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Real estate's new intermediaries Premium Content

By Inman News, Wednesday, November 4, 2009.

With distressed properties accounting for a greater percentage of sales than ever -- more than half in some hard-hit markets -- agents and brokers who have never handled a short sale or bank-owned home may find themselves feeling left out if they don't jump on the bandwagon.

But many real estate professionals who do specialize in short sales warn that it's a business of risks and rewards, requiring skill, connections and patience.  more...

Bankruptcy fails as foreclosure rescue

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Wednesday, November 4, 2009.

In this case, homeowner David Coletta secured a note for $60,000 with mortgages on two properties in favor of mortgage holder Nicholas Mattera. After the homeowner defaulted on payments on the note, Mattera filed a foreclosure action in the county court.

The homeowner's response failed to conform to the court's rules, and he was given an extension of time to respond appropriately. Instead of responding, the homeowner filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy action, which automatically stayed the foreclosure proceedings. His attorney was unable to provide evidence that he notified Mattera of this bankruptcy filing. The homeowner failed to follow through with the bankruptcy case, and it was dismissed.  more...

Real estate's bright, not-so-bright ideas

By The Real Deal, Wednesday, November 4, 2009.

NEW YORK -- This city's real estate market is at something of a crossroad. For more than a year now, the industry has been dealing with the fallout from Wall Street and the credit crisis, leaving brokers, developers, city officials and everyone in between groping for strategies to keep financially afloat. While it's hard to fault real estate professionals for throwing any ideas they have at the problem to see which ones stick, some of those approaches have worked better than others. This month, The Real Deal dissected some of the biggest policies and proposals that are being used -- or considered -- to help shore up the industry.

The goal was to see which ideas have helped get the market moving, and which have fallen flat, and to examine how much promise the ideas being bandied about now have.  more...

Fed keeps lid on short-term rates

By Inman News, Wednesday, November 4, 2009.

The Federal Reserve will keep its target rate for the federal funds overnight rate at zero to 0.25 percent, and continues to expect that economic conditions are likely to warrant "exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period."

The Federal Open Market Committee, in announcing the decision to keep the key short-term rate unchanged, said activity in the housing sector has increased over recent months. While household spending appears to be expanding, it remains constrained by ongoing job losses, sluggish income growth, lower housing wealth, and tight credit.  more...

Demand for refis surges

By Inman News, Wednesday, November 4, 2009.

Applications for mortgage were up a seasonally adjusted 8.2 percent last week, even though demand for purchase loans sagged, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in releasing the results of its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.

Requests for purchase loans were down a seasonally adjusted 1.8 percent from one week earlier for the week ending Oct. 30, the MBA said. The decrease was more than offset by a 14.5 percent increase in applications for refinancings, which accounted for 66.1 percent of all loan requests.  more...

BHG Real Estate offers iPhone app

By Inman News, Wednesday, November 4, 2009.
BHG's iPhone app, Home Selection Assistant

Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC is offering an iPhone application that detects the user's location when they snap photos on home tours and automatically provides them with more information about the home and its surrounding neighborhood.

The iPhone app, Home Selection Assistant, also allows users to put together photo albums for each room in homes they are interested in, creating searchable content that can be synced with iTunes for access on a home computer or shared on Facebook or via e-mail, the company said in a press release.  more...

Real estate's Web 2.0 science lesson Premium Content

By Kris Berg, Wednesday, November 4, 2009.
Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mightyohm/2729475946/in/photostream/">mightyohm</a>.

An agent wrote recently on his blog, "If you are not ahead of the technology curve, you are behind and I mean WAY BEHIND!"

These words were penned by someone I know and respect -- a very smart dude -- so I have no doubt he intended to inspire and deliver us all unto 21st-century greatness. But, I also suspect that the vast majority of agents who happened to read these words have long since assumed the fetal position, fully prepared to let their licenses lapse.

I wanted to smack him (in a friendly sort of way, of course). What am I "behind" in?  more...

ZipRealty narrows losses

By Inman News, Wednesday, November 4, 2009.

ZipRealty Inc. edged closer to profitability during the third quarter, as transactions grew 30.6 percent and revenue by 12.8 percent from a year ago, the company said.

The Emeryville, Calif.-based brokerage's $779,000 net loss for the quarter ending Sept. 30 was less than half the $1.69 million loss for the same period a year ago.  more...

Taking a stand on floor insulation

By Bill and Kevin Burnett, Wednesday, November 4, 2009.

Q: Our Mill Valley, Calif., home was built in 1957 and was not insulated. Every time a wall is opened up, we add insulation. Some say it would be a good idea to insulate the floor of our house. There is a crawl space under the house where we could reach the bottom of the floor. As the house is built on a slope, the crawl space varies from 2 to 8 feet tall.

Others say insulating the floor may not be a good idea. In the summer, the house gets hot, and the coolness of the crawl space will help keep the house from getting hotter.

What do you guys think?  more...

6 tips to better real estate photos

By Mary Umberger, Wednesday, November 4, 2009.

Ashley Myers collects bad photography. Specifically, she collects bad real estate photos -- the ones that seem to go out of their way to make a home unappealing to would-be buyers.

To make her point on her blog on the ActiveRain.com networking site for real estate agents, Myers easily drums up half a dozen offenders culled from her local multiple listing service in Richardson, Texas: pictures that emphasize garish furniture instead of the room it's in. Fuzzy snaps of unremarkable bathroom vanities. Cloudy rooms -- photographed at night -- that are so underlit that one strains to discern such hard-to-miss features as a fireplace mantle.  more...

Commission shoppers beware

By Bernice Ross, Wednesday, November 4, 2009.

How will you decide who is the best person to market your property? If you're shopping exclusively based upon commission, you could be making a very costly mistake.

Recently I was speaking with the CEO of a well-known real estate firm. He shared his frustration about what he was hearing from many of his broker-owners. Apparently, a large percentage of buyers are calling various real estate offices and asking, "How much is your commission?" If the person answering the call says, "Six percent," the caller hangs up. Another version of the same scenario sounds like this, "We just talked to Joe Agent who works for the same firm you do, but he was willing to take our listing for 5 percent. We really like you, but unless you cut your commission to 5 percent, we're going to list with Joe."  more...