In an effort to encourage communication among worldwide real estate markets, FIABCI recently launched its first international webinar. Among those participating in the webinar included leaders from the United States, the Ukraine, Russia, the United Kingdom, Italy, Mexico, Canada, France and Germany.The primary goal of this webinar was to help determine how the Federation would go about assisting worldwide real estate markets with overcoming the devastating effects of the recession while also … [Read more...]
Carolyn Capalbo – The Real Story
July 13, 2010 By 10 Comments
Author's Note: In keeping with our practice of interviewing interesting real estate industry personalities, Carolyn Capalbo is a REALTOR in Northern Virginia. But she is not the ONLY Carolyn Capalbo in the United States. (There are 4.) One of them is the mother of Ashley Dupree (the infamous "escort" of Eliot Spitzer). Almost instantly, everyone who Googled Carolyn Capalbo saw images of women in bikinis and newspaper articles about the affair. She now has the unenviable task of regaining her … [Read more...]
International Interest in U.S. Properties Continues to Grow
July 10, 2010 By 6 Comments
A recent report released by the National Association of REALTORS® indicates that interest in property in the United States has increased among home buyers around the world. Entitled the 2010 Profile of International Home Buying Activity, the report lists several factors as contributing to this growing interest. Some of these factors include:The strength of the U.S. dollar The overall value and level of desirability of real estate in the United States The apparent emergence of an economic … [Read more...]
Zillow takes over Yahoo Real Estate listings in ad deal
July 9, 2010 By 1 Comment
Zillow.com announced overnight and VentureBeat reported here that they are now working with Yahoo Real Estate and Yahoo search on a strategic venture that is reminiscent of Yahoo's similar deals in recent days with PriceGrabber.com for Yahoo Shopping and with Match.com for Yahoo personals.While this deal is interesting from the Yahoo side of the deal, as they move out of search and look to cut costs and raise revenue by becoming more of a "virtual portal", the implications for the real estate … [Read more...]
Peru, Panama and Brazil Top List of Investor Markets
July 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Strong economic growth, low interest rates and a continued housing boom make Latin America, far more appealing than other regions, according to a new report from Global Property Guide. Low valuations and under-valued currencies add to the investment opportunities there.Peru, Panama and Brazil lead the next wave of residential growth in Latin America. Factors such as rapid GDP growth, good yields, relatively low taxes, reasonably priced real estate, and reasonable round-trip costs put Panama … [Read more...]
Real Estate Getting Hot
July 8, 2010 By 3 Comments
A hot topic that is getting the attention of many Realtors that get most of their business online is the plight of Carolyn Capalbo. One of the fellow REW members, Carolyn has the misfortune of sharing her name with a famous call girl's mother. Specifically, one Ashley Dupre. Jon over at REW wrote a column about it. Read more about it here: http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/blogs/rew-jon/10172/show/Let this serve as a reminder how important our online reputation is. If you don't … [Read more...]
Banks try to speed up the short sale process
July 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Several banks are trying to speed up the short sale process. Many of them are finally learning that having thousands of agents faxing in hundred-page packages is not the best method to use. For awhile, they refused to use email, but they've finally come to terms that email is a very useful technology. This may sound laughable when reading, but sadly, it is the truth. At the REO Expo in Dallas, Bank of America explained that they will now use nothing but Equator for their short sales. Those … [Read more...]
New IDX rolls out
July 8, 2010 By 4 Comments
Real Estate Webmasters for those of you who know is probably the best idx platform on the market. Real Estate Webmasters recently rolled out it's new version ( IDX 3.0) which rivals Realtor.com. Also, one of the best features of all in that this idx is search engine spiderable! I personally own a Real Estate Webmasters site and have their idx of course and I rank for terms that I shouldn't. For example when seller or buyers specifically types in their address, I rank on page 1 of G every … [Read more...]
