Feb 21
Agents: Attracting Business to You Every Time You Leave the House. Most real estate prospecting strategies focus on the pursuit of business, or going out there and actively looking for targets to prospect. Fair enough. But you can also generate a significant amount of business for yourself using attraction-based strategies that don’t require you to …
Feb 20
Housing Affordability Reaches New Records. Housing affordability rose to a record high during the fourth quarter of 2011, which means a home buyer’s purchasing power is greater than it ever has been before, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index. The index showed that 75.9 percent of all new and …
Feb 17
Home Builders Are Feeling More Optimistic. Signs are improving in the new-home market and builders are feeling more optimistic about where the real estate market is heading, after coming off last year’s worst year on record for new home construction. For the fifth consecutive month, builders confidence in the single-family home market increased in …
Feb 16
6 Ways to Capture Clients at Open Houses. Try these tips for turning your open houses into a dependable flow of income for your business. If you’re getting ready to hold an open house, lock the door. And forget about programming all your visitors’ numbers on your phone’s speed dial: You never want to call …
Feb 14
Could the Mortgage Deal Lead to a Jump in Foreclosures? A $25 billion mortgage settlement announced between major banks and state and government officials is supposed to bring aid to troubled home owners, but it could also bring a wave of new foreclosures, CNN Money reports. During the yearlong negotiations, some banks slowed down repossessing …
Feb 13
30-Year Mortgage Rates Hold at Record Lows. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.87 percent this week, matching last week’s all-time record low. As for other rates, they ticked up slightly this week, but still hovered around record lows compared to historical standards, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey. “A strong January employment …
Feb 10
States Negotiate $26 Billion Agreement for Homeowners After months of painstaking talks, government authorities and five of the nation’s biggest banks have agreed to a $26 billion settlement that could provide relief to nearly two million current and former American homeowners harmed by the bursting of the housing bubble, state and federal officials said. It …
Feb 09
Flowers for Curb Appeal. Are you fighting a bad case of cabin fever this Winter? If so you’re not alone! Dormant flower beds all across the nation are begging for some splashes of color. Here’s a list of the top 10 inexpensive, easy-to-maintain flowers that will please those beds, your budget, and your neighbors. Curb …
Feb 07
Beat the Competition in Buying Foreclosures. While bank-owned homes are plentiful in many markets, they aren’t always easy for a buyer to get. Foreclosure sell at bargain prices — sometimes at 35 percent discounts when compared to non foreclosures. These ultra-low prices are attracting investors and all-cash offers, which makes it difficult for other buyers’ …
Feb 06
What Customer Service Means Today. There was a time when providing great service in real estate meant getting an understanding of the lifestyles of clients and teaching them what they didn’t already know. Simply providing them with information on homes for sale, pricing, current mortgage rates and data relevant to the transaction gave practitioners a …
Feb 03
Construction Spending Rises for 5th Straight Month. The worst year for home building on record was 2011, but the year ended with a surge in construction spending, as the new-home sector heads into 2012 on a brighter note. For the fifth straight month, builders spent more on homes and projects, the Commerce Department reported …
Feb 02
Home Ownership Rate Drops to 1997-Levels. The home ownership rate took another dip in the fourth quarter of 2011, falling for the seventh year in a row as fewer Americans own their homes. The home ownership rate now stands at 66 percent, a level that hasn’t been reached since 1997, the U.S. Census Bureau reported …
