also use this information to attract renters.

For example, with the real estate map plugin, an agent or broker can point out a prospective property pulled from MLS data.

Then they can start displaying amenities within certain distances of that property.

Maybe it’s a coastal town and the property is located ten miles away from a beach.

Or perhaps it’s a hipster type town and the home is located three miles from downtown.

How about a plugin for local businesses in relation to a property? Alongside the listing, show a widget for businesses nearby. There’s a cool bookstore over here, just a mile away. Love Starbucks? Here’s a Starbucks and here’s a hip local coffee shop within a five-mile radius. A yoga enthusiast? Here’s a place where you can bend and twist within two miles. Sushi restaurants, clubs, book stores – point them all out in relative proximity to the home for sale.

That’s a powerful selling tool to attract renters…

 School data is a must for any real estate website

How about schools? There are quite a few single parents in society. They are all looking for inexpensive places to rent. Great schools would be an enormous draw and in fact, the main draw for them.

Provide a feed on your website with current school data plugin. Show buyers a comprehensive overview of schools in the area with student/teacher ratios, school demographics, etc. (Also provided by Home Junction).

What are trends for home prices in this area, a young home buyer might want to know. With a real estate plugin for Recent Property Sales, an agent can quickly give that consumer a sense of comfort that property prices have been trending upward in this market for the past few quarters.

Conversely, want to attract sellers in a hot market who have the perfect home that would appeal to renters? Offer the Home Junction Home Estimator widget. Sellers will continually use this plugin to check out the value of their property. One day they are going to decide to sell. Make sure they are on your website when they make this decision and have easy access to a lead form or a phone number.

The challenge of convincing consumers today to purchase a home might seem enormous in current conditions. Inventory is low. Prices are high. Millennials are still reluctant to take out a 30-year mortgage.

But real estate pros know challenges come with the territory.

What’s encouraging, is that today, with big data and geo-spatial technology, brokers and agents have an incredible array of inexpensive real estate plugins at their disposal. Tools they can display on their own website (and make sure they keep their clients on their website or generate their own leads).

Some consumers will want to consider adding renters as a home buying strategy. Maybe that’s the only way they can get in a home. That’s fine. You can help. And with key real estate plugins integrated into the local MLS, you will have the best tools to assist them.

 

 

 

Real Estate Map Technology Helps You Create A Story About Amenities That Will Boost Home Prices

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real estate map technologyEmbedding the right real estate map functionality on your website can be a powerful tool when you approach sellers.

Let’s face it. Experts will tell you that people love to talk about themselves and second to that, people love to talk about their homes.

What if you could use real estate map technology to talk about their home in a way that would blow them away?

As every real estate professional knows, there are many factors that contribute to the value and attractiveness of a home beside the home itself.

When you are asking buyers to pay $200,000 for a property, they’re important. When you are talking about asking someone to plunk down $1 million for a property, those factors are very important. (And the added value you show those million-dollar-homeowners is also critically important.).

According to CheatSheet.com, there are several factors outside the home that can boost home prices.

Savvy brokers and agents know this already.

But here’s a tool that will help sellers see how you are going to use those amenities to boost the value of their home in the mind of potential buyers.

Use real estate maps to show rather than tell

Here are some suggestions:

Schools – of course, we all know the value of good schools to home buyers (and sellers who live near them). Here’s where the right real estate map technology and data come in handy (both provided by Home Junction, of course).

For one, Home Junction provides in-depth, valuable school data. A complete breakdown of the school including the name of the principal, location, phone number, etc.

There’s more. A broker or agent can also post critical school data such as teacher/student ratios, demographics of the student population, etc.

Sure, an agent can tell a seller they are going to let the seller know, “There are really good schools in this area.”

A savvy agent will show a seller how they are going to provide factual in-depth data on everything a home buyer needs to know about a school.

Who is going to impress the seller more?

real estate map plugin

Home Junction’s real estate map technology plug-in.

Parks – people love parks. What’s great about this amenity is that this can be a critical selling factor that costs the home owner nothing. Sure, remodeling the kitchen for $30,000 is always a great upgrade. But don’t dismiss the value of a park two blocks away. You can turn that greenery into some greenery for the seller’s pocket.

With Home Junction real estate map technology, a broker or agent can point out on a map relative to the location of a property for sale, just where all the parks are located and their proximity to this home. That’s powerful.

Home Junction achieves this by integrating their geospatial mapping functionality with a local MLS database.

So, as a savvy agent, you discovered that a couple of potential home buyers are big hikers. Use the Home Junction map to show them where there are great hiking trails nearby.

Does the home buyer own a dog? Point out the nearest dog park and that buyer will practically jump up on the couch and wave their tail in glee. (Yes, people are that passionate about dogs).

Found a couple that love to bike around town? Use the map to show them bike paths and bike lanes nearby.

Cheat sheet said trees are a big plus. Parks have plenty of them. Be sure to point them out. Places photos of the parks on your website. (If you used a WordPress real estate website, this would be very easy to do with their user-friendly platform. Ask Home Junction about this valuable service as well).

All of those park amenities can start to erode away the presence of a not-so-great kitchen. You can always fix a kitchen, Mr. and Mrs. Homebuyer, but you can’t find too many houses this close to a hiking trail/dog park/bike path.

Stores and Restaurants – researchers have found that properties located close to trendy stores historically sell for higher prices.

Using the real estate map technology, show buyers how that Starbucks is just two blocks away. Or a Whole Foods is just around the corner. Maybe there’s a Trader’s Joe’s about to go up on a vacant lot located here.

Do your potential home buyers like to read? Check out cool clothing stores? Do they have a hobby?

Point out the cute little downtown retail area. Trendy shops. Vintage clothing stores. An independent book store/cafe. A hobby shop nearby.

What if they are foodies? Show them how they are going to love this Zagat-rated new age Italian restaurant right over here. Or, this Asian fusion sushi shop just down the street.

Community Associations – a community association is a big plus for home buyers. It shows that all of the home owners nearby have teamed up together to make their neighborhoods pleasant and well-maintained, you can point this out on the map as well.

In fact, with the map, you can point out all boundaries involved. County and municipal boundaries. School district boundaries. As you know, these boundaries are important in regard to where children can go to school, who will able to use city water and sewer, and also how much people are going to be taxed.

Tell a better story about amenities near any property

Imagine showing a potential seller how you going to present their home in regard to all of these neighborhood amenities.

You can almost see the smile growing on their faces. Be sure to remind them how all of these amenities that you plan to show will also grow the value of their home and in the minds of the buyer.

After all, at the end of the day, the true value of any property is what people are willing to pay for it. Hey Mr. and Mrs. Seller, this is how I’m going to show buyers why they should pay top dollar for your home.

It’s will become very apparent to them very quickly. This broker or agent knows how to package their home in regard to neighborhood amenities. And this particular broker or agent has the most sophisticated real estate map technology embedded on their website to make a very persuasive case, not just verbally, but visually as well.

It’s a fact, neighborhood amenities can boost home prices. It’s also another fact, displaying the latest real estate map technology can boost your value in the minds of sellers.

 

The Millennials Are Coming And Do You Have The Real Estate Data To Attract Them

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real estate data soldFinally, Millennials are tipping their toes into the real estate market and here’s how you can help them with a real estate data API on your website.

The housing market is hot. According to Redfin, home sales rocketed up 9% in March compared to a year ago. The typical home was under contract in just 49 days, compared to 60 days in 2016.

It certainly took long enough. The real estate industry has seen some incredible highs and lows in the past decade.

But for real estate brokers and agents, these are the good times.

Why? Because Millennials, that generation that went through the Great Recession and saw the value of their parents’ homes plummet, at long last are seeing the light about home ownership.

The timing is perfect. This generation of workers is starting to move up in the ranks as far as pay scale. They are also getting married. Starting a family. Rental rates are getting ridiculous. Interest rates are still very low, but they are climbing. Conditions are ripe for owning a home.

Studies show first-time home buyers now see buying a home as a good investment because:

– they are building equity

– they believe they will get a future return on their investment

– they prefer to own their own space

– they like how they can control their own space and make changes as well

The Millennial generation is different, however. They are very skeptical. Some brokers and agents will just try to tell them that everything is fine and real estate is still the best investment.

However, smart brokers and agents will have solid home sales data embedded on their website to make their case with hard facts.

That includes: Recent Homes Sales Data. Market Trend Charts. Demographics. All sorts of convincing information.

Because here’s the problem with a hot real estate market – prices steadily march their way upward, making it scarier and scarier for a young person to commit. Sure, you could have purchased a home back in 2008 for a song, with historically low interest rates, but those days are gone.

That’s where Home Sales Data can be a tipping point.

Real estate data is key in a booming market

For example, Joey Coachella wants to quit paying exorbitant rent for the 800 square foot apartment he lives in. He’s got a good job, pays his bills on time, keeps his eye on his credit score and saves money for a down payment.

He’s ready to buy. But as a Millennial, he has different needs

As one housing expert said, “Millennials expressed a higher level of dissatisfaction with their communities and local housing options than did other demographics. They say that neighborhoods lack convenient outdoor space to run, walk, bike and exercise.”

More than 60% of Millennials want to live in areas where they can use their car less.

Like his peers, Joey prefers neighborhoods that are “walkable” or “bikeable” where he can easily get to a coffee shop or restaurant without climbing in his car, driving all over the place and then trying to find a parking spot.

He also wants to live near his job. Or he will want to be close to a public transportation hub.

Promote your listings that are “walkable” and “bikeable.” With a user-friendly WordPress real estate website, you can easily insert these terms into your content. There are super valuable keywords that will be picked up by Google and Bing when people use these terms to search for properties.

Go a step further. As a real estate broker or agent, you can address these location issues with map search tools similar to the ones provided by Home Junction.

That tool shows different points of interest on a map in relation to a property. Say, for instance you have listed a property that is within walking distance of downtown. You can create a screenshot of this property showing its location on a map and blast it out on social media and other outlets.

Show how this is a “walkable” and “bikeable” property. Point out the amenities nearby – cool coffee house, great sushi restaurant, popular bar.

When Joey finally gives you a call, that’s when the Homes Sales Data on your website will come in handy. Chances are a property that is close to downtown, is going to be more expensive than others out in the hinterlands.

Joey might like the property but is reluctant to commit to the higher price and the 30-year mortgage that goes with it.

But with your Recent Homes Sales Data chart, specifically geared for that neighborhood and not just the zip code, you can show Joey how home sales are taking off in that area.

There are other key points you can make with a full basket of local Real Estate Data. Demographics for example. Draw attention to how this is an upscale neighborhood that is attracting professionals and pushing up home prices.

Illustrate how this property will not only be a residence, but also an investment that should pay off if the Market Data trend line continues.  There is no reason why it shouldn’t. You can also show Joey home sales data and trend lines in neighboring markets, assuring him there aren’t any better deals across town either.

If he wants to lock in the offer price, he has to make a move now. With your real estate data, he will have a comfort level knowing he did his research and is making a sound decision.

Millennials are different. This is the first generation that learned techno-speak at an early age and practice it every day. They will know how to search for data. They will believe data presented to them in a credible way on a credible website.

Talk to them in their language with trustworthy Real Estate Data that is embedded on your site and makes you a trustworthy source of information.