REALTOR Association of Greater Miami and The Beaches Community now on Facebook

About Facebook

Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.

Anyone can join Facebook

All that's needed to join Facebook is a valid email address. To connect with coworkers or classmates, use your school or work email address to register. Once you register, join a regional network to connect with the people in your area.  

Discover the people around you

Social media is newest way that REALTORS® can use the power of their contacts to find new listings and prospective buyers throughout the world.  Though there are a number of well known general social networks online, most are not geared towards real estate. The REALTOR Association of Greater Miami and the Beaches (RAMB) is focused on providing the most effective set of real estate marketing tools for its members and Vidlisting is a key partner in that effort.

1. Was the designation training developed by a luxury home expert?

2. Are the trainers teachers or true luxury market experts?

3. What do agents who’ve taken the course say about it?

4. Does the designation have credibility?

5. Is it a true LUXURY designation?

6. Are there multiple levels of membership in the organization?

7. What are some of the member benefits?

1. Was the designation training developed by a luxury home expert?

Record Number of Overseas Visitors Coming to United States - Visitors experience America and bring abundant benefits

Washington -- Despite increasing airfares due to rising fuel prices, record numbers of international travelers are coming to America.

It’s a bargain for people outside the United States to come here. Hotel room rates in New York, for example, are up 11 percent in dollar terms, but only a mere 1.5 percent increase when calculated in euros, according to Bobby Bowers of Smith Travel Research in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

“Once you’re here, in terms of staying in a hotel, it’s cheap,” Bowers said. “Alternatively, for those traveling from the U.K. to Paris, [they] won’t find the value [they would] get by going to places like Orlando [Florida] or [Washington] D.C.”

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Aug. 7, 2008 – The values of homes, businesses and other properties across Florida declined $153 billion during the last year, and the murky economic picture isn’t expected to improve until sometime in 2009, state officials said.

Total property values dropped an unprecedented 6 percent, double the figure economists had projected last year. The decline would have been worse if not for $55.6 billion spent on new construction, according to data reported by The Miami Herald in its Wednesday editions.  The rest of the story...

WASHINGTON – Aug. 7, 2008 – Some improvement is projected for existing-home sales in the months ahead, with broader gains seen by the fourth quarter as buyers take advantage of new provisions provided through the recently-passed housing stimulus bill, according to the latest forecast by the National Association of Realtors® (NAR).

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in June, rose 5.3 percent to 89.0 from a downwardly revised reading of 84.5 in May, but remains 12.3 percent below June 2007 when it stood at 101.4.

FYI:   www.BuscAbogados.com is a new on-line search engine designed to assist Spanish-speaking users finding attorneys in the Miami area.  According to the company, BuscAbogados, the site provides key searches by specialty and sub-specialties and can mix English and Spanish terms in a bilinual format (most attorney search engines do not operate in Spanish).  Currently the site has a database of 7,000 attorneys in Florida, with more than 5,000 in Miam-Dade County.

Foreign buying activity in US during 2007
Survey: 4,400 NAR members
Average price: $297,000
14% sold over $750,000
43% of foreign investors paid cash
75% bought single-family homes
33% came from North America
26% of Realtors sold to a foreign buyer in 2007

2007 Foreign Buying Activity - Source: NAR Survey:

21% of respondents* have experienced an increase in international business, 72% have seen the level of international business remain constant, and only 6% experienced a decrease. The majority of respondents selling international properties noted that the weak U.S. dollar had impacted foreign sales purchasers.

*4,400 NAR Members responded to the Survey

2007 Foreign Buying Activity - Source: NAR Survey:

According to the survey, 26% of the respondents had served international clients in the past 12 months. Approximately half of the clients subsequently purchased real estate properties in the US. When clients did not make a purchase, the survey respondents mentioned cost of property (54%), immigration laws (27%), and property taxes (24%) as being the major reasons behind their decision.