Something to Sing About...

I was looking at the March 19 post about new listings, and noticed this: two of the three have already gone under agreement. In fact, our office has sold or put under agreement 11 properties in the past 30 days, with more that I know of in the works.

Of course, part of this was due to the fact that the Homebuyers’ Tax Credit was due to expire on April 30. There were plenty of buyers out racing around trying to put a contract together under the wire.

But there are plenty of buyers out there who want to purchase without regard to the Tax Credit. A lot of economic indicators are pointing to a recovery (see post in Towne & Country blog here). I think the thing about these indicators that is impressive is that they are based on data as opposed to one person’s opinion.

Recovery, of course, will be slow. This has been a long recession, and there are fears about a huge wave of foreclosures hitting the market, depressing home prices further. Legislation has been proposed or passed that may delay or reduce the number of foreclosures on the horizon- check out this article about what is going on in Massachusetts. This is good news, I believe… foreclosures hurt everyone.

If you are considering selling? Go into the process with your eyes wide open. Look at the numbers yourself – not just comparable listed properties, which may or may not sell.  Attend open houses of comparable listed properties to see how yours compares. Consider hiring a home stager to walk through your house and tell you how it looks through “buyers’ eyes”. And realize that it may take longer than 30 days to put under agreement.

If you know of someone who can benefit from this article, feel free to email the link to him or her. Pass it along.

Homeowner's HOPE Hotline: 888-995-HOPE

If you are behind on your mortgage payments- or having great difficulty making them- it is important to take steps before your lender takes legal action.

If you have tried speaking with your lender and don’t feel that you are being heard, or if you don’t know who to speak with because your loan is not serviced locally, there are people who can help.

Making Home Affordable is a great government site that has tons of helpful information about home loan refinancing and modification. If you are having trouble making payments on your primary home, the amount of the first mortgage is less than $729,750, your home was mortgaged before 1/1/2009, and the mortgage payment is more than 31% of your total gross income, modification may be possible. This means you would have to prove that you were capable of consistently paying a lower payment.

From the site:

SERVICERS HAVE MADE A COMMITMENT TO DELAY FORECLOSURE SALES ON ALL LOANS THAT MEET THE MINIMUM ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR A HOME AFFORDABLE MODIFICATION WHILE AN APPLICATION IS UNDER CONSIDERATION.

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If you have already missed one or more mortgage payments – contact your mortgage servicer immediately or call 1-888-995-HOPE (4673) to reach a HUD-approved housing counselor.

A HUD-approved housing counselor can help you understand your options. This counseling is FREE.

This could be the lifeline that will keep you in your home.

The information on the site is also available in Spanish.

The site also points out things to be aware of when seeking help:

There is never a fee to get assistance or information about Making Home Affordable from your lender or a HUD-approved housing counselor.

Beware of any person or organization that asks you to pay a fee in exchange for housing counseling services or modification of a delinquent loan. Do not pay – walk away!

Beware of anyone who says they can “save” your home if you sign or transfer over the deed to your house. Do not sign over the deed to your property to any organization or individual unless you are working directly with your mortgage company to forgive your debt.

Never submit your mortgage payments to anyone other than your mortgage company without their approval.

Looking for Stones

I think that the story that follows is even more important today, especially since I am helping agents at Towne & Country, Realtors to find their way in New/Social media. Inevitably the question that all people wonder is, “So if we do all of this great stuff, when are we supposed to have time to sell real estate?”

I had originally published this in my other blog.  I gave myself permission to reprint it here. Thanks, Diane! You’re a peach!

A teacher stood in front of his class, and pulled a huge jar from under the counter. He began to fill it with large stones. When he had piled every stone into the jar, it was filled to the top.

He asked the class, “Is this jar full?” Of course, they answered yes.

The teacher then proceeded to add small stones that he had kept hidden under the counter. The class watched as a surprising amount of these filled the spaces between the larger stones. “How about now? Is my jar full yet?” he asked them.

He then brought out a bucket of sand, and slowly poured it into the jar, filling the spaces around the stones. When the sand had filled all of the gaps and threatened to spill over the edge, he asked, “What about now?”

Well, obviously nothing else could fit in that jar.

Then the teacher brought up a watering can and proceeded to empty most of the contents into the jar.

This story was told by my trainer at my old real estate agency. At this point, all of us agents were all thinking that this implied that whenever you complain that you are busy- you can always find more time, and indeed I have heard the parable told like that. Our coach went one step further, though.

He said, “You are probably thinking that what I am going to tell you is there is always more time. But what I am trying to tell you is everything wouldn’t have fit into the jar if the big stones hadn’t gone in first.”

Too true. Your business will fill up your days, whether you are contributing to your blog, selling real estate, or sorting paper clips. It is SO important to determine what is important- regardless of the business you are in- and place that into your schedule first.

Open houses- waste of time or key to selling a home?

I sat at an open house on Sunday from 2-4.  I met neighbors, a first time homebuyer couple represented by a buyer’s agent and someone in the real estate industry who stopped by.

Is this a productive use of time of my time? Essentially I opened the door for another agent’s client and answered their questions, and visited with people.

Here is what I think, and as usual I will take the slow horse getting there. A month ago I had to take continuing ed so that I could renew my license. Twelve hours is mandatory; I had already taken 6 CE hours in commercial, but decided to take the whole shebang at one sitting.

I had been hearing that Massachusetts was on the cusp of implementing online CE courses, and that sounded great to me. Sitting in my home, paying pretty good attention, sipping my coffee and multitasking through the mandatory 12 hours- yep, a match made in heaven. But that would have to be the next time around, so I signed up for 12 hours in a straight shot from Bill Morgan, the Hat Guy.

Because of that experience I swear I will never take a CE class online. The 12 hours went by- not in a snap, but pretty quickly. And Bill incorporated the 3 Es of good presentation (online or off, by the way): education, entertainment and engagement. I would expect education- after all, that was what everyone was there for. But he nailed the entertainment (thanks for the candy, Bill) and engagement parts too. He was funny, he involved individuals from the class, and he kept the attention of the class as a whole- no mean feat for a course lasting 12 hours that few people really wanted to be at.

So what does this have to do with open houses? A lot, believe it or not. Buyers can get a really good sense of some elements of a home from the Internet- where most of them are starting out anyway. They have an idea of what individual rooms look like. They do NOT have a sense of the neighborhood, a sense of the way one room flows to the next (and you don’t really get a complete sense of this with a virtual tour), or the overall gestalt (for lack of a better word) or “wholeness” of the place- how all of these characteristics fit together. And really, the sum of these parts is what makes a house a home.

You can’t get that online any more than I could have gotten the entire experience of my CE class online. The class was more than what was presented- it was the friends that I made on either side of me, the joking, the mistakes we made, and the teacher tying it all together.

That’s what an open house does. Was it a waste of my time? Even if no one had shown up, my time is never wasted. I could be sketching out a post, planning for my week, or any of a hundred things. But in this particular case I met an online business associate (and his two sweet daughters) face to face, I showed buyers through who left with a complete sense of the property, and met the neighbors who know of someone interested in the property.

So, the short answer is, “Yes, I think open houses are useful.” They take me out of the Internet world in which I find myself immersed and bring me face-to-face with people in general. I may not sell a home right then and there, but I will connect, and I will learn from these people what they think of their neighborhood and of the market.

And by learning and listening I will become better at what I do.

Diane is one of the remaining dinosaurs who enjoys Open Houses. What do you think, as a consumer or as an agent?

home sweet home- working to improve the industry

I am borrowing heavily in this post from my own post and from the Towne & Country blog (with permission).

Without a doubt, industries that do not try to change and improve are dead in the water. Looking at the way our industry is structured, I think the most change is going to occur locally, on the brokerage level.
Our brokerage is already different, and we have many ideas in the wings that are directly intended to raise the bar for real estate.
But we need you. We can talk about improving the industry, but we can’t do it without the input of you, the consumer. What was your last real estate experience like? What would you have made better? What did you like the best- that you would keep just the same if you did it over again?

- Towne & Country
Gerry, our broker/owner, has a slightly different slant here than most of the conversation on twitter suggests. Change WILL need to be initiated by the consumer. Change also has to come at the agent level. The individual agent needs to be aware of what the consumer wants- what is important to the consumer- and be the one to provide it.
We are no longer the gatekeepers of information. Consumers get upset if the information that they want about a property is withheld in hopes that they will call- and with the number of listings available in most markets they will just move on to the next one.
The NAR article that I quoted in my last post sums it up:

Sellers largely want agents to price their home competitively, find a buyer, market the property and sell within a specific timeframe. Reputation was the most important factor in choosing an agent, cited by 36 percent of respondents, followed by trustworthiness at 21 percent.

Home buyers thought the most important services agents offer are helping find the right house, and negotiating sales terms and price. The most commonly cited benefits of using an agent are helping buyers understand the process, pointing out unnoticed features or faults, negotiating better contract terms, and providing a better list of service providers. Comparable to sellers, buyers chose agents based on a referral or had used them in a previous transaction, with trustworthiness and reputation being the biggest factors in selecting an agent.

Agents- pay attention! The consumers have spoken! You provide expertise, NOT information. Let’s work on raising the bar together.