Archive for October, 2006

Zillow Coming out with a New Feature? Rumor has it…

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!That Zillow will be making a major announcement in the next few days. Robert Scoble, video blogger and networking guru, teased a major new announcement on his blog last night. He was filming a segment for his new show [...]

25Oct2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Cyntoia Brown Sentenced to 51 Years to Life for Real Estate Agent Murder in Nashville

A teenager who killed Johny Allen, a real estate agent in Nashville , was sentenced to 51 years to life for the murder.Â Cyntoia Brown, 16 at the time, supposedly committed the murder just for the â€œthrill of itâ€ after she ran away from a group home.
A Nashville judge decided Tuesday that 51 years in prison [...]

25Oct2006 | Tom Royce | 7 comments | Continued

Stubborn Sellers Make Great Headlines But Not Reality

Reuters has an article out today the is headlined “ Stubborn Sellers Could Harm Housing Sector”. Now in itself it is a great headline, it grabs attention and brings you in. But it is terribly misleading. It is as if a chain smoking, stilletto heeled real estate agent wrote it, who was in a blind panic [...]

25Oct2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Housing Slow Down Hurting Economy According To Bush Aide

While the rest of the economy is charging ahead, the housing industry’s slowdown is affecting the economy as a whole and will bring down the growth numbers according to a top White House Aide.
While this is not a surprise, we have to be thankful that the rest of the economy is in an upturn [...]

24Oct2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

LA Developer Donates 1.5 Million for Indigent Development

A top Los Angeles developer is seeing slowing times, but instead of buckling under and locking the doors, he is using his assets to help others. While I am not a fan of the governmental monopoly over housing the indigent, I am a big fan of private – public efforts to help the less fortunate. And [...]

24Oct2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Mortgage Traders Expect Housing Market to Get A Lot Worse

We have heard so many times about the high inventory and lowering prices of the national real estate market in the past few months, but this report out of Bloomberg is a bit unnerving. Traders of mortgage backed securities are expecting a rash of foreclosures on the creative loans that have been issued in the [...]

23Oct2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Antique Sales Bring Traffic To Open House

In one of the more interesting ways I have seen a real estate agent drive traffic to an open house, Brad Kimmelman of Connecticut stages antique sales at his open houses to drive traffic. The real estate agent gets to sell his antiques, but more importantly drives traffic and buzz to the home and increases [...]

23Oct2006 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

They Do Not Get More Stigmatized Than This

The condo where Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered in the celebrated OJ Simpson Murder case is up for sale again. The property is on the market for 1.7 million dollars, the average in the area for homes that are half the size. Stigmatized properties are ones where something awful has happened previously. [...]

22Oct2006 | Tom Royce | 2 comments | Continued

“Homebuyer” Arrested for Stealing Over 200K in Jewelry and Knickknacks

As the housing slowdown occurs and real estate agents are desperate to show homes to any warm bodies the incidents of theft are going to increase. Agents should take care to get identification and vet homebuyers before taking them out to see homes if at all possible.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - An unemployed San [...]

22Oct2006 | Tom Royce | 2 comments | Continued

Affordable Housing on Long Island Developers Radar

A housing conference on Long Island, NY has geared developers to focus on building affordable housing. With prices depressing and building materials coming down in price, builders can build affordable housing during this lull in the market. Homes aimed at this demographic are guaranteed to sell and developers can be assured of keeping their employees working [...]

21Oct2006 | Tom Royce | 3 comments | Continued