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New Book for Realtors - Real Estate Unleashed
2011-02-23 07:20:00
Real Estate Unleashed - The Game has changed! Do you know How to win it? - A Book for Realtors was recently published by Create Space, an Amazon company. The book was launched at Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, San Jose, CA and San Mateo County Association of Realtors, San Mateo, CA. There are more book tours planned across several Real Estate Boards across Northern California. About the Book: Real Estate Unleashed is about the new wave of real estate - the steak and not just the sizzle. Too many Real Estate Agents don?t get the big picture. They are so immersed in what?s happening on a daily or a weekly basis that they fail to plan for what?s ahead. This book (probably the only one of its kind) tries to rectify that problem. No other book on this topic provides the bigger picture. The book starts by giving you the fundamentals of Economy , Real Estate and Lending. The authors then delve into some of the major changes that are going to impact the industry in a BIG way. It...

What is causing Mortgage Rates to spike and what's the outlook?
2010-12-26 18:36:00
Mortgage rates have gone up every single week for last 5 weeks - now up ~.75%. (Get the mortgage rate update in this post). It all started with Fed announcing Quantitative Easing 2. The big question is why so sudden and why so steep! There are several possible reasons:Markets are increasingly more optimistic that 2011 economic growth will be stronger than what had been expected. Expectations until a couple of weeks ago were for GDP growth in 2011 to be 3.0%, now the consensus is for growth to be at 4.0% and a decline in the unemployment rate from the present 9.8% to 8.7% by the end of 2011.The extension of the Bush tax cuts, the 2.0% cut in workers contribution to social security will put more cash in consumers' pockets.Also driving rates higher, the end of safety moves generated by issues in Europe and in the US and Congress's unwillingness to cut federal spending. The $858B tax cut bill now moving through Congress is yet one more Christmas tree filled with earmarks (pork), poli...
More About: Outlook , Mortgage , Mortgages , Spike

Homebuyer Tax Credit Extended for Some Military Personnel
2010-08-26 08:25:00
Due to the U.S. military?s involvement in overseas conflicts from 2008 to the present, the government has extended the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit until April 30, 2011, for some military personnel.Those who have been unable to receive this benefit due to military service now have the opportunity to utilize the $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers or the $6,500 tax credit for existing home buyers.Qualifying for the Tax CreditActive-duty military members who served at least three months outside the U.S. during the last year may be able to purchase a home with the tax credits. Service members have until April 30, 2011, to sign a purchase agreement on a home and until June 30, 2011, to close on the property. The requirements to qualify for the tax credits are the same for military member as they were for the general public, including:* The home?s purchase price cannot be greater than $800,000* Individuals can?t make more than $125,000 per year; married couples can?t have ...
More About: Military , Personnel

Engage your community by giving them what they want: Daily Deals!
2010-08-24 05:55:00
You may have been introduced to Groupon from last week's $25 for $50 worth of Gap clothes offering. It sold 441,000 coupons across America and made "Daily Deals" the war cry of the new local advertising model for the Great Recession. We've always believed the best way to engage your community is to give them what they want. In today's economy, deep discount daily deals makes complete sense. Yet, most consumers don't know hundreds of these great deals exist right in their own neighborhood. Well, give the people what they want to see: We've added a Deals! page onto our Breaking News Network that aggregates and lists all Daily Deals from Groupon, Living Social, Restaurant.com, etc. for every specific Breaking News city in map format. CentennialCoBuzz.com is the first place Centennial Colorado's citizens need to go to find every discount in their city. We also broadcast special deals automatically across the social media via Twitter and Facebook feeds: Finally, heard of ...
More About: Community , Giving

Why HOW (Home Ownership Workshop) is the new WOW!
2010-06-14 07:57:00
Real Estate and Lending industry has always been ridiculed for not doing enough towards educating the home buyers. In fact a lot of blame for the mortgage meltdown was placed on the fact that the buyers were not made aware of "what they were getting into." Now real estate professionals across 15 states have come together to put Home Ownership Workshop s (called HOW in short) for First Time Home Buyers. These professionals are part of Breaking News Network and are already providing value to their communities by being their real time media resource. Home Ownership Workshops are a series of web classes designed to educate the home buyers on different aspects of the buying process. The goal is to empower the buyers by providing them the knowledge so that they can take informed decisions. And the best part is - it's free. The topics for next 6 classes are: Financing options for First Time Home Buyers How to buy a Foreclosure or Short Sale property How to get y...

The Breaking News Network is meeting at Inman Connect in San Francisco
2010-05-20 03:19:00
We're having our first face-to-face gathering of our Breaking News Network participants at Inman Real Estate Connect between July 13-15 in San Francisco . Inman has generously offered us a 25% discount if you register here with the code BNN . Register before the prices go up this Friday, May 21! ...
More About: Breaking News

Guest post: Buying Real Estate While in College: A Very Possible Dream
2010-05-09 02:19:00
Melissa Tamura approached me to write an article about a collegiate perspective on real estate. The best thing Melissa has done in this article is to tangibly describe how college students think about real estate, and she has outlined a mission statement that can be applied to any college student. I wish Melissa all the best. In the future, with the experience of purchasing a home under her belt, she could use her blog Zen College Life to guide other college students to do the same. In fact, we have a national network of Breaking News sites run mostly by Realtors that can support her message. What do many college students desire? Freedom, independence, and perhaps, some cash in the bank. One of the best ways college students can achieve these ideals is by purchasing real estate. Yes, what once was impossible is now a very possible reality for many college students. Real estate can allow college students to be savvy investors and gain incredible amounts of money by renting rooms o...
More About: Buying , Estate , Real Estate , Real Estate Investment

Our sponsor charity at Mortgage Revolution
2010-05-02 20:19:00
The contraction of the news reporting industry has been well documented, and leaves behind a nagging social question. Who is funding the stories that will illuminate the good causes going unnoticed, and the investigative reporting that uncovers the Watergates. Even more important, who is charged with this kind of reporting at the local level when salaried local journalists go by the wayside? I've chosen to support a nonprofit organization developing the new journalistic models to present the stories that need to be heard and funded. Spot.us "crowdsources" reporting from an engaged community of individuals and organizations who vote with micropayments. The missions of Spot.us and Mortgage Revolution are aligned. At the core, both organizations are about making sure the channels for information distribution remain intact, for mortgages and for journalistic reporting. I'm proud of be associated with Mortgage Revolution and the contributions from all of you will help Spot.us...
More About: Charity , Sponsor

Mortgage Panel at Virtual RE Bar Camp
2010-04-10 20:49:00
At the recently concluded Virtual RE Bar Camp , I was on the Mortgage Panel with Mark Madsen, Chris Brown, Scott Schang and Justin McHood. The purpose of the panel was to show real estate agents who are active bloggers why it makes sense to have mortgage content on their blog. From the Loan Officer's perspective we talked about that the main purpose of contributing on their agent's blogs and also how should they decide on what blog to contribute at and how frequently. Below are the slides from the presentation. Feel free to connect with me by following me on Twitter or visiting my Mortgage Blog. Mortgage Panel at Virtual RE Bar Camp View more presentations from Shashank Shekhar. ...
More About: Blogging

Virtual REBarCamp April 6 - my new presentation on the Impact of Geolocatio
2010-03-31 08:15:00
I'll be presenting next week at Jim Cronin's brilliant Virtual REBarCamp. Register here and meet me on April 6 at 2:15 in room #4. My new presentation is on "The Impact of Geolocational Media" Geolocation is the new social buzz with Foursquare and Gowalla, butTwitter and Facebook are closing in with mobile services. What is the impact of theseservices beyond "checking in"? We'll discuss their strategic importanceand predict their futures. This won't be a mechanics course on how to log in at your neighborhood Starbucks, it's a high level discussion on the power of geolocation and how it will impact local advertising, online presence and... real estate. ...

Automating Mobile Services for Real Estate
2010-03-09 17:51:00
Chris Thorman who blogs about real estate technology at Software Advice shares leading edge concepts that are aligned with what I see coming down the mobile social media pipeline. Turnkey / automation / service delivery and execution are critical to mass adoption, and when service companies can provide this instantly in one click, they will get customers.Chris' guest post on an automated mobile service concept:----------The real estate technology market has been flooded in recent years with "location-based" applications to help buyers find properties in their area. With little variation, they all work in about the same way:Start an application on your mobile phone;Utilize your phone's GPS to determine your location; and,Have the application retrieve location-based real estate data.What if a prospective real estate buyer didn't have to initiate an application to get real estate data? What if the data just came to their phone automatically?Sound far-fetched? Well it isn't. Adverti...
More About: Mobile , Services , Estate , Real Estate , Real

Where's the second crash?
2009-09-16 18:21:00
The Bears who throughout the stock market rally starting in March continually cautioned on the "double dip" are now saying they were really bulls all along.We all understand that the economic future looks shaky... unemployment will remain high, commercial and residential foreclosures will continue, and the high deficits and weak dollar will put on ceiling on the recovery. Yet, September's stock market keeps rising to the incredulity of the Bears.The tide of rising asset prices lift all boats (assets, that is). Despite the warnings that housing prices can continue to crash up to 25% lower (per notable CNBC interview with Meredith Whitney on September 10 ), that will only happen in conjunction with a major stock market correction, which would resurface housing market doubts.The double dip scenario is quite real. One thing that Bernanke and the Fed have demonstrated over the past year is that they can actively manage the stock markets, and by extension, the assets markets, through pol...
More About: Economy , Crash

A Tribute to the World Trade Centers when they were normal
2009-09-12 08:02:00
I worked in the South Tower Floor 86 of the World Trade Centers from 1996-1998. All the every day mundane memories of my time there - walking from the Lexington line WTC station up through the underground concourse, past the Chas Schwab offices and up the fast elevators (sometimes they would suddenly stop midway and head back the opposite direction, which folklore blamed as the consequence of the 1993 garage bombing) - suddenly became etched into my brain after 9/11. I sometimes search for videos of the WTC neighborhood like it was a Facebook friend just to see what I remember. It's too bad nobody was bored enough to video the concourse like Google does on streets. This is a video that matches my memories; it's only worth viewing if you're like me and enjoy the memories of a place you know well. My (then) two year old son would play around the globe fountain, he loved the water. That fountain looks stark and minimalist because that plaza between the two buildings really d...
More About: Events , The World , Tribute

Join us at the Twitter Conference LA September 22-23
2009-09-04 10:07:00
We're delighted that our Breaking News Network is one of the event sponsors of 140 | The Twitter Conference in Los Angeles on September 22-23.The Parnassus Group (we like this friendly group a lot) has lined up a Hollywood-inspired roster of speakers that should provide a lot of personality for a tech conference.We enjoyed the first 140 in Mountain View last May, but thought the crowd was too social-media-centric. I noted that in a room of 300, only two of us represented real estate. We want to see all kinds of industry and small business participating at 140. Twitter and Twitter-based applications offer practical solutions to business development, and it's usually the people in business - real estate, retail, entertainment, hospitality, advertising to name a few - who figure all this out.As event sponsors, we're offering a discount code for registration at 140: type in 140LAPK. Be sure to get registered by September 6, after that the price jumps. ...
More About: Events , Join

Doomers have been predicting a downturn for six months, eventually they'll
2009-09-01 07:23:00
The problem with financial analysts predicting extreme results, whether it was NAR economist David Lereah suggesting the housing market bottoming every few months between 2006-2008, or pessimists like Dan Dieghan on CNBC saying markets will crash 25%-50% a couple of weeks ago, is they can't change their stripes. If a pundit is saying the current vapid state of the economy can't sustain the level of the stock market in April, it's hard to call to suddenly say, it's time to buy, without appearing hypocritical, or worse, dead wrong. The bear market rally since March, including the surprising July segment, has defied the doomers' predictions that the market has hit the wall with each down day (Google "Art Cashin pullback" and then "Art Cashin wrong" to see how many times Cashin has chirped). Sure, that downturn will inevitably arrive, but an average investor following the doomer pundits to stay in cash would have missed this rally.Doomers just aren't as credible any more because t...
More About: Economy

Introducing the Social Media Marketing Curriculum for Brokerages
2009-08-24 06:06:00
Outsourcing the Social Media Marketing CurriculumBrokerages now require social media marketing training to be relevant to the needs of their agents. However, it takes too much time and resources to hire somebody to compose social marketing tutorials, to constantly maintain ever-changing information, and to make them relevant specifically to the real estate agent.Over the last three years, Domus Consulting Group has trained thousands of real estate agents on how to use social media effectively with our renowned series of Social Media Marketing webinar workshops (links to testimonials and awards here) that are running continuously every week. Kevin Boer has religiously chronicled the workshops into a portfolio of user-friendly tutorials. We offer this portfolio to your agents at a nominal cost, co-branded to your company... see the slideshow.What's InsideDomus Social Media Marketing CurriculumView more presentations from Pat Kitano.For more detailsContact us for a demo and a peek at ...
More About: Blogging , How-To

Slideshow retrospective - a look back at "Web 2.0" Society from Spring 2008
2009-08-20 23:50:00
The following slideshows were created between May - June 2008. They still remain relevant today in context with how society is embracing social media.The New Transparent Society Society is changing in ways unimaginable even at the beginning of this decade. Personal transparency and marketing yourself without filters has become the norm for doing business. Funny to say, but this was a new concept for business in 2008.Web 2.0, a 2008 term, is now almost archaic and has been replaced by its counterpart "social media" which reflects more truly that the internet is not the Web any more, it is media.The Shock of the New Societal Transparency The New Society's New Rules - No Hard Selling This slideshow was nothing more than a primer for re-training Old School thinking on how to market oneself online.The Hard Sell Is DeadWhy Social Media Marketing works for Real Estate Although this slide show was created before social media in the form of Twitter and Facebook took off, it presents a few ex...
More About: Spring , Back , Slideshow , Retrospective

Social media feeds SEO
2009-08-19 21:33:00
Following up on the surprising Google juice of social media / RSS - based website PHX Housing News, Adam Singer at the Future Buzz lists 10 reasons why social media will feed SEO in a virtuous viral cycle:One thing we've experienced with the hyperlocal Breaking News Network is the power of the Twitter feed itself to brand the Breaking News website. We've discovered that local Breaking News websites are not portals that locals go to religiously; they use them on a "need to know" basis. For example, Breaking News is used to find restaurants on Twitter broadcasting special deals or checking the Events tab to find out what's going on in real time within the city. To keep the website top of mind, the Twitter feed (i.e. @BreakingSFNews) engages the followers of Breaking SF News to remember the site. @BreakingSFNews, as well as @BreakingLANews and @BreakingNYCNews all grew organically to between 2,200 and 2,500 followers over three months, adding credence to the concept that people at s...
More About: Social , Media , Technology

Google Indexing Surprise of New Sites - Getting to #1 in Two Weeks
2009-08-12 07:26:00
Google seems to have started indexing new sites quickly, perhaps in response to greater emphasis on real time search. Doug Lindstrom, developer of Northern Colorado Breaking News noticed how quickly PHX Housing News, a site up only two weeks, now ranks well on Google juice for a variety of terms, including Anthem Housing News (showing up #1) and Tempe Housing News (showing up #5). Since we're not purposely optimizing the sites for search, we're wondering whether the Wordpress blog platform is a natural SEO/SEM platform for Breaking News. Second, Search Engine Land has confirmed using URL shortener bit.ly's analytics that Google undercounts visitors entering websites via Twitter links by 500%-1,600%. If Google fixes this so Twitter links are recognized, Twitter feed-based Breaking News sites would even have higher Google profile. ...
More About: Google , Sites , Indexing

Describing "Twitter" with Brad Inman in May, 2007
2009-08-08 10:06:00
Yes, I've developed a Twitter rep...I don't normally do this for show, but I played back a YouTube interview Brad Inman and I did back in May 2007 and realized that I was describing how Twitter could be used for facilitating agent / consumer / community interaction at about the 2:20 mark. I did join Twitter in March 2007 (tx to @respres), but didn't start using it until late summer 2007. ...

The Return of the "Real Estate Investment Course"
2009-08-04 08:38:00
Arggh... they're back! ...
More About: Estate , Real Estate , Real Estate Investment , Investment , Real

CRM 2.0 - Why Can't Social Networks Port into CRM Systems?
2008-06-06 01:59:00
Customer Relationship Management ("CRM"), one of the least attractive administrative tasks facing any business, needs an overhaul. Most systems have their users manually input and update contact data into data siloes that are currently  incompatible with social networking applications like LinkedIn and Facebook which can harbor that same base data and more. CRM systems have three tracking functions: Contact database - name, address, phone, email, etc. Contact history and details - dates of contact, discussion topics, contact interests and personalization, priority Tasks - next steps, deadlines, timeline, alerts, priority In addition, CRM systems provide management functions: Categorization of contacts, projects and tasks by folders, or better, tags.Data mining and metrics to monitor and elucidate user efficiency - contact growth rate, best use of time, close rate, benchmarking vis-a-vis other users Automated marketing - drip email campaigns, The real estate prof...
More About: Social , Technology , Social Networks , Networks , Port

More Corporate Attempts at Social Media
2008-06-05 00:41:00
Following up on yesterday's "social networking is a waste of time" IBM ad, here are two examples of corporations trying to incorporate social media functionality in odd ways: Clorox's Mom network - celebrating bleach! (h/t to Profy blog) I was looking up a word in the Merriam Webster dictionary and noticed I could socially "share" the word in various ways. And sharing the word on my Facebook profile actually works...
More About: Comedy , Social , Media , Corporate

IBM Ad Clueless on Social Media
2008-06-04 01:15:00
This new IBM commercial on YouTube sends a polarizing message that dismisses social networking as a waste of time. The reason I show this - the commercial somehow capsulizes a common reaction a Web 2.0-centric or blogging real estate professional gets from their colleagues... "why are you doing this?" I'm assuming since the ad passed the focus groups (IBM always uses focus groups), most people either liked or could relate to the commercial. I myself find it arrogant and puts IBM, a maker of social software, in a distinctly "not getting it" light. Even the casting of the scary cold, business-suited female boss and the "I don't want to work here" slacker dude perpetuates unseemly stereotypes. Unbelievable this actually passed IBM marketing, which btw, seems to have posted the commercial on YouTube along with other IBM commercials under the name IBMEIC. But that's me... what do you think? As a real estate professional, can you relate to this? Please comment, even a Twitter-like "I t...
More About: Social , Media , Clueless

Explaining the Impact of Twitter and Friendfeed - the Slide Show
2008-06-02 21:17:00
I've condensed my recent musings on Twitter , Friendfeed, Social Media 2.0 and Blogging 2.0 into a slide presentation.You may download the presentation Explaining the Impact of Twitter and Friendfeed - it has the links intact. Pardons, it's a 7mb file; I still don't know how to shrink collateral well. | View | Upload your own
More About: Show , Slide

Guest posts - Real Estate 2.0 Vendors and Changing the Rules of Mass Media
2008-05-30 12:36:00
I've been focused lately on the implications of Web 2.0, social media and Twitter on real estate, and by extension, online business marketing.  I want to refer readers to two guest posts this week: At HomeGain blog:HomeGain evolves with Web 2.0 - the real estate industry as a whole will remain hopelessly behind in incorporating the best of Web 2.0 marketing. Companies like HomeGain, as well as the usual suspects in the space - Active Rain, Trulia, Zillow, etc. - will begin to provide a comprehensive set of services ranging from online marketing to business management tools to guide the real estate professional through the minefield, and that will begin to kick off the elusive Web 2.0 revenue model. At Real Estate Radio USA: Mass Media and Real Estate Must Completely Change Their Business Models - Real estate agents were used to buying classified ads in newspapers, and mass media was glad to oblige. Now that print classifieds are diminishing in effectiveness, mass media pub...
More About: Vendors , Changing

Politics and Real Estate Don't Mix, Especially Now
2008-05-28 11:33:00
Social media, particularly the advent of microblogging platforms like Twitter, have loosened the inhibitions of bloggers. Since Tweets naturally revolve around personal, daily life, I do notice that the two big polarization topics, politics and religion, begin to be bantered... and quite often. Today's political environment has moved into a unique, politically charged realm that cuts across cultural lines. A real estate blogger/Twitterer, by positioning themselves politically one way or the other, simply threatens to alienate a significant portion of their readership by age, race, gender or religion (I'll purposely refrain from providing links to examples). Since real estate is a profession where political persuasion shouldn't really factor in too high in the hiring process, why alienate potential client bases? And it's not too hard to intuit the political character of the blogger, and all the more refreshing that they don't egotistically get carried away and take the pulpit st...
More About: Politics , Events , Estate , Real Estate , Blogging

New York Times Embraces Content Distribution
2008-05-27 11:34:00
Yesterday, I discussed how the Twitter API created the massive application set that has been driving Twitter's popularity. Each application redistributes Twitter content.Now the New York Times is opening its content to developers with an API to be delivered soon. Although no one knows exactly what Times content will be accessible, the API opens up developers to creating new applications using Times' content, say - restaurant reviews, sports, real estate classifieds. From Read Write Web:An API is a logical next step for newspapers. It will give developers access to their vast amounts of well-researched data, and allows the paper's brand to be spread easily across the web. More access to Times content and the ability to mash it up in new and interesting ways can only be a win for both readers and the paper."The web of the near-term future isn't about pages any more," wrote Marshall Kirkpatrick in his massive post on APIs in March. "It's about data, flying around, hopefully under ...
More About: Distribution , Content , New York Times

Twitter and Blogging 2.0
2008-05-26 02:46:00
Why Twitter became the application du jour The key to Twitter's wildfire adoption was in opening its API to developers who then built Twitter applications on top of the feeds. Mashable lists 140+ Twitter applications. Twitter.com isn't actually the primary recipient of its web traffic, Larry Dignan @ ZDNet says 90% of Twitter traffic are its API calls. On the negative side, Twitter now has famous network down times because too many users are accessing Tweeter via those applications.Why Twitter's popularity is crashing it Here's why: Twitter's broadcast model, although similar to "closed circuit" radio doesn't broadcast on a simple mass media standard, like radio airwave. Each "tweet" is stored in a huge database, and then must be broadcast across a variety of media - to mobile phones, websites, or one of the many Twitter desktop clients - and specifically to a group of followers. Problems arise, according to Om Malik when a burgeoning number of Twitterers like Scoble have 25,0...
More About: Blogging , Disintermediation

FriendFeed "Rooms" and Blogging 2.0
2008-05-23 11:49:00
I've been discussing the converging intersection between mass media and social media lately. Mass media strives to deliver the most content to the most consumers. Social media strives to deliver relevant, customized content within and among disparate, granular societal groups. The concepts of mass media are now making an imprint in social media by aggregating blogs, Twitter feeds and all those social networks into digestible channels. Duncan Riley calls it "Blogging 2.0". Like any other 2.0 paradigm that speeds up the distribution of data, bloggers are becoming disintermediated. The premise is simply readers of blogs don't need to visit the blog any more. There are feedreaders, Friendfeed, del.icio.us, Facebook, blog networks, Twitter and other arenas where blog content are "syndicated". By taking the conversation away from the individual blog, Riley claims the professional bloggers who make a living off of traffic will suffer. Why is this happening? Blogging 2.0 is a manifestatio...