Keller Williams Realty Named No. 2 Training Organization in the World

Provided By: http://www.kw.com/kw/pressrelease.html?pressReleaseId=741

AUSTIN, TEXAS (February 5, 2014)- Keller Williams Realty, the largest real estate franchise in North America and one of the fastest-growing real estate companies in the world, has been named the No. 2 training organization across all industries by Training Magazine. At an awards ceremony in San Diego to honor the Training 125, Keller Williams was recognized for the record growth, productivity and profitability gains that its training and education programs fueled last year.

"We want to thank all of our coaches, course writers, instructors and associates for embracing these training programs and delivering extraordinary results," said Dianna Kokoszka, CEO of KW MAPS Coaching and Keller Williams University.

Keller Williams was joined in the Top 5 by Jiffy Lube, Capital BlueCross, CHG Healthcare Services, and Mohawk Industries, Inc. Training Magazine, which features the Top 5 honorees in its January-February 2014 issue, commended Keller Williams for several programs and initiatives, including:

BOLD (Business Objective: Life by Design)- a transformative program that helps real estate professionals increase sales through the relentless pursuit of leads and business-building activities. Over the course of seven weeks, BOLD conditions agents with powerful mindset exercised, language techniques and lead-generation activities. Participants are assigned to accountability teams and challenged to push each other to achieve big results. BOLD attracts real estate professionals from brokerages and brands throughout the industry, many of whom sign up every time it is offered. Last year, BOLD graduates increased their closed transactions by 50 percent and their income by 114 percent compared with agents who did not take BOLD.

RSTLM (Recruit, Select, Train, Lead and Motivate) - a comprehensive training course for finding, hiring, training and leading talent. RSTLM is an intensive, four-day training program. Leaders use it to recruit and retain talent. Agents use it to hire teams so they can grow and work effectively. Leaders who have taken the series and use the models and systems have shown a 63 percent increase in franchise office profitability compared with other leaders, contributing to the record 95 percent market center profitability Keller Williams offices achieved in 2013. Agents using RSTLM reported a four-fold increase in income, from $50,000 to $212,000.

"We are incredibly honored by this distinction," CEO Mark Willis said. "We're an education-based, technology-driven company. This award reaffirms our commitment to providing our associates with the resources and training they need to grow their businesses."

"We are fortunate to have the best training programs and the best training professionals in the real estate industry," President Mary Tennant said. "By focusing on education, we're helping our 95,000 associates build careers worth having, businesses worth owning and lives worth living."

For more information about the Training 125, visit www.trainingmag.com.

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About Keller Williams Realty, Inc.:

Keller Williams Realty, Inc. is the largest real estate franchise company in North America, with approximately 700 offices and 95,000 associates in more than a dozen countries around the world. The company has grown exponentially since the opening of the first Keller Williams Realty office in 1983, and continues to cultivate an agent-centric, education-based, technology-driven culture that rewards associates as stakeholders. The company also provides specialized agents in luxury homes and commercial real estate properties. For more information or to search for homes for sale visit Keller Williams Realty online at (www.kw.com). For more information about KWWorldwide, please visit kwworldwide.com.

Keller Williams Co-Founder Gary Keller Shows Off his The Rolling Stone A...

Last chance for mortgages below 5%?

Provided by: homes.yahoo.com

Last year's 3.5% mortgage rates are long gone — and experts say consumers who hold off buying or refinancing homes in hopes that sub-4% interest levels will return could miss out on today's sub-5% rates, too.

"We think 3.5% rates are in the rearview mirror now," says Mike Fratantoni, chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association. "It's highly unlikely that we're going to get back to those levels again."

Benchmark U.S. mortgage rates hit a record-low of around 3.5% in late 2012 and early 2013 as the Federal Reserve's Quantitative Easing III program helped push long-term interest rates into the cellar. Under QE3, the central bank had been buying $85 billion of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities each month in a bid to drive rates on mortgages and other long-term debt down.

But mortgage rates shot up to around 4.4% last summer after the Fed hinted in May at plans to begin winding QE3 down.

Now, market watchers expect QE3's phaseout and the strengthening U.S. economy's increased inflation risks to push mortgage rates to 5% or higher by year's end.

[Want to get a mortgage before rates go up? Click to compare interest rates from lenders now.]

Fratantoni predicts rates will hit 5% by summer and 5.3% by Dec. 31.

"The U.S. economy is growing again, the Fed is beginning to back off of its very-aggressive policy to lower rates and we have [increasing federal budget-deficit] pressures," he says. "Given all of that, rates are much more likely to go up than down from here."

Market tracker Zillow likewise foresees 5% mortgage rates later this year, but economic research director Svenja Gudell says interest levels should rise slowly enough to give consumers plenty of time to buy or refinance places first.

"I don't think there's the need to rush out and buy a house this very second," she says. "But I'd recommend locking in a mortgage below 5%, because I expect rates to continue rising."

On the plus side, Gudell believes lenders will have to ease today's relatively tight lending standards to keep their home-loan operations humming. After all, she says, higher interest rates typically reduce consumer demand for mortgages.

"I think we'll see banks be more generous about extending credit to people who perhaps would have had a trouble getting mortgages in 2013," the expert says.

For instance, Gudell predicts lenders will lower the FICO score required for the best home-loan rates to around 710 from today's approximately 740.

But Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, says consumers shouldn't expect sub-4% mortgage rates to return any time soon unless a "major shock" throws the economy back into recession.

"I think that if people are hoping for some temporary dip in rates, they'll be disappointed," says Yun, who forecasts 5.3% rates by late 2014. "I realize that many people have seen colleagues and friends lock in mortgages at record-low rates and are jealous. But for now, those rates are history."

The Top 5 Tools To Help Real Estate Agents Dominate The Market

Provided By: businessinsider.com

Technology is a significant part of a real estate professional's life. For real estate agents and brokers, most of their time is exhausted trying to find new clients.

In fact, for most real estate agents, getting new leads takes up most of their time and money.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/top-5-web-based-tools-that-help-real-estate-agents-grow-their-businesses-2011-5?op=1#ixzz2ro48G3aA

This, however, is much different that the top producer REALTORS that lead the industry. For these people, their time is spent selling. This raises the question: What are the top-producing real estate agents doing that is so appreciably different from their competitors?

Real estate -- as an investment purpose -- requires a respectable understanding of the risks associated with purchasing choices. There are several tools at hand to facilitate guide the decision, but few are as useful as a set of high quality real estate investment software.

These online tools will save you time and money by providing all the information and resources you'll need to make informed decisions and enriching before buying or selling property investment.

All of these tools are easily accessible via the Internet and can provide an immediate impact on real estate agents' bottom line. These tools are available to all real estate agents, and when we compare the monthly fees paid to the potential benefit, the motivations for investing in real estate marketing go up, up, up.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/top-5-web-based-tools-that-help-real-estate-agents-grow-their-businesses-2011-5?op=1#ixzz2ro4CbraO

Swanepoel Power 200 names the top 10 most powerful people in real estate

 Provided By:dfwrealestate.com

 

When it comes to influencers in residential real estate, no one was more powerful in 2013 than Realogy CEO Richard A. Smith, according to a new ranking of the 200 most powerful people in real estate by Stefan Swanepoel, who authors the Swanepoel TRENDS Report and Swanepoel TECHNOLOGY Report.

The first annual Swanepoel Power 200 list, co-edited by consultant Rob Hahn and billed as “the most comprehensive list of influential CEOs, thought leaders, and senior executives ever assembled in the residential real estate brokerage business,” bases its rankings on factors such as an individual’s tenure in the real estate business, the office he or she holds, the decision-making and financial power of the company, and how much significance the company has in the industry, among others.

“While there are others who have higher personal profiles within the industry, there is no doubt that none have more power and influence in almost every aspect of real estate than Smith,” SP200 said of its top pick, noting that Realogy owns top power brands such as Century 21, Coldwell Banker, and Sotheby’s International Realty.

Rounding out the top 10 most powerful people in real estate on SP200’s list are: 

 

Ronald J. Peltier (No. 2)

Chairman and CEO, HomeServices of America

•Spencer Rascoff (3)

CEO, Zillow

•Gary W. Keller (4)

Co-founder and chairman, Keller Williams Realty International

•Dave L. Liniger (5)

Co-founder and chairman, RE/MAX

•Alexander E. Perriello, III (6)

President and CEO, Realogy Franchise Group

•Dale A. Stinton (7)

CEO, National Association of REALTORS®

•Pete Flint (8)

Chairman and CEO, Trulia

•Mark Willis (9)

CEO, Keller Williams Realty International

•Steven Berkowitz (10)

CEO, Move, Inc.

Members of NAR’s executive and leadership teams joined Stinton on SP200’s list, including Senior Vice President Bob Goldberg (No. 34), Past President Gary Thomas (No. 39), SVP and Chief Lobbyist Jerry Giovaniello (No. 45), General Counsel Laurie Janik (No. 47)*, and 2014 President Steve Brown (No. 51).

Local and state association leaders were also represented on the list, including Bob Hale, CEO of the Houston Association of REALTORS® (No. 23); Joel Singer, CEO of the California Association of REALTORS® (No. 36); and Ed Barisa, CEO of the Ontario Association of REALTORS® (No. 125).