Kentucky Real Estate Business

Posts Tagged ‘Conversion’

Article by Chris Cornell

In simpler terms, condominium conversion involves the change of title from a single owner (of a development project) to multiple owners of individual units. Unlike landed property, the purchase of a condominium unit is a unique process simply because the property is built on many other properties on a single piece of land. Condominium conversion encourages purchase of property because there is conversion of rental property (such as an apartment complex) into a condominium-style complex where each unit is owned rather than leased.

Condominiums are typically more affordable when compared to multifamily buildings. Through condominium conversion, a buyer can enter the home ownership market through a less costly way. Financial lenders will also face less risk as each unit is individually owned and each buyer has separate purchasing power. The conversion of a multifamily home into condominium should take into account the physical changes needed and costs involved. For example, condominium units usually have separate heating systems and electrical panels. All these units generally require two separate methods of entry/exit in compliance with local fire regulations.

Conversion requires valuation of real estate broker. He/she will assess market trends and provide valuable opinion regarding the details of the building. A broker is also a reliable source of information for finding good contractors. Real estate lawyer is another important figure in such project. The lawyer will ensure that all legal proceedings for the conversion are abided, and work to guide the entire conversion project. It is also important to determine whether the property holds any outstanding mortgage loans. This determines the number of units that may need to be marketed. Prior to conversion, there is need to establish fire hazard insurance and the insurance provides coverage for the building as a whole. Condominium conversion generally benefits both buyer and seller. However, there is need to thoroughly understand the details and changes required to avoid undesirable risks.

http://goarticles.com/article/Condominium-Conversion-A-Popular-Trend/1919295/

We all have a passion for something in life; something that keeps our imaginations going. Some people dream of things like music or philosophy while for others it may be medicine or martial arts. I happen to dream of, and have dreamt of for most of my life, potential Philadelphia real estate condominium conversion projects. I wonder which of the lovely historic buildings might turn over the highest dollar per quare foot in resale value if converted into a condominium here in Center City Philadelphia.

And here is my conclusion: The Curtis Center, particularly the southernmost 25% of the beautiful Center City building sitting on the northwest corner of 6th and Walnut Streets.

Take a look at the shear window space. Consider that if this portion of the Curtis Center was converted into high end luxury condominiums, the sales pitch:

*All units with over sized windows

*All Living rooms would have a southern exposure

*Almost all bedrooms would have a southern exposure

*All units would overlook beautiful Washington Square Park

*All units could have indoor garage parking

*All penthouse units could have stunning southern exposure views of the square

*Roughly 10% of the units also face Independence Hall Park

*One of the most stunning historical buildings in Center City Philadelphia

*Fabulous Location!!

In addition, I would consider making the units fairly large. I would sell no unit for less than ,000,000, and range up to say ,000,000. Every unit would have at least 2 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms. They could possibly have random width pine wood flooring throughout and definitely stainless steel high-end appliances by Viking, Bosch, Wolf, Sub-Zero, and Miele. The kitchens and bathrooms would also have subway tile and granite counters. The ability to provide the individual Penthouse units with luxurious private garden space could be invaluable with Pottery Barn Living Room Furniture now made for outdoors.

A walkout to a private deck and large shelved walkin closets would be a nice touch to the master bedroom. A closet organization system, similar to California Closets would be an example of an upgrade that I would offer as a standard ingredient in each unit. Philadelphia Condos are notoriously cheap on their closet space (as a whole), and underestimating the value of a large, well-organized set of closets is something builders of Center City Philadelphia Lofts and Condos have been doing for years.

Also I would make the building as “green” as possible. I am sure that this magnificent building would provide fabulous ceiling height in each unit for cathedral ceilings with ceiling fans. I would add high-efficiency heating and cooling systems as well as panels that would double as sunshades and solar power generators. There would be a lot of incoming natural light from the large windows that would also accent the intricate moldings throughout each loft. I would cut the curb on the north side of Walnut Street, at the entrance to this building to allow for about a half dozen car “loading zone” parking with valet service. The owners would even have the convenience of a full-time on-site 24-hour concierge…and of course this would be a pet-friendly Philadelphia Condominium.

I have started to play the Pennsylvania lotto lately. Should I win say 0,000,000 or more, you can be sure that the southernmost 25% of the Curtis Center will be the latest and greatest Philadelphia condominium conversion project to hit the market!

In simpler terms, condominium conversion involves the change of title from a single owner (of a development project) to multiple owners of individual units. Unlike landed property, the purchase of a condominium unit is a unique process simply because the property is built on many other properties on a single piece of land. Condominium conversion encourages purchase of property because there is conversion of rental property (such as an apartment complex) into a condominium-style complex where each unit is owned rather than leased.

Condominiums are typically more affordable when compared to multifamily buildings. Through condominium conversion, a buyer can enter the home ownership market through a less costly way. Financial lenders will also face less risk as each unit is individually owned and each buyer has separate purchasing power. The conversion of a multifamily home into condominium should take into account the physical changes needed and costs involved. For example, condominium units usually have separate heating systems and electrical panels. All these units generally require two separate methods of entry/exit in compliance with local fire regulations.

Conversion requires valuation of real estate broker. He/she will assess market trends and provide valuable opinion regarding the details of the building. A broker is also a reliable source of information for finding good contractors. Real estate lawyer is another important figure in such project. The lawyer will ensure that all legal proceedings for the conversion are abided, and work to guide the entire conversion project. It is also important to determine whether the property holds any outstanding mortgage loans. This determines the number of units that may need to be marketed. Prior to conversion, there is need to establish fire hazard insurance and the insurance provides coverage for the building as a whole.

Condominium conversion generally benefits both buyer and seller. However, there is need to thoroughly understand the details and changes required to avoid undesirable risks.

Increasing your landing page conversion rates is very important. However, before we can talk about how to improve your landing page conversion, you have to know what a landing page is and how it can help to increase your sales. The landing page is the page that people land on after clicking on one of your ads.
It’s very important once they get to this page that they like what they see. Most of the time you can either grab them in the first few seconds or lose them. Your landing page is by far the back bone of your whole Internet marketing plan. Without a good landing page, you are going to be doomed to fail from the start. No matter how good your ad is or your product is, not having a good landing page is going to kill your business and customers. Now that you know what it is, we are going to talk about five ways that you can improve your landing page conversion.
First of all, whenever you place an ad, you want the ad to be linked to your landing page. The first thing that you are going to want on your landing page is to have it look very appealing to the eye! When they see your page, you want them to be hooked and not ever want to leave from there. The next thing that you are going to want is to get rid of a lot of the text. Sure you are going to want some, but you have to remember that most people just skip through a wall of text.
Ensure you have included a call to action towards the top of the page. There should be calls to action sprinkled throughout the remainder of your landing page content as different people have different tipping points in the sales process. Your sentences should be brief or dot-points.
So too much text just turns people off. Next, you are going to want to make sure that you have color and pictures, but you do not want too much. You want to make sure that you get a good vibe from your site, but at the same time, too much color or too many pictures will just scare them away. After that, you are going to want to make sure you only have one link on your page, and that is going to be the link to get into your main site.
You do not want people straying off on your home page to different places. Last, but not least, if you have any success stories that people have sent you, you may want to place them on your front landing page. People like to hear that the product they are about to use is being praised.
Having a great landing page is very important to the success of your online business. If you want everything to run smoothly and capture the sales you are going to want to make sure your landing page is a good one.
To Your Success!

How’s everything going on guys, just thought I’d give the beginners out there some guidance to PPC marketing. Here’s what you will learn:

 

In this post, we will begin our discussion on how to improve Click-Through Ratios CTRs and Conversion Rates (CR) to improve your ads and landing pages. I’ll begin our discussion of ads and landing pages in this lesson with the subject of subconscious advertising techniques.

The Right Touch

You want your ads and your landing pages to find and attract the right people for your opportunity. You want to attract people to click on your ads in the first place…and then you ultimately want them to join your program or buy your product or service (“convert”). Yes, this is known as the process of converting.

As discussed earlier, in PPC Search Marketing, however, there is an added twist. You don’t want your ads to attract people who are not inclined to join your program or buy your product or service (“convert”). You do not want tire-kickers to click on your ads. That only costs you unnecessarily and drives up your Conversion Cost (CC). You want your ads to be selective in their attraction. You only want clicks from those people who will react favorably to your landing page. Thus, we are discussing ads and landing pages together in this lesson because they are inextricably tied in this manner.

Your goal is to create an ad and landing page combination that will produce the most conversions per click (i.e. maximize your CR). To accomplish this goal, we to turn to psychology for some help.

The Subconscious Mind

How do you attract the people who will buy your product or service or join your network building program? Let’s look briefly at what psychology can tell us about how this is accomplished.

While the theories differ somewhat, it is generally believed that the human mind is a combination of conscious and unconscious processes. The unconscious is sometimes broken down into pre-conscious, subconscious, and unconscious. Rather than getting lost in this detail, however, we will refer to all three as the “subconscious mind” or the “subconscious.” The subconscious mind is where we get our “hunches” and “intuition.” It controls much of what we do.

The world is constantly throwing information at us. If you were to take a 10-minute walk down a busy sidewalk and then attempt to write an exhaustively detailed account of everything you encountered, you would have enough information to fill up an encyclopedia volume. First, there is the physical landscape. You may have passed hundreds of man-made structures and hundreds of naturally occurring structures. You may have passed thousands of plant species and hundreds of animal species. There were certain weather conditions also. Then, there is the human landscape. You may have passed 50 or more people, each with different physical characteristics, different clothing styles, different attitudes, different moods, and different ways of interacting with you as you passed.

Somehow, your brain has to deal with all that information, while at the same time dealing with all the other stuff that you may be thinking about – What do you have to do at work today? – What you are going to do tonight? – Is your spouse or partner mad at you for what you said last night? – How are you going to get all the bills paid this week? How are you going to lose those extra pounds? – etc. – etc. How do our brains deal with so many issues?

Well, obviously, not all of this information is dealt with consciously. There is simply not enough time to think out loud to yourself about all the observations you make and all the choices you make. Yet, despite this lack of time, you cannot afford to ignore certain important signals. For example, one of the people you passed on your walk may have looked threatening. While you may not have consciously made that observation, a signal was triggered in the back of your mind to glance back around and make sure the person kept moving away from you. You probably could not recount a list of things about that person that made you feel that way – it was just a feeling. The person just made you uneasy. That is your subconscious mind at work for you, keeping you safe. On the other hand, if you passed someone you found attractive, you may have found yourself pulling your stomach in and holding your chest out. You didn’t decide to do this. You just did it. This is your subconscious mind at work for you, keeping you attractive as possible for those you want to impress.

In all these cases, you likely responded before you even had time to think about it consciously. Much of our behavior is controlled by our subconscious mind in this manner. If we had to think everything out consciously before we acted, we would never react to most of the things that happen to us. Thus, our subconscious minds control much of what we do.

Psychology Of Subconscious Advertising

In advertising, you direct your efforts not just at the conscious mind, but also at the subconscious mind. Thus, you need to create materials that not only lay out the logical reasons to join your program or buy your product or service, but also get a positive reaction from the viewers’ subconscious minds as well.

The conscious mind responds to information and does so logically. The subconscious mind responds to signals and does so emotionally. The design of our campaign should appeal to each, but at the appropriate time.

How Does It Work?

It always amuses me how chewing gum is sold in television advertisements (so much so I think I have mentioned it before in this course). Chewing gum advertisements portray the gum as making you more attractive to the opposite sex. Anyone who thinks about it logically knows that your choice of chewing gum will not effect your ability to attract a romantic partner. Yet, the advertisements are reasonably successful. Why?

Recent studies on negative political ads have discovered that, even though people are consciously aware that negative political ads are usually fast and loose with the facts…and even though people consciously claim that such ads will not influence them, the ads still have an effect. Why?

With both chewing gum ads and negative political ads, the conscious mind is saying one thing and the subconscious mind is saying another. With respect to political ads, the viewer’s conscious mind might be saying “this ad is misleading and disgusting and I will not be influenced by it,” while at the same time their subconscious may be saying, “anything could possibly be true and this is scary…and because these signals are being sent, perhaps I should be cautious about this person”. With respect to the chewing gum ads, the viewer’s conscious mind might be saying, “I’m not stupid, I know one brand of chewing gum over another is not going to make me sexier”, while the subconscious mind might be saying, “what the heck, I want to be sexy so bad that I’ll try anything…after all, what can it hurt to try it.”

The marketing experts who craft the chewing gum ads know that people do not spend a lot of time deciding which brand of chewing gum to buy. They know that the decision does not warrant that much thought. They use this to their advantage. The advertisements are often even tongue-in-cheek. They are not seriously trying to convince your conscious mind that their brand of chewing gum will make you sexier than the next brand. They know better than that. But, they know they can convince your subconscious mind with the right signals and that you will be unwilling to spend the time for your conscious mind to talk your subconscious mind out of this proposition. When you reach to buy chewing gum, subject to your habits and taste choices, your subconscious mind will steer you to the brand with the most effective subconscious advertising.

How To Use Subconscious Advertising

To determine the things of interest to the subconscious mind, we need only look to the list of basic human needs. Basic human needs are generally considered to be: safety, food, sex, shelter, social acceptance and inclusion, and adventure. Thus, these, and similar interests, are the interests the subconscious mind is geared to monitor.

Fear is often an element in subconscious advertising. “Fear of loss” is often discussed as an effective technique used by marketers. You may have landed on a Website offering something, but the offer ended that day. The site may have displayed the date you were there as the expiration date of the offer. If you go back to the site the next day, you may find that the expiration date has mysteriously been extended by a day. Same thing the next day. Some sites are programmed to display the current date as the expiration date. This is so that anytime anyone views the page, it appears to be the last day of the offer. While you may question the ethics of this type of marketing, it does occur frequently and it does subconsciously invoke a “fear of lost opportunity.” If you do not act today, you may lose out. Even though you may consciously question whether the offer really expires, your subconscious will feel the need to make a decision now while the offer is available.

Department stores are often accused of raising their prices so they can put items “on sale” (while still offering them at the originally intended price). Shoppers see that the item is “on sale” and subconsciously (and sometimes consciously) feel an urgency to get the item now while “on sale,” even though the price for the item is no lower than at other stores where it is not “on sale.”

I am not suggesting that you use these techniques, but I refer to these as common examples of subconscious marketing. Another common, and perhaps more legitimate, method is to use photos that show a group of attractive, stylish, intelligent-looking people enjoying the product or service. The subconscious desire to be included in this group has an effect.

A recent example I saw was an e-mail containing a picture of a strong attractive man in a tank top and blue jeans at the beach attending to his sailboat, while talking on the phone to a not-unattractive, but nerdy looking, young man in an uncomfortable-looking suit in a small business cubicle. The tanned, comfortable, and attractive-looking beach guy was explaining the benefits of his business to the nerdy, untanned, uncomfortable-looking potential subscriber. The subconscious implication is that the young nerd can become like the sexy beach guy, but it will take joining the program to get him there. Reduced to its essence, this photo is saying to the subconscious mind, “joining our program will make you sexy.”

In ads where you cannot use pictures, you should seek the same effect with words. You need to create a strong need for quick action – a fear of loss from inaction. You need to suggest that the product or service is the choice of attractive, intelligent, sexy people. With your choice of words, subtly associate the product or service with attractive women, strong men, good food, secure shelter, safety, and adventure.

NOTE: I recognize that a “safe adventure” is a bit of an oxymoron. Yet, that is exactly what our subconscious minds seek. The subconscious mind is not good at making intellectual reconcilliations and hard choices. Rather, it wants the best of all worlds. The popularity of “adventure parks,” where danger is simulated, but safety is ensured, is a good example of how understanding the subconscious mind can lead to a successful product. You should simultaneously make your product or service sound safe and yet adventurous.

Illegal Subliminal Advertising

Speaking to the subconscious is a controversial topic. In fact, certain techniques, known as “Subliminal Advertising” are illegal in many jurisdictions. “Subliminal Advertising” involves hiding a message, such as “eat popcorn” in a film or TV show. This is done by showing the message for such a short period of time that the conscious mind does not see it; but, allegedly, the subconscious mind does. The science on whether this works is in some dispute, as the original studies on the subject turned out to have been fabricated. In any event, “subliminal messages” in that sense (hidden commands) are not what we are referring to in this lesson. We are referring to choosing words and pictures that send the right signals to the subconscious mind, while making the logical (conscious) arguments for your product or service.

Limits Of Subconscious Advertising

The subconscious, despite its vulnerabilities, knows how to spot a blatant lie. For a subconscious suggestion to work, it has to be somewhat plausible. If it is entirely implausible, it can backfire. A recent U.S. Senate race dramatically proved this point. One candidate ran an ad suggesting the other was “Godless,” when in fact the attacked candidate was a regular church goer and Sunday School teacher. Despite the fact that negative political ads are usually effective to some extent, this negative political ad is believed to have backfired dramatically because of its blatant dishonesty.

Interestingly though, recent studies have shown that even when a viewer knows that the suggestion is not true and consciously says they will not be effected by it, it still has some slight effect. It appears that there is a line somewhere, however, that when crossed nullifies all effect of the subconscious suggestion and can even backfire.

A dishonest negative attack on a competing candidate, product, or service itself sends a signal to the unconscious mind of the viewer. The signal is something to the effect of “this messenger is dangerously negative.” If that signal is stronger than the signal meant to be sent…as when the ad is too negative and too implausible…the perceived danger of the messenger outweighs the danger in the message. That is, the subconscious mind of the viewer is more alerted to the danger from the negative messenger than it is to the purported danger in the negative message. Thus, you should beware of using negative attacks on competing products or services, other than to subtly make them appear boring and ineffective compared to your product or service.

Recent Apple television commercials are a good example of negative advertising that may be effective. By using two characters (one to represent Microsoft and one to represent Apple), and making the Microsoft character appear unattractive and incompetent, while the Apple character has confidence and appeal, these ads are a good example of the application of subconscious appeal used to create a negative image of the competition. The ads avoid “crossing the line” by making the Apple character appear to be somewhat compassionate for the Microsoft character. Thus, the Apple character does not appear dangerous or unfair, just more “cool.”

Practical Application To Search Marketing

Subconscious appeal in advertising is most effective when the least conscious mental thought is employed by the potential customer. Subconscious appeal works well for chewing gum because people do not devote that much conscious time to their choice of chewing gum. It works less well for larger purchasing decisions which require a lot of conscious thought.

For most things more important than chewing gum, people spend some conscious mental energy before making a purchase. The results of that conscious decision is affected by the subconscious appeal, but the conscious process plays the main role. This becomes more and more true as the price and significance of the purchase increases.

Any time you develop an advertisement, you can employ both conscious and subconscious appeal in your choice of words and images. Knowing when to employ more of one than the other is a secret of effective advertisers.

Remember that in PPC Search Marketing we want to limit the clicks on our ads to just those who are most likely to subscribe to our program or purchase our product. Then, when they do click, we want to be sure and close the deal with our landing page. Knowing how subconscious advertising works helps us greatly in this particular balancing act.

Here’s the secret. In your Search Marketing Ads, use conscious appeal. That is, describe the benefits of your product or service and appeal to the logic of the viewer to create interest. This way, only those who have given some conscious thought to the benefit of your program or product, and found it of interest to them, will click on the links. On the other hand, on your Landing Page, use subconscious appeal to its full extent! Once you have paid for that click, pull out all the stops to make your product or service appeal subconsciously to the visitor. Use powerful wording that appeals to emotion as well as logic. Use photos and images that invoke attractive people with the promise of social acceptance and business success. Make your product look as safe as possible, yet as exciting as possible. Make it sexy!

This approach works very well in Search Marketing because your ads are limited to words only anyway. While it is possible to use subconscious appeal very effectively with words only, pictures are indeed worth a thousand words when it comes to subconscious appeal. Search Marketing is designed for short, logical, textual ads on the Search Engines that lead to media rich landing pages that close the deal with subconscious appeal.

If your results show that your Search Marketing Campaign is failing because you are simply not getting enough clicks in the first place, you may need to spice up your ads with some subconscious appeal, but if you are getting enough clicks, it is better to wait for the landing page to bring on the subconscious appeal full steam.

Conclusion

PPC Search Marketing involves the use of “Ads” and “Landing Pages.” The Ads are short and restricted to words only. The Landing Pages are under your control and can be as media rich as you can make them. To obtain the desired CTR and CR, you must balance your Ads against your Landing Pages. To avoid a low CR, limit the appeal of your Ads to just those likely to convert. Thus, use logical persuasion in your Ads, to limit your Ads to only those truly interested in your product or service. Then, use subconscious advertising on your Landing Page to ensure a good CR. If your ads are not bringing enough clicks, you may want to add some subconscious appeal to the words used, but otherwise keep it limited. Pull out all the stops on your Landing Page, however, and convince your viewers subconscious minds that your product or service will make them sexy!

We all have a passion for something in life; something that keeps our imaginations going. Some people dream of things like music or philosophy while for others it may be medicine or martial arts. I happen to dream of, and have dreamt of for most of my life, potential Philadelphia real estate condominium conversion projects. I wonder which of the lovely historic buildings might turn over the highest dollar per quare foot in resale value if converted into a condominium here in Center City Philadelphia.

And here is my conclusion: The Curtis Center, particularly the southernmost 25% of the beautiful Center City building sitting on the northwest corner of 6th and Walnut Streets.

Take a look at the shear window space. Consider that if this portion of the Curtis Center was converted into high end luxury condominiums, the sales pitch:

*All units with over sized windows

*All Living rooms would have a southern exposure

*Almost all bedrooms would have a southern exposure

*All units would overlook beautiful Washington Square Park

*All units could have indoor garage parking

*All penthouse units could have stunning southern exposure views of the square

*Roughly 10% of the units also face Independence Hall Park

*One of the most stunning historical buildings in Center City Philadelphia

*Fabulous Location!!

In addition, I would consider making the units fairly large. I would sell no unit for less than $1,000,000, and range up to say $7,000,000. Every unit would have at least 2 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms. They could possibly have random width pine wood flooring throughout and definitely stainless steel high-end appliances by Viking, Bosch, Wolf, Sub-Zero, and Miele. The kitchens and bathrooms would also have subway tile and granite counters. The ability to provide the individual Penthouse units with luxurious private garden space could be invaluable with Pottery Barn Living Room Furniture now made for outdoors.

A walkout to a private deck and large shelved walkin closets would be a nice touch to the master bedroom. A closet organization system, similar to California Closets would be an example of an upgrade that I would offer as a standard ingredient in each unit. Philadelphia Condos are notoriously cheap on their closet space (as a whole), and underestimating the value of a large, well-organized set of closets is something builders of Center City Philadelphia Lofts and Condos have been doing for years.

Also I would make the building as “green” as possible. I am sure that this magnificent building would provide fabulous ceiling height in each unit for cathedral ceilings with ceiling fans. I would add high-efficiency heating and cooling systems as well as panels that would double as sunshades and solar power generators. There would be a lot of incoming natural light from the large windows that would also accent the intricate moldings throughout each loft. I would cut the curb on the north side of Walnut Street, at the entrance to this building to allow for about a half dozen car “loading zone” parking with valet service. The owners would even have the convenience of a full-time on-site 24-hour concierge…and of course this would be a pet-friendly Philadelphia Condominium.

I have started to play the Pennsylvania lotto lately. Should I win say $250,000,000 or more, you can be sure that the southernmost 25% of the Curtis Center will be the latest and greatest Philadelphia condominium conversion project to hit the market!