Puyallup, WA

I found this article to be very interesting and thought I would throw it out tehre and see what some of your thoughts are:

Last Wednesday, February 1, President Obama announced the details of a plan to help homeowners refinance their mortgages in hopes of bolstering the housing market.

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, this proposal will allow buyers to save an average of $3,000 a year by refinancing into loans backed by the FHA, if they are current on their mortgage. The plan is estimated to cost between $5 billion and $10 billion, which Obama plans to cover by pressing a fee on large banks.

“I want to commend the administration for recognizing that more can be done to get our housing market on track. The programs announced today will give lenders and other stakeholders additional tools to help borrowers and foster a renewed confidence in our real estate finance system,” said David H. Stevens, President and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, in a statement issues on February 1. Stevens went on to note that the MBA believes a single national set of standards can help provide confidence and certainty in the real estate market for borrowers, lenders and servicers alike.

Bob Nielsen, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, issued a similar statement.“Clearly, more decisive actions are needed to increase refinancing opportunities, to reduce the inventory of foreclosed homes and to prevent additional homes from going into foreclosure,” stated Nielsen, who says that the NAHB looks forward to working with the Administration and Congress to find constructive solutions in these areas as soon as possible.

This refinancing plan is the most recent addition to Obama’s foreclosure prevention efforts, following the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP).

Reports have indicated that the plan faces long odds in Congress. House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) questioned why this program would work when others have failed.

“One more time? One more time? How many times have we done this?” he asked reporters. “I don’t know why anyone would think that this next idea is going to work.” He added that the previous programs have led to a delay in “the clearing of the market,” or letting housing prices hit bottom by allowing foreclosures to happen more rapidly.

Posted By susanne On February 6, 2012 @ 5:01 pm In Business Outlook,Consumer News and Advice,

In this new market, real estate professionals need to rethink some of their prior customer service techniques to accommodate new trends, and restructure their marketing policies.

Home prices will likely bump along the bottom before a sustained upward trend arises. The recovery we’re witnessing isn’t Permanente and lower prices won’t be around indefinitely. Eventually unparalleled buyer’s market will pass, investors are going to be taking full advantage of this years market.

It is estimated that nearly 20 percent of homebuyers own two or more homes—a percentage that, prior to the downturn, was typically around 11 or 12 percent. The downturn has prompted people to think more about building long-term wealth and stability, and they’re realizing real estate is still a resilient choice. More and more everyday people are taking steps to secure one or two rental properties or an investment home.

The conditions in the U.S. housing market are no secret around the world, and it has drawn heavy interest from investors. International buyers purchased more than $82 billion in U.S. real estate. The average price they paid was $315,000 compared to $215,000 paid by native buyers.

Within this year, international and domestic investors are expected to push forward with the recovery, so it’s important to take immediate action to accommodate this key set of buyers. This may mean getting more training, or further Certifications. By keeping your eye on the pulse of the country as a whole and the influence of various groups on the real estate industry specifically, you’ll find your way no matter how the trends shift. It is important to know your environment and this trend of investment buying will be one that dominates 2012. As a professional in my field I know for my team this includes re-evaluation of marketing and customer service strategies in order accommodate what is sure to be the bulk of our customers in the upcoming months.

Being connected 24/7 was supposed to make our lives easier, but it seems as though that’s not the case. Real-estate professionals, especially in this economy often feel that they didn’t get enough done in a day. Being connected in this industry often means responding to work e-mail on our smartphones right up until we go to bed. I recently found an article that addresses this issue and offers advice for all of us to be more productive during the day and help us establish that line between the end of the work day and beginning of our time off.

There’s a lot pressure to do more and more with less and you want what you do to really be effective.

It’s not about how hard you’re working, as we probably know there are a lot of very diligent people who aren’t as productive as they could be because of the way they manage their time.

Always be prepared for extra time. This is a great strategy for increasing productivity. Bring small chunks of work with you wherever you go. Then, while waiting for a meeting to start or for a delayed flight to depart, you’ll be able to reply to an e-mail or make a phone call. In other instances, you might have enough time to review materials for another meeting or project you are working on. If you’re prepared, you can also confirm appointments, draft responses, or map out a project outline.

Change how you manage e-mail. The moment you click on your inbox, your focus goes and your stress grows, as you proceed to delete, respond, forward, and file the messages you find there. You see names and subject lines and suddenly your mind starts racing; all you can think of are the latest projects and the high-priority work that shows up. If you’re not careful, all you’ll do all day is manage your e-mail.

Rather than simply flag e-mails that require action, use the subject lines to catalog and organize them. Also, don’t look at your e-mail unless you have a block of time to devote to prioritizing them and responding to them. When you are going through your e-mail, use subject lines to catalog them and organize them so that you’ll easily be able to go back to less urgent e-mails later on.

Identify the VERBS that need attention. Organize your to-do list by verbs in order to manage your productivity in terms of action, delegation, and progress. Actions such as call, draft, review, and invite are things that you can do, generally in one sitting, that have the potential to move the project forward one step at a time.

We all want to enjoy what we do every day, the problem lies when people are too overwhelmed to make the key changes that will help them. There is no reason to remain mired in frustration and struggling to catch up. With just a few key changes, you can work in a way that feels really good.

Freddie Mac recently released the results of a recent survey displaying mortgage rates falling to new all-time record lows for all products enclosed in the survey helping to keep homebuyer affordability high. The average for the 30-year fixed mortgage rate has been below 4.00 percent for six consecutive weeks.

The survey concluded that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.89 percent, with an average 0.7 point for the week ending January 12, 2012, down from last week when it averaged 3.91 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.71 percent.

The 15-year FRM this week averaged 3.16 percent with an average 0.8 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.23 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 4.08 percent.

Additionally, the 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 2.82 percent this week, with an average 0.7 point, down from last week when it averaged 2.86 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 3.72 percent.

Results showed that the 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.76 percent this week with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 2.80 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 3.23 percent.

Mortgage rates eased slightly this week to all-time record lows following mixed indicators in the labor market,” says Frank Nothaft, the vice president and chief economist of Freddie Mac. “Although the economy added 1.6 million jobs in 2011, which was the most since 2006, the unemployment rate remained historically elevated.

For more information, visit www.freddiemac.com

By susanne On January 15, 2012

The Federal Reserve just suggested demanding banks to make certain that debtors can repay their mortgages before they give them a loan. This may sound clear-cut and not uncommon, but there are a few specifics that I thought were of interest.

This rule is currently required by the Dodd-Frank Act, and it establishes minimum mortgage underwriting standards. Borrowers could essentially sue lenders if a suitable effort isn’t engaged to warrant they can repay the loan.

This allows lenders to make a qualified mortgage, a loan that meets standards that allow it to escape the liability associated with the provision.

The proposal is a reaction to a surge of falsified loans that lenders offered in the years leading up to the current economic crisis. Lenders in many of these cases asked borrowers to state their income without verifying whether they could afford the loan. This then had a key part in the wave of foreclosures, which then contributed to the crisis.

One specific qualified mortgage outlined in the proposal authorizes lenders special protection from borrower suits if the loan doesn’t have certain features such as negative amortization, which is where the loan balance increases because payments are made that fail to cover the interest due. The process of writing rules based on the Fed’s proposal is scheduled to transfer to Consumer Financial Protection.

The Dodd-Frank Act requires the creation of the bureau, which will write rules for mortgages and other consumer credit products.