The title says it all. It's our mission to provide a bird's eye view on how the new transparency will change the real estate game for the benefit of society. We focus on business strategy, new business models, technology and innovative real estate marketing for the real estate community. 1 | Homebuyer Tax Credit Extended for Some Military Personnel | | @August 26, 2010 01:25:00 AM | | Top | | | 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 a combined income greater than $225,000* First-time buyers and their spouses cannot have owned a home in the last three years* To qualify for the $6,500 tax credit, military members must also have lived in the same house for five of the last eight years.Why is a VA loan beneficial?With a VA loan, qualified borrowers will not only be eligible to take advantage of the tax credits, but they will also have access to the numerous financial benefits the VA loan program offers.The VA loan program has helped over 18 million veterans and active duty service members achieve homeownership since 1944. VA loans allow military buyers the opportunity to purchase a home with no money down and without the need for mortgage insurance. The program also offers competitive rates and no penalties ... |
2 | Engage your community by giving them what they want: Daily Deals! | | @August 23, 2010 22:55:00 PM | | Top | | | 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 "365 Things to Do" on Facebook? It's a great way to engage your community on a personal level by providing valuable lifestyle tips. What's next? We think the community wants to know about deals, so we're developing "Daily Deal" Facebook feeds (like Centennial Daily Deals) across the Network. It's an automated ticker tape of every new deal that happens in a city, and we hope consumers will monitor it and "like" it. How to Leverage Daily Deals for Community Engagement How do you build strong relationships with your business community that translates into deal flow and referrals to your business? Give your business community what it wants: free advertising and promotion via Breaking News, and its associated Twitter and Facebook feed. There's a ... |
3 | Why HOW (Home Ownership Workshop) is the new WOW! | | @June 14, 2010 00:57:00 AM | | Top | | | 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 Workshops (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 your credit in shape before buying your first home How to choose your Real Estate Agent and Loan Officer What are the closing costs involved in buying a home 6 things you should know before you make an offer on a house A one time registration for all these 6 classes can be done at - https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/423351617 Classes will be taught by Shashank Shekhar who is a Mortgage Broker/Banker ... |
4 | The Breaking News Network is meeting at Inman Connect in San Francisco | | @May 19, 2010 20:19:00 PM | | Top | | | 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! ... |
5 | Guest post: Buying Real Estate While in College: A Very Possible Dream | | @May 08, 2010 19:19:00 PM | | Top | | | 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 out to other students. This article will explain how you too can buy real estate while in college. As a future law student, personally, researching real estate in Florida has become my own hobby. My goal is to purchase a property, rent it out to other students, and thus grow a healthy profit on the property while I am in law school. Investment properties can help students pay off hefty student loans later in life.For students without a regular income, purchasing a home may seem impossible. However, it does not have to be. The key is to get your parents involved. Parents can take out a mortgage on a home, and then you pay your parents back on the mortgage payments. Of course ... |
6 | Our sponsor charity at Mortgage Revolution | | @May 02, 2010 13:19:00 PM | | Top | | | 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 to develop a new model to engage our communities through other organizations just like Mortgage Revolution. We ask you to stay tuned as we unveil this new model after the conference. Still time to register for Mortgage Revolution: http://www.mortgagerevolution.info/san-francisco-registration/ ... |
7 | Mortgage Panel at Virtual RE Bar Camp | | @April 10, 2010 13:49:00 PM | | Top | | | 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. ... |
8 | Virtual REBarCamp April 6 - my new presentation on the Impact of Geolocational Media | | @March 31, 2010 01:15:00 AM | | Top | | | 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. ... |
9 | Automating Mobile Services for Real Estate | | @March 09, 2010 10:51:00 AM | | Top | | | 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. Advertising company Placecast has developed a service called ShopAlerts and we think it has very interesting implications for the real estate industry. ShopAlerts allows users to opt in to receive marketing message on their phone from retail stores that are nearby. For example, a person would sign up for alerts from Old Navy and would automatically receive tailored text message marketing notifications each time they were close to an Old Navy store.This could work in the same manner for the real estate industry. Users could opt in to receive alerts about specific types of properties. And when they near those properties, they cross a "geo-fence" which prompts an automatic notification to be sent to their mobile phone. Essentially, a person lives their life and in the meantime, receives notifications about properties they're close to that match what they want. Is this ideal marketing technology or what?----------You can read the full article ... |
10 | The problem with social media marketing - it's still push marketing | | @February 18, 2010 18:43:00 PM | | Top | | | The sales methodology of the real estate industry is unique. Its sales force, primarily agents and brokers, needs to market themselves widely to a local community in order to capture transactions that happen infrequently. The traditional way has always been a form of promotion, or "push marketing" - advertising, drip email marketing, direct mail, open house guest book trolling. The net effect of a generation of million plus real estate agents trying to get their foot in the door with any consumer has spawned the stereotypical image of the glad handing agent.With the real estate industry's new found craze for Facebook and other social media as a channel for networking, the same traditional push marketing methods are being recast. Agents slap up Facebook fan pages, write blogs and tweet out their listings with the same messaging either overt or hidden within their conversations - see how good I am and what I can do for you. One trend is Farming 2.0. Agents on Twitter often follow everybody in their hometown hoping on the off chance that they are in the market. The problem with this approach is spammers do the same thing.The community blanketing approach of say, inviting everybody to become a fan of their Facebook page, may not work with the potential client down the street who wants a professional, not a social relationship with a Realtor. These tactics need to change before the agent's reputation as a flycaster for leads precedes them in their evolving community social space.What the real estate industry fails to grasp is the concept that the social media makes its participants transparent in the long run. From the consumer perspective, it's obvious that someone is a broker or agent simply by reading their profile on, say, a HomeGain web/blog system or examining their conversations ... |
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