House lawmakers have passed a bill to allow home owners to choose a private flood insurance policy, if one exists in their area, without taking a hit to their federal rate if they decide to return to the federal flood insurance program. Find out more in NAR’s news video, The Voice for Real Estate.

___________________________________________________________________________________

In this week’s episode of ABC’s hit show, character Phil Dunphy, a real estate practitioner, offers some humorous wit about the difference between a REALTOR® and a real estate agent.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Since the start of February, mortgage rates have stayed low for an extended period of time, allowing house hunters to take advantage of historically low rates, Freddie Mac’s chief economist says.

___________________________________________________________________________________

A Louisiana man is indicted for allegedly duping practitioners nationwide into buying fake advertising, and federal investigators are asking more victims to come forward.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Reuters reports that a Russian hacker was able to gain access to hundreds of millions of accounts on the most popular e-mail servers, including Gmail, Yahoo!, and Hotmail.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Jim Olsen, a practitioner in Milwaukee, was attacked by two gunmen when he arrived at an apartment for a showing. He shares his tale and pleads with real estate professionals to take more precautions in the field.
___________________________________________________________________________________