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.

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.

Realty One Group now a franchisor

California broker Barbara Baker is first to affiliate with company

BY PAUL HAGEY, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2012 Inman News®

Real estate brokerage Realty One Group Inc. has entered the franchising business with Temecula, Calif.-based broker Barbara Baker affiliating with the company as Realty One Group Southwest.
Currently, Realty One Group Southwest has between 15 and 20 agents, and expects to grow to between 50 and 75 by year's end, Baker said.
Based in Las Vegas, Realty One Group operates 15 brokerage offices with more than 4,000 agents in Arizona, Nevada and Southern California.
In August, CEO Kuba Jewgieniew announced that the company would develop a franchise system as the next step in the company's plans to expand nationwide and become a publicly traded company.
With Baker on board, Realty One Group's new franchising arm, Irvine, Calif.-based Realty One Group Affiliates Inc., now has its first franchisee.

MRIS going it alone in NeighborCity copyright suit

MLS won't take money it requested from NAR to help pay for legal battle

BY ANDREA V. BRAMBILA, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2012 Inman News®

Lone rider image via Shutterstock.

Mid-Atlantic multiple listing service Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. (MRIS) has decided not to accept financial support it requested from the National Association of Realtors for its copyright infringement suit against the operator of real estate search portal and referral site NeighborCity.com.

In a complaint filed March 28, MRIS alleged NeighborCity's owner and operator, American Home Realty Network Inc., reproduced, displayed and distributed copyrighted listing content, including photographs, without authorization and violated copyright laws through "the creation of unauthorized derivative works incorporating the MRIS database."

St. Paul, Minn.-based Regional Multiple Listing Service of Minnesota Inc. (NorthstarMLS) made similar allegations against San Francisco-based American Home Realty Network in a complaint filed April 18.

The lawsuits were filed not long after American Home Realty Network, which is licensed as a brokerage in California, updated profile pages for 850,000 agents on NeighborCity.com that feature agent scores and performance metrics based on their transaction history.

Real estate industry is shifting to paperless and mobile

New tech from Real Estate Connect

BY BERNICE ROSS, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2012.

Inman News®

Mobile phone image via Shutterstock.

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

Real estate's movers, shakers and innovators once again convened in San Francisco for this summer's Real Estate Connect searching for the newest tools and strategies to give them a competitive edge.

A visit to Start-Up Alley is always one of the highlights of attending Connect. While many companies who launch at Start-Up Alley never become viable, others such as Zillow and Trulia have become superstars. Below you'll find a rundown of some of the best tools and systems that may very well be the superstars of tomorrow.

Mobile transaction management

If you haven't shifted to being paperless and mobile, it's only a matter of time before the entire real estate industry makes this move. The three key players at Connect in this area were Cartavi.com, DotLoop.com and REPREE.com.

Cartavi launched its transaction management program at last year's event. This year it launched a brand-new app making Cartavi the only transaction management program currently available on the iPad, iPhone, Android and Android tablets. Cartavi has both a free and a premium version. Both versions are integrated with DocuSign; however, there is a separate fee for using the DocuSign system.

Real estate workplace fatalities down 37 percent

Violence accounts for more than half of deaths

BY INMAN NEWS, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2012 Inman News®

Crime scene image via Shutterstock.

Fatal workplace injuries in the real estate industry have fallen to the lowest level since 2005, though assaults and other violent acts accounted for a rising share of deaths last year, according to preliminary figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Thursday.

In 2011, there were 40 workplace fatalities in a BLS-defined real estate industry subcategory. The subcategory includes lessors of real estate (landlords); real estate agents and brokers and others who work in brokerage offices; and those who conduct activities related to real estate, such as property managers and appraisers.

The real estate subcategory is part of a more broadly defined "real estate and rental and leasing" BLS category in which there were a total of 60 fatal work injuries in 2011.

Why your listings don't rank

How to get search engines to see your pages and rank them higher

BY GAHLORD DEWALD, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2012 Inman News®

Ski lift image via Shutterstock.

A reader emailed recently wondering why search engines find property listings on some websites and not on others.

Even more vexing, sometimes search engines treat different listings on the same site inconsistently -- one listing on Craigslist will show up in search results, and another listing won't. Why is that?

Search is one of those arcane arts of the Web. Agents and brokers -- who once provided a fairly hefty subsidy of local newspapers through their advertising -- now spend a great deal of time and money getting properties and sites to show up in search engine results.

And that's probably a good thing. If someone is is paying to have their house listed, and one of the promises made by the agent involves marketing the property, then doing a bit of online marketing via search engines is in order. But hopefully you'll get the property sold before you have to boost its ranking on a head term.

Grow the economy, or else

Commentary: New plan to tackle Europe's debt crisis doesn't address underlying problems

BY LOU BARNES, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2012 Inman News®

Apple pie image via Shutterstock.

First, an expression of gratitude. Reality -- new economic data and active central banks -- has removed any duty to pay attention to the convention of either party.

August job data released today were poor. The meager 96,000-job gain was cut in half by downward revisions to the two prior months, and the apparent decline in unemployment from 8.3 percent to 8.1 percent is a statistical quirk -- the percentage of Americans at work or trying to find it fell to the lowest level since 1981.

California broker fighting for right to advertise out-of-state listings

Young: Nebraska's licensing requirements violate free speech rights

BY ANDREA V. BRAMBILA, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2012 Inman News®

Gavel image via Shutterstock.

A California real estate broker who has advertised for-sale-by-owner properties from other states on Realtor.com by placing them in a multiple listing service in California has amended a lawsuit she filed two years ago against Nebraska regulators, claiming their attempts to put a halt to the practice have violated her civil rights to free speech and to pursue a trade.

The Nebraska Real Estate Commission sent California broker Leslie Rae Young a cease and desist order in July 2010, maintaining that only Nebraska licensees are permitted to negotiate the listing, sale or purchase of property in the state, or assist in procuring prospects.

Young then sued the state of Nebraska and the commission in federal court, claiming changes to Nebraska's licensing laws were unconstitutional, and that the state had no jurisdiction over her.

MLS granted injunction against NeighborCity.com

Insurer denies duty to pay for portal's defense against copyright lawsuits

BY ANDREA V. BRAMBILA, FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2012.

Inman News®

Gavel image via Shutterstock.

Five months after filing suitagainst the operator of NeighborCity.com, mid-Atlantic multiple listing service Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc. (MRIS) has been granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting NeighborCity from using copyrighted content from the MRIS database without authorization.

In a complaint filed March 28, MRIS alleged NeighborCity's owner and operator, American Home Realty Network Inc., reproduced, displayed and distributed copyrighted listing content, including photographs, without the MLSs' authorization and violated copyright laws through "the creation of unauthorized derivative works incorporating the MRIS database."

St. Paul, Minn.-based Regional Multiple Listing Service of Minnesota Inc. (NorthstarMLS) filed a similar suit against AHRN on April 18. NorthstarMLS has also filed for a preliminary injunction against the company, but the court has yet to render a decision.

The lawsuits were filed not long after San Francisco-based American Home Realty Network, which is licensed as a brokerage in California, updated profile pages for 850,000 agents on NeighborCity.com that feature agent scores and performance metrics based on their transaction history.

The preliminary injunction in the MRIS case, filed Aug. 27, denied NeighborCity's motion to dismiss the MRIS case and enjoined the company "from unauthorized copying, reproduction, public display, or public distribution of copyrighted content from the MRIS database, and from preparing derivative works based upon the copyrighted content from the MRIS database."

Tax clock is ticking for underwater homeowners

Real estate tax talk

BY STEPHEN FISHMAN, FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2012.

Inman News®

Elated man image via Shutterstock.

Ordinarily, if all or part of a home loan is forgiven by the lender, either in a short sale or foreclosure, the amount forgiven is taxable income. Thus, for example, a homeowner who had $100,000 in mortgage debt forgiven through a short sale would have to pay income tax on the $100,000.

However, Congress adopted the Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007 to save millions of underwater homeowners from this tax disaster. Under the Act, homeowners can exclude from their taxable income up to $2 million of debt forgiven on their principal residence during 2007 through 2012. The Act applies to debt reduced through mortgage restructuring, as well as forgiven in connection with a foreclosure.

But the Mortgage Debt Relief Act expires on January 1, 2013. Any mortgage debt forgiven after that date will be fully taxable, unless the Act is extended. To avoid this deadline, a home must not only be sold before the deadline, but the lender must formally forgive the loan in a letter issued before January 1, 2013.

Will the Mortgage Debt Relief Act be extended past 2012? No one knows. In its 2013 budget, the Obama Administration asked that the Act be extended for two years. Several bills have been pending in Congress to extend it as well, but so far nothing has happened. No one has any idea what Congress will do, and it likely won't act until after the election on November 8, if then. It may depend on who wins the election.

Homeowners who want to take advantage of the Mortgage Debt Relief Act must sell their homes before the end of the year. It may already be too late for most homeowners, since short sales often take many months to complete. But some homeowners may be able to complete a short sale before the deadline if they act now -- it all depends on the property and lenders involved. There will likely be a deluge of sellers trying to meet the end of year deadline.

5 ways seasonal marketing is good for business

Sell real estate clients on listings, lifestyle

BY BERNICE ROSS, THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 2012 Inman News®

Oak tree in autumn image via Shutterstock.

It's hot and muggy, lots of folks are on vacation, and it's tempting to head to the beach or the pool instead of work. But fall is only four weeks away, and with it, fall selling season begins in earnest. This is your last chance to meet the production goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year.

If you want to kick up your production now and throughout the fall, here are five ways to capitalize on this great time of year.

Are you an Olympic-level Realtor? Wow your audience with skill, preparation and professional imaging

BY ALISHA ALWAY BRAATZ, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 2012 Inman News®

Realtor Olympics image via Shutterstock.

I can still remember my first Summer Olympic Games -- as in, the first games that made any impression on me.

It was 1988, and I was away from home at a weeklong overnight camp. Every afternoon during free time the counselors would roll a dining cart with a humongous TV outside, trailed by a 30-foot extension cord. In between soccer games and pool cannonballs we would collapse in front of the TV and see who was making history.

Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson made all the headlines, world records and scandal -- a lot to take in for a 9-year-old. Ever since those games, I have been in love with the Summer Olympics: the spectacle, the athletic prowess, and the idea that if only my parents had tried harder and encouraged me more, I, too, could have triumphed on the uneven bars. Parents.

NAR urges lenders to release REOs Lack of inventory blamed for decline in pending home sales

BY INMAN NEWS, THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012.

Inman News®

Hydroelectric dam image via Shutterstock.

The National Association of Realtors today urged lenders to release any bank-owned properties that have been held back in markets with inventory shortages, blaming the tight supply of homes as a factor in a 1.4 percent decline in pending home sales from May to June.

Although NAR's Pending Home Sales Index slipped to 99.3 in June, that's up 9.5 percent from the 90.7 reading recorded a year ago, marking 14 consecutive months of year-over-year gains. An index of 100 is equal to the average level of contract activity during 2001, a "historically healthy" year for housing sales.

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said buyer interest "remains strong, but fewer home listings mean fewer contract signing opportunities. We've been seeing a steady decline in the level of housing inventory, which is most pronounced in the lower price ranges popular with first-time buyers and investors."

Yun thinks housing starts will likely need to double over the next two years to satisfy the pent-up demand for both rentals and ownership.

ByOwner.com relaunches as free classifieds site New owners expand coverage to include rentals, autos, boats, jobs

BY INMAN NEWS, WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 2012.

Inman News®

Newspaper classifieds image via Shutterstock.

The new owners of the "for sale by owner" website ByOwner.com have revamped it by expanding its coverage beyond real estate, eliminating fees for users placing classified ads, and syndicating inbound and outbound postings from other classified portals.

Under the ownership of Boca Raton, Fla.-based Wild Wild West Group LLC, ByOwner.com will generate revenue by selling ads to nonclassified advertisers such as apartment communities and auto dealerships, President Greg Sullivan said. For now, paid advertising is limited to ads served up by Google's AdSense program.

ByOwner.com, which previously served homeowners selling their properties "FSBO" -- without the help of a real estate broker -- is not getting out of the real estate business. In addition to offering free classifieds advertising properties for sale or rent, the site also plans to offer a "flat fee" listing program for sellers who want their homes advertised in a multiple listing service (MLS).

Home sellers using rent-back as safety net Avoid moving twice by staying in your old home while shopping for a new one

BY DIAN HYMER, MONDAY, JULY 23, 2012 Inman News®

Moving image via Shutterstock.

Some sellers who own one home and want to move to another have been having a difficult time making the move in the current housing market. Most sellers can't afford to buy a new home first, move in and then sell the old house.

Financial constraints usually force sellers into a position where they need to sell first, unless they are buying in a soft market where sellers are open to accepting offers made contingent on the sale of another property.

For sellers who need to sell first, the nagging question is: Where do I move when this house sells? If you can buy contingent on the sale of your current home or contingent on the close of that sale if you already have a buyer for your home, you can move directly from your current home to the new one.

HUD boosting sales of distressed FHA loans Purchasers must delay foreclosure for a minimum of 6 months

BY INMAN NEWS, WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 2012 Inman News®

Tampa, Fla. image via Shutterstock.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is now accepting applications from investors interested in buying pools of severely distressed mortgages formerly insured by the Federal Housing Administration, HUD announced today.

Under its Distressed Asset Stabilization Program, on Sept. 12, HUD will be selling about 9,000 defaulted loans, about 40 percent of which will be located in four metropolitan areas particularly hard-hit by the foreclosure crisis and with large inventories of real estate owned (REO) properties: Chicago; Newark, N.J.; Phoenix; and Tampa, Fla.

September's single-family loan sale will represent a sharp ramp-up for the program, which has thus far sold more than 2,100 such loans since its inception in 2010.

HARP refinancings take off Share of loans going to underwater borrowers also picking up

BY INMAN NEWS, TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012 Inman News®

Leaping dog image via Shutterstock.

As mortgage rates continued to hit new depths, the number of refinancings completed through the Obama administration's mortgage refinance program more than doubled year over year in May, according to a monthly report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Last fall, the FHFA, which regulates government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,announced several changes to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) in an effort to boost participation.