Flipping houses for fun and profit? THE BAD NEWS (For Some): The inventory of houses that are available for purchase is at an all time high. These houses range from older homes that may need remodeling to new or almost new homes. This situation has been created by: 1) The previous several years of selling and financing homes for buyers who could not afford them, resulting in record foreclosures at an all time high. And in addition, 2) The present unemployment situation has forced many people to give up their homes to move to lesser expensive lodging, and in extreme cases, resulting in homelessness.THE GOOD NEWS(For Others): Anytime there is a situation as described above, it is bad news for many people. Conversely, at the same time, it is good news for others because of the opportunities created by the particular situation – In this case, INVESTING IN HOUSING.Because of the glut inventory of product (houses) available, prices are down from the previous market period; the old “Supply and Demand” syndrome. Therefore, it is a great opportunity for investors, entrepreneurs, etc. to make profits by taking advantage of these favorable circumstances.So, let’s assume you are or would like to be one of those who takes advantage of the situation. You have some experience in residential housing or you have a mentor to help you make good decisions whenever you may be buying, selling, and/or rehabbing houses.There are basically two types of investors who would be interested in the housing market:1. Those who buy for resale later at a profit (hopefully) or,
2. Those who buy to hold for rental income.Of course an investor could, and many do, fill both roles.Now, let’s assume you have the knowledge, experience or mentorship to become involved in the housing market that we are discussing. One more thing we need is the funds necessary to buy, fix-up if necessary, and sell the houses. Also, if you intend to hold houses for rental income, you will need long term financing. So, if you have funds of your own, good credit with banks and other commercial lenders, you are all set, as long as they are lending. But what if you don’t have your own funds, and you don’t have good credit, or for whatever reason you are unable to obtain institutional funding? What to do then? Even if you do have good credit with the banks, that could change tomorrow with the whim of the banks and/or government.Therefore, let’s consider your options: What if you could create a scenario where in you could conduct unlimited business in this and other markets, and not have to contend with banks and other institutional lenders? What if you could depend on always having financing available, short term and long term, even if your credit was not that great?Well, you know what? You can do that! How can you do that? With Private Financing. This Private Financing will be from Private Investors and individuals who are looking for better and safer investments than they now have access to.These posts are the opinion of the author who is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or investment advice. If such advice is required or desired, the services of competent professional persons should be sought.

Once the app is downloaded, you have little time to take a sigh of relief, and then again start focusing on making things easier for the them till their goal is achieved.

According to the AppsFlyer, an app marketing company, the global uninstall rate for apps after 30 days is 28%. Entertainment apps are most frequently deleted, whereas apps based on Finance is least frequently deleted. No matter which app category you belong to, your strategy should be to remain in the mobile phones of users for a long time, and not just sit around but to fulfill your purpose as well.

If we analyze the encounters of users with an app step by step, it can help us unveil the critical factors that influence mobile app audiences, so that we can work upon those and achieve our purpose. Here are the details:

Step1. Finding Your App in Appstore

For this, we have to first find out what exactly users type to search an app. Based on a research, it has been found that 47% app users on iOS confirmed that they found the app through the App Store’s search engine and 53% app users on Android confirmed the same.

What have been their search queries? Interestingly, as the per the data provided by the TUNE research, 86% of the top 100 keywords were brands.With little scope for non-branded categories, most of the keywords were either of games of utility apps. Common keywords in the non branded category are: games, free games, VPN, calculator, music, photo editor, and weather.

Leaving brands aside, if we analyze the user-type of a Non-branded category, we will get two types of users:

1. Users are informed, and they know what they are search

2. Users are exploring possibilities, have no precise information in mind.

If you are a mobile app development company, targeting non-branded users, then your efforts must be directed to creating apps that compel these two types of users. To do so, we have to analyze once they are on an app store, what keywords they use to search. Regina Leuwer, with expertise in marketing & communications, bring some light to the subject. She reached out Sebastian Knopp, creator of app store search intelligence tool appkeywords, who shared with her the data of unique trending search phrases. And according to that data, in 2017, there were around 2,455 unique search phrases trending in the US.

Now, if we study these data to get information, we will find that name of the app is critical to attract the attention of the users.

If your app belongs to non-branded category, then make sure your app name is similar to the common search queries but also unique in comparison with your competitors. So that when your app name is flashed, they click it on to it, finding it purposeful and compelling both.

Step 2. Installation

Remember your users are on mobile devices has limited resources, from battery to storage and RAM to Internet. Everything is limited. So better create an application that is easy to download or say get downloaded with 5 minutes. One critical advice here:

1. Keep the application file size small.

If you are a developer, use APK Analyser to find out which part of the application is consuming maximum space. You can also reduce classes.dex file and res folder that contains images, raw files, and XML.

Step 3. Onboarding

After the user has successfully downloaded your mobile application, don’t leave anything on assumptions. Guide them properly. This you can do through an onboarding process, where users can learn the key functionality and where to begin with the mobile app. Below are the 3 things you need to keep in your mind when creating an onboarding process for your users.

Short and Crisp: The entire guidance of features and functions should be completed within few seconds, with easy options loud and clear option to skip.

Precise Information: Don’t introduce them to the app. They already know what they have downloaded. The objective to inform about the key functions and features.

Allow Users to Skip: Let the tech-savvy users skip the intro. Your app is to meet their requirement and not to have a friendly session.

Step 4. Purpose and UI
Here, the stage is set for your app and it is the golden chance for you to impress your users. What is needed here is the collaboration between purpose and UI of the app. It totally depends on the problem-solving capability and ease of use of the mobile app. Interface design plays the critical role, allowing the users to access features of the apps easily and quickly to perform the task for what they have downloaded the app. When it comes to interface design, make sure that the design is interactive and task-oriented. Here are some factors that you must take care off while creating mobile app interface:

1. Usability: The Mobile phone is an epitome of convenience and if your users find it difficult to use your app, then there is no way there are going to make the space for it in their mobile phones. From screen size to the color of the app, there are many factors that are equally critical and need attention.

2. Intuitive: To create an intuitive User Interface, you have to read the mind of the users, and develop a model based on that. The next should be precise, clear and ‘obvious’ in an interface.

3. Availability: Key features should be hidden in the drop down menu or even if so, it should be obvious for the user to look into the drop-down. An intricate work of design and research is required to make essential features available for the customers and they don’t need to navigate here and there.

If you need more help with the user-interface and innovative ideas for a mobile app, write to me [email protected] and I promise to get back to you with interesting mobile app designs.