Marketing toward bigger and better.
To have a successful appraisal practice, you need to spend time on the business side of your operation, which includes marketing and sales. However, for a variety of reasons, both internal and external, marketing and sales are particularly difficult for appraisers. After all, if we were really good at...

In brief.
Growth management has been a nearly untouchable topic in the state capital since the 1980s. Only a handful of lawmakers and administration officials have been willing to discuss growth management, and then only indirectly. But in late October, the Assembly Select Committee on Growth Management convened the...

Giuliani, Romney show same grasp of reality as Bush the brainless.
LEWISTON -- A little pain makes me yearn for a good laugh. Recovering from knee surgery, this old tennis player returned to familiar haunts for some R and R. A quick review of recent events provided me with ample humor. We should all howl when President George...

Tighter loan-loss provision eyed.
Byline: LEE C. CHIPONGIAN Central bank officials warned banks of tighter loan-loss provisioning requirement this year as part of adjustments in risk-weights valuation, an impact of the International Accounting Standards or IAS 39. IAS 39, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas explains, "establishes the principles for...

Creating the new Japan.
Japan's Quiet Transformation: Social Change and Civil Society in the Twenty-First Century. Jeff Kingston. Routledge Curzon. [pounds sterling]21.99 p.b. xvi + 358 pages. ISBN 0-415-27483-4. Amongst many contemporary commentators on Japan's modern international affairs, the 1990s have been dubbed the 'lost decade'; a definition highlighted in the...

Over-Borrowing.
When capital markets surge, most banks would treat margin lending and IPO financing as a mass product, in the process magnifying their exposure to the stock market. It has been estimated that about 50% of stock trading in 2005 was on borrowed money and around 70% of the money...

Getting ahead of the curve: Baltimore and CitiStat; CitiStat maximizes Baltimore's efficiency by using data from the city's 311 call center to manage agencies and adjust performance as necessary.
In remarks at Harvard University four years ago, Baltimore Mayor Martin J. O'Malley said, "In order to change the outcomes produced by government, you have to change what government does." Baltimore was doing just that, he went on to say, by measuring what government produces "and creating a mechanism...

RP's 'biggest housing fair' on in Makati.
More than 1,000 government employees trooped to the Glorietta in Makati City yesterday to participate in the country's biggest housing fair organized by the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC). Accompanied by Vice President and HUDCC Chairman Noli de Castro, President Arroyo led the opening ceremonies...

Manila to establish center for Muslims.
Mayor Lito Atienza yesterday announced that the city of Manila is set to establish a Filipino Muslim Economic and Socio Cultural Center in Quiapo as part of the Buhayin ang Maynila program. The project will be undertaken with the cooperation of the national government, Land Bank of...

Should appraisers guarantee rebuilds?
FOR YEARS, LENDERS HAVE BEEN ACCUSTOMED TO ASKING RESIDENTIAL APPRAISERS IF A HOME CAN BE REBUILT OR NOT. NORMALLY, THIS QUESTION ARISES WHEN THE HOME IS IN AN ATYPICAL ZONE, SUCH AS A COMMERCIAL ZONE, THAT MAY NOT NORMALLY ALLOW FOR RESIDENTIAL USES. The lender is concerned that if...