Category Archives: Pound Ridge

Networking and social media: A recipe for REO success | Pound Ridge Realtor

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Brokers working in the REO space face stiff competition, but social media — when used correctly — is leveling the playing field, making it easier for tech-savvy professionals to gain a foothold in the space.

Social media, conferences and networking all play a role in a professional’s success.

Experts at HousingWire’s Real Estate Expo (REX) discussed how growing your REO business starts with you.

The panel featured Windy Keefe, manager of business development withREO Network; Brent Taggart, senior vice president with Green River Capital; Kirby Pearson with Pearson Realty Group; Lauretta Martin with The Martin Group and TMG Properties; Marcia Toms withPEMCO; and Patti Donovan with Freddie Mac.

When it comes to standing out as a broker, Taggart said a simple letter of recommendation makes a world of difference, especially when it’s exposed online or through simple social media tools.

In addition, he said people should be active and involved in boards, including the National Association or Realtors, rather than simply limiting their involvement to paying membership dues.

Meanwhile, Donovan said, “A strong thing for us is people who are making a difference in peoples lives that live in the communities that they work in.”

But, perhaps, the greatest change in real estate networking revolves around the social media space.

“Social media is a good way to connect and help build that relationship. It should be an extension of a way to stay in contact,” said Toms.

 

Networking and social media: A recipe for REO success | HousingWire.

Wells Fargo still leans in on mortgage business | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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The mortgage business is a top source of revenue for banks, and mega bank Wells Fargo is no exception.

Wells Fargo ($40.55 -0.7%) CEO and President John Stumpf presented at the Sanford C. Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference on Wednesday discussing the overall health of the bank.

Stumpf said the culture of our company and the way we do business is about serving customers. “We work together. And if it’s not mortgage – its mortgage today, it might be credit card tomorrow.”

“It might not be an even tradeoff and might not be a quarter-by-quarter tradeoff, but if we provide great services and products, the rest seems to take care of itself,” he added.

However, Wells Fargo may adapt for the customer, but the bank’s revenue tells a slightly different story.

Mortgage is an important business, the CEO explained. “We love the mortgage business. For two-thirds of Americans, it is still the biggest asset purchase they’ll ever do. It is part of the way Americans save and it changes families.”

Despite the bank saying it will follow the customer, the bank shows no signs of backing away from mortgages anytime in the near future.

“To be in the consumer business, we think you have to be in the mortgage business. We like it that we love that business, but we also love the other 89 businesses we are in,” Stumpf said.

 

Wells Fargo still leans in on mortgage business | REwired.

Nearly half of all US homeowners with a mortgage still ‘underwater’ in Q1 | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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Zillow: Homeowners with ‘effective’ negative equity helped keep inventory low

Despite rising home prices early in the year, a significant portion of U.S. homeowners with a mortgage — about 44 percent — still owed more on their home than it was worth or didn’t have enough equity to move at the end of the first quarter, according to Zillow’s first-quarter Negative Equity Report.

Zillow’s analysis showed that 25.4 percent of homeowners with a mortgage were underwater on their homes, while another 18.2 percent more were “effectively” underwater, with less than 20 percent equity in their homes.

Taken together, about 22.3 million U.S. homeowners likely don’t have enough equity in their homes to afford a down payment on another home, Zillow said, keeping them in their homes and preventing new inventory from hitting the market.

“Reaching positive equity, even barely, is an important milestone,” said Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries in a statement. “But things like real estate agents’ fees and a down payment for the next home traditionally come out of the proceeds from the prior home’s sale. Without enough equity, these costs will instead have to come out of a homeowner’s pocket, leaving many still stuck,” he said.

“Looking at the effective negative equity rate could explain why recent, healthy declines in the number of underwater borrowers haven’t yet translated into more homes for sale,” Humphries added. “The only cure is patience, as rising home values continue to build equity to the point where more homeowners can realistically sell.”

Among the 30 largest metro areas covered by Zillow, those with the highest effective negative equity rate, including homeowners with 20 percent equity or less, include Las Vegas (71.5 percent), Atlanta (64.1 percent), and Riverside, Calif. (59.7 percent).

 

Nearly half of all US homeowners with a mortgage still ‘underwater’ in Q1 | Inman News.

Mortgage rates jump to highest mark in a year | Pound Ridge Homes

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Mortgage rates surged again this past week, completing a consistently steep ascent in May, according to data released Thursday by Freddie Mac.

The 30-year fixed-rate average jumped to 3.81 percent with an average 0.8 point, its highest mark in the past year. May began with the 30-year hovering at 3.35 percent, well below last year’s reading at the start of the month; however, four straight weeks of increases have pushed the average above last year’s reading of 3.75 percent.

The 15-year fixed rate average followed suit, rising to 2.98 percent from 2.77 percent last week, with an average 0.7 point. One year ago, the average was 2.97 percent.

Hybrid adjustable rate mortgages, on the other hand, remained below their averages from last May. The five-year ARM rose slightly to 2.66 percent, down year-over-year from 2.84 percent, and the one-year dropped slightly to 2.54 percent, down from 2.75 percent a year ago.

A Freddie Mac executive pegged the rising fixed-rate averages to some recent signs of economic improvement, including higher home prices and improving consumer confidence.

 

Mortgage rates jump to highest mark in a year.

Obama administration extends Making Home Affordable Program until 2015 | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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The Department of Housing and Urban Developmentteamed up with the Treasury Department on Thursday to announce an extension of the Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable Program through Dec. 31, 2015.

The new deadline was determined in coordination with theFederal Housing Finance Agency to align with extendeddeadlines for the Home Affordable Refinance Program and the Streamlined Modification Initiative for homeowners with loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The program deadline was previously set to end Dec. 31, 2013.

The Making Home Affordable Program is a critical part of the Obama administration’s efforts to provide relief to families at risk of foreclosure and help the housing market recover from the housing crisis, HUD explained.

“The housing market is gaining steam, but many homeowners are still struggling,” said Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew.

He added, “Helping responsible homeowners avoid foreclosure is part of our wide-ranging efforts to strengthen the middle class, and Making Home Affordable offers homeowners some of the deepest and most dependable assistance available to prevent foreclosure. Extending the program for two years will benefit many additional families while maintaining clear standards and accountability for an important part of the mortgage industry.”

Since its creation in March 2009, roughly 1.6 million actions were taken through the program to provide relief to homeowners and, consequently, nearly 1.3 million homeowners were helped directly by the program.

As of March, more than 1.1 million homeowners received a permanent modification of their mortgage through HAMP, with a median savings of $546 every month — or 38% of their previous payment.

Since the fourth quarter of 2008, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed more than 2.7 million foreclosure prevention actions. Approximately half of these actions are permanent loan modifications, including more than 435,000 permanent HAMP modifications, according to the FHFA.

“One of FHFA’s priorities is to provide assistance to struggling borrowers who are at risk of losing their homes,” said Ed DeMarco, current acting director of the FHFA.

He added, “These extensions keep two valuable foreclosure prevention programs available to those who need them. The extensions also align the end date for three key assistance programs that were developed in response to the housing crisis.”

Since 2009, Freddie Mac has helped more than 830,000 borrowers avoid foreclosure and nearly 230,000 of these families were assisted through HAMP, said Tracy Mooney, senior vice president of single-family servicing and REO for the GSE.

The Making Home Affordable Program has also put into place important protections for homeowners that have helped inform efforts to create standards for the mortgage servicing industry.

This includes requirements for mortgage servicers regarding clear and timely communications with homeowners and protections to ensure that they are evaluated for assistance before being referred to foreclosure.

 

Obama administration extends Making Home Affordable Program until 2015 | HousingWire.

Wall Street rallies as home prices jump | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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Stock markets soared after data showed consumer confidence climbed to the highest level since 2008 and home values jumped the most in seven years, Bloomberg writes.

Nine out out 10 S&P 500 groups advanced, paced by a 1.4% rally among financial shares.

The S&P rallied 1% to 1,665.68, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 156.59 points, or 1%.

 

Wall Street rallies as home prices jump | HousingWire.

FHFA: Home prices continue climb | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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Upward momentum in home prices remained strong in the first quarter of this year due to the Federal Reserve quantitative easing program, which continues to help asset prices rise in the housing market.

As a result, home prices inched upward 1.9% from the previous quarter. This is the seventh consecutive quarterly price rise in the purchase-only, seasonally adjusted index, according to theFederal Housing Finance Agency.

From the first quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of 2013, home prices rose 6.7%.

“The housing market has stabilized in many areas and homebuilding activity has strengthened in recent quarters,” said Andrew Leventis, principal economist of FHFA.

He added, “That said, labor market weakness and still-elevated foreclosure pipelines remain hindrances to a more robust recovery.”

The FHFA house price index, which is calculated using home sales price information from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, rose 1.3% over the last quarter.

The FHFA HPI revealed that of the nine census divisions, the strongest increase in home prices was in the Pacific, which posted a 4.4% price increase in the latest quarter. Conversely, the Middle Atlantic division posted the weakest come prices, increasing 0.3% from the prior quarter.

Of the 75 most populated metropolitan areas in the U.S., the Jacksonville, Fla. metropolitan statistical area reported the greatest price increase, with a 9.3% jump between the further and first quarters. The Bridgeport, Stamford, Norwalk, CT, metro saw a 3.5% drop in prices over that same period.

The monthly seasonally adjusted purchase-only index for the U.S. has increase for 14 consecutive months, the FHFA explained.

 

FHFA: Home prices continue climb | HousingWire.

Why we can’t just be SEOs: A reply to Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz | Pound Ridge Realtor

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Last week I saw this interesting whiteboard Friday which talked about ‘Why We Can’t Just Be SEOs Anymore’ by Rand. Though he has raised some valid points, like ‘perception of SEO is hard to change’, I have to disagree with him overall.  Sorry Rand, you are missing the complete picture.

SEO is not bigger than SEO

SEO is all about generating relevant organic traffic to the website through search engines. That’s it. SEO is not about email, CRO, UX, Social Media, Branding, PR, Reputation Management, Coding, Advertising, Customer Service …

You may argue that there are 200+ ranking signals so I need total control on everything which influences SEO. While it is true that they are 200+ ranking signals, don’t forget the 80/20 rulei.e. 80% of your output comes from 20% of the input. If you have worked in the SEO industry long enough, you already know what that 20% is that will generate 80% of the SEO results.

That 20% consists of basic on-page optimization, keyword research, content development and above all link building. We can tweak brand signals, social signals, authorship, Page Rank, markups and other weak ranking signals all day long but they won’t generate any considerable amount of organic traffic on our website. What really drives traffic is that 20% I am talking about.

If we talk about the real world (which could be very different from the blogging world) there could be unlimited ranking signals. For a start, your client is a very strong ranking signal for you. Without his support and cooperation you can’t make any change on his website. No amount of SEO is going to help, if the client is not responsive to your needs and demands. Poor product, bad reputation, poor customer service all are sort of ranking signals which are beyond our control.

Just because something may impact your SEO so you must develop expertise in it or take total control of it is a wrong mindset. Here is why. When someone works as a marketing generalist who knows little bit of everything (well sorry but this is what specialists really think about him) he is eager to give suggestions to specialists (like CRO consultant, PR consultant, Community Managers etc) on how they can do their job better.

Since he is not a specialist, his suggestions may not be well received or align well with the recommendations of specialists. This creates disruption in digital strategies and work environment. So instead of creating synergy the marketing generalist could inevitably end up creating stress and chaos.

 

Why we can’t just be SEOs: A reply to Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz.

Home builders buck market trend on Wall Street | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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According to MarketWatch:
Hovnanian Enterprises ($6.04 -0.06%) shares rose 2.7% after the Commerce Department said that sales of new homes rose 2.3% to 454,000 in April, the second highest post-recession level, on pent-up demand and low interest rates.
Toll Brothers ($36.75 -0.85%) closed up 1.4%, Lennar Corp. ($42.79 -0.61%) gained 2.6%, KB Home ($23.11 -0.29%) added 1.6% and Ryland Group ($48.46 0.36%) advanced 1.1%.
To see the full analysis by MarketWatch, click here.

 

 

Home builders buck market trend on Wall Street | HousingWire.

Foreclosure threat subsides for more Miami households | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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Foreclosure rates in the greater Miami area remain astonishingly high, but they’re headed in the right direction.

In March, 13.25 percent of the outstanding mortgages in the Miami, Miami Beach and Kendall area were in some stage of the foreclosure process, according to CoreLogic. That was down from 17.51 percent a year earlier. But it was dramatically higher than the national foreclosure rate of 2.84 percent, according to the Irvine, Calif.-based real-estate data firm.

 

Foreclosure threat subsides for more Miami households | HousingWire.