Week in Review: Things We Liked from the Week That Was

Posted on 27. Aug, 2010 by Sherry Chris.

The midterm election season is officially underway with many states holding their primaries – some of them out-and-out nail biters. No matter which side of the aisle you fall, elections are certainly an interesting spectator sport as the candidates pull out their boxing gloves. In a standoff of another kind, sometimes the relationship between agent [...]

Continue Reading

Are Location-Based Services in Real Estate All Hype or The Next Big Thing? (Part 1)

Posted on 23. Aug, 2010 by Josh Ferris.

Location-based services are what’s hot in social networking right now and for good reason. By using a simple app on your smartphone you can share where you are and what you’re up to with others in your network (updates can be automatically sent to your Facebook and Twitter accounts) which fosters more frequent communication and [...]

Continue Reading

Week in Review: Things We Liked from the Week That Was

Posted on 20. Aug, 2010 by Sherry Chris.

Some slowdowns are good.  DJ Shamantis created an internet hit this week with “U Smile 800 Percent Slower.” A rendition of pop star Justin Bieber’s hit played eight times slower. Give it a full listen if you have 35 minutes to spare. What is speeding up:  The rate of new mortgage applications, quickening 13 percent [...]

Continue Reading

Week in Review: Things We Liked from the Week That Was

Posted on 13. Aug, 2010 by Sherry Chris.

Social media’s power in capturing the public’s imagination was in full display again this week when a Jet Blue flight attendant quit his job after he “hurled obscenities at passengers over the airliner’s PA system, then deployed the inflatable emergency chute, slid down and fled.”  He instantly became an Internet sensation, spawning a Facebook page [...]

Continue Reading

Week in Review: Things We Liked from the Week That Was

Posted on 30. Jul, 2010 by Sherry Chris.

There was a lot to digest this week, and I’m not just talking about the half-size “Super Sub” President Obama ordered in Edison, New Jersey as part of his tour supporting a small business plan. Food for thought in our industry came in the form of mortgage-to-income ratios at the lowest in more than 30 [...]

Continue Reading

Week in Review: Things We Liked from the Week That Was

Posted on 02. Jul, 2010 by Sherry Chris.

As Hurricane Alex swirled around the Gulf producing ten-foot waves and 25 mph winds, 180,000 homebuyers got a lifebuoy that will save them from what could have been a perfect storm of their own.  These homebuyers, who signed a purchase agreement by April 30, were likely going to miss the June 30th deadline to complete [...]

Continue Reading

Practice What You Preach

Posted on 30. Jun, 2010 by Paulette Costa.

We tell our agents the number one thing they must do to get more business is prospect, prospect, and then prospect some more.

Continue Reading

Tax Credit Extension or Not

Posted on 28. Jun, 2010 by Wendy Forsythe.

We prospect diligently to find qualified buyers. We work with them tireless to find the perfect home. We negotiate expertly on their behalf to get an accepted offer. But then the real work begins these days. As we try to hold it all together and actually get to a successful closing. NAR estimates that as [...]

Continue Reading

Week in Review: Things We Liked from the Week That Was

Posted on 18. Jun, 2010 by Sherry Chris.

The Stanley Cup ended last week, but the industry is talking about a possible hockey stick recovery for housing if builders can’t “meet pent-up demand once excess inventories are depleted.”  The sentiment is joined by analysts who believe that a housing shortage could be on its way as the job market rebounds and people look to buy homes again. In the meantime, however, housing starts sagged 10 percent in May and building [...]

Continue Reading

What’s in Your Toolbox?

Posted on 15. Jun, 2010 by Paulette Costa.

Several years ago I was asked to participate in a Habitat for Humanity project. It was a day when only women were to work on a home that was being built for a single mother in Hartford, CT, and I was proud to participate.

I participated with several agents from my office and upon arrival we were met by the local builder who provided each of us with a carpenter’s apron, a hammer, nails, a tape measure and our assignments. Mine was to hammer floor boards. The builder barked out instructions, demonstrated with a few swings of his hammer and left me to my work which I took on with feverish excitement.

Continue Reading

Week in Review: Things We Liked from the Week That Was

Posted on 11. Jun, 2010 by Sherry Chris.

On the foreclosure front this week, the pace of prime borrowers succumbing to foreclosure is accelerating with unemployment being the major driver. The good news, though, is that foreclosures in general leveled off in May, with numbers nearly flat from a year ago. This fluctuation and changes in the market lately have accounted for a [...]

Continue Reading