New Rules Mean New Worries for Some Mortgage Brokers The new year has brought a potentially scary new regulation for many mortgage brokers from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The policy, which just took effect in January, has caught the eye of many in the industry because it puts into place some pretty tough – though...
Power Broker Strategies: How to Grow in Any Market At a time when many real estate companies are feeling the pinch of a down economy, Long Island’s venerable Coach REALTORS®—celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2014—has been able to post marketshare gains every year since the financial collapse of 2008....
2013-12-17
REALTORS' Expectation Versus Reality How reliable are REALTORS®’ subjective opinions of the market outlook? At the end of 2013, for example, REALTORS®, on average, expect home prices to be 4 percent higher in 12 months. Is this forecast in-line with what economists are expecting? Does this match up...
2013-12-17
Top 10 U.S. Destinations for Buyers from China While the United States real estate market is of growing interest to buyers from around the world, certain countries, such as China, are having a rapidly increasing impact on U.S. brokerage business. Chinese consumers of U.S. property—including those from mainland China and from...
2013-12-17
Get Ready to Meet International Service Needs Where will your next corporate customer or foreign national purchaser hail from? Whether it’s Brazil, China or Belgium, it’s apparent that international activity is increasing, based on global mobility trends and home sale statistics. Are you ready for this potential new...
2013-12-17
Goodbye, Desolation: U.S. Economy Poised for Blockbuster 2014 For the first time in more than six years consumer spending will lead U.S. economic growth as we enter 2014, Bank of the West Chief Economist Scott Anderson, Ph.D, said during his 2014 Economic Outlook press briefing earlier this week. Strong exports, capital spending and a recovery in...
2013-12-17
How to Build a Culture of Accountability in 2014 Almost every leader has been there. One minute you’re living the company values, and the next you’re making an exception—for yourself. Perhaps you have an official policy of being super-responsive, but when an especially problematic client calls, you avoid him for a...
2013-12-17
Survey Says: Productivity Peaks on Tuesday Have a challenging project to tackle? Take it up on Tuesday, a new survey from Accountemps suggests. Thirty-nine percent of human resources (HR) managers interviewed rank Tuesday as the most productive day of the week. Thursday and Friday tied for the least productive day, each...
2013-12-17
Tapping into the Right Technology In an environment where changes happen on a seemingly daily basis, staying ahead on technology can be a tall order for brokers. In this interview, Prudential Towne Realty's Barbara Wolcott and Coldwell Banker Routh Realty's Sally Routh - both members of RISMedia's Real...
2013-11-22
Small Business, Big Data, Entrepreneurs and Tech Will Reign in 2014 As 2013 draws to a close, five professors with the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver say small business, big data, entrepreneurship and tech will boom in 2014. Spurred by growth in these four sectors, 2014 is the year that the U.S.'s economic engine surges...
2013-11-22
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
Mortgage Rates Reverse Course Mortgage rates fell last week, with the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rate dropping to 4.39 percent, according to Bankrate.com's weekly national survey. The average 30-year fixed mortgage has an average of 0.37 discount and origination points.
The average 15-year fixed...
2013-11-22
Out of the Pigeonhole! Are You Losing Money by Stereotyping Transferees? Long-time relocation professionals will recall a time when “corporate transferee” connoted much more liberal relocation assistance. Executive careers were often crafted by a series of moves for the same employer. Relocation policies were generally egalitarian and...
2013-11-22
2014 Housing Market Outlook: Sales Steady, Prices Up Since the height of the housing bubble, the number of renter households has grown by 5.5 million (from 2006 to 2013), while the number of home-owning households has fallen by 1.5 million. This shift has pushed the homeownership rate down to 65 percent from the peak of 69 percent...
2013-11-22
Power Broker Event Celebrates Real Estate's Top Achievers A positive buzz generated by a steadily recovering real estate market filled the room during RISMedia’s 18th Annual Power Broker Event, held earlier this month at the Westin Market Street in San Francisco.
Taking place on Friday, Nov. 8, RISMedia’s Power Broker Reception...
2013-11-21
Like 'Em or Not, Online Agent Ratings Drive Business Consumers are voraciously hungry for reviews and recommendations for everything under the sun, from hotel rooms, to restaurants, to recipes, to real estate agents. But are consumer reviews in the best interests of agents?
Some worry that online ratings further strengthen the power...
2013-11-21
Delighting Customers Doesn't Pay, Making Their Lives Easier Does Five years of research reveals that "delighting" customers during service, support or other customer care interactions is no more likely to lead to higher repeat sales, share of wallet or positive word-of-mouth than simply meeting their expectations. According to "The...
2013-10-18
The Changing Dynamics of Real Estate Investment In today’s recovering residential real estate market, investors have played an important role, accounting for more than 20 percent of all purchases in recent months. As noted in an article that appeared on RISMedia.com on August 28, entitled “A New Breed of Real...
2013-10-18
Listing Portals: What's the Real End Game? The ongoing contention regarding the ultimate motives of the major online listing portals recently came to a head during a rousing panel discussion at RISMedia’s Real Estate CEO Exchange last month. During the session - “The Data Debate: Is Disintermediation a Real...