MANY large financial institutions are facing backlogs of mortgage applications as more homeowners take advantage of low interest rates and the government-sponsored Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP.

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Borrowers looking to accelerate the process are finding some relief from brokerages and community banks that are not servicing HARP loans.

“We’ve heard stories about 60-day to 90-day loan waiting periods in some cases,” said Michael Fratantoni, the vice president for research and economics of the Mortgage Bankers Association, adding that larger banks are “running at full capacity.”

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association weekly survey released Wednesday, nearly 80 percent of the mortgage applications were for refinancing; previous weeks’ surveys showed roughly a quarter of the transactions were HARP-related. HARP was created by the federal government to simplify the refinances of homeowners with mortgages owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who seek less onerous loan terms. The program was expanded last fall as HARP 2.0.

HARP borrowers typically refinance with the banks that originally serviced their loans, because those banks already have their information, Mr. Fratantoni said, and “there’s potential for it to be a less painful process.”

Still, tighter lending standards precipitated by the mortgage crisis have made for an arduous application process.

Andrew Latos, a real estate lawyer in Astoria, Queens, who has represented clients in transactions with big banks and who worked with a broker to service his own home loan, says he charges more for closings these days, because “a two-hour closing can quickly become a five- or six-hour closing.”

Mortgage brokers, for their part, are reporting an increase in business from those looking to streamline the entire process.

“We have direct contact with the banks, so we always know what’s going on with your file,” said Vanessa Thatcher, a senior loan officer with Atlantic Home Capital in Ronkonkoma, N.Y., explaining that a broker can keep track of the application as it “goes through so many hands” at a large financial institution. Ms. Thatcher charges a fee of 1 to 2 percent of the total loan amount.

Brokers can also act as financial consultants. “A good percentage of the people who call me to refinance, I tell them not to,” said Mark Yecies, the president of SunQuest Funding in Cranford, N.J. He recalled a borrower who recently came to see him after being told he was a prime candidate for a refinance. Mr. Yecies ran the numbers and found that a refinance didn’t make sense, because the majority of the borrower’s payment was principal.

Borrowers might also want to consider refinancing with a community bank. New York Community Bank, for example, does not service HARP-eligible borrowers and is able to respond faster to non-HARP refinance requests, said Stephen Trayte, a senior vice president and director of residential credit for the NYCB Mortgage Company, a subsidiary of New York Community Bank.

But even his bank has been experiencing delays because of higher volume. He recommended that borrowers lock in a rate.

“Normally, we do the whole transaction in less than 30 days,” said Mr. Trayte, estimating that the average time has reached 45 days. “There is about a 50 percent delay just because of the volume of activity, and that’s without having HARP transactions.”

To handle increased demand, big banks like Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase have been adding staff members and underwriting centers.

Wells Fargo recorded a 31 percent jump in HARP volume after implementing HARP 2.0, said Vickee J. Adams, a spokeswoman. She estimates that it takes 90 days to complete a refinance.

Borrowers will have a better chance of moving through the process in less time, she said, if they “follow the necessary steps to complete their applications and submit supporting documents in a timely fashion.”

Southern California has served as a remarkable barometer for nationwide real estate trends over the past decade. This fact is in large part due to the widespread publicity and concentrated marketing efforts that come from the region, which tend to not only set the stage for public opinion, but also tend to exaggerate the peaks and troughs. This lead to the Southern California real estate market seeing some of the most stunning gains throughout the inflationary period of the housing bubble, as well as some of the most painful losses following the bubble’s burst in 2007. However, the following 6 real estate market metrics are clear indicators that we have entered the light at the end of the tunnel.

1. No More Easy Money
The single biggest factor that contributed fuel to the fire that eventually burned the nation in 2008, was easy money loans to under-qualified borrowers. Countless 3-5 year adjustable rate home equity loans were taken out by borrowers seeking to live above their means between 2001-2006. Then when those loan rates began to balloon in 2006 and borrowers could no longer afford the payments, the foreclosure market swelled to a Tsunami. Since then, numerous precautionary measures have made their way into legislation and bank policy, ensuring that easy money loans will not be a part of the equation in the foreseeable future.

2. Housing Market Inventory At 4 year Low
As with any market, the laws of supply and demand are among the most fundamental factors effecting price. According to a CA Market Statistics and Real Estate Trends report on MontezumaProperties.com, the San Diego Real Estate market currently has only 1,742 homes on the market which is the lowest since 2008.

3. 67% Reduction in Distressed Properties On Market
It was the tsunami of distressed properties flooding the market in 2007 that was one of the biggest contributors to the steep decline in home value. Today, distressed homes make up only 5% of the properties on the market in San Diego compared to 15% two years ago.

4. Median Home Listing Price At 2 Year High
Currently the median home listing price in San Diego is $545,000 compared to $449,000 just two years ago according to the regional MLS. This rise in home value is telling potential home sellers that the waters are a bit warmer compared to the icy, foreclosure filled seas of the recent past. For buyers this means that now is the time to act while overall home prices remain a good value.

5. Pending Home Sales at 2 Year High
Numerous reports have recently surfaced that an estimated 41,790 new and resale houses and condos sold statewide last month. This represents the highest number of home sales in May since 2006.

6. Days On Market At 2 Year Low
In San Diego the median number of days on the market over the past month is 37, compared to a high of 73 over the past two years. One of San Diego’s most successful real estate agents, Carlos Gutierrez of Prudential California Realty helped one client sell one home for the exact listing price and purchase another home all within 17 days. Within two weeks Mr. Gutierrez also found buyers for a $2,700,000 Luxury Property in Del Mar. “Of course a lot of people have had a difficult time over the past few years” said Gutierrez, “but luckily my team and I have really fine tuned a winning formula and have proven throughout this that we can perform for both buyers and sellers in any market. Now that the market is showing clear signs of life and health, things are really moving. But the most important thing remains that I take the time to understand and work with each and every person who reaches out to me. I make sure that they understand the current market conditions and their place in it. That’s the foundation, and once we’re on the same page we can make things happen quickly and confidently. That is the key.”

There’s value in a business blog. Real value. It’s so much more than a tool for getting traffic from Google (although that is a huge plus).

But, have you ever asked yourself, “Why am I blogging anyway?”

I’m willing to bet that a good number of you have asked yourself this question. Especially when you were first starting out or really busy and wondering if it is worth the time and effort you’re putting into it.

So here’s a reminder as to why you should continue (or even start) to blog on a consistent and continual basis:

Remaining Educated

By default, when you research you also learn.  So, when you are searching for content ideas and gathering information for your next post, you are not only providing for your clients, but continually educating yourself about your market.

Expanding Your Knowledge Base

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Not only are you remaining educated, but you will undoubtedly further your knowledge base while you write new posts for your blog. While doing my research for this blog, I learned  as I read posts from others who had written about this same topic. I was able to garner ideas in addition to those that I already had – some of which I would have never considered if I didn’t write this blog. Put into perspective for the real estate industry: writing about the 4th of July events in your hometown, for example, will enable you to learn things to tell your clients about and…

Become A Trusted Source

It’s a simple equation:

Reliable + Valuable Content = Trusted Source

Trusted Source = New Clients

New Clients = New Sales

This may seem too elementary of a statement, but when it comes down to it, it’s a fact.  One of my trusted sources for information is Hubspot (an inbound marketing company).  They have this equation down to a tee – I glean consistent, continual, reliable and valuable content from them, I signed up for their e-newsletter, and invested in them by becoming a new paying client (Google invested $32 million in them last year – it seems they felt the same way).

Ask yourself, are you a trusted source for your audience?

Learn From Your Clients

Today I had a conversation with a client who was looking for a product that allowed him to know what potential buyers/sellers were thinking.  Yes, you heard me right! So of course I told him, when I find that out and have it patented, I’ll send him a postcard from my yacht in the Mediterranean and let him know.

But seriously, it would be great to know what your clients are thinking or want to know, wouldn’t it?  And you can – with your blog.

Make sure that you provide lots of opportunities for your visitors to leave a comment or submit a question to you, and always remind them to do so. There are many comment forms that can be used, including the default one that comes with your blog theme, comment forms that can be linked to your Facebook profile, Disqus, and more. Use them to your advantage. No crystal balls required.

Though the level of completed foreclosures remains high, it is down 27 percent from a peak of 1.1 million in 2010 according to the latest data from CoreLogic.  Inventories at the national level remain the same as a year ago.

There were more than 819,000 completed foreclosures over the past year, or an average of 2,440 completed foreclosures every day over the last 12 months. The national foreclosure inventory levels remained steady at around 1.4 million homes, or 3.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage. The national foreclosure inventory in May 2012 was virtually the same as the 1.5 million, or 3.5 percent, in May 2011 and 1.4 million, or 3.4 percent, in April 2012. The foreclosure inventory is the share of all mortgaged homes in some stage of the foreclosure process.

However, there have been dramatic shifts the state level inventories. Nevada, Arizona and Michigan each experienced at least a 20-percent decline in the foreclosure inventory from a year ago. While foreclosure inventories in most states are declining, the foreclosure inventory is still rising in many judicial states, such as Hawaii, New York and Connecticut.

The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in May 2012 were: California (133,000), Florida (92,000), Michigan (60,000), Texas (58,000) and Georgia (57,000). These five states account for 48.8 percent of all completed foreclosures nationally. The five states with the lowest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in May 2012 were: South Dakota (48), District of Columbia (74), North Dakota (547), West Virginia (620) and Hawaii (623).

The five states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were: Florida (11.9 percent), New Jersey (6.6 percent), Illinois (5.3 percent), New York (5.0 percent) and Nevada (4.9 percent). The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory were: Wyoming (0.7 percent), Alaska (0.8 percent), North Dakota (0.8 percent), Nebraska (1.0 percent) and South Dakota (1.3 percent).