Funny true realtor stories on Trulia.

Here are some funny stories on Trulia by Realtors:

http://pro.truliablog.com/grow-business/getting-prepared-for-2012-real-estate-life-lessons-you-should-commit-to-memory/?ecampaign=tnews&eurl=pro.truliablog.com%2Fgrow-business%2Fgetting-prepared-for-2012-real-estate-life-lessons-you-should-commit-to-memory

Do you have any stories you can share in the comments?

New Home Production Climbs to Highest Point Since October 2008 according to figures released by the US Commerce Dept.

This good news comes on the heels of a very depressing 60 Minutes story last Sunday about the state of the housing industry in this country.  Hopefully, things are on the mend. 

Read this story published in the National Mortgage Professional at the following link:

http://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/news27665/new-home-production-climbs-highest-point-october-2008?utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=NMP+Daily%3A+Building+Confidence+Rises%2C+Delinquencies+Rises+Too+and+More+___&utm_campaign=NMP+Daily%3A+New+Home+Production+Up%2C+REMN%27s+203k+Goes+Wholesale%2C+StreetLinks%27+USPAP+Report+for+Servicers+and+More+___&utm_term=New+Home+Production+Climbs+to+Highest+Point+Since+October+2008

Do you have a Fannie Mae loan?  If you have a conventional mortgage, then there is a good chance you do.  Here's a website that Fannie set-up for borrowers to find out if their loan is owned by Fannie Mae.

Click here to find out - http://www.fanniemae.com/loanlookup/

If you have a Fannie Mae loan and if you live in the Carolinas, I can assist you with your mortgage.

The program called DU Refi Plus allows borrowers with bad credit to do a refi IF they have no lates on their mortgage payment.  I approved a borrower with a 560 FICO last week and saved him around $400/mo on his mortgage payment.  He did not have any lates on his mortgage for over 12 mos.

For the DU Refi Plus program, the LTV can currently go up to 105% and it can go higher if you are working with your current servicer.  If you have a GMAC Mortgage loan, I can get you approved for up to 125%!

If you currently have PMI then that would stay the same and if you currently do not have PMI that would stay the same as well.

Find out if your loan is owned by Fannie and let me know if I can assist you save some money with a great low rate with this DU Refi Plus program.

I started working on my Christmas cards this week and I have mailed 48 so far and handed out about that many more.  I hope to be able to hand-deliver the rest of them next week while prospecting.  Christmas cards are a great way to stay in touch and hopefully, my card will be used to decorate their office this year too.

This year I created a little greeting with a Christmas navity scene that I pasted to the inside with a couple of appropriate messages.  I found the greetings I used from a Google search since I could not come up with something on my own.

Here are some sites with many good greetings in case your cards don't already have one.

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1487627-Sample-Holiday-Wording

 http://www.greetingcardmessages.com/cat/christmas1.htm

http://www.classyannouncements.com/christmascardwordingideas.aspx

http://blakeflannery.hubpages.com/hub/Holiday-Card-Messages-Christmas-and-New-Years-Greetings

Here are the ones I used in my message to you too!

"Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more."  Dr. Seuss

Wishing you the Joy of Family, the Happiness of Friends and the Love of Christmas!

From my family to yours.

Merry Christmas!!

Sam

Hope this blog gives you some ideas for your Christmas card mailings this year!

Do you have any friends with money?  Maybe they need to think about investing in Real Estate now!!

I read an article in Nov/Dec edition of Realtor Magazine by Chief Economist Lawrence Yun.  He pointed out the housing affordability is about the best it has ever been.  This is great for cash buyers but not so much for others with the mortgage lending tightening. 

Lawrence said that rents rose 3% in the 3rd quarter of 2011 and the data indicates that this trend will probably continue.  IF this trend continues at an anually rate of around 3.5%, rents will double in the next 20 years.  IF they reach a 5% trend, it will only take 14 years to double.

Now that the bubble has passed, home price could also double in the next 14 to 20 years but it is still unclear when prices will begin to catch up with rents.

According to the expert, for the long-term, investors buying today are sure to catch some, if not most of the upward ride!

Some good places for investors to look are with home auctions where you can find some good deals and on homepath.com where investors can buy with just 10% down for no PMI.  If you have an investor in the Carolinas, ask them to call me to get pre-approved for a quick and easy closing.  Not all lending is difficult and not all lenders are the same.  We start off by underwriting the file in a few days before we move it to processing.

I often get that question and don't dare answer it for them.  Instead, I'll refer them to the realtor.com commentary so they can decide for themselves.  In our business, we hold our breath when we get a borrower locked and hope that we can close them before their are any major price drops.  If there are price increases, we are doing everything we can to ensure a timely close so we don't have to extend the rate.

With these rates hovering in the high 3's it is just such a great time to get in a home so that you can start investing in an investment that you can call home.  The home is like a saving account that you can fix up and enjoy for the rest of your life.  How many other investments can you say that about?

Here's the link I share for rate locking advice.  Feel free to share it with your clients.

http://www.realtor.com/home-finance/market-commentary-news/

If you are in the Carolinas and if you want to get your buyers locked with a great lender, call me!  We have a great Purchase Power program that essentially pays all of the closing costs.  This mostly leaves the buyers with the escrows and they can ask for some seller concessions for those.

Have a great weekend.

The 3-Day Rule!  

There is a standard that sales people use in sales that if we all followed, our business would be soaring.  It's called the 3-day rule and here is how it works.  When you talk to a prospect, always take the time to get to know them and give them some information.  Then, try to schedule some time to build rapport and get to know them better and if all goes well, continue to work with them and keep working on finding them their dream house, etc.

Always ask for their contact numbers and email addresses and follow this rule if you have not heard from them in 3 days, call them and have some news for them to keep them excited!  In case you get their voice mail, here's a way to do this to really increase your chances...  

"Hey John, I have some great news!  Call me as soon as you get this message so I can tell you what I found out today!"  

This sparks their curiosity and should get you a call and when they do, have some news to tell them about like a new house you found them, the lower interest rates, etc.

If you are in the Carolinas, you can mention about our "Purchase Power" program that that we are promoting for paying most of the closing costs! (Let me know if you want a flyer on this!)  

Many will not or might not call back with a message like this...  

"Hey John, I hadn't heard from you and wondered if you were still interested in the house on Green Street..."  

Also, I've heard that 60% of sales occurs on or after the 6th call so don't give up too easily.  Get creative with your prospects so you can show them how good you are.

Hope these ideas helps your business soon.

How do you tell your sellers that their house is filthy when they don't think it is?

Here's an idea that could help that I heard from a Realtor a few years ago.

Offer to send out your cleaning people to clean their house that are trained with some things that you have taught them to do over the years.  You could have them take care of things that need attention in the yard too.

This could  be a good way to get the house in better shape for showings for your sellers without offending anybody's house-cleaning skills.  AND, you can educate your cleaning people on the little things they can do for you to make sure the house pops and that it smells great too!

It is seen as a nice gesture and and shows that you are on top of things from the sellers point of view.

I heard a pitch from a business broker that had a great way to make sure that he was not wasting time with buyers that had a small chance of ever buying.  These prospects were coined "the black hole" of the business brokering business because they work the brokers to death with no money to show for it.

This idea is used by Realtors too, but probably not to the extent that the Business Broker did it.  His idea was that the buyer had to be pre-approved AND the potential buyer had to put up $250 that would be forfeited if no deal was ever done after a pre-determined time frame.  If a deal was done, the $250 would be applied as a credit to his commission.  He had this mainly to weed out the bad ones and he put together a good program for the ones in his VIP Program.  He would do weekly updates on business listings and even do mailings to business owners to see if they wanted to sell.

Realtors can also provide a VIP program to their buyers with some stipulations.  Things like requiring that the buyers sign an exclusive right to represent for 12 months and that they get pre-approved with a pre-approval letter.  A realtor VIP program could have some timing requirements put in to make sure that the sense of urgency is there first.

Then, when you get calls from other prospects, you will not get too distracted from your VIP buyers that should be your first priority along the buyers in your closing pipeline.  You can use this VIP program idea to let your other prospects know that they need to get in your VIP program too!

Here are some ideas for you to do for your VIPs:

1. Send a hotsheet for any listing that pops up that meets their criteria (Most MLS systems have a way to do this automatically)

2. Weekly updates on market conditions including what was added to the MLS and what sold and at what price.

3. Send mortgage market updates with locking recommendations that you can get almost anywhere like on Realtor.com at this link http://www.realtor.com/home-finance/market-commentary-news/.

4. Take them to lunch occasionally with your phone turned off for some valuable one-on-one face time.

Good Luck and if you are in the Carolinas and if you want to add a good mortgage resource to your VIP program, call me!

After "Black Friday" ended, the next big thing in "Cyber Monday" that started at midnight and some are now promoting "Cyber Week" to keep this hype going as long as they can.  Now is when you should be able to find extra discounts for your online shopping.  My wife has already tried to get a discount on a watch that my daughter had her eye on for Christmas but it was not reduced at midnight after all...

I hope for the sake of our country, that many will shop locally to help support the small business owners in their community trying to keep their heads above water. 

Some other ideas that are being promoted include the following:

1. Gift certificates for auto servicing or new tires.

2. Gift certificates for a local restaurant.

3. Gift certificate for a local movie theatre, upcoming play or game.

4. Gift certificate for a massage or hair appointment.

5. Gift certificate for a local retail store. (These are great because you can take advantage of the after Christmas sales too.)

If you know a small business owner, ask them if they have gift certificates that you can promote for them in your blogs and in your travels.  This might give them an idea that can really help their business.  You can offer to print up some certificates for them that they can sign and sell.

Then, before their customers leave their business empty handed, they can offer them the chance to buy a gift certificate as a Christmas gift idea. 

One more thing about gift certificates.  Many never get used, lost or expire and most people that use them will spend more than the face value amount on the certificate.  That is why many businesses are offering these and gift cards.

For these business owners that appreciate your help, ask if you can promote your services at their business too by setting up a business card holder on their counter!  I am sure that they will be happy to return the favor.  This can help YOUR small business too!