Central Indiana's best real estate trends and tips to your inbox! Whether it's the best podcasts for realtors, or the best tools on Amazon to help you do your job, our newsletter has you covered. Subscribe below and be ready for your best producing year yet!
* indicates requiredEmail Address *First Name
The Importance of Reading and Why You Should be Doing More of It
A study from Yale found that, “Book reading contributed to a survival advantage that was significantly greater than that observed for reading newspapers or magazines,” the authors of the study wrote. “Compared to non-book readers, book readers had a 23-month survival advantage,” they noted. Deep reading promotes empathy and emotional intelligence - cognitive processes that can lead to greater chances of survival.
Reading is a key for development in various areas of life. These tools serve as mentors for key aspects of our lives and how to grow to our fullest potential. In this article we are listing 5 essential books that you as a realtor can read in order to develop further in your career. All books listed below can be purchased on Amazon and links can be opened by clicking the book titles.
In our first book on the list, financial success and freedom are only a 20-hour work week away!
Many real estate agents dream of having a comfortable percentage of financial freedom, or maybe even becoming a millionaire. How many of you have ever dreamed of becoming half a millionaire? It’s likely that most probably haven't and instead, they set their sights on more grand financial fantasies, not realizing that the highly achievable half million-dollar salary working only part-time is very much so within reach.
In The Half Millionaire Real Estate Agent: The 52 Secrets to Making a Half Million Dollars a Year While Working a 20-Hour Work Week, author Brian Ernst reveals the challenges that so many real estate agents around the globe face while also sharing his top industry tips and tricks that can accelerate your success in the real estate industry.
In this highly rated book, you will unveil how to utilize the best tools for being more efficient with your time, how to increase your profit, how to create exponential growth through effective lead generation, how to identify the right market and the right clients, and so much more!
Let Brian Ernst show you the path to real success in The Half Millionaire Real Estate Agent!
2. Exactly What to Say: For Real Estate Agents
In the real estate industry, new tools and ideas to stay relevant to the modern consumer are essential. The modern consumer is more educated, and will come with detailed questions and be ready for a professional response or advice, while also having more choices than ever before. Counterintuitively, this influx of detailed information has led to more confusion, doubt, and frustration in their real estate journey as non-professionals.
In Exactly What To Say for Real Estate Agents, authors Phil M. Jones, Chris Smith, and Jimmy Mackin provide 30 key words to help with the most common, critical, and difficult conversations real estate agents have in modern times. If you are ready and open-minded to a new and better way of selling real estate, this book is for you.
Imagine what it is going to feel like knowing exactly what to say when it matters the most...
3. How to Invest in Real Estate: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Getting Started
Real estate investing can be an amazing way to build wealth and reach financial freedom. What most people don’t know is what first steps they need to take to get started. This book will show you how you can get started on your path to financial freedom.
Some of the two of the biggest names in the real estate world teamed up to create a comprehensive manual on how to get started in the lucrative business of real estate investing. Josh Dorkin and Brandon Turner are longtime hosts of the world’s #1 real estate podcast, The BiggerPockets Podcast, which we have linked in our newsletter.
Subscribe to our newsletter to get other helpful resources in furthering your knowledge in real estate. In the book How to Invest in Real Estate, you’ve got a detailed look at the many different strategies that are used in the field. In this book you’ll be able to find which one works best for you, taking your resources and goals in mind.
4. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
For whatever the goal, in the highly rated book Atomic Habits, readers will be shown a proven framework on the act of improving each day. In his book, Author James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, unveils practical strategies that anyone can use in order to form good habits while also breaking bad ones. The book teaches you the importance of how small behaviors that are done daily can lead to remarkable results.
Clear outlines that if you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you, rather it is the system that you have developed during your lifetime. As we all know, bad habits have a habit (pun intended) of repeating themselves and this issues lies within the system of self we live in. In Jame’s book, you'll learn how to use a proven system that can allow you to make the habitual changes you’ve always wanted to in life to change your trajectory.
In the book you’ll learn how to:
• make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);
• overcome a lack of motivation and willpower;
• design your environment to make success easier;
• get back on track when you fall off course;
...and much more.
The award winning book Atomic Habits will reshape and redefine the way you process the ideas of progress and success, while giving you the tools and methods you need to transform your bad habits into good ones. These goals can include something such as how to transform your business or how to stick to your workout plan. Whatever habit or goal you want to work on, you can have the blueprint as to how to start working on it with this book.
Thanks for reading! Interested in learning more about our Brokerage in Central Indiana? Click here!
In the housing world, Japan is known for its unique, minimalistic and efficient designs. This even extends to food packaging, as Japan seeks to form a society rooted in efficiency. In this article, we are bringing you 5 homes in the country of Japan to appreciate it’s stunningly simple and logistical designs.
1. The Origami House
Trendir
The Origami house, the name deriving from its paper folded-like roof, was modeled from origami shapes. This two-story home was designed by TSC Architects’ principal Yoshiaki Tanaka. It is located in Mie prefecture in a village surrounded by cativating mountains. The unique home is framed by its angular roof and it is folded in five places to create the look of various triangular faces. The roof touches the ground at various points around the perimeter of the home, which mimics the shape of an envelope enclosing the center of the building. The home is 1,206 square feet and was built for a couple on a site that has been in the family for several generations. The grandparents’ house can be found on the next plot. A stone wall built by the grandfather can be found encircling the building site.
2. The M House
Trendir
The M House can be found in one of Nagoya's more attractive residential neighborhoods. It only has 2.5 meters of dead end street access and is set on a difficult site that steps down from this access level a total of 7 meters. The M-House is design is so unique because it addresses the site conditions that made the land "unbuildable" for a home by the local real estate community and allows for a simple, contemporary lifestyle for the American owner/architect and his family. Along with the challenges the site provided for builders and designers, the house itself also proves to serve a few logistical challenges in planning for a multi generational/multi national family, also including challenges for preserving and securing precious views outside the home, sunlight, and breezes in the context of a traditional tight in space Japanese neighborhood. Despite the difficulty in accessing and building on the land, it was the property's one most valued feature - its location at the edge of a cliff that towers over the northern part of Nagoya - that inspired the design of the house.
3. The Translucent Home
Trendir
Suppose Design Office, a Japanese architecture firm, created this unique and modern in year x. This house is the essence of luminous, its translucent walls allowing light pass in and out. It is located in a quiet residential alcove of Hiroshima. It’s shape is a long, sleek and lean site that and is home to a family with three children; this home is a lovely combination of playful, yet sophisticated and minimalistic, and tranquil. Despite the semi-transparency of its exterior, the interior remains hidden, allowing residents to have total privacy with an abundance of natural light. During the day, this unique home glows from outside in, and by night, it emits a stunning soft glow from inside out. The Transparent house stands out well from its more traditionally typical neighbors. The interior is open, favoring the openness of the design of the exterior, and is spacious, bright and open. The home incorporates a steel tile ceiling and walls that wrap around the living area to give the home an industrial aesthetic, and is warmed up by the natural wood floors underfoot. An absolute stunner!
4. The Muko House
Trendir
Our next home on the list is a showstopper! This home in Muko is a one of a kind design crafted by Fujiwara room Architects in Japan. The home only consists of a single room floor plan with the master bedroom and stairwell at the back of the fan shaped space. The stairwell guides residents and guests up to two children’s bedrooms and the bath, and follows an open concept. The face of this unique home is wrapped in glass and tall vertical louver slabs, inviting light in and out of the home. When the louvered slabs meet the sides of the home they transform into the side for a clean transition from exposed façade to closed and private walls – with the exception of the entry door that beckons people inward. Trees are lined in front of the home and radiate a beautiful contrast that aligns with the precise lines of the home. Inside the Muko house, the energy changes from geometric lines to fluid and softer shapes full of movement. For example the egg shaped swing seat that sways gracefully when touched and the curvaceous couch with soft lines. With these curves, the sunlight creates stunning staggered and rectangular light spots with curved ends as the sun's rays pass the louvers and meet against the furnishings within.
5. The Wood and Glass House
Trendir
Sitting next to Tokyo Bay, this unique and picturesque home played a huge role in the inspiration behind the design of Villa SSK. On the other side of this home residents and guest will find majestic mountains that rise into the borderless sky. According to the architects, “Architecture ought to be rooted in the place it occupies. The architectural form of this building somehow emerged during the long process of analyzing and studying the location. Although the design process was supposed to have entailed a frantic accumulation of decision-making and choosing between possible options, the finished building gives one the strange, lingering impression of having been constructed according to some law or other.” The slightly skewed pentagonal shape of this unique home is complemented by the front and rear glass walls. When life is illuminated from within, the house stands out beautifully at night. Inside, the structure follows a tunnel-like layout, with almost zero right angled walls. The space is very open, as the homeowner craved a large living, dining and kitchen area, a guest room, and a spare room to simply display his car.
In this article we are bringing you more things from Amazon that realtors should add to their carts! If you haven’t seen our previous article on Amazon items from realtors, click here. Be sure to bookmark this new edition!
1. Hourly Time Management Planner ($9.99)
Our first item on the list is perfect for a real estate agent’s schedule! This planner is formatted with a to-do and hourly outline. The time table runs from 5am to 1am and the planner itself is a total of 150 pages of detailed daily planning. The planner opens at 180 degrees to provide you with a flat surface to write and plan on.
The binding is strong twin binding, the pages are made of thick and quality paper and the front cover is flexible and durable. The planner comes in black or green and is available in 3 various sizes that cater for travel or in-office planning.
The best thing about this planner is that it comes in at an affordable price of $9.99! What a steal for such a great item! This planner is perfect for a realtor's daily schedule.
Our next item will save realtors the hassle of using an outdated and noise tape measurer. With laser precision technology, accuracy up to ±1/16inch, this laser measures a distance up to 165 feet.
It is switchable among M/In/Ft for free adjustment. The area, distance, length, volume, continuous measurement. You can manually delete data and there is auto shut down after 150 seconds without any operation to save power.
IP54 waterproof level and dust-proof function protect the laser distance measure to the maximum extent. It is portable in size and the hard rubber body provides a good grip. The wrist strap lets you hold the meter steady and carry easily.
3. What Do You Meme: Real Estate Agent Edition ($24.99)
This classic meme game has an edition crafted just for realtors! This game is full of classic memes as well as new ones that only your fellow real estate friends will understand. The next time they are ready to close a deal they will be reminded of this time spent with you and other fellow professionals.
This set also makes a great gift! Compete with your friends and family to create hilarious real estate related memes. The game is played by using one of your dealt caption cards to caption the photo card in each round. Inside, there are 300 caption cards, 75 photo cards, 1 easel for displaying photo cards and instructions. The winner of each round is decided by a rotating judge.
4. Car Trunk Organizer ($39.99)
This next item will keep your car organized as you travel from listings to meetings. It's no secret that agents spend a lot of time in their car. Invest in an item that will make this space more efficient by keeping important items protected and in place.
This premium car truck organizer provides superior durablity and has been crafted with multipurpose design. It sizes in at 36.2' x 13' x 11' (L x W x H). It features sturdy walls, 3 base plates and 1 removable divider so you can customize your organization. It is waterproof and comes equipped with a cooler for your food, with the option to keep your foods warm as well. This must-have product is also easy to clean and is eco-friendly.
Keeping this last item on the list in the car will tackle pesky stains while on the go so that you can look and feel your best while presenting homes. This powerful solution breaks tough stains down. The microfiber pen gently lifts and absorbs the stain.
What makes this product amazing is that it is portable, able to fit neatly into briefcases, purses, drawers, car compartments or even your pocket! There’s no mess and nothing to dispose of in using this product, making it simple and mess free. This solution tackles stains such as tomato juice, ketchup, BBQ sauce, grape juice, coffee, wine, tea, chocolate syrup, and much more. It is also important to note that this product doesn’t contain any bleach to keep a variety of fabrics safe.
In luxury homes, you will find some of the most lavious and outrageous features that you wouldn't usually see in traditional homes. In this article, we are bringing you 5 of the most extravagant features we’ve seen in lavious homes. You won’t want to miss out on this article!
1. Bowling Alley
Yes you read that correctly! Our first extravagant feature that many lavious homes share is their very own bowling alley. When homeowners with this budget are feeling up to striking some pins, they don’t travel to an alley, they simply travel to the level in their home in which their alley is located. Home bowling alleys can start off at $125,000, and a single lane can run as high as $90,000. Looking for 4 lanes? It’ll cost you around $300,000 to have them installed in your home. The price includes electrical work, labor, placement of professionally certified bowling lane equipment, and simply getting all the equipment into a residence in the first place.
Not only do you need the cash for this area of entertainment and fun, you also of course need the proper space. To install 2 bowling lanes, a room needs to be at least 100 feet long. Even grand homes in residential neighborhoods don’t have that kind of space, which puts to scale just how enormous these luxury homes are and how much money these homeowners have to spare for a little fun at home.
2. Elevators
Big home spenders understand that their lavious home covers a lot of ground, which is why many of the top spenders invest in their very own elevators. Installing an elevator in the home can cost an owner anywhere from a low $2,000 to over $60,000, a lavish price to pay in order to avoid the staircase. Having an elevator in the home does have its benefits however.
These luxury amenities come in handy when you have perhaps heavy furniture that needs to be moved to or from a higher level of the home. If residents have an injury or surgery and were warned to be wary of staircases, the elevator would also be extremely useful in such situations.
3. Sport Courts
Luxury homes often feature a sports court. This can include basketball courts, tennis courts, putting greens, racquetball courts, miniature baseball diamonds, bowling alleys and any number of lawn games for their guests. Luxury homes appeal to a lifestyle of convenience, quality and style. Beyond simple functionality, luxury investors are looking for special features, design or new technology that give a home a unique flare.
With a basketball sports court, the price can range from $3.50 too $17.00 per square foot. This means the price range for the total expense for this court can range from $11,000 at the lowest, $35,000 on average and $76,000+ on the high end, a typical basketball court of this price measuring in at 94 by 50 feet. These high spenders love to have fun with the family in the comfort of their own home. Having such grand amenities would also be amazing to have during such times as COVID-19 where we are stuff at home in order to avoid catching the virus from others.
4. Grand Guesthouse
Homeowners of grand homes also enjoy having their guests live in luxury, leaving these owners no other choice but to invest in a grand guest house to ensure temporary residents have the utmost comfort and care during their time over.
Prices per square in for guest houses comes in a broad range. It could start at $100 square foot or jump up to $500+ per square foot. Detached newly constructed guesthouses are the most popular on the market at the moment. This style of guesthouse is one of the most popular choices in backyard guest house designs. If yard space isn’t an issue, this is usually the best choice, as it doesn’t involve the same amount of disruption that occurs when a guest house is attached to an existing home.
Luxury homeowners are sure to make these miniature temporary homes mirror the luxury they experience in their own homes in order to give their guests a proper experience.
5. Wine Cellar and Tasting Rooms
In California, luxury wine cellars are in high demand. A “luxurious” home wine cellar doesn’t mean you should have a large room for this space; you don’t even need to go beyond your budget.
In modern times, we have the capability to transform rooms into stunning wine cellars and they are in demand in many parts of the world. It can be practically any room in a home. A small closet, an under-the-stair space, or any room with limited space can be used for your wine cellar project. You can have custom wine racks installed to fit the desired aesthetic of the client.
Custom-designed wine rooms are expensive, but the basics are reasonable for anyone with a decent budget. Luxury homes are known to go well above the standard basic design to have a lavious wine cellar fit for their lifestyle. High end wine cellars can run for $200,000 +.
Wine rooms have made a major resurgence as one of the most sought-after luxury amenities. In modern times, this amenity is no longer hidden away in the basement. They serve as a major showpiece and focal point for entertainment and design. Key factors buyers look for include displayed bottles, custom lighting, glass displays, motorized racks and entire rooms solely for the purpose of displaying, tasting and enjoying vintage gems.
Take this quiz to find out which of these homes from well known animated tv shows and movies compliments your personality and style best! Grab a pen and piece of paper, and mark your answers as you complete a total of 10 questions. Once finished, total up your As, Bs and Cs. At the end of the quiz, you will find your results based on what letter you scored the highest in.
1. I prefer neighbors that are...
a. Loud and proud
b. Quiet and private
c. Unsure
2. I prefer...
a. Neons
b. Neutrals
c. Mattes
3. Which texture do you like best?
a. Wood
b. Stainless steel
c. Marbel
4. Where would you prefer to vacation?
a. Bora Bora
b. Washington DC
c. Dubai
5. I love having plants in the home
a. True
b. False
c. Neutral
6. “I could never be a minimalist. I need space!”
a. True
b. False
c. Neutral
7. I would describe myself as...
a. An extrovert
b. An introvert
c. Unsure
8. What’s your preferred pet?
a. Cat
b. Other/No Pets
c. Dog
9. Yard space is important to me:
a. True
b. False
c. Neutral
10. What scenery would you like to be surrounded by?
a. Ocean
b. Traditional Neighborhood
c. Greenery
RESULTS
Mostly As…
You belong in a pineapple under the sea! “Spongebob Squarepants” - Spongebob Squarepant’s House
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? You do! You’re a fun and outgoing person who loves time in the sun and spending time with friends. You’re the friendly neighbor on the block who people love to speak to when they see you working in your yard. You appreciate a vibrant color palette and would rather spend your days on the beach soaking up the sun.
Mostly Bs…
You pride yourself on organization and efficiency. “American Dad” - The Smith’s Residence
You take pride on being detailed and organized. You appreciate the simpler things in life and strive to have structure in your lively home. You enjoy to vacation, but overall are a homebody. You thrive in the early hours in the morning and are a hard worker.
Mostly Cs…
You crave the lavious life and belong in something grand! “Barbie” - Barbie’s Dreamhouse
You enjoy the finer things in life and taking your days off easy. You're always seeking ways to revamp and organize your home and life, and love to invest in your look and lifestyle.
You've been hearing it everywhere you go, it's unavoidable, it's in the news and it's in the blogs: It's a Seller's Market. Therefore, it seems to reason that this would be the best time to sell your home, right? Not so fast, we've got 3 reasons you may want to wait to sell your home.
1) You'll Be Competing to Buy
All of the buyers you anticipate coming to make offers on your house, will also be part of the buyer pool that you will be jumping into to find a house. If you are truly ready to sell, brace yourself for what will likely be weeks of house huntings and offers on homes.
2) You're Worried About Affording Your Next Home
Sure, your net profit on this home might be enticing and something to look forward to, but you want to make sure you aren't jumping into your next home at a price you may not be able to afford long term. With supply and demand looking to be in the seller's favor for quite some time to come, you can take this time to plan out your budget and home search accordingly.
3) You Just Refinanced
If you just refinanced your home, you likely aren't in a hurry to sell. If you haven't now is a great time to do so! You can save on monthly payments, and often times even skip a few!
When it does come time for you to sell your home, or if you have any questions you need answered, we've done it all before! Contact us today with any and all of your real estate questions!
8313 W. 10th St
Indianapolis IN 46234
dennis@indyhomepros.com
317-316-8224
