Array

The truth about short sales

By Dian Hymer, Tuesday, February 9, 2010.

Buyers often shy away from considering short-sale listings, either because they've had a bad experience or have heard horror stories about the deals that take forever and never close. Buyers' agents sometimes steer their clients away from sales that are subject to the lender agreeing to accept less than what they're owed, because it can mean a lot of work for nothing.

Short sales will probably be a part of the home-sale market for the next couple of years. They provide opportunities for buyers, particularly those attempting to buy a home in a low-inventory market.

Before you enter into a contract to buy a short-sale listing, make sure that you understand the process and set your expectations accordingly. One of the biggest differences between a short sale and a conventional sale is that short sales take longer. Although many lenders are streamlining the short-sale process, it can still take 45 days from contract acceptance to receive lender approval. more...

Townhouse rental ban challenged

By Benny Kass, Tuesday, February 9, 2010.

DEAR BENNY: I own a rental townhouse in a local community. The board of directors of the homeowners association has put to a vote of homeowners a proposal that would forbid any owner from renting his or her unit once the current lease expires, thus forcing owners to sell the property in what is not only a depressed market but is in competition with many other properties for sale. Can this possibly be legal? --Doris

DEAR DORIS: Unfortunately, if the legal process is followed correctly, it will be legal. This issue has been litigated in many states, and to my knowledge, all the court cases have held that community associations have the right to limit -- or even prohibit -- the number of renters in those associations. more...

Social media not just a 2-way street

By Gahlord Dewald, Tuesday, February 9, 2010.

Last week I had the opportunity to hear Adrian Ho of the Minneapolis firm Zeus Jones speak at the Burlington Social Media Breakfast. Ho talked about a lot of interesting aspects of social media and how his firm has made use of it.

I'll do my best to sum up some of his presentation points and tie them into the real estate industry. Some of Ho's ideas might be exactly the opposite of what you're hearing and reading elsewhere under the heading of "best practices." more...

Appeal filed in Corcoran client list case

By The Real Deal, Tuesday, February 9, 2010.

NEW YORK -- Aiming to send a message to the real estate industry, former Corcoran Group agent Sarit Shmueli has filed to appeal a recent court ruling stripping her of punitive damages a jury awarded her after she claimed the company stole her electronic client list.

Three years ago, the New York State Supreme Court found in favor of Shmueli, who had sued the company claiming that Corcoran, and in particular, Executive Vice President Tresa Hall, had stolen her client list "deliberately and maliciously" from her computer after Shmueli was fired. Shmueli was awarded $400,000 in compensation and $1.2 million in punitive damages. more...

3 Super Bowl marketing tips for Realtors

By Katie Lance, Monday, February 8, 2010.

Super Bowl Sunday is an "all-American" pastime. Whether you gather to watch the game or gather to watch the ads -- either way, advertisers know that a lot of people are watching. It's estimated that last year more than 93 million people tuned in.

However, this year a lot of big names, like Pepsi, scaled way back and spent more of their money and time on social media.

Pepsi started a social media campaign to promote its "Pepsi Refresh" initiative. Pepsi plans to give away $20 million in grant money to fund projects in six categories: health, arts and culture, food and shelter, the planet, neighborhoods and education. "This is such a fundamental change from anything we've done in the past," says Lauren Hobart, chief marketing officer for Pepsi-Cola North America Beverages. "The plan is to have much more two-way dialogue with our customers." more...

A love-hate guide to profitability

By Bernice Ross, Monday, February 8, 2010.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeke_/2709121418/" target=blank>madmolecule</a>.

Did you have a business plan for 2009 or are you like the 90 percent of all business owners who operated without a plan? If you want to have your best year ever in 2010, a solid business plan is the foundation upon which success is built.

Part 1 of this series examined how to identify your personal best practices. The next step is to create your business plan.

Research has consistently shown that achieving goals is tied to having a written

Walking real estate tightropes

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson

Walking real estate tightropes

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Monday, February 8, 2010.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/hojusaram/484731708/" target=blank>hojusaram</a>.

I recently watched the 2008 documentary "Man on Wire," a literally breathtaking retelling of Philippe Petit's illegal 1974 tightrope walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. At 110 stories and a quarter-mile above the streets of New York City, Petit walked back and forth about eight times over 45 minutes, only stopping after the Port Authority threatened to pluck him off the wire via helicopter. With inhuman agility, Petit lay down on the rope, he danced on the rope, and he glided back and forth on the rope as though he relished every second of his time up there (which, it seems, he did).

Even at nearly 60 years old when the documentary was filmed, Petit simply glided across his backyard practice rope, taking each next step as though there was simply no other thing to be doing. more...

Foreclosure cases eased in 2009

By The Real Deal, Monday, February 8, 2010.

The number of new foreclosure cases involving property in South Florida leveled off last year, according to a market report.

Default Research, a data collection firm based near Pittsburgh, Pa., found that the initiation of foreclosure cases in South Florida decreased last year after soaring for two years.

"What we deal with is the initial foreclosure proceedings, which is the lis pendens," or notices that litigation is pending, said Serdar Bankaci, CEO of Default Research. "We basically track properties that are initially being foreclosed upon." more...

Understanding agents' pain

By Inman News, Monday, February 8, 2010.

Q: What is the biggest change you have made to the brokerage in the past year, and what prompted this change? How has this change impacted the bottom line, if at all? What has changed about your service offering in the past year?

A: We introduced many different changes in the last year, but the primary change we introduced was from a contract phone center to a Web site link to schedule showings, and a link to submit offers.

When (one of our agents) finds the property through the search function, we provide summary information on the property -- which also includes number of offers worked and the number of offers that are currently active. The request is added to the property file, which is on our proprietary Web-based property management software. The offer documents are submitted and also become part of the digital property file. more...

Fed support for mortgage rates to end?

By Inman News, Monday, February 8, 2010.

The Federal Reserve remains on course to wind down its purchases of mortgage-backed securities at the end of March, but would consider resuming them if mortgage rates shoot up with unintended consequences for the economy, a Fed official says.

The ongoing Fed purchases, which are expected to total $1.25 trillion by the end of next month, are widely credited with keeping mortgage interest rates near historic lows. more...

Property search site targets Latin America

By Inman News, Monday, February 8, 2010.

A California-based property search startup, VivaReal, is growing rapidly by setting its sights on the Latin American real estate market, according to the New York Times.

Launched in May 2009, the company's site receives 600,000 monthly visitors, with that number increasing more than 20 percent each month, according to the Times. more...

Crisis at early age motivated NAR leader

By Mary Umberger, Monday, February 8, 2010.

Vicki Cox Golder went into real estate, she says, for the same reason that many others cite: It seemed like a good place to make a lot of money.

But she had a lot more motivation than many other aspiring real estate agents. By the time she was 20, both of her parents had died and she faced the prospect of raising her three sisters, ages 9, 11, and 13, herself.

Today, she regards her unusual and occasionally rocky road through the parenting of her sisters and two now-grown sons as a success.

"Basically being a teenager myself, it was a challenge, but a challenge I would do all over again," says Golder. more...

Finding value in loan assumptions

By Jack Guttentag, Monday, February 8, 2010.

"Does the assumability option on FHA loans offset their high mortgage insurance premiums?"

That is a great question and very timely. The value of assumability right now is as high as it is ever likely to go because of the broad consensus that interest rates in future years will be higher than they are now.

Loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) are assumable, while conventional loans, with a few exceptions, are not. That means that a home purchaser today who finances the purchase with an FHA-insured loan and who sells his house later when interest rates are higher will be able to offer a potential buyer the right to assume his low-rate FHA loan. After approval of the buyer by FHA, on sale of the property the buyer will assume all the obligations under the mortgage, just as if the loan had been made to her, and the seller will be relieved of liability. more...

The Wheel Estate Cam

By Frank LLosa, Friday, February 5, 2010.

Episode 12: Work less, make more? No, this is not a get-rich-quick scheme but a smart business decision, says Frank LLosa of Frankly Realty, in this latest edition of the Wheel Estate Cam.

LLosa says that busy agents sometimes hurt their own business by taking all comers. Instead, he said, agents should strategically turn away business that may not produce the best bang for the buck. more...

The debt is a real threat

By Lou Barnes, Friday, February 5, 2010.

Flick photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dust/2372626568/" target=blank>Amanda M Hatfield</a>.

The potential collapse of the euro currency, sinking stocks and a dead job market here have combined to push long-term rates down. Ten-year Treasurys are trading at 3.57 percent despite a huge new borrowing next week, and mortgage rates are at 5 percent flat.

Job losses appear to be bottoming, but the issue is new employment. The "V" recovery spinners are the same guys as all last year -- and someday they'll be right -- but new unemployment claims are back up to 480,000 weekly, 2009 job losses were revised up by a million, and the drop in unemployment to 9.7 percent is statistical wandering. more...

Columnists