Maureen Mengel Blog

Juniper Square, a company offering software that helps real estate firms manage and raise outside capital, raised $6 million in a Series A funding round led by Felicis Venture, which also backs Opendoor and Matterport, the company announced Wednesday. “The real estate industry has historically been very underserved by technology, especially in investment management,” Juniper Square CEO Alex Robinson said in a statement. “Real estate firms are seeking to benefit from innovations in technology, and our solution helps firms of all sizes better manage the entire lifecycle of their capital relationships. This new round of investment will enable us to rapidly improve our product for both sponsors and investors.” Juniper Square was founded in 2014 but only launched its investment management platform in 2017 . The San Francisco-based startup now serves clients managing 50,000 investors and almost $200 billion in real estate assets, the company says. Its software was developed for the rea...

It is a common misconception that a 20 percent down payment is required to buy a home. Advice to wait and save a large down payment is often based on the theory that the cost of mortgage insurance , which is required when you buy with a smaller down payment, should be avoided. Do the math: Homebuying now may save a lot curated from Real Estate News

Leah Sternberg, formerly a regional vice president of Compass, has joined the California luxury brokerage Pacific Union International as its vice president of business development for Southern California, the company announced today. Credit: Leah Sternberg Sternberg’s appointment comes after Pacific Union, headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, made a number of brokerage acquisitions or partial acquisitions in the past year, including John Aaroe Group , Partners Trust and Gibson International . The company merged all three into one new brand: Pacific Union Southern California , which is headquartered in L.A. and includes 900 real estate professionals across 20 offices. Overall, Pacific Union employs 1,700 real estate professionals across 51 offices throughout California and is projecting sales volume of $18 billion in 2018. Nick Segal, Pacific Union president in Southern California, said in a press statement today: “We’re in the people business, and Leah is one of th...

A seaplane that crashed in Sydney on New Year's Eve killing six people, including the chief executive of British catering company Compass Group Plc, was off course but the cause of the crash remains undetermined, Australian investigators said on Wednesday. NSW police and salvage personnel recover the wreckage of a seaplane that crashed into Jerusalem Bay, north of Sydney, Australia, January 4, 2018. Start the conversation, or Read more at Channelnewsasia.com. Seaplane that crashed in Sydney killing Compass Group exec was off course - investigator curated from Real Estate News

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) Pending Home Sales Index  (PHSI), a forward-looking indicator that tracks home sales in which a contract is signed but the sale has not yet closed, increased 0.5 percent in the month of December to 110.1 from an upwardly revised 109.6 in November. NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun says the uptick in pending home sales is due to a healthy jobs market and an increase in wages, all of which encourage potential buyers to jump into homeownership . But, he says continued inventory shortages and rising home prices will dampen sales activity in the coming year. “Another month of modest increases in contract activity is evidence that the housing market has a small trace of momentum at the start of 2018,” he said in a statement. “Jobs are plentiful, wages are finally climbing and the prospect of higher mortgage rates are perhaps encouraging more aspiring buyers to begin their search now.” “Sadly, these positive indicators may not lead to a str...

Now the new GOP tax law is passed, the National Association of Realtors is projecting price growth of only 1 to 3 percent and, in some expensive, high-tax markets, there will likely be a decline. The article misses several key points on why the National Association of Realtors vigorously protected millions of homeowners from potentially large tax increases and significant declines to the value of their home. Start the conversation, or Read more at Washington Examiner. Realtors fought - and will continue to fight - for homeowners curated from Real Estate News

Every seasoned investor should be familiar with the obvious expenses that go into a rental analysis when determining if a potential investment property will be profitable. There’s the mortgage, the taxes, the insurance, the reserve fund, the maintenance; if all these add up to be less than the monthly rent, leaving you with a 6-8% profit, you have a good case for a profitable investment. But what about the other factors involved with owning a rental property that don’t have a clear dollar amount associated with the bottom line? To help you determine the full financial picture of an investment, I’ve put together a list of some of the biggest cash flow killers that will eat into the profitability of your real estate investment. Cash Flow Killers To Your Investment Your real estate investment will only be successful if you keep profits high and avoid these cash flow killers. If your rental property is turning out negative numbers, consider these factors and how to adjust your ma...

Every year seems to bring the same old advice for real estate agents . Make more phone calls. Network more. Join a Mastermind. Door-knock ! Of course, changing up your daily or weekly routine will almost inevitably make a difference in your bottom line. But for those of you (like me) who like a more dramatic change, something that will really add leverage, there are three things you may not be doing that can help you grow your business in a way that will pay big dividends both now and down the road. 1. Create a marketing plan You might think you have a marketing plan. After all, you have a Facebook page , a website, and you may even have taken out an ad or two. I hate to break it to you, but that is not a marketing plan . Those are pieces of a plan, yes, but a real marketing plan involves more than just a few elements. You need: A consistently developed brand across all of your platforms A content marketing scheme that builds SEO for your website A social media managemen...

Crystal Long says she knows how long a new pencil stays in the hands of a second-grader before it's irrevocably lost: 15 minutes. Which is why Long, a real estate agent with Re/Max Southern Realty and a former second-grade teacher, has pledged to donate a percentage of her earnings from each house she sells in 2018 to the classroom or school of the homebuyers' choice. Former teacher, now real estate agent, vows to donate to Richmond County schools - curated from Real Estate News

You don’t have to be a real estate agent very long to realize you’re not the only fish in the pond. In fact, according to the National Association of Realtors , there are an estimated 2 million active real estate licensees. NAR also claims that in 2015, approximately 5,250,000 existing homes were sold. If you do the math, that’s about one licensee for every three homes sold. I think it’s safe to say that, for most of us, sustaining a career as a full-time real estate agent requires thinking outside the box. Lowering our commission , having better-looking business cards or using vinyl PVC posts to hang our signs from is all fine and dandy, but that’s not the kind of out-of-the-box thinking I’m referring to. We need to incorporate tactics that will really move the needle and accelerate our pipeline growth. One such tactic is holding mini open houses. What are mini open houses? Mini open houses are the same as traditional open houses except they only last about an hour. Re...

Vancouver's real estate market is "showing a high degree of vulnerability" - for the seventh quarter running, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's latest quarterly report. The January 2018 Housing Market Analysis , issued January 30 and assessing activity in 2017's third quarter, found that the Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area's housing market "continues to be rated as having a high degree of vulnerability." Start the conversation, or Read more at Vancouver Courier. Vancouver's real estate market still - vulnerable' to correction curated from Real Estate News

Although Shaker design originated more than 300 years ago, it’s still resonating with homeowners today. This simple furniture can be easily customized with trendy color palettes and modern finishes — perfect for people looking for a simple style they can easily put their mark on. According to Houzz’s latest kitchen trends report , 57 percent of homeowners chose Shaker-style cabinets for their remodeling projects — the same choice HomeAdvisor home expert Dan DiClerico made when he revamped his 19th-century brownstone. “Shaker cabinets were an essential on our list,” he said while describing his love of transitional design, which mixes traditional and contemporary trends. DiClerico said transitional design has gained steam over the past year, which explains why homeowners are rediscovering the clean designs and simple construction the Shakers, a Christian religious sect, were known for. “It goes back to colonial times with the Shakers and the Shaker movement, which was a r...

Douglas Elliman has filed a suit against three companies owned by pop star Taylor Swift — Firefly Entertainment Inc, 13 Management LLC and Euro Tribeca LLC. One of the brokerage’s Manhattan-based agents, Andrew Azoulay of The Azoulay Miles Team, claims that Swift is in breach of contract, and he’s looking for a settlement to the tune of $1.1 million. The agent says Swift’s management gave him a “written exclusive promise” to represent Swift in the purchase of a property, but in the end, another broker was used to close the deal in October. The Douglas Elliman agent is seeking a $1,080,000 settlement, part of which is the six percent commission he would have been paid at the end of the deal. In the court documents, the agent says he began working with Swift’s management teams to find the pop singer a new home in New York City. He showed them the first potential property on 15 Leonard Street in December 2016, and about a month later, he showed ...

A Scranton Times-Tribune All Access subscription gets you complete access to both our print and digital publications, delivered to your home, desktop and mobile devices 7 days a week Manage your account Manage your account 24 hours a day. You can activate all access, pay your bill, update your account information, pause home delivery while you're away or ask a question. Start the conversation, or Read more at The Times-Tribune. Hawaii employee thought missile attack was real curated from Real Estate News

Independent regional giant Howard Hanna Real Estate Services is bolstering its presence in the greater Toledo, Ohio, market with the acquisition of the market’s number four player, Welles Bowen Realtors. Welles Bowen, which has served the Northwest Ohio market for over 100 years, brings over 150 agents and 10 offices to Howard Hanna, which already had around 50 agents at its Toledo/Maumee office. The new company will be named Welles Bowen Realtors–a Howard Hanna company, as Welles Bowen Vice President Kevin Smith told Inman. Credit: Kevin Smith/Welles Bowen “Howard Hanna’s network of 259 offices will be an excellent resource for strengthening and supporting Welles Bowen,” Smith said in a press release today. With more than 9,000 sales associates across Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania to Northern Carolina and Maryland and beyond, Howard Hanna is the third largest real estate company in America by transaction sides, according to Real Trends , the number one privately owned broker i...

Liberty Property Trust is set to issue its quarterly earnings data before the market opens on Tuesday, February 6th. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of $0.33 per share for the quarter. Liberty Property Trust (LPT) to Release Quarterly Earnings on Tuesday curated from Real Estate News

Anita Clark is a residential real estate agent based in Houston County, Georgia. You can find more of her work on her blog covering Warner Robins real estate . Does the 2018 Tax Bill Affect Real Estate Markets? curated from Real Estate News

More than a decade ago, rules governing the online sharing and display of property listings attracted the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The result was a two-year investigation, an antitrust lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and a 2008 settlement that called for the adoption of a new online listings policy mandating that MLSs make property data available to online brokerages such as Redfin. That settlement expires in November 2018 and it seems the real estate industry will once again come under federal scrutiny. Daniel Castro, vice president of nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank  Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) , alarmed a roomful of Inman Connect New York attendees last Thursday when he declared that he had “seen some evidence” that the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) would hold a workshop on real estate competition. The workshop would discuss the “legal hurdles, regulatory barriers, and ...

Redfin’s Housing Demand Index, which is based on Redfin customers requesting home tours and writing offers across 15 major metro areas, fell 0.6 percentage points from November (128.3) to December (127.6) — the fourth consecutive month of “virtually flat” readings. The seasonally adjusted number of buyers requesting home tours and the number of buyers making offers decreased by 3.4 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively. Source: Redfin Redfin chief economist Nela Richardson says buyer demand is still strong, but that it has begun to weaken in the face of rock-bottom inventory levels. “The housing market ended 2017 with 170,000 fewer listings than it had a year earlier, which means there were fewer homes for buyers to tour and make offers on,” said Richardson in the report. “For the fourth consecutive year, inventory will be the major factor shaping the housing market in 2018.” Although the index was down month-over-month, demand for housing has grown by 8.4 percent year-ove...

Let's talk. Seriously, ready for a quick chat? In this reel, we're meeting some extraordinary individuals blessed with the gift of gab. Five Stories About the Art of Communication curated from Real Estate News

Although technology has made real estate transactions quicker, more seamless and increasingly transparent, it has also made buyers, sellers and real estate professionals vulnerable to cybercriminals looking to cash in. In the past year, $969 million have been stolen from buyers via escrow scams — something cybercrime professionals say will continue to grow in popularity. Last week, 100-percent commission real estate franchisor Realty Executives hosted a webinar to educate agents and brokers about wire fraud, and National Association of Realtors (NAR) senior counsel Finley Maxson and FBI supervisory special agent Martin Hellmer both attended. They said awareness, education and preparedness are key in safeguarding your business and your clients. Hellmer said businesses usually focus on having top-notch technology and cybersecurity, but forget to educate employees on best practices, which he called a major mistake. “We typically think of these magnificent young minds at the com...

Home prices continued to soar nationwide in November, rising 6.2 percent, a modest uptick from year-over-year 6.1 percent gains tallied a month earlier , according to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S National Home Price NSA Index  released on Tuesday. Fueled in part by historically low inventory, homes prices in Seattle, Las Vegas and San Francisco soared the highest, outpacing wage gains and inflation with above-average increases of 12.7 percent, 10.6 percent and 9.1 percent, respectively, according to the indices. “Home prices continue to rise three times faster than the rate of inflation,” says David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a prepared statement. “Given slow population and income growth since the financial crisis, demand is not the primary factor in rising home prices. Construction costs, as measured by National Income and Product Accounts, recovered after the financial crisis, increasing be...

A recent report shows the available housing inventory in Jackson Hole is the lowest it has been in more than three decades. The Jackson Hole Report's year-end review, which compiles and analyzes data from every free-market real estate transaction in Jackson Hole each year, states there were 31 percent fewer sales in Jackson Hole than in the years before the Great Recession, and the median sale price was $1.3 million, tied for the highest ever. Start the conversation, or Read more at KGWN. Jackson Hole real estate market shrinks curated from Real Estate News

Opendoor ‘s future involves vertical integration, international expansion, and maybe an IPO, CEO Eric Wu said in an interview earlier this month. Wu shared some insights into his fast-growing company in a Facebook Live interview with Inman moderated by RealScout CEO Andrew Flachner. Wu founded Opendoor in 2014 and has raised $320 million in funding for the company since then. The startup  added $100 million in debt financing to its coffers last month. The iBuyer lets consumers buy and sell real estate online, simplifying the search process and freeing up sellers to buy before receiving equity from their old property in exchange for a slightly higher fee than an agent would take (an average of 6.7 percent but up to 12 percent, depending on Opendoor’s analysis). “They way you can hail an Uber or a Lyft with one click, the way Amazon’s really automated a lot of the e-commerce experience, we think there’s an opportunity to really build a best-in-class experience around b...

The last thing anyone wants to do is invest money, only to end up losing it. Home renovations are investments in the future return homeowners will make when selling their home. Although it may seem like every improvement will entice more buyers, and therefore, a bigger price tag, there are some renovations that incur a huge cost without a full return. If your sellers are preparing to put their house on the market, it might be especially tempting to spruce things up, but beware of the following five changes  — they are a waste of money for sellers. 1. Kitchen remodels Photo by Aaron Huber on Unsplash All of the home design shows on TV might lead you to believe that a new kitchen is vital if you want to sell your house. But a full-on remodel tends to bring in a return that’s a mere two-thirds of its original price. According to Remodeling Magazine’s 2017 Cost Vs. Value report , a midrange kitchen remodel cost exceeds its resale value by over $21,000. The figure more than do...