Ten Considerations in Creating a Succession Plan

Posted on 12. Aug, 2010 by Robert Albanese.

A succession plan is as important as life insurance. Please consider your options as early as possible in your tenure. If Buffet were to retire today, would his company find the talent to lead them? Are you certain that your company would continue on as you had hoped? Thinking ahead is a cardinal rule of [...]

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Average Broker Commission Rate: An Indicator of Consumer Perception?

Posted on 21. Jul, 2009 by Robert Albanese.

Sales agent’s competency in demonstrating the company’s value proposition greatly impacts a company’s ability to deliver value to consumers.  This in turn impacts how consumers perceive the value of your marketing services. Listing Presentations should include highlights of all products and tools that differentiate you, as well as all listing statistics that show where you outperform the [...]

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Icing on the Cake

Posted on 26. Jun, 2009 by Paulette Costa.

Whether filling my gas tank at a full-service station (whatever happened to the man who squeegees the windshield?) or dining handsomely at a five-star restaurant, my service expectation does not waiver. I’ll admit it, I’m a service snob.

I had the pleasure of dining at Scalini Fedeli in Tribeca, New York last Saturday evening. The restaurant had been recommended by a friend so I asked around, read reviews and visited their website. Everything I heard and read piqued my interest and raised my level of anticipation for a wonderful dining experience. As always, the real test is always in the actual experience and everyone at Scalini Fedeli lived up to my expectations and more, delivering one notch above throughout the evening.

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NAR’s March Release: Is the Media Too Positive this Time??

Posted on 24. Mar, 2009 by Nicolai Kolding.

Sorry to play the contrarian again, but why all the hoopla over NAR’s release this week? Was the news really good enough to elicit a “wow”?

Believe me, after absorbing one ugly headline after another (both fair and unfair) for years now, the industry could certainly use a positive spin on the numbers. Like many others I know, I felt that the media practically reveled in reporting bad news while too often failing to expand on the whole story. This time around, though, I must be missing something because I just don’t get why this is the month when the figures are being trumpeted as the possible first signs of a turnaround.

So pardon me if I’m flying against the positive media winds when I think February was barely different than prior months; as before, I see in the numbers reasons to be both cautious and cautiously optimistic. But I sure ain’t ready to call this yet.

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Review of February Releases from NAR, FNMA, and Case-Schiller

Posted on 26. Feb, 2009 by Nicolai Kolding.

There have been several big releases over the last few days.  Let’s take a look at each and what figures are most important to those managing real estate businesses today. I tend to focus on NAR‘s closed data while ignoring their forecasts (I’ll lean on Fannie Mae for that).  Because of the way they pull their data, [...]

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Analyzing NAR and FNMA’s January Releases

Posted on 26. Jan, 2009 by Nicolai Kolding.

At 10am this morning, the National Association of REALTORS® released its year-end summary of existing home sales (their commentary can be read here).  As with our prior monthly analyses, we simply want to focus here on the figures that are most important to those within the industry.  Therefore, for both the national and four regional areas, we will look [...]

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December Analysis of NAR and FNMA Releases

Posted on 23. Dec, 2008 by Nicolai Kolding.

Last week, Fannie Mae released its Economics & Mortgage Market Analysis.   This morning the National Association of REALTORS® released its November summary of existing home sales(“EHS”).  The reports themselves have data and analysis aplenty; our goal here is simply to highlight a few key facts that we feel are hidden within these reports for the benefit of those in [...]

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Analyzing NAR’s Monthly Release

Posted on 25. Nov, 2008 by Nicolai Kolding.

Yesterday the National Association of REALTORS® issued its monthly release of existing home sales.  Rather than add to the many existing articles that understandably lean towards the consumers’ perspective, we believe there are trends and statistics that aren’t being highlighted that could help practitioners in our industry plan ahead.  You may find some of what [...]

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Agents: You Are Numbers People

Posted on 26. Jun, 2008 by Wendy Forsythe.

Posted by Wendy Forsythe I often talk to real estate agents who tell me they are not numbers people. I don’t accept that. We all retain and recite lots of numbers at the drop of a hat. Some of the most common are: Age Height Weight Income Price of gas Miles per gallon Most of us [...]

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