Gabriel Properties

Century 21 Real Estate President and CEO Rick Davidson.

When British climber George Mallory was asked in 1924 why he wanted to scale Mount Everest, he very tersely and very famously replied: “Because it’s there.”

Rick Davidson is a little more specific about the kick that drives him to strap on a heavy load of supplies and gear and climb 12,000 feet in a day (and back).

“It truly is about taking yourself to a limit and being able to blow past that limit — to me, that is exhilaration,” Davidson said.

Davidson, who is president and CEO Century 21 Real Estate, the world’s largest real estate franchise network, next week will join a team of seven other climbers, all of them in the real estate industry, to tackle peaks in Alaska.

The undertaking is a fundraiser for Easter Seals and Big Brothers Big Sisters.

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Tags: 21 Real, 21 Real Estate, Ceo, Real Estate

In an in-depth, data-driven special report, “10 Best Markets for Real Estate Investors,” Inman News analyzed hundreds of housing markets nationwide to develop a list of those that may be best suited for investors.

The full report — available at no charge at www.inman.com/reports/10-markets-invest/ — took into account economic, housing and demographic data from sources including median sales price data from CoreLogic, loan data from Lender Processing Services, foreclosure sales and discounts statistics from Realty Trac, InvestorScores from SmartZip, walkability scores from Walk Score, and population and unemployment data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The data analyzed suggested that the 10 best markets for investors are: Indianapolis-Carmel, Ind.; Winchester, Va.-W.Va.; Gainesville, Fla.; Tucson, Ariz.; Tallahassee, Fla.; Hagerstown-Martinsburg, Md.-W.Va.; Salt Lake City; Richmond, Va.; Gainesville, Ga.; and Winston-Salem, N.C.

Seven out of the 10 markets are in the South, two are in the West, and one is in the Midwest.

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Tags: Estate Investors, Investors, Real Estate, Real Estate Investors

Israeli real estate tycoon Lev Leviev has old his 18 percent stake in Angola’s Catoca diamond mine to China’s Sonangol International for $400 million, Russia’s “Kommersant” newspaper reports.

Globes, an Israel business news publication, note Leviev acquired his interest in the mine in the 1990s for $20 million.

Russia’s state owned diamond producer Alrosa holds 32.8% of Catoca. Globes reports Alrosa CEO Fyodor Andreyev has formally told Russia’s Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin about the sale.

The deal is scheduled to close in June. At closing, Sonangol will become the first Chinese company to own part of a diamond mine, according to Globes.

In 2010, Catoca had $527 million revenue from rough diamonds and reported a net profit of $111 million, Globes reports.

 According to Wikipedia, Leviev is an international investor in residential real estate, shopping malls, energy, fashion, telecommunications, and media, which attained a market value of $8 billion in 2007.

The value of the company plunged with the onset of the 2007-2008 global financial crises, with company debt reportedly totaling $5.5 billion in September 2009. Read all post…

Tags: 400 Million, Israeli Real Estate, Million, Real Estate

If discount and limited-service real estate brokerages have yet to take off as spectacularly as their most enthusiastic boosters had anticipated, one reason could be that in some markets, the rules have been stacked against them, regulators say.

One obstacle nontraditional brokers have had to overcome is full and equal access to multiple listing services.

Sellers expect any broker they do business with will have the ability to place listings in the multiple listing service — and that those listings will be seen not only by other brokers, but by consumers.

Buyers are attracted to websites that offer them access to a comprehensive and rich set of listings data in their market — a fact that technology-based brokerages like ZipRealty and Redfin have built their businesses around.

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Tags: Estate, Real Estate