Why is nobody making my dream real estate app?

Realtor Notebook

BY TERESA BOARDMAN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012.

Inman News®

Dreaming image via Shutterstock.

I was recently asked by a company that builds iPad apps what kind of app I would like to see.

I did not hesitate to suggest an app that I could use to write real estate contracts. No one but agents who use iPads in the field fully understands what I am looking for, and I don't think the app is being built.

Pen and paper are easier than some of the clunky apps and mobile sites I have used to fill out forms and make offers, and that is just wrong. Some of them can reduce an agent to tears when they crash and the offer vanishes.

I want a single, easy to use app that works on my iPad where I can load or access the entire library of real estate forms, add forms of my own, and write offers for my clients, have them signed on the screen or electronically and manage them from cradle to grave and access them from any device.

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

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

Nurse, patient and doctor image via Shutterstock.

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.

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.

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.