November 6, 2009 – AOL announced today it has completed its financial leadership team as it prepares to separate from Time Warner Inc. and become a publicly traded company. AOL operates one of the largest Internet subscription access services in the United States, which serves as a valuable distribution channel for AOL’s consumer offerings
Did anyone but me hear that AOL may be in financial trouble, that they are struggling and asking their employees to volunteer to take the buy out that they are offering to slim down the number of employees have. Question: Does this mean that AOL may go back to charging for all AOL accounts again? I mean this may be a crazy question to ask but given all the bails out that we have witnessed over the last year or so, it is really a crazy question? Or will they get a bail out too?
IF you are not already using RealBird to promote your business showing off your listings, you should be. Realbird.com check them out and check out the post below. They are good!
One of the issues we have been working on regarding RealBird's lead capturing functionality was making sure that prospective clients' inquiries actually reach you. Email inquiries and showing requests were sometimes lost in space. Either because of spam filter settings or simply because sometimes emails go unnoticed due to information overload.
In May, 2009 we introduced the Message Archive for RealBird members and started to store all of your prospects' and clients' inquires and even consumer-to-consumer forwards for the RealBird Listing Publisher and the RealBird Property Search services. However, that facility still required RealBird members to log in every now and then in order to see if there are new messages that need attention. While this feature was a big step, in practice, it was still not the perfect solution. One forgets to check the Message Archive or due to the log in requirements just delays it. And we all know that a week old lead is as almost as good as no lead at all.
We needed to do better than that. All the powerful features of RealBird is useless if the leads are missed or go cold for the reasons described above. With this new release, we believe we sold the problem. The RealBird Message Archive now has a handy RSS feed that you can subscribe to with your favorite feed reader. You can add it to your browser toolbar, to your iGoogle browser homepage, Google Reader and even access it from your mobile devices, you name it. Most phones - Blackberry, iPhone etc. - has some sort of RSS reader application so that you can be notified when a new inquiry is submitted through RealBird. There are even services that you can use to receive text messages when this RSS feed is updated.
You can get your own RSS feed in the RealBird Member area under the Message Archive section. See the screenshot below:
Mike Mueller is one my favorite people at ActiveRain and now he is branching out and doing good things to help others promote their business. I love this idea and know that you will too. Thanks Mike
One of the first questions I get asked by an Agent who wants a Custom Facebook Business Page created is “Can you pull in my listings – here’s my IDX Feed”
The answer is No!
"Pretty Please?"
Still No.
Not because I don't want to. You see... Facebook does not like dynamic content in custom tabs and guess what your IDX feed is? Yup! “Dynamic”.
But wait there’s a workaround and a very pretty one at that. The folks over at RealBirdhave a slick application.
If you have a Facebook Business Page and want something like this for yours – just contact me.
This post brought to you courtesy of Mike Mueller. Feel free to ReBlog or ReTweet as you like as long as you credit the source (him). Did you know? He's for hire! He builds Blogs, Graphic Images and Widgets and Facebook Pages and besides… He knows lots of really cool stuff.
FHA is continually making changes. This change in the FHA appraisal expiration date can be good if the orginal appraisal was not a good one (under appraised) then its less days active in the FHA system. However, if it was a good appraisal then it will cost someone money to do another appraisal if the 120 days come prior to the next sale or refinance.
The third and last change that we have been notified of this week is a change to FHA Appraisal Expiration. FHA Appraisals use to be good for six month, this was both good and bad. Good because if an appraisal was done on a property, and the deal fell apart, the appraisal would still be applicable for a six month period, and the new Buyers/Borrowers would continue to use the same appraisal, because it was attached to the FHA Case Number. Therefore, they were able to save money on an appraisal. The Bad part is that if the reason for the deal falling apart was because of appraisal issues, or the house under appraised, those issues would continue to be a problem for six months, and you could not get away from them by doing a new appraisal.
With this change FHA has reduced the appraisal expiration to 120 days for all existing and new construction properties effective with case numbers assigned on or after Jan 1, 2010. This change aligns FHA with current industry practices.
This again is both good and bad. Good because you are able to replace an appraisal that had issues or under appraised sooner. But likewise it is bad because an appraisal that did not have any issues will now be good for only 120 days in stead of the previous six month.
This concludes the changes that I have to report on for now, but keep in mind that these three changes that I have blogged about, are all Program Changes, there are other changes that have also been made that are Investor Changes. Investor Changes are an additional layer of qualifying requirements that are imposed on by Investor which are over and above those made by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, VA, and USDA. Those changes will differ from Lender to Lender depending on whom the Lender is selling their loans to. The best way to keep up with these changes is by having a good working relationship with a Loan Officer that will keep you up to date on them.
George Souto is a Loan Officer who can assist you with all your FHA, CHFA, and Conventional mortgage needs in Connecticut. George resides in Middlesex County which includes Middletown, Middlefield, Durham, Cromwell, Portland, Higganum, Haddam, East Haddam, Chester, Deep River, and Essex. George can be contacted at (860) 573-1308 or gsouto@mccuemortgage.com
So there really is a right day for everything.... here are some tips on when is the right day to blog and promote your Real Estate Services. Great tips
How to Choose the Right Days to Market your Real Estate Services Online
Effective real estate marketing online has a lot to do with timing. There has been a lot of research conducted, mainly for industries outside of real estate (i.e.retail, hospitality, automotive) on the best days and times to market services and products online. Implementing the right timing to deploy marketing campaigns into your online marketing strategy is an effective way to ramp up your results.
Here are 5 tips on choosing the right days to market your real estate services online
1. Tweet Midweek-
You can tweet everyday of the week but for maximum effect make sure to tweet on Wednesdays and Thursdays as they are the most active days of tweets and retweets as found by HubSpot's State of the Twittersphere June 2009.
Frequency of great original content is still important in building your readership and traffic to your blog. I recommend to my clients that they blog a minimum of 3-5 times per week to be considered as a true content provider in the eyes of their readers.
That being said when is the best time for a blogger to publish their meatiest, most important blog posts? Darren Rowse of Problogger addresses the timing factor in When to Publish Blog Posts-Timing Considerations,
"If I have a very important post that I want to get as much attention as possible I generally will publish it on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning (my time)."
Rowse's post also gives some advice as to publishing posts on weekends and holidays that is worth the read as well as the comments on the post (82 so far).
Clearly publishing your most important blog posts midweek is a winning strategy.
3. The Weakest Link for Email Marketing is Saturday
You may have several email campaigns in your real estate marketing campaign: email flyers, email follow-up, email newsletters. Email marketing is a heavy hitter for real estate professionals but when is the most effective time for you to deliver your messages to your prospects and customers?
According to EMarketer.com the best days of the week to send email marketing are Mondays and Tuesdays and the least effective time by nearly 50% is Saturdays.
The best advice I found and agree with is to survey your email subscribers and ask them when they would like to receive emails from you.
**Allow me one deviation~ What I find more or equally fascinating is the 6.49% CLR (Click Thru Rate) of marketing campaigns such as polls and incentives that are run on Facebook business pages. Fans are clearly interacting with their friends on Facebook in a big way and their interactions are also being seen by their friends.**
"LinkedIn use is predominantly an 8AM-Noon activity with very, very little activity in the evening. Of particular interest is that LinkedIn users tend to arrive at work earlier than Facebook users do....Those serious early morning LinkedIn users will spend an average of 29 minutes reading real Email before they get around to checking your connection request which they could have read first if they wanted to."
While this is a small sampling of members on LinkedIn and their behavior I can attest that this mimics my LinkedIn use. The first online activity I do in the morning is to check my email(which of course includes my blog activity) and the first social network site I check is LinkedIn and this occurs normally between the hours of 7:30-8:30 a.m.
Take into consideration the times and days that people are online and engaging in these online activities when you create and implement your online real estate marketing strategy.
Once you taken action use an analytics tool to measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. Tweak the times you deliver your marketing messages based on your analytics and direct feedback from your recipients.
Get your game on and use the 5 tips on choosing the right days to market your real estate services online.
** UPDATE FROM PUBCON VEGAS 2009-Post Your New Videos on YouTube on Thursdays and Fridays for the weekend traffic**
Rebecca D. Levinson is a real estate marketing consultant with 17 years of experience serving real estate industry professionals.
If you need assistance with online marketing, offline marketing, social networking, or blogging contact Rebecca D. Levinson at #262-203-5231 or email rebecca@bloggingintherain.com.
'Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater. If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby. If you give her a house, she'll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal... If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her. So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of __________!'
Now that I am focusing on buyers more, I am finding out some interesting and yet confusing stuff about buyers out there.
When you first meet the buyer they tell you what they are looking for and they sound and seem to have a good idea and have it all listed out for you.
You put together a "information sheet" on your buyers and begin your search for the specs that they provided.
You set your MLS to send daily report of the new listings to your buyer and you get a copy too.
You work on that report on a daily basis to see what showed up on the report and how it can match what your buyer is looking for.
You have already covered your buyers on the differences between a REO and a short sale.
You have already covered the market condition with your buyers. ** may have to do this a few more times as you goout viewing house to house
You already know if they are going to occupy the property or if they are investors
You have either determined that your buyer is a good candidate for trying to get a short sale or that they should steer away from then and try for the REOs or traditional sales due to time restraints or they have already told you they don't have the patience for waiting on a short sale approval.
Once that second or third day comes around, your buyers are calling you to see when can they go out and see the properties that they have driven around the neighborhoods to find!! They may end up saying nothing about the available listings that was included in the report.
NO!... they want you to look up what they found - vacant homes through the neighborhood!
So you go on and look up the properties and give the buyer a full report on each. Then you get set to go out and view the available properties.
After going to three or four properties and realize that this is going to be much longer than you thought, you put on your smile and check your list to see what else might fit your buyers.... and this goes on for weeks.
Most of your buyers want to put offers in on almost every house they see... and with the market as it is these days -this is not necessarily a bad idea. You feel it is your obligation at this point to let the buyers know that usually the way it goes is you spend hours looking and putting offers and more .......you are almost ready to resolve that you are just not going to find a home that you can get the bank to accept your offer on... and then WHAM!
Then one day you finally get a call from the listing agent to say the seller is interested in your offer on a property. You literally jump for joy. Then you start you uphill climb all over again when you call your buyer and they just don't seem interested in that property at all. All you hear is disappointment, no concern or interest in the property after all! They actually turn down the seller's acceptance.
You scratch your head and get ready to start all over again. And you wonder how many times will it happen like this.
Yet you love being a Buyer's Agent..... you really do!
So you or your client have found a home in a great area in the client's price range. Only one problem: it's in bad shape. The HVAC system is 50 years old, the roof is 40 years old and the windows may as well not even be closed. Plus the kitchen has vinyl floors in 3 different patterns and the counters are all laminate with burns and holes and scars.
Not to fear! Meet the FHA 203K Streamlined renovation loan.
Eligible Improvements Virtually any kind of improvement is eligible provided it becomes a permanent part of the real property and adds value.
Additions to the structure
Kitchen or bath remodels
Finished basement or attic
Patios, decks or terraces
Roofing and landscaping
Safety, energy efficiency and electrical upgrades
Handicapped accessibility improvements
Luxuryitems are not eligible
Swimming pools, hot tubs, tennis courts, gazebos, barbecue pits, saunas or alterations to support commercial use
The maximum loan amount must be within the FHA loan amount maximum for the MSA where the home is located and must include the purchase price and the renovation amount. The maximum renovation amount is $35,000 and the minimum is $5,000. Under $5,000 we can do with an escrow of repair funds. A minimum of 10% contingency reserve is required and must also fit into the FHA loan maximums for the area where the property is located. (Any balance remaining on the contingency will be applied to the principal balance and may not be used for additional repairs.)
Yes, it takes a little longer to close an FHA203k Streamline loan than it does to close a standard FHA loan. If you are an agent and you are concerned about that extra couple of weeks just think of it this way: You may make a sale you would not have otherwise made. You may help a buyer get into a home in the area where they wanted to live instead of where they "had" to live. You can be a real hero for someone.
If you are in Georgia I can help you with the necessary paperwork and give you a short class in how to use the FHA 203K Streamline Rehab loan to purchase, sell or represent homes in today's economy. Never hesitate to call me at any time and I'll be happy to answer your questions.
Ken Cook - Georgia - FHA, USDA, VA and Conventional Home Loans (678) 439-8683
This post makes me hungry for a slice of cake!!! And it is loaded with valuable information about short sales. Well worth sharing.... Short sales are here to stay for a while - take the time to get well informed. Start with this post by Elizabeth Weintraub - a great author.
Now that homebuyers no longer feel pressured to buy a home before the home buyer tax credit expires (because it was extended to April 30, 2010), it seems that the market is a teeny bit quieter in Sacramento. Usually Mondays are the worst day of the week, phone-wise. My cellphone tends to ring constantly on Mondays, generally because buyers are out over the weekend looking at homes. But yesterday, it was eerily silent.
In fact, I mentioned to my husband over lunch that my phone hadn't rung once. Was the market slowing down? He asked me if it was turned on. Duh. Of course, it's turned on because it asked to connect me to my Jawbone. It's illuminated. It's on. See? I showed him my phone. Oh. No bars. Somehow, and don't ask me how, I had managed to turn off my wireless connection. Holy crap. Four hours of phone messages.
I often get asked by media whether the short sale market in Sacramento is improving or getting worse; i.e., meaning is it taking longer to get short sale approval or are the banks and PSAs starting to get their acts together. It depends on which banks we're talking about. If it's a Wachovia short sale, the length of time to wait for short sale approval is still the same -- about a week.
If it's a Bank of America short sale or, worse, the loan originated at Countrywide, it's at least 90 days but it could be 6 to 9 months before approval. Aurora used to be better than it is now. Last spring approval came from Aurora within 6 weeks. I've got a handful of Aurora short sales now that are dragging. Last week, an Aurora negotiator told me that the 60-day approval we expected to receive next week is being pushed to 120 days out.
Lovely. Because CitiMortgage, which holds a second on this property, just issued short sale approval. It is set to expire in 2 weeks. On this particular short sale, Aurora holds the first. I emailed the negotiator to ask him why CitiMortgage would give us only a 2-week window on the approval letter when we don't have approval from the first lender, Aurora. Because this is an all-cash transaction, the buyer could perform, but we aren't going anywhere without Aurora's blessings.
His response? Because we should have had approval from Aurora by now. What was he smoking? His response inferred that we somehow dropped the ball, which is nuts. As a busy yet organized Sacramento short sale agent, I manage the short sale process like a gorilla.
I sense that CitiMortgage is now disguising its approval letters. I mean, the thing looks like an approval for a certain dollar amount, but CitiMortgage is really asking for more money. In this letter, CitiMortgage demanded a 2-week escrow but will agree to extend if it receives an 11% premium on the short-pay. It's not a large amount, about $5,000. So the true payoff is about $5,550. A $550 difference. Which the buyer shouldn't have to pay.
We quickly amended the HUD-1 to reflect the true demand from CitiMortgage and sent it off to Aurora. And this is how an escrow that was slated for approval next week will be pushed to January. But hey, at least my cellphone is working again.
---
Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout Sacramento. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. DRE License # 00697006.
The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available through bookstores everywhere and at Amazon.com.
Photo: Unless otherwise noted in this blog, the photo is copyrighted by Big Stock Photo and used with permission.
This is a wonderful story.. Inspire the Child. Children are a joy. I am raising my brother's granddaughter and there is no greater joy in my life. She brings a smile to my day --- everyday!
Breaking The Cycle Of Poverty By Educating Young Kenyan Women
Inspiration is the spark that leads to change. Our dream is to create a home for orphaned girls filled with love that will give them a new family. Inspire The Child will also construct a new educational facility for K-8th grade girls. This facility will prepare the girls for a brighter future and support their re-introduction to society. The school will provide counseling and medical attention, and teach them the skills that will empower them to be a strong and independent new generation of Kenyan women.
Mothers Fighting For Others wants to build a home. We want to build a school. We want to build a small community for these girls to learn, to be loved, to believe and take pride in themselves, and to dream big. This is the just the beginning of the journey. I am so grateful to be going down this path. So, I'll be heading back to Kenya next month to scout out three parcels of land. We'll have a better idea of what our needs will be next month.
I am so excited to get started on this program. I hope you are too!!
ww.motheranddaughterrealtyteam.com
Mother of PATRICK WILLIAMS & ASSOCIATES - the Mother and Daughter Team. I enjoy helping others and working with my daughter has added value to my life and business! Call me 866-543-0461
Promote Your Page Too Visit REO Professionals Widgetbox!
DISCLAIMER: I must disclaim liability for any damages or losses, direct or indirect, that may result from use of, or reliance on, any information contained in this blog, or for the accuracy of comments or opinions expressed by visitors to my blog. The information contained in the articles is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed, and the opinions expressed in these articles are mine.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
-- Zoltan 
The third and last change that we have been notified of this week is a change to FHA Appraisal Expiration. FHA Appraisals use to be good for six month, this was both good and bad. Good because if an appraisal was done on a property, and the deal fell apart, the appraisal would still be applicable for a six month period, and the new Buyers/Borrowers would continue to use the same appraisal, because it was attached to the FHA Case Number. Therefore, they were able to save money on an appraisal. The Bad part is that if the reason for the deal falling apart was because of appraisal issues, or the house under appraised, those issues would continue to be a problem for six months, and you could not get away from them by doing a new appraisal.
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good idea and have it all listed out for you. 
s.
Most of your buyers want to put offers in on almost every house they see... and with the market as it is these days -this is not necessarily a bad idea. You feel it is your obligation at this point to let the buyers know that usually the way it goes is you spend hours looking and putting offers
and more 
.......you are almost ready to resolve that you are just not going to find a home that you can get the bank to accept your offer on... and then WHAM!
;)
;)
