MLS Real Estate & Listings Blog

In today’s tough real estate market, brokers are looking for all sorts of ways to connect with consumers — especially online — and an interactive software company is offering technology that aims to do just that.

WebsiteAlive, a provider of live chat software, has created a version of its platform for real estate sites and is partnering with LuxuryRealEstate.com to offer it to real estate companies.  more…

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Sales of vacation properties fell 30.6 percent in 2007 compared to the prior year, with investment-property purchases down 18.1 percent, according to an Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey report released by the National Association of Realtors.

Total sales of new and resale homes used as primary residences, by comparison, dropped 10 percent from 2006 to 2007, survey results revealed.  more…

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(This is Part 2 of a three-part series. Read Part 1, “Top questions to ask sellers at listing appointment.”)

Are buyers really liars? Not usually — the challenge is you just haven’t asked them the right questions.  more…

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EPerks, a company that launched last year that seeks to build a consumer audience and a pool of subscribing real estate professionals during a challenging time in the U.S. real estate market, combines real estate lead generation, referrals, rebates, agent profiles and reviews, and map-based searches into one portal.

The Pleasanton, Calif.-based company has already stirred up controversy and riled some industry professionals for a pay-per-review marketing campaign and legal threats against a blogger.  more…

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California home sales decreased 28.5 percent in February compared with the same period a year ago, while the median price of an existing home fell 26.2 percent, the California Association of Realtors reported today.  more…

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I have a new listing on the market and it’s generating a lot of excitement — a few dozen visitors in the first week and a half it’s been listed. As a result, I have not only seen clients in various shapes and sizes, I have also seen just about every style of buyer’s broker imaginable. In a world where the listing is in play (and people don’t necessarily know that they’re going to be written about) I don’t want to be too specific, but here are some composite impressions that might be helpful to buyers and buyer’s brokers everywhere.  more…

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Despite a considerable drop in long-term mortgage rates, borrowers last week were not breaking down the doors of lenders trying to get a piece of the action, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported today.

According to MBA, home loan application volume fell 2.9 percent last week on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous week, led by a 4.6 percent decline in the refinance index and a 1 percent drop in the index that tracks purchase loans.  more…

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Consumers appreciate public property-search Web sites set up by multiple listing services, though such sites remain a divisive issue for industry professionals, according to a report released today by WAV Group, a real estate consulting company.

The "MLS Consumer Website Effectiveness Study" highlighted HAR.com, a popular real estate search site created by the Houston Association of Realtors, and gathered consumer and Realtor input about public MLS sites.  more…

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Mortgage rates were up this week, Freddie Mac reported today in its latest survey, but were still lower than they were a year ago.

The average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages climbed to 6.13 percent from last week’s 6.03 percent, while the average 15-year fixed mortgage jumped from 5.47 percent to 5.6 percent. A year ago, rates on the 30- and 15-year loans averaged 6.14 percent and 5.88 percent, respectively.  more…

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Busloads of home buyers are hopping aboard the foreclosure bandwagon in search of bargains, and real estate agents and brokers are supplying the wheels and deals in markets across the country.

Ruth and John Ahlbrand, who own and manage RE/MAX Central, a Las Vegas brokerage company, bought a 40-seat luxury coach and wrapped it with advertising that features their TourVegasHomes.com Web site and the company’s phone number.  more…

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I met Alice Heiman, as I have done so many serendipitous things, online. (Longtime readers of this column will know that’s how I met my husband.) A sales coach — whose background is in sales training, so she has "trained the trainers" — she is based in Reno, Nev., where she offers some of the best advice for salespeople I have ever seen.  more…

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