Yep, com'n folks everyone is getting bailed out BUT the Realtors!  Let's get NAR to charter some buses and head to DC to lay claim to some of the "TARP" money!  Afterall, aren't we suffering more than the Builders who are asking Congress for a Bailout? Where is our PAC when we need them?  Diodn't we start to charter a Credit Union?  Can't we get some of the pie too?

Once again, no one is out there trying to help the Realtors.  Isn't that what we need a bailout so we can all reogranize, lean down, and remarket for the coming wave of prosperity?

 Ohhh, the low rates aren't driving your business?  What? You're right it doesn't matter if the rate is ZERO if they won't lend it to the lower FICO scores.

Ohhh,  you thought not selling and getting paid was leaning down....

IMHO.

What are you using?

I want one that is easy to use, and that uses color "conservatively" so it is not a fortune to print out.

Any suggestions? 

 

 

I'd like to hear from some of you out there that are working with buyers and see how you are handling lookers and the cost of fuel.

I have heard that some Buyers Agents are charging a fee upfront to "tour" that may or may not be credited towards the commission.

Others are making the Buyers drive them.

Without discussing commissions, can you tell me how you or your office is handling it?

In some of our markets the average sale price is under $150,000 and if you get $300 or so eaten up in fuel costs it is a real "bite".

Lookers, can quickly break the bank for an agent.

 

 

I was surprised to see that here in Central Pennsylvania that a large Coldwell-Banker Franchise left the fold and ship to Prudential.  Home Sale Services Group has been a large brokerage in 12 counites here in PA.  Their site notes that they made the change for Prudentials enhanced technolgy platform and the ability to be "exclusive" with Yahoo!.  I know don't laugh too hard, we have all had P2 putting ours on Yahoo for ages now!

It would seem from an outsider looking in to be more of a "cost" or business decision, whereby my guess is HSG was able to negotiate a sweetheart deal with Pru with lower franchise and advertising fees.  It is a considerable loss for Realogy in the Pennsylvania market although they still control the large ERA behomth here.

But I digress, are any of you seeing "flags" changing in your markets?

It would seem to me, in the tight market the "play" may have been to go independent and recoup the 6 to 8% of the GROSS COMMISSION DOLLLAR in franchise and advertising fees to the bottom line that would have increased the company dollar by 20 to 30%.

What are your thoughts? 

 

I just sigend up for jott.com and there new service it is AWESOME!  What it does in a nut shell is let you put in e-mail addresses into a database and group them if you want, then you can call in from a phone a tell the system to e-mail any one or a group of people, and you just talk your message into the phone and it sends it!

The voice recognition is PERFECTO!  I think all of you will love it for what it can do!  Send yourself reminders, etup appointments by voice, etc. 

Jott.com gets my "WAYCOOL" stamp of approval.  It just made my typing e-mails into my Blackbery a thing of the past!

Let me know what you all think! 

As always, IMHO.

 

WOW!  What a crazy world we are living in!  I just saw on Inman that MGIC has just givine Pennsylvania a THUMBS UP for buyers from New York and Maryland. Here's a link http://www.inman.com/inmanstories.aspx?ID=66049 to the article. 

It says that MGIC has tightened the qualifying for mortage insurance in 30 markets, and our unfortuante border states New York and Maryland and New Jersey are being penalized.  Buyers will need more money down and higher FICO scores to get the PMI. They will only need a 620 in PA but a 680 in the other markets.

Plus MGIC is increasing the LTV to 90% instead of 95%.

So all you folks in New Jersey, New York, and Maryland  if you don't have a house to sell, you may want to come to PA and settle down!  You'll need less money down, and be able to have a few dings on your credit, too!

What  country?  The powers that be,keep tigntening the credit and insurance requirements to the point of being absurd.  Why not just PRICE in the risk, and give us 8% rates with lower FICOS.  There has to be some financial  whiz kid that determine what they need to price in the risk.

The average American doesn't care if the interest rate is 8 or 9% as long as they can GET a loan!  That's 25 to 50% more interest rate as a PREMIUM.For cryin' out loud, they let the credit card pirates to "price in the risk" and THEN SOME!

HELLO Mr. Sanity are you out there?

How many of you have customers that would BUY A HOME TODAY if they could get the loan? 

Would they care about the rate, if they could afford the payment?

So can't some "gee whiz" lender figure this out?

As always IMHO.

 

 

 

Just curious as to what tips, tricks and or tactics you are all employing to move your "fences sitters" to get them to make the "move"? 

How are you encouraging buyers to write offers and sellers to list their properties in the slower markets?

In my market we are having problems getting sellers OR buyers to make the move.

My agents are writing offers where neither the buyers or the sellers will counter unaccptable offers, they just fold up the table and take their cards home.

What are your suggestions? 

 

 

I recieved an e-mail solicitation and then visited their site.  The solictiation stated they were back by the likes of Bill Gates and Google.  They are touting a high tech set up and NO offices if I am looking at their site correctly and they are offering 80% split PLUS 5+5+5+2 four level deep residuals similar to Exit.

NO Franchise fee.

As Broker in PA, I cannot see any way there is enough money for them to pay this.

80% plus 4% plus plus leaves very little to fund operations. 

Can you add anything? 

 

 

So those of you in the business for a few years remember that "back in the day", when rates were high the Nightly News always told you what "Prime" was that day and if it had changed.  Most of you should know what the "Prime Rate" is but for those of you who don't here is a definition from moneycafe.com:

The last reported rate is: 7.25 %

This has been effective since December 11, 2007

What is the Prime Rate? The Prime Interest Rate is the interest rate charged by banks to their most creditworthy customers (usually the most prominent and stable business customers). The rate is almost always the same amongst major banks. Adjustments to the prime lending rate are made by banks at the same time; although, the prime rate does not adjust on any regular basis. The rates reported below are based upon the prime rates on the first day of each respective month.

 

 Historical Graph

 

 

Historical Chart

 

Source: Federal Reserve Board

Where am I going with all this you ask?  Well, IMHO I think that if the media started to tell the world that the Prime Rate is 7.25% today----but you can get a mortgage at 6% that it might spur the market.

Just my HO.  I remember "back in the day" we were thrilled if we could borrow a point or two OVER prime!

 

I signed up to try a few areas with Eperks.com last week. So far VERY disappointed NOT ONE lead from them. I have also in the past tried RealEstate.com and others.

What ones have you had any success with?  My agents are great at converting the prospects and I am continually looking for new sources.

We have not been successful with:

• HouseValues
• BuyersUSA
• USHUD

Any suggestions?

I am looking to increase traffic to my site for 2008 and considering different "web spends" now as the year winds down.  I see that Reals.com has a "Traffice Package" that costs about a grand, but is supposed to give you about 150 relevant back links and directory listings.

Any thoughts on this service? 

 

Hello:

I am meeting with the rep for this firm tomorrow and wanted to see if any of you have dealings with them?

Their websites are www.freerelocationinformation.net  and www.intrelocation.com

• Curious as to the fee they have charged you to join.
• Amount of Referal fees you pay.
• Quality of prospects.
• Quantity of prospects they have been able to provide you.
• The Good the Bad and the Ugly if any!

I am always looking to add in new streams of business, and this firm also say they bring mortgage lending and title to the table to add even more to the bottom line.

PLEASE post your experiences ASAP so I can be better armed to grill the rep tomorrow!

Thanks!

What is the one "thing", offering, etc. you have come up with on your website that will generate prospects that provide a name, number  and e-mail address?

I am excited about the new Blog here so we have a forum to express our views, etc,, Thank you P2!  I am "bullish" on P2 for many reasons...

• The NLS- so we as real estate professionals can take back control of our listing data and exposure. For many of us our local MLS gets paid by 3rd Party sits like "Realtor.Com" to provide them "our" listings,, yet none of that money ever seems to flow back to the source.
• P2 Websites For Brokers - what a system!  How powerful! How inexpensive! It is phenomenal, the customization, the SEO, the urls for listings the FREE virtual tours, the ability to monitor agents progress with leads we pass on to them, the drip campaigns, the EASE of use, the SUPPORT! My list could go on and on!
• The "Handshake" - WOW! how powerful is that? SO powerful a few Brokers in PA are SCARED of it and won't let their agents participate!  How short sighted!  NOT using it is foolish!  WHY would a SELLER  NOT want their property advetised EVERY where possible?
• The "We Must Make It Better Attitude"- Brendan and his crew are relentless in looking to make P2 contstantly BETTER and they just keep rolling out the improvements.
• Training - Most sites don't have regular hands on traing to show you haw to use the system, not to mention the great Training Sessions by Global experts!

I am thrilled with all we have now, excited to what the future with P2 will bring and glad to have it to drive my companies production up!