Video 52: Do some REO banks have ethical issues? Well I can tell you there are occasions where they step right up to the line and while they may not cross it according to the letter of the law, they do with the spirit of the law. One bank I have issues with is Nationstar Mortgage, but they are not alone. I would love to hear your thoughts or any suggestions for future videos you have, you can leave a comment or e-mail me Dean Ouellette.
1) How bad will foreclosures hurt your credit? – What I find most interesting about this is how things effect your FICO score different based on where your FICO score starts.
2) Carpeting – It’s time to add it as a disclosure topic to the AAR seller property disclosure statement – Lorti makes a great case on why carpet and other flooring should be added as something the seller discloses to the buyer.
3) The move-up buyer’s gameplan – So much attention has been given to the first-time homebuyer market because of the $8000 tax credit. With the addition of the $6500 move-up buyer credit we could see more people looking to get a bigger house with today’s deflated prices.
4) Climategate posts – With the news this week that climate scientist were fudging the numbers to make the data say what they want on climate change, here are two posts on the effects of the climate change debate and real estate. Climategate & you: The real estate edition and a video Will fraudulent climate changed revelations effect housing?
5) How to safely text and email while driving – What does this have to do with real estate? Nothing, unless you are a real estate agent who spends as much time as me a day in the car and finds yourself wandering daily because of texting and emailing.
6) 640 is the new 580 – 580, 620 now 640, minimum FICO scores continue to rise for a mortgage.
7) President Obama Calling Lenders to the Carpet Today – Obama is expected to try to shame banks into moving faster on saving houses from foreclosure (they are talking about you Bank of America). My take is just stop giving them my money (TARP) and if they don’t want to approve loan mods or short sales and would rather make the poor economic choice of foreclosure let them sink.
8) A question that needs to be asked more often… – When deciding how long you are going to live in your home are you considering the variable of what interest rates may be then?
9) Should we put our home on the market during the holidays or wait until spring? – One thing is for sure, anyone looking at your house during the holiday season is very likely a serious buyer.
10) Evaluating professionals: Imperfect solution for an imperfect world – Agent ratings, always a fun and popular topic.
Video 51: There are many things you need to know about selling your house as a short sale, here are three tips you need to keep in mind. You need to get legal tax advice, don’t be selling the house to a relative and it takes time. I would love to hear your thoughts or any suggestions for future videos you have, you can leave a comment or e-mail me Dean Ouellette.
Sorry if video pauses… I hate youtube streaming, but Viddler is major failing today.
Video 50: Do you need a home inspection? Yes, the cost of doing a home inspection is so small when you compare it to how expensive the risk of not doing one is. I would love to hear your thoughts or any suggestions for future videos you have, you can leave a comment or e-mail me Dean Ouellette.
1) The flip property – When it’s time to give it the slip – Dave takes a look at some of the pros and cons of purchasing a property that has been flipped and also what to look for in a flipped property.
2) Q and A: Using a buyer’s agent or going directly with the listing agent? – As I have discussed in many posts before, you should always have your own representation.
3) Half of Arizona homeowners with mortgages are underwater. 23% nationwide… – Imagine being in a state where every other house has negative equity. Well Arizona is not alone, and 1-in-4 nationally are in the same boat.
4) Advanced Facebook – Some good tips on using Facebook for real estate agents.
5) Thinking about buying an Apple iPhone? – Interesting video on how a real estate agent uses his iPhone. I am still not sold, or at least going to wait until it comes to Verizon to see if doesn’t drop calls there.
6) Mortgage rate predictions for the next 30 days – WOW, this is the first time in this poll I have seen everyone so much in synch with what is going to happen in the next 30 days, and it is not good.
7) New cameras for the Bloodhounds: MY take is that the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZR1 offers a lot of bank for the buck – Many agents take their own pictures for their listings, so it is important to have pier reviews on cameras.
8) Tsunami of foreclosures in doubt – Demand for retail space is falling fast in 2009, but will that trend continue?
9) Self love machine: Futurenow – How often do you talk about your customers on your blog or do you talk more about yourself?
10) Electronic signatures – Not groundbreaking but great all the same - Everyone knows what a huge fan of Docusign I am, I do all my contracts either with Docusign via email, or in person signing. Here is another take on their service.
1) Characteristics of home buyers and sellers from NAR – Almost half of all home buyers this year were first time home buyers between the age of 25-34 years old.
2) Using consumer confidence to guess where mortgage rates are going - Dan Green shows how the stock market is up, home sales are up, but spending and consumer confidence is not so right now expect mortgage rates to remain fairly steady.
3) Strategic defaults: It depends how far under water you are – Walking away from your mortgage, who would have thought it was a “keeping up with the Joneses” thing.
4) An unhappy client can kill your reputation in 6 months or less – Letting an unhappy client go may be the best thing you can do for your business, because they can kill your reputation online.
5) Existing home sales surge to highest level since February 2007 – Sales were up more than 23% over the same month last year. That trend in November may end up changing a little as inventory levels (at least in Tempe AZ area) seem to be creeping up.
6) The end of the MLS as we know it? (Part: 546) – Rowles makes a good point on the MLS will still be needed even with Google and RPR.
7) Stop acting rich: Household struggles go beyond the mortgage payment – This goes perfect with one of my favorite Dave Ramsey quotes “live your wage.”
8) Selling your home during the holidays – John Jones addresses they myth that you should not sell your house during the holidays.
9) Commercial real estate not expected to recover until after 2010 – In many markets the residential housing market has started to recover, the commercial market is lagging behind and could be another couple years before any rebound starts.
10) Win an autographed copy of the Whuffie Factor. It’s easy! – Not sure what the Whuffie Factor is? Then you should really be entering this competition.
1) FHA renders three the magic number to buy a home after foreclosure – Did your house go into foreclosure in the last few years, FHA says you need to wait three years before you can qualify for an FHA loan to buy a new house.
2) Are FHA loan limits going higher? – Increase FHA limits even higher with still just 3.5% down? Do we not ever learn?
3) Where online real estate has gone wrong – Dalton makes some great points about user comments on real estate listings and how that may not be the best thing for a listing.
4) Mortgage delinquencies & foreclosure rates shatter records – Delinquencies are up, foreclosures are up, mortgages becoming harder to get, while the market may be stabilizing, don’t expect a quick recovery.
5) ‘Maybe’ kills our careers one letter at a time – Want to be successful in real estate, Scott Cowan things the trick for him has been getting to the ‘yes.’
6) How political is your real estate business – I am starting to really enjoy Greg’s weekly vlog on politics and real estate. Politics effects our day to day life and business more than most like to admit.
7) "In the Nest” episode 2 – Special Guest Tom Ferry, founder and CEO of Tom Ferry – yourcoach– It is a little long, but a bunch of great information from Coach Tom Ferry.
8) On Google’s latest real estate foray: Implications & speculations – Google’s next step in world dominance. But here we go again… Is Google a scraper for real estate?
9) Overhauling the current HVCC system across the board – Could change be coming to the HVCC, we can only hope.
10) Google makes yet another big move into real estate territory – This could be really bad news for a site like Zillow, and could it even be a threat to RPR?
Video 49: Today we look at a call from a Tempe homeowner looking to sell their home. So why isn’t their house selling? Well it’s probably not rocket science. I would love to hear your thoughts or any suggestions for future videos you have, you can leave a comment or e-mail me Dean Ouellette.
1) Non disclosure in real estate? “Really?” – I am right there with Nick on this one. How some people can ask to be exempted from the rules drives me crazy. I understand the bank owned foreclosures, but any other situation they should be required to fill out the disclosures.
2) Real estate videos, or if the trailer’s rockin’… – Amaretto has put together the three most interesting videos marking a house I have ever seen
3) Where does that large agent commission go? – Think your agent is making “to much” money on the sale of your house. After you read the break down you will realize that large commission is not as large as you think.
4) Foreclosure alternatives: Fannie Mae’s Deed for Lease Program – Instead of rent to own, how about own to rent?
5) Cool new market data on the blog – I didn’t blow anything up – Kris does a good job implementing Zillow stats into her blog. Just one more thing for my long to-do list.
6) Realtor says short sales getting easier to do – Just because we are better educated, and more short sales are getting done does not mean it is getting quicker.
7) 8 reasons dogs shouldn’t sell real estate – Every now and then we in real estate just need a good laugh.
8 ) RPR Quiz: Is a real estate agent blog a consumer website? – Will you be able to use all this great RPR data on your agent website? Interesting question, one I am sure a lot of vendors are hoping NO is the answer to.
9) Another 25%? Ouch, that’s going to leave a mark… – Could prices still be over inflated?
10) The report of RPR’s birth is an exaggeration – Another great overview.
Video 48: Would a bank or lender rather do a foreclosure or see you sell your house via a short sale? It is almost never better for a lender to foreclose on a house. As long as the house is sold at fair market value the lender will average about 30% more selling the house via a short sale than they will via a foreclosure. There is an exception though, make sure you check out the video to see the exception when a short sale makes more sense for the lender. I would love to hear your thoughts or any questions you may have about short sales, you can leave a comment or e-mail me Dean Ouellette.
