
4 million renters want to buy. Can they?
As the housing market moves slowly into recovery, more and more Americans are gaining confidence and hoping to jump into home ownership. The home ownership rate has been dropping steadily since its high of 69.2 percent in 2004 to now just 65 percent. Millions lost...

Regional Trends: What Buyers Want Most—and Get
Median-price purchasers don't expect kitchens fit for food stars, trickling waterfalls, or fire pits. But they dream, too, and here's what's on their wish lists. Sales are robust again in many markets across the country, with the national median existing-home price...

Millennial Homebuyers Seek Diversity, Walkability and Smaller Homes, but That Doesn’t Necessarily Meann Urban Living
~ This is part 1 of a 2 part series ~ The millennial generation (Gen Y) was responsible for about one-third of residential real estate transactions in 2013. In his session at Agent Reboot, real estate coach and trainer Travis Robertson shared how Gen Y is already...

America’s new Opportunity Cities
When the going gets tough, Americans move around. That's been the pattern, at least, for much of the nation’s history, with workers heading for greener pastures when prospects near home dry up. The rate of “internal migration,” as such movement is called, has slowed...

Tech-savvy homebuyers are seeking a painless, personalized experience
Look at the average real estate company and how they’re using technology — it’s probably to complete a specific task or solve a specific problem. Think e-sign functionality for mobile signatures, or CRM for a full pipeline. That’s a great start, but homebuyers and...

Buy-and-rent investors get squeezed
It's getting harder to make a bundle buying up foreclosures and renting them out. The auction prices of homes climbed faster than rents in 2013, so returns on investment dropped, according to a report from CoreLogic. That's a change from the past several years. In...

With Facebook, phone calls and Twitter, miscommunication with real estate clients is easy but can be avoided
Inman News By: Stacia Whatley I’m sure you’re all thinking about your business plans for 2014. I have been thinking of mine since October and have been trying to do things a little differently. I started to think back at what my clients have said to me over the...

Restaurants and Relocation: A Solid Connection
The following is a book review done for Mobility Magazine by our very own Beth Archibald. Book by Danny Meyer Reviewed by Beth Archibald, SCRP, SGMS Q: When asked about the book you wanted to feature, you immediately focused on Setting the Table: The Transforming...

Got Ghosts? How to Sell a ‘Haunted’ House
You may laugh at the notion of spooks and spirits, but when it comes to selling houses, it's a real issue. And it comes up more than you might expect. Here's what you need to know. Haunted houses are fun to visit. But what if you’re putting a “For Sale” sign in...

Rental Vacancy Rate Lowest in More Than a Decade
The U.S. apartment vacancy rate fell to its lowest level in more than a decade during the third quarter, according to a new report by real estate research firm Reis Inc. It was down to 4.2 percent, the lowest vacancy rate since the third quarter of 2001, when it stood...