Why Your Buyers Need to Get a CLUE

Why Your Buyers Need to Get a CLUE

Eighty-six percent of Americans are unaware that insurers’ use of the claims history for the previous owners of their home can be factored into setting their premiums for a new policy, according to a new survey of more than 1,000 adults by InsuranceQuotes.

Many insurers use CLUE — Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange — to report and check the claims history of homes. Yet, only 12 percent of buyers say they ask for a CLUE report before buying their current home, according to the survey.

“Consumers of all ages, from millennials to seniors, are almost entirely unaware of how the CLUE database affects their insurance rates,” says Laura Adams, senior insurance analyst at InsuranceQuotes. “In most states, an inquiry about property damage can be added to your CLUE report and used against you, even if you never file a claim.”

Only the owner of a property can request a CLUE report. Homebuyers, therefore, need to ask sellers to obtain a copy on their own behalf.

“The CLUE report, which maintains data up to seven years, is a valuable tool for homebuyers because it reveals prior claims and potential risks,” Adams says. “It also helps homesellers provide full disclosure about their property’s condition.”

The CLUE report can be obtained for free once every 12 months.

Source: InsuranceQuotes

Home Ownership Key in Retirement

Home Ownership Key in Retirement

Older home owners who leverage the equity in their home may be better off in funding their retirement, according to a new study by the Urban Institute. However, the recession may have hampered many retirees’ abilities to do so.

“Not only does a house meet the basic needs of shelter, but it’s an asset that typically can be used to build wealth as home owners pay down their mortgages,” the study’s authors note. “In fact, many retirement security experts argue that the conventional three-legged stool of retirement resources—Social Security, pensions and savings—is incomplete because it ignores the home.”

Before the recession, home owners aged 65 or older could have used their home’s equity to increase their retirement income by over 50 percent – up to $60,000 –either by borrowing a home equity line of credit, selling their home at a profit, or taking a cash-out refinance or second mortgage. However, the Urban Institute’s study notes that percentage fell to 50 percent – up to $49,000 – by 2012, even though retirees accumulated an average 10 percent more equity than in 1998. Home owner’s equity grew from $117,000 to $166,000 between 2000 and 2006 before falling to $129,000 by 2012.

The study’s authors say that older home owners have more opportunity to unlock the wealth potential of their homes in retirement, particularly now with the recession over.

“The majority of older adults, regardless of income, race and ethnicity, and education, own homes that they could use to help finance their retirement,” the authors note.

Source: “Study: Home Equity Still a Retirement Failsafe?” RISMedia/Urban Institute (Nov. 13, 2016)

Keep in Touch: Up Your E-mail Subscribers

Keep in Touch: Up Your E-mail Subscribers

Marketers still rely on e-mail outreach to net new customers. After all, e-mail marketing can work 40 times better at getting customers than Facebook and Twitter. Many companies note that e-mail is their most effective channel for generating revenue too, according to Hubspot.

So how can you increase the likelihood that prospects will open your e-mails and won’t click you over to the spam folder? Forbes.com offers some of the following tips:

Offer up high-engaging content. This may first start with having a blog. Companies who blog regularly have 434 percent more indexed pages than companies who don’t blog, according to Search Engine Land. Blogging can help you boost your presence on search engines and in turn, may lead more clients to subscribe to your blog feeds, or your weekly or monthly real estate e-newsletter. Also to add to your subscriber lists, you might offer up a free guide or video series to help solve some of the biggest home buying or selling problems facing your clients currently.

Get others to share. E-mail subscribers are three times more likely to share your content via social media than visitors from other sources, according to QuickSprout. Urge others to share your content: Have a request in your e-mail message asking your clients to share it on social media. Add plugins like Click to Tweet, which allows your clients to click and share your content with ease.

Host a webinar. You can add value to your audience with a webinar and also position yourself as an expert in your field that they’ll want to keep in touch with. Provide a first-time home buyer webinar or invite a lender to host a webinar with you to talk about downpayment programs and funding a home purchase. You can also then post your webinar to YouTube or Vimeo to extend its reach.

Source: “6 Smart E-mail Tactics to Boost Your Subscriber List,” Forbes.com (Nov. 7, 2016)

‘I Voted’ Stickers Have Real Estate Connection

‘I Voted’ Stickers Have Real Estate Connection

Those white “I voted” stickers people received at the polls Tuesday have an apparent tie to real estate. The Phoenix Association of REALTORS® claims that they originally came up with the idea for the non-partisan stickers in 1985, according to WKYC.com in Milwaukee.

At the time, the association’s president, Skip Rimsza, as well as the operations director sought to spark greater voter interest in a bond issue on the ballot that was important to real estate professionals. The bond issue involved a proposal to expand the freeway system. Association officials thought up the idea to pass out “I voted” stickers to inspire greater voter turnout.

“We were absolutely the first ones in the country,” Rimsza insisted in a 2006 story in The Arizona Republic. “Back in 1985-’86, I went to the national REALTORS® convention, and no one had heard of any stickers in their communities.”

Since then, the stickers have caught on nationwide. Some states have tweaked the design: In Georgia, stickers now come in the shape of a peach and read “I’m a Georgia voter.”

In 1987, Janet Boudreau with Independent Tabulation Corp., now known as Intab, had copyrighted the sticker design with the waving American flag. At the time, the stickers had not yet been marketed across the country.

“I was looking for products that would have broad appeal no matter what level of government you were on,” Boudreau says. “I wanted a mass-appeal product and wanted a mass-appeal image. … I had no idea that it would take off the way it did.” The company now sells millions of stickers a year. “No matter what your party affiliation or politics are, we can all take pride in participating and having a say in what happens.”

Source: “Just Who Thought Up ‘I Voted’ Stickers?” WKYC.com (Nov. 4, 2016)

Perk for Owners Near Football Stadiums

Perk for Owners Near Football Stadiums

For home owners who live near popular college football towns, they may be able to recoup up to 70 percent of their monthly home ownership costs by renting out their home on game days for just one night, shows a new analysis.

The median nightly listing price for renting an entire home near a popular college football town is more than doubles on game day weekend, the study shows. Landlords can earn about $410 more than they typically could get for the space, according to the analysis by personal finance website NerdWallet, which used vacation rental stats from HomeAway.

Home owners near University of Notre Dame’s campus in South Bend, Ind., stand to earn even more. Home owners there could potentially make about 144 percent of their month’s mortgage and associated costs by renting out their home for one night alone during a game. In Tuscaloosa, Ala., home to the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tides, home owners can meet up to 101 percent of their monthly home ownership obligations – more than $1,000 over the average nightly rates on non-game days, the study showed.

In Ann Arbor, Mich. – home to University of Michigan – home owners can see rental prices go from $550 to $1,665 a night on game days.

Source: “Renting Out Homes in These College Football Towns Could Help Tackle Mortgage Costs,” NerdWallet (Nov. 1, 2016)

Global Trends That May Affect Your Market

Global Trends That May Affect Your Market

Sometimes it’s obvious how global shifts can rock the real estate industry world-wide, such as when the Brexit vote caused British investors to pull back due to a falling pound this summer and fall. Other signs are subtler. And as Carla Rayman, CIPS, e-PRO, GRI, told attendees at a session analyzing shifts in the global real estate market at the 2016 REALTORS® Conference & Expo in Orlando, Fla. on Saturday, some are even quite sweet.

“Look for the macaroons and market to the French,” she advised. She explained that one of the ways French citizens find to emigrate is by opening shops featuring the delicious pastries their country is known for. “That’s one of the franchises they use to move.”

Her business partner and co-presenter, Patricia Tan CIPS, GRI, added that many of the macaroon shops we’re seeing pop up in the United States may be traceable to the left-wing policies driving up income taxes in France.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be radical, violent change” that influences immigration and foreign investment, she told attendees. “You need to watch for those little changes.”

Rayman and Tan presented noteworthy trends in politics, tourism, and the economy that make an impact on global real estate movements. Here are nine that might help you predict movement in your local market.

1. Violence and other security issues are causing those in Ukraine, Turkey, and the Middle East to look outside of the region for a new home.
2. Softer shifts, mostly due to political changes, are driving real estate investment out of the Philippines, Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina.
3. Vancouver is expecting a 10 percent drop in real estate sales next year due to a new 15 percent sales tax on foreign buyers.
4. High unemployment was a major motivation for young people in Spain to look abroad, and now the same phenomenon is happening with young Greeks.
5. The strength of the dollar means many Canadians might be looking to cash out on their vacation homes in the United States. The idea is that they’ll rent for the next few years and come back to buy again when the loonie is more competitive with its southern neighbor.
6. One of the best ways to predict which countries are going to contribute most to your pool of foreign buyers is to see where tourists are coming from and take note when airlines add new direct flights from other countries to your area.
7. Eco-tourism was a big driver for foreign visitors, but it’s waning. Next up might be “marijuana tourism” for U.S. states that have legalized the drug.
8. Blackstone Group is selling a big portion of its investments in hotels and getting back into multifamily. You’ll see more hotel deals in 2017, but due to all the building happening now, an oversupply might lead to a cooling in 2018.
9. Foreign investment focus may soon shift from New York and Los Angeles to smaller cities and towns that boast attractive events such as large wine, art, and film festivals.

— REALTOR® Magazine