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MLS buy-in key to NAR database

By , Thursday, November 12, 2009.

A national property database to be rolled out by a new subsidiary of the National Association of Realtors in April could give its members a bigger say in property valuations -- if their multiple listing services agree to participate, backers say.

NAR's Realtors Property Resource (RPR) database will attempt something that's never been done at the national level: integrate public property records, residential and commercial, with information gathered by Realtors and others when properties are listed in multiple listing services (MLSs) and commercial information exchanges (CIEs).  more...

Debate over real estate 'Buyer's Choice' law

By Erik Pisor, Thursday, November 12, 2009.
Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/respres/2539334956/" target=blank>respres</a>.

Aimed at preventing banks from dictating the escrow and title services used in bank-owned (REO) property transactions, California's Assembly Bill 957 was approved and immediately implemented last month.

However, some real estate agents and brokers question the effectiveness of the bill, dubbed the Buyer's Choice Act.

"I don't know if it's going to make a difference," said Ralph Gorgoglione, a real estate agent with John Aaroe Group Inc. of Sherman Oaks.  more...

Going with the REO flow

By Inman News, Thursday, November 12, 2009.
<a href="http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ww6nM2Vf6Qj1YLwuo_2fpUiw_3d_3d" target=blank>Click here to take survey</a>.

Q: What is the biggest change you have made to the brokerage in the past year, and what prompted this change? How has this change impacted the bottom line, if at all? What has changed about your service offering in the past year?

We switched from working with short sales and bank-owned (REO) properties in 2008 to working only with REOs in 2009. Two years ago, we handled short-sale listings as well as REO (real estate owned) listings. In 2009, we focused only on REOs/bank-owned properties. Our business-to-business model allowed us to expand from one county to presently five counties, including: San Francisco, San Mateo, Solano, Contra Costa, and Alameda. We also gained additional REO lenders in 2009.  more...

Foreclosure slide: calm before storm?

By Inman News, Thursday, November 12, 2009.

U.S. foreclosure filings fell for the third straight month in October -- which "at first blush" may indicate the tide is turning, though fundamental forces driving foreclosures "continue to loom," with filings up about 19 percent compared to October 2008, foreclosure data provider RealtyTrac reported today.

James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer for RealtyTrac, reported that "high-risk mortgages, negative equity and unemployment" are among the contributors to higher foreclosure activity on a year-over-year basis in most states.  more...

Realogy in the black for Q3

By Inman News, Wednesday, November 11, 2009.

Real estate franchisor and brokerage Realogy Corp. said it turned a $58 million profit in the third quarter, thanks in part to a debt restructuring that allowed the company to claim a $75 million gain and stay in compliance with agreements governing nearly $3 billion in loans.

Realogy said commission revenue was down 13 percent from a year ago, to $878 million -- the main factor driving a decline in net revenue of the same magnitude, to $1.17 billion.  more...

GMAC Real Estate unites with Real Living

By Inman News, Wednesday, November 11, 2009.
Photo courtesy Real Living.

A major real estate brokerage company merger gives GMAC Real Estate a new name while expanding the Real Living real estate brand and growing the U.S. operations of Canada-based Brookfield Residential Property Services.

The merger of GMAC Real Estate and Real Living, which will operate under the Real Living name and under parent company Brookfield, represents the second sizable U.S. expansion of Brookfield operations in the past two years.  more...

NAR: Prices drop in 80% of metros

By Inman News, Tuesday, November 10, 2009.

The median single-family resale home price dropped in 80.4 percent of the 153 U.S. metro areas tracked in the third quarter compared to the same quarter last year, and 36 metro areas experienced double-digit percentage declines in price, the National Association of Realtors reported today.

The national median price of single-family resale homes was $177,900 in the third quarter, down 11.2 percent compared to the median price in third-quarter 2008.  more...

NAR acquires tech for national database

By Inman News, Monday, November 9, 2009.

The National Association of Realtors has acquired technology from Lender Processing Services Inc. to assist its development of the Realtors Property Resource, a planned property information database that will include information on all U.S. properties, NAR has announced.

In a statement today, NAR CEO Dale Stinton said, "Realtors need to respond quickly to today's tech-savvy consumers, and the RPR provides a means for multiple listing services, commercial information exchanges and real estate brokerage business models to support the Realtor community, rather than requiring Realtors to purchase data aggregated by third parties."  more...

Zillow: Fewer homeowners underwater

By Inman News, Monday, November 9, 2009.

The percentage of U.S. homeowners with mortgage debt that exceeds the value of their home declined slightly from the second to third quarters, in part because home prices are stabilizing but also because many homeowners who had been underwater lost their homes to foreclosure, Zillow.com reported today.

An analysis of public records collected for the Zillow Real Estate Market Reports suggests that 21 percent of homes with mortgages were underwater at the end of September, down from 23 percent at the end of June, Zillow said.  more...

Real estate tycoon at 24

By Mary Umberger, Monday, November 9, 2009.
Adam Blake

When Adam Blake says his business "has grown a bit in scope" since he went into real estate, he's not kidding.

Starting out as a residential property manager, he turned to buying and renting out such places himself. Then he expanded into high-volume flipping of single-family homes.

Recently, he's been buying land and selling the rights to drill for oil and gas.  more...

Give up home, Fannie will lease it back

By Inman News, Friday, November 6, 2009.

Fannie Mae is offering to let troubled borrowers who don't qualify for a loan modification stay in their homes as renters if they volunteer to relinquish ownership through a deed in lieu of foreclosure.

Fannie Mae's Deed for Lease program is also available to qualified borrowers who had previously been granted a loan modification but were unable to keep up their payments.  more...

Move Inc. revenue declining

By , Friday, November 6, 2009.

Realtor.com operator Move Inc. said in a regulatory filing Thursday that third-quarter revenue fell 15.7 percent from a year ago, and warned of further declines in the final three months of the year.

Revenue totaled $52.9 million for the third quarter, down from $61.2 million a year ago, and is projected to total between $47 million and $48 million in the final three months of the year -- a level Move executives expect to stay, on average, next year.  more...

The real estate video road show

By Inman News, Friday, November 6, 2009.

 more...

Redfin offers real-time sales info

By Inman News, Friday, November 6, 2009.

Seattle-based real estate brokerage Redfin says it's begun posting the sales price of homes as soon as they are sold, along with photos and other details, and has updated its Web site to include similar information on every property sold in the past two years in the markets it serves -- about 1.4 million properties.

Consumers outside of the Seattle and Washington, D.C., markets must be registered users to obtain that and other detailed information shared between brokers and once accessible only by real estate agents.  more...

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