Technology can't replace Realtor boots on the ground

Virtual tours are no substitute for seeing a property in person

BY ALISHA ALWAY BRAATZ, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2012.

Inman News®

Boots image via Shutterstock.

Real Estate has gone the way of technology. What Realtor can function nowadays without their smart phone or iPad? Do you even remember the days before GPS? (I do. And I apologize to everyone who rode in my car.)

But there is one thing that the apps of today cannot replace: your brain. Which begs the question: Are you using your brain while you work, or are you running on autopilot? Are you engaged in your business? It matters.

Take a real estate tour, for example. Every area has one. Whether organized through your local MLS or through your brokerage, a tour of new listings has long been the bread and butter of a Realtor's life.

Attendance has tapered off in many cities, however, as Realtors turn to virtual tours and Google Earth in lieu of actually driving across town to view a property. Realtors who are touring listings are often lured in by drawings, Starbucks coupons, free meals, and lottery scratcher tickets, among other things. Sad, huh? But oh so true.

Radian mortgage insurance now available through Mortgagebot

Customers can now order PMI directly from loan origination system

BY INMAN NEWS, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2012.

Inman News®

Mortgage insurance from Philadelphia-based Radian Guaranty Inc. is now available through a loan origination system from mortgage and consumer lending technology company Mortgagebot.

Financial technology firm D+H acquired Mequon, Wis.-based Mortgagebot in April 2011. The company counts more than 1,300 banks and credit unions nationwide as clients.

Radian Guaranty Inc., a private mortgage insurance and risk management provider, is a subsidiary of Radian Group Inc. Mortgagebot has now completely integrated Radian's mortgage insurance offerings into its Web-based Mortgagebot EnterpriseLOS, allowing customers of both companies to order Radian mortgage insurance directly from the platform.

"This is exciting news because it’s one more way Radian is working to accomplish one of our top priorities -- making it easier than ever to do business with us," said Brien McMahon, Radian’s chief franchise officer, in a statement.

New-home sales up 17.2 percent from a year ago

Supply of new homes steady at 4.8 months in October

BY INMAN NEWS, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2012.

Inman News®

New homes image via Shutterstock.

Sales of new single-family homes dipped 0.3 percent from September to October but were up 17.2 percent from a year ago, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today.

The median sales price of new homes sold in October was $237,700, 5.7 percent above last October's level, but a 4.2 percent dip from September.

The Census Bureau says that the estimated 147,000 new homes for sale at the end of October represented a 4.8-month supply at the current seasonally adjusted rate of 368,000 sales per year. That's up slightly from 4.7 months in September but down from 6.1 months a year ago.

Puppy's adventures showcase Corcoran Group website

Brokerage commissions TV ads to demonstrate site's mobile, social capabilities

BY PAUL HAGEY, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2012.
Inman News®

Screen shot of Marcel, star of Corcoran's TV commercial

Who wouldn't want to spend a day touring New York City's Upper East Side, taking a cab to get a massage at a mid-town day spa, getting a run in at the park, and doing some boutique shopping and meeting a significant other for a "romantic brunch?"

Marcel -- the French bulldog puppy who stars in The Corcoran Group's first scripted live-action TV commercial -- clearly does.

2-minute version of commercial by The Corcoran Group.

Marcel (his real name) will soon be familiar to TV viewers in the New York City market, where two-minute, 60-second and 30-second versions of an ad that showcases the mobile and social capabilities of the brokerage's new website launched Monday. The six-week ad campaign will also run in movie theaters and taxi cabs -- and on YouTube for long after that.

Zillow's 'social CEO' sounds off on Twitter, company's future

Connect speaker profile: Spencer Rascoff

BY PAUL HAGEY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2012.

Inman News®

Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff on stage at Real Estate Connect San Francisco.

Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff has had quite a year.

Zillow signed agreements in 2012 to acquire four companies (RentJuice, Buyfolio, Mortechand Hotpads) and at the end of the third quarter had 508 full-time employees, up 54 percent from a year ago.

The nation's most-visited real estate website also boosted the number of "Premier Agent" advertising subscribers by 80 percent (to 26,703 as of Sept. 30), unleashed a free online foreclosure database, and launched its firstnational TV ad campaign.

To help fuel this growth, last year Zillow pulled off a $75.7 million initial public offering -- helping bring back the market for IPOs in the process. The company recently raised another $156.7 million in a secondary offering that closed Sept. 24.

Rascoff, 36, was named to Fortune Magazine's "40 hottest rising business stars under 40."

He's been called a "social CEO." He writes a blog, contributes to LinkedIn's "influencer" program, and Tweets frequently.

Buying a house with resale in mind

4 factors that will make profiting more likely

BY DIAN HYMER, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012.

Inman News®

Curb appeal image via Shutterstock.

At the end of the 1970s, '80s and '90s, homeowners in many areas cashed in big profits when they sold. This enabled them to trade up to a bigger home, sometimes in a better neighborhood.

Homeowners used their homes as piggy banks through the use of home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) to buy cars, pay for vacations and medical bills, renovate their homes, and pay for college educations and retirement.

The recent housing recession brought a halt to this as home values dropped 30 percent or more, depending on location, wiping out equity for some and leaving many who bought with a low cash down payment with negative equity. More than 24 percent of homeowners in the U.S. today have a mortgage value that exceeds the market value of their homes.

7 customs to know before taking on foreign clients

Cultural differences in real estate

BY BERNICE ROSS, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012.

Inman News®

Businessman image via Shutterstock.

Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series. Read Part 1.

Working with global clients can become a highly profitable niche for your real estate business provided you are curious about your clients' culture and you stay away from the pitfalls that can undermine your success.

Part 1 of this series outlined two important pitfalls to avoid when working with global clients: discussing anything about them or their transactions and avoiding questions about their profession or how much they earn. Here are seven additional pitfalls to avoid.

Americans still dreaming of big, opulent homes

Coldwell Banker Pinterest boards reveal 'Ultimate House'

BY INMAN NEWS, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012.

Inman News®

This photo of a 7,500-square-foot mansion near Bellevue, Wash., is one of the most repinned on Coldwell Banker's Pinterest boards.

The housing bubble and recession may have dented even the fattest wallets, but Americans still have a soft spot in their hearts for grandiose, extravagant and ostentatious homes, if the most repinned photos on Coldwell Banker Real Estate's Pinterest boardsare any indication.

Pinterest is "the place to be for dreamers, and dreaming of a perfect home is something that millions do every day regardless of whether they are pinning their dreams on Pinterest or not," writes Lindsay Listanski on the Coldwell Banker "Blue Matter" blog. "So we wondered ... if we took the most repinned photos from our boards what would the ultimate house actually look like?"

Strong sales and tight inventory boost home prices

NAR: Median home price in October up 11.1 percent from a year ago

BY INMAN NEWS, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012.

Inman News®

Housing trend image via Shutterstock.

A combination of rising sales and the lowest inventory in six years helped existing-home prices post annual gains for the eighth month in a row in October, the National Association of Realtors said today.

Sales of existing homes were up 2.1 percent from September to October and 10.9 percent from a year ago, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.79 million.

At $187,600, the national median price for all housing types including single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops was up 11.1 percent from a year ago. The national median price last posted eight consecutive months of annual gains before the crash -- from October 2005 to May 2006.

Also released today, a survey by the National Association of Home Buildersshowed builder confidence rose in November for the seventh month in a row to its highest point since May, 2006.

Rising home prices are boosting home equity, and NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun thinks the improvement could be even greater next year.

Honest marketing proposals get listings

5 basic expectations sellers and agents should agree on

BY ALISHA ALWAY BRAATZ, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012.

Inman News®

Agreement image via Shutterstock.

Journey back with me to those first few months after becoming a bona fide real estate agent: You had a desk full of brand-new file folders, a shiny name badge, and a go-get'em attitude that just wouldn't quit!

If you were anything like me, you'd also invested in a full-grain leather briefcase and some hoity-toity shoes, too. Fake it till you make it, right? Right!

Until the new excitement wears off and you find yourself shrinking in the back row of the office meeting and thinking please don't call on me!

What happens to your taxes if we go over the fiscal cliff

Real Estate Tax Talk

BY STEPHEN FISHMAN, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012.

Inman News®

Fiscal cliff image via Shutterstock.

If you've been paying any attention to the news, you doubtless know that the United States is rapidly approaching a "fiscal cliff."
This is the date that various tax cuts and benefits enacted over the past 11 years are set to expire. That date is Jan.1, 2013.
It's quite possible that President Obama and Congress will come to some agreement before Jan. 1 and extend at least some of these tax cuts.
However, it seems equally possible that they won't.

What happens as of Jan. 1 if no deal is reached and we plunge off the cliff? Your taxes are going to go up.

The following handy chart shows what will happen if the most important of these tax provisions expire.

2 questions you should never ask foreign clients

Cultural differences in real estate

BY BERNICE ROSS, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2012.

Inman News®

Foreign real estate clients image via Shutterstock.

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

Sooner or later you will probably work with a buyer or seller from another country. If you handle the transaction well, you can have a steady stream of referrals for many years to come. The key is how to avoid the cultural pitfalls that could cost you the deal.

With the worst of the real estate downturn behind us, the United States continues to be an attractive place for offshore investors to purchase property. Establishing a niche serving global buyers and sellers can be a smart move for a variety of reasons.

Freddie Mac offers agent bonuses on REO sales

$1,000 for buyer's agents, $500 for listing agents on sales closing by April 15

BY INMAN NEWS, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2012.

Inman News®

Santa Claus image via Shutterstock.

Freddie Mac is offering a $1,000 bonus to agents who represent buyers of "HomeSteps" properties from its inventory of real estate owned (REO) homes in 20 states, and $500 to listing agents.
The HomeSteps winter sales promotion, which kicked off today, applies to offers received between Nov. 15, 2012, and Feb. 28, 2013, and closing on or before April 15, 2013, for properties in Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
Investor purchases, auction sales, sealed-bid sales or bulk sales are not eligible for the program. At the end of September, Freddie Mac had 50,919 REO homes in the HomeSteps program, about two-thirds of which were located in those 20 states.

1stdibs.com attracting high-end listings

Houlihan Lawrence latest luxury broker to market homes on the site

BY INMAN NEWS, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2012.

Inman News®

A Sotheby's International Realty listing featured on 1stdibs.com.

Luxury real estate brokers are discovering yet another way that the rich are different -- instead of shopping on Amazon.com, they're pining over fine art, jewelry, fashion and now homes at online luxury marketplace 1stdibs.com.

Westchester County, N.Y.-based real estate brokerage Houlihan Lawrence is the latest brokerage to market listings on site, saying it will display 100 upper-tier homes on the high-end online marketplace this month.

The homes will show up under the "Fine Homes" section of the 1stdibs.comwebsite, where luxury home shoppers can see listings from luxury brokers operating in markets like New York, California, Florida, Texas, Washington, D.C., and France, the only featured international market.

Other New York brokerages with listings on the site include Prudential Douglas Elliman and Realogy Holdings Corp. subsidiaries The Corcoran Group, Sotheby's International Realty and Coldwell Banker Real Estate. California's Warwick Property Group and Texas-based Greenwood King Properties are also marketing listings at 1stdibs.com.

Uncertainty, QE3 push mortgage rates to new lows

Demand for purchase loans rebounding after Hurricane Sandy

BY INMAN NEWS, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2012.

Inman News®

Percent sign image via Shutterstock.

With U.S. lawmakers heading toward the edge of the "fiscal cliff," government-backed mortgage bonds that fund the vast majority of home loans are looking like a safe haven for investors, helping push mortgage rates to new lows.

Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 3.34 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending Nov. 15, down from 3.4 percent last week and 4 percent a year ago, Freddie Mac said in releasing the results of its weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

That's a new low in Freddie Mac records dating to 1971. In the four decades that Freddie Mac has conducted the mortgage market survey, rates on 30-year fixed-rate loans had never been below 4 percent until last year.

The survey showed rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages averaging 2.65 percent with an average 0.7 point, down from 2.69 percent last week and 3.31 percent a year ago. That's also a new record in Freddie Mac records dating to 1991.

Should lockboxes be mandatory?

NAR revisiting rule governing 'optional' MLS, association services

BY MATT CARTER, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012.

Inman News®

Lockbox image via SentriLock LLC

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct that while some Realtor associations and MLSs want all of their members to pay for lockbox services, those members would not be required to use the devices. The subhead of the story as originally published stated that the NAR policy under review prohibits MLSs and associations from requiring the use of lockboxes. The policy only prohibits MLSs and associations from requiring that members pay for lockbox services.   

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The National Association of Realtors is considering whether multiple listing services and Realtor associations will be allowed to require that their members pay for some services that are now considered optional, such as lockboxes.

At least three MLSs have notified NAR of their desire to require all of their subscribers to pay for lockbox services, citing security issues when members don't use the devices, and potential cost savings from universal member participation.

A policy adopted by NAR in 1996 to curb potential abuses of authority by MLSs and local Realtor associations limits the services that can be included in member dues. Products and services are defined as either "core," "basic" or "optional."

Bulk REO sales have California Realtors calling for FHFA leadership change

Investors buy 1,763 homes in 5 states

BY INMAN NEWS, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2012.

Inman News®

Bulk sales image via Shutterstock.

California Realtors are calling for a change of leadership at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) following the first transactions in a pilot initiative to sell real estate owned (REO) homes in bulk to large corporate investors.

The California Association of Realtors has previously criticized the agency, which regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, for moving forward with the initiative in California without giving full consideration to the objections of state lawmakers or the program's potential negative economic impact on housing markets and cost to taxpayers.

CAR has also criticized what it said was "the highly secretive manner" in which the bulk sales were carried out, objecting to the FHFA's failure to publicly disclose sales prices and exact locations for individual properties.

Google Ventures backing agent matching site

HomeLight features only top agents based on performance data

BY ANDREA V. BRAMBILA, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2012.

Inman News®

Screen shot from HomeLight home page.

A new real estate technology company backed by Google Ventures, among others, officially made its debut into the fractious world of agent rankings today.

HomeLight is a referral-based site that claims to match homebuyers and sellers with unbiased real estate agent recommendations based on transaction performance data.

The site launched out of beta today with $1.5 million in funding in hand from Google Ventures (the venture-capital arm of search giant Google), Crosslink Capital, Innovation Endeavors, and several undisclosed angel investors.

The company had been in beta since late last year.

MLS most used Internet resource for homebuyers

NAR's survey of buyers and sellers reveals most find agents through referrals

BY INMAN NEWS, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2012.

Inman News®

Crowd image via Shutterstock.

Multiple listing service (MLS) websites were used by more homebuyers when searching for their home than any other source of online information, including third-party listing sites and mobile apps, according to the National Association of Realtors' 2012 survey of 8,501 homebuyers and sellers.

Fifty-four percent of the homebuyers who used the Internet (90 percent of respondents) to help them find a home used their local MLS site, according to the survey, conducted in June 2012 and representing the 12 months spanning July 2011 to the end of June. All respondents had purchased a home in that time period.

Social media lets brokers get proactive about recruiting

Once prospects are identified, vet them closely

BY MATT CARTER, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012.

Inman News®

Job interview image via Shutterstock.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- With housing markets on the mend, competition for top agents is heating up, and real estate brokers should be using social media sites like LinkedIn to proactively target agents they want to recruit instead of posting a help wanted ad and waiting passively for responses to come in.

That's the advice former headhunter Daniel Abramson had for real estate brokers attending the National Association of Realtors' annual Realtors Conference and Expo in Orlando today.

But identifying good prospects is only half of the equation, said Abramson, the president and founder of training and coaching firm StaffDynamics. In-depth interviews are needed to determine who's got the right combination of people skills and determination to succeed.

Social networking "is only a vehicle for bringing in people. You still have to interview them," Abramson said.