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Move Inc. downsizes headquarters

By , Wednesday, October 7, 2009.

Realtor.com operator Move Inc. says the company will save about $1 million a year in rent by vacating nearly half of the office space it's occupied for the past nine years at its headquarters in Westlake Village, Calif.

Move's new seven-year lease with Arden Realty Limited Partnership provides the company with 76,000 square feet on two floors at 30700 Russell Ranch Road, compared with 138,000 square feet under its previous lease, signed in 2000.  more...

RealtyTrac trims workforce

By , Tuesday, October 6, 2009.
Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/respres/2539334956" target=blank>respres</a>.

In an attempt to return to profitability, foreclosure data site RealtyTrac has trimmed its workforce by nearly 30 employees and is moving away from some media partnerships that drove traffic to the site but were deemed "not profitable."

RealtyTrac Senior Vice President Rick Sharga confirmed a report on the blog VendorAlley.com that the layoffs took place last week, calling the move a "surgical workforce reduction" that leaves the company with about 100 employees.  more...

Study: Paperless 'comes of age'

By Inman News, Tuesday, October 6, 2009.

Automated transaction management systems have come of age, and multiple listing services are the ideal organizations to offer such services to real estate agents and brokers, according to a study by the real estate consulting firm WAV Group Inc.

Modular products that offer brokerages the ability to conduct a roll-out in stages have been a key to overcoming what remains the single biggest hurdle to adoption -- the time and pain involved in going paperless, the study said.  more...

Obama open to extension of tax credit

By Inman News, Monday, October 5, 2009.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs today confirmed that President Obama supports an extension of the first-time homebuyer tax credit, along with prolonging jobless benefits and health care subsidies for unemployed workers.

Briefing reporters, Gibbs said the measures don't amount to a second stimulus plan.

Evidence of bipartisan support in the Senate for extending the first-time homebuyer tax credit was also on display Sunday ...  more...

Broker, innovator joins Inman News

By Inman News, Monday, October 5, 2009.
Matt Fagioli

Matt Fagioli, operating broker at Diamond Dwellings Realty and co-founder of the Atlanta-area REtechSouth real estate technology conference, has joined Inman News as vice president of business development.

"Events, social media and other 2.0 stuff is my passion. I love marketing, brand development, the thrill of sales and the joy of helping people in the process," says Fagioli, who also worked to develop the first-ever New Media Atlanta Conference, held last month.  more...

N.Y. condo sales up sharply

By Inman News, Monday, October 5, 2009.

Condo sales jumped 45.6 percent from the second quarter to the third, helping boost the median sales price of both new and re-sale units, according to a report prepared by the appraisal firm Miller Samuel Inc. for Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

The median price for a Manhattan condo grew by 1.7 percent from quarter to quarter, to $850,000, but was down 8.4 percent from a year ago, the report said.  more...

Lender infighting on the rise

By The Real Deal, Monday, October 5, 2009.

NEW YORK -- As the real estate industry scrambles to unwind billions of dollars in distressed inventory, a number of high-profile deals are stuck in neutral as lenders battle it out with each other to see who will get paid and who will be left holding the (empty) bag.

While creditors often turn on each other during a workout, the massive number of securitized loans with multiple lenders and third-party servicing firms managing the funds is creating a level of complexity that may take years to sort out, analysts said.  more...

Former homeowners go the rental route

By Inman News, Monday, October 5, 2009.
Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/frozenchipmunk/52753779/">frozenchipmunk</a>.

With about 1 million homes in foreclosure at the close of the second quarter, according to a Treasury Department report released last week, the American dream is going into reverse at bewildering speed for homeowners across the country.

For some former homeowners, renting provides financial relief or a new beginning. And while those interviewed for this article became renters for different reasons, they all plan to be owners again.  more...

To be a broker: the series

By Inman News, Monday, October 5, 2009.
Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kwimsnr/3728360403/" target=blank>kwimsnr</a>.

Inman News is preparing a series of articles focusing on the everyday experiences of real estate brokers, including the pressing issues and hardships they face. We will profile brokers across the country, detailing the market conditions that they face and their varied operating styles and business models.

Many brokers have been faced with tough decisions during this national recession and prolonged housing slump, such as staffing cuts and office downsizing and consolidations. This series will examine how brokers are enduring this challenging onslaught of foreclosures, tightened lending, and economic decline, and what changes they are making to survive and thrive.

As we prepare this series we are open to reader recommendations on broker profiles: Send us names and contact information for brokers who you think we should profile, as well as your reasons on why they would make a good subject for this series.  more...

Tarasoft links MLSs in NorCal, SoCal

By , Friday, October 2, 2009.

Two large mutiple listing services at opposite ends of California are taking advantage of their shared use of the same MLS platform to allow their users full search capabilities of each others' listings.  more...

FHA not 'the new subprime'?

By Inman News, Friday, October 2, 2009.

Rapid growth in Federal Housing Administration loan guarantees may be a byproduct not only of the demise of subprime lending, but higher loan limits and the limited capacity of private mortgage insurers, a Federal Reserve analysis of data collected from mortgage lenders and other sources reveals.

The Federal Reserve report, released Wednesday, suggests that most of the the growth in FHA lending has been in lending to borrowers with higher credit scores, which could bode well for future claims against the FHA insurance fund.  more...

'Most Influential' reader nominees

By Inman News, Thursday, October 1, 2009.

Editor's note: The information here is provided by Inman News readers and is subject to review and verification by the Inman News editorial department. The individuals listed here have been nominated for one or more "Most Influential" lists. For more information about the "Most Influential" lists, click here. The online nomination form is available here: http://www.inman.com/most-influential.  more...

30-year fixed rate below 5% again

By Inman News, Thursday, October 1, 2009.

Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages for borrowers with good credit fell below 5 percent this week for the first time since May, Freddie Mac said in releasing the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

But demand for mortgages was down slightly last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in another survey.  more...

Pending sales rise for 7th straight month

By Inman News, Thursday, October 1, 2009.

Pending home sales rose rose 6.4 percent from July to August, to the highest level in more than two years, the National Association of Realtors said.

August marked the seventh straight month of increases in NAR's pending home sales index. But there has likely been some double-counting in recent months because some buyers who were under contract but failed to close have signed new contracts to buy, said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist.  more...

Lenders want one set of rules

By Inman News, Thursday, October 1, 2009.

The broad powers to be vested in a proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency and the ability of states to draft their own, tougher rules for mortgage lenders continue to trouble the lending industry.

A draft bill floated by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., would create an agency along the lines of a proposal put forward by the Obama administration, while attempting to address some lending industry concerns.  more...

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