When Appraisals Come Back Low, Brokers Scramble to Salvage Deal As brokers, the primary job of bringing buyers and sellers together on a price usually seems like the bulk of the work, but it’s really only half the battle. Inspections, taxes, insurance and financing are just a few of the outside forces that need to be satisfied before...
2019-04-24
What Trump’s ‘Big Number’ on Dodd-Frank Means for Brokers President Donald Trump has promised many changes since being sworn in a couple short months ago, but one of the more specific—and likely to impact real estate brokers across the nation—is his pledge to “do a big number on Dodd-Frank.”
This call to action is a...
2017-03-28
What Should You Spend for Online Branding? Ask Yourself These Questions First Planning and implementing online branding for your real estate company is complicated. You need to do it right and within budget, but do you know how to determine your Internet marketing ROI?
If you’re struggling to determine the baseline from which to measure your Internet...
2013-04-01
What New Mortgage Rules Mean for Brokers New year, new mortgage rules…new dilemmas for brokers and agents.
As of Jan. 1, 2014, the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rules and requirements for buying a home and refinancing a mortgage, also known as the “qualified mortgage” or...
2014-02-24
What Is Culture? And How Much Does it Matter? Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of columns on the importance of corporate culture from Speaker and Coach Vince Leisey, president of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Ambassador Real Estate.
Culture is critical to having a vibrant, successful organization in this...
2014-08-26
What Do Softer March Job Growth Numbers Mean for the Market? Employment increased by 103,000 jobs in March after increasing by 326,000 jobs in February. Labor markets remain tight as average job creation on both a three- and 12-month average basis remains very fast for the late stage of the current economic expansion. This fast employment growth...
2018-04-08
Welcoming Change: Brokers Adapt to a Shifting Industry Flexibility and a strong value proposition that both agents and consumers buy into—that's the secret to surviving in a shifting industry quickly being transformed by technology and disruptive business models.
"You have to be nimble—you can't manage from a...
2018-05-30
Washington's Budget Band-Aids and Their Effect on Recovery While the national housing market continues to rebound, real estate agents and mortgage brokers are bracing for another round of scary headlines out of Washington that once again have the potential to thwart the recovery.
The problem is as simple as it is severe: our government...
2013-04-01
Ushering in a New Era of Digital Deal, Contract and Transaction Management Negotiating and closing a real estate transaction is a time-consuming process full of numerous moving pieces that need to come together in perfect succession in order to be executed successfully.
Imagine if that process, which can take upwards of months, could be whittled down...
2019-06-27
US Middle Market Finishes 2016 with Strong Performance U.S. middle market companies reported an average revenue growth of 6.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016, capping off a strong year of overall growth, according to the National Center for the Middle Market (NCMM). Combined with steady job gains, this finding from the NCMM's Q4...
2017-01-26
Underused Mobility Data Presents Opportunities for Brokerage Relo Departments Data management and metrics are increasingly key elements in many corporate relocation programs. But often raw data lacking interpretative analysis or useful application to an individual client’s program is the norm. More customization and strategic approaches toward data...
2014-02-24
Understanding the Tax Advantages of Real Estate IRAs Jason Craig, president, The Entrust Group, recently sat down with RISMedia for a Q&A to shed some light on the tax advantages of Real Estate IRAs.
RISMedia: Are the expenses for a real estate IRA investment property a tax write-off?
Jason Craig: What happens in an IRA stays in...
2015-12-29
Understanding Dodd Frank Section 342: Diversifying Vendor Partnerships Mention Dodd Frank 342 and you may get a blank stare, but it’s a regulation that needs some serious thought. The disproportionate impact of the economic downturn on diverse communities and minority- and women-owned businesses prompted legislators to seek stop-gaps for future...
2016-07-01
UCLA Anderson Forecast: National Economy Falls Short, But Job Growth in California In its second quarterly report of 2013, the UCLA Anderson Forecast's outlook for the United States says that despite "improvement in both GDP and key economic sectors, the overall growth falls short of the rates required for the national economy to truly recover from the most...
2013-06-13
U.S. Housing Markets Moving Into Rent Territory for First Time in Over 8 Years: Report U.S. housing markets, when viewed as a whole, are now in rent territory, meaning renting and reinvesting, on average, will outperform owning and building equity in terms of wealth creation, according to the latest national index produced by Florida Atlantic University and Florida...
2018-08-31
U.S. Home Values Gain $1.7 Trillion in Value in 2014 The total value of all the homes in the United States is expected to end 2014 at $27.5 trillion, a 6.7 percent increase from last year and the third consecutive overall increase, according to Zillow. Homes lost $6.1 trillion in value between December 2006 and December 2011.
The...
2014-12-22
U.S. Businesses Report Growing Optimism about National and Local Economy U. S. businesses remain optimistic about their financial performance this year, according to a Chase Bank survey. Eighty percent of middle-market companies and 73 percent of small businesses have a positive outlook for 2014, higher than last year.
About 70 percent of business...
2014-04-25
Two-Thirds of Consumers Still Value Homeownership The worst housing crisis in generations and the slow rebound back to normalcy has not changed the view of homeownership for two-thirds (67 percent) of Americans, according to a new poll on housing from NeighborWorks America, a community development nonprofit organization.
Meanwhile,...
2013-11-22
Trump's Tax Plan: So Much for Brokers to Watch Brokers have been busy parsing the statement of principles issued April 26 by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announcing "a massive tax cut for businesses and massive tax reform and simplification."
Brokers and real estate professionals from all corners of the...
2017-06-15
TRID: Real Estate Stumbles into Spring On October 3, the lending industry entered a new paradigm in which the old TILA (Truth in Lending Act) and RESPA (Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act) closing documents were replaced with new ones. Despite a tumultuous start, the market regained footing due to extensive preparation,...