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Mortgage rates climb into New Year

By Inman News, Thursday, December 30, 2010.

Rates on most mortgages continued their year-end surge in the final week of 2010, with 30-year fixed-rate loans climbing to their highest level since May, Freddie Mac said in releasing the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.86 percent with an average 0.8 point for the week ending Dec. 30, up from 4.81 percent the week before, but still below the 5.14 percent recorded at the same point in 2009.

The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.2 percent with an average 0.8 point, up from 4.15 percent the week before but down from 4.54 percent a year ago.  more...

Pending home sales rise in November

By Inman News, Thursday, December 30, 2010.

Pending home sales rose again in November, part of a broad trend in recent months that could point to a gradual recovery in 2011, the National Association of Realtors' chief economist said.

NAR's Pending Home Sales Index rose 3.5 percent from October to November, but remained 5 percent below its level a year ago. That compares with a 20.7 percent year-over-year drop in October.

The index is a forward-looking indicator, reflecting contracts rather than closings, which normally occur one or two months later. An index score of 100 is the average level of contract activity in 2001, the first year that index data was collected.

The index fell sharply in May after the expiration of the federal homebuyer tax credits on April 30, from 110.9 to 77.7. Since then, the index has risen on a monthly basis four out of the past six months, hitting 92.2 in November.  more...

Foreclosures spiked before robo-signing scandal

By Inman News, Thursday, December 30, 2010.

Banks scaled back loan modifications and stepped up foreclosures during the third quarter, with foreclosure starts and completions both up sharply from the previous three months, a new report by banking regulators shows.

During the three months ending Sept. 30 -- before the robo-signing controversy was in full swing -- the number of foreclosure starts was up 31 percent from the previous quarter, to 383,000. Another 187,000 homes completed the foreclosure process, a 15 percent increase from the second quarter and up 57 percent from a year ago.  more...

Making a 180 with 360˚ panoramic scenes

By Inman News, Thursday, December 30, 2010.

You remember Homestore, right? "Leverage the Power of the Red Spinning House."

Over the last five years or so, 360-degree panoramic virtual tours have slowly decreased in popularity. This has happened for various reasons, but the one that sticks out to me the most is the increasing popularity of mobile Web browsing, and the lack of support by mobile platforms for Flash. Yes, you can thank Steve Jobs for that one.

Based on a study by StatCounter, as of November 2010, mobile Web browsing makes up for approximately 4.02 percent of the total Internet traffic.  more...

Company offers free virtual tours, property sites

By Inman News, Wednesday, December 29, 2010.

A service offering free virtual tours and single-property websites launched earlier this month.

Bellevue, Wash.-based technology company Home87.com offers virtual tours and property sites for an unlimited number of properties. The sites' features include Walk Scores; Google Maps, Street View and Analytics; search engine optimization; unlimited photos; printable fliers; optimized Craigslist HTML code; document upload capability; and an open house calendar, among others.  more...

Zillow CEO: Agents must be accessible

By Inman News, Wednesday, December 29, 2010.
Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff, who's been part of the management team of property listings and valuation portal Zillow.com since its launch in 2005, was named the company's CEO in September.

A co-founder of Hotwire.com and veteran of online travel site Expedia, Rascoff's resume also includes a two-year stint as an investment banker at Goldman, Sachs & Co. following his graduation from Harvard University.

It's been a momentous year for Zillow, which announced an advertising partnership with Yahoo Real Estate in July in which Zillow will also manage for-sale listings on both sites. As the year drew to a close, Zillow launched a ratings tool that allows consumers to evaluate real estate agents they've worked with in the past.  more...

Why agents need HootSuite tout de suite

By Inman News, Wednesday, December 29, 2010.

Wouldn't it be great if you could manage multiple social media networks from one place? How about a site that lets you track statistics? While we're at it, how about a site that lets you easily create custom tabs and streams? Finally, what if this site had an application that allowed you to share across multiple networks any website you happen to be viewing? All of this and more is available at HootSuite.com.

Just two years old, HootSuite has come a long way. When agents in my workshops ask me to name my favorite social site, the answer is always HootSuite. Recently, HootSuite instituted free and paid versions of the base product. The free version is more than adequate for most agent needs. If the premium version is required (if you have a team and need multiple users on your account, the paid version is the way to go), it is an affordable $5.99/month.  more...

Join.me for a meeting online Premium Content

By Inman News, Wednesday, December 29, 2010.

I'm sure most of us have attended online meetings or webinars. The most popular product I've seen is GoToMeeting. I've never had the joy of setting up an online meeting, but I know from personal experience that joining them can be a royal pain.

The other day, I saw a blurb from Reggie Nicolay about an online meeting site called Join.me. Being the curious type, I instantly downloaded and installed the software, and tested it with a couple agents. It worked flawlessly. Most important was the ease of joining the meeting for the people I invited. No software to load, and no ID numbers to copy and paste -- just a simple link to click.  more...

NAR buys into Ifbyphone

By Inman News, Tuesday, December 28, 2010.

The National Association of Realtors has invested in cloud-based telephone call tracking and routing services provider Ifbyphone, and plans to collaborate with the company in developing solutions that help Realtors manage, measure and automate voice communications.

NAR said it is investing in Ifbyphone through its venture capital fund, Second Century Ventures LLC, which last year purchased a 5.43 percent stake in DocuSign Inc. for $2 million. DocuSign rolled out a "Realtor Edition" electronic signature service tailored and branded for Realtors at a 20 percent discount in March.  more...

Double dip is on the doorstep

By Inman News, Tuesday, December 28, 2010.

A double dip in home prices is almost here, with home values down from a year ago in 16 out of 20 metro areas tracked by a Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Index -- which showed annual home-price appreciation of 4.6 percent in May -- re-entered negative territory in October, registering a 0.8 percent annual price decline.  more...

Extend and pretend: A good idea?

By The Real Deal, Tuesday, December 28, 2010.

NEW YORK -- We're programmed to believe that lying is bad; telling the truth is good. So two years ago, when the economy was in a tailspin and lenders started employing a strategy disparagingly dubbed "extend and pretend" for struggling commercial property loans, it's no wonder they got a bad rap.

Critics painted the banks as liars who were doing little more than kicking the can down the road when they gave borrowers extra time to pay their due. By refusing to write down underwater mortgages, they said, banks were only delaying their inevitable losses and masking the true extent of the crisis.  more...

Foreclosure backlog grows again in November

By Inman News, Tuesday, December 28, 2010.

The robo-signing controversy continues to slow the progress of homes through the foreclosure process and into lenders' real estate owned inventories, the latest numbers from mortgage-data aggregator Lender Processing Services show.

A record 2.16 million first-lien mortgages were in some stage of the foreclosure process at the end of November, LPS said -- the fifth consecutive monthly increase.  more...

HUD boosts funds for housing counseling

By Inman News, Tuesday, December 28, 2010.

The Obama administration is boosting funding to housing counseling agencies by 22 percent this year, Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan said in announcing nearly $73 million in grants to more than 500 national, regional and local organizations.

The grants, awarded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) through a competitive process, are aimed at helping people become or remain homeowners or find rental housing.

Nearly $68 million in grant funding will will support the provision of housing counseling services by 24 national and regional organizations, five multistate organizations, and 484 state and local housing counseling agencies.  more...

5 questions to ask e-signature vendors Premium Content

By Gilbert Mohtes-Chan, Monday, December 27, 2010.
Flickr image courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/puntodevista/112911490/" target=blank>arquera</a>.

A message pops up in your e-mail inbox reading, "You're been asked by your agent to read and sign these documents online. To do so follow these simple steps."

You're asked to adopt an electronic signature and then proceed. You scroll down the pages, clicking on yellow "initial" and "sign" arrows. Then you hit submit, launching the contract into vast reaches of cyberspace.

Welcome to the world of electronic signatures. While they have been legally binding for a decade now for some types of transactions, only in the past two years have an increasing number of real estate agents and brokers bought into the technology.

E-signatures work much like your e-mail. You sign into a password-protected account, upload your document, type in the e-mail address of recipients, write a short note, click to sign and send it off. Just like that, it comes back e-signed by all parties.  more...

Thoughts on real estate advice and social media

By Inman News, Monday, December 27, 2010.
Flickr image courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/webtreatsetc/4167513274">webtreats</a>.

One thing social media comes with a lot of is advice.

I hear the word "should" a lot in conversations about how real estate professionals are shifting their thinking about their online marketing. There's a lot of conflicting conversations directed at them from "gurus," "evangelists," "jedis" and "ninjas." I was recently presented with a business card that read, "Sales Assassin." Really?

I asked if it was supposed to read, "Sales Association" and if there'd been a mix-up at the printers. I received an eye roll for my curiosity.

I hear that "your blog is the cornerstone of your business" or "you really should get into the Foursquare thing," and "if you're not on Twitter, your business is dead in three years." Very often the agent is left feeling confused, overwhelmed and simply not knowing where to start. Is this you?  more...

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