With every article about the real estate market that appears in either my inbox, my TV or my doorstep, my opinion is that our industry is becoming more bi-polar everyday.
Often, on the same webpage, you will find articles with conflicting headlines; one tells us that more homes aren't selling, while the next article tells us how robust the 'mortgage applications' index looks. To the layman, this can only confuse and scare them more.
Yes, more homes are selling than LAST MONTH because we're getting closer to one of our peak seasons (well, used to be anyway) but we're selling less from year-to-year. And the reason mortgage applications are up is because it takes a broker several attempts with different lenders to find a home for a borrower. So in reality, the application number is higher, but probably not the APPLICANTS number. And I don't even want to talk about refis.
But where the market is really getting scary is in foreclosures. I do mostly commercial and institutional loans now so I don't really see much in the way of residential. I do however get a referral every now and again and it's important to me to do my best for business associate because now there are two reputations at stake.
But when I get a foreclosure, I usually do those for free.
I'm on my third one this week. That's how busy I am. I now get more foreclosure referrals than I get junk mail, many of which just cannot be saved. And to be brutally honest, I've told more people more truth than I think they've heard in a long time.
I hear stories about investors parking all night across the street from a property they want just to scare off other investors. I heard one this week about an investor who called a client of mine threatening to take my client to court if they didn't sell her their home. And my new favorite, a client was followed from home, to work, to lunch, to work, back home - we know this because the investor called the client about 20 times that day telling them "I've got the paperwork right here, and I'm in the parking lot. All you have to do is come out and sign."
sigh.
Refis are tough, short sales take too long and I do most of my work with my fax machine and the redial button. I talk to "lawyers" (the ones who 'work with a lawyer') like they're children and I find myself ducking calls from "friendly" investors all day long. And while it may hurt some feelings to read this, many homeowners just aren't savvy enough to know that "No, you can't profit from your own short sale".
I know the industry is tough right now, we're all feeling it. But I see examples everyday of people who are barely surviving it.
Enjoy,
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