Ed Silva CDPE, GRI, ABR, Real Estate Agent

It was long and a times trying but we got through the second day of the CDPE class with a better understanding and hopefully some expert counsel. CDPE stands for Certified Distressed Property Expert. The name is a little misleading because the class is truly focused on giving an agent the tools to help people avoid foreclosure.

After having had a misfortune with a short sale I have been reluctant to get back to them, but as the market is getting to be so saturated with short sale listings that seem to be just floating in the system, taking the course at lest offers a constructive mechanism of getting progress and keeping the transaction moving.

I got so committed after the first day, that my last bit of busines last night was to structure my next ads to reaching out to people in trouble. I have an ex agent that has ocnsented to be my mentor, and she has been very successful with short sales, so maybe she'll guide me and I may be able to give here some structure as well.

Time will tell, but if I can at least keep one family from getting foreclosed, then the time spent will be justified.

Last week I put out an SOS on a classon short sales entitled Certified Distressed Property Expert CDPE. I didn't get the answers I was looking for, but a twist with a couple of new listings over the weekend gave me the nudge I needed.

I have worked a couple of short sales, with a 50% success rate, which I don't feel was good enough. This is an area where the consistent expertise is the best service we can give a client, after all for them it's do or face financial collapse for a number of years. Going into the class I was hoping that I would learn to be more effective with the process and gain some insight on making the process more productive, and after the first day, I have high hopes and a renewed enthusiasm.

The CDPE class is well presented, well defined and offers the materials to get the job done. The instructor is literally taking us through the process step by step, and giving the class the information we want. I am somewhat of a novice in this field so I may be a little easier to impress, but with over 100 people in attendance, the feedback and interaction from people that have gone through short sales and are enthused by the presentation and materials being offered is inspiring.

The course is not a NAR recognized designation, but NAR is starting up a parallel designation so obviously there is a need to recognize the problem. As noted elsewhere, there are a rash of resets to ARM's coming due over the next 3 years. This obviously shows a trend for the need, and we should have all the knowledge we can get to make it work for us and for our clients.

I hope to be able to do a follow up to this post when the class is done, and maintain a continuing flow on the subject as a way of maybe assisting somebody else. At the end of the day, it's about a service to avoid foreclosures.

Feb 19, 2008, not a date that will live in infamy, just the date I got the invitation to join ActiveRain from a loan officer with whom I work, Don Polletta. He probably knew I had a natural curiosity in getting the Internet to work for my business, much the same way he does for himself. My entry was slow, not because of skepticism, but more so because I was busy at the time, and didn't consider it a priority. Three days later, Feb. 22, 2009, I posted my first blog, with minimum notice. Tried it again a few days later, little more success, and then virtually put it away for a month.

My real estate business was reasonably successful, and I always had adequate activity around me. But the slowdown in the business in early 2008 meant that I had to be more creative in marketing my business and myself. The Internet presented an affordable outlet but the mechanism to get exposure required some effort and a venture into areas that were alien to me. ActiveRain presented seemed to present just the right opportunity.

From time to time I would log in to read the blogs, and try to get the flavor of the system, and more of an idea of how to get more active into the network. Imaginative or creating writing is not something that comes easy to me, so trying to be as articulate as some of the more renown writers in the Rain was quite a challenge.

Eventually, as we must all do, I made the attempt to be more involved, sort of like the new kid in school trying to find the right fit in the cafeteria. It has taken me almost a year to dip my toes into the waters on this site, and I'm still not sure that I am in beyond my ankles, but I can say that the inspiration for going on came in early March of 2009 came from a phone call from a soon to be client on a property that was of interest to them. As I often do with first time callers, I asked how they came to find me, and they mentioned a post I had done on ActiveRain. My light may not be the quickest to turn on, but that call made it turn bright.

Since then I have made an effort to get involved in the Rain, and the many outstanding people that drop in on a regular basis. My blogging efforts are progressing, but I can honestly say that I can see a decided increase in traffic to my web site, from the ActiveRain posts.

The power of the Internet can do wonders for an individual or their business. The accumulation of people on the Rain creates an incredible presence on the net, proving that there is indeed strength in numbers. A quick name search of any somewhat regular blogger will provide the proof in that statement. Our names and business always come out at the top of the search engines, all with the strength of ActiveRain shown very prominently.

This alone would be more than enough to justify the time here. But what makes this site so valuable is the knowledge of the members and the camaraderie demonstrated on a regular basis. Whenever a question is asked, there are always helping hands ready to provide an answer.

The Rain provides a network of agents that will make referrals easier to make down the road. It takes only a few minutes to read somebody's blog to be able to understand their character, as evidenced by the comments made by fellow members. The ability to make associations is like having pen pals. We can log on and go straight to their posts, just to visit on a regular basis.

The membership of ActiveRain is like an extended family. The acknowledgements of milestones, birthdays, anniversaries, prayers for friends and relatives, etc is unlike any other group of people that you might find on the net, and they continue to grow. I know I had a life before ActiveRain, it just wasn't as rich.

With the depreciation in home values created by the current market, those seniors that have taken out reverse mortgages should take the time to get their properties evaluated for current value so as to not put themselves into a negative position. I have experienced a situation this past year where the amount loaned led to deficit positions for the families of seniors that have passed with this type of mortgage.

The problem exposed itself, when the value of the property, when presented back to the bank after the senior had passed, was worth less than the amount the bank had loaned to the owner. With assets held by probate, the bank was first in line to recover their money, and the heirs were left with an under valued property to sell. This was done with an additional loss.

A reverse mortgage is a special loan available to homeowners who are at least 62 years old. With the security created by the senior's home, reverse mortgages require no payments from the owner. Most owners receive monthly payments, or loans, from the lender. If they choose, they can receive a line of credit or a lump sum payment, or both. The owner continues to live in the home. Payments would continue until the owner moves from the residence or dies. At that point, the entire loaned amount, plus interest is paid to the lender.

As many seniors had their homes appraised at the height of the market, some may also have chosen to refinance at the same time to consolidate an existing mortgage into the reverse. The most popular reverse mortgage is the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage, insured by FHA. As retirement investments have plunged, and work opportunities grow scarce, reverse mortgages have become a valuable retirement tool for older Americans.

One downside to a reverse mortgage is it's cost. The costs to set up a reverse mortgage can be almost as much as the costs associated with selling a home. The largest single cost is for FHA mortgage insurance, with the next largest cost being the origination fee. As with a conventional mortgage, however, most of these costs can be rolled into the loan, but it will reduce the amount of equity available to the senior, and increases the repayable loan amount along with its added accrued interest. Another concern would be the potential affect the additional income would have on programs such as Medicaid.

If a senior is contemplating a reverse mortgage, they might do well to contact an independent HUD counselor to get help in understanding the process, risks, and fees. Information from HUD can be found here

An article I saw last week in our local newspaper indicates that we are going to see a big jump in foreclosures soon, and this wave could last a while. Here In Connecticut, foreclosure filings increased in the 3rd quarter, but are rate of increase is still below the national trend. That, however, could change in the next few months as a new wave of Variable-rate mortgages reset.

Third-quarter fillings increased by 10% in Connecticut, over the same period a year ago. Foreclosure filings in this state increased 69% in the third quarter compared with the second quarter.

In our state, approximately 1 in every 281 households received a filing during the three-month period. Connecticut, which had the eight highest foreclosure rate in the nation in January of 2008, is now ranked 25^th.

Nationally, foreclosure filings jumped to 937,840 during the quarter, a 23% increase from the third quarter of the previous year. Across the nation, one in every 136 households received a foreclosure notice during the third quarter.

Across the country, the states of Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan and Nevada accounted for 62% of the nation's foreclosure activity in the third quarter with 579054 filings. California led the way with 250,054 foreclosure filings, accounting for nearly 27% of the country's total.

Experts expect the numbers to get worse in the coming months because many of the variable-rate mortgages taken out in the past 5 years have yet to encounter their first interest-rate reset period, which in many cases occurs only after the first three to five years. The majority of the first wave of mortgage defaults were caused by variable-rate mortgages that reset after being fixed for two years, resulting in severe shock for a lot of borrowers. Now we will be seeing mortgage rates reset on the sub-prime loans that had fixed rates for a three to five year period.

Over the next few months, we are going to see the start of a new wave of variable rate mortgages resetting, in combination with an economy that has a lot of people either losing their jobs, losing their overtime, or getting their hours cut.

In our state, a good portion of the home buying that was done in 2009 was stimulated both by the availability of viable foreclosures, creating a rush for bargains, coupled with the$8,000 tax credit. Even if the tax credit were to be extended, it's unlikely that there would be enough qualified, or willing buyers to keep pace with the numbers of foreclosures or short sales that we will see in the coming months.