How To Grow Your Real Estate Business Using Facebook

By Jennifer Taylor, Director of Internet Marketing, New American Mortgage

Today, I discovered an excellent article called, “5 Ways to Use Facebook to Grow Your Real Estate Business.” At New American Mortgage, we are constantly researching ways to help our loan officers and real estate partners how to grow their business on and offline. I not only run New American Mortgage’s online presence, but I travel all over the United States coaching our loan officers and real estate partners how to market their business online. Facebook is one of the main ways that New American Mortgage has grown its business.

The New Face of New American Mortgage and Crawford Grows Mortgage Business Via Social Media are two articles that Bank Technology News has written about New American Mortgage successfully growing its business by using social media.

In the article, 5 Ways to Use Facebook to Grow Your Real Estate Business, it points out that if one makes interesting and relevant status updates; lets their personality shine through; automates the friend process with Outlook Connector; reaches out to Facebook friends; and tags posts and photos it can help one increase their business. I almost entirely agree with the article and have been coaching our loan officers and real estate partners on almost everything in the article. The only thing that it doesn’t point out and one does have to be careful about is marketing their business on their Facebook profile page. Under Facebook terms and conditions, one is not allowed to market their business on their Facebook profile page. It can get one kicked off of Facebook fast. That’s why Facebook implemented Facebook fan pages. The National Association of REALTORS® also stated the same thing last year to all REALTORS®. I’m sure it was because they were wanting to stay in compliance with Facebook terms and conditions.

If you have been heavily marketing your business on your Facebook profile page or simply thought that a Facebook profile page is a Facebook fan page, don’t fret! Recently, Facebook has incorporated merging Facebook profile pages to Facebook fan pages. To do this, all you need to do is use their migration tool. It’s simple, fast, and easy.

If you love the information that we’ve shared with you in our blogs, then you’ll love our “New American Mortgage Newsletter.” If you would like to receive our newsletter, just click on this link https://bitly.com/NAMnews and fill out the requested information. Our goal is to provide free valuable resources to our loan officers and real estate partners to help them grow their business on and offline. If there’s anything you would like to see from us in the future, please let us know. If you do choose to sign up for our newsletter, we will be sending you one email per month. It will contain marketing highlights from the following month and marketing predictions. As always, we would personally like to thank you for your continuous support in us!

Lowering Your Mortgage Payment Years

Guest Post By: Erik Braunitzer and courtesy of Douglas Elliman Real Estate Company, agents for NYC Apartments.

Many people are struggling today to find every penny available to meet their financial obligations. If you have a monthly mortgage and are looking for ways to decrease the term of your loan or lower your monthly payments, here are a few tips to think about.

Tip #1 – Refinance

If you have relatively good credit and have not refinanced your home in the past several years, you can take advantage of current low interest rates and lower your monthly payment considerably. If you have a mortgage interest rate higher than 5 percent, you should really consider talking to a financial advisor and mortgage broker to see if you can refinance and lower your monthly payments. Although interest rates are at their lowest rates in decades, there is no guarantee as to how long this trend will continue. In order to lower your payments and take advantage of the current low interest rates, this is something you should do immediately.

Tip #2 – Reevaluate the Length of Your Loan

If you want to pay off your home loan sooner and free up the money you are putting toward monthly payments, consider renegotiating the term of your loan. When you shorten the length of your home loan, you will ultimately pay less interest and you will pay the loan off more quickly. The disadvantage of this approach is that your monthly payments will dramatically increase, particularly if you shift from a 30-year loan to a drastically shorter loan, such as a 15- or 10-year loan.

Tip #3 – Make Double Payments

Another method to shorten the amount of time it takes to pay off your home loan is to make double loan payments on a regular basis. If you have the additional money available to do this, you can significantly decrease the amount of time it takes for your mortgage to be paid off. When you make extra loan payments, make sure you instruct your lender to apply the payment to principal only, otherwise it will automatically be applied to the interest amount due.

Tip #4 – Add a Small Amount to Monthly Payments

If you are not able to make double or large extra payments regularly, you can make a small additional payment to your monthly payment and reduce the amount of time it takes to pay off your home loan. Even adding as little as 10 to 15 percent extra to your monthly payments can significantly reduce your loan term. However, again, you should make sure you note the amount extra that you want to be applied to your loan principal.

Before making additional payments, make sure to contact your lender to find out if there are any prepayment or early payment penalties. By making extra payments and applying them to the loan principal, you will shorten the length of the loan and decrease the amount of interest you owe on the loan.

Welcome to 2012! 5 Must Dos For Businesses This Year

By Jennifer Taylor, Director of Internet Marketing, New American Mortgage

I just recently got back from holiday vacation. And even though I still worked about two hours each day while I was gone I did not blog on January 1st or 2nd like most people. By the way, someone that runs social media for a company can’t really take a “vacation.” Think about it. Our online presence would have been stagnate for x amount of days.

So today, I will quickly give you my suggestion of “MUST DOs For Businesses In 2012.”

1.) If you don’t have a Facebook fan page, WHY? It’s free and literally takes less than 60 seconds to make. Just got to https://www.facebook.com/pages/create. It will take you through all the steps on how to set it up. We coach our loan officers and real estate partners how to properly set it up, meaning where to add license numbers, NMLS numbers, company that you work for, applications, landing pages etc. The same thing goes for all other social networks that I’m about to mention.

2.) Twitter. For some reason there is a disinerest in Twitter for many loan officers and real estate agents and I haven’t really figured out why. Who knows? Maybe Facebook profile and fan pages have them boggled down. I personally think one can get more leads from Twitter. You can connect your Facebook fan page to twitter by going to https://www.facebook.com/twitter/ and clicking “Link to Twitter,” however, don’t ignore twitter if you do connect your Facebook fan page to Twitter. Visit http://fly.twitter.com/ for further information on Twitter.

3.) Blog. I know. It’s painful if you don’t like to write, but it’s a must! It definitely helps with search engine optimization, but that’s not all. It gives your company a voice. Don’t know where to blog? I would highly recommend WordPress.org or WordPress.com. Both are them are free, however, WordPress.org needs hosting which will cost you money. Other than that it’s free.

4.) Google+. I know… you’re JUST now getting adjusted to Facebook Timeline. Google+, let’s just say, is Google’s version of Facebook. They have a regular page for yourself and one for businesses, just like Facebook. To get started with a regular profile page, go to https://plus.google.com. To setup a Google+ page for your business, go to https://www.google.com/+/business.

5.) Pinterest. What the heck is Pinterest? It’s a virtual pinboard. Pinterest lets you organize and share things you find on the web. Trust me on this one. I have something up my sleeve to help loan officers and real estate agents market their business using this social network. I will explain how to do that in another blog post another day. For now, sign up, figure it out, and have fun!

How To Make A FREE Mobile Website In Less Than 1 Minute!

By Jennifer Taylor, Director of Internet Marketing, New American Mortgage

Recently, eMarketer predicted that by the end of 2011, “38% of US mobile users will have a smartphone and 41% will use the mobile internet at least once each month.” That’s huge from where it was a few years ago, even last year. I remember being at a convention several years ago and one of the speakers mentioned that smartphones will soon be taking over the way we search and do business. I didn’t even have a smartphone back then and I honestly didn’t think the number of people surfing the web on a smartphone would escalate so fast. Now, I can’t imaging anyone not having a smartphone. People in their eighties have smartphones. You know it’s a different world when older people sitting next to you whip out their smartphone and start posting status updates on social networks. o.O

One of the most vital parts of your 2012 marketing plan should include your website being mobile. We’re currently having our website totally redone. It won’t be ready until several months from now, so I took New American Mortgage’s website and used it as an example today to show you the importance of a mobile website and how fast and easy it is to make one if you’re on a budget. I know several companies and people that make mobile websites and they are fantastic. They build them from the ground up. What I’m about to show you is completely different. It’s called DudaMobile. I discovered it about a month ago in Inc. Magazine. So, today I finally had some time to test it out. Well, I literally made our website mobile for free in less than 60 seconds. Yes, FREE. You know how much I love the freebies! And I know how much you love them too!

This is how our website currently looked on an iPhone earlier today. You have to enlarge the screen with your fingers just to navigate around the website. Yuck! No one wants to do that. So, you know what that means? It’s time to fix it FAST!

When I entered our website URL into DudaMobile’s website where it said, “Enter your site URL,” their magical frog went to work! He’s a hard and fast little worker. He examined our website; extracted navigation, colors, and content; built HTML and CSS; and then tested our mobile site in less than 60 seconds. Whoa! That’s one FAST frog!

When he was finished our website looked like this:

You can change the colors and the design of it all, which as I have stated before, color is extremely important in marketing. However, I actually liked the way DudaMobile first presented the mobile website to me. It looked business and professional like, so I ended up leaving it the way it was. I did play around with different colors and designs for it bit, which is extremely easy to switch out.

The free version does have an ad that will appear at the top of the mobile site, unless you upgrade to the premium mobile site, which is only $9 a month.

Once your mobile website is made, all you have to do is copy and paste the html code that it gives you into your regular website’s homepage. Once you do that, it will automatically redirect mobile visitors to your new mobile website!

And with all that said… Happy Holidays and Happy Browsing!

From your favorite blogger,

Jennifer Taylor

How Your Credit Score Can Affect Your Ability To Finance A Home

By Sam Chazanow, CMB, AMP, Reverse Mortgage Specialist & Trainer, New American Mortgage

Whether you are a first-time home buyer or you are planning to refinance your existing home loan, it is important to understand how your credit history influences the process. When you are being considered for a loan, the lender looks at your past payment history, the amount of credit you have outstanding and the amount of credit you have available.

Mortgage lenders rely either on a consumer’s credit score, such as a FICO score developed by Fair, Isaacs & Company or use a combination of FICO score and other factors to price a loan. Credit bureau information is used to obtain a number that represents how likely you are to make your loan payments on time. FICO scores range from approximately 300 to 850, and in general, the higher the score, the lower the risk you are to the lender.

Your credit history directly affects the interest rate and fees (risk based pricing) a lender charges. Consumers with the best credit generally pay the lowest amount for a home loan. Under the FACT Act amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act you are entitled to one free credit file disclosure, commonly referred to as credit report, in a 12 month period from AnnualCreditReport.com. This is a centralized service which was created by the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion and authorized by the government to provide free credit reports. To request your free annual report your can contact AnnualCreditReport.com. You can also call toll free at (877) FACTACT (322-8228) or send a written request to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. Credit scores can be purchased from the three major bureaus for a small fee: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Building and maintaining strong scores may be as simple as improving your credit profile. Recommendations for doing so include:

Making timely payments each month – The best way to increase a credit score is to pay bills on time.

Paying off outstanding debt and limiting the amount of credit you use – Lowering balances on credit cards and lines, and keeping them low, raises a credit score.

Requesting a lower credit limit on current credit cards to avoid high credit limits – High credit limits relative to income can adversely affect a score.

Closing credit accounts limit the number of credit lines – An obligation to pay multiple accounts lowers a credit score. By consolidating debt onto two or three credit lines, preferably those with long credit histories which have been managed well and canceling other accounts, scores can be raised.

Checking credit reports periodically – Incorrect information in a credit bureau file may lower a credit score. For information about credit disputes and credit repair, please visit the Federal Trade Commission Credit Repair Information site.

Not applying for credit you don’t need –Whenever you apply for credit, the creditor will obtain a credit report from one or more of the three credit bureaus. Each such inquiry stays on your record and affects your score. The reason is because each inquiry suggests that you are increasing the amount of credit available to you. You may request that consumer credit reporting companies exclude your name from lists for pre-approved, unsolicited credit and insurance offers. To find out more, please call 1-888-5OPTOUT (567-8688). You can also opt-out online.

African American man clicking his heels.

While it may seem intimidating at first, understanding and improving your credit score is easier than you might think. The time and effort you invest can pay off handsomely in lower home loan rates, lower monthly housing payments and better loan terms.

Call your home loan representative at New American Mortgage for more information at 757-227-3385.

When Was The Last Time You Backed Up Your Computer?

By Jennifer Taylor, Director of Internet Marketing, New American Mortgage

If you read New American Mortgage’s blog, you’ve probably discovered that many times I use my life stories in our blog posts. Well… I’m sure you can figure out from the title of this particular blog post that someone’s computer recently crashed.

Do I back up? YES, however, when you’re always on the go and busy 24/7 for the company you work for, it’s a little more than time consuming to back up your computer. I had backed up some of my files, but I hadn’t recently backed up my newest & updated files. I lost A LOT of my presentations, documents, videos, photos, etc.

When was the last time you backed up your computer? Check out this clip from Sex and the City / Season 4 / Episode 56 / called My Motherboard, My Self. Carry learns what “backing up” means and that she needs her motherboard replaced.

This clip is almost exactly how I felt yesterday when my computer & external hard drive crashed. In my case I WAS backing up my laptop, because I had maxed out the space on it. See below?! Yikes!!

First off, I deleted some things from my external hard drive in order to back up my laptop and to free up some space. My “well thought out plan” didn’t happen as smoothly as expected. Somewhere in-between the transfer I lost everything. I’m not exactly sure what went wrong. I just know that our IT department told me this morning that they couldn’t retrieve ANYTHING from my computer, but they would continue to try. EVERYTHING on of my computer is gone and I mean EVERYTHING.

I wish I would have listened to my father. He’s an extremely tech savvy man and has worked in the IT field for many years. He called me a while back and said, “I know how long and hard you work on your projects and I would hate for you to lose everything. You need Carbonite.” Then he proceeded to inform me what Carbonite is.

I didn’t feel like asking New American Mortgage if I could get it and I didn’t feel like using my own money and expensing it later. Boy, am I now wishing that I had listened to my father… gutted.

The famous Kim Komando from The Kim Komando Show highly recommends the product. If you haven’t heard of her, she hosts America’s largest weekend talk radio show on over 450 stations in the United States. She discusses anything digital. I’ve listened to her radio show since I was a little girl. I have my dad to thank for that . She’s stated before that she uses Carbonite to back up her own computers. That speaks volumes coming from “America’s Digital Goddess.”

So, what is Carbonite? Just install the Carbonite application on your PC or Mac and your files will be backed up automatically. If you ever lose your files, the Carbonite software will guide you through the entire process of restoring your data. You also have remote access, so you can download, view, or share your files from any web browser or from their smartphone application.

You can try Carbonite for free through Kim Komando’s website. I also searched around the Internet a bit and found some excellent prices on Carbonite.

Over a year ago, I backed up my computer with an external hard drive and the external hard drive itself crashed and wouldn’t respond. Luckly, our IT department was able to transfer my files over to another external hard drive. Most people don’t have an IT department at their beck and call though. Carbonite is simple, secure, and affordable. All to say, I definitely plan on getting it soon.

If you’re concerned about the safety of using Carbonite, you can check out Kim Komando’s tips on it.