As part of the annual Swanepoel TRENDS Report that is published every year during the first week of February, the research team wraps their four month study of the real estate industry by announcing the top 10 Newsmakers, Events and Trendsetters for the year.
The first list to be released is the Newsmakers. Newsmakers are defined as those people that during the year made headlines as individuals, as a result of their actions and leadership of the companies or associations they are involved with in the real estate industry.
The Top 10 …

Every year the Swanepoel TRENDS Report identifies, analyzes and then details out the imminent changes that are expected to impact the real estate industry over the coming 12 – 18 months.The 2009 Report is currently in the final 60 days of research and writing and obviously with all the recent financial disasters, the energy crisis, the housing collapse and foreclosure catastrophe this has made 2008 the worst year in real estate and financial history.

Already thousands of hours of researching has been invested in drafting the 2009 Swanepoel TRENDS Report by …

Real estate in your market area is affected by influences outside of your own region. For example, when I sold real estate in Portland, Oregon, what was happening in terms of inventory, appreciation, and activity in Seattle, Washington had an effect on my own marketplace. The two metropolitan areas are less than 200 miles apart, and one influences the other due to the easy and frequent population movement between the two cities.

I would like to share with you the fantastic afternoon I had this last Saturday. My wife and I had the privilege of being invited to the two hour Saddleback Civil Forum with Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain. This was the first time these two presidential hopefuls, and expected nominees for the Democratic and Republican Parties, shared a public stage.

Last night I received a comment on my previous blog post just as I was going to bed. This kind of post nearly always comes from somebody who wants to “ring and run” and someone who almost never identifies himself. But it bothered me a lot, keeping me awake — it was hurtful and it was just plain not true, and I thought I would take a few minutes to share it as well as share my thoughts about the comment. (I’m sure “Anonymous” never expected me to publish his comment, much less feature it in the body of a stand alone post.)

Washington state’s HB2791 goes into effect tomorrow, June 12, 2008.  (Sucky disclaimer:  I’m not a lawyer… no legal advice here… consult yours…yadda, yadda…)

What’s the deal?  Basically, Washington state has come out with new legislation intended to protect homeowners from scammers.  Unfortunately, it apparently also has some unintended consequences for agents.  Specifically, as they pertain to areas in which agents — and, unbeknownst to them in some cases, even an agent’s buyer client — can become legally classified as a DHC — Distressed Home Consultant.  Presently, there are no waivers for real estate agent/professionals as in other states where similar legislation may exist.

This is very interesting information regarding the release of mls listing information to 3rd party vendors written by Diane Bartz on Rueters.  I am in a quandry about my feelings.  As a real estate company owner, I don’t want this to happen but as a vendor and consumer advocate….yee haaa!!  I will keep my feelings to myself until I can digest this well enough to share….read on.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The National Association of Realtors will open its vast listing of homes for sale to cheaper, Internet-based brokers in an agreement to settle a federal lawsuit, the government said in a statement on Tuesday.

I would really like to get some feedback on this topic.  This post comes from my observations of the Arizona Association of Realtors adopting Stewart Title’s SureClose application and making it the transaction management tool of choice for their entire membership. It is an opt-in program so brokers don’t “have” to use it.  If they choose to sign on, the application is covered in their current dues structure…fine and dandy but what about those who already have a transaction management platform and don’t want to switch? Will the association give them back that portion of their dues so they can pay their vendor of choice?

New real estate wiki for real estate industry is launched. 
History of wikis in real estate
BiggerPockets (launched in 2006) claims to be the first real estate wiki but it unfortunately closed down in May 2007 due to lack of sufficient content.  Introduced shortly therafter, and still going strong, is InmanWiki (part of InmanNews, InmanTV and InmanBlog).  
Origins of wikisWikiWikiWeb was the first site to be called a wiki. It was started by Ward Cunningham in 1994 and was based on the name of the Honolulu International Airport shuttle called “Wiki-Wiki” … in Hawaiian that …

Syndication is all the buzz but what really happens when you place your listing data on sites other than your local mls and your own corporate or broker websites? What are you giving them permission to do with your seller’s listing data? Are they reconfiguring it? Manipulating it for sales of leads back to the agent population? Find out.