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Summary of Real Estate News from the Cutting Edge - August 26, 2009

The week’s real estate posts of interest from The Cutting Edge.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­26 AUG 09

FBI Postures for Fight Against Escalating Mortgage Fraud | A Bird's Eye View "The FBI’s annual mortgage fraud report showed that losses in the first half of the 2009 fiscal year exceeded fraud committed during the same period in the previous fiscal year by about $208 million. In 2008, lenders reported 63,713 separate incidents of mortgage fraud. That’s more than one-third more than the previous year. The FBI anticipates the number of cases for mortgage fraud to exceed 70,000 this year."

Housing prices - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com

Matrix » [REALTOR Mag] The Trouble With the HVCC "I often disagree with NAR and have frequently pointed out their missed opportunity to earn the public trust despite their interests as a trade organization, but hey - they are coming from a different vantage point. However this time I agree with their view on the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (the position itself rather than how they get to it.)"

 24 AUG 09

The XBroker Mortgage Real Estate Marketing Technology » Drug Cartels, Cancerous Growth and The F*cked Mortgage Industry "Who is to blame for the housing and mortgage markets undoing depends on who you ask. Consumers blame everyone, brokers blame banks, banks blame brokers, appraisers are in the cross-hairs, even real estate professionals are not immune to the finger pointing…I think Michael Jackson had something to do with it all, but I can’t prove that."

Investors defaulting to make money | Real Estate and Technology News for Agents, Brokers and Investors | Inman News "For most homeowners, foreclosure is like a fatal illness that starts with losing control of their finances and ends with a sickening feeling when the bank finally seizes the property. Post-foreclosure, a homeowner's credit rating gets trashed and he can be in financial purgatory for years, making it nearly impossible to buy or rent property. But while foreclosure typically spells disaster for homeowners, for some New York City investors it may actually be a good business decision."

MLS, Cluetrain, and Social Web – One Step At A Time, Gingerly « The Notorious R.O.B. "Why would I list my house with an agency if upon being posted online, it gets hammered by criticism? Because the agent in question would have prepped me for it. She would have sat me down and explained the facts of life in real estate, so that such negativity doesn’t faze me."

Business thrives on 'Whuffie' factor | Real Estate and Technology News for Agents, Brokers and Investors | Inman News "Tara Hunt elaborates on this concept in her book, "The Whuffie Factor." According to Hunt, the five steps that you must take to create Whuffie for your business are: 1. Stop talking and start listening. 2. Become part of the community you serve. 3. Create amazing customer experiences. 4. Embrace the chaos. Communities are made up of people, and people aren't predictable. 5. Find your higher purpose: What can you give to others and still be profitable?"

Calculated Risk: Comment on First-time Homebuyer Tax Credit

BloodhoundBlog.com | If You Want to Close Deals, Force Registration | National real estate marketing and technology blog | Realtors and real estate, mortgage and investment news "Let me repeat that: If you want to close more deals, force your users to register to view property listings on your website. I can back this up with hard data. I can back this up with recent data. If you allow open registration on your IDX/RETS site, you do not receive better leads than the broker/agent with forced registration."

23 AUG 09

Calculated Risk: SFGate: First-Time Homebuyers Competing with Investors "Since January, I've put in 10 bids (on foreclosed homes); some were up to $80,000 over asking price and were still turned down," said [first-time home buyer, Jay] Nielsen, 41, a medical assistant. Each time, the banks selected offers from investors with all-cash offers - even when those offers were lower than his, Nielsen said. "Cash is king right now," said Glen Bell of Keller Williams Realty in Berkeley. "

Real Estate Blog - 3 Essential Books to read if you are using Social Media in your marketing Real life interests me more than stories about it. You would never know I was an English major by looking at my home library. Since I have been teaching some social media business topics lately, it seems that I am called upon to provide handouts with links and useful tidbits, so I have started putting together a list of essential books that relate to the subject.

Why I Love Social Media – It’s about real people — The Phoenix Real Estate Guy "I use social media to meet people. Meet as in real life, face-to-face meet. Not just meet across the keyboard. I don’t do it for “leads”. I do it to meet people, to grow, learn and share. And I’ll freely admit, I do it for fun. Yes, it has led to business which is a wonderful ancillary effect, but that is not my primary purpose in engaging in social media"

Great start in Midtown : Real Estate : Memphis Commercial Appeal My client featured: "She has three snakes, a cat and a rabbit (plus a roommate). Animals, as you can tell, figure large in her life, and the Midtown house she acquired in June had to be able to handle that."

 22 AUG 09

HomeGain 3Q 2009 Realtor Survey on Home Prices via Sellsius Blog

Calculated Risk: More on Existing Home Inventory "It is important to watch inventory levels very carefully. If you look at the 2005 inventory data, instead of staying flat for most of the year (like the previous bubble years), inventory continued to increase all year. That was one of the key signs that led me to call the top in the housing market!"

 21 AUG 09

Calculated Risk: Existing Home Sales and First-Time Buyers First-time home buyer activity has boosted existing home sales, and will continue to boost existing home sales (reported at close of escrow) through November. # This level of first-time buyers is completely unsustainable - even if another tax credit is enacted. There was significant pent up demand from potential first-time buyers who were priced out of the market in 2004-2006, and then were afraid to buy as prices fell. But demand from these buyers will wane. (Like "cash-for-clunkers" demand waned).

Housing Recovery: Tech Ticker, Yahoo! Finance Karen Weaver, global head of Deutsche Bank's securitization research division, takes a more measured approach. She thinks it's too "quite early to be calling a bottom" nationwide. "The green shoots are more like crabgrass."

 20 AUG 09

Isn’t everyone feeling depressed these days? - Housing Doom "Nearly half of a group of 250 people in Philadelphia whose homes were in foreclosure reported depressive symptoms, and 37 percent "met screening criteria for major depression; according a study by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine."

Promoters, detractors are your business | Real Estate and Technology News for Agents, Brokers and Investors | Inman News "Real estate satisfaction is short-lived and clients do not engage in transactions often enough to sustain it for repeat business. A real estate transaction lacks word-of-mouth promotional appeal, provides no social currency, the risk of a failed referral, and is limited by local marketing reach."

How Many Problems Can You Handle At The Same Time? | Real Estate Opinion MAG - AgentGenius "At any given time we all have a limit. That limit varies depending on a number of factors: the nature of the problems, the emotion tied to the problems, how far down into “seriousness” one is, even how well rested or hungry one is at the time. Bottom line, it becomes too much when there is more external push against self than there is left of self to push back."

New Appraisal Rules For Real Estate Creating Worse Issues For Industry : The Real Estate Bloggers "Appraisals have been a sore spot in the real estate market in the past decade. When things were booming, pressure was placed on appraisers to make the value hit the loan amount. This caused prices and values of properties to skyrocket. Then when the downturn hit, appraisers realized their culpability in the boom and tightened their standards. Real estate agents were bamboozled as property sales were constantly getting stuck at the appraisal stage as the values were regularly coming in under the loan amount. "

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1911 Mignon, Memphis, TN 38107 - Classic Midtown Bungalow - Rhodes College Area

3 Essential Books to read if you are using Social Media in your marketing

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