One last Real Esate professional Question

[Prodigal Son]

I swear...last one...and this one is just asking for opinion:

I've got to write a fairly lengthy paper for 10% of my class grade, with this as my prompt: Select a real estate topic (e.g., real estate advertising, recruiting real estate agents, compensating real estate agents), locate 3-5 recent (last few months) news-related articles concerning the selected topic.

What would y'all find interesting and newsworthy enough to write 8-12 pages about?

I figure with all this sub-prime crap in the news lately, I'll just do that since there's a plethora of articles available. At the same time, I'm sure I'm not the only person in my class thinking that same thing and I'd rather do something unique.

[Greg B]

Look for articles related to a specific location that had a lot of mortgage brokerage operations - IIRC Orange County CA for example - focus on the downstream issues with the residential side of the equation and how it affects the commercial side - lower retail sales and mortgage brokerage bankruptcies reduce the need for both retail and office space. You could contrast that with a more diversified economy - DC for example with its heavy government and tech influences - still feeling the residential fallout but the commercial markets are generally solid.

[FairWeather]

I'm sure you could right a article about real estate agents compensation. Since the sales bubble has deflated you will probably notice that most of the discount brokers have gone out of business.

When you are going in for surgury do you shop around for the best price? No you go to the best guy out there! Why not do the same with regards to real estate....

I know for a fact of atleast 10 discount brokers here on the Outer Banks that are out of business. If those guys aren't selling enough properties they aren't making enough money to keep the companies about water!!!

[Prodigal Son]

After some intense "Googling" I think I've settled on "The Affects of Growing Foreclosure Rates on the Residential Rental Market" because Harvard just released a 36 page study on that topic, 2 days ago. There have been a ton of little articles in business sections just summarizing it for me...seems cut and dry and interesting enough to keep me typing.

After this semester I've got "Real Estate Law" to take and I'm DONE with real estate classes. I'll have a minor in real estate and enough classroom hours to satisfy the education requirement to sit for the Broker's exam in Virginia. I won't be doing that, but I reckon I could according to the "rules": 180 classroom hours, pick from these classes, etc.