Mitchell - St. Louis Real Estate

Stopping By Again To Say Hi!

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:20:37 -0500

Hi Everyone! It's amazing how time gets away for a person. Here it is going on the end of October and I realized that I haven't blogged here on Activerain for quite some time.

I really don't have a good reason. It started because I got really busy working on my house and with a few transactions, but that really wasn't the only reason. I guess that I just got burned out a bit on the whole blogging thing.

I know, it's a good thing to do for my business and I have truly enjoyed being able to express myself here and most of all, I feel like I've gotten to know a bunch of really nice people, but it just lost it's charm for me for a while.

Here recently, I've been getting the itch to write again and plan on sitting down at some point over the weekend and addressing some issues that have been in the news lately and really seem to need some addressing, but right now I've got to dash again.

So, to all of my activerain buddies out there....Please know that I've been thinking of you and that I'll be back really soon!

Bob Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

How Much Is The Cover?

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:40:05 -0500

Sounds like an interesting group! I guess that I can live with the keeping it clean, though I did think that the group was supposed to be about Men and the things that we talk about. I.e. things like, "Did you see the booty on that girl!"

So, in my way of paying ommage to the name of the group, I have a question for you guys...What is the best strip club that you've ever been to and why do you think that?

I nominate a club called, "Daisy Dukes" in Dubuque Iowa. The cool thing about it was that the liquor laws in Iowa won't let them have the women get totally naked AND allow them to sell booze. So, the guy who owns the club has a liquor store across the parking lot from the club where you can buy your beer.

You then hand it to the bar tender, who puts it in a cooler for you and when you're ready the waitress brings you one of your beers. The cover to get in was only $10.00, so including my 12 pack and a couple of private dances I got away with under $80.00 for the night.

Hell, I've had to pay $25.00 just to get into a club in Chicago once, so to have an entire night for $80.00 was a bargain!

The ladies were very attractive and the place was clean. What more could a guy ask for?

Bob Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

P.S. Robert, was that "clean" enough? ;-)

Bob Mitchell is the president of ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc., St. Louis' largest discount/full-service real estate and mortgage company. To find out more about Bob, ValueList or our flat-fee listing program please feel free to visit our web page, valuelistre.com

Stopping By To Say Hi..

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:30:02 -0500

It's been kind of a crazy couple of weeks here in old St. Louis and I haven't been able to get on Activerain as much as I would like.

There are a bunch of different reasons that I haven't been on, including the best one...I've started getting busy again! YEAHH!!!!

I've also been out and about riding my bicycle at least 3 times a week and more if we get the chance. The bummer about this is that we try and ride in different locations as much as possible and that means that we're having to drive to where we are going to go for the ride at. Being as that Kathy doesn't get off until 5 and isn't home until 5:30 or so, this means that we don't get home until 9ish...tired and sweaty!

So, ususually it's a shower, a bite and then bedtime..

Also, I'm working on finishing the house....So, all things considered, something had to give and it's been my blogging.

One bit of exciting news on the blogging front however is that I just got my first, honest to God, direct from Activerain client! YEAH!!!! I know that some of you seem to have folks call you all the time from your blogs and I've had people call me before too..including several reporters who have in turn written about us, but as far as direct business, I haven't really gotten any. At least that I know of.

Yesterday, I got a call from a lady who said that she had read one of my posts and saw that I was the Number one agent in Missouri and that she wanted me to sell her house. ChaChing! Thanks Activerain!

Anyway, time to run upstairs and change for the ride...just wanted to stop by and say hi. Thanks to all of your who touched bases with me....things are going great! Now, out of the rain and into the sun!

Bob Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

"Last Lecturer" Andy Pausch Loses His Battle With Cancer

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:29:58 -0500

I don't know how many of you are familiar with Andy Pausch. He was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who was suffering from Pancreatic Cancer that had been determined to be terminal.

His "last lecture" to his students was recorded and became an internet phenomena. If you haven't seen it, please take the time. You won't regret it at all.

The way that he approached his illness and his life serves as a lesson to us all.

R.B."Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Where Would The Housing Markets Be If The Government Had Dealt With The Sub-Prime Mess In An Effective Manner?

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:00:12 -0500

I've got a question for all of you, What would have happened if the government hadn't pussy footed around with the sub-prime mess and had addressed the issues in a forthright and substantial way early in the crises?

Would the housing crises have so deep and damaging?

Could some of the decline in property values have been averted?

Would there have been thousands of families less that wouldn't have been forced onto the streets?

I think the answers to these questions would have been;"No", the housing crises wouldn't have been so deep and so damaging. "Yes" declines in property values could have been averted. And "yes" there would have been far fewer families who would have lost their homes!

As I wrote about in, "Take Two Fed Cuts And Call Me In The Morning" the government went at this problem from the perspective of dealing with things from a macro economic point of view. Instead of worrying about Joe Blow and his family, the government was more concerned with the welfare of Bear Stearns and Citibank/JP Morgan.

They dealt with this issue by attempting to wave the magic interest rate wand and then praying that the whole thing would go away. Instead of dealing with the root cause of the problem, the fact that a large number of people were stuck in mortgages that were adjusting beyond their ability to pay, they said, "screw these guys, we're going to make it cheaper for big business to borrow".

By doing so, they weakened the already weak dollar and caused oil prices to surge which in turn has caused the the downturn to spread to other parts of the economy.

Even today, while it has become evident that housing is in a free fall and dragging the rest of the economy down with it, the government is still not directly addressing the foreclosure problem. While the new housing stimulus package does do some good things that will help, it doesn't go nearly far enough towards helping people stay in their homes.

Nor does it directly address any of the other issues such as the fact that the bond insurers and the PMI companies are so damaged from their exposure to the sub-prime mortgage market that they are making it more difficult than it should be for average people to be able to buy homes!

The end result is that people are still not convinced that the worst is over and therefore are simply standing on the side lines waiting for things to get better. Many potential home buyers couldn't partisipate even if they wanted to due to the fact that guild lines have been tightened to the point where they don't qualify to buy a home even though they have jobs and half way decent credit.

I realize that I'm a voice in the wilderness here, but I'll say it again. President Bush, Members of the House and Senate and anybody else who has the ability to influence our government, please stop pussy footing around with this! Address the problem directly....where it matters. That is, at the root of the problem!

Create a program that:

1) Buys up the mortgages of the folks who are in danger of default and renegotiate them to a point where families can afford to stay in their homes! (If done right, there is even a profit potential available that could possibly pay for the entire program and not end up costing the government a red cent!)

2) Either prop up the PMI companies and bond insurance companies or create some new ones so that Fannie and Freddie can do what they've done so well for the last 70 years! That is, provide liquidity to the mortgage markets.

I'm tired of hearing this crises referred to as "A Correction In The Housing Market". It's not! The problem isn't with the housing markets, it's with the credit markets! If this had been realized earlier on in the crises and the problems had been dealt with forthrightly and directly, we'd already be on our way out of this mess!

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Click Click And Other Sounds of Summer

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:07:29 -0500

"Summer breeze, makes me feel fine....blowing through the jasmine in my mindddd" sang at the top of our lungs in a bad falsetto by three almost grown young men driving down the road in a 1964 Ford Fairlane with glass pack mufflers and 50's on the back. Oh, I almost forgot the, "Click Click" as the eight track changed to the next song.

No AC, but the windows were down and we had the cooler iced up. It was the summer after our high school graduation (1979) and before the start of college in the fall. Jeff Rideout, Kevin "You're barking up the wrong tree" Barks and myself were headed out of the city for one of the several camping trips that we took that summer.

The last summer that we would end up spending together before we took off on the wildly varying paths that all three of us eventually ended up taking. Of course, we didn't know that then. We were just some buds who wanted to get away from the prying eyes of the parents and any other authority figures that might want to intervene and stop us from smoking dope, drinking beer and otherwise enjoying life and one another's company.

The campsites varied, but we always picked one that was as far away as possible from the other campers and that had electricity. No, we didn't have a camper, but we did have a stereo! If my memory serves me it was an old Panasonic tuner with a Marrantz tape deck and two Electrovoice speakers (we left the Garrard turntable at home on the camping trips).

My life at that time revolved around that stereo system that I had purchased from the CMC Stereo store on Watson, out by the old KSHE studios. Finally purchased after 6 months in the lay-a-way, we lugged that stereo all over the place and didn't find it odd at all to lug it down to Meramec State Park where we would plug it in and rock out to bands ranging from Alice Cooper to Benny Goodman (can you imagine the looks on the old couple who were walking their dog around the campgrounds when they saw the source of those wicked horns?).

These were my "sounds of summer" at least for that period of my life. The windows down and the stereo cranked up. It's funny, to this day, there are certain songs where I still expect to hear that familiar "click click" at certain points in the song. Close your eyes and think back to listening to Styx and tell me that you don't remember, "Why must you be such an angry young man "click click" when your future looks so bright to me!"

It's funny, I can almost remember it all as if it were yesterday. That is until I remembered that the Fairlane got totaled on New Years Eve during our Junior year. I guess that it really doesn't matter because regardless of which car it was that we were driving, the emotions were the same. Three young men with their entire lives ahead of them, some fine Columbian and the ever present cooler full of beer on a hot summer day.

No, it really doesn't matter which car we drove to get there. I guess that in a sense, "The Song Remains The Same".

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Bob Mitchell is president of ValueList Real Estate Services, St. Louis' largest discount/full-service real estate and mortgage company. If you would like to find out more about Bob, ValueList or our flat-fee listing program, please feel free to visit our web site at valuelistre.com

Buying A Foreclosure - You Have To Go In With Your Eyes Open!

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:39:37 -0500

Last weekend I took my daughter up to Clinton Illinois to a public car auction. Some of the cars were ones that were owned by the Illinois State Police that they had obtained by seizing them. Others had been repossessed. While others were there on consignment.

My daughter, who just graduated from college (Ohio State) didn't have a lot of money to spend and to her credit didn't want to go into debt to get this car. She had toured the local car lots and had even gone to look at several that were being offered for sale by their owners. Of the ones that she would consider owning, none of them were within her budget.

That's when I suggested that we go to the car auction to see what we could find. Before we went, I made sure that she knew the good, the bad and the ugly about buying a car this way. That is that you really don't know too much about the history of the vehicle and that the sale was going to be "as is/where is" with no warranties what so ever.

I went on to explain to her that she had to take this into account when she bid on a car. She understood, so on Saturday morning, we loaded up the car and drove to Clinton.

When we got there, we toured the lot looking for the cars that we had seen on the internet that were of interest to her. We started the cars, drove them around the lot, checked their oil and transmission fluids and generally gave the cars a good looking over. We then went into the sale barn and waited for the ones that she was interested to make their way through the line.

We watched as the cars were driven or pushed through and I was amazed at how some of the cars were being bid up past even their retail value. Others were going for ridiculously low prices.

The first car that she was interested in came up and two people got into a bidding war over it and Whitney dropped out. She was disappointed, but she knew that she had to be disciplined.

Another car came up that was newer and looked great, but the auctioneer said that it had transmission problems, so she passed on it.

Then the one that her and her boyfriend wanted the most came up. I told Whit to hang back for a bit in order to see how things went.

The Auctioneer started the bidding at $5000.00 (almost the retail value of the vehicle), then went down. Finally, the bidding started in earnest at $500.00. It went up to $800.00 before their was a pause in the bidding. Whitney jumped in and bid $850.00. Another bidder (who I recognized as a car dealer) ran with her.

Again, the Auctioneer tried to get everyone excited and to run the bids up quickly...I whispered in her ear to back off....which was a good thing because the auctioneer was pulling some of these bids out of his axx. He backed down when nobody ran with him to the last true bid of $1,250.00 (from the pro).

Going once...

Going twice....

Whitney looked at me fearfully and I gave her the nod. She bid $1,300 and won the auction! YEAH!!!!

When we got home, I checked the value on the computer and in "fair" condition (which this car was technically in) the value was $4,300 or so. After we fix a few things, the value of the car should be about $6,000.00 or so (she's going to need to put about $1,000.00 into the car to get it there). To say the least, I was excited for her!

Then today I read a post by a lady named, Beth Anderson called, "Got A Great Car For You". Her post talked about how too many people were focused on just getting a bargain when buying a foreclosed home and discounting the positive attributes of a "normal" listing.

She makes some excellent points and I encourage you to read her post because not all home buyers are going to be willing to take the risk that my daughter did in buying her car at an auction!

For Whitney (who had me - who has done this sort of thing a few times in the past, as well as a mechanic who works on the cheap in her family) the risk was worth it. This might not be the case for your buyer.

If a bargain is what your client is looking for, then by all means show them the properties in your area that have been foreclosed upon. For the right person, they can be a true bargain. However, please make sure that they know the down side of buying this type of property too. If you buy a foreclosure, you have to go into the transaction with your eyes open!

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Bicycling Compared To Selling Real Estate - Why They Are More Alike Than You Would Think!

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:01:44 -0500

Here in Missouri there is a rails to trails project called the Katy Trail. It runs from north of St. Charles, Missouri to Clinton Missouri (about 260 miles) along the route of the old Missouri - Kansas - Texas railroad. It is one of the best known of the rails to trails projects and from what I've seen of it, it's a beautiful ride.

The problem is that I hate it! Since it's on an old railway right of way, it's basically flat the entire length (at least what I've ridden of it so far). The fact that it's flat means that you have to peddle the entire way; no coasting!

The other day we went for a ride where we started at the Katy Trail at Marthasville Missouri, but then took off on the road that went out the back of the town. As we rode out of town and started pumping up a long hill, I realized that riding a bicycle is a lot like selling real estate!

Say What? What You Talking About Willis?

Yeah, I know that it's a bit of a stretch, but run with me...or should I say, "ride with me"?

First of all, real estate is like bicycling in that you're going to get out of it what you put into it. It's going to take effort. If all you ever do is ride around the neighborhood, you're going to miss a lot of what you could see if you took off for the open roads. The same can be said if you always stay on the prescribed trail!

The Katy Trail is cool because of a number of different reasons, but probably the most obvious of which is that it was designed to be a biking/hiking trail. Along it's route you have bed and breakfast inns, repair facilities, bathroom facilities, even wineries. The trail is well maintained, level and easy to ride. Even youngsters can handle it and you end up seeing a lot of them out there.

All of this is cool, but yet I still prefer the open road. Why is that? Well, for one whereas the Katy trail is predictable, the open road isn't. To me, this is part of it's charm.

As Kathy and I pumped up that first hill out of town in the 95+plus heat, it really started to suck! I down shifted to the point where I was in 1st gear and yet my thighs were burning from the effort. Sweat was pumping out of my body and my heart was pounding. As we approached the top of the hill, the road curved out of sight behind the trees that were close enough to block the view, but not close enough to provide shade.

As we "topped" the hill we saw that it was really an illusion and that the hill continued on for at least another 1/4 of a mile (any of you out there getting my analogy now?). While at the time, that 1/4 of a mile seemed like it would go on for ever, it didn't.

We topped the hill (this time for real) and took a break. From the top of the hill we could look back and see the valley that we had just climbed out of and it was beautiful. The road snaked down the hill after disappearing in the trees for a bit and we could see Marthasville nestled amongst the fields that led all the way to the Missouri River. This was a view that those who stayed on the trail would never see and while it was indeed a lot of work, it was worth it.

After catching our breaths, drinking some water (it's amazing how good simple ice water with lemon in it can taste when you're doing something like this) and cooling down in the shade (again, a simple thing that is grossly under appreciated by those who never venture out) we hopped back on the bikes and started down the other side of the hill.

As our bikes picked up speed, I could feel the sweat evaporating off of my skin. While the view had been cool, this was what it really was all about! The scenery rushing past us as our bikes flew down the other side of the hill. We shifted up through the gears and pumped the pedals to the point where it didn't matter if we pumped them anymore. We felt the need for speed and the thrill that went with it! (Sound like one of those days when you have back to back closings and everything pops just like it's supposed to?)

All too quickly, we were at the bottom of that hill and while our momentum carried us a ways up the next hill, it was time to get back to work (seeing my point here now, aren't you?).

The next hill wasn't as bad as the first one. Nor was the next. The one following that was another big one though and we had to labor up it much as we had the first. When we got to the top of this one, we took another break and decided that it was time to head back home. Which we did.

Later that night, after having gotten home, I told my daughter about the ride and I bet that you can guess that the best part of the story wasn't about the flat parts or about the little hills that weren't all that hard. The best part of the story was about climbing the big hills and over-coming the challenges that they presented.

Now, doesn't that sound just like real estate?

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

The Secret Behind Losing Weight - Why "Diets" Don't Work

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:36:36 -0500

This morning I read a blog by Robert Swetz called, "Why Are You Overweight" and when I left a comment there, I realized that my perspective on this issue might be something that a lot of folks might find of interest.

You see, I've been fat my entire life. I was a big baby, a big toddler and when I got to kindergarten I was still one of the biggest kids there. By the time I was in 4th grade, I could roll to first base quicker than I could run there!

This was about the time that my sister mailed a book on Yoga to my mother. I intercepted the book and started doing the exercises in it. I also was lucky enough to live in a neighborhood that sponsored a little league football team where my coach was a professional boxer.

Coach Cody (K.O.Cody) was of the belief that the team who was in better shape had an advantage over other teams. Plus, I guess that he enjoyed the company as he did his running when he was getting ready for a bout.

I remember one time getting our pictures in the paper as a couple of dozen 9 and 10 year olds were running behind this tough looking black man. The end result was that I discovered running as a way of getting in shape.

The funny thing about this is that while I ended up becoming pretty athletic in that I played little league football and baseball and lettered in both Football and Swimming in High School plus I also got to go through winter conditioning with the University of Missouri Tigers Football team and at one point was running 7 miles a day as I got ready to go to boot camp with the United States Marine Corp, I never got skinny. You would have thought that I would have, but I didn't.

Anyway, over the years I've tried a ton of diets. Low fat, low carb, grapefruit, vegetarian, 1000 calorie a day diets, etc. etc. etc. and none of them worked. Well, the Adkins diet worked in that I did lose 53 pounds in 12 months, but I plateaued there and as soon as I increased my daily carb intake to over 50 carbs a day (still a very restrictive diet) I started to gain it all back (which I did).

I also have managed to keep myself in pretty good physical shape and at 47, I'm proud of the fact that my blood pressure runs around 114 over 70 with my resting heart rate being in the low to mid 60's. I've had problems with cholesterol but only when I've been tested and have not been working out.

So, here I am 47 years old, in pretty damn good physical shape, yet I'm still fat....what gives?

Well, after all these years, I finally figured it out.....it doesn't matter how much you work out, if you still eat more calories than you burn, you'll put on weight. Sad but true, it really is a matter of calories in vs calories out.

You could eat all of your calories in the form of lard and if you burned more calories than you consumed, you'd lose weight. Where as, you could be running marathons and if you're appetite went up and you ate more calories than you burned....you guessed it!

Now, of course nothing is THAT simple. Especially when it comes to something as complex as the human body. For example, if all you looked at were the calories in vs. the calories out then simply cutting your calories should be enough to lose weight, but it's often not. Why?

Well, because your body is designed to attempt to maintain the status quo. That is, if you cut your calories too much, your body is going to realize this and it's going to think that you're starving (which in essence you are) and it's going to slow things down. You're going to get tired and lazy as your body moves to conserve the reserves that it has. You'll also lose muscle mass.

Also, there is something to be said for spacing your calories out throughout the day. By doing so, your body is less likely to place those calories in storage.

As mentioned above, the opposite is also true. If you start exercising on a regular basis and burning more calories than you're consuming, you're body is going to react to this too by increasing your appetite.

So, what's the answer?

The answer that I've found is to not be in a hurry. Moderation is the key. The other key is that you have to utilize a two prong approach. That is, you have to attack the problem by both keeping track of your caloric intake AND by burning more calories.

By keeping your daily caloric intake just slightly below your caloric expenditures, you can keep your body from thinking that it's starving. Also by increasing your daily caloric expenditures, you can eat more as long as you don't get carried away.

One other thing that I've found that is important is to give yourself regular days off from the calorie counting (within reason). This helps your body not think that it's starving, plus it gives you the psychological benefit of not feeling like you always have to be perfect. I give myself 2 days a week off.

Since I've been doing this approach (on a regular basis) I've only lost something like 8 pounds (over a period of 2.5 months). Which brings me to my last point. You Don't Need To Be In A Hurry!

At the pace that I'm on it will take me almost two years to reach my goal. Which is cool! Why do I need to be in a big hurry? I'm in good physical shape and last I checked, I'm not on the roster of any professional football teams.

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Staring Into A Very Deep Hole - Can The Government Allow Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac To Go Belly Up?

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:02:10 -0500

Last Friday morning I turned on CNBC to watch the business news and the coverage was centered on the crisis at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As I sat there listening to the talking heads discussing the possibility of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac going belly up, my own belly was doing back flips.

While I agreed with the commentators who expressed the opinion that Fannie and Freddie were too big to fail and that the government would have no choice but to step in and rescue them, I couldn't get over the fact that there was serious discussion going on about the possibilities of their demise!

I guess that over the years that I had drank the Kool-aid. To me, Fannie and Freddie were as solid as the US Government itself. While I didn't agree with everything that they did, they did seem like well run companies that had solid business models. While some others debated whether it was fair for Fannie and Freddie to have the privileged position that they did as Government Sponsored Enterprises, I believed in their existence and their purpose.

To me, the economic advantages that came with their GSE status was more than a fair trade off because Fannie and Freddie did a good job of providing liquidity to the housing markets. They were the bedrock that the entire real estate and mortgage industries were built upon.

Now here I was listening to some bald headed guy tell me how it would be better if the government agreed to let them fail if that's what it came to. To say the least, I was dumbfounded!

Had I been wrong about Fannie and Freddie? From everything that I had read it hadn't been the loans that were underwritten to Fannie/Freddie standards that were causing the problems (from my understanding the default rate on the "A" paper Fannie/Freddie mortgages was slightly higher than 1.7%).

Even the "Alt A" loans that Fannie and Freddie did (the level approvals) were performing well with a foreclosure rate of less than 2.4%.

So, what gives? Why are Fannie and Freddie in trouble?

I'll be honest, I spent a fair amount of time this morning attempting to research this question and I wasn't able to come up with a good answer.

From what I could tell, part of the problem at Fannie and Freddie is that they got into the business of guaranteeing mortgages that weren't underwritten to their own standards, including a fair amount of sub-prime mortgages. I also understand that they actually invested in sub-prime mortgages themselves, both as Mortgage Backed Securities and by purchasing Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDO's) as well as other mortgage investment vehicles.

The end result is that Fannie is going to lose something like 53 Billion dollars this year! This got me to thinking...how would Fannie and/or Freddie going belly up affect my business?

What I concluded wasn't very pleasant. If Fannie and/or Freddie goes belly up and the government doesn't come to their rescue, then I think that we're hosed! Not just those of us in the real estate and mortgage businesses, but rather WE'RE ALL HOSED!

The house of cards that is our economy right now won't be able to handle an impact this large. Housing values will drop (even further and faster than they already have) and while eventually somebody would step in to the niche that Fannie and/or Freddie now fills, this wouldn't be for years as the markets settle and without the advantages of being a GSE, their rates would be higher and terms less advantageous.

In the mean time, only the very strongest borrowers would be able to finance a home purchase and even these folks would probably be required to put at least 20% down in order to protect the lenders interests in the event that values do continue to fall. In short, the real estate market as we know it would cease to exist!

And it wouldn't only be the real estate and mortgage markets that would be affected. The rest of the economy would come crashing down with the real estate markets because people (who are already feeling economically pressured) would realize that they are indeed broke and broke people don't spend money!

I don't mean to be an alarmist, but with this kind of talk going around, we're looking straight into a very deep hole that we're in danger of falling into!

I hope that it doesn't come to this and my gut tells me that the government won't allow it to come to this. At least I hope not. I'm curious what you all think? Am I being too pessimistic here? What do you think will happen if the government were to allow Fannie and/or Freddie to go bankrupt? Let me know.

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Does It Really Matter Who You Vote For? - Aren't All Politicians The Same?

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:58:53 -0500

Democrats and Republicans....what does it matter? That was the tone of a comment that I just read on a post where the discussion was about the current low opinion ratings that both Congress and The President are currently receiving.

While I can understand that person's frustrations and I can even agree with him that in some ways all of the politicians, with the exception of Ron Paul and a few others, do seem to be alike. That is; money grubbing ideologs that are more concerned with lining their pockets and lining up political paybacks for as soon as they leave office.

But I do think that it does matter which political party that you support, if not belong to. If you don't believe me, can you imagine how different our world would have been if Al Gore had become President when he was elected back in 2000? While some of you may wince at this possibility, that is proof in and of itself that things would have been different.

Whomever took office after than election, be it from having gotten elected as Al Gore did or having been installed as Bush was, would have started from the same place. The dot.com bust would have had to have been dealt with. Iraq...well, if Gore had been selected Saddam Hussein would have probably still been alive and a thorn in our side, but he still wouldn't have been able to fly from one end of his country to the other without our permission.

My point is that Gore would have probably handled things differently than Bush did. Our energy policies would have been different, we wouldn't have had the tax cuts for the rich, while we may have ran some deficits, I doubt that our spending would have ran as out of control with Gore as President than it has with Bush. We'll never know, but I'm willing to bet that it would have been DIFFERENT!

So, while it's easy to shrug it off and declare that it doesn't matter which sides wins, the last 8 years have proven to me that it does matter. Bush and the neo-cons have had there way for 8 years now and look where it's gotten us?

Ronald Reagan asked the American public a simple question when he was running against Jimmy Carter. He asked, "Are you better off now than you were 4 years earlier? The public spoke and Reagan was elected.

Well now I'm asking you, are you better off than you were 4 or 8 years ago? How about the country as a whole? Is it better off than it was 4 or 8 years ago? Personally, I don't think so and I think that a lot of people agree with me. If you're one of these people, then get past the frustration. Recognize that we do have still have a voice.

Voting for a Democrat is a vote against the status quo. It's a vote against the policies of the last 8 years that have favored big business and the wealthy, not to mention the same policies that have driven our country to the point of bankruptcy. Is this next election going to wrestle our government back from the big corporations? I doubt it, but it's a step in the right direction!

The fact that it's a step away from the failed policies of the Bush administration is enough of a difference for me! Get out there and vote! Volunteer for a campaign. Do your best to get your voice heard

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Figures Lie and Liars Figure! - Why Congress Should Stand Pat On Prohibiting Off-Shore Drilling

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:04:52 -0500

I just watched President Bush's address that announced that he was lifting the executive order that stood prohibiting off-shore drilling. During his speech he made statements and gave figures that might make people believe that drilling off of our shores would bring gasoline prices down.

The facts of the matter are that on a short run basis, this simply isn't true. Drilling off of our shores will take at least 7 years before it could have an impact on gasoline prices. So it's simply not true that in order to deal with our current energy crises that we need to open up these areas in order to bring prices down.

This is nothing more than a land grab on the part of the big energy companies and while you might hear the various conservative talk show hosts banging on this drum and the big media companies (where most of us get our news from) framing the discussion in such a way that the many in the public begin to think that this is something that we should do, I ask you to put on your thinking caps and think this one out before you jump on that wagon.

If you accept the premise that our use of carbon based fuel is warming our planet to dangerous levels, then you should realize that even if we can increase the production of oil domestically in the next 7 to 10 years, that it really shouldn't matter. Instead of putting money into finding and exploiting this source of energy that is killing our planet, we should put this money and effort into perfecting the various "alternative" forms of energy that we have available to us.

If you don't accept the premise that our use of carbon based fuel is warming our planet to dangerous levels, then you should still realize that even if you don't accept global warming as a problem that the excess carbon in the atmosphere is causing great damage...maybe even irreparable damage to our oceans and the creatures that live in them.

Why does the fact that our oceans are getting more acidic and that this is killing off a very high percentage of the corals that live in our oceans matter to us humans? Because if the ocean dies, we die!

This acidification of the oceans may very well be what does us in even before global warming has a chance.

The end result is that we need to STOP BURNING FOSSIL FUELS to power our economy. Since this is the case, allowing the drilling for oil off of our shores and in our pristine wilderness environments is indeed simply a case of continuing the failed energy policies that the Bush Administration has been following since it came to power 8 years ago.

So again, I ask you to put on your thinking caps. Don't let off the wall statements such as, "Drilling in Anwr will provide oil equal to what we import from Saudi Arabia" fool you. Drilling in Anwr won't break our dependence upon foreign oil.

Even if it were able to lower the cost of oil by increasing the world wide supply (it wouldn't because when you look at the amount of oil that could be produced in Anwr, it is such a small percentage of world-wide production that it wouldn't have any discernible effect), it wouldn't matter because we need to stop using fossil based fuels to power our economies. Also, if history is any indication, cheaper oil would simply result in our using more of it which would in turn make the Global warming and ocean acidification problems worse!

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Goodbye Coco

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:37:28 -0500

A few years ago my mother suffered a series of mini-strokes and we had to put her in a nursing home. At the time, my family debated about what to do with her then 15 year old Siamese Cat, Coco.

At one point, my brother who had moved into my mother's house (where the cat was) had actually put him in the cat carrier to take him to be put down. As he was walking out the door he got an emergency call from one of his HVAC clients and took the cat back inside and ran the call.

When I heard about this, I decided that I would take the cat down to one of my offices, which was a large warehouse, loft type of building. Coco, who wasn't a very social cat by any means, pretty much kept to himself. Sometimes the only way that we knew that he was there was by looking at his food dish and his litter box.

Kathy, my girlfriend, eventually wooed him to the point where he would sometimes come out to let her pet him, but that was about it. He never really interacted with me or with anybody else at the office.

When we decided to close that office we were in a bit of a pickle as far as Coco was concerned. Kathy already had a 9 year old Calico cat who hadn't been around other cats since she had been a kitten, but we didn't have anyplace else to take him. We actually thought again about having him put down.

After much discussion, we decided that it was worth an attempt to see if we could introduce the cats to one another without them fighting, so we took Coco to our home. After some time spent in the attached garage with them howling at one another through the door, we finally introduced them to one another.

To say that Pebbles (yeah, I know...we had Coco AND Pebbles) was displeased would have been an understatement! They fought and we went through a period of them literally getting into pissing contests, but eventually they started getting along better.

It was right after we brought Coco in from the garage that I saw one of the sweetest moments that I've ever experienced. One day we brought my mother home from the nursing home and while she was pretty much out of it, Coco came up to her to get petted.

My mother commented that she used to have a cat that was a lot like this one and when I told her that this was her cat she said with a tone of disbelievement, "My Coco?"

For just a while the fog that my mother was living in raised and a look of recognition came over her. She sat there and petted Coco until it was time to go back to the nursing home. Watching them together I realized how important Coco was to my mother and vise versa. My mother passed away not too long afterwards.

Over time and after we moved to our new home both cats started getting along better and while neither of them would admit to it, I think that both cats ended up buddying up to a certain degree.

At the new house Coco got into the habit of coming down to my office and hanging with me while I worked. When I broke for lunch, he would follow me upstairs and we would each grab a bite to eat. Over time, I became very attached to him.

Well, as things sometimes happen when you have an older cat, Coco's health took a turn for the worse. While he had suffered from kidney disease, he had responded well to treatment and was actually a pretty spry cat. Until one day a couple of weeks ago when Kathy and I got back from a weekend away and it was obvious that something was wrong with him. While he had always been a "talker" he was now howling incessantly, sometimes as if he was in pain, sometimes as if he were simply disoriented. He had also stopped using his litter box.

We took him to the vet and they couldn't find anything obvious that was wrong with him, but they did treat him with some antibiotics and a new blood pressure pill. Physically he responded to the treatment, but the howling continued as did his not using the litter box. While he would have moments of lucidity, it was obvious that he was disoriented most of the time.

So, while it was hard, we made the decision today to take him to the vet to have him put down. Which is what I just did.

I don't know if it's because he was a living reminder of my Mother or if it was because of the fact that physically he was looking better than he ever had or maybe it was simply because I had bonded with him? Maybe because in a sense he was my brother, but I am having a very hard time accepting my decision. I know that it was the best thing for him, but it was hard saying goodbye to him. I'm going to miss the little guy. He really was a good cat!

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Do You Make What You're Worth? - Why Licensing Requirements Need To Be Raised

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:35:03 -0500

The average real estate agent makes right around $39,421 a year gross from selling real estate. This number which I got from Salary.com and that is about $9,000 a year higher than what the US Department of Labor figure is, is still reflective of what I think is one of the fundamental flaws in the US real estate industry. That is, that there are simply (still) too many real estate agents out there! In essence, the pie is getting split too many ways.

If you don't believe me, let's take a look at what the "average" incomes from groups that hold themselves out as professionals. (All salary information from Salary.com)

Dentist:...................................$136,038

Attorney:.................................$ 88,507

Physician (Dermatologist):.........$233,964

But Bob, is it really fair to compare real estate agents and what they make to Doctors and Lawyers? Maybe it's not because Doctors and Lawyers are required to undertake a tremendous amount of education that isn't required of real estate agents. Honestly though, I think that real estate agents should have additional educational requirements levied upon them. If we were required to undertake additional educational requirements or some kind of apprenticeship program, I think that those of us who stayed in the business would end up being better compensated.

Another consideration is that Doctors and Lawyers are sometimes called upon to make life and death decisions, which is something that not very many real estate agents have to contend with on a regular basis.

So, to be fair, let's look at what some other jobs pay and compare them to what the average real estate agent makes;

Dental Assistant:................................................$ 32,436

PC Maintenance Tech:..........................................$ 41,302

Heavy Truck Driver (includes Garbage Collector):....$ 37,967

Is this right? Look at the level of complexity that our jobs entail compared to these guys?

In real estate we have to wear many different hats. Sometimes we are sales people and sometimes we are are required to calculate figures. Part of our jobs requires us to be able to appraise the value of properties. Other times we have to be there to hold our client's hands in times of personal crises.

In order to get the business in the door we have to get out there and hustle. Sometimes this means that we have to be marketers and sometimes writers.

Many times we are required to be able to shift gears such as when you're going up against another agent for a listing tonight, yet closing a transaction with that same agent tomorrow.

My point is that, if done right, real estate agents deserve to be paid more than they are. Which leads me to this question:

Why Aren't Real Estate Agents Paid More?

As pointed out above, the problem is that there are simply too many of us in the field. The barriers to entry into the real estate field are very minimum. Basically, you have to be able to sit through a class for 6 weeks or so and then to pass a test.

If you can do this and you haven't been convicted of a felony (recently) you too can become a "Real Estate Professional".

This lack of qualifying requirements has led to a situation where just about anybody can get a real estate license and then take a stab at the business. As we all know, most people fail and eventually go back to doing something different. While others practice real estate on a part time basis.

To those of us who stay and make this our profession we are forced to "compete" with these agents and as the laws of supply and demand would require, our compensation is reduced. This isn't to say that it's impossible to make a good living at selling real estate. I've done so and I'm sure than a lot of you have done so too.

But even if you are a superstar, you can't escape this downward draft on your income.

But Bob, If Real Estate Incomes Are Limited By The Number Of Agents, Isn't This Good For The Buying Public?

The answer is no. It's no because the professional real estate agent is forced to spend a good amount of his/her efforts and resources on marketing themselves. These efforts and resources could have gone into actually practicing their craft instead of competing against agents who won't be in the business three years from now.

If licensing requirements for real estate agents were to be tightened up and there were fewer real estate agents as a result of this tightening, then the market would actually end up being better served.

While the income of individual real estate agents would go up, the gross amount of real estate commissions paid by the public would go down because there would no longer be the need to entice agents with the "hit it big" carrot and stick approach that is now used throughout the industry.

Also, as the income of individual agents went up, more people would be enticed to enter the field in pursuit of these higher wages which would then tend to reign agent's incomes in. The difference would be that these "new" agents would be better trained and qualified to serve the public's real estate needs.

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

A Discounter Defends High Commissions - Why A Smug Attitude Doesn't Make You Right!

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:55:12 -0500

I don't know if you've read any of what has been written here on AR recently about Jennifer Allans appearance on the internet radio show, "Real Estate Radio USA", but Jennifer has written about it as has Broker Bryant (of course his got featured! ;-) and after reading a comment by Brett Wilson on Jennifer's original post, "Why Our Commissions Are So High" I felt like I had to jump in and call a spade a spade.

While I'll admit that I'm not familiar with Mr. Wilson's radio show, having worked in radio before and having some close friends who are involved with television production, I am familiar with how radio and tv shows work. I'm familiar with some of the tricks that are used to make it appear that the host always has the upper hand, such as turning the guest's microphone down or simply talking over them.

I've never listened to Mr. Wilson's show, so I don't know that he does this or not, but I did notice in his comment (that was in response to a comment that I had made) that he attempted to do something similar to me. That is, he attempted to dismiss me and what I was saying by adopting a smug, know it all attitude.

Well, one advantage that a forum such as AR has over going on an obscure internet radio show is that I have the ability to stand up to the challenge without having my microphone turned down!

The funny thing about this whole episode is that I agree with a lot of what Mr. Wilson has to say. If I didn't, I wouldn't have started my DISCOUNT real estate company back in 1995. I do think that MOST real estate agents aren't truly professional. I also think that real estate commissions have gotten out of hand.

As I've written about before, I've never been able to have someone justify why it costs three times as much to sell a $300,000 home as it does a $100,000 home. Is there 3 times as much work involved? I don't think so.

But even with that said, I think that Mr. Wilson's position that all Realtors are pretty much idiots who are stealing from the public is simply not founded (my words not his - at least not that I could find). I personally know a great number of Realtors who do an excellent job of justifying their commissions and whom their clients hold in high regard.

As I pointed out on Jennifer's post, I personally have been involved in transactions where I had to stand toe to toe with attorneys representing numerous parties and utilize my skills to keep the entire transaction moving forward. I did so as an equal to the attorneys involved.

Simply because being a real estate agent doesn't require the education that being an Attorney or a Doctor does, doesn't mean that we are any less professional as a matter of course. While I would love to have the educational requirements to be a real estate agent raised and to make it harder for an agent to keep a real estate license, I don't think that this precludes an agent from being able to obtain the status of being considered a true professional.

So, Mr. Wilson, while I don't mean to attack you personally, I do wish to attack your message. Please consider what I'm saying here and please don't attempt to dismiss me by being smug.

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

.CVS Question

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:25:40 -0500

I just recently subscribed to a service that sends me a cvs file that contains a list of names, addresses, phone numbers, etc.

My computer opens it up in Excel and gives me the complete list.

What I want to be able to do is to look at each particular record (as if it were in a database).

Does anybody know how I could accomplish this?

Bob Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

It Takes Pain To Make You Want To Change - The Silver Lining To This Economy

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:06:39 -0500

As I've written about before, a number of years ago I went through a period that I called, "My Blue Funk". While I won't bore you with the details here again, I will tell you that as a result of what I went through during this period of time, I learned one of the most important lessons that I've ever learned. That is;

"Nobody changes unless there is enough pain to make them want to change".

If you think about it, it makes all of the sense in the world. If things are rocking for you, then why risk upsetting the apple cart? Unfortunately, a person, an economy or even a society can find themselves in the position of suffering, but not suffering enough to do something about their situation.

This is where I think that we're at as a society right now. Specifically in terms of our energy needs.

For the past 150 years or so carbon based fuels have been plentiful and cheap. While they may have been dirty, this was a cost that we were able to shuffle off on everybody else and didn't have to pay for ourselves, so we didn't ever factor this cost into our equations.

In 1973 the Organization of Oil Exporting States (OPEC) organized an oil embargo that should have served as an eye opener for us here in the US. In no uncertain terms were we shown that our way of life was in danger by powers that laid outside of our control and for a short period of time, we reacted.

People started to conserve energy, laws were written that encouraged research into "alternative energy" sources and people even started to drive smaller automobiles. But then things changed. OPEC wasn't able to maintain it's discipline and the embargo fell apart.

Gas prices fell and before long we went right back to the way that we were before. Not only did we go back to the way that we were before the "Energy Crises" we got worse. All you have to do is to look at the number of SUVs that people were driving to see that it's true.

Well now we're starting to feel the pain again. Gas prices are higher now than they've ever been before and to complicate matters further, our burning of fossil fuels has led to the warming of our planet. A warming that has the potential to not only lesson our standard of living, but to, in the worst case scenario, to endanger our survival as a species.

In other words, we're starting to experience enough pain to make us want to change!

And I've got news for a lot of you.....change isn't always a bad thing!

While it does tend to be painful, most times I think that you'll find that when you make a change under circumstances that have caused us pain, the end result is that we are better off for having made the change. I found this to be true when I went through my "Blue Funk" and I think that we'll find this to be true when we end up moving away from carbon based fuels.

If for no other reason than the facts that our environment will be cleaner and that we will have lessoned the stranglehold that big oil currently has on us!

That's right. Not only will we not be polluting our planet by pumping tons and tons of Greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, we will be taking back our own energy independence. This is because most of the various alternatives to carbon based fuels are going to be difficult, if not impossible, to monopolize as the oil companies have done with carbon based fuels.

They might be able to sell us the solar panels to collect the sun's rays, but they'll never be able to put a meter on what we take from the sun.

It's the same with hydrogen. Big Business (if they are smart about it) will be able to sell us the technology to
produce and store our own hydrogen. They might even be able to continue selling us the electricity that is required to produce the hydrogen, but short of making it illegal (which they might do with some trumped up safety concerns) they won't be able to keep us from making our own hydrogen to power our homes and vehicles.

So, while you're experiencing pain right now leading up to the change and will likely continue to experience pain while we do end up switching, in the long run, it's going to be a positive change to make.

Accepting the need to change is the first step towards achieving the benefits of change. Accepting the need for change is also the best thing that we can do in order to lesson the amount of pain that we need to experience in order to make the change possible.

If you look at our current situation as a society, those of us who are ready to embrace the need to change have a responsibility to help those of us who are in denial. Those of us who are in denial such as the major oil companies and the politicians that they control.

We have to be ready and able to challenge the paid spokesmen for these entities when they attempt to forestall the enviable by saying things like, "Hydrogen is impractical as a fuel for our vehicles" or "Alternative energies aren't going to be ready anytime in the foreseeable future".

Recognize these ploys for what they are; attempts by people with vested interests in the status quo to stop or at least forestall the demise of their favored positions in our society.

These sorts of statements are not based in fact. The facts of the matter are that while there are hurdles to over-come in the implementation of the technologies on a mass scale, the science is already there in regards to these "alternative" energies being practical and useful today.

Why post this article on a "real estate" blog?

Well, for one reason, if you're involved in the real estate industry you've already shown a certain level of independence. This independence makes us leaders in our communities and if we embrace the change, then others will too!

The other reason that I posted this here is because the lessons that hold true for us in regards to energy policy also are valid in terms of our real estate businesses in these times of turmoil. Or as an unknown author once wrote:

"Pain is inevitable, suffering however is optional" (Author unknown)

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Dow Headed Towards 10,000 - Why We Have To Play The Blame Game

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:06:23 -0500

On January 2, 2008 I posted, "Predictions for 2008" where I predicted that Broker Byrant would still be getting 40% of his posts featured here on AR and that sometime during 2008 that the Dow Jones Industrial Average would close at or below 10,000.

I appear to be on track for both of these predictions! I'm just teasing about Broker Bryant, but I'm as serious as a heart attack about the Dow closing below 10,000. When I made this prediction the Dow had most recently closed at 13365.87.

As I'm writing this, the Dow is at 11387.79 or a drop of 14.79% from when I made the prediction. From it's record high closing of 14,164.53 that was set on October 9, 2007 the DJIA is now off 19.60%.

While it has been debated back and forth whether we are in a recession or not, I don't think that you can find very many people anymore who would doubt it. With energy and food prices skyrocketing and the housing markets still in a slump, to me, it's pretty obvious that we're not in a good place right now.

If you look at previous recessions that we've gone through the "Average" drop in the DJIA is around 25%, which would put us at about a 10,600 close. I don't think that this is going to be an "Average" recession!

For one thing, we're faced with the prospect of not only being in a recessionary period, we're faced with the prospect of being in a "Staflationary" period. Which to toot my own horn for a second, I predicted here on AR way back on July 25th of 2007 when I posted "Stagflation, Does Anybody Remember The Word?".

Another reason that I don't think that this will be an "Average Recession" is because of the magnitude of the problems that we are facing, particularly in the financial and housing sectors! What a lot of people don't realize is what a house of cards our banking and economic systems have become.

Why We Have To Play The Blame Game

Which brings us to my second point. Why we need to play the blame game. The reason that we need to play the blame game is because, whether you like it or not, the blame game is indeed being played. The banking lobby is busy spinning the sub-prime mortgage meltdown in such a way that the public and Congress is under the impression that it's the fault of the dirty mortgage brokers who were out there scamming little ole ladies.

Congress has gone right to work doing the banking industries bidding and has started writing laws that are not going to accomplish anything other than to make it more expensive for mortgage brokers to function.

In doing so, they're missing out on the opportunity to take some concrete steps that would put a floor under housing prices and in turn lessen the severity of the recession and possible depression that our economy is now in.

The only way that we are going to avoid this becoming a serious recession or even depression (at this point) is by taking an honest look in the mirror and being forthright in our assessment of what went wrong. This involved placing blame where it should be.

In regards to the housing crises, the blame is squarely on the shoulders of the big Wall Street Investment houses who were playing it fast and loose with various investment vehicles that were made up of mortgage backed securities. That's it.

It wasn't the brokers out there jacking little ole ladies by putting them on payment option arms. While this sort of thing did happen, it was such a small percentage of the entire situation as to not be a factor in where we are now.

Now It's Time For The Blame Game To Be Over

Now that we've realized what went wrong (at least with the housing sector) it's time to move on and to do something REAL to fix the problem!

What can Congress do? For one they can directly address the foreclosure problem. Not by giving rich people tax breaks as they are looking at doing right now. But rather by addressing the foreclosure problem street by street, house by house, person by person!

Congress needs to establish a fund to buy these distressed mortgages and then to negotiate the terms of these mortgages to a point where the borrowers can afford to keep their homes. By doing so, they will reduce the fuel that is causing the housing markets to burn.

In turn this will allow the markets to regain faith in mortgage backed securities, which will cause home mortgage rates to fall, which will cause more buyers to enter the market, which will put a floor under housing values. When the public becomes confident that their largest investment isn't losing money, then they will return to being consumers, which will lessen the downward pressures on our economy.

The other step that Congress needs to take is to establish a fund that would make mortgage insurance available for high LTV loans of good quality. If you look at the historical performance of loans that were high LTV loans, but that met Fannie Mae and/or Freddie Mac's underwriting guild lines, then you'll see that these loans aren't the reason that the mortgage insurance companies are in trouble and not writing new mortgage insurance policies.

The reason that they are in trouble is due to their exposure to the sub-prime market that they invested in.

By making mortgage insurance available again, you'll allow lenders to start making these high LTV loans again which combined with the number of foreclosures being reduced will also fuel housings ability to provide a cushion to the economy's other woes.

It's Not Just Housing

Which brings us to the point of addressing these other woes. Be it our government's runaway spending habits or lack of an effective energy policy, housing isn't the only contributing factor to my pessimism. But, these are topics worthy of their own discussion and if you, my readers, would like, I'd be happy to discuss these topics in a follow up blog.

In the mean time, think about what I've said here. If you can, poke holes in my theories. If you can't, call or better yet, write your Congressman and tell them that you want these issues to be addressed directly.

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

If You Price It Right, They Will Buy!

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:27:55 -0500

A buddy of mine called me the other day and asked me if I would mind helping him determine where he should price his home at for sale. The home is in a different market area than what I serve, but one that I am very familiar with.

So, he emailed me the information on the properties that have sold recently close to where his home is located at. I went over the comps and did a sort of mini-appraisal thing by adding and subtracting the various features that were superior and inferior to my buddy's place.

Being as this was a lake home, my buddy's place had several things that I thought were going to be major selling points. (1) His home didn't have very many steps in order to get down to the lake. (2) He's in a very nice cove...big enough to maneuver in, but too small to water ski in. (3) His home sits on a peninsula, so it's got a water view from every room in the house. And (4) his driveway is pretty level.

So, when I looked at all of the various factors involved I came up with a price of $350,000. On a per square foot basis, this was at the high end of the spectrum when compared to the other properties that had sold, but considering the advantages of their lot, I figured that this would be a 30 - 60 day price.

Well, my buddy didn't take me up on my price. He put it on the market at $339,000 and had TWO offers on it within 3 days!

He's as happy as a bug in a rug!

And I'm happy for him too. I'm also happy that this shows that the real estate market does indeed have a pulse! I feel bad for the first people who looked at it and thought about it for a couple of days because they got beat to the punch, but hey...isn't that the reason behind the old real estate adage;

"The home that you've looked at today and want to think about til tomorrow might be the same house that someone looked at yesterday and are going to make an offer on today?"

When I asked my buddy why he didn't list at the higher price? He told me that he wanted to make sure that he sold it quickly and besides, they bought the home 14 years ago for a fraction of that price and he is happy with what he'll get to take with him when it closes.

This made all the sense in the world to me! So, to all you sellers out there......Remember, it's always a question of asking price! Anything will sell at the right price, you just need to be realistic as to where that price is!

R. B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Relocating To St. Louis - Can you afford not to?

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:31:03 -0500

This morning, while I was reading various blogs, I came across a post that Stewart Penn wrote called, "How Far Will My Salary Go In Another City" and it got me to thinking, "Why do people continue to live in these high cost cities?"

I'm sure that the number one answer to this question would be that most people have established roots in these cities. Or maybe they feel that the amenities that these cities have to offer are worth the extra money that it costs to live there. I'm also sure that there are people who have to live in these cities because of the fact that their professions require it.

But even subtracting the folks who want or need to stay put out of the equation, I imagine that there are probably a good number of people who have reached the point where they have at least considered moving to a less expensive place to live.

These are the folks that I wish to talk to in regard to where you might wish to consider moving to. May I suggest St. Louis as an option?

"Whoa...Dude! But St. Louis doesn't have any of those narley waves that I dig so much!"

True, St. Louis is probably about as far removed from the oceans as you can get and if you're like Spacolie this might be a deal breaker. But as I pointed out in my response to Mr. Penn's blog, I have a friend who lives in LA and I'd be willing to bet that I've been to the beach more times in the past three years that she has even though she only lives about a 20 minute drive away.

If you're not a surfer, then consider this. St. Louis is located about an equal distance from both the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. While it's a gulf and not an ocean, The Gulf Of Mexico is actually within a solid day's drive from St. Louis. (To me, if it's got stuff in it that can eat you, it's an ocean! So, I think that it should count.)

Seriously though, while the ocean does offer some unique recreational opportunities, it's not like it's going to go away any time soon. While airfares are going up, St. Louis remains a great place to fly out of. Book a flight to LA with a 21 day advance purchase on Southwest and it will cost you less than $161.00 each way. If you're not picky about which ocean you want to swim in, STL to Tampa FL is only $89.00 each way!

Other considerations are the recreational opportunities that are available here in St. Louis and within a day's drive. As I've already mentioned, the Gulf Coast is very long day's drive (about 12 -14 hours), but within a 5 hour drive are Chicago, Nashville, Memphis, Kansas City and Indianapolis. In between St. Louis and these cities you will find an abundance of recreational activities ranging from archery to zoology. You can learn to drive a race car or you can suba dive in a cave. Mountain bike or cruise in a luxury yacht.

"Oh, but Robert...Isn't St. Louis a bit of a...shall we say....a cow town?"

Far from it! St. Louis has a population of close to 3,000,000 people. With this many people we're bound to have a certain amount of diversity and sophistication. Our cultural institutions are among the best in the country and our sports franchises all have long and storied histories.

Honestly, I don't care what it is that you're into, chances are that St. Louis can indulge you. All the way from the high brow to the less so, St. Louis offers some of the best. Ask anybody who has been to our strip clubs!

"Okay Bob, how much does it cost to live there in St. Louis?"

If you live in LA, St. Louis is 94% less expensive to live in. That means that in order to have the same standard of living in Los Angeles that you have in St. Louis you would have to make almost twice as much. While salaries here are less than in LA, they're not that much less!

Housing in St. Louis is up to 400% less expensive than in Los Angeles! When you factor this in and considering how much of a family's budget generally goes for housing, you would probably have to earn even more to keep your standard of living comparable.

Depending upon which part of St. Louis you would want to live in, you can buy quite a bit of home for a reasonable amount of money. For example, if you want to live in a typical, middle class suburb you could probably get a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath home with a yard and a two car garage for less than $250,000. In some areas even less.

For $400,000 you can get what would probably be considered to be a mansion in LA.

For $600,000 you can get up to about a 5000 sq. foot home on a 3 acre lot within a 40 minute commute of downtown!

So, if you're thinking about relocating here to St. Louis, give me a call! It really is a great place to live!

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

A Quick Spin Around The Lake Of The Ozarks

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:45:47 -0500

This past Friday afternoon, Kathy and I packed up the Cadillac and headed down to "The Lake" (Lake of the Ozarks) to go for a motorcycle ride. We stayed at our friend's (Bill and Teri Beezley) home that night and then went up to Lake Ozark Harley Davidson the next morning to pick up our bike for the weekend.

Our bike, a beautiful Black and Blue 2008 Harley Davidson Electra Glide Ultra that I named "Bruiser" was absolutely gorgeous! Tony, our sales person, did a great job of getting us situated on the bike and we zoomed back to get Bill and Teri. Once we got them, it was up to "The Rock" (The Rock Island Bar and Grill).

There, we enjoyed a wonderful cheeseburger before we hopped on the bikes and took off over the dam for what turned out to be a spin around the Gravois Mills arm of the Lake of the Ozarks.

To those of you who aren't familiar with The Lake of The Ozarks, it's a 55,000 acre, 90 mile long man made lake that due to the rugged nature of the land has an incredible 1150 miles of shore line (that's about the same amount that California has, by the way). It's located in south central Missouri about 2 1/2 hours from Kansas City and about 3 hours southwest of St. Louis.

Since it's purpose is the generation of electricity and not flood control, the lake level generally stays within a certain range making it very suitable for lake side development. The end result is a recreational and tourist destination that draws regular visitors and second home owners from throughout the mid west.

Back To Our Ride

So, after we left "The Rock" we headed up Highway W through Rocky Mount Missouri and into Versailles Missouri, where we stopped at a little bar on the square called "Skeeters".

As a side note, Versailles Missouri was where Bud Walton opened a 5 and Dime store that he later combined with his brother Sam's small chain of 5 and dimes and which later went on to become the Walmart Corporation.

After a quick refreshment at Skeeters we headed back towards the lake and went to a new place called "Coconuts". Coconuts is right on the lake and is a very nice place that features a swim up bar, plenty of dock space and a ton of tables! The only down side that I saw was that it seemed pretty expensive for what it was. Maybe I'm just cheap, but ten bucks for a cheese burger?

After we left Coconuts we went to a place more my speed called, The Hill Billy Yacht Club, which used to be an old resort that is now the center of activity for a cluster of small lake homes and cabins. I didn't catch the bar tenders name, but she was extremely friendly and one of the patrons there was nice enough to buy us a beer after we talked to him for a few minutes while we waited for the thunderstorm outside to pass.

When the rain stopped, we hopped back on the bikes and took off through Laurie, MO and Sunrise Beach, MO and headed to a place called Frankie and Louie's which was located on the lake at the back of a camp ground. I'd have to say that this was my favorite place that we visited (other than The Rock, of course). They had all sorts of people there and while the place was family friendly (generally not something that I go looking for when I'm out on the bikes) the bar was just that, a bar!

Though I did get a kick out of when the two worlds intertwined...;-)

After Frankie and Louie's we crossed the new bridge back to the "St. Louis" side of the lake and headed back to "The Rock".

At The Rock, we ran into several of the members of a group called, "Biker's Against Child Abuse" who had just "adopted" 3 kids whom they were going to provide emotional support to as they went through the court system after their parents had been accused of abuse.

I had never heard of this group and was really impressed that they were taking the time and making the effort to look out for these kids who probably didn't have a whole bunch of folks looking out for them.

Meeting these people reminded me that most people don't realize how open and friendly the biker community is. These folks didn't look like they would be "the type" to go out of their way to help some kids that they didn't even know, but they do go out of their way and they are indeed great people!

So, it was a great day spent on the bikes! We met some wonderful people and saw some interesting sights and the best part about it...it was done on the cheap!

Including the rental for the motorcycle for the day, Kathy and I got out of the entire weekend...including a side trip to Columbia for a Veggie with Bacon...for less than $400.00 or so. If this is something that sounds fun to you and you have any questions about any of the places that we went to, please don't hesitate to give me a call!

If you're thinking about buying a second home at the Lake of Ozarks, give me a call. While we don't service that part of the state (yet), I'd be happy to refer you to a great agent who will be able to help you find the perfect home or condo.

ValueList does finance properties at the lake and will be happy to answer any questions on financing lake properties that you might have.

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Nicole Bradley PT and West County Sports Fitness and Rehabilitation Center Review - 2 Thumbs Up!

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:10:06 -0500

They say that the typical consumer will tell 8 people if they've had a negative experience with you or your company and only tell 2 people if they have had a positive experience with you or your company. Well, through the power of the web I want to tell as many people as possible about the WONDERFUL experience that I had with Nicole Bradley and her company, West County Sports Fitness and Rehabilitation Center.

As some of you already know, a few months ago I tore my right rotator cuff. No good story about getting into a bar fight or crashing my bicycle, it just happened. I was getting ready to go down the stairs to my basement and my sock caught on a small nail that's head was protruding just a bit.

I didn't really even fall. But I did raise my arm very quickly to steady myself and when I did, "POP!" It tore.

Eventually I had surgery....a quick shout out to my surgeon Rick Wright of Washington University Orthopedics and his staff who also did a wonderful job....and started going to see Nicole at West County Sports Fitness and Rehabilitation Center.

To say that she took good care of me would be an understatement! She was very pleasant to deal with and has a natural talent when it comes to knowing when to push and when to lay back. The atmosphere as West County was very comfortable and relaxed, as well as well equipped. The staff was extremely nice and efficient and their location at 555 North New Ballas Road was centrally located near Interstates 270 and 40/64 with plenty of parking.

So, consider this to be the exception to the rule about not telling people when you're happy! Nicole Bradley and West County Sports Fitness and Rehabilitation Center definately get a "thumbs up, 4 star" review from me. If you're in need of physical therapy in the St. Louis area, you couldn't do better than to ask for Nicole!

R. B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Can You Buy A Home And If You Can, Should You? - A Guide To Making The Home Buying Decision

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:40:51 -0500

As some of you know, my daughter recently graduated from "The Ohio State University" and moved back home to St. Louis to live with her mother. She's in the process of looking for her first "real" job and as is her style, she's already started burning the candle at both ends by starting work on her Masters in International Security.

The other day she told me that she's interested in finding a home for her and her boyfriend to buy and while I'm generally a big fan of people buying real estate, I'm a bit concerned that she's not ready for this move.

Maybe part of it is that she's my little girl and always will be, but to be honest, I think that it has more to do with what her apartment looked like the last time I went to visit her. True, she was still in college and getting that piece of paper does change some things, but I just can't see her mowing the grass on a regular basis.

Am I being unfair?

One of the homes that I purchased a couple of years ago was one that I had sold to a young couple right after they had gotten their first "real" jobs. When I went to look at it, the grass was waist deep and the cats litter box was over flowing. To say that this home had gotten away from them was an understatement!

I ended up buying the home at a severe discount and spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of man hours putting this home back into shape, all because they weren't ready to be homeowners. I guess that I'm afraid that the same thing might happen to my daughter if she were to buy now.

Well, this got me to thinking. How can you tell that you're ready to buy and own a home?

After thinking about it and reading a few articles on the subject, I've come to the conclusion that you can break the decision into two parts: Can You Qualify To Buy? and Are You Ready To Buy? Below are some considerations to think about that may help you answer both of these questions.

Can You Qualify To Buy A Home?

1) Do you have a job that provides enough income to qualify to buy a home? (Ability to Make The Payment)

Generally speaking, lenders are most concerned with your last two years of employment. They are looking to see if your job is secure and if your income is stable enough to pay the mortgage back and to take care of the home.

That's not to say that you have to have been on the same job for the entire two years, but if you've changed jobs, they want to know if the move made sense or were you just job hopping. Generally speaking, the longer you've been on your present job the better and if you have changed jobs, was the new job in the same field? If not, be prepared to explain your logic in changing jobs.

If you've recently graduated and this is your first job after your schooling, the schooling itself can be considered to be "time in your line of work or profession". Be prepared to provide documentation of your schooling.

As mentioned above, the lender is also going to be concerned with your income. Do you make enough to be able to afford to make your payments and to take care of your other financial obligations.

Generally speaking, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guild lines prefer that your housing expense be no more than 28% of your Gross Monthly Income and that your total monthly expenditures be no more than 36% of your gross monthly income. Notice that I said "Gross" monthly income, that is before taxes and any other deductions are taken out of your check.

These ratios are actually pretty flexible (FHA and VA can be even more flexible) and depending upon a host of different factors you may be able to get approved for a mortgage even if you fall outside of the guild lines. That said, especially if this is your first job or you simply don't make that much money, these ratios can be overly liberal and even if you can get approved, you still may not want to borrow the entire amount that you were approved for.

2) Have you demonstrated your willingness to make your payments on time (Your Credit History)

The single best thing that a lender can rely on when making a prediction as to how you're going to make your payments is how you've made your payments to other people in the past.

Do you have a credit history? For the most part lenders rely upon a Consumer Credit Report in order to make this determination. Part of this report is going to be a score that is given to you by each of the three major credit bureaus. Each of the bureaus has their own version of the scoring models, but they are all attempting to do the same thing. That is, they are attempting to predict the likelihood of your defaulting on the mortgage. The higher your scores, the lower the chances of your not making your payments on time.

These scoring models take into account all kinds of different factors including;

a) how long you've had your accounts? (The longer you've had your accounts the better.)

b) if you've made your payments on time? (Have you ever been 30 days late and if so how late were you?)

c) what kind of accounts that you've had? (Avoid pay day loans and excessive use of finance companies)

d) have you ever exceeded your credit limits or are you near your maximum available credit? (keep your balances less than 35% of your maximum credit limits)

e) have you applied for additional credit recently and how often you have done so? (keep your inquiries to a minimum - i.e. don't be casual with allowing people to pull your credit)

What if I haven't done so well on some of these things? Depending on where you've fallen down at will determine how long it will take you to over come any deficiencies. There's not much you can do if you haven't had a credit history for very long or if you've clicked late payments.

The cool thing to know is that in regards to credit, That Time Heals All Wounds". Also, a single late payment or two will probably not disqualify you from being able to borrow. If you have had late payments in the past, they will hurt you less and less as they age. Depending upon the severity of the late payments, it might take as little as 6 months of on-time performance or as long as 24 months of on time performance.

If you've declared bankruptcy, it will take you at least 24 months of on time performance in order to get an FHA mortgage or as much as 60 months to secure conventional financing.

3) Do you have money saved for down payment and reserves after you've made your down payment?

Even if you can qualify for 100% financing (difficult, but not totally impossible, especially if you're a vet) or participate in one of the various down payment assistance programs that are currently available (for now), you will still need to have saved some money in order to successfully complete a purchase of a home.

Closing costs and pre-paids are two categories of costs that you will need to keep in mind. While they can be negotiated (within limits) into a real estate purchase, you'll still incur expenses related to the purchase that you need to account for. Examples of these are things such as a home inspection and moving expenses. Other items that you will want to budget for are deposits on utilities, home maintenance items such as lawn mowers and trimmers, as well as any home repairs or improvements that you may wish to do prior to moving in.

Regarding how much you should plan for a down payment, this is a fairly complex topic that is worthy of it's own post, but suffice it to say that the more you put down the lower your payment is going to be. It will be lower because you are borrowing less (though putting more down might not drop the monthly payment as much as you would think) and because your mortgage insurance premium (MIP) or private mortgage insurance (PMI) will be less.

As mentioned, if your credit is excellent you may be able to qualify for 100% financing or you may be able to participate in one of the various down payment assistance programs that are available. The problem with 100% programs is that they are very difficult to get now and the mortgage insurance (if you can get it) is very expensive.

Putting 5% down will save you money on the PMI. Putting 10% down will save you even more. Putting 20% down will allow you to avoid PMI all together. Also, the more that you put down the less stringent an underwriter will be if you have a weakness in your credit file such as late payments or lack of time on the job.

So, if you have decent credit, income and job stability and at least some money to work with, you can probably qualify to buy a home. Now the question becomes, should you?

Should You Buy A Home or Are You Ready To Buy A Home?

Alright, so you've figured out that you CAN buy a home, but should you? This decision is a personal one, but there are some things that you need to think about in order to make an informed decision.

Some of the questions that you should ask yourself are;

1) Are you ready for the responsibility of owning a home?

All homes are in the process of falling down. It might be a very slow process, but if you look at a home that has been abandoned and then come back to look at that same home a year from now, you'll see what I'm talking about.

This means that you're going to have to do battle with time and the elements in order to keep your home in good condition. Some of this is pretty simple stuff, such as mowing your grass. Other maintenance items are more substantial, such as a roof that needs to be replaced or a heating and cooling system that breaks down on the hottest day of the year.

The fact that you own the home means that you won't be able to call a land lord in order to have them fix it. The good thing about this is that, you won't be able to call a land lord! So, while you'll be the one responsible for getting the item fixed, you'll also have the opportunity to fix it the way that it should be fixed and not as a good number of land lords do.

Since roofs, HVAC systems and other components of a home can be expensive to fix or replace, you'll need to be responsible enough to have money saved to be able to cover this expense or at least have enough credit to get the job done. This might mean that you have to delay gratification by foregoing a trip or other expenditure in order to have the money or credit available to you to fix your home if the need arises. Are you ready to make this type of sacrifice?

2) Are you confident that your job is secure and that you're ready to commit to living in this area for at least the next 5 - 7 years?

While nobody has a crystal ball that operates with any kind of efficiency, you should be able to assume that your job is secure and in today's economy, I would go a step further. If you're job were to go away, do you have a skill set that is marketable enough to be able to generate at least as much money as you are making now?

Next, are you subject to getting relocated or might you have the need to relocate with in the next 5 to 7 years? The reason that this is important is because buying and selling a home is expensive and while homes generally go up in value over time (a safe expectation is that your home will appreciate at a rate equal to the over-all inflation rate - this is a safe expectation over the long haul and not a guarantee.

So, if you buy your home and then find out that you need to sell it inside of this time period, chances are that you are going to lose money on the sale of your home. This isn't always the case and there are things that you can do to improve the value of your home in order to avoid this, but even then, it's still a safe assumption that you will need to own your home for at least this 5 - 7 year period in order to at least break even on the sale.

3) What are your future Lifestyle plans?

Are you thinking about having a family? How about buying a fancy new car? Honestly, when your friends call you and invite you to go backpacking in Europe, do you want a house to stand in the way of your going?

If you're planning a family in the near future, maybe buying that one bedroom condo isn't the best decision for you? Maybe you should buck up and go for the 3 bedroom home instead? If you do have a family, are both you and your partner going to continue to work?

Again, nobody knows what the future might hold, but now is the best time to think about what is likely to occur. A little forethought can save you a lot of heartache down the road.

If you're ready, owning a home can be one of the best financial moves that you can make.

As you can see, buying a home can be a fairly complex decision to make, but if you do decide that buying a home is right for you, it can be one of the best financial decisions that you can make.

Even in today's volatile market, buying a home can be a good financial move. The facts of the matter are that the US population is continuing to rise and that housing formations are also continuing to increase. This provides a solid footing for homes to continue to appreciate. While it's not guaranteed that the home that you buy will go up in value, over time the likelihood of it appreciating are substantial.

As I've written about before, you don't see a for-sale sign in front of Warren Buffet's home do you?

Equity in real estate is by far the largest single source of wealth in the United States. People own more equity in real estate than in all other forms of investment combined. Not only will a home provide a roof over your head and a place to call home, it will also allow you to take advantage of the economic concept of leverage.

That is, you can buy an asset that is likely to appreciate based upon it's gross value by only putting a small amount down. For example if you buy a $200,000 home and it appreciates at a modest average of 3% over the next 10 years, your home should then be worth somewhere around $268,783.28. Even subtracting out selling expenses equal to 6% of the appreciated value, you still have a gain of approximately $52,656.28. This figure doesn't count any amounts that you would have paid your mortgage down either.

If you compare that to putting what would have been your 5% down payment ($10,000) into a CD earning 5% your gain would have only been $6,288.95 over than same 10 year period.

Now, it is true that you will have to pay interest on your mortgage and also pay to keep the home up, but it's not like renting doesn't come with costs associated with it. For example, in addition to your rental payments you also have to factor in the fact that unless you sign a long term lease, your rent can be increased.

Also, if your landlord decides that, for whatever reason, that they don't want to rent to you any more, they can simply give you the minimum notice required and boot you out. Another consideration is if you want to improve your living quarters. If you rent, any money that you put into the home benefits the land lord, not you!

One last consideration to take into account is the "Home Mortgage Deduction" that the IRS allows you to deduct from your taxes. While the value of this deduction varies depending upon your tax bracket and the amount of interest that you pay on your mortgage, it can still be substantial.

For example, a person or couple who earn an income of $75,000 and who is in the 25% tax bracket who borrows $190,000 at 6.5% could expect an annual tax savings of around $3,087.50 or approximately $257.29 per month.

That means that for this person or couple that their rent is actually $257.29 a month more than they thought it was!

So, in closing, owning your own home can be a wonderful thing to do, if you're ready for it! If you have any questions about if it's the right thing for you, please feel free to give me a call and I'll be happy to talk with you.

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

There's Nothing Wrong With The Housing Markets! So, Don't Try To "Fix" Them!

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:17:35 -0500

This morning I was watching CNBC and they had David Seiders, Chief Economist for the National Association of Home Builders who was pressing the case for the passage of the Housing Stimulus Package that is currently moving it's way through Congress.

And while I am in favor of government action to fix the housing/mortgage crises, I think that this is the wrong way of going about it!

While not a lot has been released about the bill, Congressional aides have let it be known that tax credits are to be a major component of the measure and this is where I start to smell something rotten.

You see, as I've written about before, it's not the housing markets that are causing the problem here! It's the credit markets! Until the credit markets crashed and burned, the housing markets were doing just fine!

If they were to address the issues that the credit markets are facing, then the housing markets would come roaring back to life and there would be no need for tax credits to encourage people to buy.

Instead of giving tax credits, which the majority of Americans wouldn't be able to take advantage of, they should create a fund to purchase the sub-prime mortgages that are causing the majority of the foreclosures.

Having purchased these mortgages (at a steep discount, by the way) they could renegotiate the terms so that the folks who were in these homes would be able to afford them. After a seasoning period where the home owners would be able to demonstrate that they were able to make their payments in a timely fashion, the government could then sell these now performing mortgages back into the secondary mortgage markets.

The profits from buying and selling these mortgages could be used to offset any losses that the fund would incur due to loans that didn't perform.

Another idea would be to create a government backed mortgage insurance fund that would allow lenders to relax underwriting guild lines back to a point where you didn't have to be perfect in order to buy a home. FHA already serves this purpose to a certain extent, but not to the point of being able to replace what the private mortgage insurance companies were doing before they got caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

Remember, it wasn't the Fannie/Freddie loans that caused this situation. Even the "level approval" loans have performed amazingly well. The only reason that the private mortgage insurers have pulled back from insuring PMI policies for high LTV mortgages is because they are having liquidity problems due to their exposure to the sub-prime markets.

By replacing this lost liquidity, the credit markets could return to rational lending practices and as I've pointed out above, the housing markets will come roaring back!

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Buy A Home In Hazelwood For Less Than $75,000

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:45:48 -0500

With all of the bad press that the real estate markets are getting, did you know that there is a silver lining to it all? That silver lining is in areas where you used to not be able to buy a home for less than $100,000 you can now buy a home for less than $70,000!

If you're willing to go a bit higher, there are several homes that you might be interested in.

True, it's a bit tougher to qualify for the mortgage, but as long as you have decent credit and a bit of money to work with, I can probably get you into a home.

If you're credit isn't that good, you can still give me a call and I will be happy to sit down with you and let you know what you have to do in order to be able to buy a house. Even if you've declared bankruptcy, I can still get you into a home 24 months after your bankruptcy has been discharged!

Basically, if there is a will, there is a way! Call me for additional information!

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.