Tag Archive for: Real Estate

Lifestyle Real Estate Website Breaks Web Traffic Records
UFARM Real EstateSeptember 2014 – (KANSAS CITY, Mo.) – More than 90 percent of real estate buyers start their search for property online1. In July, millions of these consumers searched the Internet looking for lifestyle real estate, which includes second and vacation homes, retirement communities, ranches, farms, horse, mountain, waterfront and other properties outside of urban cities. According to United Country Real Estate, the nation’s largest seller of lifestyle real estate, visitor traffic at the firm’s national website increased to record levels. Consumers are finding the United Country national and local websites due to some innovative search engine optimization (SEO) strategies.

“We have been consistently breaking web traffic records at www.UnitedCountry.com and our other national lifestyle property websites each month for well over two years now,” said David Dickey, chief technology officer for United Country Real Estate. “We’ve surpassed 1.5 million visitors in July to just one of our numerous owned lifestyle and rural property websites, more than 760,000 of which were unique visitors with 51,794 user sessions. These numbers are larger than any month our team has seen since www.UnitedCountry.com launched nearly 20 years ago.”

These numbers reflect the investment the company has made toward its in-house SEO team, which is continually looking for new ways to bring lifestyle and rural properties to the attention of the internet-savvy buyer of today’s world.

“Number of visits to a website and the number of unique visitors to a website are the numbers where you see the real action,” Dickey said. “Each month we are seeing approximately 3 million visitors to our entire network of lifestyle websites.”

United Country continues to innovate with new web technology and SEO techniques to help buyers easily find the company’s more than 3,500 lifestyle property websites and sort through over 65,000 properties with ease. Some of these technologies and techniques will serve single listings up to property searchers or office sites in a specific market, and uniquely also layer on national, regional and state property type websites. In most cases, United Country will deliver more than one search result on page one results for thousands of buyer searches. This powerful SEO effort has resulted in the record web traffic the company has been experiencing for more than seven years and achieving a new monthly record in July.

“The ability for a small city or town real estate professional to ensure their websites and listings are found by buyers searching internationally or regionally for lifestyle property types is oftentimes unachievable or an investment they can’t afford to make without the power of a national network,” said Mike Duffy, president of United Country Real Estate. “This is why we’ve made the strategic decision to make a major investment in United Country websites and buyer search strategies and drive optimal buyer search performance. We have made a commitment to our affiliates that we will continue to innovate real estate marketing to expose their local listings more broadly as United Country has done since 1925.”

For more information about United Country Real Estate, call 800-999-1020 or visit their main website at www.UnitedCountry.com.

1 NAR 2014 Consumer Online Search Study

About United Country Real Estate

United Country Real Estate – a division of the United Real Estate Group – is the leading, fully integrated network of conventional and auction real estate professionals. The company has been an innovator in lifestyle and country real estate marketing since 1925. United Country is the only franchise company to specialize in small city, town, second home, vacation, retirement, coastal, mountain, recreational, waterfront, ranches, farms, timberland, land, equine, livestock, investment and other lifestyle properties outside of metropolitan markets. United Country supports nearly 600 offices and 5,000 real estate professionals across the US, Costa Rica, Panama and Honduras with a unique, comprehensive marketing program that includes the highest ranked and largest portfolios of specialty property marketing websites, the largest real estate marketing services company, an extensive buyer database of more than 500,000 opt-in buyers and exclusive global advertising of properties.
NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
2820 NW Barry Road, Kansas City, MO 64154
816-420-6200 www.unitedcountry.com

 

Land Appraisals

When it comes to many aspects of farm ownership, having a good idea of what the farm is worth serves as the basis from which many important decisions are made. Estate planning, dividing land among children, determining fair rental fees or lease terms, and tax or legal issues all depend on an accurate farmland appraisal. Especially in the last several years, which have seen burgeoning farmland values, it is more necessary than ever to have an accurate assessment of land value.

Since knowing the value of the farm and land is such an important part of managing it, it is to the benefit of all involved to seek an expert appraiser to aid in determining its value. Land appraisers are rigorously trained and are licensed or certified in all aspects of property appraisal, and can help walk you through the steps in determining the value of your farm. “The role of the appraiser is to provide objective, impartial, and unbiased opinions about the value of real property—providing assistance to those who own, manage, sell, invest in, and/or lend money on the security of real estate” (Appraisal Institute, www.appraisalinstitute.org.). They do this by putting together various aspects of the property—its physical characteristics, size, uses, and location—and develop a value based upon those specific characteristics.

As with any professional, experience is key. Experienced appraisers can help determine the most accurate value of a property, which is of vital importance. For instance, the failure to accurately price the property is cited as the number one mistake that is made when selling a farm. Failure to accurately assess the value of the farm and surrounding farmland results in less interest from potential buyers, and the maximum value attainable from the farm may be missed.

Another mistake that is frequently made is to determine the value of a property based on a biased appraisal—such as one from a favored lender who sets the appraisal value higher based on the desire to lend money based on that higher value. As a result, the market value of your farm is inaccurate. The best way to determine the value of a farm property is to seek the unbiased opinion of a professional appraiser.

When looking for a qualified appraiser, check that they meet at least the minimum state requirements for property appraisal. Licensed appraisers are better, while certified appraisers have attained the highest level of educational requirements. Both licensed and certified appraisers must pass a rigorous examination that is administered by the state’s appraisal board.

Experts and those who have learned the hard way agree: Don’t miss out on the knowledge that an experienced farm appraiser can offer. Decisions about your farm are among the most important you will make.

UFARM offers appraisal services from experienced, licensed and certified appraisers. They possess years of practical, local land market expertise and combine it with the latest appraisal technology in order for you to gain a clear and accurate value of your land.  Contact UFARM for your appraisal needs.

United Country Real EstateUFARM joins United Country Real Estate Network

 

UFARM recently announced their affiliation with United Country Real Estate. United Country Real Estate has the largest network of conventional and auction real estate professionals in the U.S., Mexico and Latin America.  They have been an innovator in real estate marketing since 1925 and support 550 offices. United Country marketing websites involve more than 3,500 separate sites and traffic of approximately 3 million visitors per month.

UFARM’s goal is to enhance real estate services by providing additional options for selling and buying a farm, ranch or a variety of property types.  UFARM now has access to exclusive national real estate catalogs, national advertising of local properties in hundreds of newspapers and magazines, and a private database of more than 400,000 buyers.