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All Posts Tagged With: "agents"

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Real Estate: Why Do We License Brokers & Agents?

Across the country we license many professions, everyone from barbers to lawyers. There are several basic reasons for such licensure: To protect the public against unethical and incompetent practitioners. To assure that practitioners have certain minimum levels of education and experience. To assure that consumers receive certain minimum levels of service. To define what is [...]

31Aug2009 | | 0 comments | Continued
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Real Estate: Could Realty Brokers Have Prevented the Mortgage Meltdown?

Part of the puzzle of the mortgage meltdown has been the role of real estate brokers. Could real estate brokers have done more to prevent home buyers from making inappropriate purchases or using loans which were inherently too risky? The question has now been raised by the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents. NAEBA surveyed [...]

4Aug2009 | | 0 comments | Continued
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How To Pick On Appraisers

Many in the real estate community are upset with the newly implemented Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) and want it suspended or revoked so we can go back to the good-old-says when it was okay to threaten and pressure appraisers. The HVCC was an agreement worked out between New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, [...]

26Jun2009 | | 9 comments | Continued
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Should You Expect Less Hiring A Real Estate Broker?

There’s little doubt that one of the hottest topics in the world of real estate regulation concerns the matter of minimum service requirements for brokers: Do they protect the public or are they simply a way to hold down competition from low-priced firms and new business models? During the past few years many states have [...]

19Sep2008 | | 0 comments | Continued
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Right Math, Debatable Conclusions

“You cannot completely trust the advice your broker gives you,” said Christopher J. Mayer, a professor of real estate at Columbia Business School. “You have to become more educated as a buyer.” Why a Real Estate Agent May Skip the Extra Mile, The New York Times, February 20, 2005 I’m not sure that buyers or [...]

17Sep2008 | | 0 comments | Continued
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Is Real Estate Brokerage Ready For Term Licensing?

More than two million people now have realty licenses, a number which raises a question: Does the marketplace really benefit from so many licensees? The debate here is more complex than it may seem. As a society we want minimal entry barriers so that the business of real estate is open to all and also [...]

12Sep2008 | | 0 comments | Continued
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Can Brokers Buy Their Own Listings?

Brokers and salespeople surely have a right to buy real estate, the question is under what circumstances. If Smith lists a home and later wants to buy it, Smith has access to information which may not be available to an arms-length buyer. Realistically, anyone in Smith’s brokerage firm may also have the advantage of such [...]

30Aug2008 | | 0 comments | Continued
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Will Real Estate Brokerage Fees Fall To Zero?

Since the Internet first became commercially viable in the 1990s it’s been driven largely by a single principle, the idea of pushing prices to zero. If you can make money by not charging then you’ve likely got a winner. The reigning champ at this time is obviously Google — it makes a ton of money [...]

20Aug2008 | | 0 comments | Continued