Here at the Arkansas Realtors® Association (ARA), we just love, love, love it when people send us electronic newsletters that will interest one group or another in this state. The University District Partnership is one of those groups kind enough to send newsletters our way so that we can share them with our legion of [...]

Over the past few years, recipients of the Arkansas Realtors® Association Award for Excellence have wanted to know what happens to any revenue generated by the program. The common answer to that question has typically been that it goes to benefit both charities and Arkansas Realtors®. As that answer was – and has always been [...]

Jim Carroll Sr. of the Carroll Mortgage Group in Little Rock said there are some major changes to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Good Faith Estimate (GFE) and real estate agents who aren’t familiar with them need to learn about them in a hurry. Carroll, speaking at a January meeting of [...]

Yes, another The Arkansas Realtor digest has been sent to our legion of happy subscribers. Want to see what they received by email? Just click here and have a look at the latest digest. Here’s the good news — you, too, can sign up for a digest of your very own. If you’ll look in [...]

Even in the best of cases, the homebuying process often takes up to two months to complete. A prospective homeowner has to arrange financing, perhaps come up with a down payment, find the home to purchase, negotiate a price, arrange inspections, insurance, set a closing date… the considerations are numerous. Homebuyers now have a special [...]

On March 12-13, Re/Max of Conway and Best Buy will sponsor a Texas Hold ‘Em tournament benefiting the Children’s Miracle Network. For more information about the 6th Annual Arkansas State Hold ‘Em Championship, call Re/Max at (501)327-0888 or click here for the online registration form. You can also view the informative flyer for the event [...]

Our friends over at Credit Counseling of Arkansas (CCOA) have reminded us that the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (Credit CARD) Act of 2009 went into effect today. Want to have a look at the details of the Credit CARD Act? Just click here to download the Microsoft Word version of a very well [...]

The law of supply and demand doesn’t change just a whole lot, does it? No one should be surprised, then, that average list prices have fallen as inventories have increased in four Arkansas housing markets. To take a look at the latest average/median list prices and inventories report from the Arkansas Realtors® Association, click here [...]

We get a number of calls at the Arkansas Realtors Association (ARA) from people wanting us to predict the future performance of housing markets in Arkansas. We don’t make predictions at the ARA about the future performance of those markets. There are a couple of reasons for that. For one thing, we’re not in the [...]

I’ve heard it more than a few times — “So, that tax credit for repeat home buyers only applies to people purchasing more expensive homes, right?” No, no, no. That’s wrong. Dead wrong. Nope. There is no such thing as a “move up” tax credit and I’m not entirely sure why I keep hearing about [...]

Homeowners throughout the nation have been concerned about declining values. Here in Arkansas, the average sales price of a home through October was $144,476, down 4.1 percent from $150,650 through the first 10 months of 2008. Eric Hutchinson, president of Equity Protection, said the concern over home values – whether real or perceived – prompted [...]

Mention email marketing to real estate agents and you may find that many are still hesitant to move away from their tried-and-true snail mail methods. Others, however, are rapidly discovering that email marketing is just about one of the most effective means of generating sales. Want proof? When Shop.org surveyed retailers for their State of [...]

On April 22, a new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule written to reduce the amount of lead based paint on residences in the United States will be in place. The new rule has to do impacts all residences – and facilities occupied by children – that were built prior to 1978. Commercial buildings are not [...]

Yes, the Award for Excellence deadline expired on Feb. 16. What? Your local board didn’t get those turned in to the Arkansas Realtors® Association (ARA) on time? Well, don’t fret. All local boards that haven’t turned in their applications yet should get in touch with Ethan C. Nobles, ARA director of media relations, by clicking [...]

After a rough start, 2009 finished strong in terms of the numbers of homes sold. How strong? Sales were up 9.85 percent in September compared to the same month in 2008, 24.11 percent in October, 54.08 percent in November and 12.21 percent in December. Due to the comparatively strong sales at the end of 2009, [...]