Continuity is becoming the new competitive advantage in homebuilder sales

For decades, the homebuying journey followed a relatively predictable path. Buyers would visit communities, meet with sales representatives to gather information and gradually move toward a purchase decision. Today, that process looks dramatically different. Modern homebuyers move fluidly between we

Stylecraft Builders’ micro approach to margin, pace and growth

Stylecraft Builders, a second-generation-led Texas homebuilder more than four decades in the making, is not letting homebuilding’s underwhelming 2026 Spring Selling Season go to waste.  Nor, in spite of hesitant homebuyer demand plaguing many of Texas’ submarkets, has Stylecraft’s momentum slowed. T

Buffini & Company adds three senior executives to scale coaching

Buffini & Company has added three senior executives — Steve Pacinelli as chief revenue officer, JB Bolton as chief operating officer and Ethan Beute as chief ambassador — as the coaching firm looks to scale its relationship-driven business model in an AI-focused market, the company announced earlier

Rechat adds custom app building features

Rechat has expanded its platform to allow brokerages, teams, technology providers and vendors to build and deploy custom branded applications directly on top of its real estate operating system. Custom app features are available immediately. The initiative builds on work that began more than a year

New York reform prioritizes housing production over climate review

New York state’s most sweeping reform of a 50-year-old environmental review law is on the books. Gov. Kathy Hochul secured the changes as part of the state budget, cutting red tape on housing construction. Developers, municipalities and environmental advocates are watching to see how the law works i

eXp World completes AGNT name change, relocates to Texas

eXp World Holdings, Inc. has completed its corporate transformation to AGNT, Inc., including a formal name change and a move of its legal domicile from Delaware to Texas, the company announced Thursday. The holding company for eXp Realty, NextHome, FrameVR.io and SUCCESS Enterprises now trades on Na

2026 RealTrends Verified: Family ties drive success for The Horak Group

Long before she became a real estate agent helping lead one of the nation’s top-performing small teams, Molly Horak was spending her days in an infant carrier beneath her mother’s desk. The story has become part of The Horak Group’s family lore — and part of the reason the team’s connection to REMAX

Jay Clayton tapped for DNI role as Congress pushes back on Pulte

President Donald Trump confirmed Thursday that Bill Pulte’s tenure as acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) will be temporary. He announced on social media the nomination of Jay Clayton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to the permanent position. “Few people anywhere in

Washington agents now face limits on private listings

On Thursday morning, real estate professionals in Washington state woke up having to comply with a new law requiring them to publicly market their residential real estate listings to all consumers, unless the seller can show doing so would negatively impact their health or safety. The statute, forme

The responsible AI framework every mortgage lender needs before going live

Every technology adoption cycle reaches a point where the question shifts from “should we?” to “how fast can we?” In mortgage lending, AI has reached that moment. Lenders are deploying AI tools for document processing, income analysis, borrower communication and, increasingly, credit decisioning. Th

How to study for the real estate exam: AI-powered strategies that work

Every year, thousands of aspiring real estate agents complete their pre-licensing education only to discover that earning course credit and passing the licensing exam are not the same thing. Industry estimates suggest that only about 50% to 60% of candidates pass the real estate licensing exam on th

The danger of the single-bureau blind spot: Why the 30-year mortgage demands the Tri-Merge Standard

As mortgage originators navigate one of the tightest margin environments in a generation, the pressure to slash operational costs has reached a fever pitch. In response, a polarizing debate has emerged across the industry: Can lenders safely cut corners on credit data to achieve short-term line-item

AppFolio launches connector for Realm-X AI suite and Anthropic’s Claude

AppFolio has announced a new integration between its Realm-X AI platform and Anthropic’s Claude, enabling property management professionals to trigger and execute operational tasks directly through Claude while maintaining AppFolio’s built-in compliance, accounting and workflow safeguards. The new a

Illinois Gov. Pritzker’s sweeping housing reform package hits a wall

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s push to reshape the state’s housing landscape ended with nary a whimper last week, with no votes as National Homeownership Month began. His sweeping Building Up Illinois Developments plan stalled before the legislature adjourned, leaving the most ambitious housing propo

MLSs compete on rules and partnerships as listing control shifts

From teaming up with brokerages to expand private listing networks nationwide, to opening up membership to real estate professionals outside of their traditional service area, to launching joint ventures supplying listing input and distribution technology, MLSs are employing a variety of diverse str

Homebuilders’ spring toolbox: Incentives rose, but conversion stayed weak

Part of this is telling you what you already know. So, make sure you get to the second part. A string of better-than-expected quarters for new-home development players following the pandemic’s onset in 2020 had to end sometime. It did. The first half of 2026 delivered a worse-than-expected spring se

MBA launches forum for reverse mortgages, senior lending

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) on Tuesday announced the launch of a new member forum dedicated to reverse mortgages and other senior-focused mortgage products. The Senior Mortgage Solutions Network (SMSN) will provide MBA members a venue to discuss emerging trends, policy developments and bu

2026 The Thousand: eXp team provides ‘Anchor’ for military families

When Kelli Salter launched Anchor Real Estate in 2020, the military spouse and real estate professional was searching for a better way to serve members of the armed forces who form the backbone of the Jacksonville, North Carolina, housing market. Six years later, that decision has helped propel Anch

MISMO updates PaVS procurement dataset for UAD 3.6

MISMO, the real estate finance industry’s standards organization, released an update to its Property and Valuation Services (PaVS) Procurement Dataset Specification on Tuesday, aiming to modernize how valuation services are ordered across the mortgage ecosystem. The updated specification replaces le

The verification layer financial systems forgot to build

For decades, financial systems operated on a quiet assumption: most information entering the system was fundamentally real. Documents might arrive incomplete. Borrowers might omit details. Fraud existed at the margins. But lending infrastructure was built around a world where verification happened s