Real Estate Bloggers

Short Sale Specialist

CharlesGore1980@gmail.com — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 17:09:34 -0700

I know this industry is booming right now and if anyone is unsure about anything or have any questions I am here to help.

Real Estate Bloggers

Is a Short Sale Better for Your Sellers' Credit Than a Foreclosure?

debraadams818@aol.com — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:58:01 -0700

When consulting sellers about various alternatives to foreclosure, (such as a short sale) I am often asked if a short sale is a better than a foreclosure where credit scoring is concerned. The short answer is no, but there are several other factors to consider when advising your clients about a short sale vs foreclosure. more...

Real Estate Bloggers

Why Liability Insurance Is Required At Closing

Leo@18002SellHomes.com — Mon, 16 May 2011 15:02:11 -0700

Certainly there is one thing anyone can anticipate at the summation table when you are buying a house and this is the demand regarding a liability insurance policy. Similar to the prerequisite intended for auto insurance coverage any time you're changing automobile titles and acquiring automobile tags in most states, you'll discover which mortgage loan providers are determined to make sure you have proof of insurance protection at closing. more...

Real Estate Trends

What is loan to value ratio?

Leo@18002SellHomes.com — Wed, 11 May 2011 12:17:11 -0700

The way banks and mortgage lenders decide whether to make loans on certain houses with a certain value is not really a mysterious process, although you don't hear much from them while you're waiting for an appraisal and for a loan commitment. It can be a long, tiresome wait!

Mortgage lenders use a specific criteria to determine whether you are personally qualified for a mortgage, which all has to do with the ratio of your debts to your income. But the other part of their determination uses different criteria, it is all about the appraised value of the house, it's not about you at all. more...

Real Estate Trends

Update Your Chain of Title When You Sell a Home

Leo@18002SellHomes.com — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:14:25 -0700

Whenever I get ready to sell a house I have to provide my buyer with a form of guarantee that I really own the house and that there are no liens against it. Even if the buyer doesn't really know or care about these things, they are actually very important to him. That's why lawyers and title companies research the legal history of a property thoroughly on behalf of the current owner before a property is sold to a new owner. Everyone wants to know, especially his lender if the new owner is borrowing money, that the "chain of title" is clear. more...

Real Estate Trends

American Dream ~ Denied

Leo@18002SellHomes.com — Sun, 01 May 2011 20:19:26 -0700

Remember when buying a house was the American dream? It has recently become an American Nightmare! Mortgage loans are being denied due to credit score and there are many are being denied without a good solid reason. more...

Professional Real Estate Investors

Is the Real Estate Business Model Broken?

donna@ellijay.com — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 06:25:40 -0700

Would love to hear from real estate agents all over the country about the current real estate business model?
Do you feel it is still effective or is it broken? Specifically meaning, commission based only when there's a successful closing. With spiraling fuel prices among other high costs of being self-employed, does it make sense to do all the work upfront with the hope that an agent will see a pay day? In this modern age of technology, should there be a more effective way to conduct business and still deliver the highest level of service to the consumer?

Real Estate Bloggers

The 10LB Content Monster has Arrived.

danauito@tampabay.rr.com — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 07:42:03 -0800

3 Content 1 Pitch. Feel free to give this out to your list as a gift from yourself and maybe a mention that Dan gave you the right to give it to them as a New Years Gift.

Enjoy all your hero’s everyone, 92 real estate Guru’s whom you know and LOVE are in here and there is no selling, it’s pure content at 12.2 MB 1500 pages that when printed weighs 10lbs. This is a 10lb content monster and it’s yours to give to your lists:

My book can be downloaded here at no charge to you:
http://d2tkabpwf7wkmx.cloudfront.net/RealEstateEncyclopedia2011.pdf more...

Real Estate Trends

San Diego Case-Shiller

bubbleinfo.com@gmail.com — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 16:35:27 -0800

As originally posted on Bubbleinfo.com - North San Diego County Real Estate Housing Bubble Information Site: http://www.bubbleinfo.com/

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010 at 10:28 AM
San Diego Case-Shiller

The Case-Shiller Index is out for September.

In San Diego it dropped 1% from August, the second consecutive monthly decline.

What will it mean?

It’ll mean homebuyers will want to wait some more.

San Diego C-S Index gain/loss since:

1 year ago: +4.96%

2 years ago: -1.03%

3 years ago: -27.10%

Will the wait be worth it? more...

Real Estate Bloggers

Big Down Payments Still King

bubbleinfo.com@gmail.com — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 17:46:28 -0800

As originally posted on Bubbleinfo.com - North San Diego County Real Estate Housing Bubble Information Site: http://www.bubbleinfo.com/

Monday, November 15th, 2010 at 10:46 AM
Big Down Payments Still King
http://www.bubbleinfo.com/2010/11/15/big-down-payments-still-king/

It gets mentioned regularly how the demographics don’t support the housing prices around here. It makes you wonder, how can so many expensive homes keep selling when the San Diego median income is around $60,000 – doesn’t something have to give? more...

Real Estate Bloggers

Plan to Attend the 31st IAAO Annual Legal Seminar

r.sanderson@localgsi.com — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 11:09:49 -0700

On December 9 and 10 the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO) will present the 31st Annual Legal Seminar in Chicago, Illinois. The Legal Seminar offers the unique perspective of members who are primarily involved in legal issues. The seminar presents substantive and procedural developments in laws that affect assessments and valuation. more...

Real Estate Bloggers

Buy When Jobs Improve?

bubbleinfo.com@gmail.com — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:59:24 -0700

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 at 5:48 AM
Buy When Jobs Improve?

From an article in the WSJ, and four excerpts (with JtR’s comments underneath):

1. Sales may have been even worse if mortgage rates hadn’t been so low, said David Berson, chief economist at PMI Group Inc., a mortgage insurer in Walnut Creek, Calif. Low mortgage rates won’t hurt, he says, but “they will give you less traction in the market than we would normally get.” more...

Real Estate Bloggers

McMansions In McTrouble

bubbleinfo.com@gmail.com — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:58:16 -0700

Hat tip to clearfund for sending this from cnbc -it mentions the TERI house in Bressi Ranch:

They’ve been called McMansions, Starter Castles, Garage Mahals and Faux Chateaus but here’s the latest thing you can call them — History.

In the past few years, there have been an increasing number of references made to the “McMansion glut” and the “McMansion backlash,” as more towns pass ordinances against garishly large homes, which are generally over 3,000 square feet and built very close together. more...

Real Estate Bloggers

Fannie/Freddie Overhaul

bubbleinfo.com@gmail.com — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:28:11 -0700

Fannie/Freddie Overhaul

EDIT: The Fannie/Freddie overhaul got rolling yesterday, and hopefully they’ll get the answer right – leave loan guarantees in the hands of the private mortgage insurance industry. The new FHA model, where they are ranking the risk based on the borrower’s credit score and amount of down payment (the more security, the lower the mortgage insurance premium) is what PMI companies do – just let them insure the loans, and pass along the risk premium to the borrowers, not the taxpayers. more...

Real Estate Bloggers

Relocating to the Midwest? Here is a secluded estate on 15 acres.

lisa.mcknight@century21.com — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 17:11:58 -0700

Need to relocating to the Midwest? Looking for a home secluded from the hustle and bustle of the city. Spacious with private bathrooms for each bedroom, private pool but close to shopping, golf, gym and highway for easy access to the essentials. Check out this private estate. http://www.postlets.com/res/4085824

Real Estate Marketing 2.0

A Paperless World…

kristal@gopaperless.com — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:33:41 -0700

Ah yes… a paperless world. What does it mean to be paperless? Is being paperless motivated by economics or the environment? I believe that if you can make your life more efficient and differentiate yourself from the competition, while saving the world, being paperless is worth it… right? more...

Real Estate Bloggers

Is War Looming on the Real Estate Horizon?

Stefan@Swanepoel.com — Fri, 28 May 2010 10:10:19 -0700

Last year November, the Realtor® Property Resource (RPR) announcement by the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) shook the industry. NAR had just reached an agreement with Lender Processing Services (LPS) and announced their plans on launching the Realtor® Valuation Model (RVM) in hopes that it will become the “gold standard” used by financial in the majority of online valuations. more...

Real Estate Trends

Alphabet soup - what the #@$% do all those real estate acronymns mean?!?!

smith8907@gmail.com — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:23:24 -0800

Ever wonder what all those abbreviations mean behind a real estate professional’s signature? We did too, which is why for the past year we have collected all designations and their definitions/criteria that have come across our radar. We call this list “Alphabet Soup”.

The list below may be useful to you; if you find any designations we’re missing, please add a comment to this post with as much info as you can and we’ll keep on top of updating the content. If you are re-posting this list, please give credit where credit is due and link back to Goomzee's Mobile Marketing Blog. more...

California Real Estate Bloggers

The argument for an Open Source MLS System

riel@strataxl.com — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 13:47:22 -0800

After learning recently that there were over 900 regional MLS providers that one needs to tie into in order to deliver a compelling solution, it really made me wonder why as an industry, there wasn't more push to create an open source MLS.

After all, despite cutting some grass from the regional boards, isn't in the best interest of the industry and more importantly the customers (the home sellers) to have their data accessible in as many places as possible? more...

Real Estate Web Workers

Brooklyn Home Sale Prices Decline 9% in 2009, According to HMS Associates; Results Vary Neighborhood by Neighborhood

samh@hmsassociates.net — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:24:09 -0800

BROOKLYN, NY--(Marketwire - January 6, 2010) - The year 2009 saw average Brooklyn home prices decline 9% as sales volume dropped by 26% with some positive gains in the third quarter, according to Brooklyn-based real estate appraisal firm HMS Associates. "Although we've experienced a slight increase in both average sales prices and overall volume in the third quarter of 2009 the numbers have reversed direction in the fourth quarter," said Sam Heskel, founder and executive vice president of HMS Associates. "It may have been prematurely optimistic to think that the market is recovering." more...

REO / Foreclosure Marketing and Management Professionals

REAL ESTATE EVENTS OF THE YEAR 2009

Stefan@Swanepoel.com — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:50:56 -0800

Every year as part of the new edition of the Swanepoel TRENDS Report(www.RETrends.com) the 160 page Report also looks back at the passing year and lists those events that transpired during the year that made headlines and captured the industry’s attention and imagination. The 2010 edition is due for release on February 8, 2010.

Here are the top events that during 2009 made headlines in the residential real estate brokerage industry. more...

The Real Estate Agent of the Future

Live moble Video Blogging From REC2010

riel@strataxl.com — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:45:45 -0800

Mobile Video Blogging

I've been playing with this new app for my phone called "bambuser", it's pretty cool it lets you do live broadcasting from your phone, direct to the web.

There's a cool feature to the site which lets you setup an event, and then people can join it with their mobiles as well, if there are multiple broadcasters at the event, users can choose from different camera views

Cool, but you sorta need an event to play with it ... enter Real Estate Connect more...

Real Estate Web Workers

Real-Estate Investment Analyzer from Verus Decision Solutions Featured in the Canadian Real-Estate Magazine

rhartzell@verusdecisions.com — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:21:15 -0800

Vancouver, BC, Canada – December 7, 2009 more...

Real Estate Info For Investors

Don’t Worry, Wal-Mart Will Hire Us!

terry@leclairrealty.com — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:03:04 -0800

It’s time that someone finally comes out and tells all you REALTORS® that you don’t have to worry. Wal-Mart will hire us...when they put in their real estate offices in their stores. Did you catch that? I said “us”. Yes, the jerk writing this article is a REALTOR® himself. Telling you this doesn’t come with much trepidation and thought, but I am compelled to share this with you. more...

Real Estate Bloggers

Which are the Top 10 Most Recognizable Real Estate Franchise Brands?

Stefan@Swanepoel.com — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:30:22 -0800

Six months ago I wrote a blog post about "The Changing Face of Real Estate Franchise Brands" that garnished a lot of attention because I dared to compare and even more list in order the top 10 franchise brands in my opinion.

Then last month my blog post "Merge Creates One of the Largest Real Estate Franchises in Northern America" exploded with over 155 comments as the debate continued about brands when a significant number of agents had never even heard of the brands mentioned. Well now I have created an opportunity to see what the industry really thinks. more...

Real Estate Marketing 2.0

With Our Powers Combined: R.E. Investing & the "Four-oh Wunk"

smith8907@gmail.com — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:34:24 -0800

A little bird fluttering about the office last week told me of a tantalizing opportunity for my 401(k). For those of you in the dark, a 401(k) is a retirement savings portfolio and can be used to facilitate investments. You may hear experts refer to it as a “four-oh wunk”; don’t be alarmed, this pronunciation also points to the same section of IRS Tax Code that serves as both an IRS Tax Code and the name of a retirement portfolio that can be used to facilitate investments. more...

California Real Estate Bloggers

Merger Creates One of the Largest Real Estate Franchise in Northern America

Stefan@Swanepoel.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:22:44 -0800

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...

The Real Estate Agent of the Future

Know the Truth, No Matter How Hard It Hurts

smith8907@gmail.com — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:07:38 -0800

“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...

Alternative Business Models

Real Estate Marketing 2.0 Webinar

riel@strataxl.com — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:33:13 -0700

Is it time to update your web technology?

Are you ranking at the top of the search engines for your area?

Join Web Strategy and SEO expert Riel Roussopoulos as he walks through best practices for website technology.

How to use on and off site blogs to improve your SEO
Social Engagement tools, are your visitors engaging with you?
Social Marketing Automation

If you're looking for a platform that can help you grow your business online, you won't want to miss our live webcast.

For more info on times and dates.
Visit: http://agentxl.com/live

Real Estate Web Workers

How Much Do You Care About Your Online Profile?

Stefan@Swanepoel.com — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 08:58:18 -0700

Are you listening in on the conversation currently being held about you? You should. They may be talking about your company, your brand and your service?

This isn't behind your back, no, it's in the open. Right there on the web, in the chat room, in the forum and on one of the many social media networks spanning the globe.

Time you got in touch with a rapidly growing information base. With each passing the information is growing exponentially and it’s vital that you get in on the dialogue.

Here are some of the online media you should be monitoring regularly: more...

The Real Estate Agent of the Future

Community Land Trust

osmondgilbert@yahoo.com — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:48:52 -0700

Here is another interesting concept in real estate: Community Land Trust. What is it? Well it is a tool used in order to obtain a democratic ownership of a piece of land by the individuals in a local community. Such land is removed from the local market and it gets separated from any productive uses, which eliminates land appreciation as a consequence. This allows an affordable development of the community based in a long term. On a community land trust, the residents and the business owners are responsible for future development. more...

Real Estate Bloggers

Improving a home: sweat equity

osmondgilbert@yahoo.com — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:50:43 -0700

Sweat equity is the endeavor that is made in order to boost the total value of a given real property by making certain improvements. Commonly, the effort made to enhance the aspect of either the interior or the exterior of the house is the responsibility of the owner of the real property, or in rare cases, a buyer might want to pay for the costs of the improvements so the house is ready when he/she moves in. The whole idea is to make the real property more appealing to the eye and at the same time, raising the total value of the property. more...

Real Estate Bloggers

Improving a home: sweat equity

osmondgilbert@yahoo.com — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:47:25 -0700

Real Estate Bloggers

New Technology to help analyze rental property investments

rhartzell@verusdecisions.com — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:41:46 -0700

Hello Bloggers!

There's a lot of buzz these days about "technology in RE"... so I wanted to invite you to check out a new tool that we just launched at VERUS - http://www.verusdecisions.com

If you are interested and want to check it out further ... and maybe write about it ;) feel free to contact me at rhartzell@verusdecisions.com.

Here's the scoop... more...

Real Estate Bloggers

Investors interested in Bulk REO Portfolio Acquisitions

chris.styner@verizon.net — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:20:03 -0700

We have a direct source of Bulk REO Portfolios. This is a proven source for legitimate tapes primarily in California, which may be further tailored to specific areas and for property types. Proof of funds and statements of confidentiality will need to be executed.
Contact us today for more information.