Property foreclosure scam bill gets Illinois senate's approval

Legislation meant to protect struggling homeowners from crooks who promise financial help was approved Monday by Illinois lawmakers, Associated Press reported.

The measure is meant to ensure that consumers struggling with mortgage payments don't fall victim to so-called "mortgage rescuers" - con artists who promise to rescue homeowners from foreclosure, reports said.

In such scams, the "rescuers" do little for the money and sometimes strip the home of its equity, leaving the owner in even worse financial shape.

The act would require consultants to detail in writing what  more...

Real estate loan fundings up at Countrywide

Countrywide Financial reported operational highlights for March, saying that mortgage loan funding totaled $40 billion, an increase of 10 percent from the prior year period.

The Calabasas, Calif.-based company said the $40 billion in March mortgage loan fundings brings year-to-date fundings to $103 billion, up 13 percent over last year.

"Countrywide's mortgage banking activity remained strong in the first quarter of 2006," said Stanford L. Kurland, President and Chief Operating Officer.  more...

Groups collaborate on standards to measure identity fraud

Edentify Inc. and the New Jersey Institute of Technology announced that they have teamed up to create industry standards for measuring identity fraud, a growing problem connected with financial crimes.

The groups aim to enhance security for all areas of identity usage, including national security, banking, retail and healthcare.

By combining efforts, the groups "hope to get one step closer to fulfilling our objective of enhancing the industry's ability to snuff out identity fraud  more...

Realtors launch national ad campaign to support health-plan bill

The National Association of Realtors this week launched a national advertising campaign to urge Congress to pass small-business health plan legislation that seeks to give small-business employees greater access to group health insurance plans.

The Realtor trade group's ad campaign began Monday and will run in national daily papers in state capitals through April 18.  more...

NAR forecast: Existing-home sales to drop 6% in '06

Existing-home sales are projected to drop 6 percent to 6.65 million this year from a record 7.08 million in 2005, according to the latest annual forecast by the National Association of Realtors trade group.

New-home sales, meanwhile, are projected to fall 10.9 percent to 1.14 million from the record 1.28 million last year – both sectors would see the third best year following 2005 and 2004.  more...

Tech co. announces new version of real estate panorama tool

A Web imaging company, 3cim Inc., announced the launch of a new virtual tour creation software called PanoramaBuilder 7.0 that allows real estate agents, consumers and photographers to create panoramas with a hand-held digital camera and no tripod.

The software "stitches" multiple photographs together into a panorama.

"With PB7, we've taken the complexity of shooting, building and publishing panorama Virtual Tours out of the process," said Steve Sorich, chief operating office  more...

Iseemedia to acquire RealBiz360

Technology company iseemedia Inc. has agreed to acquire majority ownership of real estate marketing company RealBiz360, through an asset purchase and license agreement, the company announced today.

The acquisition will include RealBiz360.com, a self-serve real estate marketing portal that hosts the RealBiz360 High Definition Virtual Tour platform, including RealBiz TourBuilder and RealBiz WebCreator.  more...

Overnight real estate rates climb

Long-term mortgage interest rates were higher on Monday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield decreased to 4.95 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average edged up to 6.07 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate increased to 5.76 percent. The 1-year adjustable also increased to 5.2 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield decreased to 5.02 percent.

Rates are current as of 7:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Mortgage rate figures are according to Bankrate.com, which publishes nightly averages based on its survey of 4,000 banks in 50 states.  more...

Real Living rolls out v2.0 to consumers

A revamp of Real Living Inc.'s consumer-personalized Web sites revolves around a single word: "share."

The beta site, which launched Monday night, allows users to create a list of company agents who they potentially would like to work with, and to create and save lists of properties.  more...

Nevada brokerage makes big push for paperless real estate

Realty Executives of Nevada has partnered with real estate technology provider VREO for a company-wide paperless real estate initiative, the companies announced Tuesday.

VREO's Real Estate Dashboard electronic signature software enables real estate professionals and their clients to electronically sign documents, eliminating a lot of paper from typical real estate transactions.  more...