Another Lesson in Short Sales

By Stacey Moncrieff, Editor in Chief, REALTOR® Magazine

The more I learn about short sales, I told Scott Thompson yesterday, the more complex they seem. That’s pretty much par for the course, according to Scott, whose company, Mortgage Resolution Services of Sacramento, works on short sales every day.

Scott and I were having breakfast yesterday, preparing for our second short sales webinar. The first, in March, enjoyed an enormous response. Besides the thousands who joined the call, more than 14,000 people have either played back the session or downloaded it.

Yesterday’s session was a bit of a free-for-all. We fashioned it as a way to answer the questions we couldn’t get to in the first session. Some of the key points I took from Scott’s comments yesterday were:

• Second-home and investment short sales are possible. A lot of participants asked about this. Both second-home owners and investment property owners stand a chance of making a short sale work — as long as they’re upfront and honest about their situation. Scott talked about the importance of an effective hardship letter. It should include three elements:
  • “Dear Lender: I’m sorry about this situation I find myself in.”
  • “Here’s the modification or action I’m requesting.”
  • “I’ve exhausted all other possibilities.”

Read more

Are You a Broker-Owner Who’s Trimmed Office Space?

By Wendy Cole, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

Broker-Owners: Have you recently reduced your office space? For an upcoming article, REALTOR Magazine wants to speak to brokers who’ve cut back on excess work space to save money and improve efficiency. We also want to hear from sales associates for their reactions to brokers who’ve cut their space.

Please email me at wcole@realtors.org or call me at 312-329-8484 to discuss details of how and why you (or your broker) decided to trim office space and the pros and cons (if any) of taking that step. Many thanks.

My Twitter Challenge

By Katherine Tarbox, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

I recently interviewed Jack Dorsey, one of the co-founders and CEOs of Twitter, for an upcoming technology column in REALTOR® magazine. He is as engaging and as much of a visionary that many in the media have suggested he is.

While some argue that Twitter has reached its threshold, I think it’s just the beginning for this application. Read more

What’s the Shape of Our Recession?

By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

One of the interesting things about this economic downturn has been the debate among serious thinkers about what letter of the alphabet it would most resemble when mapped on a chart. For those of you who haven’t been keeping track, here are the four current challengers:

• The V-Shaped Recession: The best possible scenario right now, the “V” recession would be characterized by a short economic bottoming out, followed by a sharp upturn.
• The U-Shaped Recession: This would be tougher, but still manageable. The difference between “U” and “V” recoveries is that the former has a longer period of economic stagnation and a slower recovery.
• The W-Shaped Recession: In this scenario, businesses and consumers are tantalized with a budding resurgence, but the economy collapses again before it truly improves for the long term.
• The L-Shaped Recession: This would be the worst of all of these options. An “L” recession means that following a drop, the economy essentially would not grow significantly for a sustained period. Read more

Me, Myself, & Facebook.

Recently, a real estate agent I hardly knew asked me, “Don’t you think your Facebook page is unprofessional?” My reply was, “Don’t you think yours is a little too professional?”

Both of us are right, or wrong. It depends on how you look at it. Read more

Lender Logic Meltdown

By Wendy Cole, Senior Editor,  REALTOR® Magazine

Thought I would share this mind-boggling post from one of my REALTOR® friends on Facebook. Jennifer Bunker is the savvy broker-owner at Coldwater Creek Properties, an environmentally-conscious brokerage in Ogden, Utah: 

“Today Wells Fargo made a buyer prove that she has a fiancee before they would fund her loan (WTH?). So, she took a picture of her hand w/ the ring on it and emailed it as proof and … they took it! Seriously, what are bank people ingesting these days? Can it get any more bazaar?”

If this really happened, it shows that anxiety has overtaken reasonableness at a major lending institution. Since when is having a fiance a factor in qualifying for a mortgage?  And how could a photo be considered proof of anything? Anyone else come up against lending tales that defy logic, even in these cautious times?

Top Five Daily News Stories Last Week

By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

Events at this year’s NAR Midyear Legislative Meetings dominated the Daily News last week: Read more

The NAR “Value Proposition”

By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

It pays to be a REALTOR®. That was the message from NAR CEO Dale Stinton at the Board of Directors meeting Saturday at the 2009 Midyear Legislative Meetings in Washington D.C.

Addressing the board during the 2010 budget proposal presentation, Stinton said any REALTOR® who had maintained continuous membership between 1991-2010 would have paid $1,282 in total national dues.

“What have the last 20 years been like for you?” he asked the audience. “You’ve probably had your ups and downs, but you’ve probably had a good 20 years. What would you have paid for all the services you got [from NAR]?”

Stinton also explained how NAR stacked up against other national professional associations. Read more

A Monument to Fair Housing

By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

Many of today’s REALTORS® might not realize it, but 1968 was a tough year. Dr. Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated, the Tet Offensive was launched against U.S. forces in Vietnam, and the Soviet Union crushed the Prague Spring liberalization movement in Czechoslovakia.

Yet it was also a year of hope. One bright spot was the passage of the Fair Housing Act, which outlaws discrimination against home buyers on the basis of their background.

Now, more than four decades later, the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® will commemorate Fair Housing with a monument located in a park adjacent to its Washington D.C. offices at 500 New Jersey Ave., NW. Read more

NAR’s IDX Rule Changes Need More Study

By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

The NAR Board of Directors voted Saturday to send two recommendations regarding acceptable use of IDX data back to the Multiple Listing Policy Committee because the committee is currently reviewing all IDX policies with an eye toward updating them. The action came at the board meeting that concluded the national association’s 2009 NAR Midyear Legislation Meetings & Trade Expo in Washington, D.C.

IDX, or Internet Data Exchange, refers to a system and process that allows multiple listing service participants to display each others’ property listings on their web sites.

The recommended changes to the IDX rules were as follows (underlined sections indicate proposed additions, strikeouts indicate proposed deletions): Read more

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