| BUSINESS TIPS HOW TO PUT TOGETHER A BUSINESS PLAN |
| You may think of yourself as an individual professional, but you’re also the head of your own business. And if you want that business to achieve all the success it can, you need a business plan, just like every successful business operates with. A business plan is a detailed roadmap of how you will get to your goals for the year. Typically, you formulate or update your plan at the start of the year. But you can create or modify a business plan at any time to set yourself up for year-end success. Here are the three parts of a business plan. Business Expenses. These cover: Fixed costs, such as rent, salaries, insurance, etc. One-time costs, such as the purchase of office equipment or items to add to your staging inventory. Variable costs, such as what you pay for printed materials, farming, online marketing, postage and shipping, etc. Operating costs—your day-to-day running expenses. Living expenses, such as your monthly mortgage or rent payment, utilities, food, auto lease or loan payment, car fuel and service costs, etc. Insurance, including home, auto, health, life, disability, etc. Taxes Savings and investments—the money you put aside for emergencies, retirement, etc. Revenue Projections. Estimating expected income shows how you’ll meet expenses. They can include: A sales forecast—based on past performance, market research, the sellers and buyers you’re targeting, and any market niches you’re focusing on. A pricing strategy for products or services, if applicable. Other revenue streams, if you’re pursuing multiple sources of income. Operating Metrics. Use past experience and national and local data to estimate: Number of calls to secure an appointment Number of appointments to get a listing Number of appointments to close a sale Costs per listed property Average sale price Commissions earned A business plan should reveal the gross sales needed to generate the net commissions that will cover your expenses and contribute to your savings and investments. It should determine the number of homes you need to sell and at what price point, to achieve your financial goals. |
| TECHNOLOGY OPTIMIZING YOUR SITE TO OUTRANK COMPETITION AND BOOST ORGANIC TRAFFIC |
| In real estate, staying a step ahead of your competition is crucial, and that starts with consistently outranking them on SERPs (search engine results pages). It’s also important to get as much organic traffic as you can. Those are the visitors to your website that come from unpaid sources, such as search engines, social media posts, or other free sources. Search engine optimization—SEO—is the tool that helps you both rank higher in search and boost that high-quality organic traffic. The SEO efforts that get these results are researching keywords and phrases, implementing them, optimizing the user experience (UX), and working with Google Search Console. Researching Keywords. It’s important to identify the keywords and phrases that sellers, buyers, and renters use when searching for properties. It may be difficult to rank for the top searched keywords in your market because sites for national franchises and listing portals will have a strong hold on those. Instead, analyze the sites of successful brokers in your area to see which keywords are driving their traffic. Use tools such as Ahrefs and SEMrush, which can give you insight into other sites’ keyword strategies, and uncover keywords you should use. Real estate is local, so think about incorporating neighborhood names, landmarks, and other local terms into your keywords. Longer phrases—“long-tail keywords”—often work best. For example, if you add some Craftsman home content to your site, a “Craftsman homes for sale in (your market)” long-tail keyword will draw organic traffic from buyers looking for a Craftsman. Implementing Keywords. Do not engage in keyword stuffing, filling your content with so many keywords it becomes hard to read. This turns off visitors, and Google will penalize you for it. All you need is a few strategically placed keywords. Incorporate then naturally into your content, especially in page titles, headers, introductory sentences, concluding paragraphs, and in anchor text, which is a hyperlink to other pages on your site. Also include keywords in the meta tags for your web pages—your web developer can help you here. Don’t get so caught up in keywords that you lose sight of the fact that you first need to create valuable, informative content people will want to engage with. And don’t forget to keep updating your site with blog articles about local market insights and neighborhood guides. Optimize the User Experience (UX). Make sure your site is mobile-responsive, meaning it looks good on phones. Google will penalize you if it doesn’t. Also, check that your navigation is intuitive, and that pages load fast. Again, your web developer can help you here. Google Search Console. This powerful tool helps you optimize your site’s SEO. Performance reports tell you how often your site is appearing in search results, click-through rates, and the keywords driving traffic. Index coverage identifies issues that hurt your site’s visibility on Google. Sitemaps help Google efficiently crawl and index your site. The tool can even check for mobile usability issues that hurt your search ranking. |
| MARKET TIP BE AN EDUCATOR |
| When it comes to home buying, there’s a lot that people get wrong, or just don’t know. A recent Harris Poll of more than 2,000 Americans revealed that we all need to educate and reassure prospective home buyers about the following: 54% of those surveyed erroneously believe mortgage rates are now at an all-time high, while 1 in 6 think they may be, but aren’t sure. 64% think that a minimum 20% down payment is required to purchase a home. 72% think that one cannot qualify for a mortgage with a credit score in the 500s. 85% are at least somewhat nervous about buying a “money pit.” 44% don’t know the meaning of APR, and 46% don’t know what PMI is. (Most of these were Gen Zers, age 27 and under, and Millennials, age 28-43.) 75% are at least somewhat nervous about affording a home, finding the right one, or finding a partner to help them buy one. 56% erroneously feel they are in a worse position to buy a home than prior generations. (In fact, new data from Realtor.com reports that when baby boomers, now age 60-78, entered their prime homebuying years in 1980, mortgage rates spiked above 16% and the average monthly mortgage payment jumped 34% year-over-year.) On the positive side, 83% of those surveyed still believe homeownership is an essential life milestone. 58% are willing to spend less on nonessentials to save for a down payment, and 45% would consider taking a gig job or moonlighting to do so. 40% think about buying a home at least once a week, including 62% of Gen Zers and 55% of millennials. 51% associate home buying with being excited, although 25% associate it with being nervous or stressed. 49% said privacy is the top perk of homeownership; 44% said long-term financial benefits, and 33%, a place to make memories. 43% associate home buying with feeling proud, 32% with feeling motivated, and 30% with feeling confident. |
The Jim Passi Team at Citywide Home Loans proudly serves Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Georgia and Flordia. If you are looking to buy a home or refinance, we have you covered. Apply Now to get started.
