In the past couple of weeks, America's Home Rescue, an industry leader in pre-foreclosure education for real estate professionals, received new information from the legal counsel for NAR regarding the FTC’s final MARS Ruling and its impact on Realtors working Short Sales. MARS is a game-changer and it is imperative that you have the most current and accurate information. MARS directly impacts how you market yourself as a Short Sale specialist. On November 19, 2010, the FTC issued the Mortgage Assistance Relief Services (MARS) Final Ruling to protect distressed homeowners from mortgage relief scams that have sprung up during the mortgage crisis. If you provide pre-foreclosure services to homeowners, including Short Sales, you fall under this ruling. Even if you refer a homeowner to a 3rd party negotiation company, you are a MARS provider and are subject to the ruling.

Join us for this important webinar presentation!

Registration Link:  https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/168440736

Date: Thursday, March 31, 2011

11am Pacific
12pm Mountain
1pm Central
2pm Eastern

Industry-First MARS Resource Suite Now Available!
Includes Important Videos, Resources, Tools, and Sample Disclosures

America's Home Rescue, an industry leader in pre-foreclosure education for real estate professionals, has introduced the MARS Cafe, a resource suite for CDRS and CDRCS Members. On December 29, 2010, the FTC issued the Mortgage Assistance Relief Services (MARS) Ruling to protect distressed homeowners from mortgage relief scams that have sprung up during the mortgage crisis. If you provide pre-foreclosure services to homeowners, including Short Sales, you fall under this ruling. Even if you refer a homeowner to a 3rd party negotiation company, you are a MARS provider and are subject to the ruling.

Important Disclosures and Guidelines
The Rule requires mortgage relief companies (includes real estate agents) to disclose key information to consumers to protect them from being misled and to help them make better informed purchasing decisions. At a minimum, in your advertising, website, and in all communications directed at individual consumers, you must disclose that:

• you are not associated with the government, and your services have not been approved by the government or the consumer's lender;
• the lender may not agree to change the consumer's loan; and
• if you tell consumers to stop paying their mortgage, you must also tell them that they could lose their home and damage their credit rating.

What's included in the MARS Cafe?
America's Home Rescue conducted a 90-minute video overview of the new ruling, which is also available in the MARS Cafe. With resource links for several state association of Realtors, other resources include:

• Sample Script to Explain FTC MARS Disclosures to Your Seller (MS Word)
• AHR MARS Disclosure 1 - General Commercial Communication (PDF)
• AHR MARS Disclosure 2 - Consumer-Specific Communication (PDF)
• AHR MARS Disclosure 3a - Offer of Mortgage Relief from Lender (PDF)
• AHR MARS Disclosure 3b - Lender/Servicer Notice (PDF)
• and so much more!

Agents have now spent millions of dollars on Short Sale education... and yet the industry closing ratio is still hovering around 25%. It's Time to Hold our Industry Accountable.

The CSSBR is not about another designation... it's about holding our industry accountable and getting more Short Sales closed. Agents have now spent millions on Short Sale "education" and yet the Short Sale closing ratio is still running less than 25%. Why? Because our industry still doesn't know what they need to know. It's time to stop the nonsense and get honest about the responsibility we have have as an industry. If you're looking for another fluffy course and a few more letters to add to the alphabet soup after your name, the CSSBR is not for you. But, if you're tired of the fluff and ready to get more Short Sales closed, keep more homeowners from unnecessarily going to foreclosure, protect real estate values and get our market and our economy back on track, the CSSBR is for you.

The Certified Short Sale Buyer Representative designation (CSSBR) is designed for those real estate agents wanting to better understand the Short Sale process in an effort to more effectively represent Short Sale Buyers. Given the national foreclosure situation, coupled with record volume of inventory on the market in most regions of the country, chances are, if you're working with Buyers, your Buyers are offering on Short Sale listings. As a Buyer's Agent in today's environment, it is imperative that you have the knowledge, resources and tools to properly educate and effectively represent your Buyers in purchasing a Short Sale. The CSSBR designation is about providing you just that. Since 2003, America's Home Rescue has been a leader in providing advanced Short Sale education to over 40,000 real estate professionals. It's time to bring substantive, powerful Short Sale training to you as the Buyer Representative and empower you to better represent your Buyer Clients in Short Sale transactions.

Join us for the official launch and sneak preview on Wednesday, March 2 at 11am Central.

Do you think most Agents ever wonder about what they really don't know about a particular niche or topic, like Short Sales?  Let's face it, Short Sales aren't new anymore.  Everyone is tired of hearing about hardship letters, pay stubs, "subject to 3rd party approval', Equator, etc.  Consider this... If you’re a Listing or Buyer’s Agent working Short Sales, you might be putting your license or client at risk by not being able to understand and answer the following questions:

1. As a Listing Agent in a Short Sale, do you go active in MLS within 24-48 hours after you get the listing agreement signed, or do you get the Seller to agree that you will not go active in MLS until further notice based on the type of loan they have? You might not even realize it, but this is causing the majority of your problems.
   
2. As a Buyer Agent, when writing an offer on a Short Sale property, do you know what percentage of closing costs to ask for based on the type of loan the Seller has the type of financing your Buyer is bringing? Less than 1% of Agents know this and are wasting time writing offers that will never be accepted to begin with.
   
3. Are you aware that if the lender is asking for you to first procure a contract before submitting a Short Sale package, the lender may be breaking the rules, depending on the type of loan the Seller has?

Did you know that if you're in Florida, California, Nevada, or Arizona, you are less likely to know the answers to these questions, verses someone from North Carolina, Ohio, or Arkansas?

Fact: Over 95% of Realtors working Short Sales don't know what they don't know, but they would never admit it.  What if you were unknowingly causing your own short sales to implode?  What if it really wasn't alll the bank's fault, like you said it was?  What would you do if you found out that the homeowner that you were representing in a short sale unnecessarily went to foreclosure because of something you did that you weren't even aware of?  How many Agents have too big of an ego to even admit it?

Transform this Knowledge into a Referral Generation Machine

Back by popular demand!  ENCORE Short Sale Power Session - Register Now!

Are you one of those Agents that say you'll never work a Short Sale again? It's a fact of life...Human beings just want things to be easy. With regards to Short Sales, most Agents think they're too difficult. You've heard the saying...One man's "trash" is another man's "treasure". Well, this especially holds true in the world of short sales! Join us for this one-of-a-kind 90-minute Short Sale Power Session, where you can take what you learn and exponentially translate your knowledge into a referral generation machine. The knowledge gained from this webinar can earn you thousands of dollars in referral fees alone, but the key to achieving this only applies to those who can change their way of thinking!

What will be covered that 90% of Agents don't know?

* The Differences in shorting FHA, VA, and Conventional loans
* Knowing when you can and cannot get Buyer's closing costs approved
* Knowing what the lenders need to net, depending on the Seller's Loan Type
* How to calculate the MLS list price and the bottom line offer that will be approved
* Plus so much more!!

Short Sale Power Session Details

When: Thursday, January 27, 2011

11:00am-12:30am Pacific
12:00pm-1:30am Mountain
1:00am-2:30pm Central
2:00pm-3:30pm Eastern

If you have any questions, please call us at toll-free (888) 699-9222. We look forward to seeing you on the call and get ready to write a lot of notes!!

Regards,

Michael Spickes, CEO
America's Home Rescue

One of the biggest questions for us in why our Short Sale team is so successful and why our training is helping Agents to experience above-average closing ratios is this... How do you establish true market value on a VA or Conventional Short Sale, let alone, ALL Short Sale properties?

We have a very unique way of establishing value for VA and Conventional short sale properties. You and I both know that the appraisal that the lender orders, wither done by a certified appraiser or an agent, can be a lot different from what we can come up with. In fact, most agents come in too low, compared to the bank-ordered BPOs and this causes huge problems in short sales, as you can imagine. Why do most agents low-ball their values? To attract an offer that most lenders will never accept to begin with. This is going to sound crazy, but for the past 8 years, we have studied and tracked variations between lender-ordered appraisals and the agent’s perception of what the value should be. Amazingly, on a scale of 0-10, consisting of a given range of comps, most agents typically came in at around a 2.5-3. Most bank appraisals or BPOs came in at around a 6.5. Determining what we call the “Safe Value” is one thing. Going active on MLS at a price that will minimize the risk of the lender asking for a promissory note, or threatening a deficiency judgment, is part 2 of what we teach in our CDRS course. You can apply the same set of comps to 3 different neighborhoods and we teach you to go active at different prices, based on each neighborhood and where in the pre-foreclosure process the Seller is, either the default stage, the acceleration or NOD stage, or the foreclosure stage. No one else is teaching this method in the country and it’s sad, because so many agents continue to unknowingly goof up their short sales from the very beginning and they don’t even realize it.

By the way, we use a mix of regular sales, short sales, and foreclosures, depending on level of concentration and number of comps available. Here’s my biggest piece of advice. It’s really not about what you’re trying to justify as the value, because that’s where the majority of the drama takes place when you are attempting to contest a high appraisal. It’s about putting yourself in the shoes of a person the bank is calling upon to establish the fair market value of YOUR listing and wondering what they might use to base their findings and, ultimately, their perceived value. Also, one of the best ways to contest a high appraisal is to send a printed report of a lockbox access report for the subject property to the loss mitigation dept, after making notes of what the price was at during certain time frames. Market value is what the public will pay and if the lenders disagree with that, sorry, they're about to take another property back as an REO and sit on it for a long time! If the bank’s appraisal comes in too high, your lockbox report will show little to no activity at that price bracket. Get your CDRS designation and you will be the best Short Sale agent in your market…guaranteed! Have a great day!

If you were in trouble on your mortgage and needed to do a Short Sale, regardless of the circumstances, how would you feel if most real estate agents you talked to said "No way! I'm not dealing with that!"

I am fully aware that for many of you, the topic of Short Sales is not something you'd rather not talk about. I can completely appreciate your frustration, as I have also experienced my share of challenges in my own Short Sales as well…too many times over 8 years. Here’s what I know. In my lifetime, if I based my decisions on few negative experiences, I would never move beyond what is ultimately best for both me and my clients in the long run. In my experience, this applies to all aspects of real estate, including Short Sales. Bottom line, Short Sales are a volume based niche and the key to success is working many, not just one at a time, because some are simply not going to go through, due to things beyond your control. It’s a given fact. Even our company has never experienced a closing ratio of 100%. Simply stated, there are bank reps that will make your day and ruin others. There are Short Sale appraisals that will come back high and unnecessarily send a homeowner to foreclosure over what is really a flaw in the system. In the end, my Short Sale business is not about me, my likes or dislikes. If it were, wouldn't that be a bit selfish? For me personally, this is about doing something right, not just for me, but primarily for all my clients and the homeowners I represent now and in the future. I will never lose sight of that. What is your belief?

Last week, we posted a thread titled The Big Elephant in the Room many don't want to Acknowledge. With a couple hundred responses, it was very interesting to see the strong opinions of so many of you toward Short Sales, why you do or don't like to work them, and why many of you feel Short Sales are an answer, if not, the answer to a successful real estate market recovery. Here's what was more interesting. Many of you have your mind made up about never wanting to touch them again, even if it's in the best interest of your client. Others lashed out saying it is our fiduciary responsibility to do what is in the best interest for our client, not what's in the best interest of ourselves.

No doubt, for the past 18-24 months, Short Sales have presented their challenges. As listing agents, many of you have had issues with seemingly uncooperative support from the lenders and servicers. As a Buyer's Agent, many of you have had issues with seemingly inexperienced or untrained Listing Agents, causing unnecessary time delays or the deal to bomb altogether. It seems that Short Sales have become the metaphoric crucible of the hashing out of so much blame and so many feelings of underlying fear, insecurity, anger, etc.

• What is your opinion/experience?
• How have you seen things change over the last few years in your own business/market?
• How do you think the Short Sale process could be more streamlined?
• How are your FHA Short Sales going?
• What about your VA, Conventional and HAFA Short Sales?
• What are your greatest challenges?
• Which lenders are you having the greatest success with and which lenders are you having the most difficulty with? If you’re working with BofA or GMAC, how is the Equator system working for you?

If you could offer some constructive suggestions to the lenders, investors, Fannie, Freddie, Treasury, what would your suggestions be? After recently meeting with the US Treasury to discuss the foreclosure situation in this country and the role of our industry as part of the solution, Stacy and I “have the ear” of industry/government leaders and are constantly seeking to be a force for positive change and voice on behalf of our industry and the homeowners we are collectively serving. Here’s your opportunity to speak up… if you had the power to rework the system/process, how would you do it? What changes could be made “at the top” that would enable us all to better serve our communities and reduce the number of homeowners who are unnecessarily going to foreclosure?