In February, the Related Group, a luxury developer, held a $100,000 poolside party to introduce potential buyers to apartments in a new 1,000-unit complex in Miami. One Realtor from San Jose, Calif., stylizes her open houses to mimic neighborhood cocktail parties, complete with live guitar music or opera soloists, while one broker from Austin, Texas, presents open houses as gallery openings, featuring the work of local artists.

Such events have their supporters and detractors - some real estate agents say that such fun open houses put people in the mood to buy - one agent highlighted in the article says that the events pitch a "chic and social lifestyle, not just a house," Ms. Muñoz writes.

Meanwhile, other Realtors - especially in areas where sales are especially slow and sales are sagging, haves scaled back open houses or have stopped throwing them all together.

A while back we posted that open houses sometimes attract just lookers or people who attend the events because they're nosy or just want something to do on a Sunday afternoon. If plain old open houses (that don't offer entertainment, drinks and food) tend to attract the curious or serial open house attendees, these fun open houses probably attract even more non-buyers looking for something to do. "I've seen the same people and gotten to know them on a first-name basis" says one open house frequenter in the article.

But then again, one serial open house attendee profiled in the story bought a $700,000 townhouse at an open house that he attended on a whim, so maybe such events are effective. "The place just appealed to me," he says in the article.

Readers, have you attended or hosted an open house soirée? Agents, what are your thoughts - are these kinds of bashes an effective marketing tool?

Has anyone out there tried to do anything like this before?

I have recently heard this idea from a Realtor near me, but not in my market.Has anyone tried/had success with this idea.Basically you hire a bus and driver to take your buyers on a tour of the foreclosures in your area for a small fee and a signed Buyer Agency contract.

What can you do to keep your home's value from falling as home prices drop and the foreclosure virus spreads across the U.S.? Be a good neighbor, suggests June Fletcher in today's Journal.

Because the quality of your neighborhood affects home buyers' perceptions of your own house and the price they'd be willing to pay for it, it helps in the long run to keep up the appearance of your home - and your neighbors' - despite today's tough economic conditions, she writes.

That means paying to keep your own home repaired, but also chipping in, if needed, to make neighboring houses look spiffy, too, she says. So, if your neighbor can't afford to fix that decrepit fence or to repair a cracked walkway, consider chipping in yourself or pooling a fund together with other neighbors to help out. Or, if the grass is several feet high on the foreclosed property down the block, mow it yourself - if the lender doesn't mind.

Which brings to mind a Web site that we recently came across - RottenNeighbor.com where visitors mostly gripe about their bad neighbors. To wit, one poster writing about a house in Cascade-Fairwood, Wash., complains: "In the winter, yard waste piled on top of each other on the front lawn. In the summer, the front lawn grows longer than the rain forest. Of course there's the garbage in the driveway. Please clean up your property already!"

A few posts are positive, like this one about neighbors in Conway, Fla.: "Always ready to lend a hand with anything you need - keep the common area at the end of the street pristine. Yard is always perfect and they are quiet and nice people - happy to live near them."

Of course we don't know who is posting and what their motivation is, but one does get the sense that the quality of one's neighbors and neighborhood really do play into how the value of one's home is perceived. Readers, how do your neighbors impact your quality of life? Do you get a sense that they impact the value of your home?

This article is from the wall street journal with a few revisions by me.I just wanted to pass it along.

When this thought first struck my head my first inclination was to google it. So I entered " Realtors using myspace.com as a marketing tool" nothing came up. I thought to myself wow! I am either the only who has ever thought of this or its not a good idea. Still being in my college years I feel that using my space.com is a good way for me to get in touch with classmates that I may have lost contact with. Myspace.com (for you that don't know) is a website similar to AR that allows you to add "friends" and leave cute messages to them. I feel this is a great form of sphere of influence management tool. For all of you other young agents out there you might want to give it a try. I'll keep you posted.

Consumers are constantly being blitzed by banks offering them deals on home equity lending. The banks prefer this type of lending as opposed to giving you a credit card because the debt is more secured with a home equity loan. After all the borrowers home is at stake, and they have to be overly debt laden to not pay their bill. Also rising home prices mean that banks can easily recoup the money they are owed by the sale of the borrower’s home.

Is there a good reason to take out a home equity loan? YES! Tapping into the equity of your home is a great way to acquire funds to expand or update your home, as well as other investment opportunities. But know the tax laws. You are only able to deduct the interest of a home equity loan for any amount $100,000 and under. Any interest accrued on a loan over the amount of $100,000 is not tax deductible. Also know what you stand to loose. If you bet your home on an investment and lose, you may lose your home as well.