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Government to Grease Short Sale Wheels
The newest government initiative designed to ease the home price and mortgage crisis is outlined in a New York Times article titled "Program Will Pay Homeowners Sell at a Loss." The government wants to help in bringing short sales to closing by paying the primary lender $1000, $1000 to a second loan, and $1500 to the homeowner. The example used is a home with a $150,000 loan balance, a short sale offer of $48,000, and the lender holding out for $90,000. I find it difficult to see how this is going to help in any way. The only possible real influence might be the $1000 for a second loan, as there is little chance of any other money getting to that lender anyway in a foreclosure. But, with a bank wanting $42k more than the offer, it's hard to see how $1000 will be effective. And, the homeowner is already very much wanting the short sale to happen, and has almost no control over the process or the lenders. So, that $1500 is just a bonus for getting what they were very much wanting anyway. It seems like way too little grease for a very stubborn and squeaky wheel. More about the short sale process here. Government to Grease Short Sale Wheels originally appeared on About.com Real Estate Business on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 08:23:36.Permalink | Comment | Email this

Attracting the Single Female - To Your Real Estate Site!
An article at the Chicago Tribune website has a lot of really great information centered around the growing percentage of single female home buyers. According to the article, women alone account for 29% of current home sales in Chicago. Does your website have content that would attract this valuable audience? Do you know if it's working? Make sure that you have some ability in analytics to determine the gender of your audience. I've written about Quantcast to really nail down the demographic characteristics of your site visitors. Using Facebook ads, you can do even better, by placing ads that are written specifically for the single woman, and really track the results, including starting a conversation on Facebook. Attracting the Single Female - To Your Real Estate Site! originally appeared on About.com Real Estate Business on Sunday, February 28th, 2010 at 11:02:20.Permalink | Comment | Email this

Don't List Homes In Flood Zones or High Smog Areas
I'm kidding! But, it's a little scary that the writer of a post about high voltage wires near homes doesn't seem to be kidding. He basically criticizes any agent that would take a listing if the home was too close to high voltage power lines. So, if we consider a home to be located in an unhealthy environment, we should refuse to help the owner sell it, have them move out and let it be bull-dozed. Wow. And here I've been worrying about ethical violations in lending and contracts. Don't List Homes In Flood Zones or High Smog Areas originally appeared on About.com Real Estate Business on Saturday, February 27th, 2010 at 21:36:49.Permalink | Comment | Email this

Twitter for Real Estate - 11 Article Tutorial
I love Twitter, but it took some time to fully understand how to use it in my real estate marketing plan. It also took a great deal of research to learn to use the right tools to weed out the noise and get to what I really wanted for information, as well as to post multiple Twitter accounts quickly and easily. The 11 articles about using Twitter at this link will take the novice through to expert very quickly. And, there's nothing to buy either! More on This Site About Social & Business Networks Follow me on Twitter for real estate business articles. Let's talk! Check out our Forums and get involved in discussions to help our industry and your business. Twitter for Real Estate - 11 Article Tutorial originally appeared on About.com Real Estate Business on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 09:25:50.Permalink | Comment | Email this

FHFA Home Price Index Released
The FHFA, Federal Housing Finance Agency, Home Price Index has been released. All but one of their major areas was down from November to December, and the last quarter of 2009 was down as well. There's a lot of data and some helpful charts and graphs in the report below. Comparing to a year ago can give you a bit more perspective on what's happening. Also, this index tracks a great many smaller areas and towns individually, so you can probably see how your area is doing. FHFA Home Price Index Released originally appeared on About.com Real Estate Business on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 10:59:17.Permalink | Comment | Email this

When Is a Buzz a Noise Reducer?
Maybe when it's Google Buzz. I liked this post from Chris Penn about Google Buzz. I am using Buzz, and think it's going to be useful, but I'm not yet sure. However, some quotes from the post are related to what I've been writing about all of the noise on Twitter. "We discovered that frankly, we didn't want the firehose of social media in our inboxes." "We realized quickly, if we didn't already know, that most of our "friends" are in fact valueless robots spewing garbage at us all day." "On services like Twitter and Facebook, we don't really notice because it's bite size garbage that passed by quickly." Perhaps stronger words than I would have chosen, but the fact is that following hundreds in Twitter creates an endless stream of things that we never see, or ignore intentionally. Perhaps Google Buzz will bring about a very ordered and valuable inbox, but for now, there's still too much on Twitter that I want and can't get on Buzz. When Is a Buzz a Noise Reducer? originally appeared on About.com Real Estate Business on Sunday, February 21st, 2010 at 17:09:50.Permalink | Comment | Email this

Multifamily Investors Take Note - New Rules Proposed by FHFA
It's obviously still a major government focus to spur the housing market, but there's also interest in helping low income renters as well. Providing housing is the goal, so the FHFA is proposing new rules for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the purchase of multifamily mortgages. The full text of the news release is below, but the gist of the proposal is to set specific goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in purchasing loans in three specific areas of multifamily properties of 5 to 50 units: housing for low income families housing for very low income families housing for low income/high minority/disaster areas This initiative is interesting from an opportunity standpoint, as there are more apartment & multifamily foreclosures showing up in many markets. Investors may find that a bargain can be had, and financing wheels greased by these new proposed rules. Multifamily Investors Take Note - New Rules Proposed by FHFA originally appeared on About.com Real Estate Business on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 10:34:06.Permalink | Comment | Email this

Apartment & Multifamily Investing Basics
While a great many real estate investors are enjoying the benefits of single family rental property ownership, there are excellent reasons to look at concentrating their investments in apartment & multifamily properties. I've just posted a tutorial on apartment & multifamily investing, cash flow components and the way in which lenders address mortgage decisions in apartment & multifamily financing. Check out the apartment & multifamily investing tutorial here. More on This Site About Basic Investing & Landlording Follow me on Twitter for real estate business articles. Let's talk! Check out our Forums and get involved in discussions to help our industry and your business. Apartment & Multifamily Investing Basics originally appeared on About.com Real Estate Business on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 09:42:43.Permalink | Comment | Email this

Broadcast, Listen and Engage With Twitter
Chris Brogan's post about using Twitter Search has some basic but very important statements of the value of Twitter searches. It's all about setting up searches on all sorts of key phrases, your company, your name, and more in order to track what's being said in the Twitterverse about topics you should be following. He mentions Hootsuite, which I love and use for my multiple topic-focused Twitter accounts, and it allows the setup of searches with their own columns that are updated all day for me. The article is all about using Twitter search for business, and the greatest value to me, cutting out the noise. The problem with following hundreds of people who Tweet something of interest to me now and then, or even frequently, is that their other Tweets are flowing in as well. And, the ratio of noise to what I find of interest is usually pretty high. I'm not saying they're useless Tweets, just off my topic of interest. It's just too much noise in relation to the value received. So, I use searches. By using key phrases of interest to me, I will still get the gems of wisdom from those I could have followed, but I won't get their other Tweets that are off my topic. I use multiple Twitter accounts to broadcast by topic or use, such as one account just to send out new listings every Friday. Another is for price changes. Another gets all of my real estate WordPress site posts. My goal is to tailor accounts and their Tweets to specific needs of future real estate clients. Then I use my searches to monitor the Twitterverse on a wide range of topics, and engage in those discussions or reply/retweet when appropriate. It's efficient, and amazing how much information I can keep up with spending minutes a day in Hootsuite. Broadcast, Listen and Engage With Twitter originally appeared on About.com Real Estate Business on Friday, February 12th, 2010 at 09:03:32.Permalink | Comment | Email this

Clearing Out Twitter Spammers With Search
I've written here before about Hootsuite, and how I use it to post to multiple Twitter accounts, as well as to create custom searches viewable in their own columns. I can also embed those searches in my website, which is how I announce price changes. But, I love it even more today, as I used it to get rid of one of the worst spammers I've encountered. You know who you are, with multiple accounts all tweeting the same annoying thing over and over, such that I have at least a dozen or more of them every day in my search about real estate blogging. You're an excellent example of the worst of Twitter. The key here is to use a minus sign, as in -"Realty Blogging Profits" in the search. Poof! You're gone. And good riddance. Clearing Out Twitter Spammers With Search originally appeared on About.com Real Estate Business on Thursday, February 11th, 2010 at 08:30:12.Permalink | Comment | Email this