I had a conversation with a mortgage broker yesterday – he’s telling me that his mortgage purchase AND refinance business is down very drastically.  His theory is that because of that bad news in the press lately about sub-prime loans and foreclosures and now the mortgage rules have changed and … well, you get the picture. And, he was curious as to what I was seeing in the market.

Go me wondering.  Yes, business (i.e., listings) did pick up quite a bit in January – it was quite warm (I think it was mostly because mother nature was confused as to what season we we’re in, plus the media was actually saying some positive things about the real estate market).  Then February came (I think someone set mother nature straight) because it got quite cold – and listings fell off!

Then along comes March and April, and listings picked up again.  But the media is full of doom and gloom again.

I ran market stats (like I do every month), and some towns around here are still in a seller’s market (but close to a “normal” market) (gasp! can this be for real?) and prices are still rising (albeit ever so slowly), while other towns are heavily into a buyer’s market and prices are dropping.  (Hmmm… I wonder if some buyers are focusing on just those towns and saying “See? I told ya so! Housing prices are still falling. Let’s wait it out some more.”)

Recently I’ve overheard some agents in my office complaining that they can’t find buyers, and their listings are just sitting.  (I wonder if they were talking to those buyers…)

But for me, I’ve seen an increase in buyers.  I get my fair mix – people with no money to put down, people with a lot of money to put down but don’t wanna, people with great credit but are still in La La Land, and people who you wonder what turnip truck they just fell off of.

I think that the overall market will be good this year (so far it’s shaping up to be - at least in these parts), but probably not quite a good as last year – and last year was a pretty good year in these parts – despite all that doom and gloom in the local and national media.

Despite what the media says, there are so many mortgage programs out there that people with “less than stellar” credit can still buy a house with little or no money down.  As a matter of fact, I have a buyer – young couple – who’s credit scores slipped since we first started looking in February.  I will say that their credit scores are below 550.  They’re still buying a house (closing at the end of May, thank you, with a little more than 2% down and seller assist to cover the closing costs, and they do have a few bucks in the bank.)  And, they’re getting a fixed rate mortgage for less than 7%!  Fixed rate! Less than 7%! With less than 550 FICO scores!

I think you can still find buyers out there – if you know how to shake the trees.  And if you know a bit about credit and mortgage programs or are hooked up with several very good lenders – you can still have a ton of business.  But you have to shake the trees real hard to get those buyers out and about! 

So, what’s been goin’ on in your neck of the woods? Hmm?

This is not something I think about much in today's market. But, I’m currently representing a Buyer on a purchase of a home, and submitted an offer on a house I felt is priced low to begin with. I did a CMA and Price Trend Analysis, and after thoughtless consideration (you read it right), my Buyers decided to submit an offer that is $5000 less than the asking price.  So here I sit, contemplating my navel waiting for a counter-offer, and lo and behold, I get a call from the listing agent for a “best and final” offer, 'cause we got three of 'em.

It started me thinking (and I smell wood burning).  It’s a lot like poker – or an auction where you can’t tell what the competing bids are or will be.  You have to think ahead to try and win the bid – especially if the Buyers really love the place and are counting on you to make it happen for them!

Another agent in my office overheard my conversation to the Buyers (I was discussing tactics and strategies with them), and she said it’s simple: “Submit your offer to be $1000 more than the next highest competing offer. Make sure you stipulate that the Buyer gets copies of all competing offers.”

So, how about the rest of you?  What have you found to be the best way to be the winning offer when faced with a multiple offer situation?  I’d love to hear more!

You’ve been working with a Buyer who has “less than stellar” credit.  You were diligent to make sure you talked to their mortgage company, and they send you a piece of paper that states your Buyer(s) is/are approved for a mortgage.  Gleefully, you taken him and/or her out to many, many, listings, and finally found “the one” that is right for him and/or her. 

Exhaustively, you go through all the negotiations and paperwork, and the Buyer(s) put down a good faith deposit.  Off they go with a copy of the Purchase Agreement in hand to their mortgage company, and make application for a loan.  They put more money down (application fee, appraisal, loan officer’s hand out, credit report, and such). 

Things go smoothly.  Mortgage company has appraisal done, Buyer(s) have a home inspection done, and the mortgage application goes through the ‘loan denial’ department (that’s ‘underwriting’ for those of you in Rio Linda, CA).  The ‘loan denial’ has a soft heart, and issues a loan commitment.

The title work and survey are done. Everything is ready to go. You’re counting the money before it’s there. New car, motorcycle, boat, cabin in the mountains, beach house – whatever – when you get the news: The mortgage company filed for bankruptcy.

Now what?  Pretty much the deal is dead. The Buyer(s) is/are out all that money (except the good faith deposit), and you’re at a loss. 

More and more Buyer(s) will fall into this dilemma, thereby causing more and more deals to fall apart. And this could have a negative impact on our industry over the next 6 – 24 months.

This is why you should have an intimate knowledge of more than one mortgage company!  Many banks and mortgage brokers can do a just few or many different types of loans – but not all can do all.

Huh? What in the world do I mean?

Not all mortgage brokers and not all banks can do the same mortgage programs – and there are many different mortgage programs out there!  Many Buyer(s) who are in or are applying for a Sub-Prime mortgage can qualify for any number of other mortgage programs that are better suited for them – if you just knew more about them.

Start interviewing mortgage brokers as well as nationally chartered banks.  Find out what kinds of community lending programs they have in place. Also, find out what the state has in place to help first time home buyers. And, find out which ones do FHA and VA loans, as well as USDA Rural Development loans. 

Especially USDA Rural Development loans. This is a great program for those who can qualify under FHA.  The difference is, FHA requires a 3 % contribution from the Buyer(s) own funds.  USDA Rural Development loans programs will finance 102% of the purchase price (meaning you can roll 2% of the closing cost into the mortgage), and will accept gift of funds and/or seller contributions for the remainder.  The only drawback is that the property itself must qualify for the loan, but in most states, most homes do qualify!

If you know more about mortgage loan programs, the criteria for qualification, and which lender and broker offered which type, you can potentially save the deal BEFORE it’s lost, or even save it after the Sub-Prime lender went under, and help put your Buyer(s) in a mortgage program that’s right for them!

I don’t know if anyone here has been through this, but it’s something I recently learned (NOT the hardway, thankfully) from a recovering attorney.

You actively listed a house for sale, and have been marketing and advertising the property for sale. Eventually, you get a Proposal to Purchase ("Offer" for those of you in Rio Linda, CA), you negotiate back and forth with the sellers and Buyer’s Agent, and come to a meeting of the minds. Both parties sign the Purchase Agreement, then WHAM! – the sellers file for bankruptcy.

Can the sale of the house go through? 

Not without the approval of the bankruptcy court. 

Now, suppose the bankruptcy court approves the sale of the home 6 months later.  And the buyer is still interested in buying the house.  Will you get paid?  Not unless you’ve documented everything you’ve done.  Even then, you might still not get paid.

(Note: They can file for bankruptcy while the house is listed for sale but without a Buyer or Offer – the next effect will be the same.)

Let me explain briefly.

In the real world (at least in NJ), upon the sale of the house, child support liens are paid first, then any tax and government liens.  Real estate agents are then paid next – before the mortgage company.  However, if you haven’t documented your sales and marketing activities as well as the time spent on the sale of the house, and if you can’t show the judge why you were the best agent to sell that house, you stand a good chance of not getting paid anything!

So, you need to treat each and every transaction – whether you're representing the Buyers or Sellers – as though the owners will file bankruptcy before settlement.  Thus, you must document everything you’ve done, how much you paid for ads (keep receipts and copy every ad you made for that listing!), how long each activity has taken, and how much each activity costed you out of pocket.  Once done, you can then break down your total commission by the total hours you’ve worked on that listing, and come up with a 'per hour charge.'  Most likely (or at least hopefully), it will be less than $75/hour, and you can argue before the judge how great you are (with your curriculum vitae) and what are bargain you are at that price – especially when lawyers charge $200 - $300 per hour. 

When you break it down to the ridiculous, you stand a better chance of getting paid most if not all your commission that is due.

I subscribe to Countrywide's monthly newsletter for Realtors because I find their articles informative and helpful for my business.

I received their monthly newsletter today, and found an article titled "Save Time and Simplify: Distribute Property Data Across Many Search Sites at Once"

I'm wondering - is there something new I should be aware of?  What more ways do I have to spend my time on the computer instead of being out in front of clients.

But it got my attention, so I pressed on.

What I found wasn't amazing at all.  In fact, thanks to Point2 Technologies, we're already doing it!  Whew!  What a time saver!

Here's the article in full:

"With the growing number of online search sites available to help market your listings — and the daunting task of entering property information at each one of those sites — it's not surprising that you may be looking for ways to simplify the process.

"Enter a new breed of Web tool designed to help you send out your listing data to many sites at once. Think of it as syndication for your property listings and a tool that could possibly help you gain more exposure, faster.

How It Works
"Companies like VflyerTM*, SubmitYourListings.com*, Point2 Technologies* and PostletsTM* allow you to enter text and photos for a property and submit that information to multiple sites within several minutes, with only a few clicks of the mouse.

"With the help of these listing "portals," you could feasibly showcase your properties on most of the major real estate search and classified sites — like Trulia*, Craigslist*, Google Base*, LiveDeal*, Propsmart*, HomeSeekers.com*, Yahoo! Real Estate* and Realestate.com* to name a few — quickly and easily.

"Most listing-service providers offer you a template for creating your property listing ads. Once you enter property information, the sites create virtual fliers that are then submitted and posted to real estate search engines and classified sites.

"To use most listing services, you'll need to set up an account, manually enter property information and upload your photos. SubmitYourListings.com will automatically import your data from your MLS, and other providers may also offer this option for a monthly fee.

How Much It Costs
"Postlets' basic service is free to use; its premium service, which offers larger photos and virtual tours, costs around $20 a month. Point2 and vFlyer also offer some limited free services for a small number of property ads (10 for vFlyer). Their premium subscriptions, which allow for more listings and service options, range from about $20 to $40 per month.

How to Choose
"Not all listing-service providers are created equal, so it's important to shop around. Find out exactly how many listings you get for your dollar and to which sites the service will submit your information. Browse through the samples of ads provided on the vendor Web sites to get a good feel for what's offered. Then choose the listing service that features the most professional and appropriate-looking ads for your business.

"Some services provide ways to buffer your e-mail address from the world of classified viewers. This might be helpful if you have privacy concerns. In addition, some listing services supply performance-tracking abilities, allowing you to view detailed information on the traffic your listings generate across the search engines.

"Keep in mind that these listing-service tools are new; most are available only in beta form. That means there are still technology — and user — kinks to work out. Even so, these services hold great potential to help you gain exposure, save time and simplify the promotion of your listings."

Fellow agents - even a mortgage giant such as Countrywide has taken notice.  Kudos to Point2 for keeping us on the cutting edge and for helping making our marketing efforts that much easier.  Is there any reason to go anywhere else?  The way I see, for once in my life I made a decision that has the mot powerful impact on my business.  (Okay, not for once, but I definitely made the right decision by joining Point2 technologies.)

If you haven’t already done so, I recommend you subscribe to Countrywide's newsletter and take advantage of everything they have to offer Realtors. Go online at http://realtors.countrywide.com/Realtor/Realtor.aspx.

* Countrywide is not responsible for the contents of, or products or services offered on, third party Web sites and provides links to such web sites solely for your convenience.

What is an Incubator?

We all know what an incubator is.  But, have we thought of our Point2Homes websites as such?

Here’s my definition of an incubator for the real estate market: “A specialized crib used for the caring of premature infant leads, in which messages or e-mails can be sent periodically for the sole purpose of developing them until they become strong enough to be housed in a regular crib.”

Often times, we get leads from those who were on our websites and seem like, well, immature people.  They send an email from our website simply because they can — anonymously.  They have no intention of buying or selling any house anytime soon – if at all.  And, if they are, certainly not through you.  Bogus names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses causes you to toss them into the trash heap.  I’m not wasting my time with them.

And, what about most of the others?  They won’t leave a valid phone number, but if you have something of interest on your website (an article on how to buy a home with no money down, for example), there may be enough interest for them to e-mail it to themselves.  But, are they ready to buy or sell now?  Most likely not.

Point2Homes has a feature that I like — drip e-mails.  You can also use a contact management and marketing software like Sharper Agent and Top Producer to cultivate those leads.  But why?  Your Point2Homes website allows you to develop multiple e-mail campaigns to help you incubate those “premature infant leads.” 

But there are a few who want help, and they want it now.  They’ve been looking online for several weeks, and they’re ready to buy (and/or sell).  By some magical keywords on your website, they found you among those they want to call now.  They might even call you.  Most likely they’ll send enough accurate information for you to contact them by phone right away.  But, you try calling them — often to no avail.  Often times they don’t (or won’t) answer their phones.  Whaddya do?  You can at least e-mail them back right away.  And put them on your drip e-mail system.  After all, it was 17 hours since they were on your site, and they’ve forgotten about you already – because another real estate agent beat you to it!

Point2Homes has another feature that I especially like!  How would you like getting a text message when you get a “hot prospect?”  When I get a text message on my cell phone telling me that I have a “hot prospect,” I call that lead back right away!  I may be on the road or in the office – it doesn’t matter.  I have the opportunity to cultivate that lead before another real estate agent does!  Chances are, that lead is still on my website.  Or was on it recently enough to remember me when I call.  And with that fast a response time, don’t you think I’ll have a better chance of developing that lead into a client?

Point2Homes has a number of fantastic features available to help you develop and cultivate leads into clients.  Are you taking advantage of them?