Archive for the ‘Internet Real Estate’ Category

Rayonier's Chairman, President & CEO to Present at REITWeek

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Rayoniers (RYN) chairman, president and CEO, Paul Boynton, is scheduled to present at the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) 2012 REITWeek Investor Forum, Tuesday, June 12, at 9:30 a.m. in New York.

Boynton will discuss Rayoniers overall strategy and three core businesses. The presentation will be webcast live over the Internet. Interested parties are invited to listen by logging onto http://www.rayonier.com and following the link at least 15 minutes prior to the start of the presentation.

About Rayonier

Rayonier is a leading international forest products company with three core businesses: Forest Resources, Real Estate and Performance Fibers. The company owns, leases or manages 2.7 million acres of timber and land in the United States and New Zealand. The company's holdings include approximately 200,000 acres with residential and commercial development potential along the Interstate 95 corridor between Savannah, Ga., and Daytona Beach, Fla. Its Performance Fibers business is one of the world's leading producers of high-value specialty cellulose fibers, which are used in products such as filters, pharmaceuticals and LCD screens. Approximately 45 percent of the company's sales are outside the U.S. to customers in approximately 40 countries. Rayonier is structured as a real estate investment trust. More information is available atwww.rayonier.com.

Link:
Rayonier's Chairman, President & CEO to Present at REITWeek

How To Buy Real Estate Without an Agent. By Warren Gold of Tampa Florida

(PRWEB) June 05, 2012

How to be successful in real estate with out an agent.

In some cases, it can take less than two weeks to get a real-estate agent license. So why use an agent to improve home sale?

There are a number of advantages to selling a home.

For homeowners, there are thousands of reasons to bypass real-estate agents selling property is easy "If you cut out all agents ... essentially cutting out on average about 6% of commission," says Warren gold of Tampa Florida "On a $300,000 home, that's about $18,000 of savings." But despite this huge potential savings, many home sellers especially in today's tough housing market think that a real-estate agent's expertise is essential.

Gold begs to differ and offers five reasons home sellers don't need agents:

1. Just point and click: With the rise of online real-estate search tools, homeowners are no longer beholden to real-estate agents for the resources and information they need to sell property. "The Internet has essentially changed the face of real estate," Gold says. "It's essentially leveled the playing field across the market."

2. With the emergence of online platforms designed specifically to market the homes of sellers not affiliated with agents such as For Sale By Owner.com homeowners no longer need agents to get their property in front of prospective buyers, Gold says. Plus, "agents leverage the Multiple Listing Service as their primary 'marketing tool,' "Gold says. But "anybody can access that if they want to pay for it." (Homeowners can put their homes on the MLS for a couple of hundred dollars, according to For Sale By Owner.com.)

3. Agents aren't appraisers: Appraisers not agents are the key to getting an accurate home valuation, Gold says. "An agent is going to give you their perspective based on what they are seeing, [but] they have no true professional training in that aspect,"Gold says. Home sellers working without an agent can obtain the services of an appraiser on their own for roughly $200 to $300, he says. "Even if an agent is used, an appraiser is still needed,"Gold says.

What's is the home worth?

Originally posted here:
How To Buy Real Estate Without an Agent. By Warren Gold of Tampa Florida

Redfin Real-Time Home-Buyer Survey Sees Prices Rising, and Some Buyers Stepping Back

SEATTLE, June 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Redfin, the technology-powered real estate broker, today released the results of a new quarterly survey, "The Redfin Real-Time Home-Buyer Tracker." For the second quarter of 2012, the survey reached 1,208 Americans in 18 major metropolitan markets seeking to buy a home in the next 12 months, all of whom had toured a home since March 1. Three months prior, Redfin had surveyed 1,457 home-buyers to provide a baseline for comparison.

The major findings are a shift toward a seller's market as prices begin to stabilize or increase in most areas, and wariness about over-paying in a bidding war:

Home-buyers have taken note that price increases are by no means uniform, with demand strongest in core urban areas and neighborhoods with very good schools. "What surprised me most was the difference in activity between classes of real estate," said survey-respondent Ben Mahnke. "In Boston metro, entry-level condos in the urban core are seeing a lot of demand. But higher-priced single-family houses in the bedroom suburbs have been sitting unsold for years. The market is coming back, but only selectively."

But in the city, especially in Boston, Washington DC and California, the competitive dynamics can be intense. "We put two offers in on the day of or the day after the first open house and lost both," said Laila Kassis, a would-be home-buyer in the Boston area. "One had seven offers, three above asking with high down payments. Our other offer was for $11,000 above asking with pre-approval for a higher amount. We still lost to an all cash offer. Who ties up $750,000 all cash in real estate? I was shocked. We went to another first open house and the property was already under agreement before the listing had even been marketed. They were just holding the open house for backup offers. Crazy."

Some buyers are stepping back from the competition. "I was very surprised at how few choices there are in our price range and how bad the houses looked," said Maura Nicastle, a respondent in the Washington DC Area. "I think for the next few years we are better off making do in our small home. I don't want to pay more, only to have to start all over again refurbishing a place. Our house will sell fast, so finding one is the much bigger issue."

About The Redfin Real-Time Home-Buyer Tracker

Redfin conducted the survey May 23 May 30, 2012, soliciting 5,851 home-buyers who had toured properties with a Redfin agent since March 1, excluding anyone who did not indicate an intention to buy a home in the next 12 months or who had responded to Redfin's previous survey. Twelve hundred and eight1,208 people responded across 18 metropolitan markets in the U.S.: Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Orange County, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington DC. The prior survey was conducted February 22 29, 2012, soliciting 6,062 active Redfin home-buyers, with 1,457 responses. The full report, including charts and graphs, is available at http://www.redfin.com/tracker. To see data segmented by market, or to contact for respondents in different segments, contact pr@redfin.com.

About Redfin

Redfin (www.redfin.com) is the real estate industry's first online brokerage, combining a customer-focused team of real estate agents with online tools for making the process of buying or selling a home easy. Redfin's agents handle every facet of a transaction, including tours, pricing analyses, negotiations, inspections and closings. Redfin is the only major search site to feature listings direct from broker databases as well as for-sale-by-owner and foreclosure properties from across the Internet. The company pays its agents customer-satisfaction bonuses, not commissions, and surveys every client, publishing each survey alongside the agent's complete deal history. Redfin's service is available in the metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, OR, Seattle, Washington DC, New York's Long Island and Westchester County as well as most of California, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego. To keep track of our daring exploits, subscribe to blog.redfin.com or our Twitter feed @redfin.

See the rest here:
Redfin Real-Time Home-Buyer Survey Sees Prices Rising, and Some Buyers Stepping Back

Zephyr Real Estate Launches Online Agent Resource Center

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire -06/04/12)- Zephyr Real Estate continues its advance as the leader in cutting-edge marketing and technology with the launch of its new online agent resource center. This internal information repository is home to updates in sales, marketing, technology, real estate and tenant law, company news, and market trends. Agents are afforded a quick, effective and proficient means of managing clients, media, properties and information.

"This new service provides a nerve center for agents to handle all aspects of client management from any location," commented Randall Kostick, Zephyr's Chief Operating Officer. "Our top-notch marketing and technology team continues to keep Zephyr at the forefront."

The resource center has a friendly and inviting interface and is smartphone compatible. Agents can manage off-market pocket listings, clients and internet leads, and intra-company communications with ease and facility. The search and review process for service professionals, from artists and photographers to plumbers and remodeling contractors, is convenient and comprehensive.

"Our goal was to streamline the user interface with simple, straightforward design for quick use while maintaining the professional look and feel that is Zephyr's trademark," stated Melody Foster, Zephyr's Director of Marketing and Web Development.

The center's library is a permanent resource containing training videos, neighborhood maps, professional development tools, relocation materials and information on social and digital media, and a wealth of pragmatic options.

"The on-demand training video library is an ongoing process always expanding to include new technology, online resources and how they affect business," added Hud Bixler, Director of Technology. "We're always looking forward to the next new wave of innovation."

About Zephyr Real EstateFounded in 1978, Zephyr Real Estate is San Francisco's largest independent real estate firm with $1 billion in gross sales in 2011 and a current roster of more than 200 full-time agents. In 2010, Zephyr launched its new website, which has earned three web design awards, including the prestigious WebAward for Outstanding Website from the Web Marketing Association. Zephyr Real Estate is a member of the international relocation network, Leading Real Estate Companies of the World; the luxury real estate network, Who's Who in Luxury Real Estate; and the local luxury marketing association, the Luxury Marketing Council of San Francisco. Zephyr has six strategically located offices in San Francisco, a business center in Marin County, and serves a large customer base throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. For more information, visit http://www.zephyrsf.com.

See the original post:
Zephyr Real Estate Launches Online Agent Resource Center

Former Sheriff Green takes the Fifth in real estate case

The citys former sheriff, John D. Green, recently invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination in a civil case involving Sheriffs Office real estate sales.

Greens attorney, Peter J. Scuderi, confirmed Friday his client had cited the Fifth Amendment in declining to answer questions from lawyers in the case. He said that was not significant.

"Taking the Fifth means nothing," Scuderi said. "Its just good lawyering. No competent lawyer would allow his client to answer any questions from anybody during the pendency of such an investigation."

Scuderi said he was referring to an ongoing federal probe of the sheriffs operations by the U.S. Attorneys Office in Philadelphia.

Contacted Saturday at home in East Mount Airy, Green, 64, declined to comment. He retired as sheriff at the end of 2010, after 23 years in charge of the office.

The federal investigation was first reported last year, after city controller Alan Butkovitz alleged widespread financial irregularities during Greens tenure.

The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states, in part, that no person "shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law."

Green invoked that protection when he was scheduled to give a sworn deposition within the last two months in a class-action case that accuses him and his office of illegally failing to make payments to thousands of people who were owed money from the proceeds of sheriffs sales.

The primary defendants in the case are Green, former acting Sheriff Barbara Deeley, who held the post for all of 2011, and the City of Philadelphia.

The plaintiffs several people who lost properties at sheriffs sales, and an agent for others trying to recover money from the Sheriffs Office allege that within 30 days after the sheriff sells a piece of real estate for unpaid debts or taxes, he is required to prepare a distribution schedule for the proceeds. The schedule is supposed to be available for inspection at the Sheriffs Office.

Go here to read the rest:
Former Sheriff Green takes the Fifth in real estate case