Commercial Property
More often than is widely acknowledged, courts come up with good and sensible rulings. When that happens, we do well to acknowledge them. In the case of Dee v. PCS Property Management, California"s Second Appellate District Court of Appeal affirmed the good ruling of a trial judge. Inasmuch as the case had to do with claims regarding mold, it is of more than a little interest to a variety of parties involved with real estate.
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have agreed to a $200 billion bottle of Drano that will help to unclog the gunk clogging lending pipelines, but will it be enough to save the spring selling season?
It was a less than impressive on-camera performance. On morning television yesterday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson looked nervous, stumbled over his words, and used strong terms to describe the economic slowdown.
Conforming loan limits backed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have been temporarily raised, but the battle to improve lending is far from over.
Homeownership reached a record high in 2004 of nearly 70 percent, parallel to home sales approaching all-time record highs. Homebuying was such a popular sport that one in 10 U.S. residents owns a second home.
The National Association of Realtors has its tally for 2007. While it was the fifth highest sales on record, 2007 also was the first in over 40 years that home prices and sales went down instead of up.
If you"re planning to put your home on the market in time for spring, now"s the time to get it ready to show.
If you think there are too many Realtors, a new report by Deloitte suggests otherwise. High turnover rates and an aging workforce will soon result in a huge global talent shortage for residential and commercial real estate companies.
It didn"t take long for the bloom to leave the rose. The notoriously pessimistic backward-looking S&P Case-Shiller Index says housing prices fell a record 2.4 percent between December and January and 10.7 percent for the year. Following on the heels of the February report from the National Association of Realtors, the Case-Shiller report appears to contradict the NAR"s findings that home sales went up 2.9 percent and home prices fell 8.2 percent over the past year.
The National Association of Realtors has had its share of battles this year, but none is more frustrating than the national media telling homebuyers that investing in a home is a stupid idea.
If ever there were a time when Realtors need to return to the mothership for debriefing and retraining, it"s now. With wide losses in the stock market due to fears that banks will be unable to recoup losses from the subprime market, and will tighten lending further, the real estate market will be more challenged than ever. Time to brush up those technology, people, and business skills!
In a hush-hush deal with Meredith Corporation, Realogy has obtained the licensing to the Better Homes And Gardens real estate brand with the intention of creating a new division and branding opportunity for franchisees by July 2008. The agreement is long-term (50 years) and forward-thinking, just the way Realogy Vice-president and Chairman Richard Smith likes things.
If housing is the reason the economy is slowing (along with fewer durable goods orders for airplanes) then there are certainly more Federal Reserve target (consumer-impacting) short-term interest rate cuts.
The government is working hard to make homebuying more affordable for buyers, from Congress working to expand Federal Housing Administration insurance to raising loan buyback limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Federal Reserve has lowered short-term target borrowing rates, which impacts consumer interest rates on credit cards, car loans, and mortgage loans among others. Housing is being widely and unfairly blamed for slowing the economy (the real issue is salaries) until recession has taken over inflation as a national worry. In other words, home buyers are getting what they asked for -- so what are they waiting for?
The latest 1,200-table 2006 American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates key changes in social, economic, and housing characteristics for the nation.
Recently I was the keynote speaker for the Middle Tennessee Realtors convention hosted by the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors (GNAR.) Not only was I impressed by the people I met, but never before had I seen an association go to so much trouble to generate publicity for their event and for me.
The Federal Reserve rate cut of last Friday failed to stop the bleeding in the U.S. stock market. That"s because the Fed cut the "discount" rate, not the federal funds interest rate. What"s the difference and how will housing be impacted?
Realty Times is introducing a new feature that allows our illustrious and outspoken editor Blanche Evans a chance to vent (before she goes off on a rant in the office) on the latest ways the media, government, third-parties, consumer groups, competitors and others we haven"t even thought of yet try to get into your pocket. Look for more "Who"s Getting Into Your Pocket, Now?" stories in the near future.
With summer vacations coming to an end, thoughts are turning to back-to-school time, when many children eagerly anticipate catching up with old friends, making new ones and settling into a new daily routine. Parents and children alike are scanning the newspapers and websites looking for upcoming sales to shop for a multitude of school supplies and the latest clothing fads and essentials. Just for fun, the U.S. Census has some facts that may be of interest to parents, teachers, and students.
As a general rule, the states with the highest populations tend to also have the most expensive closing costs. For the third year in a row, an annual report by Bankrate.com has found that New York has the highest mortgage origination and closing fees in the country. Number two is Texas, also number two last year, in closing costs and in population. The notable exception is California. While it the nation"s most populous state, it came in as the 17th most expensive state in closing costs. Illinois which is fifth in population, ranks 49th in average closing costs, mainly because of the low price of title insurance, says Bankrate.
In financial news, the record-breaking stock market rally of last week pushed subprime markets and foreclosures off the front page. But while the Dow Jones Industrials nearly touched 14000 points for the first time in history, some are finding evidence that foreclosures will soon wipe those smiles off investors faces.
Economists at the National Association of Realtors are a little more optimistic than David Seiders of the National Association of Home Builders. According to NAR"s senior economist Lawrence Yun, a "good" buyers market has evolved. Does that mean that consumers are actually buying something?
A growing number of protesters are insisting that the U.S. government isn"t doing enough to protect the nation"s borders from illegal Hispanic immigration.
A reader seeks more information about marketing himself as a neighborhood expert. He came to the right place. That"s been Realty Times primary business model for years, putting agents front and center before consumers as the experts in their areas.
Underperform? What an understatement. The latest housing report from the National Association of Realtors shows that May"s existing home sales were 10.3 percent below the same month"s sales in 2006, exacerbated by a burgeoning 8.9-month supply of homes for sale. Home sales eased by 0.3 percent, essentially flat from April"s numbers, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.99 million units.
The number of legal immigrants into the U.S. is about one million annually, and between 300,000 and 500,000 illegal immigrants move into the U.S., too, says research gathered by the Joint Center For Housing Studies at Harvard University for its yearly report, The State Of The Nation"s Housing. Over 10.5 million illegal immigrants resided in the U.S. as of January 2005.
MLS-2, a real estate information and listings search service, says their most recent study of Bay Area MLS listings suggests that using the term "motivated seller" is more common, but is it effective?
Both new and existing home sales numbers were released last week, but the totals suggest a disappointing spring market that is unlikely to be made up in the summer, particularly with expensive gas prices and higher mortgage interest rates looming.
The 15-year FRM this week averaged 5.27 percent with an average 0.5 point, down from last week when it averaged 5.60 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 5.90 percent.
A Realtor wonders if the Fair Housing situation is getting so sensitive that agents would make themselves liable for a lawsuit if they even point a prospect to neighborhood, demographics and crime information on the Web.
Campbell Communications has just released its fourth annual survey of real estate agents on mortgage lending, which tracks their attitudes toward mortgage brokers and direct lenders. The report, "How Real Estate Agents View Relationships with Mortgage Providers in a Shifting Market," was released this week and is based on a February survey conducted by Campbell Communications of Washington.
Virginia Association of Realtors" CEO Scott Brunner is on a mission -- to make Realtors realize that the bad reputation they have in the public"s mind is a result of their own actions -- or tolerating bad behavior from colleagues.
It"s not every day that a brand will allow its best agents to give away their trade secrets, but Number1Expert is doing exactly that with its new available-to-anyone website feature called "Profiles."
Mia-Lan Powers says the McMinnville, Rock Island and Morrison market is stable, with the median home price at $127,500.
A combination of lower home prices, better gas prices, and a stock market at all-time highs may have spurred home buyers into action in February, a month which clocked the best showing in terms of monthly sales gains for existing home sales since rising the same amount in March 2004, according to the National Association of Realtors.
A new report released by the National Association of Home Builders suggests that housing markets with the biggest booms in 2004 and 2005 will be the slowest to recover to normal levels of sales activity while those areas that were more restrained, with the exception of the hard-hit Midwest, will come back sooner.
The strength of home prices in Topeka, Kansas are reflective of what’s been happening around the state in the last 12 months -- weathering an economic storm while other states have not been as lucky.
A broker is concerned that a new agent who is showing potential may be derailed by her husband who is less than supportive of her new career.
A new survey by Citi Smith Barney says that over half of millionaires and 40 percent of affluent investors, those with $100,000 in assets excluding real estate and employer retirement plans, or approximately 25 percent of the U.S. population, surveyed believe that real estate is good investment.
Millions of homeowners need help and are facing possible foreclosure but not many are reaching out for it. In fact, it"s estimated that 60 percent of borrowers will never establish communication with their lender prior to losing their homes.
The chorus is growing in the chant that housing has struck bottom and will slowly rise again. A new report by the National Association of Realtors suggests rising existing home sales through 2007 and 2008 and a turn-around for new home starts by summer 2007, but homes won"t appreciate over inflation rates for the first time in decades. And that"s a little scary.
Just like sellers have to do more updates, repairs and staging to get their homes sold in a buyer"s market, real estate agents are finding that they may have to upgrade their skills as well. One way to do that is to become both a real estate agent and a loan originator.
According to RealtyTrac.com, its November 2006 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report showed that 120,334 properties nationwide entered some stage of foreclosure during the month. That"s an increase of 4 percent from the previous month and an increase of 68 percent from November 2005.
If homebuyers are hoping for another interest rate windfall before they step in to relieve swollen inventories of new and existing homes, they may be waiting too long.
After scaring homeowners, buyers and sellers witless for the last three years, the financial press and stock analyst economists contributed mightily to the decline of housing in 2006, where homes have lost value recently for the first time since the National Association of Realtors began keeping records back in 1968. Now these same self-serving analysts, who would like to see day-trading home investors pour their money back into stocks, are saying the worst is over, according to a new Wall Street Journal Online survey.
Putting a fresh coat of paint on your home will prolong the life of its skin, pump up the value, and revive its curb appeal, all important additions, especially when it"s time to sell.
The recent virtual office Website (VOW) policy approved by the NAR board of directors at the mid-year meeting a little over a week ago is going to create more work for state regulators as they pore over the VOW policy and its directives regarding advertising and broker relationships.
In an attempt to save the cooperation-based MLS system from the infighting of some traditional brokers VS some nontraditional brokers, the National Association of Realtors and general counsel Laurie Janik is meeting with the Department of Justice (DOJ) regularly to explain the case for the infamous "opt-out clause" and third-party "referral-fee" clause in its Virtual Office Website Policy, adopted in May 2003, that has been bitterly complained about by eRealty, zipRealty, LendingTree and others as restrictive to their business models.
If you"ve set in motion remodeling jobs for your home, you"ve chosen an opportune time to spruce up your home, perhaps expand its square footage, pump up its value and, perhaps most importantly, move out ahead of the pack.
When we first started talking seriously about aging in place a few years ago, I asked a prominent residential builder what he thought of the idea of constructing houses that could accommodate changes in the lives of the occupants.
The meltdown in the subprime mortgage sector continued last week, raising concerns that home buyers with impaired credit will face higher rates and far fewer options in the months ahead.
Society is rapidly changing. For the first time ever, married households are outnumbered by non-family, nontraditional households including a burgeoning number of single heads of households. Already single women are 20 percent of homebuyers, which raises the question how the nation"s largest generation to date -- the Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964 -- will impact housing as they hurtle toward retirement.
The AEI-Brookings Joint Center For Regulatory Studies has just issued a "critique" on the traditional real estate commission structure called, "A Critical Assessment of the Standard, Traditional, Residential Real Estate Broker Commission Rate Structure."
Following the ouster of Jay Huffman, the CEO of Multiple Listing Service of Northern Illinois, Inc. (MLSNI) who enriched himself and his consultant wife by founding an MLS information brokerage company, putting her in charge of it, paying her enormous consulting fees, and hiding the failure of the business from MLSNI"s association-run board which largely funded the project, MLSNI -- one of the nation"s largest MLSs -- has been in a state of flux.
As one of the brightest stars on the speaking circuit, the founder of the revolutionary real estate consulting concept and it"s trade association the National Association of Real Estate Consultants, Julie Garton-Good was never one to wear her troubles on her sleeve. With tireless energy and a ready smile for all, she was privately fighting a losing battle against a rare autoimmune disease that afflicted her 22-year-old daughter Crystal over 11 years ago.
Things have changed since the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) first started producing their annual Housing Affordability Index in 1984. At that time, the index used was very different. Fixed-rate mortgages were the norm, along with 20 percent down payments, and it was assumed that the monthly payments for principal, interest, taxes and insurance would be no more than 30 percent of a household"s income. Since then, mortgage products have expanded and underwriting criteria has relaxed, but affordability hasn"t increased accordingly.
It may seem unfair to buyers that a seller can accept a higher offer from someone else without responding to their offer first, but that"s one of the few times the seller has the advantage. Most offers favor the buyer, but not in a seller"s market.
Question: I have a paid-off home. I would like to buy a replacement property. Should I buy the second home before selling the first?
The winner of the real estate horror story for the decade is a home that drove its owners batty -- literally. Realtor Jerry Fowler, who has had a radio talk show in Columbia, South Carolina, for over 14 years called Real Estate Focus, has done a weekly segment on Real Estate Horror Stories, and has never topped the one about the home with bats in the belfry.
Newspaper advertising doesn"t work, according to many Realtors, so they"ve been putting their advertising dollars elsewhere, creating a slow drain on the revenues of newspapers across the country. Could falling revenues be behind recent large-scale newspaper editorial attacks on the real estate industry?
A buyer is comparing two areas in Dallas, Texas. Should he choose for affordability or appreciation?
Two agents ask Realty Times for help with their marketing. Realty Times has some inexpensive tips to help them launch their careers.
An unhappy homeowner wishes she hadn"t engaged the services of a discount listing broker who failed to notify her of how little selling agents were being co-offered to sell her home.
After coming across a story in Realty Times about the folly of using two or more agents to find a home, a buyer wonders if her situation is different.
Some may be old enough to remember the rock band from the 1970s called Three Dog Night. There is an interesting story behind their name. Australian aborigines domesticated and kept wild dogs (dingos). On cold nights they would customarily sleep with their dogs to keep warm. On colder nights they would sleep with two dogs, and if a night was especially cold, it was a "three dog night”.
The Orlando Regional Realtor Association (ORRA) has taken matters into its own hands by supplying a white paper-style Realtor Value list called The Critical Role of the Realtor in the Real Estate Transaction to its members for free download. Members use the comprehensive 180-point list to illustrate the value that Realtors have in the transaction.
In an era when standards of practice are being talked about but little is being done to strengthen them at either the legislative, association or brokerage level, brokers are increasingly moving toward non-agency to the point of noninvolvement with the real estate transaction. There has to come a time when consumers will wonder -- what is the role of the broker and how does the broker benefit the transaction?
Female activists of the 19th Century tried for decades to have Mother"s Day declared in the U.S. Originally conceived as a holiday of peace and a call to disarm, poet Julia Ward Howe, (author, "Battle Hymn of the Republic,") wrote the "Mother"s Day Proclamation" in 1870.
Realty Times said it before and we"ll say it again -- buyers are pulling back out of uncertainty, but springtime sales will likely come close to previous national records.
If you"re wondering why there"s such vitriol in the press about the real estate industry, this homebuyer"s situation illustrates some good reasons.
One-third of the homes sold in 2004 were vacation, second homes or investments sold to non-occupying owners. In 2005, the numbers were even more startling. Just when it seemed there couldn"t be a bigger market for vacation homes, the National Association of Realtors® announces a record year for the sale of second homes.
While trying to get identity theft under control, the House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders have recently made a number of changes to the Data Accountability and Trust Act (DATA) that the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection approved in November (H.R. 4127).
The housing market is showing a little schizophrenia, according to February sales reports. On one hand, existing housing went through the roof, while new homes sales dove into the ground.
Reporters with the BBC television show called Whistleblower went undercover to find out what "dodgy" practices British real estate agents are up to. She caught agents on tape lying to vendors (sellers) and purchasers (buyers), forging names on documents, misleading surveyors, and fabricating offers to get sellers to lower their prices, and advertising properties not actually for sale, among other acts of chicanery.
Is real estate poised for another boom? The economy appears to be expanding, but not so quickly that inflation is a problem. That could mean steady-to-even-lower interest rates, that could impact housing favorably in the spring.
It all came to a head in 2003 when many in the real estate industry reacted to new revenue plans by Supra to put lockboxes on subscription plans, with cumbersome technologies designed to trap Realtors into providing streams of income to GE-owned Supra/Risco, said some real estate professionals at the time. Association Executive meetings in 2003 at the NAR conference gave new meaning to the phrase "the air was blue" when they began talking about how Supra was no longer going to support lockboxes that were neither worn out or needing to be replaced. Instead, the company"s plan was to hook associations and their members into lengthy "subscriptions" highlighted with outdated technologies, fumed the AEs.
It"s a small world, with relocating families moving across nations as well as state lines. Is an international job assignment a steppingstone for better career positions -- or a minefield of professional and family risks that keep employees close to home?
A Realty Times reader wants to know if buyer"s agency is a good way to distinguish himself. With a slowing real estate market, buyer"s agency is an excellent alternative way to do business.
Real estate brokers around the country are tracking prices in Zillow"s new site, and like what they see -- housing valuations as much as 40 percent off the mark. Even Zillow doesn"t shoot at a higher target, admitting to BusinessWeek that its "estimates are typically on target, falling within 10 percent of the actual home-sale prices 62 percent of the time."
Despite some dire-sounding reports of people falling out of contracts around the country, suggesting a major slowdown in housing sales, NAR says that home prices in numerous metropolitan areas are still showing double-digit appreciation.
The lending industry has a lot of products including energy-efficiency, interest-only and VA and FHA loans to make homebuying easier for first-timers. Almost all mortgage loans are related to the value of the house, yet most refinance products are used by homeowners not to put back into their houses, but to eliminate credit card debt, send kids to college, and pay other expenses.
Kitchen and bath designers, interior designers, remodelers, builders, etc. all have national associations with local subsidiaries, just like Realtors have the National Association of Realtors and their local associations.
Are you in a normal market? That depends on what"s par for the course in your area. The housing boom has gone on for so long, that you may not know that normal is homes that stay on the market nearly 6 months, and interest rates are about 8 percent.
Foreclosure.com has announced that total foreclosures for 2005 increased by 12.7 percent, and new foreclosure filings in December increased by 7.7 percent, creating the sharpest rise in inventory since March 2005. Competitor Realtytrac says that their December national foreclosure rate showed one new foreclosure for every 1,422 U.S. households, the highest foreclosure rate reported in 2005.
The National Association of Realtors just announced that 2005 will be the fifth year in a row for record housing sales and that 2006 will be near record highs.
Here are some comments people have made to me over the past few weeks:
An anti-trust lawsuit brought by a real estate broker against the Northern Kentucky Association of Realtors was dismissed.
The National Association of Realtors has filed a motion to dismiss the complaint filed by the Department of Justice against the organization in Civil Action No. 05 C 5140 with a memorandum of law in support.
On October 25, 2005, the Federal Trade Commission and the Anti-trust Division of the Department of Justice co-hosted a workshop on "Competition Policy and the Real Estate Industry." The NAR subsequently submitted a comment letter to the FTC and DOJ to clear up apparent confusion on the parts of the government representatives.
RealEstate.com says it analyzed 100,000 Internet leads of both buyers and sellers processed through its agent network between April 2004 and September 2004 to find some interesting results. Internet real estate consumers aren"t tire-kicking, information-sucking time-wasters, after all.
National Association of Exclusive Buyer"s Agents President Tom Early has trained the Department of Justice"s guns on the National Association of Realtors, designated agency, and procuring cause, among others, he says.
The CENTURY 21® First-Time Homebuyer Index offers some surprising insights into the Hispanic first-time homebuyer market. This group is not only younger than white and African American first-time homebuyers, they are likely to spend much more on their first home.
The inaugural CENTURY 21® First-Time Homebuyer Index offers some interesting contradictions. First-time homebuyers are getting younger and say their dream home is a brand-new suburban home in the southern U.S., yet the most popular destinations for real-world homebuyers are older homes in urban-oriented New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, near family, friends and jobs.
A Realtor wants to welcome newcomers to her neighborhood. How can she send a form letter that sounds fresh, as well as welcoming and professional?
It"s good mental exercise to read a wide range of news and imagine how the stories might apply to real estate. One recent survey indicates that certain cars have higher resale than others. These are trends that might also foreshadow what consumer preferences will be in housing.
Two opposing bills are before Congress. One supports banks in real estate and the other doesn"t, which begs the question -- what kind of PAC money supports the major backers?
LendingTree"s Tom Reddin recently announced that the company is entering the real estate brokerage business in select Northwest markets. The question is why? Why would a third-party mortgage broker/referral fee-based lead generation company want to be in the real estate business?
From across the country, Realtor organizations and vendors such as a la mode, inc are rallying to provide relief to victims of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Never before has the national media so collectively and relentlessly criticized and denigrated a profession as it has the real estate industry recently. Since Realty Times began noticing the trend in 2002, magazines and newspapers like USA Today (Sept.22, 2002, May 11, 2005), ComputerWorld (Oct.2, 2002), The Wall Street Journal (November 2003, May 11-2005), Forbes (August 2004), Time Magazine (January 31, 2005), The New Republic (May 2, 2005,) and the Washington Post (May 17, 2005,) have reported stories that paint the real estate industry as a "cartel" bent on protecting "fees" and "stifling competition."
Homestore, operator of Realtor.com, just reported the strongest results since new management took over the fraud-plagued company three years ago and founding management was asked to step down.
Two recent reports suggest that housing affordability is declining nationally and is close to setting new records in California where one out of nine Americans live.
With a title sure to burn through popular culture like a grass-fire, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores The Hidden Side Of Everything is a book by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner that includes brief studies and conclusions about what incentifies people, particularly real estate agents. The National Association of Realtors finds their research and conclusions not only unflattering, but flawed, according to sources.
The building trend is definitely hotter in the warmer, southern states. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, four of the 10 counties with the highest growth in the number of housing units are in Georgia, while three are in Florida. Other top ten counties were located in Virginia, Arizona, and Idaho as the only Midwestern state, with one top ten county each.
The hearings called for by U.S. Rep. Mike Oxley (R-Ohio), Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services that oversees Wall Street, banks, and the insurance and housing industries concluded with a loss for Oxley as his own committee indicated that they are about 238 to two against his bill to allow banks in real estate. The majority -- 238 of 435 have reservations.
One time when I was a principle selling a home there was an agent who clearly had the inside track for my listing. In fact, he was the only agent in my area who I had ever had a conversation with, and he and I had spoken with each other several times.
Be careful what you wish for.
Freddie Mac released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey, which says that mortgage rates are still below six percent for the sixth consecutive week. Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac"s vice president and chief economist says, "According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, purchase applications hit a record high last week, and this can be directly attributed to continuing low mortgage rates. We expect mortgage rates to remain relatively low for the time being."
Can the lack of one key room such as a dining room impact showings? A reader has been told so by her Realtor, but she wants a second opinion.
Over 1400 real estate industry leaders, in 58 markets, have participated in the drafting of standards by a grassroots organization recently incorporated as the Real Estate Standards Institute.
Freddie Mac released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey in which the long term mortgage rates dropped for the second week in a row…….Frank Nothaft, its Vice President and chief economist says, "While we still expect mortgage rates to rise to perhaps as high as 6.50 percent by the end of the year, that escalation in rates will be gradual and restrained."
Now, she"s really the "Yellow Rose of Texas." Legendary Realtor, Ebby Halliday was honored with a rose named in her honor as her company Ebby Halliday Realtors, the state"s largest independent real estate company enters its 60th year as she, enters her 94th.
Will County, Illinois powerhouse Realtor, Rosemary West, is reporting some promising news for her market -- the cities of Naperville, Plainfield, and Joilet.
Homestore has proudly announced a new listings presentation deal with NRT to showcase enhanced listings on Realtor.com. There are broader implications for the real estate marketplace online as well.
RealNet Learning Services has given Realty Times an exclusive on the release of its research report examining the current issues, trends and opportunities in the education, training, and career advancement of real estate professionals in 2004.
Houston, Texas may be thick around the middle, but a lot of people want to order what the Houstonites are having. Home sales are up, says the Houston Association of Realtors, to record levels.
Every week, it seems, there"s a battle of conflicting numbers when it comes to housing.
Two recent court and commission decisions have brokers shaking in their boots - that Internet companies which advertise listings don"t require a brokerage license to do so.
You"ve seen it happen often - an otherwise law-abiding citizen breaks the law. Not because he"s a criminal, but because he"s part of a crowd, and being law-abiding won"t get him what he wants.
A future buyer"s agent writes Realty Times because he is curious as to how he would be paid. His question is at the heart of consumer confusion over how the real estate industry operates.
The quality-of-service pendulum swings with too wide an arc in the real estate industry. A number of organizations are trying to do something about it.
Realtors attending the general session of the National Association of Realtors Convention and Expo in Orlando, Florida last week were treated to jumbotron videos of famous people touting the NAR and its members.
The markets are fascinating to watch and yesterday was particularly interesting. A spate of mixed reports just released on October 5, 2004 shows the perfect real estate storm may have picked up wind again.
Airing today, September 27, 2004 on "Inside Edition" is a must-see report for all real estate professionals about the dangers they and for-sale-by-owner homesellers face while showing homes to strangers.
After reviewing the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Report of Investigation, Multiple Listing Service of Illinois, (MLSNI) shareholder association executives took a few days to decide what to do. While some leaders wanted to forget the whole thing, others want the audit to continue and for the MLSNI board of directors to take more action regarding the audit"s findings with regard to "MLSNI"s officers, directors and professional advisors" and whether they "discharged their fiduciary duties to MLSNI and its shareholders" with regard to the corporation"s investment in a data licensing company called REBIG, operated by MLSNI CEO Jay Huffman"s wife, Brenda Huffman.
According to Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Hispanics should account for as much as 40 percent of all new homeowners over the next 20 years, which suggests that the predominantly Anglo Realtor community could have a lot to learn about this growing demographic.
Every time I write a piece about first-time home buyers, I"ll meet one who is a little older than the rest -- late 30s or early 40s.
If stiffer mortgage laws restrict access to certain loans to push back the growing number of homeowners on foreclosure rolls, hundreds of thousand of Americans could be unintentionally deprived of access to home financing.
Our local market expert for West Central Ohio Steve Flaugher reports the region has managed to avoid the extreme fluctuations affecting the rest of the nation.
According to the Travel Industry of America’s (TIA) latest Travelers’ Use of the Internet study in 2003, over 42 million – or 2/3 of all online travel planners – booked travel using the Internet. Besides booking their flights through sites such as Expedia.com or Travelocity.com, many travelers also consider where they are going to stay.
In addition to its other recent troubles, Chicagoland"s MLSNI is being sued by Amerihall Realtors, a Chicago Internet-based real estate brokerage, on charges of monopolistic practices and antitrust violations.
MLS cooperation is a consumer-friendly way for real estate professionals to conduct business. The big guys can still dominate with most of the listings, but the little guys can use the MLS to do business, too.
A reporter from a major financial magazine called recently wanting to brainstorm a theory - that it is the discounters in real estate which are causing real estate commissions to come down. While discounters have had an impact by making it easier for consumers to get a "discount," there are other points to consider.
While the PriceWaterhouseCoopers forensic audit didn"t turn up any misappropriation by MLSNI and its CEO Jay Huffman, there"s plenty of information in the auditors" report that should make MLSNI board members feel both nervous and vindicated for having called for the audit. The report, say multiple sources, which is currently being pored over by shareholder association attorneys, board members and shareholder association executives, reveals at a minimum “gross negligence,” say sources, on the part of MLSNI attorneys, board members, CEO Jay Huffman, and his wife Brenda Huffman, CEO of REBIG, the company that MLSNI invested approximately $1.4 million into.
Forbes, one of the populist hymnals to securities, is going after Realtors. It"s in good company - The Wall Street Journal and SmartMoney like to take swipes at Realtors, too.
IAC/InterActiveCorp has announced an agreement to acquire ServiceMagic, Inc., an online home services marketplace similar to but different from LendingTree, the online lending/real estate lead generation company IAC acquired last year.
Realtors who are looking for Alan Isabelle, former president of Informedia Group, Inc., can find him at a company called Mortgage Loan Specialists, aka Homeloandesk.com, where he may be engaged in building a new company to sell leads and transaction management platforms to mortgage brokers.
A couple of days ago, when Realty Times checked, eBay had 1027 residential listings, hardly making it the real estate juggernaut that it was feared to become back in 2001.
Lenders, Realtors, appraisers and investors are already beginning to feel the winds pick up for the perfect real estate storm. Some believe that much of the fallout will be fueled by easy credit encouraged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to support their valuations.
NAR"s new venture with Sentrilock, LLC has announced the first installations of the SentriLock REALTOR Lockboxes. Designed to bring competition to the marketplace dominated by GE (Supra, Risco,) the SentriLock boxes will be feature-rich and easy-to-learn, promises the company.
Agents as loan originators has people talking. Is it greed or can one-stop agents really provide better service to consumers?
Commission pressures are among the biggest concerns for real estate practitioners, as their average payday has sunk nearly 15 percent recently, according to industry consultants. The oft-quoted figure is that commissions average 5.1 percent today when six and seven percent commissions used to be the norm.
It"s easy to stay focused on your own clients and customers and their needs, but it is also important to maintain and polish the image of the professional Realtor by meeting responsibilities to non-clients, too.
Just like many real estate professionals don"t consider themselves appraisers, inspectors or interior designers, many don"t want to be the ones to pick up a camera and snap photos of a home.
The National Association of Realtors has just announced that its membership has grown to over one million members, but what does a 25 percent increase in membership since 2000 really mean? While it means more clout on Capitol Hill, it also means a shift in attitudes toward the real estate industry.
After 28 years rising through the ranks from salesperson to trainer to head of the relocation division and right hand to Ebby Halliday Real Estate, Inc."s president Mary Frances Burleson, Petey Parker is leaving her real estate "family" to pursue a long-held dream - a career as a keynote speaker.
It"s hard to imagine beautiful Terri Murphy with a broken nose and other injuries, but those are nothing, she says. She"s just grateful that her accident wasn"t worse and that no one else was hurt any worse, proving once again why she is an inspiration to so many.
Attorney David Barry is representing broker Sherry Edwards in her lawsuit against the Northern Kentucky Association of Realtors (NKAR) which both hope will result in associations no longer being able to tie trade association membership with MLS access.
On Tuesday, February 17th, a state hearing officer, David Stebing, recommended some stiff punishments for Bonnie Mehner, the prominent Realtor who was successfully sued by a client in July 2000 for practicing undisclosed dual agency. He will suggest to the Alaska Real Estate Commission, when it convenes on March 4, 2004, that Mehner"s license be suspended for 120 days, that she pay a $20,000 fine, and that she be required to take continuing education classes in ethics and dual agency.
Beverley Edwards, our local market expert for the Cape Cod area, reports that this resort community is avoiding the downturn affecting the rest of the nation.
With the announcement that Prudential purchased all the assets of venture capital-backed eRealty, it was obvious that yet another dot-com has failed to take over the world.
The "Better Deal Buyer" is so determined to get a "deal" rather than a home, that s/he will exasperate everyone involved by working with multiple agents and ignoring professional advice.
Boasting about four million unique visitors monthly, the House and Home channel of MSN has traveled a rocky road when it comes to obtaining the number one attraction for real estate consumers online - listings.
Under the provisions of federal consumer law, if you want to obtain a free credit report from one or all of the big three credit reporting companies, go to AnnualCreditReport.com.
This week Middletown, CT-based subprime lender Mortgage Lenders Network USA (MLN) pulled the plug on its loan originating operations after growing from 7 to 1,800 employees in 10 years.
As part of the Clinton Administration"s undying efforts to boost home ownership, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has reminded lenders originating government-insured FHA mortgages that disabled buyers may be eligible for special consideration.