Heidelberg Real Estate

The latest marketing tool to assist home sellers are websites that allow you to host your own property site. You have a dedicated site with your own address, bandwidth space, and hard drive space to store pictures. These sites are used by potential buyers and sellers from all over the globe instead of just your local area. For those who are selling their home without the help a Realtor, it is an absolute must to have a listing on not just one of these sites, but as many of these sites as feasibly possible. The advantage of using a Realtor is that they are good salespeople and have connections. You have to make up for a potential lack of salesmanship and connections by utilize every advantage that you can.

On many of these sites, you can create a free account, and get images and a description up very quickly. These sites and designed intuitively, so you should not have any trouble figuring out how to upload images and design your page. Many of these sites are starting to use templates, or designs which are already pre-made, so that you don’t have to worry too much about the layout. All you have to do is paste information about your home that you should have available anyway. And upload plenty of pictures to the site. These sites allow you to change the description any time that you want, and they will let you keep your site as long as you need to.

These sites will definitely get you more leads, and at the very least, they will help you offset the disadvantage of not knowing all the local buyers or having the connections that a reactor has. You should definitely look at successful ads on the site, to see how you should design your own advertisement. The chances are that you have very little experience in selling homes compared to a Realtor, so an easy way to make up for this experience is to copy the best method.

Don’t ever copy the words from an ad, instead try to copy the style and the methodology that the advertiser used in order to get a lot of hits on their ad. Many times it involves the use of pictures, but more importantly is to use detailed descriptions that are stimulating and draw the buyer’s curiosity to come view your property in person.

Immobilienmakler Heidelberg

Makler Heidelberg

Today, relaxing in tanning beds to achieve the perfect tone of bronzed skin is a common activity. This $5 billion a year industry used to be reserved as a luxury for those in the upper class, but now millions of people enjoy this indulgence, regardless of income. Many of these people want the benefits of a tan, but just don’t have the time to bask in the sun, so they take advantage of the controlled exposure to UV light.

This popularity created a new trend in the creation of home tanning beds. As the prices for a tanning bed for sale decline, more people are buying them for their home. This article details the pros and cons of investing in home systems, including some factors to consider before purchasing a tanning bed for sale.

It Costs Less

Visiting a salon can get expensive over time. Many people have a hard time justifying a trip to a salon, especially those who consider it a luxury. While purchasing a home tanning bed for sale requires an upfront investment, it eliminates the monthly fees of a salon, costing less in the long term. As it can require many salon sessions to develop a base, plus additional sessions to maintain it, it is possible to pay for your home system with your salon savings in a short time.

It Is Convenient

Although visiting a salon offers people the convenience without having to spend hours out in the sun, home tanning beds offer even more convenience. Instead of jumping in the car and driving to the salon, home users simply walk over to their home system.

Offering a higher level of convenience, these home units provide you with the option to tan whenever it’s convenient for you. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the middle of the night, an hour after work, or right when you wake up in the morning, you can tan anytime. Home systems offer a great alternative to those with busy work schedules, especially those who travel frequently or work odd hours because they don’t have to try to arrange their schedule to fit their salon’s schedule.

Lastly, home units offer year round treatments. Whether it’s a bright and sunny day in July or a snowy day in February, people with home systems can maintain their tan anytime in the privacy and convenience of home.

The Cons Of Home Tanning Beds

While there are plenty of pros, there are also a few cons to owning these systems. First, you must manage your own exposure level when using your home system. This includes monitoring the amount of time spent under the lamps per session, the number of sessions per week, and even the use of protective goggles and lotions.

You will also have to keep your system maintained, including replacing the bulbs regularly so it always provides you with an even tan. Regular cleaning is also crucial to the long life of your system. Finally, you will need to make sure you have the proper supplies on hand, including goggles, lotion, and bulbs.

By keeping the pros and cons of tanning beds in mind, you will have the knowledge necessary to decide whether a home tanning bed for sale is right for your lifestyle.

Immobilienmakler Heidelberg

Makler Heidelberg

Staging is an essential, and cost-effective, part of the home selling process. Staging your home to show off its qualities can only add to your final selling price. On average, people receive $2 in increased sale price for every $1 they put into staging a home.

When staging your home for sale, there are five golden rules to take into consideration as you work your way through each room of your house.

Five Golden Rules:

De-Personalised

The buyer needs to picture themselves in the house – not you. That wedding photo may mean the world to you, but the buyer it’s a distraction that prevents them from seeing a home for their family.

Maximise

Declutter and maximise the space in your home. Closets packed tight with all your clothes make a place like it lacks closet space. Consider temporarily storing the overflow offsite.

Sanitize

This golden rule is the easiest and cheapest way to stage your home – clean it. A sink full of dirty dishes is as unappealing to you as it would be to the buyer. It is well worth the elbow grease in cleaning floors, walls, baseboards, ceiling fans and windows.

Modernise

Unless your home has exceptional period built-ins, all home could benefit from some updating. If someone feels the house is dated, they will reflect that feeling in a lower offer. Consider a few simple changes like swapping out expensive fixtures for nickel or chrome.

Neutralise

Colour can make or break a buyer’s interest in your home. You may love that shocking red wall, but all the potential buyer sees is a great deal of painting in their future because of red clashes with their style. The picture is one of the most inexpensive ways to change a look of a home.

Bonus Tips

Closets

Clear closets of unnecessary clutter, and organise to maximise the amount of open storage space you are showing off to potential buyers. Use boxes stacked together to keep up and hide the clutter.

Use matching hangers for clothes – hooks are inexpensive so splurging on higher quality are inexpensive, so celebrating on higher quality hangers to replace free wire hangers from the dry cleaners will modernise your closets with visual impact and a more luxurious feel.

Bedrooms

A quick and inexpensive way to improve the appeal of your bedroom is to use gender-neutral colours when touching up paint jobs and re-accessorizing to have the broadest possible appeal. Colour coordinate where possible bedspreads, walls, curtains etc. should have a clear theme to their colours if possible.

Bathrooms

If walls are grimy, spray them using a standard spray bottle filled with a mixture of one part bleach and one part water, follow up with a fresh coat of paint.

Clear countertops of everything but the essential to make space look more open and more extensive.

Kitchen

Modernize your dated cabinets; they can be touched up for less than $200 with a coat of new wood stain and or even a good sanding a coat of paint. Replacing brass or wooden cabinet hardware with brushed silver or stainless steel is an effective way of updating dated cabinets as well.

Immobilienmakler Heidelberg

Makler Heidelberg

The buzzword today with residential real estate agents is staging. Staging a home can change a homes atmosphere that appeals to homebuyers and which may bring a higher price and accelerate market time. By adding small decorative touches, rearranging or deleting furniture or creating vignettes a home can look like a professional stager was hired.

Mark Nash author of 1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home has seen the best and worst in home staging as a real estate broker in Chicago and he shares some do’s and don’ts for home sellers that want to try to stage their home.

Do’s

-Pick-up recent home decorating magazines. If your not up to speed on current decorating trends it will help familiarize yourself with how interior design is being marketed. Tab pages with low-cost ideas that which will make your home say today.

-Invite a friend or real estate agent over. A second or third pair of eyes will help you accent the best and edit the worst in your home. Be prepared for some constructive criticism. You want to hear it before you put your home on market, not as feedback from prospective buyers. Go room-by-room with a worksheet so you can take notes. Depending on how much time you have available for an update or a makeover, you will need to prioritize and figure out what will give you the biggest return. Do this at least two months before you put your house on market.

-Stage a home office if you don’t have one. They’re not a trend; they’re required for homebuyers in 2006. Many homebuyers today work from home part or full-time or want a space where they can organize their life and park a computer. Find an extra bedroom, walk-in closet or an unused corner and convert into a home office. Make sure there is a convenient electric, telephone and cable supply.

-Focus on living spaces. These areas are where the majority of homebuyers will spend their time. Place a side table and a floor lamp next to a comfortable chair as a reading corner. Float sofas and coffee tables away from walls for a designer look. Use area rugs to anchor furniture groupings on bare tile and wood floors. Living spaces must have matching table lamps. Streamline family photos and place green plants in room. Fireplaces should always be operable and on in season. Place groupings of candles and clear glass bowls filled with natural potpourri on side and coffee tables. Substantial wicker baskets can organize magazines, remote controls and toys. Limit knick-knacks to make room for staging materials.

-Give attention to Kitchens. Put away in a handy drawer all dish towels and rags. Reduce recipe boxes, barrels of cooking utensils, excess-cooking machines, and cookbooks by two-thirds to open up counter spaces. For a quick update put new hardware on cabinets. Find an out-of-the-way place for a portable dishwasher. Clean off everything on the refrigerator door. Omit throw rugs scattered around the kitchen. Clean off windowsills to open up exterior views. Organize cabinets with clear containers. If you can’t see the back wall of a cabinet, buyers will think you don’t have enough storage space. Ditto closets. Budget to keep a variety of fresh fruit in a glass bowl on the counter. Edit family bulletin boards. Remove old curtains and install new wood blinds on windows.

-Spend time on sleeping and bathing spaces. Often over looked in the frenzy to get a home on market, these spaces can make or break a home. Buy a set that consists of a matching bed skirt, bed spread, pillow covers and blinds to match. Buy a new shower curtain and separate liner. Wash the liner often if mold develops. Add complete sets of towels that coordinate with your new shower curtain. Clear all cosmetics off vanity. If you have an over-the-toilet cabinet consider removing and place a piece of artwork in its place. Remember to keep items in the „too much information“ category, out of view. If you have a king-size bed in a small room, you’ll pay to have buyers over come this negative, so get rid of it now. Clear off dresser and nightstands of excess. Make sure the bedroom receives the maximum natural light. Install closet organizers in closets. Eliminate wall and door hooks for clothes. People might look under your bed, no surprises please.

-Remember first impressions in entries. A simple consol table with mirror over makes a nice entranceway. Make sure this space is well lit day or night. Place adhesive under rugs so buyers don’t trip or slide.

Don’ts

-Use inexpensive silk flowers. Nothing distracts buyers more that silk flowers that are past their time, inappropriate for the season or thrown together. Throw them out, now.

-Forget to upgrade Fido’s bowl. I’ve experienced more unhealthy pet food bowls, watering stations and litter boxes than I care to remember. We know you love your pet, but prove it to homebuyers.

-Overlook window coverings. Buyers today think less is more in window fashion. They want the most light and the least embellishment on windows. And no layered treatments with sheer panels please.

-Use low wattage light bulbs. Dark, dim rooms are unappealing to homebuyers. They want to see what they might buy. Replace bulbs with manufacture recommended wattages and especially the burned out ones. The newer low-energy bulbs don’t cast home or people in flattering light.

-Think that everyone loves wallpaper. No two people have the same taste in this instant decorator finishes. If it’s more than three years old, take it down and paint in a neutral color. And wallpaper boarders are out.

-Paint with commitment colors. If you’ve determined that you need to paint, stay away from bold or as I call them commitment colors. Commitment colors are those buyers either love or hate. It can be difficult for buyers to overlay their style on them. As one client said to me “ I don’t live in a magazine.“

-Think cleaning is a part of staging. Cleaning is what you do before staging. Everything should shimmer and shine. Don’t forget the windows.

Use these do-it-yourself tips to place your home on the stage of your local home sale theater.

Immobilienmakler Heidelberg

Makler Heidelberg

Most people don’t realize it but curb appeal is so important when selling a home. Think about it, are you more inclined to buy a run-down beat up old house that you have to put tons of time and effort in to getting it running again? Wouldn’t you rather buy a beautiful home you were excited about and could already see yourself living in?

Generally speaking it is a good idea to have a polished house ready for showing. If you have to paint it, do so. People are more attracted to buying newer things that are already in good condition to eliminate the work for them. This relates to many different areas of the house, but the exterior of the house is most important because it is the first impression your potential buyers are going to have of the property.

Also it is a good idea to have your lawn mowed and your landscape finished. This is going to create more appeal because it will bring your property to life and make it look more put together. You will be able to give them imagery of what it will be like. This creates opportunity for conversation to get to know the potential buyers and have them get to know you.

It is important to have a well maintained driveway because that is one of the things that frames your house. Your house can look years younger if your driveway is in good shape. It is also one of the first things they see when they arrive at their showing. Anyone appreciates a new waxed walk way or pressure washed driveway.

Driving up to a house even if it isn’t the best house in the world will profit majorly just from the condition it is in and showing the potential buyers it is worthy of their residency.

All of these things are going to help your house sell for more money than it would without curb appeal. The better it looks, the more eye-catching it is going to be. The more eye-catching it is, the more people are going to be attracted to it. The more attracted to it people are, the more interest there will be for people to buy it. And the more interest there is, the faster it will sell.

Curb appeal is majorly important in selling a home not only to show that the house is worthy of being kept in good condition, but also to be selling something that has quality and can hold value.

Immobilienmakler Heidelberg

Makler Heidelberg

Are you looking for foreclosures in your area? Conditions in various seller’s markets may be different but there are still ways in which you can easily find foreclosed homes for your ownership.

Tap the services of real estate agents. Real estate agents are given access to a system which is known as MLS or Multiple Listing Service. It is through this system that the agents are able to find foreclosed homes in a specific area. Thus, tapping such professional is one way to find a foreclosure.

Scout for real estate yard signs. Banks are still into the practice of putting yard signs into properties that have come back to their stables of possessions. There are variations of these signs but aside from foreclosure, included among the most common signs are bank-owned, bank repossessed, and bank repo. Typically, the real estate agent’s name is reflected on the sign. Take the opportunity to call whoever is written on the sign. with advanced thinking, you can already ask about forthcoming foreclosures in your area.

Join social media groups geared towards foreclosure buy and sell. Social media has become habitat to a variety of groups with different purposes and goals. Foreclosure groups are no different. They have thrived and lived on social media. If you are savvy enough, you will be lucky to find some groups over Facebook. Join them. You’ll not only find foreclosures in your area. You will also be up for learning from the experiences, tips, and suggestions that will be shared by other members.

Visit real estate websites. Apart from the real estate agents themselves, a lot of real estate firms maintain official websites. There are firms which concentrate on foreclosures. There are also those which offer the buying and selling of mixed properties along with foreclosures. Either kind, you can browse through their listings and filter those properties that are already foreclosed or those that are nearing repossession.

Make your own ads. Digital marketing, aside from being free, is powerful in terms of the number of reach it can have. A single post can reach multiple sellers. Utilize your social media accounts for free posts that you are looking for a foreclosed property to buy. Just patiently wait for responses, and you’ll be more than happy to see that there are indeed a number of persons who are willing to negotiate for their foreclosed homes.

Foreclosed properties are just near your place. By finding them and giving good offers, you are not only taking a step towards buying a dream house or an investment property. You are also making someone benefit from the amount that will be granted when deal is closed.

Immobilienmakler Heidelberg

Makler Heidelberg

Challenging economic times inspire people universally to make wise financial decisions. One culture that has always lived an austere, yet meaningful existence is the Amish. Increasingly, people are inspired by their lifestyle; and seek ways to simplify their own lives.

Lorilee Craker is the author of the new book, „Money Secrets Of The Amish-Finding True Abundance in Simplicity, Sharing and Saving.“ She examines their practices, extravagant in peace, family and community closeness. For them, thrift is a muscle that is exercised regularly.

Craker interviewed Amish folk in Indiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania, including an Amish banker whose clientele is 95 percent Amish. During the Great Recession in 2008, his bank had its best year ever. Amish experts and Englishers‘ (Amish reference to anyone non-Amish), financial perspectives accentuate the book too. Here, the money-saving habit of shopping secondhand is highlighted.

Shopping secondhand is a key money-saving secret of the Amish. Thrift stores are a great source for many items, including clothing, furniture, bedding and games. Craker quotes an Amish woman who says, „You don’t have to buy something new to buy something good.“ Here are some tips to complement your resale shopping experience:

Tips on Buying Used Clothing

• Rethink it. Reject the belief that used clothing is gross because other people have worn it. Buy clothing at a high-end store. Odds are good, even there, that others have tried it on at some time.
• Mix and Match. Pair something new with something gently used from a second-hand store. Leave your findings to serendipity vs. a specific search.
• Try things on. Many thrift stores have nice, clean dressing rooms, so there’s no reason to observe fit.
• Don’t buy clothes you won’t wear. It’s no bargain if you won’t get use out of your purchase.
• Don’t limit yourself to favorite brands. It’s cool to find old favorites, but once you develop your thrift eye, you’ll appreciate pieces from unknown labels.
• Think accessories. Many accessories are available at thrift stores, including jewelry, belts and handbags.
• Brief yourself on what’s vogue. Google trends before visiting resale shops.
• Institute a one in, one out policy. Every time you purchase something new, discard something old. Give it away or make a donation to an organization.
• Define your upper limit. What is your flinch point? It’s the amount that forces the questions, „Is it worth it?“ „Can I really use it?“ and „Can I live without it?“

Tips on Buying Furniture and Home Decor

• Debrief yourself with a great flea market magazine. Studying such magazines will give you new perspective on home decorating possibilities via thrift stores.
• Think junque. Mix serious antiques with „junque.“ Rethink how and where you’re going to decorate and furnish your home. Vintage style adds instant heritage to any home. Vintage objects promote expressing individuality and creativity on a limited budget.
• Buy only what you love. Home décor and furniture resells at an average one-tenth of original cost. Ask yourself, „Do I love this or just like it?“ „True love stands the test of time,“ says Craker.
• Buy only what you need. Sure, buy smaller items for future anniversary, birthday and baby/bridal shower gifts. It’s senseless however to buy something you don’t need but simply like when it’s a larger item.
• Buyer beware. Here are five guidelines when purchasing used furniture:
• Buy solid hardwoods such as maple or oak, which endure. Some furniture only lasts for one owner.
• Look for quality construction. Check underneath seats for bolts vs. glue, etc.
• Assess furniture smells. Fouls scents in upholstery will never end; pass on the purchase. Wooden armoires, chests and drawers placed in the afternoon sun will open their wood’s pores and release odors.
• Open drawers, sit on chairs, lean on tables. Watch for creaking, moaning or wobbling.
• Consider original use sometimes. It’s ok to fill an antique china hutch with towels, linens, books, etc., but not electronics. Inadequate ventilation can generate heat and become a fire hazard.

Garage Sales. „Garage sales are a complete hit or miss,“ says Craker. Here are some tips to enhance your shopping experience:

• Arrive early. The early bird gets the worm and the best selection.
• Arrive late. Attend later in the day and be prepared to haggle with the seller. Try bundling two or three items and quote the seller a discounted price. They may seize the opportunity for a sale in exchange for unloading the items.
• Peer deeply. Scan all the offerings and you may find some hidden gems.

You may have been loathe to use resale shops in the past. Here’s hoping the above cash-saving tips have inspired you to at least visit a local store. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Immobilienmakler Heidelberg

Makler Heidelberg

If you’re looking to sell your home fast, then this article is for you. If you’re home has been on the real estate market for a long time and has had a lot of visitors but no sales, then you will benefit from the home selling tips listed in this article. And if you’re currently investing in real estate but a home that you purchased hasn’t sold yet, than you will benefit from this advice also.

Selling your home fast doesn’t have to be a complicated process. The first thing that you want to consider when showcasing your home is to point out the most attractive feature to your buyer. You want to make sure that your home is design to sell and that all minor repairs have been attended to before you put it up for sale. Your real estate results will be much better if you’ve put in the work and time to renovate your home specifically for selling.

To help with the designing of your home for setting it up for sale, you have 2 options. You can either do it yourself, or hire the help of professionals. Both have their pros and cons, so you should weigh them both evenly.

The benefit of doing it yourself is obvious. You can save money, but your time will be spent focusing on one repair. If you hire the help of professionals, you will have more time to work on other areas of your home, but it’s your money that will be spent. You have to decide which will be better towards making the sale.

If you hire the help of professionals, you should hire an interior design team. This team will decorate your home and stage it properly to make it sell. A properly designed home will definitely help to close a sale faster than a home that is full of clutter.

You should also consider hiring someone to organize your home. This organizer should go through your home and organize all key areas of your house such as the attic, garage, basement, and closets. These are areas that buyers have a keen eye for, so you want to give the best impression when buyers view your home.

After the interior of your home is staged properly and is ready to sell, it’s time to market it. Either you or a photographer can take pictures of your home so that you can market it online and via newspapers. You want clear, clean, and crisp pictures of your home.

You should consider hiring a photographer because more than likely they will have one of the best cameras available that will be able to take the beautiful pictures you need to sell your home. Or if you can afford it yourself, purchase a highly-quality camera that will be able to take the kind of pictures you need to sell your home.

All of these tips will impact you selling your home now so you shouldn’t take them lightly. When it comes to real estate selling, all of these points are crucial so you should skimp on any part. Skimping on key areas is the main reason why homes don’t sell fast, you want to ensure that you take each area seriously. Good luck with the selling of your home.

Immobilienmakler Heidelberg

Makler Heidelberg

For prospective real estate investors who feel tenants and building maintenance are ongoing headaches, buying undeveloped land may appear attractive. If you buy land in an area that’s expected to experience expanding demand in the years ahead, you should be able to make a tidy return on your investment. This is called buying in the path of progress, but of course the trick is to buy before everybody realizes that new development is moving in your direction.

When you buy undeveloped land your investment may take longer to be paid back and therefore you need to be especially aware of your real estate cost of capital.

You may even hit a home run if you can identify land that others don’t currently see the future value in holding. However, identifying many years in advance which communities will experience rapid population and job growth isn’t easy. Land prices in areas that people believe will be the next hot spot already sell at a premium price. That’s what happened in most major cities with new sports facilities (especially because these decisions often are dis- closed well in advance of the municipality leadership vote or the ballot initiative). You don’t have much opportunity to get ahead of the curve – or if you guess wrong, you may own some costly land for a long time!

Investing in land certainly has other drawbacks and risks:

• Care and feeding: Land requires ongoing cash to pay the property taxes and liability insurance, and to keep the land clear and free of debris while it most likely produces little or no income. Although land doesn’t require much upkeep compared with tenant-occupied property, it almost always does require financial feeding.
• Opportunity costs: Investing in land is a cash drain, and of course, purchasing the land in the first place costs money. If you buy the land with cash, you have the opportunity cost of tying up your valuable capital (which could be invested elsewhere), but most likely you will put down 30 to 40 percent in cash and finance the balance of the purchase price instead.
• Costly mortgages: Mortgage lenders require much higher down payments and charge higher loan fees and interest rates on loans to purchase land because they see it as a more speculative investment. Obtaining a loan for development of land is challenging and more expensive than obtaining a loan for a developed property.
• Lack of depreciation: You don’t get depreciation tax write-offs because land isn’t depreciable.
• Cost of Capital: Make short and long term projections for the length of time you will hold your property.

On the income side, some properties may be able to be used for parking, storage income, or maybe even growing Christmas trees in the Northwest or grain in the Midwest! (After you make sure you’ve complied with local zoning restrictions and have the proper insurance in place.)

Although large-scale land investment isn’t for the entry-level real estate investor, savvy real estate investors have made fortunes taking raw land and getting the proper entitlements and then selling (or better yet, subdividing and then selling) the parcels to developers of commercial and residential properties (primarily home builders). If you decide to invest in land, be sure that you:

• Do your homework. Ideally, you want to buy land in an area that’s attracting rapidly expanding companies and that has a shortage of housing and developed land. Take your time to really know the area. This isn’t a situation in which you should take a hot tip from someone to invest in faraway property in another state. Nor should you buy raw land just because you heard that irresistible opening bid price advertised on the radio for the government excess land auction down at the convention center this Saturday.
• Know all the costs. Tally up your annual carrying costs (ongoing owner- ship expenses such as property taxes) so that you can see what your annual cash drain may be. What are the financial consequences of this cash outflow – for example, will you be able to fully fund your tax- advantaged retirement accounts? If you can’t, count the lost tax benefits as another cost of owning land.
• Determine what improvements the land may need. Running utility, water, and sewer lines; building roads; landscaping; and so on all cost money. If you plan to develop and build on the land that you purchase, research these costs. Make sure you don’t make these estimates with your rose-tinted sunglasses on – improvements almost always cost more than you expect them to. (You need to check with the planning or building department for their list of requirements.)

Also make sure that you have access to the land or the right to enter and leave through a public right-of-way or another’s property (known as ingress and egress). Some people foolishly invest in landlocked proper- ties. When they discover the fact later, they think that they can easily get an easement (legal permission to use someone else’s property). Wrong!

Understand the zoning and environmental issues. The value of land is heavily dependent on what you can develop on it. Never purchase land without thoroughly understanding its zoning status and what you can and can’t build on it. This advice also applies to environmental limitations that may be in place or that may come into effect without warning, diminishing the potential of your property (with no compensation).

This potential for surprise is why you must research the disposition of the planning department and nearby communities. Attend the meetings of local planning groups, if any, because some areas that are antigrowth and antidevelopment are less likely to be good places for you to buy land, especially if you need permission to do the type of project that you have in mind. Through the empowerment of local residents who sit on community boards and can influence local government officials, zoning can suddenly change for the worse – sometimes you may find that your property has been downzoned – a zoning alteration that can significantly reduce what you can develop on a property and therefore the property’s value. See the sidebar „The dangers of downzoning“ in this chapter for more details.

 

Determine Your Real Estate Cost of Capital

Immobilienmakler Heidelberg

Makler Heidelberg

Even with the recession, real estate is a billion dollar market in all the major developed and developing countries. What do you think is the first thing people see when scouting around to buy property? The answer would be the pictures of the property in question. Human beings respond better to visual stimulation.

Therefore, quality and interesting photography matters a lot and if you are a property photographer you should take it seriously. Why? Because your livelihood depends on it! If you are trying to sell real estate photographs to realtors and they are not worth the dollars the realtor pays, your effort goes to waste.

Real Estate Photography Tip #1: Capturing the Best Images

The intention is to sell the property so your photography should definitely be appealing to the people who view them. Try to highlight the best features of the house; the features that potential buyers will like to see matter the most. The photography also depends on the nature of the property – residential or commercial. Actually the pictures should showcase your talent and skill. While searching for realtors to see the images, sometimes you need to provide samples so capturing the best of images will greatly help to clinch the deal.

Real Estate Photography Tip #2: Selling the Images

To earn a living in this type of photography professionally, give yourself 1-2 years of time for creating a solid base of clients. You can set up a professional website with your portfolio, current projects (if any), specialization, skills, and lots of high-definition clear pictures for prospective buyers to see. Of course, you need to do a lot of marketing for getting the clients. Begin by scouting the area you are living in and any others that you have easy access to. Contact the realtors in the area, show them sample images and if luck is on your side, you will land your first deal soon!

Real Estate Photography Tip #3: Getting High Profile Clients

Getting high profile realtor clients who will buy your pictures is not easy because there are always better photographers around you and also you lack experience in the beginning. So after working for a year or two with local realtors, think of migrating towards getting high profile clients. The pay rate is definitely higher but you need to have real skill and knowledge to get an edge over others. Question yourself – what is there in you that sets you apart from other real estate photographers? Once you answer this, build on that aspect for better projects.

Of course, getting the high profile clientele is not easy. Be prepared for sample photo shoots as part of a personalized sales pitch.

Immobilienmakler Heidelberg

Makler Heidelberg