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Hedging your bet on real estate commissions

By Inman News, Tuesday, September 2, 2008.

In the real estate business, a deal is not always a done deal.

There are a variety of factors that can derail a home sale, and the failure rate tends to accelerate in an environment of slumping sales and prices. That is bad news for agents, as they may invest money in marketing a home for sale with no guarantee that they will recoup that investment if the home does not sell.  more...

Earthquake retrofit begins in crawl space

By Bill and Kevin Burnett, Tuesday, September 2, 2008.

Last week, a reader asked our opinion about insulating his crawl space and doing a little earthquake retrofitting under his home. We recommended that he install batt insulation between the floor joists, retrofit the cripple walls with plywood sheathing to make a shear wall, and put down a plastic vapor barrier over the dirt in the crawlspace.  more...

Rid septic system of tree roots

By Barry Stone, Tuesday, September 2, 2008.

DEAR BARRY: We moved into our home about three months ago, and this week we had a professional inspection of the septic system. The septic contractor found a large mass of tree roots in the tank and recommended that we flush about 10 pounds of copper sulfate down the toilet. He said this would eventually kill the roots. I'm concerned that the copper sulfate won't get rid of the roots, or that it might harm or kill the two large trees in my front yard. What do you recommend? --James  more...

Real estate quakes and aftershocks Premium Content

By Kris Berg, Tuesday, September 2, 2008.

This week my office had a little shakeup. We received the news that we would be merging with another office. Based on the aftershocks from those outside of the office, and even from some within who are relatively new to real estate, you would have thought that the end of the world was imminent.  more...

Who cares if you're a million-dollar producer?

By Inman News, Tuesday, September 2, 2008.

Editor's note: The following is a reader comment in response to the Aug. 19 Inman News story, "The Myth of the Million-Dollar Producer."

"In what other profession do people put something on their card that indicates how much they sold? I can't think of any.

"Personally, I don't even have my office list my sales on the internal weekly sales report for the other agents in the office to see.  more...

Western cities bear brunt of falling prices

By Inman News, Tuesday, September 2, 2008.

All 25 metro areas tracked in a June home-price report reported a lower price per square foot than a year ago, real estate data and analytics company Radar Logic reported today, up from 23 areas in May.  more...

Don't send listings into the void Premium Content

By Matt Carter, Tuesday, September 2, 2008.

If the debate over whether agents and brokers should send their listings to real estate portals has largely run its course, the question remains: Which sites should you send listings to? And which sites are worthy of pricey listings "enhancements" such as better placement and content?

Firms such as Hitwise and comScore can provide real estate firms with a wealth of intelligence on traffic to their Web sites -- and those of their competitors -- and help clients optimize search campaigns.  more...