Yahoo Real Estate

Yahoo Real Estate:
"Yahoo Real Estate, by contrast, has been pushing out new features steadily and is clearly the superior of the two destinations. No doubt in my mind - Y!RE will win out and become the dominant destination. This is surely great news in the minds of the folks at Yahoo who have been troubled by their future for weeks (see What’s in Store for Yahoo Real Estate).

Who this impacts most is Move.com - partly because they’ll see a combined entity nipping at the heels of Realtor.com, but also because they currently power MSN’s real estate searches (and no doubt draw a bunch of their own traffic from those searches).

Will Y!RE under its tent, MSN will likely push that relationship to the side and focus on tying all of its new properties under a revamped real estate destination....." from Future of Real Estate Marketing

Progressive Insurance Goes Paperless

"The Progressive Group of Insurance Cos. introduced Paperless Policies, a feature that will allow customers who buy a policy directly from the company or through independent insurance agencies, the ability to drastically reduce the amount of paper documents they receive. Having policy-related documents delivered electronically saves trees, expedites delivery of the documents and reduces the opportunity for misplaced documents, the company claims.

This new initiative is an extension of a Paperless Billing feature introduced in early 2007 that allowed customers to opt for an electronic bill versus a hard copy bill delivered by the U.S. Mail.

The Paperless Policies launch coincides with the company's "70 Years, 70 Trees" anniversary events being held in six call center cities. The first event, in which 70 large trees are being planted in city parks to celebrate the company's 70th year writing auto insurance, is being held today in Luke Easter Park in the company's headquarter city,......" Progressive Insurance Goes Paperless

Progressive Insurance goes paperless

Existing Vacant Home Sales Dropped Sharply in 07

"Year-end numbers released by the Wisconsin Realtors Association Thursday confirmed the expected: Sales of existing homes dropped off sharply in 2007, compared with 2006.The decline was even more pronounced in the fourth quarter.

Call Dick Watts Insurance 502-245-3625 for Vacant HomeInsurance Quote

The association contended there was a silver lining in the figures which also showed that median home sale prices crept up slightly even as sales fell off.Wisconsin home sales declined last year by 10.8 percent compared with 2006, but median prices rose 0.2 percent to $164,000, according to the report.
Sales in the Midwest were also down by a similar margin, falling 10.5 percent over ".....Vacant Home Sales Dropped

Vacant Home insurance Project Lifeline New Hope for Homeowners

"Six of the big mortgage companies involved the Hope NOW Alliance announced that the Alliance is expanding its efforts to help homeowners facing foreclosure.
The rate freeze program announced by President Bush in December applied only to borrowers who were facing resets on subprime adjustable rate mortgages but who were current, in fact had never been delinquent, on their mortgage payments. ...." Mortgage News Daily

Older Homes Command Higher Prices

"Age apparently has its advantages in California's real estate market. The median price of resale homes in the state is well above that of new homes, which is counter to the national trend.
The National Association of Realtors reported that the U.S. median price of resale homes was $218,900 in 2007, 11.3 percent below the median new-home price of $246,900 in 2007....." Inman Real Estate Blog