Archive for May, 2007

The Agent’s 911 – Could It Be A Life Saver?

The guys over at NACOM have come out with a new product for Real Estate Agents, The Agent’s 911 . I was contacted early on in their design process as we covered attacks on agents such as Sarah Anne Walker on the site. Their company has been in the ATM security business providing a means for contacting the [...]

28May2007 | Tom Royce | 8 comments | Continued

Beach Contels – The New Trend In New England

What do you call a property you own that is smaller than a condo that formerly was a hotel room? A Contel of course, and not the defunct telephone company from the eighties.
Contels are converted hotel rooms, usually at the smaller beachside motels that were popular in the fifties and the sixties. They are [...]

27May2007 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Real Estate Agent, Samuel D’Costa, Found Dead in Bowie Maryland Home He Was Selling

A real estate agent was found dead in a home he was showing in Bowie, Maryland (just east of Washington D.C.) from gunshot wounds to the chest. The real estate agent, Samuel D’Costa, age 36, left his family to show the house last Wednesday, and was not seen since until he was found by a builder [...]

27May2007 | Tom Royce | 2 comments | Continued

1 in 50 Now an Licensed Agent In California, Will the Madness Never End?

An interesting phenomemon is occuring in California. With sales slowing and the market soft, you would expect the numbers to start to shrink. From roughly 495,000 licensees (brokers and agents), or 1 in 52 adults in the state, the number is now exclipsing 532,000.
Meaning that 1 out of every 50 adults in California is a licensed [...]

26May2007 | Tom Royce | 9 comments | Continued

Commercial Real Estate Major Factor In Economy

While all the media and pundits spend their waking moments dissecting the residential real estate market, the commercial market continues to grow and play a major part of the economy. The commercial real estate market contributes over 500 billion to the gross national product on an annual basis.
The growth in commercial development has also kept [...]

26May2007 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

April 2007 Existing Home Sales Fall 2.6 Percent

While this is not surprising, it explains some of the concern by real estate agents and brokers out there. Existing home sales dropped 2.6 percent for the month of April, 2007 as buyers stayed home.
The Northeast took the biggest hit losing 8.8 percent of it’s sales from the previous year. Sales in the West, [...]

25May2007 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

103 Million Dollar Home Sale in East Hampton Sets Record For Residential Real Estate

Rumors are circulating out of East Hampton, New York that a property on the exclusive Further Lane has sold for 103 million dollars. The home and property were bought by Ron Baron, founder of Baron Capital Management. If the story is truem the 103 million dollar price tag is a record for a residential sale [...]

25May2007 | Tom Royce | 5 comments | Continued

Top 5 Lists of States and Counties With Most 4+ Bedroom Houses

The growth in the size of houses has been documented over the years. Now the Census Bureau has come out with an interesting report on homes that are larger that 4 bedrooms. We live in the #2 ranked county for home sizes, a bedroom community of Atlanta, and to be honest living here it seems [...]

24May2007 | Tom Royce | 4 comments | Continued

April 2007 New Home Sales Up Over March, Down 10.6 Percent Year Over Year

It looks like April was a bit of a wash. Sales of new homes were up 16 percent over a very disappointing March which is good news. But comparing year over year sales for April, 2007 was down 10.6 percent. These numbers have a high degree of error so they should be treated as estimates, [...]

24May2007 | Tom Royce | 2 comments | Continued

Out of Work Appraiser Stealing Licensees Identity

The slowdown of real estate sales is causing some to take drastic and illegal actions. An appraiser working under another’s license was laid off because there was not enough work. The man, Phillip Contreras, forged the signature of the licensee and stole his identity to continue to do appraisals. Now Fresno, California police have lodged [...]

23May2007 | Tom Royce | 2 comments | Continued