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Calyx Point gets 'SmartGFE' service

By Inman News, Monday, October 12, 2009.

Loan originators using Calyx Point will soon have access to ClosingCorp's SmartGFE service, allowing them to compare actual rates offered by title insurance companies and other settlement services providers at the national, regional and local level.

The integration of the SmartGFE service into Calyx Point in November will help loan originators comply with changes to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) taking effect Jan. 1, ClosingCorp said.  more...

Dial 'R' for real estate mysteries

By Inman News, Monday, October 12, 2009.

For all Realtors who've sworn they could write a book on some of their more colorful clients and transactions, Nancy Lynn Jarvis, owner of HomeScape Realty in Santa Cruz, Calif., is on her third.

"Readers get a look at how real estate works. Sometimes it's a tough business and sometimes some pretty funny stuff happens," says Jarvis, author of "The Death Contingency" and "Backyard Bones," and founder of the publishing company selling her titles on Amazon.com and through her Web site, www.goodreadmysteries.com.  more...

Gloomy outlook for loan mods

By , Friday, October 9, 2009.

The Obama administration's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) is too focused on subprime loans to head off a projected 10 million to 12 million foreclosure starts that lie ahead if unemployment remains elevated, according to a report by a Congressional Oversight Panel.

The panel, created in conjunction with the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to keep tabs on financial markets and the regulatory system, said that even if the HAMP program meets a goal of facilitating up to 4 million loan modifications, its scope is too narrow to address foreclosures caused by unemployment.  more...

Mortgage rates breaking records

By Inman News, Friday, October 9, 2009.

Rates on several types of mortgages were at or near historic lows this week, helping spur demand for purchase and refinance loans, Freddie Mac said in releasing the results of its weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.87 percent with an average 0.7 point, down from 4.94 percent last week and 5.94 percent a year ago.  more...

Index: Inventories shrank again in August

By Inman News, Friday, October 9, 2009.

The number of for-sale listings in 26 metro markets where ZipRealty operates declined 1.8 percent from August to September, the company said, marking the 15th consecutive month-over-month decline in housing inventory.

Inventories shrank from month to month in all but four of the markets covered in ZipRealty's Housing Inventory Index, the company said. Inventories of single-family homes and condos were up in Boston (2.2 percent), Baltimore (1.5 percent), Sacramento (1.3 percent), and Charlotte, N.C. (0.2 percent).  more...

Freddie Mac REO incentive ending

By Inman News, Friday, October 9, 2009.

A program in which Freddie Mac pays some or all of the closing costs on purchases of homes in the company's real estate-owned (REO) inventory is ending this month, but Freddie will continue to provide two years of home warranty coverage on homes it sells.

Freddie Mac's SmartBuy program pays closing costs of up to 3.5 percent of a home's purchase price. On a $150,000 home, for example, SmartBuy will pay up to $5,250 of closing costs.  more...

Ditching a condo contract? Not easy

By The Real Deal, Friday, October 9, 2009.

NEW YORK -- It's often said that the devil is in the details -- and for many New York City buyers and sellers, that's increasingly become the case in the down market.

New development brokers and real estate lawyers say many of the attempts they are seeing among buyers to get out of contracts are from those arguing that the measurements on their condos are different from what they were promised. They say that sometimes buyers will invoke the claim over a minor quibble, such as small floorplan discrepancies or an inch or two difference in ceiling height.  more...

NAR: Appraisal rules undercut tax credit

By Inman News, Thursday, October 8, 2009.

The Federal Housing Administration's new guidelines for ordering appraisals won't have some of the unintended consequences that those put in place by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in May did, the National Association of Realtors says.

But NAR continues to push for suspending enforcement of the Home Valuation Code of Conduct, rules governing appraisals adopted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on May 1 in the wake of an investigation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.  more...

The right time for bulk buyers?

By Erik Pisor, Thursday, October 8, 2009.

A forest of foreclosures -- the afterglow of a financial firestorm, overbuilding and plummeting home prices -- roused a buzz within the investor community about bargains galore and bulk purchases.

Some sprawling subdivisions and towering condo buildings, spawned during the fever-pitch housing boom, years later contain more vacant units than occupied ones -- some were never sold; others were sold and soon after ended up in foreclosure.  more...

Real estate's gender factor

By Inman News, Wednesday, October 7, 2009.

Join Tara-Nicholle Nelson -- Inman News columnist, real estate broker, attorney and author -- from 10 a.m. PDT to 11 a.m. PDT Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2009, for a free webinar, "Three Low-Cost Ways to Make More Money by Connecting with Women Real Estate Consumers" (click here to register).

Nelson will highlight important gender differences that factor into the homebuying process. "Women make or influence a whopping 91 percent of real estate decisions," and "think about, shop for and buy homes differently than men," according to information assembled for this webinar.

Nelson writes five columns per week -- Monday through Friday -- for Inman News, on topics ranging from buyer psychology to book reviews to real estate-relevant court cases.  more...

Management changes at Listingbook LLC

By , Wednesday, October 7, 2009.

Listingbook LLC says it's hired a new senior vice president of sales and partnerships who will build a sales force as part of management changes intended to help the online client management platform continue to expand its national footprint.

The Listingbook platform integrates client management, sales productivity, and direct-marketing tools by allowing agents and brokers to provide their clients with access to multiple listing service data through client accounts.  more...

California's rollercoaster ride to end?

By Inman News, Wednesday, October 7, 2009.
Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kapkap/516838605/">_PaulS_</a>.

The up-and-down rollercoaster ride that California home sales and prices have been on for the last several years could finally even out in 2010, although the state will continue to have a bifurcated housing market, the California Association of Realtors said today.

The "new normal" for California housing markets -- brisk sales and lean inventory on the low end, coupled with continued roadblocks to closing deals on the high end -- could produce a slight increase in the state's median home price, even as sales cool down a bit, CAR said.  more...

Mortgage demand spikes

By Inman News, Wednesday, October 7, 2009.

Mortgage applications surged 16.4 percent last week as demand for both refinance and purchase loans registered double-digit increases, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in releasing the results of its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.

An index measuring demand for applications to refinance was up a seasonally adjusted 18.2 percent from the week before, to its highest level since mid-May, the MBA said.  more...

Move Inc. downsizes headquarters

By , Wednesday, October 7, 2009.

Realtor.com operator Move Inc. says the company will save about $1 million a year in rent by vacating nearly half of the office space it's occupied for the past nine years at its headquarters in Westlake Village, Calif.

Move's new seven-year lease with Arden Realty Limited Partnership provides the company with 76,000 square feet on two floors at 30700 Russell Ranch Road, compared with 138,000 square feet under its previous lease, signed in 2000.  more...

RealtyTrac trims workforce

By , Tuesday, October 6, 2009.
Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/respres/2539334956" target=blank>respres</a>.

In an attempt to return to profitability, foreclosure data site RealtyTrac has trimmed its workforce by nearly 30 employees and is moving away from some media partnerships that drove traffic to the site but were deemed "not profitable."

RealtyTrac Senior Vice President Rick Sharga confirmed a report on the blog VendorAlley.com that the layoffs took place last week, calling the move a "surgical workforce reduction" that leaves the company with about 100 employees.  more...

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