Hey Kazorkers!

Sorry our blog has been absent. Kazork has been busy busy busy expanding and growing and developing changes to make it all work better for you. We will be posting more regularly from now on, so check back often!

Some shopkeeping: if you are an agent in Maryland, the electronic licensing database for your state is currently down; you may have a longer delay getting your registration authorized. Please hold tight and we'll get to you as soon as we can! If you're a new agent who hasn't registered yet but is in Maryland, register as soon as possible if you're interested in a property on Kazork, so you have plenty of time to get authorized.

Kazork is curious: Agents, tell us about your daily balance of business! Do you do contracts in the morning, and showings at night, or balanced throughout the day? When would be best for you for an OSP to end?  

Hey everyone;

You may have noticed some new changes this morning to our site. We have added a nifty map feature that will allow you to visually search by state and county; this also adds a county drop-down menu that's all inclusive; but you'll still see YOUR county drop-down menu if you've selected any. (To add or select particular counties you want to search in, go to your MyKazork and then to MyAccount; then Edit Your Counties on the left hand side. These counties will then appear in the drop-down menu on the search page called MyCounties and will allow you to quickly search in those areas.) The all-inclusive county drop-down menu will only appear once you've selected a state. There's also an icon for the map feature underneath the saved searches area that will allow you to start over with the map if you reach an end to your search.

Agents and buyers may notice something new: Kazork Featured Properties. These are denoted in the search results by our green "K" icon. Basically, a Kazork featured property is one running an OSP (Offer Submission Period) on our site, which means that an agent can submit an offer online for that property.

Go play around and let us know what you think! Drop a comment here with your thoughts or write us at comments@kazork.com with any suggestions or opinions.

On June 23rd, CNN Money wrote:

"The Internal Revenue Service, citing the drain that high gas prices are having on people's finances, said Monday it is raising the automobile mileage rate that businesses and others can claim.

The tax agency said the optional standard rate to calculate deductible operating costs for vehicles will rise from 50.5 cents a mile to 58.5 cents for the final six months of 2008."

 

Click here to read the full article. 

 

We here at Kazork are feeling the squeeze at the pumps too.  We realize we can't do anything about the price of gas for your car, but we try to do our part by keeping the commissions being paid higher than the industry standard.  We hope that the extra commission helps!

Countrywide was sued by Florida Attorney General on Monday, alleging misleading and unfair trade practices.  Florida's suit follows on the heals of similar suits filed in California and Illinois last week.  Click here to read the article.

In a sign of just how bad the foreclosure epidemic is, CNN Money compiled a list of the rich and the famous who are facing foreclosure (or already have).  Click here to see the list.

The NAR announced Thursday that existing homes sales increased 2% in May.  While this remains 16% below May 2007 pace, it does mark only the 2nd time in the last 10 months that sales have increased month over month.

Click here to see the article.

 

Hey everyone;

Just wanted to let you know if you're an agent in New Jersey your registration may take a little longer to get authorized today. New Jersey Department of Real Estate's website is currently down and we are unable to verify licenses through them right now. We will be checking regularly throughout the day though and will post an update once it's back up and running. Please be patient, we'll get to you as soon as we can!

Thanks and happy Kazorking!

UPDATE: 6/26/08: NJ Department of Real Estate website is now up and running again. We will be verifying your account information as soon as possible. Thanks for hanging in there.

Hey everyone,

If you are a real estate agent who registered today for Kazork using a license from Illinois, please be patient. The Illinois Department of Real Estate website is currently down and Kazork is checking it periodically throughout the day as necessary. At this time we do not know when it will be back up, but once it is, we will be able to verify your information and authorize your accounts. Rest assured we will do so as soon as we can. In the meantime, as long as you are registered, you can still look at the properties we have available once you're logged in.

We really appreciate everyone's patience and we'll get to those accounts soon!

 

6-19-08: We are now able to register Illinois agents. You will recieve an email from Kazork.com once your account has been authorized; please make sure Kazork.com is on your allowed senders list in your email in order to allow our emails to come through.

Here's another interesting article from CNN Money about foreclosures. In the first quarter of the year, more and more homes were in foreclosure, setting record numbers for the sixth quarter in a row, according to the article. Click here to read the article. Then come back and tell us, how bad are foreclosures in your area? What's your experience been like with them?

(Note: Clicking on the link above will not end your session on Kazork.com. It will open in a new browser window. Be sure to disable your pop-up blocker for Kazork.com in order to view the article.)

Here's an article we found that we thought might interest some of you about short sales. Click here to read the article. (Note: clicking the link will not take you off of Kazork.com. It will open a new browser window. Be sure you have your pop-up blocker disabled for Kazork.com in order to view the article.) Then come back and tell us how your short sale experience has been. Have you ever been involved in a short sale? Did it go through or not?