Written by Nathan Thomas on October 12, 2004
While mortgage rates may play a part in the real estate market, the Internet has made consumers the real drivers of the market and today's home buyer is perhaps the most powerful customer in the marketplace, according to the white paper titled, "Real Estate Confronts Customer Acquisition," from RealSure.com, a real estate consulting firm for agents and brokers. Read more...
Written by Nathan Thomas on October 12, 2004
Your website needs to say who you are and what you can do for your customers in an instant. When prospective customers browse the Web, they need to be reeled in by a visual, interactive experience. Your website needs to tell them that you take technology seriously, and that the "face" you put on the Internet reflects you as a mortgage professional: sophisticated and knowledgeable. Read more...
Written by Nathan Thomas on October 12, 2004
We've never made any bones about being on your side - certainly not in the pages of our e-Newsletter. Once a week we try to give you the good news about your profession, where most real estate and broader media focus on the bad. We do this truthfully, diligently, and have our facts straight. We're not new to the appraisal industry - we know how it works. We know what hasn't worked. AVMs haven't worked. Pay-for-play VANs haven't worked. And we say so. Read more...
Written by Nathan Thomas on October 12, 2004
Marketing and advertising isn't something that comes naturally to most appraisers. This isn't an overgeneralization. If someone wants to enter a real estate profession and is inclined toward salesmanship and self-promotion, normally they end up as real estate agents or mortgage brokers - people who sell things. Appraisers are the engineers and auditors of the mortgage value chain. Your services and the value you add are often misunderstood even by the clients who give you the most work. We understand that at a la mode and that's why we've developed a new suite of services called XSellerate that makes promoting your services as easy, and effective, as can be. It's marketing so easy, we've put in the overwhelming majority of the effort required when you get XSellerate "off the shelf." Read more...
Written by Nathan Thomas on October 12, 2004
With home prices soaring across the U.S., more and more lenders are allowing homebuyers to take an extra 10 years to pay off their home loan. For the past few years, low interest rates have made the traditional 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage appealing for many home buyers. But some lenders have found a growing niche of buyers who want a 40-year mortgage, especially in the Western U.S. where home sale prices are setting records. Read more...
Written by Nathan Thomas on October 5, 2004
Occasionally, especially these days when appraisal software companies are buddying up to AVMs - see here for a description of how ACI's Forms Server integrates with AVMs, and here to see how Bradford Technologies is teaming up with Veros Software's VeroVALUE AVM - we are questioned about (or accused of, depending on your point of view) WinTOTAL reports being mined for data by AVM providers. Read more...
Written by Nathan Thomas on October 5, 2004
We've been running a cluster of mail servers here for years - since 1997 - under the Project 2000 name, with free accounts for every WinTOTAL user. Originally, we used mail as the EDI mechanism since it was reliable, easy to implement and understand, inexpensive, and could be used for messaging (two way conversations), not just delivery. Also, at the time there were substantial limits on file sizes which could be transmitted through an ISP's mail account, plus there were proprietary systems (Value Added Networks, or VANs) under development and being promoted by big players, and we didn't want to see appraisers be stuck with an expensive, inflexible method becoming the standard means of EDI delivery. We "seeded the market" with free Project 2000 accounts, and we're happy to report, at least in the appraisal arena, VANs have almost totally failed to deliver. Read more...
Written by Nathan Thomas on October 5, 2004
There's a six-month delay in the effective date of new Do-Not-Fax rules from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) due to the successful lobbying efforts of the National Association of REALTORS®, all 50 state associations of REALTOR® and REALTOR® associations for the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Read more...
Written by Nathan Thomas on October 5, 2004
A growing number of real estate agents and people selling their own homes are turning to feng shui - the ancient Chinese art of designing structures and arranging objects to create harmonious energy flow - to help attract buyers. Read more...
Written by Nathan Thomas on September 28, 2004
Inman News kicked off its fall audio conference series last Thursday with a discussion on new real estate business models and their impact on traditional agents and brokerages. Five "alternative" firms spoke briefly about their business models and how they deviate from the model the majority of the industry uses and how such models will impact the real estate business in the future. Read more...