Carnival of Real Estate edition #174 comes to DeanSellsAZ.com
February 8, 2010 by Dean Ouellette · 1 Comment
I want to start out by thanking Mike Price for allowing DeanSellsAZ.com the opportunity to host the Carnival of Real Estate, edition #174. We have been a long-time fan of the Carnival.
Some blogs who host the Carnival like to post the top real estate posts submitted to them and then include a long list of honorable mention posts. I am going to do things a little different. I often judge the top posts with my daily Top 10 real estate posts of the day, so I am used to narrowing things way down. I will be doing the top 3 posts, staring with number three and ending with the top post submitted this week. Many thank you’s to everyone who participated in this week’s fun. Good news for me is I added another 4 blogs I was not following in my RSS reader and I expect them to be making my top 10 list soon.
Post #3 Factors That Affect Home Values
Trisha comes up with a post here that is great information for home buyers. There are many things that go into determining the value of your home, or the home you are looking to purchase. Some of those factors are obvious things like location and upgrades in the house, but others are not so common like are most of your neighbors completely underwater.
Post #2 Give me your keys- I’ll drive you home
If you are reading this Carnival of Real Estate you most likely know about the blow up a week ago between Greg Cooper and Todd Carpenter. In this well written post by Hey Amereto she looks at the bigger picture. Does what you say on social media come back to your broker. While I think a salaried employee like someone at NAR should be held to a higher standard than an agent who is a contractor, both need to be careful.
Post #1 Taking REALTORS® Above the Bar
Raising the bar has been a hot topic for agents over the last few weeks. Toby Boyce takes a look at some ideas to help agents become better agents. I have often asked myself, if designations are such good training why do we not just add them into the training required for a real estate agent before they get their license? I know many agents would agree the training required to get your license should be higher and Toby touches on some good starting points.
Top 10 real estate posts of the day for 2/8/2010
February 8, 2010 by Dean Ouellette · 3 Comments
1) Success Simplified – The FIX or Fire It Method – Not sure which part is my favorite, the great advice to real estate agents in the bottom half of this post or the fire your bank image at the top.
2) The Internet is Broken – This is the best response to social media does not work for real estate agents I have ever seen.
3) What kind of exposure should you expect for your listing? – Advice for home sellers, almost every agent will tell you your property is going to appear on the Internet, but how above and beyond does your agent go?
4) Sharing ideas in Real Estate – This is a subject we were recently discussing around here. Doesn’t it seem that the RE.net agents are always sharing ideas and talking to each other about what they are doing, while many other agents like to think of everyone as competition and not share?
5) Predatory Short Sale Negotiators – Sounds like someone needs to loose their license. Buyers and sellers of short sales need to be aware of this. It is one thing for an agent to charge a small fee for staff, it is another thing to completely gouge.
6) Should Realtors Get “Awards”? – I am an agent who believes almost all of those e-Pro, CDPE, Million Dollar Producer designations are a waste of time, space and money. There are very few that. I agree with the offer, but I would take it one or two steps further in my dislike for designations and rewards. What would I do different? Instead of having agents pay for the designations, why not teach them what they need to know in school BEFORE we give them a license.
7) Listings: How Photos Can Make or Break Your Sale! – I talk about the importance of good pictures often, in this video Josh does a great job explaining to agents and home sellers why pictures are vital.
8) Where Have All The Houses Gone? Can we Fix the Growing Shadow Inventory Problem? – I like this post because I see every day how fast the foreclosure properties are going in the Tempe and Phoenix area. I believe the market could handle most of the influx in homes the banks are hiding on their books. Let’s just rip that band-aide off quick.
9) I Have Some Bad News – Elizabeth is one of the best writers you are not reading. She brings you places in her blog that only full-time agents in the field all the time can relate to and does it often with comedy.
10) What is an Absorption Rate? – Basic real estate 101, what is absorption rate and how does it effect your home buying and selling?
Top 10 real estate posts of the day for 2/5/2010
February 5, 2010 by Dean Ouellette · 2 Comments
1) The Ten Day Close: Why Other Lenders Whine About It – This one is getting annoying. We have 2 lenders here in Phoenix who can get loans closed (even in today’s market) in ten days or less. One of them even guarantees it. It is amazing to see other lenders, who work for shops that have a hard time getting a loan closed in 30-45 days, say it is bs. It is NOT bs as I have yet to see them not meet the 10-day close timeframe.
2) My Loan Officer Won’t Provide Me a Good Faith Estimate – When with the federal government stop over-regulating and making things worse. The have tried what, about 10 things in real estate over the last year to help consumers or to help the housing market? And pretty much everyone has been a disaster.
3) Cut foreclosures by slicing real estate fees – The foreclosure crisis is now the fault of the agent who charges too much commission. Al Lewis, excuse my French, but you are moron! The buyer deserves representation in the market and both the buyer and seller deserve full time professionals who can go to bat for them. Are you also out there also wanting to dictate how much a doctor can make for a procedure or how much a columnist receives for a poorly thought out article? There is nothing secret or hidden about our commissions, they are all in our contracts and on the HUD-1s.
4) Outdated Sales Tactics Remain the Norm – Some people (many that is) get caught up in what they have always done and hate change.
5) Don’t Hate Me ‘Cause I’m NAR – Good to see some members of NAR out there interacting with agents and listening to them.
6) Can I submit an offer on a short sale property while I keep looking? – This is a great question that all agents need to answer and one of the reasons on my short sale listings I require a deposit with the accepted offer.
7) Loan Originators: Stop Your Crying…Let’s Love the Good Faith Estimate – How good is Rhonda when it comes to the new GFE? She makes the top 10 list twice for the same subject in the same day. But she has a point here, we can all hate it, but it is here and we need to deal with it.
8) Don’t Get Short With Short Sales – Look Harder – Lesley and I must have been sharing the same brain wave yesterday as I did my blog post on which is a better day short sale or foreclosure. We both come to the same conclusion, if you have a time frame to be in your house then a short sale is not probably your best option, but if you have time to wait big deals can be had.
9) 35 Questions and Suggestions to help you sell your home faster – Some good advice for sellers on what can help their house sell quicker.
10) Knuckleheads beware: Real estate is changing – Is there anyone in the business that really makes you think more than the guys at 1000watt blog? Let me help you, no there is not.
Will I get a better deal in Tempe if I purchase a short sale or a foreclosure?
February 4, 2010 by Dean Ouellette · 1 Comment
Video 88: If I am looking at Tempe homes for sale will I get a better deal with a Tempe short sale or a Tempe foreclosure? First question you need to ask is when do you need to be in a house by? If the answer is less than 4 months, I would suggest skipping the short sale and focus on the foreclosure. If you have no time frame then a Tempe short sale may be a better buy than a Tempe foreclosure.
The reason a short sale can be had at less is because of carrying costs by the bank on a foreclosure. If they sell it at market value as a foreclosure, they may only be netting 70% of the market value when all is said and done. So if you purchased it at 90% of market value the bank would be making out better and you may get a better deal. Of course every situation is unique. Would love to hear your thoughts, you can leave a comment or e-mail me Dean Ouellette.
Top 10 real estate posts of the day for 2/4/2010
February 4, 2010 by Dean Ouellette · 1 Comment
1) Real Estate 101: Representation – Jay makes a very strong case on why calling the listing agent on the sign may not be the best way to get the best deal on the house.
2) New Government Short-Sale Guidelines (HAFA) – Don’t Believe the Hype – I personally have vlogged about this on 4 separate occasions, and came to the same conclusion. The new short sale program is unlikely to change anything for the better.
3) “Highest and Best Offer” – How To Negotiate Real Estate – Often highest and best is just is just a negotiating tool.
4) I’ll Take The Blame, Will You Take Some With Me? – Sometimes you run across a writer on a blog and you think, yea that is how I feel, I could have never said it that well, but that is what I believe too. Lately Matt has been one of those bloggers for me. There is some great advice in here for new agents.
5) No Clue Or SPDS, No Consideration. Tough Love In The Phoenix Real Estate Market – I agree completely, there is no reason in the world a seller (not a bank) should be making disclosure. Why just because you are selling via short sale should you not have to disclose?
6) $8000’s to first time home buyers almost out of time! – Only a couple months left to take advantage of the first-time buyer tax credit.
7) Luxury Real Estate Branding: Canned Content = Canned Brands – Just having a blog is not enough, people have to actually read it.
8) How You Can Dominate Your Market Without Spending a Mint – I have been working with a new agent over the last month who wants the result, but does not want to do the work needed to get people to their blog. If you are not willing to work long and hard for the results, don’t expect the results are going to come quickly.
9) Network Products Guide Names DocuSign 2010 Hot Companies Finalist – Congrats to Docusign, glad to see others are seeing the value as much as I do.
10) Your Real Estate Listings on Your Facebook Profile with the REALTOR.com App – Still not sure about the Facebook app, how many people go to Facebook to see house adds? When someone tries to sell me on social media I usually unfollow pretty quick.
New HUD-1 explained for buyers and agents
February 3, 2010 by Dean Ouellette · Leave a Comment
Dean’s note: I would like to thank Bill Risser, the branch manager of Chicago Title – Gilbert office for contributing the following explanation of the new HUD-1. Bill is also a fellow ASU Sun Devils fan whom I have run into at basketball games. When Bill is not teaching social media or attending ASU sporting events you can find Bill on Twitter at @billrisser.
There has been a lot of talk over the last few months about the new Good Faith Estimate (GFE) for 2010. Lenders are under the gun to comply with the new RESPA guidelines and remain compliant. There have been many posts and articles discussing these changes. In addition to the GFE changes, the HUD-1 Settlement Statement also underwent renovation. Below I’ll highlight the major changes in the 2010 HUD-1 Settlement Statement.
The overall look of the first two pages changed very little. The top of page 1 contains all the relevant names, addresses, file numbers and dates as before. The balance of page 1 summarizes the buyer’s charges and credits as well as the seller’s charges and credits. Prorations are also accounted for on page 1.
Page 2 is where we begin to see the effect of the new RESPA requirements. Lines 801-1001 now contain a section “outside the column” designating where on the new GFE the fees being charged on the HUD-1 can be found. This is part of the government’s effort to make the transaction more transparent. A borrower can now see if the GFE accurately represented the fees being charged on the HUD-1 Settlement Statement. A significant change in the lenders section of the form is line 803. This now contains a lump sum total of all origination fees (origination, doc prep, admin fee, etc) less any credit for the specific interest rate chosen by the borrower. In the past, every fee charged by the lender or mortgage broker has been detailed in the 800 section. This is no longer the case with the new HUD-1. The same is true in the Reserves section (Lines 1001-1009) and the Title Charges section (Lines 1101-1113). These sections also “roll up” the charges to the borrower into one fee. For people familiar with the old version of the HUD-1, these are dramatic changes. One reason the government did this is apparent on page 3.
Page 3 is a new addition to the HUD-1. This page indicates to the borrower whether the lender complied with the new RESPA guidelines. The first portion of page 3 is called Comparison of Good Faith Estimate (GFE) and HUD-1 Charges. It refers to four lines of page 2. They are 801, 802, 803, and 1203. For Arizona, line 1203 is not important as we do not have a transfer tax. The total of this section can not be higher than the GFE by any amount. This is the zero tolerance portion of page 3.
The next section is called Charges Than in Total Cannot Increase More than 10%. This includes title and escrow fees, appraisal fees, credit report fees and tax service fees. As the section name implies, the sum total of all these fees cannot be more than 10% higher than the GFE. The new HUD-1 conveniently displays the GFE figures right along side the HUD-1 figures, including the totals and the percentage difference. One caveat for this section is that if the borrower selects any of the providers in this section, there is no 10% tolerance requirement on that fee.
The last of the comparison sections is called Charges That Can Change. These are charges to the borrower that are out of the control of the lender or title company that can change without affecting compliance of the loan.
A question I’ve been asked many times is what happens if the tolerances are exceeded on the new HUD-1? Will it delay closing and recordation? We have been instructed that as long as the lender funds the loan, we will proceed with recording and close the escrow, even if the HUD-1 is non-compliant.. The lender will then have 30 days to bring the loan into compliance, and refund any overages to the borrower. This will more than likely involve the title company as a revised HUD-1 will need to be issued with any refund.
Finally, the rest of page 3 simply restates language found in the GFE. This lays out for the borrower one final time the particulars of the loan program they are being provided.
Below is a sample of the 2010 HUD-1. There is more information on the new GFE and HUD-1 at the HUD website.
2010 Official HUD-1 Settlement Form
Top 10 real estate posts of the day for 2/3/2010
February 3, 2010 by Dean Ouellette · Leave a Comment
1) A six year history of the RE.net – For those of us who were not blogging Realtor’s six years ago, but are active now may find as entertaining as I did. Then there is the abridged version.
2) Getting Serious about Lead Management – Let’s admit it, this is most of ours biggest weakness. I know this because many of the agents I talk to admit it to me.
3) Is Laser-Focused Prospecting Really Necessary? – Jennifer Allan is one of my favorites from my early days in real estate and the agentsonline.net crew. Her advice is always good for those who hate the pushy-salesmany approach many take.
4) Treasury Updates HAMP Guidelines, Might the Program Work Now? – So HAMP was a failure, and these new guidelines should streamline the failure in the future to must make it quicker. When can we stop with all this feel-good bs and get down to something that would really work to fix the housing crisis.
5) Apple’s iPad means big changes ahead for real estate – The potential here is mind-blowing. Imagine if they released this with camera and on any network and able to run on either 3G or wi-fi like the iPhone does. Tell me this would not be the hottest selling gadget maybe ever. I know I would be in line for one. But for now I wait.
6) Part-Time Realtor: Full-Time Problem – Does it bother you that only 27% of agents are full-time? I recently heard that 7% of agents did something like 93% of all the transactions in the last year which means most of those part-time agents are not doing anything anyways so it does not bother me to much. Almost every career has people that do it part-time, real estate will never be any different.
7) Brokerages Slow to Adopt Digital Marketing – I find this much more troubling than number 6 on the list. 90ish% of all home buyers start online and only 40% of a brokerages budget spent in digital marketing? Where the heck are they spending their money and I want a refund!
8) Hitwise Search Term Analysis for the Real Estate Category (For Rent Queries Overtake For Sale Queries) – Great news if you are an agent who likes to target renters.
9) The Right Length to Lock-in: Short term vs. long term mortgage rates – So if you like high-risk high-reward in your finances short term… else long term.
10) Growing Pains for the National Association of Realtors – Is NAR responsive enough to change?
Tempe AZ house purchase: When do I get my keys?
February 2, 2010 by Dean Ouellette · Leave a Comment
Video 87: So you signed for your new Tempe AZ home, but you still do not have the keys. That is normal in Arizona. So when do you get your keys? Would love to hear your thoughts, you can leave a comment or e-mail me Dean Ouellette.
Top 10 real estate posts of the day for 2/2/2010
February 2, 2010 by Dean Ouellette · Leave a Comment
1) Realtor® or Detective? When Listing Short Sales, You Must Be Both! – This is good for agents who want to join the short sale listing club. I treat short sales different, I fell the home seller needs to hire me and I am only taking the position if there is full commitment. This post explains many of the things I am looking for.
2) If I Can Change, and You Can Change, Everybody Can Change! – I know Redfin takes a lot of heat from the real estate community, but this post makes me stand up and cheer. I really like their philosophy.
3) Licensing to Realtors Property Resource (RPR) and Others — Things to Consider – Attention MLS committees. Thinking about if you share your info with RPR? Here is a good place to start. Now if I could just get my MLS Committee to call me back, been trying to join them for months now.
4) No Brown Nosing Required. Your RAISE Is Ready When You Are. – This gives me an idea for a post, why I got into real estate. This may be reason number 1, you control your own fait.
5) FHA Mortgage Insurance Premiums : Don’t Confuse The FHA’s Wish List For Your Own Reality – OK Dan, why are you trying to confuse me with the facts. FHA cannot just change their guidelines, they need Congress to approve it.
6) Learn by Doing, Exercise 1 for Real Estate Investors – How to Buy – This is directed towards investors, but really there are lessons here for everyone reading this.
7) How Do Search Engines Find My Real Estate Website – New real estate blogger? If so read this, just because you have a site does not mean anyone will find it.
8) 10 Home Features Buyers Want – What do buyers want it a house? The only one of these I do not really hear on a regular basis is number 8, the rest of the list I think is dead on.
9) The BEST way to share content on Facebook – Wondering how the best way to share an Internet article or video on Facebook? Here you go.
10) “Life of a Realtor” Video – This one is for pure entertainment purposes.
Top 10 real estate posts of the day for 2/1/2010
February 1, 2010 by Dean Ouellette · 2 Comments
February already? are you 1/12th of where you wanted to be this year?
1) Showing Homes to a Buyer: What They Want to See. – I feel like I could have written this post. I have said most of these words myself at one time or another. Another thing I would add is when showing them a home, show them what they want to see, not something that is priced 20% higher so maybe they will like it and spend more. That is one of the reasons I got into the business.
2) A Housing Fix or a Jobs Fix? Chicken or Egg? – I think we need to fix the housing market to fix the job market. We need to make it easier for people to be mobile again, to make it so they can pick up and travel to the new job if they need to. Now it is difficult because we do not have a mobile workforce who can quickly sell their home and just up and leave for a new job.
3) The Appraisal System Blows. Especially Non-Local Appraisers. – Oh the joys of HVCC and appraisers. I have been ranting about this since last June.
4) What will the FHA 90-Day Flip Rule Suspension Mean? – (and a related one FHA 90-Day Flip Rule Suspended: Lenders Hesitant To Change) – This is interesting to hear, I talked with the two lenders I most often use after reading this and they both said they are now doing loans on homes they did not do so before because of the 90-day rule.
5) It’s not what you say, it is how you say it – Wondering how to best help your client? Ask questions and listen, really listen.
6) How Can We Increase Our Closings From Our Sites? – If I were a betting man (oh wait I am) I would bet the answer for most people is in the 5th answer here.
7) Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Sellers – If you are an investor there is not reason to be scared of sellers… well of course that assumes you are doing nothing illegal or unethical.
8) On the ethics of “strategic default”… – I understand where Scott is coming from, but I wonder if he lived in Arizona where is $600k house was now literally worth $350,000 if he would feel the same. And it is easy to say yes, until you are actually looking at the hard math. If you did a strategic default and sold it could literally save you more than $500k over the next 30 years. That is a lot of college education. I am not saying to stop paying your mortgage, I am just saying it took me a while, but now I understand.
9) How Long Do Short-Sales Take? – This is a great piece to show your buyers if they are looking for a short sale. It is one thing for you to tell them it is going to take months, it is another when they can read it themselves.
10) Effect of foreclosures on Arizona home prices – This is not a top 10 post because of how amazing the information is, this is a top 10 because of what he did with the information. Click the graph, watch the video. Well done John Wake.
