Realty Executives hits growth spurt in 2004

Realty Executives International added 200 franchise offices to its worldwide network in 2004, the company reported, growing its open offices at a rate 260 percent higher the prior year's growth rate.

The number of agents also increased by more than 32 percent since 2003.

Realty Executives CEO Rich Rector attributed the growth to things like new guerilla marketing programs, internal marketing tools, advertising initiatives, recruiting strategies and internal executive incentive programs.  more...

Real estate companies find a place on top franchise list

Weichert Real Estate Affiliates Inc., today announced that it ranked 10th on the list of 50 top new franchises, published by Entrepreneur magazine. The company also ranked 79th on the magazine's top-500 list of fastest-growing franchises in U.S. and Canada.

This is the 26th year that the magazine has conducted the franchise survey.  more...

Fidelity ramps up bank-owned real estate Web site

BuyBankHomes.com, a Web portal for marketing properties that have completed the foreclosure process, has new site enhancements for its lead tracking, reporting capabilities and broker searches, including the addition of a rules-based engine that sorts and e-mails buyer and investor leads to the appropriate registered broker and agent.

The system also tracks leads and enables brokers and agents to view the status of their assigned leads.  more...

Sales soar at Chicago real estate brokerage

Chicago-based Baird & Warner, one of Illinois' largest independent real estate firms, posted year-end sales of more than $6.2 billion in 2004, up 15 percent from $5.4 billion in 2003, the company said Monday.

The company sold 18,912 homes in 2004, a gain of 1,100 real estate properties over the 17,835 homes sold in 2003.  more...

Illinois real estate sales climb in 4th quarter

Single-family home sales in Illinois continued strong in the fourth quarter, with Realtors reporting 21,600 closings, up 5.1 percent from 20,552 sales in the fourth quarter of 2003, the Illinois Association of Realtors reported today.

In the fourth quarter of 2004, the statewide median price was $184,800, up 7.8 percent from $171,400 during the same period in 2003.  more...

Overnight real estate rates push higher

Long-term mortgage interest rates began climbing Friday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield rose to 4.09 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average increased to 5.11 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate gained to 4.69 percent. The 1-year adjustable was down at 3.59 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield gained to 4.48 percent.

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

Homes.com overhauls its product line

Real estate businesses and individual brokers and agents will be able to promote themselves in their local ZIP codes on Homes.com through a new product line called the Featured Advertiser.

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