There's a misconception that the two sides shouldn't communicate to avoid potential ethical or legal problems. Two appraisers explain why that's not true. Listen to Drive With NAR.

How decluttering your listings, your business practices and your life can help you leap forward.

Salespeople should wait to pitch solutions until they've helped a potential customer pinpoint their problems and areas that can be improved, consultant David Brock writes. "Our questions have to help the customer focus on understanding the issues, risks, need to change [because until] the customer thoroughly understands these, presenting solutions is meaningless to them," Brock asserts.

Expanding your followers on Instagram is a critical part of marketing on the social media channel, writes Anna Sonnenberg of Sonnenberg Media. Businesses can attract a larger audience by taking certain steps online to be noticed, such as using keywords in the profile, incorporating relevant hashtags in posts, geotagging content and working with established accounts on giveaways, Sonnenberg writes.

Market conditions are reducing the percentage of million-dollar listings on the market as some high-end homes reduce asking price, according to Redfin. Not all markets are seeing losses, though, as the number of $1 million homes in Florida is up.

The $22 million sale of an Aspen, Colo., townhouse highlights the strength of the area's market, with agent Riley Warwick of Douglas Elliman getting the client double the home's 2021 sale price. "We could have had a house twice the size one mile outside of town, but we chose location," said buyer Eric Harrison, who was represented by Jordie Karlinski of Compass.

February homes sales in Montreal hit a record low for the month, dropping 32% compared with 2022, according to the Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers.

Google's Bard AI isn't meant to be a search engine, even though its initial application offers "search," said Jack Krawczyk, the product lead for Bard AI, during an internal meeting last week. Bard AI, rolled out as a competitor to ChatGPT, is designed as a "creative companion to [help] you be the spark plug for imagination, explore your curiosity, etc.," Krawczyk said.

NAR members make a difference in their communities every day. The REALTORS® Are Good Neighbors program shares heartwarming stories on social media.

Veteran Tory Honda, whose leg was amputated, was surprised with an accessible home that is mortgage-free from the nonprofit Operation Finally Home to help him heal from injuries sustained in combat. Honda and his family received a police escort to their new home, which was filled with well wishes and notes of gratitude from members of their community.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will testify before a Senate panel today at a complicated moment for the economy, with recent data suggesting that taming inflation remains a challenging task. "The economy is running hotter than most policymakers anticipated a few months ago," noted Michael Pearce of Oxford Economics.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says the Federal Reserve will likely need to do more to bring inflation down but could still achieve a soft landing for the U.S. economy. "The thing I worry the most about is Ukraine," Dimon says. "It's oil, gas, the leadership of the world and our relationship with China—that is much more serious than the economic vibrations that we all have to deal with on a day-to-day basis."