“Shoot low boys, they’re ridin’ Shetlands.” — Lewis Grizzard

Interesting quote, huh? And kind of funny, too, when you picture a bunch of big, burly cowboys coming over the hill bumbling along on little horses.

Of course, the message is pretty simple: sometimes you have to adjust your strategy to win. And one group you’ll need to adjust for is coming over the proverbial hill: millennials — those born between 1981 and 1997. And yes, they’re riding Shetlands. Put more simply: they’re different. And if you understand those differences — and adjust your aim — you and your bottom line will be just fine.

Why adjust? For one, millennials now outnumber the baby boomer generation. That makes them the single largest generation — 75.4 million strong.

But even more important than their numbers is what they’re preparing for: buying homes. According to Trulia’s 2017 housing report, 83% of millennials say … Read the rest

The shipping industry has already seen the boom and having an amazing growth rate, which is a new age phenomenon and people are more and more depending on this particular business to get a proper solution for transporting of their valuables and other items from one place to another. Today the shipping company’s service is not confined only in ocean cargo shipping, but it has developed a lot to get the material being shifted through air and road transportation. While we talk about the transportation of various materials, the first thing comes to our mind is the safety of the material and required steps are being taken to ensure the safekeeping of the consignment.

In securing the safety measures of the consignments, the shipping boxes are playing the most crucial and important role, which is considered as the principal issue in ensuring the safety of the material. Today there are … Read the rest

“If you live in the river, you should make friends with the crocodile.” — Proverb

I love that quote, but let me adapt it for you, the Realtor: “If you work in real estate, you should make friends with change!”

And of course the change everyone is talking about these days is interest rates. It happened — and no big surprise. As expected, for only the second time since the Great Recession, the Federal Reserve opted to raise interest rates one-quarter of a point. And I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if we see more rate increases during 2017. Many economists agree and predict mortgage rates will keep climbing.

In fact, Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR), expects rates for conforming loans to hit 4.5% by the end of 2017 and says that jumbo loans should be roughly in line with the conforming rates. … Read the rest