SAN FRANCISCO – Foreclosure filings dropped in 84 percent of the largest U.S. cities in the first half of the year as paperwork delays and a glut of seized properties slowed the repossession of homes, according to RealtyTrac Inc.
Notices of default, auction and home seizure fell in 178 of the nation’s 211 biggest metropolitan areas, the Irvine, Calif.-based data seller said today in a report. Cities in judicial states, where courts supervise the foreclosure process, showed the biggest declines from a year earlier.
Foreclosure notices have dropped amid a probe by all 50 state attorneys general into “robo-signing,” the practice by lenders and servicers of pushing through documents without verifying their accuracy. Realt
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Are you using press releases as part of your marketing and PR strategy?
Press releases are great SEO builders. When you distribute one using a press release distribution service like PRWeb (there are other services, but I have a long-time love affair with PRWeb and they know it), it sends your release to dozens of news and niche websites. On each of those pages where your press release lives, there’s a link back to your website. Google thinks your website must be pretty awesome to have so many links from other sites, so it ranks your site higher in search engine results.
Here are my top 10 tips for getting the most out of your press releases:
1. Start with a gripping headline. Headlines are what draw readers in. If yours isn’t engaging and exciting, it’ll get skipped over. But o
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BOSTON – Sales of Massachusetts single-family homes in June fell to their lowest level of any June since 1991, The Warren Group said Tuesday.
The real estate tracking firm said 4,313 homes sold in June, down 23.5 percent from the same month last year. Sales were the lowest of any June since June 1991 when 4,243 homes sold.
Separately, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors reported on Tuesday June sales of 4,267, marking a 17.7 percent drop from the same period a year ago. (The association and The Warren Group track home sales differently.)
Both organizations attributed the falloff to the end of the federal homebuyer tax credit. Buyers initially had until June 30, 2010 to close deals and gain the credit. Congress later pushed the closing deadline to Sept. 3
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Have you taken a look at your Google Place Page listing lately? If not, may I suggest you go take a look now? Because it may look a little different today than how you remember it. Actually, it may look a lot different.
In part of the ongoing evolution of Place Pages, Google announced some important changes last week that small business owners will want to be aware of.
The first thing to notice is that Google has removed all third-party reviews from your Place page. That means if you were relying on Yelp or TripAdvisor or any other third-party site to woo customers over to your place of business, they’re gone. Also gone with them are all third-party citations and Web sources. Instead, Google is now linking users directly to the individual reviews. That means your Yelp reviews are now only viewable on Yelp. Users are not seeing them on your business’ Place Page. Thi
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