Realtor Coaching & Training: realtor short sale training
Popularity: 30%
If you missed this weeks Friday Superstar Interview…do yourself a favor and listen to it now.
LISTEN TO SUPERSTAR INTERVIEW NOW.
Today’s Superstar was Robert Jackson from Wachovia bank. We discussed what the revolutionary short sale system that Wachovia as created that results in their average time from contract to close to be around 30 days. (Yes, 30 days…you read that correctly.) Here are a few of the dozens of comments we had as a result of today’s Superstar Interview:
Carol LeClair-Aurora, CO
Great interview, thank you very much!
LISTEN TO SUPERSTAR INTERVIEW NOW.
Rolanda Amos-Nashville
Great attitude toward this … What about properties in the TN area
LISTEN TO SUPERSTAR INTERVIEW NOW.
Marcia M-
This is great - I wanat to relisten
Popularity: 26%
WASHINGTON (AP) — Is the historic U.S. housing market crash close to being over, or is the end still far, far away?While sales finally seem to be stabilizing, prices are still are likely to keep sinking well into next year and maybe longer. Prices have been cut in half in Las Vegas and Phoenix, according to one popular home price measurement.
Every home price gauge captures a somewhat different slice of the housing market, even when they all depict the same general trend.
Also, all real estate is local — some neighborhoods have largely escaped the housing bust, and price declines can vary sharply within a single metro area. In many parts of the country, faraway suburbs, where many buyers moved into new subdivisions and stretched to qualify for mortgages, have been hit harder than established, wealthy enclaves.
Here are some answers to common questions about how home prices are measured.
Q: How far have national home prices fallen?
A: It depends on what measurement you use. But according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller National Home Price index, the measure that’s most widely watched on Wall Street, home prices have fallen 32 percent after peaking in the second quarter of 2006.
Q: How much will they drop in the future?
A: Analysts expect national prices to drop another 10 to 15 percent over the next year, depending on how long the recession lasts and its severity.
Markets that were last to be hit by the housing bust will be the slowest to emerge. Deutsche Bank, for example, projects prices in New York are still likely to fall another 40 percent. Los Angeles, meanwhile, has only another 11 percent left to go, according to the Wall Street firm’s forecast.
Q: Do real estate agents have anything to say about home prices?
A: Yes. The National Association of Realtors’ median home sales price — collected from real estate listing services around the country — is another prominent measurement. It peaked at $230,300 in July 2006 and has since fallen about 25 percent to a median of $173,000 in May.
Q: That’s pretty easy to understand. Why not just use that?
A: Economists don’t like using median prices because they can be skewed by a change in the mix of properties that sell in a given month.
A median is the point at which half of the prices are above, and half below. If many low-end properties sell in one month, that will push the median lower; if many high-end properties sell, the median goes higher. Economists want to make sure their data isn’t distorted by those natural fluctuations.
Q: How do you fix that problem?
A: Economists have created indexes like the Case-Shiller reading that examine price changes for the same properties over time instead of calculating a median price for all houses sold during a particular month or quarter. Doing so prevents the data from being skewed by changes in the mix of houses sold.
Q: Does the government collect similar information?
A: Yes. One index, created by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, is calculated solely using loans that are bought or backed by government-sponsored mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Importantly, that excludes many high-end properties, as well as many properties bought with some of the riskier varieties of home loans that went sour this year. Also, if an investor pays entirely in cash, those transactions are excluded.As a result, this index paints a much more tempered picture of the housing bust. It shows home prices dropping by just over 11 percent from a peak in April 2007.
By contrast, the Case-Shiller index, developed by Yale University economist Robert Shiller and Wellesley College economist Karl Case, peaked in mid-2006 and has shown far more rapid and dramatic declines.
Q: Which one is better?
A: Both are valid measurements — they just measure different things, experts say. Nevertheless, investors will be far more interested when they finally see some consistent positive trends in the Case-Shiller index — most likely a substantial slowdown in the rate of decline. That’s likely to mean that the housing bust is finally wearing down.
Q: When will that finally happen?
A: It could be at least a year, economists say.
“House price trends, they’re more like Mack trucks than Porsches,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist with First American CoreLogic, which has its own home price index. “The truck is still in reverse.”
Q: What impact do foreclosures have on prices?
A: They drag them way down. In fact, many real estate agents say that when you factor out foreclosures and other distressed properties, their markets look a whole lot healthier.
In Minneapolis, for example, median prices were down about 22 percent to a median of around $123,000 in the first three months of this year for distressed properties, but declined less than 4 percent to a median of $212,000 for traditional, non-distressed sales.
“We describe our market as a tale of two markets,” said Mark Allen, CEO of the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors.
Popularity: 10%
HREU Superstar
In case you didn’t receive your email invite for tomorrows Superstar Interview…here it is:
Hello,
This is your class reminder. You need this information for your schedule:
EVENT: Super Star Interview
DATE & TIME: Friday, June 26th at 12:00pm Pacific
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)
TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW..http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=7626306
Now, on to the surprises…Have you read the latest breaking real estate information on the blog? Stay ahead of the curve, read the blog NOW.
Everyone is talking about Twitter. We just created a new Twitter How-To video for you. This video will show you exactly how-to get started on Twitter. Watch Twitter video NOW.
You will love this one…We want you (yes, YOU!) to become our co-author for one of our newest books “Should I Short Sale My Home”. Watch the video now and learn how you can become our co-author. Watch co-author video NOW.
Interested in a F-R-E-E Coaching Call? Let us help you anytime you need it. Remember, our mission is to do whatever it takes to help you thrive in this market. Request your coaching call NOW.
Thank-you for the honor of being your coaches,
Harris Real Estate University
866-422-9497
Popularity: 9%
Home Values Going Down The Drain.
For those of you who think the markets have in any way reached bottom please read this article from the Washington Post:
A growing number of American homeowners are falling into financial limbo: They’re badly behind on payments, but their banks have not yet foreclosed.
The backlog of seriously delinquent mortgages, which so far affects about 1 million borrowers, is a shadow over hopes for a rebound in the nation’s housing markets. It masks the full extent of the foreclosure crisis and threatens to depress prices even further just as some parts of the country are hinting at recovery. For lenders, it could portend even more financial losses tied to the mortgage meltdown.
“It just means foreclosure rates are going to keep rising,” said Patrick Newport, an economist for IHS Global Insight.
Rising mortgage delinquencies were at the root of the recession, and many economists say an economic recovery will be difficult until the housing market recovers and home prices stabilize.
And how bad is the problem….
During the first quarter of this year, the share of all homeowners seriously delinquent on their mortgage but not yet facing foreclosure more than doubled to 3.04 percent, or about $227 billion in loans. There was a total of $97 billion in such loans during the same period in 2008, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. In more prosperous times, the rate is much lower — it was less than 1 percent in the first quarter of 2007, according to the industry publication.
We are hearing that in areas like Las Vegas there are 30,000 REOs coming on the market….in the next 3-6 months!
Some of the backlog reflects the inability of lenders to keep up with the swelling rolls of delinquent properties.
And the question that everyone wants to know….how long will this foreclosure (REO Listing and Short Sale Listing) dominated market last….
The glut of foreclosed homes on the market has already pushed down prices across the country. Existing-home prices fell another 16.8 percent in May compared with a year ago, according to industry data released yesterday. The overhang of homes in limbo means that foreclosure rates are likely to increase dramatically during the second half of this year and into 2010 as lenders work through the backlog, said Bob Bellack, chairman of Zetabid, which auctions foreclosed properties.
Why is the foreclosure process taking soooooo long?
In better times, lenders tended to begin the foreclosure process after three months, said Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance. Now it is not unusual for it to take nine months for the process to begin, he said.
“No one is in a rush, lender-wise, to deal with the property,” he said. “If you have to sell at a loss, why rush?”
Lenders traditionally write down the value of the home six months after an owner stops making payments, but the total loss is not recorded until the property is sold in foreclosure, said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Economy.com.
Agents, remember you CAN help someone even when they are missing payments. Lenders WANT TO avoid foreclosure. The last thing the lenders want in this housing market is another REO. Learn how to do short sales. Expect the new ’solutions to the housing crisis’ coming out of Washington to focus on Mortgage Loan Mods and Short Sales.
Even seriously delinquent borrowers can restart negotiations with lenders to stay in their homes with a modified mortgage or persuade them to accept a short sale, which involves a homeowner selling the property for less than the outstanding mortgage balance and then turning the proceeds over to the lender to satisfy the loan.
Jay Brinkmann, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association, said his industry is doing its best to work through the backlog while carrying out federal foreclosure prevention programs. “If a lender has a house that they know they will have to sell eventually,” he said, “they almost always want to sell it as quickly as possible because of the interest cost of holding the loan on the books, in addition to costs like taxes, keeping the grass cut and other maintenance.”
So, what do you do with all of this information? (Warning, shameless pitch coming)…Learn how to do Easily List Short Sales and Become a REO Listing Agent. Really, what choice do you have in this market?
Popularity: 8%
Want to refinance your mortgage? If you wanted to qualify for a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac mortgage, you needed to have at least 20 percent equity in your home. But with home values dropping dramatically over the past 18 months, it’s getting tough to find homeowners who have any equity in their properties at all.
In fact, one-third of all homeowners are underwater with their mortgages - meaning that they owe more than their homes are worth.
Thats an amazingly scary number…1/3 of all US homeowners are upside down. There are many whom are no expecting that that number will increase to easily 50% in the next 12-18 months. Believe it or not there are still agents who don’t think that they have to learn how to list and sell short sales. In this market…with so many sellers needing the services of an agent who knows (really knows) how to list and sell short sales the demand for agents with these skills is skyrocketing. Watch the FREE Agent Short Sale Secrets video and then download the FREE Agent Short Sale Secrets book NOW.
If you owe more than your home is worth, you can’t refinance your mortgage to take advantage of today’s close-to-jaw-dropping mortgage interest rates. Or, at least you couldn’t until the federal government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and then asked mortgage lenders to refinance home loans that were up to 105 percent of the value of the home.
In other words, if your house was worth $100,000, and you owed $105,000, you could still refinance your mortgage.
The problem is so many homeowners today are much farther underwater with their mortgages that they can’t take advantage of interest rates that are near 50-year lows.
Last week in Washington, D.C., Federal Housing Finance Administration director James Lockhart admitted that the Making Home Affordable refinancing program could be more aggressive. When asked how high the loan-to-value ratio could go, Lockhart said his team was looking at raising it to 125 percent.
That means if your house is worth $100,000 but you owe $125,000, you could still refinance your mortgage to take advantage of lower interest rates - provided you qualified for the loan.
That’s a very signficant difference and it will allow millions of homeowners to refinance their mortgages who currently cannot. The 125 percent loan-to-value ratio hasn’t been finalized, but Lockhart said several times that the government has to finalize the loan modification and loan refinancing programs so that mortgage lenders can develop the necessary software, train their people and get moving.
“There are different alternatives and ideas being floated around. We want to concentrate people around one idea and go for the refinancing or loan modification. What we don’t want is for people to wait for the next best program. We did the streamline loan modification program and since there were rumors a better program was coming, we had no takers for that program.”
Realtors, learn now how to lower YOUR house payment. Watch the FREE Agent Loan Mod Secrets video now. Lower your house payment now..next start your own Loan Mod business. Make money now by helping others save money!
Well, who wouldn’t want to wait for a better program? Throughout the housing crisis, there’s been one better program after another. If you bought a house in 2008, you only got a $7,500 tax credit that you had to pay back in $500 annual installments over 15 years. If you buy this year, you get an $8,000 tax credit that you don’t have to pay back, ever, and you’re even permitted to use it for your closing costs and down payment above 3.5 percent with an FHA loan. Now, there’s talk about making it a $15,000 refundable tax credit.
Lesson learned? It’s worth waiting for the next great program that will stabilize the housing market.
Lockhart said another big problem is that a lot of homeowners aren’t answering their phones or reading their mail. That’s the benefit of (or problem with, depending on your perspective) Caller ID. He wants homeowners in trouble to realize that getting a 2 percent loan for five years, which will work its way up to 5.4 percent over an additional four years is an opportunity too good to pass up.
Great idea. Now, if he could just get people to realize that interest rates on the loan modification program will never drop below 2 percent - or will they?
Source: Moneywatch.bnet.com
Popularity: 14%
Dear Tim and Julie,
Wanted to thank-you…
I was 2 weeks away from getting out of real estate when I stumbled onto your free short sale webinar.
I was the typical agent who was scared of short sales. Then I got smart and for the past four weeks since I started your program I have averaged 1.5 listings a week. I have three new deals in escrow and I am considering hiring a buyers agent with all the leads I am getting.
Thank you for smacking me in the head and getting me back on the right track to real estate career!!!Matthew MolonyInland Empire of Southern California
