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Talk of a potential recession and the impending business practice changes were the overarching themes of the opening session of Keller Williams’ 2024 Mega Agent Camp Tuesday morning.Despite these harsh realities, Gary Keller, the executive chairman and co-founder of the firm, still had a reassuring
Read More HighTechLending leaders say flexibility, added value drive rebranded wholesale division

California-based HighTechLending, a top-10 lender in the reverse mortgage industry, recently announced that it was rebranding its wholesale channel to American Senior Lending Wholesale Division in an effort to better align its identity with key business lines designed to serve older borrowers.One of
Read MoreMortgage rates are down. Do buyers care?

Mortgage rates fell two weeks ago, then climbed steadily again last week. Is it enough to motivate any new seller activity or are we looking at 2025 before home sales finally recover?From a total inventory perspective, we haven’t seen any pickup in demand in the past couple of weeks as mortgage rate
Read MoreMore FHA borrowers are using piggyback loans that bear watching: CoreLogic

Piggyback mortgages — those involving a first and second lien at origination — are on the rise among first-time and low- to moderate-income borrowers who face affordability challenges. This is according to a CoreLogic report published on Monday.The share of piggybacked Federal Housing Administration
Read MoreOh snap! Michigan real estate brokers file antitrust suit against NAR

There are just five days to go until the business practice changes outlined in the National Association of Realtors’(NAR) nationwide commission lawsuit settlement agreement, but the trade association is not out of the lawsuit woods just yet. In a lawsuit filed on Monday by Douglas Hardy, Glenn Champ
Read MoreRural seniors seeking to age in place grapple with a shortage of home care workers

Rural parts of the U.S. have roughly 35% fewer home health aides to assist their aging populations than urban areas do.This is according to research from the University of Minnesota as cited by the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), a private nonprofit research organization that receives funding fro
Read MoreRealty ONE Group adds 1,200 agents in Florida through new affiliate

Realty ONE Group is making moves in Florida. The firm announced on Friday the affiliation of Florida-based MVP Realty Associates. Derek Carlson, the founder, CEO and broker of MVP Realty Associates, has been named CEO and broker of the new Realty ONE Group MVP. The firm has 10 offices and more than
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Many brokerage firms are trepidatiously moving to a model with no cooperative compensation in light of the impending business practice changes outlined in the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) nationwide commission lawsuit settlement agreement. Peter Voss at 3% Listing Co. is wondering what to
Read More JD Vance on immigration, institutional investors and other housing issues

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) established name recognition and political bona fides from his military service in the U.S. Marine Corps, his education at Yale Law School, his work for state and federal politicians, and his time as a venture capitalist. He published his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, in June 2016.
Read MoreWest Penn MLS continues quest to get Moratis commission suit dismissed

While a U.S. district court judge in Pennsylvania may have denied its motion to stay the Moratis copycat commission lawsuit, defendant West Penn MLS is not backing down without a fight.In addition to filing a motion in June to stay the suit, West Penn MLS also filed a motion for dismissal, as the ML
Read MoreOpen Mortgage closes distributed retail channel, will focus on TPO

Open Mortgage on Friday shut down its distributed retail channel and laid off more than two dozen employees. The divisional closure comes six months after the Texas-based lender changed ownership and nine months after it exited the reverse mortgage business. The company will focus on the third-party
Read MoreOne-third of property managers are offering concessions as rental market cools

Have lower mortgage rates boosted housing demand yet?
Have lower mortgage rates positively impacted the housing demand data yet? Some people have been very disappointed with the data so far, so I wanted to take an in-depth look with this week’s tracker to see what lower rates have done to these key data lines. Let’s look at two of those data lines toda
Read MoreReverse mortgage volume rose in July while securitizations fell

The reverse mortgage industry’s key performance indicators were split in July, according to data from industry analysts.Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) endorsements increased by 8% from June to July, with the total of 2,274 falling reasonably in line with Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
Read MoreWhy a reverse mortgage could be viable in a ‘gray divorce’ situation

“Gray divorce” — referring to the decision of a married couple over the age of 50 to separate — is a growing phenomenon. According to a 2022 study published in the Journals of Gerontology, the rate of divorce among those ages 50 and older has doubled since 1990 and has tripled for those 65 or older.
Read MoreRealtor.com revenue falls as the portal wars heat up

As the portal wars have heated up, Realtor.com’s revenue has cooled off. During the fiscal year fourth quarter Move, Inc., the parent company of Realtor.com, recorded a 2% annual decrease in revenue to $143 million, according to an announcement on Thursday. NewsCorp, the parent company of Move, attr
Read MoreCooler market conditions generate mixed results for title’s Big Four

A cooler spring homebuying season led to a mixed bag of financial results for the Big Four title insurance firms in the second quarter of 2024. Although all four firms reported a net income during the quarter, not all of them recorded better results than a year ago.Old RepublicAt Old Republic, total
Read MoreTrump suggests he’ll seek more executive influence over the Fed if elected

During a press conference on Thursday from his Florida resort home, Mar-a-Lago, former president and 2024 Republican nominee Donald Trump suggested that the president should be able to exert more influence over the policy of the Federal Reserve than they do today.Near the end of the press conference
Read MoreThe Mortgage Collaborative’s Melissa Langdale on the risks and rewards of gen AI

Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler sat down with Melissa Langdale, president and chief operating officer of The Mortgage Collaborative, to talk about the recent FHFA TechSprint focused on gen AI use cases in housing. The use case developed by Langdale and her team was recognized as the most promising use
Read MoreWith agent count sinking, RE/MAX will consider business model changes

Is a business model change coming for RE/MAX? The possibility was floated on the company’s second-quarter 2024 earnings call Friday morning, as the brokerage’s sinking agent count continues to suppress revenue in what’s already a difficult housing market for real estate companies.RE/MAX has operated
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