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    <title>Elizabeth &amp; Justin's Blog</title>
    <link>http://activerain.com/blogs/thayer</link>
    <description></description>
    <language>en-us</language>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/927785/is-this-mortgage-steering-and-or-an-ethics-violation-i-need-all-your-help-please-read-and-comment-</guid>
      <title>Is this Mortgage steering and/or an ethics violation? I need all your help please read and comment!</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;Anyone who can help please reply to the following question. I recently wrote an offer&amp;nbsp; as a buyers agent. . When i first met this buyer he had a pre approval from&amp;nbsp; a country wide&amp;nbsp;lender in Dalla Texas we are in Eugene Or about 2000 miles away. After speaking with this lender on the phone a felt it was best for my client to use a local agent I trusted.&amp;nbsp;My client&amp;nbsp;met with the agent and loved her. As she is one of my go to finance people she was able to pass a little savings onto him and also lower his rate.&amp;nbsp;I found him the perfect house in his price range listed at $149900.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The listing description noted that a 24&quot; flat screen TV was to be given with seller approved financing. The refrigerator was noted in the MLS as included.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Ther was no mention of a specific lender in the MLS notes just that the TV was to be given with seller approved financing. I thought this meant he was to approve my buyers mortgage&amp;nbsp;broker before accepting the offer by interviewing or other research. I totally agree with this! I assumed&amp;nbsp;once he spoke with my lender and we had full bank approval we could move forward. Boy was I wrong. However I think they crossed into blatant mortgage steering. This is a complete violation of the respa&amp;nbsp; fair trade act of the early 80's. If anyone can pleas read further and help me decipher if this is indeed a violation. Also tell me when the respa act was implimented and what the statute number of this type of steering violation is.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I wrote an offer of $145000 with seller paying $5k in closingt costs. VA financing with my buyers lender. I listed&amp;nbsp;all contact info for sellers&amp;nbsp;approval of the financing&amp;nbsp;on the sale&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;agreement also included the pre approval letter. We&amp;nbsp; gave 4 response days for plenty nof time for the seller to review financing.&amp;nbsp;I also list the TV and refrigerator on the personal property section of the sale Oregon sale agreement.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The seller countered with this exact addendum 36 hrs after our offer had expired. This&amp;nbsp;upset my buyer as he discoverd they where hoding an open house on the day they where supposed to respond. However this is not the problem or a legal concern. They sent me a counter to our offer&amp;nbsp;via email.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Here is exactly how the counter offer was written.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sellers 1st counter:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sales price to be $152500&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;25&quot; flatscreen TV to be included in sale.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Buyer to get financing (from&amp;nbsp;a different finance company than I had listed for approval).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Seller to pay $5000 in closing costs.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I was fine with the price and closing costs as was my buyer. However&amp;nbsp;he did not want to use thier financing. Further more the counter offer wording is illegal. You cannot make the buyers change finance companys as a contingencie to a sale. My buyer was very upset at the prospect of having to change finance&amp;nbsp;company's. I aasured him he did not have to use the&amp;nbsp; company in the sellers counter, and called the listing agent and asked if&amp;nbsp;my buyer&amp;nbsp;could use his own&amp;nbsp;lender and seller keep his TV to try to avoid the steering&amp;nbsp;situation altogether. He said indeed my buyer using&amp;nbsp;this&amp;nbsp;financing company&amp;nbsp;was&amp;nbsp; very important&amp;nbsp; to the seller and he did not think he budge on the subject. I said &quot;my buyer has to use the seller as a licenced morgage broker paying him a commission&amp;nbsp;to purchase his house&quot; He said yes thats what his seller insists but he will not actually be doing the loan. I said &quot;he must be getting&amp;nbsp;a referral&amp;nbsp;or it would not matter as long as he was comfotable with the lender my buyer chooses&quot;. He did not answer. I then said &quot;Thats totally&amp;nbsp;illegal you know&quot;! He told me he would call me back after speaking with his principal broker about it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;At first the listing broker agreed that this was illegal and apologized after speaking with his principal broker. I said I was willing to forget the whole thing I just wanted my buyer to get the house and use a lender he trusted.&amp;nbsp; He then called me back after meeting with his seller 2 hrs later&amp;nbsp;the same day. He stated on the phone&amp;nbsp;that&amp;nbsp;the counter offer wording&amp;nbsp;was indeed&amp;nbsp;legal because of the TV offered for seller approved finance was an incentive to use his finance company. I stated the wording did not reflect just an insentive as they where not connected in any way on the counter but two seperate&amp;nbsp;contingencies to the sale.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I discontinued the argument and told the listing broker my buyer would not take the TV as he did not know anything about this company or it's fees and rates. I also told the listing&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;broker my buyer had&amp;nbsp; a fiduciary relationship with his lender and it would be unethical to interfere with that. however we would be more than happy to give him time to interview the lender and open escrow only after initial approval&amp;nbsp; is satisfactory to to seller.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I then rejected sellers 1st counter and&amp;nbsp;countered as such&amp;nbsp;thinking once&amp;nbsp;again the seller wanting to be the lender was off the table.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Buyers 1st counter:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sale price to be $150000&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Seller&amp;nbsp;to contribute $5k&amp;nbsp;to closing&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Buyers finance to remain the same as listed on the sale contract. and added buyers&amp;nbsp;Lenders phone # name etc.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;24&quot; TV not to be included in sale.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The seller then rejected my buyers 1st counter and&amp;nbsp;counted and countered with this wor for word.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sellers 2nd counter:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sale price to be $154000.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;seller to pay $5k in buyers closing costs.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;TV not to be included in sale.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Buyer to use his own financing&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Buyer to be pre approved by (The lender&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;the&amp;nbsp;seller&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; works for ) within 48 hrs of mutual agreement.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I immediatly called the listing agent and said your seller is actually going to raise the price of his last counter if my buyer does not use him as a lender. He said yes. He then told me I should consider having my consulting my&amp;nbsp;buyer to&amp;nbsp;use&amp;nbsp; the sellers finance company&amp;nbsp;to get the lower price, and end the negotiation. I said I will over look&amp;nbsp;giving up the TV even though you never specified buyers where to use the sellers own&amp;nbsp;finance company in the MLS listing. I can accept that is an incentive for such. Your seller&amp;nbsp;can also raise the price at will while negotiating at any&amp;nbsp;point before mutual agreement. Where&amp;nbsp; I Belive they are breaking the law is changing previous&amp;nbsp;offers of price, and&amp;nbsp;threataning not to sell (though mostly verbal the sellers 1st counter is arguablly written&amp;nbsp;fact of this)&amp;nbsp;unless they use&amp;nbsp;the sellers finance&amp;nbsp;company&amp;gt; Worse yet wanting my buyer to agree in a binding sale agreement with $1500 of his money in earnist&amp;nbsp;without&amp;nbsp;any kind of good faith.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Am I right? Is this blatant mortgage steering? If my buyer&amp;nbsp;agrees to use thier financing to get the better price so he can&amp;nbsp;qualify is his $1500 in earnist money going to be in jepordy if he diagrees with fees,&amp;nbsp; rate, or personallity of &amp;nbsp;the seller&amp;nbsp;and refuses to use him after the good faith estimate?&amp;nbsp;What would you do? My buyer still really wants this house he cant qualify for $154000. He also is not willing to use the seller or anyone associated with him for financing.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2009 07:13:30 -0600</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/927785/is-this-mortgage-steering-and-or-an-ethics-violation-i-need-all-your-help-please-read-and-comment-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/878451/get-rich-in-real-estate-with-no-money-down-</guid>
      <title>Get rich in Real estate with no money down!</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;It's never gong to happen! I know a lady who spent $2000 on a course in Portland Or. She&amp;nbsp;had great credit so now she now&amp;nbsp;owns three houses she can not sell and is going to file bankruptcy.&amp;nbsp; Most can't come up with the kind of real money it takes so they just waste the $2000 and allot of time trying. I have met about 30 of these people as well. I feel bad for them, but they rarely listen to knowledgeable Brokers and investors.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is a way to make money in Real Estate and I will give it to you for free!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;1. Find a small home that needs a little or allot of work depending on you capabilities. Utilize a Real estate broker who is knowledgeable in investment properties, Short sales, Foreclosures, Etc.&amp;nbsp;Fix it up just enough to rent for no less than 2 years. Rent until the market is at or near the top of a cycle. Remove renters Fix up to retail standards, stage and profit big.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I have made more money than I ever thought I&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;would have with this simple process, but is it that simple! Kind of but you really need a good Broker or Realtor&amp;nbsp;who has experience in these types of listing as negotiating with the banks is an art form that actually takes knowledge and practice. Some brokers have personal relationships with the people in charge of the&amp;nbsp;distressed homes they are called asset managers. As a regular buyer you will never even get them on the phone! It's hard enough for most Realtors.&amp;nbsp;I started investing this way before I became a Broker and had an excellent Realtor who helped me move up in the tax brackets and lifestyle. I ended up Marrying her and becoming a Broker myself continuing the process together.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This is the time to buy!!!! It's like a 1/2 price sale out there. History proves&amp;nbsp;the market will indeed rebound and those bargain hunters out there right now&amp;nbsp;are going profit in record amounts when it happens! I am going to once again be one of them!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For more information or a list of distressed homes in Lane county Oregon go to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com&quot;&gt;www.teamthayer.com&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;or call Justin Thayer @ 541-543-7287&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You will have to request a Foreclosure list but it's free! I also&amp;nbsp;have tons of info for investors on the site!&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:26:11 -0600</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/878451/get-rich-in-real-estate-with-no-money-down-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/859742/online-foreclosure-sites-avoid-them-</guid>
      <title>Online foreclosure sites &quot;AVOID THEM!!!!!!!&quot;</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;I found this artical and had to comment! This is important information to all of the bargain hunters out there!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Justin&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Online Foreclosure Sites Come With a Price &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Buyers interested in foreclosures need a real estate professional''''s help navigating the online listings unless they are willing to pay a substantial monthly fee to use heavily advertised sites like ForeclosureStore and ForeclosureToGo.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sites that are free, like Zillow.com and Trulia.com, just display filings culled from other sites, so users ultimately end up at the pay sites.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Users of the pay sites can often see a partial address and description, but if they want the whole enchilada, then they must cough up monthly fees that range from about $40 to $80.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;RealtyTrac advertises free access, but often the addresses and other details are incomplete.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Source: The Associated Press, Alex Veiga (12/22/2008)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I also have found these sites are&amp;nbsp;too flawed to be accurate. All&amp;nbsp; most of them do is put out information from the county's&amp;nbsp;notice of default lists. The homeowners on&amp;nbsp;these lists often do&amp;nbsp;not want&amp;nbsp; to sell but are tying to save their home in which they often do! Imagine the surprise when a new investor as&amp;nbsp;they&amp;nbsp;get greeted with a shot gun after presenting&amp;nbsp;an &amp;nbsp;offer&amp;nbsp; at the homeowners front&amp;nbsp;door for what he owes on his first loan. This really happened in Lane county. These sites show the amount of the first lien and displays it as if it is a selling price! They do &amp;nbsp;not show&amp;nbsp;the second mortgage&amp;nbsp;or any other liens that need cleared to obtain the property if indeed the home owner wants too sell. This get people excited enough to&amp;nbsp;whip out their credit card to pay the&amp;nbsp;$20 fee. to be a member of the site for a month.&amp;nbsp;I&amp;nbsp;have yet to see anyone in serious trouble with their mortgage and only have one loan on it with tons of equity! If that where the case they would just sell the house.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp; Fortunately for people in Lane county Or I will provide a true list of distressed property to anyone whop wants this information for free. I search for these homes and put out a list about once per week.&amp;nbsp; I include Foreclosed,&amp;nbsp;Homeowners trying to secure a short sale, and estate sales&amp;nbsp;in one list. You can email me @ &lt;a href=&quot;mailto:info@teamthayer.com&quot;&gt;info@teamthayer.com&lt;/a&gt; , call my cell @ 541-543-7287 or, go to my web site &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com/&quot;&gt;www.teamthayer.com&lt;/a&gt; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:18:45 -0600</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/859742/online-foreclosure-sites-avoid-them-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/822716/-seller-paid-taxes-on-short-sales-explained</guid>
      <title> Seller Paid Taxes on short sales explained</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Seller Paid Taxes on short sales explained.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Prior to December 2007, if a homeowner lost his house due to a bank foreclosure, and the bank forgave any difference between the price it was sold for and what was owed, the homeowner would owe additional income tax on that portion. Yes, it's hard to believe, but true.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Let's say the homeowner owed $300,000 on the mortgage, but the foreclosure sale only brought in $200,000. Then the bank forgave the $100,000 shortfall. The homeowner would have been liable for the income tax on the $100,000 debt forgiveness from the bank.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The IRS considered this money effectively paid to the homeowner, and it would be taxable in their top bracket.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Now, because of the unique stresses in the housing industry lately and on our whole economy, in December 2007, Congress stepped in to provide temporary relief in the form of forgiving this debt, but only for the 2007, 2008 and 2009 tax years. After that, the old rule applies again.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To be eligible for this tax relief, the mortgage must be for your principal residence. It does not apply to vacation, investment or other properties. And no more than $2 million of forgiven debt can be excluded from taxable income.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Home Equity Loans&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Another very important detail in this temporary tax break is if part of the forgiven debt was a home equity loan and used for purposes other than to build, buy or substantially improve the property, that portion is still taxable. In other words, home equity loans used for vacations aren't included.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Short Sales&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Now, what happens in a short sale? In brief, this can occur when a borrower is behind on the mortgage payments and the lender agrees he can sell his house for less than what is owed on the mortgage. But all proceeds must be turned over to the bank.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The portion of the mortgage the bank forgives, plus any commission expenses or other selling costs, are taxable income if this debt is canceled. Yes, even the commission and selling expenses count.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A homeowner can now receive a $250,000 (single) and $500,000 (married) capital gain exclusion on the sale of their primary residence.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While $7,500 capital gains tax is surely a lot less than the $100,000 canceled by the lender, the homeowner may not think of this or be aware it could happen down the road, perhaps just prior to retirement. And capital gains taxes are always subject to change.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mortgage Insurance Affected&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It is important to also note this act extended mortgage insurance as an itemized deduction all the way through 2010. Yes, there's a restriction. The mortgage contract has to be entered into between December 31, 2006 and January 1, 2011.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For more information on short sales or for a list of short sales in Lane county Oregon call go to &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;www.teamthayer.com&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; or call 541-543-7287&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:15:46 -0600</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/822716/-seller-paid-taxes-on-short-sales-explained</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/801597/once-again-u-s-homeowners-are-in-denial-</guid>
      <title>Once again, U.S. homeowners are in denial </title>
      <description>&lt;h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Results of 2008 Q3 Homeowner Confidence Survey&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There's no doubt we've been deluged with depressing economic and housing news over the past few months. Every day is a new headline, every channel has a new pundit and the recession debate has shifted from &quot;if&quot; to &quot;how long.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;Given this, when fielding our &lt;a href=&quot;http://zillow.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=159&amp;amp;item=79&quot; title=&quot;External link to http://zillow.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=159&amp;amp;item=79&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Q3 Homeowner Confidence Survey&lt;/a&gt; earlier this month, we expected the results to be markedly different than &lt;a href=&quot;http://zillow.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=159&amp;amp;item=64&quot; title=&quot;External link to http://zillow.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=159&amp;amp;item=64&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;last quarter&lt;/a&gt;, when 62% of homeowners thought their home's value had increased or stayed the same (despite 77% of homes losing value). The &lt;a href=&quot;http://zillow.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=159&amp;amp;item=79&quot; title=&quot;External link to http://zillow.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=159&amp;amp;item=79&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Q3 Survey&lt;/a&gt;, fielded October 7-9, 2008 (the worst week in stock market history, by the way), asked homeowners their perception of their home's value over the past year, and what they think will happen to their home's value in the coming months.The results are kind of baffling. While the perception gap did narrow, still half of U.S. homeowners do not think their home's value has declined over the past year. Specifically: &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* 32% think their home's value increased in the past 12 months&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* 17% think their home's value held steady&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* 51% think their home's value declined In reality&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;three-quarters (74%) of U.S. homes lost value in the past 12 months, according to Zillow's Q3 data.The following chart breaks down responses by region, and you can see that homeowners in different areas of the country hold a more (or less) realistic view. In the West, where the most homes are losing value (85% of homes in the West declined over the past year), homeowners are more realistic - with 65% of homeowners saying the value of their own homes has declined. In the Northeast, the perception gap is widest.&lt;br /&gt;Meanwhile, optimism continues into the future for a good chunk of homeowners: * 21% believe their home's value will increase in the coming 6 months * 40% believe their home's value will stay the same * 40% believe their home's value will decrease.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Is this optimism (or denial) necessarily a bad thing? Maybe not, if you plan to stay in your home for the next several years and aren't making financial decisions today based on presumed equity. It's sort of like the way I'm avoiding looking at my 401k statements - doesn't affect me today, so why get depressed. But for sellers, an unrealistic view of your home's value today can only hurt - you, when your home sits on the market for months, and the local market at large, with a continued and growing glut of inventory that's just not selling.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For more information visit &amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com&quot;&gt;www.teamthayer.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/h3&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:53:55 -0600</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/801597/once-again-u-s-homeowners-are-in-denial-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/801578/amidst-the-confusion-some-positive-signs</guid>
      <title>Amidst the Confusion, Some Positive Signs</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;Part of the government's original $700 billion plan to purchase troubled mortgages and take them off banks' books is being shelved - primarily because of the long-time involvement to implement it effectively. Instead, the money will be used to quickly strengthen the capital position of financial institutions and support securitization for consumer financing. The goal is to get capital to lenders (banks, mortgage companies, other financial institutions) so that they can start issuing loans to consumers and companies. In one sense the plan is working; the LIBOR rates - the key rate measurement of liquidity flow in the financial system -- have begun to thaw after being essentially frozen. But in a greater respect the plan is not yet working: residential mortgage rates stubbornly carry a high spread above Treasury rates, commercial mortgage loans are non-existent and the banks are not still lending to small businesses.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The good news on the real estate front is that mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (now under the governance of the Federal Housing Finance Agency) have received stronger support. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson recently said the following regarding the mortgage-backed securities of Fannie and Freddie: &quot;The U.S. government honors its commitments and investors can bank on it.&quot; Let's all hope he's right on both counts. Still, there has been investor confusion about what &quot;effective&quot; vs. &quot;explicit&quot; guarantee of Fannie and Freddie debts actually means. That confusion has pushed up mortgage rates.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Financial Crisis&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Yes, we are in the midst of one of the worst financial crises in a generation. The confusion in the markets has also affected consumers -- some consumers mistakenly believe mortgage loans are not available. However, massive government efforts are being made to ensure mortgages flow to qualified consumers. There are loans out there.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Perhaps also a bit confusing for consumers, against this turmoil of financial and credit concerns: housing affordability has been improving consistently over the last few months. Affordability is as high as it's been since 2003. The latest NAR Housing Affordability Index stood at 135.2 for September - up from August's revised reading of 123.3 and a third consecutive monthly increase. That means that a family earning the median family income has 135 percent of the income necessary to qualify for a conventional loan covering 80 percent of a median-priced existing single-family home.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Few Bright Spots&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That improved affordability has led to improved home sales. In September, existing-home sales rose more than five percent from the level in August. In Arizona, California and Nevada, sales rose 20 percent or more between the second and third quarters of 2008. In fact, 19 states experienced increased or no change in sales during that time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Those home sales are helping to work off housing inventory. Shrinking inventory is another sign that the real estate market is stabilizing. Inventory of new homes has been falling since posting&lt;br /&gt;a peak supply of 570,000 new homes in August 2006. As of September 2008, new-home inventory had fallen to 394,000. The inventory of existing homes has also declined - from an 11.2 month supply in April to a 9.9 month supply in September.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;More Must Be Done - NAR's Role&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While these signs are encouraging, more must be done, particularly given our economic contraction forecast of about two percent in the fourth quarter of this year, and a jobless rate that could easily surpass 7 percent in 2009. NAR research indicates that an interest-rate deduction of just 1 percentage point could result in as many as 840,000 additional home sales. That could further reduce the inventory of homes by as much as 20 percent.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To encourage more buyers into the housing market, NAR has proposed that the government buy-down mortgage interest rates to ensure fixed low rates for home buyers. NAR also presented a four-point plan to Congress last month recommending, in part, that the repayment feature be removed from the first-time home buyer tax credit, that the tax credit be extended to all buyers, and that higher FHA and conventional loan limits be made permanent - up to $729,000 in high-cost areas - to give buyers in these areas access to safer, more affordable mortgages. A meaningful shrinking of inventory can only occur with new set of buyers entering the market. Only then will home prices, Wall Street and the economy begin to turn toward a sustainable recovery.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Realtors&amp;reg; are Essential to Housing Recovery&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While NAR will continue to press for additional housing stimulus, the housing recovery - and the subsequent economic recovery - also depends on restoring consumer confidence. REALTORS&amp;reg; are an essential part of that. Buying a home has been a path to long-term wealth accumulation for a vast number of homeowners. REALTORS&amp;reg; have the knowledge, experience and expertise to help their clients make informed, smart decisions in these difficult times.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For more market&amp;nbsp;information visit &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;www.teamthayer.com&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:47:07 -0600</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/801578/amidst-the-confusion-some-positive-signs</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/795324/-warning-home-sellers-don-t-fall-for-this-scam-</guid>
      <title>&quot;WARNING&quot; Home sellers don't fall for this scam! </title>
      <description>&lt;h3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here is the latest way people are trying to profit from others misfortune.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The following was actually sent to me about a house I have listed. I removed the actual persons name and website.&amp;nbsp;They obviously did not realize they where contacting a Real Estate&amp;nbsp;Broker so I investigated further to find out what they are really trying to do!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;(Peace and Abundance of Blessings to your and you family, I am running the numbers, in preparation to make you an offer on your property. I think your property would fit nicely into my Perfect Tenant Program. The benefits that you get are PRICE, CONVENIENCE, AND SECURITY. We offer to buy your house at today's full market value and take care of the rest. When we lease option a house, we guarantee in writing that all maintenance and repairs will be paid by us while we are selling your house to a tenant/buyer. We only deal with high quality people who are looking to buy, not just rent a house. When you sell your home to us, we handle all the marketing of the house. This includes paying for advertising, screening potential tenant/buyers, and showing the house. We want the process of selling your home to go as smoothly as possible, with no more headaches for you caused by buyers who tell you that they want a house, but end up not being able to qualify for financing. You are also relieved of having to pay double mortgage payments in the event that you have to move before you are able to get a buyer for your home. We simplify the process of selling you home by handling all the details that waste much of your time and money. We make your monthly payments while a tenant/buyer is qualifying for a loan. All your expenses related to the house are taken care of. Try getting a realtor to do that while listing your home! Another advantage is that our objective is to put only high quality tenant/buyers in the house since we make our profit by selling for higher than we buy. Since we guarantee all maintenance on the house, it is in our best interest to ensure that our tenant/buyer will take care of the home and eventually secure financing to cash you, the seller and us out. This means that we put our tenant/buyer through an intensive pre-screening process before they are even permitted to look at the house. We don't work for commissions, so you keep your equity. And, because our profits are made by selling for slightly higher then what we buy for, we have a vested interest in the house and in making sure it gets sold. Please visit my website &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.4ofan.com/&quot;&gt;XXX&amp;nbsp;yyyy&lt;/a&gt; for more info. Please let me when you are ready to move forward,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;I found out these are the people who bought those get rich with no money down buying Real Estate programs from late night infomercials. Here is exactly how it works:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They buy your house from you on a land sale contract with a return&amp;nbsp;clause at the end&amp;nbsp;(This means you are financing them. They&amp;nbsp; make you payments but pay you little to&amp;nbsp;no actual money up front. However legally they own the property). Then they find a renter and sign them up on a rent to own contract. They rent it for a period of time usually 6mo - 3 years&amp;nbsp;hoping the tenant gets their credit in&amp;nbsp;good enough shape&amp;nbsp;to buy the home&amp;nbsp; for more money than you sold it to them for at the end of the contract. Remember they paid you nothing just took over your payments! Well they did not really take your payments over they pay you your payment amount that they get from the renter they found and put on the rent to own contract. They or you never pay your bank off so you are still responsible for your house payment!&amp;nbsp;The worst part is the people they put on the rent to own rarely become credit worthy enough to buy a home in one to three years.&amp;nbsp;The&amp;nbsp;reason most&amp;nbsp;people&amp;nbsp; go with rent to own in the first place is bad credit. If that renter cant get conventional financing&amp;nbsp;or cash&amp;nbsp;in the amount of time of their rent to own contract&amp;nbsp;they will charge you for their services by selling you back your&amp;nbsp;own home for more than they bought it. This will be confusingly spelled out in the return clause&amp;nbsp;of the land sale contract.&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;This is how to buy property with no money out of your own pocket. What a scam! It's totally legal to!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Rent your house yourself or call a Realtor before getting caught up in the loosing end&amp;nbsp;of these get rich quick schemers. There are better ways to get help&amp;nbsp;even if you are in trouble and over you head!&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;If you need to sell your house and live in lane county&amp;nbsp;call me @ 541-&amp;nbsp;543-7287 or go to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com/&quot;&gt;www.teamthayer.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/h3&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:39:53 -0600</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/795324/-warning-home-sellers-don-t-fall-for-this-scam-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/786864/learn-the-basics-about-short-sales</guid>
      <title>Learn the basics about short sales</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;As Foreclosures Rise, More Sellers and Lenders Consider Short-Selling The headline news recently was that the number of mortgages entering the foreclosure process rose to a record level. Of the nearly 44 million mortgages, about 0.58 percent - that's 254,590 - or one out of every 172 loans, are now officially in foreclosure. Foreclosure occurs when borrowers have not made two or more payments and lenders respond by filing a legal notice and commencing a legal proceeding to take possession of the home. The record number of foreclosures does not appear to be evenly spread around the country. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, the rate of mortgages in foreclosure would have fallen if not for big jumps in foreclosures in local markets of California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona, where investors who bought on speculation that values would rise are walking away from property that is now worth less than they owe. Also, in regions of Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, areas marked by large job losses in manufacturing are seeing big increases in foreclosures. A Foreclosure Alternative The prospect of foreclosure is difficult for a homeowner, but there is another option. A little-known alternative, once more commonly used in the real estate downturn of the early '90s, is the &quot;short sale,&quot; which works like this: A homeowner falls behind on his or her mortgage payments, usually due to a job loss, rising debt payments, or both. Facing a situation in which the home value has fallen and cannot be sold for the amount of the mortgage owed, the homeowner works out a deal with the lender to sell the home for whatever the market will bear. If the amount of the sale is for less than the amount owed on the mortgage, the lender gets the proceeds and discharges the remaining debt. The homeowner will have to leave the house as soon as it is sold. Alternatively, with a foreclosure, homeowners who can no longer make payments are served with a notice of foreclosure, which essentially informs them to either bring the loan current or face the home being taken over and sold at a public auction, after which the homeowner will face eviction proceedings. While this process is going on, the homeowner can live in the house rent-free for up to a year, depending on that state's foreclosure and eviction laws. But this fact alone does not mean the foreclosure is better; in fact, it may be worse. Lose the House, but Not Your Credit According to sources in the mortgage industry, people who agree to a short sale with the lender do far less damage to their credit rating than those who go through foreclosure. While in both cases, short sale and foreclosure, the delinquent mortgage will negatively affect their credit rating, at least short sellers avoid having a &quot;debt discharged due to foreclosure&quot; on their credit reports. Mortgage and credit experts say that, after bankruptcy, having a foreclosure on your credit report is the worst result and will reduce your credit score by over 250 points. You could also have to wait up to three years to qualify for a mortgage at a reasonable rate. Short sales show up on a credit report as a &quot;pre-foreclosure in redemption&quot; status and can result in a credit score reduction of 100 points or less. After the sale, the mortgage may show up as &quot;discharged.&quot; People who successfully complete a short sale may also qualify for a mortgage at a reasonable interest rate in as little as 18 months. So, if buying a home is a future goal, then a short sale is the better option for many. Homeowners cannot simply decide that they want to unload a home with a short sale; the lender must agree to it. The key to getting a lender to go along is to demonstrate two things: that you have no other financial resources to pay the mortgage, and that the sale price the buyer is willing to pay is the fair price the market will bear. If a lender believes it can get more for the house by taking possession of it and selling it themselves, then they will not go along with a short sale. To begin the process of a short sale, you first need to call the lender and speak directly with the person in the loan workout or short sale department. At GMAC ResCap, a large residential mortgage lender, there is a &quot;foreclosure prevention department&quot; with people trained to work with homeowners in exactly this situation. Their motivation is summed up by Steve Nelson at that company: &quot;We pretty much know what our loss is going to be if we foreclose. If a short-seller results in a payoff that's better than that number, we're talking all day long with people who want to put a short sale together.&quot; Some lenders report a three- to four-times rise in the number of short sales over the past year. People who want to go this route should contact a local real estate firm and ask to work with a real estate agent who has actual experience with short sales. These specially trained agents will know the process and deliver the documentation that the lender requires to authorize the short sale. The agent can also find a buyer that is qualified to complete the transaction. If all goes as planned, the lender will receive all of the proceeds, typically not enough to pay off the loan. The remaining balance of the loan is discharged. But a homeowner agreeing to a short sale should also get legal advice to protect his or herself from future claims of the lender. In some states, only purchase mortgages are fully discharged. For all other types of debt (equity loans, refinancing, etc), the homeowner can be held personally liable for repayment in the future. For this reason, a lawyer's advice will include getting the lender to agree to fully discharge all mortgage debt involved in the short sale. Buying a Short Sale Home Buyers who can find a short-sale can get a good deal. The advantages of buying a property through a short sale include buying at a discounted price and buying a house where the sellers are still motivated to sell the home and may take care of it until it is sold. Some buyers think they can get a better deal by waiting to buy a house when it goes into foreclosure, but buying a house through foreclosure is risky business and not for first-time buyers or inexperienced real estate investors. You should get advice from an experienced professional. Hire a lawyer to help you with the eviction process if the home is occupied. Sometimes, tenants who are sued for eviction can retaliate. When sellers realize they will lose their home to foreclosure, they often stop caring for it. Many states require buyers to make certain disclosures to the owners, and failure to do so on the proper forms and in the required timeframes can result in fines, lawsuits, and even cancellation of the sale and loss of your money. It's typically advised to work with a realtor with experience in short sales, because they can help you research the market to find the properties where foreclosure notices have been filed as well as how much is owed by the lender. Typically, this can be done at the county registrar of deeds. They can also approach these homeowners for you to let them know that they are aware that the foreclosure notice has been filed and that, if the owner is interested, there is a buyer who could work with them to complete a short sale. Even if you find a home where the owner is willing to work out a short sale, don't assume the lender will go along with it. Once the seller agrees to your offer, your agent will need to send it to the lender for approval, and you will not have a deal until the lender OKs it. Expect a lender to negotiate a higher price; they will want to know they are getting paid the most they can get for the house. Since the lender is paying the realtor's commission, it will likely ask your agent to lower his commission, or you to pay some of it. Typically, the lender will not bear the cost of items that are typically paid for by sellers, such as inspections, and the lender will agree only to sell the property if the buyer agrees to buy it in &quot;as is&quot; condition. This makes it all the more important for a buyer of a property through a short sale to make an offer contingent upon approving a through home inspection.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To find short&amp;nbsp;sales for sale&amp;nbsp;or get help&amp;nbsp;with a house you cannot afford call 541-543-7287 or visit&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com&quot;&gt;www.teamthayer.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:56:27 -0600</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/786864/learn-the-basics-about-short-sales</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/778311/-how-to-find-foreclosed-homes-and-short-sales-</guid>
      <title> How to find foreclosed homes and short sales.</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;There are a few ways to find great deals on foreclosed homes&amp;nbsp;and short sales. The most popular but the least effective is cold&amp;nbsp;calling off a&amp;nbsp; default list. You can get this list from your local Title and Escrow company however these are rarely folks who are interested in selling but&amp;nbsp; usually people who are trying to save their homes. They&amp;nbsp; are usually&amp;nbsp;highly offended by the uneducated offers from Real Estate novices who's experience consists of a video course they bought at 2 am from a&amp;nbsp;Saturday night infomercial. I have&amp;nbsp;seen company's actually selling these lists for&amp;nbsp;anywhere from $10-$100. DO NOT BUY A DEFAULT LIST. You can get this info from your local Real Estate&amp;nbsp;broker or title company for free. One thing most people do not realize is the default&amp;nbsp;amount on the list&amp;nbsp; IS NOT WHAT YOU CAN BUY THE HOUSE FOR! It is the amount&amp;nbsp;of the first position lien. There are often several other liens that must be dealt with&amp;nbsp;before a title can be cleared. The other popular but worthless way to find deals in drive around looking for run down houses people might sell for a good price. You might as well drive around and try and find money people drop by accident.WHAT A&amp;nbsp;WORTHLESS WASTE OF TIME!!!!&amp;nbsp;The very best way to find an amazing deal on a&amp;nbsp;foreclosed property or short sale is to contact a Real Estate broker who specializes in distressed properties. These pros&amp;nbsp;know where they are and&amp;nbsp; how to negotiate&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;SUCCESSFULLY &lt;/strong&gt;with the banks. YOU WILL NOT SAVE MONEY&amp;nbsp; DOING IT&amp;nbsp;ON YOUR OWN.This is called stepping over dollars to pick up pennies! Don't do it!&amp;nbsp;I have watched several&amp;nbsp;investors spend&amp;nbsp;months or even&amp;nbsp;years trying to get&amp;nbsp; banks or anyone to listen to them and look at their ridicules offers with less earnest money than they spent on the get rich&amp;nbsp;flipping houses&amp;nbsp; books they just bought.&amp;nbsp; The market is to good right now to waste time. Use the following criteria to find a Broker who can help you take advantage of this home&amp;nbsp;buying investors&amp;nbsp;dream market&amp;nbsp;we are in.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 1. Find a broker who is currently being hired by the banks to do BPO's (broker price opinions)&amp;nbsp;, and have REO (bank owned)&amp;nbsp;property for sale as well as work as a buyers agent specializing in REOs, short sales, etc.&amp;nbsp;They will be able to give you the first shot on their bank owned listings as well as having connections with the old boys clubs that often have the bank owned markets cornered.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp; 2. A investment buyers agent&amp;nbsp; should be an expert in short sale negotiation with at least 10 successful short sales under their belt. I am on a personal level with as many bank asset managers and employees&amp;nbsp;as possible. I make sure they know me and like me. This allows me to really navigate the bank and pull favors to the advantage of my clients.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp; 3. Willingness to show you allot of properties is key. I take my clients to&amp;nbsp;see 15-20 houses minimum. You cant know you have the best deal unless you see what the competition is about. &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; 4. Information speed is key. My buyers see the new important&amp;nbsp;listings as soon as they come on the market. this gives them&amp;nbsp;an incredible advantage.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 5. Tie the deals up fast! &amp;nbsp;Even in this buyers market the best deals often are sold with a bidding war. I tie up my buyers possible purchase before this has a chance to happen. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;For Lane county Oregon go to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com/&quot;&gt;www.teamthayer.com&lt;/a&gt; If you are outside of Oregon I can still help so log on to my site&amp;nbsp;or call me @ 541-543-7287&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Fri, 07 Nov 2008 02:09:54 -0600</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/778311/-how-to-find-foreclosed-homes-and-short-sales-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/758749/how-to-save-your-house-from-forclosure-</guid>
      <title>How to save your house from forclosure! </title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;Short sale!&amp;nbsp;This is where the bank forgives a portion on the loan in for a lump sum payment from the sale of a house. Over the last 6 months I have seen the&amp;nbsp;short sale get easier as banks and REO company's&amp;nbsp;are getting loaded down with the amount of&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;defaults.&amp;nbsp; I have been able to get rid of all other&amp;nbsp;types of other liens along with the home loan&amp;nbsp;including lawyer fee's. It seems everyone is understanding the problem and moving faster to cut their losses. I have been able to get banks to take as little as&amp;nbsp;10% on what is owed to them. I have given a brief&amp;nbsp;outline of&amp;nbsp;my process in the steps below.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;1. Order and fill out the banks short sale packet right away. Do not wait until you have an offer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;2. Contact the banks asset manager for that home right away and let them know you are going to get them as much money as possible but due to the market it will probably be short.&amp;nbsp;If their is a first and second contact them both. You usually just need to negotiate with the second if their are two liens&amp;nbsp;but if the house value&amp;nbsp;is worth under the first as well this is OK. You will need to negotiate with them both equally.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;3.&amp;nbsp;Advertise&amp;nbsp;your situation. Add the wording&amp;nbsp;pre-forclosure and /or short sale&amp;nbsp;to &amp;nbsp;all of your advertising including directionals and yard signs. This will spark more interest and more chances at higher offers.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;4.&amp;nbsp; Price the property&amp;nbsp;at what&amp;nbsp;is owed for 1 week then lower the price every 2&amp;nbsp;weeks until you are in a range you know will get offers or&amp;nbsp;you get an offer. You will be able to use the MLS history as proof you tried to market the property at higher prices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;5.&amp;nbsp; The closer you are to the sheriff sale date the more aggressive you should drop the price. I usually drop $10-$20k every two weeks until an offer comes in, and it always does.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;6 All of the seller financials should be already turned in however the&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;REO company or bank&amp;nbsp; will want new bank statements and pay stubs if it has been 3 months so turn them in before they have to ask. Turn in the following with your offer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A. Your own CMA&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;B.&amp;nbsp;A letter in your own words&amp;nbsp;explaining the current area market condition.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;C. The listing history from the MLS proving you tried to get more out of the property.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;D. Current bank statements and pay stubs go three months back to cover you bases.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;E. A letter from the seller detailing the severity of their current financial crisis.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;F. You own photos and description of the property including any problems that prevented any sales at a higher price. ( Do not try and beat up the property but explain any showings or past offers&amp;nbsp;that may have been retracted&amp;nbsp;by poor conditions or needed repairs) The key here is to let the asset manager know&amp;nbsp;that you are trying to get as much money as possible for the property.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;7. Remove the lockbox to prevent any other Realtor from doing a BPO without you input. When the REO company sends out the Realtor to do the BPO meet them at the property and provide your own comps. to them to make sure your values match up&amp;nbsp;.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;8.&amp;nbsp; Now you just have to work it out with the asset manager. If you have done the previous steps correctly you should be able to get the asset manager to guide you&amp;nbsp;to a deal that works for everyone. The offers have to&amp;nbsp;close to actual&amp;nbsp;value if you expect to close. They can still be a great deal for the seller but&amp;nbsp; need to be realistic.&amp;nbsp;Reject ridicules offers right away and turn them in to the asset manager. It's going to be up to you to figure out what is aggressive vs ridicules but can make all the difference in&amp;nbsp;how the asset manager works with you.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you need Short sale&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;help in Lane county Oregon or just have questions&amp;nbsp;please call Justin Thayer @ 541-543-7287&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For additional information on short sales go to&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com/&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;www.teamthayer.com&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Sat, 25 Oct 2008 20:22:00 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/758749/how-to-save-your-house-from-forclosure-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/740188/short-refinance-fha-secure-how-to-get-the-bank-to-discount-your-mortgage</guid>
      <title>SHORT REFINANCE FHA SECURE, HOW TO GET THE BANK TO DISCOUNT YOUR MORTGAGE</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;We have been seeing record numbers of foreclosures, record numbers of bank repos and record numbers of short sales.&amp;nbsp; Homeowners are faced with rising mortgage payments when their once low adjustable rate mortgages reset and climb.&amp;nbsp; A short sale has been a common answer to losing a home through foreclosure.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;But now there's a new answer; the short refinance &lt;a href=&quot;http://tucson-fha-loans.com/&quot; title=&quot;FHA Secure&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;FHA Secure&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp; The short refinance works exactly the same as a short sale with the exception that the homeowner remains a homeowner.&amp;nbsp; In a short sale, once an offer comes in it gets presented to the bank along with an application package from the seller to the bank asking to take a discount on the current mortgage.&amp;nbsp; Once the bank accepts the offer for less than what the seller owes the bank they have agreed to a short sale.&amp;nbsp; A short refinance works in much the same way as a short sale only in the case of a short refinance the &quot;offer&quot; presented to the bank is actually a copy of the homeowner's brand new short refinance FHA Secure approval.&amp;nbsp; The short refinance approval, along with all the supporting documentation, is then submitted to the bank requesting a discount.&amp;nbsp; Once the bank accepts the discount, they have accepted a short payoff and agreed to a discount on the loan allowing for the short refinance.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;A major benefit of the short refinance is that it allows borrowers to keep their homes.&amp;nbsp; The short refinance delights homeowners because they get a new start with a lower mortgage payment and a lower mortgage balance.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Why would the bank agree to a short refinance and not just foreclose on the property?&amp;nbsp; Simply put foreclosing on a property requires large amounts of legal fees and then the home is typically sold at a substantial discount off of the fair market value.&amp;nbsp; The short refinance allows the bank to avoid the majority of the legal fees and let's the new lender make its largest loan based on the fair market value.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;For more information on the Short Refinance FHA Secure contact:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Justin Thayer&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Keller Williams&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;541-543-7287&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To learn about Team Thayer Go to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;www.teamthayer.com&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:12:18 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/740188/short-refinance-fha-secure-how-to-get-the-bank-to-discount-your-mortgage</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/625271/new-homes-in-eugene-oregon-who-has-best-value-</guid>
      <title>New homes  in Eugene Oregon! Who has best value?</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;A few builders have really stepped up to the plate to offer incredible deals on new houses. Mathematically the best value in Eugene is Amy's landing off Barger in Danebo. This neighborhood backs up to the&amp;nbsp;Medowview school area and offers high end quality for about the same as you would expect to pay for a used home with half of the amenities. For example They have&amp;nbsp;A 2000 sq ft home with bamboo floors,&amp;nbsp; matching granite on every counter surface,&amp;nbsp; ceramic tile on all of the bathroom floors, main level master with walk in closet, stainless steel appliances, washer and dryer in laundry, crown molding, heat pump, sprinkler system, and a plaster walls for $279900. They also have a similar 2000 sq ft home with a smaller yard and laminate instead of bamboo for $259900.&amp;nbsp; The craftsmanship and style of&amp;nbsp;these&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;wonderful&amp;nbsp;homes trumps anything in the local area. The builder has teamed&amp;nbsp;up with a local mortgage broker to pay&amp;nbsp; for buyers&amp;nbsp;appraisals, and guarantee smooth financing. For those who are having trouble selling their home there is a special discount and trade program to help get current sellers get out. Amy's landing is by far the best value in new construction. There are really very few homes that compare with the price per sq ft vs amenities in any category new or used. To view this new subdivision take Barger dr near Green hill dr to Enchantment then follow the signs. You can also find info online&amp;nbsp;at&amp;nbsp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com&quot;&gt;www.teamthayer.com&lt;/a&gt;or by calling Justin Thayer at 541-543-7287&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;about:blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.rmlsweb.com/WEBPHOTOS/08000000/50000/2000/8052894-1.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; id=&quot;Photo8052894&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;about:blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.rmlsweb.com/WEBPHOTOS/08000000/50000/1000/8051422-3.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; id=&quot;Photo8051422&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;about:blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.rmlsweb.com/WEBPHOTOS/08000000/50000/1000/8051422-5.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; id=&quot;Photo8051422&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;about:blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.rmlsweb.com/WEBPHOTOS/08000000/50000/1000/8051422-9.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; id=&quot;Photo8051422&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;about:blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.rmlsweb.com/WEBPHOTOS/08000000/50000/1000/8051158-9.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; id=&quot;Photo8051158&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;about:blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.rmlsweb.com/WEBPHOTOS/08000000/50000/2000/8052894-7.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; id=&quot;Photo8052894&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:31:43 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/625271/new-homes-in-eugene-oregon-who-has-best-value-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/621135/-259900-open-house-sat-sun-12-6-brand-new-2000-sq-ft-4-bed-2-5-bath-eugene</guid>
      <title>$259900 Open house Sat-Sun 12-6 Brand New 2000 sq ft 4 bed 2.5 bath Eugene</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;Open this Sat-Sun Aug 2-3rd from 12-6pm 1864 Heath dr.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;A Brand new 2000 sq ft 3 bed 2.5 bath High Quality finishes throughout with plaster walls, laminate floors, upgraded carpet, exposed aggregate patio &amp;amp; driveway. Greatroom with corner gas fireplace, stainless steel kitchen appliances, granite counters &amp;amp; island. Oversized laundry rm. Fully fenced &amp;amp; Landscaped with sprinklers in front yard &amp;amp; back yard. Covered front &amp;amp; back patios. More plans &amp;amp; lots to choose from. Beltline or Greenhill&amp;nbsp;to barger to Enchantment then&amp;nbsp;Follow tour of homes signs. &lt;br /&gt;Team Thayer &lt;br /&gt;Keller Williams &lt;br /&gt;541-543-7287&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;about:blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.rmlsweb.com/WEBPHOTOS/08000000/50000/2000/8052894-1.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; id=&quot;Photo8052894&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;about:blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.rmlsweb.com/WEBPHOTOS/08000000/50000/2000/8052894-4.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; id=&quot;Photo8052894&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;about:blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.rmlsweb.com/WEBPHOTOS/08000000/50000/2000/8052894-6.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; id=&quot;Photo8052894&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Sat, 02 Aug 2008 00:37:48 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/621135/-259900-open-house-sat-sun-12-6-brand-new-2000-sq-ft-4-bed-2-5-bath-eugene</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/613397/beautiful-home-perfect-for-home-office-or-business-in-downtown-eugene-or</guid>
      <title>Beautiful home perfect for home office or business in Downtown Eugene Or</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;Completely remodeled 20's beauty retains original charm &amp;amp; character. Many parks &amp;amp; rest within walking dist. Includes 1344 sq ft unfinished basement, built-ins &amp;amp; refinished wd flrs. New: vinyl wind, tile flrs in kitch-bths &amp;amp; utility, silestone counters in kitch, cabinets, stainless appliances, paint in &amp;amp; out, heating &amp;amp; air cond, light fixtures, insullation, electrical &amp;amp; plumbing.&amp;nbsp; This would make a great home office or business.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;2538 Sq ft 6 bedroom 2.5 baths,Built in 1925, Price: $574743&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Justin Thayer&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Team Thayer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com&quot;&gt;www.teamthayer.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Keller Williams&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;541-543-7287&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;about:blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.rmlsweb.com/WEBPHOTOS/08000000/10000/5000/8015284-1.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; id=&quot;Photo8015284&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;about:blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.rmlsweb.com/WEBPHOTOS/08000000/10000/5000/8015284-2.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; id=&quot;Photo8015284&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;about:blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.rmlsweb.com/WEBPHOTOS/08000000/10000/5000/8015284-5.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; id=&quot;Photo8015284&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;about:blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.rmlsweb.com/WEBPHOTOS/08000000/10000/5000/8015284-7.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; id=&quot;Photo8015284&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;about:blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.rmlsweb.com/WEBPHOTOS/08000000/10000/5000/8015284-10.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; id=&quot;Photo8015284&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;about:blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.rmlsweb.com/WEBPHOTOS/08000000/10000/5000/8015284-8.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; id=&quot;Photo8015284&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:31:53 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/613397/beautiful-home-perfect-for-home-office-or-business-in-downtown-eugene-or</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/599608/-mortgage-brokers-insurance-agents-please-feel-free-to-blog-on-my-site-</guid>
      <title> Mortgage brokers, insurance agents, please feel free to blog on my site!</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;Do you have great information about Real Estate you would like to share out side of AV that is Lane county specific for Sellers and Buyers&amp;nbsp;I have a blog for Lane county at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com&quot;&gt;www.teamthayer.com&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp; . I am inviting Mortgage brokers, insurance agents and similar people who can give a benifit to the Real estate buyers and sellers of Lane county Oregon. Just go to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com&quot;&gt;www.teamthayer.com&lt;/a&gt;the click on Real estate blog. I also encourage you to comment on any blogs you currently see there. This is an opportunity for people to connect with people on a smaller more intimate scale. Most of the regular home buyers and sellers have probably seen my site advertised.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Justin Thayer&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:26:25 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/599608/-mortgage-brokers-insurance-agents-please-feel-free-to-blog-on-my-site-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/581345/how-to-sell-your-house-in-a-buyers-market-part-2-negotiation-by-justin-thayer-</guid>
      <title>How to sell your house in a buyers market part 2  &quot;Negotiation&quot; ( By Justin Thayer)</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;The number one rule of negotiation in this market is to&amp;nbsp;take&amp;nbsp;every offer seriously and work it the best you can. I have had many Realtors try to short cut this processby calling me and trying to have us both guess what our client's will do. The truth is they don't really know until they are really faced with the option to buy.&amp;nbsp;Every single&amp;nbsp;buyer changes their mind on what they will buy, how they will buy, or how much they will pay through out the home buying process.&amp;nbsp; I have had several Realtors tell me exactly&amp;nbsp;what their client will do only to be surprised when they do different. I have had many Realtors get mad at me because they said I was waisting time (&quot;let's just work this out over the phone what will your people do&quot;) they say.&amp;nbsp;Other Realtors like to say buyers are liers. This is just&amp;nbsp;not the case. Buyers are scared. They are spending the most money they will ever spend&amp;nbsp;thier lives on the most important necessity of theirr lives. &quot;Shelter&quot;!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; This market has produced more low ball offers than most of us thought we would ever see. My motto is&amp;nbsp;&quot;all offers are good offers&quot;. I say this for two reasons! #1 someone wants to buy the house. #2 You are showing your client's you&amp;nbsp;and your advertising are&amp;nbsp;working. I have a specific way of handling all low offers and I will line it out step by step below. This process has helped me close several low ball offers. Some this year have been&amp;nbsp;over $60k low!!!!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;1. Find out what your client want's to counter. You should have some room in the listing price to negotiate. Even if you have the home priced at&amp;nbsp;the bare minimum keep $3000 to work with, and a few giveaways.&amp;nbsp; Never include anything in the listing like appliances, pool table, garden equipment, etc. These are not going to sway buyers to write an offer but will make excellent negotiation tools.&amp;nbsp;I love to leave it up to speculation whether these items are included and let the buyers imagination work in my sellers favor.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;2.&amp;nbsp; I never just send a counter. You have to give the buyer a good reason they should pay more than they&amp;nbsp; are offering. I&amp;nbsp; do a fresh CMA,&amp;nbsp; also pull internet value sites like&amp;nbsp;Zillow, Real estate ABC, and Next- Tag.&amp;nbsp;All value materials provided should be higher than&amp;nbsp;the offer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;3. I write a personal hand written letter on my client's behalf. First I&amp;nbsp;thank them for the offer.&amp;nbsp; Next I explain the proof of value I have provided with my visuals (CMA, Zillow, Etc). I hand write it because I believe it brings a human touch. I then remind them of the fact my sellers are not just trying to get their money but are transferring to them their most important asset and that they&amp;nbsp;need a certain amount of money to still have a roof over their heads. The final feature in the letter will be a mathematical breakdown of how they are taking advantage of the market even at our counter price. This will very from letter to letter but I have fun with it and try to be creative but factual. I always close with &quot;At this price you truly are taking advantage of the market!!! We really want to work this out with you.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;$. After a few counters if the deal looks like it will not work I often will try to bring the buyers and seller together at the seller house as a last ditch effort. Remember we are in a buyers market this may be the last offer we see until values drop again!&amp;nbsp;Nobody can sell a house like the owner. Once the see each other, the kids start playing together or even better&amp;nbsp;it's and older couple doughting on the prospective buyers children miracles happen. Keep in mind allot of your&amp;nbsp; sellers will not be comfortable with this, and it is not something I would ever push. If&amp;nbsp;both parties are willing it can be true magic to a low ball offer.&amp;nbsp;I do it and it has worked for me 100% of the time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You may view part&amp;nbsp;1&amp;nbsp;by going to&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com&quot;&gt;www.teamthayer.com&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp; and&amp;nbsp;going&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;to the Real Estate&amp;nbsp;blog tab.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Jstin Thayer&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;img src=&quot;http://filelibrary.myaasite.com/Content/37/37185/26686678.jpg&quot; height=&quot;254&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;171&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:33:28 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/581345/how-to-sell-your-house-in-a-buyers-market-part-2-negotiation-by-justin-thayer-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/568451/how-to-sell-a-house-in-this-buyers-market-part-1-by-justin-thayer-</guid>
      <title>How to sell a house in this buyers market! Part 1   (by Justin Thayer)</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;Remember this is a different market than it was two years ago. Therefore we have to market differently. I call this the M-1 rule ( Marketing 101)!!!!!!!!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;I have had allot of success selling houses in this buyers&amp;nbsp;market, but I had to adjust my tactics( m-1)&amp;nbsp;. The single most important thing I do to create sales&amp;nbsp; is market to the buyers agents. Not just sending them fliers but helping them whenever I could. If they need some feedback on a listig they are having trouble with, I will always write them something to take to&amp;nbsp;or email&amp;nbsp; their clients so it is clear it is coming from another agent. I am also brutally honest. If another agent asks me to show their property because they did a reverse prospect I really try to interest my buyers based on the motivation they must have by locating and contacting them (Thus possibly getting a larger discount). Then&amp;nbsp;when I&amp;nbsp;have a listing I felt was time to really push! I would call in&amp;nbsp;these favors and really hustle the selected property.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;I also always&amp;nbsp; offer buyers agents something different. I will pick the right time then offer a all the areas&amp;nbsp;buyers agents bonus for a closed sale on any offer agreed upon within a selected time frame. Most agents think if they pay the buyers agents 3.5% they have the automatic advantage. They don't!!! As any&amp;nbsp;really good&amp;nbsp;buyers agent&amp;nbsp; knows if your client finds something they love and&amp;nbsp;we can fit into their budget&amp;nbsp; 2.5% or 3.5% becomes a mute point. If your clients hate the home&amp;nbsp;It's always pays you O%!!!! It's&amp;nbsp;more about timing and the flow of buyers through the inventory(what was on the market when they where really ready to buy)!!! Creating a push when good inventory is low with&amp;nbsp;A&amp;nbsp;$2000 cash&amp;nbsp;buyers agent bonus&amp;nbsp; on any offer accepted in the next two weeks an original 2.5% buyer agent fee has been way&amp;nbsp;more effective for me. I am also saving my clients money $250000 x .035=$8750 vs 250000 x .025&amp;nbsp;+ 2000= $8250.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Buyers are looking for the deal of their lifetime in this market. If your home is on the market for two weeks, and&amp;nbsp;you get close to your&amp;nbsp;asking price!!!&amp;nbsp; Most likely the buyers got what they wanted! The deal of their lifetime. As listing agents&amp;nbsp;we are in the business of getting the most money we can not the easiest sale we can get!!!&amp;nbsp; We know the average conventional&amp;nbsp;sale (No lease options, land sale deeds, ect)&amp;nbsp;will take up to 60 even&amp;nbsp;90 days due to high inventory and lack of qualified buyers. This is where timing comes into play. I adjust&amp;nbsp; depending on how much time I have to sell the home. I start out of course with the very best pictures, and wording as well as about $2500 per month&amp;nbsp;in advertising to be split up between about 16 listings. I start the price a little&amp;nbsp;high because I know buyers like to see it has dropped. I drop the price twice in the first&amp;nbsp;two weeks (Old timers see rule M-1).&amp;nbsp;I also do the local broker tour&amp;nbsp;the first week after the first two price cuts. I offer a cash drawing for brokers to fill out surveys about price and appearance. I then sit down with my clients and&amp;nbsp;make adjustments accordingly. Throughout the advertising period I make properly timed adjustments and pushes. I try not to let the property get stale in it's advertising.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading part 1 of my&amp;nbsp;2008 listing advise coulum. Please visit my web site @ &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teathayer.com&quot;&gt;www.teathayer.com&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;For personal assistance or questions pleas feel free to contact me on my Cell: 541-543-7287 or email &lt;a href=&quot;mailto:info@teamthayer.com&quot;&gt;info@teamthayer.com&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.lanecountynewhomes.com/logo.jpg&quot; height=&quot;143&quot; hspace=&quot;3&quot; alt=&quot;Team Thayer&quot; width=&quot;222&quot; /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://media.point2.com/p2a/agency/25fd/3484/3b66/8d2d486dfb8dd13cb2b6/w120h120.jpg&quot; height=&quot;103&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;120&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://media.point2.com/p2a/agency/25fd/3484/3b66/8d2d486dfb8dd13cb2b6/w120h120.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;img src=&quot;http://media.point2.com/p2a/agency/25fd/3484/3b66/8d2d486dfb8dd13cb2b6/w120h120.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://media.point2.com/p2a/agency/25fd/3484/3b66/8d2d486dfb8dd13cb2b6/w120h120.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://media.point2.com/p2a/agency/25fd/3484/3b66/8d2d486dfb8dd13cb2b6/w120h120.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://media.point2.com/p2a/agency/25fd/3484/3b66/8d2d486dfb8dd13cb2b6/w120h120.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:31:00 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/568451/how-to-sell-a-house-in-this-buyers-market-part-1-by-justin-thayer-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/490146/eugene-springfeild-oregon-is-one-of-the-best-markets-to-buy-a-home-in-the-us</guid>
      <title>Eugene/Springfeild Oregon is one of the best markets to buy a home in the US</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;With all of the doom and gloom we have been hearing about the housing market I would like to mention how things are going in my neck of the woods. We where # 13 for appreciation in the nation last year.&amp;nbsp; We definitely are not in a sellers market but most of the sellers are just needing to adjust to a normal market and yes you are going to have to work to sell your home. On the other hand this is one of the best times to buy because of the great inventory and medium range&amp;nbsp;prices. You can buy a nice home for $250000 and expect it will appreciate over the next&amp;nbsp;3-5 years. I have a client who is an investor who&amp;nbsp;has been telling me about some of the crazy deals he is getting in other markets around the country&amp;nbsp;buying houses for under $5000. I wonder if he will ener be able to sell them.&amp;nbsp;All in all this is just a stable market and a nice place to live. Nice people, lots of culture, more things going on than in most cities twice the size! Just take a look a the pics below.&amp;nbsp;You can check all thing lane county Oregon Real Estate @ &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com/&quot;&gt;http://www.teamthayer.com/&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;img src=&quot;http://www.i-5online.com/images/eugene.jpg&quot; height=&quot;366&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;275&quot; /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/oregon/images/s/oregon-eugene.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;332&quot; align=&quot;middle&quot; alt=&quot;Eugene&quot; width=&quot;415&quot; /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.eugenelocalsearch.com/siteimages/1_Large_Eugene_Rhodies.jpg&quot; height=&quot;263&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;350&quot; /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://trends.move.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/eugene.jpg&quot; height=&quot;366&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;488&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:53:28 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/490146/eugene-springfeild-oregon-is-one-of-the-best-markets-to-buy-a-home-in-the-us</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/490122/100-financing-what-are-home-buyers-options-</guid>
      <title>100% Financing! What are home buyers options?</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;The big question of the month dose anybody know of a good direction for 100% financing in this market. I have recently had success with 100% VA and USDA loans, but only a small percentage of people quality for the products. As Realtors we need to be proactive in our clients financing especially in this market. Please let me know of any &amp;nbsp;other programs you have had succsess&amp;nbsp; with.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Justin Thayer&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://thumbnail.search.aolcdn.com/truveo/images/thumbnails/A4/A1/A4A1227B0A8576.jpg&quot; height=&quot;72&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;96&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com/&quot;&gt;http://www.teamthayer.com/&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;for Lane county Oregon Real Estate info&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com/&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;img src=&quot;http://mortgagecompanyinmiami.com/images/100financing.JPG&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;290&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:30:59 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/490122/100-financing-what-are-home-buyers-options-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/482813/eugene-oregon-sand-volley-ball-courts-</guid>
      <title>Eugene Oregon sand volley ball courts.</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;As a realtor who does alot of Relocation I love to show off my Native home Lane county Oregon to Home buyers and Realtors who refer them&amp;nbsp;alike. Here is another fun area of alternative entertainment in Lane county. Sand Volley ball. We have several courts to choose from. Here is a list I put together I will add more&amp;nbsp;them as I find them. Please feel free to to add others in your comments. Please go to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com/&quot;&gt;http://www.teamthayer.com/&lt;/a&gt; for all all your Lane county Oregon&amp;nbsp;Real Estate needs&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://aei.uoregon.edu/images/uo_sand_volleyball.jpg&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;225&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Churchhill Park&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Off Bailey Hill Rd. behind Churchill High School&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Map: &lt;a href=&quot;http://eugeneareaparks.com/map.php?loc=44.03742,-123.151592&quot;&gt;http://eugeneareaparks.com/map.php?loc=44.03742,-123.151592&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Amazon Park&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;South Eugene off Amazon&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;Map: &lt;a href=&quot;http://eugeneareaparks.com/map.php?loc=44.031493,-123.0851&quot;&gt;http://eugeneareaparks.com/map.php?loc=44.031493,-123.0851&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Orchard Pointe&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hwy 99 to clear lake rd to fern ridge lake&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Map:&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&amp;amp;tab=wl&amp;amp;q=orchard%20point&quot;&gt;http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&amp;amp;tab=wl&amp;amp;q=orchard%20point&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Emerald Park&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;River rd to howard to lake dr (Lots of sings to follow)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;Map: &lt;a href=&quot;http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&amp;amp;tab=wl&quot;&gt;http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&amp;amp;tab=wl&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are a few on the U of O campus and one right accross form Autzen stadium but I do not yet have the exact locations. I will be adding to this list soon.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.canfordsports.ca/images/040630-beach_volleyball-2-ma.jpg&quot; height=&quot;372&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;305&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:43:14 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/482813/eugene-oregon-sand-volley-ball-courts-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/482334/lane-county-oregon-disc-golf-courses</guid>
      <title>Lane county Oregon Disc Golf Courses</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;As a realtor who does alot of Relocation I love to show off my Native home Lane county Oregon to Home buyers and Realtors who refer them&amp;nbsp;alike. Today I would like to share our incredible Disc (frisbee) golf courses The first is in&amp;nbsp;Sw Eugene. Oregon Westmoreland course&amp;nbsp;This couse is close fun, and always well maintained. The dexter Lake coure is truly incredible as you play&amp;nbsp;in the most beautiful surroundings on Dexter lake.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Please visit &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com&quot;&gt;www.teamthayer.com&lt;/a&gt; for all lane county Real Estate information&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Justin Thayer&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Keller Williams (Eugene Springfield)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Top Ranked Disc Golf Courses in Lane County,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;Oregon &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Westmoreland Disc Golf Course&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Exit I-5 At U. Of Oregon Exit. Head West On 11th To A Left On Chambers, To A Left On 19th, To A Right On Fillmore. Park At 1545 W. 22nd St.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://disc-golf-courses.local-data.com/city/oregon-or/lane/eugene/40664/3139/&quot;&gt;Eugene&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://disc-golf-courses.local-data.com/state/oregon-or/43/&quot;&gt;Oregon&lt;/a&gt; (OR), 97405 (541) 682-5212 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;Dexter lake park disc golf course&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I&lt;/strong&gt;-5; Just South Of Eugene, Take The OR-58/Willamette Hwy Exit (#188A), Towards Oakridge/Klamath Falls. Stay To Left On Exit. Take OR-58 For 11.1 Miles To The Park On The Left. Roofed Signboard In Parking Area.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://disc-golf-courses.local-data.com/city/oregon-or/lane/dexter/40687/3139/&quot;&gt;Dexter&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://disc-golf-courses.local-data.com/state/oregon-or/43/&quot;&gt;Oregon&lt;/a&gt; (OR), 97431 (541) 485-3275 (&lt;a href=&quot;http://disc-golf-courses.local-data.com/county/oregon-or/lane/3139/&quot;&gt;Lane County&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.planeteugene.com/disc-golf-eugene.jpg&quot; height=&quot;249&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;img src=&quot;http://wheredaveis.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/223995648_c058dbacb9.jpg&quot; height=&quot;370&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;278&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.sas.it.mtu.edu/~dkwalika/frisbee/golf.GIF&quot; height=&quot;305&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;424&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.georgetown.org/images/upload_images/citynews1180099762.jpg&quot; height=&quot;352&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;650&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:41:21 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/482334/lane-county-oregon-disc-golf-courses</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/482309/skate-boarders-bmx-riders-and-roller-bladers-find-eugene-oregon-heaven-</guid>
      <title>Skate boarders, BMX riders , and Roller bladers find Eugene Oregon Heaven!!! </title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;With over&amp;nbsp;7 skate parks and two BMX tracks Lane county Oregon is absolute heaven for the balance sport crowd.&amp;nbsp; It&amp;#39;s&amp;nbsp;not just the kids enjoying the areas abundance of facilities. On any early Sun. or Sat. morn you may find one of us thirty or forty something beating the crowd of kids to an to enjoy the crisp morning air at one of the incredible parks. Fathers and sons (&amp;amp; daughters), brothers and sisters,&amp;nbsp;I even seen a mother sharing a session with her 10year old son last Saturday. Oregon has become the skate park mecca of the united states with Eugene leading the pack for parks per capita. Pleas feel free to contact me @ 541-543-7287 with question about all&amp;nbsp;Lane&amp;nbsp;county alternative&amp;nbsp;activities including skate parks, frisbee golf, sand volley ball, obstcal courses, and more. I am also one of the areas top Realtors always ready to to answer you calls, and questions.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;or information on the areas parks go to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skateoregon.com/Eugene/Eugene.html&quot;&gt;http://www.skateoregon.com/Eugene/Eugene.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For information on buying or selling homes in lane county go to: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com/&quot;&gt;http://www.teamthayer.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.skateoregon.com/Eugene/churchillOV2.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;480&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;640&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:50:41 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/482309/skate-boarders-bmx-riders-and-roller-bladers-find-eugene-oregon-heaven-</link>
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      <title>Buyers with a great Realtor/Negotiator are going to profit in this market! </title>
      <description>&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;p&gt;I have always prided myself as being one of the best Real Estate negotiators in Lane County Oregon. I spent ten years in various sales jobs before I&amp;nbsp; found my home as a Real Estate Broker. Everything from Cars to advertising. I was really able to get an edge for the buyers who found me. Over the last few years the news has really spread as 50% of my new business is referrals from happy buyers. The other 50% comes from my web site where I also give plenty of negotiation&amp;nbsp;advise for both buyers and sellers. I have been getting 20-30-40- even 50+ thousand dollar discounts&amp;nbsp;for my buyers! Allot of this is working short sales and listed foreclosed properties. I keep&amp;nbsp; a list of any property I think I can get an incredible deal on (Justins daily hot list). As soon a a buyer calls me I am able to rattle off several hot deals. I just closed a short sale last week&amp;nbsp;I was able to get the bank to take $200k when the appraisal came back&amp;nbsp;at $240k my clients just about fainted. I just love doing that!!! I am&amp;nbsp; one of the rare breed Realtors&amp;nbsp;who just enjoys the art of the negotiation. I could care less about the money! I am truly in it to build my clients future. I&amp;nbsp; have almost made a millionaire out of myself selling homes&amp;nbsp;and&amp;nbsp;investing . I have never considered&amp;nbsp;putting my commission before my clients interest in getting the very best. I really believe this is why I have had such incredible success. I look at this time as a market of opportunity not a bad market. It&amp;#39;s not an easy market but nothing worth while ever is!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If you would like more information on buyer negotiation please go to my web site @ &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com/&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;www.teamthayer.com&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You may also call my cell at 541-543-7287 to get a personal explination of whats my daily&amp;nbsp;hot list&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Justin Thayer&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://activerain.comhttp://activerain.com/image_store/agents/1/4/6/6/9/14669/user14669_5_l.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_top&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:OwQPn0V5gOXwBM:http://activerain.comhttp://activerain.com/image_store/agents/1/4/6/6/9/14669/user14669_5_l.jpg&quot; height=&quot;86&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;72&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ontheissues.org/America_We_Deserve.gif&quot; target=&quot;_top&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:VTQqM86As1kD3M:http://www.ontheissues.org/America_We_Deserve.gif&quot; height=&quot;86&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;56&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com/&quot;&gt;http://www.teamthayer.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:24:37 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/482285/buyers-with-a-great-realtor-negotiator-are-going-to-profit-in-this-market-</link>
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      <title>Need a solution for pet odor. Any advice will help.</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;I have a beautiful restored historic home that investors spent over $250000 in remodeling.&amp;nbsp;There is a huge problem we need to solve. This home had 40 some cats living in it at one point. I need to know the best way to clean up the smell as it is driving the serious buyers away.&amp;nbsp; It&amp;#39;s just a slight lingering of smell at this point but we need to eliminate it. If we don&amp;#39;t I am afraid it will never sell, or we will have to price our way out of it. I need all the advice I can get on this one.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Justin Thayer &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Team Thayer&amp;nbsp;Keller Williams (Eugene Springfeild)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com&quot;&gt;www.teamthayer.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;541-543-7287&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:37:19 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/482231/need-a-solution-for-pet-odor-any-advice-will-help-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/480734/home-buyers-don-t-hire-a-weak-negotiator-in-this-buyers-market-hire-the-best-</guid>
      <title>Home buyers don't hire a weak negotiator in this buyers market! Hire the best!</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;This is truly&amp;nbsp;a market for good Real Estate&amp;nbsp;deals! I was showing one of my clients property today&amp;nbsp;in SW hills.&amp;nbsp;I felt like we where in a sea of opportunity Real Estate directionals and signs everywhere we looked. I was excited at the prospect of getting her the best deal in Sw hills. &amp;quot;First we will find you two perfect homes at the right price then we are going to see who want&amp;#39;s to sell to you the most&amp;quot; I said. Having spent 10 years in several types of sales positions I have developed incredible negotiation skills. I finally discovered the perfect job for me as a&amp;nbsp;Realtor.&amp;nbsp;I now use my skills to the advantage of the clients who hire me. The best way to build a strong client base is to save everyone you work with money.&amp;nbsp;It only took a few years of getting people incredible deals before I was at 50% referral business. The other 50% comes from my web site.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you would like to learn more about my negotiation tactics go to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teamthayer.com&quot;&gt;www.teamthayer.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://emol.org/travel/priceline/images/hdr_negotiator.jpg&amp;amp;imgrefurl=http://emol.org/travel/priceline/negotiatorshatner2.html&amp;amp;h=290&amp;amp;w=686&amp;amp;sz=24&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;start=3&amp;amp;sig2=2tmjJc2V0k_9ilYIQdVn6Q&amp;amp;um=1&amp;amp;tbnid=QmYiy34D3FbD-M:&amp;amp;tbnh=59&amp;amp;tbnw=139&amp;amp;ei=utYOSN2eCIeOigH85ayrCg&amp;amp;prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnegotiator%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:QmYiy34D3FbD-M:http://emol.org/travel/priceline/images/hdr_negotiator.jpg&quot; height=&quot;59&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;139&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You can also call my cell @ 541-543-7287&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sammiller.net/agent_files/Donald%2520Trump%2520Photo.jpg&amp;amp;imgrefurl=http://www.sammiller.net/newsletter.asp&amp;amp;h=1024&amp;amp;w=745&amp;amp;sz=124&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;start=1&amp;amp;sig2=-jvwxnx1mPIEq0trAYlrdQ&amp;amp;um=1&amp;amp;tbnid=JDfnozXF4QkWWM:&amp;amp;tbnh=150&amp;amp;tbnw=109&amp;amp;ei=c9YOSLvqLJfiigGr3-W6Cg&amp;amp;prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddonald%2Btrump%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:JDfnozXF4QkWWM:http://www.sammiller.net/agent_files/Donald%2520Trump%2520Photo.jpg&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;109&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Justin Thayer Team Thayer Keller William (Eugene Springfield)&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <dc:creator>Elizabeth &amp; Justin Thayer (Keller Williams Realty)</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:31:02 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/480734/home-buyers-don-t-hire-a-weak-negotiator-in-this-buyers-market-hire-the-best-</link>
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