Expertise is granted, not proclaimed Build your brand on the value of relationships

BY GAHLORD DEWALD, TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2012 Inman News®

Child on phone image via Shutterstock.

This might be hard to take. But it might be true. And it might turn out to be helpful. That is, once the sting to your pride fades away a little bit.

Alright. Here goes:

You are not the expert.

There are so many kinds of marketing in the real estate industry that are focused on positioning agents and brokers as experts. Experts of neighborhoods. Experts of negotiation. Experts helping people understand their housing needs. Experts of marketing. Experts of technology. Experts of social media or SEO or radio advertising.

That's a lot of expertise.

House comes with Mercedes -- for buyer's agent A roundup of real estate news making headlines

BY MARY UMBERGER, TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2012 Inman News®

Newspaper image via Shutterstock.

News and observations from a very broadly defined real estate horizon:

It's practically old hat now for a homeowner to offer to throw in a free car to the buyer of his house, a marketing ploy that became almost ubiquitous during the housing downturn.

But it lives on, with a twist: The owner of a home near Richmond, Va., is offering a 2012 Mercedes-Benz when his house sells -- but the car would go to the real estate agent who brings a buyer for his house, currently listed for $1.9 million.

If the agent wants to skip the brand-new Benz, valued at $37,900, the owner is offering $30,000 in cash in addition to the commission, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch. The listing agent, Susan Stynes, told the newspaper the homeowner hoped the offer would attract interest from agents outside Virginia.

Mortgage lenders: New regs could derail real estate recovery Industry groups pushing for legal 'safe harbor'

BY KEN HARNEY, TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2012 Inman News®

Big bad wolf image via Shutterstock.

At a meeting attended by top economic and housing policymakers in the West Wing of the White House last Thursday, the Obama administration heard these grave warnings on housing:

• If you force overly stringent home loan standards and legal liabilities down the throats of the mortgage and real estate industries this summer, many lenders will squeeze underwriting requirements on loans even tighter than they are today, cut back on originations and tack on additional "overlay" fees. All that, in turn, will suck the air out of the housing recovery, with punitive impacts on jobs, new home building and resales of existing homes.

• The consumers who get hit the hardest if excessive standards are adopted by the administration will be homebuyers and refinancers who are on economic tightropes already, especially first-time homebuyers, and lower and moderate-income African Americans and Latinos. Why make things even tougher for them?

Top 13 US real estate brokerages for land Midwestern farmland values spike in 2011

BY INMAN NEWS, MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2012 Inman News®

Farmland image via Shutterstock.

The Land Report, a magazine devoted to land ownership, has released its second annual listof the nation's best real estate brokerages specializing in land.

The list is based on the self-reported sales volume of brokerages' land transactions in 2011. Because many of the deals involved confidentiality agreements, the magazine used listing prices to gauge sales volume for closed deals. Brokerages that represented both buyer and seller could claim double the sales volume.

Properties that were primarily residential, commercial or industrial were excluded from the tally.

Farmland values have been spiking of late, reaching all-time highs across much of the Midwest in the fourth quarter, the magazine reported. In Nebraska and Kansas, for example, the value of nonirrigated farmland rose 37.8 percent and 24.1 percent year over year, respectively.

Farmland values in the Seventh Federal Reserve District, which consists of the state of Iowa and parts of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, saw farmland values rise 22 percent in 2011, at least partially due to rising crop values -- the biggest annual increase since 1976, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

The Land Report surveyed more than 100 brokerages, and 70 were chosen for the list. The top brokerages by region are listed below.

3 TIPS FOR SMARTER REAL ESTATE MARKETING DON’T WAIT FOR LEADS TO FALL INTO YOUR LAP

BY BERNICE ROSS, MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2012 Inman News®

Target marketing image via Shutterstock.

How effective are your marketing efforts? Are you getting the greatest return possible for the money you spend? If you're interested in spending less while increasing the return on your marketing dollars, it's time to stop hustling harder and work smarter.

According to Michael Gerber, the author of "The E-Myth Revisited," most businesspeople spend almost all of their time working in their businesses. For real estate professionals, that means delivering their services to buyers and sellers.

To get the best return from your business, however, it's also important to work onyour business. This means taking the time to evaluate what is working and how you can improve your systems; deciding what innovations to implement and what activities to drop; and tracking your progress toward your goals.

If you would like to work on your business and close more transactions, begin by answering the questions outlined below.

Based upon your business tax return or Schedule C for 2011 (or if you haven't filed it, use the most recent data that you have), how much did you spend in each of the following categories last year?

Tell us what you really think of open houses NAR's open house weekend also a chance to plug homeownership, Realtors

BY INMAN NEWS, MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2012 Inman News®

Open house image via Shutterstock.

"Want to pick a fight in a roomful of real estate agents? Ask them whether they think open houses are worthwhile."

That's how reporter Mary Umberger kicked off a two-part series for Inman News examining the pros and cons of the time-honored technique of marketing homes for sale.

Today, Inman News is doing just that -- asking agents and brokers whether they hold open houses themselves, how they promote them, what they get out of them, and what they think of the National Association of Realtors' upcoming Nationwide Open House Weekend.

Some agents Umberger talked to said open houses have a low conversion rate -- many who tromp through the featured homes turn out to be curious neighbors. There are better places for agents to focus their marketing efforts, they said, like the Internet and social media channels. And open houses also raised safety concerns, both personal and legal, for some.

3 tips for setting home's list price REThink Real Estate

BY TARA-NICHOLLE NELSON, THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2012. Inman News®

House-with-price-tag image via Shutterstock

Q: How can I really determine what my property is worth? Here is the situation: An online estimate website says my property is worth $230,000, but my agent says it's worth only $200,000! I'm listed at $225,000, and my price is comparable to other comparable listings. I really get the feeling agents are lowballing sellers to get an easy listing and sale. What's your input on this? --Lee S.

A: The only way to know with 100 percent certainty what your home is currently worth is, bizarrely enough, to sell it! In real estate, we define the value of a home at any given time as the price that a willing, qualified buyer is willing to pay for it, something you can't know until you list and sell it. Without doing that, all you can do is estimate your home's value, and obtain professional estimates of it, based on what other buyers have recently paid for similar, nearby homes.

As you are well aware, because homes vary, these estimates can and almost invariably do vary widely -- they are essentially opinions, more or less qualified, and based more or less in fact. Additionally, most opinions of value will be expressed in a price range, rather than a particular number, because of the fuzzy nature of the whole exercise.

Use your knowledge to close real estate sales No two deals go wrong in exactly the same way

BY BERNICE ROSS, THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2012 Inman News®

Handshake image via Shutterstock.

Real estate practitioners, as well as the companies and people who support them, are grappling with a problem that continues to elude their ability to solve it. We argue about who owns the data, whether we're worth the commissions we receive, and whether the boards, companies and associations are really "worth it." The underlying issues, however, are simply not being addressed.

When real estate professionals are ranked lower than used-car salespeople, it's clear that we are doing a poor job in articulating the value we bring to the people we serve, whether it's at the association, board, brokerage or agent level.

I recently attended a leadership training event designed to prepare the group to assume leadership roles at their board. Most of the people in the room had at least 10 years of experience. When the trainer asked, "What differentiates a Realtor from other agents who merely hold licenses?" half the room couldn't come up with anything.

6 demographic trends that will shape housing markets Seniors, echo boomers will be drivers for decades to come

BY INMAN NEWS, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2012 Inman News®

Image via Kamira/Shutterstock

Through at least 2030, the housing market will depend on the desires and fortunes of two generations: baby boomers and a group primarily made up of their offspring, echo boomers, according to a recently released report prepared for the Washington, D.C.-based Bipartisan Policy Center.

The report, "Demographic Challenges and Opportunities for U.S. Housing Markets," was written by researchers at the Urban Institute, the University of Southern California, and the National Association of Realtors.

The current housing market suffers from a "doubling up" phenomenon among young adults, high vacancy rates, reduced incomes, higher poverty levels, a high share of seriously delinquent mortgages, and declines in homeownership, particularly among minorities, the report said.

Nevertheless, between 2010 and 2050 the nation's population is projected to jump by nearly 93 million people to 403 million, and, with it, housing demand.

6 signs a home will hold its resale value Buying at a low price does have a downside

BY DIAN HYMER, MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2012 Inman News®

Money house image via Shutterstock.

Most buyers have a wish list of features they'd like to have in a home. Often missing from that list is how salable the home will be when they later decide to sell.

Generally, buyers deal indirectly with resale value. They want a home they can buy at market value or less. They want to buy a home that will retain its value. They want to buy a home that will suit their needs. They want to buy a home they can make their own.

A listing that's priced low to sell fast may be one that will have good resale value only if you use this marketing strategy. The low price may offset an incurable defect, such as a location on a busy street.

There's nothing wrong with buying a home on a busy street as long as (1) you buy it at a price that reflects the location issue; (2) it suits your long-term needs; and (3) you understand that you will probably have to discount the price accordingly when you sell, depending on the market at the time.

In a hot seller's market, buyers are desperate to buy. They often overpay, and they are more likely to overlook defects that they would shun in a sour market.

Resale value has become a bigger issue since the housing recession began five years ago. Buyers are more cautious in their homebuying decisions. They don't want to buy just any home; they don't want to make a mistake and end up wanting to move in a slow market in which they might lose money.

The homes that hold their resale value well are the ones that appeal to a broad cross section of buyers; offer a good floor plan that works for different lifestyles; have a good amount of space but are not enormous and expensive to maintain; and exhibit a pride of ownership. They should also be in good condition.

Real estate agent safety an ongoing concern A roundup of real estate news making headlines

BY MARY UMBERGER, MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2012. Inman News®

Image via Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock

News and notes from a very broadly defined real estate landscape:

Crimes against agents

Real estate agent safety continues to be a topic making headlines:

• Real estate agents in Des Moines held a memorial service on April 9 to mark the one-year anniversary of the death of Ashley Okland, who was murdered while showing a townhouse in West Des Moines. The case remains unsolved, despite the offer of a $150,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction, according to the Des Moines Register.
• A man in Great Falls, Mont., who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting an agent in May 2011, has been sentenced to 75 years in prison after the judge called his crime "a heinous and terrifying event," according to the Great Falls Tribune. Prosecutors said the defendant, Bradley Crisman, had "profiled" six agents in the months leading to his crime, and some of them had shown him homes. He brought duct tape and plastic zip ties with him when the crime victim showed him a home.
• An agent in Suitland, Md., was sexually assaulted in late March while showing a home, according to the Washington Post. Police said that as the agent entered the basement, the assailant grabbed her and attacked her.

Where home sales are hot ... and not

Even with widespread reports of the general housing market stabilizing, it's still a mixed bag from metro area to metro area.  Some hits and misses:

• The Birmingham, Ala., Association of Realtors reported that first-quarter home sales rose 15 percent, year over year, though average prices fell 2 percent;
• Home sales in Las Vegas' long-troubled market were up slightly in March from a year ago -- a 4.4 percent increase.  However, the median price of a single-family home sold that month dropped from $126,000 to $123,000, compared to one year earlier, according to an Associated Press report;
• There were "up" arrows in north Texas in the first quarter: Existing-home sales were 13 percent higher than the year before, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. In a 29-county region, median sales prices climbed 5 percent;
• The federal Department of the Treasury in early April highlighted its concerns for Chicago in its monthly Housing Scorecard, calling the local market "fragile" and saying that it is burdened by long foreclosure processing times, an abundance of vacant homes and many severely underwater mortgages,according to the Chicago Tribune.
• Just up the road from Chicago, however, Milwaukee appears to be having a strong spring selling season, according to the Milwaukee Business Journal, which said home sales in March increased 26.5 percent, the ninth month in a row of double-digit percentage increases.

Toronto real estate agent Sandra Rinomato is no longer hosting HGTV's popular "Property Virgins" program, but she hasn't left television: She is debuting a show in Canada called "Buy Herself," in which she works with single women to find and purchase properties, according to Global Toronto.com.

CAR against bulk home sales

The California Association of Realtors opposes the prospect of the Federal Housing Finance Agency's "bulk sales" foreclosure program, which would call for the sale of 600 foreclosed homes in Southern California to institutional investors.  CAR argues that bulk sales will drive overall home prices downward and that bank-owned home sales are closing in an average of less than 60 days without government intervention, according to the Sacramento Business Journal.

The Florida bubble, part II?

Some experts are seeing another condo bubble forming in South Florida, with the construction of as many as 10,000 new units contemplated by the end of 2012,according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

The report said that some of the developers are requiring buyers to put down 80 percent of the cost of the condos before closing, freeing them from pressure to acquire institutional financing to spur construction.

A shed is apparently a good thing

Decorating diva Martha Stewart is known for having a lot of "stuff," and apparently it all has to go somewhere: She plans to appear before a local planning board to seek approval to build a 25-foot-tall, 3,200-square-foot storage unit on her 137-acre property in Bedford, N.Y., according to Lohud.com, which said the approval is needed because of the size of the unit.

Poodle sparks a condo-board suit

A unit of the Illinois government is suing the condo board of a high-rise on Chicago's tony Lake Shore Drive because it won't allow a tenant who suffers from chronic depression to keep a poodle as a service animal for therapeutic purposes, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

The Illinois Department of Human Rights, in its suit, claims that the man's poodle made his mood "more stable and less dark"; the condo association denied his request twice, though two doctors wrote letters supporting the dogs' therapeutic value.

Link building for real estate 3 popular tools for boosting SEO efforts

BY TOM FLANAGAN, TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 2012 Inman News®

Image via VladKol/Shutterstock

The Web was built on links. As Julie Joyce, director of operations for Link Fish Media, points out in "Why Links Matter," hyperlinks "were the main method of building the Internet and connecting sites through HTML, allowing people and bots to move around and find what they needed. They were like any other citations, methods of getting additional information by going somewhere else." Joyce goes on to discuss the concept of PageRank, which was developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin and is the foundation of Google's algorithm. Joyce writes, "Not all links are of equal importance. A link from the home page of a powerful site like the BBC will be of a higher quality than a link from the links page of your high school's blog." Google and other search engines analyze links to determine the authority of a website. The more authority your website has, the better it will be ranked and the more traffic it will ultimately receive. In its simplest form, link building is the process of acquiring quality links (from other websites) to your website to improve your search engine ranking. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. According to SEOmoz's Beginner's Guide to SEO, "Building links is an art. It's almost certainly the most challenging part of an SEO's job, and, for many sites, the one most critical to achieving long-term success." I recently attended Link Love 2012 in Boston. Link Love is an SEO (search engine optimization) conference hosted by Distilled and SEOmoz, focusing on advanced link building. The event featured many notable industry experts such as Rand Fishkin, CEO and co-founder of SEOmoz, and Adam Audette, who spearheaded Zappos' SEO efforts from 2004 to 2011. The workshop covered a variety of topics including best practices for developing content marketing, social media and recent updates from Google. However, the theme of this workshop was certainly link-building strategies. Link building for real estate Search is critical to any real estate professional's business. Especially if you are competing against companies such as Redfin, Trulia and Zillow who have powerful technology infrastructure and tremendous resources. Competing against these brands for keywords and search phrases is difficult at best. However, real estate professionals have a tremendous opportunity to improve their link popularity and ranking. With any strategy, research and due diligence is imperative, and link building is no exception. Here are two comprehensive guides to understanding link building: 1. The Only Link-building Guide You'll EVER Need by Alex Cortez (InmanNext) 2. Link Building Strategies - The Complete List by Jon Cooper (Point Blank SEO) Once you understand the value of quality links and how effective a link-building strategy can be to your SEO efforts, there are some great tools available to help you facilitate your approach. The speakers at Link Love 2012 shared some fantastic tools (both free and paid) to help you track, analyze and manage your campaigns. Here are a three popular tools to help optimize your campaigns: Open Site Explorer Powered by SEOmoz, Open Site Explorer is a free tool that allows you to see who is linking to your website and perform comparative analysis. BuzzStream Starting at $29 a month, BuzzStream claims to eliminate "the time-sucking parts of link building so you can focus on what matters: building quality relationships with link partners." Raven Raven is a robust SEO platform that is widely utilized in the SEO industry. This application, which costs $99 a month, is for agencies and seasoned professionals. Raven offers SEO, advertising and social media tools the company claims will "help you work faster and smarter." Having quality links back to your website is key for improving the popularity and ranking of your website. As Ido Zucker, partner at Active Website, likes to say, "Links are the new business card. Realtors are so used to shaking hands and exchanging business cards. Offline marketing is so ingrained in their day-to-day life. I suggest that it become the norm for Realtors to exchange links as they do with business cards -- making online marketing a reality."

Short-sale queries that stump agents If you can't answer these basic questions, refer your client to an agent who can

BY BERNICE ROSS, MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2012 Inman News®

Real estate agent image via Shutterstock.

How well are you representing your clients? Today's column has nine questions that at least one investor has found cannot be answered by 95 percent of the agents in his market. Are you part of the 5 percent who can answer these? I recently interviewed Barry Cunningham who has a successful investment business purchasing and selling short sales. Cunningham is not a licensee and typically uses an agent in his transactions. What he has experienced is nothing less than shocking. Here are the questions that most of the agents in Cunningham's market are unable to answer: 

 1. Is the property still available? There are four answers to this question. The property could be actively listed, sold, pended or expired. When Cunningham asks this question, many of the agents can't give him a simple answer. If the agent doesn't say that the property has sold, Cunningham responds by saying, "So we still have time to put in an offer." At this point, many agents start hemming and hawing. Again, the property is either available or it's not. 

 2. How many mortgages are there on the property? While the sellers aren't always forthcoming about this issue, there are numerous ways to check this either through the public records, the title company, or by ordering a preliminary title report. If you don't know the number and the amount of the mortgages on the property, how do you plan on closing the transaction when the seller owes more than what the buyer is offering? Determining this upfront not only protects the principals in the transaction, but it can literally save you months of work. 

 3. Are there any liens or judgments? Sellers may be embarrassed to tell you that they haven't paid their homeowner dues or that there is an IRS tax lien against them. Again, it's important to see the number and the type of liens on the property. For example, IRS tax liens are extraordinarily difficult to close in a short time period. City and state liens are often easier to resolve provided there is enough cash in the deal to pay them off. The question is: Do you want to list or sell a property that will require this level of work? 

 4. Are there any municipal or city fines on the property? While municipal and city fines are often wiped out when there is a foreclosure, in Florida, for example, this is not the case. The fines transfer to the new owner of the property. Cunningham cited one example where there was a $1,000-a-day fine (which can be for something such as a swimming pool infested with mosquitoes). The listing agent provided comparable sales information to the bank that owned the property. The comps were based upon other properties in the area that did not have this issue. Clearly, the fine greatly diminished what the property was worth. Furthermore, once the information was revealed to the listing agent, in most states that agent has an affirmative duty to disclose that information, not only to the bank selling the property, but to any future buyers as well. 

 5. Are the improvements permitted? Your listing says that there is a new roof or kitchen. Where are the permits? Depending where you are in the country, some areas are relatively lax when it comes to obtaining permits. In places like Los Angeles, however, you have to pull a permit just to replace a dishwasher or a water heater. In fact, there was a case in West L.A. where an owner did a major remodel on a $1 million home that included adding a substantial amount of square footage. The seller didn't pull permits. The city demanded that the improvements be removed. Again, when you take a listing and the sellers say they have done work to the house, determine the nature of the work and whether a permit is required. If a permit is required and the sellers didn't obtain one, it's probably smart to pass on the listing, as you could be buying a lawsuit. 6. Who paid what taxes? If there have been improvements and the sellers didn't pull permits, their upgrades will probably cause their property to be reassessed for property tax purposes. This means that the sellers may owe additional property taxes, even after the property has closed. In terms of your obligation on a short sale or other distressed property sale, you need to know whether the homeowner paid the taxes or the bank did. If the bank paid the taxes, this means the payoff will be higher and it also must be disclosed on the HUD statement. 

 7. Where is that sewer hookup anyway? Cunningham had a situation where a bank was taking back a property. When the city installed a sewer, the sellers never paid the sewer hookup fee. Instead, they were pulling water out of a pond. The bank didn't believe it until Cunningham shot a video showing this was the case. 

 8. The comparables are all at $72,000, $70,000 and $75,000, so why are you listed at $95,000? There's only one answer to this question: The listing agent wasn't strong enough to persuade the seller to list the property at market value. 9. Did you tell the seller about the offer we submitted? This is probably the most frustrating issue for competent agents and serious buyers. For whatever reason, some listing agents do not submit the offers to their sellers, or worse yet, don't even call back the agent who has the offer. Because Cunningham is not licensed, he often sends his offers directly to the owners. The comments he hears are, "I haven't seen my agent in a month!" or "You mean I can sell my house on a short sale and avoid going through foreclosure?" In Cunningham's area, there are about 1,600 sales per month. There are 27,000 agents. It's clear there's not enough business for all of them and that most simply don't have the experience to navigate the difficult waters in today's market. If you aren't able to answer the basic questions outlined in this column, then there is no better time than now to start asking the questions you need to provide your clients with the best possible representation. If you are unable or unwilling to address these issues, refer the client to an agent who will get the job done. It's much better to earn a referral fee than to get zero when the transaction doesn't close.

Mortgage rates ease again on economic worries Fed officials not ruling out more easing

BY INMAN NEWS, THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2012 Inman News®

Mortgage rate image via Shutterstock.

Mortgage rates slid this week as worries about the economy made mortgage-backed securities that fund most mortgage loans look like a safe bet to investors. Freddie Mac's weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed rates on 15-year fixed-rate loans hitting a new all-time low, and rates for the workhorse 30-year fixed-rate mortgage just above the record low. Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 3.88 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending April 12, down from 3.98 percent last week and 4.91 percent a year ago. Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages hit an all-time low in records dating to 1971 of 3.87 percent during the first three weeks of February. For 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, rates averaged 3.11 percent with an average 0.7 point, down from 3.21 percent last week and 4.13 percent a year ago. That's a new low in Freddie Mac records dating to 1991. Rates on 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) loans averaged 2.85 percent with an average 0.7 point, down from 2.86 percent last week and 3.78 percent a year ago. The five-year ARM hit a low in records dating to 2005 of 2.8 percent the week of Feb. 23. For 1-year Treasury-indexed ARMs, rates averaged 2.8 percent with an average 0.6 point, up from 2.78 percent last week but down from 3.25 percent a year ago. Rates on one-year ARMs hit an all-time low in records dating to 1984 of 2.72 percent during the week ending March 1.   Looking back a week, a separate survey by the Mortgage Bankers Associationshowed demand for purchase loans was down a seasonally adjusted 0.5 percent during the week ending April 6 compared to a week earlier. Demand for purchase loans up 5.5 percent from the same time a year ago. In times of economic uncertainty, increased demand for Treasury bonds, mortgage-backed securities, and similar investments pushes their prices up, and yields down. A weaker than expected employment report for March, showing the economy added only 120,000 new jobs, along with renewed worries about the European debt crisis, had many investors dumping riskier investments and moving money into bonds this month. Those fears have eased somewhat, in part because Federal Reserve officials have hinted they stand ready to take further action to goose the economy with a third round of quantitative easing ("QE3"). Speaking Wednesday during a conference at New York University, Federal Reserve Vice Chairwoman Janet Yellen outlined "substantial headwinds" that "continue to restrain the recovery." One headwind comes from the housing sector, which has typically been a driver of business cycle recoveries, Yellen said. Demand for housing is likely to pick up "only gradually given still-elevated unemployment, uncertainties over the direction of house prices, and mortgage credit availability that seems likely to remain very restricted for all but the most creditworthy buyers," Yellen said. "When housing demand does pick up more noticeably, the huge overhang of both unoccupied dwellings and homes in the foreclosure pipeline will likely allow demand to be met for a time without a sizable expansion in homebuilding." A second factor is that state and local governments continue to face "extremely tight budget situations," while federal stimulus-related policies are scheduled to wind down. A third factor weighing on the outlook is the sluggish pace of economic growth abroad. With sluggish economic growth limiting job creation and few signs of inflation on the horizon, Yellen said she considers "a highly accommodative policy stance to be appropriate in present circumstances." Further "easing actions" could be warranted if the recovery proceeds at a slower-than-expected pace, she said, although "a significant acceleration in the pace of recovery could call for an earlier beginning to the process of policy firming" than the Federal Open Market Committee currently anticipates. The committee, which sets targets for short-term interest rates, said after its January and March meetings that economic conditions are "likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014."

7 cool apps for real estate agents Change the way you post videos, digitize contacts and location-share

BY BERNICE ROSS, THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2012 Inman News®

Tablet PC image via Shutterstock.

A popular pastime among smartphone and tablet users is to share the apps they love. Perhaps you will find some of your favorites in the list below or fall in love with an app you haven't seen before that's a good fit for your business.

Most smartphone and tablet users have quite a few apps on their devices, but use only a handful. Here are seven cool apps that can help your business:

1. Camera Plus (Android, iPhone, iPad) At 99 cents, this app makes your photos look as if they were shot by a pro. It goes way beyond what programs like iPhoto provide. Camera Plus is amazingly simple to use. You can create dozens of special effects such as putting a blue or yellow filter on the photo, creating custom borders, watermarking the photo itself, or adding comments, all with just a tap of your finger.

With more than 7 million apps sold, Camera Plus was named one of the top 50 apps for 2011 by Time magazine, as well as being voted the best photography app by the "Best App Ever Awards."

2. CardMunch (available for iPhone, with Android app coming soon) Business cards are a fact of life and can be a real nuisance to enter into your computer. LinkedIn has created an app called "CardMunch" that not only scans your business cards and enters them into a database, it works with your LinkedIn profile as well.

Once you scan the card with your phone and the card is uploaded, "LinkedIn will map the information with the contact's LinkedIn profile and augment it with photos, common connections, past work experience, and education. It makes it a lot easier to match a face to a name, and the number of cards scanned saved workers an estimated four tons of card stock that would have otherwise weighed down their pockets."

3. Glympse: "Share Your Where" (Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Phone 7) Have you ever been late for a meeting or had trouble finding the restaurant where you were meeting your new client? Glympse lets you share your exact location in real time with whomever you want.

You can send your Glympse to your client's mobile device as well as to his Twitter and Facebook accounts. Glympse calculates your exact location and broadcasts it to your client or friends. It also calculates your speed and your estimated arrival time.

4. GroupMe (Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad) Rather than running the risk of going over your data plan's text messaging limits, there's a great app called GroupMe that's now part of the Skype family.

GroupMe allows you to turn your phone into a private chat room. When you send a message, everyone in the chat room receives it. GroupMe also allows photo sharing. Best of all, there's no charge for this service.

5. iScape and HardScape apps (iPad) While virtually staging the interiors of homes has been around for a couple of years, the iScape family of apps lets you stage the landscaping and the hardscapes on your less-than-lovely listings.

Furthermore, iScape is perfect for people who are considering doing major exterior changes to a property. It's a great way to see what you will be getting before paying thousands of dollars in fees.

6. Kik (Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, Symbian, Windows Phone 7) Kik is another app that allows you to conduct real-time conversations, much like online chat. You can see when messages are delivered and read, which is great when you need to reach clients with time-sensitive messages.

Additional benefits of Kik include the ability to share photos. Furthermore, Kik works on most phones, so this is a particularly good app for your clients who may not have an Android phone or iPhone.

7. Vid.ly: "The Universal Video URL" (Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad) While shooting video with your phone is pretty simple, posting it online is another issue. Vid.ly lets you upload your video once.

When a user clicks on your video, Vid.ly automatically matches your video to fit the user's video player. No more wasting time trying to save your video into multiple formats so it will play on most devices. Vid.ly also generates a shortened URL so you can post a link to your video virtually anywhere.

While Vid.ly doesn't charge for five or fewer videos per month, there is a storage and a delivery charge. Unless you're shooting a lot of video or have a very high-traffic video, these fees are minimal. Best of all, you don't have to figure out how to get your videos posted in a format that will work on all computers.

The one challenge with all the thousands of apps out there is locating the apps that will work for you. If you get in the habit of trying a new app once or twice a month, you can easily spot which apps you want to keep and which ones to delete.

Re/Max agents get automated content program EMerge platform generates emails, blog posts, social media pushes

BY INMAN NEWS, FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012 Inman News®

People hub image via Shutterstock.

Real estate franchisor Re/Max has partnered with Louisiana-based technology firm eMerge to provide Re/Max brokers and agents with an automated content program that generates two monthly email newsletters, six blog posts per month, and weekly social media pushes to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

The eMerge program also allows real estate professionals to supplement automated content with their own, personalized messaging and gain valuable feedback on what engages their users.

"We need to embrace online technology and not be intimidated by it," Re/Max CEO Margaret Kelly said in a statement. "With the proven success the eMerge program demonstrated with our franchise sales division in 2011, the natural next step is to introduce this powerful marketing tool to our brokers and agents."

"Our mission is to provide one program that consolidates and automates email, social media and blogging for Re/Max agents and brokers," said Bondilyn Jolly, founder and CEO of eMerge.

"The eMerge program saves valuable time by providing all of the tools and content needed to create and maintain a successful online presence."

Other eMerge offerings include professional campaign services, enterprise level platforms and support, education and training programs.

Real estate recovery is a long way from market bottom Commentary: Don't confuse housing improvement with strength

BY LOU BARNES, FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012 Inman News®

Floating house image via Shutterstock.

Another week in these odd times, public policy and theoretical economics completely dominating markets.

Federal Reserve leadership -- Vice Chairwoman Janet Yellen and New York Fed President William C. Dudley -- gave same-day speeches that clarified the following:

1. The do-nothing, hawkish regional-Fed presidents' club is alone in its treehouse. 2. If anything, the Fed has not done enough since 2009. 3. The Fed's commitment to ease through 2014 is more likely to be longer than shorter.

The Fed takes cover under its congressional mandate, saying "unemployment is too high," which is true. But the greatest danger lies overseas: Industrial production in the European Union had the worst month in two years; China's economy is slowing faster than expected; and Japan is ... who knows. The Fed cannot risk a U.S. stall now.

Bonds already had the hint: The March spurt in rates fizzled out last week. Stocks got the "more easing" message, too: a midweek rally pulling the stock market out of an incipient trench.

There is some perversity in this stock market response. The Fed would be this easy only if badly worried about domestic and global risks, and a risky economy is unfriendly to stocks. Yet stocks still responded happily to the Fed's promise of action. It's nice to know somebody still has faith in the Fed.

New domestic data tentatively confirmed the weakness in March payrolls. Weekly claims for unemployment insurance have risen from a sustained stretch -- sub-350,000 to 367,000, and then to 380,000 -- in the last two weeks. In the short term that's not big, but it's also not good.

The National Federation of Independent Business' small-business survey in March unwound months of gains, following the pattern of the 2011 spring swoon.

Housing. Kick any Wall Streeter today, and he'll say, "Housing has bottomed. Hit me for something else."

What would the turn look like, if really under way? My own backyard has turned in just the last 60 days.

The Front Range of Colorado never had a housing bubble: We danced with the "Technology Fairy" from 1999-2001, and afterward built too many houses, and made too many stupid loans, but all of that was over by 2004 when we led the nation in foreclosures.

That was a long time ago. We have the sixth-lowest level of mortgage delinquency of any state in the U.S. Our rental vacancy rate spiked to 12 percent, now below 5 percent for the first time since 1999 (it's close to zero in Boulder, Colo.).

Rents are moving up quickly. State population in the last dozen years has risen from 4.1 million to 5 million, and we're short of land to build (you could drop Rhode Island in here and never find it, but we are maniacs for "open space" reservations). Building permits have been off 85 percent since 2007. Unemployment is down to 7 percent-ish. Our listed inventory of homes has evaporated by 40 percent since last year. Buyers have lost their fear; the only problem is in finding something to show them.

Does your local market look like that? Mr. Housing has bottomed? Eh?

As perfect as our setup, are prices rising? In rich, government- and tech-payrolled, land-starved Boulder County, Colo., yes. At last. Enough to unlock sellers? Um … later.

Two philosophers have remarked incisively on speed. Stephen Hawking: "Time is what keeps everything from happening at once."

Then, Satchel Paige's description of "Cool Papa" Bell: "He was so fast he could flip off the light switch and be in bed before the room got dark. One time he hit a line drive right past my ear. I turned around and saw the ball hit his ass just as he slid into second."

Housing is the polar opposite of Cool Papa Bell.

Here in Colorado, the 1980s were tougher than this patch, and in Boulder we had all the same, lovely conditions as above by the spring of 1990, and the first, timid price increases in nine years.

It then took 18 months for prices to begin to rise on the far side of town. "Bottom" is one thing, "better" is another, and "recovery" something else entirely.

The Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp.'s (MGIC) newest guide to its underwriters described 73 metro areas this way: 26 of them "stable," 25 "soft," 22 "weak", and not a single one "strong."

Even if bottoming, and if surviving the release of held-back foreclosures, it will be a long time before recovery takes the brake off the economy, and puts heat on the Fed.

Source: National Federal of Independent Business (NFIB).

Tips for filing your tax return on time Real Estate Tax Talk

BY STEPHEN FISHMAN, FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012 Inman News®

Tax time image via Shutterstock. For those of you who wait until the last minute to file your taxes -- which this year are due by Tuesday, April 17 -- here are some tips to make sure you send your returns on time:


Filing paper returns on time


1. Postal mail. Your paper return is filed on time if it is mailed in an envelope that is properly addressed, has enough postage, and is postmarked by April 17. The post office keeps many of its offices open until midnight on tax day so returns can be postmarked by this date.

If your envelope is lost by the post office or Internal Revenue Service, you'll have no way to prove it was mailed. This is why it is always a good idea to send in a paper return by registered mail or certified mail. This costs more than regular postage, but is well worth it.

If you send your return by registered mail, the registration is proof that the return was delivered to the IRS. The date of the registration is the postmark date.

2. Private delivery services. If you use a private delivery service designated by the IRS to send your return, the postmark date generally is the date the delivery service records in its database or marks on the mailing label. The delivery service can tell you how to get written proof of this date.If you send a return by certified mail and have your receipt postmarked by a postal employee, the date on the receipt is the postmark date. The postmarked certified mail receipt is proof that the return was delivered. Be sure to keep the receipt.

The following are IRS-designated private delivery services:

• DHL Express: DHL Same Day.
• Federal Express (FedEx): FedEx Priority Overnight, FedEx Standard Overnight, FedEx 2Day, FedEx International Priority, and FedEx International First.
• United Parcel Service (UPS): UPS Next Day Air, UPS Next Day Air Saver, UPS 2nd Day Air, UPS 2nd Day Air A.M., UPS Worldwide Express Plus, and UPS Worldwide Express.

Filing electronic returns on time

If you file electronically with IRS e-file, your return is considered filed on time if the company that electronically transmits the return to the IRS postmarks the transmission by April 17. The date and time in your time zone controls whether your electronically filed return is timely.

The electronic postmark serves as proof of when the authorized electronic return transmitter received the transmission of your electronically filed return on its host system.

HomeServices enters Northeast market Latest acquisition, Prudential Connecticut Realty, handled $2.5B in sales last year

BY INMAN NEWS, THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2012 Inman News®

Real estate acquisition image via Shutterstock.

HomeServices of America Inc. has established a presence in the nation's Northeast with the acquisition of Prudential Connecticut Realty, whose 1,400 sales associates handled more than $2.5 billion in sales in 2011, working out of 50 offices located in markets across the state. Prudential Connecticut Realty will retain its name and affiliation with Prudential Real Estate's U.S. network, and its top executives -- Chairman and CEO Peter Helie and President Candace Adams -- will continue in those positions, running the firm's day-to-day operations along with sales management and executive leadership teams. A division of the company, Prudential Rhode Island Realty, has two offices serving the communities of Westerly and Watch Hill. "I am delighted that HomeServices is establishing a presence in Connecticut," said Ron Peltier, chairman and CEO of HomeServices, in a statement. "I look forward to having Peter, Candace and their team join the HomeServices network of companies." With the acquisition, Minneapolis-based HomeServices has 26 brokerage brands with more than 16,000 real estate professionals operating in 20 states, including Edina Realty (Minnesota), Koenig & Strey Real Living (Illinois), Prudential California Realty, Iowa Realty, Realty South (Alabama and Florida), and Long Realty Co. (Arizona). A Berkshire Hathaway affiliate, HomeServices is the nation's second-largest brokerage firm, after Realogy Corp.'s NRT LLC. After acquiring Portland, Ore.-based Prudential Northwest Properties in February,Peltier said HomeServices was in a buying mode. Last month the company -- a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate -- acquired Prudential Northwest Realty Associates, a Seattle-based brokerage with more than 350 sales associates in six offices that handled more than $740 million in sales last year.

Study finds disparity in marketing, maintenance of REOs Lenders accused of violating Fair Housing Act

BY MATT CARTER, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 2012  Inman News®

Houses image via Shutterstock.

An evaluation of more than 1,000 homes repossessed by lenders in nine markets found properties in African-American and Latino neighborhoods were not maintained or marketed as diligently as homes in predominantly white neighborhoods.

The National Fair Housing Alliance said real estate owned (REO) properties in white communities "generally appeared inhabited, well-maintained and attractive to real estate agents and homebuyers," while foreclosed homes in minority communities were "more likely to have overgrown yards littered with trash, unsecured doors, broken windows, and indications of marketing as a distressed sale."

The "inferior way in which banks maintain and market their REO properties in communities of color actually changes the character of and serves to degrade the quality of life in these neighborhoods," in violation of the Fair Housing Act, the group said in a 49-page report detailing the findings of its investigation.

The National Fair Housing Alliance said the investigation -- funded in part by a grant by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) -- will culminate in the filing of administrative complaints with HUD, and lawsuits in federal district court.

The group filed the first such complaint with HUD against Wells Fargo Tuesday, and said it would be filing a Fair Housing Act complaint against another major bank next week.

"We hope that banks will heed the information in this report and take immediate action to correct the disparate treatment we have found," said Shanna Smith, president and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance, in a statement. "The proper maintenance and marketing of REO properties is a key factor in the sale of homes to families rather than to investors."

A Wells Fargo spokesman said in a statement that the lender "conducts all lending-related activities in a fair and consistent manner without regard to race, and this includes maintenance and marketing standards for all foreclosed properties for which we are responsible."

The National Fair Housing Alliance's investigation looked at 39 aspects of the maintenance and marketing of REOs in Atlanta; Baltimore; Dallas; Dayton, Ohio; Miami-Fort Lauderdale; Oakland, Calif.; Philadelphia; Phoenix; and Washington, D.C.

REOs in predominantly minority communities were 42 percent more likely to have more than 15 maintenance problems than properties in white communities, including water damage, deteriorating paint, and damaged siding and gutters.

REO properties in minority communities were 82 percent more likely than those in white communities to have broken or boarded-up windows. In the metro Washington, D.C., market, nearly 60 percent of REO homes in African-American neighborhoods had broken or boarded-up windows, for example, compared with 39 percent of REO properties in predominantly white areas.

REO properties in predominantly white neighborhoods were 33 percent more likely to be marketed with a professional "for sale" sign than their counterparts in African-American or Latino communities.

Foreclosed homes in predominantly minority communities "generally appeared vacant, abandoned, blighted and unappealing to real estate agents who might market the unit to homebuyers," the report concluded.

A report by the National Fair Housing Alliance contrasted the condition of this bank-owned home, in a predominantly African-American community in Oakland, Calif., above, with an REO property in a predominantly white neighborhood in the Oakland Hills, below. In addition to damage to steps and gutters, a door was kicked in at the house above, allowing access to the interior of the home.

A "for sale" sign was propped up on the front porch with a phone book. The home below had damage to a fence, but the property featured a more professional "for sale" sign and carefully mowed lawn. Photos: National Fair Housing Alliance.

The group said Fannie Mae has also supported its REO investigations and the group's efforts to educate to the real estate industry on promoting the sale of REO properties in compliance with the Fair Housing Act.

The report noted that the federal Fair Housing Act requires that banks, investors, loan servicers and other responsible parties maintain and market properties that are for sale or rent without regard to the race or national origin of the residents of a neighborhood.

Banks, investors and servicers are required to monitor vendors they hire to perform housing-related transactions to ensure they comply with fair housing laws and regulations.

Steering by real estate agents based on neighborhood racial composition is illegal, and "other behavior in the housing sale or rental market that operates to discourage potential buyers from purchasing or renting homes in neighborhoods of color, such as by failing adequately to maintain properties in minority neighborhoods," also violates the Fair Housing Act, the report said.

"Banks, federal regulators, local communities and law enforcement must work together to ensure that these sorts of discriminatory practices are stopped as the foreclosure crisis continues in the coming years," the report said. "Banks must completely restructure their maintenance and marketing models to ensure equal treatment of REO properties in all neighborhoods so that all communities have a fair opportunity to recover and prosper."

In its Fair Housing Act complaint against Wells Fargo, the National Fair Housing Alliance said its examination of 218 Wells Fargo REO properties in eight markets allegedly revealed "significant racial disparities in maintenance and marketing" in each market, as well as nationally when data for the metro areas was aggregated.

Tom Goyda, vice president of corporate communications for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, said an in email that the complaint "does not include specific property information that can allow us to investigate the circumstances in any of the markets they list."

Most of the loans serviced by Wells Fargo are actually owned by investors, including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration, which manage the maintenance and sale of repossessed homes, Goyda said.

In cases where Wells Fargo owns the loan on a foreclosed home and ends up repossessing it, the lender has a dedicated department that manages REOs, he said, securing and winterizing properties and conducting maintenance work and monthly inspections.

Agents: Are you an IRS audit target?

Real Estate Tax Talk

BY STEPHEN FISHMAN, FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012.

Inman News®

Every year, the Internal Revenue Service releases detailed statistics about who got audited the previous year.

The stats for 2011, covering 2010 returns — have recently come out and they paint an unpleasant picture for many real estate professionals — particularly the successful ones.

The percentage of business and nonbusiness returns that got audited in 2011 is shown in the following chart:

IRS Audit Rates (2010)

	Audit Rate
Sole proprietors
Income under $25,000	1.3%
$25,000 to $100,000	2.9%
$100,000 to $200,000	4.3%
$200,000 and more	3.8%
Partnerships	0.4%
S corporations	0.4%
C corporations
Assets under $250,000	0.9%
$250,000 to $1 million	1.6%
$1 million to $5 million	1.9%
$5 million to $10 million	2.6%
Nonbusiness Returns
Under $25,000	1.2%
$25,000 to $50,000	0.7%
$50,000 to $75,000	0.8%
$75,000 to $100,000	0.8%
$100,000 to $200,000	1.0%
$200,000 to $500,000	2.7%
$500,000 to $1 million	5.4%

This chart shows that in 2010, 4.3 percent of sole proprietors earning $100,000 to $200,000 were audited. Not even corporations with assets worth between $5 million and $10 million were audited as often.

Moreover, only 1 percent of taxpayers who did not file a Schedule C form, but earned $100,000 to $200,000, were audited. Thus, self-employed taxpayers were four times as likely to be audited as employees earning the same amount.

In fact, employees earning as much as $500,000 were less likely to be audited than self-employed taxpayers earning as little as $100,000.

These statistics undoubtedly reflect the IRS’s belief that sole proprietors habitually underreport their income, take deductions to which they are not entitled, or otherwise cheat on their taxes.

Employees have less opportunity to cheat because their income tax is withheld by their employers and income reported directly to the IRS by them.

Unfortunately, most real estate professionals fall into the high-audit category: They are self-employed businesspeople who file Schedule C. The lesson these numbers teach is that you need to take the IRS seriously.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take all the deductions you’re legally entitled to take, but you should understand the rules and be able to back up the deductions you do take with proper records.

If you’re really worried about getting audited, think about forming a business entity to operate your real estate business. This could be a pass-through entity, such as a limited liability company taxed as a partnership or an S corporation.

Such entities don’t pay taxes themselves, but do file returns with the IRS. Both have extremely low audit rates: only 0.4 percent of such entities were audited in 2011. Regular C corporations also have relatively low audit rates.