By Kent Lardner for Lending Central
The Wall Street Journal did an analysis of the Zillow valuation model for 1,000 home sales in early 2007. It found that “the median difference between the Zillow estimate and the actual price was 7.8 percent.”
According to The Wall Street Journal test results, when it was wrong it was very wrong, off by 25 percent for one in 10 properties. This is certainly the case here in Australia too. You could be testing a model and find the first 9 properties return amazing results, all within a few percent of the sale price, then the next one could be 20% or more off target. It’s these few large errors that have such a significant impact on the forecast standard deviation (error estimate).
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My Property Partner launches today as a new social networking solution to assist property buyers struggling to buy alone.
As more and more buyers are left out of the property market due to the housing affordability crisis, many are considering the options of co-ownership but don’t have a partner, friend or family member to co-buy or co-invest with.
My Property Partner is an exciting new social networking community designed to help property buyers enter the market and cut the costs of real estate ownership.
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I’d like to say a huge thank you to our newest sponsors for this month. Without their support, we wouldn’t be in the position to bring you all the latest news and issues from around the industry.
In no particular order:
- ValuePro
- Wealth Today
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Customers of troubled mortgage broking platform provider Pisces Group face a nervous wait as its administrator starts investigating ways to keep its operations from collapse.
AustralianIT.com.au
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Hi Everyone,
Here at Lending Central we’ve always believed in allowing all of our readers the freedom of speech. After all, that’s what the nature of the internet and indeed the basis of stimulating discussion is all about.
However, some of the last “controversial” topics and our lack of hard-line moderation has resulted in some questionable commentary by our readers. It is with regret that we now have to announce the following regulations will be enforced and comments will begin to be moderated.
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Scott.
Wealth Today has cemented its position in the market place by launching a web site (www.Wealth2dayAcademy.com.au) dedicated to their broker-focused Academy.
With video testimonials, a comprehensive breakdown of the Academy’s components and an insight into how the training can impact upon brokers’ service offerings, its quite apparent that this Academy is the future for brokers who want to grow their business and escape the limitations of the industry as it is today.
The web site launch follows the company’s announcement last month of a joint-venture relationship with AAMC training group. The partnership enables Wealth Today to provide finance brokers across Australia tailored Diploma of Financial Services training. In addition, brokers completing the Academy are given very specific training on how to help their clients own their home faster, and also how to integrate their new services into their business and develop it into multiple additional revenue stream.
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Almost nine million Australians are worried about identity theft and cyber crime, a survey reveals.
The Unisys survey of 1,201 respondents aged over 18 was conducted nationally by Newspoll between March 13-15.
It found almost half of Australians were concerned about having their credit card details stolen.
“More Australians are now very or extremely concerned about financial fraud, one of the most common identity-related crimes, compared to December last year,” a Unisys statement said.
“Now an estimated 8.9 million Australians are very or extremely concerned about other people obtaining and/or using their credit card and debit card details, an estimated increase of more than one million people compared to last December.”
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The Stargate Group has announced a new partnership with leading electronic lodgement provider NextGen.Net to enable the provision of the ApplyOnline electronic lodgement platform to over 3000 existing Symmetry users.
The new partnership further strengthens Stargate’s position as the number one supplier of CRM solutions to the Australian Mortgage market and provides its users with electronic lodgement capabilities for 17 lenders.
In announcing the new partnership, Stargate Group CEO, Brett Spencer said “NextGen are a very logical fit for us in that they too are the leaders in their field of expertise. Bringing together two companies that are the premier providers of Mortgage Business Software and E-Lodgement Platforms creates a position of strength for both companies that other suppliers can’t compete with. This new partnership will only strengthen our position in the Australian mortgage marketplace and increase our market share over other suppliers”
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Choice Aggregation Services (Choice) members will be better equipped to understand and manage the performance of current and future trail payments through the introduction of an innovative new tool called Podium Perform@.
Launched in late April, the Choice system enables brokers to accurately calculate future trail income as well as forecast the impact of increased loan volumes on their income for up to five years.
Podium Perform@ has been integrated into the aggregator’s market-leading software platform Podium, and according to Choice CEO Brendan O’Donnell it will be invaluable in helping Choice members manage their cash flow and better plan their business strategy.
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Telstra Corp has won a contract to provide telecommunication services for Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd that could be worth as much as $1 billion over the next 10 years.
The nation’s biggest telecommunications provider won the 10-year contract from the country’s biggest lender to provide fully managed telecommunications services to CBA branches, EFTPOS network and automatic teller machines, the both companies said in a joint statement on Wednesday.
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A majority of respondents believe the economic downturn will increase the risk of identity theft and financial fraud, a study finds.
About 63 per cent of respondents in a Unisys Security Index survey said identity theft and related crime would increase because of the declining economy.
“The latest Unisys Security Index shows an increase in concerns about the security of online activities such as shopping and banking as well as growing concern about financial fraud,” Unisys Asia Pacific vice-president Andrew Barkla said.
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The federal government will set up a company - with private sector investment - to build a national high-speed broadband network.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Tuesday announced the public-private company would invest up to $43 billion over eight years to roll out a high-speed broadband network across the country.
The federal government said it would create a company - with the private sector investment capped at 49 per cent - to build the network after none of the companies bidding for the project met its stated requirements.
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How to Write a Guest Post for Lending Central
These days, everyone has got something to say. However, not everywhere is there an outlet for you to get your thoughts out to the world.
While it’s our job to get you the news that you want to know, there are plenty of times where you have just got to get your thoughts out there. With that in mind, we’ve now introduced the ability for anyone to write a guest post for Lending Central! That’s right, you too can be a blogger!
So, you want to write an article…Where to begin I can hear you all thinking!
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I was surfing some of the usual sites that I do while posting and updating Lending Central and I’m not one that is overly impressed all that often. What I mean by this is that we are so surrounded by technology these days that it takes something special to wow me.
Well….This wowed me!
Imagine a future whereby you could wear a device that can give you your very own “sixth sense”? Huh you say? Well, it’s not really something that I can explain easily - you just have to watch this video.
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Telstra on Monday said it will begin upgrading its capital cities cable broadband networks, starting with Melbourne.
The company its hybrid fibre coaxial cable broadband network in Melbourne will be upgraded to 100Mbps - more than triple the current peak speed - by Christmas as part of a $300 million this calendar year.
“Using new technology already successfully deployed in several cable networks overseas, Telstra will immediately begin work to turbo-charge its five-city cable network,” the company said in a statement.
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