The Federal Government took over control of FNMA and Freddie Mac this morning.(09/07/2008) As I was reading about it last night and again this afternoon, my thoughts go to how this will affect home buyers and sellers, as well as the economy in general.

In the previous article, I discussed how agents are beginning to take their offices wherever they go — well, maybe not the entire office environment, but at least the advantages of the office. Left behind are the endless interruptions, the noise, the mess, the well meaning colleagues “helping” or asking for help. Still very much available, yet remotely, are an array of technologies from telecommunications, to software, to IVR and LCM customer acquisition technologies, to websites, and CRM solutions. Virtually all the tools of a typical office (only often better) all available remotely.

I'm continually amazed at the developmental progress in -- and growing use of -- visualization tools to summarize data.  In a different post I wrote about the progress companies like Intronetworks has made in visualizing relationships between member profiles and member interests in online community networks.  In a recent article, NY Times wrote about a data visualization tool called "Many Eyes."

In another major announcement for the mortgage industry, GMAC Financial Services announced yesterday that it would close all of its 200 retail offices and lay off about 5,000 of its employees.

The majority of the cuts will happen in GMAC’s mortgage lending division, Residential Capital, and will slash that company by some 60%.

ResCap was the 7^th largest mortgage originator in the country with and market share of approximately 3.9%. ResCap’s losses for the second quarter of 2008 was $1.86 billion.

When you break a real estate agents business down, there are only four ways to increase production.  There are four proven avenues toward increased gross revenue.  The four ways to increase production are:

Number of contacts

In my last article, I discussed how our industry is changing dramatically.  I discussed how over the last few years telework has become mainstream, and is now amounting to nearly a quarter of our work force.  I cited how working remotely is increasing in popularity as technology is developed and costs associated with commuting increase.  Five years ago nobody would have even considered a virtual office, and yet at the current rate of growth, in a few short years virtual offices will no longer be the exception, but rather, the rule. So what do I mean when I talk about a real estate “virtual office”?

Oh, come on…you knew it was only a matter of days before someone started guilting you into thinking about what you are going to do this year for your holiday card and / or gift giving to all your clients.  So, let’s just get it over with – it’s time to start thinking about it, let’s just get it done.

There is a lot of buzz out there in the industry today about the emergence of “teams” and how dominant they can be in their market.  Is this the wave of the future and are we going to see the sole practitioner move into the background?

Broker Tries to Lure Sellers with Segway Promotion

I came across the article above with an idea I hadn't tried before.

Much has been written about how the dearth of buyers in the housing market has contributed to the anemic sales activity. But, some brokers say, part of the problem is that sellers are keeping homes off the market because they don’t think they’ll get a good price.

To motivate sellers Jay Burnham, a Massachusetts broker, recently came up with another idea: he’s offering sellers a Segway... Highlights below.

...then send this post to them and have 'em watch the presentation below (big video) by Michael Wesch.  Same guy, btw, who created "The Machine is Us/ing Us"