Maybe I’ve been watching too many “reality house-fixer” shows, but it seems like all those folks have unlimited budgets and unlimited time, and for some of us, it’s just not like that. You can easily spend $15,000 to $20,000 on things like re-plumbing and rewiring and end up living in the same house you had before you spent the money.
1. Paint everything in sight. Take down dated wallpaper and try to choose lighter colors. They make the rooms appear larger.
The odor and look of fresh paint is undeniably associated in our brains with the concept of clean. And that’s a great way to start your makeover. You can take on the task yourself or hire someone.
While painting a whole house by yourself can be a large project, you can break it into smaller pieces, maybe one room at a time. The smell of fresh paint is a real morale booster among buyers.
2. Clean the carpets throughout the house. If you have hardwood floors, get them cleaned and waxed.
No, it’s not quite the same as new, but the cost to have this maintenance done is likely less than a couple of hundred bucks. Again, you’ll see immediate improvement in the floor covering you have, and the results are gratifying.
Yes, you can rent a unit from the hardware store for $50, but it’s backbreaking work, and the truck-mounted equipment seems to provide the best results.
One hint: Ignore offers of upgrades like a layer of protective chemical for just another hundred bucks.
3. Wash all your windows, inside and out. Over the years, windows get dirty, and block out some of the light that should be coming into your house. And it’s just that light that makes you feel that a room is “bright and cheerful.” You’ll notice a difference right away.
These suggestions won’t solve systemic shortcomings in your house. But they will make it more pleasant to live in and more attractive to any visitor, whether a prospective buyer or not.
By John Adams - AJC
Showing posts with label real estate market. Show all posts
Showing posts with label real estate market. Show all posts
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
What Do We See In The Shadows?
The economy is on the road to financial recovery. It will be a long and hard road, but we are on our way. There are many obstacles that could cause us to break down on this road. None is more important than the concept of "shadow inventory." What is that? These are homes which the banks are not foreclosing upon because they are trying to work out solutions with present homeowners or frankly they don’t want to flood the markets all at once and depress prices. How many homes are casting a shadow over the markets? Projections vary, but suffice to say that there are several million homes that will be foreclosed upon in the next two years. That is a lot of homes. It is also good news that at least one forecaster says that investor demand is so strong that home prices will not be affected by these homes coming upon the markets.
We keep saying this and it bears repeating. Real estate led us into recession and it must lead us into recovery. There are many factors that can help "soak" up shadow inventory. The weak dollar is increasing demand from foreign investors. The tax credit is bringing more first time buyers into the market and now move-up buyers as well. Low rates are keeping homes affordable, especially when compared to renting in many markets. Government efforts at modifications are also expected to keep many in their homes. Even builders are helping by bringing less homes to the market. Not one of these is by itself enough to absorb several million homes. But if we put all these factors together, it very well may happen as the John Burns Real Estate Consulting Company has indicated. Keep in mind that all the while the population of this Nation is rising. This means that sometime in the future, there will be growth in the real estate market and our economy. In the meantime, we will navigate the long and winding road.
We keep saying this and it bears repeating. Real estate led us into recession and it must lead us into recovery. There are many factors that can help "soak" up shadow inventory. The weak dollar is increasing demand from foreign investors. The tax credit is bringing more first time buyers into the market and now move-up buyers as well. Low rates are keeping homes affordable, especially when compared to renting in many markets. Government efforts at modifications are also expected to keep many in their homes. Even builders are helping by bringing less homes to the market. Not one of these is by itself enough to absorb several million homes. But if we put all these factors together, it very well may happen as the John Burns Real Estate Consulting Company has indicated. Keep in mind that all the while the population of this Nation is rising. This means that sometime in the future, there will be growth in the real estate market and our economy. In the meantime, we will navigate the long and winding road.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Mortgage Firms Struggle to Redo Hard-Hit Loans
This is a very good article that puts some solid detail about the realities of mortgage modifications.The thought behind it makes sense for some...but what about the investors that are losing big time...INTERESTING...big brother is watching!
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Morgan Stanley chief John Mack recently made a new friend, he told shareholders in April -- a Southern woman who had benefited from the big bank's stepped-up efforts to modify loans under a new federal program aimed at keeping borrowers in their homes.
"I'm now invited -- if I ever visit Memphis, Tennessee -- to drive two hours south to have dinner with her and her family," Mr. Mack said.
Steve Applegate of Lake Mary, Fla., has tried without success to modify his $750,000 home loan through Saxon Mortgage Services Inc.
But by some measures, Morgan Stanley's mortgage-loan servicing firm, Saxon Mortgage Services Inc., has a long road to go. An April Credit Suisse Group analysis of how quickly companies have renegotiated loans ranked Saxon last among 18 mortgage-servicing firms. Saxon has modified just 6% of the loans it oversees that originated between 2005 and 2007. By contrast, Litton Loan Servicing, a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. unit, modified 28% of its loans.
Such firms are at the center of a grand government experiment aimed at halting foreclosures and the collateral damage they cause neighboring homes. New foreclosure notices will total 2.4 million this year, which could trigger price drops in 69.5 million nearby homes, estimates the Center for Responsible Lending, a financial-services research and policy firm. At an average decline of $7,200 a house, that translates to a potential drop of $502 billion in total U.S. property values.
The government plan, rolled out in February and called the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, will pay mortgage-servicing firms to modify mortgages and find other ways to keep people in their homes. But the program's sheer scale and the speed with which it was rolled out has created a new set of problems for some of the 27 firms charged with carrying it out.
A look at Saxon provides a window into the challenges these mortgage servicers now face as they attempt to salvage the loans of three million to four million Americans. Mr. Mack declined to comment through a spokeswoman, but Saxon says that as soon as HAMP launched, it was flooded with requests from borrowers.
The company, based in Irving, Texas, has hired or expanded contracts with four outside companies to help handle the influx, and it recently added a late shift from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. to manage the extra work. Even the volume of paperwork at one point grew unwieldy -- an internal audit in mid-May found that Saxon's scanning equipment was overloaded with materials sent in by borrowers, leading to delays and lost documents.
Staff lacked the training and experience to modify so many sour loans. During the housing boom, Saxon's mortgage-servicing employees did little more than send monthly statements in the mail and track down delinquent borrowers. Like other mortgage servicers, Saxon was essentially the link between borrowers and the investors who owned pools of mortgages. It handled the day-to-day business of collecting payments on behalf of those investors, and when borrowers fell behind, of covering the payments until it could collect. When borrowers defaulted, Saxon would either modify the loans or foreclose.
Now, firms like Saxon are under pressure to stem foreclosures at all costs. That means many employees need to be trained in an entirely new set of skills. Under HAMP, reworking a single loan can be a time-consuming process with many steps, from calculating a borrower's debt-to-income ratio, to negotiating with investors who own different slices of the loan pool, to figuring out which type of modification works best for each borrower. Loan specialists need to study multiple guidelines, online tutorials and a HAMP data dictionary with terms such as "underlying trust identifier."
In May, shortly after the government program kicked off, Anthony Meola, Saxon's chief executive, gave his employees a call to arms. Standing atop a makeshift stage in the middle of Saxon's call center in Fort Worth, Texas, Mr. Meola barked into a microphone: "You are getting a chance to help preserve the American dream. Think about what you could do -- you can save someone's home!"
Saxon also has a financial incentive: The government is paying servicers $1,000 for each loan they modify, with another $1,000 annually for up to three years if borrowers stay current. In all, the U.S. could provide as much as $18.6 billion to the mortgage industry, investors and borrowers.
Yet there is growing concern among some lawmakers that loan modifications aren't moving fast enough. In late June, 20 Democratic senators wrote to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, whose agency is the architect of the housing program, to ask him to put more pressure on mortgage-servicing firms. The group cited a recent report from a foreclosure program administered by NeighborWorks America, a Washington network of affordable-housing organizations, that found homeowners still were being forced to wait, on average, 45 to 60 days for help.
On July 9, Mr. Geithner sent a message to the mortgage-servicing firms that have signed up for the modification program and told them to ramp up their efforts. "We believe there is a general need for servicers to devote substantially more resources to this program," Mr. Geithner wrote, including adding staff and call centers. He said the agency would begin publicly reporting each firms' results starting in August, and that Freddie Mac, the government-controlled mortgage buyer, would be auditing a sample of declined requests to make sure no borrowers were denied incorrectly.
Saxon so far has completed nearly 17,000 loan modifications where borrowers have submitted income verification and other documentation and made their first payment. In total, it has given initial approval of 28,000 modifications where the borrower has provided spoken information about income, a process that underscores the government's desire to move things along quickly.
Still, some Saxon borrowers have endured long waits. Diana Wiles, a 54-year-old lab technician in Fremont, Mich., was approved in February for a modification on a $113,000 home-equity loan which cut her interest rate to 1.75% from 6.75%.
She says Saxon told her not to make her March loan payment and it would send her documents to sign and return. But the documents didn't arrive -- and Saxon charged her a late fee for missing a payment. Ms. Wiles made another attempt to modify her mortgage, and this time, Saxon screened her to see if she qualified under HAMP. But when the firm requested she put property taxes and insurance in an escrow account, as the U.S. program required, she balked. "I didn't trust them after all we had been through," she says.
Over the next six weeks, she resubmitted her financial information twice and called Saxon weekly, without a clear answer.
After The Wall Street Journal inquired about Ms. Wiles's case, she received a package confirming terms of an approved loan modification, setting her mortgage rate at 1.75% for five years beginning Aug. 1. A Saxon spokeswoman says her financial documentation only recently had been completed.
But more confusion followed. After her loan package was confirmed, Ms. Wiles received a letter dated June 24 from Saxon that said her first new payment was actually due July 1. Ms. Wiles phoned to clarify and then received another letter dated June 25 that told her to disregard the June 24 letter and that in fact her new loan package would begin Aug 1.
Saxon's borrowers' rate of so-called re-defaulting -- or defaulting on a loan after it's been modified -- has also been higher than most. Of the loan modifications made by Saxon in the first quarter of 2008 where monthly payments were decreased by more than 20%, 34% of the amount owed was delinquent by 60 days or more 10 months after the modification, according to Credit Suisse Group. That compares with an average of 27% delinquent for the 18 servicers Credit Suisse analyzed.
Part of the problem at Saxon is that it didn't ramp up its ability to modify loans as early as other servicing companies. A spokeswoman for Saxon says that when Morgan Stanley purchased the company in 2006, it lacked enough employees and systems to undertake massive numbers of modifications. It wasn't until the spring of 2007 -- after its portfolio of subprime loans had already started to sour -- that Saxon began to focus on modifying loans. Not until the fourth quarter of 2008 did Saxon boost its capacity to handle a large flood of requests.
Some Saxon borrowers have gotten swift modification approvals. Lorraine Rodriguez, a hospital worker in Anaheim, Calif., called Saxon in mid-May. Following an hourlong call, she says, Saxon told her she had been approved for a three-month trial modification starting June 1, cutting her mortgage rate to about 5% from 9.5%. Her monthly payment was cut 42%, to just below $1,900. The new rate "is still a high amount and is tough for us," says Ms. Rodriguez, 57.
Charged with beefing up Saxon's operations is Mr. Meola, an accountant who held senior mortgage positions at Citigroup Inc., PNC Bank, Washington Mutual Inc. and New Century Financial Corp.
Mr. Meola, 52, is the author of a how-to management guide, which offers tips on communications and staying positive. At Washington Mutual, the lender that collapsed in 2008, Mr. Meola teamed up with basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson to build homes for needy communities. Mr. Meola, who oversaw loan production, was a showman and comic in front of sales forces, says a person familiar with his time there.
He joined Morgan Stanley in the spring of 2007 as chief operating officer of its residential mortgage business as the firm was in the midst of a massive spurt of loan originations and securitizations. That growth had enabled Morgan Stanley to climb up the rankings of subprime-mortgage sales. Within a few months, Mr. Meola and Morgan Stanley effectively stopped making subprime loans as the industry collapsed.
At the time it was purchased in 2006, Saxon's portfolio totaled 165,000 loans for an unpaid balance of $26 billion. As of June 30, 2008, the portfolio had grown to 342,404 loans, the bulk of which were subprime, with a balance of $56.9 billion.
By the time the Obama administration and Treasury Department launched HAMP, Saxon was having trouble keeping up with requests for modifications, even as it attempted to get up to speed. Mr. Meola says in the fourth quarter of 2008 he had ordered Saxon to upgrade its call-center systems, improve training and make sure callers were routed to the right employees.
The company has retrained 659 employees on how to implement the government program. It has invested in a new, high-speed scanning software system, which can scan up to 125 documents a minute. Before the change, it took 20 minutes to upload the same amount of documents.
Mr. Meola reviews a sample of calls into the Saxon call center, including analyzing wait times. His checklist, which monitors customer dealings in 30-minute intervals, includes counting the number of denials and available agents.
He's been deflecting criticism from some watchdogs. In April, for example, Saxon executives convened at the Fort Worth unit of the Better Business Bureau. The agency, after receiving a spike in complaints from Saxon customers, had given the company an "F" based on the complaints.
Sitting in a small conference room, members of the bureau told Saxon executives of complaints about service, billing and miscommunications during refinancing, according to an agenda for the meeting. More than 300 people had lodged complaints in the year ending early 2009. Mr. Meola says complaints spiked after Saxon took over a portfolio of 80,000 loans from a troubled rival in 2007. The bureau has since upgraded Saxon to a "D."
Among those who had complained was Steve Applegate, owner of a Lake Mary, Fla., building-supplies business. Hurt by the construction downturn, Mr. Applegate last fall asked Saxon to modify his $750,000 home loan.
Mr. Applegate, a 60-year-old father of two, says he was told in January that he'd been approved for a rate cut to 2.08% from 6.5%, which would cut his $4,063 monthly payment by more than half. But the confirming paperwork from Saxon never arrived, he says, and in March, he was notified he was in default. When he phoned Saxon, a different loan negotiator recommended foreclosure.
He tried to resuscitate the earlier modification. At one point in April, he spent nearly two hours on the phone with Saxon, got disconnected twice, and was routed to four individuals, according to a recording of the call.
In May, Mr. Applegate was informed by Saxon that he had approval under HAMP for a modification starting June 1.
The good news didn't last. When he tried to make a second payment on the modified loan, he was told he hadn't qualified after all. When the Journal asked what happened, a Saxon spokeswoman said that the company had erred in sending him paperwork for a HAMP modification because his outstanding loan balance exceeded the program's limit of $729,750.
Earlier this month, Saxon said it would modify his loan outside the federal program. Mr. Applegate is still waiting.
By CARRICK MOLLENKAMP and SERENA NG of the WSJ
-------------------------
Morgan Stanley chief John Mack recently made a new friend, he told shareholders in April -- a Southern woman who had benefited from the big bank's stepped-up efforts to modify loans under a new federal program aimed at keeping borrowers in their homes.
"I'm now invited -- if I ever visit Memphis, Tennessee -- to drive two hours south to have dinner with her and her family," Mr. Mack said.
Steve Applegate of Lake Mary, Fla., has tried without success to modify his $750,000 home loan through Saxon Mortgage Services Inc.
But by some measures, Morgan Stanley's mortgage-loan servicing firm, Saxon Mortgage Services Inc., has a long road to go. An April Credit Suisse Group analysis of how quickly companies have renegotiated loans ranked Saxon last among 18 mortgage-servicing firms. Saxon has modified just 6% of the loans it oversees that originated between 2005 and 2007. By contrast, Litton Loan Servicing, a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. unit, modified 28% of its loans.
Such firms are at the center of a grand government experiment aimed at halting foreclosures and the collateral damage they cause neighboring homes. New foreclosure notices will total 2.4 million this year, which could trigger price drops in 69.5 million nearby homes, estimates the Center for Responsible Lending, a financial-services research and policy firm. At an average decline of $7,200 a house, that translates to a potential drop of $502 billion in total U.S. property values.
The government plan, rolled out in February and called the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, will pay mortgage-servicing firms to modify mortgages and find other ways to keep people in their homes. But the program's sheer scale and the speed with which it was rolled out has created a new set of problems for some of the 27 firms charged with carrying it out.
A look at Saxon provides a window into the challenges these mortgage servicers now face as they attempt to salvage the loans of three million to four million Americans. Mr. Mack declined to comment through a spokeswoman, but Saxon says that as soon as HAMP launched, it was flooded with requests from borrowers.
The company, based in Irving, Texas, has hired or expanded contracts with four outside companies to help handle the influx, and it recently added a late shift from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. to manage the extra work. Even the volume of paperwork at one point grew unwieldy -- an internal audit in mid-May found that Saxon's scanning equipment was overloaded with materials sent in by borrowers, leading to delays and lost documents.
Staff lacked the training and experience to modify so many sour loans. During the housing boom, Saxon's mortgage-servicing employees did little more than send monthly statements in the mail and track down delinquent borrowers. Like other mortgage servicers, Saxon was essentially the link between borrowers and the investors who owned pools of mortgages. It handled the day-to-day business of collecting payments on behalf of those investors, and when borrowers fell behind, of covering the payments until it could collect. When borrowers defaulted, Saxon would either modify the loans or foreclose.
Now, firms like Saxon are under pressure to stem foreclosures at all costs. That means many employees need to be trained in an entirely new set of skills. Under HAMP, reworking a single loan can be a time-consuming process with many steps, from calculating a borrower's debt-to-income ratio, to negotiating with investors who own different slices of the loan pool, to figuring out which type of modification works best for each borrower. Loan specialists need to study multiple guidelines, online tutorials and a HAMP data dictionary with terms such as "underlying trust identifier."
In May, shortly after the government program kicked off, Anthony Meola, Saxon's chief executive, gave his employees a call to arms. Standing atop a makeshift stage in the middle of Saxon's call center in Fort Worth, Texas, Mr. Meola barked into a microphone: "You are getting a chance to help preserve the American dream. Think about what you could do -- you can save someone's home!"
Saxon also has a financial incentive: The government is paying servicers $1,000 for each loan they modify, with another $1,000 annually for up to three years if borrowers stay current. In all, the U.S. could provide as much as $18.6 billion to the mortgage industry, investors and borrowers.
Yet there is growing concern among some lawmakers that loan modifications aren't moving fast enough. In late June, 20 Democratic senators wrote to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, whose agency is the architect of the housing program, to ask him to put more pressure on mortgage-servicing firms. The group cited a recent report from a foreclosure program administered by NeighborWorks America, a Washington network of affordable-housing organizations, that found homeowners still were being forced to wait, on average, 45 to 60 days for help.
On July 9, Mr. Geithner sent a message to the mortgage-servicing firms that have signed up for the modification program and told them to ramp up their efforts. "We believe there is a general need for servicers to devote substantially more resources to this program," Mr. Geithner wrote, including adding staff and call centers. He said the agency would begin publicly reporting each firms' results starting in August, and that Freddie Mac, the government-controlled mortgage buyer, would be auditing a sample of declined requests to make sure no borrowers were denied incorrectly.
Saxon so far has completed nearly 17,000 loan modifications where borrowers have submitted income verification and other documentation and made their first payment. In total, it has given initial approval of 28,000 modifications where the borrower has provided spoken information about income, a process that underscores the government's desire to move things along quickly.
Still, some Saxon borrowers have endured long waits. Diana Wiles, a 54-year-old lab technician in Fremont, Mich., was approved in February for a modification on a $113,000 home-equity loan which cut her interest rate to 1.75% from 6.75%.
She says Saxon told her not to make her March loan payment and it would send her documents to sign and return. But the documents didn't arrive -- and Saxon charged her a late fee for missing a payment. Ms. Wiles made another attempt to modify her mortgage, and this time, Saxon screened her to see if she qualified under HAMP. But when the firm requested she put property taxes and insurance in an escrow account, as the U.S. program required, she balked. "I didn't trust them after all we had been through," she says.
Over the next six weeks, she resubmitted her financial information twice and called Saxon weekly, without a clear answer.
After The Wall Street Journal inquired about Ms. Wiles's case, she received a package confirming terms of an approved loan modification, setting her mortgage rate at 1.75% for five years beginning Aug. 1. A Saxon spokeswoman says her financial documentation only recently had been completed.
But more confusion followed. After her loan package was confirmed, Ms. Wiles received a letter dated June 24 from Saxon that said her first new payment was actually due July 1. Ms. Wiles phoned to clarify and then received another letter dated June 25 that told her to disregard the June 24 letter and that in fact her new loan package would begin Aug 1.
Saxon's borrowers' rate of so-called re-defaulting -- or defaulting on a loan after it's been modified -- has also been higher than most. Of the loan modifications made by Saxon in the first quarter of 2008 where monthly payments were decreased by more than 20%, 34% of the amount owed was delinquent by 60 days or more 10 months after the modification, according to Credit Suisse Group. That compares with an average of 27% delinquent for the 18 servicers Credit Suisse analyzed.
Part of the problem at Saxon is that it didn't ramp up its ability to modify loans as early as other servicing companies. A spokeswoman for Saxon says that when Morgan Stanley purchased the company in 2006, it lacked enough employees and systems to undertake massive numbers of modifications. It wasn't until the spring of 2007 -- after its portfolio of subprime loans had already started to sour -- that Saxon began to focus on modifying loans. Not until the fourth quarter of 2008 did Saxon boost its capacity to handle a large flood of requests.
Some Saxon borrowers have gotten swift modification approvals. Lorraine Rodriguez, a hospital worker in Anaheim, Calif., called Saxon in mid-May. Following an hourlong call, she says, Saxon told her she had been approved for a three-month trial modification starting June 1, cutting her mortgage rate to about 5% from 9.5%. Her monthly payment was cut 42%, to just below $1,900. The new rate "is still a high amount and is tough for us," says Ms. Rodriguez, 57.
Charged with beefing up Saxon's operations is Mr. Meola, an accountant who held senior mortgage positions at Citigroup Inc., PNC Bank, Washington Mutual Inc. and New Century Financial Corp.
Mr. Meola, 52, is the author of a how-to management guide, which offers tips on communications and staying positive. At Washington Mutual, the lender that collapsed in 2008, Mr. Meola teamed up with basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson to build homes for needy communities. Mr. Meola, who oversaw loan production, was a showman and comic in front of sales forces, says a person familiar with his time there.
He joined Morgan Stanley in the spring of 2007 as chief operating officer of its residential mortgage business as the firm was in the midst of a massive spurt of loan originations and securitizations. That growth had enabled Morgan Stanley to climb up the rankings of subprime-mortgage sales. Within a few months, Mr. Meola and Morgan Stanley effectively stopped making subprime loans as the industry collapsed.
At the time it was purchased in 2006, Saxon's portfolio totaled 165,000 loans for an unpaid balance of $26 billion. As of June 30, 2008, the portfolio had grown to 342,404 loans, the bulk of which were subprime, with a balance of $56.9 billion.
By the time the Obama administration and Treasury Department launched HAMP, Saxon was having trouble keeping up with requests for modifications, even as it attempted to get up to speed. Mr. Meola says in the fourth quarter of 2008 he had ordered Saxon to upgrade its call-center systems, improve training and make sure callers were routed to the right employees.
The company has retrained 659 employees on how to implement the government program. It has invested in a new, high-speed scanning software system, which can scan up to 125 documents a minute. Before the change, it took 20 minutes to upload the same amount of documents.
Mr. Meola reviews a sample of calls into the Saxon call center, including analyzing wait times. His checklist, which monitors customer dealings in 30-minute intervals, includes counting the number of denials and available agents.
He's been deflecting criticism from some watchdogs. In April, for example, Saxon executives convened at the Fort Worth unit of the Better Business Bureau. The agency, after receiving a spike in complaints from Saxon customers, had given the company an "F" based on the complaints.
Sitting in a small conference room, members of the bureau told Saxon executives of complaints about service, billing and miscommunications during refinancing, according to an agenda for the meeting. More than 300 people had lodged complaints in the year ending early 2009. Mr. Meola says complaints spiked after Saxon took over a portfolio of 80,000 loans from a troubled rival in 2007. The bureau has since upgraded Saxon to a "D."
Among those who had complained was Steve Applegate, owner of a Lake Mary, Fla., building-supplies business. Hurt by the construction downturn, Mr. Applegate last fall asked Saxon to modify his $750,000 home loan.
Mr. Applegate, a 60-year-old father of two, says he was told in January that he'd been approved for a rate cut to 2.08% from 6.5%, which would cut his $4,063 monthly payment by more than half. But the confirming paperwork from Saxon never arrived, he says, and in March, he was notified he was in default. When he phoned Saxon, a different loan negotiator recommended foreclosure.
He tried to resuscitate the earlier modification. At one point in April, he spent nearly two hours on the phone with Saxon, got disconnected twice, and was routed to four individuals, according to a recording of the call.
In May, Mr. Applegate was informed by Saxon that he had approval under HAMP for a modification starting June 1.
The good news didn't last. When he tried to make a second payment on the modified loan, he was told he hadn't qualified after all. When the Journal asked what happened, a Saxon spokeswoman said that the company had erred in sending him paperwork for a HAMP modification because his outstanding loan balance exceeded the program's limit of $729,750.
Earlier this month, Saxon said it would modify his loan outside the federal program. Mr. Applegate is still waiting.
By CARRICK MOLLENKAMP and SERENA NG of the WSJ
Thursday, June 18, 2009
A Full Day at the Housing Summit
Yesterday was a solid day of learning for me…
I began by going to the Housing Summit, and then went to the Broker’s Council for NAMAR…it was a FULL day!
What I learned is the following:
1. We are right on target with what we have been communicating…Pending sales are rising back to levels of last year, and Supply is coming down everywhere. This is where you would see solid glimmers of hope forming the POTENTIAL for a bottom…everything in markets are driven by supply and demand…
2. Be glad you are not in Clayton County! The median home sales price was like $40k!
3. Forsyth is one of the areas that has been fairing better than most on values of homes, BUT my contention is that is the only county that has still been sliding on volume of contracts…meaning, it needs to come down some more to stimulate more buyers to buy…
4. What will shape the bottom, or not are the following:
a. Interest Rates need to remain low
b. Lending Practices – we need to get back to normal lending practices and allow the “good” credit people to be able to buy homes vs the tight restrictions everyone is facing today
c. Jumbo Money – if the Jumbo Loans are not made more readily available, then the upper end homes will see a very difficult time in selling to someone today…right now, you must have 20% down, and a 720 credit score…this eliminates a lot of people from the potential of buying…
d. GAS Prices! If the gas goes up to $4.00 a gallon, then we could see a terrible time for us all…in many ways…
5. As Banks are being riddled with mass lot take-backs/foreclosures, you will begin to see incredibly priced NEW homes begin to surface in areas…they will be a brand new home that will be priced to compete with a foreclosure…this is brewing, and will begin to be shown in the upcoming months…banks are beginning to get aggressive in pricing or building out of a situation…what will be good, is that it will stimulate people to buy, and that is a necessary thing to get out of the bottom and move into correction…GET YOUR SELLERS ON BOARD WITH THIS AS IT WILL ONLY GET MORE DIFFICULT TO SELL ONCE THIS COMES TO BE!!!!!
6. Most areas have shrunk in inventory, so RE-SALES will have a good ending to the year if they get priced right, and get priced to sell!
7. Gwinnett County is in the process of beginning its “rebuilding” of areas…it is the Gwinnett County Neighborhood Stabilization Program…they have targeted areas that they will be able to buy vacant, and run down homes to rehab and help the overall market conditions.
8. Social Networking is here to stay…if you are not on board with it, you better get on board!
Keep up the great work, and remember this:
You have finished swimming 75% of a huge body of water…it has been a long hard swim…you can either give up, or finish the final 25%...I CHOOSE TO FINISH STRONG!
I began by going to the Housing Summit, and then went to the Broker’s Council for NAMAR…it was a FULL day!
What I learned is the following:
1. We are right on target with what we have been communicating…Pending sales are rising back to levels of last year, and Supply is coming down everywhere. This is where you would see solid glimmers of hope forming the POTENTIAL for a bottom…everything in markets are driven by supply and demand…
2. Be glad you are not in Clayton County! The median home sales price was like $40k!
3. Forsyth is one of the areas that has been fairing better than most on values of homes, BUT my contention is that is the only county that has still been sliding on volume of contracts…meaning, it needs to come down some more to stimulate more buyers to buy…
4. What will shape the bottom, or not are the following:
a. Interest Rates need to remain low
b. Lending Practices – we need to get back to normal lending practices and allow the “good” credit people to be able to buy homes vs the tight restrictions everyone is facing today
c. Jumbo Money – if the Jumbo Loans are not made more readily available, then the upper end homes will see a very difficult time in selling to someone today…right now, you must have 20% down, and a 720 credit score…this eliminates a lot of people from the potential of buying…
d. GAS Prices! If the gas goes up to $4.00 a gallon, then we could see a terrible time for us all…in many ways…
5. As Banks are being riddled with mass lot take-backs/foreclosures, you will begin to see incredibly priced NEW homes begin to surface in areas…they will be a brand new home that will be priced to compete with a foreclosure…this is brewing, and will begin to be shown in the upcoming months…banks are beginning to get aggressive in pricing or building out of a situation…what will be good, is that it will stimulate people to buy, and that is a necessary thing to get out of the bottom and move into correction…GET YOUR SELLERS ON BOARD WITH THIS AS IT WILL ONLY GET MORE DIFFICULT TO SELL ONCE THIS COMES TO BE!!!!!
6. Most areas have shrunk in inventory, so RE-SALES will have a good ending to the year if they get priced right, and get priced to sell!
7. Gwinnett County is in the process of beginning its “rebuilding” of areas…it is the Gwinnett County Neighborhood Stabilization Program…they have targeted areas that they will be able to buy vacant, and run down homes to rehab and help the overall market conditions.
8. Social Networking is here to stay…if you are not on board with it, you better get on board!
Keep up the great work, and remember this:
You have finished swimming 75% of a huge body of water…it has been a long hard swim…you can either give up, or finish the final 25%...I CHOOSE TO FINISH STRONG!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Atlanta Market Re-Setting
Atlanta (North) Trends for May...You may be surprised as to the value of a 4 bdrm, 2.5 bath home over the last 2 years and what it has re-set to! As the market re-sets, what are you doing to understand how it is shifting?
Check out this months Talk to Terry here!
Check out this months Talk to Terry here!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Bank Rally Prolongs Market's Winning Streak
I don't want to act as though this means we are on the rebound, but if you read the article, it shows that 19 of the large banks facing the stress test are passing! This, coupled with positive cash flows, could make lending become easier in the months ahead...SIGNIFICANT!!! Good article for those of you on the fence!
Wallstreet Journal Article
Wallstreet Journal Article
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
April Edition of Talk to Terry - Are we at the bottom?
The April Edition of TalkToTerry focuses on the changing environment around the North Atlanta Real Estate Market. Is the bottom forming? Is now the time to buy? Only time will tell, but watch for the clues!
Visit http://www.talktoterry.com/ to see this months (and any previous months) video!
Visit http://www.talktoterry.com/ to see this months (and any previous months) video!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Results Has Great News to Share…First Quarter 2009 Stats are in!!
Bigger is not better…BETTER is better!!
Results is a family owned and operated company that has been in the Real Estate Business for 11 years. We are proud of our rankings as our position in the market place only improves while others are falling.
The Company was formed by the Mother and Son Team of Sarah and Terry Swanson, and is managed by Terry as the Qualifying Broker.
Results approach to Real Estate focuses on Determination, Drive, Passion, and Performance. The first Quarter of 2009 shows that we GET RESULTS!
***The important component to being #2 is that we did over 50% of the production Solid Source which has 2,100 agents!!! Our average agent production blows them away! We would rather have a smaller number of agents that are successful, vs. having any agent as a number for the company size.
**We have 6 of the top 100 agents for dollar volume sold in the North Atlanta Market!
Results is a family owned and operated company that has been in the Real Estate Business for 11 years. We are proud of our rankings as our position in the market place only improves while others are falling.
The Company was formed by the Mother and Son Team of Sarah and Terry Swanson, and is managed by Terry as the Qualifying Broker.
Results approach to Real Estate focuses on Determination, Drive, Passion, and Performance. The first Quarter of 2009 shows that we GET RESULTS!
**Results had SEVEN of the top 50 Agents for Forsyth!
**Results was #2 of all production for office category for Area North Fulton, Forsyth, and Gwinnett
***The important component to being #2 is that we did over 50% of the production Solid Source which has 2,100 agents!!! Our average agent production blows them away! We would rather have a smaller number of agents that are successful, vs. having any agent as a number for the company size.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Scared Stiff to Intrigued and Interested
I began my career in Real Estate in 1992. The Country was just coming out of the last big housing downturn from the Savings and Loan debacle.
I did not know anything about the realities of where we were with the economy or housing situation…I was fresh out of College and Bartending, so I thought I had hit the jackpot of a job!
Seventeen years have passed, and looking back, I realize I did not hit the jackpot of a job…I hit the jackpot of a CAREER! I have had ups, and downs. I have made more money, at times, than I ever dreamed possible, and lost more than that in the same breath. In every situation, I enjoyed the experiences of being in the Real Estate business. I have never been as Intrigued and Interested in Real Estate as I am today.
If you don’t feel passionate about Real Estate, you should go and get passionate about something else…I suggest you get passionate about Real Estate!
Today, I look around and see three types of people in the business:
1. The Scared Stiff
2. The Scared Silly
3. The Intrigued and Interested
The Scared Stiff are simply shell shocked by how challenging the environment has become and have not made one single adjustment to their games. At the sales meetings, they have glazed looks in their eyes.
They have become walking Zombies.
Money is going out the door to stay in the business, but nothing is coming in, and they are doing nothing to improve their opportunities. They do not realize that by doing nothing, they are going to receive the same monetary measure in their bank account.
The Scared Stiff sit back and think that nobody is buying, so why try to do anything that would require effort when the result is going to yield nothing.
The Scared Stiff will view everything as the “market’s fault”, and simply see themselves waiting for when the market returns, and their business will do the same. They also believe that those that are making money are simply lucky, or have found the magic pill and are the exception, not the possibility.
Give them an educational article about what is going on, and they are not able to understand anything. This is okay, but they will not feel compelled to ask questions to try and understand…and that is not okay.
The problem with this group is that they are part of the problem with the time frame of the correction. We all know the market is going to change for the better, but nobody truly knows when. Part of when the change happens is going to be the educational process that Realtors take with the general public. In this, only the most talented, and professional Realtors will be able to truly see the signs, and relay them in a professional matter to those on the fence…
This group has two options:
1. Make changes to your game; stop being scared; start moving forward with passion
2. Make changes to your choice of careers
The Scared Silly are going about their game thinking that the only way to make it is to manipulate people and truths…twice as much as they did before the downturn started.
The problem with this group is that they are manipulating things to try and get people to use them in either buying or selling. They will eventually turn off the people they are trying to work with as this type of rhetoric always shines through; and someone that could have been a great prospect decides to do nothing because of the experience they just had with the Realtor.
They believe that nobody really wants to buy or sell today, so their job is to pressure people into doing the action they really don’t want to do.
What this group forgets is that we don’t sell homes, we sell a service, and that is an unspoken sale.
If this group goes to a sales meeting, they believe they know more than the others do, and are not willing to listen for a better way. Their way is the best way, and they will go down trying to prove it.
The Scared Silly are willing to work…they usually work too hard doing things the way they have always done it…only twice as hard! That begins to wear them down, and eventually being broke and burned out will have them leaving the business of real estate.
This group has two options:
1. Relax; change your approach; educate the public once you have educated yourself…STOP trying to think of sales as manipulating someone into doing something they don’t want to do…try it with passion vs. fear based
2. Make changes to your choice of careers
The Intrigued and Interested have distanced themselves further and further from the rest of the pack. They realize it is a game…and the only way you win in a game is to get into it and play with intensity and passion!
This group is amazed at what we are going through as an industry and Country, but are enjoying the game vs. fighting against it.
This group will study the trends of the marketplace and know more about the financing world than they ever knew before. They will read articles. They will look for improvements. They will look for new techniques to add to their performance.
They do not blame things on the market; they study what they need to do, or what new niches to fill…and fill them!
They are willing to participate and help others. They greet each challenge with a view of opportunity.
They educate the clients they work with, and allow the clients to make their mind up after a careful presentation of facts. The clients feel more secure in making a decision today, because they know they are in the right hands. There is no pressure…things just make more sense for the clients.
This group has two options:
1. Keep doing what they are doing, and make a nice living while others are struggling
2. Keep improving every day and crush the competition that is Scared
Someone told me the other day “Change does not cause stress…Resistance to change causes stress!”
In Atlanta, we sold as many homes in 2008 as we did in 2001…not bad! The problem is that we have 40% more agents than we did at that time…the correction of number of agents is happening…only the strongest shall survive!
The great news is that no matter what category you may fall under, you can make the decision to change! It is a market that is going to re-vamp the Real Estate Arena…for the better!
I did not know anything about the realities of where we were with the economy or housing situation…I was fresh out of College and Bartending, so I thought I had hit the jackpot of a job!
Seventeen years have passed, and looking back, I realize I did not hit the jackpot of a job…I hit the jackpot of a CAREER! I have had ups, and downs. I have made more money, at times, than I ever dreamed possible, and lost more than that in the same breath. In every situation, I enjoyed the experiences of being in the Real Estate business. I have never been as Intrigued and Interested in Real Estate as I am today.
If you don’t feel passionate about Real Estate, you should go and get passionate about something else…I suggest you get passionate about Real Estate!
Today, I look around and see three types of people in the business:
1. The Scared Stiff
2. The Scared Silly
3. The Intrigued and Interested
The Scared Stiff are simply shell shocked by how challenging the environment has become and have not made one single adjustment to their games. At the sales meetings, they have glazed looks in their eyes.
They have become walking Zombies.
Money is going out the door to stay in the business, but nothing is coming in, and they are doing nothing to improve their opportunities. They do not realize that by doing nothing, they are going to receive the same monetary measure in their bank account.
The Scared Stiff sit back and think that nobody is buying, so why try to do anything that would require effort when the result is going to yield nothing.
The Scared Stiff will view everything as the “market’s fault”, and simply see themselves waiting for when the market returns, and their business will do the same. They also believe that those that are making money are simply lucky, or have found the magic pill and are the exception, not the possibility.
Give them an educational article about what is going on, and they are not able to understand anything. This is okay, but they will not feel compelled to ask questions to try and understand…and that is not okay.
The problem with this group is that they are part of the problem with the time frame of the correction. We all know the market is going to change for the better, but nobody truly knows when. Part of when the change happens is going to be the educational process that Realtors take with the general public. In this, only the most talented, and professional Realtors will be able to truly see the signs, and relay them in a professional matter to those on the fence…
This group has two options:
1. Make changes to your game; stop being scared; start moving forward with passion
2. Make changes to your choice of careers
The Scared Silly are going about their game thinking that the only way to make it is to manipulate people and truths…twice as much as they did before the downturn started.
The problem with this group is that they are manipulating things to try and get people to use them in either buying or selling. They will eventually turn off the people they are trying to work with as this type of rhetoric always shines through; and someone that could have been a great prospect decides to do nothing because of the experience they just had with the Realtor.
They believe that nobody really wants to buy or sell today, so their job is to pressure people into doing the action they really don’t want to do.
What this group forgets is that we don’t sell homes, we sell a service, and that is an unspoken sale.
If this group goes to a sales meeting, they believe they know more than the others do, and are not willing to listen for a better way. Their way is the best way, and they will go down trying to prove it.
The Scared Silly are willing to work…they usually work too hard doing things the way they have always done it…only twice as hard! That begins to wear them down, and eventually being broke and burned out will have them leaving the business of real estate.
This group has two options:
1. Relax; change your approach; educate the public once you have educated yourself…STOP trying to think of sales as manipulating someone into doing something they don’t want to do…try it with passion vs. fear based
2. Make changes to your choice of careers
The Intrigued and Interested have distanced themselves further and further from the rest of the pack. They realize it is a game…and the only way you win in a game is to get into it and play with intensity and passion!
This group is amazed at what we are going through as an industry and Country, but are enjoying the game vs. fighting against it.
This group will study the trends of the marketplace and know more about the financing world than they ever knew before. They will read articles. They will look for improvements. They will look for new techniques to add to their performance.
They do not blame things on the market; they study what they need to do, or what new niches to fill…and fill them!
They are willing to participate and help others. They greet each challenge with a view of opportunity.
They educate the clients they work with, and allow the clients to make their mind up after a careful presentation of facts. The clients feel more secure in making a decision today, because they know they are in the right hands. There is no pressure…things just make more sense for the clients.
This group has two options:
1. Keep doing what they are doing, and make a nice living while others are struggling
2. Keep improving every day and crush the competition that is Scared
Someone told me the other day “Change does not cause stress…Resistance to change causes stress!”
In Atlanta, we sold as many homes in 2008 as we did in 2001…not bad! The problem is that we have 40% more agents than we did at that time…the correction of number of agents is happening…only the strongest shall survive!
The great news is that no matter what category you may fall under, you can make the decision to change! It is a market that is going to re-vamp the Real Estate Arena…for the better!
Friday, March 13, 2009
How Obama's Plan Would Work for Borrowers
Here are answers to some common questions about the Obama administration's new foreclosure-prevention plan.
What do these programs involve?
One component calls for reducing payments for distressed borrowers through modifications of loan terms, known as loan mods. A second involves refinancing mortgages for some people who are current on their payments but have little or no equity in their homes.
When does this start?
Immediately.
How do I know whether I qualify for a loan modification?
For starters, this program applies only to your primary residence. That could be a home for one to four families, condo, cooperative apartment or manufactured home affixed to a foundation. It doesn't apply to second homes or investment properties, and the home can't be vacant or condemned. It also doesn't apply to mortgages on one-unit homes whose balances exceed $729,750.
And it isn't for people who can easily afford to pay their loans. You qualify only if your mortgage payment is more than 31% of your pretax monthly income. The monthly payment includes principal, interest, taxes, insurance and homeowner association or condominium fees. Income includes wages, salary, overtime, fees, commissions, tips, Social Security, pensions and other items.
You may qualify whether or not you are up to date with your payments, but you will need to show that you don't have sufficient cash or other readily available assets to meet your current payments.
If I think I may qualify, what's the first step?
Call your loan servicer, the company that sends you your monthly mortgage bill. If you want a counselor to help you, you can request free counseling from approved counseling organizations by dialing the Hope Hotline at 888-995-4673. Avoid firms that charge you a fee for helping you get a loan mod.
Aside from lower payments, what are the benefits of participating?
As long as participants stay current on the modified loans, they can get reductions of as much as $1,000 each year in their principal balance for five years.
Can everyone with a hardship be helped?
No. Servicers will apply a "net present value" test to determine whether a loan modification is in the financial interests of the lender or investor who owns the loan. If it isn't, you may not qualify.
Do I have to pay a fee for a loan mod?
No.
How do I know whether I qualify for the refinancing part of this plan?
You must be current on your payments and your loan must be owned or guaranteed by government-backed mortgage companies Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
These refinancings are designed for cases in which the loan balance is between 80% and 105% of the estimated value of your home. (Those below 80% should be able to get refinanced without the help of this program by contacting lenders or mortgage brokers.) Loan servicers will use computer programs or other means to estimate the value of your home.
These refinancings also are available for second homes and investment properties in some cases.
How do I find out if my loan is owned or guaranteed by Fannie or Freddie?
Your loan servicer or counselor should be able to determine that. On your own you can contact Fannie by calling 1-800-7FANNIE or visiting this Web site: www.fanniemae.com/homeaffordable. To reach Freddie, call 1-800-FREDDIE or go to www.freddiemac.com/avoidforeclosure.
Do I have to pay a fee for a refinanced loan?
Lenders or mortgage brokers may charge fees, which are likely to vary.
How long will these programs last?
The modification plan ends Dec. 31, 2012, and loans can be reworked only one time under this program. The refinance program ends in June 2010.
Where can I get more information?
The U.S. Treasury has provided information at www.financialstability.gov.
Couresty of WSJ. Written by By JAMES R. HAGERTY
What do these programs involve?
One component calls for reducing payments for distressed borrowers through modifications of loan terms, known as loan mods. A second involves refinancing mortgages for some people who are current on their payments but have little or no equity in their homes.
When does this start?
Immediately.
How do I know whether I qualify for a loan modification?
For starters, this program applies only to your primary residence. That could be a home for one to four families, condo, cooperative apartment or manufactured home affixed to a foundation. It doesn't apply to second homes or investment properties, and the home can't be vacant or condemned. It also doesn't apply to mortgages on one-unit homes whose balances exceed $729,750.
And it isn't for people who can easily afford to pay their loans. You qualify only if your mortgage payment is more than 31% of your pretax monthly income. The monthly payment includes principal, interest, taxes, insurance and homeowner association or condominium fees. Income includes wages, salary, overtime, fees, commissions, tips, Social Security, pensions and other items.
You may qualify whether or not you are up to date with your payments, but you will need to show that you don't have sufficient cash or other readily available assets to meet your current payments.
If I think I may qualify, what's the first step?
Call your loan servicer, the company that sends you your monthly mortgage bill. If you want a counselor to help you, you can request free counseling from approved counseling organizations by dialing the Hope Hotline at 888-995-4673. Avoid firms that charge you a fee for helping you get a loan mod.
Aside from lower payments, what are the benefits of participating?
As long as participants stay current on the modified loans, they can get reductions of as much as $1,000 each year in their principal balance for five years.
Can everyone with a hardship be helped?
No. Servicers will apply a "net present value" test to determine whether a loan modification is in the financial interests of the lender or investor who owns the loan. If it isn't, you may not qualify.
Do I have to pay a fee for a loan mod?
No.
How do I know whether I qualify for the refinancing part of this plan?
You must be current on your payments and your loan must be owned or guaranteed by government-backed mortgage companies Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
These refinancings are designed for cases in which the loan balance is between 80% and 105% of the estimated value of your home. (Those below 80% should be able to get refinanced without the help of this program by contacting lenders or mortgage brokers.) Loan servicers will use computer programs or other means to estimate the value of your home.
These refinancings also are available for second homes and investment properties in some cases.
How do I find out if my loan is owned or guaranteed by Fannie or Freddie?
Your loan servicer or counselor should be able to determine that. On your own you can contact Fannie by calling 1-800-7FANNIE or visiting this Web site: www.fanniemae.com/homeaffordable. To reach Freddie, call 1-800-FREDDIE or go to www.freddiemac.com/avoidforeclosure.
Do I have to pay a fee for a refinanced loan?
Lenders or mortgage brokers may charge fees, which are likely to vary.
How long will these programs last?
The modification plan ends Dec. 31, 2012, and loans can be reworked only one time under this program. The refinance program ends in June 2010.
Where can I get more information?
The U.S. Treasury has provided information at www.financialstability.gov.
Couresty of WSJ. Written by By JAMES R. HAGERTY
Monday, February 23, 2009
Links of Interest - Stopping the Forclosure Wave
Check out this link of interest. It shows other actions, outside of the first time homebuyer’s tax credit, that are being taken to shore up the foreclosure tidal wave everyone is fearing…this must be stopped, or the values could continue to drop, and lending only to become tighter…
The plan is not going to help those that were not being smart about what they were buying, or lending…that is good…if you were being stupid, there is no foreclosure protection for you is basically what the end states…
This will probably be the beginning of different things the Government will embark on to stop the foreclosure wave…it will not be the only step I am sure…
http://www.apnews.com/ap/db_6775/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=gluREL8h&src=cat&dbid=6775&dbname=Top+Stories&storycount=10&detailindex=2
Sincerely with PASSION!
The plan is not going to help those that were not being smart about what they were buying, or lending…that is good…if you were being stupid, there is no foreclosure protection for you is basically what the end states…
This will probably be the beginning of different things the Government will embark on to stop the foreclosure wave…it will not be the only step I am sure…
http://www.apnews.com/ap/db_6775/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=gluREL8h&src=cat&dbid=6775&dbname=Top+Stories&storycount=10&detailindex=2
Sincerely with PASSION!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Housing Stimulus Initiative
Hello All!
I just finished my last meeting this morning, and will be returning tomorrow...It has been GREAT!
As you are probably aware, the Housing Stimulus Initiative lead by Johnny Isackson was denied in the overall package, and they simply changed the original version of the $7,500 tax credit to first time homebuyers...
Here is what the changes, of what we understand right now, mean:
- $8,000 Tax Credit for FIRST TIME HOMEBUYERS only (increase of $500)
- Does NOT need to be paid back (considerable change)
- Begins on purchases as of January 1st, 2009
- Only available to an individual earning less than $75k, and couples up to $150k
That is a quick breakdown...Not at all what was hoped for, BUT there may be more to come...MAYBE!
NAR is lobbying to push a separate initiative specifically to address the housing situation...this will be pushed over the next two weeks.
Apparently, President Obama has indicated to NAR that the first step was to address the Economy, and then address the housing scenario.
NAR is working very close and hard to get other initiatives forward...they will probably not be exactly what we believe will stimulate enough, but every step will be a step further than where we are today...
Over the next week, the full details will be understood in clear detail, but for now, what is above is the closest I can get an understanding of...
THIS IS SOMETHING YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND AND EMAIL TO YOUR FRIENDS AND CLIENTS!!!!!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Some Good News
Sales of existing homes posted an unexpected increase last month, closing out the worst year for the U.S. real estate market in more than a decade.The National Association of Realtors said Monday that sales of existing homes rose 6.5% to an annual rate of 4.74 million in December, from a downwardly revised pace of 4.45 million in November.
The results were better than expected. December's sales had been forecasted to fall to a pace of 4.4 million units, according to Thomson Reuters.Buyers were taking advantage of dramatically lower prices, especially in distressed markets like California, Florida and Nevada, where foreclosures have swamped the market.The nationwide median sales price plunged to $175,400, down 15.3%pe from $207,000 a year ago. That was the lowest price since May 2003 and the biggest year-over-year drop on records going back to 1968.
"The economy just simply cannot recover as long as home prices continue to decline," said Lawrence Yun, the trade group's chief economist, who called on lawmakers to include tax credits for home buyers in the economic recovery package being considered by Congress.For all of 2008, there were 4.9 million existing home sales, down more than 13% from a year earlier, and the lowest total since 1997.
And another encouraging sign -- the number of unsold homes on the market in last month fell nearly 12% to 3.7 million. At the current sales pace, it would take 9.3 months to sell all the properties, down from 11.2 months in November.
-Wall Street Journal
The results were better than expected. December's sales had been forecasted to fall to a pace of 4.4 million units, according to Thomson Reuters.Buyers were taking advantage of dramatically lower prices, especially in distressed markets like California, Florida and Nevada, where foreclosures have swamped the market.The nationwide median sales price plunged to $175,400, down 15.3%pe from $207,000 a year ago. That was the lowest price since May 2003 and the biggest year-over-year drop on records going back to 1968.
"The economy just simply cannot recover as long as home prices continue to decline," said Lawrence Yun, the trade group's chief economist, who called on lawmakers to include tax credits for home buyers in the economic recovery package being considered by Congress.For all of 2008, there were 4.9 million existing home sales, down more than 13% from a year earlier, and the lowest total since 1997.
And another encouraging sign -- the number of unsold homes on the market in last month fell nearly 12% to 3.7 million. At the current sales pace, it would take 9.3 months to sell all the properties, down from 11.2 months in November.
-Wall Street Journal
Monday, January 26, 2009
Become a Student of the Game - AND WIN!
Believe it or not, there ARE buyers out there, and we will end 2008 with a sales pace to match between the numbers represented in the years 2002 and 2003. This will be somewhere in the low-to-mid 50,000 as far as transactions.
If you do some simple math…that would just mean that there needs to be fewer agents than there are today, and we will all be making the numbers we were making at that time…right? Theoretically, maybe, but the reality is that a big divide will be initiated; and it is going to happen sooner, rather than later.
You need to study the trends, talk the trends, use the tools to find the trends, and understand more today, than we ever have had to.
This does not have to be considered a huge task…it is actually engaging and interesting!
This week, I am dissecting the North Atlanta Corridor, and seeing what are some of the recent trends going on between new homes, retail, and institutional homes.
The Time Period = Contracts written Since 10/01/08
Areas = North Fulton (area 13, 14, 121), Gwinnett, and Forsyth
This is a broad look. You can get a lot more specific if you wish.
New Homes = Homes that were built in 2006 or later.
Institutional Homes = Homes that are owned by an entity (Banks, Corporations, etc)
North Fulton (area 13,14,121)
Total Contracted = 375
New = 47 (this pertains to homes built 2006 or newer)
Institutional = 79 (This included 7 new homes)
Forsyth
Total Contracted = 341
New = 129
Institutional = 83 (this includes 24 new homes)
Gwinnett
Total Contracted = 1,246
New = 281
Institutional = 655 (this includes 97 new homes)
What does all this mean?
The good news is that the number of sales is not that far off from last year’s production.
Inventory levels are coming down in each of the areas. Some of this is due to builders not building, banks not lending, and people deciding that now is not the time to try.
It really does not matter why…the bottom line is that the sooner the levels reach low enough, it will turn to a sellers market eventually…we are moving in the right direction!
Gwinnett had a HUGE number of foreclosures, and institutional homes that sold…a little more than HALF!
Realtors really need to perfect their game twice as much as they are going to war with…here is your example:
· 33% of the buyers in Gwinnett decided to buy a RETAIL home (this is a typical seller that owns their personal home and is selling it)
· 67% bought New homes or Institutional in Gwinnett
It is TOUGH, and you better be very bright to do business in Gwinnett and sell to the 33% of buyers that are buying Retail homes, or specialize in one of the arenas that is pulling the most sales
· 55% of the homes sold in Forsyth were New Homes or Institutional
· 31% of the sales in North Fulton were to New Homes or Institutional
Gwinnett seems to be leading the way with Institutional homes. It is tough to see if this is going to be a trend for the other areas, or if it is only a condition in Gwinnett.
What is clear is that Institutional homes are going to be the competition for some time. These will be lower priced homes that the entity selling is going to look to price them competitively to sell, and you will have to communicate with your sellers the reality…YOU ARE IN COMPETITION WITH FORECLOSURES, BANK OWNED, and CORPORATE OWNED homes…deal with it, or don’t sell today!
I had the pleasure of sitting in a woman’s home that said “I am not going to compete with the foreclosures and giveaway-homes, my home is better!” Her home has been on the market for ONE YEAR! She does not want to drop the price of her home…that is a big part of the oversupply right now, is the people that are sitting and hoping vs dealing with reality…
You have to change your pattern prior to the sellers changing theirs! Study the trends, find the trends, be the expert, and lead the sellers wherever they need to go…even if it means taking it off the market!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Bloom Where You Are Planted
This is the statement I read: “Bloom where you are planted.”
There are many choices you get to make in life, and a whole lot more you don’t get to choose.
The plant in this picture did not get to choose where it was planted…but it sure made the best out of it, and is apparently THRIVING where nobody would have reasoned it could!
You are planted…you are in North Atlanta…you are in Real Estate…whether you like it or not, you are planted!
Now, what are you going to do about it?
Think about our smart, and tougher-than-nails plant.
Are you a Knower or a Learner? This is going to be the question that when answered will determine who will be blooming, and who will not stand a chance in 2009.
The Knower would assume that there is no logical way that a plant could exist in such a dry, sloped, rocky area…they would not adapt, and would fade away, never seeing a chance, so why try?
The Learner (our little plant friend) researched with passion, and found the one spot that could possibly work…they owned the area, and had determination to make it the absolute best they could…they paid no attention to the knower and the negative remarks…
Do you see any other plants standing tall around our friend?
You will not be able to get me down about the market conditions, and what the future may hold…I know a lot in the game of real estate, but I constantly seek ways to improve my game today and for the challenges that are ahead…I AM planted…I AM a leaner…I AM blooming…Right here in the Real Estate Arena of North Atlanta!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
OH YES! I am on a mission!
I have listened to the “Rocky” theme this morning, and Billy Squire…while jumping rope…in the office…MY BLOOD IS FLOWING!
I can’t wait to see what today brings…no, I can’t wait to see what I accomplish today! How are you feeling?
There is one thing that is going to separate the pack…your mental attitude combined with your actions!
Attached is my “open house diary” if you will. Read it…I just read it again, and am more fired up than I was yesterday!
Here is the problem:
Many of us have been sucked into a belief that nobody is doing anything that works…the problem is that you are most likely RIGHT! How many opportunities are slipping between the cracks because we are not out there doing the simple things that need to be done. If you are doing anything to generate business, you have the opportunity and time to do every step to the nth degree. That is the only way to correct your bank account…read the attachment…what would you have done, and what would you do?
So, I had one open house. I have seven POSSIBILITIES that have come from the open house. If I do nothing beyond last week, I will end up with the same…nothing.
None of the possibilities are related to the 2 hours I was in the home, they all circle around what I did outside of those hours, or what I will have to do beyond those hours.
I am going to be hitting the streets, and I am going to figure the mess out!
Remember, we are going to end the year up between the sales pace of 2002 and 2003…were those “bad years” in real estate? NO!
They say the strongest will survive…I have dusted off my real estate work out attire, and have begun my regimen…are you in with me?
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Talk LIKE Terry
The market is changing! The problem with what we are facing is that nobody realized what the next wave was going to be…It is now the economy and joblessness that is our nemesis!
What can you do? You need to understand all of the factors that circle around the fears of people you may be dealing with. It is the absolute best time you could ever think of buying a home if you are in the position to do so…you have to feel this, and let go of your fear!
I have learned that if you ultimately worry so much about something, it will ultimately come true! This goes true for positive, steadfast visions too! Which path are you on? It is not too late to switch if you are on the wrong one…but you must make a decision to change!
This is going to break down some of the trends that are vitally important for you to be able to discuss with people and understand how to effectively communicate with someone.
Should you have any questions, or need more information, please contact me, and I will be more than happy to help!
The reality is that homes ARE selling! Maybe not as many as we would like to see, but they are selling…the key is to be that much smarter and take a bigger piece of the pie!
There is some good news for re-sales…there are very few builders building, and your new home supply is shrinking fast! Our inventory for Atlanta has dropped TWENTY THREE PERCENT from a little over a year ago! Study your area, and know it better than ANYBODY!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Gas in the Turn! GET RESULTS!
In race car driving, the top earners make their money in the turns. While most people would think to take the foot off the gas, or put their foot on the breaks, the top performers are pushing the gas and making their passes. Now is the time to learn what race car drivers already know, and apply it to the real estate market/housing market…now is the time to accelerate, while others are scared, and putting on the brakes! The money is made in the turns…ACCELERATE NOW!
There are many signals to identify that the bottom has been reached in the housing market, and there are finally positive articles coming out regarding the pace of sales getting better. More importantly, most every financial wizard is telling people to “BUY REAL ESTATE NOW!” You must remember, these are the same people that have been saying “do not buy real estate” for 2 years!
The following facts are happening now, and they will help form the turn in the near future:
1. The Bailout ($700 Billion) is taking place, and will be filtering into the credit market…this will create the floor of pricing and help in confidence of the general public
2. Oil has dropped to the mid $60’s per barrel (it was $147/barrel in July!)! This will help with energy bills over the winter, and keep our houses monthly bills lower
3. In Atlanta, Gas is in the $2.30’s, and was over $4.00/gallon just 2 months ago! June is when the brakes could be felt, and gas had just reached $4.00/gallon
4. Interest rates are still incredibly low, and will most likely stay here for a while
5. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been taken over, and will be adjusted to be stronger and be able to make more loans to more people than what was beginning to happen
6. Supply of homes is coming down in most areas…Atlanta is about 10 to 12% lower than its peak about 1 year ago
7. Builders are not building as much (dramatically down), and what is being built today has been adjusted for being deals in today’s climate
8. Financially challenged banks are being shut down and taken over by the FDIC…this is bad right now, but the good will emerge from the FDIC regulating and selling off the bad assets at attractive prices and stimulating more sales…this simply needed to happen
9. Recession talk…who would not think we would not be in a recession?! Banks haven’t been able to loan as many people money…people have been losing jobs…stock market going crazy…how in the heck could we not be in one…and when we know we are in one, is when we are digging out of it!
10. Election will be done! It does not matter if it is Republican or Democrat, the 50% of the Nation that was scared of who/what will embrace the reality of the next 4 years and move on…they are waiting to see right now!
Educate your buyers that they have 3 to 6 months to get the best deals…and then the market is going to be moving up due to reasons 1 – 10 above. Remember, it is riskier to buy at the top of the market vs. buying at the bottom…we are nowhere near the top, and most likely at the bottom…BUY NOW for investments!
Big change does not happen overnight…it takes time for these to filter out into the minds of the general public. The general public also must see the changes happening prior to believing them. If you have all 10 facts happening above, and give them 3 to 6 months to begin to make change, just imagine what good effect that can have on the housing market.
If you are in the game of real estate, you better get into the game!
The old way of having people like you because of your personality, and you being able to profit from it is gone! This will still get you leads, but you will not be equipped to speak the new language and lead people where they need to go. You will be stuck with indecisive buyers waiting on the bottom, and overpriced listings believing their home is worth last year’s pricing…good luck on this plan!
What are we doing as a company? INVESTING our time, energy, and money into programs, training, systems, and internet strategies to be in the lead coming out of the turn…WE ARE PRESSING ON THE GAS!
The message over the next two months (while others will be petrified, and putting on the brakes) is “GAS IN THE TURN…GET RESULTS!” You need to get into it…eat it, breathe it, sleep it, live it! The turn in North Atlanta begins with YOU! Wrap your head around 1 – 10 above, and understand it so you can talk knowledgably about it…GAS IN THE TURN…GET RESULTS!
There are many signals to identify that the bottom has been reached in the housing market, and there are finally positive articles coming out regarding the pace of sales getting better. More importantly, most every financial wizard is telling people to “BUY REAL ESTATE NOW!” You must remember, these are the same people that have been saying “do not buy real estate” for 2 years!
The following facts are happening now, and they will help form the turn in the near future:
1. The Bailout ($700 Billion) is taking place, and will be filtering into the credit market…this will create the floor of pricing and help in confidence of the general public
2. Oil has dropped to the mid $60’s per barrel (it was $147/barrel in July!)! This will help with energy bills over the winter, and keep our houses monthly bills lower
3. In Atlanta, Gas is in the $2.30’s, and was over $4.00/gallon just 2 months ago! June is when the brakes could be felt, and gas had just reached $4.00/gallon
4. Interest rates are still incredibly low, and will most likely stay here for a while
5. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been taken over, and will be adjusted to be stronger and be able to make more loans to more people than what was beginning to happen
6. Supply of homes is coming down in most areas…Atlanta is about 10 to 12% lower than its peak about 1 year ago
7. Builders are not building as much (dramatically down), and what is being built today has been adjusted for being deals in today’s climate
8. Financially challenged banks are being shut down and taken over by the FDIC…this is bad right now, but the good will emerge from the FDIC regulating and selling off the bad assets at attractive prices and stimulating more sales…this simply needed to happen
9. Recession talk…who would not think we would not be in a recession?! Banks haven’t been able to loan as many people money…people have been losing jobs…stock market going crazy…how in the heck could we not be in one…and when we know we are in one, is when we are digging out of it!
10. Election will be done! It does not matter if it is Republican or Democrat, the 50% of the Nation that was scared of who/what will embrace the reality of the next 4 years and move on…they are waiting to see right now!
Educate your buyers that they have 3 to 6 months to get the best deals…and then the market is going to be moving up due to reasons 1 – 10 above. Remember, it is riskier to buy at the top of the market vs. buying at the bottom…we are nowhere near the top, and most likely at the bottom…BUY NOW for investments!
Big change does not happen overnight…it takes time for these to filter out into the minds of the general public. The general public also must see the changes happening prior to believing them. If you have all 10 facts happening above, and give them 3 to 6 months to begin to make change, just imagine what good effect that can have on the housing market.
If you are in the game of real estate, you better get into the game!
The old way of having people like you because of your personality, and you being able to profit from it is gone! This will still get you leads, but you will not be equipped to speak the new language and lead people where they need to go. You will be stuck with indecisive buyers waiting on the bottom, and overpriced listings believing their home is worth last year’s pricing…good luck on this plan!
What are we doing as a company? INVESTING our time, energy, and money into programs, training, systems, and internet strategies to be in the lead coming out of the turn…WE ARE PRESSING ON THE GAS!
The message over the next two months (while others will be petrified, and putting on the brakes) is “GAS IN THE TURN…GET RESULTS!” You need to get into it…eat it, breathe it, sleep it, live it! The turn in North Atlanta begins with YOU! Wrap your head around 1 – 10 above, and understand it so you can talk knowledgably about it…GAS IN THE TURN…GET RESULTS!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Psychologically Speaking...Get Excited about Real Estate!
Psychologically speaking, you could find your best opportunities to invest in Real Estate right now! We have been through a long 2 year barrage of negative news regarding different aspects of Real Estate. Now, everyone agrees that if they can not get a grip on the housing market, and foreclosure scenario, the financial impact will be far greater than you could imagine.
If you are looking in the North part of Atlanta, such as Forsyth, or Gwinnett, there are numerous new home opportunities to be taken advantage of.
Cycles happen. Consider the changes going on today that will change the psychological patterns around the real estate arena in a short time period to follow. The cycle has been down a long time, and changes are taking place to begin the healing process right now...with this, the real estate market will have a chance to improve before long!
1. The Government has taken over the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae organizations...the Government is doing this to allow these organizations the ability to re-group, and the money guaranteed through 2009 to hold in the money, and not have a mass exodus of investors. The other reason is to get the lending to be able to be obtained by more people, so we can begin to have a positive side to our current housing scenario. They are doing this through the end of 2009, which would indicate that the Government believes the housing market will have corrected enough to have this channel moving positively enough to hang on it's own.
2. Interest rates are very low for the overall trend of the mortgage rate life...30 year rates have been around 6% or lower for some time, and will probably stay in this ballpark for a while. While the Government does not reach out and physically control the mortgage rates, they can act around areas that will most likely keep this in check, and they will.
3. The credit crisis and financial crisis we are currently facing does not have a good chance of correcting unless the housing scenario is corrected...this is good for our industry as the Government must act as they are, or the problem will mushroom like a nuclear bomb. It may feel as though it has to you, but the reality is that it is small at this time and could leak into global matters if not corrected here.
4. Oil has come down from an all-time high of around $147/barrel...This will have an effect on gas and energy costs.
5. Gas has come down from it's all time high, and has only been trudging higher because of the recent hurricane scenario. The reality is that the oil refineries were not affected as much as feared, and once this is all in place, you should see gas continue it's fall in price to more acceptable levels. Let's be real, if the price of gas stays at $4/gallon, it will be difficult for any of the housing/credit world to correct.
6. Supply of homes is declining...The highest number of homes that was on the billboard around Atlanta was 110,000...this number has dropped to the high 90's...a TEN PERCENT drop! One of the indicators of where we are going is the supply of homes available. The number is dropping which would indicate the worst is where we are, or slightly behind us.
7. The ELECTION! It does not matter who ultimately gets in the White House (it does depending on which side you are on). The reality is that once it is done, it is done. We will face the future knowing what the facts and realities are, and a more positive psychological process will form vs. wondering what/who is going to be running the Country.
8. The Prime rate is incredibly low! Although the lending requirements are more stringent than ever, those that are in a position to buy with good credit are poised to buy more than if the rate were higher with the rest of the conditions we face!
9. Builders not building inventory...Banks are not lending to builders, or have tightened the reigns on those they are lending to, and that has limited the inventory levels which is good. This needed to happen. The supply will partially by default come in line...It really does not matter if it comes in line by default or purpose...Supply and Demand are going to meet at an acceptable level as long as Supply keeps coming down.
Number 9 leads me into CYCLES!
I am going to ask you to research the Savings and Loan debacle of the '80's. Why would I want to do this?
If you go back and look at history, you can usually predict the future by virtue of Cycles. History does have a way of repeating itself, and with the big companies that have fallen recently, along with the smaller institutions being regulated, I wanted to dig and learn more about the Savings and Loan issues. This had an impact on the housing industry, and financial industry too.
The Government did a big bailout very similarly to what they are doing now...this helped dig out of where they were at the time, and the coincidences are phenomenally close...it is actually a little eerie.
Don't worry...change is happening...yes, it will cost us money for the bailouts one way or the other, but the much more affordable option appears to be what they are doing now, vs waiting to see how much worse it can get on it's own...
If you are looking in the North part of Atlanta, such as Forsyth, or Gwinnett, there are numerous new home opportunities to be taken advantage of.
Cycles happen. Consider the changes going on today that will change the psychological patterns around the real estate arena in a short time period to follow. The cycle has been down a long time, and changes are taking place to begin the healing process right now...with this, the real estate market will have a chance to improve before long!
1. The Government has taken over the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae organizations...the Government is doing this to allow these organizations the ability to re-group, and the money guaranteed through 2009 to hold in the money, and not have a mass exodus of investors. The other reason is to get the lending to be able to be obtained by more people, so we can begin to have a positive side to our current housing scenario. They are doing this through the end of 2009, which would indicate that the Government believes the housing market will have corrected enough to have this channel moving positively enough to hang on it's own.
2. Interest rates are very low for the overall trend of the mortgage rate life...30 year rates have been around 6% or lower for some time, and will probably stay in this ballpark for a while. While the Government does not reach out and physically control the mortgage rates, they can act around areas that will most likely keep this in check, and they will.
3. The credit crisis and financial crisis we are currently facing does not have a good chance of correcting unless the housing scenario is corrected...this is good for our industry as the Government must act as they are, or the problem will mushroom like a nuclear bomb. It may feel as though it has to you, but the reality is that it is small at this time and could leak into global matters if not corrected here.
4. Oil has come down from an all-time high of around $147/barrel...This will have an effect on gas and energy costs.
5. Gas has come down from it's all time high, and has only been trudging higher because of the recent hurricane scenario. The reality is that the oil refineries were not affected as much as feared, and once this is all in place, you should see gas continue it's fall in price to more acceptable levels. Let's be real, if the price of gas stays at $4/gallon, it will be difficult for any of the housing/credit world to correct.
6. Supply of homes is declining...The highest number of homes that was on the billboard around Atlanta was 110,000...this number has dropped to the high 90's...a TEN PERCENT drop! One of the indicators of where we are going is the supply of homes available. The number is dropping which would indicate the worst is where we are, or slightly behind us.
7. The ELECTION! It does not matter who ultimately gets in the White House (it does depending on which side you are on). The reality is that once it is done, it is done. We will face the future knowing what the facts and realities are, and a more positive psychological process will form vs. wondering what/who is going to be running the Country.
8. The Prime rate is incredibly low! Although the lending requirements are more stringent than ever, those that are in a position to buy with good credit are poised to buy more than if the rate were higher with the rest of the conditions we face!
9. Builders not building inventory...Banks are not lending to builders, or have tightened the reigns on those they are lending to, and that has limited the inventory levels which is good. This needed to happen. The supply will partially by default come in line...It really does not matter if it comes in line by default or purpose...Supply and Demand are going to meet at an acceptable level as long as Supply keeps coming down.
Number 9 leads me into CYCLES!
I am going to ask you to research the Savings and Loan debacle of the '80's. Why would I want to do this?
If you go back and look at history, you can usually predict the future by virtue of Cycles. History does have a way of repeating itself, and with the big companies that have fallen recently, along with the smaller institutions being regulated, I wanted to dig and learn more about the Savings and Loan issues. This had an impact on the housing industry, and financial industry too.
The Government did a big bailout very similarly to what they are doing now...this helped dig out of where they were at the time, and the coincidences are phenomenally close...it is actually a little eerie.
Don't worry...change is happening...yes, it will cost us money for the bailouts one way or the other, but the much more affordable option appears to be what they are doing now, vs waiting to see how much worse it can get on it's own...
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