Primary market
As interest rates rise and rising housing costs swells lenders" portfolios with riskier loans, lenders will tighten underwriting rules making it tougher to buy a home.
The Federal Housing Administration is planning a "major" advertising campaign in "selected markets" where the agency believes mortgage brokers may be guiding home buyers to more expensive non-prime loans.
One of the most important papers you will be asked to sign when you go to a house closing -- whether it be for the purchase of a new home or, a refinance settlement -- is a promissory note.
Refunds to borrowers who pay off their federally insured mortgages have been eliminated, a move that was approved by Congress in last year"s omnibus appropriations legislation.
You can take your economic cues from the Federal Reserve Board" s latest assessment…or you can take them from the nation"s consumers directly, as measured by the Conference Board"s monthly Consumer Confidence survey.
New home buyers -- especially younger, first-time purchasers -- are the unwitting victims of a little-known practice by some credit card companies: Withholding of their credit limits in reports to the three national credit bureaus.
If you want to buy or refinance real estate you know one item that will be central to your transaction is the humble credit report. Such reports are available in minutes to lenders and now, under federal law, they are also available at no cost to a growing number of citizens nationwide.
Consumers who spend some time shopping around for home loans are more satisfied with the mortgage origination experience than those who don"t bother to shop around.
If you"re looking to buy a mortgage note as an investor, or if you want to sell, two new online auction sites could be extremely helpful.
Who were the biggest losers in the American housing market last Tuesday when John Kerry went down in flames? That"s easy: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two biggest sources of mortgage capital in the country.
Forget about deducting mortgage insurance premiums on your federal taxes this year. Despite having passed the Senate and co-sponsorship by more than 220 House members, Congress did not include it in its massive, eleventh-hour tax legislation last week.
Most homeowners who do hold adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) hold those that are initially the least risky, according to the third major study this year aimed at deflating major provisions in bubble market theories.
Mortgage applications are a real pain on the brain, consumers say.
The choice is between using a mortgage broker and a banker. You figure that bankers might be a little safer, someone you know, while the mortgage broker is notorious for getting a lower rate, right? After all, doesn"t it make sense to get interest rate quotes from a broker who has access to hundreds of lenders? Sure. But that"s really a false choice. There is a group of mortgage bankers that can provide the same function as a mortgage broker yet still control the lending process. These bankers get their mortgage money from companies called Correspondent Lenders. And they may very well be the best of both worlds.
It"s final. Your credit report is free for the asking.
The Federal Reserve"s rate hike last week -- likely the beginning of a series of upward moves -- has set off alarm bells about a popular home mortgage product: Short-term interest-only hybrid adjustables.
Question: My mother-in-law is 80 years old, in good health, and lives in a condominium. She has a $50,000 mortgage with a 7.5 percent interest rate and 15 years to go before it will be paid off. I am considering suggesting that she refinance with an adjustable 5- or 7-year mortgage, or alternatively that she obtain a reverse mortgage. What do you suggest?
One of the most under utilized home financing groups I"ve seen are the nationwide offices of State Housing Finance Agencies. These are state-chartered authorities that help meet the housing needs of each state"s residents. Not all HFAs are created equal in regards to their relationship to state government, however, most are independent entities operating under the direction of a governor-appointed board of directors.
Online mortgage origination never became the home loan assembly line experts once forecast, but mortgage services that are available on the Internet have been a boon to savvy consumers.
"Only two things are inevitable: death and taxes." That"s an old adage, but a third category has to be added to this list, namely "continuous talk of tax reform." Every year -- especially as we get closer to a Presidential election -- political candidates start their rhetoric about the vital need to reform our complex, outdated Internal Revenue Code.
What, you"re closing on your new home this Christmas? How wonderful! How charming! How stressful! This time of year always runs fast, but because Christmas falls on a Thursday, that fact alone can cause a few wrinkles. Wasn"t it just yesterday you were driving to Grandma"s house for Thanksgiving? Welcome to the fastest six weeks in the mortgage business.
When trying to contact your lender to work out a payment plan or some other deal, knowing who owns your mortgage can be very helpful. Unfortunately finding out is not as easy as it sounds. You should be able to call the phone number on your last mortgage statement or the number in your payment coupon book and connect directly with your lender. More often than not, this merely puts you in touch with the servicer – the business that collects and processes your payments. In some cases, the servicer is prohibited from divulging the true identity of your lender. In other cases, the person you"re dealing with has no idea who your lender is.
Question: I recently acquired a rental home in addition to my primary residence. I am now in the middle of acquiring another rental. I noticed my Experian score dropped 13 points when the real estate debt showed up on my credit report. Even though the rental generates income, my score takes a hit. How do the lenders view this? Do they consider a healthy bureau report (no negative info) with a point drop due to real estate acquisition as a positive or negative?
The chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association has urged the group"s 2,600-member firms to take whatever steps necessary to avoid reniging on their loan commitments.
The mortgage business is a nice business to be in. We, as loan officers, find personal satisfaction when we help people get money to buy a home. My daughter is awfully proud of the fact that her daddy “gives money to people to buy a house.” While I don’t do exactly that, it is true that loan officers can experience the well being of helping a scared first time homebuyer. Or to help a credit-challenged client to overcome obstacles and put them in their very own home. I will never forget the eyes of a young lady whose tears welled up in her eyes as I told her “congratulations, you’re approved.”
Well folks, last week the Federal Reserve Board of Governors voted to cut short-term interest rates by one quarter percent to an astounding low level of one percent. Contrary to what a lot of folks think, the move did not spill over into the mortgage market. In fact, mortgage rates rose.
If you are an online mortgage lender, broker or other mortgage Web site, put a useful mortgage calculator on your site and spring for some original, objective editorial content.
Q. At long last, our house is free and clear. We have a home equity line of credit of $75,000, and the interest rate is somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 percent. We itemize tax deductions and our federal tax rate is 39%.
The sluggish economy and low mortgage rates have combined to spawn a trend of mortgage borrowers who are turning in 15-year mortgages for longer 30-year mortgages.
Question: My boyfriend and I have found the perfect "starter home". The price is $250,000 and we have over $50,000 in savings so we can make a twenty percent down payment. Upon making loan application, we discovered that we couldn"t qualify for the $200,000 loan because my boyfriend"s credit score is 575. Two years ago he had a difficult time and defaulted on several credit cards. My credit score is 720. My salary is $30,000 and my boyfriend makes $50,000. The only debt we have is my $240 car payment. We both feel very disappointed that we can"t get a loan. Do you have any suggestions?
Last week I read an article about how some expert thought that rates would remain as low as they are now and maybe even dip further as the economy continues to struggle. Today I read another article predicting that rates will move up throughout the remainder of the year as the economy continues to improve. So what’s the deal? Where are rates going, what does it really matter and who really knows what they’re talking about, anyway?
The Federal Trade Commission stopped the clock on 30 Minute Mortgage Inc."s activities with a complaint that charges the firm with spamming consumers with an offer for a non-existent 30-year mortgage and illegally collecting personal financial data in an effort to later sell that data.
Have you ever applied for a mortgage loan with a loan officer and they said something to the effect of “this will of course, be going to our Loan Committee?” If you did, then it was most likely about the same time as when Steve Martin did stand-up comedy routines. The days of Loan Committees are long gone. Now, your loan goes to an underwriter, right? Maybe not. Maybe it goes from your Loan Officer"s desk straight to their Closing Department, bypassing Underwriting together.
The recession is over. A Reuters news wire story last week, quoted "an elite economic panel," which pinpointed November/December 2001 as the bottom of the recession. We"re on the way up as far as the economy goes – but here"s the proviso (and there"s always a proviso): We just don"t know if we"re going to have a "double dip" recession or not.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has officially increased the limits on single-family mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration.
We are in a refinance boom. Mortgage interest rates are now at their all time low, and homeowners all over this country are taking advantage of these low rates by refinancing their existing home mortgage.
You have been investing in real estate for the last 15 years. During this period we have seen interest rates range from 12% to 5% for the purchase of investment property. Many of us have been coached to believe in the concept of high leverage, so we tend to put the least amount down. By so doing we have fallen into the compound interest trap and paid the banks a lot of interest. With today’s low interest rates, we have an opportunity to adjust our strategy and look at another approach to financing that can save us a significant amount of money.
When you run into a financial problem that forces you to miss a mortgage payment or two, where do you turn for relief?
The organization representing regulators who oversee the mortgage business in nearly 40 states is in the final stages of creating a national testing system as a precursor to building a countrywide database individual states can search for information regarding predatory lending and fraud issues.
If you are considering applying for a loan, ordering a copy of your credit report may well be the best place to start. Why? Because it’s also the first thing a potential creditor will be looking at, and even if you pay your bills on time, you will want to ensure that all the information in your credit file is up-to-date and accurate.
Almost no one in the economic forecasting business wants to take the risk of announcin that it"s now official. We"re past the rock bottom of the down cycle for real estate and now we"re moving into recovery mode.
If mortgage interest rates remain low and refinancing lines continue to dwindle, mortgage lenders efforts to retain remaining customers and woo back some they"ve lost could give consumers a negotiating edge.
In one of the best marketing combinations since "dinner and a show," Ingenio is offering a toll-free phone number and a sponsored link for consumers to call advertisers on one of the largest subscriber-based search engines in the world - AOL.
Concerns about cost diminish as values rise.
It"s a great day when you got one of the hottest listings in the neighborhood and at a great offering price. There is one little glitch, however. The owners have a prized pet that thinks he owns the place. Pets can present problems in allowing the property to show, and show well.
A vocational counselor writes Realty Times to ask if it is feasible that his client could make $100,000 in real estate in a couple of years.
So your buyer or seller grab the phone book, or search the World Wide Web for information about listing or buying a home and are inundated with an overwhelming field of choices. Some companies feature big ads splashed about the pages, looming over the smaller ads featured in the area of services they are seeking. Google and Yahoo offer thousands of options to consider.
Any buyers who get Realtor Ken Lampton to represent them in a transaction are lucky. An expert in East Dallas homes, particularly in the sizzling near-downtown "M-streets" area, Lampton has a love and appreciation of older and historical homes like few Realtors have today. While some may turn up their noses at houses that need work, Lampton educates the buyer on what"s a dealbreaker, what isn"t, what"s valuable to preserve, what isn"t, and most of all, what will enhance the buyer"s enjoyment of their new home.
[Note: To follow is an excerpt of a radio show interview conducted by Peter L. Mosca, host of Income Property Investment Talk dot com, with Scott Griffith, President ERA Griffith Realty and co-founder of Rescue LLC, a real estate consulting firm that helps banks stabilize and develop a plan for the disposition of REO properties. Griffith details the ‘dos and don’ts’ for success and talks about his experiences over the years developing his REO business. To listen to the show archive or download an MP3, go to www.IncomePropertyInvestmentTalk.com/120909.]
As one that searches the Internet everyday looking at real estate Websites, checking Website placement and doing real estate Internet research, I come across a lot of things. It"s amazing how many real estate Websites never identify agent, brokerage, state of licensure, and if the agent or brokerage is even licensed to do business in that state or any state.
Mailing to your clients and prospects is a great way for you to stay in contact with them every single month. However, one of the obstacles that I often find with agents in setting-up and implementing a great mailing campaign is them wondering what the heck they"re going to write about on an ongoing basis in all of their mailers.
"They" say 15 to 30 percent of your gross income should be spent on advertising. That"s way too much money to be spent haphazardly. I want to devote time to helping you determine the best method to deliver your message to your target market.
It"s all right to advertise a "bachelor apartment" but you"d better not suggest that only bachelors apply to rent or buy, or you might be in violation of the Fair Housing Act"s advertising guidelines enforced by branches of the Fair Housing Offices in each state.
Life is too short to perfect your weaknesses! Yet, most agents try to service whatever business comes their way. This is a prescription for being very busy but not very productive. When you limit your business to what you love to do, what you do or know best, you’ll enjoy your business more, have more time and attract business with less effort.
There is a sense that converting rentals to condominiums, better known as the rental conversion market, is around the corner. The reason: growing demand for lower price housing and increasing rents.
With the busy summer selling season winding down in most parts of the country, many real estate professionals are bracing themselves for the long (read: dry) winter months. Some agents think that just because less people are buying and selling homes, there"s less work to be done in terms of networking and meeting new people.
The old adage that you are only as strong as your weakest link was never more true than in the online advertising of listings. Showcasing listings with no photos, virtual tours and spotty information may still get the phone to ring back home, but on the Internet, the practice will get your listing ignored by online consumers.
Agents perform hundreds of tasks to get a property on the market. From the onset there is the prospecting for business, the marketing, follow up and endless service until the client or customer is finally ready to do business.
What did the most recent speakers you heard or articles you read suggest that you do about technology? Did they urge you to buy a laptop computer, digital camera, personal digital assistant, virtual tours and your own web site complete with an auto-responder and ghost keywords? Do you need laptop presentations for all your prospects?
When it comes to selling a property, most people believe the agents control the entire process. In actuality, the seller controls the positioning and salability of the property (i.e. price and condition), and the buyer control the prices (since only the buyer decides what to offer on a given property).
Editor"s note: In a Realty Times exclusive, Realtor.com is announcing it"s bold new I-LEAD program for Realtors. I-LEAD spokesperson Clay Aldrich will monitor and respond to all responses from agent readers in the Realty Times interactive forum. If you would like to know more about I-LEAD XL, please log in and post your questions and comments at the end of the article.
Gone are the days when Realtor.com personnel spent more time defending the company"s policies than improving its products. This is a new lean, mean fighting machine that"s positioning itself to take back the strong lead the company once had in online presentation for listings. And that"s not easy, considering Realtor.com and other lead generation sites are being bombarded with competition from new sites enticing agents to list their homes for free.
OK, so consumers shopped at Nordstrom"s and Wal-Mart instead of buying ovens and dishwashers from Sears. The retail report was so good for June that the Dow Jones stock market hit an all-time high of 13847.83. It"s not that retail did so well, it"s that it didn"t do as badly as anticipated by investors who had already priced their uncertainty into the equities market. Mortgage interest rates sank a little on the good news and everybody"s happy. Or are they?
Home prices have fallen for the first time in 16 years according to the National Association of Realtors and the S&P/Case-Shiller national home price index, but that"s not the only bad news for buyers and sellers -- mortgage interest rates are rising, and quickly.
It"s deja vu all over again.
Just in time for the National Association of Realtors" (NAR) annual mid-year legislative meetings May 14th through May 19, 2007, the trade organization has released its annual Member Profile for 2007.
Despite a nearly six percent decline in home sales in December 2005, existing housing sales easily set a fifth annual record, but what does 2006 hold in store?
Keeping the 3,100 realtors amused until the arrival of President Bush, the projection screens offered facts of trivia that were curious. Among them were such bon mots as "Rats can"t throw up," "Snakes are immune to their own poison," and "Camel milk does not curdle." Then the crowd was treated to John Phillips Sousa recordings.
CHICAGO -- The National Association of Realtors®, which has been America"s largest trade and professional organization
The Realty Alliance, an association of 45 U.S. residential real estate brokerage firms representing more than 60,000 Realtors®, commissioned a consulting firm to create a report on the NAR"s Electronic Data Display (EDD) Policy which the NAR says will be approved after guidance from members by the board of directors at the November national convention.
An online document management service aimed at commercial practitioners of the National Association of Realtors will be provided by NAR’s latest REALTOR VIPSM Alliance Program Partner, NetDocuments.
Calling all musical Realtors! Two real estate industry leaders are putting together "The Closing Statement," an all-Realtor big band which will be available to play at national conventions across the country. The Closing Statement will feature vocals and a variety of music including big band, jazz, and Broadway
Ellen Roche managing director of real estate research for the National Association of Realtors is already planning the next biennial survey of buyers and sellers. Questions raised by the results of each survey show trends that signal change, such as the pervasiveness of the Internet. And that is what helps determine what will be asked of buyers and sellers with regard to the purchase and sales of their homes.
The median age (36) of homebuyers in 2001 was three years younger than in 1999 (39), according to the new "2002 National Association of REALTORS(R) Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers." Other nuggets of interest may signal trends in homebuying, that younger homebuyers and first-time homebuyers will continue to drive the housing market.
The National Association of Realtors® now
Both Yahoo! and AOL want Realtors" listings for advertising revenue purposes. Both believe they can provide good lead generation opportunities for real estate professionals via their listings. And both are using content from SmartMoney magazine, which features a rant of an article called "10 Things Your Real Estate Broker Won"t Tell You," by Michael Kaplan.
The e-PRO is not a typical designation, nor is it merely a niche-definer. The agents who are called e-PROs will be firmly vaulted over an increasingly wide chasm separating the technology-enabled agents from the unable.
One thing I have realized through my travels as a consultant and presenter of handheld technology is that there really is not a lot of information readily available for Agents to refer in order to decide what tools they should adopt to achieve success in their real estate business.
Often we discover by accident an incredibly timesaving tool, which we COULD have been using for years in our computer work, but just had not known about. Well, you will bless the day that you learned here about this true time saver.
Trick #1: Get a Human on the Phone
Sally Agent starts her workday like a million other dedicated REALTORS®. She goes through the morning ritual of rubbing the sleep from her eyes, perhaps doing a bit of exercise before breakfast, then getting dressed and ready to go to the office. But this is where the similarity ends. You see, Sally is not just any typical agent, she has an entire team tirelessly working for her even while she sleeps -- a team she has never met. Here"s how Sally has the perfect workday, one that she enjoys five days a week.
Typically, many agents" workdays slow considerably as the holidays approach. On the flip side, real estate services companies are working in overdrive right now as they prepare to show off hot new technologies at the annual National Association of Realtors Conference & Expo in San Francisco, Oct. 28-31.
Some people "pooh-pooh" agents trying to get their site to come up high on organic (non-paid) search engine results. They suggest agents rely instead on pay-per-click advertising.
Here"s a sobering statistic for real estate brokers to ponder: fifty percent of all Internet requests from consumers never receive a response, real estate experts say. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 80 percent of agents use e-mail for business, while 46 percent have a website. But research has shown that most real estate agents virtually ignore the Internet as the incredibly powerful marketing tool that it can be, letting valuable new business opportunities slip through their fingers.
What constitutes a brand strategy? Organizations often undertake a "branding" process, yet the outcome closely resembles a public relations face-lift. Why does this occur? One possibility might be the framework that guides the process. Another may simply be the viewpoint of the agency, or consultant, employed. In any case, valuable dollars are spent each year on brand strategy endeavors and frequently, the outcome does not yield the tangible results organizations are seeking.
Recent reports from San Diego, Calif., about a stalker calling real estate agents on their cell phones to make threats, confirm my belief that agents need to put up a barrier between their business lives and personal lives.
With the growing popularity of Wi-Fi for accessing the Internet, this convenience is becoming expected. What often frustrates users now is not the availability of Wi-Fi, but the often spotty coverage and never really being sure where you"ll find access to a good signal.
Most theft is done from agents whose truly excellent Websites, packed with brilliantly creative elements, put them miles ahead of other agents. I"m getting convinced that most pirates are just too uncreative and dense to think up something original or who just tell themselves that after all, "Everything on the Internet is free, isn"t it?"
How many times have you highlighted something, then hit the "delete" key, and immediately realized that you’d deleted the wrong thing. It’s sort of like that one-second feeling you get when you know you have just hit your thumb with the hammer, but the pain has not yet kicked in.
There is no question that e-mail drip marketing is a powerful way to stay in contact with previous clients and cultivate new prospects who are not ready to take immediate action. Drip marketing systems allow you to set up and then automatically send a series of timed e-mail messages to any group of people with a common interest—first-time buyers, move-up sellers, etc. Thanks to this “click and forget” system, you can maintain customer contact and still have time to sell.
Looking for information that is related to a particular place - like a computer repair shop that"s nearest to your house? Google “Local” locates neighborhood services and shops by searching billions of pages across the Web, then cross-checks those results with Yellow Pages data to pinpoint the local resources you want to find. This unique approach gives you access to the most and most relevant results for your search.
While companies such as Google and Yahoo! cite "relevance" to the consumer as paramount to Internet searches, each is adjusting its search results functions to stimulate Website operators to choose the surer route of "pay-for-click" or "sponsor" positioning.
With constant advances in technology, the most difficult question facing the average real estate agent today is exactly which technologies they should take advantage first, which come last, and which ones might be a waste of time altogether.
In talking with REALTORS® about home automation at the recent NAR Convention in San Francisco, most told me that it is something "for the future," "it"s priced out of reach" or "the technology just isn"t there." The reality, however, is that consumers today can have total control of their home"s interior and exterior, whether they are inside their property or not. From lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), security systems, and home entertainment, to keeping an eye on kids as they arrive home from school, technologies are in place and at a reasonable cost.
Search engines come and go, but new revenue-building models are bringing search engines back to the forefront of Internet marketing. Search engine optimization (SEO) is big business for website designers and Internet marketers. Over the last few years, Google has dominated the search engine category, and recently has sent shockwaves throughout SEO professionals with an apparent change in its algorithms that sent many Realtors to the bottom of the pile instead of the top ten positions they were used to.
Your site is enmeshed in a monstrously large matrix of linked website connections. Seeing this matrix wriggling around on a screen, as though alive, is really scary the first time. Here"s how you view it.
Are you buying a used domain name for your web site, instead of registering a brand new one? How did the previous owner use that web address? If its history has been spotty, you might be buying a domain name already penalized by search engines.
If you"re like most professionals, unwanted junk-e-mail solicitations are becoming a serious obstacle to your productivity.
According to Clareity Consulting, the typical agent spends 3 1/2 hours using a combination of telecommunications devices - cellphones, office/home phones, e-mail and FAX machines, making them among the largest consumers of telecommunications services. Can costs be minimized?
As the junk e-mail (SPAM) problem continues to grow, a new problem that presents itself is the blocking of legitimate email messages. When such an e-mail is labeled as SPAM and blocked, this is known as a false-positive.
On a regular basis, I am asked what software is the “silver bullet” for real estate. “What one program will do everything I need?” Well, I’m sorry to say that there is none. But, with the advent of e-mail capability incorporated into the real estate-specific software “suite” called Agent Office, are we one step closer? Agent Office doesn’t eliminate the need for your e-mail software yet, as there are tools like filtering that it does not offer, but it may eliminate the need for tracking contacts in two different places. That’s a pretty significant step! Isn’t it worth looking at? I think so!
Dear Mr. Internet,
[Note: To follow is an excerpt of an interview with Marc Stephan Garrison, founder of the National Association of Real Estate Investors, and author of several books on real estate investing including "Unlimited Real Estate Profit." To listen to the show archive or download an MP3, go to www.IncomePropertyInvestmentTalk.com/021809.]
You know the old saying "the easier you make it for someone to contact you, the more likely
By now, just about any serious computer user owns a digital camera,
Q: Do you have any idea why the Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) running the PocketPC have not gained favor within the real estate industry?
Realty Times is a popular resource for new and experienced brokers and their agents. Many times we are e-mailed to find out more information about Internet marketing solutions. Here is the one question we are asked the most, and our answer - the five reasons why Internet marketing works for Realtors.
Your site needs a headline.
Stephen Canale offers Agent News readers a new question and answer column. Find answers to your technology questions, and if you have a question, write him an e-mail.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the rise was expected. “This clearly is a rush of first-time buyers not wanting to miss out on the tax credit, but there are many more potential buyers who can enter the market in the months ahead,” he said. “We expect a temporary sales drop while buying activity ramps up for another surge in the spring when buyers take advantage of the expanded tax credit, which hopefully will take us into a self-sustaining market in the second half of 2010. In all, 4.4 million households are expected to claim the tax credit before it expires and balance should be restored to the housing sector with inventories continuing to decline.”
In today’s age of virtual organizations, Intranets.com can quarterback
While desktop computer sales are declining, notebook sales continue
National listings sites have fallen out of favor with agents who believe that their local IDX sites, broker sites, or franchise sites may produce more leads. But in response to a series of recent articles on Realtor.com, some agents say that they do indeed get consumer leads from their listings on Realtor.com as well as referrals from other agents who find them on the site.
Following the success of the Real Estate CyberSpace Society"s 2002 National Real Estate On-Line Convention and Exposition in April 2002, the Society is hosting a special
Getting search engines to consistently send your site new prospects can seem like the blackest of online black arts. Part of the problem is that many search engines (including the "majors") are really serving results from other search engines. Knowing "who is serving whom" with respect to search engine results then becomes a critical marketing issue.
Keller Williams, one of the first agent-focused franchise business models, has a unique agent retention and recruiting approach - let agents know how well the office is doing by allowing them open views of the office management system which includes views to their own and other agents" production.
One of the most important components to having an effective online presence is having a great domain name or two. Domain names are one of the most important things that people remember about your site. It also denotes your space on the Web.
A familiar term to all involved in the practice of real estate is “farming!” Farming is the most effective prospecting tool for cultivating and identifying new potential leads that will generate sales and income for our business. The term "farming," is an analogy for the prospecting seeds we plant in a successful marketing campaign to a targeted audience. If the farm is nurtured over a period of time with direct marketing materials, such as mailers, cold calls, postcards and brochures the desired effect is that the leads generated can be cultivated so that your business will bear a great fruit or harvest!
Pending home sales declined on the heels of a weakening economy and with some buyers waiting for clarity on housing stimulus provisions, according to the National Association of Realtors®.
If you market in a rural area, you may be luckier than your urban peers in
HomeSeekers new value proposition was laid out in an Internet presentation to MLSs and the brokers and agents complete with voiceovers from new CEO Thomas Chaffee, new president Steve Crane, and senior vice president Greg Robertson who created an online slide presentation outlining the benefits of HomeSeekers to MLSs and agents.
Advancements in technology have permeated the real estate business with millions of agents joining their customers in using the Web to their advantage in buying and selling homes and commercial properties. The biggest reason real estate agents are looking to use the Internet is because between 70 – 90 percent of buyers and sellers say they expect to use their computer in the search and decision making process of purchasing real estate. Thousands of agents are enrolling in online services that link agents with buyers and sellers, as well as hosting their own Web sites to showcase property listings.
According to Advertising Age with the recent launch of BarbieLatina.com, Mattel is not only expanding the
The results are in for the second monthly Mr. Internet/Realty Times survey, featured on Agent News. Four hundred and sixty five respondents, about a 13 percent increase over last month"s responses, answered questions about Broker Reciprocity and how important real estate professionals think it will be to their businesses.
Broker reciprocity is coming to your MLS as of January 2002. What does it mean to you? How much should it cost? Does it create any unfair marketing advantages? Which service providers should offer it? Participate in the latest survey from Mr. Internet/Realty Times and find out how hundreds of other real estate professionals view the NAR"s Broker Reciprocity initiative.
Having tested the Kodak DC4800 for over a month, I can confidently say that this camera is what digital photography has been waiting for. What makes this camera a winner is that it combines the best of the digital world with almost the full range of functionality that serious photo-hobbyists could previously find only from 35 mm single lens reflex cameras.
If you"ve ever searched for available web site names, there"s a good chance that you"ve had the exact same thought as I: "Why did someone register the name I wanted, when they aren"t even using it?" Checking a little deeper, you find out that the "owner" of this name is willing to sell it to you, or better, gouge you for it: "They expect me to pay them HOW MUCH for that name? It only cost $70!" You end up with two thoughts: "@#$%&!" and "Are there any good web site names left?"
I don"t envy Homestore"s investor relations personnel right now. They have the impossible job of explaining why Homestore is developing a free product for the real estate industry. Aren"t products supposed to produce revenues? Yes, and Homestore"s new Internet Data Exchange (IDX) product will, too. But first, the company has to change the world.