Despite rising home prices early in the year, a significant portion of U.S. homeowners with a mortgage, about 44 percent, still owed more on their home than it was worth or didn’t have enough equity to move at the end of the first quarter, according to Zillow’s first quarter Negative Equity Report.

Zillow’s analysis showed that 25.4 percent of homeowners with a mortgage were underwater on their homes, while another 18.2 percent more were “effectively” underwater, with less than 20 percent equity in their homes.

Taken together, about 22.3 million U.S. homeowners likely don’t have enough equity in their homes to afford a down payment on another home, Zillow said, keeping them in their homes and preventing new inventory from hitting the market.

“Reaching positive equity, even barely, is an important milestone,” said Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries in a statement. “But things like real estate agents’ fees and a down payment for the next home traditionally come out of the proceeds from the prior home’s sale. Without enough equity, these costs will instead have to come out of a homeowner’s pocket, leaving many still stuck,” he said.

“Looking at the effective negative equity rate could explain why recent, healthy declines in the number of underwater borrowers haven’t yet translated into more homes for sale,” Humphries added. “The only cure is patience, as rising home values continue to build equity to the point where more homeowners can realistically sell.”

Among the 30 largest metro areas covered by Zillow, those with the highest effective negative equity rate, including homeowners with 20 percent equity or less, include Las Vegas (71.5 percent); Atlanta (64.1 percent); and Riverside, Calif. (59.7 percent).

Zillow predicts that the negative equity rate among all homeowners with a mortgage will fall to 23.5 percent by the first quarter of 2014. Of the 30 largest metro areas, the majority of these newly freed homeowners are anticipated to come from: Los Angeles (94,642 homeowners); Riverside (74,693 homeowners); and Phoenix (51,580 homeowners).

Will Penny Pritzker — the chairman, president and chief executive officer of Pritzker Realty Group LLC –  be the next secretary of commerce?

That she led fundraising efforts that helped President Barack Obama win the 2008 election undoubtedly helped the Chicago billionaire secure the nomination.

But at her Senate confirmation hearing Thursday, Pritzker can expect to face some tough questions about her role in one of the nation’s largest bank failures  (Superior Bank, which went under in 2001 after becoming an early pioneer in subprime mortgage lending), and a “clerical error“  in a disclosure form required for her nomination that understated at least $80 million in income. Source: bloomberg.com.

Uncertainty about the future of the Federal Reserve’s massive program to keep interest rates low could spook investors and send mortgage rates higher.

Testifying before lawmakers today, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said he couldn’t rule out cutting back on the Fed’s “quantitative easing” — purchases of Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) — in the months ahead. That sent prices of MBS backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into a tailspin, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Since MBS prices and yields move in the opposite direction — and since changes in MBS yields are eventually reflected in mortgage rates paid by consumers –  the cost of taking out a home loan could rise in the days, weeks and months ahead. Source: wsj.com.

Canadian property search portal Zoocasa is obtaining brokerage licenses in order to secure listings data, but instead of hiring its own agents the company will provide referrals to other brokers.

Zoocasa relaunched today with listings in the Greater Toronto area and a directory of “prequalified, experienced real estate agents” from top franchise brands and brokerages including Century21, RE/MAX, Royal LePage, Harvey Kalles and Coldwell Banker.

Buyers and sellers who close transactions using Zoocasa partner agents will receive rebates including cash and gift cards from retailers including Best Buy, Home Depot, Sears and Canadian Tire, totaling about $2,000 on a typical $550,000 transaction, the company said. Zoocasa will earn a referral fee of roughly one-third of the commission, the Toronto Globe and Mail reports.

“Consumers have indicated that they want to be able to research online. Not just to find their next home, but also to find the right agent to help them,” said Zoocasa President Carolyn Beatty in a statement. “We see improving the way homebuyers and sellers connect with today’s experienced real estate agents as a natural evolution of what we do.”

Zoocasa now has information on listings in the Greater Toronto area, and a directory of 200 hand-picked agents, the the Toronto Star reports. The company said it plans to roll out its new home and agent search platform to all major Canadian markets.

Beatty told The Globe and Mail in March that Zoocasa was seeking a brokerage license in Ontario in order to obtain listings data, and would seek licenses across Canada. Although Zoocasa does not plan to employ agents, obtaining brokerage licenses would allow it to operate a virtual office website (VOW), the paper said.

The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB), under pressure from Canadian regulators, adopted rules allowing virtual office websites in 2011. The legal battle between TREB and the Competition Bureau of Canada is ongoing, with the Competition Bureau recently announcing it would appeal last month’s dismissal of a complaint alleging TREB has engaged in anti-competitive practices.

Before adopting its new business model, Zoocasa, which is a subsidiary of Canadian cell phone company and cable TV operator Rogers Communications Inc., was sued by Century 21 Canada Ltd. for allegedly scraping listing data from Century21.ca from late 2008 through early 2010.

In a Sept. 2, 2011, decision, the Supreme Court of British Columbia awarded Century 21 Canada $33,000 in damages, but concluded that Zoocasa did not act “dishonestly, unreasonably or unfairly,” but instead “apparently entered into the market without due consideration of the legal issues surrounding copyright and intellectual property.”

On its “10 a.m. Special” Tumblr page, The Corcoran Group showcases one jaw-dropping listing every day.

The posts are bursting with a colorful mixture of new media that includes clickable photos and graphics, embedded videos, and invitations to follow Corcoran on Pinterest, YouTube and Foursquare.

Highlighting the full range of content and social platforms made possible by the Internet, Corcoran’s “10 a.m. Special” Tumblr page paints a picture of how brokers and agents may use the blogging site to market themselves and their properties.

The acquisition of Tumblr by ailing Internet giant Yahoo could attract more business professionals to the platform, by raising awareness of a site that simplifies blogging and potentially providing them with a means to target millennial homebuyers and sellers, according to social media consultant Katie Lance and other experts.

Tumblr, a social media blogging site known for its spirit of millennial irreverence, resembles something of a cross between Facebook and Twitter. On Monday, Yahoo confirmed that it plans to purchase the site for about $1.1 billion in cash, with its CEO promising “not to screw up” the site.

The purchase has drawn comparisons to Facebook’s acquisition of photo-sharing site Instagram in April 2012. That acquisition, Lance said, initially raised fears that the site would shed some of its hip allure. But instead, Lance said, it seemed to raise awareness of the site and attract additional users.

Indeed, Instagram’s users, engagement and reach for brands have increased substantially since Facebook bought the site, TechCrunch reported.

“A year ago, many people were skeptical about Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram and whether it would hinder the network’s growth,” Adam Schoenfeld, CEO of Simply Measured, recently told BusinessNewsDaily. “However, today it’s very clear that the synergies are not only bringing new users on board, but also creating incredible opportunities for brands to connect with consumers.”

Lance said that Yahoo’s purchase of Tumblr could run a similar course.

“All of a sudden you hear Yahoo is behind it, and I think for a lot of people, sometimes that older generation, it’s like giving a company validity,” she said.

And if it does, that could potentially spark a resurgence in blogging among business professionals, including real estate agents, who have largely exited the blogosphere following a “big push” there about five years ago, she said.

That’s because Tumblr is much easier to use than other blogging platforms like WordPress, Lance said. Perhaps Tumblr’s “biggest differentiator” is its “reblog” feature, which allows users to share content produced by others, she added.

But whether Tumblr really makes blogging more manageable than other platforms is still a matter of debate. Facebook page “Living in Ann Arbor,” which is sponsored by broker Ann Arbor Real Estate, said on Inman News’ Facebook page that Tumblr is actually more challenging to use than platforms like WordPress and Blogger.

“The Tumblr editor interface isn’t as good as WordPress.com or even Blogger.com if you are going the free route” and “want to gain a social following and share your posts freely,” Living in Ann Arbor said.

Living in Ann Arbor added that WordPress.com and Blogger have features that perform the same function as Tumblr’s reblogging tool. “If one was to use a platform for content curating — I still don’t think that Tumblr is the best option.”

Living in Ann Arbor said the GIF to the left conveys its view of the Tumblr acquisition

Regardless, with the site now in the limelight, many business professionals may also begin to gravitate towards Tumblr in order to fish for millennial buyers and sellers, since the site “tends to skew a lot younger” than other social media sites, Lance said.

In addition to potentially shedding light on a new avenue for agents to intersect with younger homebuyers and sellers, Tumblr could open up promising paid-advertising opportunities.

One of Yahoo’s main objectives is to milk Tumblr for advertising revenue. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said Yahoo would initiate that process by putting ads in the Tumblr “dashboard,” a content stream much like Facebook’s News Feed, The Los Angeles Times reported. Later, Yahoo might allow users to post ads on their blogs themselves, and share revenue earned through the ads with Yahoo.

“If an agent is really trying to focus on millennials or first-time homebuyers, specially in a specific geographic area, I think that could definitely be an opportunity,” Mayer said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

What do you think about Yahoo’s acquisition of Tumblr? Leave your comment below.

In a time when some brokers question the value of brick-and-mortar offices as technology allows their agents to work in the “cloud,”  one brokerage has decided to go big, and build a real estate retail space at its office.

Zilbert International Realty, a luxury boutique real estate firm in the South Beach neighborhood of Miami Beach, Fla., has flipped the new conventional wisdom on its head by building a 4,000-square-foot flagship office in a tony South Beach retail center.

The brokerage, which primarily represents condo buyers and sellers, is looking to turn real estate into a retail experience.

Walking into Zilbert International Realty’s new 1-year-old office is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week. Visitors step into a simple, streamlined space with recessed LED track lighting, terrazzo floors, and Herman Miller furniture.

Zilbert Realty International’s store. Photo courtesy of Zilbert International Realty.

Backlit photographs of active listings line the walls, and several kiosks in the open space hold listing pamphlets. One of Zilbert International Realty’s 30 agents mans a podium, ready to engage walk-in visitors — a role similar to that played by the tech geeks who man the “Genius Bar” at any Apple Store.

The iconic Apple Stores, with their buzzing activity and experts on hand, were actually part of the inspiration for this real estate anomaly, said Mark Zilbert, founder and CEO of Zilbert International Realty. The company “fell into” the setup, and has grown the concept organically, Zilbert said.

“I didn’t want to do a storefront,” Zilbert said, of his mindset two years ago when he was looking to transition out of his 400-square-foot office into a larger, new space for his growing brokerage business, which was 7 years old at the time.

But when Zilbert saw that the last spot in a new retail center in a prime South Beach location was available, he started to mull over an idea.

Looking at the empty, 4,000-square-foot concrete shell — located in a retail center that’s at the end of a bridge that carries traffic from Miami into South Beach — Zilbert saw an opportunity to use it not only as an office, but to take advantage of the retail center location.

“Drivers have to pass the storefront to get to the beach,” Zilbert said. At night, “the entire store glows from the inside out.”

Zilbert said he drew inspiration for the retail store not only from Apple, but from his own company’s website.

The “store” is a physical manifestation of zilbert.com, its walls dominated by images from the website’s listing detail pages.

“We wanted to make (the store) as visual as possible,” Zilbert said.

The store — which is Zilbert International Realty’s only location at the moment –  takes up a little less than half of the 4,000 square feet of available space. The other half is working office space for the firm’s agents.

The office’s prominent location and its accessible, customer-friendly vibe is helping the boutique firm claim its place among more well-known luxury brands like Sotheby’s International Realty, said Jim Hitchcock, chief operating officer at Zilbert International Realty.

So far, the office has been a net positive on the firm’s bottom line, Zilbert said. Net profits have increased from the year before, he said, which is the bottom-line measure Zilbert uses to check if his business is on track or not.

Since the store opened on May 1, 2012, Zilbert International Realty has won every listing presentation it has given in the space — about 30 or 40, Zilbert said. To facilitate listing presentations, the store features two glass-enclosed conference rooms outfitted with 55-inch flat-screen TVs, which agents can hook their iPads up to.

Zilbert said the space creates an experience for clients that allows them to “get the best of who we are and what we do.”

Agents are rewarded for manning the store in three-hour shifts with all of the walk-in, website and phone leads the brokerage receives during that time period. As a result, agents are eager to work in the store, Zilbert said.

Zilbert says he has plans to open similar stores in other locations where the brokerage expands.

“We’ll always do this operation wherever we go,” he said.

Last year, Zilbert International Realty’s agents represented buyers and sellers involved in 200 to 250 deals involving homes valued at $250 million.

In the next 24 to 48 months, Zilbert said, the firm is looking to open stores in downtown Miami and possibly Coral Gables and Fort Lauderdale, among other locations.

Would you do a similar store at your brokerage?

Real estate professionals are looking for “large screens, zippy processing speeds, and high-resolution cameras and video” from their smartphones, according to Condo.com, which has compiled a list of the top 5 smartphones for real estate agents.

The top 5 smartphones for real estate agents, according to Condo.com:

1. iPhone 5 (fast processor, large screen, good camera for taking listing photos).

2. HTC One (high-resolution,4.7-inch screen, quad-core processor, 2 gigabytes (GB) of RAM and up to 64 GB internal storage capacity “for agents who snap a lot of photos”).

3. Samsung Galaxy S4 (Two cameras “take great photos,” and 2 GB of RAM provides “decent speed.” Up to 64 GB of internal storage with microSD card)

4. LG Optimus G Pro (“Real estate agents looking to scale down from a tablet and have just one device for phone, camera and work space should take a look at this large-screen ‘phablet.’”)

5. Samsung Galaxy Note 2: (“Another phablet for real estate agents who like a lot of workspace … They will also find the S pen handy … to send a quick note about a home they just found, they simply take a photo and use the S pen to jot some information directly on the photo.”)

Source: prweb.com.

At least 10 Realtors lost their homes in the deadly tornado that hit Oklahoma on Monday, and the Oklahoma Association of Realtors is providing relief to members through the Oklahoma Housing Foundation Realtor Disaster Relief Fund.

“We have received many offers of supplies from all over the country. The Realtor Family is truly coming together to help our folks in Moore,” OAR says on a website set up to accept contributions to the fund.

OAR is using a Facebook group to compile a list of Realtors affected by the tornado, and to put together a list of rental properties that may be offered to displaced residents. Source: realtor.org.

Real estate brokerage and franchise giant Realogy Holdings Corp. has selected 15 emerging technology companies from about 100 that applied to compete for a $25,000 cash prize at the Realogy FWD Innovation Summit. The companies selected to present their most innovative new real estate technology products or services on Tuesday, June 18, at Realogy’s Madison, N.J., headquarters are:

• BuyerMLS: a real-time buyer marketplace for agents.
• Floored: interactive 3-D models of all types of real estate.
• HomeLight: a new way for consumers to find a real estate agent.
• HomeZada: software that helps homeowners organize and manage their home.
• Keyzio: a consumer marketplace where every house is for sale.
• Lumentus Social: makes social media easy and effective for brokers and agents.
• MyCityWay: a consumer app that provides a live view into more than 100 cities.
• Onvedeo: powers videos for real estate listings.
• Planwise: technology that allows people to visualize and understand financial decisions.
• Relocality: a neighborhood discovery tool that uses social data to provide recommendations.
• RealScout: a full-featured search portal for homebuyers and agents.
• Realty Mogul: a marketplace for investors to pool money and buy shares of property.
• Storefront: an online marketplace for short-term retail space.
• StreetAdvisor: a content creation and social engagement platform for real estate companies.
• Updater: helps buyers seamlessly update all of their accounts with the new address.

The Realogy FWD Innovation Summit is one of several opportunities for startups and emerging technology companies in real estate.

Last year, the National Association of Realtors announced a “tech accelerator” program, REach, overseen by Second Century Ventures, NAR’s strategic investment arm. The seven companies selected for the program’s first year — BombBomb, Lumentus, Planwise, Reach150, Treater, Updater and Workface — will reportedly pay up to $25,000 to participate, gaining exposure and guidance from a group of more than 140 mentors and feedback from about 500 Realtor product testers.

Inman News has launched an initiative, the Inman Incubator, that’s intended to serve as a launchpad for innovative real estate companies including technology startups, brokerages, agents, service providers and mortgage lenders.  The Inman Incubator program will provide yearlong mentoring, $100,000 of in-kind promotion, and valuable connections and resources for up to 25 promising companies.

What do you think of real estate-focused technology incubators and accelerators? Leave your comments below.

Real estate brokerage @properties will use interactive floor plans and high-resolution photos to market listings online at no additional charge to sellers on all homes listed at $500,000 or more.

The Chicago-based brokerage said it plans to extend the service to sellers of homes priced at more than $300,000.

The service will be provided by Rosemont, Ill.-based VHT Studios, which photographs and takes room measurements on site, delivering photos and floor plans within two to three business days.

VHT’s interactive floor plans show all walls, partitions, doors, windows, staircases, columns, recesses, chimneys, major appliances, floor levels and room dimensions.

VHT also offers a floor plan reconstruction service when architectural blueprints are available.

“It’s almost irresponsible not to make floor plans available when it’s so easy to do with VHT’s new service,” said @properties co-owner Thaddeus Wong in a statement. “Properties can be equivalent in location, and number of bedrooms and bathrooms, but that doesn’t mean they’re all the same. You need to have a full grasp of how all the rooms relate to one another to help you determine a property’s value and if it fits a buyer’s needs.”

Wong said the majority of @properties listings will soon have floor plans included.

What listing enhancements do you think are the most useful in marketing properties? Leave your comment below.

The mortgage delinquency rate in April dropped below 6.5 percent for the first time since July 2008, as the foreclosure inventory fell by nearly 25 percent year over year to 1.58 million homes, Lender Processing Services reported today. Source: LPS

Applications for purchase loans dropped a seasonally adjusted 3 percent for the week ending May 17 compared to the week before, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported. But applications were still up 10 percent on an annual basis, the trade group said. Source: mortgagebankers.org

Housing inventory rose significantly in April, easing a supply shortage that some experts say has constrained home sales.

Meanwhile, existing-home sales edged upwards in April. Still, sales remain hampered due to limited supply and tight credit, according to NAR.

Housing inventory rose 11.9 percent to 2.16 million homes in April, representing a 5.2-month supply of homes at the current rate of home sales. That’s up from 4.7 months in March. But inventory still remained 13.6 percent below a year ago, when there was a 6.6-month stock.

Existing-home sales ticked up 0.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million in April from an upwardly revised 4.94 million in March, according to NAR. That put sales at their highest level since November 2009, when a tax credit stimulated purchases, NAR said.

“The robust housing market recovery is occurring in spite of tight access to credit and limited inventory. Without these frictions, existing-home sales easily would be well above the 5-million-unit pace,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “Buyer traffic is 31 percent stronger than a year ago, but sales are running only about 10 percent higher.  It’s become quite clear that the only way to tame price growth to a manageable, healthy pace is higher levels of new-home construction.” Source: realtor.org.

On its “10 a.m. Special” Tumblr page, The Corcoran Group showcases one jaw-dropping listing every day.

The posts are bursting with a colorful mixture of new media that includes clickable photos and graphics, embedded videos and invitations to follow Corcoran on Pinterest, YouTube and Foursquare.

Highlighting the full range of content and social platforms made possible by the Internet, Corcoran’s “10 a.m. Special” Tumblr page paints a picture of how brokers and agents may use the blogging site to market themselves and their properties.

The acquisition of Tumblr by ailing Internet giant Yahoo could attract more business professionals to the platform, by raising awareness of a site that simplifies blogging and potentially providing them with a means to target millennial homebuyers and sellers, according to social media consultant Katie Lance and other experts.

Tumblr, a social media blogging site known for its spirit of millennial irreverence, resembles something of a cross between Facebook and Twitter. On Monday, Yahoo confirmed that it plans to purchase the site for about $1.1 billion in cash, with its CEO promising “not to screw up” the site.

The purchase has drawn comparisons to Facebook’s acquisition of photo-sharing site Instagram in April 2012. That acquisition, Lance said, initially raised fears that the site would shed some of its hip allure. But instead, Lance said, it seemed to raise awareness of the site and attract additional users.

Indeed, Instagram’s users, engagement and reach for brands have increased substantially since Facebook bought the site, TechCrunch reported.

“A year ago, many people were skeptical about Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram and whether it would hinder the network’s growth,” Adam Schoenfeld, CEO of Simply Measured, recently told BusinessNewsDaily. “However, today it’s very clear that the synergies are not only bringing new users on board, but also creating incredible opportunities for brands to connect with consumers.”

Lance said that Yahoo’s purchase of Tumblr could run a similar course.

“All of a sudden you hear Yahoo is behind it, and I think for a lot of people, sometimes that older generation, it’s like giving a company validity,” she said.

And if it does, that could potentially spark a resurgence in blogging among business professionals, including real estate agents, who have largely exited the blogosphere following a “big push” there about five years ago, she said.

That’s because Tumblr is much easier to use than other blogging platforms like WordPress, Lance said. Perhaps Tumblr’s “biggest differentiator” is its “reblog” feature, which allows users to share content produced by others, she added.

But whether Tumblr really makes blogging more manageable than other platforms is still a matter of debate. Facebook page “Living in Ann Arbor,”  which is sponsored by broker Ann Arbor Real Estate, said on Inman News’ Facebook page that Tumblr is actually more challenging to use than platforms WordPress and Blogger.

“The Tumblr editor interface isn’t as good as WordPress.com or even Blogger.com if you are going the free route” and “want to gain a social following and share your posts freely,” Living in Ann Arbor said.

Living in Ann Arbor added that WordPress.com and Blogger have features that perform the same function as Tumblr’s reblogging tool. “If one was to use a platform for content curating — I still don’t think that Tumblr is the best option.”

Living in Ann Arbor said the GIF to the left conveys its view of the Tumblr acquisition

Regardless, with the site now in the limelight, many business professionals may also begin to gravitate towards Tumblr in order to fish for millennial buyers and sellers, since the site “tends to skew a lot younger” than other social media sites, Lance said.

In addition to potentially shedding light on a new avenue for agents to intersect with younger homebuyers and sellers, Tumblr could open up promising paid-advertising opportunities.

One of Yahoo’s main objectives is to milk Tumblr for advertising revenue. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said Yahoo would initiate that process by putting ads in the Tumblr “dashboard,” a content stream much like Facebook’s News Feed, The Los Angeles Times reported. Later, Yahoo might allow users to post ads on their blogs themselves, and share revenue earned through the ads with Yahoo.

“If an agent is really trying to focus on millennials or first-time homebuyers, specially in a specific geographic area, I think that could definitely be an opportunity,” Mayer said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

What do you think about Yahoo’s acquisition of Tumblr? Leave your comment below.

A cutting-edge mixed-use complex that is being constructed in northwest Paris aims to ease an affordable housing shortage and create jobs. The project offers its own transportation facilities, a pneumatic-tube garbage system and buildings with “green roofs.” Source: The New York Times

Maps and real estate websites seem to go hand in hand.

It only makes sense, I suppose.

Everyone wants to know where the house is, what the neighborhood is like, how far it is from stuff, and so on.

A map is one of those crucial bits of information display that gives a wide variety of context about one of the things we assume people are looking for when they’re on a real estate website: the house.

In this way I suppose it could easily be argued that maps are a sort of data visualization tool. They take a handful of variables and plot them using symbols to show relationships.

There is even a little bit of standardization to them. That’s why we can look at a Rand McNally road atlas and Google Maps and figure out that both are maps and that we use them to get someplace.

Online, the standard for the past few years has been Google Maps. Wherever we see a map online, we see the familiar yellowy-beige, the familiar typefaces, the line weights representing roads of various capacities.

But since maps are such a big part of real estate websites — some sites even focusing almost entirely of the map-driven experience — there’s a bit of a drawback. There’s a sameness that creeps across the real estate Web landscape.

As maps increase in size and prominence, the sameness also increases. There is less room for distinction or brand differentiation as the non-Google Maps portion of real estate websites continues to shrink.

Years ago, when Google Maps was released, there weren’t any other viable options to integrate map data into the visual experience of websites. The few that did exist either weren’t practical (custom map images from a designer get unwieldy as you try to extend that to every property in an IDX feed), weren’t that different anyway (MapQuest? or that other mapping tool I can’t even remember?) and certainly none of them offered the excellent integration API that Google provided out of the box.

Life was pretty good for digital mapping for some time after that. Everyone started figuring out how to customize elements of their maps and incorporating Google Maps into everything.

Then there was that whole fee thing. Sooner or later Google needed to get a little revenue for the computing resources being devoted to serving up maps for the world. Most just grumbled a little bit and carried on as before.

A few switched to Bing maps, which look just different enough from Google maps to push their own blanditude across the real estate Web. It’s like being excited because you can choose Coke or Pepsi.

But lately a viable alternative to map blandness has been growing. It’s a combination of open source technologies: OpenStreetMaps (to provide the actual data about where streets, buildings and other features are) and MapBox.

MapBox provides the ability to style maps any way you like. So instead of Google’s beige-yellow color scheme, you can use something else.

MapBox allows you to create styles for maps using coding techniques that will be familiar to anyone who knows how to use cascading style sheets (CSS) to change the look of a Web document.

Will absolute chaos and anarchy ensue from this? Will maps suddenly become reminiscent of the final days of MySpace? Probably.

But that’s just the way things go when people with little taste get their hands on production tools formerly available only to professionals. Once people get a little familiarity — or successful examples become available demonstrate the economic value of taste — then things cool down a bit.

Perhaps things like MapBox will usher in a map design experience of the mid-90s grunge design phase made possible by a generation of designers who grew up with a Mac in the house. Or perhaps not. Who knows?

What it does provide, however, is the chance to use one of the most-used visual design elements of your real estate website to re-enforce your visual branding efforts.

Shouldn’t there be uniformity in all maps?

A friend of mine made the argument that all maps should look the same — that consistency in cartographic design makes them easier to use. I disagree.

The maps and “wayfinding” designs used by the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority to guide subway riders are quite different than those employed by the London Underground. Both seem to work well enough that many people use both of them in their lifetimes with minimal trouble.

The different cartographic design choices in those maps — typefaces, colors, symbols, organizing principles of the lines themselves — not only serve their intended function but also help to reinforce the different character of these two different cities. The brand of London is carried forward in their use of Gill Sans, just as the brand of New York is carried forward in the use of Helvetica.

I suppose one could say that the branding of the cities to their respective underground transportation systems came about simply because of familiarity. The branding happened through repeat use of the systems.

But that simply emphasizes the importance of repeat exposure to visual branding elements — nothing new to brand advertisers.

In fact, it furthers the case that if real estate website owners and designers are to continue to increase the size and prominence of maps on their sites, then imbuing the design of those maps with visual brand-driven decisions would be a clear path for distinction and differentiation.

Let’s just hope it doesn’t end up looking like MySpace did.

Or if it does, that it’s your competitor’s site.

Gahlord Dewald is the president and janitor of Thoughtfaucet, a strategic creative services company in Burlington, Vt.

While the residential real estate market is generally believed to be improving nationwide, some of the residual effects of the Great Recession still affect the ability of real estate agents to facilitate home sales.

Emerging employment opportunities in many parts of the country are bringing workers into new communities. Even though financial institutions have brought reserve levels back to all-time highs within the past few years, banks are unable to fund loans due to restrictive lending criteria.

For buyers, the regulatory pendulum has swung too far. Though fully capable of making payments, many are marked with imperfect credit or low cash reserves as a result of short sales, foreclosures or plummeting values of their prior residences. For sellers, this means a significantly smaller pool of potential buyers, which negatively impacts their home values as well as their financial well-being.

Prime opportunity

According to the Pew Research Center, about 10,000 people will turn 65 every day for the next 17 years. With baby boomers entering retirement at an exponential rate, many are looking to their homes as an additional source of revenue to supplement Social Security or other insufficient income.

Today’s rising home values present a perfect opportunity for sellers to capitalize on their homes’ increasing market values, and savvy real estate agents recognize the prime opportunity that seller financing presents. The trend of tight lending standards combined with willing buyers, sellers and an appreciating housing market is certainly not permanent, so this nontraditional financing option must be quickly leveraged to yield maximum benefit.

The decision to pursue seller financing may be influenced by additional factors, such as:

• Streamlined process: By avoiding investor requirements, appraisal guidelines and other legislative hurdles, as well as disclosures and notices, seller financing provides a streamlined, less rigid financing process.
• Increased returns: By funding the loan themselves, sellers may be able to negotiate a higher selling price, as well as more favorable interest rates and terms.
• Residual income: Sellers receive a steady source of monthly income from the buyer in the form of installment payments, enabling them to significantly reduce their tax burden by limiting their financial gain to the income received during that individual tax year.

Adding value to servicing

In some respects, a seller-financed transaction is perceived as an easier or more convenient method of conducting a home purchase transaction. However, effective management of the deal’s intricacies is vital to its overall success or failure. Many sellers fail to consider what lies beyond the sale of their property to truly consider the level of responsibility that they take on following the sale.

As the lender and the servicer, the seller assumes all of the accompanying operational and legal responsibilities tied to the mortgage. This includes managing the amortization schedule, as well as assuming all supporting provisions, such as tracking and reporting owed balances and interest paid, payment collection, notifications, and even storage and document handling.

While there is no formal certification requirement to execute a seller-financed transaction, formulating a deal between the two parties requires more than just an understanding of the overall process — it necessitates the ability to facilitate a clean, cohesive transaction.

The increasing frequency of seller-financed transactions has established the need for specialized servicers that have the expertise and technology needed to effectively manage the deal. By engaging a professional servicing company, sellers and buyers can both rest assured that the loan terms are being upheld and managed without fear of liability on either party’s behalf. In addition to worrying less about managing transaction details, the buyer and seller both benefit from working with a servicer that has the skill and resources needed to successfully and compliantly manage:

• Payment disputes: Using a servicer ensures that payments are received and disbursed by a neutral third party using standardized accounting practices. This way, the parties are less likely to dispute the time of receipt or the interest calculations.
• Payment of underlying loans: A licensed servicer has systems in place to forward payments directly to the lender, greatly reducing the risk of misapplied or improperly credited payments.
• IRS reporting: Associated liabilities carry serious financial implications and can occupy much of the seller’s time and resources. Hiring a servicer also saves the seller valuable time otherwise spent on reporting interest paid to the IRS.
• 24/7 online account access: Online access to loan servicing information allows the client to track payments and disbursements and monitor the loan balance on an ongoing basis.
• Electronic payments/ACH deposits: Sellers often have other priorities and obligations that make it difficult for them to manage the ongoing check mailing and deposit process. In some cases, servicers offer this service at little or even no charge.
• Reserve/escrow accounts: Contracting with the servicer to handle tax and insurance payments frees the seller from managing time-consuming fund disbursements and balance analysis, and greatly reduces the potential for liability or loss.
• Original documents: By securely retaining the original documents, servicers provide an accessible central document repository.

As evidenced by continued year-over-year declines in mortgage origination balances, the housing market still faces an uphill battle. Though lending remains inaccessible to many, seller financing increases activity within an otherwise muted market by restoring opportunity to able buyers and willing sellers, providing a viable a financing alternative for both parties. The convenience provided by a seller-financed transaction is further increased when a servicer is employed to handle the many important components of the deal, and much like the transaction itself, both buyer and seller benefit from their involvement.

To take advantage of this rare market opportunity, forward-thinking real estate professionals should consider learning more about the servicing companies that provide loan management services for seller-financed transactions. If real estate professionals can help their sellers understand that it’s fairly easy to set up and manage a seller-financed transaction with the right servicing partner, there will be more opportunities to facilitate sales that might not otherwise take place via traditional channels.

Jenifer Walton has more than 25 years of real estate industry experience, including 20 years as an escrow officer and six years as a branch manager with the Fidelity National Financial family of companies. Walton joined LoanCare Account Servicing in 2010 and currently heads up sales for the company’s Seller Finance division. Contact her at jenifer.walton@loancare.net.

Critics say the “ability-to-repay” mortgage rule proposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in January will hurt small lenders, who will have less leeway to make loans including those with “balloon” payments. Another item of contention is which fees will be counted in calculating a provision of the rule that caps fees at 3 percent of the total loan amount. The proposed rule — set to take effect in January 2014 — came under fire from Democrats and Republicans at a House Financial Services Committee hearing today, the Wall Street Journal reports. Source: blogs.wsj.com.