We have all heard that the key to becoming a successful business is effective communication and collaboration, but do we really know what that means? Unfortunately for many business leaders, they believe they do. But the reality is they actually struggle with the concept. Back in 2013, the CEO of Yahoo! announced via memo that employees would no longer be able to work remotely and must come back into the office from Monday through Friday. Revoking the remote environment was done under the assumption that getting employees back in the office would increase collaboration and company culture. However, the plan backfired. Instead of it boosting morale, employees felt pressure to either quit if they wanted to continue working remotely or relocate if they wanted to keep their job. As a result, the entire company suffered due to its leadership’s poor communication technique.
The thing about communication and collaboration is that they are closely intertwined…
Posted On Tuesday, 17 October 2023 00:00 Written by
Last week we spoke about the limited time left to get deals in that will close and get you paid this year. It is part of the overall business planning process I work my people through so they can close out the year strong and be building into the next year as they complete the current year. Last week we looked at where our opportunities have come from this year. We also were looking into how many files were completed, scheduled to close, under contract, as well as the total number of preapprovals we have in our queue, both active and dormant. This week we need to take a good look at where those opportunities are coming from this past year, the past six months, and the past three months. Referral partners can ebb and flow with opportunities, sometimes it’s just the way things go, but other times there are…
Posted On Monday, 16 October 2023 00:00 Written by
According to a recent Redfin report: New listings have inched up this fall, giving the buyers who remain in the market a few more homes to choose from. But many buyers are retreating as mortgage rates stay elevated. New listings of U.S. homes for sale have ticked up 2% since the start of September, and listings haven’t fallen as much from summer to fall as they typically do. That’s according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage. What home sellers are doing: A few more homeowners are putting their homes on the market, despite being locked into relatively low mortgage rates. The total number of homes for sale is down 14% from a year earlier during the four weeks ending October 8, but that’s the smallest decline since July. Advice for sellers: Take advantage of still-rising prices; the median sale price is up 3% year…
Posted On Saturday, 14 October 2023 07:36 Written by
Joint proposal would reduce spread between mortgage rates, Treasury bonds   The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), Community Home Lenders of America, and National Association of REALTORS today proposed a solution to reduce historically high long-term mortgage rates relative to long-term Treasury bonds. The groups’ plan would reduce the historically large spread between 30-year mortgage rates and 10-year Treasuries to promote homeownership affordability.
“With housing accounting for nearly 20% of the nation’s gross domestic product and affecting homeowners and renters nationwide, policymakers must act to promote housing affordability,” ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said today. “ICBA and the nation’s community banks call on the administration to implement our plan to address lending challenges and mortgage-servicing impediments, which could support demand for mortgage-backed securities and reduce mortgage rates by an estimated 100 to 150 basis points.” With the combination of high mortgage rates and low housing…
Posted On Friday, 13 October 2023 09:33 Written by
Saul Klein is widely recognized as the real estate industry’s first Internet Evangelist. He was selected by the National Association Of REALTORS® as one of the “25 Most Influential People in the Real Estate Industry” in 2003, and has been selected as one of the “100 Most Influential Real Estate People” by Inman News in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, 2012, 2013. REALTOR® Consultant to the original RIN (Realtors® Information Network) project, including the development and deployment of REALTOR.com), he served as Vice President of Marketing and was responsible for the signing of the first 100 MLSs and first 500,000 listings to appear on Realtor.com.One of the creators of RealTown, and many longstanding real estate online communities, including RealTalk, AETalk, MLSTalk, MLSInformation, PresidentsTalk, EducationDirectorsTalk and others, blogging before blogging was a word. Saul has been a licensed California Real Estate Broker since 1977 and was the 1993…
Posted On Thursday, 12 October 2023 00:00 Written by
We design products and services with the intention of fulfilling distinct customer needs or catering to niche requirements. But as technology advances and customer needs change, we need to find new ways to tap into the ever-changing market in innovative ways. This does not have to mean we change our products entirely. It may just mean reinventing and redefining the product as well as our selling techniques to accommodate the changing industry and landscape of customer needs. The way to increase sales and your bottom line is not to completely scrap your product and start from scratch. Equally, it is vital to not rest on your laurels and treat it like a cash cow either. The key is to redefine old technology, systems, services, and products and turn them into future opportunities that appeal to larger audiences, other industries, and the wants and needs of your customers.
It Starts with a Change in…
Posted On Tuesday, 10 October 2023 00:00 Written by
October brings us into the fourth quarter of the year, the last three months to do all the things we set out to achieve. However, given the way our system works, we don’t get paid when we get the client to agree to the sale, we don’t get paid even at the point of sale, we get paid AFTER the transaction closes and sometimes even the second pay period after that transaction closes. What does this mean? Simply put, we have about 65 days left to meet a customer, help qualify that customer, have them find a house, get the offer accepted, go into contract, and then CLOSE, all before December 15th for you to receive that income this year! While all transactions up until December 29th will certainly count to your annual production numbers for 2023, it isn’t likely you will get paid for deals closing after December 15th in 2023.…
Posted On Monday, 09 October 2023 00:00 Written by
The median U.S. asking rent was little changed from a year earlier for the sixth straight month as an increase in the number of rentals made it harder for landlords to boost prices The median U.S. asking rent rose 0.4% year over year to $2,011 in September—the sixth straight month in which rents were little changed from a year earlier. That’s according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage. Prior to that, rent growth had been slowing rapidly for roughly a year, coming back down to earth after a surge in prices during the pandemic.
The median asking rent fell 2% from a month earlier in September. “Rents have flattened because a boom in apartment building in recent years has flooded the market with supply, but they haven’t yet posted a substantial decline because there’s still demand for rentals—especially as high mortgage rates…
Posted On Sunday, 08 October 2023 06:43 Written by
A homebuyer on a $3,000 monthly budget has lost nearly $40,000 in purchasing power over the last year, as mortgage rates have risen from around 6.5% in October 2022 to nearly 8% today. The glimmer of hope for the housing market: a small September uptick in new listings. Mortgage rates hit their highest level in more than 20 years this week, pushing homebuyers’ monthly housing payments to all-time highs. That’s according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage. A buyer on a $3,000 monthly budget, for instance, can afford a $419,000 home with a 7.7% mortgage rate, roughly the daily average on October 4. That buyer has lost $38,000 in purchasing power since last October, when they could have bought a $457,000 home with a 6.6% rate. And by that time, buyers had already lost a significant amount of purchasing power since the start of…
Posted On Friday, 06 October 2023 06:34 Written by
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