Real Estate Tools

What is a 1031 Exchange?

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!A 1031 exchange gets its name from the IRS tax code, section 1031, that allows people or entities to avoid incurring capital gains tax on properties that are being traded for a like investment. So if you have a [...]

7May2006 | Tom Royce | 2 comments | Continued

FTC Addresses PMI Mortgage Insurance Abuses

You have bought your dream house and money is tight but you can live with your mortgage. Then one day you receive a letter from your Private Mortgage Insurance Company that your rates have doubled. You wonder why and they tell you that there is a problem with your credit report, and you thought everything [...]

11Apr2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Introducing Google Real Estate Beta

It looks like Google is coming out with a real estate tool which has the potential to be a category killer. via Steve Rubel. There have been many companies that have created google mash ups, but will this be the game changer?

More Coverage

Shimon Sandler

John Battelle’s SearchBlog

Download Squad

Inside Google

4Apr2006 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

New York Lists Real Estate Agents with Disciplinary Actions Against Them

If you are looking for a Real Estate Agent in New York, the Department of State has a new website. This site lists all of the disciplinary hearings and decisions against real estate agents within the state. As licensed professionals, this may be a very good deterrent from agents getting involved in any unscrupulous behavior.

Consumers in [...]

22Mar2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

VantageScore: Why it is Not The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread But Will Be A Reality

VantageScore will end up being part of the credit landscape, but it will not be the be anything that FICO is not according to the Credit Bloggers. They have a great post explaining the genesis of VantageScore, why the 3 majors got together and created this product, and why these bitter rivals are working together [...]

20Mar2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

February 27th Blogger Roundup - Real Estate and Business

I decided today to put together a wrap up of good articles posted recently on some of the real estate blogs and a couple of other business blogs.

State of Michigan gets tough on Mortgage Lenders not following the rules – Pacesetter Mortgage Blog – It looks like the state of Michigan is enforcing the laws [...]

27Feb2006 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Is the 6 Percent Commission Already a Myth?

Real Estate agents treat the 6 percent commission as doctrine when talking to clients, you can not change it no matter what. But in reality, new studies are showing that average commission paid has dropped to 5.1 percent and looks to go down near 4 percent in the next 5 years.
This trend is being [...]

27Feb2006 | Tom Royce | 3 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

PropertyShark and Trulia Join Forces To Combat Zillow

PropertyShark, a regional property informational site, and Trulia, a regional real estate search engine, are going to be sharing resources in response to the arrival of Zillow this past week. Zillow has the early lead in the online real estate information marketplace as they have a significantly stronger investment and infrastructure, even with accuracy issues during their [...]

16Feb2006 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued