Daily Archives: July 14, 2012

Dottie Herman’s Three Most Important Aspects to Buying a Home! | Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate

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Dottie Herman’s Three Most Important Aspects to Buying a Home!

Megan Gates

 

Are you thinking about purchasing a home? It’s a big undertaking if you are not fully prepared. Here are three of the most important tips you can keep in mind before buying a home, brought to you by real estate expert Dottie Herman, the CEO and President of Prudential Douglas Elliman.

 

Research, Research, Research

 

You can never do enough research. “Become an educated buyer,” Herman says. Once you have all the details on your home and all that goes into buying a home, they you be an educated buyer. You will know what a home is really worth and whether a company or homeowner is trying to sell you the home for too much. Research the homes in the area where you want to buy your dream home and compare the specs in those homes to the one you hope to buy. “Price is what the home should be worth today,” Herman says. “But sometimes people don’t price it right, so what you really want to look at is fair market value.”

 

Hire a Broker

 

There’s a reason they are called real estate experts. Hiring a broker is one of the best things you can do to help ensure you not only get the dream home you want but that you get it at the price you want. A broker can do a lot more for you than you can do on your own — even with extensive research. It is the broker’s job to get you exactly what you want, and he or she negotiates deals every single day. Stick with the experts, while also becoming as expert in the field as possible.

 

Look at the Home

 

At some point you have to stop scanning the online photo galleries of local real estate agents. Get out into the neighborhood and view the home and its surroundings. Take note of how well maintained the neighborhood really is, as this will affect the price you may be willing to pay. Go inside the home. Decide whether you like the bones. Is it a home that you could renovate and make it into you dream home because it is in a great location? “You can always find a home, but you can’t replace the view,” Herman says. By “eyeballing the properties” on your own, as Herman recommends, you’ll come away with a feeling for price you are willing to pay.

 

This combined with the expert research that your broker can offer you and the details that you have dug up about the property, neighborhood, location, and schools will help to further solidify what you think is a fair asking price for the house. Keep in mind that appraising always is an estimate, however. “There is no exact science to pricing,” Herman says. That’s why it is so important for you to be intimately involved in the details and the fact-gathering. Don’t overpay for a home because you haven’t done the research, but keep in mind that a fair price for your dream home is always the price you are willing to pay.

 

Megan Gates is an active blogger who provides written work pertaining to home improvement, the latest architecture, design and fashion.  She also writes on behalf of Elliman Real Estate.  Follow her on twitter @MEGatesDesign.

 

Mount Kisco Real Estate | Create Emotional Marketing That Works by Getting Sellers On Camera

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Only the seller truly knows what it feels like to live in your listing.

Can you get them to tell their story on video?

Kendyl Young did.

In the video below, Kendyl introduces herself, then the home and then the owner.

And then she gets out of the way.

What happens next is pretty special.

Most listing videos focus on features and amenities.

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Here the focus is squarely on the memories the home and surrounding area created for the owner and her family.

Take a look.

I reached out to Kendyly with two simple questions:

Did the home sell? If so, can you attribute it to the video?

“Oh yeah. 26 offers. Many attendees at the open house mentioned the video. Some said, “Wow, that video of your is going viral- must be a smoking hot deal.”

I am sure that the video created more buzz and traffic at the open house (300 attendees in one day over 4 hours). In turn, it raised excitement on the house. We are in escrow for a huge amount over asking price with a matching offer as a back up. And this was a short sale.”

Boom.

This wasn’t Kendyl’s first video. She has an extensive library worth checking out on her site.

Kendyl Young Videos

The video wasn’t professionally done.

The camera was even shaky at times.

It didn’t matter.

It captured emotion.

Do that.

via next.inman.com

Donovan: Expanding refinancing programs will be ‘a real fight’ | Cross River NY Real Estate

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The Obama administration continued pressure on Congress Thursday to pass three bills that would help more creditworthy underwater borrowers refinance.

“It’s going to be a real fight to get this done,” said Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan during a Google “hangout” with borrowers. “This is something that ought to go beyond politics. In the past we had Democrats and Republicans support things like this.”

More than 11.4 million borrowers owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth, according to CoreLogic ($20.50 0.46%). Although that number declined from the end of last year, home prices remain unsteady. Many waiting for the market to naturally return equity to their home face years of negative equity.

Donovan pitched three bills the administration is focusing on.

The first from Sens. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., would expand the Home Affordable Refinance Program once again. Some Senate Republicans may be on board. The Federal Housing Finance Agency removed some hurdles to the program last year including the cap on loan-to-value ratios, some appraisal requirements and repurchase risk on the old loan.

The result was a sharp increase in HARP refinancing beginning in March, but some borrowers are still left out, particularly those whose servicers do not participate in the program because of the remaining buyback risk.

The Menendez-Boxer bill would strip out all repurchase risk for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans refinanced through the program and it would waive appraisal requirements for the remaining loans that still require it.

It also extends the HARP cut-off deadline to borrowers whose mortgage was originated before June 2010. As of now, only borrowers with loans taken out before June 2009 can qualify.

A second bill from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced in May, would allow refinancing for underwater borrowers holding mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration. It creates a $6 billion fund to insure the new loans.

Donovan mentioned a third bill from Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., would allow borrowers to refinance under HARP and rebuild equity in their home a bit faster.

If it is passed, a borrower could refinance into a 20-year loan term or shorter, and Fannie or Freddie would cover the closing costs. Keeping the monthly payment the same, a borrower would then be able to rebuild equity faster.

Donovan said this option is still available to borrowers under the expanded HARP, but under the bill, the closing costs are covered.

Jaret Seiberg, a policy analyst at Guggenheim Partners, said these bills stand little chance of making it to Obama’s desk this year. Odds are highest for getting the Menendez-Boxer bill passed but much lower for the others. The Feinstein bill especially would be difficult given the still fragile state of the FHA emergency insurance fund.

“We see that as a poison pill designed to sink the entire package,” Seiberg said.

Donovan said the administration will continue to push the bills through in order to give some relief to struggling borrowers.

“Everyone here is still paying their mortgage,” Donovan said of the homeowners asking him questions over Google. “They’re meeting their responsibility. The president believes that we should give every one of them the ability to refinance into a lower-rate mortgage.”

via housingwire.com

North Salem Real Estate | [FACEBOOK] Calendar Changes

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If we are friends on Facebook you can typically count on my writing on your wall at least once per year. Just about everyone will get a happy birthday greeting of some sort. Over the last several years that has not been the easiest of tasks. As recently as this morning the above screenshot did not look like what you see.

I knew I had a couple birthdays that I needed to send tonight so I went in and what do you know? Facebook changed the Events tab on me. This change, I already love.

Some of the key changes are:

Ability to change to calendar mode from list mode. The screenshot above is the list mode. You can see that on the list I had already written on certain people’s walls and others I still needed to wish birthday blessings to. I absolutely love that. You can also click on certain dates that are highlighted and it will change to other events.

You can click a particular date and now easily go to the next date. This is the picture, just below.

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You can respond to events, see all birthdays for the date and click the next day to do it all again without leaving the events page.

The new events calendar has just started rolling out – if you don’t have it yet it’s coming your way soon!

July was a big month – both Laurie and my Mom celebrate birthdays. And just in case you don’t have this key event on your calendar, circle August 1-3 and register for Real Estate Connect, San Francisco. The Geeky Girls will be there and we’d love to meet you.

via next.inman.com

NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers: Characteristics of Home Buyers | South Salem Real Estate

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  • Thirty-seven percent of recent home buyers were first-time buyers, a drop from 50 percent in 2010.
  • The typical buyer was 45-years-old, a jump from 39-years-old in 2010.
  • The 2010 median household income of buyers was $80,900. The median income was $62,400 among first-time buyers and $96,600 among repeat buyers.
  • Sixty-four percent of recent home buyers were married couples—the highest share since 2001. Eighteen percent of recent home buyers were single females—the lowest share since 2004.
  • For 27 percent of recent home buyers, the primary reason for the recent home purchase was a desire to own a home.
  • For more information from the annual Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, click here >

via economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org

Banking And The Social Media Revolution | Waccabuc NY Real Estate

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Social media are on your laptop, your smart phone and your tablet, they’re at home, at work and on the road, they’re used by private individuals, major corporations and ambitious start-ups. In short: They’re everywhere. One vertical, meanwhile, which has remained somewhat hesitant to embrace the social media revolution is banking. Not only were banks slow to start posting on Facebook, tweeting on twitter and setting up circles on google plus. They were also sceptical about offering products and services directly connected to the social media market. As this is now slowly starting to change, it is about time to have a look at what this means for banking in general and you in particular.

Banks are waking up to social media

One thing’s for sure: Banks are quickly trying to catch up with the rest of the world and regaining lost ground with regards to social media. Today, all but a few banks have accounts at all major social media platforms and are developing related products and applications. Making the transition hasn’t been easy, as some of them are finding it hard to develop the kind of direct and personal interaction that the entertainment industry excels in – while others are facing tough opposition by critics. Deutsche Bank, for example, is under constant attack on Facebook for its alleged involvement in rainforest logging.

But as banks are gaining experience in the field, they are slowly but surely learning to deal with these attacks and developping strategies to put social media to their advantage.

Social media banking: Start-up problems

ID 10025042 300x199 Banking And The Social Media RevolutionThat said, there are still plenty of reasons to be sceptical about social media banking. First of all, the terms is already highly problematic in itself:

Social media is all about publicity, while banking is all about privacy. Social media is about collectivity, while banking is restricted to individuals. Social media is about a lean-back approach to communication, while banking is and should be formal and serious.

Needless to say, too, the concept of social media is to remain logged in all the time and everywhere, while your banking activity should ideally remain restricted to a safe location, where you can be sure that no one is secretly spying on you. By conflating these fundamentally contrary tendencies, social media banking is creating various problems and contradictions, which still need to be sorted out.

But social media can be useful, too!

ID 10085528 300x287 Banking And The Social Media Revolution

As much as there are still problems, social media banking also holds some great promises and potentials. For one, if banks are truly starting to use social media as platforms for one to one customer communication, then this may make them more customer-oriented in the long run and banking more human. Also, social media banking apps are not wrong per se. Since social media have created environments which are strikingly more easy to use than the average online banking interface, they may make the process of setting up standing orders, transferring money or simply checking your account status more convenient and intuitive.

One should also not forget that a site like Twitter has made it a lot easier to find banking information from all around the world and therefore improve customer expertise on fundamental banking topics. This way, consumers can engage in a much deeper and equal dialogue with banks.

How to take the first social media banking steps

With all of the above in mind, how can you take the first steps into the world of social media banking? One thing you should definitely do is take advantage of Twitter’s news facilities by creating an account specifically for banking and start following banks and financial news providers to stay in touch with the latest developments. Avoid jumping on Facebook apps for social media banking until they have proven their efficiency and security. Instead, get yourself a guaranteed account for online banking, which will allow you to take care of your finances quickly, safely, 24/7 and from wherever you are.

As social media banking is becoming more popular, new and exciting services are sure to follow. The exact effects are impossible to predict, but one thing’s for sure: Banking will never be the same again and that need not be a bad thing.

via dreamgrow.com

Unemployment Insurance Claims | Katonah NY Real Estate

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In each Economic Update, the Research staff analyzes recently released economic indicators and addresses what these indicators mean for REALTORS® and their clients. Today’s update discusses unemployment insurance claims.

  • Today’s data on initial claims for unemployment insurance and call back service brings some hope to the employment picture, following last week’s disappointing employment numbers.
  • Initial claims for unemployment insurance for the week ending July 7 fell by 26 thousand from the previous week, with 350 thousand claims filed. The 4-week moving average, which is less volatile, shows a decline in initial claims. Still, the gains are very modest, with jobless claims still at levels higher than in the beginning of the year.

  • As of the week of July 7, the insured unemployed (those with continuing claims) is at 3.3 million. The number of insured unemployed has been declining, which indicates that these unemployed get rehired.  Still, the economy has to generate more jobs at a pace fast enough to get the unemployed rehired as well as absorb new labor market entrants, which average about 150 thousand a month (based on June 2011-June 2012 civilian labor force data). Notwithstanding, we expect at least 1 million net jobs in 2012 which represent a potential base of homebuyers.

via economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org

NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers: Home Sellers and Their Experience | Bedford Hills Real Estate

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  • About half of home sellers traded up to a larger sized and higher priced home and 60 percent purchased anewer home.
  • The typical seller lived in their home for nine years. The median tenure has increased in recent years. In 2007,the typical tenure in a home was only six years.
  • Eighty-seven percent of sellers were assisted by a real estate agent when selling their home.
  • Recent sellers typically sold their homes for 95 percentof the listing price, and 61 percent reported they reducedthe asking price at least once.
  • Forty-one percent of sellers offered incentives to attract buyers, most often assistance with home warrantypolicies and closing costs.

click for larger image

via economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org

HARP still Hamstrung says NAR | Bedford NY Real Estate

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The administration introduced HARP 2.0 in the fall, which among other things eliminated the loan-to-value limits on certain loans refinanced by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Those changes were put in place in March and appear to have made an impact, though that impact is muted.  A robust HARP could reduce the cost of homeownership for roughly 3 to 4 million borrowers, thereby prevent some foreclosures in areas experiencing a fledgling together a recovery, boost confidence in the housing market and help to modestly stimulate the economy.

Below is a chart that shows the share of outstanding loan balances that prepay (CPR) on Fannie Mae mortgage pools issued in 2008 at various coupon rates.  Each coupon represents a group of borrowers and roughly corresponds to rate on their mortgages (minus servicing costs and fees).  The average mortgage rate on the 30-year fixed rate mortgage is graphed in red.

In the chart below, it is apparent that the prepayment rate on most coupons began to rise in mid-2011 as mortgage rates fell.  However, the higher coupons were slower to respond and the 7.0% coupon was nearly flat until March of 2012 despite rates that had slid from roughly 4.6% to nearly 3.9%.  This pattern is counterintuitive and breaks from historic norm as higher coupons have more to gain by refinancing.  For example, the monthly savings for a person refinancing from 7% to 4% is proportionally greater than a borrower who refinances from 5% to 4%.

Market analysts as well as staff at the regulators and the agencies noted this pattern and have been working to identify factors that keep high rate borrowers from refinancing.  Some of the “frictions” that have been identified include:

  • 2nd lien holders not re-subordinating their loans; that is, the holders of 2nd loans being either unwilling or unable to agree to allow the 1st lien to keep its favored status after the refinance, something that is normally lost if the 1st lien is modified.
  • Mortgage insurance companies who won’t port MI contracts to the refinanced loan
  • Requiring new representation and warrants for any new servicer, but not the original servicer.
  • Loan level pricing adjustments, which can add 0.75% to the upfront cost of a loan for HARP loans up to $1,500, and
  • Appraisal fees

There is mixed opinion about which of these factors is most constraining for HAMP eligible borrowers.  The majority of mortgage insurers now allow the transfer of policies on HARP refinances, while the largest banks, who hold nearly 70% of 2nd liens, allow for re-subordination.  That leaves a large portion of the universe of 2nd liens, though, and there are reports of companies that buy up the 2nd lien debt for well below value and act as a debt collector.  Loan level pricing adjustments can be financed, but would add roughly 19 basis points to the annual rate and a $400 to $500 appraisal could be enough to hinder a cash-strapped borrower.  However, for a borrower refinancing from 7% to 4%, the additional 19 basis points may not explain the reluctance to refinance unless financing to the fee is not an option.  Most analysts agree that the servicing issue may carry weight, though.  The constraint on new servicers reduces competition and allows same-servicers to charge higher rates, which some analysts have quantified as greater than half a percentage point for some borrowers.

With the implementation of HARP 2.0 in March, one can see from the chart above that prepayments on the highest coupon (7.0) jumped from 23.3% to 30.7% between April and May of this year, suggesting that the elimination of LTV limits had an impact.  The spread between all coupons and the 5.0 coupon eased over this period.  However, the counter intuitive ranking of prepayment speeds relative to coupons is persistent, though smaller, which suggests that frictions remain that limit refinancing of HARP eligible loans with higher coupons.  Furthermore, between May and June, the rate of prepayment growth eased, plateaued, or declined for all coupons, suggesting that the benefit of HARP 2.0 may have peaked or is close to it.

The benefits of a robust HARP program are many-fold for the housing market, particularly those local markets that experienced the sharpest price decline and where many homeowners remain underwater.  While HARP 2.0 appears to have had an effect, there are several measures that may provide further help by restoring competition and confidence to the market place.

via google.com

Pound Ridge Homes | The House That Google Built

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Back in 2005 Google purchased Android Inc. and later came out with the Android distribution in 2007. Android was produced as an open-source operating system (OS) for mobile devices, which means that anyone can take the OS and build/rebuild it as long as they give the code back to the community.

Why is this important? Because of what Amazon later did.

Amazon knew that Google was onto something big, and as the numbers of Android adopters started to overtake Apple’s iOS, Amazon knew it had to act. Google had a growing marketplace of apps but at the time lacked a good marketplace for media (books, music, movies, etc). And this gave Amazon the “IN” that it needed.

So what did Amazon do? It completely re-engineered Android, essentially stripping out everything even noticeably Android, and created the Kindle Fire, a 7-inch media consumption device that was priced perfectly for mass adoption with app and media purchases going directly to Amazon.

Kindle Fire image courtesy of Wonderlane

This, of course, conflicted with Google’s ideal situation in that everything should be purchased through its “Play” stores.

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So how do you compete?

Simply come out with your own tablet.

The Nexus 7 is Google’s answer to the Kindle Fire. Recently announced at the Google I/O conference, the Nexus 7 is ready to take the midsize market by storm. Google is competitively pricing these at $199 for an 8 GB version and $249 for a 16 GB version. Because this will be a media consumption monster, we would caution anyone going for the 8 GB (some games and movies could eat gigabyte alone). The HD sizes are just OK, but the rest of the device really drops some jaws with how much Google gives you for the price.

It comes with a Tegra 3 quad-core processor, 1 GB of RAM, a 4325mAH battery (approximately eight hours of active use), and even a front-facing camera. So it has plenty power to get you through any media you throw at it. Along with that you also have common features such as Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, micro-USB, microphone, NFC (Android Beam), accelerometer, GPS, magnetometer and a gyroscope. All this coupled with the fact that the hardware is built by ASUS, which has shown amazing ability at producing sexy and sleek devices with stunning build quality, ensuring that it will be a head turner.

Nexus image courtesy of blogeee.net

But the best part isn’t just the hardware, but the software as well. Being that it carries the “Nexus” title means that it comes with Google’s gold-stamped unsoiled version of Android. Android has had some bad press for “fragmentation,” which we have to solely blame the hardware manufactures and carriers for, as they all feel the need to change the Android OS to fit their own purposes. Not so with Nexus devices, which receive Google’s OS updates almost immediately after announced. This will apply to Nexus 7, as it will be coming out with Google’s newest OS version, “Jelly Bean.”

Jelly Bean is only a minor step upgrade (going from 4.0 to 4.1), but don’t let that fool you; there are some hefty improvements taking place. Most exciting of which is the “Project Butter” in which Google revamped the OS with considerable speed increases. With Jelly Bean’s Project Butter, the Tegra 3 processor and Google’s own optimization for the hardware, the demos have shown this to be one of the smoothest devices ever.

Amazon definitely found a sweet spot in the market with 7-inch tablets, being that full-size tablets are hard to carry everywhere and phones are too small to read comfortably for long periods. Now Google has definitely taken that and raised the competitive bar with this move. It will be interesting to see what the competition will do to catch up.

Amazon has already stated that it is working on a follow-up Kindle Fire 2. There is even a substantial amount of rumors flying around that Apple wants to get into the 7-inch tablet game as well. With all these heavy hitters in the arena (even Microsoft finally climbing back into the ring with its “Surface”), we have a lot of exciting competition ahead, which means better products and prices for us the consumers.

The Nexus 7 is currently taking preorders and is stated to release soon (most expect the end of July).

There is one thing that we know for sure with all of this: This coming Christmas everyone should make sure they have 7-inch stockings hung.

via next.inman.com