50% of ALL Home Sales In California Are Short Sales and REOs! | Learn How To Do Short Sales. Popularity: 1% [?]

Are you an agent in California?

Have you been avoiding learning how to do short sales and become a REO Listing Agent? WHY? Are you still believing that you can somehow survive in real estate without having these skills?

A simple suggestion for you…don’t wait another moment. Its not too late for you if you take action NOW to learn what this market..what we call, ‘The New Normal’ demands…

Great article from our friends at DNSNews:

Foreclosed homes taken back by lenders and distressed short sales accounted for nearly half of all residential home sales in California in 2009, according to a market report released this week by the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.). In 2008, such sales made up 38 percent of annual transactions.

WOW! What else can you say? Agents, the question that I have for you is…how many of those short sales did you list and sell? How many home homeowners could you have helped had you known how to easily list and sell short sales? Watch the FREE HREU CDPD Short Sale Secrets video NOW. Learn the new 2010 ways to easily list and sell short sales.

As one of the hardest-hit states by the housing downturn, the Golden State is littered with bank-owned properties and homes facing foreclosure, but the lower prices and increasing buyer appetite for these deals are helping to reduce some of California’s distressed inventory.

The median price of distressed properties declined nearly one quarter to $250,000 in 2009, compared with $330,000 in 2008, C.A.R. reported. Meanwhile, the median price of non-distressed properties decreased only 10.4 percent to $485,000 compared with $541,000 in 2008.

Although one-third of sellers sold their homes for a loss last year – the highest level on record since C.A.R. started tracking net cash losses in 1989 – the lower home prices lured investors. According to the state Realtors association, more than 70 percent of properties purchased by investors were either short sales or REO/foreclosures. The typical investment property had a median price of $232,750.

Lower home prices and a large supply of distressed properties, coupled with federal tax breaks, also encouraged first-time buyers to take the plunge into

homeownership. The percent of first-time buyers increased dramatically to 47 percent in 2009, up from 35.9 percent in 2008, according to the report.

“It is clear that the federal tax credit for homebuyers worked well in 2009 and is continuing to drive home sales,” said C.A.R. President Steve Goddard. “The homebuyers’ tax credit is arguably the most successful strategy employed by the government’s efforts to stimulate the economy.”

…really? More so than the Fed buying MBS to artificially lower the interest rates….?

According to a survey conducted by C.A.R. on the effectiveness of the federal tax credit, nearly 40 percent of homebuyers in the state said they would not have purchased a home if the tax credit was not offered.

C.A.R. also noted that the large number of distressed properties led to more than half of all first-time buyers purchasing an REO/foreclosure or short sale property.

According to C.A.R.’s analysis, California’s median home price hit bottom in February 2009 at $245,170. Since then, the median home price has increased steadily in month-to-month comparisons, but remained below 2008 levels throughout 2009. The annual median price is projected to increase to $280,000 in 2010 from $271,000 in 2009, the association said.

Homes priced $500,000 or less dominated the sales mix throughout 2008 and 2009, but C.A.R. says sales of high-end homes started picking up in late 2009, with the number of closings for homes priced $500,000 or higher rising 3 percent, and sales of homes priced $1 million or more experiencing their first year-to-year increase since July 2007.

A separate study by a local newspaper shows that a growing number of Californians are turning to the courts to fight the foreclosure process and prevent their homes from becoming REOs. According to numbers complied by the San Jose Mercury News, the number of foreclosure lawsuits filed in federal court in California has ballooned from just 29 cases statewide in 2005 to nearly 1,400 in 2009

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Is It Safe To Get Back Into The Water..And Buy A Home? | HREU CDPD Short Sale Coaching Popularity: 1% [?]

What is the #1 Question Julie and I receive from current and future Harris Real Estate University students alike?

“Coach Tim and Julie…when will the housing market be finally done depreciating…when can we expect the markets to return to normal?”

We always answer the same way:

1) Know Thy Market: Even in the worst hit housing markets there are pockets of housing that are doing great. From a historical perspective, even during the Great Depression there were areas of the US that seemed to be almost immune. Get into your MLS and learn the housing market. Know what is selling and what isn’t.

2) Do No Harm: “Its a great time to buy”….isn’t that what we agents are told to say? Well, is it true? Nope and…depends. Know your client. If they want to keep the home for 10+ years then…yes…in certain markets and price ranges this is indeed a great time to buy. FHA fiance-able price ranges that are in sync with rental rates are probably safe. For example, if you can rent a home for a similar price as it would take to buy the home using FHA financing…them, jump in.

3) Rates Are Going Up…and Loans Will Be Harder To Secure: If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time you know that the fed has backed off buying mortgage backed securities. Mortgage interest rates no longer have the artificial support of the government. That will almost certainly mean…higher rates. If someone is trying to time the market you need to make them fully aware of the ramifications of rising interest rates. Sure, a homes value may fall another x% but, what difference will it make if they can’t qualify for the loan?

Here is an article from Washington Post.

The housing market is facing swelling ranks of homeowners who are seriously delinquent but have yet to lose their homes, and this is threatening a new wave of foreclosures that could hit just as the real estate market has begun to stabilize.

About 5 million to 7 million properties are potentially eligible for foreclosure but have not yet been repossessed and put up for sale. Some economists project it could take nearly three years before all these homes have been put on the market and purchased by new owners. And the number of pending foreclosures could grow much bigger over the coming year as more distressed borrowers become delinquent and then, if they can’t obtain mortgage relief, wade through the foreclosure process, which often takes more than a year to complete.

Translation: Agents, we are in THIS market..for a long time. What can you do now?  Learn how to make money from listing and selling Short Sales. As we have been sharing with you since 2007…Short Sales are the best solution to avoid foreclosures. Starting NEXT MONTH the new treasury departments Short Sale Guidelines kick in. Learn the new ways to easily list and sell short sales. Watch the Free HREU CDPD Short Sale Secrets video and download the FREE Short Sale Book NOW.

As these foreclosed properties add to the supply of homes for sale, they could undercut housing prices, which have increased modestly through December, according to the most recent figures in the S&P/Case-Shiller home prices index. That rise partly reflected a slowdown in the flow of foreclosed homes onto the market.

The rate at which J.P. Morgan Chase seized properties, for example, peaked in the middle of 2008 and fell steadily last year, according to a February investor report. But the bank expects repossessions to increase this year, nearly doubling to 45,000 by the fourth quarter.

“Some of the positive housing data may not be signaling a true turning point, as many servicers are holding back on foreclosures and the related houses are not yet being offered for sale,” said Diane Westerback, a managing director at Standard & Poor’s. Westerback said it could take 33 months to clear the backlog.

Data released Thursday by RealtyTrac illustrate the dynamic. While banks repossessed fewer homes in February than a month earlier, borrowers continued to fall behind on their payments, adding to the inventory of properties headed toward foreclosure that have yet to be put on the market, said Daren Blomquist, RealtyTrac’s spokesman.

“Just looking at the numbers, we would expect there to be a bigger percentage of properties” repossessed by banks by now, he said.

This “shadow market” reflects the increasing lag between defaults and foreclosures. Many lenders are struggling to keep up with the overwhelming number of borrowers who can’t make their payments, and they’re reluctant to rush repossessed homes onto the market when prices are depressed.

Note: the total number of so-called bank shadow inventory homes? Low end, 8,000,000…..high end…15,000,000. Bottom line: millions of homes will come on the market over the next 3-5 years as REOs. Is it too late for YOU to become a REO Listing Agent? No. Watch the FREE Agent REO Secrets video and download the FREE How-To List REOs book now.

Delinquent borrowers

Today’s delinquent borrowers, for the most part, differ in a key regard from those who were caught up in the surge of defaults in 2008. That earlier wave, which precipitated the financial crisis, consisted largely of subprime borrowers who defaulted when their risky loans became unaffordable.

The borrowers in trouble now are, for the most part, people who have better credit and safer loans and have become delinquent because they’ve lost their jobs or are dealing with other economic setbacks, economists said. More than 75 percent of the borrowers who are now seriously delinquent — meaning they have missed at least three monthly payments — have traditional prime loans, according to First American CoreLogic. Most of these borrowers have not made a mortgage payment in six months.

Strategic Foreclosures are the reason….literally millions of homeowners choosing to do a short sale (the smart ones) or let the home go back to their lender and suffer the negative ramifications of a foreclosure. A recent study demonstrated that homeowners with the BEST credit will walk away (short sale or a foreclosure) when their home is 1) $70,000 upside down or..25%.

These borrowers are among the most difficult to help. Homeowners with economic troubles such as extended unemployment often cannot make even reduced mortgage payments. And the longer borrowers stay delinquent, the more difficult it is to fashion a mortgage relief plan for them.

Some lenders are giving distressed borrowers more time to see whether they can modify the terms of their loans.

It can take a borrower six to seven months to find out whether he or she qualifies for a permanent loan modification under the federal foreclosure relief program, Making Home Affordable, according to Barclays Capital.

In Maryland, for example, lawmakers extended the foreclosure process from 15 days to 135 days in 2008 and are considering emergency legislation to force lenders into mediation with a borrower before foreclosing on a property. But other states and jurisdictions have even more drastic measures to slow down the foreclosure process. “There were cases where sheriffs were refusing to file foreclosure notices,” said Jay Brinkmann, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association.

After a temporary foreclosure moratorium in 2008, the backlog of homeowners facing foreclosure in Maryland has surged. The number of Maryland homeowners who are seriously delinquent or in the midst of the foreclosure process nearly doubled during the fourth quarter of 2009 compared with the same period a year earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

“Lenders are deluged by late-stage delinquencies. The pent-up foreclosure inventory is there,” said Massoud Ahmadi, director of research for the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development.

Housing prices

The uptick in foreclosure sales is helping depress Maryland home prices, he said. “We have seen that home sales are on an upswing, but prices are on a downswing. That is the impact of the shadow inventory. It is keeping prices down,” Ahmadi said.

In addition to those already in default are 11 million more U.S. borrowers who owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth — known as being underwater — and are in danger of becoming delinquent, said Sam Khater, chief economist for First American CoreLogic.

Agents…did you catch that…11 MILLION!

Over the past year, the number of foreclosed homes going up for sale has declined. Distressed properties made up just 38 percent of purchases in January, compared with the 49 percent peak in March 2009, according to the National Association of Realtors. That helped the inventory of homes on the market fall to a 7.8-month supply, close to the figure during normal times and down from more than 11 months in July 2008. But as prices continue to stabilize, lenders are likely to take advantage of the situation by putting more of these distressed properties on the market, economists said.

“Banks have remained in foreclosure paralysis, allowing that backlog to get larger and larger. You can’t do that indefinitely,” said Sandeep Bordia, head of U.S. residential credit strategy at Barclays Capital.

That impact could be muted if enough buyers emerge to snap up properties or efforts to enroll borrowers in mortgage relief programs improve. Some lenders are looking for ways to ease delinquent borrowers out of their homes without a foreclosure. For example, lenders are allowing more short sales, in which the home is sold for less than the outstanding loan balance. Citigroup is testing a program that allows delinquent borrowers to stay in their home for six months free if they leave the property in good condition, making it easier to sell afterward.

“We are anticipating a foreclosure glut that is likely to come up in next 16 to 18 months. We are trying to stay ahead of this,” said Sanjiv Das, chief executive of CitiMortgage. These types of programs are “protecting house prices and consumer sentiment from going down further,” he said.

What does this mean to you…HREU Student (or future student)? Please understand that the housing markets will not significantly improve for years. Short Sales and REOs are the market and will only be more so over the next 24-36 months.

Regional impact

The impact of the coming foreclosure wave will vary by region. The Washington area has a “shadow inventory” of about 67,000 properties that could go into foreclosure this year, an 11-month supply at the current sales rates, according to research by John Burns Real Estate Consulting in Irvine, Calif. That is slightly higher than the national average but far less than the hardest-hit communities, such as Orlando and Miami, where there is two-year backlog.

And the backlog will hang over some communities for years. By the end of 2012, 39 percent to 50 percent of home purchases in Phoenix will still be foreclosed properties, J.P. Morgan Chase has estimated. In Los Angeles, they’ll account for 28 percent of home sales.

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Mortgage Principal Balance Reductions | Underwater Homeowners To Be Bailed Out? Popularity: 2% [?]

Watch out for this one…Principal Mortgage Balance Reductions.

We have watched this topic pop up now and then since 2007. Now, Barney Frank is seemingly championing the idea. In case you didn’t know it….Senator Frank doesn’t mess around. We suspect that Senator Frank is rolling this highly controversial topic out now to put the banks on notice that they sure as heck better abide by the new Treasury Departments HAFA Short Sale Program.

In case you have been living under a rock…2010 IS the Year of the Short Sale. Read this post now for more info on the simply stunning changes to short sales that are taking place 04/05/2010. YES…thats NEXT MONTH!

What does this mean to you?

Imagine a world where almost like magic…all the negative equity for every homeowner simply goes…’poof’. Gone, no more upside down homeowners. Does this sound like a great idea to you? Watch this video and share your comments.
Mor

Popularity: 2% [?]

Upside Down In Your Home? You Are Not Alone! | Short Sale Designation, HREU CDPD Popularity: 2% [?]

Harris Real Estate University students (and future students), remember when we told you to be mindful  when the idea of doing a strategic default (Short Sale or Foreclosure) made it into the mainstream press?….we suggested that when that occurred the mindset about housing would be forever changed…

Well, it has happened. This article was from the Wall Street Journal.

What does this mean to you? Simple, you better be very literate on how to do short sales. There is an excellent change that you will be coming across upside down homeowners on roughly 3-4 out of every 1o of your listing appointments. Or, if you are in Vegas..make that 7-8 out of your listing appointments. Learn the new 2010 ways to easily list and sell short sales. Everything you think you know about short sales has changed. Watch the FREE HREU CDPD Short Sale Secrets video and download the FREE Short Sale Secrets book.

Millions of Americans are now deeply underwater on their mortgage. If you’re among them, you need to stop living in a dream world and give serious thought to walking away from the debt.

No, you shouldn’t feel bad about it, and you shouldn’t feel guilty. The lenders would do the same to you—in a heartbeat. You need to put yourself and your family’s finances first.

How widespread is this? More than 11 million families are in “negative equity”—that is, they owe more on their home than it is worth—according to a report out this week by FirstAmerican Core Logic, a real-estate data firm. That’s a quarter of all families with mortgages. And for more than five million of those borrowers, the crisis is extreme: They are more than 25% underwater—the equivalent of having a $100,000 loan on a property now worth just $75,000 or less. That’s true for a fifth of mortgage holders in California, nearly a third in Florida and an incredible 50% in Nevada.

Are you in this situation? Are you still battling to pay the bills each month, even when it may make little financial sense to do so?

It’s time for some tough talk.

Stop trying to chase your lost equity. That money is gone. Don’t think like the gambler who blows more and more cash trying to win back his losses. That’s how a lot of people turn a small loss into a big one.

And do the math. Even if you hope the real estate market is near the bottom—it’s possible, but by no means certain—it may still take years to see any meaningful recovery. If you are 25% underwater, your home will have to rise by 33% just to get you back to even.

Is that likely? And over what time period? Even if home prices rose by 5% a year from here, that would still take six years. And during that time you could instead be building fresh savings elsewhere.

If you are reluctant to give up on “your” home, realize that it isn’t “yours.” If you are in negative equity, it’s the bank’s home. You’re just renting it. And right now you may be paying way above market rates. You need to be ruthless about your cash flow.

Are you worried about the legal consequences of walking away? Certainly, you should check with a lawyer before doing anything, but the consequences will probably be more limited than you think.

In “non-recourse” states, the mortgage lender may have no right to come after you for any shortfall. They may have no option but to take the home, sell it and eat the loss. According to a survey last year by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, such states include negative-equity hot spots California and Arizona. Even in “recourse” states, lenders may have limited ability to come after you. Often they’d have to jump a lot of legal hurdles, and it’s just not worth it for them. They’re swamped with cases anyway.

“In my experience, right now they’re not really going after anyone,” says Richard Nemeth, a bankruptcy attorney in Cleveland. “They just don’t have the resources.”

If you’ve taken smart steps to protect your money, you may be safer still. For example, money held in a 401(k), Individual Retirement Account or pension plan is sheltered from creditors.

Sure, a strategic foreclosure may hurt your credit score. But if you’re in financial difficulties, it’s probably already suffered. And your credit score is not the only thing in life that matters.

Still, when it comes to the idea of walking away from debts, many people are held back by a sense of morality. They feel it’s wrong to abandon their obligations. They don’t want to be a deadbeat.

Your instincts, while honorable, are leading you astray.

The economy is fundamentally amoral.

Sometimes I think middle-class Americans are the only people who haven’t worked this out yet. They’re operating with a gallant but completely out-of-date plan of attack—like an old-fashioned cavalry with plumed hats and shining swords charging against machine guns.

Do you think your lenders would be shy about squeezing you for an extra nickel if they thought they could get away with it?

They knew what they were doing when they wrote your loan. Many were guilty of malpractice, but they pocketed good money and they’ve gotten away with it. And if they thought your loan was “risk free,” how come they were charging you so much more than the interest on Treasury bonds?

If you’re only a small amount underwater on your mortgage, it’s probably the case that you’re going to be better off staying put. But if you are deeply underwater, it’s a different matter.

Whether we like it or not, walking away from debts is as American as apple pie. Companies file for bankruptcy all the time, and their lenders eat the losses. Executives and investors pocketed millions from the likes of Washington Mutual, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns when the going was good. They didn’t have to give back one cent of that money when the companies went into bankruptcy.

Limited liability, after all, is one of the main reasons every business from your local dry-cleaner to a major multinational gets incorporated in the first place. They’re not shy about protecting themselves if things go wrong. You shouldn’t be either.

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URGENT BREAKING NEWS: Obama May FORCE Banks To Stop ALL Foreclosures! Popularity: 5% [?]

URGENT BREAKING NEWS:

Harris Real Estate University Students…and future students. THIS IS POTENTIALLY HUGE NEWS.

President Obama is considering forcing ALL lenders to stop ALL foreclosures!

His goal maybe to literally force every distressed homeowner (and their lender) to attempt a loan mod using the governments HAMP Program. We can assume that once the borrower chooses not to do a mod (or doesn’t qualify for a mod) they will then be pushed to the HAFA program. Remember, the HAFA program is all about SHORT SALES (or deeds in lieu of foreclosure).

What effect will this have on REOs? Virtually none. Why? Because of the sheer number of homes that are already in the foreclosure pipeline. Any temporary moratorium would be just that…temporary. So, REO Listing Agents…you need to prepare for a years of REO listings to come. If you would like to learn how to become a REO Listing Agent..watch this video and grab your FREE How to list REOs book.

Obviously, the Obama Administration is watching the dramatically increasing foreclosure rates….and will do something more radical to attempt to slow the rate of folks losing their homes.

Bottom line…AGENTS…please be 100% clear about this. 2010 IS the Year of the Short Sale. It NOT too late for you to learn the new ways to do short sales. Earn your HREU CDPD (Certified Distressed Property Designation). Watch the FREE Agent Short Sale Secrets video now…and download your FREE Short Sale guide book.

Believe me, we will be watching this emerging story 24/7. If any new news breaks…we will let you know.

Here is the story from Bloomberg.

The Obama administration may expand efforts to ease the housing crisis by banning all foreclosures on home loans unless they have been screened and rejected by the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program.

The proposal, reviewed by lenders last week on a White House conference call, “prohibits referral to foreclosure until borrower is evaluated and found ineligible for HAMP or reasonable contact efforts have failed,” according to a Treasury Department document outlining the plan.

“It is one of the many ideas under consideration in the administration’s ongoing housing stabilization efforts,” Treasury spokeswoman Meg Reilly said in an e-mail. “This proposal has not been approved and there are no immediate planned announcements on the issue.”

She confirmed the authenticity of the document, which hasn’t been made public.

At present, lenders can initiate foreclosure proceedings on any loan that hasn’t been submitted for HAMP eligibility. Under current HAMP rules, foreclosure litigation can proceed while borrowers are under review for the program or even in a trial modification.

The proposed changes would prohibit lenders from initiating new foreclosure actions before loan screening by HAMP and would require lenders to halt existing proceedings for borrowers once they are in a trial repayment plan.

‘Improved Protections’

The Treasury Department will soon release guidance “which will include a set of improved protections for borrowers” in HAMP, Phyllis Caldwell, chief of Treasury’s Homeownership Preservation Office, said today in testimony prepared for a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee. She didn’t provide details.

Earn your HREU CDPD (Certified Distressed Property Designation). Watch the FREE Agent Short Sale Secrets video now…and download your FREE Short Sale guide book.

The proposal goes further than rules adopted amid the crisis by federally controlled mortgage-finance companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which require lenders to review borrowers for a federal loan modification before a foreclosed property can be sold.

Foreclosure proceedings can still be initiated without a review, said Freddie Mac spokesman Doug Duvall. Fannie Mae spokeswoman Amy Bonitatibus said it adopted the same policy last March.

About 89 percent of outstanding residential mortgage loans are covered by the voluntary HAMP program.

About 2.82 million U.S. homeowners lost properties to foreclosure last year and 4.5 million filings are expected in 2010, RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, California data company, said last month.

Seven Million

Obama’s foreclosure prevention initiative, announced in February 2009 to help as many as 4 million Americans avert foreclosure, has modified 116,297 loans through steps such as lowering interest rates or lengthening repayment terms. More than 830,000 borrowers received trial repayment plans through January, according to Treasury data.

“Foreclosure processes differ among states, and the process is often confusing to homeowners already facing distress,” Caldwell said in her prepared testimony. “Treasury has been reviewing guidelines around outreach and the foreclosure process as part of its continual assessment of program effectiveness and transparency.”

Foreclosures may reach as many as 7 million mortgages, and an additional 5 million are at risk of default because borrowers owe more than the property is worth, Laurie Goodman, senior managing director at Amherst Securities Group LP in New York, said in a Feb. 17 interview.

Republican Criticism

“This is a problem of mammoth proportions,” Goodman said. “You can’t throw 12 million people out of their homes, so you need a successful modification program. My fear is that this isn’t it, but I’m highly confident that the administration will continue to iterate until they succeed.”

The Treasury proposal would require all borrowers who are 60 or more days delinquent on their mortgage to be sought out for participation in HAMP. Mortgage companies would need to try to contact the borrower at least four times by phone and twice by certified mail over 30 or more days before going to foreclosure.

Under current Treasury policy, foreclosure proceedings are only halted when a borrower receives a permanent modification plan.

Earn your HREU CDPD (Certified Distressed Property Designation). Watch the FREE Agent Short Sale Secrets video now…and download your FREE Short Sale guide book.

House Republicans criticized HAMP as a failure today, saying in a report that it is prolonging the economic crisis and harming homeowners.

“By every empirical measure, HAMP has failed,” according to the 18-page report released by Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “In its current form, HAMP both hurts homeowners who might otherwise spend their trial-period mortgage payments on rent and also distorts the housing market, delaying any recovery.”

Popularity: 5% [?]

2010 IS the year of the Short Sale | Real Estate Short Sale Training Popularity: 2% [?]

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“Should I WALK-AWAY?”…What Will You Tell Your Clients? Popularity: 4% [?]

Is detoxifying your debt obligations by ‘walking away’ from your mortgage morally repugnant or fiscally prudent?

One of the Mega Trends to watch out for this year is the predicted staggering increase in strategic foreclosures (or strategic short sales).
With the implementation of the new HAFA Guidelines will ‘walking away’ become even MORE acceptable?

Expect more and more homeowners requesting your help to short sale their homes to get out of their underwater mortgage vs. the traditional hardship reasons. Agents, take action now and learn how the new HAFA Guidelines will revolutionize the short sale process and allow for the steamlined short sale.

Listen to the replay of the HREU CDPD Short Sale Secrets teleconference:

Emergency HREU CDPD Agent Short Sale Secrets Event Info. <——-Click NOW.

Watch this ABC News story and share your thoughts….

Popularity: 4% [?]