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RISMEDIA, August 3, 2011—A proposed rule by federal regulators to impose a minimum 20 percent down payment, stringent debt-to-income ratio requirements and rigid credit standards will deny millions of Americans access to safe, low-cost mortgages, according to the National Association of Realtors®. In a comment letter submitted recently, NAR expressed dissatisfaction over the unduly narrow definition of qualified residential mortgages (QRM) that would be exempt from risk retention requirements. Non-QRM mortgages will have higher interest rates and fees, making home ownership more expensive or unattainable for many of today’s aspiring home owners.

RISMEDIA, Aug 2, 2011—We can trace word-of-mouth marketing all the way back to 2000 B.C. when Eve said to Adam, “You ought to try a bite of this apple.” The Garden of Eden scenario represents marketing in its purest form—after all, trusted friends always trust each other’s recommendations. Since then, marketing has embarked on quite a journey, of course. The invention of the printing press opened the door to mass marketing, which eventually came to use newspapers and magazines as primary promotional vehicles.

RISMEDIA, July 30, 2011—(MCT)—A closely watched index of home prices in the largest U.S. cities increased from April to May, the second consecutive month of improvement, but experts attributed the bump to seasonal variations and prices continued to fall compared to a year earlier. The housing market has been in the doldrums since last summer—with sales and prices falling—after the expiration of a popular tax credit for buyers.

NAR Green Designees aren't the only industry pros battling to get recognition for the dollar value of eco-friendly home features. It's an uphill battle for green appraisers too. That's according to Sandy Adomatis of Adomatis Appraisal Service, Punta Gorda, Fla.

RISMEDIA, July 29, 2011—(MCT)—Home prices in major U.S. cities increased in May for the second consecutive month, according to a closely watched index, although experts dismissed the uptick as seasonal while separate reports provided fresh evidence of a weak housing market. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 metropolitan areas rose 1 percent from April to May when left unadjusted for seasonal variations. Prices often rise in spring because of changes in the types of homes selling: Foreclosures make up a higher proportion of sales during the winter as families take a break from home shopping and cash-rich investors dominate the market. Higher sales volumes also push up prices.

Paul David Walker—business advisor to mid-sized and Fortune 500 CEOs; founder of Genius Stone Partners, a company that partners with the C-suite to build business performance; and author of Unleashing Genius: Leading Yourself, Teams and Corporations—has guided business leaders to reaching their goals, unleashing genius and inspiring teams for more than 20 years. Based on his vast experience, Walker has compiled four key tips to keeping teams in sync, highly focused and working as a cohesive and inspired team toward a collective goal.

There are some interesting things happening when it comes to doing business in the current environment. • If it used to take 30 days to get a transaction closed, it now takes 120 or more • If it used to take 20 contacts to get someone to listen to you, it now takes 100 or more • If someone was inclined to do business with you before, they are now inclined to make sure they are getting the best deal regardless of their relationship with you

RISMEDIA, July 26, 2011—(MCT)—Under a new state law, any lender who agrees to a short sale—which by definition will yield insufficient funds to cover the outstanding loans on a property—must accept it as payment in full for all loan balances. That is a good thing for upside-down homeowners who need to sell, says the California Association of REALTORS®. In a prepared statement applauding Gov. Jerry Brown for signing SB 458 into law, the association observed that previously a first mortgage holder could accept an agreed-upon short sale payment as full payment for the first mortgage but a junior lien holder could still hound the seller for the full amount owned on the junior lien.

Although real estate professionals understand the importance of having a website, there is a huge opportunity to develop a website more specific to a niche market. If you are working with the short sale market and speaking with distressed homeowners, you know first-hand how different this scenario is versus the traditional real estate listing process. By developing an extremely targeted website focused on the needs of distressed homeowners, you will be able to help them look at their options and, at the same time, generate leads for your business. Here are seven steps to developing a short-sale website.

RISMEDIA, July 23, 2011—As advancements in technology continue to provide real estate professionals with the tools they need to work smarter and stay connected no matter where they are, the focus on eliminating the copious amounts of paper involved in a real estate transaction is greater than ever before. Not only is transitioning from the tried and true pencil-and-paper system to an online system good for the environment, it’s also the way of the future, according to Tom Groom, chief technology officer, PropertyInfo Corporation, a Stewart company. As the primary technology provider for the tools Stewart Title offices use in production and sales operations,

I find that many of my clients avoid marketing when it comes to their sphere of influence. Yet statistics show that your sphere of influence can be the greatest source of referrals. Let’s look at how you can dig in and get the “gold.” Tip 1: Define and Rate your Sphere of Influence When is the last time that you took a good look at your contact list? What is the total? What are the categories in that group? Do you have past clients, friends, acquaintances, people you hardly know? Before you do anything else go into your data base and group your sphere of influence in categories.

RISMEDIA, July 21, 2011—Some 15 years ago, I read the book Control Your Own Destiny or Someone Else Will, a showcase of Jack Welch’s leadership and turnaround of GE. Like him or not, the book is full of anecdotes, leadership philosophy and application-level stories from one of the most reputable business leaders of our time. Today, that book holds a lot of significance: where we are as an industry and the delicate tipping point between the past and the future. This quote from the book is incredibly relevant: “If change is happening on the outside faster than on the inside the end is in sight.”

RISMEDIA, July 20, 2011—(EMC)—There is no doubt that you see QR codes everywhere these days—in ads, magazines, posters, etc. They offer exciting opportunities for delivering information quickly to people that are mobile. They also provide a quick and easy way to do more with a single marketing channel. But before jumping in, it’s important to consider this: QR codes are no different than other direct marketing tools in that you must build a strategy, tactics and plan for testing, tracking and measuring results. Start with a strategy that answers the question, “What do I want to accomplish and how do I get there?”

I can think of no other profession that's as closely associated with the term rejection as a career in sales. You might say that rejection is as natural to a salesperson as trail dust is to a chuck wagon cook—it comes with the territory. In fact, frequently the first two orders many new sales reps receive are "get out and stay out!"

RISMEDIA, July 18, 2011—Today’s real estate market requires an agent that continues to deliver the traditional customer service that brought them success during the boom years, while implementing new technologies and marketing strategies to stand out from the crowd. And with consumers acting more independently in the home-buying process than ever before, agents who understand and explain the value of buyer representation can not only save themselves time and money, but they can set the standard for future business as well.