US property sales rise seven months in a row

US property sales increased in January, according to RE/MAX’s latest report. Real estate sales are now 3.4 per cent above levels seen last year, marking the seventh month of increasing transactions in a row.

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Egypt real estate making a comeback?

Egypt’s real estate may be set for a comeback, says one of the country’s developers. With prices starting to stabilise and land issues being resolved, investors are gradually returning to the formerly booming property market.

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Argentina restricts foreign land purchases

In response to a surge in overseas demand, Argentina has approved a new bill that restricts the ownership of rural land by foreign investors.

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Investors advised to avoid Eurozone property?

Low house prices in countries suffering from the Eurozone crisis “may not be worth the risk”, one agent has warned this week.

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Paris property ranked top performer

The Savills World Class Index has declared Paris to be a top performer in the gobal real estate market,  as prices swell amid consistent demand.

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House hunters head to UAE

House hunters from the UK are increasingly turning away from Europe, according to Prime Location. The website reports that searches for Spanish property dipped, while interest in UAE increased at the end of 2011, compared to the previous quarter.

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French village goes on sale for £275k

In a surprising demonstration of the impact of the Eurozone crisis, a French village has been listed for sale at just £275k. The community, which contains 19 buildings and a swimming pool, requires a lot of renovation, causing its value to drop to below that of an average French home.

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Spanish holiday homes heat up summer market

An increase in the demand for holiday accommodation in Spain last year has resulted in more and more Spanish home owners preparing to rent their properties out this summer, providing a welcome boost to the property market.

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Brazil developers deep in debt

A new report from the Real Estate Research Group in Sao Paulo has found that Brazilian developers have reached “unprecedented levels of debt”, with the average deficit multiplying 21 times in the last six years.

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Hong Kong agents protest at Midland HQ

100 real estate agents in Hong Kong held a protest this week outside the offices of Midland Realty, which has been accused of taking extra commission payments from deals.

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Singapore sees demand triple in 2012

Singapore property has seen demand triple in 2012. 1,872 home sales were registered in Singapore at the start of 2012, up from 632 in December.

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So what are the key steps to writing a good PR?

Choose a type

There are several types of press releases. It could be a company announcement, a company report, or a comment on another company’s announcement/report. (For the latter, skip straight to the “Comments” section.)

Make it unique

Your PR should automatically be something that only your company can produce. So if you’re producing a report, use a statistic that no one else has. That could be the number of enquiries on your site for a certain country’s property or the results of a survey conducted among your customers/clients. Either way, make it something both original and relevant.

Pick an eye-catching headline

Your headline needs to jump out at your reader. For example, “Investors go to Disney land” or “Bulgaria breaks back into top 10”.

If your PR is part of a series, identify it clearly. “Top of the Props: Bulgaria breaks back into top 10” will alert readers (and the media) that it follows on from a previous “Top of the Props” report – any website that carried your last PR will be more likely to feature it a second time.

Your headline should be memorable. Alliteration, pop culture references or puns can help, but you should also keep it short. Snappy headlines breed curiosity. Long-winded headlines prompt boredom. “Sales start to sag”? Yes.  “Mixed results from housing market shows that sales may drop in 2011”? No.

Start with a strong lead sentence

Your lead sentence should sum up the key point of the article within 7-20 words. Anything over that will be too detailed and lose your reader’s attention. Anything below that isn’t detailed enough.

Consider the following examples:

“Cape Verde has catapulted back into the top 10 in the TheMoveChannel.com’s latest Top of the Props report.”

- Good

“London, known as a ‘world in one city’, remains one of the most sought-after and popular tourism destinations on earth attracting over 26 million visitors each year from across the globe.”

- OK

“It seems European ski resorts are no longer snowed under by the global economic downturn and are starting to show signs of recovery according to the first ever Ski Resort Property Index for Q2 2011 from Knight Frank, with prices in many resorts having now stabilised or in some cases seen small increases particularly across the French Alps.”

- Bad

Your opening should also be clear about its intentions. If you don’t know what your PR is about, how will anyone else?

Embellish with your first paragraph

Your second sentence onwards should explain the first sentence in more detail. If Bulgaria has bounced back into the top 10, what is the top 10? Where has it bounced back from? And what does its bouncing mean for the rest of us?

If your company is announcing a new product or feature, who is it for? When does it come into effect?

Combine these two and you should have a simple, effective introduction to a PR that compels your audience to keep reading.

Take the example from above, add a few tweaks, and you get this:

“European ski resorts are no longer snowed under by the global economic downturn, according to Knight Frank’s first ever Ski Resort Property Index.

The report, which analyses the second quarter of 2011, shows that ski resorts across the continent are starting to show signs of recovery, with prices in the French Alps increasing by 5 per cent.”

Add the small details

The rest of your press release should flesh out the less important details. Sample sizes for surveys and other noteworthy facts and figures are the name of the game here – perhaps a detailed breakdown of your statistics, or at least an abridged list of key highlights.

Keep this information focussed towards your target audience – who is reading your press release? What will they be interested in? How do you want to portray your company? If you’re positioning yourself as an expert in a property sector (for example, if you’ve just launched a new service or portal), traffic figures for your existing sites or data about your client base that will demonstrate your experience can both highlight your standing in the industry.

End with a quote

This is one of the most important parts of the press release. Your quote should be from a senior figure, typically a Managing Director or CEO, or someone else closely related to the subject of the release. It could be a client, if they are relevant and keen for extra publicity.

Whoever speaks, they must appear knowledgeable and informed. If you are providing a comment on another company’s press release, then you must appear even more knowledgeable than they are – as well as every other company also releasing a comment. Have them recap the main thrust of the previous announcement before offering a new insight or observation of their own.

Remember: Your aim is for these comments to be used as a soundbite by media outlets and other portals, so they need to be snappy as well as interesting.

Include tables/data

Stats and facts are good. Diagrams are better. Insert your tables (or charts) at the end of the release to prevent distracting the reader, or at regular gaps to illustrate what is being announced. And if your figures are really fascinating, don’t be afraid to make them the sole focus of the report and release an infographic.

Insert links

If you don’t link back to your own site, no one else will. Insert links to your company when your brand name is mentioned – or include links to other relevant pages on the site. Every trackback you receive from a press release on another site helps with your SEOS. For that reason, don’t be afraid to chase up other sites and ask for the links to be included.

Check your spelling

This may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many bad press releases are sent. You want to appear professional and authoritative – prove to the world that you know how to use spelling and grammar. If you look and sound professional, it can make all the difference for potential customers and clients.

Provide a point of contact

Finally, include contact details (and a brief, if relevant, company history) at the end of the release. Let people know that you can offer more information or a detailed quote and people will ask for follow-up interviews. With every request for further comment comes a networking opportunity. With every networking opportunity comes more authority. And with more authority comes an even wider audience for your press releases.

a. James Cameron’s 2009 movie?

b. The graphical representation of a computer user?

c. A leading comic book publisher featuring work from Alan Moore, Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis and George RR Martin?

d. The Polk County homebuilder?

You didn’t pick d, did you?

That was the problem encountered by the Florida company, 76 years after they registered their company’s name. Now, with James Cameron’s movie dominating search engine results, the construction firm has had to rethink its name because it can’t compete with the SEO.

Vice President Carl Mulac told the Orlando Sentinal last week that it was “costing a lot” to maintain an online presence, announcing that Avatar would now be known as AV Homes Inc.

The unfortunate plight of the US builder reinforces the importance of choosing the right business name – not just for branding purposes, but for SEO. Any company name must form the basis of the company’s domain – and with good URLs come great traffic levels.

“At a time when 90 percent of potential customers begin their product searches on the Internet, competing for attention online with the highest-grossing movie of all time was difficult,” adds Mulac.

With businesses relying so heavily on SEO, picking the right name for your property portal – or real estate company – is more important than ever. But, as AV Homes Inc can testify, it’s also important to check regularly to make sure that you are still ranking highly on the SERPs for your company’s key phrases.

Should you focus on property locations in your domain name? Or a housing type? Or it it easier just to choose a company name with as little keyword competition as possible?

To help you name your organisation – or guide you in taking another look at your SEO – these two articles are worth a read:

Applying SEO to Your Corporate Domain Name Strategy

Think SEO Before You Name Your New Company

Since February 2011, 15 per cent of all web traffic has been mobile-based, but a new survey from property industry tech firm Eurolink has found that 45 per cent of internet users now connect to the web via a mobile phone. It’s a wake-up call for some real estate sites, especially as 61 per cent of those smartphone users said they then phoned the company after visiting their mobile site.

“Statistics show that UK estate agents and letting agents could miss opportunities with half of their potential customer base, simply because they don’t have a mobile web site, or web app,” Eurolink’s director Richard Murray told Property Talk Live.

Eurolink is releasing these stats because they are holding a competition at the ARLA Conference next month, but their report also includes further pointers in the ongoing debate between native apps and web apps.

To sum them up briefly:

-           The option to provide the app directly, without the need for a subscription or download

-           Web applications are easier to update and amend than native apps. Any change made to a web app is done via a central server and rolled out to users uniformly; the update almost untraceable

-          Web apps are web visible, which can boost SEO

If you’re now seriously considering the jump to mobile web, or you’re still not sure which path is the one to choose, this handy guide from Tech World, detailing how to develop a mobile strategy, should be your next point of call:

Why Should You Be Investing in Mobile Business? –  Tech World

So how can you check if your sitemap is up to scratch?

Fortunately, there are several guidelines to follow depending on your search engine of choice. Google Webmaster Tools, of course, has an efficient dashboard, complete with error spotting and a list of clear limitations (e.g. no more than 50,000 URLs).

For more detailed tips on sitemap files, including how to troubleshoot a low indexation rate, read this full article:

Basic SEO Troubleshooting with XML Sitemaps – Search Engine Watch

$25bn settlement divides America

The landmark $25 billion mortgage settlement, agreed last week between leading US lenders and 49 states, has split the country down the middle, as officials welcome help for the housing market and homeowners continue to battle with foreclosure.

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Spanish property can “sell in a day”

A Spanish property expert has claimed that houses in Spain will sell in a day if sellers stop overpricing and reduce values by 40 per cent. “[They] have nothing but [their] own unrealistic expecations” if the property doesn’t sell, said the Managing Director of Noteges.

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Russia plans new property tax

Russia is planning to tinroduce a new tax, based on the real market value. Property evaluations will take place throughout 2012 to determine the true worth of the country’s real estate, rather than basing the levy on the current low house prices. The tax will be introduced next year.

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Foreign buyers go back to Budapest

Foreign buyers are going back to Budapest’s property market, according to one Hungary newspaper. Overseas investment used to account for one-tenth of all property purchases in the capital, but after the housing crisis, investors are beginning to return.

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Dubai 2011 almost rivals boom levels

Dubai’s figures for 2011 show that against all expectations, the market almost matched levels last seen during the country’s real estate boom. Transactions were up by 20 per cent compared to 2010, just 9.5 per cent below the total value of AED158 billion in 2009.

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London developments double in size

London developments are doubling in size, according to Jones Lang LaSalle. Developers are increasing the capacity of their projects to try and accommodate “inexhaustible demand” for property in the city centre.

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Foreclosures rise in Florida

Foreclosures increased “for the first time in more than a year” in Florida, a RealtyTrac report revealed. The Sunshine State, severely affected by the housing crash, saw the number of foreclosure filings rise by 14 per cent in January, as the market struggles to clear its inventory of repossessed property.

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Kuwait recovery on the cards?

A recovery in the property market is on the cards, predicts the National Bank of Kuwait. The total value of real estate transactions in 2011 reached KD2.7 billion, according to the bank’s latest report, marking an increase of 53 per cent from investors.

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Malaysia good for long-term investment

Malaysia has been highlighted for its long-term investment prospects by the Malaysia Institute of Estate Agents. The MIEA commented that the market is “one of the cheapest in the region” and that over the coming decade, property values will rise considerably.

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Barbados prices may rise this year

Barbados property has seen a rise in demand, according to a new Knight Frank report, which could see house prices rise again after a fall of 5 per cent in 2011.

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Ireland prices bottoming as buyers pour back in

Ireland’s property appears to be bottoming out as US and Russian investors flood back into the market following a drop in values of “at least 55 per cent”.

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Romanian real estate generates interest

Romanian property is generating increasing interest from investors, Global Property Guide has reported. 28 per cent more enquiries were made in 2011 than the year before, as low prices attracted attention from overseas buyers.

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Property sales in New Zealand hit record high

The number of residential property transactions in New Zealand hit a four-year high in January. Prices have increased by 1.1 per cent over the past three months, Quotable Value’s data shows, but remain far below the boom levels of 2007.

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London rents continue to skyrocket

London rental rates continue to skyrocket, according to a new report from Colliers International. Residential property values have returned to pre-crisis levels, reveals the report, but rents are “regularly exceeding £1,000-plus per week”.

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Wuhu scraps week-old housing policy

The Chinese city of Wuhu cancelled a housing policy just seven days after it had been introduced. The policy, which would have given subsidies to new homeowners and excluded buyers from paying deed tax, was swiftly scrapped by the Wuhu government as China continues to insist on the cooling of the country’s property market.

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And so, hot on the heels of Redfin’s use of Twitter to reveal the embarrassing side of selling property in-person, here is How Not to Sell Your House Online:

Include terrible pictures

This is by far and away the most common – and most effective – way to not sell your home. The most crucial part of a property listing is the image. It creates a first impression for the buyer and can expose your house’s flaws as much as its strengths.

So if your home contains a topless man, inappropriate political propaganda, sleeping people or rubbish, make sure you include them in your listing:

(All of the above are photos from genuine property listings.)

Give misleading information

Whether it’s the property’s condition, the number of rooms or its location (e.g. next to a nuclear power station), make sure that you never tell the truth. If you can leave out an important piece of information, then do so. It will help you avoid buyers who are looking for property in a specific region or with a particular feature.

Photo credit: Poppet with a Camera (Flickr)

Ignore the good bits

If your home has an interesting past, a former celebrity owner or an interesting angle to highlight, don’t tell anyone about it. Don’t sign up to our private seller Premium Service, which can provide you with an advertorial feature to promote your property.

Write incomplete sentences

The best way to convince people that you’re not a person to buy property from? Do not check your listing for correct grammar or spelling – and never, ever finish your

Make sure the price is wrong

As one agent declared this week, Spanish property prices are overpriced by an average of 40 per cent, which is hindering market activity. An incorrect price is a fast ticket to Reject-ville, so be sure to keep your price extortionately high or suspiciously low to discourage any attention from investors.

Don’t use Lead Galaxy

Don’t take advantage of our client-focussed qualified lead generation service and experienced email marketing campaigns. Don’t visit this page. And don’t speak to a member of our helpful team, who will help you successfully market your property.

So how do you turn leads into real estate clients?

A recent seminar at Real Estate Connect took property professionals back to basics and covered the essential groundwork:

Customer service

“Think about your interactions with your consumers as if you were in the consumer’s shoes,” said Austin Allison, CEO of real estate tech company DotLoop.

“[Agents] are too focused on the big picture of the process rather than really servicing the client,” Cypress Residential Group’s Nick Ratliff told Inman News.

Website design

An enquiry form by itself can be a handy call to action. Keeping that form quick and simple will give you more submissions, but more fields will qualify the lead in finer detail. The important thing is to get the balance between an efficient, intuitive site layout and generating a carefully targeted lead that can easily be converted.

“Even if you have a few hundred visitors coming to your site every week, that’s still enough to make some inferences from testing,” Frederick Townes, chief technology officer of Mashable, suggests.”Make one change at a time.”

Qualifying web leads

“The most successful agents … have two-week-long scripts. Make sure your agents are learning the scripts,” advises software company BoomTown’s CEO Grier Allen.

Ratcliff adds (and this is perhaps our favourite cautionary tale) that in his past experience, it’s all about asking the right questions: “The agents would try to find all the details on a property rather than asking what (consumers) want to know.”

For more nuggets of wisdom, read the full write-up of the panel’s tips:

How to turn leads into real estate clients – Inman News

The lawsuit includes large real estate parent companies, such as Trulia, Zillow and the National Association of Realtors, so the accusations could cause problems for a lot of property portals.

Earthcomber, a mobile app developer in Chicago, has filed two separate lawsuits concerning two different patents, both of which are related to the “system and method for locating and notifying a user of a person, place or thing having attributes matching the user’s stated preferences.”

The complaints read: “These patents also claim methods for converting resource information into digital information and providing that information to users.”

The specific methods that Earthcomber mention apparently refer to their technology that uses ZIP codes and other information to match users with locations, as opposed to solely relying upon GPS.

USA Today adds that following several previous lawsuits, “Earthcomber’s litigiousness has earned it a reputation in some circles as a patent troll”. The company argues that it is “a small business trying to protect its intellectual property from larger and deeper-pocketed companies”.

Whether the allegations are true or not, the lawsuit is a reminder of the importance of both innovation and caution when developing new technology for real estate marketing.

For a sobering demonstration of the extent to which it matters, the full list of named companies (complete with court documentation) is on AG Beat.

But there are always opportunities for in-person sales for real estate advertising to go horribly wrong. And real estate group Redfin have started lifting the lid on them:

“Woman let us in, said she was there alone & we were free to wander. Then we walked in on people having sex. Not sure who was more surprised!” reads one tweet from @REConfidential.

Remove names and identifying information from its stories, the Twitter account promises to “let the public in on the strange and sometimes inexplicable things our agents encounter”.

We mention it because it’s a great use of Twitter.

Why? It’s a string of personal anecdotes, which is exactly what people expect from a social media account – things don’t get more informal and engaging than that.

It also adds a new element to the company’s profile, allowing for humour. Laughs = retweets. Retweets = a wider audience.

It manages to divulge confidential information without offending anyone as well, thus maintaining the company’s online reputation while also letting them join in the instant-feedback activity on the web.

Interaction is encouraged too, requesting stories from users of the site – again, adding another dimension to their relationship with their audience.

Finally, it gives property sellers – potential clients – advice and examples of how not to sell their home.

Combining all of those into one Twitter account? Nice one, Redfin.

Our challenge to the rest of you: Can you come up with something better?