Set the Stage Early for Multiple Offers on your home.

Set the Stage Early for Multiple Offers on your home

Bidding wars on homes are an indicator of a rebounding market, but they also can become a stress-or for agents that have not had to juggle multiple offers in many years.  They will find it easier to manage this kind of buying and selling environment if they are open and honest with clients, keeping the line of communication open at all times.

That responsibility begins with the listing presentation and setting the asking price for a home, since the properties that are priced appropriately are the ones that will generate multiple offers.  Agents should support their pricing recommendations with national news, explaining how that activity affects local sales.

Agents also can provide clarity to their clients and be the voice of reason as the multiple offers come pouring in.  For example, while sellers are likely to jump at the highest bid, agents can analyze the details of an offer—often concluding that the best deal is not necessarily the one with the biggest dollar figure.

“Manage a Multiple Offer Market,” RISMedia (July 29 2012)

Eminent Domain to Seize Mortgages?

Another City Weighs Eminent Domain to Seize Mortgages

Chicago is the latest city to join a growing list of cities and counties across the country that are considering using Eminent Domain in order to seize underwater mortgages.

The controversial idea of using Eminent Domain first surfaced in San Bernardino County, Calif. A west coast capital firm, Mortgage Resolution Partners, is trying to get more counties and cities across the country signed up to the idea, which they argue is a way to decrease the number of foreclosures and prevent home values from falling any further.

If cities use Eminent Domain in this sense, they would be able to seize mortgages that are in negative equity and then use investor money to reduce the mortgage principal for the home owner. They’d also be able to help refinance the home owner’s loan into a government-backed loan, according to Mortgage Resolution Partners’ proposal.

Chicago will consider an eminent domain measure at a hearing this week, but city council members have already said that the idea has cleared legal standards. In Chicago’s Cook County area, more than 44 percent of homes are underwater—meaning home owners owe more on their mortgage than their home is currently worth.

“In the coming weeks and months we expect more municipalities to announce their intent to explore the use of eminent domain to seize underwater mortgages,” Isaac Boltansky, a policy analyst for Compass Point, told HousingWire.

HousingWire cites critics who argue that such a program would cause mortgage bonds backed by jumbo loans to see losses increase more than 30 percent. Some in the real estate community also have spoken out against eminent domain proposals to take over mortgages in recent weeks, questioning the legality and suggesting that it violates property rights.

Source: “Chicago Considers Eminent Domain to Seize Underwater Mortgages,” HousingWire (July 27, 2012)

How to Get More Accurate Home Appraisals.

How to Get More Accurate Home Appraisals

Low Home Appraisals have been blamed on delaying—or even canceling—many real estate transactions over the last few years. While real estate professionals are limited in how much involvement they can have in the Home Appraisals process, they can do a few important things to help ensure their sellers receive a fair valuation.

1. Be there. Appraisers and other real estate agents say that being present at the home’s appraisal is important. Agents can respond to any possible questions the appraiser might have as he or she is valuing the property. However, agents need to make sure they don’t overstep their boundaries. Rules limit contact between agents and appraisers.
2. Provide extra information. Michael Citron of Coconut Creek, Fla., says he gives appraisers packages of information that include comparable sales as well as a list of the home’s home’s upgrades and amenities within the development. Others also recommend that any information include the dates that renovations took place, permits for additions, and even receipts for the work (if available).

“You don’t want things to be missed in Home Appraisals that may result in a higher value,” says appraiser Scott Dooley in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Source: “How-to Make Sure a Home Is Appraised Accurately,” RISMdia (July 28, 2012)

Home Owners Torn on mortgage obligations: Right or Wrong?

Home Owners Torn on mortgage obligations: Right or Wrong?

Forty-five percent of Nevada home owners recently surveyed say “there is nothing wrong” with walking away on your mortgage obligations, according to a new report, “Face of Foreclosure,” released by the Nevada Association of REALTORS®. On the other hand, an equal number of home owners say home owners have a “legal and ethical obligation to pay their mortgage if they can.”

The number of home owners who find “strategic default” socially acceptable is growing in the state, which has consistently had one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country the last few years. In 2011, 23 percent of Nevada home owners who lost their home to foreclosure said they walked away from their mortgage. In 2012, 27 percent of foreclosed home owners say they strategically defaulted on their mortgage.

Strategic default is when a home owner is financially able to make their mortgage payments but decides to stop, usually because the property is underwater.

“This year’s report shows it’s more socially acceptable to strategically default on your mortgage obligations,” says Blane Johnson, NVAR’s president. “I hope banks and government leaders will look at this to help them get ahead of these issues.”

For those who decided to walk away from their mortgage, 40 percent said they had been advised by their lender or financial adviser to stop paying their mortgage so that they could qualify for more assistance with their home loan.

NVAR is calling on lenders to do more to help distressed home owners, such as through refinance and loan modification programs or streamlining the short sale process so that fewer home owners will opt to walk away from their mortgage obligations.

The survey also found that despite the plague of foreclosures in the state the last few years, most Nevadans still overall favor home ownership. Nearly 80 percent of home owners surveyed who have faced foreclosure say they want to buy a home again one day, according to the report.

Supplementing the report, NVAR developed a video featuring interviews with local home owners, real estate and mortgage professionals about foreclosures in the state. You can view the report and video at www.FaceOfForeclosure.com.

Source: “Face of Foreclosure Report,” Nevada Association of REALTORS® (2012)

Smart Homes Not in Sight for 2020.

Smart Homes Not in Sight for 2020

Technology may seem to be rushing forward, but it isn’t ready to make all our homes, smart homes.

That’s the view of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which collaborated with Elon University in North Carolina recently to assess the state of Smart Homes in America.

Lee Rainie, who headed the project for Pew, told Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Umberger that she asked more than 1,000 technology observers and researchers whether they foresaw Smart Homes commonly available by 2020 or whether there were too many obstacles, leaving the home of 2020 about the same as current homes.

About half of the respondents felt that even if the technology was there for Smart Homes, barriers such as companies’ lack of interest in working together would prevent smart homes from being readily available. Costs were another frequently cited barrier, Rainie said.

But optimists said that the value of the homes would appeal to buyers, with “a financial benefit as well as a personal comfort benefit,” Rainie said, and they suggested that tax and zoning codes could be adjusted to ease burdens. “A driver of this,” said Rainie, “would be incentives in public policy as well as what’s happening in the marketplace.”

Source: “A slow start for smart homes,” Chicago Tribune (7/19/2012)

4 Home Showing Tips in the Hot Weather.

4 Home Showing Tips in the Hot Weather

Sizzling 100 degree temperatures have been blanketing the country in recent weeks, but some potential buyers may be more reluctant to go house shopping in the heat. How can you still draw the buyers out?

“Even though buyers have air conditioning in their cars, you have to convince them to get into their cars — then out of their cars — to check places out,” Brad Knapp, a National Association of REALTORS® regional vice president, told The Street.

Here are four showing tips for the hot weather, according to Knapp in a recent article at The Street.

1. Keep it cool. It’s not the time to penny-pinch on the air conditioning. Knapp says home owners without central air conditioning will be at a big disadvantage, and he says they might even consider keeping their home off the market until the cooler days of fall. As for home owners who do have central air, he recommends keeping the thermostat around 72 degrees.

2. Watch the smell. The warm weather can cause odors in the home to become even stronger, such as pet smells and musty basements, Knapp says. Have your sellers remove the kitty litter box, relocate the pets for showings, and clean any musty basements with bleach. He also recommends using a dehumidifer to make sure the home stays dry.

3. Tend to the lawn. Curb appeal is important but Knapp acknowledges it can be a challenge in sizzling hot weather and when a city has water restrictions in place. “Try to keep the front yard as green as possible — but you can forget about the backyard if you have to,” he says. “Most buyers are astute enough to know that if all of the backyards up and down the street are brown, there really isn’t a problem if yours is too.”

4. Pay attention to doors and windows. Front doors can be filled with summer pollen so make sure your sellers give it a nice clean at least once a week, Knapp suggests. He also suggests regularly cleaning the windows — both the inside and out — to make sure they sparkle.

Read more tips from Knapp at The Street. 

Source: “8 Tips for Selling a Home in Summer,” The Street (July 20, 2012)