This video is directly from Laurence Yun from the National Association of Realtors. Things are continuing to change in our real estate markets with some drastic changes being very localized. The cost of new construction is now much higher that purchasing an already built home- which we see playing out in the Brainerd Lakes area of Minnesota and construction of new homes therefore slowing to a crawl. People are entering the market to pick up properties at low prices. Cash transactions seem to be much higher than normal- suggesting that there are investors rushing in with all cash or first time home buyers getting contributions from family members to purchase properties. Laurence feels conditions are favorable for rising sales in the upcoming months. 03/28/2011

  photo by MeFind - Creative Commons Since we are constantly adding to our numbers on Active Rain - I thought a little information on blogging might be in order.  When I do my Realtor presentations on  home staging, I mention Active Rain and blogging and send out invites to the agents in the following days.  My success rate is not good, so I can't give you tips on "how to get people to join". But , often, although they have heard the term blog, they really don't have a clue as to what that means.  They even inform me that their Real Estate agency has urged them to start blogging and they don't.  This article is not about the merits of blogging - but what it is. Your spell checker doesn't even know, unless you program it.   From WordPress, another site I blog on and help with edits:"Blog... 09/18/2007