Your website’s strong content should relate to neighborhoods and communities served. You should have valuable and insightful content that people want to read, because the best way to get people to your site and keep them coming back is

The level of builders’ sentiment remained steady at 47 in January, due in part to an uncertain political agenda in December 2012 that stalled the consecutive increase in builders’ confidence. Contributing factors included ongoing debates about government spending, potential

The annual rate of construction for multifamily buildings increased 23 percent to 330,000 in December 2012, hitting a 4.5-year high. This marks the first time the monthly five-plus rate has been over 300,000 since the housing downturn affected the

1. Give yourself a time audit. Spend the next week documenting every single thing you do in your job. Then, prioritize. If you have an assistant, identify the tasks you can delegate to them. For example, finding leads or

The results are in! With all the news and changes in the mortgage market, we wanted to know what mortgage professionals thought about the market and recent changes, and what their predictions are for this year. We sent this

After months of speculation, on Jan. 10, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finally announced its qualified mortgage standards, which are the new, defining lending guidelines for the nation’s banks. Designed to avoid any of the exotic, risky mortgages that

There have been recent reports that certain products have changing guidelines, and that some loans are becoming harder for homebuyers to qualify for. But you should be careful what you read, according to Jon Goldman and Matt Kennedy, senior

As stated in our cover story, one of the main benefits of joining a Realtor association is to access the multiple listing service (MLS). Though syndication sites such as Trulia and Zillow, and online brokerages such as Redfin, offer

With the “broker’s choice” model in place, Chicagoland’s real estate agents are free to join whichever Realtor association suits their fancy, regardless of what region it represents. Why should agents, though, choose one association over another? And how do

As the Senior Director of Communications and Media Relations for the Chicago Association of Realtors (CAR), Barbara Matthopoulos is one of the most widely recognized individuals at the association, and for good reason – her position encompasses nothing less

Many in the industry predicted the housing market would fully recover by 2014. Do you think the market will recover this soon? Why or why not? I agree with that statement, but I think the market will recover quicker

In addition to all of the professional responsibilities of the position, which involve nothing short of direct supervision over the brokerage’s business and the agents it employs, managing brokers are also responsible for setting the tone of the office,

We asked managing brokers and marketing/public relations staff of several brokerages for the information on the following pages. Check out what other companies have to

By Carrie Gable In many industries, real estate in particular, you work for yourself. You may belong to a brokerage or work for a team. In fact, you may get all of your leads and clients from the broker

By Stephanie Sims How can you make sure you’re working with the cream of the crop? How can you assemble a team of top producers? Look for agents with these 10