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A tale of 2 real estate 'tweeters'

By Mary Umberger, Monday, November 2, 2009.
Kelly Mitchell and Kevin Cottrell

This is a tale of two Tweeters. They're tackling the microblogging phenomenon in ways that are polar opposites -- and are equally convinced that it's a great way to build their real estate businesses.

Kelly Mitchell is a Honolulu agent who uses Twitter.com to send out brief dispatches that spotlight news in the real estate market, and also focus on her daily life and her feelings -- about being stuck in traffic, about an inspirational quote, and talking to college students about social media, for example.  more...

Top cameras: Through a real estate lens

By Inman News, Friday, October 30, 2009.

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California official warns of loan resets

By Inman News, Friday, October 30, 2009.

Homeowners with pay-option adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) loans are sitting on "ticking time bombs that the lending industry has the power to defuse," California's attorney general said in asking 10 lenders and loan servicers for information that would make clear the extent of the problem and what they intend to do about it.

Economists estimate that about 1 million pay-option ARMs will reset in the next four years, "dramatically worsening the foreclosure crisis," the attorney general's office said in a letter to lenders. With 58 percent of all pay-option ARMs originated between 2004 and 2008, California will be the "epicenter of this crisis," the letter said.  more...

Support builds for homebuyer tax credit

By Inman News, Thursday, October 29, 2009.

The Obama administration is urging Congress to approve a limited extension of the first-time homebuyer tax credit, and a one-year extension of the temporary $729,750 loan limit in high-cost housing markets for mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

Senate Democrats are reportedly proposing an extension of the first-time homebuyer credit, due to expire on Nov. 30, to apply to homes under contract by April 30.  more...

Lenders accused of illegal kickbacks

By Inman News, Wednesday, October 28, 2009.

Consumers don't have to prove they were overcharged in order to sue settlement services providers for triple damages under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), a federal court of appeals has ruled in a precedent-setting decision involving allegations of "captive reinsurance" of private mortgage insurance (PMI) policies.

The decision exposes Countrywide Financial Corp. owner Bank of America to potential damages of nearly $2.7 billion. Countrywide is accused in a proposed class-action lawsuit of funneling business to private mortgage insurers who had agreed to reinsure policies with an affiliated company, Balboa Reinsurance Co.  more...

Reversal for new-home sales

By Inman News, Wednesday, October 28, 2009.

Sales of newly built single-family homes fell 3.6 percent from August to September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 402,000, a 7.8 percent decline from a year ago, the Census Bureau said today.

It was the first month-over-month decline in new-home sales since March, although builders were still able to chip away at the inventory of new homes on the market, which fell 4 percent from August to a seasonally adjusted 251,000 units.  more...

Mortgage bankers' HQ up for sale

By Inman News, Wednesday, October 28, 2009.

The Mortgage Bankers Association's Washington, D.C., headquarters is reportedly up for sale, with the trade group planning to remain as a tenant in the 170,000-square-foot building through 2020.

Citing a letter to members by MBA Chief Executive Officer John Courson, the Washington Business Journal reported that broker Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP will immediately begin marketing the 10-story property, located at 1331 L St. NW.  more...

Demand for mortgages cools

By Inman News, Wednesday, October 28, 2009.

Demand for mortgages fell a seasonally adjusted 12.3 percent during the week ending Oct. 23, driven largely by a 16.2 percent drop in applications for refinancings from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.

Applications for purchase loans were down a seasonally adjusted 5.2 percent from a week earlier, and 15.4 percent from a year ago.  more...

Foreclosures spread from bubble markets

By Inman News, Wednesday, October 28, 2009.

An analysis of foreclosure-related filings at the metro level by data aggregator RealtyTrac shows new hot spots emerging in cities not generally viewed as bubble markets, including Provo, Utah; Rockford, Ill.; and Lansing, Mich.

All but one of the 20 metro markets tracked by RealtyTrac as having the highest rate of foreclosure-related filings during the third quarter were located in four states where speculation helped drive up prices during the boom: California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona. Those states also accounted for 37 of the 50 markets identified as having the highest foreclosure rates.  more...

More 'Hot Markets' outside California

By Inman News, Tuesday, October 27, 2009.

A "Hot Market" list compiled by ZipRealty spotlighting ZIP codes where homes are selling for the greatest premium above list price shows increasing diversity outside of California.

California landed four markets on the third-quarter Hot Market list, with two Arizona markets -- Glendale and Phoenix -- making the list for the first time, ZipRealty said in releasing its Third Quarter 2009 Home Hunter Report. By comparison, California had eight of the top 10 markets in ZipRealty's second-quarter Hot Market list.  more...

Home prices slowed descent in August

By Inman News, Tuesday, October 27, 2009.

The annual rate of price declines slowed from July to August in 19 of 20 metro areas tracked by the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, marking seven months of improved readings, Standard & Poor's said today in releasing the latest numbers.

The 20-city composite was down 11.3 percent in August compared to a year ago, with price drops in individual metro areas ranging from a high of 29.9 percent in Las Vegas to a low of 1.2 percent in Dallas.  more...

Calif. resale price rises for 7th month

By Inman News, Tuesday, October 27, 2009.

The statewide median resale home price rose for the seventh straight month in September, while the pace of single-family sales of previously owned homes was up 0.6 percent from the prior month and up 2.1 percent compared to the same month last year, the California Association of Realtors trade group reported Monday.

The median price of resale homes in the state was up 1.1 percent in September, to $296,090, while falling 7.3 percent compared to September 2008, CAR also reported. The year-over-year statewide median price had dropped in double-digitpercentages for 22 consecutive months before the single-digit percentage decline in September, the group noted.

The statewide median price compares to a national median resale price of $174,900 in September -- the national median price dropped 8.1 percent compared to September 2008.  more...

Atlanta broker, GMAC Real Estate split

By , Monday, October 26, 2009.

GMAC Real Estate LLC and one of its largest franchisees, Metro Brokers Inc., are parting ways, with GMAC claiming in a lawsuit that it's owed nearly $350,000 in unpaid fees and other losses on a 10-year franchise agreement that wasn't due to expire until 2014.

Atlanta-based Metro Brokers, which boasts 2,100 agents at 26 offices, maintains that the company terminated its franchise agreement on Oct. 1 because of doubts about the direction in which GMAC Real Estate's parent company, Brookfield Residential Property Services, is taking the franchise.  more...

Estately: We're in the black

By Inman News, Monday, October 26, 2009.

Estately Inc., a Seattle-based real estate brokerage company that works on a referral basis, says it reached profitability in the third quarter.

Company founder and CEO Galen Ward said in a blog post that the company achieved the milestone by slowing down its expansion into new markets, freezing new technology purchases, boosting conversion rates, and shipping two "white label" products, or unbranded versions of Estately.  more...

Until recently, Ward said, "we considered white labeling to be a potentially fatal distraction." But he had a change of heart after talking to the founder of another company, NetConversions, that got through the dot-com crash by doing side projects

Longtime innovator gives voice to vendors

By Mary Umberger, Monday, October 26, 2009.
Greg Robertson

A friend recently ribbed Greg Robertson that his Vendor Alley blog was "the TMZ of real estate."

Likening Robertson's frequent postings at VendorAlley.com to the wildly popular but often-notorious celebrity news site is a stretch, he says.

Nonetheless, he does get attention in the industry -- like the time just a few weeks ago, when he adapted the subtitles in a clip from "Downfall," the German-language film about the last days in Adolf Hitler's bunker, to poke fun at efforts by the calREDD ...   more...

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