Realtor Coaching & Training: HREU
Join us for this week’s FREE live Harris Real Estate University Superstar Interview.
This weeks featured HREU Superstar’s are:
Lance and Karen Kenmore.
The Kenmore’s are long time HREU students having been personally coached by Tim and Julie Harris for years. Listen in as we ask the Kenmore’s how they have gone from selling only a handful of homes per year just a few years ago…..to today, where they will sell well over 100 homes in 2010. The Kenmores fully embrace the HREU rule of having multiple lead generation spokes. The Kenmore’s have a weekly radio show, are Dave Ramsey preferred agents, have a fantastic system for keeping in contact with their centers of influence and past clients.
Join us for this FREE HREU Event. Here is the info for your schedule:
EVENT: Super Star Interview
DATE & TIME: Friday, March 12th at 9:00am Pacific
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)
TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW…
http://AttendThisEvent.com/?eventid=11669457
A little info on Lance and Karen from their website:
The Kenmore Team is a full service real estate team assisting buyers and sellers in residential resale, relocation, investment properties, short sales, foreclosures and luxury homes sales in Tri-Cities, Washington (Richland, Pasco, Kennewick) and surrounding areas.
As life long residents of the Tri-Cities and active members of our community our first hand experience and knowledge of the area provide you a major advantage when making important real estate decisions. Working as part of a powerful team we provide our clients with exceptional customer service, technology, and most importantly results. We back this up with a guarantee that most agents wouldn’t even consider.
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Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac
Breaking News: New foreclosure filings drop…but, is this reason to celebrate…or is something else going on?
U.S. foreclosure filings rose at the slowest pace in four years in February as the government sought to reduce record bank seizures, RealtyTrac Inc. said.
A total of 308,524 properties received a notice of default, auction or seizure last month, or one in 418 households, the Irvine, California-based seller of default data said today in a statement. Filings rose 6 percent from a year earlier, the smallest increase since RealtyTrac began tracking annual changes in January 2006. They declined 2 percent from January.
The Obama administration’s main effort to keep people in their homes resulted in more than 830,000 trial loan modifications for delinquent borrowers through January, according to the Treasury Department. Still, filings were up for the 50th straight month in February on an annual basis and topped 300,000 for the 12th consecutive month, RealtyTrac said.
“This leveling of the foreclosure trend is not necessarily evidence that fewer homeowners are in distress and at risk for foreclosure, but rather that foreclosure prevention programs, legislation and other processing delays are in effect capping monthly foreclosure activity,” RealtyTrac Chief Executive Officer James J. Saccacio said in a statement.
About 116,000 mortgages have been permanently modified under the government’s program, compared with as many as 4 million targeted by December 2012. New data will be released March 15, Meg Reilly, a Treasury spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.
Winter storms may also have delayed the processing of foreclosure notices in the U.S. northeast and mid-Atlantic, RealtyTrac said.
Interesting point…many state offices were simply closed due to the weather. That will result in what appears to be fewer filings but, the reality is that we will see another surge in next months report. So, if the Obama administration wants to truly slow down the rate of foreclosure filings maybe they should simply mandate more ’snow days’ for the states county court houses! Hey, don’t laugh…that would be a heck of a lot cheaper than HAMP!
Bank Repossessions
Bank seizures are increasing the number of homes for sale. Lenders took back 78,683 properties last month, up 6 percent from February 2009 and down 15 percent from a peak in December, RealtyTrac said. More than 2 million empty homes were on the market in the fourth quarter, according to the Census Bureau.
“Government programs are helping to keep more supply from coming out,” Brian Bethune, chief financial economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts, said in an interview. “We’ve got a disjointed market where most of the housing supply is coming from foreclosures rather than building new homes.”
‘High’ Foreclosure Rate
Bethune predicted a “high” rate of foreclosures for at least the next 12 months. RealtyTrac expects record bank seizures this year, said Rick Sharga, executive vice president for marketing.
So, as an agent what should you do? Simple. Learn how to become a REO Listing agent…and make money from BPOs. Its NOT too late for you to become a REO listing agent. Banks are looking for agents to do their BPOs and list REOs NOW. Watch the FREE Agent REO Secrets Video and then Grab your FREE Agent REO Secrets book.
The cost of borrowing for home purchases will probably rise as the Federal Reserve winds down a program to purchase as much as $1.25 trillion of mortgage bonds, according to George Mokrzan, senior economist at Huntington National Bank in Columbus, Ohio. Mortgage rates fell to 4.95 percent in the week ended today from 4.97 percent, Freddie Mac said in a statement.
Default notices totaled 106,208 in February, down 3 percent from a year earlier and up 3 percent from January, RealtyTrac said. Defaults peaked at more than 142,000 in April.
Scheduled auctions totaled 123,633 last month, up 16 percent from February 2009 and down 1 percent from January. The peak was more than 144,000 in August.
Nevada, California
Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate for the 38th straight month in February, with one in 102 households receiving a filing. Arizona and Florida tied for second at one in 163 households.
California ranked fourth at one in 195 households, followed by Michigan at one in 226. Utah, Idaho, Illinois, Georgia and Maryland rounded out the 10 highest foreclosure rates.
The most filings were in California, with 68,562, down 15 percent from a year earlier. Florida was second with 54,032, up 16 percent, and Michigan was third at 20,028, a 59 percent rise.
Illinois had the fourth-highest total filings with 17,312, Arizona had 16,718 and Texas had 12,638. The six states accounted for 61 percent of the U.S. total, RealtyTrac said.
Georgia, Ohio, Nevada and Maryland rounded out the top 10.
Filings rose 14 percent from a year earlier to 3,750 in New Jersey. They climbed 3.3 percent to 2,294 in Connecticut, and dropped 20 percent to 3,237 in New York.
Las Vegas had the highest foreclosure rate for cities with a population of more than 200,000. One in 90 households there got a filing. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida, was second at one in 92.
Six metro areas in California or Arizona had decreases in filings from January, with Phoenix showing the biggest drop at almost 18 percent.
Port St. Lucie, Florida, showed a 66 percent increase, said RealtyTrac, which sells default data collected from more than 2,200 counties representing 90 percent of the U.S. population.
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Harris Real Estate University students have been aware of the consumer shift away from the so-called McMansions.
The homes that were built by the now aging baby boomers. Status oriented homes that often had 5+ bedrooms and 3000+ square feet. HREU Students who are doing short sales know that a majority of their new short sale listings are these types of homes as downsizing boomers discover they have few options.
Agents, 2010 IS the year of the short sale. New Treasury Department Guidelines take place April 5th. Are you ready for the massive expected increase in short sales? Learn the new ways to list and sell short sales. Earn your HREU CDPD. Watch the FREE Agent Short Sale Secrets video and grab your FREE Short Sale Secrets book NOW.
The glut of unsold McMansions will certainly force a massive continued drop in property values. This will lead to more owners of these luxury homes to be underwater with few alternatives (if they have to sell) other than foreclosure or short sale. Refinancing isn’t an option. Millions of these homes were purchased in the last 5 years using the ARMs. Once those mortgages reset and interest rates rise….the inevitable churning of foreclosures continues.
There is a shift occurring in the housing demands of young professionals away from suburban lifestyles and a renewed interest in urban living, said keynote speaker Carol Coletta, president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, speaking at the 11th Annual North Texas Housing Summit, hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The firm’s national network of urban leaders specialize in identifying trends for metropolitan development.
Colletta’s assertions at the event included:
- College graduates are a city’s primary economic driver
- Younger generations continue to desire to live in urban, inner city communities, creating communities with a more diverse income spectrum, creating neighborhood stability.
- Stability doesn’t necessarily come in the form of homeownership, because the financial and banking systems haven’t caught up to what consumers and citizens want out of their housing options.
- The millennial generation is more likely to want to rent or own urban apartments and condominiums rather than single-family houses.
Timothy Bray, director of the Institute for Urban Policy Research at the University of Texas at Dallas, said multi-family and mixed-use developments built near employments centers enable potential buyers to spend less on commuting, thereby releasing more disposable income. Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief added that their city planners are demanding more out of developers who want to do business in the city.
CEOs for Cities is a national cross-sector network of urban leaders from the civic, business, academic and philanthropic sectors dedicated to building and sustaining American cities.
Source: HousingZone.com
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Interesting new story from CNBC about PMI companies not paying up.
Specifically, the PMI companies aren’t paying the mortgage lenders for the losses they are incurring. This is useful information for those of you whom have come across PMI companies attempting to demand repayment from the borrower for a portion of the loss.
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Interesting perspective on housing from a true real estate billionaire Mort Zuckerman.
Mr. Zuckerman made his money…in real estate. So,it would be safe to assume he would do his best to be a real estate cheerleader.. to talk up real estate…vs what he seems to do in this blog post.
Read what he has to say…and understand the ramifications of his comments…
America’s housing crisis has not gone away. If anything, it is getting more severe. Today, median single family house prices nationwide are down by slightly more than 30 per cent from their early 2006 peak. Fusion IQ, the research group, estimates that excess inventories will push prices down by a further 10 per cent. This is a critical issue because home equity was for years the largest asset on the balance sheet of the average American family.
The sheer number of empty homes overhanging the residential property market points to lower prices. There are an estimated 7m homes empty today, and an estimated 7.7m houses and condominiums behind on their mortgage payments. This is tantamount to a shadow inventory.
Agents, his estimates for potential upcoming foreclosures are the same as we have reported on this blog…15,000,000. Can there by any doubt that its NOT TOO late for you to become a REO Listing Agent? Take action now and watch the FREE Agent REO Secrets video and download the FREE Agent REO Secrets book. Learn how to become a HREU RSD and get the jump on the next wave of foreclosures!
More than 4m of those are now delinquent and going through some form of foreclosure or related procedures that will put them on the market in the next year or two. Fannie Mae’s 90-day delinquency rate is now roughly 5.5 per cent, double that of a year ago.
Home sales are depressed, too, by competition from some 6m rental vacancies, or 11 per cent of total rental supply. Median asking rents have been declining by an estimated 3.5 per cent over the past year – and that is accelerating.
There is no cheer in the new residential numbers either. January’s new home sales plunged by more than 11 per cent month-on-month to an annual rate of 309,000 units, the weakest on record. It now takes a record 14.2 months to sell a finished house. In the boom years, it took about three.
Even worse, the median price for new homes sold was $203,500, almost a seven-year low, and that for existing single-family homes fell 3.5 per cent month over month to $163,600, a new eight-year low. Inventories rose to a 9.1 month supply, which on top of the shadow inventory of unsold houses and those in the foreclosure pipeline does not bode well for homebuilders or housing. Neither does the sharp decline in mortgage applications to the lowest levels since May 2007 and the rise on the 30-year mortgage rates to more than 5 per cent.
Roughly one in four mortgages today exceeds the house’s value – approximately 10.7m homes. American Corelogic, the research provider, estimates an average deficiency per home of $70,700 or an aggregate of about $800bn.
OK, this is scary. If you will recall, last week in this blog post we shared with you the new research that proved that homeowners will do a strategic default at considerably higher rates when they are…$70,000 or 25% upside down. Using Corelogic’s numbers this would result in 10.7 million potential strategic defaults!
An additional 2.3m homes had less than 5 per cent equity. The remaining equity for many other homeowners is at historic lows. With declining prices beginning to hit the middle to higher ends of the housing market, we are looking at another foreclosure wave.
….and that is what we have been predicting for over a year….agents, if even half of what this blog post were to come true..what would that mean to your real estate market…and your real estate business? Are you ready…have you learned the new 2010 Short Sale Guidelines? Hopefully you know by now that the Obama administration is focusing on making short sales the solution to the inevitable massive increase in foreclosures. Watch the FREE Harris Real Estate University CDPD Short Sale Secrets video now…and grab your free short sale book.
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Price cuts seem to be slowing down in some markets, which indicates the real estate market could well be stabilizing.
Video interview with Heather Fernandez, Truila.com, and CNBC’s Diana Olick.
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Harris Real Estate University.
New Obama Treasury Department program PAYS homeowners to avoid foreclosure..and do a short sale….lets call this one…’Cash For Walkers’
Why not?
We already have..’Cash For Clunkers’ and the proposed ‘Cash For Caulkers’….maybe this new program should be called…Cash For Walkers?
Afterall, this is what happens when someone decides to take the Treasury Department up on their offer to do a short sale vs allowing the home to go into foreclosure.
We first reported on this detail of the soon enacted HAFA Program clear back in November. Watch the videos we made for you about HAFA..and why 2010 IS the year of the Short Sale.
In case you missed it…here are the details:
In an effort to end the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their homes. Now it will take a new approach: paying some of them to leave.
This latest program, which will allow owners to sell for less than they owe and will give them a little cash to speed them on their way, is one of the administration’s most aggressive attempts to grapple with a problem that has defied solutions.
More than five million households are behind on their mortgages and risk foreclosure. The government’s $75 billion mortgage modification plan has helped only a small slice of them. Consumer advocates, economists and even some banking industry representatives say much more needs to be done.
Agents, are you now 100% convinced that 2010 IS the year of the Short Sale? If not, go back and read those last few sentences again. Next, learn NOW how to become a HREU CDPD (Certified Distressed Property Designation). Watch the FREE Agent Short Sale Secrets video and download the FREE Short Sale book!
For the administration, there is also the concern that millions of foreclosures could delay or even reverse the economy’s tentative recovery — the last thing it wants in an election year.
Taking effect on April 5, the program could encourage hundreds of thousands of delinquent borrowers who have not been rescued by the loan modification program to shed their houses through a process known as a short sale, in which property is sold for less than the balance of the mortgage. Lenders will be compelled to accept that arrangement, forgiving the difference between the market price of the property and what they are owed.
Re-read that. Part of the new HAFA program is that the lenders CAN’T Go after deficiency judgments. And….they can NO LONGER request that the seller sign a promissory note…or cash at closing. Watch the videos that we created for you…you need to understand what a simply massive shift will take place April 5th once the new HAFA Guidelines are in place. Watch the videos NOW.
“We want to streamline and standardize the short sale process to make it much easier on the borrower and much easier on the lender,” said Seth Wheeler, a Treasury senior adviser.
The problem is highlighted by a routine case in Phoenix. Chris Paul, a real estate agent, has a house he is trying to sell on behalf of its owner, who owes $150,000. Mr. Paul has an offer for $48,000, but the bank holding the mortgage says it wants at least $90,000. The frustrated owner is now contemplating foreclosure.
To bring the various parties to the table — the homeowner, the lender that services the loan, the investor that owns the loan, the bank that owns the second mortgage on the property — the government intends to spread its cash around.
Under the new program, the servicing bank, as with all modifications, will get $1,000. Another $1,000 can go toward a second loan, if there is one. And for the first time the government would give money to the distressed homeowners themselves. They will get $1,500 in “relocation assistance.”
Should the incentives prove successful, the short sales program could have multiple benefits. For the investment pools that own many home loans, there is the prospect of getting more money with a sale than with a foreclosure.
For the borrowers, there is the likelihood of suffering less damage to credit ratings. And as part of the transaction, they will get the lender’s assurance that they will not later be sued for an unpaid mortgage balance.
Agents, please understand…if the homeowner does NOT do a short sale…they are still on the hook for a possible judgment! Once homeowners learn about this….do you think they will want to do a short sale? Of course. Now the only question is…will you be the agent to list and sell that short sale? Learn the new proven ways to easily list and sell short sales. Become a HREU CDPD Now for only $97! Go here now to learn more.
For communities, the plan will mean fewer empty foreclosed houses waiting to be sold by banks. By some estimates, as many as half of all foreclosed properties are ransacked by either the former owners or vandals, which depresses the value of the property further and pulls down the value of neighboring homes.
Under the new federal program, a lender will use real estate agents to determine the value of a home and thus the minimum to accept. This figure will not be shared with the owner, but if an offer comes in that is equal to or higher than this amount, the lender must take it.
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