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The most rewarding problems require collaboration

By Gahlord Dewald, Wednesday, April 24, 2013.
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=121960060" target="_blank">Whiteboard</a> image via Shutterstock.

There are lots of tools for collaborating online.

Google Docs is perhaps the go-to standby for sharing text and spreadsheet documents. Evernote shared notebooks are another way of sharing files and text documents. And of course there's Dropbox as a sort of shared hard drive in the sky.

In practice, the amount of actual collaboration that occurs on these platforms varies.

More often I find myself using Dropbox, Google Docs and Evernote to share stuff with other people. But there's rarely much collaboration.  more...

ZipRealty launches mobile-optimized website

By Inman News, Tuesday, April 23, 2013.

ZipRealty Inc., one of the largest brokerages in the U.S., launched a mobile-optimized version of its website today featuring full-screen photos on property detail pages and geolocation-enabled search.

The new mobile site from the San Francisco Bay Area-based company, which operates brokerages and referral services in 35 U.S. markets and was ranked the 13th largest brokerage with 14,255 transaction sides by Real Trends in 2011, is the company's first mobile-focused site.  more...

Realtor.com bakes school search into mobile apps

By Inman News, Tuesday, April 23, 2013.
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=110170004" target="_blank">School buses</a> image via Shutterstock.

Consumers can now use realtor.com's mobile Apple and Android apps to search for new homes based on a specific school or school district's attendance boundary, as determined by Maponics.

With the app update, users can also see  school ratings from the school-rating nonprofit GreatSchools, discover other schools near where they are searching, and filter listings by private schools.  more...

Homebuyers too fixated on simplified school rankings?

By Inman News, Tuesday, April 23, 2013.
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=75083263" target="_blank">Classroom</a> image via Shutterstock.

Buyers may be reading too much into simplified school rankings offered on real estate sites, paying premiums of $200,000 or more for homes served by schools that score only slightly better than other schools in the same school district, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.  more...

Reesio rolls out transaction management for brokers

By Andrea V. Brambila, Tuesday, April 23, 2013.

San Francisco-based startup Reesio officially debuted a transaction management product for real estate brokers today that the company hopes will fuel exponential growth.

Originally designed to help for-sale-by-owner sellers advertise their properties on local multiple listing services, Reesio soon switched its business model to offer its platform exclusively to real estate agents. After taking its platform nationwide in November, Reasio is now reaching out to those who manage agents: real estate brokers.  more...

Are these robots ready for real estate?

By Inman News, Tuesday, April 23, 2013.
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=61551160" target="_blank">Toy robots</a> image via Shutterstock.

The fast-moving world of technology offers real estate pros opportunities a future that seemed impossible just a few years ago. Now we are thinking about what it would be like to have driverless cars, drone-enhanced aerial photography and a robot personal assistant.  more...

New-home sales jump in March from a year ago

By Inman News, Tuesday, April 23, 2013.
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=71060464" target="_blank">Homebuilder marketing</a> image via Shutterstock.

Sales of new single-family homes in March rose 18.5 percent year over year, according to a monthly report from the U.S. Census Bureau released today.

March's seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 417,000 homes represented a 1.5 percent increase from February's revised rate of 411,000. In January, new-home sales hit a four-year high of 431,000.   more...

Trulia: Housing market inching closer to 'normal'

By Inman News, Tuesday, April 23, 2013.
Trulia Housing Barometer via <a href="http://trends.truliablog.com/2013/04/housing-recovery-marches-on/" target="_blank"> Trulia Trends blog</a>.

The housing market continued to trudge towards a recovery in March, with rising construction starts and falling foreclosure and delinquency rates bringing market conditions closer to those of a balanced one, according to Trulia's Housing Barometer.   more...

Best loan prospects may desert FHA

By Ken Harney, Tuesday, April 23, 2013.
Screenshot of radian.biz homepage.

It's a catchy marketing pitch: "720 and above, don't go gov."

And it has potentially far-reaching significance not only for large numbers of first-time and moderate-income home buyers this year, but for the dominant source of low down payment mortgages many buyers depended on during the past several years: FHA.

The new "720" jingle, used in advertisements by Radian Guaranty Inc, one of the highest-volume players in the industry, refers to FICO scores and spotlights the steadily rising cost of FHA insurance premiums compared with private competitors.  more...

A fun and different way to create real estate videos

By Bernice Ross, Monday, April 22, 2013.
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=109232096" target="_blank">Engaged audience</a> image via Shutterstock.

Video is rapidly becoming as important in marketing your listings as the sign in the front yard. As a busy Realtor, do you really have time to fool with lights, cameras, microphones, and all the hassle involved in making a video?

Very few agents would consider putting one of their listings on the market without any pictures. Today, video is rapidly becoming an expectation. The good news is that your smartphone, a good external microphone, a tripod, and a little creativity can allow you to shoot videos easily.  more...

Angie's List breaks 2 million paid user mark

By Inman News, Monday, April 22, 2013.

Review service Angie's List announced today that it has doubled its customer base over the past 18 months and that the total number of households that pay to use the site surpassed 2 million over the weekend.

Angie's List, which helps consumers find many types of professionals including real estate agents, appraisers, and mortgage brokers, topped the 2 million mark on Sunday, and passed the 1 million mark in October of 2011, the company said.  more...

March home sales constrained by tight inventory

By Inman News, Monday, April 22, 2013.
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=97509833" target="_blank">Floating house</a> image via Shutterstock.
Existing-home sales slipped 0.6 percent from February to March as a lack of home inventory continued to constrain purchases, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported today. At a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.92 million, existing-home sales were still 10.3 percent higher than a year earlier, NAR said.  more...

First comes home, then comes marriage?

By Inman News, Monday, April 22, 2013.
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=64039753" target="_blank">Wedding</a> image via Shutterstock.

Couples today are significantly more likely to purchase a home before marrying than older couples were, according to a survey commissioned by real estate franchisor Coldwell Banker that appears to point to a cultural shift in views toward homeownership and marriage.  more...

Agent matchmaking sites spotlighted on 'TheStreet'

By Inman News, Friday, April 19, 2013.
Teke Wiggin discusses consumer-agent matchmaking sites with with TheStreet's Ross Kenneth Urken.

With shares in companies like Zillow, Trulia, Realogy, ZipRealty, and Market Leader already trading on stock exchanges and others expected to go public in the months and years ahead, the tech-centric side of real estate is of growing interest to investors.

Inman News tech reporter Teke Wiggin discusses consumer-agent matchmaking sites like Brokur, Homelight, LessThan6Percent, and Agent Finder with Ross Kenneth Urken, personal finance editor of "TheStreet," on "The Moola Files."  more...

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