I have had a deal working now for about 6 weeks waiting for an answer from Ocwen Loan Services doing VA vendee financing for him. I keep calling their office in Florida and all I am told is they are running way behind on their loans. We completed the loan package over a month ago. Is anyone else having the same issues? Is this typical for them? This is the first time I have dealt with this company.

Has anybody had any experience yet with flugpo (dot) com?

I can't help myself...I have to share this with everyone.

Enjoy.

The Front Fell Off

Anybody out there currently using or have used REOTrans(dot)com? You sign up for an account, pick ZIP code areas you would like to work in and lenders can view the list of agents by ZIP code, hopefully picking you to list their REO property. Cost is .03 per day per ZIP code.

Any experiences with this outfit or do you have any other similar sites to share?

I know this has been discussed some in the past, but I am curious to see what reactions there are now.

I know many P2'ers are small, independant brokerages or you work with a small, "no name" broker. I happen to work for a very good broker, big in the retail and commercial business, but just starting the residential side of the business.

I have the opportunity to go against some big names in the local area for a nice listing. I have worked with this seller in the past, but she is shopping. She first wanted me to cut my commission dramatically, I held my ground. Now, she say's we can talk, but if she is going to pay full commission, she may be better off with a national brand name.

I don't want to knock any national names here; we all provide valuable services to our customers and clients. I want to know from all the "no names" out there, how do you swing a seller to you and away from their perception that a national brand is better? I know the first thing most everyone will mention is the personal, professional service, my experience, etc. Bottom line though is, many times name brand recognition wins out over service. 

OK all you short sale experts...I have a question for you. When you list a home that will be a short sale, do you advertise it as such in the public area of your MLS? How about in other advertising?

I am leaning toward not making it public, but making sure any buyer's agent knows that it will be a short sale so he/she can inform their buyer that it may (will) take much longer to get responses back and probably longer to get to the closing table.

Your thoughts?

I know this has been discussed before, but I haven't seen any recent in depth discussions about it. I am considering doing away with all land lines in my home office and going strictly with cellular phone service. What internet based fax service do you use? If you care to mention them, what one(s) would you avoid and why?

I hope everyone is selling a lot and doing well. Thanks for your input and opinions.

When you do a BPO with only outside pictures, how do you value the house? Do you value it expecting major repairs? Do you base the inside condition on how the outside looks? If the area is average condition, do you value the house based on the market or the outside condition of your subject property? Just curious. Thanks for your input, have a great selling day.

I heard today, through the grapevine, that 100% conforming loans are going to go bye-bye; that we are going to see lending like it was a few years ago, 95% LTV for conforming loans.

The only way to get a buyer financed at 100% will be to use a FHA loan and one of the gift programs like the Genesis Foundation.

Anybody else's grapevine talking to them?

I didn't want to hijack Mary's post about agent communications, or lack thereof.

I have a transaction working right now with a LA that has done an excellent job of communicating with me. It is a short sale and I know she has worked her tail off with the banks, (yes, a first and second).

My only issue with her is she insists on faxing every document. By the time I receive something that she has faxed to her sellers, they have faxed back to her, and she sends it to me, I can't read squat. My lender can't read it and I know his processors will not accept the documents. I am now in the process of trying to get legible copies of everything from her.

She works with a very large and tech savvy broker. I know that their offices have the most current computer hardware for scanning, email...heck, even online transaction management and digital signatures.

I guess I am spoiled but if you are going to work in this business today, please use the tools available to most everybody today. Hardware prices are so cheap today, there is no reason why anybody should still be faxing like we did 20 years ago.

I have recently been posting comments to our local TV news stations stories on their respective web sites and also to the local newspaper web site. I keep my comments professional and only comment on issues that I have an opinion about. I also use my name rather than a nickname as most people do. I end the comment with my web site address.

Never in the comment do I directly solicit the reader, only comment on the story and leave it at that. I may, if appropriate, mention that I am a Realtor® if it is has relevance to the comment I am making.

After posting the comment, I notice a spike in my web site traffic and usually pick up a few leads from my registration page.

My question is, do you think this is tacky or am I taking advantage of something that is fair game?

I was showing houses today to some buyers that I have been working with for a while now. (Missing the Colts / Chargers game). We arrived at a fairly new home, looks nice on the outside, the yard needs some attention though. This home just went on the market a few days ago, so the lisitng agent told me she has not had time to put a lock box on the house yet and the front door would be unlocked for us.

I walk up to the front door, all the while talking to my buyers about the location and how nice the neighborhood looks. I put my hand on the door knob and turn it to open the door...the door opened just fine and I was left holding the door knob while the door swung open.

After a quick trip through the house (very messy and dirty and more door knobs in bad need of attention), and a quick repair to the front door, we were on our way.

Yes, I did let the listing agent know exactly what my buyers thought and I told her that this house was NOT ready to be shown.

Yup...I am retiring the old flip phone and the not-so-old PDA (that I always forget to take with me anywhere I go). Santa is bringing me a B'berry World Edition.

These questions are for all of you with B'berry experience. What tips and tricks can you give a newbie so I can really use this fantastic piece of equipment to it's fullest? What programs do you have on yours that you can't live without in the field? Any great web based tutorials that you have found that helped you maximize it's use or did you rely on the instruction manual?

Hope all is well for everyone. I have been covered up with buyers ready to pull the trigger and my commercial debut is doing pretty good. I am really looking forward to 2008. Merry Christmas to all.

I've recently moved to a different brokerage...much more professional than my last one. The new brokerage has built their business first as property managers for small to medium size multi family units, then they moved into retail and commercial leasing. They are just now expanding into residential sales (after 23 years in the business).

They are giving me an opportunity to work into the retail and commercial leasing part of the business. They have almost handed me a couple of strip centers to see what I can do with them. I have made special pages on my web sites for this part of the business and also put ads up on Craigs List and Backpage. I have set up a PPC with Google trying to drive traffic to my sites.

This question is to all who have had success with retail, strip mall leasing.. What is the best way to find tenants for these properties? What more can I do to advertise these centers? This is my first attempt at any real estate outside of residential. I am sure my broker will guide me, but I woould like to see what you all have to say.

Thanks in advance and Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Felize Navidad to all.

When you mail your holiday cards to your contacts, do you include a business card? Do you promote yourself in any way or just sign the card?