There's a bit of buzz about Redfin's recent site upgrade. 

Live as of last Wednesday, the upgrade has added bank-owned foreclosures and FSBO listings to their inventory display.  

The bit of the controversy comes the question of how they were able to get around the MLS co-mingling display issue; the FSBO listings are listed alongside those from the MLS.  (Ref. 4.13 in MRMLS IDX policy... "Listings obtained through IDX must be displayed separately from listings obtained from other sources...")

Daniel Mudd, Fannie Mae President and CEO, said yesterday that he expects no significant recovery for the US housing market before 2010. 

Fannie Mae is the largest US source of mortgage finance and although historically conservative has recently faced multibillion-dollar losses in the recent sub prime and foreclosure collapse.He predicted that the rockiness experienced last year will continue through the balance of 2009, some 18 months away.

What are your thoughts?

We are all under the gun every day in real estate sales.  Most of us get up every morning unemployed.  We need to go out and find a person to buy and sell with everyday.  How do we “pressure proof” our business?  We must put ourselves in the position where we are always winning.  When we are on a listing appointment, and we are struggling with the seller, we must believe they will sign the listing before we leave.  We must know during our prospecting block that we will turn up a new listing or new buyer every day.  Let me share with you a few ideas to make your business “pressure proof” and successful daily. 1.      Trust Your Skills and Abilities We all go through droughts or slumps in our business.  I s

In my last post I discussed the difference between yesterday’s pull marketing and today’s push marketing. I explained how pull marketing is reactive — “If you build it they will come.” Push marketing, on the other hand, is pro-active — “If you build it they won’t come so you have to go get them.” (Click to view previous blog post.) Many agents today have experienced that very phenomenon: doing lots of advertising and getting little if no results.

Foreclourses has become the new real estate Four-letter word.

In March one in every 538 households in the U.S. received a foreclosure notice with Nevada (1 in 139 homes) leading the pack, followed by California (1 in 204 homes), Florida (1 in 282 homes) and Arizona (1 in 283 homes).

And the bad news is just everywhere...CNN, Fox News, USA Today, the Web, etc. etc.

To assist homeowners Real Estate Wiki (see previous entry on launch of the new wiki in real estate) has added a bunch of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) covering questions such as:

According to the lead story in the Money section of USA Today yesterday, Foreign Buyers are snapping up US real estate. The article cites that agents are eager to win the business of foreign investors who due to low US real estate prices and the weak dollar are find eye-popping deals in places such as Miami, New York and San Diego.

According to the National Association of Realtors foreigners are enjoying an average discount of about 30%. Although approximately 25% of Realtors are reporting an increase in home buying by foreign clients in the past 5 years it is probably not enough to absorb the glut of properties currently for sale.

The real estate market is challenging throughout the United States.  For the first time in nearly thirteen years, U.S. home prices experienced a quarterly decline, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO, November 29, 2007).  Additionally, single family home sales fell by 13 percent in 2007, which was the largest drop in 25 years (CNNMoney.com, January 24, 2008).  Credit markets are in turmoil and the stock market is down from last Summer.  As a result, it is harder to make a living representing buyers and sellers as a real estate agent.

Before we launch into this segment, let’s recap the last installment. In it I was discussing how in the 1960s and 70s, our industry was in a Broker-centric Era. The brokers had all the power. Customers had very little access to listing inventory except through them. Agents had no business except through them. Modern real estate brokerage was in its infancy. By controlling the inventory, broker-owners were able to build real estate dynasties. It was common place to see multiple office operations with teams of agents, and it was during this climate that companies like Century 21, Coldwell Banker, ERA, and other similar broker-centric companies became huge empires.

This is the best time to buy, the cost of properties are down, the interest is low this is the best of all worlds. I see great  Opportunities and this article shins a glimmer of hope on this.

Bonnie Ankle; Event Manager - Luxury Home Council

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120886732384734503.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news

When CNN’s Pulse on America program featured us two years ago, they were investigating an interesting phenomenon in our industry. Click to view video. It seems that today there are two real estate worlds coexisting simultaneously. Like in the movie The Matrix, there was the “perceived” world and then there was the “real” world. In our industry there is much the same today. Those agents who are practicing real estate this new way, are doing quite well — many better than ever. But those who are hanging onto the old-school real estate model are finding themselves working harder and harder and making less and less money.