Back in 2006, smart money was in real estate and the stock market, but a lot of smarter money, by some accounts up to a trillion dollars had quietly moved into the annuity market. Fixed and indexed annuities were not producing the same spectacular levels of return as securities but they were obviously a whole lot safer. With rates like 8% in good markets and guaranteed 3.4% to 4% even in a market collapse, long term safety minded investors moved away from a markets that looked like they were in a bubble that would burst sooner or later.

Sooner came in 2008 and billions of dollars of investment money was preserved for the owners of annuity products while higher risk investors bled to death on the stock trading floor.

How does this relate to the real estate industry?  More on that at the end of this post.

The backdrop of all this comes into view with the announcement of Hartford that they are exiting the annuity and life business entirely. 

What brought an insurance giant to this surprise announcement? I believe it all started back in 2006 or so when the SEC announced that it believed that the sale certain annuity products should be supervised. Soon after, the push came when the SEC corralled all insurance agents who also held a securities licence into a regulatory sandtrap, pressuring insurance agents to submit these annuity sales for supervision with the threat of losing their license if unsupervised annuity sales were found in any way to violate well, anything they could come up with. This effectively killed the sale of annuities for a lot of insurance agents who feared risking their license. 2008 brought the hammer down by trying to implement rule 151A, requiring the supervision of indexed annuity sales. Indexed annuities provide for better returns in good stock market years while guaranteeing a minimum return every year regardless of market performance.

Ultimately, rule 151A was struck down but the push continues as it always has, to keep investor money away from insurance products whether investors are safer with these products or not.

The securities industry had lost billions to fixed and indexed annuities and they’d had enough. This hatred of the insurance industry isn’t new. I found an excerpt from a 1956 business section of a Pittsburg newspaper that reported the same kind of tactic engaged in by the SEC back then when I wasn’t even yet a twinkle in my father’s eye.

What this has to do with real estate…

Organizations love power. The bigger the organization the more power they seek. This acquisition of power is generally thought to be in the interest of the members of the organization but sometimes those members represent a factional segment of an even larger group who may or may not benefit or even suffer harm at the hands of the faction.

Let’s take the NAR for example. 

I clearly remember frequent advertisements including TV ads by the NAR throughout the plummeting of the real estate market that continually sounded out the same message to anyone foolish enough to listen, 

“Now is the best time to buy a home.”

It didn’t matter that the collapse was just starting, or mid-way or that there was absolutely no assurance that things had hit bottom, and anyone who bought a home was going to have their hair cut off and eyes gouged out like Sampson at the hands of Delilah.

The NAR didn’t mind at all what might happen to unwitting home buyers. “There was never a better time to buy a home.”

Really? How about later, much later if you can hold out. If home prices had a further slide to go, they why not encourage consumers to wait it out. Rent for another year and see what happens?

Of course this doesn’t help the real estate industry to say such things, but it would have helped a lot of consumers who had no business buying a home in the middle of a crash.

The NAR was simply willing to trample underfoot the financial health of a whole lot of sheep who didn’t have the saavy to analyze for themselves what was going on in the real estate sector. Any economics professor worth their weight in recycled copper will tell you that overly-aggressive lending made it too easy to buy a home. The notion that every person  was somehow entitled to own a home came straight from the left and the likes of ACORN and our illustrious community organizer in chief.

Now we all pay dearly. Agents pay more for real estate SEO, websites, print media, direct mail, etc. to market the same properties to sell at greatly reduced prices. Homeowners pay in balloon payments, foreclosures, short sales and in being trapped in homes deep underwater so that they cannot move when opportunity for improvement presents itself in the form of jobs or better local economies to do business elsewhere.

Did I mention this is an opinion piece?  Nevertheless a warning is to be had and heeded about trusting organizations including government cliques and factions that are obviously not really looking out for your best interest.

Posted byReal Estate SEO Expert Dave Keys

4. Duplicate link sources: some agents find a few sources where they can easily create back links and they go to work creating the required content to place their links and perform this task over and over increasing the diversity of the anchor text and even linking to specific pages on their website, but Google’s algorithm sees this clearly as a one-dimensional attempt to leverage a website’s position. More sources of back links is required to rank better. This increases the difficulty of the back link task exponentially. Understandably, many agents just give up when they see no improvement.

A real estate SEO expert understands these pitfalls, knows how to avoid them, and knows how to launch and execute a link building campaign so that search engines are satisfied that every level of diversity in that campaign is satisfied. It is known that in 2011, Google has integrated many important factors in verifying the proper “back link profile” which includes social metrics, contextual relevance, and over 200 factors in the ranking algorithm. Real estate SEO, more than many other SEO campaigns must engage in greater diversity because of the competition and the similarity of other real estate websites.

Posted byReal Estate SEO Expert Dave Keys

Drove by this yard full of pumpkins in Houston’s Luxurious River Oaks

Posted byReal Estate SEO Expert Dave Keys

Luxury Homes In Houston

Photographed in Houston TX. We toured this home and I had just a few minutes to get in a few ad-hoc shots. Houston luxury real estate represents some of the best luxury home values in the country.

Posted byReal Estate SEO Expert Dave Keys

These communities represent the premiere real estate locations of Miami FL. Homes in luxury rages are available from the Miami based website. These are supplmentary sites in launch phase.

Posted byReal Estate SEO Expert Dave Keys

Laguna Lido –  a premiere location in Laguna Beach CA that features a virtually private beach. Since California beaches are generally public, this effect has to be created by natural land formations. This condo is situated in a small cove where the only access to its beach is via a narrow strip of land on its south end that is actually underwater during some high tides. The privacy of this cove is shared by local residents and their visitors and the few souls who make their way around the edge of this Laguna Beach paradise. Laguna Lido condos are all ocean facing and whoever lives in one enjoys that distinct feel of being almost in the water from their vantagepoint. Beach access from Laguna Lido condos is just a few steps from the front door of each unit.

Recommended real estate agents? I don’t have one yet. The Laguna Beach real estate agent who hired me to take these photos declined to pay, saying they didn’t capture the feeling.

Laguna Beach | Laguna Lido Condos: You’ve seen the kind of billing that gets an “ocean view” description when what you get is a glimpse of a razor-thin blue strip in the distance. Yep, that’s the ocean and you’re able to see it if you get position just right at that window over there.

Not here.

Here is an ocean view up close and personal. A rare corner condo, lower floor, ocean front Laguna Beach condo at Laguna Lido located at 31755 Coast Highway #102, a luxury condominium that has everything desirable in an oceanfront California home. Custom everything. Not a virtual, but a real surround-sound and surround-view of the azure, turquoise and blue Pacific from the vantage of a virtually private cove with beach access only from one passable cliff side at low tide. This property is a rare find.

sponsor link: Houston luxury homes

Posted byReal Estate SEO Expert Dave Keys

]]> http://davekeys.com/laguna-lido-condos-in-laguna-beach-ca/feed/ 0 http://davekeys.com/keanae-point-maui-photographing-waves-and-moving-water-up-close/ http://davekeys.com/keanae-point-maui-photographing-waves-and-moving-water-up-close/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:58:34 +0000 davekeys http://davekeys.com/keanae-point-maui-photographing-waves-and-moving-water-up-close/

Keanae Point Maui – Photographing Waves and Moving Water Up Close

 

A local photographer in Maui who takes and sells close up wave photographs in his Front Street gallery shared some of the techniques with me. I tried them out at Keanae Point and had some decent results. While I don’t have a camera housing for the “inside of a wave” kind of danger, I [...]

Posted byReal Estate SEO Expert Dave Keys

]]> Keanae Point Maui – Photographing Waves and Moving Water Up Close

 

A local photographer in Maui who takes and sells close up wave photographs in his Front Street gallery shared some of the techniques with me. I tried them out at Keanae Point and had some decent results. While I don’t have a camera housing for the “inside of a wave” kind of danger, I got as close as I dared and pulled the camera away after the shutter closed.

The basic requirements for photographers who want to shoot detailed water in motion are:

1. A long depth of field to get a clear background and foreground at the same time. F18 to 22
2. A very fast shutter speed 1/1000 or faster
3. Plenty of light, a High ISO or a decent combination. Obviously, you can’t shoot late afternoon or dusk without a high range of ISO to compensate for the lower light conditions.

This first shot gets the foreground and close-up detail of the water, but I didn’t include the background.

This one comes closer to the intended effect:

Houston luxury homes

 

Posted byReal Estate SEO Expert Dave Keys

]]> http://davekeys.com/keanae-point-maui-photographing-waves-and-moving-water-up-close/feed/ 0 http://davekeys.com/maui-photography/ http://davekeys.com/maui-photography/#comments Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:58:44 +0000 davekeys http://davekeys.com/maui-photography/

Maui Photography

Maui photography has always been my once a year hobby and this year, you can contract my services on an as-available basis. The island is so overbooked for everything, I thought it might be a good time to offer my work while I’m there visiting this year. It took me most of the morning just [...]

Posted byReal Estate SEO Expert Dave Keys

]]> Maui Photography

Maui photography has always been my once a year hobby and this year, you can contract my services on an as-available basis. The island is so overbooked for everything, I thought it might be a good time to offer my work while I’m there visiting this year. It took me most of the morning just to locate a rental car. The kind tip of one local led me to Maui’s and the world’s only Bio-Diesel Maui car rental who gave me an excellent price for this high season.

You may be facing the same situation for another need during your stay in Maui. Maui photography most photographers on the island are probably either booked solid or priced too high for the photography to be affordable.

I will be in Maui from December 24, 2011 until January 7, 2012. 

Peruse and enjoy some of my photos I took in Maui in 2007. I’m returning with 4 years more experience and two generations of cameras ahead (Canon 40D and T2i) 

If you need photography in Maui between the 24th and 7th just call me at 714-222-7961

Dave

 

Maui has been our favorite destination since 1999 when we discovered it at our daughter’s wedding. Such a magical place that lives up to its name. I’ve loved photographing the island and can’t wait to return and do it again!

Wedding Anniversary 2002         

Posted byReal Estate SEO Expert Dave Keys

]]> http://davekeys.com/maui-photography/feed/ 0 http://davekeys.com/maui-photographers/ http://davekeys.com/maui-photographers/#comments Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:43:28 +0000 davekeys http://davekeys.com/maui-photographers/

Maui Photographers

I discovered that Maui is so overcrowded this year that I almost didn’t get a rental car, but that’s another story. You may be facing the same situation for another need during your stay in Maui. Maui photographers are likely either booked solid or priced so high as to make the photography unaffordable. I will be [...]

Posted byReal Estate SEO Expert Dave Keys

]]> Maui Photographers

I discovered that Maui is so overcrowded this year that I almost didn’t get a rental car, but that’s another story. You may be facing the same situation for another need during your stay in Maui. Maui photographers are likely either booked solid or priced so high as to make the photography unaffordable. I will be in Maui from December 24, 2011 until January 7, 2012. 

Peruse and enjoy some of my photos I took in Maui in 2007. I’m returning with 4 years more experience and two generations of cameras ahead (Canon 40D and T2i) 

If you need photography in Maui between the 24th and 7th just call me at 714-222-7961

Dave

Maui has been our favorite destination since 1999 when we discovered it at our daughter’s wedding. Such a magical place that lives up to its name. I’ve loved photographing the island and can’t wait to return and do it again!

Posted byReal Estate SEO Expert Dave Keys

]]> http://davekeys.com/maui-photographers/feed/ 0 http://davekeys.com/family-photography-oc/ http://davekeys.com/family-photography-oc/#comments Fri, 09 Dec 2011 02:54:53 +0000 davekeys http://davekeys.com/family-photography-oc/

Family Photography OC

Mother and daughter profiles. Family Photography I thought I’d share from Thanksgiving.

Posted byReal Estate SEO Expert Dave Keys

]]> Family Photography OC

Mother and daughter profiles. Family Photography I thought I’d share from Thanksgiving.

Posted byReal Estate SEO Expert Dave Keys

]]> http://davekeys.com/family-photography-oc/feed/ 0