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Study: Real estate search sites produce results

By Inman News, Tuesday, September 9, 2008.

A real estate technology company and an industry consulting firm report that Yahoo's real estate portal, Trulia, the Google Base classified site and Zillow are among the top third-party sources of online traffic to brokers' property listings in a case study of a multiple listing service region in Nevada.  more...

ZIPVO: not just for video hosting

By Inman News, Tuesday, September 9, 2008.

ZIPVO LLC has launched a subscription-based premium version of its free Web-based video, photo, blogging, news and agent profile service.

ZIPVO.com launched a year ago as a database of real estate videos accessible by ZIP Code or town. Realtors can upload videos to the site for free, embedding them in IDX-compliant MLS listings or in social networking sites like ActiveRain, Twitter, and Facebook.  more...

Zillow, newspapers create ad network

By Inman News, Tuesday, September 9, 2008.

Listings and valuation portal Zillow.com and a consortium of 11 newspaper publishers have forged an alliance allowing them to offer advertisers access to each other's audiences.

The Zillow Advertising Network allows newspaper advertisers to reach Zillow's national audience of more than 5 million unique visitors per month, the companies said, while Zillow advertisers get access to local audiences through real estate sections of newspaper Web sites.  more...

Deal's not sealed until escrow closes

By Tom Kelly, Tuesday, September 9, 2008.

A few weeks ago, we discussed the case of a veteran Realtor who canceled a much-awaited kayak trip because an out-of-state buyer was arriving with a reported all-cash offer for one of her listings. Because such buyers were scarce, she wanted to be sure she was in town to personally handle the transaction.  more...

Brick foundation prone to fail in major quake

By Bill and Kevin Burnett, Tuesday, September 9, 2008.

Q: My two-story, Berkeley, Calif., home, built in 1905, is very close to the Hayward Fault. It is lath and plaster with a stucco exterior. The house is U-shaped around a courtyard. There is only one area -- about 20 feet by 10 feet -- under the house that you could call a basement. The rest is crawlspace.  more...

Inside look at 'divorcing commissions'

By Inman News, Tuesday, September 9, 2008.

Compensation models are one of the more popular topics up for discussion around the real estate industry at any given time. Percentages, flat-fee, a la carte, the list goes on. One topic sometimes overlooked, however, is the origin of compensation -- namely, that the seller pays both the buyer's broker and the seller's broker. Many have argued that this issue needs to be addressed before any other. One such person emphasizing the idea of "divorcing commissions" is blogger and Phoenix real estate broker Greg Swann.  more...

Real estate and the long run Premium Content

By Kris Berg, Tuesday, September 9, 2008.

I went for a run yesterday. This is not big news, but it is news nonetheless, and it has inspired this latest installment in my Big Giant Metaphor series. You see, in days of yore (yore being last spring), I made a practice of going for a run several times a week.  more...

Congress weighs reprieve for seller-funded gifts Premium Content

By Matt Carter, Tuesday, September 9, 2008.

STOCKTON, Calif. -- A last-ditch effort to head off an Oct. 1 ban on the use of seller-funded down-payment assistance with FHA-backed loans is picking up steam as a compromise bill, that would mend rather than end the practice, gains momentum.

HR 6694, which would allow home builders to continue funneling down-payment assistance through nonprofit groups to home buyers using FHA loans, is certain to pass ...  more...

Bear Stearns, mortgage unit settle FTC charges

By Inman News, Tuesday, September 9, 2008.

The Bear Stearns Co. LLC and subsidiary EMC Mortgage Corp. will pay $28 million to settle federal allegations that the companies "misrepresented the amounts borrowers owed, charged unauthorized fees, such as late fees, property inspection fees and loan modification fees, and engaged in unlawful and abusive collection practices" in servicing consumers' home mortgage loans, according to a U.S. Federal Trade Commission announcement today.  more...

Study: Dubai offers world's highest home prices Premium Content

By Inman News, Tuesday, September 9, 2008.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is the most expensive international market for homes, while La Jolla, Calif., is the most expensive U.S. market, according to a price study released by the Coldwell Banker brokerage company.

The study compares homes with similar sizes and attributes in 315 U.S. markets and in Puerto Rico, Canada and a sampling of other countries where Coldwell Banker has operations.  more...

NAR drops expectations for home sales, prices

By Inman News, Tuesday, September 9, 2008.

The National Association of Realtors is expecting total sales of resale homes this year to drop 11.4 percent compared to 2007 and the median price of resale homes to fall 7 percent -- both projections are down from an earlier forecast.

The association is calling for 5.01 million sales of resale homes this year, compared with 5.65 million in 2007 and 6.48 million in 2006.  more...

Pending Home Sales Index falls in July

By Inman News, Tuesday, September 9, 2008.

A National Association of Realtors index that gauges pending sales of resale homes dropped 6.8 percent in July compared to the same period last year.

The Pending Home Sales Index, which is based on contracts signed in July, dropped 3.2 percent compared to June 2008, to 86.5. A score of 100 is equal to the average level of contract activity in 2001, which was the first year examined for the index.  more...