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WEB REVIEW

Web Review: Finance
Money Matters

CNN and Money magazine team to provide information on retirement planning, mortgages, taxes, and more.

REVIEWED BY CHRISTOPHER M. LEPORINI

Web Site: CNN/Money
URLs: http://money.cnn.com

What the Site Offers

CNN/Money combines the financial-reporting power of CNN and Money magazine to bring you credible financial news and information about retirement planning, mortgages, and taxes. The site offers original economic analyses, retirement calculators, and tutorials to help your customers make educated homebuying choices. The site also features commentaries from financial experts like CNN's Lou Dobbs.

CNN/Money’s depth is its greatest asset. You can find reliable information, whether you’re a heavyweight investor researching market and company-performance figures or you just want highlights of the day’s financial news, mortgage rates, and economic indicators that influence the real estate market.

Valuable Site Features for Real Estate Professionals

  • Your Home. CNN/Money’s residential real estate page provides easy access to the latest mortgage rates, home-price trends, and other real estate forecasts. It also reprints popular features from Money magazine, such as “Best Places to Live,” and provides original reporting on affordable housing, refinancing, and homeownership’s costs and responsibilities.
  • Retirement Planner. Whether you’re nearing retirement or planning ahead, this calculator helps you save enough to live comfortably long after your final sale. Enter your current age, planned retirement age, and income for you and/or your spouse to calculate the monthly savings you need to meet your retirement goals. Don’t worry if you fall short, the planner offers strategies to get you back on track. If you plan to incorporate investments—such as stocks, bonds, or commodities—into your retirement strategy, you can keep up with the latest news, data, and investment tips on the “Markets & Stocks” page.
  • Economy. Factors such as unemployment and Federal Reserve activity have a ripple effect on the real estate industry. This page helps you track the latest economic news and stay on top of all the economic indicators that forecast the health of the nation’s economy.
  • Tax Center. April 15 will be here before you know it—are you prepared? Visit the Tax Center for feature stories that provide tax-saving strategies and tools to help you plan ahead. Also, you can download federal tax forms from the Internal Revenue Service.

    Valuable Site Features for Your Customers
  • Mortgage Application Center. Your customers can bookmark this section to access calculators that tell them how much home they can afford, what their homes are worth, and how much mortgage they can comfortably pay. Be aware that there appears to be some outdated information on the site. Specifically, Renovation Wizard estimates home improvement investment returns based on data from the 2002 Cost vs. Value Report, which is jointly produced by REALTOR® Magazine and Remodeling magazine. Click here" /> to view the 2003 report at REALTOR® Magazine Online.
  • Interest Rates. You can direct customers with financing questions to this section for additional information on mortgage loans, home equity loans, and loans for individuals with less-than-perfect credit. The page also provides local mortgage rate information by state.
  • Money 101. Refer customers to these tutorials on managing finances, including real estate-related lessons on how to evaluate whether they can afford a home, select the right house, and improve their credit scores to receive a better mortgage rate. This section also contains tips for sellers on pricing a home and making homes show-ready.

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Suggest a Site For Review
Every week, REALTOR® Magazine Online's Web review editor surfs the Internet to find sites useful to your business and off-hours lives. Have a favorite real estate Web site that you would like to see reviewed? Send your suggestions to Chris Leporini at mediatech@realtors.org. All decisions on which sites will be reviewed are completely at the discretion of REALTOR® Magazine Online's editorial staff. Please note: this column does not review individual practitioner or brokerage sites.

The column's focus includes free sites, as well as sites that charge for goods and services, but which still offer a free component of practical, sustained value to real estate practitioners, such as a free newsletter or regular news information.
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REALTOR® Magazine Online's "Web Review" summarizes the content of Web sites that may be of interest to members. NAR and REALTOR® Magazine Online are not responsible for, and nothing in the Web site profile shall constitute NAR's or REALTOR® Magazine Online's endorsement of, the web site, its content, products and services, or its provider. NAR and REALTOR® Magazine Online believe the information contained in this profile was correct and accurate as of the time it was prepared, but do not warrant or guarantee the accuracy or completeness of that information and are not responsible for changes in the Web site. Members should conduct their own independent review of the Web site prior to any use of Web site, its content, products, or services to determine their suitability for the member's intended purpose.

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