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Stuart Wolff trial postponed to 2010 Premium Content

By Matt Carter, Monday, November 2, 2009.

The retrial of Stuart Wolff, former Homestore.com founder, chairman and chief executive officer, has been postponed until next year as prosecutors investigate allegations by his defense team that evidence in the case was modified or destroyed by Homestore's accounting firm.

Wolff's lawyers say the government's case against him turns on allegations that "Wolff and others engaged in a conspiracy to actively conceal financial records and information" from accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.  more...

Pending sales rise for 8th month

By Inman News, Monday, November 2, 2009.

A trade group's index gauging pending sales of resale homes rose for the eighth straight month in September and was up 21.2 percent compared to the same month last year.

The National Association of Realtors reported that the index rose 6.1 percent from August to September, reaching 110.1 -- an index score of 100 is equal to the average level of sales contract activity in 2001, which was the first year to be examined for the index.

The index for all of 2008 was 87.1; in 2007 it was 96.3, and in 2006 it stood at 111.9.  more...

FTC orders MLS to publish listings Premium Content

By Matt Carter, Monday, November 2, 2009.

Realcomp II MLS, a Detroit-area multiple listing service that ultimately stood alone in challenging the government's position that MLSs are breaking the law if they refuse to transmit "exclusive agency" property listings favored by discount brokers to public Web sites, has been ordered to reverse its policy.

In a unanimous 4-0 decision, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found that Realcomp II's Web site policy and related requirements impose a "significant impediment" to consumer access to listings represented by limited-service brokers, helping protect full-service brokers' commissions from competition.  more...

Understanding home seller behavior

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Monday, November 2, 2009.
Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/deltamike/751707089/">deltaMike</a>.

You might recall from last week that a new friend of mine, Danielle LaPorte, wrote a guide to finding your "style statement" -- a two-word phrase that "define(s) the true you." While LaPorte's style statements describe the subject individual's aesthetic and world view, I couldn't help trying my hand at creating a few homebuyer profiles based on this principle. While a true style statement might be a phrase like "elemental power," I came up with style statements of typical homebuying behavior like "Decent DIYer" and "Righteous Nit-Picker."

With sellers, more than buyers, their selling style is not necessarily their usual, personal style of interacting with the world. We're specifically talking here about their style of thinking about this particular experience and transaction of selling their home.  more...

Real estate celebrity is dead Premium Content

By Bernice Ross, Monday, November 2, 2009.

If you're still marketing your services with the "I'm the best agent in today's market" (even if you are), it's time to stop being the celebrity and to start asking, "How can I be of service?"

For years we trained agents to promote themselves and their companies: "You should hire me because I sell more houses than anyone else in this area," or "You should hire us because we are the No. 1 company with the No. 1 market share in this area." These types of marketing messages worked back in the 1980s and '90s. Most sellers wanted the best because they believed they would sell their home more quickly and at a higher price. In many cases, celebrity brokers were held in awe.  more...

A tale of 2 real estate 'tweeters' Premium Content

By Mary Umberger, Monday, November 2, 2009.
Kelly Mitchell and Kevin Cottrell

This is a tale of two Tweeters. They're tackling the microblogging phenomenon in ways that are polar opposites -- and are equally convinced that it's a great way to build their real estate businesses.

Kelly Mitchell is a Honolulu agent who uses Twitter.com to send out brief dispatches that spotlight news in the real estate market, and also focus on her daily life and her feelings -- about being stuck in traffic, about an inspirational quote, and talking to college students about social media, for example.  more...

Mortgage shopper's dream come true

By Jack Guttentag, Monday, November 2, 2009.

As noted last week, borrowers often make costly transactional mistakes because they know less than the loan providers they deal with, who are motivated to exploit their information advantage. A borrower who pays 5 percent when she could have gotten 4.875 percent if she had known what her loan provider knew has made a transactional mistake.

Borrowers make lifestyle mistakes for the same reason, and also because lifestyle decisions are often complicated, and borrowers tend to overweight short-term benefits and underweight long-term costs. A borrower who refinances to reduce her payment at the cost of owing substantially more after five years may have made a very costly lifestyle mistake.  more...

Vote on tax credit expected this week

By Inman News, Monday, November 2, 2009.

Congress has approved a one-year extension of higher loan limits for mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, and an amendment that would extend the first-time homebuyer tax credit has been incorporated into a Senate bill to prolong unemployment benefits.

A procedural vote on the unemployment benefit legislation, HR 3548, is expected today, Congressional Quarterly reported, with final passage by the end of the week.  more...