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...
2014-01-21
Can Shadow Inventory Help Relieve Price Pressure? Home prices grew at the fastest pace in seven years in 2013. This is good news for property owners, both homeowners and landlords, as they witnessed, on average, a $32,000 gain in housing equity over the past two years. The equity increase is an immediate financial gain for...
2014-01-21
How to Make Every Meeting Worthwhile As real estate brokers and managers continue to look for new ways to revitalize their teams and increase their bottom line in 2014, one renowned authority firmly believes that the best place to motivate agents and clarify expectations is in sales meetings.
Unfortunately though,...
2014-01-21
New-Homes Market Plays Leading Role Today, and into the Future Scott MacDonald, real estate investor, real estate broker and owner of RE/MAX Gateway has received numerous accolades, including a nomination for REALTOR® of the Year and induction into the RE/MAX Hall of Fame and Lifetime Achievement. With over 25 years of experience, MacDonald is...
2014-01-21
6 Tips for Making the Most Out of Trade Shows and Conferences As winter blooms into spring, conferences and industry events pick up, and stay strong until the fall. Industry events can either be small, intimate, and local, or they can be huge, international events. We’ve developed 6 tips to help you make the most of your industry trade...
2014-01-21
Coming to America: More People Moved to U.S. from International Locations in 2013 The United States experienced an influx of people from international locations in 2013, with more household goods moves made to the U.S in 2013 than moves from the U.S., according to the International Migration Study recently released by UniGroup Relocation.
The U.K. is the top...
2014-01-21
Confidence in American Dream Eroding but Financial Satisfaction on the Rise Though the U.S. economy is showing signs of recovery, Americans' belief in the American Dream remains deeply shaken. Of the older millennials (ages 25 – 32) surveyed in a recent study from MassMutual, half feel the American Dream is disappearing completely. Forty-five percent...
2014-01-22
Thinking Globally to Grow Locally This week, a fellow mobility specialist asked us for our latest “horseback” estimate of annual international relocation volume. (As you may know, no definitive data on this seems to exist, so we practitioners compare notes and piece together various industry surveys and...
2014-01-24
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
Drop in Foot Traffic May Predict Inventory Increase For the second consecutive month, foot traffic as measured by NAR’s Research index fell sharply. While bad weather may have played a role in this trend, the effect is widespread and significant. This movement suggests that the year-over-year decline in existing-home sales, which...
2014-02-24
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
Infill Development and Construction: New Opportunity in Today's Market As the real estate market continues to gain traction, savvy brokers and agents who are ready to take their business to the next level are constantly on the lookout for the next big thing. While new-home construction has been dominating the headlines recently, there’s a new trend...
2014-02-24
Bitcoin Unlikely to Crack Housing Market as Long as Dollar Thrives (MCT)—Will home purchases and mortgages ever be transacted in bitcoins?
That this question gets asked with increasing frequency is an indication of how far the Bitcoin phenomenon has come. Readers should recognize that any answer at this point has to be highly...
2014-02-24
Report Points to Early Start to Home Buying Season The 2014 home-buying season has begun on a positive note, despite severe weather conditions across much of the country, showing an uptick in inventory a month earlier than the 2013 home-buying season. This, according to recently released its National Housing Trend Report for January...
2014-02-24
Commercial Real Estate Execs More Confident, Although "Headwinds" Remain U.S. commercial real estate markets continue their gradual recovery from recession — as reflected by improving fundamentals, transaction volumes and capital flows (especially in non-"gateway" markets) — and will likely remain on a modestly upward trajectory over...
2014-02-24
As Social Networks Cash in on Real Estate, Agents Look for Profits of their Own While many brokers continue to question the ROI of social media along with the amount of time their agents devote to posting, tweeting, pinning and the like, it has proven to be a a very valuable resource for real estate professionals. It’s helped them promote their listings in...
2014-02-25
Builders Lean on Agents to Keep Buyers' Credit on Track from Sale to Closing The nation’s builders are understandably buoyant about what’s looking like a sustainable housing recovery as more buyers re-enter the market at a time when inventories are low in many areas.
But what tempers builders’ giddiness is their challenge in locating...
2014-03-26
Brokers: Mortgage-Interest Cap Plan Would Be Unfair to High-end Markets Few in the real estate brokerage community think the latest proposal to cap mortgage interest deductions will actually become law in Washington.
The Speaker of the House—an anti-tax Republican and leader of the same party of the plan’s author, Rep. Dave Camp, the...
Ron Peltier: Real Estate Market is 'Getting Close to Parity' According to HomeServices of America Chairman & CEO Ron Peltier, 2013 represented the second full year of housing’s recovery and the real estate market is now well on its way to achieving balance by the end of 2014. In this exclusive Power Broker interview, Peltier shares...