In a supplemental revision issued by the Treasury Department, HAFA participants now have new options (and new requirements) when dealing with short sales. The biggest of these changes allows 1st lien holder some more flexibility by eliminating the 6% cap on payments to 2nd lien holders, but the cap remains at 6%, meaning that the change will only potentially impact homes under $100K in value.Among other changes:Vendor Fees (currently which can be charged to the Seller or the listing broker … [Read more...]
National Association of REALTORS® Goes International With Realtor.com
December 1, 2010 By 3 Comments
The National Association of REALTORS® has announced that it plans to take Realtor.com to the international level. In doing so, the association hopes to become the largest online source for residential property listings in the world. As part of the launch, the National Association of REALTORS® is planning to add a number of additional features to its site. For example, the Website will feature a translation service and international listings while also providing site visitors with the option to … [Read more...]
Realtor.com Removes Facebook listings…moves them to Fan / Business Pages
November 10, 2010 By 4 Comments
In a move to apparently accomodate the change in emphasis on Facebook, REALTOR.com has removed the "See My Listings" app effective 10.03.2010 and will instead provide the means to do this on REALTOR fan / business pages as outlined in this brochure.REALTORS who have or build a Facebook Fan / Business Page will be able to take advantage of this new program and post their listings on facebook. Whether the new method will provide better traffic or more traffic remains to be seen as far fewer … [Read more...]
Realogy loses $33 Million in Q3
November 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
REALOGY reported losses of $33 Million in Q3 as they released figures in this report yesterday. Thiis was attributed to a decrease in sales of approximately 10% year over year and to the general slowdown in sales following the end of the tax incentives in Q2. The company also help a webcast / conference call to discuss the results. This will be available on the company's website from today through 11.23.2010 according to their media page. The company did report that it is meeting its current … [Read more...]
US Foreclosures Reach Record Highs
October 26, 2010 By 2 Comments
RealtyTrac is reporting that lenders in the United States foreclosed upon a record number of properties this September, indicating that the real estate market is still in recovery mode.According to the latest figures released by RealtyTrac, foreclosures increased by 3% from August, reaching 347,420. Furthermore, banks repossessed 102,134 properties during the month of September, while REO reached triple digits for the first time during a single month. Overall, REO reached a new record during … [Read more...]
International Buyers of Real Estate on the Rise
October 20, 2010 By 1 Comment
Thanks to the low prices that can be found on real estate throughout the United States, many foreign investors are turning their attention away from the U.S. stock market and putting their attention on the housing market instead. In fact, foreign investment in U.S. real estate has virtually skyrocketed recently, with most planning to rent out the properties and then to sell them once the economy turns around.Given the prices that real estate investors have before them, it is easy to see why … [Read more...]
Mortgage Rates Fall to Decades Low – 4.19%
October 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Mortgage rates fell this week to 4.19%, a level not seen in this country since the 1950's. Many investors are buying up treasury bonds in anticipation that the Federal Reserve will make some moves to lower mortgage rates and yields on corporate debt. The result is that current mortgage rates have been pushed down by the Treasury yields.What does this mean for home buyers? Well it is definitely good news for qualified buyers that will be getting a mortgage. 15 year fixed rates are down to an … [Read more...]
Roost closes consumer efforts, opts for Social Media
October 12, 2010 By 3 Comments
In a move designed to target the increasing power of social media (and obviously to move away from the expense and effort of other forms of online marketing, Roost announced on their blog today that they would focus 100% of their efforts on their social media technologies.According to this blog post:"But in talking to hundreds of individual REALTORS®, we came to an powerful realization: The vast majority of agents still get 80%+ of their business via word-of-mouth referrals.Even after all … [Read more...]
Memphis Broker forms Independent MidSouth MLS and Mid South Real Estate Board
October 6, 2010 By 3 Comments
As Inman news reported this morning, Memphis area real estate broker Larry Mayall (after a long legal battle with MAAR) has opened his own MLS and Association, the Mid South Real Estate Board and MidSouthMLS. This new association is independant of NAR. This raises some interesting questions about the future of MLS's in these tough times.Is consolidation of these associations the answer? Is simply supplanting them with Independent Boards the answer? It remains unclear. There are many issues to … [Read more...]
Yardi buys Point2
October 2, 2010 By 1 Comment
Listings syndication engine Point2 has been purchased by Yardi, a Santa Barbara based real estate technology firm. This deal, announce September 30, follows the acquisition of ListHub's parent company by Move Inc. With each of these acquisitions, speculation grows as to how this impacts the Listings Syndication companies such as Zillow and Trulia.Yardi, who already recently aquired the listings portal PropertyShark.com now has ownership of Point2 and it seems they are well positioned as the … [Read more...]
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