Housing Crisis to End in 2012 as Banks Loosen Credit Standards

Capital Economics expects the housing crisis to end this year, according to a report released. One of the reasons: loosening credit.

The analytics firm notes the average credit score required to attain a mortgage loan is 700. While this is higher than scores required prior to the crisis, it is constant with requirements one year ago.

Additionally, a Fed Senior Loan Officer Survey found credit requirements in the fourth quarter were consistent with the past three quarters.

However, other market indicators point not just to a stabilization of mortgage lending standards, but also a loosening of credit availability.

Banks are now lending amounts up to 3.5 times borrower earnings. This is up from a low during the crisis of 3.2 times borrower earnings.

Banks are also loosening loan-to-value ratios (LTV), which Capital Economics denotes “the clearest sign yet of an improvement in mortgage credit conditions.”

In contrast to a low of 74 percent reached in mid-2010, banks are now lending at 82 percent LTV.

While credit conditions may have loosened slightly, some potential homebuyers are still struggling with credit requirements. In fact, Capital Economics points out that in November 8 percent of contract cancellations were the result of a potential buyer not qualifying for a loan.

Additionally, Capital Economics says “any improvement in credit conditions won’t be significant enough to generate actual house price gains,” and potential ramifications from the euro-zone pose a threat to future credit availability.

Infomation courtesey of DSnews.com

Some encouraging news for Tyler Area Home Sales!

By CASEY MURPHY
Business Editor

The Tyler area saw an 18.18 percent jump in home sales in January compared to the same time a year ago.

There were 169 homes sold in the area last month, compared to 143 units sold in January 2011, according to figures released Monday from the Greater Tyler Association of Realtors.

Last month’s sales were a 14.65 percent decline from the 198 homes sold in December.

The median price of a home in the Tyler area in January was $125,000, a 4.17 percent spike from the same time a year before, when the median price was $120,000.

Last month’s price was a 3.66 percent decrease from the median price of $129,750 seen by the area in December.

The Tyler area’s home inventory stood at 11.4 months in December, the latest month for which figures from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University were available.

That is down from the same time the year before, when the inventory was at 12.7 months, and down from 12 months in November.

Home inventory is how long based on the past year’s sales rate it would take to clear out existing inventory, with no more homes introduced into the market.

Smith County saw only eight foreclosures in December, five of which were in Tyler, according to the latest figures available from RealtyTrac.

Total home sales for Texas in December were up slightly, according to the latest figures from Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

There were 16,505 homes sold in December, a 4.4 percent increase from the 15,808 units sold the same time the year before, and up 12.14 percent from November, when 14,718 houses sold throughout the state.

Texas’ median home price for December was $150,700, a 0.66 percent decline from December 2011, when the median cost was $150,800; and a 2.52 percent increase from November’s $147,000.

The state’s inventory stood at six months in December, compared to 7.3 months the year before and 6.5 months in November.

Tips for Making Your Home More Saleable

Here are some things you can do to differentiate your house among the competitors.

When preparing to put your home up for sale, your first concern is the home’s exterior. If the outside, or “curb appeal” looks good, people will more than likely want to see what’s on the inside. Keep the lawn and landscape nicely manicured. Trim the bushes and season permitting, plant some flowers. Be sure your front door area has a “Welcome” feeling. A fresh coat of paint on the front door looks great.

Of all the rooms inside your home, pay special attention to the kitchen and bathrooms. They should look as modern, bright and fresh as possible. It is essential for them to be clean and odor free. A fresh coat of paint just may do the trick. Have any leaky faucets taken care of. A call to a plumber is a wise investment.

Since you want your home to look as spacious as possible, remove any excess or very large furniture. Make sure that table tops, dressers and closets are free of clutter. Don’t use your garage, attic, or basement to store these extra things. These areas also need to have the impression of space. Instead, put them into storage. Make sure walls and doors are free of smudges and look for anything that might indicate a maintenance problem, such as cracked windows, holes in the wall or stained ceilings.

Quick tips for showings:

• Keep counter tops cleared
• Replace all burned out lightbulbs
• Open all drapes and window blinds
• Put pets in cages or take them to a neighbor
• No dirty dishes in the sink
• No laundry in the washer/dryer
• Clean or replace dirty or worn carpets
• Put on soft music
• Burn wood in the fireplace on cold days, otherwise, the fireplace should be clean

Always look at your home from the buyer’s point of view. Be objective and be honest.

Article from REALTOR.com

Signs your double-pane windows need fixing

It’s winter, and the temperatures are dropping outside. One day you’re warming up your home and suddenly you notice something that you hadn’t seen during the summer. That perfectly clear window in the living room or the kitchen or somewhere else in the house suddenly looks foggy. You wipe it down from the inside — and from the outside — but the fog won’t go away. The next day, it warms up again outside, and to your surprise, the fog disappears again. So what’s going on?

That intermittent fogging during cold temperatures is an indication that you have what’s known as a “blown seal” in your insulated glass window. Here’s what happens:

Insulated glass windows, also known as double-pane windows, have two panes of glass that are held apart by a metal strip. The strip, usually somewhere between 1/4 and 3/4 of an inch wide, is adhered to the two glass panes with a flexible sealant material.

During the manufacturing process, moisture is evacuated from between the glass panes as they’re sealed together, forming a dead air space. It’s the combination of the two glass panes and the dead air that gives the window panes their additional insulating value, and helps keep the window warmer than one with a single pane of glass.

Depending on the type and design of the window, sometimes inert argon gas is used between the panes to increase the insulating value even further. Some windows also have decorative grids trapped between the panes as a design feature. The sealed, insulated glass units are then placed into the frame and held in place with molding strips, making up a complete window unit.

What happens when damage occurs

The sealed, insulated glass unit is designed to have quite a long life span; in theory, it should last as long as the window unit itself. However, sometimes there are flaws in the manufacturing process or, more likely, some type of impact damage occurs to the window. That can cause a small opening to appear in the seal between the glass and the spacer bar. It’s something you won’t see, but it’s enough to allow air to enter the space between the panes of glass.

You might be thinking that that’s no big deal, since that’s just an air space anyway, right? But the difference is that it’s designed to be a dead, dry air space. Now, with the broken seal, air that has moisture in it has been introduced.

During the summer, when the air temperatures outside are warm and the glass is also warm, that’s OK. But now, with the colder temperatures of winter, the outer pane of glass gets cold. The warm air inside your house is trying harder than ever to escape, and it carries moist air into the window cavity, where it hits that cold glass and condenses back into a liquid. The result is that fogging you see. And because it’s inside the window, you can’t do anything to get rid of it.

Replacement is the only option

Once you discover a window with a blown seal, your only option is to replace the insulated glass unit. You need to do that as soon as you discover the problem, as the window has lost its insulating value, and the trapped moisture can potentially lead to other problems. Not to mention the fact that you can’t see through the window!

The good news is that you must replace only the sealed glass unit, not the entire window. This is something that you need to leave to the pros. Contact a glass company in your area and have them make a site visit. They’ll examine the window, measure the insulated glass unit, including the size of the air space, and have a new one made up that matches. When the new one is ready, they’ll come back out, remove the moldings and the old unit, and install and seal the new unit in place.

If the window is relatively new and the glass unit fails, contact the company or the contractor where you purchased it. Home centers such as Lowe’s and Home Depot will typically replace insulated glass units that fail, as will many other retailers.

If you have windows that are damaged in an insurance-related claim, such as a fire, wind storm, or some type of impact such as a tree limb that falls, you may not be aware of the fact that a seal has been damaged until winter comes around and the fogging becomes obvious. For that reason, if you suspect any type of potential window damage, always make your insurance adjuster aware that you’ll be holding the claim open for possible future supplemental damage claims.

Selling Tyler Texas Real Estate……….8 Remedies for Real Estate Remorse

With a transaction as large in dollar amount and life-changing impact as the purchase or sale of a home, experiencing some level of remorse – second-guessing your decision, or even wishing you hadn’t made it – is par for the course.

Contrary to popular belief, real estate remorse is not strictly the province of buyers. Experience has taught me that on bed the night the contract is signed, the buyer lies awake thinking they could have gotten the place for less – while the seller does the same exact thing across town, thinking they could have gotten more. (Both tend to ring up their agents; that’s how I know this is true!)

But there’s a deeper flavor of real estate remorse that doesn’t go away. It can even haunt a buyer or seller years down the road as they wake up every single day for years on end, regretting their choice of home or mortgage – or the choice to sell or walk away. Whether you’re already suffering from it, or you’re still in active buying or selling mode and want to avoid falling victim, here are my eight cures for real estate remorse.

1.  Before you get started, write out your vision of the life you want to live after you close the deal. It’s easy to get distracted once you’re in the weeds of the actual transaction, losing sight of what’s really important to you – what motivated you to start the process in the first place.  So, before you get started, put pen to paper and write out exactly what sort of lifestyle you are trying to create – financially and otherwise – by taking this path.

Make sure you include your wants, needs, deal-makers and deal-breakers.

Then, take that notebook or printout with you into meetings with agents and mortgage pros, and even return to it throughout the process to course-correct your decisions, if necessary.  For example, buyers should revisit their vision document and compare it against the home they are in contract to buy before removing contingencies. This is the easiest way to avoid buying a home you could have predicted would not fulfill your needs.

2.  Ask yourself: how does this decision make you feel? We tend to approach real estate decisions from a place of reason and logic, but sometimes that means we can reason our way right into agreeing to something because it’s easier than sorting out our differences with our mate, or because we’ve been underwater for so long that walking away seems like the only option we still have. The neuroscientists say that the cells in our bodies – and especially our gut – might actually be ‘smarter’ than those in our brains when it comes to making good decisions, as they haven’t been reading the paper or influenced by that guy that shouts all the time on the cable business channels.

So, before you make a decision, weigh your alternatives and see how they make you feel.  Does the idea of living in this home, even though it’s a fixer beyond anything you expected to buy, make you feel peaceful, expansive or secure?  Does the idea of living in the gated community of your wife’s dreams make you feel constricted, anxious or burdened? Does the prospect of short selling vs. staying put and getting a second job make you feel excited and free or on edge?  Often, your intuition and physical senses provide the best clues to the right decision – the decision that will not result in remorse after the fact.

3.  Manage your own mindset. Don’t fall into the trap of constant discontent. You might have absolutely hated everything about renting, from your landlord to your neighbors, and used that as motivation to save up to buy your own home.  But if you did, and now every single thing about owning (lenders, lawnmowers and such) makes you crazy, you might just be falling into that too-common fallacy of always thinking the grass is greener on the other side.  

So cut it out. If you truly want to change the way you feel, stop bonding with others over your collective, perceived miseries and, instead, practice feeling gratitude for 10 things a day. I’m trying to list 10 things I’m grateful for every day for a full month without repeating a single thing!  When you practice gratitude intensively, it is much more difficult to dwell in regret and discontent.

4.  Recognize hypotheticals as hallucinations. Hypotheticals, by definition, are the opposite of what is real. So living in a hypothetical world of how much you probably could have gotten the place for, or how much more you might have been able to squeeze out of the buyer if you’d bargained harder after the deal has been done is nothing but fantasy and crazy-making, all wrapped up in an efficient little depressing package.

Even more crazy-making: wondering what you could have offered for that house that would have beaten the other 20 offers. If you are a buyer who has repeatedly been outbid, the wiser practice is to ask your agent to go back and pull the actual sale prices of the homes you lost after they close escrow, to give yourself a good reality check and leverage the experience to help you have a smarter, more successful house hunt going forward.

5.  Be open and willing to have difficult conversations during the deal. Real estate transactions make some milquetoast types morph into wheeler-dealers, but more often they turn gregarious people pleasers into anxiety-ridden, fear-driven eggshell steppers. Some people who are happy to overshare about virtually anything on Facebook will do everything possible to avoid confrontation – especially when it comes to money matters.

If you’re the type that finds negotiating excruciating and will do anything to avoid having a conversation about money, do yourself and your household finances a huge favor and just suspend that during this deal. If something doesn’t look right on your contract or you don’t understand something in the loan paperwork, ask and keep asking until it is fixed or you do understand. If you agree to buy a place as-is and as-disclosed (with contingencies, of course), but the inspections and repair bids are overwhelming and you’re afraid you might be getting in over your head, don’t let the fear of losing the place stop you from discussing potential compromises with the seller or even talk with your agent or co-buyer about the possibility of backing out of the deal.
 
6.  Sit still before you start the demolition.  One of the most common forms of remorse I’ve seen is the remorse homeowners have when they start remodeling a place too soon.  The best practice is to live in a place for a few months first, observing patterns in the natural light, traffic, noise and even how your family uses the various areas of space in the home before you start tearing walls down and turning windows into french doors.

7.  Do your own numbers first.  Homeowners who have remorse about getting in over their heads, financially, often end up in that spot because they took someone else’s word about what they could afford, rather than running their own household financials first, then telling their professionals what their maximum spend would be, monthly and otherwise.  Make sure you go into the home buying process clear on what is a sustainable range of monthly housing costs for you and your family based on the total picture of your income and expenses (including your future plans and expenses banks don’t consider, like private school tuition, travel, etc.), rather than expecting someone else to figure this out for you.

8.  Get systematic about your options for resolving the remorse. If you find yourself in a position where you’re experiencing deep remorse for having bought a particular home, it’s time to stop wallowing and start acting to improve your experience in the home. Systematically list the things that make you crazy about the place. I’ve seen the most long-term buyer’s remorse result from (a) unexpected neighborhood nuisances like noise levels and being located on a street that is busier than the buyer originally thought, and (b) a home with features and condition problems that are worse or more costly to repair than the buyer expected, like the flights of stairs are too numerous or the windows too drafty.

So, make a list of the things that are causing you remorse, then get clear on all your options – and don’t limit your thinking about what those options might be. Maybe you need to plan out the fixes you need, and budget for them, for the next few years out, and start tackling one every month.  I love my home and my neighborhood, but was driven to distraction for months by the fact that I could hear the subway at night. I’d already installed dual paned windows!  My sanity and sleep have been saved by the investment of $10 every couple of months in – you guessed it – earplugs from the drug store.  

On the other end of the spectrum, I knew a woman who insisted she could afford to neither sell nor fix her home, she was so upside down, and so stayed remorsefully put in her leaky, fixer-upper home for years before she finally talked with an agent, who was able to get the bank to green light a short sale lickety split.

Homes for Sale in Tyler Texas…………..Top 10 tech wish list for real estate agents in 2012

By Barrett Powell

My top 10 tech wish list for real estate agents in 2012:

1. MLS data becomes common
The National Association of REALTORS® finally gets their act together to form a new committee to look at developing a common multiple listing service data model (not RPR) and a common data-sharing model (think XML feed). More importantly: We, the members, would own these new data models for sharing our data how we see fit, instead of being held hostage by our local multiple listing service or a vendor contracted by our national committee.

2. In a word: ubiquitous
Finally, every online real estate site will be accessible via any browser and on any device. This may sound like something that already exists, but believe it or not there are still MLS systems in parts of the country (mine) using vendors that insist on developing for one and only one browser (Internet Explorer). So forget about using that new iPad or Android tablet.

Now there are people like me, who have thrown a challenge to find a way to get it to work (I do have TriangleMLS running on my iPad 2). But for the rank and file, forget it.

I think 2012 is finally the year the MLS vendors get their act together and upgrade these “Cold War” holdouts.

3. Social that matters
In 2012, we finally learn from what works and what doesn’t and figure out it’s OK not to be on every social network that’s out there. I think a few will begin rising to the top for REALTORS®. Who are the winners?

I really like what Google is doing with its Google Plus network. Circles is a natural extension of how we view our lives today; we have personal and we have business; we have first-time buyers and we have existing clients; we have investors and we have luxury buyers.

Circles make it easy to keep them safe, sound and separate.

4. Finally, we are open for business
I think 2012 will be the year open-source technologies finally make it big in real estate. What is open source, you ask? According to Wikipedia, “The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product’s source materials.”

The key here is it is made available free of charge. So the program and usage have no paid license agreement like Microsoft or Apple products do, or real estate applications developed on top of their technologies.

For years I have been talking and writing about the use of open-source technologies in real estate. Did you know WordPress, the widely used real estate blogging platform, is open source? And like WordPress, there are thousands of open-source technologies available for download, use, and as a hosted online solution for many of the needs we have in real estate.

Think of a problem or something you want to improve about a process or how you want to do business. Take going paperless … yep, there’s an app for that — for free.

5. Job- specific or task-specific devices
Ok, so we know mobile is big and the iPad is everyone’s “style” item to have … but why? I had a REALTOR® approach me recently and say, “I’m thinking about buying an iPad. Do you think I should?” My first answer was a question: “What do you plan to do with the iPad?”

So many REALTORS® have gone out and purchased iPads without a single idea how they plan to use it. We even had managers for a large firm in my area announce they were giving an iPad 2 to every one of their agents. Great! Then what? When I ask most agents in my area what they planned on doing with their new iPad, their response was always, “Check my email … oh, and access the MLS.” (Important note: Some MLSs aren’t accessible via iPad.)

Job-specific or task-specific devices are split into one or more of three categories:

1. Data and information creation.

2. Data and information access and update or change.

3. Data consumption.

Laptops and desktop computers can be all three. Mobile phones, netbooks, and tablets are mostly Nos. 2 and 3, with tablets primarily being consumption devices.

Yes, you can add a keyboard to a tablet, and yes, you can create information on them. But think about the tasks we as REALTORS® do: contract creation, presentation creation, media creation. You’re really more comfortable and better off using your laptop to create these.

That leaves your tablet free to present information to your clients (data consumption) and obtain digital signatures (access and update).

6. Look, Ma, no hands!
We are likely to see more stringent rules regarding using your mobile while driving. Likewise, technologies like Siri on the iPhone and Iris (Siri spelled in reverse) on the Android will continue to improve in 2012 to the point we may not need to touch our mobile devices to use them.

Already, on the three such technologies I am currently testing I am able to pretty much accomplish every task that would normally require a fat finger shuffle on the obscure on-screen keyboard.

In fact, I actually tested and successfully completed a post to my blog from start to finish by simply speaking to my HTC EVO 3D mobile. And this is likely to only get better in 2012.

7. Customer relationship management (CRM) finally comes to real estate
While the rest of the modern U.S. business sector has benefited from using a real CRM solution, the real estate industry has been content to simply focus on lead generation. We spend millions per year on lead generation and lead management technologies, only to shove the end result into some obscure part of our non-backed-up laptop, or worse, a file folder.

In 2012, that all changes. We finally see real CRM vendors paying attention to the real estate industry and we see forward-thinking firms embracing CRM as a way to enhance their level of service and use the newfound information as competitive advantage.

Imagine REALTORS® in a firm having access to all their lead and customer data in one place. This includes not only their contact and address information, but the customer’s social media presence as well.

Other information included is property information, all contracts associated with the lead and client, and sales tracking of your buyer and seller opportunities. For the first time, agents can visually see their “pipeline.”

More importantly, companies and firms can see a roll-up of agent pipelines into team or entire company pipelines, so better decision-making can take place on budgets, and forecasting.

For the first time, real estate professionals can finally run their business like many other industries do. You can accurately track the success of marketing campaigns to better spend your time and money and know at any point what is going on, and, best yet, where it is coming from.

Years ago I built a real estate customization of an open source CRM. I made a couple of little videos and uploaded them to YouTube. About 4,000 views later, and after about three calls per week from agents and firms interested in this type of technology, I am convinced that now is the time for CRM.

8. As Kermit the Frog once said (sang, actually), “It’s not easy being green”
We have talked about paperless and digital signatures for some time now. But only a very small percentage of us have gone paperless. Why? Because it isn’t easy being green and going paperless. Sure, we have digital signature apps out there, but what do we do with the contract? And paperless seems to mean nothing more than PDFs stored online.

In 2012, we will finally see the emergence of real paperless platforms that simplify the entire process. We will show up to meet our client with our contracts on our tablet, ready to review, and we will have the client sign on the tablet or remotely via an e-signature solution.

Then the entire set of contracts will be stored in a cloud-based system that scans the contract for information automatically — such as a client’s name, property, any important identifying details — and places in the system with these features now searchable.

9. ‘QR’ and ‘VR’ finally grow up and join forces
QR codes (also known as “quick response” codes, they can be accessed via a smartphone’s camera) have been around for a long time. The advent of mobile phones with cameras that can act as bar code readers has led to renewed interest. But such a small percentage of the potential real estate users know what they are or how to use them.

Likewise, virtual reality (aka VR) has shown a lot of promise, but it, too, suffers from many of the same issues as QR codes. But what if the two technologies are combined?

Technologies like Blippar allow for the use of QR code features without having to have any special bar codes printed or attached. But unlike QR Codes, these new technologies allow for virtual reality features to be superimposed on objects.

Imagine having this type of feature on your realty sign. A buyer in front of your listing simply looks at your sign through his or her smartphone camera, and immediately 3-D options pop up on the sign. The client can navigate the options to select options such as “view photos” or “view videos.” The client can also select other options to communicate with you now, or any myriad of options you can imagine.

To see an example of the possibilities, simply download Blippar from your relevant apps marketplace and use it to view a Hunt’s ketchup bottle at your local grocery store. I think you will be amazed.

10. “Beam me up, Scotty”
Like the “communicator” devices in Star Trek, start to think of your mobile device as more than just a communicator. Don’t be limited to use it as a phone or to send email or chat. After all, it has a camera — doesn’t it?

Technologies like Skype, Google Talk and FaceTime are now commonplace on most mobile devices. In 2012, we will see more of these “video call” apps allow for cross-device communications. People like to do business with people they know. What better way to get to know you than by using video-calling with your leads and customers.

But don’t just stop there. How many times have you held an open house but had few, if any, visitors? Why not take the open house to them?

Using technologies like Bambuser or Qik, you can broadcast live from your camera-enabled mobile device to your own website or another site by embedding the video player on your site.

Depending on your mobile device and wireless service available at your open house, it is even possible for your audience to communicate with you while you are broadcasting. My most recent open house that I broadcasted from had more than 23 online viewers during the last session.

I have even used the same technology to view properties with a remote buyer in another part of the country. I have one buyer in upstate New York who will end up purchasing a property he has never been to but seen numerous times via live video.

2012 can be a breakout year. It is time we take back our data and take control of our own destiny. For those agents and firms who choose to stand out and change the way they do business, the technology opportunities will exist to make your lives easier, and to wow your leads and prospects.

Happy New Year!

Homes for Sale in Tyler Texas——With the right mindset, 2012 can be your best year ever

http://seg.sharethis.com/getSegment.php?purl=http%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.com%2F&jsref=&rnd=1325702388422Focus on personal strengths and eliminate nonproductive activities

By Bernice Ross
Inman News®

What does it take to have your best year ever even when the market continues to be tough? Here are two simple strategies you can implement now to make 2012 your most profitable year ever.

1. Reset your mindset

The No. 1 influence on your success is your mindset. Daniel Amen in his book, “Making a Good Brain Great,” identifies what he calls “ANTs,” which stands for automatic negative thoughts. Everyone has these thoughts that can keep us stuck rather than moving forward.

What’s fascinating about Amen’s research is that when he did brain scans on optimistic people who were thinking negative thoughts, their brain scans resembled those of people suffering from schizophrenia. Amen likened this effect to having an “ANT” invasion in your brain.

What can you do to limit the damage from ANTs? Amen suggests that you write them down as a way of looking at them objectively. Many ANTs are silly or irrational. By writing them down, you can sort out what merits your attention and what does not.

A second component of mindset comes from Buckminster Fuller who said, “Environment is stronger than will.” A great example is a person who is dieting. He or she does well until someone orders pizza for the office or brings in doughnuts for a meeting.

In order to maintain a positive mindset, it’s important to control your environment. If there are negative or toxic people in your office, try working from home. If you have negative clients, ask yourself whether working with this client is worth the damage to your mindset or would you be better off referring that person to another agent. In case you are wavering, remember how damaging negative thoughts are to your brain. When an agent says, “That client makes me crazy,” there’s more truth in that statement than they may realize.

2. Take the best and discard the rest

To increase the odds of your success in 2012, an important step is to identify what is working in your business and to expand on that. As Joeann Fossland says, no one ever got to the top by developing their weaknesses.

The one thing that virtually all top producers have in common is that they have one or two niches where they are the dominant player in the area or where they have a strong skill set such as cold calling. Their success relates specifically to a having a laser-like focus on these one or two strengths.

To determine your strengths, identify what aspects of the business that you enjoy doing. It’s much easier to succeed when you do what you enjoy instead of forcing yourself to do something some expert says you should do to succeed.

The second step is to look at your production for 2011. If available, ask your manager for a printout of all of your closed transactions for 2011 or create your own list. Note the amount of commission you earned as well as where the lead originated. Also note the price range and the geographical location.

The third step is to note any patterns. For example, were most of your listings in a narrow price range or a specific geographical area? If so, devote more time to doing more of those activities that generated those leads. These numbers tell you where your business strengths are.

You can also use these numbers to determine what is not working. For example, if you used newspaper advertising in 2011, how may closed sales did it generate? If you are marketing to a 500-person geographical farm and it generated only one or two closed transactions, would your time and money be better spent on an activity that generated more closed transactions? The smart move is to move your marketing budget from those items that don’t produce leads to those activities that currently generate the most closed transactions.

To illustrate this point, if your geographical farm is not generating leads, shift your money from marketing to strangers to staying in touch with past clients and people who are in your current sphere of influence. Along the same lines, if certain price ranges are much more active than others, focus your efforts where the activity is the greatest. Track this data regularly so that if the market shifts, you can put your resources where they will have the greatest impact.

By focusing on your personal strengths and by eliminating nonproductive activities from your business, you greatly increase the odds of having a great year in 2012.

 

5 Things Home Buyers Do That Turn Sellers Off (and Kill Deals)

On today’s market, every savvy seller wants to know what turns buyers off, so they can get their homes sold as quickly as possible, for as much as possible.  But buyers, take note – there is a minefield of seller turn-offs you can trigger that hold the potential to keep you from getting the home you want at the best price and terms, or to unnecessarily complicate dealings with your home’s seller.

Lest you think all of today’s sellers are under the gun and will just put up with whatever behavior buyers dish out, be aware that there are still many multiple offer situations in which buyers have to compete with each other to get a home – buyers who trigger these turnoffs tend to lose in those scenarios.  Also, avoiding these seller turnoffs can create a transactional environment of cooperation and avoid things turning adversarial.  That, in turn, can empower you to score a better price, get extra items you want thrown into the deal, and even negotiate more flexibility around your escrow and move-in timelines – all perks that can make your life easier and your budget go further.

For sellers, these turnoffs pose the potential of irritating you out of an otherwise good deal – maybe even the only deal you have!

Here’s a few of the most common buyer-perpetuated seller turnoffs, with tips for sellers on how to keep an emotional (and economic) even keel, even if your home’s buyer makes some of these waves:

1. Trash-talking. Trash-talkers are the home buyers who think they’re going to negotiate the list price down by slamming the house, telling the sellers how little it is really worth, how the house across the street sold for nothing, why the school on the corner should make them desperate to give the place away, etc. This strategy never works; in fact, when you attack a seller and their home, you only cause them to be defensive, and think up all the reasons that (a) their home is not what you say it is, and (b) they shouldn’t sell their home to you! 

Sometimes this happens with buyers who actually love a house and just walk around it fantasizing about all the ways they would customize it to their tastes while a seller is there.  Sellers: avoid being at home while your home is being shown.  Buyers: save your commentary for your agent; if you do encounter the seller in person keep your conversation respectful and avoid critiquing the house or the list price.

2. Being unqualified for mortgage financing. When a seller signs a buyer’s offer, most often the seller agrees to effectively pull the home off the market, forgoing other buyers who might be interested.  As such, the only thing worse than getting no offers on your home is getting an offer, getting into contract, then having the whole thing fall apart when the buyer’s loan falls through – especially if that could have been predicted or avoided up front.

Sellers: Work with your agent to vet your home’s buyers’ qualifications, including their loan approval, down payment and earnest money deposit – before you sign a contract.  It’s not overkill for your agent to call the buyers’ mortgage pro before you sign the contract and get a level of comfort for how robust their qualifications are.  Buyers:  Get pre-approved.  Seriously.  And make sure that you don’t buy a car, quit your job, deposit lottery winnings or do any other financial twitchery between the time you get loan approval and the time you close escrow on your home.

3. Making unjustified lowball offers. No one likes to feel like they are being taken advantage of.  And sellers generally know the ballpark amount that their home is worth, as well as what they need to sell it for to get their mortgage paid off.  Yes – the price you pay for a home should be driven by its fair market value, rather than the seller’s financial needs, and deals are more available in a market like the current one, in which supply so vastly outpaces demand. But just throwing uber-lowball offers out at sellers hoping one will hit the spot is not generally a successful strategy, especially if you really, really want a given property.

Sellers:  Don’t get overly emotional about receiving a lowball offer; counter at the price you and your agent decide makes sense based on the total circumstances, including your motivation level, recent comps and the interest/activity level your listing is receiving. Buyers:  Work through the similar, nearby homes that have recently sold (a/k/a comparables) before you make an offer to factor the home’s fair market value into your offer price – also factor in how much you want the place, too.  Don’t be amazed if you make an offer far below asking, and don’t get a response.

4. Renegotiating mid-stream. Sellers plan their finances, moves and  – to some extent – their lives around the purchase price a buyer agrees to pay for their home.  If you get into contract to buy a home, find out during inspections that costly repairs need to be made, then propose a lower sale price, repair credit or even actual repairs to the seller, that’s sensible and fair.  But if you were aware that the property needed a lot of work before you made an offer on it, then you come back asking for beaucoup bucks’ worth of credit or price reductions midstream, expect the seller to cry foul.  And holding the seller up two weeks into the transaction because you caught a case of buyer’s remorse? Not cool, and not likely to foster the spirit of cooperation you may need to get your deal closed.

Sellers: avoid mid-stream price renegotiations by having a full set of inspection reports and repair bids at hand when you list your home. Buyers: try to avoid renegotiating the entire deal unless you get some major surprises at your inspections or inflating small repairs to try to justify a major price cut.

5. Misleading or setting the seller up.  Remember when we talked about buyer turn-offs?  Being misled by listing photos or very fluffy property descriptions was high on the list.  The same goes for sellers.Offering way over asking with the plan to hammer the seller for a reduction when the house doesn’t appraise at the purchase price?  #LAME  Making an as-is offer planning the whole time to come back and ask for every penny ante repair called out by the inspectors?  Lame squared.

Sellers:  If you get multiple offers and are tempted to take a sky-high one or one that claims to be all cash, consider requesting proof that the buyer has sufficient funds to make up the difference between what you think the home will appraise for and the actual sale price, and statements showing the cash truly exists.  Buyers: Don’t be lame. I’m not saying you have to tell the seller exactly what your top dollar is, but making offers with terms designed to intentionally mislead is really, really bad form – and can result in losing the home entirely if and when your bluff gets called.

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7 towns with holiday-themed names: Santa Claus, Ind., is on the list

By Erika Riggs

The average American city jump-starts the holiday season with the usual kind of merrymaking activities: tree-lighting festivals, the opening of ice skating rinks, and holiday concerts beckoning celebrants to get in the spirit.

But then there are cities and towns where the very name of the place conjures visions of sugar plum fairies, elves and reindeer 365 days a year. From Christmas Cove, Maine, to Saint Nicholas, Pa., and, of course, North Pole, Alaska, it’s hard not to adopt the yuletide glow.

Here’s a roundup of some of the most seasonally themed community names, and a sampling of their respective real estate.

North Pole, Alaska

Source: Wikipedia.com.

History: The naming of this northern town was no accident. According to a National Geographic profile on the tiny city, the town council renamed it North Pole in 1952 (from “Davis Homestead”), “hoping that toy manufacturers would come for the “Made in North Pole” bragging rights despite its inconvenience … as a manufacturing site.” No companies came for the manufacturing rights, so North Pole remains a bedroom community for nearby Fairbanks, which is located 14 miles away.

Holiday tradition: The North Pole’s claim to fame, of course, is its responsibility regarding children’s letters to Santa. Every year, North Pole middle and high school students respond to the letters that pour in.

North Pole home for sale:
Nhn Aaron Ave, North Pole, Alaska (below)
List price: $219,900

This recently constructed home sits in a newer North Pole subdivision with quick access to schools and shopping. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom home has 1,196 square feet of living space on nearly an acre-sized plot.

 

 

Rudolph, Wis.

Source: visitrudolphwi.org.

History: Although this Wisconsin dairy community was not inspired by the red-nosed reindeer, it has incorporated the fictional sleigh-leader in many seasonal festivities. The small town was actually named for the first male born in the community: Rudolph Hecox.

Holiday tradition: Like North Pole, Alaska, thousands of Christmas letters are sent to Rudolph each year. Other letters are directed through the village post office just to get the village’s sought-after Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer postmark. The town also features an illustration of Rudolph on all of its street signs.

Rudolph, Wis., home for sale:
5150 Stoney Brook Road, Rudolph, Wis. (below)
List price: $369,900

How about a Rudolph, Wis., home with a lot big enough to host a team of reindeer? This four-bedroom, three-bath home sits on an acre of lakefront land. The 4,400-square-foot home features a custom kitchen with granite countertops and high-end appliances, stone fireplaces, media room and sauna.

 

 

Santa Claus, Ind.

Source: virtualtourist.com.

History: The birthplace of good ol’ St. Nick? According to RoadsideAmerica.com, Santa Claus, Ind., was originally named Santa Fe and was asked by the postmaster in 1856 to change the name. At the time, the community apparently couldn’t think of anything other than Santa Claus. Today, the town completely capitalizes on its moniker with holiday-themed streets and St. Nick statues.

Holiday tradition: The post office is busy here, too, postmarking over a half-million holiday cards and processing about 10,000 letters from children.

Santa Claus home for sale:
918 S December 25, Santa Claus, Ind. (below)
For sale: $131,900

The newer-built home on the Santa Claus real estate market has three bedrooms, two bathrooms and 1,445 square feet of living space on a large, level lot. The one-story house has an open floor plan and spacious master bedroom with walk-in closet and attached bath.

 

 

Christmas, Fla.

Source: postcardfile.blogspot.com.

History: It’s an unusual community name, but this town’s history is rather basic. On Dec. 25, 1837, at the height of the Second Seminole Indian War, American troops built a fort 20 miles east of Orlando. They named it Fort Christmas, which was later adapted into the small town’s name.

Holiday tradition: The city celebrates all year long with an enormous lighted and decorated tree display. The town’s postal staff also works overtime each season postmarking holiday cards.
Christmas home for sale:

23524 Seneca Ridge Ct, Christmas, Fla. (below)
List price: $319,000

The four-bedroom, 3.5-bath home is a spacious ranch that sits on five acres and is a few miles southeast of nearby towns Chuluota and Oviedo. Built in 1988, the house has a large wraparound front porch, mudroom, and updated solar-heated pool.

 

 

Snowflake, Ariz.

Source: ci.snowflake.az.us.

History: You may not think snow when you picture Arizona, but this small town is nestled just north of the White Mountains and gets an occasional dusting. The town wasn’t named for the winter weather, but rather for its two founders: Erastus Snow and William Jordan Flake.

Holiday tradition: Twelve Days of Christmas that culminates in a grand parade where the city serves up to 1,000 cups of hot cocoa.

Snowflake home for sale
28 County Road 8572, Snowflake, Ariz. (below)
List price: $250,000

This brick colonial-style home is situated on a “mini ranch” with solar power and battery backup. Built in 1995, the home has five bedrooms, three bathrooms and 3,367 square feet of living space.

 

 

Bethlehem, Pa.

Source: travel.webshots.com.

History: Bethlehem, Pa., is by no means the only Bethlehem in the U.S. There are several scattered throughout the states, and nearly all are named for the ancient city in the Middle East.

Holiday tradition: The city wraps its downtown in 5,500 strands of lights every year — not as many as Clark Griswold (the lights-happy father portrayed by Chevy Chase in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”) but long enough to stretch two miles.

Bethlehem, Pa., house for sale:
1015 Stone Stack Dr., Bethlehem, Pa. (below)

Located in the “prestigious Saucon Fields” neighborhood, this Bethlehem home is a far cry from a hay-strewn manger. The stone and stucco home has three bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 2,562 square feet of living space and a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace.

 

 

Evergreen, Ala.

Source: Flickr/jimmywayne.

History: Like Evergreen, Colo.; Evergreen, Ala., was named for its greenery. The small town is located in central Alabama, about midway between Montgomery and Mobile.

Holiday tradition: In honor of the town’s name, Evergreen residents line their main street with more than 30 decorated trees for the duration of the season.

Evergreen house for sale:
10951 U.S. Hwy 31, Evergreen, Ala. (below)
List price: $122,000

Built in 1935, this three-bedroom, two-bath home has been remodeled and features refinished hardwood floors, crown moldings, and gas-log fireplace. A rear, screened-in porch looks out over a backyard pond.

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