Barely a year ago the real estate industry was stunned when Canadian-based Brookfield Residential Property Services (Brookfield RPS), a division of Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (Brookfield), and owner of Royal LePage, the largest Canadian residential real estate company, acquired GMAC Real Estate. With the departure of CEO John Bearden and a pending name change imminent, many labeled the GMAC franchise as yesterday’s news.
What a difference a year has made. more...
“A 2% reduction in negative word of mouth boosts sales growth by 1%”
- London School of Economics and Political Science, “Advocacy Drives Growth” Study more...
In a report by the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice entitled Competition In The Real Estate Industry, a discussion amongst a panel about non-traditional business models turned up some interesting facts:
Many consumers prefer to use brokers whose business models are alternatives to traditional real estate real estate practices.
The growing popularity of these non-traditional brokers is linked to consumers’ use of and comfort with the Internet. more...
Cashcrate is my favorite site and the one that I’ve received the most
checks from. I’ve been doing it for about a year now and honestly have never
had a problem with it.
Cashcrate is one of the most
popular GPT sites having 990,000+ members. First of all it’s free to sign up
and it’s been around for years.
Cashcrate has many types of offers that you can complete for money. There
is an entire section of absolutely free offers. This means you fill out
surveys and get paid. Simple as that. more...
"On 9-11-09 join a free motorcycle ride dedicated to the memory of the 343 FDNY Firemen, 61 Police Officers and all those who tragically lost their lives on that historic day. The goal is to draw Patriotic Americans together on a Remembrance Ride to honor these brave Americans. "The Ride" and public Ceremony is open to all."
Here is a link to a long standing 9-11 memorial ride here in SoCal: http://www.remember911ride.com
Please post other events you may be attending in your area - And remember:
All Gave Some - Some Gave All - NEVER Forget !!
Thank you, Danny
Thank you, more...
Of course it's end-of-the-month crunch time.
Extra pressure to make sure those escrows and fundings close smoothly.
But take a 4min break and watch this clip -
Then get back to work....
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-july-29-2009/home-crisis-investiga...
Thanx, Danny
Thank you,
Respectfully,
Danny C. Flucke Jr. - Senior Partner
Nationwide Mortgage Experts
Direct: (714) 624-9479
Email: DCFJ@NationwideMortgageExperts.com
Websites: www.NationwideMortgageExperts.com / www.NaMoEx.com more...
URGENT HVCC UPDATE:
Thank you to everyone who responded to our article last month concerning the business-destroying HVCC legislation - And for signing our petition to overturn it.
HVCC continues to devastate home values across the US. The mortgage industry is now faced with EXPANSION of the HVCC fiasco with higher Fannie and Freddie loan limits.
HVCC will carry through to former “jumbo” markets forcing more and more downward preasure on homeowners real estate values. more...
Press Release issued 10min ago:
OCALA, FLORIDA – TAYLOR, BEAN & WHITAKER MORTGAGE CORP. (“TBW”) RECEIVED NOTIFICATION ON AUGUST 4, 2009 FROM THE U.S DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, FREDDIE MAC AND GINNIE MAE (THE “AGENCIES”) THAT IT WAS BEING TERMINATED AND/OR SUSPENDED AS AN APPROVED SELLER AND/OR SERVICER FOR EACH OF THOSE RESPECTIVE FEDERAL AGENCIES.
TBW HAS UNSUCCESSFULLY SOUGHT TO HAVE THE TERMINATION/SUSPENSION DECISIONS OF EACH OF THOSE AGENCIES REVERSED. AS A RESULT OF THESE ACTIONS, TBW MUST CEASE ALL ORIGINATION OPERATIONS EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY. more...
This Wall Street Journal article illustrates how focused everyone is on the lender -- With little more than a glance given to distressed homeowners. It is interesting to note that while the various government bodies are cleaning up the "loan mod" industry - They still have not issued any sort of consumer guide to help homeowners needing assistance. Here are a few tips: more...
On July 30, 2009, some of the provisions of the Mortgage Disclosure Improvement Act of 2008 (MDIA) go into effect and lenders, mortgage brokers, title agents, real estate agents, and real estate brokerages need be alert as to these new federal governmental regulations. Here are the details for the MDIA: more...
Does anyone else find this ridiculous?
Former CW senior executives are now heading up a company with Fannie and Freddie REO contracts - Even though they have ZERO real estate selling experience.
(Is that why they are just now getting their real estate licensing in order...?)
They make Multi-Millions in salaries and bonuses at CW - Which certainly had a major hand in creating this real estate bubble - Only to turn around and profit again from the REO market.
Here is the link: http://blogcatalog.com/search.frame.php?term=countrywide+reo&id=c38dad1c... more...
There is always a debate going on in the real estate industry about which company is the largest. As some don’t disclose financials and others use different measuring criteria (offices, agents, sales volume, profitability, brand recognition, etc.) we have many potential “winners”. more...
Last week’s team meeting produced an interesting tale of ‘overpricing woe’. The parents of one of my associates listed their house in mid-2006 at $590,000. The inaccurate list price was determined by their real estate agent, and the property sat on market for nearly 2 years, suffering a price drop of almost $200K. By the time my co-worker’s family unloaded the property, they had to settle for only $400,000; this unpleasant situation could’ve been avoided if only it had initially hit the market in the correct price range. more...
My broker, Matt Beall (PB), posted an article that asked the question, are real estate agents overpaid and overrated? To summarize his article, "yes" and "no".
Matt argues that: more...
- Realtors who justify their high commissions by the value of their "network" and "closing skills" have no right to charge what they do.
- Agents investing huge sums of money on Internet marketing, putting their client's properties in front of buyers, deserve a return on their investment.
I am in no position to stand on a soapbox and preach a “How To” on revitalizing the real estate market. I can however let you in on today’s most un-secretive, yet still ambiguous headline that stands to be one of your greatest selling tools for 2009: The $8,000 1st Time Home Buyer’s Tax Credit. more...
How do you make $1,050 a month cash flow on a $30k rehab deal?
By "BEING THE BANK" of course!!
How do you make $2,275 a month cash flow on a $65K rehab home?
By "BEING THE BANK" of course!!
How do Private Hard Money Investors make 11% - 42% ROI Annually?
Private Financial Club, Inc. will share their secrets with YOU!
Hedge Funds and Money Managers won't tell you because obviously, they don't make money by sharing the secrets that Wall Street doesn't want YOU to know! more...
Engel & Völkers has just assigned its 555th license with the signing of the license region for Beverly Hills, Bel Air and Westwood by Michael Giorgio. He plans to open his first Engel and Volkers residential real estate shop in July 2009. more...
“It is impossible to predict the future.” That’s a statement I have made hundreds of times, both from the stage as well as in print.
Yet considering the most likely scenarios and then preparing for them lessens the shock when some variation of any prediction does materialize. Being caught off guard is just foolish. Why would you fight the future? The future is coming, no matter what. " more...
An oft-overlooked aspect of the real estate brokerage is the new agent hiring process. While not so much different from any other business’ hiring process, there are several nuances that brokers must take into account when screening the new blood. The important thing to remember is that you, the broker, are a different type of boss than what one would encounter in, say, an In-N-Out burger. more...
Before we begin with the final result, let’s quickly summarized where it started. more...
Whether you own a small real estate office or a franchise with multiple offices, real estate brokers have much in common with other small business owners during these difficult economic conditions. This economy affects all businesses and it doesn’t really matter if you are the local hair salon or the major department store, current market conditions are tough. more...
Our current economic crisis is forcing innovative minds to engineer new ways in creating personal "stimulus packages" for 2009.
Private Financial Club, Inc. is one of those companies who with a stroke of genius have made their mark trailblazing new adventures in Real Estate Investing with their unique formula and strategies for each Financier who joins their club.
Club members have 5 levels to choose from; and Financiers can jump in at any level from the novice to the experienced. more...
It’s the first week of February and the time my annual Swanepoel TRENDS Report is released. The 160-page annual publication announces the official list of Top 10 trends, strategies, innovations and changes shaping and changing the business of real estate.
For the last several years we have been summarizing the events of every year and forecasting the most likely shifts in the industry that could impact our industry. We have discussed topics such as the sub prime and housing meltdown (detailed back in December 2005), the growth in global real estate sales and activities and even non-U.S. based companies expanding to the U.S., mortgage fraud, identity theft, the growth of online education, the growth of social media and blogs, and many more.
Here are some of the top 10 Trends included in this year’s Report: more...
To everyone at Inman:
I am not dead or dying.
But zero hour is here.
Very soon, there will be a new face for Obeo here at Inman. Please welcome the new guy as you did me.
And of course, it would be my pleasure to rejoin you as myself-if you can stand me as that and will have me back!
My hew contact information is below.
Hope to see you here, there and everywhere!
Steve
Steven Stearns
Social Network Building
Anyone.Anywhere.Anything.
Content Creation Consulting For Commerce, Creatives and Citizens
shsworks@sbcglobal.net
920-691-6030
Join me at: more...
In 2007, Forbes Magazine published a list of the 9 most commonly aroused fears. Included on the list were spiders, snakes and bats (oh my!), confined spaces, heights, and public transportation. Surprisingly, there is something else that most people fear more than death: public speaking. Apparently, many out there are afraid of embarrassing themselves in front of large groups, especially in a business setting. Who knew?
Well, don your backpack and grab that Batman lunchbox, ‘cause we’re going to speech school! more...
I'm setting a goal to meet as many people as I possibly can at Inman NYC.
If you are going, will you please send me a message in FB or
send DM in twitter to @mattfagioli.
Or, I guess we could just do the old fashioned email :)
matt@diamonddwellings.com or cell 678.414.5991
If you see me there, please say hello.
See ya there!
As part of the annual Swanepoel TRENDS Report that is published every year during the first week of February, the research team wraps their four month study of the real estate industry by announcing the top 10 Newsmakers, Events and Trendsetters for the year.
The second list to be released is the top 10 events that during 2008 had the largest impact and influence on the real estate brokerage industry. more...
So,
Do you need a Kevlar vest, a shovel or...?
http://obeoman.blogspot.com
Steve
Obeoman
Yesterday, just before we here at Goomzee had had enough for one day, our Business Development Manager, whom we’ll call Joe, shared an interesting story. A few years ago he and his wife hired a contractor to build their new home. Instead of hindering the process with forests worth of paper, Joe chose to operate on a one-page contract, augmented with verbal agreements whenever a change in the build came up. more...
Originally launched in 1977 as Engel & Cie., the company changed its name in 1987 to Engel & Völkers. It operated pretty much as a traditional real estate franchise until the mid 1990’s when its owner and Managing Director, Christian Volkers, decided to completely change the direction of the company.
The concept was to create a Real Estate Shop Concept. Similar to most franchise businesses where the design, layout, system and brand of the franchise is more uniform. Volkers felt that if you wanted to maintain high quality then you need more consistency and there was no reason that real estate franchises should be any different than other service industry franchises.
The first Real Estate Shop in 1995 and the company never looked back. more...
Keeping it real-and being grateful for my friends and associates at Inman:
FREE Obeo StyleDesigner ($40 value) on any new Obeo photography package.
StyleDesigner lets you redecorate digitally -on line!
To redeem, use promo code 'PC955689' Ends Nov. 30th, 2008.
Call 800-729-6236!
Thanks to all for your thoughts and comments-(;-])
...Blog ON!
Steve
Obeoman
My friend Gustavo Farfan, has prepared this article, hoping to turn the mindset of our community from negative to positive thinking. I hope he is right,lets see what you think about his view. Gustavo Blachman. SHOULD I BUY NOW OR WAIT UNTIL THE PRICES DROP MORE? I hear the same line of question from clients and Real Estate agents. more...
Real estate professionals need to think differently about the future. They need to do more and they need to move faster. It has now been more than 10 years since my first book on trends, Real Estate confronts Reality, and many of the changes that we have been writing and speaking about are now coming to fruition. Things are definitely changing, and on a large scale. Within the next five years the real estate brokerage industry will significantly have changed and brokers and agents that don’t adapt now will not enjoy the benefits of the next economic upswing. more...
Change seems to be the buzz word this year, with Barack Obama touting “Change We Need,” John McCain promoting “Real Change” and even Hillary Clinton saying “Change you can count on.”
Every year the Swanepoel TRENDS Report identifies, analyzes and then details out the imminent changes that are expected to impact the real estate industry over the coming 12 – 18 months. The 2009 Report is currently in the final 60 days of research and writing and obviously with all the recent financial disasters, the energy crisis, the housing collapse and foreclosure catastrophe this has made 2008 the worst year in real estate and financial history. more...
How, in this market, do you effectively market yourself as a Buyers Agent or Broker to potential buyers and how do you educate the often paranoid listing agent and seller as to your value?
Its time to understand, our business has changed, the good old days are gone and our agents are no longer making the big buck, we must re-visit the revenue base for our business to survive.
The Financial Market Disaster of 2008
September 2008 is exactly two weeks old today, but what a September it has already been. The events of late are unsurpassed in living history and I think that 9/08 may very well be remembered as the worst financial disaster in history. more...
Today we remember the brave men, women and children who lost their lives seven years ago and the heroes that responded to the emergency. There are many different video tributes of that day but I thought that this one was particularly well rounded. http://attacked911.tripod.com/
God Bless America!
The results for the XXIX Real Estate Olympiad are in.
Wow, what a huge undertaking it has been to tally the scores, taking all factors into consideration, weighted scores, removing highest and lowest scores and of course double checking the hanging chads. Thank you to all paticipants, nominees,voters and judges!
So the Medal Winners of the 2008 Real Estate Pacesetter Award, as voted by the Inman Real Estate Trends Group, are: more...
So, I've been author of the Hamptons Real Estate Blog for just under two years now. The blog has been viewed nearly 90,000 times, yet I am not getting as much "business" from the blog as I anticipated. More importantly, I just closed my Remax office and I want to open an Exclusive Buyer Agency in the Hamptons, where I have been listing/selling/managing/brokering for ten years. I'm looking for a model that has successfully used the blog as an income/lead/business generating platform for a Buyers Brokerage in a luxury market. more...
With the market as difficult as it is are you doing everything you can to sell your clients homes? Have you considered home swapping? If not, then why? The service we provide is FREE and easy to use. Just log into www.pad4pad.com, find your listings, claim them, add the exchange information and do a swap search. If your listings are not on our site, request your agency set up a feed to download them for free. Why not?
Greg
This is in follow up to the post last week titled Real Estate Olympics
Recap of Beijing
Mark Spitz's 36-year old record of 7 gold medals at one Olympic event, across all Olympic sports, was shattered when 23-year-old swimming machine Michael Phelps grabbed his 8th gold in Beijing and 14 all-time gold medals. Who will ever forget his 0.01 of a second photo-finish with Serbian - Wow. more...
With the XXIX Olympiad - The 2008 Summer Olympic Games - officially underway in Beijing China I thought it would be interesting to have a small online real estate olympiad of our own. more...
IDENTITY THEFT AND THE STEALING OF CONFIDENTIAL DATA
“Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the nation - especially in the suburbs,” says Congresswoman Melissa Bean. The FTC receives over 250,000 reports of identity theft every year and USA Today reported that in 2007 an estimated 260 million records were stolen - that amounts to 8 records stolen every second of every day.
In real estate this is also a growing concern. Here are three possible vulnerable areas of our industry that I see: more...
When the stock market took a nose dive, real estate brought growth.
When the economy did poorly, real estate introduced wealth.
When 911 all but destroyed our faith, real estate restored the American Dream.
In many occasions, and in many years, real estate has been the rock to depend, or in some cases even the rocket to ride to riches. But times have changed and the bright years of 2000-2005 have become a dull memory. more...
Since starting Pad4pad in February of 2008, we have received many inquiries regarding what exactly home swapping is and how it can be used to sell your home. Below is what we know about home swapping and how you can utilize Pad4pad to help sell your home. more...
I was reading about legal decisions for the last week and saw this come across. I'll admit that I missed the initial suit (remember when the market was so hot you had trouble reading your emails!?), but the below is very interesting to me.
In the case, Cirri wrote a flier with no specific name, but obviously showing his opinion of an alternative business model. What did he get for his trouble? Sued.
Since when does fair competition justify a lawsuit? Seems like those brokers with alternative business models are just cry babies sometimes. Especially limited service brokers. Man-o-man (again this is my opinion), but it seems like those guys get mad about having to provide ANY level of care and fiduciary to their clients. We have a minimum service law here in Texas which I think is good. You can really get screwed up if you've never bought or sold and just do it with no guidance as some of the limited service brokers would probably like.
What do you think? Agree with my opinions? Disagree? I'd love to hear from people with all business models.
Anyway, check out the letter and if you are from an area that Foxtons serves see if you think they were defamed. I tried to think of a broker who uses this model here in Austin, but had no luck. Maybe there is one, but I can't think of who.
The decision of the lower court was affirmed. All of Foxtons' claims were unsuccessful.
About Austin | Coldwell Banker Austin
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SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY
APPELLATE DIVISION
DOCKET NO. A-6120-05T36120-05T3 more...
