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Brokerage terminates agent who founded rebate network

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Thursday, March 9, 2006.

Ron Patterson, a Long & Foster Realtor who launched a rebate referral network, received notice Wednesday that the brokerage company had terminated its association with him, he told Inman News.

Patterson's Realty Legacy business model, which was featured in a March 7 Inman News article, offers rebates to consumers outside of the settlement process.  more...

Google to settle 'click fraud' case for $90 million

By Inman News, Thursday, March 9, 2006.

Google Inc.  more...

Joint venture buys SoCal space, plans office project

By Inman News, Thursday, March 9, 2006.

Grubb & Ellis Co. represented a joint venture between Xebec Development Co. and IDS Real Estate in the purchase of an 80,000-square-foot industrial building on 152,000 square feet of land in Burbank, Calif.

The value of the transaction was $9 million.

Xebec and IDS plan to redevelop the industrial facility, located at 210 South Victory Blvd., which was last used by a defense-related firm, into a creative office project with a total project investment of more than $30 million.  more...

Industrial deal wraps in Northern California

By Inman News, Thursday, March 9, 2006.

Lee & Associates brokered the sale of two industrial buildings in Pleasanton, Calif., in a deal comprising nearly 49,000 square feet.

The total value of the transaction was $9 million.

The buildings, located inside The Valley Business Park, are located back to back from each other. The first property is 28,137 square feet and is located at 1072 Serpentine Lane. This building was fully leased to two local tenants, Peregrine and Peridot, at the time of sale.  more...

STAG grows portfolio in Northeast

By Inman News, Thursday, March 9, 2006.

STAG Capital Partners recently purchased two properties located in Vermont and Massachusetts totaling 203,129 square feet.

The total value of the transactions was approximately $15 million.

In the first deal, STAG completed a 15-year purchase-leaseback involving 131,000 square feet of manufacturing, warehouse and office space in Brandon, Vt, for more than $5 million.

At the time of the transaction, the property was fully occupied by Vermont Tubbs Co., a manufacturer of high-end solid-wood bedroom furniture.  more...

San Francisco, meet Curbed

By Inman News, Thursday, March 9, 2006.

Curbed SF, an offshoot of popular New York real estate blog Curbed.com, has arrived.  more...

New mobile MLS system launches

By Inman News, Thursday, March 9, 2006.

Filogix Inc., a provider of technology to Canada's real estate and mortgage industries, has launched its new mobile MLS system, Filogix Mobile DMS, or M-DMS, the company said today.

As a part of this launch, Filogix will provide the system free to agents across Canada who are already using its MLS system for a 30-day period beginning March 13.  more...

New inflation concerns hike real estate rates

By Inman News, Thursday, March 9, 2006.

Long-term mortgage rates this week jumped to highs not seen since the summer of 2003, according to surveys conducted by Freddie Mac and Bankrate.com.

In Freddie Mac's survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to an average 6.37 percent for the week ended today, up from last week's average of 6.24 percent. The average for the 15-year fixed mortgage gained slightly this week to 6 percent, up from last week's average of 5.89 percent. Points on both the 30- and 15-year averaged 0.6.

The 30-year fixed has not been higher since Sept. 5, 2003, when it was 6.44 percent.  more...

Accused prosecutor fired in real estate fraud case

By Inman News, Thursday, March 9, 2006.

A Pennsylvania assistant district attorney was fired this week after a California title insurance company filed a lawsuit alleging he and his wife forged closing documents bearing its name on real estate transactions through his private law practice, media reports said.

First American Title Insurance Co. filed the complaint Monday against Mark F.  more...

Elephant in the room

By Inman News, Thursday, March 9, 2006.

Editor's note: Inman News Publisher Bradley Inman wrote an interesting blog about the real estate industry's elephant in the room. We'd like to hear your comments on his observations.  more...

Real estate tech co. offers search-engine placement tools

By Inman News, Thursday, March 9, 2006.

Z57 Inc., a company that provides marketing, lead generation and Web site design services for the real estate industry, today announced that it has incorporated new tools to help boost companies' placement in search-engine results.

Z57 has forged an agreement with Coracle Inc., which built a proprietary Internet Search System that "helps put its subscribers on the first-page search results for many major search engines," according to the announcement.  more...

Lenders get offshore services through Ellie Mae

By Inman News, Thursday, March 9, 2006.

Mortgage technology provider Ellie Mae has partnered with e4e to provide offshore loan processing and verification services through Ellie Mae's Encompass Mortgage Automation System, the companies reported today.

E4e's ServicesOnTap offshore loan processing services will be available through the Encompass Processing Network, which will be accessible to all Encompass users when the Encompass Processing Network goes live this month  more...

Seasonal slowdown continues at Countrywide

By Inman News, Thursday, March 9, 2006.

Mortgage loan fundings at Countrywide Financial totaled $31 billion in February, up 15 percent from a year ago but down for the second straight month, the company reported today.

In January, mortgage loan fundings came in at $33 billion, which was a large decrease from December's fundings of $44 billion.

Monthly purchase volume was $14 billion last month, unchanged from the previous month, but was 12 percent higher than February 2005.  more...

Home sellers say overpricing is biggest listing mistake

By Inman News, Thursday, March 9, 2006.

Overpricing is the number one mistake home sellers said they made when listing their homes, according to a new national e-mail survey conducted by HouseHunt.  more...

Overnight real estate rates up for fifth day

By Inman News, Thursday, March 9, 2006.

Long-term mortgage interest rates were up again Wednesday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield stayed at 4.73 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average rose to 5.92 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate gained to 5.6 percent. The 1-year adjustable was up at 4.69 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield rose to 4.72 percent.

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

Mortgage rate figures are according to Bankrate.com, which publishes nightly averages based on its survey of 4,000 banks in 50 states.  more...