Mick McMurphy's Page

Norway is best place to live, China moves up

PARIS (AFP) – Norway takes the number one spot in the annual United Nations human development index released Monday but China has made the biggest strides in improving the well-being of its citizens.

The index compiled by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) ranks 182 countries based on such criteria as life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.

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“Can I use social networking to find the right real estate agent for me?”

YES!

Let's face it, real estate agents have the same resources as most buyers do. Most of the resources are online to go searching for a house. The buyer is the BEST person to determine which house will be the best fit for them and their family. Buyers want to negotiate commissions if they find the house they want to buy. This is a big mistake!

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Online social media can be a valuable tool for business success in savvy hands
By Naomi Snyder • THE TENNESSEAN • June 28, 2009

Denise Bentley, a 55-year-old Metro Nashville Public Schools employee, signed onto the online social network LinkedIn more than a year ago. Then she avoided it.

"I didn't know what to do with it,'' she said.

When someone she knew contacted her through LinkedIn, she would send the person a separate e-mail saying: "Is that really you?"

With the economy in a rec… Continue

Record low mortgage interest rates boosted pending home sales for the third consecutive month, with some benefit now from the first-time buyer tax credit, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

The Pending Home Sales Index,1 a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in April, rose 6.7 percent to 90.3 from a reading of 84.6 in March, and is 3.2 percent above April 2008 when it was 87.5.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said buyers are responding to very favorable mark… Continue

Home buyers qualifying for Federal Housing Administration-insured mortgages may soon use the new first-time home buyer $8,000 tax credit as a down payment, US Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary Shaun Donovan said today.

The process of applying the tax credit toward down payment, called ‘monetization’ in the industry, allows for FHA-qualified borrowers to use the tax credit to obtain a government-insured mortgage.

Donovan’s announcement came at a National Association of Realt… Continue