nar: Mortgage Debt Forgiveness. Wassup? - 12/17/12 07:17 AM
Another question hanging about our heads this year-end involves extension of Mortgage Debt Forgiveness, that measure that allows lenders not to 1099 you for the mortgage debt relief sellers who have gone through a short sale or foreclosure receive.At this point with all eyes focused on the fiscal cliff, it is unlikely anything specific to this measure will be passed th
is year. If there is a continuing resolution (kick the can down the road for 90 days and let the new Congress deal with it), debt forgiveness could/would likely be a part of that. Otherwise we just get to wait … (0 comments)

nar: Will Homeownership in America Become Out of Reach? - 05/20/11 06:13 AM
 
Will Homeownership in America Become Out of Reach?
According to recent studies, it is widely perceived that we Boomers will be the first generation in this country to pass on a less prosperous and bright future for our children. I’ve just returned from a week in Sacramento followed by a week in Washington DC and nowhere is that prophecy more clearly demonstrated than by the current attack on the future of housing in our country.
As National Association of Realtors (NAR) Chief Lobbyist Jerry Giovaniello phrased it, “We are facing a perfect storm which, if brought to fruition, will bring … (8 comments)

nar: What a Government Shutdown Means for REALTORS® - 04/08/11 06:07 AM
Re-posted from NAR - impact to Realtors® if our legislators don't get it together by this afternoon.
The current continuing resolution (CR) providing funding for government operations is set to expire on April 8, 2011. If legislation providing for funding is not signed into law to extend funding after April 8, the federal government could shut down. This means many, but not all, government programs, including some that impact federal housing and mortgage programs, could grind to a halt as early as April 9, 2011. While the true impact of a shutdown is unclear until it actually begins below is … (1 comments)

nar: NAR Pres-elect Moe Veissi Talks Turkey - 01/31/11 07:48 AM
Take-aways from our recent California Association of Realtors Mid-winter meetings.
From NAR President-elect Moe Veissi -
Six of the past eight recessions have ended due to increasing strength in the housing market. The other two were due to wars. That seems like an easy choice. We need to get behind housing. This battle against housing is counterproductive and the attack on the mortgage interest deduction is an attack on one of the basic foundations of the American Dream.
Similarly we should seek to preserve the basics of the GSE's.They can certainly be improved upon but their services are vital to home … (16 comments)

nar: NAR Toolbar Puts Info at Your Fingertips. - 08/27/10 11:13 AM
Very cool new toolbar from NAR. It gives you a search window - like we need another one of those - but it also does a roll that provides the latest info on legislative or other issues - like right now my roll is talking about the recently passed NFIB, then an article on 30 under 30. It's also got a link to the Realtor Action Center, a calendar of NAR events, blogs & headlines and a link to NAR leadership. You can also download Realtor apps to the toolbar, get email notification and much more.
I know the last thing … (1 comments)

nar: Realtor® Voter Registration Drive - We CAN Make a Difference - 08/16/10 05:55 AM
In Minnesota the 2008 U.S. Senate race was decided by just over 200 votes!
In Washington State, the incumbent Governor won her first election by just 129 votes!
In Avery County, S.C., a proposed transfer tax initiative was defeated by just 35 votes!
While Realtors® are registered to vote in greater proportion than members of the general public (80% v 71%), that still leaves almost 203,000 Realtors® unregistered. You might argue whether your vote makes a statistical difference with the Electoral College, but at the state and especially the local level, Realtor® votes CAN & DO make a difference.
Every day … (2 comments)

nar: NAR VP Moe Viessi takes on housing critics - 08/12/10 06:40 AM
I have been reading a different philosophical bent on the housing market of late, and it just plain makes me mad.  No, it’s not about volume or pricing or foreclosures; it’s what some people have been saying about housing in America. 
I’ve read that some of these pundits believe the worth of the home purchase isn’t what it once was, and may never be a valuable asset. I’ve read that, in an uncertain economy, these brainiacs think buying a house is too much of an anchor on an individual or families mobility. Not a long term valuable assets? Too much of … (1 comments)

nar: BofA & Chase publish HAFA Guilines. Thanks NAR? - 08/10/10 12:17 PM
A couple weeks ago at our GAD Institute, NAR President Vicki Cox-Golder discussed how she and Ron Phipps have been meeting with banking executives around the country in an effort to get some uniformity in short-sale practices and to find out what problems are preventing these large institutions from doing short-sales expeditiously in the best interest of our entire industry. They had met with B of A exec's just prior to her visit with us and said that in addition to B of A promising to work on the problems, they had also extracted a promise to reduce the time to … (6 comments)

nar: Get Into Politics or Get out of the Business - 01/29/10 05:39 AM
I just read an excellent post from Nestor & Katerina (do they write any other kind) entitled: Active Rain Should NOT Ban Political Posts - Real Estate Is Political.
In my travels I'm always amazed by Realtors® who are unaware of the political nature of our business. Even worse are those who proudly proclaim they 'are above that' or 'we have no interest in that'. To them I say - Good Luck Making a Living, Schmuck. You can work 20 hours a day to make a living but if somebody in Sacramento or Washington DC decides to reach into your … (5 comments)

nar: It's Only Pork When The Other Guy Takes It - NAR Survey - 12/15/09 11:55 AM
I love this political stuff. Thus I'm always surprised when Realtors® don't understand how closely tied their personal success is to our collective Association success in our state capitols and in Washington DC. If you're not at the table, you'll probably be on the menu, especially these days when everybody's being carved up. But I'm betting that Realtor® response to this latest policy survey from NAR will have a response rate of 10% or less. Sad isn't it? Yet only 18% of you managed to get off your asses for the 2 minutes it took to respond to the Call-for-Action to extend … (6 comments)

nar: Southwest Riverside County Young Professionals Network receives NAR Charter today. - 10/28/09 01:41 PM

The Southwest Riverside County Association of Realtors® Young Professionals Network received their official charter today from the National Association of Realtors®. The Young Professionals Network is a growing group of young career-minded real estate professionals across the country who want to stay abreast of the latest tools, resources and networking opportunities.  Recognizing that the average Realtor® is about 55, the average buyer is under 30, NAR started an aggressive recruiting effort under President Richard Gaylord from Long Beach. The program was officially inaugurated in October, 2007. There are fewer than 20 chartered groups In California with the state association itself … (0 comments)

nar: NAR Updates Field Guide To Mortgage Fraud - 09/08/09 07:29 AM

Real estate fraud is alive and well! I don't know how many of you saw last weeks article in The Wall Street Journal on the new twist in real estate fraud. Well, in California it's far from a new twist - we've been warning about 'reverse mortgage fraud' for some time - in fact nearly two years ago I included 'Elder Abuse Mortgage Fraud' in the title of one of my ActiveRain real estate fraud groups.
Because the fact is, regardless of the economy, real estate fraud is always with us - it just morphs to accommodate the trends. For … (1 comments)

nar: HELP for Riverside County Homeowners? Thanks Ted Lieu. - 07/30/09 02:40 PM
Interesting times out there. I just got back from a Foreclosure Crisis Town Hall meeting up in Riverside with Assemblymember Ted Lieu. Assemblymember Nestande was a co-sponsor of the event but was not in attendance.
You might remember Ted Lieu recently for ABX2 7 - that was the one where the headlines trumpeted a '90 Day Moratorium on Foreclosures' but four paragraphs in you found the text that said it didn't apply to over 90% of the lenders in California. But everybody remembers the headlines and figures we got a reprieve until September 15. Wrong. Lieu told us today he was … (0 comments)

nar: NAR Mid-Year - Dr. Lawrence Yun - 05/20/09 11:13 PM
It was my good fortune to catch the elevator in the Wardman with Dr. Lawrence Yun last week. As we strolled to the Omni we exchanged pleasantries - I was greatly looking forward to his Economic Update on Thursday morning. When he noted where I was from he lit up - 'Oh, I know Riverside County - it's one of the areas I study to gage the market.' He proceeded to describe our market as he saw it and was solicitous of stats pertaining to Southwest County. His summary of our area was right on the mark and I was impressed … (20 comments)

nar: NAR Real Estate Summit - FDIC Chair Bair - "It'll be a slog." - 05/19/09 12:18 PM
Much of the afternoon was devoted to the commercial market and banks. The commercial market is a great source of concern right now. Commercial defaults could freeze the housing rebound while its impact on the credit market could drive even more banks out of business - including some that are starting to turn around today. The triple whammy of housing defaults, followed by commercial defaults, followed by credit card defaults is not a good combination for recovery - did I mention unemployment? But that's worst case and hopes are high (if not the actual hopers) that we may be on our … (4 comments)

nar: NAR Real Estate Summit - Too Big To Fail? Like religion without sin. - 05/19/09 12:14 PM
The afternoon session kicked into gear immediately following Alan Greenspans remarks. Moderated by Newsweek Contributing Editor Jane Bryant Quinn, the panel consisted of 16 experts from field as diverse as the Washington Post, Bloomberg News, Wells Fargo, NAR, the National Association of Home Builders and the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. 
Following up on comments made by Dr. Greenspan on entities 'too big to fail' - one panelist (and I wish I had noted who) made the following observation. "Capitalism without the possibility of failure is like religion without the threat of sin." I love that. The difference is … (0 comments)

nar: NAR Real Estate Summit - Greed, Stimulus & Demonizing the Rich - 05/19/09 12:11 PM
The housing bubble, as it impacted much of the country, was referred to as a momentary lapse in judgment by nearly everyone involved. But it's also a fact that we didn't learn from previous bubbles. We jumped from a real estate bubble in the early 90's to a dot.com bubble to a stock bubble back to  another housing bubble. Much of that fault was attributed to insiders who should have known better. But the reward system was skewed to encourage the bad behavior on the part of lenders, Wall Street exacerbated the situation by promising investors impossible and unsustainable returns and … (0 comments)

nar: NAR Real Estate Summit - We Need Another Bubble. - 05/18/09 08:22 AM
Maybe because they were being hosted by the National Association of Realtors and maybe because they really believe it, the panelists were in general agreement that the housing market needs to lead the way back out of this slump/recession/bust. But in spite of that consensus, it was also generally acknowledged that in spite of the lip service accorded to housing by the Administration and by congress, housing really isn't their primary focus. Not that they can focus on the housing element to the exclusion of other factors, but many of the more substantive efforts have been extended to banking, insurance and … (0 comments)

nar: NAR Real Estate Summit. Video link & Personal Observations. - 05/18/09 08:16 AM
Much has already been written about the day-long summit hosted by NAR at our recent  mid-year meetings in Washington DC. To date over 240 separate media pieces have been done on the event and that doesn't count blogs, tweets, FaceBook, etc. It is estimated that in one form or another information from the summit reached an audience of 67 million people and would have cost many millions of dollars to buy the kind of exposure garnered from the one day event. Follow this link for some video clips of the summit: Real Estate Summit: Advancing The U.S. Economy.
Because I have … (25 comments)

nar: Arbitration Rights at Risk? Who's Behind It Now? - 04/02/09 10:48 AM
There's a good article out today regarding a bill currently in Congress being called the Arbitration Fairness Act. As you read his article, excerpted below, it sounds like anything but a fairness act. Rather, it sounds like another end run at consumers by the group that brought you the housing defect litigation that abused many builders into bankruptcy a few years ago. Yeah, the frivolous lawsuit boys.  Go figure. Times are tough.
I contacted NAR about this as I could find no reference to it on Realtor.org yet. Turns out the bill(s) are only recently introduced and NAR is on … (1 comments)