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Each Friday we share with you the must-read, real estate news of the week. We’ve got everything you need to know to stay on top of breaking industry news and trends.
Grab your coffee and get reading!
“4 Insider Tips For Getting Multiple Offers”
The market is heating up. No, really. Coast to coast, a much higher percentage of listings are (a) selling, period (b) selling, fast and (c) selling at or above the asking price than they have during any spring in recent memory. Don’t take my word for it — from Chicago to Orange County, CA, local papers have picked up and started to report on the phenomenon. Yet and still, today’s buyers hold in recent memory the real estate mountaintop and the depths of the recession; some have been waiting out the market for years, hoping for a deal, but unwilling to buy into a declining market. Others actually lost homes to foreclosure at the beginning of the housing recession and are on the comeback trail. And competition from short sale and foreclosure listings is still abundant. Long story short, the days when every home on the market got multiple offers are still a thing of the past. By and large, the listings receiving multiple offers and selling for over asking on today’s market have the following ingredients. Continue reading . . .
“Vacation Home Markets Heat Up”
If your clients are thinking of buying a second home in the next five years, this might be their best opportunity. After being battered during the housing bust, the vacation-home market is showing signs of life. Reports of bidding wars are trickling out of some of the locales that bore the brunt of the housing bust, and brokers in other markets, while not sounding the “all clear,” at least say conditions aren’t getting much worse. Near-record-low mortgage rates, bargain prices and dwindling home inventories are bringing some once-untouchable markets within reach for the first time in a decade, say housing-market experts. Continue reading . . .
“Small Business Owner Optimism At Highest Rate In Over A Year”
Hitting its highest point in over a year, small business confidence rose in April by 2.0 percentage points, according to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), as companies stepped up plans for hiring and investing. “While the Index remains historically weak, there was good news in the details of April’s report. Job creation plans, job openings and capital spending plans all increased. Hopefully, this performance will hold in the coming months,” said NFIB Chief Economist, Dr. William Dunkelberg. Continue reading . . .
“Trulia Launches Geolocation Mobile Ads For Agents”
Trulia wants your phone to ring. That’s why they are launching a new ad platform that will enable you to place mobile ads on the site’s most highly trafficked pages, including the previously off-limits map view page. Until now, consumers could only contact an agent directly if they were on specific property’s details page. Up to five agents per zipcode can purchase the mobile ads. One agent can also purchase all five spots, meaning a single agent could own one hundred percent of a zipcode. The ads are geolocated, and appear in the Trulia iPhone app, Android app and mobile browser version of the site. Continue reading . . .
