Ken Horst's (khorst) Blog

I don't think anyone will ever build the perfect ranking/rating system for real estate agents, by perfect I mean a system that is all I need to be SURE I chose the best agent. Choosing a good agent will always involve feedback and information from different sources and related to different criter...

I saw a really nice TV commercial for Coldwell Banker the other day which seemed to imply that if I use them to sell my home, I would be more successful.  They had a "SOLD" sign in all the shots.  So I started to wonder, does it really matter which brokers sign is in my yard or is it simply enoug...

It kills me to see real estate agents or anyone else for that matter getting beat up about their compensation plan. All this talk about the commission structure being antiquated and in need of revision is insulting. All this talk about how the Internet has changed the game and given the consumer ...

We are constantly seeing different sites talk about their community and school info links as if they are the Holy Grail.  Big sites like Yahoo, Zillow and www.Agentopolis.com  are investing time and money building out their community and school links system and as you know, real estate agents can...

I recently completed the book by Wired editor Chris Weber, "The Long Tail". As a result, Agentopolis realized there is a "long tail" of real estate agents that has never been made available to consumers. With over 1.3 million agents to choose from, how does a visitor decide which agent is best fo...

I could be wrong but it seems to me that ever since Iran grabbed the British Sailors, certain financial markets have been on pins-and-needles. As a result of this uncertainty in the markets and the concerns about the effects of this event on oil prices among other things, I have noticed the 30 ye...

Recently I had a client I was working with who called me about 3 days into the loan process and asked me if my lender had called her. I said I doubt it, the loan hadn't even been approved yet and in 6 years, I have never had nor heard of a lender calling a borrower in the middle of the process. (...

Oh the difference a few months can make. I am currently sitting with 3 loans on my desk that only 3 months ago would have been closed and funded in two weeks or less. Today I'm not sure if I will be able to find any lender who will take them. Here is a couple examples of what I'm talking about;On...

In case you haven't been watching the markets last week and yesterday, major sub-prime lenders are suffering and dying at an alarming rate of speed.  D1, a subsidiary of HSBC reported writing off $10.6 billion in bad sub-prime loans in 2006.  New Century, which is one of the top 5 sub-prime lende...

Agentopolis has recently blown past the 10,000 verified real estate agents mark and as of yesterday we had over 10,400 confirmed realtor listings.  All this in a little more than 60 days.  The feed back we are getting from real estate agents all over the country is they love the site as it is the...