Years ago, pre-children, I was a full-time career woman, and then for the first years after having children, I was a full-time at-home mom,  either of which is a lot for anybody. For the past couple years, I have

News flash! The Internet is as important as ever when it comes to the home search process. Here’s an eye-popping stat for you: this year, 92 percent of homebuyers have used the Internet at some point in their home

What types of homes have proven most popular with homebuyers in 2013? We take a look at recent NAR data to find out. Consumer preferences are an ever shifting, evolving landscape, and few regions of the economy shift more

Sound decision making is integral for a successful real estate business, how do you ensure that you’re always making good decisions? Real estate is a uniquely decision-based profession. Sure, all businesses depend upon good decision making to succeed, but

Quite a few sellers decide to take their home off the market during the winter months and then re-list their properties in the spring. Some sellers do this because they don’t want to be bothered during the holidays with

What is It? GoToMeeting is the long reigning king of online collaboration and presentation tools. With integrated phone numbers/VOIP (ability to call in via your computer), killer mobile integration and their new HD Faces video product, GoToMeeting continues their

I received no less than three phone calls last week from people who wanted to know if I had heard anything about whether the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 was being extended. I’m flattered that people see me

While housing marches to the slow, steady drumbeat of recovery, the grass is getting greener and optimism is creeping back into the hearts and minds of both real estate professionals and homeowners. But the wild ride isn’t over, and

As the co-inventor of ACT! contact management software, the product credited as the catalyst for the customer relationship management industry, I’m surprisingly not a champion of the concept of “managing relationships” at all. I don’t think entering data, scheduling

Coffee is the go-to resource for staying alert at work, but we have five more…natural alternatives to consider. Coffee is legendary in the annals of business; indeed, that ol’ cup of joe is a required part of the day

Christmas comes early every year for the Chicago Agent staff with the release of the Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers from NAR. Rejoice – ’tis the most wonderful time of the year! No, we’re not celebrating an early

Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED), Chicagoland’s multiple listing service (MLS), announced today that the new interactive market analytics tool Infosparks has gotten a tremendous reception from MRED customers. Infosparks is the latest version of The Thing, the extremely popular

If you’ve ever tried to run a promotion or giveaway on your Facebook page to engage your fans, you probably quickly realized how time consuming and expensive they can be. Before recent updates to its promotions policy, Facebook only

Baird & Warner has signed an agreement with DocuSign to become the first major real estate services company to provide all of its broker associates with “pro” level digital transaction management by the end of the year. The new tool

Agents are always looking for ways to be more productive, and we have three easy, straightforward approaches towards achieving just that. Productivity is one of those golden words in today’s business climate, a concept that just about everyone agrees

On Wednesday, Nov. 6, Twitter announced, via Twitter of course, their IPO price of $26 a share. What does this mean for you? Well, unless you are trying to make an investment decision, you may think it has no