Real Estate Industry Blog

What are the steps in a short sale?

As many had predicted, Todd Carpenter has been named the Social Media Manager for NAR.  This was  just announced by Hilary Marsh, Managing Director for Realtor.org on AgentGenius.com. I would like to wish Todd all the success in his new position!

USDA Rural Home Loans has a MASSIVE advantage in today’s Real Estate market.  We’ve all heard these terms… NO MONEY DOWN! ZERO DOWN! 100% Home Loan Financing! These options for financing a home are no longer available with conventional financing NOR through FHA home loan financing.  The best option for buying a home with No [...]

Top of Mind Networks recently did a webinar with Brian Brady (who Google calls America’s No. 1 Mortgage Broker) on the topic of how to effectively use sites like Facebook and LinkedIn to drive business.  There were many in attendance, but for those who were not able to make it here is a link to [...]

President Obama signed the stimulus bill into law that gives first-time home buyers a credit worth $8,000 – or 10% of the home’s value, whichever is less on their 2008 or 2009 taxes.  What this means is if you are a first-time home buyer and purchase a home between January 1st, 2009 and November 30th, [...]

Apparently Dale Stinton, CEO of NAR has announced that they have hired a Social Media Manager and will announce who this person is at REBarCamp in Virginia on March 3rd.   Not sure what is significant about waiting till March 3rd but NAR has definitely created a buzz about who it could be around the Internet. [...]

Just finished attending Brian Brady’s webinar on utilizing Facebook to increase your database and increase your sales pipeline. This was an hour-long webinar. For those of you who do not possess the attention span, suffer from ADD or ADHD or knew about this particular webinar and simply could not attend, here’s the “meat and potatoes” that [...]

We are pleased to announce that the Foreign National Loan Program for Canadians is once again lending!  This program allows for Canadian Borrowers to purchase either a 2nd Home (Vacation Home) or an investment property.  As interest rates and home prices continue to decline collectively, there has never been a better time than NOW to [...]

..in over EIGHT MONTHS! That’s right, no glossy postcards, calendar magnets, introduction letters, not even a notepad & pen left at my doorstep from a single-solitary Real Estate Professional for nearly a year.  I decided I’d better ask around…just to make sure I hadn’t been black-listed for some unknown reason. Surely, my three, dog-sized cats [...]

Winning the week means, arriving at the end of your work week and being able to look back and know that your intentions and the conscious choices you made every day, helped to spark growth and opportunity.  But, how many weeks have passed where you have taken little, to no notice at all, of how [...]

For those of you that haven’t heard the news, Active Rain has a new membership plan.   As an owner of WannaNetwork.com I can totally relate to Active Rain’s reasoning for charging new members a monthly fee.  It takes a lot of time, resources and money to operate a real estate social network and provide the [...]

Can you believe Zillow has been around for three years now?  I can remember the first time I had heard of it.  I was at a listing appointment in Henderson, Nevada going over the CMA (comparative market analysis) with the home owners.  As I began to discuss the price, they interrupted me and said according [...]

A “foreclosed” home is one that is now owned by the bank. There is typically a Trustee Sale or auction that will take place in hopes that the home will sell quickly. In many cases the home will not sell at these events due to one of many possible reasons. Often the property doesn’t sell [...]

2008 was a year of uncertainty and near panic as the American public was bludgeoned out of its collective denial, that the sub-prime crisis had far more sinister implications that just punishing speculators and a small segment of borrowers. I believe 2009 will be a different environment… To read the entire article, click on the [...]

PMI Mortgage Insurance issued a statement on their website that states they will no longer “insure or contract underwrite Third Party Originations” effective February 20th, 2009.  So what does that mean?  Well, that means they will no longer insure or contract underwrite for Mortgage brokers but will for Banks. Business is already tough enough and [...]

Population: 80,055 $393,500 is the median estimate for a given geographic area on a given day. For Sale (295) Recently Sold (804) Lakewood Home Value Information Lakewood National Home Value Index: $204,577 $393,500 1-Yr. Change: -$98,000 -$24,101 Per Sq. Ft.: $337 $258 Flips (Sold Twice Within the Last Yr.): 1.1% 2.3% Turnover (Sold Within Last [...]

Redfin is Going into the Referral Business, according to Refin’s CEO, Glenn Kelman.  Redfin generates a tremendous amount of traffic to it’s website, Redfin.com but they only operate in 7 real estate markets.   According to Greg Swann, “the Redfin.com web site is better than anything else in the Real Estate 2.0 universe.“  So it’s no [...]

Should you call your mother? Should you write down your goals? Should you develop a marketing plan for the year? Should you get a house cleaner, hire an assistant, open an IRA account, create a budget, live by your values and respect your elders? No, you should not! However, if you choose to, then yes [...]