Melanie McLane's (themelaniegroup) Blog

One Third Successful             We're in the middle of a major roof project for our office building, a circa 1900 two story building with commercial downstairs and residential upstairs. We've had three experiences in the course of this project; one awesome and two pretty bad. It got me to thinki...

              With the implementation of HVCC (Home Valuation Code of Conduct), we've all been experiencing, or hearing about, the problems with "travelling appraisers". These are real estate appraisers from out of the area, often without access to the local MLS, often also without knowledge of t...

              Well, another week in Washington DC for the NAR Mid-Year meetings. This blog is primarily my report of what happened at the Appraisal Committee; however, a lot of what we discussed at the Appraisal Committee is of interest to any REALTOR®.              The first thing discussed was ...

              At the outset, let me state that our industry is unique. As they say in retail: "Does Macy's tell Gimble's?" Yet in real estate, we cooperate with each other by sharing inventory via the MLS and allowing each other to show and sell our listings. But despite that, we all remain compe...

CHANGE-THREAT OR OPPORTUNITY?               I had the opportunity yesterday to do a webinar for the NAR Appraisal Section, for the RAA and GAA members. The webinar was: "Beyond HVCC", and for me, it was fun to do because it was positive and embraced change.  I certainly know how HVCC has turned a...

In my home state of Pennsylvania, we are deep in the throes of Continuing Education to renew salesperson's and broker's real estate licenses. "CE" as it is known, is required in almost every state to maintain an active license. In my state, for reasons best known by the state real estate commissi...

  It's December, and in between the various holidays-Hanukah, Christmas, Kwanza, and here in the north central region of Pennsylvania where I live "Hunting Season"-if you are in real estate, you should be taking stock of 2009 and formulating your written plans for 2010. In a well managed company,...

I've had some interesting results, and good feedback, from two courses I teach-one for agents and one for appraisers. The appraisal one I just did at the Triple Play REALTORS® Convention in Atlantic City-and it is titled: "Technology and the Appraiser-or even a Geezer can become a Geek". Thankful...

GREEN, as we know, is a hot topic these days among consumers and REALTORS® alike.  As a GREEN Instructor, I think about GREEN a lot. This time of year, we think about decorating our homes, enjoying the holidays with friends and family-and some of us think about being GREEN.  Despite what you migh...

I'm in a class, doing this live, at the Triple Play Convention (New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania REALTORS(R)) in Atlantic City. Today's topic is Appraisers and Technology and we are having fun! Someone asked 'how do you create a blog?' and I said: "It's easy--watch!"