Women's Wisdom Network (965)
If you're yearning for an escape from the daily grind and crave a piece of paradise, RV living might be the perfect solution. With the freedom to travel at your own pace and wake up to awe-inspiring views, RV living offers a one-of-a-kind and adventurous lifestyle. In this article, we'll delve into the allure of RV lots and guide you on how to find your own slice of heaven. The Appeal of RV Living RV living has gained immense popularity due to its numerous benefits. Firstly, it provides the flexibility and freedom to explore wherever your heart desires. Whether you're captivated by majestic mountains or prefer the tranquility of a lakeside retreat, RV living allows you to choose your own adventure. In addition to the freedom, RV living can also be remarkably cost-effective. By owning an RV and a lot, you eliminate the need for costly hotel bookings and dining…
As the real estate market continues to evolve, it's becoming increasingly clear that broad-stroke marketing approaches are losing ground to more targeted, niche-oriented strategies. As we delve into the concept of niche real estate marketing, we will explore how realtors and real estate businesses can navigate this growing trend and harness its potential for a greater market share. This article will provide insights on how to identify and appeal to target audiences, as well as offer practical tips for implementing successful niche marketing strategies in the real estate sector. Niche marketing strategies for real estate businesses In today's competitive real estate market, standing out requires more than generic marketing strategies. Savvy businesses are turning to niche marketing – a targeted approach designed to engage distinct segments within the broader market. Rather than narrowing opportunities, these strategies help real estate businesses focus their efforts, delivering a personalized, impactful experience to a…
In the evolving digital landscape, the term “artificial intelligence” (AI) is no longer an alien concept. What’s more intriguing is the advent of generative AI that’s poised to revolutionize various business sectors. However, the inevitable question arises: Will the rise of generative AI pose a threat to the job market? As a futurist and Anticipatory Thinker, I propose that generative AI will not eliminate jobs but instead transform the nature of human work and create new roles that offer significant advantages for businesses in all industries! In turn, this will lead to logical anticipatory action and launch organizations into the future in proactive ways.
Generative AI and How It Triggers Our Fears Before even the most Anticipatory Leader reads the aforementioned declaration and tries to leverage generative AI to their organization’s advantage, let’s first take a step back here and define what generative AI is exactly. In essence, generative AI represents a…
The bond market has been all over the place, and we have seen rapid movement in both directions in the past few weeks. We also have many originators that are struggling to produce loans and they are promising (and hoping) rates and fees that currently don’t exist to attract business. While this is nothing new for the industry, those that are desperate are taking this to a whole new level and don’t really care who they hurt in the process. It’s a shame, but people will be hurt and to be honest, little to nothing will be done about it other than maybe a tirade on social media about a loan officer that promised one thing and couldn’t deliver. The issue is real and sometimes, it may cost people more than just money. It may cost them their chance at home ownership, possibly forever! Think about it, a borderline customer…
New listings have hit their lowest level of any early June on record, limiting home sales and keeping prices afloat New listings of homes for sale fell 25% year over year to their lowest level of any early June on record. That’s according to a new report from Redfin (www.redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage, which analyzed new listings of homes for sale during the four weeks ending June 4. The continued lack of new listings has pushed the total number of homes on the market down 5% year over year to its lowest level on record for early June. Elevated mortgage rates are driving the inventory shortage, with the daily average hitting 6.94% on June 7, near its highest level in two decades. The vast majority of homeowners have a mortgage rate below 6%, discouraging them from listing their home and giving up their relatively low rate.
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When you recognize that things change ever so rapidly in the world, you may already feel disrupted before anything has even happened. The negative view many have about disruption is the result of it happening to you, causing you to have to manage a crisis. My desire for all of my clients and followers is to excel as positive catalysts within their industry, attracting new customers and making a positive impact on the world. This can be achieved by enhancing relevance, streamlining customer interactions, and proactively anticipating future developments.
In a recent episode of Opportunity Hour: Conversations with the Masters, I spoke with a real master of improving on those three concepts: Joe Calloway. Joe is an author, investor, entrepreneur, and business advisor who has invested in and advises companies ranging from snowboard manufacturers to bourbon businesses. Having written eight bestselling books including The Leadership Mindset and being a principal at…
It’s June and the summer season is here and it’s going to be a wild one! Rate volatility last week, steadily lower, has given way to some price improvement. Not enough to make up for recent losses, but the unemployment numbers today and the jobs report on Friday will contribute to either further improvement or a reversal if the numbers are significantly stronger than expectations. We also do not yet have a signed bill increasing the debt limit yet, but there is hope that something will pass and be signed soon. Despite lower numbers from the MBA, my clients are seeing pretty solid activity with inventory being a factor at some price points. Obviously, each market is different, but I have a solid cross-section of markets covered and there is no slowing down the number of preapprovals being requested, and offers being made. Referrals from small banks and credit unions…
Businesses, both large and small, have mastered the art of reacting and responding, managing crises, executing strategies at a high level, and maintaining lean and agile operations. However, these skills have proven insufficient in preventing massive monetary and brand losses, even for Fortune 500 companies. Case in point, Alphabet recently experienced a $100 billion loss when its profitable search business was outpaced by OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It’s clear that agility isn’t enough in our era of exponential change! The key to thriving amid hyper-change and growing uncertainty is developing a new competency: the ability to accurately anticipate the future. This may sound impossible, but the future is visible if you know how to look for it.
I call organizations that have mastered this skill “Anticipatory Organizations.” Three decades of my research into Hard Trends and Soft Trends has contributed to developing this concept. Hard Trends and Soft Trends: Understanding the Distinction…
Rates continue to feel pressure as bank failures, inflation, and continued market discomfort about the economic path we are on with the debt ceiling issues before us. Despite that, we still see new buyers entering the market and more demand for homes than there is supply in most markets. Now many will point to the lower number of loans being done, and that is certainly true, but what you are missing is that there are fewer people and companies in the mortgage arena to handle that business! For those that are working, business is BOOMING! The key is, you must be using specific strategies and have a plan to get in front of these opportunities. The numbers of mortgage companies and originators continue to fall; but what is missing, are the numbers of banks and credit unions who have left the mortgage business completely as the overhead and the risk…
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Redfin reports that while many sellers in some parts of the country are handing out freebies to attract buyers as high rates dampen demand, other markets have so few homes for sale that concessions aren’t necessary Home sellers gave concessions to buyers in 42.9% of U.S. home sales during the three months ending April 30, up from 25.5% a year earlier, according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage. That’s just shy of the 45.6% record-high hit in February. The share of home sellers providing concessions—which include things like money toward repairs, closing costs and mortgage-rate buydowns—has inched down from February’s peak due to typical seasonality. Concessions become less common in the early spring because that’s when more buyers typically enter the market, increasing competition and giving sellers more power. But this spring, concessions posted a smaller decline than the last two years because high…
![Rising Rates Could Cost Homebuyers $44k Over Lifetime of Loans [New LendingTree Study]](/media/k2/items/cache/4a6e2742c7a77b556b40fe2075a1d138_M.jpg)
Mortgage rates rose dramatically in 2022, with the average rate on a 30-year, fixed mortgage doubling between January and December. Rates haven’t grown nearly as much this year, hovering between 6% and 7% — that said, they’re still considerably higher than at this time last year. While it’s common knowledge that higher mortgage rates make monthly payments more expensive, it can be difficult to picture how much a higher rate can impact payments on a loan. With that in mind, LendingTree used data collected from users of our online mortgage marketplace to put a dollar amount on how rising rates could affect the cost of a mortgage. Here's what we found.
30-year, fixed-rate mortgage APRs increased by an average of 1.85 percentage points across all 50 states between April 2022 and April 2023. Nationwide, rising APRs caused calculated mortgage payments to increase by an average of $121.09 a month. To put…
Trust is defined as “the assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.” We strive to trust others in our personal lives every day, trusting a partner, friend, or family member. We trust them to tell us the truth even when it hurts. We trust them to communicate and be compassionate, but also truthful and to stick to what they believe in. The same goes for employee business relationships and customer business relationships, but trust is even more essential in everyday business operations and simultaneously difficult to build and even harder to repair if broken.
Why is this so? This is a complex question to answer, and it is difficult to build or rebuild this trust with an Anticipatory mindset. As evidenced by David Horsager in a recent episode of my Opportunity Hour: Conversations with the Masters, institutional trust is down, whether that institution be a…
One of the most popular parts of this weekly blog post is when I write about the information and feedback that I get directly from the street about what is working and what is generating results. I always appreciate the feedback and the comments because they help me share with you the actual results from the strategies and concepts I talk about daily with my clients. First on the list must go to the power of the fully documented preapproval. By doing the work up front to collect and verify all the documentation necessary to approve the borrower for a specific monthly payment, buyers can make their best possible offer and sellers can be comfortable knowing that this deal will close quickly and smoothly! This past week, I had one client have SEVEN clients make offers on properties in a highly competitive market, and six out of the seven offers…
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