A local toy company is recruiting from the mortgage industry to increase its sales department.  I received one of these recruiting calls.  I sort of giggled to myself..."this is a change in attitude - an industry wants one or several of US".  Presently, mortgage brokers are not that highly regarded.  It seems that this particular toy maufacturer thinks that mortgage brokers fit the bill nicely.  The recruiter said, "Loan Originators are used to a quick response, great follow-up and they tend to communicate well."  WOW, I was blown away...a positive comment about an industry that has been under fire.  There are people out there who like us, YAY!

Appraisers must know their stuff!

This Ridgefield, CT mortgage broker had an interesting discussion with a local appraiser.  As we all know, banks are ripping apart appraisals like never before...I believe we all know why, but allow me to reiterate...

•  Appraisers have fewer comparable sales to draw upon. 
•  Big discounts from listing prices.
•  More sellers are offering incentives to market their properties such as paying closing costs.*
•  Greater concern about property conditions.
•  Lenders are more cautious.

*The incentive inclusion, like sales incentives, is skewing market prices - appraisers must really dig deep to determine true sales prices. 

Good appraisers know how to deal with these issues - it's best to discuss these variables upfront instead of confronting issues that may delay a closing.

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I just read an interesting rule of thumb - just like many, it is afterall, COMMON SENSE!  When mortgage payments and property tax equal one's rent, it is time to buy!  Of course...such easy logic.  I have mentioned this to several realtor and they have said, "oh yeah......" I'll pass this along.  Not only is it the logical time to buy because properties have been reduced but some renters are reporting that they are being taken advantage of by building owners who are gouging them with rent increases.  So everyone out there...calll your favorite active rain realtor and mortgage broker in your state and let them go to work for you!

"The sales of existing single-family homes jumped 3.1% in July due to strong sales in markets that previously have seen substantial price declines, such as Ft. Myers, Fla., Sacramento, Calif., and Las Vegas."

Why do you think this is so????   Finally home prices in this area dropped to what they should be.  Buyers knew these were prices that would probably not drop much more in the near future because they were priced at the assessed value and the buyers jumped in - thus creating a glut of sales - Homeowners in other areas of the country should learn from this...

By Brad Finkelstein

Very interesting piece...

A report from Fannie Mae finds that 23% of all the fraudulent loans originated in 2006-2007 come from the top 10 ZIP codes nationwide.

The report, issued in May 2008, breaks down the information by the first three digits of a ZIP code. The to 10 cities are Detroit, Minneapolis, Tampa, Atlanta, Pompano Beach, Fla., Las Vegas, Miami, Dearborn, Mich., Memphis and Orlando.

This is a change from the list for April 2008, when Minneapolis was listed as No. 1, followed by Atlanta, Detroit, Memphis, Miami and Las Vegas. The last three cities fell off the list for the following month: St. Paul, Victorville, Calif., and Moreno Valley, Calif.

By type of misrepresentation found, income being inflated or fabricated was tops at 26%, followed by the borrower misstating liabilities at 25%.

Whether the borrower actually intended to occupy the property was next at 16%, while a material fact or comparable sale about a property was not accurate was 10%.

Rounding out the findings are a property's value being misstated, 8%; identity or credit history misstatement, 6%; Social Security number discrepancy, 5%; and borrower assets being inflated or fabricated, 4%.

In April, income misrepresentations were 30% of the findings, followed by misstating liabilities at 26%.

Fannie Mae provided the top seven markets for Social Security number misrepresentation. The top three are the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, along with a suburb, Burnsville, Minn. Rounding out the list are Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Fort Walton Beach, Fla., and Houston.

The Southeast edges out the Midwest as the region where the most fraud is found. The states of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida had 29% of Fannie Mae's findings.

Meanwhile, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska was where 27% of the fraudulent loans came from.

California and Hawaii accounted for 15% and the Southwest states of Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado accounted for 10%

At the other end of the spectrum, only 1% of fraudulent loans came from the Pacific Northwest states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Next best region was Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, West Virginia and Virginia at 4%.

The Northeast - Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine - and the oil patch states of Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas each were found to be host to 7% of the fraudulent loans.

Fannie Mae said that Las Vegas, Tampa and Orlando were found to have loans that contained significant fraud issues related to condominiums. Those areas are believed to be among the hardest hit by the downturn.

In the report Fannie Mae said the specific issues regarding these loans at the project level include ineligible use, such as condotels, lease-back agreements with no access to the units for owner-borrowers, seller contributions that are either ineligible or excessive, inflated appraisals and/or the placement of mandatory arbitration clauses in sales contracts.

At the borrower level for these condominium properties, Fannie Mae commonly found misrepresented income, misrepresentation of the intent to occupy and/or undisclosed liabilities.

I think the sentiment and the expression are adorable...as one says...a picture is worth a thousand words...(not however, if you are into Active Rain points!)  It's also funny that at first I just posted this picture without any sort of comment - I received more comments than I have when I write a well thought out commentary - I must listen to this...obviously, my commentaries are boring, senseless and not of interest to most! 

Brad Finkelstein reports, "Average home sales prices in New York City actually increased by 12% in the second quarter 2008 over the same period in 2007, according to a report from ResidentialNYC.com, a website managed by the Real Estate Board of New York.

The report tracks the sales prices of both apartments (condominiums and co-operative) and one-to-three family homes. The increase was driven by a rise in the average sales price for apartments.

"The second quarter report found that in the midst of falling property values nationwide, prices are still rising throughout New York City, particularly for apartments, despite some declines among single-family homes," said Steven Spinola, REBNY President. "Manhattan average sales prices experienced substantial gains in the quarter and led to the citywide increases, but Brooklyn and Queens apartment average sales prices also saw increases, and are clearly retaining their value."

Leave it to New Yorkers!

As a mortgage broker here in lovely Ridgefield, CT, I have received numerous phone calls from homeowners who have taken out HELOCs - home equity lines only to find after only using a portion of the HELOC, their bank tells them, "WHOA" - no more checks to be written against this loan.  With the declining home market, many homeowners are finding themselves "underwater" or "upside down" in their home loan situation.  Equity has decreased due to falling prices therefore many banks are saving what they can by curtailing the use of further funds from HELOCs.  These HELOCs don't necessarily have to be paid off, but use must be curtailed.

Great Advice from the "Dog Pound" online

Besides food, daily walks are the other essential ingredient in a dog's world.
Many of our loyal companions crave walking as much as eating, but sweltering summer heat can be disruptive to them - and even pose danger - as they go about their daily exercise routines.

Unlike a person, a dog has no sweat glands for cooling, making hot weather particular dangerous for our precious pooches. A dog dissipates some heat from the skin but relies heavily on panting to evaporate water from the respiratory tract. A dog's cooling system will start working hard when the temperature approaches 70 degrees and can easily become overwhelmed in summer's heat and humidity, leading to heat stroke.
Dogs who are elderly, have heart or respiratory conditions, and breeds with short snouts - like pugs, terriers and bulldogs - are especially at high risk of overheating.

On hot and humid days, even a healthy dog can quickly begin to overheat even after just 20 minutes of vigorous exercise.

The obvious way to beat the summer heat is to plan your dog's daily exercise for early morning or late at night, when the temperature is cooler. But some energetic dogs insist upon going out even during the heat of the day or they are miserable.

If your dog is one of these, try some of these ideas to keep them safe:

• Wet your dog down with a water-laden sponge before going on a walk. I have had two energetic English Setters who insisted that they had to get their exercise even on the hottest days or they would go stir-crazy. Sponging down a dog will keep its fur coat cool - at least temporarily.
• Carefully plan walk routes along shaded areas. Stay off the pavement, especially the black top of roads and driveways that can sizzle in the midday blazing sun and actually burn a dog's foot pads. A park or area with trails that traverse through heavily wooded areas is a great place on hot days. The temperature in the woods sometimes can be 10 or even 15 degrees cooler.
• Go to a pond in a wooded area rather than an ocean beach. Blazing beaches are one of the worst places to take a dog in the summer. The sand sizzles, the blinding sun reflects off the water and sand, and the water is salty. All are a bad combination for a dog's foot pads, eyes and fur coat. Conversely, a pond in a wooded area gives a dog a chance to take a dip in fresh water to cool down and then walk in the shade.
• Always have a supply of fresh drinking water. Either carry a canteen or plan the route to go by a water fountain. One of my favorite tricks is take a tiny two-ounce Dixie cup with me. They have a waxed coating, so they easily fold without tearing and fit into a pocket. One route I walk my dogs along has a fountain at the midway point, where we stop for water. They have no trouble lapping up the water from the tiny cup with their probing tongues. The cup also is a handy tool to use to wet down a dog's coat. I repeatedly fill and use it to gently pour cool water over my dogs, wetting them from head to toe before we resume walking.
• Modify the exercise routine. Rather than that one long hike, go on two or three shorter walks. During the summer, I sometimes take my dogs on three 20-minute walks at different locations around town. The drive in between each location allows them to cool down in the air-conditioned car, drink some water and rest

The Real Estate Analyst Guide advises...

To Help your Business Thrive...

How do you grab prospective client's attention, arouse their interest, trigger their desire, and motivate them to take action? Answer that four-part question correctly and you've identified the secret to achieving tremendous sales and marketing success in the Real Estate Industry. To complicate matters, however, the potential answers are as numerous and multi-faceted as the growing number of niche markets, products and services, and marketing trends in our culture.

 Marketing Strategy #1: Gain Your Customers Confidence. Customer indecisiveness, skepticism, indifference, or confusion are among the top sales killers in the business world. It's up to you to project an image of experience, quality, dependability, excellent customer service, and/or added value to your prospective customers in order to win their confidence. If you haven't clearly communicated the advantages and solid reasons for them to do business with you, then they'll be hesitant to commit and the sale will go to your competitor.

Marketing Strategy #2: Penetrate awareness of your target audience by using some form of integrated marketing. In other words, the more ways the public hears about you, the better your chances are for achieving brand recognition, credibility, and greater market share. Effective marketing is partly the result of exposing your target audience to your name and your selling points (unique selling proposition) as often as possible(frequency), in as many ways as possible, and as cost-effectively as possible.

Marketing Strategy #3: Sincere enthusiasm, in both print and in person, is contagious. If you deeply believe in your services, your company, and yourself, then your prospects will pick up on that passionate attitude and feel confident and optimistic about doing business with you.

Marketing Strategy #4: Purchasing is an emotional decision. Instill in your prospects good feelings about your company, your business relationship with them, and how you can improve their situation. Accomplishing that is as important in the sales and marketing process as focusing attention on your companies features and benefits.

Marketing Strategy #5: Dispel distrust. Gain customer confidence and overcome potential feelings of distrust by offering written guarantees of satisfaction whenever possible, customer testimonials, references, and by joining respected and well-known professional organizations, such as the Better Business Bureau, Chambers of Commerce, and industry associations.

                                             

Marketing Strategy #6: Impose a deadline. Counteract one of the biggest obstacles to closing a sale known to mankind: procrastination. To overcome the natural human tendency to deliberate, postpone, and delay, it's often necessary to inject a sense of urgency into your ads, sales presentations, and marketing messages. Whether supplies are limited or prices are going up at the end of the month, some prospects need to have a deadline or an incentive to motivate them to take action now.

Marketing Strategy #7: Create a business marketing plan to identify and capitalize on your strengths and opportunities. Your marketing strategies should also take into account factors such as your weaknesses (and possible remedies), external threats (competition, economic factors, etc.), your marketing mix strategy (services, promotional goals, pricing strategy, and distribution decisions), media strategy, sales and expense budgets, target market analysis (know your customers), and readily available marketing tools, as well as marketing tools that you need to research or obtain..