Daily Archives: July 16, 2012

Rising home prices bring 700,000 homeowners above water | Pound Ridge NY Homes

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Rising home prices helped more than 700,000 homeowners regain equity in their homes during first quarter, but 11.4 million borrowers still owed more on their mortgage than their homes were worth, according to the latest report from data aggregator CoreLogic.

The number of U.S homeowners with negative equity declined by 6 percent in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter, leaving 23.7 percent of all homes with mortgages underwater. That’s down from 25.2 percent in the fourth quarter.

When the 2.3 million borrowers with less than 5 percent equity, which CoreLogic calls “near-negative equity,” are included, 28.5 percent of mortgaged homes were either underwater or nearly underwater in the first quarter, down from 30.1 percent.

All told, negative equity nationwide totaled $691 billion in the first quarter, down from $742 billion the previous quarter. The decrease was largely due to home-price increases, CoreLogic said.

“In the first quarter of 2012, rebounding home prices, a healthier balance of real estate supply and demand, and a slowing share of distressed sales activity helped to reduce the negative equity share,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, in a statement.

“This is a meaningful improvement that is driven by quickly improving outlooks in some of the hardest-hit markets. While the overall stagnating economic recovery will likely slow housing market recovery in the second half of this year, reducing the number of underwater households is an important step toward reducing future mortgage default risk.”

Some 1.9 million borrowers were only 5 percent upside down in the first quarter, meaning further price appreciation could move them into positive territory.

Among states, Nevada had the highest share of mortgaged loans in negative equity (61 percent) followed by Florida (45 percent), Arizona (43 percent), Georgia (37 percent) and Michigan (35 percent), CoreLogic said.

Negative equity is concentrated at the low end of the market, CoreLogic said. Among homes under $200,000, 31 percent were upside down, compared with 15.9 percent among homes worth more than $200,000.

The majority of the underwater homeowners — 6.9 million — had only a first mortgage with no home equity loans, and owed an average of $212,000 on their mortgages with negative equity averaging $47,000.

While 19 percent of these borrowers were underwater in the first quarter, the negative equity share among borrowers with both first liens and second liens was more than twice that, 39 percent. Those 4.5 million borrowers owed an average of $299,000 and were underwater by an average of $82,000.

Starting with this report, CoreLogic revised the methodology it uses to calculate negative equity and has therefore revised its historical data for both the nation and states.

Below are revised figures beginning with the third quarter of 2009.

Revised National Negative Equity
Time periodNegative equity loan count (in millions)Negative equity share
Q1 201211.423.7%
Q4 201112.125.2%
Q3 201111.424.1%
Q2 201111.524.5%
Q1 201111.524.7%
Q4 201011.725.1%
Q3 201011.424.5%
Q2 201011.524.9%
Q1 201011.925.6%
Q4 200911.925.7%
Q3 200911.124.3%

Source: CoreLogic

via inman.com

Bedford Corners NY Homes | Creating the “Best Case Scenario Buyer”

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About 12 months ago, a group of designers and I were talking about some of the biggest stressors in life, and the conversation quickly shifted to home-buying. So we started to ask ourselves – how should home-buying work in an ideal world?

Or, to put it another way, what does a best case scenario buyer look like? Act like? Think like?

What if we could design a tool for real estate professionals that would turn every buyer into their best case scenario buyer? So we talked to hundreds of agents, and asked them to paint us a picture of how that kind of buyer would behave.

Here are the top 5 most repeated sentiments (and some of our favorite quotes):

#1. Educated

“Someone who understands some of the basics, so we spend our time together focused on optimizing decisions, not simply getting comfortable with the process (or if they should buy).”

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#2. Organized

“I’ve had buyers not show up to closings because they thought it was the next day, or forget to buy homeowner’s insurance, in spite of my multiple reminders. I would love to help them get and stay organized without having that become my full-time job.”

#3. Empowered

“I love it when my buyers join their inspection and really ask questions about what the inspector is looking for and why. Or when they call out a lender for putting a junk fee on their GFE. Buyers who insist on being an active part of the process, not just going along for the ride.”

#4. Savvy

“I once had a buyer point out to me that if I asked the seller for a copy of his title insurance, she could get a discount on hers. It was embarrassing that she knew a trick I didn’t, but impressive.”

#5. Zen

“I’ve had to deal with marital fights, with crying, with bailing out at the last possible second. Everything around buying a home is stressful and I’ve born the brunt of that, even though the buyer is usually stressed at everyone other than me.”

So with that in mind, we designed Doorsteps, a shared online workspace that allows agents to guide their first-time homebuyers through the journey in a comprehensive but very human, very reassuring way.

Take a peak at our video, which gives a quick overview of the big idea:

Welcome to Doorsteps from Doorsteps on Vimeo.

And, some parts of the experience we’re particularly excited about:

#1. Intuitive Overview

Each buyer gets a clear overview of what they need to do, why, and how.

#2. Agent Dashboard

Meanwhile, the agent dashboard lets you have instant oversight of what every buyer is up to at all times.

#3. Completable Tasks

Your buyer can move through every step and see not only their task list, but a single, streamlined place to complete every one of them – from choosing a mortgage to hiring a moving company.

#4. Add Your Own Insider Tips

Agents can add their hard-earned tips and pointers specific to their market within each step.

#5. In-Context Messaging

Buyers can message you the second they have a question or get confused – and you’ll see instantly exactly where they got stuck.

#6. Rich Buyer Profile

Every step or input is fed into a rich buyer profile, so you always have their latest updates at your fingertips.

We just released a new version on Friday, June 29th, so please request an invite and take Doorsteps for a spin!

via next.inman.com

Chappaqua Real Estate | Here Is Your Three Step Email Marketing Checklist – Get Your Emails Opened

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Do you want to make your email marketing more effective?

Of course, you do. But how do you do it?

I’ve put together this simple three-step checklist to help you get your emails opened.

number 3 letterbox image via shutterstock

Step #1

Do you know the most important thing in getting people to open your emails?

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It’s not some fancy-schmancy subject line.

It’s “Who” the email is FROM.

Take a look at your email provider. Where does the “From” show up?

What I know, is that with Gmail and Yahoo mail (2 of the most popular email providers), the “From” is on the far left. This makes it the first thing the email reader sees because we read left to right.

Many people are looking at emails on their mobile devices or tablets. In fact, Nielsen Research states that 41.6% of mobile Internet time is spent on email.

On the iPhone and iPad, the “From” is on the top, in BOLD — making it absolutely stand out above everything else. Take a look for yourself.

Action: Make sure the reader knows the email is from you. Did they sign up on a website? Are they expecting emails from a “Company” or a “Team Name” or a “brand”?

Make sure they know who is sending the email and be consistent.

Step #2

Gotta get the subject line right. That’s obvious right?

Run your subject line thru this quick “The 4-U’s” formula, from copywriters Bob Bly and Michael Masterson:

• Is it Urgent?

• Is it Unique?

• Is it Ultra-specific?

• Is it Useful?

By the way, it can’t just be one of these. It should be at least 2, if not 3, out of the 4 U’s.

Let’s put the headline of this post through “The 4-U’s” formula.

The headline is “Here Is Your Three Step Email Marketing Checklist — Get Your Emails Opened”.

• Is it urgent? Not really. Maybe if you are having a super-frustrating time getting your emails opened, it might feel urgent to you.

• Is it unique? Kinda. How many subject lines do you see giving you a 3-step checklist for email marketing that gets your emails opened?

• Is it ultra-specific? Yup. 3 Steps. Emails. Checklist. Opened. Those all scream specific.

• Is it Useful? You bet. This will help you.

Action: Spend more time on your subject lines and use the “4 U’s Formula”.

Stop using “Your June Market Update” or “Your Real Estate Monthly Report”.

Step #3

Your first sentence needs to be compelling.

The first sentence is so important for 2 main reasons.

#1 You know how important the “From” is. You know you need a great subject line.

The job of the subject line is to get the email reader to read the first sentence. The job of the first sentence is to get people to continue reading.

You are fighting for the email reader’s attention. Don’t get lazy after coming up with a great subject line.

#2 With certain email providers like Gmail, or mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad, the first sentence of the email body actually shows up!

Even if the Reader is comfortable with who the email is “from” and the subject line catches their eye, the first sentence needs to be compelling enough to get them to open the email and continue to read.

Action: Invest some time creating a compelling first sentence that grabs your reader by the throat and makes them NEED to read your entire message.

via next.inman.com