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BentleyForbes buys build-to-suit in Maryland

By Inman News, Monday, March 15, 2004.

BentleyForbes purchased a 216,000-square-foot United States Headquarters building in Sparks, Md.

The value of the transaction was $42 million.

The three-story, class A office building is a campus-style build-to-suit development completed in March 2004. It is located at 940 Ridgebrook Road.

BentleyForbes represented itself in the transaction. David Scheffenacker Jr. of Preston Partners, Inc. represented the developer, Highland Partners, in the sale.

The tenant, PHH Arval, a global fleet management company, fully occupied the property at the time of sale.  more...

Archstone-Smith lands Manhattan high-rise

By Inman News, Monday, March 15, 2004.

Archstone-Smith purchased The Sonoma, a 254-unit apartment community in the Murray Hill area of Manhattan, N.Y.

The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

The community is located at the corner of East 39th Street and Second Avenue. Completed in 2001, the 29-story high-rise will operate under the company's Charles E. Smith brand.

The Related Companies L.P. was the seller.  more...

REIT takes Maryland industrial complex

By Inman News, Monday, March 15, 2004.

Washington Real Estate Investment Trust acquired a 140,700-square-foot industrial building in Laurel, Md.

The value of the transaction was $11.5 million.

The property, located at 8880 Gorman Road, is located in Lincoln Center, a newly constructed planned business park.

The one-story property was 100 percent occupied at the time of sale by Datex-Ohmeda Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of GE Medical Systems.  more...

From $2 trillion to $2.5 trillion

By Inman News, Monday, March 15, 2004.

The Mortgage Bankers Association today increased its forecast for this year's total mortgage originations by a whopping $500 billion, and the group's economists now believe 2004 will post yet another record in home purchase originations.  more...

Driving without real estate license not smart

By Inman News, Monday, March 15, 2004.

Dear Real Estate Ethicist,

Last month, I got arrested for driving under the influence and this month my real estate license lapses. I am worried that I cannot renew my real estate license because of the drunk-driving charge, so I am going to just let it lapse and keep practicing real estate. Who will know, right? –Driving without a real estate license

Dear Driving,

I am an ethicist not a therapist, man. But I will cut you some slack.  more...

Builder confidence holds steady

By Inman News, Monday, March 15, 2004.

Demand for newly built single-family homes is holding steady at a healthy level in March, according to builders surveyed for the National Association of Home Builders' latest Housing Market Index, released today. The HMI remained unchanged this month from February's 64 reading.  more...

First American expands real estate valuation line

By Inman News, Monday, March 15, 2004.

First American Real Estate Solutions today announced the addition of Veros and Basis100 Automated Valuation Model products to its suite of collateral valuation decisioning tools.

With these additions, First American has increased its quantity of available AVM providers to four, joining Freddie Mac's Home Value Explorer and First American's ValuePoint4, the company's proprietary fourth-generation technology. This combination aims to provide customers with the greatest nationwide geographic coverage, hit rate and accuracy in the industry.  more...

The Rookie Realtor: Do you want fries with that?

By Inman News, Monday, March 15, 2004.

When I wrote the first installment of "Rookie Realtor" I didn't really know what type of reaction to expect from fellow agents and other Inman News readers. I hoped for the best, but braced for the worst.

I got both.

Many of the 100-plus folks who sent e-mails to me within hours after the first column appeared were Realtors from across the United States and Canada, and as far away as Japan. Some gave me good ideas to refine my marketing program or generously offered other advice to help me close my first deal.  more...

More workers leave house before 6:30 a.m.

By Inman News, Monday, March 15, 2004.

The typical U.S. commuter in 2000 left home between 6:30 a.m. and 8:29 a.m. and drove alone for 26 minutes to get to work, the U.S. Census Bureau said today in a report based on Census 2000 results. Overall, people were leaving home earlier and spending more time in traffic in 2000 than in previous censuses.  more...

Property insurance market 'fraying around edges'

By Inman News, Monday, March 15, 2004.

The federal government must take action to fix "critical problems in the insurance marketplace that Congress cannot continue to ignore," U.S. Rep. Michael G. Oxley said today.

The health insurance marketplace is "collapsing," parts of the property-casualty marketplace are "similarly fraying around the edges," and insurance market problems are "getting worse" in most states, Oxley, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, warned.  more...

Web service dives into real estate referral business

By Inman News, Monday, March 15, 2004.

NeighborhoodScout, a Web-based neighborhood search engine for home buyers, is introducing the NeighborhoodScout Broker Network, a referral program for real estate brokers who want pre-screened home buyer and seller referrals with no up-front fee.  more...

SharperLending updates loan origination platform

By Inman News, Monday, March 15, 2004.

SharperLending, which provides a secure Web-based platform for lenders to order, store and manage mortgage products from multiple vendors, added AVM Plus to its loan origination platform. AVM Plus is a combination of technology and industry-specific errors and omissions (E & O) insurance that allows lenders to use workflow to automate the ordering of automated valuation models.  more...

New Web-based platform bundles real estate services

By Inman News, Monday, March 15, 2004.

The First American Corp. today introduced an integrated Web services-based production and delivery platform that can create real estate product bundles, manage electronic invoices and enable mortgage lenders to offer guaranteed mortgage packages.

First American is completing the first phase of its program to offer a streamlined, one-stop customer experience. The new platform provides access to First American's full suite of product bundles.  more...

Canadian real estate sales increase

By Inman News, Monday, March 15, 2004.

Canada's major market home sales in February via the Multiple Listing Service totaled 24,368 units on a seasonally adjusted basis, up 1.4 percent from January, according to The Canadian Real Estate Association.

Seasonally adjusted new listings amounted to 38,885 units, up 4 from January.

While listings are trending higher, the housing market nonetheless remains historically tight.

Tight market conditions combined with solid demand for higher priced homes caused the major market MLS residential average price to rise 10.5 percent year-over-year to $233,921.  more...

Overnight mortgage rates hold steady

By Inman News, Monday, March 15, 2004.

Long-term mortgage interest rates were mostly flat Friday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield inched higher to 3.76 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average remained at 5.07 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate rose slightly to 4.39 percent. The 1-year adjustable sank to 2.93 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield climbed to 4.71 percent.

Rates are current as of 7:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.  more...