April, 2023

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Must-Fixes Before a Client’s Home Goes Up for Sale

RIS Media

The obvious things that need to be addressed before having a client’s home be listed for sale are, well, obvious. Anything you can easily see that’s broken…a window, for example, needs to be fixed pronto. Some things aren’t so obvious, but also need to be taken care of. The last thing you want is for… The post Must-Fixes Before a Client’s Home Goes Up for Sale appeared first on RISMedia.

Sales 131
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Housing Market Tracker: Spring inventory grows

Housing Wire

The spring housing market music is playing, and purchase application data and active listing inventory rose together last week. The fear of not having an increase in inventory this spring should be put to rest. The other focus should be where mortgage rates go; only a little happened last week. Here’s a quick rundown of the last week: Active listing rose 8,260 week to week, down a bit from last week’s gain, but I’m not complaining — anything on the plus side is positive.

Marketing 525
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Think Twice Before Waiting for Lower Home Prices

Keeping Current Matters

As the housing market continues to change, you may be wondering where it’ll go from here.

Marketing 265
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Opendoor lays off 22% of its workforce in latest round of cuts

Inman

In total, the company cut 560 positions, according to a statement Opendoor provided to Inman. The cuts, which were announced internally Tuesday morning, primarily focused on operations roles.

Sales 218
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The 2025 Real Estate Roadmap to Success

Don’t just react to changes, plan for them, so you can approach the new year with confidence, direction, and a competitive edge for your business. Having a well-defined business plan helps you chart a clear course, navigate challenges, and set a foundation for growth. This workbook gives you the key steps to outline what matters and will ensure you’re moving ahead.

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103 Real Estate Jokes, Puns & Pick-up Lines You Haven’t Heard 1,000 Times

The Close

Is the market roller coaster of 2023 getting to you? Need a little pick-me-up? Perhaps a healthy dose of real estate jokes, puns, and pick-up lines is just what the doctor ordered to get you back on track. We hope you memorize a few of these cheesy, hilarious, oh-so-true, and groan-worthy real estate jokes to tell at tomorrow’s team or client meeting.

Agents 145
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Newer brokerages take top spots in Mega 1000 rankings

Real Estate News

Several of the top brokerages in T3 Sixty's Mega 1000 list were founded after 2000, including top-ranking Compass.

Brokerage 299

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Will Investors With High Credit Scores Pay More Now? What The New Mortgage Rules Actually Mean

Bigger Pockets

New mortgage rules set by the FHFA sent the investing community into panic. But what do these new rules actually mean?

Mortgages 136
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Agent Recruiting Tips and Strategies in a Challenging Real Estate Market

Realty Biz

Words of wisdom from Recruiting Insight's Mark Johnson, one of the industry's top talent experts Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the real estate profession has been in flux. As a result, the period from 2019 through late 2022 has been an unprecedented roller coaster. Uncertainty and reactions to the pandemic gave way to a real estate boom market now threatened by a brutal downturn in the U.S. economy.

Agents 91
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Mortgage rates decline amid expectation of economic slowdown  

Housing Wire

Mortgage rates fell again this week, but the primary cause was not the banking crisis fiasco. It was the expectation that the U.S. economy is slowing down. According to Freddie Mac ’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage declined to 6.28% as of April 4, down from 6.32% the previous week. The survey focuses on conventional and conforming loans for borrowers who put 20% down and have excellent credit.

Mortgages 488
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Two Reasons You Should Sell Your House

Keeping Current Matters

Wondering if you should sell your house this year?

Marketing 271
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Avoiding Lease Accounting Pitfalls in 2025: Lessons Learned from Spreadsheet Errors

Speaker: Abdi Ali, Sr. Lease Accounting Consultant

Join this insightful webinar with industry expert Abdi Ali, who will discuss the challenges that can arise from managing lease accounting with spreadsheets! He will share real-world examples of errors, compliance issues, and risks that may be present within your spreadsheets. Learn how these tools, while useful, can sometimes lead to inefficiencies that affect your time, resources, and peace of mind.

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Industry Decoded: Commissions lawsuits could give portals an edge

Real Estate News

The outcome of the Moehrl suit could affect countless buyer agents. Might Zillow and other portals become an Uber-style marketplace for those agents?

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Refining an iconic legacy brand: a Q&A with Katelyn Castellano

Inman

As iconic brokerage Engel & Völkers embarks on an identity refresh, this marketing leader shares her insights on the process, and what others can learn.

Branding 183
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Housing Market Tracker: Inventory finally rises

Housing Wire

Can we now say that the housing market ‘s spring selling season is finally underway? Since 2020, the seasonal bottom for housing inventory has arrived several months later than normal, making it more complicated to track housing inventory data. Still, we have some promising signs that we might have finally hit the inventory bottom for 2023. We didn’t see too much volatility in mortgage rates last week, but purchase apps declined in reaction to rates rising two weeks ago.

Marketing 545
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Wage growth downtrend kills 1970s inflation fear

Housing Wire

Given Friday’s job report , those who have been concerned with entrenched 1970s inflation — which would lead to double-digit mortgage rates — can put their disco shoes back in the closet. I have tried to explain that the 1970s inflation isn’t a reality , and Friday’s report should ease the fear that wage growth is spiraling out of control.

Mortgages 544
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Tech-Forward Strategies for Scaling Agent Efficiency & Accelerating Growth

As the real estate market evolves, technology has become essential for success. According to NAR, only 26% of agents feel their brokerage provides the necessary tech tools and, as a result, agents seek teams and brokerages who prioritize technology investments! Whether you manage an established team or are forming a new one, this guide outlines key considerations and necessary applications to thrive.

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Housing Market Tracker: Mortgage rates drop almost 1%

Housing Wire

The housing market welcomed the news of lower mortgage rates last week after four reports showed that the labor market isn’t as tight as it seems and that the fear of 1970s-entrenched inflation was a lousy narrative. The 10-year yield finally broke below a critical technical level it had difficulty breaking for many months and we had a very small increase in inventory.

Mortgages 540
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Housing Market Tracker: Inventory falls even lower

Housing Wire

The seasonal housing inventory bottom evaded us again last week as active listings fell and new listing inventory decreased. Purchase application data rose again, with more positive than negative data in 2023. Mortgage rates didn’t move much last week, but the 10-year yield rose even though inflation data was tamer than expected, and we had a weaker retail sales report number.

Marketing 539
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Housing inventory still near record lows

Housing Wire

We only have 2.6 months’ worth of housing inventory in the U.S. after coming off the single biggest home-sales crash year in history. That is where we are today in America. As expected, existing home sales fell from February to March since the previous month’s report was intense. We have a workable range for 2023 sales in the existing home sales market between 4 million and 4.6 million.

Sales 531
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Homepoint to shut down originations biz, sell assets to The Loan Store

Housing Wire

Shrinking wholesale lender Homepoint is closing its mortgage origination business and will sell its origination-focused assets to competitor The Loan Store , the company announced on Friday. Michigan-based Homepoint is “winding down” its tenure as a direct participant in the mortgage origination business and becoming an investor in the market, as the company will hold an equity interest in The Loan Store.

Loans 526
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Accelerating Real Estate Sales Pipelines to Streamline Buyer Journeys

Navigated 360° tours, like YourVRTours, advance pipelines by engaging clients further along the sales funnel. These immersive experiences provide comprehensive property insights, increasing buyer intent and readiness. By embracing navigated tours, agents can optimize property exposure, better qualify leads, and streamline the sales process. Stay ahead in the ever-evolving real estate landscape with innovative technology that elevates buyer journeys and progresses pipelines more effectively.

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Record apartment supply is good for mortgage rates 

Housing Wire

What is the best news for mortgage rates long-term? It’s getting more supply of apartments! The best way to fight inflation is always by adding more supply; if your goal is to destroy inflation by killing demand, that is only a temporary fix. Housing inflation post-2020 was one for the record books, not only because home prices accelerated in such a short time, but more importantly for the inflation data, rents took off, something that didn’t happen during the housing bubble years.

Mortgages 521
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Housing Market Tracker: Still no spring inventory lift

Housing Wire

Last week was relatively calm for the housing market after the fiasco of the banking crisis. Housing demand grew and inventory levels fell again while mortgage rates rose. Here’s a quick rundown of the last week: The 10-year yield battle continues as bond yields rose early in the week only to close below 3.50% on Friday. Mortgage rates rose to 6.57%.

Marketing 505
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New home sales proving Wall Street was wrong 

Housing Wire

Why are the homebuilder stocks up so much? Don’t they know the new home sales apocalypse is here? You know, the one that says we have too much inventory and millions of vacant homes in the U.S.? According to this theory, we have more homes under construction than any time in history. The truth is, it’s not 2008 all over again. I understand the lure of the housing 2008 story.

Sales 501
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NAMB welcomes legislative proposal to ban use of trigger leads

Housing Wire

The National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB), an association representing the interests of individual mortgage loan originators and small to midsize mortgage businesses, is welcoming the introduction of a bill that would end the sale of trigger leads. The bill, H.R. 2656, was introduced by Representative Richie Torres of New York on April 17, and would amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prohibit the creation and sale of trigger leads — which the association has been urging Congress to

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Maximizing Your Online Presence: Tips for Real Estate Agents on Social Media

Speaker: Sarah Santa Ana, Real Estate Coach, Move4Free Realty

Networking is one of the crucial elements in every real estate organization's success. Both agents and real estate companies need to maintain robust networking links. This is why social media is essential for any real estate professional! Social media enables you to stay in touch with your present clients, maintain connections with your past clients, and engage potential customers and investors.

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Better inflation data won’t sway the Fed

Housing Wire

The Consumer Price Index data released Wednesday showed again that the breakaway 1970s-style inflation is not happening, even with an expanding economy and an unemployment rate under 4%. The headline inflation data came in lower than anticipated. While we have made progress in cooling down the inflation data, which is running into tough year-over-year comps (and will for the rest of the year) don’t expect the Fed to pivot anytime soon.

Mortgages 468
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Wells Fargo teams up with Dallas megachurch to build “inclusive communities”

Housing Wire

Wells Fargo and T.D. Jakes Group announced a 10-year partnership aimed at “revitalizing neighborhoods” and creating long-term change in communities most in need. The announcement comes a year after Bloomberg reported that only 47% of Black homeowners who completed a refinance application with Wells Fargo in 2020 were approved, compared with 72% of white homeowners.

Lending 459
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FedNow: instant payments or instant fraud?

Housing Wire

Being able to close on a home at any time on any day of the year has long been a pipe dream, but the Federal Reserve ’s new FedNow instant payment system looks to be making that dream a reality. However, before one gets too excited, the title insurance industry is asking if it really is worth sacrificing security for speed. “There is the obvious perceived benefit of faster payment and they are touting that it will be cheaper than wire transfers , and of course you no longer have to worry about m

Title 459
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Pending home sales fall 5.2% in March

Housing Wire

For the first time since November 2022, pending home sales fell in March, posting a 5.2% month-over-month decrease, according to data released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The monthly drop resulted in the Pending Home Sales Index recording a reading of 78.9, down 23.3% year over year. An index of 100 is equal to the level of contract activity in 2001.

Sales 459
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Rise of The Apps: Building Your Dream Tech Stack For Real Estate Success

Speaker: Trey Willard, Realtor/Team Leader at Keller Williams Realty, Inc.

In order to create continued success in today’s real estate market, realtors need to utilize an arsenal of technology that will increase their efficiency and presence on social media. Using technology to manage your prospects and tap into their needs through websites, social media, and other channels is critical for real estate success in 2022 and beyond.

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Can first-time homebuyers afford homes today?

Housing Wire

This article is part of our 2023 Housing Market Forecast series. After the series wraps, join us on May 30th for the HW+ Virtual 2023 Forecast Event. Bringing together some of the top economists and researchers in housing, the event will provide an in-depth look at the top predictions for this year, along with a roundtable discussion on how these insights apply to your business.

Investor 459
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Mortgage industry takes another stand against the FHFA’s DTI fee

Housing Wire

It’s been delayed, but that’s not enough for the mortgage industry. In a blog post published Thursday, Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) President and CEO Bob Broeksmit made the case that the Federal Housing Finance Agency ‘s (FHFA) loan level price adjustments (LLPA) related to a mortgage borrower’s debt-to-income (DTI) ratio is unworkable and should be scrapped entirely.

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Opinion: The title industry supports innovation while prioritizing protection

Housing Wire

Think an old dog can’t learn new tricks? Some say that the nearly 150-year-old title industry has a difficult time adapting and evolving. However, the title industry has proven these critics wrong over the past decade, and importantly, it has done so without leaving homeowners vulnerable to unnecessary risks. Title companies have embraced digitization, automation and artificial intelligence to better meet their customers’ needs, reduce costs and increase efficiency.

Title 448
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Mortgage forbearance improves as pandemic emergency draws to a close

Housing Wire

As the COVID-19 national emergency draws to a close, the forbearance rate has decreased month over month, according to a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) on Monday. While the MBA still expects a recession this year, credit quality is generally good, and borrowers facing financial hardship can access enhanced loss mitigation options, the trade group noted.

Closing 448
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Driving Profit: 4 Pillars for Growing Your Real Estate Brokerage

In the rapidly changing real estate landscape, achieving profitability requires a strategic approach beyond traditional methods. Our guide, "The 4 Pillars to Brokerage Profitability," outlines four essential pillars for scaling your real estate business: a seamless lead-to-close technology ecosystem, tailored integrated solutions for teams and agents, value-added success services and community support, and consumer-centric operations throughout the full homeownership lifecycle.