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By and large, year 2009 was not a good one for real estate sector. There were price declines, financial crunch, foreclosures, mortgage defaults, short sales, lots of properties lying vacant in the markets that were once considered quite strong. So what do we expect after a couple of tumultuous years (real estate markets have been in tank throughout 2008 as well). If truth be told, real estate is not that attractive in terms of investment opportunities and short term yields at this point in time, since the recovery process will take some time. However, the downfall of previously strong real estate markets doesn’t mean there’s no place left to invest in real estate. As the saying goes “somebody’s loss is somebody’s gain” (for real estate, we can change it to “some real estate market’s loss is some other real estate market’s gain). Take Abu Dhabi for example, as it will be getting the benefit of Dubai’s real estate market downfall.

Similarly, we can expect some emerging markets to get hold of the investor’s attention, as the year 2010 approaches.

Costa Rica Real Estate:

A steady economy, good overall quality of life (known as the greenest country of world), stable government, fast growing tourism industry, all of this makes Costa Rica one of the best places to live, as well as a great place to invest in real estate sector. Good living conditions mean high end-user demand for houses, and high end-user demand means good yields on investment. The prices are not too high either and it’s relatively easier to obtain a piece of property in this part of the world.

Indian Real Estate:

India is going through a quite impressive economic growth, attracting foreign investment in many sectors, and real estate is one of them. Then there’s an ever growing population along with an influx of foreign companies targeting India as the next money spinning market. As a result lots of construction is going around. There’s a constant upsurge in the housing prices in its major cities which hasn’t really been affected by the global financial crisis, despite having close links with Dubai real estate market.

Abu Dhabi Real Estate:

Recently, nominated as the most promising real estate market in the Middle East by a group of highly regarded investors, Abu Dhabi has got the money and resources to build like Dubai (and a lot to learn from what’s going on in Dubai at the moment). Slowly but steadily, Abu Dhabi is affirming its position as the regional leader when it comes to attracting foreign investment.

These are not just rumors, Google has actually started a real estate search service that will help users in finding apartment, commercial buildings, house for sale or rent, land or any other kind of real property anywhere (covers almost all major cities) in the world. Just type the name of area and click on “get real estate listing” button and you will be presented with a number of recent real estate listings in your desired locality. This is of course a free service and it sounds like a big blow to those property portals that can suffer the loss of their traffic. Even though it will certainly affect some of them but that’s not really disastrous for property portals, for the reason that Google places the website link at the end of listing, which means the website will eventually get the credit and of course the visitor. All Google has done is to provide a platform where online users can have a look at all available properties at one single place, very much like Google image search or Google’s video search. The big G is after all a search engine and apparently, it has no intentions of relegating itself to a property portal. At the end of the day, Google Real Estate is just a customized search that will look into real estate listings.

This new service of Google will be powered by Google maps, showing nearby schools, parks, restaurants, hospitals, shopping malls, and the likes. The new service signifies the importance of internet as the most rapidly growing medium for property buying or selling. Online property portals are now widely used by real estate professionals and investors alike to purchase or sale properties. At many property portals, agents or sellers can upload pictures or even videos of the property, helping buyers to make a more informed and on the spot decision. An increasing number of property portals (and now Google) means fewer people will be needing real estate agents from now on, and if they do, it will be for some specialized stuff. The need to launch your personal website now is more than ever for real estate agents and other such professionals. Adapting new technologies can increase your business and getting in the “good books” of Google means a never ending stream of leads. More than any other stake holders it will be the print media that suffers the most, who needs to pay money to these newspapers when you can have your property listed for free with images and videos to boost the chances of making sales.
Source:
Dubai Property

When people directly exchange their products or services with the goods or services of others, the trade is known as barter. Barter system was the most commonly used trade system before the advent of currency notes. As a matter of fact, invention of money hasn’t put an end to the barter system altogether, as it is still used in various forms (even more after the arrival of internet). A relatively new phenomenon being introduced on the internet is some websites offering their services for individuals who are looking to trade their real property for any other asset of the same value. Given the fact that there are not many assets that can be exchanged with a real property, therefore most of these barters are supposed to be a real property exchanged with another real property. The idea has slowly picked up traction and many websites are providing a similar service (which means people are taking interest in property bartering).

Barter creates a win-win situation for both parties (not like the normal sale and purchase where usually one party’s gain is another party’s loss). Buyer doesn’t need to go through the long procedures of arranging finance or mortgage for property purchase, which makes a lot of difference especially in the situations like recent financial crunch when it’s extremely hard to get your hands on required funds. The barter system eliminates the need of property agents and other types of middle man, reducing selling cost to a bare minimum. Even though it sounds really difficult to find some willing property owner who’s ready to barter his/her property with yours, it’s not that difficult anymore, thanks to the Internet which makes advertising and searching so easy. Also, you can also save some certain types of taxes in case of barter trade.

Coming to the flip side of this trade system, the first and the most obvious problem is the valuation of properties or assets being exchanged. That is why you might need to hire an independent valuator to see if both properties are of the same value. Also, you need to remember that the value of the property will be different for both parties (valued less for the one who currently owns the property and who’s looking to exchange it for another property). In addition to the complexity in property valuation, barter exchange is also subject to legal complexities, therefore you must arrange for proper documentation.
Source:
Dubai Property

Telemarketing is widely used all over the world as an effective method for generating leads and making sales. Being a small scale real estate business or professional, you’ve got a couple of options like telemarketing, email marketing or web marketing to promote your services. You can choose one or more from these relatively inexpensive mediums; telemarketing happens to be the one with the best success rate. A telemarketer’s job is to call prospective customers and entice them to buy some particular product/service from you. Known as a very cost-effective method, telemarketing is often denounced by the general public who consider it to be a disturbance (and rightfully so). That doesn’t mean that telemarketing in all of its forms is unethical, all you need to do is to avoid calling at inappropriate times and make sure that the number you are going to call, is not on “Do not call” list. You can use telemarketing for various purposes in your real estate business, for example generating leads or making sales during outbound or inbound calls.

Good thing about telemarketing is that you can do it from the comfort of your house as well. Getting your hands on customer’s list and their contact numbers is often the trickiest part, because you cannot use telephone directories. Calling a random number and inquiring if they need the services of a real estate agent or attorney is not going to fetch any result. As an alternate option, you can acquire a list of customers from another business which is somehow related to your business. Otherwise you can get these numbers from property portals where interested buyers or sellers often leave their contact details along with their requirements.

Calling your customers and convincing them over phone is not easy, you should start from defining your goals. In most cases, you should be content with fixing a meeting with the clients because it’s not possible to finalize the sale of a property over phone. Even though it’s good to have a written sales pitch but don’t rely solely on the sales pitch because in most cases the customers will just slam the phone down in case you start narrating your sales pitch like a robot. It’s always good to have some information about the person you are going to talk to, if you are getting the numbers from a property portal, you must read a little about their requirements before making a call.

Buying Real Estate is part of the American dream. For those who have never been down the “buying real estate” path yet, you just…

1. Get Pre-Approved. Even if you don’t think you can afford it, or are concerned about a down payment, or your credit – the first thing you should do is talk to a skilled mortgage lender. It’s their job to help you fix your credit, tell you how much you can afford, and help make Read the rest of this entry »