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At the height of the real estate boom in the mid-2000s, brokers began realizing that to sustain business for the long-term, they would need to climb aboard the “one-stop shopping” bandwagon. At the center of the full-service real estate model? A mortgage operation. Adding a mortgage component was not only a way to meet consumer demand for a simpler transaction but, more importantly, a vehicle for driving ancillary income and improving profit margins. As this business model met with mounting success, a mortgage operation quickly went from ancillary to core business for many real estate firms. Today, however, as the industry battles back from the housing crisis and the economic recession, and struggles to meet the challenges of a credit-crunched mortgage environment, the question becomes: How can brokers reinvent their mortgage operations and help get buyers into homes?

Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC) recently released its U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook for October showing with rental demand rising and apartment economics improving, the multifamily sector is a strong positive signal for the U.S. housing industry. Over the year ending mid-2011, the Census Bureau reported a net increase of 1.4 million households that moved into rental housing, a 4 percent rise in the number of tenant households in just one year.

Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes rose four points to 18 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) for October, which was released recently. This is the largest one-month gain the index has seen since the home buyer tax credit program helped spur the market in April of 2010.

Greg Rand (@gsrand, CEO of OwnAmerica, and host of “Rand on Real Estate” on 770 WABC, discusses with a caller the reality that banks are not tightening their lending standards; they are just following the standard practices that they were using years ago.

Structural engineers get paid big bucks to design buildings strong enough to withstand the damaging impact brought on by Mother Nature's fury. They use computer simulations to help them identify and mitigate stress-fatigue factors, which might contribute to the collapse of the building.

If you’re on the verge of losing your home, or you know someone who is, then you also know about the long, bureaucratic process involved in applying for a loan modification from a lender. The most common approach is to apply under the new Home Affordability Mortgage Program (HAMP),

U.S. News Media Group has unveiled The 10 Best Places to Retire in 2012. The list can be found at http://usnews.com/retire.

(MCT)—The following editorial appeared in the San Jose Mercury News on Wednesday, Oct. 12: The easiest and most effective economic stimulus the Obama administration could accomplish doesn’t require an act of Congress. Executive action could change the rules to allow responsible homeowners with underwater loans to refinance at today’s rock-bottom interest rates, stemming the tide of foreclosures that is crippling recovery across the country and hitting California harder than any other state except Nevada.

The Recovery Board is teaming with the nonpartisan National Academy of Public Administration to solicit ideas from the public on how to prevent fraud, waste, or abuse of Recovery funds. The Board and the Academy are hosting the National Dialogue on Innovative Tools to Prevent and Detect Fraud,

Mortgage applications increased 1.3 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending October 7, 2011.

Even though the market has delayed many from moving ahead with plans to sell the family home, baby boomers are a red hot market for investment properties. A national survey of Coldwell Banker agents found that 87 percent of 1300 agents and brokers polled have baby boomer clients who already own or are looking to own an investment property. Some 22 percent of agents report that at least half of their Boomer clients either own or are looking to own such properties.

More and more people are in over their heads when it comes to their home. In this tough economy, many have fallen behind on their mortgages and don’t know where to begin to rid themselves of the property that they can no longer afford. Real estate agent and short sale trainer Mike Cuevas of Exit Realty and Agent Redefined has five things homeowners need to consider when their home is underwater.

REGIONAL SPOTLIGHT—The following analysis of the Baltimore, Maryland, metro area housing market has been prepared by RealEstate Business Intelligence (RBI), and is based on the September 2011 RBI Pending Home Sales Index™.

As America deals with mounting debt and a shaky economic recovery, it’s more important than ever to stand up in your community and the nation’s capital for sustainable, affordable homeownership. That’s why earlier this year, the leadership team at the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (NAR) began a multi-city bus tour to promote the benefits of homeownership as part of its Homeownership Matters campaign. As policymakers consider changes to federal government programs and incentives that could dramatically change the nature of homeownership, the bus tour is engaging the American people directly about these important issues.

While the nation may have added 103,000 new jobs in September, the employment report showed relative weakness, particularly as it relates to the residential construction sector, which remains far below its job-creation potential in the absence of policies to restore the health of the housing marketplace, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).