Topic:  Newsletter Articles

A new year brings fresh new looks at the housing road ahead. We took a look at a number of regional and national 2007 real estate forecasts. Experts are telling us that they are guardedly optimistic the coming year will see a rebound in sales, probably near midyear, steady interest rates if not a drop, and a likely bump in the amount of work for residential appraisers.   Read more...

We make and sell software and technology, we don't give tax advice. Hopefully, you already seek professional help with your business' books. If so, consult your tax professional about whether these year-end business and personal tax tips might be right for you:   Read more...

Plenty of you will get new PCs in the next few weeks, either for Christmas or as end-of-year tax shelters. What you may not know is there are tools and online support available to make it easier to set up WinTOTAL, a la mode's form filling appraisal software, on your new machine without having to re-invent the wheel.   Read more...

Zillow, the online interface that lets homeowners and housing voyeurs estimate the value of real estate from public record data, announced last week it would begin allowing users to post home sale listing information on the site.   Read more...

Appraisers are sounding the alarm over the practice of concessions and other, increasingly more creative, incentives that artificially inflate home sale prices.   Read more...

An interesting discussion took place on the Yahoo!-based WinTOTAL User Group recently on the issue of requiring payment before report delivery.   Read more...

Recently valuation data company FNC, Inc. posted an article by its chief legal counsel arguing that appraisals are not copyrightable. The U.S. Copyright Office and appraisers who have won copyright infringement suits are among those likely to disagree. But the interesting part of the article, appearing at this link, was this:   Read more...

Forty-seven percent of appraisers believe the level of federal regulation of their profession is just right, according to the results of a survey commissioned by the National Association of REALTORS® Marketing Research Department and released recently. Splitting the difference almost evenly, 27 percent said there is too little federal regulation of appraisers and 25 percent said there is too much.   Read more...

Effective October 1, 2006, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Appraiser Roster exam has been streamlined and the examination fee eliminated, The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced September 27.   Read more...

The National Association of REALTORS® reported that the median home price nationwide was down 1.7 percent in August from August 2005, the first year over year price drop since a 0.1 percent decline in 1995 and the second steepest since NAR began tracking the figure.   Read more...