Some Event Highlights for Us From The Inman News Real Estate Connect
WOW Inman News was the best that we have seen yet with some great moments and great feedback for ListedBy from users and some of the top industry pros!
Also never a bad thing to get to play a bit in NYC!
Here are a few observations and a few highlights from ListedBy’s CEO: 
Observations:
- As my esteemed colleague noted, the industry is taking more and more of the home buying process online and seems to be a real drive towards completing transactions online and eliminating the paperwork nonsense that we have dealt with for so long. This obviously was a big part of why we founded the ListedBy.com site. To allow users to not only research homes online but actually buy homes online, and we are excited to be a part of that for the industry as a whole. Ideally we would like to incorporate a paperless system into our site that would perhaps make it even easier for our users to not only submit offers on homes online but actually complete the transaction. Who knows, we might have made a partnership for that at this event.=)
- NYC is enjoyable and one heck of a place to go, but those stories that you hear about the airport at JFK are all true!
Highlights:
- It was a pleasure for me to get to chat with a couple of industry rockstars in particular that had some sentimental value for me. Won’t state their names as don’t have authorization to, but one CEO in particular still owns the site where I bought my first Detroit, MI property online that to some extent started the whole idea for creating the ListedBy site. It was great to chat with someone of his caliber for an hour and hear he actually really liked the concept of our site! Also, great to see a few good friends and partners like Bill from Revestor, the boys from NuOffer, my main man Hector from Trycera (All great companies to check out) and many more.
- We REALLY got some positive comments from a lot of the industry’s top agents about the website and saw that they really love the ability that ListedBy allows for them to have direct offers from the buyers, which allows them the opportunity to double their commissions by representing both parties. Also, agents and users all loved the new and improved page for service providers where you can search services for free like you would on a servicemagic.com and other similar websites, but with us of course it is all for real estate management and purchases.
- We once again had a helicopter to give away to one lucky user. Roger always tries to get it out of the box and fly it around, which sometimes results in the police being called. Luckily I was there to save him from himself! Another personal note highlight for me is that we got to have a great dinner with a killer view of the city with my big guy Roger. It was nice to have a moment like that with a great business partner and friend to look at where we have come and where we hope to go with the site as we continue to grow. As we all know, running startups and really any business has ups and downs, and takes a certain level of dedication. So moments like that, events like NAR Orlando and this one are really a big part of what makes it so enjoyable and rewarding, and why I am so thankful to all of you for using the site and allowing us to keeping putting out those 15 hour days to try and get better all the time.
To clarify, the gentleman noted in the photo there is Hector from Trycera, not Roger.
All in all it was exceptional and we look forward to being a part of many more events like this one in the future and hopefully seeing some of you there also. Who knows, you might win a helicopter, or even better, private dinner with me and Roger!
Stephan Piscano
CEO ListedBy.com
Growing Families Looking for Larger Homes
Quite interesting but not surprising stats and insight from Pew Research Centre and TD Bank in the article below, from ARA. It would seem like the current economy has ushered a new lifestyle option, and people, ‘the Sandwich Generation,’ are seizing the underlying opportunity. The silver lining if you like. While traditional financing for such moves offer great advantages to those who qualify, non traditional lenders and seller financing (OWC) are also becoming popular. OWC financing exponentially increases the likelihood of a deal, and many home or land owners are resorting to this strategy to move property. For example, this OWC condo listing allows buyers to strike a deal with the seller, with a single click.
“More and more households have extended family living together under one roof, and the tight fit has some families in the market for a larger home.
From 2007 to 2009, there was a 10.5 percent increase in multi-generational homes that translates to 51 million Americans, or 16.7 percent of the population, who lived in homes with at least two generations of adults, according to a recent report from Pew Research Center. If your household is growing and you’re looking for a larger space to accommodate your needs and family size, the housing market is in your favor. Low prices and attractive interest rates have created an opportunity for anyone looking to make a larger housing purchase.
As multi-generational living becomes more prevalent, builders and re-modelers have found a niche market in creating homes designed to fit the lifestyle. For the “Sandwich Generation,” a generation of people who are caring for their aging parents while supporting their own children, there are advantages to having children and grandparents under one roof such as sharing of household responsibilities and finances and increased focus on family time together. With these advantages, however, there may be a need for a larger home to accommodate a growing family.
A recent TD Bank survey found that of respondents who were planning to sell their current home and buy up, one-third attributed it to a larger or growing family. To finance a bigger home purchase, you can look to a jumbo mortgage. Jumbo mortgages are home loans that are bigger than normal. Normal varies by location, but in most housing markets, it’s more than $417,000.
Overall, the residential mortgage landscape is experiencing gradual improvements, with housing prices stabilizing and even improving in some markets. If you’re looking for a larger space to accommodate your growing family, consider beginning your home buying process now. When looking into lenders, consider a portfolio lender, who can offer flexible terms and lending guidelines, to best fit your unique borrowing needs.”