What the Obamacare decision means for you | Real Estate Tax Talk

BY STEPHEN FISHMAN, FRIDAY, JUNE 29, 2012 Inman News®

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As you've doubtless heard, on Thursday the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. This means that unless Congress overturns the law, it will take full effect over the next several years.

What does this mean to you? The most significant change created by the new law is the requirement that all Americans have health insurance coverage by 2014. Currently, there is no federal law requiring individuals to have health coverage; nor are employers required to provide it for their employees.

Windermere launches new-home sales division | Windermere Builder Solutions is a New Home Star franchisee

BY ANDREA V. BRAMBILA, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 2012 Inman News®

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With an eye toward taking advantage of a new-home market that's showing signs of recovery, brokerage company Windermere Real Estate has signed a franchise agreement with the national sales and marketing firm New Home StarCorp., the companies announced today.

Seattle-based Windermere Real Estate has created a new division, Windermere Builder Solutions, that is a franchisee of New Home Star and offers builders and developers marketing, sales, and operational support.

"For new construction business our agents already have a market share of 25 percent" in their local markets, said O.B. Jacobi, president of Windermere Real Estate.

Houston brokers swap franchise affiliations | Prudential, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate vie for market share

BY INMAN NEWS, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 2012  Inman News®

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Two brokerages operating in the greater Houston market have swapped franchise affiliations, with the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate network boosting its total agent count at the expense of the Prudential Real Estate franchise network.

Anderson Properties, which affiliated with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate in March 2010, has merged its operations with Alvin, Texas-based Prudential Reyes-Planka Realtors. The combined 202-agent firm will operate as Prudential Anderson Properties, with 10 offices in the greater Houston area, Austin and Lubbock.

Global homebuyer hot spot: New York County, N.Y. (Manhattan) | Inman News special report excerpt

BY INMAN NEWS, MONDAY, JUNE 25, 2012 Inman News®

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Editor's note: This report on the New York County, N.Y. (Manhattan) market is an excerpt from a special report by Inman News reporter Andrea V. Brambila, "10 Hot Spots for Global Homebuyers" identifying the 10 markets with the greatest share of buyers with a foreign mailing address in the public record between May 2011 and January 2012. Arecently released report from the National Association of Realtors found New York was the sixth most popular state in the U.S. for international sales in the 12 months through March 2012.
Nearly 4 percent of homes purchased in New York County, N.Y., between May 2011 and January 2012 listed a foreign mailing address on the property deed, according DataQuick. New York County's borders are identical to those of Manhattan, one of the five boroughs of New York City, including Manhattan Island and several small adjacent islands.

Leading Houston brokerage signs with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate | Gary Greene Realtors is brand's fifth Texas affiliate

BY INMAN NEWS, TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2012 Inman News®

Houston skyline image via Shutterstock.

Editor's note: A previous version of this story contained erroneous information about the number of brokerages that affiliated with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate in 2009, 2010, and 2011. The story has also been updated to correct that Sherry Chris joined Realogy Corp. in 2006 as COO of Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC, not CEO.

A leading Houston brokerage is dropping its affiliation with Prudential Real Estate Services and will operate as a Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate franchisee.

With more than 850 agents operating out of 20 offices, Gary Greene Realtors was among the top 60 U.S. brokerages last year, racking up $1.58 billion in sales volume and 6,509 transaction sides, according to data compiled by Real Trends. Since 2007, the company claims to have closed more transactions than any other brokerage in the Houston market.

Top real estate agents, teams make 'The Thousand' list | Realogy-affiliated brokerages up their share of spots to 40%

BY INMAN NEWS, MONDAY, JUNE 25, 2012 Inman News®

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Brands affiliated with real estate brokerage giant Realogy Corp. dominate the latest annual list of the top 1,000 real estate sales professionals in the country released by real estate consulting and communications company Real Trends Inc., in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal.

"The Thousand" is based on 2011 data and divided into four separate lists of 250: sales professionals by transactions sides; sales professionals by sales volume; real estate teams by transaction sides; and real estate teams by sales volume.

FHA rehab loans ideal for distressed homes | Rolling purchase price, fix-up costs into 1 loan is next best thing to new construction

BY STEVE BERGSMAN, FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 2012 Inman News®

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Foreclosures and short sales always look so enticing, but these kinds of deals are not for the faint-hearted or those on slim resources.

Buying a residence that is not newly built usually requires immediate rehabilitation and remodeling to be followed by regular maintenance. Taking on a foreclosure or short-sale property only ratchets up the process with more intensive rehabbing and certainly a lot more maintenance.

How to solve the stimulus-austerity gridlock | Commentary: Reining in health care costs would boost economy

BY LOU BARNES, FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 2012 Inman News®

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Markets show justifiable concern at a steady flow of soft data all over the world, but it's hard to figure disappointment that the Federal Reserve did nothing dramatic this week.

The Fed's QE (quantitative easing) operations have been designed to pull down long-term interest rates, to prevent runs on banks, and to ease credit. In the last 80 days the run from Europe has accomplished Jobs One and Two, cutting 10-year T-note yields by one-third, and all but drowned the U.S. system in cash.

California pending home sales jump in May | Distressed sales still account for 41 percent of transactions

BY INMAN NEWS, FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 2012 Inman News®

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Pending home sales in the nation's most-populous state rose by double-digits in May compared to the same month a year ago, according to a monthly index from the California Association of Realtors.

CAR's Pending Home Sales Index remained unchanged from April's revised figure. But the index jumped 11.2 percent from May 2011, to 128.8.

Economists: 2012 marks the end of a long bottom | Real estate industry experts offer midyear forecasts

BY PAUL HAGEY, FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 2012 Inman News®

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DENVER -- U.S. housing markets are likely to continue on a path of slow recovery after seeing a multiyear bottom, according to three real estate industry economists participating in a forum hosted by the National Association of Real Estate Editors said today.

Continuing uncertainties over negative equity (about a third of homeowners with mortgages owe more than their homes are worth, according to Zillow), fuzzy housing finance reform possibilities, lagging foreclosure processing and tight lending standards are potential obstacles to the slow-rising tide of the U.S. housing market, they said.

Find the 'why' and they will buy | Instead of segmenting buyers, scope out their attitudes and feelings

BY DAVID FLETCHER, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 2012 Inman News®

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Today I issue a wake-up call to real estate agents everywhere: Stop worrying about reaching specific market segments.

You don't need to know about Generation X, Generation Y, Millennials, or the up-and-comers or the down-and-goners.

You want to label your prospects? I have the only three you need: ready, willing and able. Your problem is not the number of prospects you are working with. Many of you have more than you can handle now. Find the "why" and they will tend to buy.

Spat over commissions as KW enters Des Moines market | Iowa Realty won't pay commission splits to rival's agents

BY INMAN NEWS, MONDAY, JUNE 18, 2012 Inman News®

Tornado image via Shutterstock.

By LISA WAHLGREN

A HomeServices of America Inc. brokerage in Iowa is refusing to split commissions with buyer's agents at a competing brokerage, and is paying reduced commissions to agents at another.

The move by Des Moines-based Iowa Realty has raised eyebrows, but does not violate local Realtor association or multiple listing service (MLS) rules, those involved say.

A fixer-upper purchase strategy Consider future value financing

BY JACK GUTTENTAG, MONDAY, JUNE 18, 2012 Inman News®

Fixer-upper image via Shutterstock.

You are attracted to a house that is perfectly located but it just came out of foreclosure and needs a lot of work to make it habitable. To swing the deal, you need to finance both the purchase and the required repairs. How do you do that?

I recently wrote an article dealing with the first part of this problem: financing the purchase of a house in such poor condition that it might prove unacceptable to lenders as collateral. A strategy for minimizing the risk of getting turned down for a purchase mortgage is described in Purchase a House in Poor Condition? on my website.

Euro breakup wouldn't spell disaster | Commentary: Fed will be free to take necessary measures

BY LOU BARNES, FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 2012 Inman News®

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Now we wait. Greek election results will begin trickling in Sunday afternoon and who-knows-what explosion at the opening of Asian markets Sunday night. More likely: a few more frozen days to digest the results, and any number of empty cans kicked into nearby walls. Top Real Estate in Rockford Illinois.

The biggest event next week will be the Wednesday conclusion of the Fed's meeting. The stock market this week began to trade up on bad news (a small rise in unemployment claims, a dinky drop in industrial production) on the assumption that bad news would mean QE3 from the Fed, which must be good news for stocks no matter how ugly the reality might be.

Not enough REOs to meet investor demand | Bloomberg: Bulk sales slow to materialize

BY INMAN NEWS, FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 2012 Inman News®

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Investors eager to capitalize on low home values and a booming rental market are reportedly finding there are not enough foreclosed homes to buy.

Inventories of real estate owned (REO) properties have been shrinking due to delayed foreclosure processing and few bulk sales by banks in favor of short sales, Bloomberg News reports.

Websites that depend on agent dollars are doomed | Realtor Notebook

BY TERESA BOARDMAN, THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2012 Inman News®

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A couple of months ago I was contacted by the editor for a local news website. They syndicate some of my real estate content and we have had an ongoing relationship for many years.

They wanted to talk about having neighborhood pages with real estate listings on their website, and they wanted to get local agents to pay to sponsor the pages and to pay to advertise real estate listings on them.

RentJuice releases ad metrics tool Users can track ROI of rental ads

BY INMAN NEWS, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 2012 Inman News®

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Online rental platform RentJuice has released a new marketing metrics dashboard that allows real estate offices, brokers and agents to analyze their marketing campaigns.

RentJuice says the new Ad Dashboard marketing metrics tools allows users to evaluate production data broken out across key metrics in order to better understand the value of ad-related strategies and marketing channels like Craigslist and RentJuice ad syndication.

5 steps to building a worthy CMA | Done right, CMA greases the rest of the sales process

BY ALISHA ALWAY BRAATZ, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 2012 Inman News®

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The comparative market analysis, or CMA, is an essential instrument in a broker's toolbox. Whether you are working with sellers to list a property, or helping a buyer make an offer on a property, knowing how to create an effective CMA is paramount.

I had the pleasure of being schooled by one of the most ferociously awesome principal brokers of all time. New brokers in her office were not allowed to go willy-nilly about town. No way!

Overseas buyers snatching up pricey homes | NAR: International sales volume up 24 percent

BY INMAN NEWS Inman News®

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Though U.S. home sales to foreign buyers declined slightly in the year through March 2012, a preference for more expensive homes pushed the total sales volume of international sales up by 24 percent, according to an annual report from the National Association of Realtors.

NAR's 2012 Profile of International Home Buying Activity includes results from 1,745 member respondents surveyed in April 2012. The survey covered purchases of U.S. residential real estate by international clients in the 12 months through March 2012. International clients were divided into two groups: foreign buyers with permanent residences outside the U.S., and buyers who are recent immigrants of less than two years or temporary visa holders residing in the U.S. for more than six months.

Take your photo strategy beyond listings | Realtor Notebook

BY TERESA BOARDMAN Inman News®

St. Paul, Minn. Victorian home photo credit Teresa Boardman.

Home buying and selling activity started picking up a few months ago and is still going strong. But for me, it is also photography season.

I have an endless, inexhaustible need for photographs for blog posts and for advertising, and everything seems to look better in June. Some of the photographs I will take in the next two months will be sold next winter, and others will bring me clients.

Did Penguin eat your Google ranking? | Search algorithm changes could impact real estate listing syndication

BY BERNICE ROSS,  Inman News®

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Google recently made search ranking algorithm changes that will influence how easily potential buyers and sellers can find you online. Whether you are a brokerage or an agent who markets your real estate business online, staying on top these changes may require that you adjust your Web marketing strategy.

For the last two years I have been reluctant to touch our home page content, since RealEstateCoach.com was normally coming up in the No. 1 or No. 2 position on the three major search engines (Google, Bing and Yahoo) for our primary search term: "real estate coaching."

Mortgage rates in uncharted territory | Despite record low rates, demand for purchase loans down from last year

BY INMAN NEWS  Inman News®

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Mortgage rates continued their descent into uncharted territory this week as investors seeking a safe haven from the European debt crisis snatched up bonds backed by mortgages, and the Federal Reserve continued programs intended to keep a lid on long-term interest rates.

Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 3.67 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending June 7, down from 3.75 percent last week and 4.49 percent a year ago, Freddie Mac said in releasing the results of its Primary Mortage Market Survey. That's a new record low in Freddie Mac records dating to 1971.

MLS data definitions could spark more apps | RESO 'Data Dictionary' a boon for vendors

BY ANDREA V. BRAMBILA  Inman News®

Arrows image via Shutterstock.

In a move designed to make it easier for technology vendors to develop streamlined "plug and play" tools for multiple listing services, the Real Estate Standards Organization(RESO) has adopted a standardized set of data terms for the most common descriptions of property characteristics used by industry players.

Data Dictionary 1.0 contains 503 terms using common definitions for property data based on the Real Estate Transaction Standard (RETS), a real estate data standard implemented by RESO and developed for the purpose of facilitating data sharing within the industry.

Are third-party sites worth your marketing spend? | Rethink your syndication strategy

BY BERNICE ROSS  Inman News®

Real estate listings network image via Shutterstock.

Editor's note: This is the first of a three-part series.

An issue that is becoming increasingly more contentious is the role of third-party publisher (syndication) websites such as Realtor.com, Trulia and Zillow. Do these sites really serve the industry well or are they actually harming the consumer experience?

The answer depends upon who is answering the question.

On May 21, 2012, I attended the Hear It Direct conference in Dallas, Texas. Sue Adler and Rob Hahn provided us with a firsthand look at how buyers and sellers actually experience the listing and sales process. One of the most fascinating surprises was that the buyers and sellers interviewed had never heard of Trulia or Zillow. However, several of the buyers did mention Realtor.com as a site they had visited.

Embrace the lesson of Europe's disaster Commentary: US must be competitive in the world, or be Europe

BY LOU BARNES, FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 2012 Inman News®

Catastrophe image via Shutterstock.

Tough day. The details will be media-inescapable; work on context instead.

U.S. job data for May were poor, and April's revised so. However, jobs are growing, incomes are rising (a paltry 0.2 percent monthly, but rising), and the National Association of Purchasing Managers' service index for May arrived at 53.5, a little off from April's 10-month high but a healthy distance above 50 breakeven.

Filing separate returns can reduce mortgage tax deduction Real Estate Tax Talk

BY STEPHEN FISHMAN Inman News®

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Most married couples file a joint tax return. However, there is no legal requirement that they do so. They can always elect to file separate returns. Moreover, if one spouse refuses to sign a joint return, there will be no alternative to filing separately.

As a general rule, when a married couple files a joint return each spouse is jointly and individually liable for the entire tax owed on the return. This means that either spouse can be required to pay the tax due, plus any interest, penalties and fines.

Portland, Ore., market is warming up Real Estate Market Q-and-A

BY INMAN NEWS, THURSDAY, MAY 31, 2012 Inman News®

Portland, Ore., image via Shutterstock.

Dropping inventory, stabilizing prices and a steady availability of distressed properties demonstrate that the metro Portland, Ore., area housing market is stabilizing, according to three leading real estate professionals who shared their perspectives with Inman News.

In Portland, lower-priced homes in good condition, especially those under $150,000, are going fast, said Portland-based brokers Brian Houston and Mike Rohrig. Houston, a broker withColdwell Banker Seal in Portland, noted that investors and flippers are prominent homebuyers at the moment.