How is the housing market impacting real estate agents?

George Schechter has an entirely new business model. A real estate agent at Compass Florida in Coconut Grove, Schechter has 12 years of experience in the real estate industry, so he’s familiar with its cyclical ups and downs. But today’s housing market has forced him to pivot to remain successful.

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A conversation with NAR’s newest leader

Tracy Kasper, broker-owner of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Silverhawk The new face of leadership for the powerful National Association of Realtors (NAR) is outstanding in the field. Tracy Kasper, broker-owner of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Silverhawk in Idaho, was elected by the NAR’s board of directors earlier this month to

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MBA promotes Knowlton, adds Kelley to political teams

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) announced two additions to its executive team on Thursday. The company named Alden Knowlton associate vice president of legislative affairs and Rachel Kelley associate vice president of political affairs, the MBA said in a release. Knowlton, who joined MBA in 2016 and previously held the

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Low inventory stifles April’s pending home sales

Like new and existing sales, pending home sales felt the strain of exhausted home inventory in April ― dropping 4.4% from the previous month to an index of 106.2, according to Thursday data from the National Association of Realtors. Against a pandemic landscape from last April, however, pending home sales

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SoftPro names Gorkem Kuterdem CTO

SoftPro has named title and escrow veteran Gorkem Kuterdem its new chief technology officer, the company announced Thursday. Kuterdem has more than 15 years of experience specific to the title industry, previously serving as senior vice president for strategy at Adeptive Software and former CTO for WFG National Title Insurance

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Mortgage rates drop below 3% again

Mortgage rates fluctuated again last week, down 5 basis points to 2.95% after managing to pop back up to 3% the week prior, according to Thursday data from Freddie Mac‘s PMMS. Mortgage rates have been hovering around 3% for over a month now, as macro economic factors left the bond

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Fannie Mae taps Evans as next single-family chief

Fannie Mae now has a clear successor to take the reins of its single-family business following the departure of Andrew Bon Salle in December. The government sponsored entity has named Malloy Evans, the company’s current chief credit officer for single family, to head the division, it said in a statement

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CRT protects GSEs, taxpayers from unexpected disasters

After reading the recent report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency on the performance of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s credit risk transfer programs, anyone unfamiliar with the purposes of CRT might understandably conclude that the GSEs vastly overpaid capital market investors and insurance providers to transfer credit risk off

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Freddie Mac taps Michael DeVito as next CEO

Nearly six months after David Brickman stepped down, government-sponsored entity Freddie Mac has tapped ex-Wells Fargo mortgage executive Michael DeVito to assume the role of CEO. DeVito, who spent more than two decades at Wells Fargo before retiring last year, will take the helm of the GSE on June 1.

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