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Site compares agents on services, price Premium Content

By Inman News, Thursday, July 9, 2009.

You won't find stars, half-stars or any other ratings or consumer reviews about specific real estate agents at AgentsCompared.com.

Instead, the newly launched site, which is focused on the Chicagoland area in Illinois, allows agents to compete with each other on the basis of the service packages they offer, the rates they charge for those services and other details such as experience, specialties, track record and other credentials.  more...

Duct tape and real estate

By Daniel Rothamel, the Real Estate Zebra, Thursday, July 9, 2009.

In this episode of "Real Estate Skinny," Daniel Rothamel, Inman News community manager, poses an innovation challenge to the real estate industry in presenting a $20 wallet made entirely out of duct tape.

"Real estate's been a duct tape industry for a long time," Rothamel says. "Who out there can make something different out of duct tape?"  more...

RE/MAX, RealtyTrac launch partnership

By Inman News, Thursday, July 9, 2009.

RE/MAX International agents will receive discounted subscriptions allowing them to access a database of more than 1.8 million default, auction and bank-owned properties compiled by RealtyTrac under a partnership between the two companies.

Visitors to remax.com will also be able to include properties in the RealtyTrac database in their listing searches, although not all homes in the database are for sale and access to some details like addresses are witheld from nonsubscribers.  more...

Mortgage fraud reports rise 23%

By Inman News, Thursday, July 9, 2009.

Depository institutions reported 64,816 cases of suspected mortgage fraud in 2008, a 23 percent increase from the year before but the smallest annual increase since 2002.

A report from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) shows growth in suspicious activity reports related to mortgage fraud ranged from 41 percent to 44 percent from 2005 to 2007 after peaking at 93 percent in 2004 (see chart).  more...