March 10th, 2010
We have been screaming for 2 years to these short sale departments that they need to get out of their own way and let the market help solve the problem. Short sales to this point have been a miserable failure, primarly because most banks take way to long to negotiate or accept an offer.
That means for the most part, retail buyers wont buy short sales leaving only investors. Investors do not pay retail prices of course, and banks dont want to accept wholesale offers. You get the paradox here??
Here are the considerations being discussed:
- Homeowners get $1500 to sell and move. The bank servicing the first mortgage gets $1000 and the second mortgage bank get $1000 to forgive the balance. The first mortgage holder gets the proceeds from the sale.
- Realtors will determine the value of the home.
- The homeowner will not be told the valuation.
- Banks will be required to accept all offers that meet or exceed the predetermined value.
Our main question is will any of this actually speed up the process of getting a deal approved and closed. If it doesnt, well at least in our view, it is political jockeying for the next election cycle that begins in a few months.
What do you think?
www.SellMyHouse.com
Posted in Bank Owned, Foreclosure, REO, Short Sales | No Comments »
March 10th, 2010
I read an article recently that discussed the obstacles facing the housing market which suggested we still may be a full 2 years away from a bottom in the housing market.
Here at www.sellmyhouse.comwe know all to well that there is a lot of pain right now in the housing market. Almost 25% of homeowners owe more on their house than it is worth and figuring out how to help these people when the short sale process is so bogged down right now is definitly a challenge. The psycholigical effects of this can be devistating, but that is not what we are discussing in this post.
What are the specific challenges that our economy is facing that might make this true:
- Jobs have not started to return. The real unemployment number is alot closer to 15% than the 9.7% rate offered up by the governments report. It doesn not inlcude folks that have given up on finding a job or those that are working part time because they cant get full time work. We’ve heard runblings from our wall street buddies that this number will approach 20% before it is all said and done. No housing boom in history has every occured without outright job creation, much less a slowing of job losses.
- Foreclosures for the most part have been put off for a year because of TARP and all of the government foreclosure incentives. We have heard that almost 5 million houses are on the verge of foreclosure. If that is true, then that means there is almost 1 full year of inventory waiting on the sidelines.
- Money is very tight. Banks are not lending, and moreover, seem to be looking for reasons not to lend. I read a report that said it isnt that they dont want to lend, it is they just dont have the money to lend right now. Their money is out, and it is out on properties that have lost value. The rest of their money is being horded in case the economy does not get better.
- The government stimulous, which has done a good job of getting potential buyers off the fence to date, is set to end this spring. Will they renew it? Time will tell.
- People are scared of the future. ‘Main street’ America is still struggling mightely with lost hours at work, higher heating bills from this winter, and the economy is on the verge of collapse again.
Those are all very goood reasons why it is possible that we may not see a housing bottom until 2012. Scary thought, especially if you make your living from this industry.
Jason Roberts
Founder & CEO
www.SellMyHouse.com
Posted in Bank Owned, Foreclosure, Home Sales Stats, REO, Short Sales | 2 Comments »
March 4th, 2010
A week economy and job market combined with brutal winter conditions across the country have taken their toll on January pending home sales which dropped 7.6% from December to January. Issues surrounding the number: Job recovery has not begun based on the latest unemployment numbers. Lending is down across the board. Government incentives such as the tax credit will be expiring in a few months. Foreclosures are still at record levels. Bad weather effect open house events.
www.SellMyHouse.com Staff Writter
Tags: housing market, Pending Home Sales, sell my house
Posted in JKR Investment Group | 1 Comment »
March 2nd, 2010
We always try to stay on top of the news, trends, etc here at www.sellmyhouse.com. In doing our daily research of the goings on in the market we came across the following blog written from somebody who clearly thinks that Realtors are the absolute scum of the world and we created the entire Economic collapse.
Enjoy:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Please chime in!
www.SellMyHouse.com Staff Writter
Tags: Bank Owned, Foreclosures, Freddie Mac, Home Prices, housing market, sell my house, sellmyhouse.com, short sale
Posted in Bank Owned, FSBO, Foreclosure, Home Sales Stats, Lead Generation, REO, Short Sales | 1 Comment »
February 25th, 2010
SellMyHouse.com is now on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/sellmyhousecom
www.SellMyHouse.com will be getting a face lift. The updated site will go live in March.
www.AmericasBestRehabs.com will go live in March. It is has been in Beta testing.
www.BuilderLeasePurchase.com is being redesigned and will launch in March along with the marketing campaign to expand in markets where we currently have a Realtor Partner. The new site will expand from builders to rehab investors and single family sellers.
http://www.sellmyhouse.com/community/ Our blog will be getting a facelift. Feel free to register and begin commenting on news and events with your specific contact info, market conditions, etc. An integrated news feature will eventually be buillt into the www.sellmyhouse.com template.
Realtor Questions Answered:
“What is the difference between a Realtor Partner and a basic Realtor Affiliate?”
An Affiliate is a Realtor who just gets leads from SMH but does not actively market the company via sign riders or participate in the company’s expanded marketing programs such as our fsbo business, lease sites, investor networks, or other marketing systems. The Affiliate program will be phased out over the next few years.Under the Realtor Partner Program we end up building our entire business around the Realtor. They have direct access to all of our brands, partnerships, and services. In 2010, we have begun the process of hiring marketing reps in Realtor Partner markets to expand lead volume in all facets of our business.
“Do you offer personal websites for your Realtors?”
It’s in the planning stage. In the future we plan to offer a these customized sites that will have built in blogs, news, etc fed from sellmyhouse.com with the goal of improving the SEO rankings in each market while creating a marketing platform for each of our Realtors.
“What is the average lead volume you generate for your Realtors?”There are many factors to consider including size of the market, market conditions, etc. However, the primary factor in our lead volume stats comes down to marketing efforts. We are a referral based company so it makes sense that we would concentrate our marketing dollars in markets where our Realtors are also actively marketing the brand as well. The best way to explain it is simply in our Realtor Partner markets where they add our sign riders to our listings or participate in our FSBO marketing program, our corporate offices allocate marketing resources to expand lead volume in these markets. The www.SellMyHouse.com Realtor Affiliate Program is primarily a by-product of our national internet presence. Lead volume expands dramatically in Partner markets where we do direct marketing campaigns.
Have a great week!
The SellMyHouse.com Team
www.SellMyHouse.com
Tags: Realtor Partners, Realtors, sell my house, sellmyhouse.com, SEO
Posted in Lead Generation | No Comments »
February 24th, 2010
We just got the report from First American Core Logic regarding mortgage statistics.
24% of houses with a mortgage are now underwater, over 11 million in total. Another 2.3 million are within 5% of a negative equity position.
Highlights of the report:
“Negative equity continues to be concentrated in five states: Nevada , which had the highest percentage negative equity with 70 percent of all of its mortgaged properties underwater, followed by Arizona (51 percent), Florida (48 percent), Michigan (39 percent) and California (35 percent).
We can use our houses as piggy banks when the market it dropping. www.SellMyHouse.com has seen estimates that predict houses could drop another 15% from current levels….or 50% from 2006 valuations.
Hope not but time will tell.
www.SellMyHouse.com Staff Writer
Tags: Bank Owned, Foreclosures, Home Prices, housing market, sell my house, short sale, stop foreclosure
Posted in JKR Investment Group | No Comments »
February 24th, 2010
How are these for statistics:
Last year Freddie lost almost $26 BILLION. Over the last 3 years that total is approaching $80 Billion. Almost 4% of loans on their books are at least 3 Months behind. Between Freddie and Fannie last year, they backed almost 70% of the new mortgages.
Freddie Mac warned there is “significant uncertainty as to whether or when we will emerge” from government control. “We now have unlimited taxpayer exposure to the bailout of Fannie and Freddie, a bailout nation where the big get bigger, the small get smaller and the taxpayer gets poorer,” Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said at a House hearing Wednesday.
Charles Haldeman, Freddie’s CEO warned today of a “potential large wave of foreclosures” still to come.
At www.sellmyhouse.com, the number of phone calls we get daily from people afraid of losing their house has gone up, not down. We worry that after this Spring season is over and the Tax Credit is gone, and the massive wave of foreclosures hit the market, and the job market keeps getting worse, and the…. and the…..we’ll have to pay the piper. And the payee this time is the Government. We’ve just put of the inevitable for a few more years and made everybody feel like all is well. Of course everybody does not include main street America. We’ve been paying the piper the entire time…guess where the Government gets their money!
Hold on..it’s not over yet! Our investor network is going to have a tremendous few years.
www.SellMyHouse.com Staff Writter
Tags: fannie mae, Freddie Mac, housing market, sell my house
Posted in Bank Owned, Foreclosure, Home Sales Stats, REO | No Comments »
February 24th, 2010
New home sales plummet 11.2 percent in January to annual rate of 309,000, lowest on record.
January’s weakness was evident in all regions except the Midwest, where sales posted a 2.1 percent increase. Sales were down 35 percent in the Northeast, 12 percent in the West and almost 10 percent in the South.
The drop in sales pushed the median sales price down to $203.500. That was down 5.6 percent from December’s median sales price of $215,600, and off 2.4 percent from year-ago prices.
New home sales for all of 2009 had fallen by almost 23 percent to 374,000, the worst year on record. The National Association of Home Builders is forecasting that sales will rise to more than 500,000 sales this year, an improvement from 2009 but still far below the boom years of 2003 through 2006 when builders clocked more than 1 million new home sales per year.
www.SellMyHouse.com
Posted in Home Sales Stats | No Comments »
February 24th, 2010
It has been reported that actual short sale closings in January have started to move higher as a percentage of transactions.
Short sales accounted for 15.9% of home purchase transactions.
Damaged real estate owned or REO (13.4%)
Move-in ready REO (13.8%) – and represented a big jump for short sales.
Are these banks are beginning to catch on?
www.SellMyHouse.com
Posted in Bank Owned, Foreclosure, REO, Short Sales | No Comments »