Archive - Sep 21, 2009

Date

Misguided by 'media market mania'

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Monday, September 21, 2009.

I awoke one recent morning to the news of the results of a hot-off-the-presses Pew study: 63 percent of Americans polled believe that media news stories are often inaccurate. Sixty percent feel the media is biased in its reporting, and 74 percent said news organizations tend to favor one side in their dealings with social and political issues.

Call me a cynic, but this public sentiment seems neither surprising nor off-base to me. Keeping in mind that I hail from the San Francisco Bay Area ... more...

Facebook dos and don'ts for agents

By Bernice Ross, Monday, September 21, 2009.

Are you making the most out of the new technologies in your real estate business? If not, check out these tips from Real Estate Connect San Francisco.

Parts 1 and 2 of this series outlined best practices for using the Web and the social media in your real estate business. Today's column looks specifically at best practices for Facebook.

1. The 95-5 Rule
Regardless of which social media platform you use, your ultimate goal is to engage in conversations that lead to online friendships or that produce followers for your business. more...

Sellers, be careful what your listing says

By Dian Hymer, Monday, September 21, 2009.

Internet advertising dominates the home-sale industry, which is not to say that print ads are dead. A good home-for-sale ad -- either online or in a newspaper -- should contain enough factual information to interest a buyer without overstating reality.

Sellers and listing agents can go overboard selling their listings. It's usually better to undersell. For instance, your house might have three bedrooms and a bonus room that you use as a fourth bedroom. Unless the bonus room was permitted as a bedroom, you could face adverse legal consequences if you advertise it as a fourth bedroom. more...

Refi hit with extra interest charges

By Benny Kass, Monday, September 21, 2009.

DEAR BENNY: Recently we refinanced our California home with one of the major U.S. banks. After five months we finally received a notice that the loan documents were ready to sign at a local title company. I requested a preliminary copy of the HUD-1 statement in order to look at the numbers before we signed. On the statement I noticed that the short-period interest on the new loan paid through escrow covered the same five-day period as the payoff interest on the old loan. Both lenders charged us interest for the period July 27 though Aug. 1.

When I asked the loan officer about this, she told me that this was due to timing differences between the funding of the new loan proceeds and the payoff of the old loan. I can understand one day, but doesn't five days seem excessive in light of electronic banking? --Walter more...

Mortgage reform targets excessive costs

By Jack Guttentag, Monday, September 21, 2009.

Of all the issues that have bedeviled regulators and legislators dealing with consumer protection, perhaps the most troublesome have been abuses connected to mortgage loan originator compensation. Most reform proposals have been directed at abuses by mortgage brokers, and don't apply to loan-officer employees of lenders. And many of the less thoughtful proposals for curbing broker abuses would eliminate the borrower's option to have the lender pay the broker's fee in exchange for a higher rate.

I am pleased to report that the recent proposals of the Federal Reserve to amend the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) deal with abuses by loan officers as well as brokers. more...

Rehabbing habitat

By Inman News, Monday, September 21, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/firstbaptistnashville/2658797928/" target=blank>FirstBaptistNashville</a>.

The nonprofit group Habitat for Humanity is trying to put a dent in the glut of foreclosures in many parts of the country by buying up the houses, renovating them and selling them to their clients. It's a way to help reinvigorate blighted neighborhoods, and get families into homes much quicker than building from the ground up.

"When a community has a number of vacant homes, the property value of the surrounding ones goes down, (and) the condition of surrounding homes goes down. People feel kind of discouraged," says Stephen Seidel, senior director of global program design and implementation of the Habitat for Humanity, headquartered in Atlanta. "By fixing it up we bring it back to life." more...