Primary market
When you apply for a mortgage to buy a house, do you want to believe the "good faith estimates" of closing costs your mortgage broker or loan officer sends you three days later?
A friend who hosts a weekly real estate radio show had a grim warning for his listeners recently.
Question: Is it permissible for an HOA to invest in real estate by buying a unit in the complex and renting it out for income? The return would be much higher than any CD or money market account.
I just returned from a meeting in the wonderful town of Coeur D"Alene, Idaho.
Do people who live in financially fit communities have a better shot at owning a home?
We all feel challenges in our lives. These challenges can manifest themselves at work, at home, with our health, in our spiritual life. These challenges are often accompanied by discouragement. Discouragement can often happen when we survey the difficulties that lay before us. We can de-motivate ourselves because of the gap between the reality of where we are and the vision of where we want to be.
Aaagh!! Greenspan raised the rates again! For the fourth time this year! By a full percentage point in 2004 and another rate increase is expected Dec. 14! Mortgage rates are rising! Er, check that. Mortgage rates aren"t rising. And why is that?
Home buyers and mortgage applicants can spread out receipt of their free credit reports over the course of a year from the new, Congressionally-mandated national credit information resource -- AnnualCreditReport.com. The website goes live Dec. 1 for an estimated 70 million residents of the Western region states.
With the certainty of sunrise, mortgage automation is on its way, a common system of electrons and software that -- says the industry -- will speed the application process and save lenders money. Savings, one can hope, that will then be passed along to consumers.
It"s no surprise that interest-only mortgages have gained popularity. For home buyers, interest-only loans increase affordability -- something that many homebuyers need after the last few years of skyrocketing home prices.
As you may or may not know (or care, for that matter) I started my very own mortgage company at the first of October. Yep, after nearly 10 years at the same mega-bank, I left the comfy confines of a big desk and leather chair to bootstrap my very own enterprise. I"m answering the phones, processing files, running documents … you name it. And guess what? I"m having a blast. Know what else? Some things simply haven"t changed in the loan business. I"ll tell you a story that may ring a bell with some of you.
In another month, checks are likely to bounce much sooner than before if you write them with insufficient funds in your checking account.
More than half the nation"s adult population has problems comparing mortgages and negotiating loan terms and that makes them vulnerable to predatory lending pitches.
Mortgage applications are a real pain on the brain, consumers say.
There are plenty of ways to invest in real estate and one of the cleanest ways is to loan money to homeowners/buyers who need cash to purchase a property. For most individual investors, this loan would be based on a promissory note -- an instrument by which you loan someone money and they promise to pay it back in certain terms and at a certain interest rate.
The Federal Reserve"s rate hike last week -- likely the beginning of a series of upward moves -- has set off alarm bells about a popular home mortgage product: Short-term interest-only hybrid adjustables.
After years of debate and discussion, consumers will finally be able to obtain free copies of their credit reports in all states under a new rule adopted by the Federal Trade Commission.
Well folks, it appears that interest rates are finally headed north. Since last December, economists have been predicting that interest rates will rise in 2004. Up until only a few weeks ago, the experts have been wrong. Mortgage rates fell sharply in early 2004 but have since spiked up after a series of positive economic news. Last February, thirty-year fixed rates were hovering around 5.50 percent. Today, you might find 6.25 percent.
Excessive development charges on the cost of new homes is making the recession worse, and remain a barrier to economic recovery and job creation, says a report commissioned by the Canadian Home Builders" Association (CHBA).
You recall a few years ago when you had a dispute with that car finance company? The one that said you owed more money than you thought when you didn"t pay your late fee? After several months of bickering you finally got it resolved, although in the end you still paid the fee.
"Only two things are inevitable: death and taxes." That"s an old adage, but a third category has to be added to this list, namely "continuous talk of tax reform." Every year -- especially as we get closer to a Presidential election -- political candidates start their rhetoric about the vital need to reform our complex, outdated Internal Revenue Code.
Beware any credit counseling or repair service that promises to rid your credit record of late payments, past due accounts and other negatives, even when the black marks are legitimate.
The 15-year FRM this week averaged 4.50 percent with an average 0.7 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.54 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 4.62 percent.
Recently, I shared with you some very interesting marketing strategies mortgage companies (and non-mortgage companies) were putting out to consumers to entice you to refinance your house. American Express had partnered with a firm in New Jersey to tack on bonus rewards points for mortgage dollars. Airlines are offering up frequent flyer points for taking out a mortgage with their selected lender and the marketing dance goes on. Some even offer cash back at the settlement table in the form of a credit against closing costs.
The mortgage business is a nice business to be in. We, as loan officers, find personal satisfaction when we help people get money to buy a home. My daughter is awfully proud of the fact that her daddy “gives money to people to buy a house.” While I don’t do exactly that, it is true that loan officers can experience the well being of helping a scared first time homebuyer. Or to help a credit-challenged client to overcome obstacles and put them in their very own home. I will never forget the eyes of a young lady whose tears welled up in her eyes as I told her “congratulations, you’re approved.”
I was in Chicago this past week giving a speech to some mortgage industry professionals. We discussed the differences in mortgage lending over the past ten years or so. One of lending’s old guidelines, that of Credit Explanations, had been mostly tossed to the wayside in today’s lending environment. When the speech was over, I naturally gathered with some of the attendees and we shared some of the credit explanations given to us over the past decade and had a lot of fun doing so.
Question: I own two rental townhouses worth about $140,000 each, thanks to skyrocketing property values. The mortgage balances are only $50,000 each at 7.50 percent. With today"s low rates, I think it"s foolish to tie up so much money in the equity in these homes and I"m considering buying another property that"s on the market for $100,000. It needs quite a bit of cosmetic work but it"s well priced. In fact, you could say that the property has been "trashed."
Home owners who"ve developed a habit of refinancing every time rates drop a half point or more in recent years, may now find themselves unable to benefit from refinancing to yet lower interest rates without paying a prohibitively expensive prepayment penalty.
How much do you qualify for? Don"t go shopping for a house unless you know how much you"re qualified for. Get qualified first. Make sure your debt ratios are in line. 38%. No more. Blah, blah, blah. Guess what? Qualification by ratios, once an art form, is now dinosaur meat.
What"s the connection between your credit score and the interest rate you are quoted on a new home mortgage or equity loan?
Here we go again, folks. The LIBOR ARM is on a roll. I first wrote about this mortgage product in January 2002 and again in April. Everyone knows that fixed rate mortgages are at historical lows and millions of homeowners are saving money by refinancing. But as short-term rates continue to fall, the temptation of taking out an adjustable rate mortgage increases.
Did mortgage interest rates hit bottom in October?
Record low mortgage rates have been a boon to home sales, refinancing activity, equity loans and, as a result, Myers Internet Inc."s bottom line.
Equity lines of credit are pulling away from fixed-rate equity loans as the most popular product among owners who wish to borrow against their homes.
A new form of home mortgage debuted last week--and could be the most significant innovation in the field for more than two decades.
Is it too late to refinance?
Would Professor Holmes please call? Sherlock Holmes? We might need a little detective work here. Lots of clues, lots of answers, trying to make a connection. Call as soon as able.
In this age of information, credit fraud is not a difficult crime to perpetrate. The idea that a thief could gain access to your account information or personal data is not as implausible as you might think--social security number misuse has increased over the last two years, resulting in a variety of credit-related crimes.
That sound you hear is from people patting themselves on the back. Which replaced the sound of people kicking themselves in the pants. Those people are the ones that missed out on record rates last November. Rates are lower still, and people are refinancing in droves. Again. But you’ll need to be quick on the draw when you find a rate that suits you. Rates can change in a matter of minutes. How can lenders change rates so fast?
Question: We are under contract to purchase a new home for $288,000. We have very good credit and plan on putting ten percent down in cash and obtaining a fixed rate mortgage for $259,200. We currently have our existing house on the market for sale and we expect it to sell fairly quickly. In order to make a competitive offer, our real estate agent advised us that our offer should not be contingent upon the sale of our home. We were comfortable with this because our down payment is coming from our savings account.
Freddie Mac has instructed lenders to be more cautious in underwriting would-be borrowers who have been late with their housing payments.
Builders and real estate agents never again would have to disappoint unqualified home buyers, thanks to a new referral network formed by a leading provider of downpayment assistance and a national non-profit credit counseling organization.
The percentage of mortgage arrears in Canada stands at 0.33 per cent – about one-third of one per cent – and it’s rising. Although it seems like a very small number, it’s currently at the highest rate since 2003 and as the recession continues, and it’s likely to rise during the coming year.
We are all faced with call reluctance at one time or another in our sales careers. We all know that we need to prospect and make calls daily to generate new business. However, knowing and doing can be two entirely different things. The fear of calling can be a career ender for many sales people.
A Realty Times reader writes:
One of the biggest challenges facing today"s Realtor: Marketing themselves appropriately to prospective clients. How do you reach these clients? You have the Internet, newspapers, billboards, the classifieds and direct mail, and these are just a few of your options.
Falling housing prices, historically low interest rates, and tax credits are creating an enticing environment for renters to convert to homeowners.
Recently, I was listening to a series of cassette tapes published by direct response marketing legend Dan Kennedy. While there were a great many valuable lessons that I learned while listening to the tapes, one particular story caught my attention as being something that applies to a great number of real estate agents in our industry.
Old Rule: The dot-com era was the peak of the Internet.
Imagine for a minute you had the resources to send out 100,000 questionnaires to buyers and sellers from across the nation, people that had actually closed a real estate transaction in the previous 12 months!
Today some of the most successful teams in real estate are husband and wife teams. As a team, you need to make some important decision about the focus of your marketing materials.
Agents are always looking for more leads. With the advent of electronic mailing lists, many are too quick to "buy" lists of e-leads to generate more listings or sales. The problem is that with so many people getting so many e-mails, "broadcast" emails return lukewarm to minuscule results. There is a much smarter way to prospect.
"The Greater Toronto housing market has stood up very well given the challenging economic times the world has experienced in recent months," commented TREB President Maureen O"Neill.
Canvassing is the life blood of the real estate sales business. The problem, though, is that so many agents simply don"t like to do it. And as a result many scheduled canvassing sessions get canceled, and many other canvassing sessions involve a lot of agents wasting precious canvassing time.
Does the Web make farming obsolete? Not when you combine traditional postcard farming with an effective Web site.
Wouldn’t it be great if customers thought so much of you or your company
Whether you need an area to work from home daily, a few times a week, or just to pay your bills, having a comfortable and productive home office or space in your home is becoming more popular and attractive to buyers. Many sellers today highlight the home office as a bonus feature of their home.
There"s still a large untapped market of homeowners out there who need nudging to take the next real estate step. You don"t need to look far to find that market. All you have to do is pull up the files of your past customers.
Purchases of houses for investment purposes continued to be among the strongest segments of the real estate market last year -- and accounted for more than one out of five of all home sales in 2008.
Dear Mr. Internet:
When you want to generate new prospects, open houses are often a very productive way to connect with people who are in the process of looking right now. This technique has been used successfully for years. When top producing RE/MAX agent Bob Wolff moved from Colorado, where he had a successful business with lots of past clients, to California, where he knew practically no one, open houses were his fundamental block for building contact with new clients. He built his business beyond where it had been in a very short time from scratch using open houses.
Market conditions are booming in one Texas town, where new construction and a growing economy thrive.
When it comes to finding new sources of business, most people don"t really enjoy the task of prospecting and having to continually develop new business leads. On the other hand, just about everyone in business loves to receive referrals, as these leads don"t appear to require any prospecting effort.
Are you looking for a new marketing edge over your competitors? How about adding a skill that impresses both buyers and sellers? Learn to design floor plans. Sound hard? That depends on whether you like to draw and how motivated you are to leap over the competition.
One of the most important things you can do to sell your listings quickly and for the highest possible price is to “stage” them. Basically, there are five steps to home staging.
Emphasizing no additional costs to its customers, Realtor.com is introducing exciting new improvements to its website and enhanced listings offerings that promise to help individual Realtors compete with national information providers on the Web. Increasingly, consumers want more information than home listings, they want detailed "community information, school comparisons, local interactive maps, recent home sales and published expert commentary from agents," among other features.
It"s deja vu all over again.
Real estate isn"t usually the first choice in careers for people who later become real estate agents. In fact, only five percent of Realtors chose real estate as their first career, according to the 2005 NAR Member Profile. Yet, several professions are highly compatible with real estate -- managers, salespeople, and teachers, to name a few. While only two percent of real estate agents were formerly architects or engineers, there"s some terrific synergy there.
The National Association of Realtors® has designated the week of September 14-20 national "REALTOR® Safety Week."
If you"re planning on attending the Realtors Convention & Expo in San Francisco this November, you might want to register and make your reservations early.
In San Francisco, where development has been nearly non-existent for a year, developers are hanging hopes of an emerging warmer real estate climate as they begin the planning stages for several condo developments in the region.
Proposed policy governing use of MLS data in connection with
NAR made the announcement of the new REALTOR VIPSM partner today at the annual REALTORS Conference & Expo being held November 8-11.
It"s a whole new ball game for Realtor.com.
New Orleans.
Offered by Fidelity National Information Solutions (NASDAQ:FNIS), TransactionPointTM is a single transaction platform that enables real estate professionals to order, confirm, and schedule the delivery of multiple real estate-related products and services. TransactionPointTM also standardizes and streamlines the process of managing and closing transactions, and creates a seamless link between Realtors, clients and service vendors.
Health insurance is becoming more expensive and difficult to obtain, making the insurance options provided through the National Association of REALTORS(r) increasingly attractive to members.
Ellen Roche managing director of real estate research for the National Association of Realtors is already planning the next biennial survey of buyers and sellers. Questions raised by the results of each survey show trends that signal change, such as the pervasiveness of the Internet. And that is what helps determine what will be asked of buyers and sellers with regard to the purchase and sales of their homes.
The legal staff at NAR"s Chicago headquarters are celebrating in the summer heat with a mid-afternoon ice cream treat. In fact, the whole building of employees is passing smiles and congratulations to one another.
As the NAR kicks off its 2002 Realtors® Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo in Washington, D.C., there is the promise of a lot of fireworks. This year, the NAR"s 7000 attendees square off against the banking lobby which is also pitching woo at legislators to allow them into real estate brokerage. The NAR"s position is that big banks entering the real estate industry will reduce consumer choice and raise the price of real estate services. Banking says they are already in the business, they just need some formalities ironed out.
New tax laws have not only raised your maximum allowable tax-deferred Individual Retirement Account (IRA) contributions from $2000 to $3000, they also allow you to play catch-up. If you are 50 years of age or over, you can now invest an additional $500.
Question: Can a homeowners association force unit owners to use its contractor to repair unit interior damage when the HOA is responsible for repairs? In this case, water seeped in due to failed waterproofing and damaged carpet, drywall, paint, baseboards and insulation. The HOA is paying a contractor to do both exterior and interior repairs but I do not want to use this contractor. I’ll accept the HOA’s cost estimate to do my interior repairs but want to get my own contractor.
The nation"s Realtors launched a multi-million dollar advertising campaign
Trick #1: You Are Now Fluent in 45 Languages
Trick #1: Get a Human on the Phone
Measuring your website visitor statistics is obviously important because it tells, among other things, whether or not your site is well-trafficked. What these statistics don"t show however, is what the visitors are actually doing when viewing any of your sites pages. Measuring that behavior is critical to fine-tuning your site"s ability to turn clicks into closes. Fortunately, there are several very easy and clever ways to do this.
It"s a statistic that demands our respect -- and action.
The real estate industry, like any other important segment of the economy, has a strong obligation (in many cases legally dictated) to protect themselves, as well as their clients, from unexpected problems or disasters to the best of their abilities.
Yes, yes, we all know not to send zany emails to prospects, but what about your past clients with whom you"ve become good acquaintances, or even friends? Or what about your close friends and relatives who are always bugging you to stay better in touch with them? Or those goofy friends who are always sending funny and elaborate email messages and jokes -- some of them punctuated with timely, apropos smiling, moving, cute little characters -- often called "emoticons."
How many monthly hours do you spend on the web typing in usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, etc? Or wrangling with printers, or mailers about postal pieces? Here is some software that will definitely save you time, if not your sanity.
You are a successful real estate broker. You are in the business of buying and selling homes, managing agents and closing transactions. You read about information security problems of other industries everyday, but what are the risks to your business and what should you do about it?
Best Image Marketing and a la mode have different approaches to creating Websites for Realtors and getting them found by consumers on the Web, but they have a lot in common when it comes to dealing with agents" expectations of what Websites really do.
Tips from the 6th new rule of online marketing:
Dear Mr. Internet,
A comprehensive report of the demographics, profiles and pricing of the virtual assistant industry has been completed by the Brenner Information Group on behalf of the Alliance for Virtual Businesses (A4VB), and shows data of interest to real estate professionals and those who may wish to serve as virtual assistants (VAs) in the real estate vertical.
Most theft is done from agents whose truly excellent Websites, packed with brilliantly creative elements, put them miles ahead of other agents. I"m getting convinced that most pirates are just too uncreative and dense to think up something original or who just tell themselves that after all, "Everything on the Internet is free, isn"t it?"
If you have a truly great Website, or even if you have just a couple of superb pieces of original art, or several ultra-clever lines of text, you can bet that some agent somewhere has stolen some of it.
Few phrases can bring as much anxiety to the computer user as "Contact Tech Support" - and for many good reasons. For some, this phrase means endless hold times with little hope of a favorable outcome. To others, the expectation is a broken conversation with an outsourced third-party somewhere overseas. As one reader recalled a past support conversation "They have cute accents, but didn"t solve my problem."
There are lots of times we"ve thought, "Why don"t they do (insert your own idea) on the Web?" And just when we thought we"d come up with all the great ideas, along comes a great one that never even occurred to us!
Looking for information that is related to a particular place - like a computer repair shop that"s nearest to your house? Google “Local” locates neighborhood services and shops by searching billions of pages across the Web, then cross-checks those results with Yellow Pages data to pinpoint the local resources you want to find. This unique approach gives you access to the most and most relevant results for your search.
For many years I have been a member of Mensa, the high I.Q. society which consists of people ranking in or above the top two percent in tested intelligence, and a member of Intertel, consisting of people in or above the top one percent. Because I am in these groups, I have been closely following a new development that I wanted to share with you.
I"ve found a much better way that will check Altavista, Infoseek, Lycos, and AOL simultaneously to see how many other sites link to yours. It"s called Link Popularity Check, a free service from the same search engine positioning experts that developed Webposition Gold -- the industry"s pre-eminent search engine positioning software.
To look at the new Samsung SPH-I330 you might not immediately recognize that it"s much more than just another cell phone. While not particularly
[Note: To follow is an excerpt of an interview with Marc Stephan Garrison, founder of the National Association of Real Estate Investors, and author of several books on real estate investing including "Unlimited Real Estate Profit." To listen to the show archive or download an MP3, go to www.IncomePropertyInvestmentTalk.com/021809.]
Sometimes bad economic news comes at you so hard and fast that you forget to notice some of the more encouraging trends that may be underway, like super low mortgage rates, record-setting affordability, new tax credits, and big sales increases in the boom-to-bust real estate markets of Florida, California and Nevada.
Do you have a friend who sends you truly fascinating-to-read e-mail messages replete with digital photo illustrations? Now you can
After my last column that dealt with what you should look for in a digital camera, I received a large number of e-mails that said "Specifically which camera would YOU recommend for real estate?"
Recent statistics regarding mortgages have brought the reality of the mortgage market front and center.
A new organization hopes to make it easier for small to mid-size virtual tour photographers to make a profit while serving the real estate industry with virtual tours.
When we create a real estate Website, or purchase one, all too often we may limit our Web content and exposure by not having the right materials or links that may be of interest to our Web viewers. A common mistake of most agent and company websites is that they extol service and product, but offer little of anything else for the viewer.
So, you just sent an e-mail TO: your office manager, and a “carbon copy” CC: to your office’s assistant manager. In that message you discussed how difficult it was becoming to work with the female owner of a home you have listed.
Urban condo buyers in San Diego have begun a mass jump off the fence as condo sales in the city have jumped 44 percent in January 2009, compared to January a year ago. Fidelity Pacific Real Estate reports the surge, which puts the number of sales at its highest monthly level in five years.
One of the most important components to having an effective online presence is having a great domain name or two. Domain names are one of the most important things that people remember about your site. It also denotes your space on the Web.
Ever wonder what software you have accumulated on your computer? How about the hardware components? Between all the programs that came installed, the new programs you have added and the gems you have downloaded, it’s probably a good idea to do an occasional inventory to find out what’s there!
Pending home sales declined on the heels of a weakening economy and with some buyers waiting for clarity on housing stimulus provisions, according to the National Association of Realtors®.
In seminars and past articles, I have often advised that using software
Often the hottest email prospects up front are also the first to cool off and disappear. You know the animal: Tire kickers. They pump you for lots of information, but nothing comes of it.
E-mail is the greatest low-cost farming tool ever - if you can get prospects to open your e-mails.
As part of a comprehensive overhaul of its business development site, Prudential Real Estate Affiliates(PREA) is putting more emphasis on agent Internet-readiness.
What is it about Generation X that has frustrated, irritated and generally unsettled those in older generations? After all, they are the offspring of those now in their 40s and 50s. The difference is due, in large part, to what happened during the decades in which they grew up.
“Pay Per Click” is a term that will have an ever-increasing place in your overall Web strategy. Simply put, it means that your site’s ranking in search engines that follow this practice depends on how much you pay the search engine each time a viewer clicks on your listing. You deposit a certain amount of money with a search engine, and each time a viewer clicks through to your site money is deducted from your account. The higher your “bid” (what you’re willing to pay per click through), the higher you’re ranked on that search engine.
“Put it before them briefly so they will read it,
You"re probably used to reading about ideas that can enhance your
HomeSeekers new value proposition was laid out in an Internet presentation to MLSs and the brokers and agents complete with voiceovers from new CEO Thomas Chaffee, new president Steve Crane, and senior vice president Greg Robertson who created an online slide presentation outlining the benefits of HomeSeekers to MLSs and agents.
Dear Mr. Internet:
If you"re an agent in Seattle or San Francisco, where a large number of employers are technology firms, you would be at a very real competitive disadvantage if you weren"t Internet trained. But is the case for getting trained as compelling if you were an agent in Lincoln, Nebraska, with a population of about 250,000 and no large tech companies in sight?
It isn"t news when a broker graduates a class of new agents, but when a prominent local broker certifies her own agents in Internet-readiness, that signals an important trend worth watching in the industry.
Despite the advancements in Web design and usability, many Web sites are failing to deliver the user experience customers expect. In order to succeed on the Web, you have to look at how your visitors actually behave, and make sure your Web site fits into their existing Web use patterns. The days of random surfing are over - people are taking a more direct, predetermined approach to the Web.
The idea of using "e-mail auto-responders" (EAR) has been successfully
For the last four years, real estate trainer Stephen Canale has loaded one financial program after another
According to the National Association of Realtors, 60 percent of homebuyers are using the Internet to get home buying information, and Jupiter Research predicts that by 2005, that number will be as high as 80 percent.
In the continuing quest to see Realtors and online technology vendors reach a more productive and profitable accord, I believe that a lot of misunderstanding between the two camps can be cleared up by determining what the value of a listing is - to both sides.
Broker reciprocity is coming to your MLS as of January 2002. What does it mean to you? How much should it cost? Does it create any unfair marketing advantages? Which service providers should offer it? Participate in the latest survey from Mr. Internet/Realty Times and find out how hundreds of other real estate professionals view the NAR"s Broker Reciprocity initiative.
As convention season approaches, it"s time to start brushing up on your
I remember an observation that Howard Brinton, one of the funniest trainers in real estate, made many years ago at one of his seminars. He said, “I don’t have a problem if you just want to make $12,000 a year in real estate, just don’t take all year to do it. Do it in January!”
Fidelity National Financial (NYSE: FNF) and VISTAinfo (formerly Nasdaq: VINF) have completed their merger, and are forming a new company called Fidelity National Information Solutions (Nasdaq: FNIS). What does the merger mean to MLS organizations, brokers and agents?
If you"ve ever taken a look at popular online discussions for real estate agents, you might think that everyone is building their own Web sites. Many of the items discussed make you feel like you"ve mistakenly stepped into an amateur webmaster"s forum, where issues such as, "Where can I get the CGI code for making printer-friendly Web pages?" are discussed, sometimes at length. I can just imagine how, after reading stuff like this, many agents must feel intimidated and way behind the curve, wondering if they should get that Web Site Building For Dummies book they saw on Amazon.com.
Dear Mr. Internet:As the number of my online leads continues to increase, so does the time it takes to respond to all that e-mail. Is there some way to keep my responses personal yet cut down on the time it takes?
Every time a new program becomes available in BETA format I receive emails from users who have installed the software and are now experiencing problems with their computer system and are in need of help. This leads me to believe that many people do not really know what a BETA software release is.
Dear Mr. Internet:I have all kinds of new marketing ideas for my business, but never seem to have the time (or skills) to implement them —help!
It"s amazing to watch the world through the eyes of a child. The exposure we gain is immeasurable. The evaluation skills we can take and the questioning of everything by the child gives pause to our often routine, busy lives.
I"ve written many tips in the past referencing the fact that most computers load too much unnecessary software during the Windows boot-up process. The result is a longer wait for your system to become ready and also a reduced amount of system resources available for your computer to use in running your business software.
Unemployment claims are skyrocketing. According to the Labor Department, this is near 8 percent rate. To trump the unemployment claims of the early 1980s, jobless claims would have to exceed the 1 million mark.
A year ago, at the mid-year conference, the National Association of Realtors announced its Internet Data Display Policy, giving MLS and Realtor associations until January 2002 to implement Broker Reciprocity solutions for their broker members.
The battle between Homestore and MSN HomeAdvisor was beginning to look like the Arms race. Before it went nuclear, Homestore had beaten all comers in terms of which site gets the most traffic. Citing Media Metrix numbers for years, Homestore was suddenly surprised in March when the data source named HomeAdvisor first in traffic over Realtor.com