A. $25; B. $20; C. $35; D. $30. Answer: A. You are allowed to deduct up to $25 for business-related expenses. The post How Much Can You Deduct for Business Gifts? appeared first on RISMedia. How Much Can You Deduct for Business Gifts? published first on https://thegardenresidences.tumblr.com/ via Tumblr How Much Can You Deduct for Business Gifts?
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If you’ve ever noticed a rise in interest rates in the news or saw your credit card bill get a little higher, there’s one federal agency that you can look to: the Federal Reserve Board. When the Fed raises interest rates, most borrowers with car and home loans won’t see their rates change because they’ve locked in rates. People getting new loans, however, will see the higher rates, as will credit card users. For a U.S. household with the average credit card debt of $10,995, a .25 percent hike in interest rates will make carrying a credit card balance a bit more expensive. Technically called the federal funds rate, the interest rate the Fed sets is the rate banks use to trade federal funds. It is almost exactly correlated with the prime rate, which is what credit card companies typically charge their largest, most credit-worthy corporate clients. From there, a change in the prime rate follows with credit card interest rate changes that consumers see. Credit card interest rates will usually increase during a day of increased federal funds rates, and usually by the same amount. Carrying a credit card balance, also known as revolving credit, is where credit card users will feel the pain of a Fed interest rate hike. An estimated 40 percent of credit card users carry a balance from month to month, and should see their costs climb immediately after a Fed rate hike. Most credit cards have variable interest rates. As banks see their borrowing costs rise, they raise rates on credit cards. If the Fed increases interest rates during the middle of a credit card billing cycle, for instance, customers may not see the increase until their next statement is due. But their rate may rise on new purchases immediately. Credit card minimum payments are typically set at 1 – 2 percent of the principal balance, plus any interest accrued during the billing period. Rising interest rates will increase the accrued interest and minimum due, though not dramatically. A .25 percent increase in interest rates causes the minimum amount due on a credit card to jump by $2 for every $10,000 of credit card debt. That’s not a lot of money, but two or three more Fed rate jumps in a year and it can add up. The post How Federal Rate Increases Affect Credit Cards and Loans appeared first on RISMedia. How Federal Rate Increases Affect Credit Cards and Loans published first on https://thegardenresidences.tumblr.com/ via Tumblr How Federal Rate Increases Affect Credit Cards and Loans In the very memorable Capital One credit card commercials, Samuel L. Jackson cleverly asks, “What’s in your wallet?” My question for you is, “What’s in your playbook?” From individual agents to mega teams, I think every real estate business owner needs a playbook. While a football team’s playbook contains strategies and plays, your business playbook should contain the same elements, which will take the form of a written outline of any process your business completes three or more times. Below are a few questions to help you get started thinking about what should be included in your playbook, which you might prefer to call an operations manual. 1. What’s the process you follow when representing buyers? What do you do when you first meet? How do you educate them on the market? How do you help buyers avoid being surprised by the competitiveness of a low-inventory market? 2. How do you collect all the important information you’ll need from buyers and sellers? Do you have a form? Do you have any tricks or special ways of asking questions that elicit the most accurate answers? What do you do with the information once you collect it? Do you put it in a specific database? 3. When do you update your contact database? How do you categorize prospects, current clients and past clients? What’s your action plan for maintaining good communication before, during and after the sale? How do you make sure you don’t drop the ball with buyers and sellers who want to work with you in the future, but not today? 4. What tools do you use to measure the performance of your marketing and sales activities? How many postcards do you have to mail to find a motivated seller? How many calls, emails and text messages sent will produce a ready, willing and able buyer? How much money are you making on the dollars invested in marketing? Wouldn’t it be nice to know the answers to these questions? More importantly—once you create a system that produces consistent results—wouldn’t you love to be able to duplicate it over and over again and produce more and more of the same result? My team utilizes the Workman Success Systems Training Center for all of our systems and processes. This online video resource provides everything we need to know and do to build a business that produces a reliable stream of sales and income. We don’t use everything in the Training Center because there’s so much included that it’s really not possible to use it all, but it’s amazing how having this resource has helped fuel the growth of our business for the last four years. You don’t need to personally have access to the Workman Systems to be able to grow a successful business yourself, but you’ll definitely need something similar. If you’d like some help getting started, connect with me at [email protected] and I’ll share the table of contents and an outline of the WSS Operations Manual, which should give you a huge head start in creating your own. In closing, if you found yourself thinking that you don’t have a big enough business to need a playbook as you read this article, you better get really comfortable with the size of your business today. As an alternative, I suggest you begin running your business as if you know it will be really big and profitable someday, as this is the only way it ever will be. Cleve Gaddis is a master coach with Workman Success Systems and team leader with Gaddis Partners, RE/MAX Center in Atlanta. He learned sales the hard way, selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door, and now puts those skills to use in helping his team close $60 million annually. He loves to share his systems and strategies to help others succeed. He hosts the Call Cleve Atlanta Real Estate Show heard weekly on NewsTalk 1160 WCFO. Contact him at [email protected]. For more information, please visit www.workmansuccesssystems.com. For the latest real estate news and trends, bookmark RISMedia.com. The post What’s in Your Playbook? appeared first on RISMedia. What’s in Your Playbook? published first on https://thegardenresidences.tumblr.com/ via Tumblr What’s in Your Playbook? According to the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) 2017 Member Safety Survey, almost half of female REALTORS® (44 percent) and one in four male REALTORS® have experienced a situation in the past year that made them fear for their personal safety or safety of their personal information. “No agent should feel unsafe when they are doing their job, but that’s the unfortunate reality of many agents in communities nationwide,” says Carl Carter Jr., a real estate agent and founder of the Beverly Carter Foundation, a 501©(3) nonprofit dedicated to improving safety for all real estate professionals. “As an industry, we need to improve the tools and resources available to agents so they feel safe and protected.” While it might not seem like a dangerous occupation, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows there were almost 100 fatalities of real estate professionals in 2016 alone. Predatory crimes against REALTORS® are a growing problem, with criminals often seeking out opportunities to isolate agents in a secluded location. This is made possible by the fact that many agents are scheduling almost half of their showings with people who have not been screened by another agent, according to data analytics from Gogint. New mobile technology, such as SentriLock’s SentriSmart™ app, is one way agents can stay safe. When the SentriSmart mobile app is used to open a lockbox, the Agent Safety Feature will launch. This feature automatically alerts an agent’s designated emergency contacts when the agent does not or cannot confirm his or her safety. To help improve agent safety and reduce the opportunity for a potentially harmful situation to occur, SentriLock is sharing seven safety tips for real estate agents:
“Agent safety is our top priority and we’re always looking for ways to give agents and their families greater peace of mind,” says Scott Richardson, chief operating officer, SentriLock. “In our upcoming series of in-person and online safety initiatives, our goal is to reach as many agents as possible to provide them with the knowledge they need to stay safe.” To further educate agents about steps they can take to protect themselves, SentriLock will present “Keeping Safety First While Selling” during the Women’s Council of REALTORS® event on May 19 at 8:30 a.m. at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C. Agents can also sign up for the complimentary webinar, “Safely Selling,” which will take place on June 13 at 1:00 p.m. ET. To sign up for this online event, please go to https://goo.gl/GimTdU. For more information, please visit www.sentrilock.com. For the latest real estate news and trends, bookmark RISMedia.com. The post 7 Safety Tips for Real Estate Agents appeared first on RISMedia. 7 Safety Tips for Real Estate Agents published first on https://thegardenresidences.tumblr.com/ via Tumblr 7 Safety Tips for Real Estate Agents The following information is provided by the Center for REALTOR® Development, with assistance from Lauren Hampton and the Podfly editorial team, and is a recap of Center for REALTOR® Development Podcast episode 14. (This is part two of a two-part series that focuses on the senior market. Part one in episode 13 focused on the different lifestyle options seniors choose for housing.) Here in part two, Barbara Boone McGinnis, CELA, and podcast host Monica Neubauer discuss estate planning, probate and trusts, and how to approach these topics as a real estate professional. Keep in mind that as a real estate professional, you cannot practice law and may need to recommend your client take the issue to a qualified attorney or elder law professional. Boone McGinnis is certified as an elder law attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation, and as a Certified Elder Law Specialist by the Tennessee Commission on CLE and Specialization. She is also a VA-accredited attorney. Before receiving her license to practice law in Tennessee, Boone McGinnis spent more than 20 years as a registered nurse and gerontological nurse practitioner. Boone McGinnis works at Takacs McGinnis Elder Care Law, a law firm that specializes in elder law. Her primary focus is helping older people (or the families that care for older people) navigate the healthcare system, estate planning, asset protection, and post-mortem issues. REALTORS® get called in sometimes when their clients may need to be referred to other professionals first. Having an elder care attorney on your extended support and referral team may make sense, especially if your serve or encounter mature clients often. When people decide they need the help of an elder care attorney, what options do they have? It may seem expensive up front, but will likely save a client money in the long run. Many people are surprised by what elder care law firms can offer. “Making sure other professionals are aware of us is really helpful, because REALTORS®, insurance agents, CFPs, accountants…those are advisors that tend to be in an adult’s life all along,” explains Boone McGinnis. It’s important that other professionals, who have likely worked with adult clients for much of their lives, are aware of elder care law professionals. Fees for their services typically would be 1-2 months of nursing home care, so it’s affordable and reasonable value. Elder care law is a growing niche in the U.S.; it seems to resonate with younger people that are looking for a truly meaningful career. Below are some of the legal issues that you could encounter as a real estate professional, and for which the services of an elder law attorney may be beneficial for your mature client and their family. Estate Planning Powers of Attorney (POA) When dealing with Powers of Attorney, it’s important to understand that every POA is not exactly the same, and understanding the authorities that are allowed. Some other documents that are part of estate planning are a HIPAA release, as well as a will substitute, like a trust. Trusts Trusts are legal documents that permit you to transfer assets either prior to your death or after. The grantor is the person that sets up the trust, and it’s their purpose for having the trust that guides how it’s used and what language needs to be in there. The trustee is the manager. The principal is the asset that is titled to the trust; beneficiaries are the persons who are supposed to benefit from the trust in life, as well as remainder beneficiaries that will inherit the asset after the death of the grantor. You really don’t have to be super wealthy to benefit from a trust. A trust is a good way to manage assets of a vulnerable person or someone who wishes their assets to pass directly to their heirs without the more risky approach of putting them on deed. Probate There are many small details that can change the outcome of a transaction. There may be a general answer to a general question, but you may find something out later on that could change the answer. There could be laws or practices that differ from state to state that could change whether you can sell a property under probate. Boone McGinnis shares some examples in the state of Tennessee, and how that compares to what she sees in other states. We recommend someone qualified to assess and address legal issues in your particular state. Healthcare, Care Planning and Medicaid A lot of people think that having Medicaid pay for their care at the end of life might be a good idea because they’re afraid their assets would be used up having to pay for nursing care. There are several types of mature adult housing before nursing care, and Medicaid does not cover those expenses. Assistance for these types of expenses may differ state to state; Boone McGinnis shares how TennCare works in Tennessee. There are income restrictions that govern whether a person can use Medicaid. You have to look at income versus net worth, and sometimes you can protect your net worth through the use of an irrevocable trust. There are so many ins and outs, and they differ from situation to situation. It’s important to help your clients find the professionals they need to figure out how they can benefit most. Center for REALTOR® Development’s monthly podcast focuses on education in the real estate industry. It addresses formal education programs (such as those from NAR) and informal sources of industry knowledge (such as peers and mentors). Its intended audiences include REALTORS®, real estate professionals, allied professions (such as appraisers and lenders), educators, education providers, and consumers. To listen or subscribe, visit www.crdpodcast.com. For more education about reverse mortgages and serving mature clients over the age of 50, check out this month’s featured designation online course at the Center for REALTOR® Development, Seniors Real Estate Specialist (SRES®) Designation Course, which is on special for 25% off this entire month of May, and is the educational requirement for SRES® Designation. For more information, please visit RISMedia’s online learning portal from NAR’s Center for REALTOR® Development (CRD) and the Learning Library. Here, real estate professionals can sign up for online professional development courses, industry designations, certifications, CE credits, Code of Ethics programs and more. NAR’s CRD also offers monthly specials and important education updates. New users will need to register for an account. For the latest real estate news and trends, bookmark RISMedia.com The post Legal Issues in the Senior Market: How Elder Care Attorneys Can Help appeared first on RISMedia. Legal Issues in the Senior Market: How Elder Care Attorneys Can Help published first on https://thegardenresidences.tumblr.com/ via Tumblr Legal Issues in the Senior Market: How Elder Care Attorneys Can Help Hiring brand new agents to grow your office is such a vital part of sustaining long term growth for your organization. Making sure you are qualifying the candidates and hiring new agents that will be successful is key. You can increase your success by following these best practices at the front end of the process to ensure the agents you hire are successful from day one.
Sherri Johnson is a national leader offering world-class real estate keynotes, consulting and coaching while delivering accelerated results. No other coach matches her distinguished 20 years of experience as a top agent and executive of a Top 3 National brokerage. She has recruited, trained and coached thousands of agents, and was responsible for leading over 700 real estate agents and over $1.6 billion in annual sales volume. Johnson’s relevant, real-life and proven strategies, coupled with her high energy, produce immediate results and can triple your income regardless of your current production. Contact [email protected] or 844-989-2600 (toll-free) or visit www.sherrijohnson.com. For the latest real estate news and trends, bookmark RISMedia.com. The post Ask the Coach: Broker Recruiting Focus: Four Best Practices When Hiring New Agents appeared first on RISMedia. Ask the Coach: Broker Recruiting Focus: Four Best Practices When Hiring New Agents published first on https://thegardenresidences.tumblr.com/ via Tumblr Ask the Coach: Broker Recruiting Focus: Four Best Practices When Hiring New Agents Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty has acquired four firms since the start of the year: Good Neighbor Realty; Foster & Clark Real Estate; Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Trend Realty; and, most recently, Weichert Realtors® on the Gulf. “We’re proud to welcome these professionals to our Family of Services,” says Rei Mesa, president and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty. Good Neighbor Realty Foster & Clark Real Estate Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Trend Realty Weichert Realtors® on the Gulf For more information, please visit www.BHHSFloridaRealty.com. For the latest real estate news and trends, bookmark RISMedia.com. The post Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty Expands Acquires 4 Firms appeared first on RISMedia. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty Expands Acquires 4 Firms published first on https://thegardenresidences.tumblr.com/ via Tumblr Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty Expands Acquires 4 Firms Apartment rents, on average, rose by $4 in April to $1,377, according to data recently released in a report by Yardi® Matrix. The increase is a 2.4 percent rise year-over-year. “The healthy seasonal gains are a good sign that rent growth will remain resilient despite the headwinds faced by the market, particularly the peaking supply pipeline that has produced deceleration in some metros,” the report states. The areas that grew the most in April were Orlando, Fla.; Sacramento, Calif.; Las Vegas, Nev.; Tampa, Fla.; and Phoenix, Ariz. For more information, please visit www.yardi.com. For the latest real estate news and trends, bookmark RISMedia.com. The post Apartment Rents Rose in April appeared first on RISMedia. Apartment Rents Rose in April published first on https://thegardenresidences.tumblr.com/ via Tumblr Apartment Rents Rose in April Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC has added Kenosha, Wis.-based Power Realtors to its franchise network. The brokerage, led by Brokers/Co-Owners Mike Zoerner and Norman Hoening, will now do business as Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Power Realty, and serve Southeastern Wisconsin. “I am proud to be expanding our brand presence with a forward-thinking company that keenly understands how to serve its local community, embraces modern technology and is committed to giving back to the people it serves,” says Sherry Chris, president and CEO, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC. “Mike Zoerner, Norman Hoening and their team operate much like a family, from their unwavering set of core values to their support of one another inside and out of the office. We’re thrilled to be working together to serve Kenosha and its neighboring cities as we expand our network’s footprint in Wisconsin.” “In addition to being a universally-respected brand, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate is a company with ideals and values that align seamlessly with our own,” says Zoerner. “We are thrilled with this opportunity to capitalize on their extensive resources to propel our brokerage to the next level and progress our ambitious goals for future expansion.” Zoerner began in real estate in 2003 after spending several years as a home builder. Working for nearly a decade as an agent, he branched out and started a brokerage with Hoening in 2011. Both have combined the brokerage’s capabilities with their work as firefighters to be part of Kenosha Firefighters C.A.R.E., a philanthropic program that collates a portion of Kenosha firefighters’ paychecks into a special fund. The fund provides assistance to local individuals or organizations during times of hardship. For more information, please visit www.BHGRE.com. For the latest real estate news and trends, bookmark RISMedia.com. The post Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Expands in Southeastern Wisconsin appeared first on RISMedia. Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Expands in Southeastern Wisconsin published first on https://thegardenresidences.tumblr.com/ via Tumblr Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Expands in Southeastern Wisconsin In the very memorable Capital One credit card commercials, Samuel L. Jackson cleverly asks, “What’s in your wallet?” My question for you is, “What’s in your playbook?” From individual agents to mega teams, I think every real estate business owner needs a playbook. While a football team’s playbook contains strategies and plays, your business playbook should contain the same elements, which will take the form of a written outline of any process your business completes three or more times. Below are a few questions to help you get started thinking about what should be included in your playbook, which you might prefer to call an operations manual.
3.When do you update your contact database? How do you categorize prospects, current clients and past clients? What’s your action plan for maintaining good communication before, during and after the sale? How do you make sure you don’t drop the ball with buyers and sellers who want to work with you in the future, but not today? 4. What tools do you use to measure the performance of your marketing and sales activities? How many postcards do you have to mail to find a motivated seller? How many calls, emails and text messages sent will produce a ready, willing and able buyer? How much money are you making on the dollars invested in marketing? Wouldn’t it be nice to know the answers to these questions? More importantly—once you create a system that produces consistent results—wouldn’t you love to be able to duplicate it over and over again and produce more and more of the same result? My team utilizes the [[url]] Training Center for all of our systems and processes. This online video resource provides everything we need to know and do to build a business that produces a reliable stream of sales and income. We don’t use everything in the Training Center because there’s so much included that it’s really not possible to use it all, but it’s amazing how having this resource has helped fuel the growth of our business for the last four years. You don’t need to personally have access to the Workman Systems to be able to grow a successful business yourself, but you’ll definitely need something similar. If you’d like some help getting started, connect with me at [email protected] and I’ll share the table of contents and an outline of the WSS Operations Manual, which should give you a huge head start in creating your own. In closing, if you found yourself thinking that you don’t have a big enough business to need a playbook as you read this article, you better get really comfortable with the size of your business today. As an alternative, I suggest you begin running your business as if you know it will be really big and profitable someday, as this is the only way it ever will be. Cleve Gaddis is a master coach with Workman Success Systems and team leader with Gaddis Partners, RE/MAX Center in Atlanta. He learned sales the hard way, selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door, and now puts those skills to use in helping his team close $60 million annually. He loves to share his systems and strategies to help others succeed. He hosts the Call Cleve Atlanta Real Estate Show heard weekly on NewsTalk 1160 WCFO. Contact him at [email protected]. For more information, please visit [[url]]. For the latest real estate news and trends, bookmark RISMedia.com. The post What’s in Your Playbook? appeared first on RISMedia. What’s in Your Playbook? published first on https://thegardenresidences.tumblr.com/ via Tumblr What’s in Your Playbook? |
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