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Infographic: The iMax Business Hub

Today's real estate agent takes advantage of many types of online technology, as well as more traditional means of promoting their real estate business. Every universe tends to have a center, and iMaxWebSolutions is specifically designed with this in mind. iMaxWebSolutions is designed to be at the very center of every real estate agent's business universe: a business hub that all other technologies and means of promotion can be directed back to, a business hub that is open 24 / 7.   

Infographic: The 12 Systems of iMax. Are you Using iMax to the Fullest?

New Feature - Investment Property Analyzer

We are pleased to announce that we have added an Investment Property Analyzer to iMax, allowing you or your clients to run the numbers on investment properties and help determine whether each property would be a good investment.


Here is what the Investment Property Analyzer looks like:

Investment Property Analyzer
The Investment Property Analyzer is available on every iMax CMA you are working on. While you are on the main page for your CMA, choose "Investment Property Analyzer" in the edit section as shown in the screenshot below. The Investment Property Analyzer auto-calculates as you type. Once you are finished, you can print it out and include it in your CMA. 


Investment Property CMA

You can also provide the Investment Property Analyzer on your web site so that your clients can take advantage of it. You are able to add a link to the Investment Property Analyzer from the "Select New Section to Display" drop down menu while in edit mode. There are 2 choices; you can either add a link to the Analyzer on a full web page, or you can add a link to the Analyzer which will display as a pop-up window. Your client also has the opportunity to print their completed Investment Property Analyzer.

Add Link to Investment Property Analyzer

Questions? Feedback? Send us an email at help@imaxwebsolutions.com


Important Change in How YouTube Videos are Ranked

If you are a real estate agent who has business videos on YouTube, they made an important change to their algorithm that determines YouTube search results. If you are a real estate agent who is not presently promoting your real estate business and / or real estate listings on YouTube, you should consider doing so as YouTube trails only Google in how many searches consumers do on it; it's significantly ahead of both Yahoo and Bing.

So, what is the change that YouTube recently made to their formula for determining video search results? Basically, they used to give significant weight to the "view count," meaning how many people had at least started to watch a particular video. Now, they have decided to reduce the importance of "view count" and instead increase the importance of "watch time." What does that mean exactly? What it means is that they believe a video which is good (and which is "as advertised" / as described) will cause viewers to watch the entire video, while a video which is not that good, or which is falsely described, will cause a viewer to stop watching. Makes sense right? The old methodology made no distinction between the two scenarios: if a video ran for 5 seconds, the counter still added one to the view count.

They also believe this change will lead to happier viewers on YouTube, who will then stay on YouTube itself for longer lengths of time.

Check out the full article for additional information and details here:

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2218696/YouTube-Algorithm-Change-Time-Watched-Key-to-Higher-Video-Search-Rankings 

A Less Optimistic View on Housing

housing

While there have been a substantial number of positive predictions on the housing market, with many commentators saying the bottom is in, Christopher Whalen of the Institutional Risk Analyst presents a less optimistic viewpoint of the housing market and recovery in a recent article entitled, "Reality Check: Is the US Housing Market Really Recovering?"

He writes, "One of the more amusing and even troubling developments in recent weeks is the general consensus that the housing market is recovering. Whether you are a consumer, a media maven or merely a lowly investor, the common view now seems to be that housing is getting ready to bounce back to 2005 levels. Would that it was true."

His viewpoint on why this will not be the case is as follows:

- a reduced number of possible home buyers, who can afford to buy and actually live in a home (predicts a decline of 10-15% in number of available home buyers)

- private equity investors have been purchasing excess housing inventory at the moment, hoping to rent homes.

- available credit to home buyers is scarce. Most buyers need minimum FICO score of 740 to qualify for mortgages, a high bar. 

- Non-conforming loan market is largely non-existent.

- Foreclosure backlog will take years to work 

- Certain states, among them California, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, are crafting strict "consumer protection" laws that make it difficult, if not impossible, for banks to foreclose. This will discourage private investors from proving non-conforming loans in these states.through. In Northeast, including Massachusetts, the backlog is higher than the national average.

Check out the full article:

http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAMain.asp