Builders say negative housing headlines are keeping buyers from the market. Be ready to explain data swings to ease your clients' concerns.

Email inboxes are inundated, and many people are overwhelmed by the notifications on their devices. Want to reach your audience? Try an old-school method.

The most recent Super Bowl highlighted the importance of "the dynamic between the players and coaches," providing an insightful lesson for sales leaders, Richard E. Brown, senior director of retention for The Daily Beast, writes. Sales managers should ask themselves three questions, including whether each team member is "defending, deflecting or deferring."

Short-form video content can help brands deliver messages effectively, and investing in user-generated content that is authentic is one way to leverage the medium, writes Patrick Rafferty, owner of RaffertyWeiss Media. Rafferty's tips: include closed captions on videos to make content accessible, create teaser videos to help create buzz and generate branded hashtags to make sharing easy.

Hopefully, you've started the year strong. But if you're missing your goals or feeling like you could use a re-do, it might be time for a bit of self-coaching.

Plug-in sconces can bring lighting ambience to a room without the need to drill into the walls or dealing with wiring.

Mortgage application volume is rising, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. "Even with higher rates, there was an uptick in applications last week, but this was in comparison to two weeks of declines to very low levels, including a holiday week," said MBA economist Joel Kan.

Adolescence and its significant individual growth open a window to invite younger generations into family enterprises, write family-business consultants Wendy Sage-Hayward, Gaia Marchisio and Barbara Dartt. Seven things that cultivate an owner's mindset in teenagers include support for identity development, a family code of conduct, financial education and a future owners council, they write.

The meticulous work of drafting a new ethics rule will pay off in clarity for the real estate profession and the public.

Moody's Analytics finds that the Republican goal of balancing the federal budget within 10 years would require $16 trillion in reductions without tax increases. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., characterizes this level of cuts as a "disaster, plunging our economy into a recession and putting more than 2.5 million people out of work."