Primary market
Uncle Sam may not be watching, but your lender may very well be. To wit, mortgage stakeholders now have a new tool that uncovers the existence of secondary financing added by borrowers after they have closed on their primary loans.
The latest example of the conflict between PR and policy, concerns the effort to standardize loan rules nationwide.
Being in the mortgage business, I do my best to keep informed of the myriad of opinions from all the economic gurus in the media. When Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and his merry band of policy makers decided to engage in a campaign of "measured" rate hikes last June, most, if not all, economic talking heads were predicting higher mortgage rates in 2005.
Have you ever analyzed the difference in monthly payments between mortgages with different interest rates?
Free credit and personal financial information reports aren"t the only provisions provided by one of the most sweeping regulatory reforms in consumer protection in decades.
I got the impression at the recent National Association of Realtors convention that most folks believed that President Bush"s re-election meant no change in the status quo.
Question: My mother died three years ago and my father died one year later. My father"s will left everything to my two sisters and me. One of my sisters was living in my parents" house for the past four years and currently lives there. I am the executor of the estate but have not yet transferred the title. We are all in agreement that the house should be hers.
Question: I have signed a contract to purchase my first home. Interest rates are currently low, and I am concerned that they may start rising in the near future. I have been researching available mortgages and have found a number of options -- from a fixed 30-year to a one-year adjustable. Because I plan to hold this house for a long period of time, I am not comfortable with an adjustable-rate mortgage. I fear that in the years to come, the interest rate (and thus my mortgage payments) will become prohibitive.
Congress, by passing the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, has plugged an interesting loophole in our tax laws. It has put restrictions on investors who obtained property by way of a like-kind (Starker)
The 15-year FRM this week averaged 4.48 percent with an average 0.7 point, unchanged for the third week in a row. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 5.59 percent. This is tied with the last two weeks for the lowest the 15-year FRM has been since Freddie Mac began tracking it in August 1991.
The mortgage community is heavily populated with hundreds of loan programs. There are loans for different types of buyers:
Hot on the heels of Fair, Isaac"s new "Expansion" credit score, personal data compiler First American Corporation recently announced a new array of services to help hone the credit histories of non-traditional credit consumers.
The US Census Bureau reported last week that the residential mover rate is the lowest its been since the bureau began tracking the rate in 1948.
Your monthly mortgage payment could slowly, insidiously creep up hundreds of dollars if economic forecasters are correct about interest rates rising this year and you have an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM).
It"s crazy that I still get these calls, but it actually seems as if I"m getting more of them as time goes on. The question? "What credit score do I need to qualify for a mortgage loan?" Or its sister statement, "I can"t qualify for a loan because my credit score is too low."
My grandfather was always proud of the way he financed his home. Family lore says he bought a row house on a dirt road -- in Brooklyn! It was an immigrant"s dream, financed with an interest-only "term" mortgage that lasted three to five years. At the end of the term you either paid off the loan or, more likely, signed up for another few years.
Brace yourself for slowly rising, but higher interest rates.
Excessive development charges on the cost of new homes is making the recession worse, and remain a barrier to economic recovery and job creation, says a report commissioned by the Canadian Home Builders" Association (CHBA).
Once upon a time, in a world all-too-common, the mortgage business didn"t give a hoot about loans received under fraudulent circumstances as long as they were performing as expected.
The first home I ever bought was financed with an FHA loan. At the time I had no idea how the downpayment requirement was concocted or that the FHA did not actually provide the loan money I needed to finance the property. Ignorance was bliss and I was elated with my first house.
You would think with the growing debate regarding the value and utility of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that the two mortgage giants would want to stay away from anything which smacks of controversy. Instead, they have each decided not to buy mortgages which contain mandatory arbitration clauses, a policy which makes as much sense as docking Navy submarines because they get poor mileage.
WASHINGTON -- The stars may be aligning for a handful of quick-acting upper-income borrowers to take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to obtain jumbo mortgages at conforming loan rates.
Q. We recently made an application to refinance our home with a local mortgage company. We paid the application fee. Rates have gone up, and our circumstances have changed. We no longer want to refinance. We told the company to stop processing our application. Is there any hope of getting our application fee back?
“What"s worse, a higher price on a property that may take a sudden downturn when interest rates return to a higher rate, or paying a lower price for the property when the market is down but paying a higher interest rate?”
[Note: To follow is an excerpt of an interview with successful bloggers from the Real Estate Investment Club or the REIClub.com -- Halle Eavelyn, Manager of Halle Homes, LLC and Cherrathee Hager, of Twin Oak Properties. To listen to the show archive or download an MP3, go to www.IncomePropertyInvestmentTalk.com/031809.]
Q: My husband and I will be closing on a “no-cost” refinance next month. However, we have run into some unforeseen costs. The key issue is the overlap between our old loan and our new one. Our new lender will issue funds after the federally-mandated three-day rescission period ends, and thus interest on the new loan will begin on the fourth day after closing. Our settlement attorney will then send a live check – via express overnight mail – to our old lender to pay off our current loan.
Low mortgage rates are prompting lenders to usher in 10-year mortgages aimed at borrowers who can handle monster monthly payments in exchange for super-sized savings in interest costs over the life of the loan.
The mortgage industry"s first crack at a so-called "portable mortgage" lets home buyers today lock in record low interest rates they can also use on another home they may purchase years down the road when rates could be higher.
I can recall back in the stone ages, say the last 1980"s, when consumers spent most of their time choosing a lender or mortgage broker. But once the chosen lender was so anointed that was pretty much it. No more applications to fill out, no more documentation to mail or fax. It was done. But not anymore. It"s not uncommon for a borrower to complete an application with more than one lender at a time to see who can ultimately offer the better deal. After all, a little head to head competition is good for everyone, right?
Let’s see. Do I want to refinance now or wait until I finish with my home improvements? Or do I go ahead and get a construction loan, complete my addition, then refinance both my mortgages when the addition is complete? Do I need the value of my new addition to increase my appraised value? These are questions many in America area asking, improve now or refinance now? Why not do both?
Often it can take days, even weeks, to finalize all the necessary paperwork
If you have an interest in financing or refinancing an unusual window of opportunity may now be closing. Mortgage rates at this time are as low as they"ve been in decades, but whether such interest levels can continue is less certain each day.
Question: I read your LIBORMANIA column with great interest. What especially intrigued me is the interest only feature on a mortgage program with such a low rate. I have a similar situation in that I have a 5/1 Adjustable Rate with a balance of $300,000 at six percent. My current principal and interest (P&I) payment is $1,799. Is it true that if I refinanced to a LIBOR ARM at 3.50 percent my interest only payment would only be $875? It seems unbelievable. I"ve got three kids and a very small college fund. This program would allow me to save an additional $924 per month. Do you think this is a wise decision? Also, everybody keeps saying that the stock market will eventually go up again and now is the time to start investing. I would like your thoughts on this. Thanks.
Santa Claus may make two trips to your house this year. One for being nice, the other for providing you with additional tax deductions you may not be aware of. Who would have thought?
Competition in some rental markets is pushing landlords to offer increasingly creative concessions to tenants, such as free rent for a month or two, and even job-loss protection that guarantees the rent will be paid if tenants lose their jobs.
Now that mortgages rates have dipped below the magic 6 percent barrier -- they fell to 5.99 percent last week, a level that hasn"t been in more than 40 years -- the only question is, how low can they go?
I want to talk about a controversial practice in the mortgage world - the Form 4506 - Request for Copy of Transcript or Tax Form.
With mortgage rates hitting new lows in September, there"s no shortage of people seeking to refinance. But beginning in February, the cost to refinance
With favorable appreciation rates, low interest rates and Wall Street in the grip of a bear, a second home is an appealing investment right now. Deciding what mortgage you"ll need to swing the deal, however, isn"t quite so clear.
North Carolina"s home buyers and legislators are breathing a sign of relief that they didn"t wait for a federal anti-predatory lending law or bow to industry criticism that state laws curb subprime lending.
We are all faced with call reluctance at one time or another in our sales careers. We all know that we need to prospect and make calls daily to generate new business. However, knowing and doing can be two entirely different things. The fear of calling can be a career ender for many sales people.
It"s the niche that provides a steady flow of buyers who are almost guaranteed to re-sell their homes within 3 to 4 years -- and who have a massive pool of friends who will also be moving soon. Listings are abundant.
Sometimes it happens that an owner of a residence that is being rented, may decide that he or she wants to sell that property. If the landlord can work out a purchase arrangement with the tenant, or if he is able to sell it to someone already interested, that may be all well and good. But what if the owner wants to put the property on the open market and make it available to a wide range of prospective purchasers? That is typically not what a tenant has bargained for, and it has the potential for causing considerable inconvenience. Are there any rules that protect the tenant"s privacy and quiet enjoyment of the property in this situation? Yes.
According to the California Association of Realtors" "2005 Internet Versus Traditional Buyers Survey," Internet and traditional buyers have significant differences in how they use the Internet.
Imagine for a minute you had the resources to send out 100,000 questionnaires to buyers and sellers from across the nation, people that had actually closed a real estate transaction in the previous 12 months!
Recently, while contemplating relocation to Virginia, and searching the internet as a consumer, I was surprised at how many agent and company listings do not post additional listing photos or virtual tours. I was shocked at how many listings, including the high upper end market, do not even have a listing photo displayed. That was very hard to believe. Could you imagine a seller entrusting their home for sale to an agent or brokerage if they knew it would be without any online marketing or effort?
If there is a buzzword for today"s real estate professional it begins with the letter "E". The "E" stands for economy of time, energy, efficiency, and effectiveness to best serve today"s buyer and seller. The only way to meet and exceed the consumer"s demands for information and service in real time is to use systems and products that offer immediate response, and to capture and track leads that convert to sales and profits.
Agents work hard for listings, but it is the broker who pays for the display ads that generate extra advertorials -- those feature stories that show up in the Sunday Homes section of the local paper. That makes the advertorials an extension of the ad that the broker has already paid for. When establishing an advertorial policy, keep in mind that the one with the gold makes the rules.
Who"s in charge of the future? Surprised to learn it"s you?
Every time I conduct a seminar on personal marketing, I am besieged with questions about how much top agents spend on marketing: “Is there a certain percentage of income that is the ideal amount to spend?” “Can you spend too much or too little?”
Canvassing is the life blood of the real estate sales business. The problem, though, is that so many agents simply don"t like to do it. And as a result many scheduled canvassing sessions get canceled, and many other canvassing sessions involve a lot of agents wasting precious canvassing time.
Over the next few weeks you will probably begin thinking more about all that you have accomplished in your real estate business in 2002 and what you"d like to do differently in 2003. Even if you"ve had a phenomenal year in 2002 there are probably still some changes you would like to make in your real estate business next year. And if you"ve had a less than phenomenal year in the business there may be quite a number of things that you"d definitely like to change.
Master real estate finance.
Does the Web make farming obsolete? Not when you combine traditional postcard farming with an effective Web site.
Referrals are a time-honored way to get new business, and with the advent of the Internet, it is even easier to take advantage of fee-based referrals. From third-party agent to agent referrals to company referred leads, fee-based referrals are growing. The question is, how significant are they in the course of daily business. Will they be more important in the future due to the Internet?
One of the most important things you can do to sell your listings quickly and for the highest possible price is to “stage” them. Basically, there are five steps to home staging.
Editor"s note: In a Realty Times exclusive, Realtor.com is announcing it"s bold new I-LEAD program for Realtors. I-LEAD spokesperson Clay Aldrich will monitor and respond to all responses from agent readers in the Realty Times interactive forum. If you would like to know more about I-LEAD XL, please log in and post your questions and comments at the end of the article.
Only a couple of years ago, the National Association of Realtors expanded its useful annual Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers to include the intended use of homes by homebuyers as homesteads, second homes or vacation homes or investments. Now they"re taking the examination of second home or investment home purchases further with the first study of the international homebuyer.
In the world of political campaigns, it"s a standard ploy to set the stage with an empty chair when one candidate refuses to debate his opponents.
For the first time in 38 years, since the National Association of Realtors began tracking housing prices on a national scale, home prices are projected to fall instead of going higher, the trade group recently reported.
The next time you read housing statistics in the financial press, make sure you take the information with a grain of salt. Not all indices are equal, but they can tell the same story.
CHICAGO -- The National Association of Realtors®, which has been America"s largest trade and professional organization
Homebuyers will be able to access more comprehensive information about residential properties over the Internet as the result of a new policy governing the display of real estate listings adopted today by the National Association of Realtors®.
Proposed policy governing use of MLS data in connection with
Homestore is sending a strong message to Realtor.com customers with the appointment of new president Allan Dalton, a 20-year veteran of real estate and a former senior vice president of Cendant. Realtor.com is operated by Realtors for Realtors.
New tax laws have not only raised your maximum allowable tax-deferred Individual Retirement Account (IRA) contributions from $2000 to $3000, they also allow you to play catch-up. If you are 50 years of age or over, you can now invest an additional $500.
Gone is the frenzied interest in bling and overspending. Solvency is the big attraction these days—for businesses and consumers alike.
The e-PRO is not a typical designation, nor is it merely a niche-definer. The agents who are called e-PROs will be firmly vaulted over an increasingly wide chasm separating the technology-enabled agents from the unable.
Trick #1: You Are Now Fluent in 45 Languages
Trick #1: Tell MS Word Where To Go
Trick #1: One Click App Killer
One thing I have realized through my travels as a consultant and presenter of handheld technology is that there really is not a lot of information readily available for Agents to refer in order to decide what tools they should adopt to achieve success in their real estate business.
Trick #1: Get a Human on the Phone
You"ve paid a lot of money to search engine optimization companies, webmasters and search engines to get your site to the top of consumers" searches on sites like Google.com. But, someone even smarter than you is using the resources of your MLS to launch businesses that don"t advertise themselves as brokers.
Some people "pooh-pooh" agents trying to get their site to come up high on organic (non-paid) search engine results. They suggest agents rely instead on pay-per-click advertising.
How would you like to see the results of your redecorating without picking up a paint brush? With Benjamin Moore"s great new tool, you can change the color combinations in your home with a mouse click and if you don"t like the looks of your creation just start over and see another masterpiece in two minutes.
What constitutes a brand strategy? Organizations often undertake a "branding" process, yet the outcome closely resembles a public relations face-lift. Why does this occur? One possibility might be the framework that guides the process. Another may simply be the viewpoint of the agency, or consultant, employed. In any case, valuable dollars are spent each year on brand strategy endeavors and frequently, the outcome does not yield the tangible results organizations are seeking.
You are a successful real estate broker. You are in the business of buying and selling homes, managing agents and closing transactions. You read about information security problems of other industries everyday, but what are the risks to your business and what should you do about it?
A well-know ISP in New York recently had their domain illegally transferred fraudulently. While they were able to recover the domain, for several days all of their web site traffic was redirected to other sites and email was rejected and lost.
Now you can become a TV noise vigilante. The folks at TVBGone.com have been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, CBS News, ABC News, Fox News and NPR among many other media.
Best Image Marketing and a la mode have different approaches to creating Websites for Realtors and getting them found by consumers on the Web, but they have a lot in common when it comes to dealing with agents" expectations of what Websites really do.
Some Realtors have been contacting Realty Times wondering why we haven"t done a story on the Federal Communications Commission"s (FCC) evil plan to allow telemarketers to contact cell numbers instead of home phone numbers unless they are registered with the National Do-Not-Call Registry.
Like the great late comedian Rodney Dangerfield, who built a career out of his famous lament that he "don"t get no respect," Realtor.com wages an ongoing battle against Realtor apathy, anger, and entitlement.
How many times have you highlighted something, then hit the "delete" key, and immediately realized that you’d deleted the wrong thing. It’s sort of like that one-second feeling you get when you know you have just hit your thumb with the hammer, but the pain has not yet kicked in.
It is so gratifying to see that after recent events, common sense and reality might soon again prevail for many in the vaulted world of Realtor web site search engine results page (SERP) competition. Google has slapped down many sites that were using elaborate cross-linking schemes to gain higher positions in search results.
If you think everyone is searching on some variation of "cityname homes" and "cityname real estate," you are in for a surprise. When I"ve shown people the following list of real search phrases, used by real web surfers, which led them to an agent"s Website, their jaws dropped open.
Know anyone over 55? A national, nonprofit group, The National Council on Aging, provides a valuable service they call the BenefitsCheckUp, an on-line database for federal, state and some local private and public benefits for adults over 55. This is the nation"s most comprehensive on-line service to screen for federal, state and some local private and public benefits. It contains over 1,200 different programs from all fifty states.
We received an important indicator of where housing is headed last week, when new mortgage applications for home purchases and refinances suddenly surged as they hadn"t in months.
For many years I have been a member of Mensa, the high I.Q. society which consists of people ranking in or above the top two percent in tested intelligence, and a member of Intertel, consisting of people in or above the top one percent. Because I am in these groups, I have been closely following a new development that I wanted to share with you.
With constant advances in technology, the most difficult question facing the average real estate agent today is exactly which technologies they should take advantage first, which come last, and which ones might be a waste of time altogether.
With the newspaper ad model, results are fairly straightforward. You pay your money up front and you get exposure. The newspaper doesn"t take any responsibility for your ads. It is your job as the advertiser to attracting consumers away from your competitors through ad size and placement. The hook of your ad is up to you, and that is determined by the writing and design skills of your advertising team and your business model. This is where branding matters, along with other variables such as how much you want to spend on your ads to consistently get premium positioning.
Just before the Thanksgiving holidays, one of the Internet"s top three search engines changed its algorithms, the search criteria by which its engine "spiders" peruse websites and select them for results pages. Results are based on websites" relevancy to search keywords.
I"ve found a much better way that will check Altavista, Infoseek, Lycos, and AOL simultaneously to see how many other sites link to yours. It"s called Link Popularity Check, a free service from the same search engine positioning experts that developed Webposition Gold -- the industry"s pre-eminent search engine positioning software.
Imagine having a magical "Geek" that you can call upon any time day or night, for just about any kind of computer problem. Better yet, this
To look at the new Samsung SPH-I330 you might not immediately recognize that it"s much more than just another cell phone. While not particularly
Dial-up growth is flat, if not falling. Broadband is "booming" according to recent reports, reaching almost 1 in 3 home users. Broadband users are the choicest demographic, too. Maybe it"s time to be less concerned about download speeds, and add more leading-edge features to your Web site. Differentiate yourself from the growing horde of online competitors.
Dear Mr. Internet,
[Note: To follow is an excerpt of an interview with Marc Stephan Garrison, founder of the National Association of Real Estate Investors, and author of several books on real estate investing including "Unlimited Real Estate Profit." To listen to the show archive or download an MP3, go to www.IncomePropertyInvestmentTalk.com/021809.]
A growing frustration among professional e-mail users is the fact that
Did you scan postcards or other images without permission for your Web site? If so, you could be setting yourself up - and your broker and web designer - for a costly lawsuit. There are artists and lawyers searching the Web right now for just such prey. I"ve seen six figure lawsuits and five figure settlements. No kidding. Consider the following true story.
The first road test of the new The TC1000, Hewlett-Packard"s new Tablet PC, was at the NAR’s annual convention in New Orleans last week. Introduced to the public on November 7, Realtors were the first mobile professionals to play with the new PC, and they voted yes with their pocketbooks.
Using Internet technology to market your properties doesn’t require a degree in computer science. But even if you recognize that these technologies aren’t difficult to learn and could significantly improve your profitability, that doesn’t mean you want to spend valuable time fiddling with the ever-expanding array of options for marketing your services online. As a result, most real estate practitioners don’t begin to tap the wealth of resources at their disposal.
In real estate we all too often hit a glass ceiling or brick wall, and feel it’s impossible to take our careers to the next level of achievement. All too often, we sit back and wonder how someone becomes a success, but we don’t have a clue on how they attained it. We look at other successful agents around us in our office, and would kill to know what techniques they use to be successful. Perhaps you even approached them and asked, but the answer you received was evasive and lacking. Why? It’s because you are in direct competition with them. If they share real knowledge, their fear is that you’ll take business away from them. So unless that successful agent is your broker, it doesn’t make any sense for an agent in your office to give you any real details.
Business fashion has changed a lot over the last few years, thanks in large part to the youthful dot-com crowd. Women are still wearing high heels but fashion magazines say to skip the hosiery. Meanwhile, men have turned the casual look of khakis and collared knit shirts into the new American uniform.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the rise was expected. “This clearly is a rush of first-time buyers not wanting to miss out on the tax credit, but there are many more potential buyers who can enter the market in the months ahead,” he said. “We expect a temporary sales drop while buying activity ramps up for another surge in the spring when buyers take advantage of the expanded tax credit, which hopefully will take us into a self-sustaining market in the second half of 2010. In all, 4.4 million households are expected to claim the tax credit before it expires and balance should be restored to the housing sector with inventories continuing to decline.”
Recent statistics regarding mortgages have brought the reality of the mortgage market front and center.
A new organization hopes to make it easier for small to mid-size virtual tour photographers to make a profit while serving the real estate industry with virtual tours.
It"s a common scenario. You click on a file, just as you"ve always
The latest buzz around IDX has been the several hundreds of implementation options when it comes to providing IDX data on a Web site. The possibilities and choices are endless, but they are all built around two very distinctly different implementations. If you are to have a successful IDX web site that generates qualified leads and makes you money, you must be sure you try to avoid one of the most common of them if at all possible- "Visible Frames".
If the purpose of your web site is to increase your business, you should strive to respond to all e-mail leads as close to instantly as possible. And auto-responders don"t count. Actually, they make it easier for your competitors.
Don"t let a sluggish economy get you down. There are reasons to shop for personal items—including a new home. I recently saw an advertisement for a new car that said you could return the car in the first year if you lose your job. While there may not be that incentive for homes yet, some other perks might give you reason to start your housing search.
With constant advances in technology, the most difficult question facing the average real estate agent today is exactly which technologies they should take advantage first, which come last, and which ones might be a waste of time altogether.
Often the hottest email prospects up front are also the first to cool off and disappear. You know the animal: Tire kickers. They pump you for lots of information, but nothing comes of it.
The web is upending lots of traditional notions about what works and what doesn"t work in real estate. Is farming next? It is for one agent who claims that traditional farming methods are too costly for the return.
It seems that the "hot technology" item for this year might just be
You"re probably used to reading about ideas that can enhance your
HomeSeekers new value proposition was laid out in an Internet presentation to MLSs and the brokers and agents complete with voiceovers from new CEO Thomas Chaffee, new president Steve Crane, and senior vice president Greg Robertson who created an online slide presentation outlining the benefits of HomeSeekers to MLSs and agents.
Advancements in technology have permeated the real estate business with millions of agents joining their customers in using the Web to their advantage in buying and selling homes and commercial properties. The biggest reason real estate agents are looking to use the Internet is because between 70 – 90 percent of buyers and sellers say they expect to use their computer in the search and decision making process of purchasing real estate. Thousands of agents are enrolling in online services that link agents with buyers and sellers, as well as hosting their own Web sites to showcase property listings.
It isn"t news when a broker graduates a class of new agents, but when a prominent local broker certifies her own agents in Internet-readiness, that signals an important trend worth watching in the industry.
For the last four years, real estate trainer Stephen Canale has loaded one financial program after another
According to the National Association of Realtors, 60 percent of homebuyers are using the Internet to get home buying information, and Jupiter Research predicts that by 2005, that number will be as high as 80 percent.
Whispers of a housing recession are beginning. Despite optimistic housing statistics from the NAR, and the NAHB, many agents are reporting increased inventory and falling prices in certain neighborhoods and price levels. Will the market downturn be like others, or will this one be different?
I remember an observation that Howard Brinton, one of the funniest trainers in real estate, made many years ago at one of his seminars. He said, “I don’t have a problem if you just want to make $12,000 a year in real estate, just don’t take all year to do it. Do it in January!”
Digital cameras are among the expensive portables you carry. Why not insure that your camera will last longer by taking a few precautions?
Remember a few days ago when you were introduced to a salaried business model at Century 21 New Millennium in Alexandria, Virginia? One of the factors that helped make the firm successful was an internally designed business management platform that handled the common and conflicting details of multi-office salaried/independent contractor brokerage. Now New Millennium is creating a new company, GURU NETworks, Inc.,(GNI) to roll the broker-centric platform out to broker peers. The company has just merged systems with Synteleos, a transaction management solutions provider, bringing a complete brokerage and transaction management solution to the broker marketplace.
The online lead generation industry is shifting its focus from how to get real estate agents online to how to capture leads for them. Realtor.com"s new XLerator blind referral program promises to deliver hot leads to Realtors who are customers of its I-LEAD Web page product. Will the strategy work?
Getting started with online marketing is a lot easier when you’ve had some training. Fortunately, many Web sites exist to provide everything from "netiquette" to e-marketing.
The battle between Homestore and MSN HomeAdvisor was beginning to look like the Arms race. Before it went nuclear, Homestore had beaten all comers in terms of which site gets the most traffic. Citing Media Metrix numbers for years, Homestore was suddenly surprised in March when the data source named HomeAdvisor first in traffic over Realtor.com