New apartment construction is always an exciting thing for our real estate agents to hear about because it means that more sales opportunities are coming soon. Just south of city center in Sedona, Jackson Development, a new home construction firm is building brand new luxury apartments and condominiums on a 2-acre plot of land they purchased from a local farmer. Jackson Development reached out to Jamie Swint, our brand manager, to discuss potential investment opportunities in the land. We’ve agreed on a higher commission level for all apartment sales through an exclusive deal with Jackson Construction. Before any of this happens though, the land needs to be cleared and excavated. We recommended an experienced excavator to dig the foundation hole and remove the dirt, shrubs, and debris prior to construction. If the excavation company is able to complete the project within a week or so, building the apartments should be an easy undertaking. Once it’s complete, Jackson Construction’s team will give our realtors a private tour before we start renting out the apartments. The view from the east side of the apartments looks right toward the sunset, so we’re confident the local residents are going to love it. Floor to ceiling windows, baseboard heating, and brand-new furnishings are just a few of the many amenities that apartment renters can expect. We’re not 100% sure on the price range yet. Collectively, we’ve launched a marketing survey to analyze other similar markets to determine the right rental fees. There is nothing in the area like this, so we’re going to be blazing a trail for more high-end apartments in the near future. Once other development firms notice how popular the high-rise buildings are in this area, we expect to see heavy investment; rental prices will rise even higher when this occurs, so it’s a great opportunity here.

As a prominent realty company, we work with both homeowners and commercial building owners to find them the perfect property to fit their needs. Every buyer is unique; some want a lot of space, some look for amenities, and others want to move to a specific locale to give them more local visibility. Such is the case with Latham Dental Pros. LDP’s New York office was established more than decade ago, near Latham Farms, a popular shopping center located at 579 Troy Schenectady Road. Their dental clinic provides an array of dental services like teeth cleaning, and whitening, tooth extraction, oral surgery & more. As a local dentist, LDP’s owner was searching for a new office location that was more central to the area. Moving to a building that’s directly on Route 9 or on Erin Street across from Panera would give them more visibility and hopefully lead to an increase in new patient appointments. After visiting several potential office locations, Latham Dental Pros settled on Route 9. The new building will have space for 11 dentists, leaving plenty of room for growth. And, since it’s bordering a heavily residential area right next to JJ Rafferty’s and Price Chopper, plenty of families will be able to drive by it and stop in.

Real estate is a lucrative industry especially for those who possess the right qualities. What are these qualities exactly that will make you successful as a real estate agent? Read these tips and find out how to make it big in real estate.

Fulfill Your Real Estate Licensing Requirements

Every state or locality may have different requirements to qualify as a real estate agent. Generally, requirements for eligibility are: 1) you are of legal age (or more); 2) must have legal residency in the country where you will be working as a real estate agent; 3) complete the required pre-license course; and 4) pass the real estate license examination. Without these qualifications, you cannot go forward with the real estate career of your dreams. Find out more about the specific requirements of your local area (there may be additional exams required) to make sure you do not miss out on anything. Also, choose the most suitable real estate broker that you will be working with.

Work Independently

Most of the time, real estate agents do not work directly under a supervision of a boss. In other words, you are your own boss. You manage your own office, you organize and handle your contacts, you deal with your buyers and sellers, you make your own schedule, you solve your own problems, and you make most of your own decisions. And so it is important that you are able to work independently without anyone else clocking in your time for you.

Master the Real Estate Basics

You may have passed the real estate license exam but there are still a lot more in store for you to learn. The real estate process may include land surveys, insurances, encumbrances, deeds, and more. You can build more trust between you and your sellers and buyers if you are able to answer or explain with such eloquence even their most basic questions. Practice real estate jargons and expose yourself to the different documents involved in the process to be more confident of your knowledge.

Learn from Success as well as from Failures

Ask a more successful real estate agent who has been in the industry for quite a while to be your mentor. Learn from him/her about the ways to get your seller to trust you and to make the transaction process much easier for your buyers. Ask for advice based on your mentor’s past experiences of successes and yes, even failures. An alternative to a mentor is also attending trainings related to your field or consuming learning materials such as books or films about real estate. Also, be mindful of your own experience and learn from your own mistakes, making sure that you will not repeat the same mistakes over and over again with your future sellers and buyers.

Think Ahead and Have a Plan

Success will not occur overnight, not even in the real estate industry. You may need a year or so to get on your feet as a real estate agent. Anticipate months of having no prospective buyers or sellers. Or, there is even the possibility that the seller will not sell after all or the buyer will back out on the deal. Have another source of income and keep hustling on the side. Learn how to manage your finances well, especially on the first few years of starting out. In the meantime, devote your energy and time wisely – invest in learning more about your trade, create your own marketing strategies, and connect with your prospective clients.

Recognize that Marketing is Important

Having a top-of-the-mind presence can motivate your prospective clients to choose you as their real estate agent. One way of achieving this is by marketing yourself and your expertise. Remember, you are not only selling homes and properties, you are also selling yourself as a real estate agent. Study your market area and perhaps consider specializing in a niche market that has higher rates of success in terms of buying and owning a home or property. Targeting a specific market will give focus to all of your marketing strategies and efforts. Another way to market yourself as a real estate agent is to create an online presence. Use technology and the internet to your advantage by making a site and building your portfolio online.

Grow Your Clients List

Every person you meet may be a lead, which means that they may have the capacity to buy or sell a house or a property. Make an effort to engage them with the prospect of buying or selling property and to discuss their real estate needs. Ask for their contact details afterwards to build a database of prospective clients. Speaking of client database, keep and organize information of your past clients to be able to contact them for follow-ups or you may be able to work with them again in the future.

Work Well with Your Clients

Working well with your clients – both buyers and sellers – will earn you a good reputation as a real estate agent, which may result to them referring you to other people they know who are also in need of your services. Working with a seller usually entails understanding and meeting their needs with new listings, demonstrating that you are capable with coming up with a good deal, marketing your listings well, and perhaps even staging the house or property well to appeal more to buyers. At the same time, working with your buyers usually entails matching their needs to the ideal listings, showing them the potential of a house or a property, and processing all the necessary requirements and documents once they have decided to buy.

Being a successful real estate agent is not an easy feat that everyone can just achieve. You need to be able to work smart and work hard, connect with the right people, and be able to continue improving your skills. It will take much time and effort and so, good luck!

As you may or may not know, Tom Jax & Associates real estate company owns more than 140 acres of land in northern New York State.  The untouched land was purchased in early 2001 from an unnamed party, and it was intended to be used for environmental conservation purposes as wildlife protected land.  However, over the years, much of the acreage has been sold to commercial and residential building developers for various projects and quite sizable sums of money.

Last week, our partner company JVDV Real Estate bought 10 acres of land in Albany from us to build their new office location.  After an impressive year of sales, JVDV is expanding operations into more cities.  Building designs have already been completed and approved by the local government.  PFMA Construction Management is coordinating with JVDV Real Estate to prepare for construction of the main building and stand-alone units, which begins on November 1^st.  They have also contracted well-known Albany paving services to lay the asphalt for the commercial parking lot.  The initial layer of pavement will be installed first so that service vehicles can move in and out of the development property with ease.  After construction is complete, the paving contractor will mill the road and add the final layers of asphalt to finish the parking lot.

The building is expected to take a minimum of 3 months based on the number of workers on assignment.  The project is being managed by Jim Kapuchin, an experienced construction manager and developer. Please join Tom Jax & Associates in congratulating JVDV real estate on their rapid expansion.  To grow from a single realtor to a team of 27 agents in less than 2 years is unheard of and certainly more than noteworthy.  JVDV is in great hands, and we look forward to partnering on projects again in the future.

Learn why it’s smart to hire a real estate agent to help sell your home:

As per a recent report, a significant 89 percent of the sellers aim at listing their homes with a professional real estate agent. The sellers have reported trustworthiness, effective local market knowledge, responsiveness, and a reliable reputation over the real estate agents. As a seller, finding the potential buyers on your own might be a daunting process. As such, coming across a reliable real estate agent might be helpful significantly.

If you are a seller and wish to sell off your real estate property, hiring a real estate agent can be beneficial in several ways. Some of the reasons why you must consider hiring a real estate agent for selling the real estate property might include:

Local Real Estate Market Expertise:

One of the major advantages of hiring a real estate agent for selling your real estate property is that the agent has relevant expertise in the local real estate market. Most of the real estate agents have access to a comprehensive list of the local homes or properties that can be compared with your property. As such, they are able to come up with a proper value for your real estate property –driving more profits on your sale.

Make the Listing:

The real estate agents are also known for providing relevant listings of your real estate properties in the local real estate market. As such, the potential buyers out there can come across your property sooner and finalize the deal seamlessly. The real estate agents would list your property on the MLS and reliable online real estate portals towards engaging more potential buyers for sale.

Handling the Negotiations:

When you hire real estate agents for selling your property, they also handle the negotiations with the potential buyers for your ultimate ease. Most of the professional real estate agents are known for working with the real estate agent of the buyers towards coming up with an offer that satisfies your specific requirements with regard to the price, timing, and so more.

Ease Out the Selling Process:

There is no denying the fact that handling in real estate might involve a lot of paperwork that you might difficult to handle on your own. As such, hiring a reliable real estate agent can ease out the entire selling process.

Make the most of the expertise offered by the real estate agents.

Are you a beginner in real estate investment? Real estate investment might appear quite an overwhelming process. When you are investing in real estate, it is recommended to be extra cautious and thing over the pros & cons of the given deal. Therefore, it is considered a great idea to do in-depth research of the available real estate market before you invest in the first real estate property.

If you are planning out investing in real estate anytime soon, here are some tips that can help you optimize the overall profits:

1. Consider the Location: When it comes to real estate investing, location is the topmost concern that you should take into consideration. Before laying down the final payments and putting yourself under significant amount of debts over the given property, you must ensure that you are investing in a good location. As the real estate principle goes “look out for the worst property on the best street”. This is because it will offer you an opportunity to develop equity effectively.

If it is a property in a good neighborhood, then you can consider investing some additional money in fixing the same. Then, you can sell the property or the house to someone else who must be looking for a good property in a flourishing locality. In the professional world of real estate investing, it is referred to as “fixing & flipping”.

2. Look Out for Wholesale Properties: Investing in real estate market is quite similar to stock investments. You are always looking out for the best possible deal. Thus, you must follow the same principle and should avoid paying for the full amount of the property. Instead, you can search for options like the wholesale properties that usually come at major discounts. Though such properties might require some work, it can help you earn higher profits in the long run.

3. Check Your Credit Score: For investing in real estate, there are chances that you might need to borrow money from somewhere. This is the reason you should check your credit score before making any major investments in the real estate markets. If you have some problems with your credit score, you should try getting it resolved as soon as possible. Improve the credit score and look out for the best possible options for real estate investment.

4. Check the Market Rates: If you are a first-time real estate investor, it is crucial for you to know about the existing market rates. If you are taking help from a real estate agent, make sure that the ongoing real estate rates are in your favor. You can also research for the rates on your end and take the most well-informed decision towards maximizing your overall profits.

5. Negotiate Properly: If you wish to gain maximum profits, it is considered wise to negotiate properly. Negotiations can help you in cracking the best real estate deals in the locality.

Make up for a profitable real estate investment!

As I’ve covered before, selling a home can be an intricate, prolonged process.  It’s often complicated by the fact that people who visit the home you’re trying to sell aren’t going to like everything about it.  That’s a fact.  Every house is going to have some features that are attractive to potential buyers and other features that are more of a turn-off.  As a realtor, it’s my job to highlight the pros and downplay the cons.  However, sometimes there is no other option and a part of the house or property need to be changed.  That’s what happened with the latest home we sold.  An overgrown tree needed to be removed from the backyard before the buyer would agree to our price.

The one-story house was situated in a large lot that faced south, surrounded by environmentally protected land on the northern, eastern, and western sides.  Because those areas are considered off limits due to environmental protection, we can’t touch it.  However, just outside of the protected ground was a large oak tree that had been struck by lightning and was hanging dangerously over the property.

The large limbs could fall at any time and damage the property, so the tree needed to be removed.  We contacted numerous local tree companies and received quotes ranging from $1,500 to $3,000 for the job.  Shortly thereafter, I received a call from Matt Wall, a tree contractor friend who was visiting the area from out of state.  Matt is the owner of Texas Tree Lawn & Garden, a tree care company based in Corpus Christi, TX.  He happened to be in town visiting relatives, so we went out for a drink to catch up.  After explaining the situation, Matt offered to cut the tree down for $1,000.  This was music to my ears, so we went ahead with it.  In total, it took 3 hours to cut it down and another hour to grind the wood and haul it away.

After the tree was removed, we contacted the prospective buyer to revisit the home and review the property.  He walked around the house again, checked out the backyard, and submitted a bid for the full asking price.  We signed the papers and closed on the home that week.  The lesson here is to be flexible and invest if you need to.  We would never have sold the home if we didn’t remove the tree, so we went ahead with it.  A small investment of $1,000 allowed our team at Tom Jax & Associates to get the full asking price for the home.  We’ve had many experiences like this and we do our best to learn from each one so that we’re better prepared for the next time it comes around.

Buying a home is one of the most important decisions you may make in your lifetime.  As such, it’s important to make sure it’s a good financial decision.  Below are the 9 things to do before buying a home.

Financial Situation: Buying a home for the first time is immensely exciting. However, you must also consider the overall financial situation and your budget before investing in any real estate or property. Consider your savings and how much you are willing to spend. Investigate the rates by doing research and determining the true costs of the real estate property in your target location. It’s in your best interest to hire a local realtor for the best results.

Location: When you are planning to buy an apartment or a house, location plays a vital role. Whether you wish to live in a serene suburb or a busy city is key to be a happy property owner. To properly judge an area, you can talk to the nearby residents. If you have children, then you must emphasize the proximity to schools nearby. You can also search for options like office, entertainment zones, shopping malls, and so on.

Request Help from a Trusted Realtor: Real estate agents are a crucial element in your home buying process because they serve to guide you.  They can help you find the right place that fits your specifications.  Furthermore, realtors have strong knowledge of the local market and can answer any questions you have.  Finally, they’re crucial to negotiating.  You don’t want to pay a high price unless you absolutely must.

Size of the House: Another important aspect that you need to consider while buying a home is the overall size. Look into the future of your family. If you are entering the stage of family planning, then you must consider a slightly bigger house with more rooms for your kids. As your family expands, you’ll also need room for more “stuff”.

Amenities: When it comes to buying your dream property, the set of amenities offered is key.  First, consider what’s important to you.  Do you want a swimming pool, in-house gym area, 24/7 security, camera surveillance?  Whether it’s a home or an apartment, just remember that you can always add these amenities later.  It shouldn’t be the deal breaker.

Safety of the Area:  The safety of your future neighborhood is especially important if you have kids.  What’s the crime rate?  What’s the level of police activity in the area?  Your realtor can provide you with this information.  A simple Google search will do the trick as well.

Right Mortgage: Once you have determined the total amount that you are willing to pay for a home, it’s time to consider the mortgage.  Call around for multiple quotes.  You’d be surprised at the variance after calling 3-4 different banks.

Negotiating:  Your realtor can help you estimate the value of the house and identify an appropriate offer to make the home owner.  Just make sure you’ve discussed a back-up plan in case they reject the initial offer.  There is a fine line between a great deal and a rip-off, so do your research on home prices in the area prior to submitting anything.

Inspect the Site: Visit the actual location and see for yourself.  Walk around the property to make sure it’s right for you.  You can learn a lot through Skype, the Internet, and over the phone, but nothing beats a visual.

As far as living in some of the best places in the United States of America is concerned, Arizona might not be a frequent suggestion in the list of several individuals out there. The environment factors have a lot to do with this judgment. However, if the hot, dry climate might not be a big concern for you and you wish to spend your life in a quiet, serene environment by the sides of The Grand Canyon, then Arizona is an ideal place to spend the rest of your life in.

Endless beautiful mountain ranges, palm trees giving place to the easy vibe of ecstatic rivers, sprawling lakes, and acres of free space, and mesmerizing beautiful sunsets –all of these natural factors make Arizona a dream living space for the nature & outdoor lovers. As such, it should not come as any surprise that Arizona is home to some of the most lavish & high-end resorts in the United States of America. In addition to its immense natural beauty, there are various other factors including the overall affordability, greater employment opportunities, world-class education, and limitless entertainment that make Arizona a worthwhile location to live in the US.

If you are looking for some residential options in Arizona, USA, then here are some of the top places that you can consider investing in real estate:

Gilbert: With a smaller population hovering over only the mark of 230,000, lower crime rates, greater home value, affordable healthcare & medical options, median household income, better public schools, and idyllic nature –with these add-ons, you will find Gilbert as one of the many best places to live in the countrywide list. With its close proximity to Phoenix, Gilbert in Arizona is one of the topmost areas in the region that tends to showcase the best that Arizona has to offer. With sprawling farmlands & fresh produce, The Grand Canyon, wineries, ancient ruins, arts market, golf courses, and so more –make your way to Gilbert in Arizona!

Scottsdale: This turns out to be one of the most complete places that you will ever come across in the United States. A land well-known for offering true contrasts, Scottsdale in Arizona is known for retaining its Wild West vibe along with its retro motto saying “The West’s Most Western Town”. Scottsdale is also an ultra-modern locality and has been ranked 8^th in the list of the best cities for launching a startup.

Chandler: With an overall population of around 250,000, Chandler in Arizona is a city that boasts perfectly woven family-friendly & cosmopolitan habitats. This is largely due to the presence of the award-winning school district along with the bustling downtown region of the place. As a home buyer, you would love the overall ambiance of Chandler because of its affordable housing options with plenty of room for spreading out. You can couple affordable living with top-notch security and top-class amenities –ranging from high-end restaurants to distinctive clinical excellence in the region.

Tempe: Once you go through a quick ride across Tempe, you will observe that this is definitely a city in Arizona, US that is remarkably on the rise. You can come across several major construction projects that are underway across the entire town. Leading tech giants ate tenting their way out in Tempe for expanding their operations. This would result in the overall increase in the earnings and will consequently enhance the overall economy of the region. Tempe is also known to be a hot-spot for the young students & aspirants with its suburbs brimming with single-family real estate properties & homes.

Mesa: A well-known thriving metropolis, Mesa in Arizona has a population of around 460,000 people. Mesa turns out to be a great place for those who are looking for big-city experiences. To top it all, Mesa offers a myriad of attractive home options –right from single-family homes to a completely modern townhouse with in-house high-tech amenities. Top-notch public schools, immense diversity all over, good housing options, amazing nightlife –Mesa is your go-to destination in Arizona and live there.

Glendale: If you are looking forward to living affordably in Arizona, then Glendale serves to be your ideal destination. Glendale is a city that perfectly fits all budgets. If you are particularly into sports like football or hockey, then Glendale is somewhere you would fall in love with. Home to the Phoenix Coyotes and Arizona Cardinals, Glendale is a perfect living destination in the US.