With the real estate market improving, three-quarters of Realtors® are very certain they will remain active in the market for two more years, according to the 2010 National Association of Realtors® Member Profile. Only 8 percent were uncertain about their future. The study’s results are representative of the nation’s 1.1 million Realtors®, who account for [...]

At the time of this writing, many candidates seeking office are gearing up for run-off elections. The Arkansas Realtors® Political Action Committee (ARPAC), in many instances, is awaiting the results of those run-offs prior to deciding which candidates it will support this year. However, there are two candidates – both Democrats – that will clearly [...]

This article appears courtesy of the Virginia Association of Realtors®. Later this year, NAR will be rolling out the Realtors® Property Resource (RPR) — potentially one of the most important and useful real estate resources to come along this decade. It might very well change your business. The RPR is a huge and growing set [...]

April Carrie Charney, senior staff attorney at Jacksonville, Florida, Area Legal Aid, said people who receive foreclosure notices shouldn’t feel defenseless. She told a group of attorneys, housing counselors and Realtors® attending the Preventing Foreclosure seminar hosted April 22-23 in Fayetteville by Legal Aid of Arkansas – and co-sponsored by the Arkansas Realtors® Association – [...]

Reports of a new, 3.8 percent Medicare contribution tax on the sale of homes has prompted a few calls to the Arkansas Realtors® Association from concerned real estate agents in the state. The real impact of that tax could be felt by commercial investors. We’ll get to that in a bit. There’s a story going [...]

Some people are blessed with a vision and a talent to develop a plan that stretches for years and includes details on how to achieve monthly and annual goals in business or their personal life. I once took part in an exercise to develop a “seven year planning arrow.” For me, at that time, it [...]

I am extremely fortunate to have been offered the opportunity to serve as your executive director of the Arkansas Real Estate Commission (AREC) and look forward to serving the state in this capacity. Under the leadership of former Executive Director Bill Williamson, we implemented new programs and processes that we will keep in place. In [...]

While “0 down” mortgages were common just a few years ago, there are few  them available today. A source of mortgages requiring no money down from borrowers comes through Navy Federal Credit Union. Bill Tessier of Navy Federal said that, in spite of the name, loans are available to all Department of Defense personnel and [...]

The Arkansas Realtors® Association is cosponsoring an Avoiding Foreclosure seminar hosted by Legal Aid of Arkansas. The seminar will be held April 23 at the Courtyard by Marriott at 600 Van Asche Drive in Fayetteville. The event features programs throughout the day for both Realtors® and attorneys. Attorneys can earn up to five hours of [...]

The housing market reports for Arkansas for January and February were less than encouraging – sales in both months were down compared to what they were last year. However, there are some signs that markets throughout the state and nation are improving. For one thing, the National Association of Realtors® reports that averages sales prices [...]

Arkansas real estate markets may have slowed down, but Russellville Realtor® Cliff Goodin said he’s been doing pretty well lately. At the end of March, Goodin said he personally dealt with six offers. Five of them worked out within a week and he was still working on one of them. Of the five offers that [...]

On February 25, Arkansas lawmakers wrapped up the first fiscal session in Arkansas’ history with a recess. Ted Mullenix and Julie Grinder were at the Capitol representing the Arkansas Realtors® Association every day of the session – attending committee meetings, meeting with legislators and agency personnel and meeting many candidates who came to the Capitol [...]

Four years ago, homebuyers were able to easily take out mortgages and sellers benefited from shortages of homes for sale and climbing prices. Things have changed a lot over the past four years. We’ve been through the death of the subprime lending market and are now dealing with climbing unemployment numbers, tight lending requirements and [...]

Springdale Realtor® John Sullivan is working on joining the eXp Realty franchise and bringing the first online real estate brokerage to Arkansas. Sullivan said one of the most appealing aspects of Washington-based eXp is that the virtual component of it both saves money and will allow him to staff an office with Realtors® all over [...]