Real Estate Trends by Stefan Swanepoel

As part of the annual Swanepoel TRENDS Report we also every year include a look back at the year that just passed and list the Top 10 Newsmakers, Top 10 Events and Top 10 Trendsetters for 2008.  This week I am discussing the Trendsetters. Trendsetters are defined as those companies that during 20...

According 50-year old Prof. Panarin, a former KGB analyst, author and current dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Academy, there is a more than 50% chance that the US will disintegrate by July 2010. He says that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war...

Many comments I received indicated that they not sure how to use Twitter or to get the maximum benefit from Twitter. Glancing through ActiveRain I found many great post by Rainers that have offered up lots of wonderful information. I also a found a Twitter starters guide on the Web. I hope you le...

In follow up to my post yesterday on the growth of Twitter I thought it would be interesting to share some Twitter terminology.  Similar to the Web, Blogging and Wiki, Twitter has also sparked a whole new legion of "new" words. Below a list of 70 interesting ones I have seen.  Twittonary of Twitt...

During the holidays I received a few emails indicating surprise that I included micro blogging (Twitter) on my Top 10 Events impacting Real Estate in 2008 so I thought I would provide a little more information for those that are not that familiar with the concept of short text-based 140 character...

As part of the annual Swanepoel TRENDS Report that is published every year during the first week of February, the research team wraps their four month study of the real estate industry by announcing the top 10 Newsmakers, Events and Trendsetters for the year. The second list to be released is the...

As part of the annual Swanepoel TRENDS Report that is published every year during the first week of February, the research team wraps their four month study of the real estate industry by announcing the top 10 Newsmakers, Events and Trendsetters for the year. The first list to be released is the ...

Evolution is all part of the process of re-engineering the real estate industry and the home buying process so every time I come across a new business model that is working I get excited.  Some may say that this concept is not truly new, but with its format and European origin, it is definitely u...

Last weekend, real estate agents and brokers got introduced to yet another social and business network to participate in when online real estate news service, Broker Agent Professional, launched Broker Agent Social. Within the first 100 hours after launch they exploded to 2,000 members - adding a...

On November 7th, while I was at the NAR convention in Orlando, Fidelity surprised us all by announcing that it would be acquiring LandAmerica in an all stock deal valued at $128 million. This merger would have great the largest title insurance group with about a 45% market share. In terms of the ...