Updated Articles and Resources

By James Kimmons, About.com Guide

NAR 2012 Member Profile Yields Interesting Web Business Statistics Created: Thursday, May 17, 2012 Updated: Thursday, May 17, 2012
The National Association of Realtors just released their 2012 Member Profile with a lot of demographic data about real estate professionals. I want to concentrate on what I found interesting in th...
Buyer Agents - Welcome Commission Cut Requests Created: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 Updated: Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Buyer agents should welcome being asked to cut their commission late in negotiations because it means they're doing their job.
Open Houses - One-Sided Benefits for Agents Created: Thursday, May 03, 2012 Updated: Thursday, May 03, 2012
Open houses will probably always be around, but it certainly isn't because they're a value to sellers.
Real Estate Content Marketing Created: Friday, April 27, 2012 Updated: Sunday, April 29, 2012
Whether you have thought about it before or not, real estate professionals with websites and blogs are
National Association of Realtors - NAR's 2011 Commercial Real Estate Outlook Created: Saturday, December 04, 2010 Updated: Monday, April 16, 2012
The National Association of Realtors has released its data and forecasts for the last quarter of 2010 through the last quarter of 2011. NAR's forecast focused specifically on rent, net absorption a..
Real Estate Intranets - What Is Most Important In Choosing a Real Estate Intranet? Created: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 Updated: Monday, April 16, 2012
Real estate brokerages are now going more mobile every day, and it's not all about saving money on office space. Learn what your most important consideration should be when investigating online in..
Backpack for Transaction Management Created: Friday, April 13, 2012 Updated: Friday, April 13, 2012
There are a great many tools and resources at our disposal for managing transactions, transaction tasks and document delivery and management. A new one I've been using is Backpack, and I like the f..
Real Estate Financial Calculator - Spreadsheet Real Estate Financial Calculator Created: Friday, June 15, 2007 Updated: Monday, April 09, 2012
A spreadsheet real estate financial calculator solution. Set up to quickly calculate gross potential income, gross operating income, gross rent multiplier, net operating income, cash flow before t...
Professional Designations - Reasons to Get Real Estate Professional Designations Created: Friday, June 15, 2007 Updated: Monday, April 09, 2012
Though continuing education is required by most states in order to keep an active real estate license, there are more educational resources for us and they provide professional designations we can ...
Real Estate Listing Syndication Created: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 Updated: Monday, April 09, 2012
Why real estate listing syndication is important, what it is, and how to get it done for your listings.
The Online Real Estate Office Solution Tutorial Created: Thursday, January 10, 2008 Updated: Monday, April 09, 2012
Learn through a step-by-step process how to set up a free set of online collaboration tools to manage your real estate business email, contacts, calendar and more.
Real Estate Website Search Engine Traffic - Where Does It Come From? Created: Friday, April 06, 2012 Updated: Friday, April 06, 2012
After a number of years with the same major search engines dominating the market, which bring the most traffic to your real estate site? The numbers are very revealing...examples here.
eBook Publishing for Real Estate Credibility and Lead Generation Created: Thursday, March 15, 2012 Updated: Thursday, March 15, 2012
What better way to position yourself as a real estate expert in your market than by being a published author on the subject? It's easy now, and can be totally free, and it can generate leads from y..
Real Estate Property Management - Facility & Physical Maintenance Created: Monday, September 10, 2007 Updated: Friday, March 09, 2012
Facility or physical maintenance is an important function of real estate property management. Regular preventive maintenance, as well as repairs when things go wrong, are quite important to tenant...
LinkedIn for the Real Estate Professional - Should You Have a LinkedIn Profile for Real Estate? Created: Thursday, November 20, 2008 Updated: Friday, March 09, 2012
Though many real estate professionals have set up profiles on MySpace and Facebook to communicate socially with consumers, there is a definite value to the more business-focus approach of LinkedIn...
Onebox for Real Estate Office Phone/Fax Services Created: Wednesday, March 07, 2012 Updated: Wednesday, March 07, 2012
Onebox.com offers a suite of services to handle phone lines, call routing, voicemail, messaging, online faxing and more. Here are my experiences in getting set up.
Federal Buildings - How EISA Will Affect Commercial Real Estate Leases Created: Tuesday, January 04, 2011 Updated: Monday, February 27, 2012
In conjunction with Pres. Obama's goal to make government establishments more energy efficient and sustainable, the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007, which was enacted on Dec. 19..
The Dangers of Temporary Niches in Real Estate Created: Tuesday, February 21, 2012 Updated: Tuesday, February 21, 2012
While things were bad and not looking hugely better from 2008 into 2012, and it's a given that many real estate agents had to adapt to keep working, there is a danger in dedicating all resources to..
There are So Many Places for Content - What to Do? Created: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 Updated: Wednesday, February 15, 2012
It's enough to make a real estate professional throw up their hands and give up! However, learn here how to write content once and use it in multiple places around the Web to promote your real esta..
Calculate Break Even Ratio - Break Even Ratio for Real Estate Investors Created: Saturday, March 17, 2007 Updated: Thursday, January 26, 2012
The break-even ratio of a real estate investment is the total of the debt service and operating expenses divided by the gross operating income. It is expressed as a percentage, the lower the bette...
Calculate Cash Flow Before Taxes CFBT - Real Estate Investment Cash Flow Before Taxes CFBT Created: Thursday, December 28, 2006 Updated: Thursday, January 26, 2012
Cash flow is all the in and out flows of cash through a business, without regard to tax considerations. All money in or out is considered. This is Cash Flow Before Taxes or CFBT. The cash flow o...
Calculate Gross Operating Income G0I - GOI Gross Operating Income in Real Estate Investment Created: Saturday, December 02, 2006 Updated: Thursday, January 26, 2012
In real estate investment, we want to estimate the income of a property with a realistic estimate of losses due to vacancy and bad credit. This is called gross operating income or GOI. We subtrac...
How to Calculate and Use Gross Rent Multiplier GRM - Formula for Gross Rent Multiplier GRM Created: Sunday, November 05, 2006 Updated: Thursday, January 26, 2012
Gross Rent Multiplier or GRM is a tool used to assess the approximate value of a rental property by comparing its rental income with other like properties.
How to Calculate Simple Interest - Real Estate Investment Simple Interest Calculation Created: Sunday, November 05, 2006 Updated: Thursday, January 26, 2012
The formula and method for simple interest calculation, using principal amount, rate and time is presented here. Used frequently by those in real estate investing.
Real Estate Property Management Space - Rent Collection in Property Management Created: Thursday, September 06, 2007 Updated: Thursday, January 26, 2012
Rent collection and real estate property management begins with the tenant's rental application. Rental payment provisions are spelled out. From that point on, property management's responsibilit...
Calculate Net Rental Yield - Net Rental Yield Calculation for the Real Estate Investor Created: Thursday, July 05, 2007 Updated: Thursday, January 26, 2012
Many believe that consistently better returns on investment can be realized in real estate investment rental property than can be gained in stocks or bonds investments. The start of the process is...
Prorating Assumed Mortgage Interest - Prorating Assumed Interest for the Real Estate Investor Created: Saturday, June 09, 2007 Updated: Thursday, January 26, 2012
When real estate investors assume a mortgage loan from the seller, there must be a proration of the mortgage interest due. As mortgage interest is paid in arrears, the seller will owe the buyer fo...
Prorating Insurance Premium - Prorating Insurance for the Real Estate Investor Created: Saturday, June 09, 2007 Updated: Thursday, January 26, 2012
In some cases, the hazard or other insurance policy will be assumed by the buyer of a real estate investment property. When this occurs, the amount of the premium paid in advance, but unused at th...
Real Estate Email Archiving - The Federal Government Requires Real Estate Email Archiving Created: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 Updated: Thursday, January 26, 2012
With so many of our activities as real estate agents and brokers falling under rules from the EPA, HUD and other federal agencies, it's always possible that you could end up in court concerning a t...
Twitter for Real Estate Investing - How Real Estate Investors Can Use Twitter for Profit Created: Wednesday, July 08, 2009 Updated: Thursday, January 26, 2012
Though Twitter only turned three years old in March 2009, its user growth the previous year was 1287%. See how real estate investors can use it for profit.
Fear Technology? - Hire an Assistant Created: Saturday, September 30, 2006 Updated: Thursday, January 26, 2012
Start getting into real estate technology hardware, software, services, the internet and more soon, or your business will suffer. If you're afraid of technology, hire an assistant who isn't.
Starting as a Commercial Real Estate Agent? - About Commercial Real Estate Agent Requirements Created: Thursday, December 28, 2006 Updated: Thursday, January 26, 2012
A common question is whether a person new to real estate should start out as a commercial real estate agent, or work into it from residential or another area of real estate. The decision requires ...

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