KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Return on investment (ROI) measures the profit you have made (or could make if you were to sell) on an investment.
  • ROI is calculated by comparing the amount you have invested in the property, including the initial purchase price plus any further costs, to its current value.
  • Two common ways of calculating the ROI on a real estate investment are the cost method and the out-of-pocket method.

 

Two Ways to Calculate Your ROI

There are two primary methods for calculating ROI: the cost method and the out-of-pocket method. Following are simplified examples of each method. The cost method does not take into account any rental income your property might produce or any ongoing costs, such as property taxes. The out-of-pocket method is a more accurate measure of return on investment, but it requires that you have paid off the mortgage on the property.

What Is a Good Return on Investment (ROI) for Real Estate Investors?

One investor’s idea of a good ROI may be different from another’s. A good ROI on real estate varies depending on how much risk you’re willing to take—the more risk you’re willing to take, the higher ROI you might expect. Conversely, investors who are risk-averse may happily settle for lower ROIs in exchange for more certainty.

The average return on the S&P 500 is 10%. Many investors aim for returns that match or exceed this.

You can invest in real estate without having to own and manage any property by buying Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) which are stocks that trade on an exchange. REITs generally have more volatile returns than physical property, but in the US they have delivered an average annual return of 10.7% over the last five years according to the FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs index.2 You can also invest in REITs through mutual funds that specialize in them.

If you believe you have been a victim of mortgage lending discrimination, you can take steps to file a report with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. This type of discrimination is illegal and can be based on factors such as race, religion, gender, marital status, use of public assistance, national origin, disability, or age.

Costs That Can Reduce Your Return on Investment (ROI)

You will only realize your ROI in cash once you sell the property. If the property does not sell at its market value, your ROI will be lower than expected if you based your calculations on that number.

Selling a home also involves a number of costs, such as those for repairs, painting, and landscaping. You will also need to factor in the cost of advertising the property, as well as appraisal costs and commissions for any real estate agents or brokers involved. And, of course, if there is a mortgage on the property, it will need to be paid off.

How Is Investment Real Estate Taxed When You Sell the Property?

If you sell your investment property for more than your adjusted cost basis, any profit will be taxed as a capital gain. If you held the property for less than a year, it will be taxed as ordinary income, which will generally be taxed at a higher rate, depending on your other income.

How Is Income From a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) Taxed?

There are three different types of income that real estate investment trusts, or REITs, can pay to their investors: dividends, which are taxable at the same rate as ordinary income; capital gains distributions, which are taxed at the usually lower rate for capital gains; and returns of capital, which are not taxable.

How Is Rental Income Taxed?

If you own a property that you rent out, you have to include that income on your taxes for the year. You can also deduct any related expenses, which will give you your total income or loss from the property for the year. Losses are only deductible up to a certain point.

Calculate the costs

The price you pay for your website should be proportionate to how much functionality the site has and how in-depth it is, but that’s not always the situation. You can find agents spending thousands of dollars on a basic website that doesn’t live up to its cost.

To calculate the real value of your website, let’s take a look at the individual elements and tools every real estate website should have:

Contact Widgets

If users are unable to contact you, you could be violating an access to fair housing law.

Your website should include a contact page with your phone number in the header or footer. If possible, every page should have a live chat or contact widget.

CRM Integration

The forms on your website should be set up to collect and organize contact data from your customers. This data could include newsletter sign-ups, meetings on your online calendar, or lead magnet data.

Ongoing Support

While you may not be a web designer, it is still your job to make sure that the pages and content on your website are up-to-date and free of any glitches. If you encounter a problem or would like to make a change, a support team can help you fix the issue and make recommendations for improvement.

Testimonials

Positive, detailed testimonials are one of the most valuable web features. They can help you gain the attention and trust of prospective clients, so a real estate site without them is missing a big opportunity.

Blog 

Your blog is a great way to engage prospective clients and drive traffic. By providing helpful, free content, you can position yourself as an informed and proactive thought leader in your hyperlocal area. Connecting your blog to a regular newsletter is an effective way to build your contact list.

CTAs

In order to be successful, a real estate website should offer something of value in exchange for a visitor’s contact information. Incorporating Calls to Action (CTAs) throughout your website, especially in the form of pop-ups, will help ensure that you are presenting yourself to potential customers at the most opportune moments.

IDX

An IDX search on a website allows visitors to search for MLS listings using keywords, locations, prices, and other information. This is the main content of the website that visitors are looking for and keeps them engaged on the site.

If your website is missing some of the elements that are mentioned, it may not have a strong digital marketing foundation. There may be many opportunities to generate leads that are being missed without you realizing it. AgentFire’s web designs include all of these elements, as well as others. AgentFire’s clients have the option to add more lead-generating integrations from an à la carte menu. You can look at all of our add ons and integrations.

To continue optimizing your web pages, you’ll want to calculate how each tool measures up against your business goals. These calculations are called metrics. It’s important to understand which metrics are key for each business goal.

Key Metrics

Web Traffic 

Web traffic refers to the number of people who visit your site. You can track your web traffic using free analytics tools such as Google Analytics. These tools allow you to see detailed information about your web traffic, including demographics. It is good practice to measure your web traffic on a monthly basis.

There are many ways to access web pages, and it is important to understand the most common methods in order to learn more about website performance.

Organic Traffic: comes from a search engine.

Social traffic is generated from social media networks, either through links in someone’s bio or a call-to-action that redirects them to a website. This is especially common on networks such as Facebook.

Visitors who are sent to your web page from another source are referral traffic. This can be from a blog linking to your site or a past client sharing your information.

Visitors that type your website url into their browser directly are referred to as direct traffic.

Visitors that come to your website from a paid source, such as PPC from Google Ads.

Conversion rates

A conversion is a positive action that a user takes on your website. For example, a conversion on a real estate website could be a contact form submission or a newsletter sign-up. On an eCommerce website, a purchase would be considered a conversion. However, it is not as simple when it comes to real estate because most people only purchase a home 2-3 times in their lifetime, even though they may search for homes every week or month.

Bounce rate

The percentage of people who leave a website after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate may indicate that your website’s content is not relevant to what people are looking for.

We need to decide which metrics are the most important to measure the success of our goals.

What are some goals that people might have for their real estate websites, and what are some metrics that could be used to measure success?

Establish Goals 

Growth in Brand Recognition

Agents who want their website to focus on social interaction and content conversion should look at web traffic and conversions, such as newsletter and lead magnet sign-ups. Additionally, most shareable content is shared on mobile, so agents should make sure their site is optimized for mobile.

Generating Leads

Lead generation is a common goal for many real estate agents. The most important metrics for measuring real estate leads are related to the number of clients funneled into your CRM and the quality of those leads. To measure lead conversion, it may be helpful to look at contact form submissions. The following article provides tips on how to attract more leads to your website.

Increasing Conversions for a Specific Product or Subscription

It is simple to track and measure how many sales are made through your site if you are selling a digital product or subscription. The quality of your marketing materials, including promotional posts and landing pages, should be given attention.

Expanding professional networks 

The majority of your network is most likely on social media networks. Your website should be designed to funnel traffic to your social media accounts or email list. Look at the number of web visitors that convert to email subscribers or the number of users that share marketing content on social media.

In Conclusion…

Its important to have an understanding of key real estate website metrics and what they mean in order to have a website that is successful in meeting your business goals. Its recommended that you check on these metrics monthly to ensure that your website is meeting its potential.