Houston is Tops for Small Business Friendliness It’s no secret that Texas is one of the nation’s economic leaders, but CardHub.com’s latest study shows that the state is as good for small businesses as it is for Fortune 500 companies. Houston (leading the Texas way of course), San Antonio and Dallas are among the best cities for small-business employees based on metrics such as average wages for new hires, job growth and hours worked. Although none of the Texas cities cracked the Top 5, Houston sits right behind at No. 6, followed directly by San Antonio and Dallas. It’s surprising that San Antonio is so high given that it ranks second- to-last in number of small businesses per capita. But we already know Houston is one of the best places to live, thanks in part to high job growth and low cost of living. Denver took the No.1 spot out of the 30 largest metros in America. The complete CardHub.com study is here:

Weekly HAR Market Statistic Interest rates are on the rise, but further increases should be incremental and gradual without harming housing demand. All the same, some buyers might feel an extra pinch to act soon if economic and jobs data continues on a path of improvement. Ultra-low rates will not remain the rule of the day if the economy gives the Fed no reason to maintain its quantitative easing (money printing) stimulus policies. In the Houston region, for the week ending June 2: New Listings increased 6.7% to 2,357 Pending Sales increased 37.9% to 2,096 Closed Sales increased 16.1% to 2,173

Questions? ext. 6 Avoiding Risks and Liabilities Register at CRB: Real Estate is Risky Business Now more than ever, brokerage managers and owners must carefully navigate their firm through an alarming number of risks and liabilities. Successful brokerages must employ solid risk management and reduction practices to insure their company against significant losses, lowered productivity and a damaged reputation. Learning objectives: Recognizing common and uncommon potential areas of brokerage liability. Creating and implementing proactive risk-shifting policies and operational procedures. Designing and facilitating a simple risk management brokerage education track. Further developing systems, resources and tools to better manage potential risks. Strategizing and implementing a thorough brokerage risk management strategy. TREC Number: Date: June Time: 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. Location: HAR Central Investment: $299