Real Estate

An example of No Market Research

Posted in: Blog, Marketing, Real Estate by Paul McEwan on March 29, 2010 | No Comments

Just had a letter handed to me by an assistant. It was..

• hand delivered to her home by a Realtor this morning.
• The envelope was hand written.
• The content was a very well put together article/guide to selling your home
• accompanied with a nice personal letter from the Realtor who did the delivery. (could have used a second set of eyes)

The person who got the letter doesn’t own the house. She rents it. FAIL

If you’re going to go to this much trouble to market, why not spend some time doing the research? There is a way to know if the home is owner occupied. You can even find out where the absentee owner lives. If you can’t then hire someone like us to do it for you.

This poor Realtor double failed. The person who received the letter not only rents but she works for a top 1% Realtor. Not a hope in hell on this one.

MyRealPage Postcard Marketing Campaign

Posted in: Blog, Marketing, Printing, Real Estate by Paul McEwan on March 22, 2010 | 1 Comment

You are not JUST ANOTHER REALTOR.

Not if you are a myRealPage Realtor.
You are a SmartPhone Enabled Realtor and that’s exciting!
You also have VOW and many other advanced website features many don’t have or don’t know about.

Why not direct people to your website with a proper marketing campaign.

TribalYell will help you inform prospects of your website features with FREE content on the back of your postcard campaign.

Don’t have a postcard campaign?
TribalYell has that ball already rolling for you too. Here’s our solution to help get your prospects online.

Here’s what you get:

• 1 Custom postcard design (with your branding)
• 18,000 postcards printed with your custom design on side 1
• 3 x6,000 campaigns pre-printed side 2 (marketing aimed at increasing website traffic)
• Delivered to 1,500 owners in your farm area once a month for a full year rotating the message every month.

Each ad rotation comes with a “badge” for your website that ties the message together like this one below.

Claim your area now (We will not deliver more than one campaign per area)

One cost covers

• design
• print
• postage
• delivery to the post office
• 3 website badges

Start now

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8 facts we do know about the HST and Real Estate

Posted in: Blog, Real Estate by Paul McEwan on November 3, 2009 | 1 Comment

Come July 1st 2010, the Harmonized Sales Tax [HST] will raise the cost of buying a new home in Vancouver. Does this mean there will be a buying frenzy on new homes prior to July 1st 2010? If so, will this increase in demand for new homes cause them to go up in price even before the HST hits us? How will the resale market be affected?

Here’s how the price of a new $700,000 home in BC or Vancouver will be affected. The homebuyer would pay a total of $84,000 in BC HST taxes (12% on $700,000). But wait, there’s a homebuyer HST rebate for purchases above $400,000. The homebuyer would receive the $20,000 back which reduces their HST cost to $64,000 in taxes for a total of $764,000. Currently, the 5% GST applicable to the same home would cost only $35,000 (a $29,000 difference). *This does not include the HST applicable to closing fees.

The HST brings up a lot of questions. Here are 8 facts we do know about the HST.

1. Implementation of the BC Harmonized Sales Tax will take place on July 1, 2010.
2. The Harmonized Sales Tax (also known as the new BC HST) is 12% tax applicable to most goods and services, including new homes, real estate, and property.
3. The new B.C. HST 12% Tax is the combination of the Federal Goods and Services Tax (5% GST) and the Provincial Sales Tax (7% PST).
4. The BC HST is NOT a 12% real estate tax, but a provincial harmonized tax on most goods, services and consumer products including new homes.
5. Currently, new BC and Vancouver homes are subject to 5% GST (federal tax) in which first time homebuyers or investors can receive GST rebates. This 5% GST will be replaced with the higher 12% B.C. Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), a 7% difference in taxes on the total purchase price of a new British Columbia home or property.
6. The B.C. HST program will give partial rebates for new BC homes priced up to $400,000. The government will give these homebuyers a partial five per cent BC HST rebate on the provincial tax side which makes any new B.C. home or Vancouver property $400,000 or less no more expensive than it is today.
7. Homebuyers looking to buy new Vancouver property over $400,000 will receive a maximum BC HST rebate of $20,000, but will see the purchase price above that level subject to the extra five per cent tax rate system.
8. The British Columbia Harmonized Sales Tax of 12% HST is also applicable to any costs and fees associated with your property/home purchase including legal/notary fees, commissions and other closing costs.