As announced in a previous article on Real Estate Industry Watch, NAR today released revisions to its housing sales numbers for the past four years. The reasons for the changes appear to be both an over=reporting of the number of FSBO sales that were not counted through MLS s as well as double reporting for homes that were counted as sold on more than one MLS.The finance and economics blog CalculatedRiskBlog.com offered a detailed analysis of the revision, it's impact on inventory levels and … [Read more...]
NAR forms Technology and Emerging Issues Sub-committee for IDX and MLS issues
December 21, 2011 By 1 Comment
Blogger and Broker Jay Thompson announced that NAR has formed a subcommittee of the MLS committe, specifically for dealing with Technology and Emerging Issues (read: IDX issues) and that he is one of 17 people who are members and are participating on that sub-committee.While no formal announcement has been made yet on the NAR website, hopes are that subcommittee focused directly on resolving emerging technology issues and more specifically looking at IDX and applying it to … [Read more...]
NAR double counting sales? Yes says Yun…
December 19, 2011 By 1 Comment
Money magazine reported that existing home sales will be revised lower due to "double counting" of sales across multiple MLS's and NAR is revising figures back to 2007.According to NAR economist Lawrence Yun, "For the real estate business, this means the housing market's downturn was deeper than what was initially thought," Yun said.Other reasons for revising the data include old assumptions based on aged census information, and some assumptions about FSBO listings which do not … [Read more...]
NAR Convention Tickets on Sale
September 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Tickets are on sale for NAR's convention and meetings to be held in Anaheim Ca November 11-14, 2011. You can register for the event and get more information here. … [Read more...]
Chicagoland Boards look to merge. More to come.
May 25, 2011 By 6 Comments
In the first of what many real estate industry experts expect to be a growing number of REALTOR Association mergers, two Chicago area boards are taking a serious look at merging. According to ChicagolandRealEstateForum.com, both boards have approved the deal: The Board of Directors for both the Mainstreet Organization of REALTORS® (MORe) and the REALTOR® Association of Northwest Chicagoland (RANWC) have voted unanimously for the merger of the two groups and now just need their members to … [Read more...]
NAR makes $40 political fee increase official, angers some agents
May 18, 2011 By 6 Comments
At the National Association of REALTORS midyear meetings, NAR's board voted to approve and put into effect a mandatory $40 increase in fees, known as RPPSI, that would provide that money for NAR to use for donations to political candidates of their choosing. While NAR officials indicated that there was not much discussion about it at the midyear meetings, on the street in the industry, the story brought apparently a number of different reactions."I want to quit NAR" was one reaction."I … [Read more...]
NAR plans $40 mandatory political fund fee increase
March 23, 2011 By 9 Comments
NAR has announced that they intend to raise dues by $40 per year in 2012 and in 2013 to fund more political donations and clout. This has been met with mixed reviews and generally negative reactions from the real estate blogging community. A great overall analysis of the proposed fee hike is done here by Rob Hahn and an excellent op ed was written by Jay Thompson.The sticking point for many of the bloggers seems to be that the fees are MANDATORY. For years, REALTORS can contribute via RPAC … [Read more...]
NAR backs GSE’s in proposed restructuring plan
February 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The National Association of REALTORS released today their recommended plan for restructuring Freddie and Fannie. The plan would continue to structure them as governement sponsored enterprises, but apparently without outside shareholders in an effort to prevent the past outcome of private profits while taxpayers were left to foot the bill for losses.“As the leading advocate for home ownership, NAR believes that the federal government must continue to play a role in the mortgage markets to … [Read more...]
Move Inc and AOL announce ad pact
January 15, 2011 By 3 Comments
AOL and Move, Inc have announced a marketing agreement that will allow Move, Inc., parent company of REALTOR.com to power AOL real estate search.According to executives from each of the companies:"Our new relationship with AOL Real Estate is an exciting opportunity for Move to once again deliver on our commitment to connect agents with large, high-quality audiences of potential buyers," said Move, Inc., Chief Executive Officer Steve Berkowitz. "By remaining focused on delivering an … [Read more...]
Move, Inc. buys ListHub
September 21, 2010 By 1 Comment
It was announced today that Move, Inc has acquired Listhub's parent company Threewide for $13MM in cash and will lower Move's forecasted income by a small amount in 2011, but will not measurably affect the company's EBITDA.The decision appears to be intended to position Move in a place where they can control syndicated listings to competitors Zillow and Trulia while also continuing to control REALTORS via the user experience of REALTOR.com. This purchase comes on the heels of an announced … [Read more...]
