4 tools to increase your value as a real estate agent

New tech from Real Estate Connect

BY BERNICE ROSS, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2012 Inman News®

A packed session, "Video is for Closers," at Real Estate Connect San Francisco. Photo credit: Inman News.

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

What were the latest technology innovations making their debut at this summer's Real Estate Connect? While agent ratings, mobile apps and video were all hot at Start-Up Alley, some of the less trendy tools and services may be exactly what you need to kick your business up a notch.

Early adopters have a definite advantage over those who fail to keep pace with technology. Many younger clients love agents who have the latest tech tools. On the other hand, incorporating a new tool into your business only to see the company disappear a few months later can be a costly mistake.

While almost everyone acknowledges that being an early adopter is a way to stay ahead of the competition, the question is which set of tools and services will be the best fit for the way you do business? The list below contains a number of apps and services that are definitely worth considering.

The social network Nextdoor

Nextdoor is dedicated to maintaining online privacy. For example, if your neighborhood wasn't on Nextdoor, you could add it to the system. The process requires nine neighbors to sign up within 21 days. Each individual must accept a phone call on their landline or verify their address with a credit card. This level of privacy is what allows participants to feel safe about sharing personal information, including pictures and names of their children.Nextdoor was the most talked new social network at this year's Connect. Facebook lets you connect with friends and relatives, LinkedIn allows you to connect with other professionals, and Twitter focuses on what is happening in the moment. In contrast, Nextdoor is a free private social network that allows people to connect who live in local neighborhoods. Rather than having to knock on doors to meet your neighbors, Nextdoor is a powerful alternative. Nextdoor allows people in a given neighborhood to complete profiles about themselves and their family members. It's a great way to get to know others who live in your subdivision or condo building.

Fannie, Freddie fee hikes eyed in 5 judicial foreclosure states

Regulator: Cost of repossessions higher in Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, NJ and NY

BY INMAN NEWS, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2012 Inman News®

Gavel image via Shutterstock.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is seeking public comment on a proposal to raise the guarantee fees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge lenders in five states where costs related to foreclosure practices are significantly higher than the national average.

These five states are Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey and New York. According to the proposal, lenders would have to pay an upfront fee of between 15 and 30 basis points -- 0.15 to 0.3 percent -- for each single-family mortgage originated in those states and later acquired by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

That increase means that a borrower in an affected state obtaining a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage of $200,000 could see his or her monthly mortgage payment rise by about $3.50 to $7, the regulator said.

The FHFA chose the five states based on three factors: the expected number of days it takes Fannie or Freddie to foreclose and obtain title to a property; the average per-day carrying costs Fannie and Freddie incur in a state; and the expected national average default rate on a single-family mortgage acquired by Fannie and Freddie. The size of the fee increase will depend on how much a particular state deviates from the national average.

Trulia ups IPO share price to $17

Shares begin trading under 'TRLA' ticker tomorrow

BY INMAN NEWS, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012 Inman News®

Wll Street bull image via Shutterstock.

Real estate search website Trulia Inc. has priced an initial public offering of stock in the company at $17 per share, clearing the way for public trading of company common stock on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday morning under the ticker "TRLA."

At $17 a share  -- $1 above the previously announced expected range -- the IPO of 6 million shares will raise $102 million before expenses. San Francisco-based Trulia is selling 5 million shares valued at $85 million, and a number of existing shareholders including co-founders Sami Inkinen and Pete Flint are collectively putting up 1 million shares valued at $17 million.

Trulia stands to raise an additional $15.3 million if underwriters exercise an option to purchase 900,000 more shares in the next 30 days, bringing the value of shares the company is hoping to sell at $100.3 million before expenses.

Bernanke defends easing but holds off for now

Commentary: Central banks must be as active as neccessary without risking inflation

BY LOU BARNES, FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2012.

Inman News®

Iceberg image via Shutterstock.

At the end of each August, the world's central bankers gather in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Sit around the ol' campfire singin' sad songs, goin' fishin' in pin-striped suits, and tellin' tales about the big trout that got away. This year, most of 'em.

Despite the risk of feeding conspiracy theorists, it's good to know that these people talk with each other constantly. The People's Bank of China comes to Jackson Hole. Money is money everywhere, the problems different but the same, and today are tightly linked. Mangled policy in Europe creates risk in China, and makes it all the more difficult for China to adjust its own severe imbalances.

One central banker is missing: in the midst of widespread expectation of bond purchases by the European Central Bank, its chairman, Mario Draghi, cancelled his scheduled Jackson Hole speech. One thing is certain: if you're afraid to leave town, you don’t have a deal.

How to buy a home like it's a car

Questions to ask before signing on the bottom line

BY ALISHA ALWAY BRAATZ, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012 Inman News®

Gary Whitton / Shutterstock.com

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love cars. I told my roommates in college that I would be driving a '69 Camaro by the time I was 30 -- a really hot one with a great sound system.

I bettered that. I married a man with classic cars. Besides the fact that he's my best friend, I must say, it was a great car decision. Why? I've got the best of both worlds.

During the work week I drive a very conservative four-door sedan. And then, in my free time I do burn-outs in the '63 Impala.

This is a very good compromise because if something goes wrong with my muscle car I must choose one of the three following options: call Husband, call Dad, call AAA. I don't even know where the oil pan is, and I don't care to find out.

5 reasons to make the leap to Mountain Lion

Realtors using Macs will appreciate features of new Apple OS

BY TOM FLANAGAN, TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2012 Inman News®

Mountain lion image via Shutterstock.

Apple Inc. has equipped its newly released OS X Mountain Lion operating system with features from the company's mobile platform, including some that are popular with real estate agents. But before rushing to the App Store to upgrade your Mac, it's important to make sure the critical software you're using today is compatible.

For those keeping score at home, Mountain Lion is version 10.8 of Apple's operating system for laptops and desktops. The system is available via the App Store as an upgrade for $19.99. Most Macs made since 2008 and 2009 can be upgraded, and iMacs and MacBook Pros made as long ago as mid-2007 will also run Mountain Lion.

Selling real estate on the $300 house

'Reverse innovation' is unique way to penetrate emerging markets

BY GAHLORD DEWALD, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2012 Inman News®

Tree forming world map image via Shutterstock.

In the Harvard Business Review recently, Vijay Govindarajan and Christian Sarkar put forth the idea of designing and manufacturing a house for $300 in order to more adequately house the poor.

What is specifically interesting about the concept is that it is not to be a charity project. It is to be an actual business in an unfortunately large market.

Working through Dartmouth College, Enterprise for a Sustainable World, and International Fund for Africa, the team is planning to deploy a solution to India, Haiti and Indonesia, as well as working on an integrated model for Ethiopia.

One of the core principles of the work is "reverse innovation."

Reverse innovation is any innovation likely to be adopted first in the developing world. And though it may seem counterintuitive (How do developing countries get "innovation" if they don't have financial resources?), there is a lot of merit to the concept.

Lenders using new credit score may approve more loans CoreLogic providing supplemental consumer credit data for new FICO Mortgage Score

BY ANDREA V. BRAMBILA, MONDAY, JULY 16, 2012 Inman News®

Credit score image via Shutterstock.

Mortgage lenders now have access to a new credit score designed to uncover potential borrowers' hidden credit histories and more accurately predict mortgage loan performance.

Last fall, Santa Ana, Calif.-based real estate and mortgage data aggregator CoreLogic signed an agreement with Fair Isaac Corp., the owner of the widely used FICO score, to develop new credit risk scores for the U.S. mortgage industry.

10 tips for successfully handling multiple offers | Agents, are you prepared for market shift?

BY BERNICE ROSS, MONDAY, JULY 16, 2012 Inman News®

Purchase offer image via Shutterstock.

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

When I was actively selling real estate in Southern California, multiple offers were a fact of life. While you may think that receiving two or more offers on one of your listings is a great situation to be in, actually it's not. For properties that sell with a single offer, the fallout rate is 10 percent. For properties where there are two or more offers, the fallout rate increases to 50 percent.

Unique, local blog content trumps generic | Realtor Notebook

BY TERESA BOARDMAN, THURSDAY, JULY 12, 2012 Inman News®

Full house image via Shutterstock.

Daily posts on my real estate blog and my interactions on Facebook constantly remind me of how local real estate is.

Yet much of the information about real estate on the Internet, including agent marketing materials and testimonials, is generic. Some days it feels like we are in our own separate world.

There are a ton of generic agent websites out there. There are even special themes for real estate agent blogs, so they all have a similar look and feel. It's as if someone decided they have to look a certain way and feature the same stock photography.

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®

Health care image via Shutterstock.

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®

Handshake image via Shutterstock.

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.

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

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

Greek warrior image via Shutterstock.

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.

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

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

Chart image via Shutterstock.

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.

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

BY INMAN NEWS Inman News®

Global connections image via Shutterstock.

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.

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

BY INMAN NEWS  Inman News®

Bottomless pit image via Shutterstock.

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.

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.

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.

How long will you be underwater? Timeline to reach desired equity position depends on 3 factors

BY JACK GUTTENTAG, TUESDAY, MAY 29, 2012 Inman News®

Underwater house image via Shutterstock.

About 16 million homeowners owe more on their mortgage than their homes are worth, which means they are "underwater." So long as that condition continues, they have no equity that can be used to help finance the purchase of another house.

On the contrary, they can't sell the house without digging into their pockets to pay the difference between what they owe and what they can realize from the sale net of expenses.

But time heals most wounds, and negative equity is no exception. The principal component of the monthly mortgage payment reduces the loan balance by the same amount.