What Are You Going to Do-Barbecue or Mildew

Posted on by

Are you ready to finally get serious and make some money in your home business? Okay, before you read another word, here’s a simple but important exercise that will be explained later. Locate a mirror and look into that mirror for exactly three seconds.

Now, unless you are a fullblooded vampire, you were just looking at the key to making money in your business–you. There are millions of people out there just like you that want success, financial security, time freedom, and all the other great things that come with having a profitable home business. However, they simply fail to take real action. Yes, they may in fact complete steps A and B but they never get to C or D.

By the way, even if you didn’t literally get up and find a mirror, it’s critical that you possess the ability to be coached if you truly want to succeed as an entrepreneur. It is not always easy to find someone that will take you under their wing, but they do exist. Like everything else in life, it will take a fair amount of effort on your part to find someone willing to show you what it takes to finally make it. Notice that I didn’t say anything about making it big. You are the person that determines what success means to you and how much money you need to earn to be happy.

Ultimately, whether you are a success or not in your business, it all starts with you, your attitude, and your goals. There is no time to waste blaming your sponsor, fellow team members, marketing brochures or anything else along those lines. Instead, spend your energy on expanding your knowledge, sharpening your skills, and learning from those people who have already accomplished the very thing that you want in life.

Prior to becoming a Marine Drill Instructor at the age of 21, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. I had that vision immediately after I realized their positive impact on other people. I absolutely had to wear the famous campaign cover (hat) and it’s what I thought about constantly. Once that goal was solidified, I then had to make a plan. How would I get there?

I won’t bore you with the entire story but I will say that it involved learning from someone who had already been there. A person that had already been on the path that I wanted to travel. The skills he taught me allowed me to win several meritorious promotions, and as they say, the rest is history. I returned to Parris Island so fast that one of my former Drill Instructors was still on the island. He even asked me “what are you doing here?”

This is more of a self-help type article than it is a marketing article but maybe we can combine the two for a few minutes. Can you name two or three of the hottest marketing trends on the internet right now? I only ask about the internet because that’s probably where you are most likely viewing this article. Obviously, marketing your business is never limited to just the net but let’s start here. Okay, your time is up. Can you name two or three techniques that many of the major marketers are utilizing in 2006?

If you were not able to answer that question quickly and confidently, you are probably already behind the curve. This is especially true if you are doing any online marketing. There is no single correct answer to the question but most experts would agree that blogs, articles, and ezines are probably right up there in the top 10. Do you have a blog? Do you write articles? If your answer was “no,” why not?

Many of us can look back in our lives and immediately pinpoint times that we missed the boat or were left behind. Sometimes it’s because you are not in a position to take advantage of the opportunity presented, while other times it’s because you simply failed to take immediate action. It’s important to realize that, in business, you cannot afford to be left behind too many times. As one of the top home business experts likes to say… “Don’t you want it in your lifetime?” Life is short and you don’t have forever to accomplish the things you want.

Let’s get back to the blogs and articles. If you are not aware of these strategies and taking advantage of them, it’s because you are not spending enough time learning and developing your skills, or maybe you are not all that serious about your business. Again, this article is not really about blogs but they are a way to focus in on a more important core issue.

Yes, that previous comment about you not being serious is a hard thing to admit for some of us, but it may be true. Maybe you have some very legitimate reasons as to why you are not serious at the moment but the key is to be honest with yourself about it. There is nothing worse than giving half effort, failing, and then blaming the whole world for not finding success. Only when you commit fully are you truly able to learn and ultimately win, even if you happen to fall short the first time. On the other hand, if you are 100% serious, you need to stand up and look in that mirror again. Determine that you are finally ready to make this thing work and take full action. It’s simply not good enough to half-step.

Since this is one part marketing lesson, what about the blogs? Well, literally anyone can start a blog about almost any subject. I know people nearly 90 years old with blogs. That’s amazing when you think about it. As a matter of fact, you don’t even have to pay for the service. You can do a search for free blogs and have it up and running in a matter of minutes. Clearly, you would have to do more than just throwing it up online like writing something in it regularly and finding some simple ways to promote it.

But, be careful not to miss the main point. People that are serious about their businesses will, at a minimum, know about blogs and keep up to date on what is happening in their industry. They will also work to keep themselves on the cutting edge as well as keeping their personal skills fine tuned. These are the people that are reading websites, attending seminars, and learning everything they can, while others are watching television and complaining that a home type business just doesn’t work well for them. You must realize that success is virtually impossible without true effort and the right skills.

This is not to say what people should or should not do with their lives or to pass judgement in any way whatsoever. The sole purpose for mentioning any of this is to make the point that getting to the top is not easy. It takes tremendous dedication, work and desire to reach your financial and personal goals. There are no “get rich quick” answers to quitting your job, providing for your family, or having the time freedom that you crave. You simply have to make a firm decision to do it and then get busy. More importantly, you never give up on your dreams.

Even if you don’t know their full stories, the people that you see as successful today made great sacrifices yesterday to get there. Many of these people will share their stories of how they had to sleep in their cars and eat cheap packages of noodles while they struggled to make it happen. However, there are others that are more reserved and don’t share their stories, but still had to fight through similar tough times to finally reach their goals.

If you want to truly achieve success and eliminate the 45 year plan of working for someone else, be completely honest with yourself and ask “Do I really want this?” If you are able to respond with an unquestionable “yes,” then it is time to find a mentor, sharpen those skills, and get to work.

“So, what are you going to do…barbecue or mildew?”

A website like https://casinobonus2.co will provide you with the highest quality in the industry.

Getting Into Harvard

Posted on by

Harvard’s history is well known. Named after wealthy English benefactor John Harvard, the institute was established in 1636. John Harvard’s memorial was not restricted to just Harvard’s campus though, infact the city of Cambridge is named so after his own schooling at the famous English university. Harvard didn’t strive to just emulate, but to surpass the world’s most revered universities.

Many foreign visitors mistakenly believe Harvard is based in Boston, but that’s not quite true. Boston is but short journey away and is in itself a strong draw for students. Boston is famous for its sporting franchises, the base of the American revolution, the Tea Party movement and of course, that bar where everybody knows you name… Cheers.

Here’s a sobering thought. For the class of 2016, just 6% of applicants who applied to Harvard earned acceptance. The standard of applications for students is rising and the admissions process at Harvard is ever more formidable. Student’s who apply to Harvard need to be fully prepared to stand out as that 1 in 20 candidate. Fortunately, there are guides and ‘Coaches’ who’ll assist your effort, but it begins with hard work.

There are many myths that abide in applying to Harvard. So many in fact, that this brief article will not endeavor to dispel them all. Foremost among these myths is the idea that acceptance to Harvard is based on minimum GPA requirements and that the expense is prohibits the average household. So, let’s deal with these points.

There is no minimum GPA requirements for getting into Harvard. Some student’s have been accepted with sub-3 GPA’s while others who have reached the heights of 4.0 have also been turned away. So, your GPA isn’t enough. Students who apply to Harvard need to have a well rounded application. One that emphasizes extra-curricular strengths too.

So what of the financials then? Harvard has the most generous financial aid package of any university or higher education institute in the US. Harvard’s in possession of a $172,000,000 endowment which means that the cost of attending Harvard matches or bests 90% of other institutes in the US. Put simply, if your application is strong enough Harvard will look after you. That also applies to foreign students.

Harvard has an incredible tradition. Take a look at its glittering list of alumni from President’s to billionaires to leaders of commerce and industry and ask yourself if you’re ready to stand among them. Student’s who earn success, prepare well in advance, are bold in their application and hold themselves to the highest possible standard. To your destiny…

The Evolution of Word Wide Web – WWW

Posted on by

Introduction

World Wide Web (WWW) is the system of interlinked hypertext documents containing text, images, audio, videos, animation and more. User can view and navigate through these documents using hyperlinks or navigation elements which have references to another document or to the section of the same document. In a broader sense “The World Wide Web is the universe of network-accessible information, an embodiment of human knowledge.”

History of World Wide Web

WWW was first proposed in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau while working at the CERN, the European Council for Nuclear Research. Both of them came out with their individual proposal for Hypertext systems and later on they united and offered joint proposal. The term “Word Wide Web” was first introduced in that joint proposal. The history of every invention has lot of pre-history. Similarly the World Wide Web has also lot of pre-historical gradual development of hypertext system and internet protocols which made the WWW possible. The gradual development started in the early 1945, with the development of Memex, a device based on microfilms for storing huge amount of documents and facilitating organizing those documents. Later in 1968 “Hypertext” was introduced, which made linking and organization of documents fairly easy. In 1972 DARPA (Defense Advance Research Project Agency), started project that connect all research centers to facilitate data exchange which later adopted for military information exchange. In 1979 SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) was invented to enable sharing of documents for large government project by separating content from the presentation and thereby enabling same document to be rendered in different ways. In 1989 Tim Berners-lee came out with Networked Hypertext system form CERN Laboratory. In 1990, joint proposal for hyper text system was presented and the term “World Wide Web” first introduced. In 1992 first portable browser was released by CERN, and that had picked up industry interest in internet development. Today web is so much popularized and has grown to be so invaded in to our lives; it becomes almost impossible to imagine the World without web.

Web Evolution – What and How?

Each technology has certain distinguished characteristics and features. Similarly web has certain features such as data, services, mess-up, APIs, social platform and more. These features are continuously and progressively evolving in distinct stages with qualitative improvements over the existing. Web evolution is categorized and hyped with some fancy marketing terms like “Web 1.0”, “Web 2.0”, “Social Web”, “Web 3.0”, “Pragmatic Semantic Web”, “Pragmatic Web” and many more.

Yihong Ding, PHD candidate at Brigham Young University, in his article on “Evolution of Web” explained the development of Web by analogically comparing it with the human growth. Yihong Ding stated “The relationship between web pages and their webmasters is similar to the relationship between children and their parents. As well as parents raise their children, webmasters maintain and update their web pages. Human children have their normal stages of development, such as the newborn stage, pre-school stage, elementary-school stage, teenage stage, and so on. Analogically, web has its generations, such as Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and so on.”

Along with technological advancement web design also changed over the period of time. Initial design was simple hypertext read only system which allowed users to read the information. User was just a viewer of what is presented on the web. Gradually images and tables added with evolution of HTML and web browsers, which allowed making better design. Development of photo-editing tools, web authoring tools and content management tools enabled designer to begin creating visually appealing website design layouts. In the next phase of development, web design changed with the change in usability and the focus is diverted on the users rather than the content of the website. User interaction and social touch is applied to the web design. Now user is not just a viewer. User can drive the web with feedback, information sharing, rating and personalization. Gradually we got the mature blend of function, form, content and interaction, called Read/Write Web. Continuing this evolution, meaning is added to the information presented on the web so that online virtual representatives of human can able to read and interprets the presented information. This kind of web where user agent imitating human behavior, can read and understand the information using artificial intelligence is called semantic web.

Web 1. 0 (Read Only Web)

World Wide Web is evolved in stages. First stage was the basic “Read Only” hypertext system also termed as Web 1.0 since the hype of Web 2.0. In fact in the original proposed web model, Tim Berners-Lee envisioned web as the Read/Write Model with HTTP PUT and HTTP DELETE method. These methods were almost never used just because of security reasons.

Some of the Characteristics of Web 1.0

1. In Web 1.0 web master is constantly engaged with responsibility of managing the content and keeps user updating. Majority of hyperlinks to the contents are manually assigned by the web master.

2. Web 1.0 does not support mass-publishing. The content on the website is published by the web master and thereby does not leverage the collective intelligence of users.

3. Web 1.0 uses basic hyper text mark up language for publishing content on the internet.

4. Web 1.0 pages do not support machine readable content. Only human who are web readers can understand the content.

5. Web 1.0 provides contact information (email, phone number, fax or address) for communication. Users have to use the off-line world for further communication with this contact information.

6. In Web 1.0, web pages are designed to react instinctively based on the programmed condition. Specific result or response is generated when the programmed condition is satisfied. Web 1.0 model does not understand remote request and can not prepare response for potential request in advance. To clearly understand above characteristics of web 1.0, Yihong Ding in his article on “Evolution of World Wide Web” has analogically correlated World of Web 1.0 with the world of a Newborn baby.

Newborn Baby : I have parents

Web-1.0 Page : Webmasters

Newborn Baby : Watch me, but I won’t explain

Web-1.0 Page : Humans understand, machines don’t

Newborn Baby : Talk to my parents if you want to discuss about me

Web-1.0 Page : Contact information (email, phone number, fax, address, …)

Newborn Baby : My parents decide who my friends are. Actually, I don’t care

Web-1.0 Page : Manually specified web links

Newborn Baby : Hug me, I smile; hit me, I cry (conditional reflex)

Web-1.0 Page : Reactive functions on web pages

Source: Analogy from the Article by Yihong Ding from http://www.deg.byu.edu/ding/WebEvolution/evolution-review.html#w1:1 “The web 1.0 pages are only babies.

Web 2. 0 (Read Write Web)

“Web 2.0 is the understanding that the network is the platform and on the network is platform roles for the business is different. And the cardinal role is user adds value. And figuring out how to built database and things to get better so that more people use that and it’s the secret of web 2.0.

Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.”[4]

In Web 2.0 the idea of Consumer (Users) and Producer (Web Master) is dissolving. Web 2.o is more about communications and user interactions. Web 2.0 is all about participation. “Content is the King” often cited quote during early web 1.0 days, is now turned in to “User is the King” in Web 2.0. In web 2.0 users communicates through blogging, wikis and social networking websites. Everything on the web is tagged, to facilitate easy and quick navigation. Web 2.0 is also about combining it all in one single page by means of tagging and AJAX with better usability via lots of white space, and a cleaner layout. The API ability makes it possible for programmers to mash up data feeds and databases to cross reference information from multiple sources in one page. In contrast with web 1.0, web 2.0 has collective intelligence of millions of users.

Web 2.0 is all about improved version of World Wide Web with changing role and evolving business model where users learned to communicate with the other users instead of just communicating with the publisher of the content.

Some of the Characteristics of Web 2.0

1. Web 2.0 is the second version of Web providing RIA (Rich Internet Application) by bringing in the desktop experience such as “Drag and Drop” on the webpage in browser.

2. SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) is the key piece in Web 2.0. Buzzwords around SOA are Feeds, RSS, web services and mash up, which defines how Web 2.0 application exposes functionality so that other applications can leverage and integrate those functionalities providing much richer set of applications.

3. Web 2.0 is the Social web. Web 2.0 Application tends to interact much more with the end user. End users are not only the users of the application but also the participants whether by tagging the content, whether he is contributing to the wiki or doing podcast for blogging. Due to the Social nature of application end user is the interval part of the data for the application, proving feedbacks and allowing application to leverage that user going to use it.

4. In Web 2.0 philosophy and strategy is that “The Web is open”. Content is available to be moved and changed by any user. Web site content is not controlled by the people who made the web site but by the user who are using the web site.

5. In Web 2.0 Data is the driving force. Users are spending much more time online and started generating content in their passive time. Web 2.0 requires some of the key technologies to be used in the development of web pages. One of the important technologies is the AJAX which supports development of rich user experience.

6. Web 2.0 websites typically include some of the following key technologies.

– RSS (Really Simple Syndication), which allows users to syndicate, aggregate and to set up the notification of the data using feeds.

– Mashups, which makes it possible to merge the content from different sources, allowing new form of reusing of the information via public interface or APIs.

– Wikis and Forums to support user generated content.

– Tagging, which allows users to specify and attach human readable keyword to web resource.

– AJAX – Asynchronous Java Script and XML, which is the web development technique, allowing exchange of interactive data behind the scene without reloading the web page.

To clearly understand above characteristics of web 2.0, Yihong Ding in his article on “Evolution of World Wide Web” has analogically correlated World of Web 2.0 with the world of a Pre-School Kid.

Pre-School Kid : I have parents

Web-2.0 Page : Webmasters (blog owners)

Pre-School Kid : Parents teach me knowledge (though often not well organized)

Web-2.0 Page : Tagging

Pre-School Kid : I understand but maybe imprecise and incorrect

Web-2.0 Page : Folksonomy

Pre-School Kid : I can deliver and distribute messages, especially for my parents

Web-2.0 Page : Blogging technology

Pre-School Kid : Who my friends are is primarily determined by my parents’ social activities and their teaching

Web-2.0 Page : Social network

Pre-School Kid : Multiple of us can be coordinated to do something beyond individual’s capabilities

Web-2.0 Page : Web widget, mashup

Pre-School Kid : I can do suggestion based on my communication with friends

Web-2.0 Page : Collective intelligence

Following table distinguish the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0

Web 1.0 is about : Reading

Web 2.0 is about : Reading /Writing

Web 1.0 is about : Publishing

Web 2.0 is about : Feedbacks, Reviews, Personalization

Web 1.0 is about : Linking Content using Hyperlinks

Web 2.0 is about : mashup

Web 1.0 is about : Companies

Web 2.0 is about : CommunityCommunity

Web 1.0 is about : Client-Server

Web 2.0 is about : Peer to Peer

Web 1.0 is about : HTML

Web 2.0 is about : XML

Web 1.0 is about : Home Pages

Web 2.0 is about : Blogs and Wikis

Web 1.0 is about : Portals

Web 2.0 is about : RSS

Web 1.0 is about : Taxonomy

Web 2.0 is about : Tags

Web 1.0 is about : Owning

Web 2.0 is about : Sharing

Web 1.0 is about : Web form

Web 2.0 is about : Web Application

Web 1.0 is about : Hardware Cost

Web 2.0 is about : Bandwidth Cost

Web 3. 0 (Semantic Web)

Web is no longer linking and tagging of information and resources. With the advent of semantic web concept, special information is attached to the resources or information so that machine can understand and read just like human.

Timer Berner Lee envisioned

“I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analyzing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers. A ‘Semantic Web’, which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines. The ‘intelligent agents’ people have touted for ages will finally materialize.”

Semantic Web has derived from his vision of web as the universal medium for exchange of data, information and knowledge. Web 3.0 or Semantic Web is an Executable Phase of Web Development where dynamic applications provides interactive services and facilitates machine to machine interaction. Tim Berner Lee has further stated

“People keep asking what Web 3.0 is. I think maybe when you’ve got an overlay of scalable vector graphics – everything rippling and folding and looking misty – on Web 2.0 and access to a semantic Web integrated across a huge space of data, you’ll have access to an unbelievable data resource.” Semantic web is the an extension of World Wide Web in which web content is expressed in machine readable language, not just in nature language, so that user agents can read, process and understand the content using artificial intelligence imitating human behavior. In other words Semantic Web is an extension of the web where content expressed can be processed independently by intelligent software agents.

There can be several agents one can program within the context of vocabulary of the vertical domain.

For example

“Travel Agent”, who keep searching chipset air tickets based on your criteria and notify you when it gets the perfect one.

“Personal Shopper Agent”, who keeps looking for the specific product on the eBay and get it for you once it finds the one that match with all of your criterions.

Similarly we can have “Real Estate Agent”, “Personal Financial Advisor Agent” and many more.

All user is doing is just creating their personal agent which talks with the web services which are exposed publicly and there by taking care of lots of repetitive tasks.

Precisely Web 3.0 = Every human + Every device + Every Information

Characteristics of Semantic Web

1. Unlike database driven websites, In Semantic Web database is not centralized.

2. Semantic Web is the Open System where schema is not fixed as it may take any arbitrary source of data.

3. Semantic Web requires using Meta description languages such as Web Ontology Language and the Resource Description Framework (RDF). Annotation requires lot of time and effort.

Web n.0 – a Glimpse of the Future

Let me add one more element to the previous formula

Web 3.0 = Every human + Every device + Every Information = Everything in the context of current technology advancement.

Web 3.0 is still evolving and it is going to encompass everything. One can not envision anything beyond web 3.0 in the current technology advancement.

Breaking all current technological capabilities Raymond Kurzweil, the inventor of OCR (Optical Character Reader) envisioned Web 4.0 as the Web OS with intelligent user agents acting parallel to human brain. Following figure illustrate the evolution of Web along with technology advancement and the semantics of social connections. Source: Nova Spivack and Radar Networks

Conclusion

The evolution of web has gone through phases as mentioned in this article and that has introduced numerous technologies and concepts in various areas; software, communication, hardware, marketing, advertising, content sharing, publicity, finance and many more.

In a way the World Wide Web has changed the way people were used to look at things earlier. I believe this evolution is never ending and moving towards excellence.

References:

Real Estate Review and Commercial Lending Trends in California of 2015

Posted on by

We’re looping towards the end of 2015. The year has been an eventful one for California’s real estate industry.

These are the highlights as reported by the National Association of Realtors in the beginning of last month (November 2015):

  • Commercial vacancy rates declined for office, industrial and retail properties. Same trend is predicted to continue in 2016.

  • Demand for and supply of apartments have been constant. They are expected to rise in the coming year.

  • Commercial and residential rents rose across the board from 2.5 percent to 3.7 percent. Rents are going to rise still further particularly with the recent hike in interest rate.

  • Alternative lenders gained more profit as banks became more choosy. Government and consumer regulations are tightening their control over this industry, but technology and economic conditions are helping the industry thrive.

Background

2015 may have been the beginning to the end of the recession. Economic activity had advanced 2.4 percent by the end of 2014 inflating some air into the real estate market. Construction – largely commercial and higher-priced – was constantly in motion. Housing inventory was largely small. People sought housing. But unless you could afford it or grab a loan that you could repay, you were reluctant to move homes or invest.

Work prospects had picked up in 2014. By the beginning of 2015, business investment and spending rose 1.6 percent. The rest of the year saw the familiar bust and boom of spending that increased to an excess of 8.0 percent before it deflated and rose again. The last quarter of this year was the softest at 2.6 percent. Commercial investors were largely small business owners and wealthy expatriates. Residential investors were mostly from middle to upper-middle class families – largely baby boomers – who tended to look towards renting. Wealthy foreigners acquired homes in certain areas of California, too. For a time, the Chinese seemed to be most interested in property especially in Los Angeles and surrounding suburbs. Wealthy businessmen from New York plunked their spots.

Blips included rising property tax revenues, rocketing property prices (that are in the triple and 4 digit numbers in areas such as San Francisco, Los Angeles and suburbs), falling inventory that fails to meet demand, and, more recently, a 0.25% hike in interest rates.

Some experts speak of a ‘housing bubble’ crisis where space and housing prices become so rarefied that only the very rich would be able to buy homes. These experts call for government intervention and predict a housing scarcity that would supercede that of 2006. Statistics show that some are unable to pay rent. The Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) of Harvard University stated that in prime areas such as San Francisco and Los Angeles almost 60 percent of renters consumed too much of their income for a roof over their heads. About 58.5 percent of the renters from Los Angeles/Orange County (LA/OC) metro areas are “burdened” which means that they are using more than 30 percent of their income for rent and losing out on other necessities such as food and healthcare. As much as 32.8 percent of renters are said to be “severely burdened” consuming over 50 percent of their income for rent’s payment. Los Angeles, they reported, had become the 22nd least affordable metro in the country and too many renters have been evicted due to their failing to pay their rent.

On the flip side, inflation in California reached 0.5% through the 12 months up-to-date as published by the US government on December 15, 2015. Critics of the ‘housing bubble’ scenario brush concerns aside and point to California’s fluctuations as representing the economic law of supply and demand. Prices are high because supply fails to meet demand. Expanded housing market, they argue, would lower price.

Commercial vacancy rates declined for office, industrial and retail properties

During the past year, commercial vacancy rates in California contracted for office, industrial and retail properties. Demand for commercial space rose in 2015 and is expected to continue to advance in the coming year. More offices were being built and snapped up by business professionals and expatriates or by foreigners who had the money. Commercial rents rose across the board from 2.5 percent in 2014 to 3.7 percent this past year. Prices are still rising albeit at a slightly slower rate.

In contrast to the large commercial transactions reported by Real Capital Analytics (RCA) that were mostly processed through local banks, it seems as though alternative lenders found more success with small business and entrepreneurs. Most banks in California tend to be reluctant to lend to such individuals even when credit history and trustworthiness justify loan application. Banks verify according to performance and experience. Most are reluctant to lend to newcomers in the business field and prefer dealing with corporate executives. Fifty eight percent of entrepreneurs and small business owners still approach local and regional banks as their first source of entry. Most are rejected. Alternative lenders – one of which is commercial hard money lenders – remains their followup choice.

Demand for and supply of apartments have been constant. They are expected to rise in the coming year.

In 2015, the apartment sector in California remained the best performer, with national vacancies hovering around 4.0 percent. However, a significant new supply of apartment units entered the market during the year, leading to concerns about oversupply in some areas. At the same time, supply outpaced demand with working class families and lower middle class unable to meet prices. California’s average monthly rent is about $1,240, 50 percent higher than the rest of the country ($840 per month). New apartment completions added 230,000 units on the market this year. The volume of new space in apartment vacancies increased from 4.1 percent in the first quarter to 4.3 percent by the fourth quarter 2015. Rent increased too.

Alternative lending in California of 2015:

Alternative lenders gained more profit as banks became more choosy. Government and consumer regulations are tightening their control over this industry, but technology and economic conditions are helping the industry thrive

The incidence of default reached a new low in 2015. This has largely been due to spiking property houses that made it increasingly more difficult for borrowers to repay their loans.

Redfin, a residential real estate company that provides web-based real estate database and brokerage services predicts that recent spike in interest rate will cause defaults to grow in the coming year. Some hard money lenders have become stricter about who they lend to. More tend to scrutinize credit history as well as value of collateral, but since many (particularly newer agents) focus on collateral, lenders may let a few penurious borrowers slide past and experience bad loans.

Also in this last year, federal government and local consumer protection agencies introduced new regulations, such as TRID that curbed the industry, controlled the process, monitored transactions, and slowed the alternative commercial lending system. REALTORS cite this as the most relevant cause of bank capital shortage for brokers and real estate advisors since it has been more difficult for inexperienced or emerging private lenders to find partners who are willing to help them fund investors.

On the other hand, loan-to-value (LTV) ratio has declined across the board which makes commercial hard money lending more attractive than ever. The growing market has caused private lenders to become more aggressive and competitive in their service. Some lower payment rates, many fiddle around with terms and schedules to make them more convenient and faster, others offer a variety of loans, and increasingly more lender are adjusting LTV rates to hugely attractive heights.

The field has also grown to meet the Californian investor’s increasing demand for funds and to service those who are rejected by the banks. For those who are resilient, technologically-minded, and savvy, Tom SEO of TechCrunch.com sees a promising future.