One week after facing a class-action lawsuit over its home-price tool, Zillow is looking to improve it with a contest. The real estate website is offering a $1 million award to the “person or team” who can improve its Zestimate, an online tool meant to help people estimate the value of their property. Zillow officials say the contest has been in the works for more than a year and was not motivated by the lawsuit.Last week, Zillow faced a clas
E-signature company DocuSign says it experienced a temporary breach of what it calls a non-core email system, resulting in the release of about 100 million email addresses that could be used for phishing schemes.According to the company, the non-core system contains email addresses used for sending service-related announcements to customers. The company’s core eSignature product, which provides a secure environment for signing documents, includ
The smart home has come a long way in just three years. In 2014, two-thirds of consumers with broadband were not familiar with smart-home services or products or where to buy them, according to a white paper from the Consumer Electronics Association and Park Associates. Now, 86 percent of consumers “are confident they know what it means when someone says they have a smart home,” according to a survey conducted by Finn Futures of about 1,000 U
A new scam, circulating the internet on Wednesday, is masking itself as Google Docs as it tries to gain access to your contacts and address book. The reports were widespread Wednesday by those claiming they received an email asking them to open a document in Google Docs from one of their contacts. At surface level, the document doesn’t appear suspicious.If you click on the link, you’ll be taken to a Google login screen and you’ll continue t
Your clients want to hear more about green real estate and why it matters, surveys show.Whether they're first-time buyers or existing homeowners, consumers are showing more desire to learn more about environmental matters in housing.Indeed, 61 percent of homeowners have researched energy-efficient improvements, according to the Bank of America Homebuyer Insights Report. Eighty-six percent of homeowners say they have some type of energy-efficient
Smartphones and tablets are vulnerable to malware, which enables hackers to access them and compromise your email, online banking information, and apps. But you may not even know your mobile device has a virus—yes, Apple products are just as at risk as Androids, despite common misperceptions to the contrary—and that can lead to a more dangerous situation. So how can you tell if your phone or tablet has been infected? USA Today flagged several
Your website URL is key to your brand identity. A recent article by Forbes suggests you should ask yourself some of these questions to make sure you’re using your web address in a smart way.Can others pronounce it? “Even though users aren’t likely to be saying your domain name out loud, pronounce-ability is still important,” writes Forbes writer Denis Pinsky. “This is because of something called fluency: The ease with which our brains c
Letting others know where you are when out on appointments with clients is an important real estate safety tip. Google Maps, the popular mapping service, has announced that it has added real-time location sharing. You can allow peers or family to keep tabs on your whereabouts during your workday, along with your estimated time of arrivals to appointments.To activate, open the side menu or tap the blue dot that shows where you are on the map. Then
Booming tech sectors and real estate often bond tightly. While the Bay Area continues to be the nation’s most robust tech center, tech-driven areas are popping up elsewhere across the U.S.Indeed, more than two-thirds of tech workers now feel little or no need to live in the Bay Area, according to a recent article at Forbes.com. Instead, they’re finding opportunities in the Northeast, South, or Midwest, where home prices tend to be cheaper as
Besides staging, sellers also should take a few more steps to ease the stress of their sale. Realtor.com® offers up some of the following often-overlooked tips:1. Highlight improvements and any issues.“If you’ve owned your home for a while, make a list of all the problems you’ve solved for a while, make a list of all the problems you’ve solved while you’ve lived there,” suggests Avery Boyce, a real estate pro with Compass Real Estate
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