URBALO

I found some funny stories on realtor.org and I thought I would share one with you today.

“Hosting an open house on an empty stomach is not a good idea, trust me. Not too long ago I agreed to help out a fellow agent by sitting at his open house all day. But the morning of the open house I was running late and I didn’t have time to grab anything to eat.

A few hours went by, and suddenly, a loud, long groaning noise rumbled from my stomach. I didn’t want others to hear, so I thought I’d sneak a snack. I spotted a jar of pretzels on the kitchen counter. Nobody was looking. Should I or shouldn’t I? My stomach growled again. I reached in the jar and as I yanked one out, I heard a buzzing noise behind me.

I slowly turned around, pretzel in hand, only to find that a remote camera on the kitchen island was pointed directly at me. I stepped to the left, and it turned left. I stepped to the right, and it followed me right. Read Full Article ->

FIVE-YEAR GROWTH: 1,571.8% REVENUE: $40.4 MILLION NO. OF EMPLOYEES : 450

Last year, Chicago residential real estate brokerage @properties Inc. dropped $65,000 to rent Wrigley Field for a few hours so its brokers could swing bats and run bases in the firm’s annual softball tournament. The event, like the regular bowling leagues and movie nights @properties hosts, was designed to encourage collaboration and collegiality among brokers in the otherwise cutthroat field of real estate.

“We try to do things that make people feel a part of a team,” says Thaddeus Wong, 37, who co-founded the company and manages it with Michael Golden, 38. That camaraderie, they say, has helped fuel the exponential growth of the company, which they started in 2000 after leaving Property Consultants Realty.

“Once agents get to know each other, they socialize more and they talk about what they are doing,” Mr. Golden says. Soon, they are doing business together. “We work hard to foster that,” he adds. Last year, 40% of the firm’s real estate listings were sold to buyers represented by @property agents.
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Housing starts rose to an annual pace of 1.52 million in March, the Census Bureau reported, from a revised 1.51 million rate in February. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast the pace of building would slow to a 1.5 million rate in March.
But most of the country saw a decline from February’s pace of housing starts. The South, which accounts for about half the nation’s home building, showed a 3 percent decline, and building fell nearly 8 percent in both the Northeast and West.

The exception to that trend was the Midwest, where starts jumped 44 percent in the Midwest after a February reading that was the slowest in 16 years. Bad weather in the region in February and relatively good weather in March probably played a role in the jump, as builders tried to catch up with delayed projects.
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Here is something to be proud of: Thad Wong, our @properties co-founder, has an interesting article on MSN.com.

Four things to look at

The phrase “up-and-coming” can sometimes be code for a dangerous area, so it’s important to make sure you’re comfortable with the neighborhood and the potential risk it may pose to you as an investor.

Whether you’re searching for the next hot spot or just trying to find a cheap and funky place to live, homebuyers in so-called up-and-coming areas should focus on four main factors, according to Thaddeus Wong, co-founder of @Properties, a Chicago brokerage specializing in emerging city neighborhoods.

• Transportation infrastructure: Is it close to mass transit and highways? Is the transport fast and efficient? “In a developing neighborhood, the ease of getting in and out is crucial,” Wong says. “We’ve seen the highest velocity of price increases in these areas.”

• Commercial infrastructure: Whether the neighborhood has space for restaurants and shops, heavily trafficked streets and ample parking is also important in determining the area’s potential for success, Wong says. “You have to bring people in with art galleries and restaurants. That’s how people become familiar with neighborhoods.”

• Zoning laws: If the zoning favors larger or more units, either residential or commercial, the area will gentrify more rapidly, Wong says.

• Local politics: This is the wild card, Wong explains. Some politicians don’t want development, while others embrace it. Read Full Article ->
  

This is a great website, howrealtorshelp.ca it is a very smart design, they use Flash and video technology that helps consumers answer some of the questions they might have when facing one of the biggest financial transactions in their lives. The site is comprehensive, easy to navigate and very personal, almost feels customized for each visitor. You almost get the sense that the Realtor is in the room with me answering my questions.

This Program offers leading commercial real estate software and other resources to college and university programs across the nation, free of charge.

Leo Software, a provider of business intelligence systems for commercial real estate, today launched Leo Goes to College, a program offering Leo Software to commercial real estate undergraduate and graduate programs across the country, as well as to professionals during their first year in commercial real estate.

“I’ve been amazed at how quickly students and recent graduates learn the commercial real estate business when you provide them with a tool like Leo. We want to help them hit the ground running, get jobs and make immediate contributions to the industry,” said Paul Muessig, president, Leo Software. “We’re also focused on helping employers attract talented young people to the industry and fill the void of the lost generation from the early 1990s.”

In addition to offering complementary Leo Software licenses, Leo Software is also making its in-house property and asset management and other commercial real estate expertise available for guest lectures on a case by case basis. The Leo Software user network spans some of the largest and most well respected organizations within commercial real estate, and in some cases, Muessig also plans to tap Leo Software’s user group to find practicing property managers, asset managers and other professionals to participate in the Leo Software guest lecture program.

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, recently invited Muessig to address a class of commercial real estate students. The program is a leader in advocating the early adoption and application of emerging commercial real estate technology to position its students for efficiency and success in the workplace.

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From http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com

Let’s see… Our customers are leaving us in a steady march. They’ve found an alternative that is easier to use, more convenient, overall just a better fit to their lives — and to top it all off, it’s much cheaper than our product.

What should we do?

Here’s an idea. Our customers are telling us in no uncertain terms what they want: More! Newer! Better! Faster! Cheaper! So let’s do the same things we’ve been doing all along, only less!

Click here for the rest of the article

Thad Wong, one of the @properties brokerage founders, has pointed out this article to us today. The article was posted on www.thestreet.com by Peter Slatin.
“Any report on the condo development market routinely lists cities such as Miami and Las Vegas as the touchstones of a market gone mad. It’s just as easy to point to Chicago, where conversion of disused and historic office buildings has fueled a resurgent and, some say, overbuilt urban center.
But unlike those other places, Chicago’s developers can’t rely on tourists, snowbirds or fun-seekers to fill their new residential buildings.

That relatively steady market has its benefits, says Gail Lissner, a vice president at Appraisal Research Corp., a local real estate marketing and research firm. “We don’t have peaks and valleys, the craziness that you see in Vegas and on the coasts,” she says.

That said, prices for Chicago condominiums have been holding firm, although sales volume dropped off at least 10% in 2006 from a record year in 2005. With more projects still in the pipeline, construction costs rising and lenders beginning to tighten the reins, high-quality Chicago developments offer some good values relative to other markets. And steady appreciation in prices, plus renewed growth in the area’s economy, mean that for those who want big-city living at an attractive multiple, Chicago represents good value.
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As mortgage rates edged downward during the fourth quarter of 2006 and some real estate markets took price hits, affordability improved - albeit only marginally, according to a report released Thursday.

Some 41.6 percent of homes sold during the fourth quarter were affordable to Americans earning the median family income of $59,600, according to the Home Opportunity Index, constructed quarterly by the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo.

Is it time to buy?

Indianapolis was, once again, the most affordable major housing market in the United States. The median home sold there, already low at $122,000 during the previous quarter, fell to $113,000 during the last three months of the year. With a median income of $65,000, 89 percent of the homes sold were affordable to the average family.

Other affordable major markets included: Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pennsylvania.; Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Michigan; Toledo, Ohio; and Buffalo-Niagara Falls, New York.

The Los Angeles metro area was again the nation’s least affordable market. Only 2 percent of the homes sold during the quarter there were affordable to those families bringing home the median earnings for the area, $56,200. The median sale price was $525,000.

Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, California; San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, California; and New York-White Plains-Wayne, New Jersey joined Los Angeles near the top of the unaffordable list.

I just read this article on Money CNN, very very interesting approach. It’s a little long but worth reading it.

(Business 2.0 Magazine) — We’ve been promised many things in the world of Tomorrowland: jet packs, flying cars, picnics on the moon.

We remember those pledges, ruefully. But with all of our attention on the skies above, we tend to forget about the seas below and another once-popular 21st century prediction: that one day we’ll be living on and under the oceans.

The idea isn’t so far-fetched. As Earth gets increasingly crowded and polluted, some 225 million square miles of prime real estate representing 71 percent of the planet’s surface is largely unused. It’s remarkable considering the oceans promise plenty of living space, fresh seafood, entertainment, and desalinized water. Surely, technology can make this happen.
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