Archive for February, 2006

History of the 6 Percent Commission

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!The Greater Baton Rouge Business Report has an interesting story on real estate commissions. It discusses how the commissions came into being and what the future will bring. I was intrigued in this part of the article that told the […]

25Feb2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Toll Brothers Has Stellar 1st Quarter but Anticipates Slowdown

Toll Brothers say first quarter profits rise year over year by 49% and 2006 earnings should come in between 790 and 870 million dollars. That is not a bad company if you ask me.
It is not all good news though, as they have seen slowdowns in California and a fear that with the speculator […]

24Feb2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Prince Georges County in Maryland Fights For Eminent Domain Power

Prince Georges County is fighting for the ability to use eminent domain, and does not want the Maryland legislature to limit their powers to take a citizens property to improve the counties tax base. You are looking at a region that has tremendous growth and prosperity in property values over the past few years.
So instead […]

24Feb2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Homestore Changes Name and Focus to “The Move”

Homestore has been the top dog in the realty web market running the Realtor.com site along with Homebuilders.com and Rentnet.com. But it looks like the competition is catching up to them. Recognizing the fact, the company is proceeding to rebrand itself as Move, Inc. and is adding more tools for the consumer to use.
It […]

23Feb2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Oregon State Supreme Court Approves Tighter Eminent Domain Laws

Oregon has had a rocky road with eminent domain. Typically, it is developers that try to use the tools of government to get property for below what the market would price it at. In Oregon, it was the government and the environmentalist who were using the long arm of eminent domain to take over how […]

23Feb2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Legislator in New Jersey wants to Lock Up Housing Records From Public

And the Jersey Shore Bubble Blogger has done a great job with this story, so go read it.
Now.
It really shows that those with vested interests will do whatever it takes to protect those interests. Threats like Zillow and other real estate tools are making the old guard fearful.

22Feb2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Chula Vista Council Approves Eminent Domain Vote

The community of Chula Vista, California has taken a positive step in its battle against potential eminent domain abuses by getting the local council to put a restrictive eminent domain ordinance up for a public vote. The council and mayor, Steve Padilla, initially were against the vote but recognized that it is a hot button […]

22Feb2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Reselling This Site by Unethical WebMasters to Unsuspecting Real Estate Agents

I suppose in a perverse way, I should feel flattered. Some folks have splogs steal parts of their content, others have people cut and paste from their sites. But I have a company stealing my content and then reselling it to realtors as part of a web site package. Imitation is a distinct form of […]

22Feb2006 | Tom Royce | 14 comments | Continued

Charlotte, N.C. Broker Sentenced For Fraud

How to go to prison for 3 years? Persuade buyers to buy foreclosed propertied and lie about your income, down payment, sales prices, and shoe size. That is what a broker was doing in the Charlotte. North Carolina region was doing. My question is, in such a hot real estate market, why would you need to […]

22Feb2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

50 Year Mortgage Too Long? Then Maybe a 40 Year Mortgage Will Fit Better

The gold standard in mortgages, the 30 year fixed mortgage, may find it has some competition as lenders are talking about creating a 40 year mortgage and potentially a 50 year mortgage. While these lengths seem mindboggling, it does allow more people to qualify for a loan and positions more into the opportunity of home […]

21Feb2006 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued