The Tennessee Association of Realtors spring conference and trade show is March 11 13 at the Marriott Cool Springs Hotel and The Tennessee Association of Realtors spring conference and trade show is March 1113 at the Marriott Cool Springs Hotel and Conference Center in Franklin, Tenn. The conference is approved for 10 hours of continuing education. For registration information, visit www.tarnet.com/articles/mtgnews.html. Memphis Investors Group, a non-profit real estate investment organization, will host its monthly meeting 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Feb. 18 at the Holiday Inn Select Mount Moriah, 2490 Mount Moriah Road. Robert Shemin, author and full-time real estate entrepreneur, is the guest speaker. For information, call 278-1763 or visit www.memphisinvestors.com. EnSafe Inc., a Memphis-based engineering firm, has entered its environmental engineering work on the Grundy County Landfill in the statewide 2002 Engineering Excellence Awards competition sponsored by the Consulting Engineers of Tennessee. Fourteen firms entered 16 projects in the competition, which features competition in building support systems, civil engineering, environmental engineering, and studies, research and consulting services. Winners will be announced March 26 at Loews Vanderbilt Hotel in Nashville, Tenn. Crye-Leike Realtors recently presented Customer Service Awards to four sales associates at the companys annual meeting in January. Receiving the awards were Ann Amisano of Crye-Leikes Quail Hollow branch office, Clare Maness of the Olive Branch office, Robbin Sanders of the Midtown branch and Marc L. Scheinberg of the Bartlett-Summer Oaks office. The market composite index of mortgage loan applications, a measure of loan purchases and refinances, for the week ended Jan. 18 increased 24.4 percent to 723.4 on a seasonally adjusted basis from 581.7 from the previous week, according to a Mortgage Bankers Association of America survey. Refinancing activity represented 59.9 percent of the total applications, increasing from 54.3 percent the previous week. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed rate mortgages was 6.92 percent, an increase over the 6.69 percent from the prior week, with points increasing slightly from 1.34 to 1.35. The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed rate mortgages was 6.34 percent, with an increase in points to 1.30, up from 1.25 the week before.