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Timing the real estate transaction Premium Content

By Inman News, Thursday, July 30, 2009.
Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwarby/3296379139/">wwarby</a>.

George Ayling, founder and real estate broker of Select A Fee Real Estate System in Chicago, said he was skeptical when he first considered a fee-for-service business model. "I just felt it wasn't going to work," he said.

That was in 1995, before he and his real estate agents spent about 1 1/2 years examining the workload involved in everything from the initial client contact to closing.

At the time, "I came up with 12 to 13 hours" (of work) per transaction, Ayling said. The next question he considered: "How much should I charge per hour?"  more...

Foreclosures: not the same old story Premium Content

By Inman News, Thursday, July 30, 2009.

Some housing markets in areas like Michigan, Ohio and Indiana that have become synonymous with foreclosures saw some relief in first six months of the year, but there was an uptick in filings in other markets not previously considered foreclosure hot spots, data aggregator RealtyTrac said today.

Trends in RealtyTrac's Midyear 2009 Metropolitan Foreclosure Report suggest that unemployment is driving new foreclosure activity more than the continuing effects of subprime and adjustable rate mortgage loans made during the boom, RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio said in a press release.  more...