I guess it was bound to happen but I was hoping it wouldn't - my direct mail campaign has failed to do it's job.  For years I have used post cards and a tri-fold color brochure to generate leads.  The system was tweaked over the years and worked wonderfully.

Recently though, due to the outrageous costs of postage, more postcards than brochures have been sent.  www.Click2mail.com makes it very easy to maintain mail lists, upload new text and manage the timing of mailing the cards.  (I think they also do letters but I only use the cards)

My typical postcard is full color, 80# white gloss with UV coating.  The text is meant to lead recipients either to a phone to call or to my website to learn more about alternatives to foreclosure and how we can help.  The target is sellers, not buyers.

In the last two weeks, nearly a thousand pieces were mailed with only one call and I suspect that woman was drunk.  That's a very bad return.

It is time to shop for a marketing makeover.  The problem is, however, the marketing programs I've found seem to focus on attracting buyers, not sellers.  

I suspect that the current status of banks not foreclosing as quick as they once did has something to do with it as some homeowners must figure why do anything?   That may be a factor but certainly it cannot account for virtually no replies to 1000 mail outs!

It doesn't make sense to spend any more money on a dead mail-out system no matter how good it once was. 

My lead generation system needs a makeover.   Though a bit embarrassing to admit, too much money has already been wasted on PPC and SEO type stuff e.g. lots of $$$ = no increase in leads.

I really do enjoy helping people through their [pre-foreclosure] crisis whether it be by loan modification, short sale, buy-back, whatever.  I just seem to have like writers-block in my marketing!

Any ideas?

Lately there have been several articles and blog posts centered on Strategic Default.  While the phrase seems to be new, there is nothing new about the concept.

Strategic Default is making a conscious decision to stop making payments on a debt.  The debt can be a mortgage, car loan or even a credit card balance.  Bankruptcy is a form of strategic default.

Strategic default.  It certainly sounds nicer than foreclosure. 

Remember last year's popular Buy & Bail?  That too was strategic default.  For anyone who may not remember, Buy & Bail is where a homeowner, upside down in his residence, buys a 2^nd home while his or her credit score is still good.  Of course the new purchase is typically comparable or sometimes better than the current home but at much better price.  Once the purchase is complete, the homeowner simply defaults on the current home.  Strategic Default.  Lenders caught on to that strategy.

For anyone working with distressed property owners, more than likely, strategic default has been discussed in one form or another.  Maybe it was referred to as Positioning.  That is another good word but very similar to Strategic Default.  Positioning is when a person, realizing he or she is "losing ground", systematically (strategically) puts a plan in to motion wherein assets are protected, moved, or maybe hidden.  I spoke with an asset protection attorney recently who confided that business has never been so good.

It is not uncommon for investors to practice strategic default.  An investor looks at his portfolio and selects the properties that have no chance of ever catching up with the real estate market again and makes a decision, a business decision, to default on properties with significant negative equity.

The Kenny Rogers song lyrics ‘ You've got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em' comes to mind.

Strategic default is as basic as any homeowner facing financial difficulties and having to make a decision as to which bills get paid.

We will see a lot more "strategic default" as lenders continue to refuse to work out viable plans with homeowners AND investors.  

As Shakespeare wrote "A rose by any other name..." meaning what matters is what something is, not what it is called.

In this case, no matter what it is called, property owners making the decision to default on their loans will be with us until lenders make the decision to truly work with property owners.

Whether by choice or by forced choice, strategic default by some homeowners will continue to have a negative impact on those homeowners that ARE paying their loans and that do have equity...or did.

OK, I admit it, I am a Realtor not a webmaster.  It's all I can do to keep twittering, blogging, Facebooking AND stay on top of my real estate acitvities...

WHEW!

My website www.WendySmithRealEstate.com has been evaluated and re-evaluated.  The first thing the evaluators always point out is that my site uses frames and that, I have learned, is not a good thing.

I've been with my host for years and hate to have to leave but these frames are thwarting my online efforts.  [enter big sigh]

Point2Agent seems to be a good platform and I used to use to have a freebie site.  It was OK, after all it was free.

Now, I am re-visiting Point2Agent.com as a platform.  I thought there was an ActiveRain group dedicated to Point2Agent websites ...

I am hoping to find someone or a company that will transfer my old site to a new Point2 site without it costing me an arm and a leg. 

Anybody out there that can do this?

Thanks in advance. 

As colleagues and real estate professionals, most of us abide by and are totally familiar with the Realtor Code of Ethics.  Even if an agent is not a member of any Association of Realtors, there are scruples that should govern their real estate practices.

I am referring specifically to the agents that have had to "get a real job" yet continue to have an active real estate license with the hopes of closing a sale now and then.

When a buyer's agent is not available, all too often the buyer is left to contact the listing agent for property specifics including appointment setting to preview the property.  Hello? This is the job of the buyer's agent who can usually obtain all the necessary info from the Multiple Listing Service.

I've had the same scenario happen twice in the last 4 or 5 days - one agent had the audacity to say "Well, you are getting the listing commission", to which I replied "I will receive the listing commission without doing YOUR job, thank you!".  She considered me rude and said so.

Then just this morning, a Craigslist.com ad generated a call from a prospective buyer.  I asked if she was working with a buyers agent and she said yes, but her agent worked during the day and .....

Dear, dear buyer's agents:  yes we listing agents do need you and your clients but please, we do not want to do your job and have you step in at the contract-writing moment so that you may collect a commission.

Please inform your buyers that YOU will help them with the details of any house or ad they see, and if they must call the Listing Agent, explain to your client that they need to disclose their relationship with you BEFORE taking up the listing agent's time.

Our industry is evolving and rules seem to change daily but ethics ... well, ethics haven't changed.  

Step 1.  Don't communicate with your lender.  As you miss making the monthly mortgage payments, the collections department will commence their calling campaign in an attempt to collect the payments.  Their calls are typically quite aggressive, the calls are frequent and sometimes the caller is demeaning and insulting. 

TIP:  It is easy to identify these calls using caller-ID and simply not answer the phone when your lenders number pops up on your caller ID.  Also, if the caller appears as UNKNOWN, it is often a bill collector or the lender attempting to collect the debt.

By not communicating with your lender, your lender has no way of knowing whether or not you are eligible for a loan modification or other repayment arrangements.  Not answering your phone will keep them in the dark.

Step 2.  Ignore all mailings and correspondence.  Your lenders collection attempts will most likely include sending form letters to the last known address they have for you.  Initially, the correspondence is clearly marked and easily identified as being sent by your lender.  This is only another attempt to collect the debt (mortgage payments).  

The form letters usually contain phone numbers and attempt to compel you to call.  Often these letters will suggest different options available to help keep homeowners in their homes.  The options usually always include you as the homeowner providing information and documentation such as proof of income, bank statements, etc.

 The EASY BUTTON method is to ignore all mailings.  There is no need to clutter up space by retaining the correspondence.  Simple throw it all away.

Step 3.  Depending on which state you reside, one way or another, you will be notified of the bank's Intent to Foreclose.   Simply put, this is a legal action in which the bank has the right to take possession of the collateral used for the loan - your home. 

The service of this legal notice can be ignored as well.

Step 4.   Eviction - defined as the expulsion of someone (such as a tenant or homeowner) from the possession of land by process of law.  In many states, the Sheriff will come to your door and remove you & your family from the premises.

It's that simple.  Losing your home to foreclosure is a simple process.

Saving your home from foreclosure is a bit more complicated.

Visit www.WendySmithRealEstate.com for some helpful information and professional assistance.

There's a couple of great ideas floating around:  (1) allow homeowners to remain in & lease their home after foreclosure, and (2) offer a buy back in which the homeowner could purchase the home after a specific term (3 years? 5 years?)

Buy backs are not a new idea, buy backs have been around for years including during the boom.  Back in the boom-time, investors saved many homeowners from foreclosure by purchasing the property, renting it back to the homeowner with an option to buy it back.  One notable difference is that back then, these investors were often referred to as scam artists as they were blamed for taking advantage of distressed homeowners. 

The St. Petersburg Times ran a good article House:  Let Foreclosed Homeowners Rent on August 15, 2009.  The article offers a nice snapshot of the pros and cons of buy backs.

The idea is great, but as most homeowners and agents would agree, not if banks run the program.   Currently I am working a seamless short sale.  The key is disclosure otherwise the buy back could be deemed not to be an arm's length transaction and possibly considered fraud.  Some banks will not approve a short sale that includes the homeowner remaining in the property - buy back option or not.

 A buy back program has the potential for huge success and win-win opportunities for all parties....again, as long as the banks don't run it.

Why not?

Think about it.  How long should a short sale actually take? 

Let's suppose an offer comes in on a house.  A professional short-sale listing agent has already worked with the seller gathering the paperwork that will be required fr the lender.  Sme lenders actually will image the documents prior to an offer.

The contract, PHUD and support docs are faxed to the lender.  Let's say two weeks for set-up which includes the imaging.

Let's give it another week to assign the file to a negotiator.  Total time so far is 3 weeks.

The negotiator reviews the file, orders the BPO, BPO comes in & goes thru the review process, negotiator runs the numbers - either an offer is close enough to submit to the investor or it's not.  At the end of 4 weeks, let's give 5 weeks, the listing agent should be able to hear from the lender as to a counter offer or that the file will be submitted to the investor for approval. 

Let's give the investor 3 to 4 weeks.  We are at the two month period now.

Investor approves, counters, whatever - maybe it has to go to MI.  whatever.

Then 30 days to close.   That's 3 months - ok, be generous, let's say 4 months - that is SIXTEEN weeks!

The homeowner has this three/four month period to vacate the home.  Just 3 or 4 more late payments hit his credit report.  The short sale closes and he can go on with his life.

But we know that is NOT how it happens.  Just ask anyone working a BoA or CW short, or how about Aurora?  Let's see a show of hands for shorts that take longer than 6 months?  9 months? I'll bet there are quite a few that could raise a hand for a 12-month short too.

The point is, the lenders CAN staff these departments to adequately handle the volume.  There are plenty of unemployed people with mortgage and related backgrounds that would train easily to fill the vacancies.  Lenders received plenty bail out money (I still don't know where that $$$ went!)

The homeowner suffers more damage to his credit report with the higher # of lates and faces an increased deficiency amount.  The increased damage to the homeowner is due to the lender not properly servicing the short sales and loan modifications. 

I hope an attorney figures it out how to quantify these damages to dollars and perhaps start some sort of class action law suit.

I read recently that a guy lost his job.  He got behind on his house payments.  He put his house ont he market for a short sale.  Meanwhile he found a job in another state and was prepared to relocate his family.   Just before the move, the new employer called him to withdraw the job offer - seems that they ran his credit.  Unfortunately, the new job required a good credit score.  

This country is credit driven - these lenders wasting so much time to process short sales are having a huge residual impact on the lives of the citizens of this country.

C'mon, there must be an attorney out there that can hit these lenders in the pocket (aka bottom line) - it's the ONLY language they understand.  Anybody?

This post is just for sharing (not looking for points) - 

(as sent from a friend - you gotta read the whole thing!)

SHERIFF JOE IS AT IT AGAIN!
You all remember Sheriff Joe Arpaio of  Arizona  , who painted the jail cells pink and made the inmates wear pink prison garb. Well......... He's at it again.
                      
 
   

 
Oh, there's MUCH more to know about Sheriff Joe!

Maricopa   County was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the county supervisors said okay.

The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays.. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who'd like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows.

The best part? His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million. Teresa and I adopted a Weimaraner from a Maricopa Countyshelter two years ago. He was neutered, and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a microchip inserted the day we got him. Cost us $78.

The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day.. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals.

I have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system, and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand.

He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat, and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the Holidays, and plant it later. We have six trees in our yard from the prison.

Yup, he was reelected last year with 83% of the vote.
Now he's in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural, that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn't doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border. He's kind of a 'Git-R Dun' kind of Sheriff.

TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO

HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF

AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER
THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (In Arizona ) who created the ' Tent City Jail':
He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.

He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights, cut off all but 'G' movies.

He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects.

Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination.

He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails so he hooked up the cable TV again and only let in the Disney channel and the weather channel.

When asked why the weather channel He Replied, "So They Will Know How Hot It's Gonna Be While They Are Working On My Chain Gangs".

He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value.

When the inmates complained, he told them, 'This Isn't The Ritz/Carlton......If You Don't Like It, Don't Come Back.'

More On The Arizona Sheriff:

With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 Degrees Just Set A New Record), the Associated Press Reports:
About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed-wire-surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail, have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts.

On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached
138 degrees inside the week before.

Many were also swathed in wet, pink towels as sweat collected on their chests and dripped down to their PINK SOCKS.

'It Feels Like We Are In A Furnace,' Said James Zanzot, An inmate who has lived in the tents for 1 year. 'It's Inhumane.'

Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: 'It's 120 Degrees In  Iraq  And Our Soldiers Are Living In Tents Too, And They Have To Wear Full Battle Gear, But They Didn't Commit Any Crimes, So Shut Your Mouths!'

Way To Go, Sheriff!

Maybe if all prisons were like this one there would be a lot less crime and/or repeat offenders. Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for their parole, only to go out and commit another crime so they can get back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves.

It seems that no matter how long I'm in this business, there's always a new twist.

A colleague of mine called to ask my opinion as to what I would do in her situation.   After listening to her dilemma and offering my two cents; I thought I'd see what other Realtors would do.

Here's the story...I'm going to put it in first-person for simplicity:

A few days ago, I receive a call from a guy named Todd who said he was referred to me by a past client (love those referrals!).  Todd says he is a first time home buyer and wants the same great deal like I "got for his friend" (the friend bought a short sale). 

No problem says me.  Todd gave the address of a property that has his interest and wanted me to check into it.  The property however is in Orlando and I am a couple counties away in Clearwater.  Mmm.

I'm already thinking that I need to refer Todd to a local agent...but I promise to check on the property and get back to him in the morning.

Todd calls about an hour later and wants to send me his pre-approval letter.  OK, that's fine.  So as we continue to chat, I get the sense he has already seen the house. 

Todd admitted that not only had he seen the house but he made an offer!

It was explained to Todd that he needs to contact this agent with his questions and that she is his Buyer's Agent - part of her job is to answer questions.  Todd explains that he is not comfortable with this agent as she seems to have very little experience with short sales - the house he likes is a short sale.

He further explains that he made his offer on July 9th with an acceptance date of July 10th.  On July 10th, the agent called to tell him that the listing agent is gathering contracts and will present all the contracts to the bank at once (oh no! not one of those listing agents!). 

Todd has not heard from her since.

Todd wants to "fire" this agent and "hire" me to write up a new offer, at a better price.   I explained to Todd that there an issue about ethics - he really 'belongs' to this other agent.  Todd informed me that he is not going to work with her anymore regardless of whether I agree to work with him or not.

I know what I suggested to my colleague regarding her position. 

I'm wondering how many agents would work with Todd and how many would not.  (just curious)

What would YOU do?