Blevins Wist Real Estate Launches New Application-Driven Website

Blevins Wist Real Estate, the Maryland-based real estate sales and consulting company of Keller Williams Realty agents Michael Wist and Matthew Blevins, has recently launched the upgraded version of their company’s website.

Baltimore, MD (PRWEB) October 31, 2008 — Blevins Wist Real Estate, the Maryland-based real estate sales and consulting company of Keller Williams Realty agents Michael Wist and Matthew Blevins, has recently launched the upgraded version of their company’s website (blevinswistrealestate.com), which now features real-time updates to listings of Maryland homes for sale and full user search capabilities.

The site, developed according to specifications put forth by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS) under RETS (Real Estate Transaction Specification) is a full-featured online resource for home buyers and home sellers and represents a "pipeline" of information from the backend MLS system to potential buyers and sellers of Maryland real estate.

According to Matthew Blevins, a Maryland Realtor and Director of Marketing for the Company, "Michael and I have a background in website design, online marketing and application development architecture. We started out with our Maryland real estate blog to get the site up and running, but we’ve also been studying the websites of real estate agents for quite some time, even before we were agents ourselves. What we found, for the most part, were a series of websites that were bland, of limited usefulness to potential clients and that lacked any real imagination. With the advent of RETS and participating IDX brokers, any agent can now provide MLS listings to users of their websites, but we’ve been surprised to find that even when they do, they’re still not doing a very good job of it."

Because the public had been complaining about the lack of publicly-available information about the real estate market, and real estate agents in Maryland and throughout the country have been clamoring for a solution, RETS and the practice of allowing agents to display real estate listings that come directly from MLS systems was implemented several years ago. MRIS, the largest MLS system in the world, serves states in the mid-Atlantic region, but consists primarily of Maryland properties. The move itself was one that opened up the "black box" of the real estate industry, where closely-guarded information, i.e. - readily updated "official" listings of homes for sale - was granted only to licensed agents, who used that information advantage to maintain the industry veil that has existed since the advent of the multiple list service itself.

Perhaps realizing that the age of closed information systems was over and the age of standards-based "open source" had arrived, the National Association of Realtors®, as well as state and local boards, have been instrumental in the development of RETS.

The result has been a boon for both consumers and real estate agents savvy enough to understand the public’s use of the Internet to research and locate homes for sale or to conduct market research in assessing the value of their own homes. The Blevins Wist site, for example, allows users to search for residential properties, commercial properties (including multi-family) and land. Users also have the option of being as broad or as specific with their search as they like by using such search fields as County, City, Zip Code, MLS Number, Street Name, Street Number, List Price, Number of Bedrooms, Number of Bathrooms, Lot Size, and a variety of others. The result is a direct window to the information that Realtors® use to perform competitive market analyses (CMAs) and to locate listings to show potential buyers.

Adds Michael Wist, also a Maryland Realtor® and the President of Blevins Wist Real Estate, "It may seem that we’ve chosen an odd time to ramp up our real estate operations and enhance our website. But Matt and I have always been contrarians, so we feel that there is no better time than the present, even with a so-called financial crisis slamming down upon us, to enhance our Company and to provide another level of service to the well-educated consumer who understands that, in the larger view, the current situation is merely an opportunity."

About Blevins Wist Real Estate:
Blevins Wist Real Estate, Inc. is a Maryland corporation founded in 2007 and is associated with Keller Williams Baltimore. The company is the real estate sales and consulting company of Maryland real estate agents Michael Wist and Matthew Blevins, who began their foray into Baltimore real estate in 2003 and have expanded their business to include all of central Maryland.

Both Michael and Matthew are Maryland-licensed Realtors® as well as members of the Maryland Association of Realtors®, the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors® and the National Association of Realtors®. They have served their clients in their capacity as knowledgeable residential and commercial real estate agents since 2003.

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For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/maryland/realestate/prweb1549864.htm

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Sell My Timeshare NOW Targets Expanded Presence in the International Vacation Market

U.S. based timeshare resale and rental advertising company readies for projected increase in global demand in vacation ownership properties. Improved consumer protection laws and a growing interest in fractionals, particularly among baby boomers, reinforces this optimistic outlook despite declining third quarter earnings reports by some developers and hoteliers.

Dover, NH (PRWEB) October 31, 2008 — The global leader in advertising and marketing vacation ownership resales and rentals, Sell My Timeshare NOW, is preparing for an increased demand in shared ownership vacation products in the international marketplace.

Coming off their participation two weeks ago at the Organisation for Timeshare in Europe (OTE) Forum 2008 in Madrid and presently in route to the Canadian Resort Development Association (CRDA) Annual Conference, executives for the company are committed to increasing their services and their offerings to the international consumer.

Jason Tremblay, the company’s CEO and founder explains, "Timeshare sales in Europe have lagged behind those in the U.S., but with better consumer protections, the sale of new units and of resales will take off."

Earlier this week, the European Parliament voted in favor of a new bill to update the original timeshare law passed in 1994 in the European Union. The new laws provide for the vacation ownership consumer to receive and sign off on comprehensive information about the product before completing the transaction. Additionally, no advance payments or deposits will be accepted, and consumers are guaranteed a 14-day rescission period in which to withdraw from the sales contract.

JasonTremblay, and the company’s Director of Communications, Steve Luba, expect much of the information distributed at this week’s CRDA conference, which is being held in Victoria, British Columbia, will forecast a positive outlook for the industry. While U.S. sales may be lagging, international sales are projected to remain strong across the board and in some categories escalate, particularly in the sale of fractional ownership products.

Steve Luba says, "A new study released by MonCasa Capital Corporation shows Canadian demand for second home lifestyle properties is at the start of a 15-year purchase cycle." The study, prepared for MonCasa Capital Corporation by Harris/Decima, reveals that 30 percent of those surveyed (some 1000 Canadian vacationers) indicated they are interested in purchasing vacation ownership property, as either shared or sole ownership, or as a fractional.

Currently 14 percent of Canadians own recreational real estate and of the 14 percent, 57 percent are sole recreational property owners. The remaining 43 percent have shared ownership assets, a category that includes fractional properties.

Because Tremblay’s company is internet based, it is not constrained by traditional advertising and marketing, which can limit an advertiser to local and national TV and print options. Instead, this global online marketing company offers worldwide exposure, effectively covering international markets in Europe and Canada as thoroughly as they already cover the domestic market.

About the Company:
Sell My Timeshare NOW provides advertising and marketing for consumers who want to sell their shared ownership vacation property. The company, founded only five years ago, is the recognized global leader in the online marketing of resales and rentals with over $368 million in offers from prospective buyers and renters placed through its website so far in 2008.

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For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/timeshare/fractional/prweb1538844.htm

The Owners Suites New "Star Rental Program" for Condo Hotel Owners in Las Vegas

The Owners Suites creates the "Star Rental Cl for condo-hotel unit owners. The new program guarantees condo hotel unit owners a monthly minimum. By placing condo-hotel units under the management of The Owners Suites, corporate and individual unit owners will find an alternative solution that may prove to be more lucrative and predicable for corporate and individual unit owners.

Las Vegas, NV (PRWEB) October 31, 2008 — The Owners Suites announces the upcoming release of its "Star Rental Program" for owners of condo hotel units in Las Vegas. After recognizing that many condo-hotel investors have lost hundreds of millions of dollars collectively in both deposits and real estate value, The Owners Suites steps in to help stabilize the market. With guaranteed minimum monthly income, exclusive private membership to Las Vegas’ exclusive Stirling club and priority access to Owners Suites VIP services for all owners, the goal is to make condo hotel ownership a pleasure and not a chore.

Having identified that some management programs offered directly by the developer have not met the expectations of many initial investors, The Owners Suites is simply offering an alternative solution that may prove to be more lucrative and predictable for unit owners.

By joining forces with a leading luxury hotel management company to assist in providing 5 star luxury service, The Owners Suites is designing a program that rents out condo-hotel units on a nightly basis. "It is our goal to provide our business and leisure travelers with the level of service they have come to expect while in Las Vegas," says The Owners Suites President Jarrett Curd. "We passionately want to see our clients that have trusted us with their real estate to be extremely satisfied and their investments financially secure."

Although enduring a rocky beginning while ironing out the legality of the details between The Owners Suites and the original developer(s), the company is forging ahead to offer an alternative solution that may prove to be better suited to the needs of individual and corporate condo-hotel unit owner(s).

http://www.ownerssuites.com

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For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/10/prweb1533104.htm