The Ten Best in RE.net This Week: Feb. 20, 2010 Edition

1 ) 7 Hours on Facebook? – Where do you spend most of your time when you are on the computer? If you are like most of America you spend a large amount of time on Facebook. And that time is growing! Just look at these numbers, doesn’t it make sense to go where they are?

2 ) Random Thoughts of Dual Agency – If you follow RE.net posts on a regular basis I am sure you read a post or two about Dual Agency this week. Rob Hahn had one of the better ones. I personally believe that single-agent dual agency can be pulled off in an ethical manner, but at the same time believe that both buyer and seller are better off in most cases without it. Rob goes even deeper here talking about dual agency brokerage.

3 ) Required VS Voluntary Sign Ups – Here is a post from last night that is going to be interesting to follow. Do you require people to sign up for home searches on your site. I do not know the actual stats for my site as I did not track them, but my signups now that is required is roughly four times greater than before when I allowed free searches. Jeff also has some good advice on how to implement the signup.

4 ) Mortgage Markets Pass The Tipping Point; Mortgage Rates Up For Good? – If you like following the interest rate market then you need to be following Dan Green. Dan follows the market closer than most lenders and writes about it constantly.

5 ) What Realtors Don’t Know About Mortgage Rates – One of the best things I did early in my real estate career was get hooked up with a good lender who cared about my future (Justin McHood). Justin sat down with me, took out a rate sheet and went over everything. I have found it useful since then to get a yearly refresher course. Realtors do not need to know how to initiate a loan, but they should have a good understanding on why rates fluctuate so much day-to-day and person-to-person.

6 ) $100 Down payment HUD Home Financing – The 2,000.00 Mistake – Are you looking to purchase a $100 HUD home, or are you a buyer’s agent working with a buyer looking to purchase a house with the $100 down program? Here is a post you need to read and be up on as it could greatly effect your deal.

7 ) 10 Things I Wish They Taught in Real Estate School – The “Raise the Bar” debate continues on RE.net. This post hits it out of the park. To get your real estate license should take a lot more class work and a lot broader spectrum of material. Besides the basic contract law things they teach you, they should teach you how to actually survive as an agent. Then again if that was the case NAR wouldn’t have 3 gazillion new agents a year and be able to collect all those dues. So it will never happen.

8 ) Why Use a Buyer-Broker Agreement? – When Jim Duncan writes a post with advice for real estate agents I generally listen. Jim, in my opinion, runs one of the best blogs on RE.net. Jim not only discusses why he uses a BBA in this post, but when he uses it and how he approaches it.

9 ) Strategic Mortgage Defaults: Is It a Financial Issue? Is It a Moral Issue? Or Is It Both? – I believe if you were to take all the RE.net posts from the first two months of last year and compare them to the first two months of 2010 “Strategic Defaults” would be the word that has had the greatest increase in use. I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this is it a financial or moral issue? I find in my discussions with people it almost seems to depend on where you are from. From one of my discussions with someone in NH it was clearly a moral issue, but if you talk to someone in Phoenix or Las Vegas where their property value has crashed 40% or more in 3 years it is a financial issue.

10 ) More Equator on F’d Up Friday – Short Sale Power Hour 02-19-10 – The last two weeks of this column I ended with something light, some humor. Today we end with a yea-what they said. Short Sale Power Hour is one of the best free resources on the net for agents looking to do short sales. There is good information in this post, but the best part…. The best part is watching them go off on Bank of America short sales department for 8 minutes. Any of us who do short sales have wanted to do that at one time or another.

Related posts:

1. The Ten Best in RE.net This Week: Feb. 13, 2010 Edition
2. The Ten Best in RE.net This Week: Feb. 6, 2010 Edition
3. Carnival of Real Estate Investing | Investor’s Edition

Article Author: Dean Ouellette

Dean has written 28 articles for us.
Visit Dean's Website: http://www.deansellsaz.com

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I am a real estate agent in the Tempe Arizona area who specializes in working with buyers and sellers in distressed properties. I work with both those looking to sell their home via a short sale and buyers looking to purchase foreclosures. I am also an avid vlogger.