NeighborhoodScout, the search engine for homebuyers and movers has been issued a United States Patent. Consumers may use NeighborhoodScout.com to search for homes to buy, by typing in specific neighborhood information to focus their house hunt on the neighborhoods that best match their criteria, whether they are moving across town or across the country. According to the company, NeighborhoodScout saves homebuyers significant money, time, and stress, by providing instant insights to guide them in choosing the neighborhoods that best meet their personal needs, before sorting through listings in different towns, driving around with an agent, or buying a house in a location that they later realize doesn’t fit their needs.

Andrew Schiller, a Ph.D. Geographer and Founder of NeighborhoodScout.com explained, ‘’Despite the explosion of real estate-related websites, one of the first questions most homebuyers have - where to focus their house hunt - is still primarily provided through word-of-mouth.'’ Mr. Schiller continued, ‘’NeighborhoodScout fills this need with a unique and patented solution that optimizes search results to the personal criteria of each user, seamlessly integrates this service with opportunities for the homebuyer to be connected with a real estate agent and mortgage provider to buy or sell a home and finance their purchase, and delivers it online where many Americans are now turning in large numbers to shop for real estate.'’ (more…)

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The following seven months showed a shift back to equities, with stocks edging past real estate as the preferred investment choice in February — 40% vs. 38%. Along with declining housing activity and increased stock trading, the latest data reinforce the suspicion that aggressive investors are moving out of real estate and heading back into stocks.

Stocks have shown signs of perking up, with major averages having their best start to a year in quite a while. But real estate investors used to triple-digit returns from housing in recent years won’t find a mad-bull market for equities. Rising interest rates have put a damper on housing. No-money-down and similar loans have become tougher for investors to get. The Federal Reserve and other financial regulators want lenders to tighten standards on “exotic mortgages” such as option ARMs, which let borrowers pay only a portion of the interest for a limited time. Housing activity appears to be cooling. New-home sales fell 10.5% in February to the lowest level since May 2003. The median price sank 2.9% vs. a year before, the biggest drop in three years. (more…)

search for : equities, stocks, real estate, real estate investors, Federal Reserve

U.S. economic activity has grown at a stable, robust pace for most of the last three years. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a real annualized rate of at least 3.3 percent in every quarter between March 2003 and September 2005 before sliding to a rate of 1.6 percent in the final quarter of last year. Meanwhile, institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) turned in a fifth-consecutive year of record earnings in 2005, posting net income of $134.2 billion. In addition, today marks the 636th day since the FDIC last provided assistance to a failed or failing bank — the longest such streak in the history of the corporation.

Despite the overall strong appraisal, real GDP growth decelerated sharply, to a 1.6 percent annualized rate during fourth quarter 2005. This slowdown had been expected by many forecasters, including one of the FDIC roundtable panelists, Kathleen Camilli. She introduced the notion that the U.S. economy might have experienced a mid-cycle growth slowdown in late 2005. These slowdowns are not unprecedented, as they have occurred during expansions in both the 1980s and 1990s. Camilli also noted that the recent historical pattern of real GDP growth points to recessions occurring near the start of every decade. On that basis, the U.S. economy may have a few more years of expansion ahead of it before entering the next recession. (more…)

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The business of booking a hotel room and trading stocks have all been radically reshaped by the immediacy of the Internet. And now, a similar change may be coming to the most brick-and-mortar of brick-and-mortar businesses — the buying and selling of homes. Whether a house is worth $300,000 or $3 million, the traditional model includes the buying and selling agents splitting a commission ranging from 5 to 7 percent. So taking either the buying or selling agent out of the equation can mean serious cost savings.

There are laws in 15 states banning outright rebates for the buyers, and there are other states that have certain minimum requirements for what constitutes a legitimate selling agent. But elsewhere, experts say people interested in pursuing the online discount route should be the type of person that does their own homework. After all, there won’t be a realtor coming by with flyers for the front door, yard signs for the front lawn or baked cookies to help a seller’s kitchen “show” well. (more…)

search for : buying and selling of homes, selling agents, commission, rebates, online

Google and Craigslist, the two web sites that have fundamentally altered the way consumers buy a broad range of products are emerging as places to shop for residential real estate. This development could, in the long term, weaken Realtors’ hold on home selling.

The Web-site companies say they don’t aim to revolutionize real-estate brokerage and indeed are working to cooperate with brokers in many cases. But the growth of the sites may embolden more consumers to try selling their homes themselves and, when they do use agents, to reduce their reliance on them. Abdullah Yavas, a real-estate professor at Pennsylvania State University, says these sites may encourage an “unbundling” of agents’ services, with consumers paying for only the services they want, rather than a whole package. For instance, a consumer might list a home on Craigslist and arrange showings, but still hire an agent — for a lower commission — to help with negotiations or guide the paper work. (more…)

search for : Google, Craigslist, Web-site, real-estate, Pennsylvania State University

As the real-estate marketplace cools, a number of brokers are doing what was until recently unthinkable, they are giving most of their commissions to buyers. This situation is catching on in some of the priciest real-estate markets in the country.

People selling homes typically pay commissions of 5 percent to 6 percent of the price, which is split between brokers representing the buyer and seller. On a $300,000 home with a 3 percent cut for the broker representing the buyer, BuySide would earn $9,000 and pay 75 percent of that, or $6,750, as a rebate to the buyer. These new rebaters join a long list of entrepreneurs who over the years have tried to reinvent the residential real-estate business, which generates more than $60 billion a year in commissions. A small number of real-estate brokers already offer cash rebates on their commissions as a way to attract customers, but the idea has never gone mainstream. The new firms are trying to make the idea more compelling by dangling bigger rebates, though they also offer significantly less service. (more…)

search for : real-estate, commissions, buyers

After many years of disappointing stock market yields, the get-rich-quick crowd has moved on to real estate. You may know somebody who’s made a killing by buying and selling properties. The pitch from the ‘discovering probate’ crowd is that the world of probate real estate is relatively uncluttered by competition; therefore, the returns are very high.

Some were knowledgeable and eager to affirm that other types of real estate investing paled in comparison. For example, foreclosure real estate investing is apparently old hat, and way too competitive. A few years ago, foreclosure auctions were miserable little affairs. Now they attract a crowd just slightly less excited than the LSU fans at the Final Four. Not a good place to be looking for profits. (more…)

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