Yes, if you know how — literally — to play the game. But, as in real life, only a few are really good at it.
By Christopher Solomon

* The most resilient U.S. markets
* What your real-estate agent can’t tell you
* Not-so-real estate: Is it ethical to alter photos?

Perhaps you’ve heard of the land baroness named Anshe Chung. No? Maybe that’s because Chung only exists in the virtual reality game Second Life. Chung, or rather, her real-life counterpart, Ailin Graef, has gained attention — and a BusinessWeek cover — as the first person to reportedly become a real-world millionaire from her virtual-world business.

How’d she do it? By buying, developing and selling virtual real estate. While much of her wealth is still tied up in Second Life’s currency, Linden dollars, those can be sold for genuine U.S. dollars. Graef reportedly makes upward of $150,000 annually.

Second Life is one of several massively multiplayer online role-playing games that are, literally, their own worlds. Julian Dibbell, author of “Play Money: Or How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot,” estimates the market for virtual items across games such as Second Life and Ultima Online has hit the $1 billion mark. “I think it’s safe to say that it’s at least $1 billion now,” he says.

Such numbers — along with success stories like Graef’s — show there’s real scratch to be made from online dirt. But just how much depends on a number of factors, of which only a handful are under your control. Here’s how the virtual real estate game is played.

Learn more: realestate.msn.com

I have become a huge fan of Barbara Corcoran over the past several months. I love her vibe and advise. I have seen her speak in a number of places from the Today Show on Home Staging and a Millionaire maker show with The Rich Dad Author Robert Kiyosaki, Loral Langemeier, David Bach and more. Anyway, she has a terrific methodology to find great up and coming neighborhoods for investment

I first saw it on the “Millionaire” show and she just posted her process at her Barbara Corcoran blog. Check it out for yourself, but let me give you a couple of her clues that an area is up and coming:

1. If a little old lady is sitting on a bus bench at night, it is safe.
2. Is there nightlife? Are people out freely shopping?
3. Are there any new cars?
4. What are the SAT scores?
5. Buy the lower end house, it has the most room to go up.
6. Are rents going up?

She says the time to buy is now if it is in the right area.

Her top up and coming areas? Go to her site to get reasons why:

* Austin, Texas
* West Midtown, Atlanta, Georgia
* Biddleville, Charlotte, N.C.
* Seward Park Seattle, WA
* Reading, PA
* Farmington, NM

By: Tim O’Keefe
Learn more: houseblogger.com

It’s always good to take your realtor’s advice on how to go about selling your property, but don’t let that be the be-all and end-all of your decisions. In the end, you’re the one making the decisions. Always remain alert and critical of the advice given to you by your real estate agent.

Worldwide ERC, based in Washington, D.C., and Primacy Relocation, based in Memphis, Tennessee, worked with survey company Sperling’s BestPlaces to survey the statistical profiles of the 100 largest U.S. metro areas to weigh criteria including male to female ratios, clubs and restaurants, job growth, higher education costs and the prevalence of nightlife. Austin landed eighth out of the 100 surveyed cities.

According to Cris Collie, CEO of Worldwide ERC, “We know that successfully assimilating into a new community facilitates a transferees productivity, and as the labor market continues to tighten, opportunities for talented and mobile employees expand, and companies seek more ways to successfully compete for talent, the focus on elements that make relocation more attractive to job candidates becomes more significant.”

You closed the sale and paid for the property. So, what’s next? Celebrate and plan your housewarming! But before doing so you should know that a “Sale” is considered closed once the deed of sale has been signed by both the seller and the buyer. But, you have to wait for a few days (more or less 3 days) before the seller can turn over the keys to you and you can start occupying the house. Once you have the keys, you can now start remodeling it or hire for a paint job if you wanted it to get a new look. You can also bring in all your belongings and occupy what you rightfully bought. And, now is the time to go ahead with your plans!

For those with poor credit history and those who cannot outright buy a residential property, the best selection for you would be the lease option. It’s like rent-to-own, but you’re still given the option to either rent or buy the property.
Here are the benefits:

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Life in the Real Estate business is like a roller coaster, it wasn’t so long ago that values were going up the stratosphere. However, when you’ve reached the mountain top there’s no other place for you to go but down. And that ’s what’s happening now. The Real Estate Boom has now gone bust.

The statistics are staggering. According to Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, 14 major cities has posted double-digit lows for single-family home values. Generally, it’s been down 12% since December 2006 with a possiblity of going further down by 10% by end of 2008.

The biggest culprit for this downturn: rampant speculation on property values during the past several years. “The areas that have seen a huge amount of speculation…are the ones that got nailed,” says Blitzer. “The farther up prices went the farther down they’ve come.”

Listed below is the five most hard hit cities:
1.Las Vegas
2.Miami
3.Phoenix
4.Los Angeles
5.San Diego

Adapt or die: that is evolution in a nutshell. This not only applies to the natural world but also to business; and the insurance world is a business nonetheless. With the changes brought upon by the Internet, almost everything is free for the downloading.

It’s no surprise then that what the insurance companies used to keep near their chests are now out in the open for everyone to see. They have now freely posted previously withheld information in the Internet. This information provides the brokers with just enough information to give buyers a one-site stop for all their real estate needs.

“It’s a natural evolution of competition and what consumers want,” said C. Robert Hale III, chief executive of the Houston Association of Realtors, which operates the area’s M.L.S. “The consumer wants to see everything.”

Will this change the current way agents and brokers sell? We’ll know in a few months.

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It’s hard to read the news lately about the real estate in the US. It’s been down for quite a while now and it won’t get any better soon. So in the meantime, what can the real estate do to alleviate this sickness? According to Jennifer Allan, real estate broker, author and consultant, here are tips on making sure that what you sell won’t be sitting on the list forever:

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