This week's Ask the AM really spurred me into action. I hear moans and groans all the time from agent s who just don't like social networking. They gripe about how time consuming it is or they were never successful or, it's too monotonous, or..........whatever else and all I got to say is, SO BAD, SO SAD, AINT YOU GLAD YOUR MOMA AINT YOUR DAD!

As Ned points out in the article, someone is using Social Networking and taking your business. This mysterious agent has become savvy enough to create a LinkedIn profile or Facebook page and is now using it with maximum force.

You see, while your setting back, accepting those listing assignments, this mysterious agent is sharing tweets or swapping emails or learning about your Asset Manager's terrible weekend because they lost their dog Sparky (thanks Ned). Before you know it, this agent and your Asset Manager are developing a friendship vs. a business relationship. So, when the next assignment get sent out, who do you think is going to get it?

Granted, I know social networks take time to create.....I created REOPro for goodness sake however, I can't stress to each of you, your lack of involvement is at your own detriment. Now, you may never have a social network of a thousand or more or ever have a goal to reach twenty five thousand but, a well oiled social network of a few hundred and make a huge difference.

Here is the stark cold truth. Asset Managers are loosing their jobs, getting re-assigned or simply dropping out and all this is happening because the business is changing so, what do you think these Asset Managers are doing when they are no longer Asset Managers? Well, let me tell you, they are getting real estate licenses and taking over territories for their friends back at the Bank or Asset Management Companies. My point is, if you aren't on a first name basis, dirty joke telling, birthday card sending, meet up at the conference having drinks relationship....................someone else is or is trying to be.

Now, as many of you know, I try to adhere to a high standard of morals and ethics so, don't misconstrue what I am trying to say. No, you don't go put in hardwood floors at your Asset Manager's vacation home or send them a Visa Gift Card worth $5,000.00 to their P.O. Box , hopefully if you did they would refuse it but, you do call them regularly if nothing more to just shoot the breeze or say "Hi".

Let me put this another way, hopefully it will ring true to you. REOPro currently has over 18,000 invites to join our network that are outstanding. In other words, these are members who downloaded their address books in to our system and REOPro system each person an invite to join. By now, we should have blown though our goal of 25,000 member however, I am still only getting maybe 15-20 new members a day. This is contributable to the fact that many of the people who received an invite never got a follow up saying, "check out this network". Social networking is a lot like that follow up. If you don't follow up and say "Hi" or learn about people, then why would anyone want to invest in you?

I will leave you with a quote, who it came from, I have no idea but, here it is.......

"A lead will make you some money, a follow up will make you rich", I like to change that around a bit and say......

"A lead will make you some money, a active social network will ensure your kids don't have to work"

Join me Friday May 28, 2010 at 2:00pm cst when we will be interviewing Cary Sternberg President at Excellen REO. Previously Cary has worked as Senior Vice President/REO at American Home Mortage Servicing, Inc, Vice President HLS/REO at Indymac Federal Bank and Vice President at Indymac Bank. We will be discussing the role of Excellen in our industry and where they expect to be in the next couple of months. Of course, we will be taking your calls live.
 
Here's a quick overview to help you make the most out of your BlogTalkRadio experience:

You can listen live and on-demand:  To listen live to shows on our platform, simply go to http://www.blogtalkradio.com/jesse-g and click the "Click to Listen" icon on the show description.  You can also visit our "On Air" guide to review the current programming schedule and to navigate to individual shows.

You can call in and listen:  If you want to listen live and on-the-go, all you need to do is dial the call-in number listed on the show page at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/jesse-g .  You can also  listen to the broadcast right from your phone.  If you have questions or comments for the host, simply dial 1 on your phone to let them know that you're ready to participate.

You can listen to a podcast of the show:  If you have to work or are unable to listen to a show when it's live, don't worry. You can listen whenever you want to.  Simply go to the host's profile page by following this link, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/jesse-g and, after his/her show is over, download it to your MP3 player or home computer.  You can also subscribe to the iTunes feed of your favorite BlogTalkRadio shows so they will automatically be downloaded to the iTunes software on your computer. You can also listen to archives on hosts' web sites, provided they have our media player posted

Please pass this along.

Are Liberal Progressive Government policies pushing America toward a Federal takeover of housing?

I know for many of us, this question seems crazy however, make no mistake, Progressive Liberals would love to see America provide housing to each and every person, citizen or not. In fact, Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced this idea to America by including, "the right of every family to a decent home" as his 5^th right in his proposed Second Bill of Rights.

So, would it be possible for the Government to just take over the housing industry and, promise everyone a home? It is not only possible, it's happening and it's taking place under the guise of "Housing Recovery" and the instrument which will be used to do the takeover is TARP.

Back in October of 2008, TARP was used to stabilize the financial institutions after their delinquent mortgages they were holding came close to causing these banks to melt down. What many people don't realize is, this meltdown was a direct cause of Government regulation. I don't want to bore you with all the details however, all you need to do is bring up Google and type, Community Reinvestment Act. Read for yourself how the Fed's forced lenders to adopt risky loan practices and allowed community organizations similar to Acorn to dictate to these services how many loans they had to make and to whom they went to. I know that sounds crazy.....and, I am sure I am sounding like a broken record but, these banks and servicers didn't make risky loans because they were greedy, like the media have you believe, they did it because they were mandated to do it.

Why would the government allow citizens to dictate how a bank would give out loans? It's all part of the progressive evolution of this country. It was set into motion by F.D.R. Progressives knew they couldn't revolutionize our country, Americans lover freedom too much however, they knew they could slowly progress us away from our "inadequate" Bill of Rights and Constitution with small steps and Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and the Federal Reserve were all part of the larger picture. To put a chill down your spine, let me give you a quote to further my point.

Franklin Roosevelt said in his radio address to the nation in January 1944.

"This Republic (the United States of America) had its beginning and, grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights - among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.

As our nation has grown in size and stature, however, - as our industrial economy expanded these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness."

You may not have known this was an agenda item on the Progressive left but, let me assure you, it is. It is my opinion, Progressive Liberals are using this Housing Crisis to their advantage. In fact, I am of the opinion that this crisis is engineered by Progressive Liberals. For those of you reading this thinking to yourself, it's not possible, it could never happen, well......have you seen this?

http://banking.senate.gov/public/_files/ChairmansMark31510AYO10306_xmlFinancialReformLegislationBill.pdf

It's a new bill being floated around, pay special attention to Title III, TRANSFER OF POWER TO THE COMPTROLLER OF THE CURRENCY, THE CORPORATION, AND THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS. This bill is laying the groundwork for a true and complete takeover of the financial institutions and likewise, as exemplified with Bank of America, the Government will mandate to banks that they have to "forgive debt" or "lower payments". All that sounds good on its face value but, who do you think is paying for all this "forgiveness" and "lower payments"...........................YOU ARE, THE AMERICAN TAX PAYER.

Now, I do believe that President Obama is a FDR Progressive Liberal. I can give you quotes and examples of this, just let me know if you need them. Because he is a FDR Progressive Liberal, he believes everyone should have a decent home and he is going to use the American Tax Payer to redistribute the wealth of this country through the Progressive Liberal engineered Housing Crisis to make it happen. Did you read what the White House said yesterday? Just in case you missed it, let me tell you.

"The White House plans to announce on Friday that it will require lenders to lower the mortgage payments of some unemployed workers and encourage lenders to eliminate some principal debt of homeowners who owe more than their home is worth, sources familiar with the plan said Thursday."

http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/government/update--white-house-announce-housing-aid-friday--sources-493713530/

All of that sounds great till you figure out who is paying for it. Make no mistake, I am all about helping the down and out, let's not forget, I know what it is like to live in a shelter for a year in six months. I know what it's like to have a single parent with 2 jobs and you as the eldest child had to take care of younger sibilings, I know what it's like to live with 5 people in a one room apartment in the worse part of town you can imagine...I know because I have personally been there. In fact, I still have family members that are still living that life and my heart breaks every single day for them but, no matter how hard things get, no matter how bad the outlook appears today, we are Americans, we love Freedom and Liberty and Roosevelt was wrong in 1944 and his Progressive Liberals are wrong today.

Homeownership is not a right, it is a privilege, an honor, an accomplishment, you have to work hard to own a home. In fact, because homeownership has been so easy for so many, I walk into homes that have been abandoned and abused because the homeowners didn't care or couldn't afford the maintenance on the home, either way.....it's wrong!

Quote,

 "...if all of these REO companies are scaling back, why bother purchase AMP under res.net or get certified with REOtrans if we don't know if there is going to be enough work for those of us who can't get into any other company or the other companies are telling us that they are going to give their work to the preferred brokers ?" Anonymous

As I have always said and will always tell you, it's not the "company" you're with or the subscription level you paid for that is going to give you any chance at getting a REO.

The REO industry is the preverbal "boys club" and for those agents who don't understand this concept, you will fall victim to false promises made by Asset Management Companies and Technology Platforms alike.

I have preached, revealed, screamed, wrote, published and explained to all of you through my blogs that unless you are actively contributing to this industry.....your success in breaking in is going to be less than stellar, if at all.

"Ned" our resident Asset Manager has revealed to many of his weekly column readers how to either break in or get more business. In fact, his most recent column is about this very topic yet, I didn't but, 3 orders come in today for a FREE Agent Site, through the REOPro store, I only approved 2 blogs today and the forums seem dead today. Not to mention, I counted at least 4 articles in the Ask the AM archive on this particular topic or at the very least topics very similar and I have about 3 blogs myself I have written along with 1 blog that is nothing more than my top 8 blogs that any REO agent should read. So, with all that being said, why do we still get members who fall prey to the false and blatant lies running rampant through our industry like hungry lions on the plains of the Serengeti?

Granted, even industry juggernauts like REOTrans or RESNET seem to be participating in the "Realtor mop up" but, their lofty place as industry captains makes people like myself see these actions by them as shameless and disgusting yet, we still get agents who are clamoring, saving up thousands of dollars and purchasing higher and higher levels of "preferred status" for nothing more than the promise of a chance.

I read a recent forum thread titled "Valigent" posted by Janet Frederick on REOPro where one of our members Byron Guillermo copied and pasted a reply from an Executive with Valligent named Jeremy that said, Quote...

"Lenders take advantage of the fact that many real estate agents in this economy are desperate for listings,"

HELLO! CLUE PHONE IS RINGING! It's not just the lenders....it's everyone in the industry. My point is, they can make the promise of a chance, with no guarantee and they will still make money hand over fist from the contract they have with the bank, to the "technology fee" you kick back and then your monthly membership fee and annual "preferred broker" fee. It's a cash cow because of the very statement made by Jeremy with Valligent.

I am trying to explain to you, if you feel victimized, if you feel as if you have been taken to the cleaners, if you feel like no matter where you go, it's more and more money......well, yeah, you're right but, that's because people are paying for it. Caveat Emptor my friends, or in other words, Let the Buyer Beware.

So, how do you avoid these people and scams, how do you break in......well, it's as I have always said, it's about developing relationships, providing a useful service and becoming an expert in your field. If you want to know more about my opinions on these things, read over my blogs, read the AM column this week and search through the archives.

In an effort to disclose, let me first tell you that I am not a Bankruptcy Attorney....or any other type of Attorney for that matter. This blog is not to be interpreted as legal advice because, it's not. For legal advice you need to speak to a law professional. This blog is just my opinion and should be consider as nothing more.

In my opinion, the concept that Bankruptcy guarantees homeowners a stop to foreclosure is a myth! Let me explain why I have this opinion.

First off a creditor, your bank, can petition the court to remove the stay you received as protection from creditors when you filed for bankruptcy protection. In many cases, the moment the bank learns you filed for protection, they run to the court and ask for the stay to be lifted.

So, why would a court ever agree to this course of action suggested by the bank?

A simply reply, is because the bank has the right to ask and have their request considered fairly among the evidence provided to the court.

It also depends greatly on what type of bankruptcy protection you are under, if it's Chapter 7.....most likely the bank's request to lift the stay will be granted and that's because Chapter 7 bankruptcy isn't designed to protect you from foreclosure, sad but true. If you want a much better chance at protecting the home from foreclosure, you may want to consider Chapter 13 which puts you on a repayment plan and allows you to pay off your debts over time and therefore, gives homeowners a better chance of protecting the home however, either way....nothing is guaranteed.

Now, just because the bank request the stay to be lifted, it doesn't necessarily always mean it will be. The truth of the matter is, your Attorney will have arguments to the court, on your behalf, to keep the protection in place but, even then, nothing is guaranteed.

My point is, just because the bank request the stay to be lifted and just because your Attorney is going to argue against it, nothing and, I do mean nothing ever guarantees you will be able to stop foreclosure. It simply boils down to a variety of conditions such as, hardship, skill of the Attorney and the willingness of the court. Unfortunately, many times the homeowners' walk away wishing they never started the process from the beginning.

Ultimately all bankruptcy protection does is buy you some time. You will ultimately still find yourself across the table negotiating with you lender trying to save your home. Only this time, you are also having to pay Attorney fees.

A Short Sale may be a better option.

Regardless of your opinions on the necessity of the bank bailouts aka TARP, let us all agree they haven't worked. I am not sure any other industry knows this better than ours, the default industry because, we still see the direct effects of frozen credit markets, the shadow inventory and bank failures throughout this country.

At the quarterly report of the Special Inspector General's office, Neil Barfosky warned our country in a report to Congress that TARP only made things worse because ultimately it never addressed the underlying problems that created the financial crisis from the start. Think of it like this, let's say you break your leg and you are rushed to the Emergency Room for treatment. You get the x-ray and the diagnosis is, your leg is broke. The doctor prescribes some really good pain medicine and says, "Take 2 of these and call me in the morning" however, he never re-sets the leg or even puts it in a brace or cast. In other words, the doctor is just covering up the pain hoping you won't notice your leg still looks like the golden arches outside your local McDonalds. The worse part of this whole story is, instead of raising hell and getting a new doctor, one that can fix the problem, you end up riding a wheel chair out of the ER, a leg contorted like a Chineese Acrobat smiling and saying, "The pain medicine is necessary to prevent amputation; it will help me walk again". Ok, so.....the story is a bit absurd however, it really is what we did as a country, oh wait a minute, I forgot to add this part of the story.

So, it's 2 weeks later.....all you have been doing is popping pain pills left and right and, in fact, the pain seems to be getting worse. You start to notice you can't feel anything in your pinky toe so, it scares you and you go back to the Emergency Room but, this time you go to a different hospital because, deep down inside you're not to sure that other doctor knew what he was doing.

The new doctor is dismayed, shocked, stunned, repulsed and even angry at what the ignorant, incompetent, doctor did to you. He goes on to tell you, that now, the bone has started healing, in the shape of an arch and to fix the problem, they will have to re-brake it, do surgery to fix nerve and vessel damage and potentially, you could loose the leg due to infection setting in. The doctor explains to you that the broke leg was never "fixed" and now the damage has had time to fester and cause more damage than originally. So, the cure is going to be worse than if it was all handled correctly the first time.

Pay special attention to that last line, "The cure is going to be worse than if it was all handled correctly the first time."..............this line is very important because, we were all told by our leaders in Washington that the financial crisis would have been another Great Depression, double digit unemployment (oh wait, we have that now), bankers jumping from their windows (haven't heard of this yet) and soup kitchens with lines three blocks down (maybe sooner than I thought). So, if that is what we averted by simply taking pain pills (TARP) and now it's potentially worse than before because the problems were never fixed.........................AAGGHHHH! ARMAGEDDON!?!?

Well, I don't know if it will be Armageddon but, as I have always maintained, TARP was never a fix.....it was just a pain pill and, it seems our leadership in Washington is now a prescription drug addict with a couple TRILLIONS dollar habit and is looking for their next fix!

Make no mistake America, we did this to ourselves......go all the way back and Google the Community Reinvestment Act, see how Barney Frank and the GSE's screwed this country so bad that now we poo sideways. Make no mistake, plenty of blame to go around. Democrats are the only party guilty of this. Progressivism is the problem, this idea we can move beyond our Constitution, this concept of wealth re-distribution but, I digress.

Here is the reality. We never fixed the problems with the banks, all we did is momentarily stop the pain. Now, the pain pills are loosing their effectiveness and either we go and get better pain pills or we head into surgery, re-brake, re -re-set and fix the problem once and for all however, I have one question to ask you....just one.

ARE YOU SURE THE DOCTORS WE HAVE ADDRESSING THE BREAK ARE UP TO THE JOB?

You may re-post this blog as long as you give me the credit for writting it.

Thanks for reading.

1. Unemployment: Until people have the income to afford their mortgages, we will not see a recovery in the housing market. I believe a direct correlation exist between unemployment and mortgage defaults, the higher unemployment gets the more defaults we will see. This ultimately leads to more inventory and of course, lower home prices.
2. Tightening Credit Standards: The harder it gets for people to obtain the necessary credit to purchase a home the slower it will take to reduce the inventory we have. Make no mistake, I don't believe in loosening credit standards for the sake of it but, it's a fact that if people can't get credit, inventory won't reduce quickly and therefore slowing if not halting a housing recovery.
3. Artificial Government Inventory Control: In other words, arbitrary influence by the Government to keep unworthy homeowners in their homes at all cost. Make no mistake, this is housing inventory control in the most negative way. I have GSE Investor loan reinstatements after foreclosure on my desk right now where Fannie / Freddie is offering to reinstate a homeowners loan where they will consider unemployment benefits as income........seriously!
4. Energy Prices: Did you realize that you are paying .86 cents more for gas this week than you were this same week last year? Most likely you haven't noticed because we have all been pre-occupied with the nations job losses, underwear bombers, Massachusetts election, and Washington bleeding red ink. You may not have actively noticed it but, if energy prices continue to rise people will have less discretionary spending and that pulls buyers out of the market and couple this with Great Depression level unemployment and we end up with more housing inventory.
5. Risk of Hyperinflation: As the US currency continues to looses value against it's competitors we find ourselves having no other choice but to increase inflation. If the Government continues to spend / make money with less and less value people refuse to hold onto the Dollar and start to move their assets into other currencies or metals and therefore an uncontrollable rise of inflation begins.

Hermitage Tennessee Housing Statistic Report

January 10, 2010

For December 1 - 31, 2009

 Of these 35 homes, they accounted for $6,737,627 in listings and 6,578,475 in closings for a 98% List to Sale Ratio. In other words, In Hermitage, homeowners are getting 98% of their list price on average.

 10 out of the 35 or 28.57% of the homes sold were Foreclosures or Short. To look at this another way, that means, Hermitage had closed $1,879,470.31in default homes in December '09, almost a third of the closings were distressed homes.

 The lowest sale was $55,000.00 MLS # 1118224 located at 405 Rockwood Dr.

The highest sale was $399,985.00 MLS # 1095196 located at 4721 Medalist Circle Lot 111.

 The subdivisions Hermitage Hills and Hermitage Meadows had the most closings with 3 each.

I came across a blog on another networking site and got into a bit of a debate as to what exactly a Short Sale is and isn't.

I need to explain that I am a HRC (Housing Retention Consultant) with Titanium and I have the RDCPro (REO Default Certified Professional) Designation through RealEstateEducate.com lastly, I am working on a Short Sale training program I hope to present to NAR (National Association of Realtors) for acceptance in their Continuing Education Program. In other words, I kind of know what I am talking about, just a bit.

Ok, so back on topic, what is a Short Sale?

Per Wikipedia a Short Sale is defined as...,

"a sale of real estate in which the proceeds from the sale fall short of the balance owed on a loan secured by the property sold."

The above definition is absolutely correct however, I have heard, read, and had described to me that a Short Sale is more than as described above by Wikipedia.

Some define a Short Sale as...,

a sale of real estate in which the proceeds from the sale fall short of the balance owed on a loan secured by the property sold and, where the bank forgives the remaining debt.

Let me be very clear, a Short Sale is no promise that a bank will forgive the remaining debt!

I wrote a blog back on 9/8/08 on REOPro.NING.com that highlighted the use of unsecured promissory notes by banks to secure future payment of the remaining debt before they offer an approval for the short sale. In that blog, I made it clear that some banks are using the unsecured promissory note while others aren't.

In closing, a Short Sale approval doesn't guarantee a forgiven debt so be careful when you discuss what a Short Sale is so that you don't set an expectation that you simply can't fulfill.

My recent articles on this very subject have initiated a firestorm and, I am sure this next article will only throw nitro glycerin on the flames.

Before you read this blog, understand that I have not been appointed as some ethical, moral guardian and, I know that. By no means, do I believe I am going to change your opinion or win you over, that is not my intention. Take what I have written and do with it as you please, I really don't care if you think I am wrong, right or anything else for that matter. This is my opinion and if you don't want to know it, then stop now and don't read any further.

Know this, I feel I am right not because of some statutory legislation or common practice but because I believe in a certain way of doing business and that is what I hope is exemplified in this blog.

First let me explain what I believe a lie is. This will be important to keep in mind when you read the rest of this article. I believe a lie is when someone makes a statement or presentation that they know is false with the intent to deceive.

I believe a lie takes place when an "investor"; as it pertains to Short Sale Option Contracts, tells the bank they will offer them "X" amount of dollars for a property, passing it off as true market value, when they are holding behind their backs higher and better offers with no intention to disclose them to the bank.

I have heard others contend, that as long as you disclose the fact that the "investor" is going to resell the property expeditiously after the closing with the bank, then it's not a lie but, in fact it's full disclosure.

My problem with this argument is that it's based on the premise that the bank knows and agrees to the investor promptly selling the property for a profit from bids that were legitimately the banks but, the bank never had the option to consider. The bank was never able to consider the other higher and better offers because the investor intentionally withheld them. In many ways, I see this as equivalent to a bank heist.

The investor stole money directly from the bank not because of what he said however, because of what he intentionally failed to mention. The investor engages in deception when he misleads the bank into believing the only offer on the table is the investor's offer and it was the only offer received therefore it must be true market value.

This is a lie of omission. Let me explain, for the investor to remain silent and withhold from the bank vital information such as the additional higher better offers, is deceptive in that it gives a false impression to the bank. Basically, this lie subverts the truth with the hope to manipulate the banks decision to the benefit of the investor and not the bank who is already coming up short on the sale of the home.

If we really wanted to have a serious moral and ethical discussion about this type of lie, we need to understand that a lie of omission infringes or maybe even violates the banks right to self determination but, that is a totally different conversation for a different time.

This is also a lie based on misinformation or in other words, the investor is perpetuating a falsehood with the intent to mislead the bank into believing something that just isn't true. The investor is misinforming the bank by claiming they only received one offer and that offer is the one presented by the "investor". This is a falsehood because the investor knows he has higher and better offers but is concealing them.

In closing, I think I have made my points loud and clear. I really don't think any educated counter argument can be presented. I do believe however many "spin doctors" or "investors" are going to come out of the wood work and speak only on bits and pieces of the truth with the purpose to get support for their seriously questionable and in my opinion illegal business practice however, be that as it may.

The truth is, each and every one of you reading this far have to make a decision. I only hope that each of you make the right decision.