Hard Money Loans

The daily-deal website turned down $6 billion and will now consider an initial public offering, says a person close to the talks

View full post on Finance Stories

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The Food and Drug Administration has cited the manufacturers of Canada Dry Sparkling Green Tea Ginger Ale and Lipton Green Tea for making unauthorized therapeutic claims about their products.

The agency wants Unilver to correnct claims its makes on its website and packaging for Lipton Green Tea 100% Natural Naturally Decaffeinated.

The company’s website for Lipton Teas ” establish that the product is a drug because it is intended for use in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease,” according to regulators. Sales and marketing of drugs requires a different approval from the FDA.

Unilever’s Lipton website says, “[F]our recent studies in people at risk for coronary disease have shown a significant cholesterol lowering effect from tea or tea flavonoids … One of these studies, on post-menopausal women, found that total cholesterol was lowered by 8% after drinking 8 cups of green tea daily for 12 weeks.”

Regulators also asked the company to correct its product’s label, which says, “packed with protective FLAVONOID ANTIOXIDANTS.” The use of the term “antioxidant” involves different requirements, and the label makes unauthorized nutrient content claims.

The FDA also wrote to Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, the maker of Canada Dry Sparkling Green Tea Ginger Ale.

The agency cited the company for telling consumers their product is “ENHANCED WITH 200 mg OF ANTIOXIDANTS FROM GREEN TEA & VITAMIN C.**” The claim on the packaging has a double asterisk that refers to a statement also on the label, “**Each 8 oz serving contains 200 mg of antioxidants from Green Tea Flavonoids and Vitamin C.”

The companies are not the only ones to receive citations from the FDA. Fleminger Inc. and Redco Foods have also received warning letters about their green tea products. Such letters require a response within 15 days.

Dr. Pepper Snapple Group and Unilever have said they would work with the agency to correct the claims.

View full post on Economy, Business And Finance Stories

LuxuReal International, Inc. is a top real estate marketing firm which markets only top Philippine Real Estate properties. LuxuReal International, Inc. aims to provide “luxury living within your reach”, with an array of condominiums, condotels, house & lots, and resorts developed by top names in the Philippine real estate industry.  Among the roster of featured developers are top Philippine Real Estate companies such as Avida Land, Ayala Land, DMCI, Earth+Style, G2 Global, Megaworld, SMDC and Vista Land. Featured properties include Ridgewood-towers Taguig, Ponticelli Daang Hari Alabang and Canyon Woods Tagaytay among others.

In its website, www.myluxureal.com, home buyers can have a quick search for a property in preference to location, property type and price. Photos have been included for each property for a better view of sample unit. The website posts brief information such as the amenities, location, nearest road that travellers are familiar with, the typical venues you can see near the property and some write ups of featured properties. You can also browse either by developer or by the latest properties. If you want to be updated you can check out their news and events, and do not forget to view their latest promos posted for some properties to get discounts, add-on furnishing and more.

LuxuReal International is also looking for partners for Philippine real estate projects such as Global Sales Managers, Brokers and Agents and Global Referral Partners.

For more details on LuxuReal International, Inc., visit their website at http://www.myluxureal.com and experience luxury living within your reach.

For inquiries visit http://www.myluxureal.com/contact-us/

LuxuReal International has the primary goal of fully satisfying their customers desire to invest and find their dream homes, condos, farm lots, vacation & beach resorts. They are partnering with the best property developers so that they too can provide their customers the best value for customer’s investment.

So, you have the most advanced and dynamic real estate agent website on the web. You got all the bells and whistles your buyers and sellers would ever want. The traffic is rolling in, but there’s still one problem. Where are the leads?

Like every other real estate agent, you know how tough it is to find quality real estate leads. You need potential clients to take action now! Not wait, sit on the fence for a while and eventually slip away. So how can you catch these clients hook, line and sinker? Learn how to market and advertise YOURSELF! Take advantage of the features your realty website offers that allow you to show off.

Write a catchy and creative blurb on your professional skills, attitude and star sales qualities.

Remind your clients to interact with your website. Ask them to fill out a form, contact you and save their favourite properties. Make them communicate with you in any way possible.

Take advantage of every touch point. Store clients’ e-mails, phone numbers and addresses. Make sure to contact every single person that makes contact with you.

Don’t fall into the background. Stay top of mind with a monthly newsletter, deal of the month or open house invitation.

Always show customers what’s in it for them. Sell yourself through your abilities, actions and services not through boasting, bragging or arrogance.

Make an offer they can’t refuse. Promise a free home staging quote, t-shirt, mortgage broker quote or even a useful real estate report if they fill out a form. Remember, everyone LOVES something for free. Tag team with an industry specialist to make it happen.

Identify what makes you different from every other money-hungry agent. Create a Unique Selling Proposition for your services and run with it. Make it the bread-and-butter of your business.

Ask them for referrals, testimonials, questions and requests. Keep your phone number and e-mail visible and in the right places. Present a call to action that encourages them to follow through.

Make your REALTOR® website a real estate research headquarters. Give your visitors ALL the info they need to know. You can bet buyers & sellers will get online to make an informed decision long before they take any definitive action with an agent. Why not be the one-stop-shop? Appeal to their every real estate need, want and desire. With the right marketing and advertising strategies, they will stay on your site longer and visit more often. That’s how you ring in the qualified sales. Cha-ching!

You’ve tried to avoid it for years…a real estate agent website.  You figured word-of-mouth, newspaper, flyers and signage would cover your advertising for years to come. Well, if you haven’t crawled out from under your rock already, it’s 2008. We live in a digital world…where Facebook and BlackBerry addictions have supreme reign. Where blogging, texting and e-mails are our communication lines of choice. People use the Internet now to buy their groceries, rent a movie and order their favourite Chinese take-out. If your real estate business has yet to embrace the online age, where does that leave you? Probably miles behind your competition. So isn’t it time you capitalized on the Internet revolution?

Start by understanding that more and more people are relying on the web to learn about the entire real estate process. There has also been a shift in consumer from Generation X to Generation Y. First-time buyers from GenY will have different communication needs, purchasing behaviour and housing requirements than their earlier counterparts. Now more than ever, it’s vital for all real estate professionals to understand why the Internet is so crucial to today’s industry, and why choosing not to get involved would reduce their profits and competitive edge.

As today’s potential client has less time than ever before, they desire their information served on a silver platter. So why not deliver the information they want and make it available to them 24 hours a day? Give them a one-stop-online-real-estate-shop to help them buy their dream home? That’s what they’re looking for. Nowadays, they expect it.

So why are customers so apt to house-hunting online?

1.  Well first, it saves them time, and plenty of it. Who has the energy to flip through a mile-high pile of messy newspapers? Or make 20 preview appointments with a REALTOR®? Certainly not the urban jet-setters, soccer moms or suits of today’s world.

These Internet savvy buyers will take an average of 4.5 weeks to look for information on homes and neighborhoods before ever contacting a real estate professional, as compared to a traditional buyer that takes only 1.5 weeks. However, once the initial information gathering is complete, Internet buyers spend significantly less time with their agent and preview far fewer homes, spending 2 weeks, compared to 7 weeks for the traditional buyer.

2.  Online buyers also enjoy a greater sense of control. Real estate websites of today embrace a more user-friendly attitude than ever before. The Internet helps these buyers better understand the whole home buying process, and puts them in better control of that process. They can refine their needs and wants and comparison shop to paint a more detailed picture of their dream home for you. In the end it also helps save you time, so you can steer clear of what they don’t want, and deliver on what they do.

Just know that if they’re looking for a ‘4-bedroom, 3-bathroom raised bungalow with a salt-water outdoor pool and white picket fence, close to the highway yet nestled in a quiet community and close to a nature trail’…you’ll be the first to know.

3.  Internet buyers tend to be global risk-takers. They are more willing and able to relocate now more than ever. These buyers are looking to move to different parts of the country, and use the Internet to scope out the hottest trends. They want to settle into a new lifestyle and status, not just a new home. With it they’ll earn a trend-setting label among friends and colleagues, and a life experience they’ll never forget.

Internet buyers are expanding their families at a slower pace, having children significantly later than their baby-boomer counterparts. As a REALTOR®, you need to appeal to their sense of freedom, mobile lifestyle and ability to live in an exciting new place, whether on their own or with a partner.

4.  The information they need is available at the touch of a button, anytime, anywhere. Whether they’re searching for a home on their lunch break or at 2am, they have all the resources they need on their timetable. They don’t have to play phone tag to answer their questions. Everything they need is ready and waiting for them online.

Keep in mind that Internet homebuyers want as much detailed information as possible. Therefore, real estate professionals that offer websites with specialized, inside information and detailed listings including plenty of quality photos and virtual tours, will be more likely to capture these customers.

So, who exactly are these Internet savvy homebuyers, anyway? Let’s take a closer look at the Internet homebuyer profile and how they differ from traditional buyers.

They enjoy a controlled environment.The Internet empowers this type of consumer. They have control of the search process, by way of privacy and freedom. They can regulate the level of communication they choose to have with an agent or agency, and therefore feel less pressured and more comfortable in the decision-making process.

They are usually first-time buyers.The Internet buyer tends to be new to the real estate purchasing market, and is younger, wealthier, more likely to be married and better educated than a traditional buyer.

They want to be as informed as possible. These buyers want a complete understanding of what they’ll be jumping into. Not just listings and prices, they want information on the entire real estate transaction, from agent negotiations to legal procedures. They want all the real estate marketing tools wrapped into one complete package.

Internet savvy real estate professionals are at an advantage to fill in the gaps for these types of clients. Armed with this buyer profile and the proper real estate internet marketing tool, you can learn to better recognize and understand the requirements of this market niche. Think of real estate professionals like a GPS Navigation System for the Internet homebuyer. The Internet is their road map, but they still need detailed navigated directions to get to their destination; a guide to help them through the negotiation and transaction processes of home buying.

Remember, these Internet buyers will judge your competency based on your online perception. Establishing an online presence through a user-friendly real estate website and e-mail has become a benchmark of professionalism for all business. So, if you find your business is lacking in this department, keep in mind that valuable sales are being lost each passing moment. A website can therefore only compliment your role in the home buying process. Take action and get your real estate business online. Farming, referrals, sign calls and traditional advertising can only take you so far in the 2008 marketplace.

A good property portal is an extremely useful marketing tool for estate agents or those opting to sell privately. The biggest benefit to you as a seller or agent is that you don’t have to hassle with the marketing of the site, instead you can reap the rewards of the portal’s good positioning on the Internet. Here are some questions to ask before you subscribe:

1. Is the Website Visible on Major Search Engines?

Establishing where the property portal is ranked on search engines is very important. If you are selling property in New York, you might want to do a relevant search for property in New York and see on what page the property portal is showing up. Obviously the higher up on the search engine’s results pages the better.

2. Would You Browse This Site?

Enter the site as a user and do a quick search for property in your area. Is the navigation on the page easy-to-use and clear? Do you find the layout and design to be satisfying? Is it easy to enquire about a property?

3. Does It Have Unique Website Features?

Find out what kind of features the property portal has to offer, including how many images can be loaded, if there is space for visual tours/videos, maps, on show alerts, etc.

4. Does It Cater To Your Target Market?

Think about the market that will be interested in the property you sell. Will they have access to the Internet and will they be able to use the site.

5. What Are Your Clients’ Needs?

Clients like to know that you are advertising their property on all the mediums available to you. If they suggest you advertise on a property portal you might want to give it some thought.

6. Is Your Competition Advertising on the Site?

Before you sign on the dotted line, browse the website to see if your competition is advertising on the site. That will be a good indication for you to follow their lead.

7. What is the Website’s Reach?

Find out if the website has any other affiliate sites that your property would appear on. Also asked if they have a mobile site so cell phone users would be able to browse the site.

8. Are You Getting Value For You Money?

Shop around to see what other property portals are charging and what you are getting for your money. Make sure that the one you choose has a good technical support department so you can contact them should you have any queries.

9. Is the Website Advertising Off-Line?

You want to subscribe to a property portal that is the most dominant player in the market. This means that the site will have to do a lot of marketing – not only online but also offline.

Property portals are a great way to advertise your property on the Internet. It is cost effective and most of all it gives your listings an international audience that can view your property ads 24 hours a day. Since there are a lot of property portals on the net it is essential that you choose wisely.

Elizabeth works for South Africa’s leading online property portal, advertising property for sale and to let in all area of South Africa, including Sea Point accommodation to let by Cape Town letting agents and Cape Town rental accommodation.Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/9-questions-to-ask-when-choosing-a-property-portal-1537599.html