The real estate industry business model is built on commissions. And commissions are only charged when a transaction is completed. Failed attempts to buy or sell real estate generate no commission. But they do take up time and resources. Therefore, real estate agents must overcharge for the successful real estate transactions to make up for the failed ones. Here are 5 failed transactions that lead to excessive commissions.
Aw. I just signed into my facebook account and found that Marc "allergic to clothes" Jacobs and his rent-a-boyfriend Jason Preston ended their relationship for the billionth time. A candle light vigil will be held in Union Square tonight at 9 pm. We ask that, at this time, you refrain from flash photography as it will upset and confuse Preston in his search for a new high-gay-society arm to adorn.
In several polls conducted over the past couple weeks, Senator John McCain has narrow leads over Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. But it doesn’t seem logical that John McCain is winning, even narrowly, with his gaffes on the economy and his promise to continue the Bush strategy in Iraq.
According to Real Clear [...]
Here's Mark Hebert's story on the audit of writing portfolios from Wednesday: (WHAS11) - An audit of last year’s CATS test has found that nearly half the student’s scores on the writing portfolios were inflated. Critics of the CATS test say that’s proof that the whole test needs to be dumped or at the very least, the writing portfolios need to go. But some teachers say that would be a bad idea......A state senate bill that would abolish the CATS test has virtually no chance of passing the house and would face a veto by Governor Beshear if it ever got to his desk.Video here.
In the following press release Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, joined by Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and New York State Secretary of State Lorraine A. Cortes-Vasquez, today announced the indictment of a Whitestone real estate appraisal company and its chief executive officer for allegedly inflating the value of properties in connection with numerous residential mortgage applications. In a 397-count indictment, D & T National Appraisals, Inc., and its CEO, Donato Odato, 54, of 166-11 Cryders Lane in Whitestone, have been variously charged with second- and third-degree forgery, criminal possession of a forged instrument, first- and second-degree falsifying business records, first- and third-degree identity theft, first-degree scheme to defraud and fifth-degree conspiracy. Odato faces up to seven years in prison if convicted. The corporate defendant faces a fine of up to $10,000 for each felony count conviction or double the amount of the illegal gain. Distric
C-J discounts the disagreements among professional educators and pundits regarding the degree to which state CATS scores were boosted under the assessment system's new configuration. Scores were boosted. How much they were boosted seems to be in the 4 to 7 point range. But that also seems to depend on where you are.New cut scores were used to determine proficiency. The new test is noticably less performance-based than the test KERA originally aspired to construct.When the new test was administered for the first time last spring, some teachers claimed it was easier. Scores for top performing schools were adjusted downward. Scores for lower performing schools were adjusted upward. Gaps narrowed. The state as a whole moves forward. New scores can't really be compared to old scores - but screw that...Let's party!C-J is correct to suggest that Kentucky's next governor and the legislature ought to get a handle on this situation. And they like KERA better than NCLB. Me too.Understanding C
I was talking to a house inspector and he was telling me something that I wanted to share. Not that you don't already know it but it is worth reminding agents.Be careful of inspection report and know what they mean. Don't just take the word and not review and research before you let your seller get cheaped. Get a second opinion as often as you can. If not in person, do some calling around and take notes. Once you've lived through a bad experience, I think you become smarter to the tricks of the trade. Just like any other trade, there are tricks.Increase your base knowledge to make yourself more valuable to your client.Remember buyers are looking for a deal -- but even more in this market and time. They want the lowest price, but on top of that.. they want the highest credit back for closing costs and repairs. Even and especially in this "short sale era". They tend to overlook the disclosure that the property
The Afghan government and Nato have said publicly that figures for civilian casualties after military action are often exaggerated or fabricated.Lt-Col Maria Carl gave a press conference alongside the Afghan defence ministry spokesman, Gen Zahir Azimi. Lt-Col Carl said accounts of civilian casualties after military engagements often turned out to be inflated or completely fabricated. She gave recent examples, including village elders' accounts of more than 100 civilian deaths in western Afghanistan a few days ago. Lt-Col Carl said it was now clear that no civilians had died there, saying that in fact foreign and Afghan forces had moved villagers to safety. Gen Azimi from the defence ministry said the Taleban regularly forced villagers to phone media outlets with inflated figures, threatening to behead them if they did not do so. More...
New York State is investigating Manhattan real estate practices, seeking information about whether brokers pressured appraisers to inflate property values as prices doubled in the last five years, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.More...
by MOUMITA BAKSHI CHATTERJEE
Do you think your electricity bills are inflated? IT company KLG Systel will soon launch a web-based solution which will allow consumers to monitor the power consumption patterns of their appliances and even schedule them remotely. The solution, dubbed energy portal for now, will come bundled with client-side hardware and is expected to hit the market sometime in May.
One of the main contentions of the bearish argument is that house prices are overvalued. To determine whether or not that premise is true, there must be some way to appraise the fundamental value of a house. Once determined, this fundamental value serves as a point of comparison to the prices at which houses are currently being bought and sold. If current prices are shown to be above fundamental value, it establishes that house prices are inflated, and it also provides a measure of the degree of that inflation.
The corollary argument made by housing bears is that inflated housing prices have not historically remained inflated and have for good reason fallen back to fundamental valuations at each market decline. If this corollary argument can also be demonstrated to be true, it provides a way of projecting the market decline we can expect to see in the future.
The fundamental value of all housing prices is comparative rents. Rents define the fundamental value of real estate because ren
