Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips - iPro Real Estate

REALTORS: What should real estate agents know about the Better Care Reconciliation Act?

The Senate plans to vote on the bill this week; here's what's insideKey Takeaways If you buy your insurance on the state or federal exchanges or are covered by Medicaid, you might be losing a tax credit or Medicaid coverage under the BCRA. If you were enrolling in a health care plan only when you needed it, you'll have to start waiting six months before your coverage kicks in. States would be allowed to decide what "essential benefits" are; this

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REALTOR: 3 prospecting strategies that’ll help you wrangle FSBO leads

Don't miss out on these frustrated prospectsKey Takeaways Creating your own FSBO lead funnel allows you to own your leads and restricts competition from other agents. Most FSBO sellers aren’t great with marketing. Looking for FSBO signs in yards is often the only way to track these properties down. Your Craigslist ads for FSBO sellers need specificity, creativity and visibility to be effective.Why should you use prospecting strategies to genera

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REALTOR: 3 tech tools agents love across the board

Make the best choices using this adviceKey Takeaways Armed with top tech tools such as DocuSign, ShowingTime and Evernote, new agents can find quick success.If you’re a top performer looking to streamline your businesses processes, you probably have a good idea of what agent tools you need to get the job done, and get it done efficiently. But rookie agents often make the mistake of using the wrong tools.A recent discussion in Raise the Bar in

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MUSIC: Listen to the National Anthem for the U.S.A. Performed by Whitney Houston

"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Keyafter witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in Baltimore Harbor during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. Key was inspired by the large American flag, the S

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Will Sudden Credit Boost Really Help Buyers?

The three credit reporting companies are implementing a change Saturday that is expected to raise credit scores for about 6 percent of people with credit profiles, or about 12 million people. Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian will change the way they treat data concerning civil judgments and tax liens on people’s credit reports. These data are among the most likely to be incorrect or incomplete, and people have spent a lot of time and effort tr

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Malls That Pay Property Taxes as High as $30M

Shopping centers contribute mightily to local economies through hefty property taxes—so as more shut down, it could have a big impact on city budgets. Just how much do some malls pay?Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., shelled out $30 million in property taxes in 2016, making it the shopping center that paid the most in the nation, according to commercial real estate blog Commercial Café. With 4.9 million square feet of shops, restaurants,

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87% of Counties Face Affordability Dip

During the second quarter of this year, median home prices increased at a faster pace than average weekly wages in 87 percent of U.S. counties, according to real estate data firm ATTOM Data Solutions. The firm analyzed a sampling of 464 of the largest counties and found the trend was present in 403 of them.Housing in 210 of the 464 counties—or 45 percent—was deemed less affordable than historic norms; that marks the highest share since 2009,

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Mortgage Rates Hit Another Low for 2017

Interest rates for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage took another dip this week, setting a new low for 2017, Freddie Mac reported in its weekly mortgage market survey.“The 30-year mortgage rate fell 2 basis points to 3.88 percent this week,” says Sean Becketti, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “However, the majority of our survey was conducted prior to Tuesday’s sell off in the bond market, which drove Treasury yields higher. Mortgage rates m

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REALTORS: How to Explain Online Home Value Estimates

Homeowners who seek an estimate of their home’s value online often find that it doesn’t match the actual value. You need to know how to talk to your clients about this discrepancy, and the Economists’ Outlook blog, which is run by the National Association of REALTORS®, recently offered tips from data scientist Karen Belita.She notes that Automated Valuation Models, or AVMs, are based on computer algorithms and calculations that “take di

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Alternatives to trashing junk when moving

We should keep the things that bring us joy and get rid of the restKey Takeaways When moving, most clients throw away or donate unwanted items, but you can advise them of alternatives to trashing junk that could be positive for the environment.I enjoyed contributing to Amber Taufen’s article about helping our clients downsize.She wrote: “It’s harder than ever to get rid of your stuff — and once that lamp, jewelry or antique hutch reaches

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