Good morning, over 95,000 US netizens lost a collective USD770 million to social media fraud in 2021. That represents 25% of all reported losses to fraud in 2021 and an 18x increase over social media scam losses in 2017.
Social media is a “gold mine” for fraudsters because of the ease of developing a fake persona and the ability to use platforms’ advertising tools to target a specific audience, per the FTC.
Similarly, in Indian real estate, hoardings and newspaper adverts are gold mines used by fly-by-night developers to dupe homebuyers every year.
📌 As real estate professionals and consumers, let us put ethics and commitment ahead of greed, and realities ahead of our expectations from the Union Budget today.
😷↔1 metre↔😷
There's More To Home Sales Than The Union Budget
If you are in the business of selling homes and expect the Union Budget to strap a rocket to your sales curve, you are playing a very risky game.
Play sure instead by focusing on these core tenets of all-weather real estate sales.
Understand The Homebuyer's Mindset
The Oldies (50 to 70 years of age) are fearful that the housing boom will bust, and another low like we experienced from 2016 to 2020 is inevitable.
Nationally, many of these people are “right sizing” (looking for comfortable, low-maintenance spaces with amenities they can enjoy in retirement), downsizing and moving to quieter and greener outskirts.
Try selling them your project's proximity to healthcare, farmers' markets, and nature, instead of its closeness to malls, pubs, the IT hub or the airport.
The Millennial is another big driver of today's housing market. Wealth is being created quickly for this generation, whose numbers as home buyers are about to eclipse their parents’ generation.
Technology, crypto, gaming and new business models are minting new young millionaires and just like their workplaces, they aspire for homes that combine health, lifestyle, leisure and immense networking capabilities.
If you're worried about where they would go for their groceries, don't, because there's BlinkIt for that. Focus on proximity to good schools instead.
Respect The Real Issues
Do you think a homebuyer who has finalised on a property will cancel her purchase if the Union Budget does not deliver what the real estate sector expects from it? Nope.
However, the real issues affecting home buyers today are;
🥶 Job Security: The pandemic and the ensuing economic instability have made folks nervous, and a housing loan is a long term commitment. Hope you're getting the drift.
🥶 Inflation: Inflation is climbing at a ridiculous rate globally and this has the homebuyer worried. Income is fixed while every expense is rising, affecting the money earmarked for mortgage payments plus rents in most cases, as folks have to wait up to 4 years to move into the home they buy today.
🥶 Global Politics: The thing with China is now a constant worry. Then there's 'missile man' and his binoculars, and the Ukraine crisis. Get it?
🥶 Crime: Dramatically rising crime rates in India's most desirable cities.
🥶 Another Covid Wave: Needs no further explanation.
🔖 Build your sales pitch around these realities. Union Budgets come and go and the homebuyer doesn't really give a dang. She has enough on her plate already.
Dots On A Map
Five Virtual Land Lies And A Truth
The reason why ancient scriptures and modern sci-fi appeal to the masses, could lie in the fact that they both often describe a perfect world in their own ways.
With no possibility of crime, sunshine on demand, and the fact that humans can be their own mental projections - no body to lug around - the metaverse seems like that perfect world.
Naturally, It's Attracting Investors
This parallel universe with infinite possibilities is drawing all sorts of investors, from the just-curious to the deeply passionate, but where there is interest, there are myths too.
Here are the top 5 lies about virtual real estate in the metaverse
🚫 First Requirement - Virtual Reality Helmet: Blame the common metaverse images on the internet for this one but no, you do not require a VR helmet/headset to access or fly around in the metaverse. In fact, the most popular virtual land platforms, Decentraland and The Sandbox can be accessed using everyday stuff: a desktop computer or a smartphone.
🚫 It's Just A Fantasy World With No Real Use: That is lie number 2. Sample this if you want to get real. Firms like eXp Realty have given workers ways to interact in business-specific metaverse platforms like Virbela for a decade now. PricewaterhouseCoopers and Prager Metis have opened metaverse branches so they can be where their corporate clients are, and there are brands entering the metaverse each day to reach customers they couldn't in the real world.
🚫 Virtual Land Is A Short Term Trend: Read on and decide for yourself. Second Life is probably the best example of an early metaverse platform that's still in operation with 200,000 daily active users who buy, lease, and sell metaverse real estate. It was founded in 2003, and still has 43,000 users on average logged in at any given time. And FYI, Second Life precedes YouTube.
🚫 Investing In Virtual Land Is Like Burning Money: The top sales in Decentraland for the seven days ending January 29, 2022, included a plot of virtual land that made its former owner richer by USD425,100 (the plot was bought in 2019 for USD7,721); ordinary plots continue to bring in at least USD10,000 every single day. Virtual land is stable and appreciating - qualities long term investors admire.
🚫 It's Just A Pyramid Scheme: Not true. Virtual land in the metaverse has all the characteristics of land in the real world. You see, real estate generally increases in value until people give up faith in the location where the property is located. This has always been the case, and it's the cause of real-world ghost towns. The probability of a ghost town in the metaverse is as high/low as one occurring in the real world.
Somethings gotta give. . .
✅ Virtual Land Is A Cool Investment: When you start seeing the metaverse as another universe and not a video game, you will get the drift pretty easily.
Each metaverse platform has its own economy and local culture, and investing in virtual land depends on your goals as an investor and your ultimate purpose for the property.
It's important to research metaverse platforms carefully - just as you'd research buying a property in different localities of your city.
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The Beijing Olympics are set to begin Friday under a cloud of geopolitical controversy, tight Covid controls, and quiet sponsors.
Still, can’t wait to watch these superhuman athletes do their thing.
Good day. More tomorrow. 💚
☕ The Crew@Ginger Chai