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3 Reboot realities: ad strategies, iPads and REOs

By Marcie Geffner, Friday, August 6, 2010.

LOS ANGELES -- Smart timing, short titles and intentional misspellings can boost page views for online ads; 48 percent of home sales in the Los Angeles area in the first quarter of 2010 were bank-owned properties; and the Apple iPad could be revolutionary for the real estate industry.

Those were among the highlights for real estate marketing, market conditions and technology during the latest of the Inman News Agent Reboot conferences, held Thursday at University of California, Los Angeles.

The one-day Los Angeles conference was the second in a series of 12 Agent Reboot conferences scheduled across the U.S., concluding Oct. 27, 2010, in Washington, D.C. more...

Love for home rooted in palm tree

By Marcie Geffner, Tuesday, October 6, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/thesunhums/419285884/">the sun hums</a>.

My palm tree is doomed.

The palm tree in question is a lovely specimen of the species that lives in the backyard of my house in West Los Angeles. The palm tree is not exceedingly tall and skinny, but it's unmissable and majestic. It's leafy, shady and inviting -- everything, indeed, that a palm tree of this type should be.

I fell in love with the palm tree the second I saw it, and it was a principal reason why I wanted to buy this particular house. I've been told that's an unusual reason to choose a house. more...

Loan mod bandits

By Marcie Geffner, Tuesday, September 29, 2009.

Flickr image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattimattila/2660481273/">Matti Mattila</a>.

"DONT LET YOUR LENDER TAKE YOUR MONEY! MODIFY YOUR HOME LOAN TODAY!"

That was the slogan--in large capital letters and sans the necessary apostrophe in the first word -- that loomed on a billboard over Century City, a tony neighborhood near my home in Los Angeles.

The billboard showed a masked bandit dressed in black-and-white prison stripes and a knit cap. On his back was a banker-style moneybag, complete with a big dollar sign on it. more...

Wanted: 'Credible' appraisals

By Marcie Geffner, Tuesday, September 22, 2009.

Flickr image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bramus/3365442997/in/photostream/">Bramus!</a>

It's the hottest topic in real estate today: The Home Valuation Code of Conduct, or HVCC, is so hot that it's not just inflammatory. It's on fire.

The HVCC is a new set of appraisal-related practices that lenders must follow with respect to loans they want to sell to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. These new practices are intended to reduce the incidence of appraisal fraud and prevent inappropriate pressure being placed on appraisers to inflate home valuations in home purchase and loan refinance transactions. more...

What a difference a new owner makes

By Marcie Geffner, Tuesday, September 15, 2009.

"It's so ugly."

That was my comment to my mother as we drove past a house in our neighborhood that she and my father owned for 24 years.

Yes, she agreed. The house was indeed ugly.

In my parents' day, the house conformed to its traditional Ranch-style architectural roots ... more...

Housing discrimination lives on

By Marcie Geffner, Tuesday, September 8, 2009.

Let's get one thing straight: Housing discrimination is illegal, unethical and just plain wrong.

Apart from some very narrow exceptions, fair housing laws make clear that it's illegal to deny anyone a fair and equal opportunity to buy or rent a home or obtain a mortgage on the basis of his or her race, religion or other protected characteristics. But unfortunately, neither the illegality nor the immorality of such discrimination has put a stop to it. more...

State of the nation's homeowners

By Marcie Geffner, Tuesday, September 1, 2009.

When will house prices go up again?

That's the question, worded in various ways, that I'm frequently asked by my neighbors, who happen to know that I write about real estate for a living.

My answer, always the same, is: I have no idea, and neither does anyone else.

There are plenty of forecasts of what may happen to house prices. Up. Down. Flat. U-shaped. V-shaped. L-shaped. Even W-shaped. But personally, I don't think any of the forecasts are all that reliable. more...

The loan-mod time bomb

By Marcie Geffner, Tuesday, August 25, 2009.

Flickr image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/16581899@N07/3186122400/">Umberto Fistarol</a>.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

That's the sound of the federal government's Making Home Affordable loan modification program, which is set to explode sometime after 2014.

In case you haven't heard, the program is the federal government's latest attempt to reduce the high rate of foreclosures. The program creates a process for loan servicers to modify the mortgages of homeowners who spend more than 31 percent of their income on housing costs ... more...

First-time-buyer tax credit is 'unfair'

By Marcie Geffner, Tuesday, August 18, 2009.

If you're a homebuyer or seller or you earn your living directly or indirectly from home sales, you're probably a fan of the federal government's First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit, which is intended to boost homebuying demand. But if you're not a buyer, seller or realty professional, but rather just an ordinary homeowner, for you, this tax credit is a dud.

To recap some of the rules, the credit is equal to 10 percent of the purchase price of the home up to $8,000. The homebuyer must not have owned a home during the prior three years. The credit is refundable, which means the government gives the balance to buyers who meet the qualifications, even if their federal income tax liability is less. more...

Lawns: Grass isn't always greener

By Marcie Geffner, Wednesday, August 12, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/booleansplit/2424643392/">Robert S. Donovan</a>.

Conventional real estate wisdom puts a lot of faith in curb appeal as an important characteristic of a lovely and desirable home. And a crucial component of that curb appeal is of course the traditional lush lawn in the front yard. Small or large, square or rectangular, flat or hilly, that patch of green grass is the ultimate desire of homebuyers everywhere -- or so goes the usual thinking.

But is the lush lawn now on its way out of style? more...

Homeowner takes on scam artist

By Marcie Geffner, Tuesday, August 4, 2009.

Is your house for rent? Or for sale? If you answered no, think again, and then take a look online. You may be surprised at what you find out.

Surprise was but one of the choice emotions that Sarah Stelmok, a homeowner and real estate agent in Fredericksburg, Va., felt when she discovered that a home she owns had been offered as a rental on a prominent Web site without her knowledge.

The home is a 1,200-square-foot townhouse in downtown Fredericksburg. It has two bedrooms and one-and-one-half bathrooms and is located in a desirable area that boasts a city-run stock fishing pond, dog park, historic district, tennis and racquetball courts, a small college and a large city park. more...

Real estate fears and the Big One

By Marcie Geffner, Tuesday, July 28, 2009.

A 4.7.

That was how one earthquake that struck Los Angeles this spring ranked on the good old Richter scale. The quake actually felt to me like a much bigger one than it really was because the epicenter in Inglewood was quite close to my house.

Being a second-generation native of this area, I'm not generally afraid of earthquakes. I remember several from my childhood and none of them was particularly scary. In fact, I slept through one of the bigger ones and dreamt that the house had a fever and chills or had been magically transported to a much colder climate or something like that. more...

The great apricot heist

By Marcie Geffner, Tuesday, July 21, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cdmoose/462126890/" target=blank>moose477</a>.

The birds are back.

Every summer, a flock of small birds attacks the plum and apricot trees in my backyard. Armed with their sharp eyes and pointy beaks, they fly into the trees, peck at the not-quite-ripe fruits and then fly off satisfied with their oh-so-destructive little meals.

After five years of shooing them off, I decided to try to outsmart them with a secret weapon: a plastic owl, which I picked up at a local warehouse store for about $14. more...

Is homeownership 'over'?

By Marcie Geffner, Tuesday, July 14, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/anemoneprojectors/3664791951/" target=blank>anemoneprojectors</a>.

Throughout most of the three decades from 1969 to 1999, approximately 63 percent to 66 percent of U.S. households were homeowners, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. At the end of that period, the homeownership rate broke its historical bounds and climbed to 67 percent. In the next 10 years, the rate rose to 68 percent and then 69 percent.

Much of this rise in homeownership was driven by government policies. Homeowners have been rewarded with sizable income-tax deductions for mortgage interest and property tax, and the tax code also all but eliminated capital gains tax on the sale of a principal residence. more...

Nightmare on Main Street

By Marcie Geffner, Tuesday, July 7, 2009.

Should a loan officer who forecloses on a homeowner's mortgage be dragged into the fires of hell?

That intriguing question is at the heart of director Sam Raimi's new horror film, "Drag Me To Hell," which opened May 29 in theaters nationwide.

I have to confess I don't like horror films. I'm too impressionable, too gullible and too easily fooled by the oldest plot contrivances and cheapest special effects. And, I'm very easily frightened by scary movies. Just ask my mother. more...

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