Many buyers have two primary decisions to make: whether to purchase a holiday villa, second home, or permanent residence in the north or the south, and whether to opt for a resale property from a local agent or to purchase a brand-new or off-plan building within a development.

The property experts at Property Turkey examine the key factors you may wish to consider and some of the top places to buy on the island that offer the ultimate affordability and lifestyle you may be looking for.

Buying Modern Properties in Cyprus: North vs South

While the climate and landscapes across the island are similar, the contrast is that the southern region is officially the Republic of Cyprus, whereas the north was proclaimed the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus by Turkey in 1983.

The state is only recognised by Turkey, but remains safe and peaceful, with a ‘green line’ border managed by the UN between the two areas that falls across the city of Nicosia. Although there is an increased border control, there are no strict formalities for visa-holders, and EU passport holders can travel freely as they wish.

Importantly, there has been no conflict on the island since 1974, and both parts of the island remain welcoming. The bigger differences relate to living costs, Cyprus property prices and population density.

Southern Cyprus is largely seen as a tourist destination, with numerous hotels and chains, busy beaches and nightlife, and around 900,000 residents. In the north, people primarily speak Turkish rather than Greek, and the smaller population of 600,000 and quieter coastal towns and villages offer a more tranquil and relaxing pace of life.

Property Prices and Living Costs in Northern and Southern Cyprus

Costs vary considerably since the north uses the Turkish Lira rather than the Euro, meaning that prices are roughly 30% lower. Average living costs between the largest cities in the Republic of Cyprus and the north demonstrate the contrasts – excluding Nicosia, which sits between the two regions and is partially in each.

 Life in Famagusta, Northern Cyprus, compared to Limassol in the Republic, is:

•    31.7% more affordable in terms of living costs, excluding accommodation.
•   44.8% cheaper when including average rental prices.
•   30.3% lower for restaurants and fine dining.
•   31.1% less in terms of buying groceries.

Buyers purchasing a home in Famagusta will also find that their monthly utilities are 33.4% less expensive, a monthly gym membership costs just under 62% less, and the price of purchasing a central home in the north is, on average, over 10% lower.

Choosing the Best Places to Invest in North Cypriot Real Estate

The real estate boom in Northern Cyprus is largely attributed to the influx of international buyers looking for holiday properties, second homes, and idyllic coastal villas far away from the crowds, typical of the golden beach resorts around the south of the island.

As interest has grown, more developers have begun catering to global buyers, many of whom want to enjoy the best of both worlds on an island with an average of 320 days of sunshine every year and incredible beaches with some of the best swimming water in Europe.

Our top picks in Northern Cyprus include:

• Kyrenia: A city with a heritage dating back to the 10th century BC, located just 40 miles from the Turkish mainland and with a stunning harbour that has been renovated into restaurants and cafes. The charming alleys are packed with artisans and craft vendors, and a boat trip from the harbour is not to be missed.
• Lapta: Six miles from central Kyrenia, the small town of Lapta is tucked between the mountains and the turquoise blue of the Mediterranean. Although Lapta remains quiet, it has begun to attract more visitors due to the natural beauty of the surrounding landscapes.
• Bahçeli: If your ideal location is close to mountain peaks, limestone cliffs, sandy beaches and unspoiled coves, Bahçeli is perfect, with a superb championship golf course just 15 minutes from the town centre.

Buyers looking for a balance between crowds and vibrancy may prefer Iskele Long Beach, one of the best-known and most-visited regions. In the summer, the area on the Karpaz Peninsula welcomes visitors from the island and around the world, and several opulent hotels and casinos have contributed to the growth of the real estate market.

The Appeal of New-Build Homes for Foreign National Buyers in Cyprus

New builds and off-plan properties are in steady demand and comprise either newly constructed properties available for purchase or currently in development. There are numerous reasons buyers, particularly foreign national investors, ask us to source new-build opportunities:

• Buying off-plan gives you ample time to plan and organise a move or ship belongings, with many offering excellent investment returns if you are keen to use your Cypriot property as a rental home for part or all of the year.
• Low property prices mean even luxurious homes built to impeccable standards are affordable, and some developers can customise the layout, materials, and finishes used in the property.
• New builds adhere to strict modern standards, with locally sourced and sustainable materials that can withstand even extreme weather conditions, with no exposure to dampness, cracks or subsidence that are more prevalent in resale homes.
• A newly built property, whether a standalone villa, family home, or apartment, will have excellent energy efficiency certification. This ensures that homes are easy to keep cool during the long summer months and feature insulation to keep the chill at bay during the winter.

Running costs are often a key decision-making factor since air conditioning and heating, even in Northern Cyprus, can add to monthly outgoings, alongside other expenses such as heating or cooling outdoor pools.

Professional Help With Your Cyprus Property Search

The property consultants here at Property Turkey are always on hand to offer more guidance about the locations, municipalities, and cities in Cyprus that may suit your requirements or to suggest property listings that match your specifications in terms of area, cost, and efficiency.

Please contact us for more information about buying an investment, rental, or residential home or to review our latest listings.

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According to recent statistics from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Baltimore ranks among seven cities in the U.S. that account for half of urban gentrification from 2000-2013. And this trend continues even today, presenting unique challenges to communities throughout Baltimore that are primarily comprised of black and Hispanic residents.

Entrepreneurs like Kevin Seawright are hard at work striving to combat this problem with affordable housing that improves living conditions without outclassing existing residents. “Affordable housing opportunities are drying up, leaving almost nothing for middle- to lower-income families that are interested in homeownership,” explained Seawright. “No path exists for many people to purchase properties in cities that they’ve called home their entire lives.”

That’s where companies like Kevin Seawright’s RPS Solutions can make an impact. RPS has proven that it’s possible for firms to support community improvement efforts, turn a profit that supports business operations, and ultimately develop properties that remain affordable for lower-income families. Real estate development firms can responsibly improve housing and infrastructure without the price gouging that often comes with gentrification efforts. According to Kevin Seawright, as these neighborhoods become more desirable, developers have a responsibility to keep pricing affordable rather than seizing opportunities for extreme profits by doubling or even tripling rates.

One of the perpetuating struggles that face many families who are pushed to the outskirts of newly gentrified areas is the rent cycle. By continuously paying rent to landlords, rather than investing in a mortgage or their own real estate, they are spending their hard-earned funds without being able to gain a return of their own on them. RPS Solutions, led by Kevin Seawright, is working to change this by developing responsible real estate that can be attainable to existing residents, allowing them a foothold to improve their own circumstances.

These first-time home buyers need more than just affordable housing. They often require assistance navigating the unfamiliar waters of homeownership. RPS offers value-added services to help buyers move forward responsibly and with complete understanding of the process. Kevin Seawright explained, “RPS provides support at every level, including offering closing help to all buyers, as well as guaranteed home warranties to assist with repair costs. RPS also provides continued counseling for new buyers to make sure that they will always be able to afford to maintain their homes from day one.”

All of these efforts combine to help families in Baltimore improve their circumstances and remain in the communities that they have come to love. Seawright noted that all developers have the opportunity to create affordable housing as they progress with their construction projects: “There’s no reason that working-class families need to be left behind as new construction takes place.” Businesses can put Baltimore first by remembering that people from all walks of life and all economic statuses live within the city limits and are entitled to positive community development. Seawright shared, “The goal for everyone should be to achieve a quality level of homeownership. This option should not be relegated to those at the top. We improve the community at all levels if we create opportunities for middle- and lower-income families as well.”

To this end, RPS Solutions continues to pursue development projects that help create diverse communities in the face of gentrification that threatens to marginalize lower-income families. “We look for areas in Baltimore and surrounding counties where we try to find homes that we can invest in, construct and stabilize them and then be able to sell them back to first-time homebuyers at an affordable price point,” explained Seawright.

By developing affordable housing projects and providing support to home buyers, RPS Solutions and Kevin Seawright are making a direct investment within Baltimore communities and with individual families. RPS leads by example when it comes to real estate development, creating accessible and affordable housing options for people from all backgrounds and in diverse, livable communities across Baltimore that are inclusive and designed with infrastructure in mind.

The post Kevin Seawright On Running a Business That Puts Baltimore First appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

If you’re running a social media marketing campaign, your leads need to be directed to your website at some point. Since you can’t put a web form directly on social media, directing leads to your website is essential. However, you can’t just toss up a form and call it a day.

Design your lead capture web forms intentionally

If you’re like most property investors, you have a form on your website that captures contact information from potential leads. Whether you’re an individual or you run a property management company, capturing leads is critical to filling vacancies. However, your lead capture form serves a dual purpose to both qualify and disqualify leads.

Designing a lead capture form for property management

If you’re a property management company looking for clients, your lead capture form doesn’t need to be fancy with a ton of questions. However, you do need to know where their properties are located.

You can get this information in a couple of different ways. The simplest way is to create a basic web form that asks for the property address. You can see this in action on Green Residential’s website. Green Residential serves property investors in the greater Houston area, so it makes sense to ask leads to provide their property address up front.

If you have a team of people available to look through form submissions, a basic form is sufficient. However, if you don’t have time to sort through submissions to verify the address is in your service area, you can hire a programmer to add a dynamic address locator to your form.

With this addition, leads can type in the exact address, which is then matched to a database of known addresses and automatically filled in. On the back-end, when a lead is outside of your service area, you can have the system automatically send an email letting them know you don’t serve their area.

Designing a lead capture form for landlords

If you’re using a website to market and fill vacancies, you need a good web form. While a web form will capture leads, it can also be a powerful tool to filter out low-quality leads. To use your web form as a filter for unqualified or low-quality leads, you need to ask questions that will automatically segment your leads according to their answers.

For example, if you only consider tenants with no evictions and make no exceptions, add a question to your form stating “have you ever been evicted?” Require leads to answer yes or no and automatically filter out leads that answer “yes.”

Another question you could ask is credit score. Say you only consider tenants with a credit score of 650 at minimum. Create a question with a drop-down menu where each option is a range of credit scores. For example, the question could be “what is your current credit score?” The drop-down selections could be:

1. 800-850
2. 740-799
3. 650-739
4. 580-649
5. Under 580

Have your web developer program the above selections to automatically segment leads according to their answer. Distinguish people with a high credit score as a “hot lead” and simply ignore any leads that select a credit score below 650.

Disqualify leads using form questions

How many hours have you spent chasing leads who were interested, but not committed to buying or renting a home? It’s frustrating and you don’t need to waste your time. Ask questions on your web form that will tell you how ready a person is to buy, sell, or rent (depending on your business).

Set up your own parameters for determining who is ready. Have your website developer program pre-selected answers to segment your leads appropriately. For leads who aren’t ready to buy, sell, or rent, but are otherwise qualified, add them to a special email marketing sequence that sends out nurturing emails. They may not be ready now, but with an automated drip-campaign, you can persuade them over time.

Track your progress and don’t give up

Capturing high-quality leads isn’t as easy as it seems. Track your progress and make changes when something isn’t working. Over time, you’ll end up with a well-oiled lead capturing machine.

The post How to Generate Better Quality Leads in Real Estate appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

But it’s not just companies that have invested in building their presence on the Internet. It’s everyday people, all the way up to industry experts, who have seen the value in building a “personal brand.”

As more and more people have started investing time, energy, and resources in amplifying their online presence, we’ve seen age-old industries be completely disrupted by entrepreneurs that have a knack for engaging audience members. These influencers are no longer just entertainers and vloggers. These are business people who know that by sharing their story and unique perspective, they can capture the attention of their market.

One great example is Albert “The Mortgage Guy” Preciado.

Having originated more than $1 billion in residential loans, and closed more than 2,400 real estate deals since 2005, Albert has continued to stand out in his industry by constantly reinvesting in his own personal brand.

But he wasn’t always at the top. In fact, Albert had humble beginnings. And it was only through strategic moves on the chessboard, and a relentless drive to become successful that he ended up making a name for himself in Los Angeles, California.

Here’s how he did it:

1. Stick with what you love—and what you’re good at.

When Albert first got his start, he was the assistant to a real estate agent. That’s how he learned the basics. But his real passion ended up being in the mortgage business.

“I was more curious about mortgages because it was about numbers and financing, and I had always been good at math. In 2005, I got my license to become a mortgage loan originator, and in my first year and a half made $200,000. The market was booming and everything was great.”

But that’s not where the story ends. In 2008 (as we all know), the market crashed.

“We had the mortgage meltdown, and a lot of people were getting out of the business. My income dropped down to $60,000, which changed my entire lifestyle. My two homes were foreclosed, and my car was repossessed. But while everyone else jumped ship, I stuck with it. I just kept showing up to Starbucks with my laptop and cell phone, determined to figure things out.”

And he did.

“But I was still working for different brokers, so I was employed by different mortgage companies. One day, I finally said, ‘I have to change something in order to take things to the next level and scale.’”

2. Put your flag in the ground and call yourself what you are.

As Albert tells it, “I had always wanted to open up a company. One day, I was lying on the sofa with my girlfriend, who is now my wife, and we were at her parents’ house. Her little sisters, who were thirteen years old, were giggling and walking around the room when they asked me, ‘What are you thinking about, Albert?’ I had this serious look on my face, being really quiet. I was daydreaming about my idea. I said, ‘I’m thinking about opening up a company.’ They asked me, ‘What kind of company?’ I said, ‘A mortgage company. I want to be The Mortgage Guy.’”

Albert went on to explain that while the name did sound kind of catchy, a lot of people in his life told him not to go that direction. Close friends, family, the consensus was that someone in the mortgage businesses needed a professional-sounding company name—because the mortgage industry is serious.

“Sometimes, you just have to go with your gut,” said Albert.

A month later, he filed as a corporation, came up with a logo, and went all in on The Mortgage Guys.

3. Let your personal brand represent how you and your company conduct the work you do.

For most people, getting a mortgage is a stressful process.

You go to the bank. You go inside. You sit in the waiting area for a banker. The banker is giving you “the look,” and most clients end up feeling nervous.

“I always wanted The Mortgage Guys to stand for a different way of doing business. That process shouldn’t feel stressful. Buying a home is what the American Dream is all about. I wanted the process to be fun and exciting. And I communicate a lot of that through my own personal brand,” said Albert.

The way The Mortgage Guys markets isn’t through old-school tactics like mailers and print magazines. Instead, it’s social media and full transparency about how the loan processes work, A to Z.

In addition, Albert shared that he receives at least one deal per day through direct messages on social media. “The mortgage business, just like the insurance business, just sounds boring. Most people in these industries are not using social media because it’s just not what they’re used to. But I’m doing the opposite. I’m implementing the same tactics other massively popular social media influencers are doing, taking their tools and using them to communicate my own ideas and perspectives, applying them to my industry.”

After all, the more people that know who you are and what you do, the more business you’ll get.

The post How Albert “The Mortgage Guy” Preciado Built A Powerful Personal Brand In Real Estate appeared first on Social Media Explorer.