I'm continually amazed at the developmental progress in -- and growing use of -- visualization tools to summarize data.  In a different post I wrote about the progress companies like Intronetworks has made in visualizing relationships between member profiles and member interests in online community networks.  In a recent article, NY Times wrote about a data visualization tool called "Many Eyes."

In another major announcement for the mortgage industry, GMAC Financial Services announced yesterday that it would close all of its 200 retail offices and lay off about 5,000 of its employees.

The majority of the cuts will happen in GMAC’s mortgage lending division, Residential Capital, and will slash that company by some 60%.

ResCap was the 7^th largest mortgage originator in the country with and market share of approximately 3.9%. ResCap’s losses for the second quarter of 2008 was $1.86 billion.

When you break a real estate agents business down, there are only four ways to increase production.  There are four proven avenues toward increased gross revenue.  The four ways to increase production are:

Number of contacts

In my last article, I discussed how our industry is changing dramatically.  I discussed how over the last few years telework has become mainstream, and is now amounting to nearly a quarter of our work force.  I cited how working remotely is increasing in popularity as technology is developed and costs associated with commuting increase.  Five years ago nobody would have even considered a virtual office, and yet at the current rate of growth, in a few short years virtual offices will no longer be the exception, but rather, the rule. So what do I mean when I talk about a real estate “virtual office”?

Oh, come on…you knew it was only a matter of days before someone started guilting you into thinking about what you are going to do this year for your holiday card and / or gift giving to all your clients.  So, let’s just get it over with – it’s time to start thinking about it, let’s just get it done.

There is a lot of buzz out there in the industry today about the emergence of “teams” and how dominant they can be in their market.  Is this the wave of the future and are we going to see the sole practitioner move into the background?

Broker Tries to Lure Sellers with Segway Promotion

I came across the article above with an idea I hadn't tried before.

Much has been written about how the dearth of buyers in the housing market has contributed to the anemic sales activity. But, some brokers say, part of the problem is that sellers are keeping homes off the market because they don’t think they’ll get a good price.

To motivate sellers Jay Burnham, a Massachusetts broker, recently came up with another idea: he’s offering sellers a Segway... Highlights below.

...then send this post to them and have 'em watch the presentation below (big video) by Michael Wesch.  Same guy, btw, who created "The Machine is Us/ing Us"

I've heard rumors for a while that LinkedIn might bring discussions to LinkedIn Groups.  Then, early this week, it firmed up more with an e-mail to group managers announcing that discussions would go live today, Friday, August 29, as a birthday present to me.  (Well, okay, maybe I'm embellishing a bit about its purpose.)  But, there's no denying it has gone live and, at least from my perspective, it's a much welcomed addition to groups on LI.  Especially, since I've been one of the ones clamoring for them to add this feature.  (After all, what the heck is the value of having a group if you can't collaborate with its members in, well, group fashion?)

Most real estate agents, teams, brokerages, etc… are at some point going to want to have an online collaboration area where you and your whole team all have access to the same documents, communication threads, contacts, etc... These online collaboration solutions are becoming increasingly popular among a variety of business types as well as busy families. Who can't use more organization and less chaos in their lives? I personally use two of these systems with my own clients, as well as for my own VA business and my family’s investment property business. Below is an extremely brief overview of the main three that I have had the chance to review and use: