VanEd - Real Estate School News

Instruction, Real Estate, Appraisal and Beer top our reading lists this week

The following were the eye catching stories that... well... caught our eyes this past week.

Instructors and presenters should be always looking to improve their skill set. This article in the Denver Business Journal might just help do that. Take a look at "How to get the most out of your PowerPoint presentation" and see if you agree.

The Wall Street Journal posted an article on the upswing in Manufactured Housing. The article correctly discussed the still commonly held view that manufactured = trailer home, but that just is not the case. We were struck by the uptick in stocks for the builders in this market. Is now a good time to bring this idea to your buyers? Maybe. Take a look at "Manufactured Housing under Renovation" to learn more.

As tax season is in full swing we passed around an article on record keeping. Bank of the West published a quick guide on "How Long to keep Financial Records" which, as it turned out, taught one team member that it was ok to discard cable bills.

Just in time for Spring the Appraisal Practices Board (or APB if you needed to add another real estate achronym to your vocabulary list) put out a notice, and our tweet hashtags say exactly how we feel about it;

Appraisal Practices Board (APB) http://bit.ly/GK0EJH Solicitation for Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): Valuation of Green Buildings  #abouttime #green

Our team also found interesting a story from Bloomberg on the fight to save light beer. While that normally would not have much to do with business, this story has everything to do with changing marketing concepts to fit current times. Being able to update a plan to the current end-user is critical in any industry. With a new type of real estate consumer, and an ever changing real estate market, real estate professionals may find this type of shift interesting as they try to create new marketing plans or update older ones. Check out "Light Beer fights for Life as craft brews invade shelves" and see what we mean.

And maybe the most important update came from our own guest author, Randy Kelly, who helped us understand the new "FHA MIP Changes" in his recent Finance Friday post. Not sure we appreciate the increased rates and fees on the Mortgage Insurance Premiums for these types of loans, but at least now we understand what they will be.

These stories and many more were or are available on one of our social network sites listed below. Please join us there!

Denver & Boulder set to host industry events Thursday June 9th

Thursday is turning out to be a fantastic day for education and training. For Real Estate Professionals in Boulder, the Boulder Green Building Guild is offering a course: Advance Training: Historic Preservation and Energy Efficiency. This all day program will concentrate on the techniques and materials used to enhance energy efficiency and comfort of older homes and their occupants while maintaining their historic character and architecture.

The second half of the day will be a tour of the historic Colorado Chautauqua buildings and grounds including improvements made so far, projects in process, the Learning Lab concept, and issues surrounding water conservation and responsible landscaping.

This program is available for Continuing Education credit through VanEd ($10 payable at the door) for attendees. Click Here for more information.

For Mortgage Loan Originators the highly anticipated Mortgage Tech Summit is being held in Denver. This event will include originators and speakers from around the country all exploring how (and what) technology can be implemented to provide more value to your consumers and industry partners.

Here are the four main topics to be covered at Mortgage Tech Summit.

Origination Strategies - Enhancing Workflow Productivity - Organization - Marketing

If you can't attend the Mortgage Tech Summit you can follow along on Twitter, or simply review what is happening in the search below. You can also follow along on the MTS Blog online at http://mortgagetechsummit.com/category/blog/.

 

Stay in touch with the NAR Mid-Year Meetings this week in Washington D.C.

The National Association of REALTORS® is set to hold their Mid-Year meetings in the nations capital all this week. You can view the complete chronological list of all NAR and Affiliate Meetings by Clicking Here. You can also set up your meeting planner using that same site link. Visit the Mid-Year page on-line for more information on the REALTORS® Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo.

Meetings, classes and events begin Monday and run all the way through next weekend. The Board of Directors meeting is scheduled for Saturday, May 14th at 8:30am ET.  This years education sessions include "Life on MARS and Liability on Earth: Keep your Business Light Years Ahead: Risk Management and License Law Forum" on Wednesday morning "Strategic Plan to Maximize Exposure and Optimize Leads with REALTOR.com®" on Thursday. Don't miss these and many other high powered sessions.

Not going to be able to make this year’s meetings? Catch all the conversation at Midyear Live! Midyear live will feature all the social networking conversation, meeting buzz, and industry news around the Midyear Meetings. (at least visit to check out the cool tools!) 

VanEd will be in attendance again this year. We hope to see you at the upcoming meetings!

(Follow VanEd on Twitter to stay on top of current information and receive special discounts and promotions on all of our new courses - perhaps even on the recently updated "Mortgage Fraud" course or discount offers on Real Estate & Appraisal Licensing education!)

Thank You for allowing us the opportunity to serve you

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." -Albert Einstein

As this year draws to a close, the staff and I wanted to say thank you.  I want you to know that we truly appreciate your business and we are looking forward to 2011.

This year brought many new challenges to our industry.  New laws, rules and regulations continue to change the landscape of real estate, not to mention online education.  Economic intrigue is everywhere, and not unlike many of your businesses we also faced these changes.  I want you to know that as I look ahead I see great opportunity, and in 2011 we will continue to embrace our students and affiliates and encourage them to be successful.

Thank you for calling us, visiting our website, becoming a fan on Facebook and LinkedIn.  Thank you for reading our NewsLog or following us on twitter.  We greatly appreciate you being our customer and look forward to being your resource far into the future.

Our entire team is dedicated to serving the best interests of our students, so if you have any questions or ideas for how we might better serve you, feel free to contact us.  As always, we're here to help.

To a prosperous and extraordinary new year!

Sincerely,

C. Vann Hilty, CRS, CDEI
Director
Van Education Center
www.vaned.com

Have questions or comments?  Let us know with an email at [email protected]
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Seasons Greetings from VanEd

From all of us at VanEd, we wish you and yours the happiest of Holiday Seasons.

Van Education Center offices will be open until 1pm on December 24th and closed December 25th. We will be open again on December 28th. 

For students working online, post questions in the Q & A's. You may also search the Q & A's to see if your question has already been answered there!

Happy Holidays! And to stay up to date on all that is going on with VanEd, follow us on Twitter!