The gathering storm

Commentary: US may be alone in capacity to tackle debt and budget gap

BY LOU BARNES, FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 2012 Inman News®

Western meadowlark image via Shutterstock.

"It's quiet out there -- too quiet."

That line appeared again and again in 1950s horse operas, and we Western kids practiced daily the eye-squinted and growled delivery. We also worked at whistling the call of the meadowlark, the way the Native Americans in those oaters signaled each other before their attacks. In our games, the short straws were the cowboys; our Sioux and Cheyenne always won in thrilling slaughter.

It is August, traditionally void of news, but this is really quiet. Eerie quiet.

Europe has fallen silent. Even the European Union no-content boys in Brussels have paused posturing. Monti, Rajoy, Hollande ... so quiet you could hear a euro drop in the Rhine.

Economists: 2012 marks the end of a long bottom | Real estate industry experts offer midyear forecasts

BY PAUL HAGEY, FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 2012 Inman News®

Swooping arrows image via Shutterstock.

DENVER -- U.S. housing markets are likely to continue on a path of slow recovery after seeing a multiyear bottom, according to three real estate industry economists participating in a forum hosted by the National Association of Real Estate Editors said today.

Continuing uncertainties over negative equity (about a third of homeowners with mortgages owe more than their homes are worth, according to Zillow), fuzzy housing finance reform possibilities, lagging foreclosure processing and tight lending standards are potential obstacles to the slow-rising tide of the U.S. housing market, they said.

A fixer-upper purchase strategy Consider future value financing

BY JACK GUTTENTAG, MONDAY, JUNE 18, 2012 Inman News®

Fixer-upper image via Shutterstock.

You are attracted to a house that is perfectly located but it just came out of foreclosure and needs a lot of work to make it habitable. To swing the deal, you need to finance both the purchase and the required repairs. How do you do that?

I recently wrote an article dealing with the first part of this problem: financing the purchase of a house in such poor condition that it might prove unacceptable to lenders as collateral. A strategy for minimizing the risk of getting turned down for a purchase mortgage is described in Purchase a House in Poor Condition? on my website.

Know when to replace your kitchen faucet Leak leads to under-sink revelation

BY BILL AND KEVIN BURNETT, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012 Inman News®

Leaky faucet image via Shutterstock.

We get a fair amount of questions that don't require a detailed answer, but deserve a response. So it's time once again to empty the question bag:

Q: I have a Moen kitchen faucet that is leaking. It is a rotating, single-handle, one-hole installation, with no plate. The leak seems to come from a rusted base under the sink and drips down the flexible tubing. Is it easy to fix?


A: Yes, but the fix is to replace the faucet. The rust is the key. The faucet's innards are shot. It's possible that some parts need replacing, but for about $100-$200 (installed yourself) you can have a new one. We say live large and go new instead of trying to repair the old one.

Q: Thanks for the tip on fixing a leaky faucet. My question is: I have a two-handle faucet that turns on and off backward. How do you fix this problem?

A: If "backward" means the valve opens when turned to the right and closes when turned to the left, there's nothing you can do to reverse the operation. This is opposite of "normal," but it's the way the faucet was designed. Top Real Estate in Rockford Illinois

Battery tech improves trimmers, chain saws Backyard cleanup has never been so efficient, quiet

BY PAUL BIANCHINA, FRIDAY, MAY 25, 2012 Inman News®

Chain saw image via Shutterstock.

Battery technology has been steadily improving in recent years, and with the coming of lithium ion, tool manufacturers have been quick to incorporate these ever lighter and more powerful batteries into tools of all types. We've become accustomed to manufacturers replacing the electrical cord with a battery in just about every conceivable shop tool, from drills and saws to lights and test equipment.

But it's only been fairly recently that batteries have become powerful enough to really make a useful dent in another arena: tools powered by gas engines. That's led to a new generation of tools for the weekend warrior and even the professional that really helps with backyard cleanup chores. Battery-powered yard tools eliminate all the starting and maintenance hassles associated with gas motors; they eliminate emissions; and they greatly reduce noise and vibration.

Must-knows when buying pet-restricted condo REThink Real Estate

BY TARA-NICHOLLE NELSON, THURSDAY, MAY 24, 2012 Inman News®

No pets allowed image via Shutterstock.

Q: I am surprised that so many condos have a "no pets" policy. How strict is this policy? For instance, I have a cat that would not go outside, so would my cat be banned also?

A: As a devoted dog mom, this is an issue that's near and dear to my heart, especially as my first dog years ago was what I call a real estate rescue.

At the time, I was a real estate broker working in a big office, and adopted my Pekinese, Mr. Chom Chom Nelson (RIP), after answering the SOS email of an agent who was selling the home of some clients who were (you guessed it!) moving out of state, to a condo that wouldn't allow pets.

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.

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.