https://activerain.com/blogs/stevwani en-us https://activerain.com/blogsview/1554338/foreclosures--the-problem-or-the-solution From HousingWire: Housing Recovery is Spelled R-E-O Short sales are a hot topic right now-especially with a much-ballyhooed government program focused on short sales, the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives program, about to come online. But in the end, the real key to resolving the problems that yet remain in housing is likely to come back to an old standby: REO property sales. Yes, really. But to understand why, you've got to first really understand the scope of the mortgage default problem we've now got. According to data from Lender Processing Services, a whopping 7.4m loans are now non-current, compared to just 4.1m on average between January and June of 2008....Ponder those numbers for just a second. On average, severely delinquent borrowers have gone more than 9 months without making a mortgage payment-and yet foreclosure has not yet started for them. For those borrowers who are in the foreclosure process, it's been an average of 13.6 months-more than one full year-since they last made any payment on their mortgage. So, can short sales ride in to save the day for these 7.4m troubled borrowers? What about for the many millions more who are current on their loans, but are underwater on property value and unable to sell? For some, short sales will be an important solution-but don't kid yourself: the hype currently surrounding short sales and the HAFA program will prove to be short-lived, and REO expertise will be prove to be the key to recovery, as it has been in prior cycles....Thanks to effective intervention from the government, we won't see REO volumes soar to peak levels anytime soon-but we will see elevated inflows at least through the mid-2012, out of necessity. And those inflows should be seen as the road to recovery by anyone watching real estate. JPM forecasts, for example, that by Q4 2012, 22-28% of home sales in the Los Angeles region of California will still be REO; in Phoenix, that number is projected to be 39-50%. These projections underscore a message I've shared privately with many industry colleagues recently: recovery in housing is spelled R-E-O. Anything else is wasting time until we get there Steve Waniak (Keller Williams) Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:26:36 -0700 https://activerain.com/blogsview/1554338/foreclosures--the-problem-or-the-solution https://activerain.com/blogsview/1512157/family-reunion I'm waiting at the airport to return from another awesome Keller Williams Family Reunion in New Orleans.  As always the breakout sessions were incredible. Gary Keller's vision speech spoke direcectly to the challenges ahead with a clear emphasis on this market is NOT over.  We all have to buckle down and continue doing the things that ensure our success.  Exciting news about Keller Williams International intentions and the direction the company is heading.  Clearly we will be number one in the very near future. Steve Waniak (Keller Williams) Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:30:05 -0800 https://activerain.com/blogsview/1512157/family-reunion https://activerain.com/blogsview/1462664/a-nasty--gift- One of the parting 'gifts' left behind by New Jersey now ex Governor Corzine was the long-disputed bill to allow the payment of rebates to buyers of residential properties.  While I was disappointed that Corzine never lived up to his potential as a strong governor ( partisan politics has nothing to do with it - I felt that someone who had earned his stripes in corporate management might have been able to get the mess we call State Governement more under control, but the record shows that he completely failed to do so), for him to depart with a bombshell like that sitting in his "out" basket was a real kick in the teeth to the real estate community. People in the business work hard for their commissions.  We're already beset by clients who impose often-unreasonable demands and exhibit little or no loyalty to the agents who invest great amounts of time and effort to meet their needs.  Now, the state has put another weapon in their hands to be used to cut your income, by legitimatizing the previous illegal practice of expecting kickbacks for the pleasure of catering to their needs. Seeing that the bill has been approved was bad enough, but things were made worse by the report that the NJ Association of Realtors "while adamantly opposed to the bill, did not lobby against it's approval."  According to NJAR, they felt that they lessened the detrimental effect of the bill by negotiating several amendments that "increased consumer protection."  I've read the bill in its original form and the amendments they claim made it better.  From what I can see, the only amendment that improved it was the one that restricted the kickbacks to buyers, as opposed to both sides of a transaction.  It is still harmful to everyone in our business. Steve Waniak (Keller Williams) Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:48:12 -0800 https://activerain.com/blogsview/1462664/a-nasty--gift-