Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips - iPro Real Estate

Fair Housing Protects LGBT People

For the first time, a federal judge has ruled that provisions in the Fair Housing Act protect against LGBT discrimination. The law states that it is illegal to refuse to rent or sell property to anyone based on race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin. But questions have been raised as to whether fair housing and other anti-discrimination laws also encompasses sexual orientation and gender identity when they are not explici

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Wire Scam Warnings as Spring Season Starts

As the spring homebuying season begins to heat up, the real estate and title insurance industries are reminding home buyers about wire fraud scams increasingly targeting them to steal their down payment funds.The National Association of REALTORS® has issued warnings to its members that hackers are trying to gain access to insecure email accounts and search inboxes for messages related to real estate transactions. The hackers then draft fake ema

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Purchase Now or Save More?

While nearly 40 percent of aspiring homeowners believe they need to put down 20 percent on a home purchase, the truth is the average down payment was just 11 percent in 2016, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. Mortgage industry blog MGIC Connects has created a Buy Now vs. Wait calculator that can show them whether they're better off waiting and continuing to save for a bigger down payment or buying now with less money upfront.Th

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REALTORS: ProspectsPlus rolls out 3-click mobile direct mail system

Real estate agents are witness to the birth of automated marketing. From Facebook lead-capture bots to MailChimp’s sales automation tools, our marketing tools are growing more sophisticated every day.Despite such advancements, traditional farming tactics will never cease being effective. This is why ProspectsPlus remains such a popular marketing tool across the industry.It helps that the direct mail and print marketing company deftly leverages

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30 luxury home design trends and features adorning 2017

A ranch-style featuring a designer kitchen, blended living space and mixed-metal trimmings — such a house would embody 2017 luxury, so long as it was also decked out in smart home technology.That’s according to twin brothers Jonathan and Drew Scott, co-founders of Scott Brothers Entertainment and Scott Living.The duo and HGTV hosts — real estate agent (Drew) and fixer-upper transformer (Jonathan) — launched their first book this year,

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REALTORS: How a small, unknown company got 700-plus leads on Facebook and SMS

Key Takeaways Facebook should become an integral part of lead generation campaigns. Customers are preferring messaging apps to get in touch with businesses. Let automation qualify leads, while you focus on closing them!We didn’t have content, we didn’t have fancy landing pages and no one knew about us.Yet with a simple ad and a minimal advertising budget, we still managed to get hundreds of real estate leads through Facebook. This blog post s

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Real Reasons Millennials Are Waiting to Buy

Forty-two percent of millennials say they are delaying buying a home because of the December 2016 Fed interest rate hike, according to a new TransUnion survey released this week of more than 1,200 consumers.The Federal Reserve announced a second rate increase in March, which might be prompting even more millennials to hold off with their homebuying plans, according to the survey. The federal interest rates usually serve as a benchmark for private

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REALTORS: Clients Want You to Talk Sustainability to Them

Get ready to talk up more green features with your homebuyers and sellers, and let them know how they can reduce energy usage in the home. More than half of REALTORS® say that their consumers are showing a greater interest in real estate sustainability issues and practices, according to NAR’s REALTORS® and Sustainability report, which stems from NAR’s new Sustainability Program.To help start these conversations, more Multiple Listing Servi

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Americans’ Mortgages Are the Biggest, Ever

The average size of a home loan has swelled to the biggest amount on record, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s survey, which dates back to 1990. The larger mortgage size not only reflects Americans purchasing pricier properties, but also shows they’re more leveraged now too, MarketWatch reports.The median mortgage size is now more than five times as big as the median annual income. In 1990, the median mortgage size was only abou

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Mortgage Rates Surprise By Nearing 2017 Low

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped lower for the third consecutive week and neared its low for 2017, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey."The 10-year Treasury yield was relatively unchanged this week, while the 30-year mortgage rate fell 4 basis points to 4.1 percent,” says Sean Becketti, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “After three straight weeks of declines, the 30-year mortgage rate is now barely above the 2017 l

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