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By Robert Freedman, senior editor, REALTOR® Magazine
Probably nothing is more important from a home sale standpoint than prices shoring up. That's how I interpret data NAR plans to release next week at NAR's 2009 Midyear Meetings & Trade Expo in Washington. NAR researchers are putting the finishing touches on the 2009 Member Profile, an 80-page report that looks at how much REALTORS® are earning, how many transactions they're closing, where their business is coming from, and so on. One set of data that jumped out at me is based on a question that wasn't asked in previous studies: what's the biggest roadblock to getting transactions closed. I expected the answer to be the difficulty households face in getting financing. That is in fact a major reason: 24 percent said that's the biggest problem. But 35 percent said the biggest problem is households' expectations that home prices will fall further, so they're waiting. What's clear, then, is that prices must stabilize and even start heading back up before households stop waiting and get back into the market. Other reasons transactions aren't getting to closing, according to the data, is low consumer confidence and concern about losing one's job.
As you would expect, the study shows that the market was pretty tough in 2008. REALTORS®' median sales volume for the year was only $1.2 million, down 37 percent from 2006, when it was almost $2 million. The drop in volume on a percentage basis was actually steeper for the most experienced practitioners. Those with 16 years or more in the business saw their volume drop 42 percent, to $1.5 million from $2.6 million. That suggests that the market slowdown has had an equal-opportunity dampening effect on sales.
Maybe it's because the market has been a tough ride that the share of REALTORS® who've only been in the business a year or two is dropping. In 2006, just before the downturn hit, 13 percent of practitioners had been in the business a year or less, and 10 percent had been in it two years or less. Compare that to last year: only 7 percent have been in a year or less and only 6 percent have been in two years or less. That suggests fewer people have been entering the profession, and, as a result, among those that have remained, the overall experience level has risen.
Looking ahead, more practitioners say they're not certain they're going to stay in the business. Predictably, the more they made, the more they expect to continue on. Of those who made $10,000 or less last year, 13 percent say they don't know whether they'll continue on. Those who made around $30,000 or less, 12 percent say they don't know. Both of these figures are up from 2007, suggesting an increased pessimism among low earners than before. By contrast, among those who earned $150,000 or more last year, only 2 percent said they weren't sure if they'd stay in the business.
What's clear is that, going forward, online social networking among those who stay in the business is going to become more prominent. We can't compare how things are trending because this is the first year NAR asked the question, but 71 percent of those 29 or younger use social networking sites in their business. These are sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Only 19 percent of practitioners 60 or up have started using the sites. Overall, 14 percent who aren't using social networking sites said they plan to.
Meanwhile, despite the growth of foreclosures and short sales, those types of transaction remain a relative rarity among the bulk of practitioners. Almost two-thirds said they did no foreclosures last year and 72 percent said they did no short sales. Thirty-two percent said they did 1-5 foreclosures, and 26 percent said they did 1-5 short sales. Only a fraction said they did 11 or more of either type of transaction.
NAR will be releasing findings from the report next week. We'll be reporting on it at our Daily News site, which you can find on the home page of REALTOR® Magazine Online at REALTOR.org/realtormag.
By Robert Freedman, senior editor, REALTOR® Magazine
One of REALTORS®' priorities going into the NAR Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo in Washington next week will be a little provision in a very large bill. This is Sec. 204 of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, a 648-page bill that covers everything from cap-and-trade climate rules to green jobs. Sec. 204 would require the energy-efficiency labeling of homes, apartments, and commercial buildings and is a classic example of a well-intentioned effort that could hurt millions of home owners. Although the details of how the labeling would work have yet to be released, a protocol for measuring home energy efficiency would be written. Based on that protocol, the efficiency of a house would have to be measured and then disclosed at a sale, among other times. In effect, each house would be labeled based on its energy efficiency.
Clearly this could have a severe dampening effect on sales involving existing homes, particularly older existing homes. And such a requirement couldn't come at a worse time.
NAR has sent out a limited Call For Action on the issue. Right now it's just targeting members of Congress who sit on the committee that's working on the bill, so only a portion of NAR's membership has been asked to write to their members specifically on this issue.
In its communication on the topic, NAR makes a pretty clear-headed point that there are many ways to get at the goal of improving the energy efficiency of our country's housing stock. Among them is to give owners reasonable incentives to make energy-efficiency improvements. As it is, Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) has a stand-alone bill, H.R. 1778, that would do just that, and NAR is making the case that this is an approach worth supporting.
Looking ahead, with climate change and other environmental issues on Congress' agenda, we can expect more efforts by lawmakers to advance proposals that might appear small-scale on the surface but that could have enormous impacts on markets. That's why it's crucial REALTORS® stay engaged in what's going on. You're the ones who know what the impact a proposal could have on markets.
By Katherine Tarbox, senior editor, REALTOR® Magazine
Keller Williams Realty Chairman Gary Keller imparted his “get right and get real” message on almost 7,000 associates and brokers at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. They're here for the Keller Williams Family Reunion that kicked off on February 21. I'm in Orlando this week, too, trying to capture the mood of the KW "family" in this difficult economy.
In his "vision speech," Keller told associates that, for the next 180 days, they should work seven days a week. “This is not the time to worry about life balance,” he said.
His prescriptive:
1. Get Real: The next six months will be the toughest in our economic history
and the most critical in your career.
2. Re-margin: Take a serious look at both your professional and personal expenses. Run lean and mean.
3. Generate leads: Successful associates must spend at least three hours a day picking up the phone and calling.
4. Price right: Houses will move if they are priced to this market.
5. Motivate buyers: Help them to understand they'll never know the true bottom, but the combination of historically low mortgage rates, current housing prices, and extensive inventory come around only once in a lifetime.
Keller encouraged associates to look at this critical period as an opportunity. It was a great message—and needed as a way to counter the panic and despair so many consumers are feeling.
By Stacey Moncrieff, Editor in Chief, REALTOR® Magazine
A New York Times story yesterday quoted former real estate broker Johnny Isakson, the Republican senator from Georgia, on the $15,000 homeownership tax credit amendment that had just passed in the Senate ("Senate Advances Tax Break for Homebuyer").
Isakson was responding to critics who called that amendment, as well as one to stimulate car buying, "pandering." The senator recalled a similar economic downturn in 1974 in which a tax credit brought balance back to housing inventory and stabilized values. "The only reason I know all of that," he told the Times, "is I was selling houses in 1974. That’s what I was doing to feed my family and make a living.”
Isakson's comment reminded me of a series we've undertaken at REALTOR® magazine to spotlight practitioners who've been through challenging times and lived to tell about it. In the coming year, senior editor Wendy Cole will be interviewing some of the association's REALTOR® Emeritus members (those who've been in the business at least 40 consecutive years). Our first interview is with 81-year-old Geary Jones) of Santa Cruz, Calif. Geary started the call with Wendy by saying he didn't know how much he'd have to offer; in the end, his comments were both uplifting and instructive.
So what questions would you ask a REALTOR® Emeritus? And what are your thoughts on the $900 billion stimulus package now working its way through Congress — and particularly on the "new, improved" homebuyer tax credit?
By Robert Freedman, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine
President Barack Obama has a lot on his plate but if you could spend a few minutes with him, what idea would you put in his ear to help improve housing markets?
Trulia CEO Pete Flint recently posed that question to readers of the Trulia blog. The closest thing to a consensus opinion among the 28 readers who responded: Get the U.S. Treasury to do what it originally said it would do when it lobbied for the $700 billion in Wall Street rescue funds back in October 2008. As one reader says, "Get the mortgage companies that were given bailout monies to loan that money out to people to start buying."
The fact is, REALTORS® were concerned with banks' intentions from the very beginning. When lawmakers were debating the rescue package, two leaders of our industry—Gary Keller of Keller Williams Realty in Austin, Texas, and Ken Riggs of Real Estate Research Corp. in Chicago—told me and other REALTOR® Magazine editors in a conference call we hosted that bank actions needed to be monitored carefully because banks were under no obligation to pass their money through to borrowers. "Although the intent of the legislation is to free up capital for lending on homes, cars, college, and business inventories, the government doesn't have a mechanism in the bill for making the banks turn around and lend the money back," Keller said at the time. "So no one knows what will actually happen once a bank has its capital freed up."
Here we are several months later, with half of the funds spent, and real estate professionals are still waiting for the banks to plow assistance into credit markets.
Other responses to Flint's blog post fell into three broad categories:
1) Help households become homeowners
2) Help home owners at risk of default stabilize their position
3) Help the industry help itself.
Top among the suggestions for helping households become owners is allowing people to save for a downpayment using tax-free dollars, what one person called a home savings account. Other actions recommended are in line with what NAR has been advocating for months: Increase conforming and FHA high-cost area loan limits, bring down interest rates, and make the homebuyer tax credit a real credit rather than a loan in disguise.
One person said getting interest rates down to 4 percent would make a real difference in getting people off the fence. NAR doesn't advocate aiming for a certain rate—that would encourage prospective buyers to stay on the fence waiting for the target rate—but it did applaud the Federal Reserve's actions last month to begin buying mortgage-backed securities. The move helped bring down rates to just under 5 percent for a time without the Fed having to lower its short-term target rate, which is already just barely above zero.
There were all sorts of suggestions for helping troubled home owners, but a recurring theme throughout was the need for the federal government to get lenders to rethink overly tight underwriting standards and take whatever steps are necessary to get lenders to take loan modifications seriously. Replacement loans with 40- and even 50-year maturities should be an option as well.
Suggestions for the industry to improve itself really don't fall into President Obama's portfolio. Many commenters said the industry must make it harder for practitioners and mortgage brokers to get licensed, but that's a state issue. All the federal government can do is encourage, recommend, or cajole states to take action. Stricter enforcement mechanisms for violations are needed, too, some readers said.
A few people weighed in on the stimulus bill now making its way through Congress. Here the focus needs to be on long-term investment that will produce a real payoff in future increases in economic activity and new jobs. One person pointed to the ideas being generated at a think take called the Davinci Institute, which is touting investment in future-oriented technologies like a national wireless Internet grid, massive data storage libraries, self-navigating on-demand automobile systems, a "whole earth" genealogy project, digital upgrading of community libraries, a space elevator, a transcontinental freeway, and space-based power stations. Few of these ideas have anything to do with real estate but they could conceivably pave the way for the kind of economic expansion that really does growth the pie, making home ownership possible for more people.
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR Magazine
LAS VEGAS - About 3 million jobs have been lost in residential construction since its peak in 2006, said David Crowe, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders, at a press conference on the Housing Economic Outlook this week.
As the real estate market softens around the nation, the number of builders is shrinking. Crowe estimated that NAHB has lost about 15-20 percent of its membership this year. The NAHB currently reports 200,000 members in the building and remodeling industry.
Housing starts have slowed to record lows and have been nearly at a standstill this past year, due to a glut of unsold or foreclosed homes already on the market, Crowe said. Housing starts will likely fall another 20 percent this year. Read more about the Builders' housing outlook.
"Seventy-five percent of housing production has gone down so you can't have that without losing some business," Crowe said. Lots of subcontractors have lost their jobs and builders have closed their businesses or left the industry until the market recovers.
That could be worrisome for when the market does recover, said Greg Miedem, president of Dakota Builders in Tucson, Ariz., who spoke at a press conference Wednesday about the remodeling industry. He said many have left the remodeling industry, too, as more people hold off on making any improvements to their home because of declining property values. "Where are we going to get the contractors when we need them?" Miedem said. "They're working in another industry now and it will be hard to get them back."
You may be wondering what impact the economy will have on the National Association of Realtors' membership. So far, membership has remained fairly stable at about 1.17 million, 14 percent below its peak in 2006.
By Katherine Tarbox, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine
More than 1,200 hungry real estate professionals gathered for Real Estate Connect NYC, Jan. 5–8, at New York City’s Marriott Marquis to talk about the future of the business.
Real Estate Connect was more or less my formal introduction to the real estate business—I’ve been with REALTOR® magazine for just one month—and it was both a sobering and an exhilarating three days.
It was sobering because it was hard to find anyone who’d had a particularly good 2008, and many practitioners are uncertain about their prospects for 2009. Speakers said there was room for optimism in terms of the number of transactions expected for 2009. However, they warned that recovery prices would likely take the form of an L shape, not a V shape. Among the speakers were NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® chief economist Lawrence Yun, Yale Professor Robert Shiller, and New York Times business reporter and columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin.
The exhilarating part was witnessing all the innovation that’s taking place in this business. The conference set a strong tone that it’s time for the real estate industry to embrace social media — such as Twitter, Facebook, and, most important, blogs — as a way to network and establish your expertise. In fact, the conference was teeming with social networkers who were blogging about the sessions and communicating through Facebook, LinkedIn, and other online communities.
Several sessions were geared toward helping practitioners build international business during a time when exchange rates are still favorable for foreign buyers. One tip: Those who want to break into the international arena should list prices in foreign currencies and state dimensions in meters instead of square feet. Learn about NAR’s International programs at REALTOR.org.
By Robert Freedman, Senior Editor, REALTOR® magazine
Consumer confidence is the key to increased home sales, NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun told me in a video interview earlier this week. That's something REALTORS® understand intuitively and it's why all of the elements of NAR's four-point legislative agenda are aimed in one fashion or another at giving that confidence a boost. Expanding and improving the home buyer tax credit is a case in point. By opening that program to all buyers and eliminating the repayment requirement, Congress is telling consumers that it's putting its money where its mouth is and investing in the strength of Main Street. Getting high-cost conforming loan limits back up to $729,750 and making that limit permanent is another big confidence booster, and not just for consumers; it would give investors the confidence to buy the securities backed by conforming jumbo loans (those over $417,000) at a lower rate. That means more affordable mortgages for consumers. Confidence is a funny thing because it can be self-reinforcing. Once it starts going up it can trigger a virtuous circle of ever-improving confidence. The trick is getting that virtuous circle started. REALTORS® understand that confidence has overshot downward because of all the negative economic news consumers are hearing. Sometimes it's helpful just to remind people that our homes are more than an economic asset; they're where we live. That's something you can always put your confidence in. Watch the interview with Lawrence Yun now.
By Robert Freedman, Senior Editor, REALTOR® magazine
Just how important is another economic stimulus effort to home sales? If you ask NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun, he'll say the difference is seven percentage points. That is, with another federal stimulus package--one that provides real help to home buyers by making mortgage financing available at below-market interest rates--we can expect a 10 percent increase in home sales in 2009 over 2008. Thus, if we assume we finish 2008 with about 5 million existing-home sales, then a 10 percent hike would mean an additional 500,000 sales. That's significant. Without another stimulus? The gain will be closer to 3 percent.
The fact is, on a national basis monthly home sales are holding fairly steady. The problem is that steady sales aren't enough to bring down inventory levels, which on a national basis are at about nine months, if not more. To get those inventories down, something needs to happen to drive households back into the market. That's where the stimulus effort comes in.
What's important for federal lawmakers is that this isn't just a housing problem; without a turnaround in home sales, the broader economy can't hope to see a recovery. So it's in everyone's interest for the government to help spur a turnaround in housing. Hence NAR's big push for its four-point legislative plan, which would give the federal government the tools it needs to push interest rates down to below the market rate and create other incentives for households to return to the market. I spoke with Yun in a video interview last week in which he spells out the situation in clear terms. Watch the interview now:
By Robert Freedman, senior editor
Where are home sales heading? Who's buying today? Why are home prices struggling to find a floor?
We talked to NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun a couple of weeks ago in a video-taped session to get his views on what's happening in the market. His take? Thanks to increased affordability, buyers are returning in big numbers in markets that have seen the most dramatic decline in prices. But we won't see a market turnaround on a national basis in the short term without a boost to demand, he says, and that's going to take some serious public intervention such as an interest-rate buy down.
Take a couple of minutes to watch NAR's chief economist share his views on our new Web video platform called REALTOR® TV. Starting with this first interview we'll be bringing you these video-taped economic updates on a regular basis.
The immediate impact of the new economic stabilization bill, signed by President George Bush today, will be renewed confidence in the market, two real estate experts said in separate interviews with the editors of REALTOR® Magazine. But don’t expect credit markets to turn around tomorrow. The recovery process will take time, say Kenneth Riggs, head of the commercial real estate analysis firm Real Estate Research Corp. in Chicago and Gary Keller, head of national residential real estate franchisor Keller Williams in Austin, Texas. We asked Keller about the impact of the credit crisis and the stabilization bill on residential real estate, and we asked Riggs for the same analysis from a commercial real estate standpoint.
REALTOR® Magazine: Now that both the House and the Senate have passed the stabilization bill and President Bush is set to sign it, what can we expect the impact to be?
Gary Keller: The market should regain some confidence, and since markets are built mainly on confidence, that’s no small thing. In fact it’s a huge thing and it’s imperative for the market to move forward. But beyond that, we have to wait and see. Although the intent of the legislation is to free up capital for lending on homes, cars, college, and business inventories, the government doesn’t have a mechanism in the bill for making the banks turn around and lend the money back. So no one knows what will actually happen once a bank has its capital freed up.
Kenneth Riggs: Well, it should give calmness to the financial markets by showing that we will in fact work through this crisis. That said, I don’t see the fundamental, or the mechanics, of capital changing right away. That won’t happen until we see how this package will actually operate and how well Treasury can do in buying and then selling the securities. So, the immediate impact would be that the market should at least breathe a sigh of relief. The next step will be to give a foundation for the credit markets to start functioning a little better. We will never get back to the level that we were a year ago; that’s part of the market cleansing itself of a culture in which capital was just too available and too cheap. The bill, too, is raising the FDIC insurance limit for bank deposits to $250,000. Many people will say, “Well, the small person might not have that much.” But it’s really small businesses that are being addressed here, and they’re what run our country. This will allow small companies like a lot of real estate brokerages to start focusing on their business, rather than the credit crunch, and to concentrate on how they can become productive.
RM: What are conditions on the ground now? Is anybody getting a loan, and if so, who and at what terms and costs?
Continue reading "Economic Stabilization: What Happens Now?" »
Robert Freedman, Senior Editor
Given how big a pill our country's being asked to swallow, it's not surprising that the vote in the House yesterday on the massive federal economic stabilization package was so close (205 to 228). The buzz on Capitol Hill and among policy analysts now is that the House could vote on a modified version of the package as soon as Thursday.
Although details on what the modifications will look like are still being discussed, you can get a lot of information on the basics of the package at REALTOR.org/CreditCrisis. NAR has put together a summary of the proposal (PDF) that includes its reasoning on why the stabilization effort is so important for real estate.
If you're getting bombarded with questions from clients, friends, and family about how a rescue bill would affect the market, the summary's a great way to get informed fast.
Also at REALTOR.org/CreditCrisis, you can access Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's explanation of why the package is needed and President Bush's statement urging passage. NAR's letter to Congress on how the assistance could help get real estate markets moving again is available, too. The site will be continually updated with new information.
It's a big proposal with a lot of moving pieces. But a time like this—when people in the community are looking to you for insights—it pays to educate yourself on what's going on. So take a few minutes to look at the material NAR has compiled and share the information freely with anyone who has questions.
For real estate professionals, this is a challenging time. For consumers, it's a very uncertain time. As an informed real estate professional, you can help consumers and your colleagues sort through the confusion and get a better understanding of what the government's efforts mean.
Stacey Moncrieff, Editor-in-Chief
How refreshing! A good news story about the housing industry . . .
These days, frankly, it can be hard to put yourself in a happy place. But a colleague forwarded me a recent Lew Sichelman column on ways Realtors® and other housing industry professionals are giving back to their communities—despite the hard times.
His syndicated column appeared in the Chicago Tribune Sept. 14 under the headline “When Realtors® Become Agents of Social Change”.
Naturally, I was glad to see him recognizing the 10 amazing finalists for REALTOR® Magazine’s Good Neighbor Awards. But he also talked with a practitioner who is giving up commission income to help military families afford a home. And the full version of his story (not posted at the Tribune site) cited housing industry professionals who are donating their services for Habitat for Humanity builds.
Of course, this kind of good work goes on all the time under the media radar, but it’s great to see someone of Lew Sichelman’s stature giving it some play. Thanks, Lew, for putting me in a happy place today!
Robert Freedman, Senior Editor
Effective Sunday, U.S. taxpayers are owners of more than 75 percent of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, a U.S. regulatory body created as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act enacted just about six weeks ago, put the two secondary mortgage market giants into conservatorship on Sunday.
That legal action gives James Lockhart III, the head of the regulatory agency (created out of the old Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, or OFHEO), the same power as Fannie's and Freddie's directors, officers, and shareholders.
On top of that, the U.S. Treasury Department is buying the companies' senior preferred stock. That's where taxpayers' 75 percent-plus ownership of the companies comes from.
The Treasury is also taking other steps to shore up the companies, including a commitment to purchase their
Continue reading "Fannie and Freddie Takeover: So What's the Upshot?" »
By Stacey Moncrieff, Editor in Chief
Do high gas prices have the power to change our housing patterns, causing people to flee exurban areas for homes in cities and inner-ring suburbs? And, if so, what does that mean for REALTORS® who work in those outlying areas? Those were the key questions in a fascinating teleconference, facilitated today by our senior editor Robert Freedman.
Although the planners, developers, analysts, and REALTORS® on our panel weren’t of a like mind on all points, they did agree on one thing: The trend toward “walkable urban” areas (as panelist Christopher Leinberger calls them) is real. High gas prices only serve to encourage a movement that was already underway as a result of demographic shifts. The trend doesn’t mean the death knell of suburbs, Leinberger and others said. Many suburban areas, such as Arlington County, Va., have successfully created “walkable urban” areas around transit lines. And now, rail lines (and adjacent development) are gaining steam even in car-dependent cities like Los Angeles and Phoenix.
In October, we’ll bring you highlights of the discussion. [NOTE: Because of space constraints in October, this roundtable has been moved to the November 2008 issue.] In the meantime, I’d like to know what you think, particularly if you live and/or work in an outer-ring suburb. Over the next five years, will we see continued softening in exurban areas — and, if so, what are you and the communities you’re working in doing to cope?
By Stacey Moncrieff
On the one hand, I was glad to see that Mary Umberger—the Chicago Tribune real estate columnist whose work I admire—was paying attention to our blog. In her June 22 column. Umberger cited our senior editor Wendy Cole’s observation in "Life's Hard Even at the Top" that even in a “hot” market like Charlotte, N.C., external scrutiny can create pressures and unrealistic expectations.
On the other hand, I was disappointed by Umberger’s flip “well, OK” at the end of the column. To her, I suppose, it seems that real estate practitioners want it both ways: They want the media to stop reporting so much bad news about real estate, while at the same time, they want to downplay “best market” hype. But I can understand it. It’s the same reason I’ve heard Detroit practitioners express frustration over being labeled the “worst market.” The truth is that homes are still selling in Detroit and not every home in Charlotte is jumping off the MLS rolls. Our seemingly insatiable desire for “best” and “worst” lists (and I read them, too) doesn’t really offer us much in the way of meaning. When attention is focused on any market — be it a local real estate market, a stock sector, or some other investment — that attention has the potential to oversimplify reality and even cause a psychological shift, either creating new demands or causing people to wonder “how long will it last?”
What do you think? Is reporting about your market creating unrealistic expectations among your buyers or sellers? If so, how do you set the record straight?
By Wendy Cole, Senior Editor
Be careful what you wish for.
I took a trip to Charlotte, N.C., last week to get a feel for what it's like to sell real estate in a market that’s been well publicized as an exception to the national housing slowdown. I chose the Queen City because its market has stayed strong and steady, even notching price gains for much of this year.
My colleague, managing editor John Frank recently took a similar trip to Sacramento, Calif., to talk to practitioners in a market where sales and prices have fallen off a cliff. His goal, and mine, was to find out what readers in these markets think of our magazine and to get ideas for how we can serve them better. I thought I'd pose similar questions to a focus group that, at least judging by the headlines, is in an extremely enviable position.
In the first quarter of the year, Charlotte home prices jumped 4 percent over the year before. (New York City was the only other metro area with a gain — 2 percent — during that same period.)
So I thought it would be refreshing and encouraging to hear for myself about the upbeat news out of Charlotte, a major financial hub commited to smart gowth. I'm sad to report that I couldn't have been more wrong.
Continue reading "Life's Hard, Even at the Top" »
By Stacey Moncrieff
I had an interesting discussion this week with Phoenix practitioner Jane Brunet, who specializes in short sales. Brokers in her area, she says, are telling their associates to avoid short-sale properties because of the difficulties in getting transactions closed. The transactions are complex. They require a keen understanding of financing, banks' loss mitigation policies, and bankruptcy law, among other things. Brunet says brokers should be providing in-depth education rather than discouraging their associates from engaging in such deals.
The irony of avoiding short sales, of course, is that homeowners with underwater mortgages are then forced into foreclosure leaving houses vacant — never a good thing for real estate values — and the banks gain control of the inventory.
That's a dangerous scenario in Brunet's mind. The conventional wisdom is that banks don’t want to hold REO — it’s costly to them — but Brunet’s not too sure.
Continue reading "Are You Sidestepping Short Sales?" »
By Stacey Moncrieff
I’m sitting on the floor of a Marriott Wardman Park ballroom.
That’s because REALTORS® and REALTOR® association executives — here for NAR’s midyear meetings — have crowded into the room to learn about Surround Sound, a campaign NAR launched earlier this year. The program trains REALTORS® to become ambassadors for the industry in their local community, combatting national news stories that paint a glum picture of the housing market.
Surround Sound is a grassroots program; NAR staff travel to local associations along with a
Continue reading "Spread Some Good News Locally" »
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