Home
Date

Dec

7
2007

Blogging luminary moves on

By Glenn Roberts, Jr., Friday, December 7, 2007.
Dustin Luther, founder of Seattle real estate blog RainCityGuide.com, is apparently Move-ing on. Hired by Move Inc. as director of consumer innovations in November 2006, Luther wrote in a Nov. 30 blog post at the 4realz.net site: "time for something...  more...

Paulson, abridged, spindled and mutilated

By Matt Carter, Friday, December 7, 2007.
In the spirit of yesterday's post summarizing FDIC Chair Sheila Bair's points on some common "misconceptions" about the HOPE NOW rate freeze plan will work, here's the Cliff notes on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's Q&A, which posted on the White...  more...

Thriving in a downturn: Can it be done?

By Jessica Swesey, Friday, December 7, 2007.
It's happening. Real estate brokerage companies are cutting staff, agents are packing up and moving on (or at least considering other career options), and some brokerage offices are now closing. Inman News this morning learned of a RE/MAX office in...  more...

A Place to Call Ugly

By Glenn Roberts, Jr., Friday, December 7, 2007.
HomeVestors, a company known for its "We Buy Ugly Houses" slogan, sponsored an "Ugliest House of the Year" contest. A windowless shack in Sarasota, Fla., took first place. Most buyers would not rush in for a tour of a property...  more...

Bills could provide incentives for rate-freeze plan Premium Content

By Matt Carter, Friday, December 7, 2007.

Washington, D.C., lawmakers have bills in play that could provide a carrot -- or a stick -- for lenders and loan servicers to participate in the Bush administration's rate-freeze plan.

Legislation that would allow bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of Chapter 13 debtors' mortgage loans could serve as a stick for lenders to conduct their own workouts, rather than have them imposed on them by a court.  more...

Online real estate ad spend projected to reach $8 billion in 2012

By Inman News, Friday, December 7, 2007.

The "Big Three" classified advertising categories -- automotive, recruitment and real estate -- are expected to have a 37.7 percent share of all online ad spending in 2008, and to have an 18.3 percent share of total ad spending, a research and consulting company reported today.

Borrell Associates, in a 2008 forecast report released today, also expects real estate to have an 8.7 percent share of the total online advertising market in 2008, and a 4 percent share of all advertising.

About 23.5 percent of the anticipated $12.3 billion real estate ad spend in 2008 will be spent onl  more...

How to really get out of foreclosure mess

By Lou Barnes, Friday, December 7, 2007.

Long-term mortgage rates are back above 6 percent this morning (despite Freddie Mac's "Fell Below 6 Percent" headline in today's papers, the result of an early-week survey), and the definitive 10-year T-note is now 4.12 percent, a long way from the 3.85 percent bottom in the last two weeks.

A 94,000-jobs gain in November payrolls reported this morning didn't help -- the bond market was hoping ghoulishly for an off-the-table figure -- but the real damage was done yesterday by the subprime workout plan.  more...

Mortgage rates hit two-year lows

By Inman News, Friday, December 7, 2007.

Freddie Mac is the latest group tracking loan prices to report that rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages have fallen below the 6 percent threshold.

The McLean, Va.-based mortgage repurchaser's weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed borrowers paying an average of 5.96 percent interest with 0.4 points for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage during the week ending Dec. 6. That's down from 6.1 percent the previous week, and has not been lower since the last week of September, 2005, when it averaged 5.91 percent.  more...

Paragon purchases Arizona retail center

By Inman News, Friday, December 7, 2007.

Paragon Management Co.  more...

STAG lands Ohio industrial property

By Inman News, Friday, December 7, 2007.

STAG Capital Partners has acquired a 120,774-square-foot manufacturing and warehouse facility in Twinsburg, Ohio, as part of a 17-year sale-leaseback transaction with Atlas Steel Products Co.

The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

The building is situated on 15.3 acres at 7790 Bavaria Road and is fully occupied by Atlas Steel Products, a metal processing company.

Bill Vogelgesang of Candlewood Partners represented the seller, Sigma Properties, Inc.

STAG Capital Partners acquires single-tenant, net leased properties via third-party transactions and corpor  more...

Essex sells apartment portfolio for $97.5 million

By Inman News, Friday, December 7, 2007.

Essex Property Trust has sold four apartment communities in Washington and Oregon for a total of $97.5 million, the company announced this week.

The communities include:

--Landmark Apartments in Hillsboro, Ore., which includes 200 units;

--Jackson School Village in Hillsboro, Ore., which includes 285 units;

--Meadows at Cascade Park in Vancouver, Wash., which includes 198 units; and

--Village at Cascade Park in Vancouver, Wash., which includes 192 units.

The proceeds from the sale will be used in a tax-free reverse exchange for the purchase of Mill  more...

Thanks for the referral

By Alison Rogers, Friday, December 7, 2007.

When I started selling in Manhattan (which is a year and a half ago now, but trust me, I'm still a rookie) I had no idea where customers came from.

The nice thing about being part of the Inman family is that it gave me the ability to quiz senior agents from different parts of the country, and they all said pretty much the same thing: It's hard to start, and then you get referrals.

Well, I had pretty much no idea what they were talking about because, since real estate was a second career for me, my good friends were demographically ill-suited to be clients.  more...

What's working in today's market? Premium Content

By Bernice Ross, Friday, December 7, 2007.

(This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Read Part 2, "How to thrive in 2008.")

Could a group of real estate agents write and publish a real estate book in just a week? The answer is "Absolutely!"

The Saturday before the National Association of Realtors convention last month, Frances Flynn Thorsen, Steve Kantor and I spoke on a panel for a coaching event hosted by Patti Kouri.  more...

Overnight real estate rates edge up

By Inman News, Friday, December 7, 2007.

Long-term mortgage interest rates ticked up Thursday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield increased to 4.01 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average eged up to 5.62 percent, and the 15-year fixed rate increased to 5.19 percent. The 1-year adjustable rate increased slightly to 5.49 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield was also up at 4.48 percent.

Rates and bonds 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...

Small improvements make most of utility room

By Paul Bianchina, Friday, December 7, 2007.

Call it what you will -- utility room, laundry room, mud room -- the names say it all. It's a place for the washer and dryer to live, a place for wet and dirty clothes to hang out, a landing point for muddy boots and chore jackets, you name it.  more...

12next ›last »