Technology - Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips

Facebook Mulls Relocation Over Housing Costs

Facebook has indicated that the high costs of living in Silicon Valley, where it is headquartered, could prompt the company to relocate. Elliott Schrage, Facebook’s chief policy officer, said during an annual shareholders meeting this week that the pricey cost of housing in San Francisco—where another Facebook campus is planned—must be addressed “if we’re going to remain a company in Silicon Valley for the long-term.”Facebook’s anno

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Amazon, Lennar to Debut Smart Home ‘Showrooms’

Online retail giant Amazon and homebuilder Lennar are teaming up to create “experience showrooms” that feature smart-home technology.“Amazon, Google, Apple—most of the technology-centric companies are starting to think about the home as a centerpiece for the way they think about the future of how their products work and how [users] interact with them,” Stuart Miller, executive chairman of Lennar, told CNBC.  “Home automation is

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EU Data Privacy Rules May Have Limited Effect Here

A European Union law governing data privacy that takes effect today has left real estate brokerages and associations in the U.S. uncertain about its impact. The General Data Protection Regulation, known as GDPR, makes it a crime to collect data on any resident of the 31 E.U. countries without getting their permission. It also requires businesses to delete information about Europeans if they request it, among other things.But how relevant is it f

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.Realestate Domains are Coming This Fall

The National Association of REALTORS® has announced it will be launching a new top-level internet domain, .realestate, later this year. The new domain will be available to members of NAR starting in September, and then offered to the general public in late November.Real estate professionals and firms will be able to market properties, geographic areas, and their personal brands using the .realestate web address. NAR members who already have an a

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Notarize Raises $20M in Push Toward E-closings

Notarize, a company that allows professionals or businesses to legally notarize documents online, announced $20 million in a new round of funding, bringing the company’s total to $31 million. Notarize was part of Second Century Ventures’ 2017 REach program, a strategic investment arm of the National Association of REALTORS® that helps companies launch into the real estate, financial services, banking, home services, and insurance industri

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REALTORS: Protect Your Devices Over Public Wi-Fi

You likely conduct a lot of business from your phone, but when using public Wi-Fi, you may be putting your and your clients’ personal information at risk.As Michael Gargiulo, CEO at VPN.com, notes at Forbes.com, public Wi-Fi is never secure. Hackers will use fake public Wi-Fi networks, along with openly posted Wi-Fi passwords, to break into devices to access that network. The data you send and receive can be intercepted, exploited, and resold.G

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Twitter Urges Users to Change Passwords Now

Twitter is warning its 336 million users that it has discovered a glitch in the system that stores users’ passwords. The social media giant is urging users to change their passwords immediately, as well as to change their passwords on any other service where they may have used the same one to login.“We have fixed the bug, and our investigation shows no indication of breach or misuse by anyone,” Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s chief technology of

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T-Mobile, Sprint Merger

T-Mobile US and Sprint Corp. are making plans for a $26.5 billion merger. If approved, it could create a wireless company that would be close in size to rivals AT&T and Verizon. The merger could also reshuffle thousands of square feet of real estate in the retail space.The merged firms would operate under the T-Mobile name with two headquarters in Bellevue, Wash., and Overland Park, Kan.In the retail space, there will be some initial closure

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No Traffic Deaths by 2050

wo U.S. agencies are combining their efforts to bring new levels of safety to public roadways.With buyers increasingly interested in walkable communities and self-driving cars edging their wayonto public streets, the National Safety Council is rolling out Road to Zero, designed with the U.S. Department of Transportation and over 600 industry groups. Road to Zero's goal is to eliminate traffic deaths by 2050.A recent report by the RAND Corp. la

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DocuSign Soars After IPO Debut

DocuSign, the e-signature company that helped usher in the era of digital real estate closings, debuted as an initial public offering on April 27 and is off to a strong start. Shares of DocuSign ended up 37 percent higher by the end of its first day of trading on the Nasdaq. DocuSign is NAR’s official and exclusive eSignature provider under the REALTOR Benefits® Program and an NAR Strategic Investment Company.DocuSign priced its IPO at $29 a

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