As a broker and real estate coach, I’m always surprised when new agents tell me they don’t want to use real estate scripts. A script is just a predetermined question or response that helps guide a conversation closer to your desired outcome. Knowing what you’ll say in advance on a call, at an open h

Since launching in late June, Ryan Serhant’s latest reality TV venture “Owning Manhattan” on Netflix, has become quite the phenomenon. Despite debuting on June 28, the show cracked Netflix’s top-10 most streamed shows in the U.S. for the week ending on June 30. The show stars Serhant, who is no stra

The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Monday announced that it has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to expand the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)’ authority to review real estate transactions near military installations by foreign buyers.CFIUS is an inter-a

At the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) Eastern Regional Meeting in May, Acting Ginnie Mae President Sam Valverde said that the government-owned company planned to release a term sheet for a newly proposed Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM)-backed Securities (HMBS) program s

Nationally, the housing market indicators have been slow for several months now. There have been a few markets; however, that have defied the national trends where inventory has stayed tighter and demand keeps rolling in. Available inventory of unsold homes in the U.S. is 40% more now than last year

The Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) on Monday submitted a letter to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra, urging the agency to more forcefully go after trigger lead solicitations. To cement the point, CHLA is calling such solicitations “junk calls,” echoing the

An historic home in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1903 is in serious need of repairs and renovations, but an existing reverse mortgage loan is complicating the process of initiating the work. This is according to original reporting by Crain’s Chicago Busin

Despite a spate of reports showing the cost of housing increasing, consumers have a slightly rosier view of future home-price growth.That’s according to a new consumer survey from the Federal Reserve that shows respondents believe that home-price growth will be 3%. That’s down from 3.3% in last mont

Top-five mortgage lender Newrez, owned by asset manager Rithm Capital, has imposed another round of layoffs affecting 265 employees in Colorado and Arizona, per documents sent to state authorities.That’s the third round this year, following the acquisition of Computershare Mortgage Services and its

Roughly eight months after acquiring PacWest Bancorp in a rescue deal, Banc of California is selling roughly $2 billion in business-purpose residential mortgage loans, according to Bloomberg.PacWest had already sold the servicing on the debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) loans, which were originated

Now that we are halfway through the year, we can see that active inventory in America is growing, unlike what happened in 2023. This is precisely what the doctor ordered for the housing market. In March of 2022, we only had 240,000 active single-family homes available for sale, leading me to call th

A New York jury found Vishal Garg, CEO and founder of digital mortgage lender Better.com, liable for breach of fiduciary duty and conversion in a decade-long lawsuit filed by his former partner, Raza Khan. Garg intends to appeal. The court ordered Garg to pay $5.5 million to Educational Investment &

To Andy Florance, the CEO of CoStar Group, the trade secret lawsuit Move, Inc., the parent company of listing portal rival Realtor.com, recently filed against his firm is all a “PR stunt.”“Effectively, you create a bogus story and you use a relatively junior person as a pawn and you get a story out

Attorneys for both Ginnie Mae and Texas Capital Bank (TCB) are asking a magistrate judge overseeing their case about HECM tail collateral in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas for an extension to decide on separate motions brought by both parties: one seeking a change of venu

As those in or near retirement continue to proclaim a preference for aging in place, there may be challenges for people who aren’t sure about how or when they should get started on making plans. A series of home healthcare, renovation and senior care experts offer tips on ways to begin in a column p

Data on the intersection between housing issues and politics is clear: in 2024, housing is an issue that resonates strongly with younger voters, but high mortgage rates and high home prices may be issues for years to come. This is according to a report published this week by Politico.Recent data abo

Fewer prospective mortgage borrowers pulled the trigger in June, according to a new report from Mortgage Capital Trading. Mortgage rate locks decreased 7.84% in June compared to the previous month. This drop follows a brief uptick in volume at the beginning of the traditional buying season, suggesti

A ransomware attack on Bay-area Patelco Credit Union caused almost half a million members to lose access to banking services, and the outage could last for weeks.The company shared news of the attack on June 29 via Twitter. The services knocked off line include online banking, the company’s mobile a

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) this week detailed its reasons for opposing a bill in the state of Florida designed “to expand projects eligible for residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing,” which was recently signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Florida Senate Bill SB-77

With today’s jobs report and all the reports we got during this jobs week, can we finally say the Federal Reserve is winning its war against the labor market? I believe the Fed won’t pivot until the labor market breaks. That has been my position since 2022 and we are starting to see some early signs