About Peterborough County, ON

Attracting more traffic to your site, as I indicated in my article ‘How Do I get my Real Estate Website Found?’ will increase your business. Once visitors arrive at your site, you need to keep them there. How do you do that? Provide what your ideal user would want to find when they get there. If they find what they want on your site, they will be more likely to stay and to contact you.

Once you get visitors to your site, find a way to engage them. A little question on the front page – a survey with just one or two questions – it can be something fun, silly or serious – anything to allow them to interact with you. Ideas: ’Please tell me what city you visited my site from’, a comment form, a contest, something related to a local sports team… anything to get them to engage with you and give you their e-mail address. You now have a live lead!

Once they engage and send you their e-mail address, you have an opportunity to follow up. And it’s easy – you thank them for their involvement in whatever it was they responded to, and then ask if you can help with their real estate needs. You might want to respond with a personal note, or, depending on your volume of leads, you may want to use an auto-responder, or use a combination depending on your availability. One way or another, you now have a contact you can work with.

The content of your site should reflect the type of customer you are trying to attract. If you deal, or prefer to deal with first time buyers, seniors, cottagers…, your site content should interest, inform and engage those vistors. Again, if they find engaging content on your site, they will stay and your chances of having them contanct you are greatly increased.

There is no doubt that the majority of visitors to your site will be looking for listings. Give them what they want. Put your current listings on the front page of your website, or make sure the visitor can access the listings with one click and make that link the most visible thing on the page. If visitors have to search for the link to your listings, they are going to be more inclined to leave the site and find one where the listings are readily available.

The bottom line is, give the users what they want, and find a way to engage them, before they leave. Your website is like any other form of advertsing. They have to see it, get your message, and contact you for it to be effective.

The Home Tour

You’ve completed all of the initial steps before you start showing property, it’s now time to set-up your home tour and schedule showing appointments.

Here are the critical steps:

1. Less is more: The more homes you show a buyer, the more confused they get. Drill down to the specific wants and needs of your buyer. This information is gathered during your buyer counselling interview. Keep the tour between 3-5 homes, any more than that can create confusion and indecision.

2. Create a map: Provide the buyer with a map that details the location of each property that you are going to show them. Highlight the different schools and points of interest on the map.

3. Provide comparables: Educate the buyer and make them aware of the current marketplace. This will help the buyer better understand the market and make a realistic offer that they are comfortable with.

4. Meet at our office: Have the buyers meet you at our office so that you can sit down and review the homes they are going to see. Upon arrival back to the office, this is the best time to write up the offer.

Your next tip will be Showing and Selling Property. Until then I wish you all continued success.

How do I pay off my mortgage faster?

Paying off your home doesn’t have to take a lifetime. By planning ahead and sticking to the plan, you
have the opportunity to pay your mortgage off faster. Here are seven ways to pay your mortgage down
faster and decrease the amortization and interest costs off your mortgage:

• Choose a mortgage with a prepayment option - A prepayment option gives you the right to
  prepay specified amounts of your mortgage principal
  
• Shorten your amortization period - By shortening your amortization period to less than 25
  years you can create huge interest savings
  
• Increase your regular mortgage payment - Increasing your regular mortgage payment helps
  you reduce your mortgage principal faster, which means you save interest
  
• Increase your mortgage payment frequency - If you increase the frequency of your mortgage
  payments from monthly to accelerated bi-weekly, you are making one additional monthly payment
  every year, which will cut your interest cost over the life of your mortgage
  
• Invest your tax refunds and cash windfalls - If you find yourself with more money than you
  anticipated, you should consider making a lump-sum mortgage payment against the principal.
  Your mortgage principal will decrease and you won’t have to change your spending habits
  
• Invest your pay raises – If you find yourself with a pay raise, increase your mortgage payment
  amount. Increasing your mortgage payment helps you to reduce your mortgage principal faster
  
• Keep your mortgage payments high - When the time comes to renew your mortgage, keep
  your mortgage payments high even if you’re tempted by lower interest rates and a lower monthly
  payment. If you stick to your original plan, you’ll pay off your mortgage faster and enjoy huge
  interest savings over the life of your mortgage.
  

Try our CENTUM Pre-Payment Mortgage Calculator
Use our online Prepayment Analyzer Mortgage Calculator to calculate your mortgage payment. Discover
how many years you will shorten your amortization and how much interest savings you will realize by
making a prepayment (lump sum) on your mortgage.

Buying a home is one of the biggest financial decisions you will make. It’s important that you are making
an educated decision with someone looking out for your best interest. CENTUM Financial Group can
help.

GET THE MORTGAGE THAT MEETS YOUR NEEDS

With unbiased advice, fast, flexible service, competitive rates, and access to many lending sources, I can make sure you get the mortgage that meets YOUR needs. Call me today and SAVE!

Market Rate (%) Duration Our Rates (%)
4.35 1 Year 2.54
4.20 2 Years 3.65
4.65 3 Years 2.90
5.59 4 Years 4.44
5.49 5 Years 3.79
6.85 7 Years 5.55
6.90 10 Years 5.49
2.75 Variable 2.15

OAC. Certain conditions may apply. Rate subject to borrower and property qualification. Posted rate is the rate offered by the majority of Canadian financial institutions. Rates may vary provincially and are subject to change without notice. Independently owned and operated.

SHOWING THE HOME

Now it's time to get them into the car and start the homes tour .... ???

Of course, that will depend on your market-inventory knowledge.

Certainly you can convert all kinds of incoming buyer calls to appointments, but if you don't know the current inventory, you're going to waste a lot of your time, the buyers time, and look very unprofessional.

Knowledge is power, do you have market? Do you know the current inventory? How much time do you spend previewing new listings? This comes under Schedule management.s I'll give you some ideas on that further into this series.

You can qualify buyers, get their financing in place, but without up to the minute market knowledge, you're going to struggle to convert buyers into closings.

Your next tip will be building a home tour that fits the criteria of your buyer. Until then I wish you all continued success.