2009 - 3rd quarter category archive

SRES designation course back by popular demand

August 14th, 2009 | 2009 - 3rd quarter, Realtor® 'Rightings | No comments

Little Rock Realtor® Maurice Taylor says agents wanting to address the fastest growing demographic in the nation owe it to themselves to obtain the Seniors Real Estate Specialist (SRES) designation.
“I completed the SRES designation course in 2008 and I knew we had to bring this class back to our membership in 2009,” said Taylor, the [...]

Google Latitude – How Might It Work for Real Estate?

August 13th, 2009 | 2009 - 3rd quarter, Realtor® 'Rightings | No comments

Google Latitude is a new Google map service that is proving to be quite popular with Internet enabled cell phone users.
Once installed on your phone, you can import your contacts and friends, and invite them to share locations with you.  In other words, you can let your selected contacts see where you are on Google [...]

Micro-blogging — using Twitter for market news alerts

August 12th, 2009 | 2009 - 3rd quarter, Realtor® 'Rightings | No comments

The real estate marketing gurus who are sold on blogging have been pushing the benefits for a couple of years now.
And, many real estate professionals are blogging as a stand-alone Web presence, or as an adjunct to a regular website. But, what if you don’t want to blog, or you are blogging but want to [...]

The Three Rs Every Realtor Needs to Embrace

August 10th, 2009 | 2009 - 3rd quarter, Realtor® 'Rightings | No comments

It’s been said that real estate is all about location, location, location, but ask any real estate professional and they’ll likely tell you that there’s a whole lot more to the job than that.
Sure – location is key, but as if working long hours, often under intense pressure and time constraints weren’t enough, have you [...]

Central Arkansas, Texarkana and Fort Smith markets projected to do well

August 7th, 2009 | 2009 - 3rd quarter, Realtor® 'Rightings | No comments

Local Market Monitor, a real estate forecasting company based in Cary, N.C., has predicted three housing markets in central Arkansas will perform well in terms of prices over the next 12 months.
On June 23, Local Market Monitor released a list of metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) that are expected to be top performers over the next [...]

FHA announcement not what was expected

August 6th, 2009 | 2009 - 3rd quarter, Realtor® 'Rightings | 2 comments

At the end of May, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced that homebuyers can apply the first time homebuyer’s tax credit toward the purchase costs of an FHA-insured home.
The announcement caught some people by surprise.
Bob Walker, a Cabot Realtor® and president of the Arkansas Realtors® Association (ARA), said many close to the real estate industry [...]

The HVCC causes concerns in the real estate industry

August 5th, 2009 | 2009 - 3rd quarter, Realtor® 'Rightings | 4 comments

Some people in the real estate industry in Arkansas say the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) is a classic example of a solution being worse than the problem it is supposed to correct.
The HVCC is an agreement between Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the New York Attorney General’s office that was developed because of [...]

Jumbo mortgage interest rates down; investors still cautious

August 4th, 2009 | 2009 - 3rd quarter, Realtor® 'Rightings | 1 comment

Interest rates on jumbo mortgage loans have always been a bit higher than what is paid on conventional mortgages, but there was a time when they were considerably higher.
Mike Milner – a Conway mortgage banker and a past president of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Arkansas – said those rates have started to come down [...]

Why are mortgage rates over 5 percent again?

August 3rd, 2009 | 2009 - 3rd quarter, Realtor® 'Rightings | 4 comments

Since June mortgage rates trended upward and that has prompted some people to ask why that is happening.

Michael Stewart, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Arkansas, said rates are climbing because of an oversupply of mortgage bonds. One of the factors causing an abundance of mortgage bonds has to do with the high volume [...]

HUD reports national rise in housing discrimination complaints, drop in Arkansas filings

July 31st, 2009 | 2009 - 3rd quarter, Realtor® 'Rightings | No comments

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a record 10,552 fair housing discrimination complaints were filed in fiscal 2008.

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Understanding your green client

July 31st, 2009 | 2009 - 3rd quarter, Realtor® 'Rightings | 1 comment

As the topics of sustainability and green building continue to gain momentum, clients and customers interested in green features and amenities will become more and more common. But who is the green buyer, tenant, owner or seller? And how can you determine what green means to them?

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NAR calls for initiatives leading to environmental efficiency; some incentives already exist in Arkansas

July 30th, 2009 | 2009 - 3rd quarter, Realtor® 'Rightings | 4 comments

The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) has come out in support of the goals behind federal legislation encouraging energy efficiency, but says a system of incentives is the best way to encourage people to go green. The two bills at issue are the Green Resources for Energy Efficient Neighborhoods (GREEN) Act – H.R. 2336 – [...]

The ARA goes PREP

July 29th, 2009 | 2009 - 3rd quarter, Realtor® 'Rightings | No comments

At the Arkansas Realtors® Association (ARA) Board of Directors meeting on June 16, a recommendation from the Public Relations Committee to set up a blog was approved. The group chosen to design a custom template for the blog and host it is Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP), which is an established real estate community. The [...]

Are you ready for the Realtor® of the Year Gala?

July 28th, 2009 | 2009 - 3rd quarter, Realtor® 'Rightings | 2 comments

Wow – this September is the 50th Anniversary of the Arkansas Realtors® Association’s Realtor® of the Year program! Lesia and I are so excited to have been asked by ARA President Bob Walker to be your hosts for this once in a lifetime event.
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Updates from the AREC: Unlicensed Practice

July 27th, 2009 | 2009 - 3rd quarter, Realtor® 'Rightings | No comments

What do you do if someone is practicing real estate without holding an Arkansas Real Estate license? Contact the Arkansas Real Estate Commission (AREC) and furnish all the information you have. If it appears  the person is conducting real estate activities without holding an active real estate license, AREC will investigate.

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