https://chrissawyer.annie-mac.com/  or email 
Csawyer@annie-mac.com 

http://www.ctbbrealty.com/meet-the-team 
Email Joe@BBrealtyCT.com 

https://www.clovercrestmedia.com/closingtimepodcast

Homebuyer Bidding War Rate Drops to 2021 Low in September

59% of home offers faced competition in September, the lowest level in nine months, amid a seasonal housing-market slowdown and an uptick in mortgage rates. That’s down from a revised rate of 60.8% in August and a peak of 74.3% in April. September marked the fifth-straight month of declines, putting the bidding-war rate on par with the level seen a year earlier (58.3%).

Home Prices Rose Twice as Fast in Car-Dependent Neighborhoods as Transit-Accessible Areas During the Pandemic

Home prices in car-dependent areas are up 33% since before the pandemic versus 16% for transit-accessible neighborhoods, reflecting the rise in remote work and the declining importance of proximity to public transportation. 

It’s like a suburb tax.. 

Single Buyers Face Hurdles as Starter Homes Dwindle

The number of one-person households has doubled over the last four decades, but supply of entry-level housing is near a 50-year low.

Australian town is inundated with inquiries after offering free land to new residents

Quilpie, a town of 800 people, has received more than 250 inquiries for its housing program

The Quilpie Shire Council is offering a grant equivalent to $9,400 to anyone who buys land, builds a house there for less than $560,000 and lives in it for at least six months. Quarter-acre blocks of land sell for about $9,400, so the land is effectively free, although only Australias or permanent residents are eligible.

“The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hit a record 3.29 percent this week, the lowest level in its nearly 50-year history,” Freddie Mac Chief Economist Sam Khater said in a statement. “Meanwhile, mortgage applications increased 10 percent last week from one year ago and show no signs of slowing down.”

How to turn past clients into repeat business

According to the 2020 NAR Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends report, 75 percent of buyers and 73 percent of sellers said they would definitely use their real estate agent again or recommend to others. This is why it’s the responsibility of agents to stay memorable to their clients, and why they should make that a priority.

1. Remember holidays

Holidays are an excellent way to keep in touch with your past clients and remind them that you’re still around. Sending out a cute, handmade holiday card, or even a box of chocolates, helps remind the client that you’re looking out for them, and that you’re keeping them in mind. Once the time rolls around for them to move out, they will feel familiar and more willing to work with you.

2. Make social media your best friend

We are so blessed to be living in an age where we can brand ourselves and curate a target audience that can keep up with what we’re doing every day. You should use this to your advantage in your business. Social media can become a way for your clients to see how your business is unraveling. Plus, they can keep in contact with you right from their pockets.

3. Take advantage of the CRM

Keeping track of all your clients can become tedious. It requires a lot of effort and dedication to keep all of your data in order. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a true blessing for real estate agents. Not only does this automated marketing tool help you stay organized, it also reminds you when to interact and stay up to date with your clients.

4. Have fun with your career

If you interact and close with clients in a transaction style and restart from scratch after every year, you will just end up losing morale and motivation in your career. A huge part of being a real estate agent is building interpersonal relationships; this is how you get your strongest form of clients (return and referral). If you treat being a real estate agent like a job, it will feel like — a job. If you treat it like a career, you will be able to grow and become very successful.

Barbara Corcoran loses almost $400K in phishing scam

“Shark Tank' star and founder of The Corcoran Group, Barbara Corcoran lost money after approving a fraudulent money transfer. She's just the latest victim in a growing trend..

Corcoran’s experience highlights the growing and high-stakes threats posed by scams, which typically involve an email that looks legitimate but in fact dupes the victim into wiring money to a thief. The incident also reveals how no one, even famous people, are immune.

In Corcoran’s case, she is likely to emerge from the scam fairly unscathed. After founding the Corcoran Group in 1973 with just $1,000, she went on to sell it to Realogy in 2001 for, according to The Wall Street Journal, $66 million.

Corcoran subsequently went on to appear as an investor in nine seasons of the TV show Shark Tank, and today her net worth is estimated to be $80 million.

But not everyone who falls victim to similar scams is so fortunate.

In one recent high-profile incident, a California couple lost more than $700,000 after following wiring instructions in a fraudulent email that appeared to come from their real estate agent.

Another incident in 2018 resulted in an Oregon man losing $122,850 — money he and his family had saved for a down payment — to a similar scam

Analysts have said that real estate makes an especially tempting target for scammers because it involves high-dollar transactions that often have online components. And last year, the Federal Consumer Protection Bureau (FCPB) warned that phishing scams rose a staggering 1,100 percent between 2015 and 2017.

Broker dresses up as Joker clown in marketing video

Broker AJ Powers put on face paint and a clown suit to show why so many agents fail not long after joining the industry.

Powers released a 10-minute video in which he dresses up as a clown before transitioning into a successful real estate agent in a marketing video. He owns real estate firm Powers Premiere and leads a series of agent mentorship programs, for which this video is a recruitment tool.

The idea, California-based Powers told Inman, was to show a number of mistakes new agents make when first joining the industry — not dedicating themselves to the job, squeezing in open houses between other projects and expecting to start bringing in money without doing any training or learning anything about the industry.

The point he wanted to make is that you have to be serious and stop clowning around with your real estate career..

Zillow beats back one lawsuit, but can't shake another

Real estate giant Zillow has beaten back an antitrust lawsuit regarding its Zestimates, but continues to fight another lawsuit stemming from its agent-lender co-marketing program.

The first was brought in 2018 by New Jersey-based company EJ MGT which owns 142 Hoover Drive, an 18,000 square-foot, seven-bedroom, 10-bathroom home in Cresskill, New Jersey. The company blamed the home’s failure to sell on buyers being turned off by the Zestimate on the property’s detail page on Zillow.com, which put the property’s value at less than half of the listing price: $3.7 million (Zestimate) vs. $7.8 million (list price).

In a separate case, the court rejected Zillow’s bid to toss a lawsuit from a group of shareholders that alleged Zillow senior staff and its board of directors failed to protect the company properly while allowing it to violate a federal anti-kickback law through its agent-lender co-marketing program and made misleading statements about the program’s compliance.

The case is related to class-action securities fraud suits brought by shareholders against Zillow in August and September 2017 after the company divulged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had been investigating its co-marketing program for the previous two years for compliance with the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA).

Spencer Rascoff, a co-founder and the former CEO of Zillow Group listed his Brentwood Park, Los Angeles home for $24 million on Thursday, which is nearly $8 million more than the Zestimate, Zillow’s often-maligned automated valuation mod...

How to avoid overpricing properties in a shifting market

According to the 2019 NAR profile of home buyers and sellers, 40 percent of sellers had to reduce their price at least once. If prices have already peaked in your market and have now started to decline, an even greater number of sellers will be reducing their listing prices in the very near future.

signs prices have peaked

In addition to an increase in inventory, what are the other tell-tale signs that your market has peaked?

• Multiple offers disappear
• Days on market increase
• Price reductions increase
• The number of expired listings increases
• Builders start offering incentives

A major challenge in declining markets? Comparable sales

If you’re seeing any of the early warning signs above, there’s another danger lurking ahead: If prices have begun to decline, the comparable sales you’re using to price the property may be too high.

Convincing sellers prices are decreasing

This may be one of the most difficult challenges in the business. One strategy that works extremely well with most sellers, including CPAs, attorneys and banks, is to select the appropriate comparable sales for the last six months and then calculate the average price per square foot for those properties that closed during that time period.

Overcoming ‘We can always wait!’

Even if you employ all of these approaches, some sellers will tell you, “We’ll wait until the market gets better.” To overcome this objection, show them the cost of waiting.

Prepare now

If your market has begun to slow down, mastering the declining market conversation is critical. Start preparing now so you’ll be ready if and when one of your high-end listings, or your whole market, slips into down market territory.

Keller Williams to end lifelong profit share program for defectors

A group of top Keller Williams earners, market center owners and regional leaders have gotten their way: As of April 1, 2020, KW associates that jump ship to a competitor will no longer be able to receive profit shares from the company’s lifelong revenue program.

The policy is not retroactive and will only apply to associates that join on or after April 1.

Keller Williams’ International Associate Leadership Council (IALC) made the change Feb. 15 at the franchiser's Family Reunion conference in Dallas, Texas. The council also increased the profit sharing vesting period, which is how long a KW associate has to be with the company before lifetime profit share benefits are unconditionally bestowed, to seven consecutive years, up from three consecutive years.

The policy changes are mandatory and must be implemented by April 1

The changes seem to be the result of efforts made by a group of top KW earners last year to change the profit share program to limit it to associates that remain with Keller Williams.

Keller Williams declined to comment on the rationale behind the changes and on whether they would affect agent recruiting. The company has 159,372 agents in the U.S. and Canada and a total of 169,317 agents worldwide, as of Dec. 31, 2019. The company has lost agents in four consecutive months.

7 facts about FHA loans you should know

 1. Homeowners don’t have to pay FHA mortgage insurance forever.

 FHA’s “life of the loan” policy on mortgage insurance is one of its most unpopular features. Many first-time buyers shy away from FHA when they learn that FHA requires them to keep their FHA mortgage insurance as long as they have an FHA mortgage.  

2. You can qualify for an FHA mortgage only two years after a bankruptcy and three years after a foreclosure.

In line with its mandate to provide mortgage credit to under-served populations, FHA is more lenient than many conventional lenders on giving qualified borrowers a second chance after foreclosures and bankruptcies. 

3. You can get an FHA mortgage with a much lower credit score than a conventional mortgage.

Borrowers with credit scores as low as 580 can qualify for FHA financing with 3.5 percent down. Scores between 500 and 580 can be eligible for mortgages with 10 percent down.

4. FHA loans usually have lower interest rates than conventional loans.

There’s no guarantee that FHA-approved lenders will give you a better rate on an FHA loan than a conventional one, but they usually do. 

5. FHA is not for everyone. Investment properties, second homes and higher-end homes don’t qualify.

FHA will not finance second homes, vacation homes, investment properties, or flips (a property purchased within 90 days of a prior sale.)  Properties must be primary residences where owners live for the majority of the year. The FHA requires that a buyer moves into the property within 60 days of closing.

6. FHA is kind to debt limits but tough on deferred student loan debt.

Lenders assess a borrower’s ability to handle a mortgage by the debt-to-income ratio.  The “front-end” ratio looks at housing-related debts only (monthly mortgage payments, property taxes, etc.). The “back-end” number takes all recurring monthly debts into account. This can include the mortgage payment, credit cards, car loans, etc. 

The current (2019) limits for FHA debt-to-income ratios are 31 percent for housing-related debt (mortgage, property taxes), and 43 percent for total debt or less. In December 2019 the actual average DTI for FHA purchase loans was 28 percent front-end and 44 percent back-end. For conventional purchase loans, the DTI average wasmuch lower, at 23 percent for housing expenses and 36 percent for all monthly debt payments .

7. If you have a good credit score, you will pay more for FHA mortgage insurance than private mortgage insurance. 

A study last year by...

Transactions involving divorcing couples can take longer than “traditional” real estate deals due to the legal complexities of what is required in a marriage dissolution suit and the time it takes for the parties to decide on various matters concerning their real property.

You must be patient if you take on a divorcing party. You will also need to show compassion toward them as this is probably one of the most, if not the most, difficult times in their lives.

Divorce transactions take additional skills and know-how, as no two deals are alike. Each phase of the listing period and the time between contract and close can be time-consuming and exhausting, sometimes due to unexpected drama or one or both of the parties’ attorneys delaying the closing.

Here are six tips I would encourage every real estate professional to use when working with clients who are, or soon will be, in the process of a divorce:

1. Communicate with the divorce attorneys

2. Recognize that emotion is driving a lot of the decision-making
I have yet to be involved in

3. Keep the process professional and on track

4. Set the list price
In a divorce listing, it is critical everyone agrees on a list price. 

5. Communicate with all parties on a regular basis
During the listing and contract-to-close periods, it is critical you communicate with both parties on a regular basis

6. Remain neutral
Finally, and perhaps, most importantly, when working with divorcing sellers, remain impartial at all times.

One of the parties may try to vent to you about the other one doing or not doing something, but you must never take sides. You should never state how you feel or offer any advice outside of your real estate expertise.

Coldwell Banker to waive franchise fees in bid to boost diversity

In a major new effort to increase diversity among its ranks, Coldwell Banker announced that it will waive franchise fees and give other financial support to would-be franchise owners who self-identify as minorities.

The new offering — dubbed the Coldwell Banker Diversity in Ownership Program — is available now to any real estate professionals who identify as racial or ethnic minorities, as well as women, military veterans and agents who identify as LGBT. Members of those groups can apply for the program and, once accepted, will be able to start a Coldwell Banker franchise without paying the normal $25,000 franchise fee.

Additionally, program participants will get up to $100,000 in funding support from Coldwell Banker, receive mentoring opportunities, two years of royalty fee rebates, and complimentary membership in various industry organizations such as the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) and the National Association of Gay and Lesbian Real Estate Professionals (NAGLREP).

Ring captures open house burglary

A Ring camera captured a burglary at an open house now being investigated by police in Summerlin, Nevada.
An agent was showing the home on South Hualapai Way and West Sunset Road when six suspects entered the home briefly before walking out around 3 p.m., according to the Las Vegas Review Journal. Later, four of the suspects returned, with one distracting the agent as the others ran upstairs into a master bedroom.
The agent followed the suspects and reported seeing a man with a bag of designer items and, after seeing the agent, dropping some of the contents of the bag and running off with about $4,000 to $5,000 worth of property.

Open houses have been home to numerous burglaries and attacks over the years. Real estate safety experts recommend removing any cash or valuables and, especially for agents, never being in a home alone during an open house.

'How rude': Original 'Full House' home gets $500K price cut
Originally listed for $5.999M, the San Francisco Victorian home used to tape the iconic family sitcom is now up for sale for $5.499M.

The Tanner family home is not proving to be an easy sale.

After nearly a year on the market, the San Francisco Victorian home used to taped the iconic family sitcom has been cut down by $500,000. Originally listed for $5.999 million, it is now up for sale for $5.499 million.

The home, located at 1709 Broderick Street, was built in 1883 by Charles Hinkel Lewis. It exemplifies the type of Victoria Italianate home that has now come to be synonymous with San Francisco architecture — three stories, bay windows and a flat front of light walls.

Rachel Swann of The Agency is the listing agent representing the property. It is currently owned by “Full House” creator Jeff Franklin, who bought it for $4 million in 2016, and had originally planned to turn it into an homage to “Full House” fans — he even went so far as to paint the front door back to the red it was during the filming of the show.

‘Right to Housing’ gains traction among top legislators heading into the session

There are about 3,000 homeless people who live in Connecticut. With that number in mind, legislators and advocates rallied around housing reforms – dubbed “Right to Housing” changes – to reduce homelessness, bring down housing costs and confront housing segregation.

It’s an effort to ensure that every resident has access to housing in one of the most expensive places in the country to live.

“Right to Housing” is not a new concept worldwide – France, Scotland and South Africa have such protections in place, But Connecticut, which has some of the most expensive housing stock in the country, is one of the first states to consider such a push.

Specifics of what that agenda will look like are a work in progress. But initiatives embraced by the Democratic legislators include making it easier for lower-income residents to purchase homes, putting tenant protections in place to reduce eviction rates, building more affordable housing and making some state aid contingent on well-off communities allowing more affordable housing construction.

The chairs of the Housing Committee on called the governor’s approach a decent one, but not enough by itself. It’s a good start.

A healthy and expanding economy ripe for explosion

According to Brad Inman, the real estate industry is ripe for explosive growth and drastic transformation as an expanding economy, robust housing market and a second wave of technology innovation pushes members and consumers of the industry to adopt new modes of home buying and selling.

Expanding economy

Despite past worries about an impending recession, Inman said the economy is healthy and expanding — 120 million Americans have jobs, unemployment has dropped to historical lows, Americans’ average net worth is growing, and 150,000 to 200,000 jobs are being created each month.

A robust housing market

Inman said 2020 will be more steady with sales expected to increase to 5.5 million by year’s end. In addition to bolstered home sales, the total value of the residential housing market will continue to rise.

A second wave of tech innovation

Inman says, “For 25 years, the technology boom in real estate centered around the marketplace of the MLS and broker compact and building productivity tools,” “That was phase one, and we’re moving into phase two, and creating a second marketplace, called the The iMarketplace.”

Agents' margins 'at risk' as real estate industry evolves: Ron Peltier

HomeServices of America executive chairman Ron Peltier urged real estate professionals to focus on the customer experience if they want to survive a changing industry.

Real estate’s evolution in recent years has placed agents’ profits “at risk,” one industry leader argued, explaining that they need to evolve into more comprehensive service providers who focus on customer experience.

Real estate professionals who want to defend their margins need to think of the transaction as “just the beginning of the homeownership experience.” If they want to succeed in the business, then, they should work to become a point of contact for their clients other needs.

I don’t think anyone who isn’t successful hasn’t figured that out yet..

Ever wonder exactly what to say? Here’s the scoop

Top producers know what to say, how to say it and when to say it. In the book, “Exactly what time say for real estate agents” they explain how certain “magic words talk straight to the subconscious brain.”

these words circumvent “maybes” by creating “yes” and “no” answers, they enable your clients to make decisions without over-analyzing them. 

When you offer someone the chance to object, they almost never pass it up.

Questions are important because:

• They start conversations. 
• Conversations build relationships.
• Relationships create opportunities.
• Opportunities lead to decisions. 

Consequently, the secret of sales success, as well as communicating more effectively in any situation, is asking better questions. 

Family hit with $100K HOA suit due to playscape for terminally ill son
It’s January 24th, and we might have already found the worst person of 2020.. Neighbors sued the family of a terminally ill boy... for allegedly violating homeowner's association restrictions on his playscape.
The Costa family of Georgetown Texas has a 3 year old son named Colton, who was born with Hurler’s syndrome, which is a terminal genetic disorder of the cells, tissue and organs.After getting the diagnosis, mom and dad let him pick out the biggest playscape with the most slides.
But the Costas are now being sued by the Gottleib family for violating the Homeowner’s Association restrictions, because the playscape is 14 feet tall, and cannot be screened from view. In the lawsuit, the Gottleibs are seeking $100,000 (an amount they clarified was required by the state in order to file suit), the cost of legal fees and for the playscape to be torn down or brought to codeColtons mom says “statistics say he shouldn’t live past his twenties,” but an active lifestyle may aid in slowing the progression of the disease.
The Building Committee said that the Costas did submit plans for the playscape in accordance with their protocols, but declined to comment on whether or not the plans had been approved before the Costas began constructing the playscape because of the impending lawsuit.
Despite friction from the Gottliebs, the Costas’ nice neighbors showed their support by placing pink foam hearts with supportive messages inscribed on them on the Costas’ lawn.

Italian town is selling dozens of $1 homes
Bisaccia, a picturesque destination in Italy's southern Campania region, is putting 90 dilapidated buildings on the market for just one euro, joining other towns across Italy trying to save dying communities by incentivizing people to move there.
Unlike other towns and villages offering deals for people committing to one-off renovations, Bisaccia's officials say its tightly clustered architecture lends itself to more communal projects.
As is usual with Italian bargain home offers, buyers are expected to commit to renovating their newly acquired properties, but unlike in other towns, there's no stated investment level or time frame to complete the work.

'Oh god let's leave': Serial killer's 'torture basement' horrifies agent
Stewart Weldon is awaiting trial for allegedly killing 3 women. His former Massachusetts home is for sale, and this week, it traumatized a couple who visited the home with an agent
The house is in Springfield, Mass and you can see it in Zillow, which describes the 1,026-square-foot property as “cozy,” “well cared for,” and a “great house for first time buyers.” It has two bedrooms, one bath and the asking price is $137,500.
What the listing doesn’t mention is that it is also the former home of accused killer Stewart Weldon, who was arrested by police in May 2018 after he fled from an officer who tried to pull him over for a busted tail light. When the cops caught up to him, they found a woman in his back seat who said she had been tortured and beaten in the home. Terrible story. 
The would-be buyers wondered aloud to their agent why a basement would need soundproofing, and that’s when the agent reportedly replied “oh god let’s leave, I know why this house is still on the market,” and got the couple out of the home.
The agent then apparently explained the issue and apologized, but the experience of viewing Weldon’s former home appears to have left the would-be buyers traumatized.
It’s listed well below market value and is obviously still available. 
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Troy Palmquist, who is licensed in 4 states and a broker in 3, wrote a great piece about agent extinction and how to avoid it. He says No robot, algorithm or flashy new platform can replace good, old-fashioned, human interaction. It’s that plain and simple. But it’s up to us to ensure we don’t get left behind.

Be the best you can be. It’s crucial to continually take the steps to become as highly skilled and highly trained as you can. Know your markets backward and forward.

Know your clients’ needs backwards and forwards. Be like a fighter pilot: You need to use your heightened situational awareness, knowledge, networking and multitasking skills at full throttle during every transaction. He does a whole Top Gun thing for us Gen Xers.. It's a great piece, the lesson to learn is that technology is transforming every industry including ours and we need to stay sharp to survive. Nurture your sphere of influence, and master your CRM.

New text and email 'gift card' scam targets agents directly

Real estate con artists are impersonating popular real estate agents online and then asking their colleagues to purchase gift cards on their behalf. We've seen these sent in our own broker's name since last summer, but Arkansas Attorney General released a report about a new wave of these scammers going after Realtors. The fraudsters will seek to gain your trust by impersonating popular agents or brokers online. 

Through emails and texts, the conmen will reach out to that agents colleagues listed on the website with requests to purchase gift cards worth hundreds of dollars — some have even gone so far as to say that they were “closing gifts for clients” and that would be paid back by the brokerage. The Arkansas state report has also seen scammers target agents and homebuyers with emails telling them that their payment method has suddenly changed.

The original 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' house is taking in visitors

The spooky, Victorian house that was used in the original “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is inviting fans to an overnight screening of the film. The property is in Kingland Texas, and is the setting for the Sawyer family to carry out its cannibalistic attack on the lost hitchhikers. March 29th and 30th, you can join horror actor Kenny Caperton for the scariest sleepover of your life. Caperton, by the way, owns a life-sized replica of the Mike Myers house, so it will be worth the price of admission. Visitors will sleep on air mattresses, view the film, enjoy a barbecue and play trivia and board games with a horror theme. Tickets range from $350 to $400.  https://www.myershousenc.com/onsetcinema

John Travolta sells Los Angeles estate to record exec Scooter Braun    

Actor John Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston sold their longtime Los Angeles family home to record executive Scooter Braun for $18 million. The Los Angeles Times reported that it was an off-market deal. That is not uncommon when it comes to celebrities and millionaires. 

The 2.35-acre Brentwood estate was built in 1949, has a 9,100-square-foot main house, a guardhouse, two garages, a tennis court and a swimming pool. It had been the couple’s family home since the 1990s, the two-story main residence has 10 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and views of Laurel Canyon.

Braun also owns the compound next door.. and while he might not be a household name, his record company, RBMG Records, counts Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande among its clients... 

It is so important to meet your client for the first time at the office. 

Have a buyer consult in your office.. with other agents present.. Instead of just getting a random call and meeting in an empty house with no electricity. 

Most of the time these things are random, but I’d someone were targeting you, this would be the easiest way to do it. So treat every appointment the same way. Cautiously. 

A real estate portal's path to market power: a Zillow case study

https://www.inman.com/2020/01/07/a-real-estate-portals-path-to-market-power-a-zillow-case-study/

Zillow’s drive to dominance in the greater New York City real estate market thru rental listings and its hyperlocal Hamptons portal — reveals the path to market power of real estate portals around the world.

All real estate portals follow a simple formula for national domination: acquire listings, build consumer traffic and monetize.  

Building a huge consumer audience and achieving traffic dominance, which takes a long time, is the critical step. After that step comes power: The power to monetize, the power to push out competition and the power to force adoption of your platform by recalcitrant customers.

Zillow’s new pay-per-listing subscription to a free model for agents is a step backward in its monetization journey. But its more of a tactical retreat designed to give the a a long-term, strategic advantage.. by allowing agents to post new listings directly — for free — Zillow will circumvent brokerages and handicap their portal.

What the 2020 presidential candidates are saying about housing

https://www.inman.com/2020/01/07/what-the-2020-presidential-candidates-are-saying-about-housing/?utm_source=property&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=property&utm_content=image1_20200107

Housing hasn't been a real focus for the Democratic contenders, but that hasn't stopped some candidates from releasing comprehensive housing plans.

President Donald Trump, who will be running for a second term in 2020, is in favor of fewer regulations, an easier permitting process for building and, at least verbally, lower property tax bills.

The Trump administration has also taken aim at reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and weakened tenant discrimination protections. 

Bernie Sanders

Sanders unveiled a “housing for all plan,” to build 10 million permanently affordable housing units at a $2.5 trillion price tag. He also calls for national rent control, stricter tenant protections and a strengthening of the Fair Housing Act.

Sanders plans to impose a 25 percent tax – being called a ‘House Flipping Tax’ – on speculators who sell a non-owner-occupied property, if that property is sold for more than it was purchased within five years of purchase.

Elizabeth Warren

Warren introduced the American Housing and Mobility Act which aims to close the supply-demand imbalance by 2028, add 1.5 million new jobs to the market, and decrease rents for low-and-middle-income families by 10 percent — all without a long-term deficit impact.

Warren wants to institute a grant program to rebuild infrastructure, invest in bolstering affordable housing stock and help buyers still with negative equity from the housing crisis.

To cover the expected $500 billion cost of the bill, Warren would return the estate tax thresholds that were in place at the end of the George W. Bush administration and institute, “more progressive rates,” about those thresholds, which she says will only affect roughly 10,000 of the wealthiest families in the country.

Joe Biden

Biden’s website mostly stays away from focusing on housing issues, but in the criminal justice reform section, Biden unveiled a plan to, “set a national goal of ensuring 100 percent of formerly incarcerated individuals have housing upon reentry.”

Pete Buttigieg

As part of his “Economic Agenda for American Families,” Buttigieg plans to invest $430 billion, to “unlock access to affordable housing.” Buttigieg said his plan would increase the supply of affordable housing, and work to address zoning laws to make it easier to build housing.

He also plans to introduce a Community Homestead Act – which would, “launch a public trust that would purchase abandoned properties and provide them to eligible residents in pilot cities while simultaneously investing in the revitalization of surrounding communities.”

Buttigieg also wants to expand tenant protections against evictions and harassment.

Amy Klobuchar

Klobuchar introduced a comprehensive housing plan based after the Saving for the Future Act. 

Klobuchar plans to undo the Trump administration’s changes to the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing and also plans to reinstate the Office of Fair Lending and Opportunity’s enforcement and oversight powers.

Kloubacher’s comprehensive housing plans also include strategies to address the rural housing crisis, help seniors age in place, increase access to affordable housing and encourage investment in distressed communities

Klobuchar plans to raise the capital gains rate to the income tax rate for households with an annual income of over $400,000 and raise the corporate tax rate to 25 percent.

Cory Booker

Booker’s housing plan includes a renters credit to cap rental costs at 30 percent of income for certain Americans,  the construction of new affordable units, a reform to zoning laws and the introduction of “baby bonds,” or a $1,000 savings bond for every child.

How Wealthy Towns Keep People With Housing Vouchers Out

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-wealthy-towns-keep-people-with-housing-vouchers-out

Section 8 vouchers are meant to give low-income people the opportunity to live outside poor communities. But discriminatory landlords, exclusionary zoni...

The policy requires agents to put any listing they're advertising into the MLS and comes at a time of growing concern over off-market listings

The new policy gives members of Bright MLS, which has about 95,000 members in the Mid-Atlantic region, a day to post their listings “following consumer marketing of any kind,” according to a statement from the trade group. Marketing is defined as everything from flyers to yard signs to digital marketing on public websites to emails and more.

The new policy goes into effect today, though Bright MLS won’t start fining agents for violations until Dec. 1. After that time, the penalty for breaking the rule is a steep $5,000.

The new policy comes amid growing concern in the real estate industry over listings that remain off-market for either part or all of their lifespan. Such properties are sometimes referred to as “pocket listings” and in many cases eventually go public after an initial period of exclusivity. But they have nevertheless sparked an ongoing debate about competition and transparency within the industry.

MLS Clear Cooperation Policy

Recommendation: To adopt the following policy as new MLS Statement 8.0, NAR Handbook on Multiple Listing Policy:

Within one (1) business day of marketing a property to the public, the listing broker must submit the listing to the MLS for cooperation with other MLS participants. Public marketing includes, but is not limited to, flyers displayed in windows, yard signs, digital marketing on public facing websites, brokerage website displays (including IDX and VOW), digital communications marketing (email blasts), multi-brokerage listing sharing networks, and applications available to the general public.

[updated 11/11/19]

Rationale: Distribution of listing information and cooperation among MLS participants is pro-competitive and pro-consumer. By joining an MLS, participants agree to cooperate with other MLS participants except when such cooperation is not in their client's interests. This policy is intended to bolster cooperation and advance the positive, procompetitive impacts that cooperation fosters for consumers. The public marketing of a listing indicates that the MLS Participant has concluded that cooperation with other MLS participants is in their client’s interests.

Tiny Houses, Tiny Crowd ...  Big Solution?

Katherine McComic has a “tiny” solution for New Haven’s affordable housing crisis: 100-square-foot-plus abodes built atop city-owned vacant lots that the municipal zoning code currently deems too small for construction.

McComic, a Quinnipiac University law student, former intern with the city’s Economic Development Administration, and former pop-up cafe entrepreneur, is working with city Deputy Director of Zoning Jenna Montesano to figure out how best to amend the city’s zoning code to allow for the development of such “tiny houses” in New Haven.

The goal: To diversify the city’s housing stock and increase the supply of low-cost, low-rent lodgings citywide.

Connecticut Is Considering Adopting Appendix Q

The State Building Inspector, State Fire Marshal and the Codes and Standards Committee announce intent to adopt the 2020 State Building and Fire Safety Codes based on the 2018 editions of the International Code Council (ICC) documents.  Technical review of these codes will be conducted by the Committee’s Codes Amendment Subcommittee (CAS) along with DAS staff.  This review will begin April 2019 and is planned to be completed August 2019.

Appendix Q: Tiny Homes On A Foundation

Appendix Q-Adopted into the 2018 International Residential Code ( IRC ) building code to provide regulations and standards for tiny homes on a foundation that is 400 square feet or less

Appendix Q relaxes various requirements in the body of the code as they apply to tiny houses that are 400 square feet or less.

Attention is specifically paid to features such as compact stairs, including hand rails and headroom, ladders, reduced ceiling heights in lofts and guard and emergency escape and rescue opening requirements of lofts.

The International Residential Code is a comprehensive, stand alone residential code that creates minimum regulations for one-and two family dwellings of three stories or less.

Owners pull sex dungeon home off market, pivot to BDSM rental

The owners of a notorious Pennsylvania home that went viral earlier this year after pictures of its basement sex dungeon were posted on Redfin and Zillow have pulled the property off the market and turned it into a erotic retreat.

In February, Coldwell Banker agent Melissa Leonard listed the Colonial-style home in the Philadelphia suburb of Maple Glen for $750,000. She put up photos of the house as well as its most interesting feature — a basement decked out with whips, chains and all things worthy of a “50 Shades of Gray” film set. While gaining a lot of attention, the photos of the dungeon were soon flagged as “inappropriate content” and pulled from Zillow and Redfin.

The owner told realtor.com that weekends in the property are fully booked through the retreat rental company Maison XS for the next six months.

The scam involves an email that includes a subject line inviting people to “Register for the 2019 REALTORS Conference.” However, the email is in fact a fake from a Comcast address, though it “displays as if it was from NAR,” according to a statement from NAR. 

Any real estate professionals who have received the email should take a screenshot of it and report it the FBI. NAR has also already alerted the FBI about the message. 

Following tech peers, Facebook pledges $1B to affordable housing
https://www.inman.com/2019/10/23/following-tech-peers-facebook-pledges-1b-to-affordable-housing/  
Facebook has become the latest tech behemoth to pledge a boatload of cash to affordable housing, matching Google’s commitment of $1 billion — which itself had one-upped Microsoft’s trailblazing pledge of $500 million.
Facebook estimates its funding will generate up to 20,000 units, much of it catering to housing middle-class workers near the firm’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California.
$250 million of the funds are earmarked for a special partnership with the California governor’s administration, in which the state will essentially donate publicly-owned land to developers.
These donations have coincided with new promises from business leaders in other industries to give more consideration to communities, workers and suppliers — rather than principally to shareholders. 
 

Growing number of homeowners feel 'house rich and cash poor'
https://www.inman.com/2019/10/23/growing-number-of-homeowners-feel-house-rich-and-cash-poor/  
Home Ownership is the American Dream and the way to establish wealth, but a new study published by HomeTap on  revealed that the majority of homeowners feel “house rich and cash poor,” which added stress about their ability to maintain a household and build generational wealth.

The study showed more than 70 percent of homeowners feel “house rich and cash poor” some of the time, due to stagnant wage growth that fails to keep up with the rising cost of living. 

Despite the fact  more than 60 percent of homeowners have low mortgage rates and $10,000 to $50,000 in home equity (28 percent), the majority feel they have no good options to turn equity into cash. American's aren't smart about money and investing. 

Sixty-one percent of homeowners said they could apply for a loan or sell their home to access equity, but preferred not to.

26 percent of homeowners said they’d be willing to apply for a HELOC (home equity line of credit) or sell their current home. There are people who want to sell their home and are just waiting for someone to ask. 

Johnson & Johnson issues recall for baby powder after asbestos detected
https://www.wfsb.com/news/johnson-johnson-issues-recall-for-baby-powder-after-asbestos-detected/article_733aa85c-f1b6-11e9-b632-6732d44b7dd9.html?fbclid=IwAR2Oi475kjc_V_OB_UBmujX-cM8umMZ4pwl6yUFpNjcm1MYot4zwQzGYhaU  
Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. is issuing a voluntary recall for some of its baby powder after traces of asbestos were detected.

The company said the recall is for a single lot of its Johnson's Baby Powder in response to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) test indicating the presence of sub-trace levels of chryso-tile asbestos contamination (no greater than 0.00002%) in samples from a single bottle purchased from an online retailer.

Despite the low levels, the company is still issuing the voluntary recall for Lot #22318RB of Johnson's Baby Powder, from which the tested sample was taken.

If you come across a bottle of Johnson's Baby Powder Lot #22318RB, you are advised to discontinue use of the product, for obvious reasons. For refund information, contact the Johnson & Johnson Consumer Care Center at www.johnsonsbaby.com or by calling (866) 565-2229.

47 Skills You Need to Survive Homeownership
https://www.thisoldhouse.com/ideas/47-skills-you-need-to-survive-homeownership?fbclid=IwAR3tAgyp0vjkJ8KppUsxR0ujAqEeYQeu2SnhKmqv0bu0fkftx_HdTsq8WQo  
Don't get caught with your toolbelt down—learn these techniques and tackle any household emergency with ease.. from this Old House.. Here are the ones I've needed. 
1. Fix a Leaky Faucet
3. Dig a Hole
4. Locate a Stud
7. Unclog a Sink
11. Remove a Stripped Screw
12. Avoid Stripping a Screw
14. Drill Through Tile Without Cracking It
15. Hardwire a Light Fixture
16. Pick an Interior Lock
20. Know Which Breaker to Turn Off
24. Hang Heavy Objects on Drywall
34. Secure a Loose Screw
38. Stop an Overflowing Toilet
39. Pick Up a Big Paint Spill on Carpet

Pulse: 5 ways to respond to 'You haven't sold any houses in our area'
https://www.inman.com/2019/10/22/pulse-15-ways-to-respond-to-you-havent-sold-any-houses-in-our-area/  
My system still works
I really, really know what I’m doing
I know this area from buyer clients
I have the data
I have expertise to draw on — from others

Realogy announced that it has launched a new benefits program that will give agents access to things like health insurance at rates that the company manages to negotiate down due to its massive size.

The program is called Spark and, according to a company statement, will give agents access to “individual healthcare, disability insurance, life insurance, auto and home insurance, identity theft protection, human resources solutions, workers’ compensation insurance and commercial property or building insurance.”

iBuyers would suffer under Bernie Sanders' housing plan 

The senator's proposed anti-home-flipping and vacant-home taxes could strain the likes of Opendoor, Offerpad and Zillow Offers.

Sanders’ “house flipping” tax would throw sand into the gears of the iBuyer business model. It imposes a 25 percent tax “on speculators who sell a non-owner occupied property if sold for more than it was purchased for within five years of the purchase.”

Since iBuyers resell most of their homes within weeks or months they would presumably have to pay this tax on their resales.

The plan’s 2 percent “empty homes” tax could also have a negative impact on iBuyers. But that would depend on how long a home would have to be vacant to be subject to it.

His plan would cap annual rent increases at 3 percent or 1.5 percent above the inflation rate.

NAR believes the plan “will harm — not help — our nation’s affordable housing crisis, primarily by deterring landlords from maintaining existing housing stock.”

Sanders’ plan does call for building affordable homes — close to 10 million — but presumably not through NAR’s preferred means.

Other features of Sanders’ plan include:

• $410 billion in rental assistance
• $50 billion for local governments to set up community land trusts to allow 1 million people to buy “shared equity” homes at below-market rates in perpetuity.
• $32 billion to eliminate homelessness
• Boosted enforcement of bans on predatory and discriminatory lending
• A stop to the sale of mortgages to “vulture funds”
• And stepped-up scrutiny and regulation of corporate landlords.

5 telltale signs a property is a tough sell

1. Look for price drops and a high number of days on market: Unsellable properties usually hide among the listings that have been posted a while ago and the ones that have had a significant and dramatic price drop.
2. Pay attention to homes with too many digitally staged photos: You don’t want to know what the owners are hiding. It could be anything from the lack of storage space to serious plumbing issues.
3. Avoid listings with mentions of third parties: You don’t know if it’s a short sale or how long it will take to close the deal with many parties involved. And you don’t have the time to find out.
4. Watch for too many trees around the property: This can turn out to be a buyer’s nightmare not only because getting rid of them can be pricy, but also if they can’t because of TPO (tree prevention order).
5. Steer clear of prefab homes: Prefabricated or prefab homes, as well as steel-, timber- and concrete-framed houses, can turn into financial black holes.

6 things a technology ecosystem should do for real estate professionals

Ecosystems are comprised of countless different parts that exist independently of one another, and yet interact with each other symbiotically to keep the entire environment healthy, productive, alive.

Shouldn’t real estate be like that, as well?

1. Simple transactions for agents and consumers
2. Easy collaboration between agents and the office
3. Actionable insight into revenue-generating activities
4. Unheralded functionality and flexibility
5. Seamless interaction with different technologies
6. A complete real estate experience for home buyers and sellers

Searching for a mentor? Look for these 11 qualities

1. Shares skills, knowledge and expertise

Good mentors are not selfish. They will share what they’ve learned to be best practices with technology, time management, marketing and customer relations.

2. Excels in time management

Good mentors will set aside time to work one on one with their proteges. No one should expect a mentor to drop everything when asked, but scheduled “office hours” should be set to answer questions and go over processes if needed.

3. Thinks outside the box

Good mentors realize what worked yesterday might not work today. They continue to experiment with new ideas to improve their business processes.

If a mentor is relying too heavily on FSBOs (for-sale-by-owners), door-knocking and expired listings, it might be a sign they are not up with the times.

4. Welcomes collaboration

Mentors should never have an attitude of my way is the best (or only) way. Great mentors collaborate and allow their mentees and others to bounce ideas off one another. They encourage creativity and challenging the process with innovation.

5. Shows patience

Make sure he or she does not have a reputation for being hot-headed or difficult. A good mentor will remember what it was like to be new in the business and will take the time needed to teach. Even if that means teaching the same lesson more than once.

6. Provides feedback and sets goals, both personally and for others

A good mentor will set goals and lead by example. He or she is genuinely happy for others who achieve goals and celebrates their milestones.

7. Understands that mentees must take responsibility for their success

He or she will teach and encourage their protege to succeed but will not do the work for them. Your mentor should teach you to search for answers first and ask questions second.

8. Is involved in community

You have to be seen to be known. Mentors who are involved can introduce you to the inner circles that will help you most.

9. Has a proven track record

Choose an experienced mentor who works full-time in the industry and has excellent client ratings.

10. Is respected within the Realtor community

Do other Realtors enjoy working with the person you are considering as your mentor? That’s a good sign that you are choosing someone who can teach you the foundation your business will stand on.

11. Is team-minded

Although not a necessity, having a mentor who’s on a team has benefits. If your mentor is part of a team, chances are other teammates have also been mentored by him or her.

See you in court! 10 ways agents typically get slapped with lawsuits

1. Failing to disclose a pro...

Manor deemed 'haunted' by a court of law returns to market
New York’s most notorious haunted house has hit the market for $1.9 million.
The home, a 15-room Victorian manor on the Hudson River, first made global headlines in the 1980s after Wall Street bond trader Jefrrey Stambovsky bought the Nyack, New York, house and sued its former owner, Helen Ackley, for not disclosing that it was full of ghosts and poltergeists.
Based in part on the fact that past owners played up the home’s haunted history for paranormal walking tours, the New York Supreme Court ruled that the house was indeed haunted in 1991.

5 things every agent must do to reach the next level
1. Learn to proactively generate leads
Build a sphere of influence around the people you already know and can ask for referrals and hosting open houses that draw attention and yield new clients.
2. Use social media to build and expand your footprint
Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. LinkedIn. Reddit? In a landscape where social media platforms are consistently being created, updated or shuttering (Vine), it can be hard for real estate agents to decide where to build their digital footprint. Try them all and use the ones that work best!
3. Defeat your fears about content creation
New agents must focus on social media and free blogging platforms as hubs for their content because they likely don’t have the budget for a customized website yet.
4. Understand your personality and use it to your benefit
Many agents study the top producer in their office and try to replicate their actions. But adopting a cookie-cutter approach to lead generation and business simply doesn’t work.
Instead, agents should take the time to study their personality and tailor their business tactics and interactions to what naturally fits.
5. Optimize your schedule by identifying what’s ‘truly important’
It’s not about getting everything done — it’s about focusing on the priorities that get you closer to your daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and lifetime goals.

6 Steps To Price New listing
How do you set a proper list price that will both satisfy your seller and attract qualified buyers? You find that magic number in the six steps to pricing a new listing:
1. Push the envelope, but have a plan ‘B’ in place
When it comes to listing a house, you must be aware of the fine line between “priced to sell” and “priced to keep.”
2. Think ‘multiple’
Every listing agent’s goal is to wake-up in the morning and find multiple offers in their inbox. They might all very well be below the list price, but with every offer, you are now able to send out multiple counteroffers that will certainly assist in bringing out every buyer’s bottom line.
3. Don’t use ‘fake’ or false data
Someone once said that there are three types of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.
Many agents pull or rely on comps or data from sales that have no relevance.
4. Avoid monkey see, monkey do
When it comes to finding the best price listing for you client, don’t fall into the “monkey see, monkey do” syndrome. It’s very important that you price your listing based on what you believe is the best price, not what other active properties are listing.
5. Be proactive not reactive
Our market is in a constant flux. Interest rates rise, demand falls. Demand falls, prices become stagnant. When stagnation hits, creative and innovate marketing, as well as proactiveness, must happen before the other properties in the area make the same adjustments.
6. Be prepared to walk away from a listing
There will be times when you and the seller will be too far apart in agreeing on a list price to anticipate a positive outcome, and your best course of action will be to simply walk away.
In the end, there will be two disappointed and frustrated people. You, for spending all your time and resources on a listing that did not sell, and the seller, for wasting valuable market time with zero results.
Know when the best option might be to walk away.

Are open houses worth it? How to ensure they’re not time-wasters

1. Successful open houses begin with thoughtful preparation
Knowing which day to hold the open house is important.
Don’t schedule it on a day when a local event such as a football game, golf tournament, or street festival is held. Don’t schedule it on a holiday, when people are likely to be away on vacation.
2. Plan your advertising and promotion for the open house
You need to know how to get actual prospective buyers and their agents to the open house.
The list should include the following:
• Online marketing — Advertise on all of your social media sites including your business Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, as well as your own web site.
• Broadcast emails — You should send an email to your client and prospect database as well as to your agent network including those in your firm, local Realtor association, and Multiple Listing Service.
• Postcards — Send postcards to the neighbors and other select contacts in your database informing them of the open house.
• MLS open house announcement — Most MLS systems provide an opportunity for you to announce your open house. This is probably the best way to reach agents who might have buyers looking for a home in the area where your listing is located.
• Signage — Place an “Open House” sign in your listing’s front yard next to your “For Sale” sign. Balloons or colorful pennant flags work great in bringing attention to the sign. Make sure you have pointer signs at various locations including at the front of the neighborhood and nearby road intersections. Remember to follow all local and homeowner association sign ordinances when installing your signage.
3. Managing your open house
Remind your client that their property needs to be clean and “ready to go” for this event.
House completely clean and no unpleasant smells in the house.
You might want to utilize an electronic open house registration program that you download to your smartphone or laptop.
Provide refreshments.
Don’t just “stand around” or sit on the family room couch during the open house. Walk around and ask questions about what the buyers are looking for in a home and what their time frame for purchasing a property is.
Listen for feedback — positive or negative. An open house can provide an opportunity to “hear” what people think of the home and share what they like and don’t like about it.
The attendees can also tell you their opinion of why the house has not sold. Is it priced too high? Is there something wrong with its appearance or features? Is the backyard not large enough? Ask, and they will tell.
4. Be prepared for the ‘looky-loos’!
Not everyone who comes to an open house is a potential buyer.
Don’t do an open hous...

An Arizona couple accused of squatting in an Opendoor house with two children have been arrested by the police.

Gary Lynn, 29, and Adriana Gamboa, 26, were spotted in a Chandler, Arizona, Opendoor-listed house with Gamboa’s two children when a prospective buyer came in to view the house.. he was charging his phone and she was bathing one of their kids. The other kid was running around the house wet. 

With Opendoors app, you get a code for access to the house for an hour. 

Redfin to publicly display buyer's agent commissions on its listings

Redfin believes that real estate consumers don’t really understand the way commissions work, and so they are doing something about it:

From Now on, all Redfin-listed homes will publicly display the commission that sellers are offering to buyers’ agents.

The new commission information will be included on Redfin’s website, and according to a company statement, it should “help consumers better understand the costs and incentives in the real estate transaction.”

The company conducted a survey of nearly 1,000 people in June, for example, and found that “more than half of recent homebuyers don’t fully understand how their agent was paid.”

Redfin argues in its statement that adding transparency regarding commissions should “stimulate conversations between consumers and their agents about what is fair and ultimately lead to more competition and lower fees for consumers

Five Guys Whose Brooklyn Real Estate Scheme Was Featured On “Million Dollar Listing New York” Just Got Arrested

Five real estate investors whose business was the subject of a major BuzzFeed News investigation were arrested this week for allegedly defrauding lenders and taxpayers out of millions of dollars in a scheme that targeted New Yorkers at risk of foreclosure.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York charged the men with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud.

Two years ago, BuzzFeed News revealed how this group of investors turned properties on the brink of foreclosure into million-dollar listings sold on the reality TV show Million Dollar Listing New York.

Amazon dives into home sales with new $105K property

With 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, the new home dwarfs the tiny homes Amazon began selling earlier this year.

Months after a $7,000, do-it-yourself tiny home sold out within hours, Amazon is now hawking a 774-square-foot home on its website with a $105,000 price tag.

The latest offering is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home. Titled “The Cliff” and manufactured by Estonian wooden structure distributor Q-haus, the property, which boasts an open kitchen, dining room and sauna, dwarfs the guest houses and backyard pool cabanas that previously sold on Amazon.

The home weighs 44,000 pounds and arrives in two modules that can be assembled by “two skilled workers,” according to the listing.

Furniture and appliances are also included.

Beverly Hills real estate agent suspected of burglarizing the homes of Usher, Adam Lambert

Keller Williams Beverly Hills agent Jason Yaselli is accused of conspiring with the thief who posed as an agent. 

Yaselli, and Benjamin Ackerman were charged with using open houses to burglarize the homes of stars, including musicians Usher, Jason Derulo and Adam Lambert, former football player Shaun Phillips, and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills‘ Dorit Kemsley. Although Ackerman was arrested on suspicion of theft in 2018, investigators now believe Yaselli, who is listed on realtor.com as an agent for Keller Williams Beverly Hills, served as Ackerman’s accomplice in the crime spree between 2016 to 2018. More than 2000 stolen items have been recovered. 

Lead-gen game changer: How to get 10,000 new followers in 60 days

Increased posting frequency

Post at these times: 7 a.m., 11 a.m., 3 p.m., 7 p.m  

author and sales expert Grant Cardone once said: “People give in to the person they see the most.”  

Solicited shoutouts

Ask bigger pages to send you a shoutout.. but  follow these rules:

Do some due diligence on the page before you pay them for a shoutout. You want to make sure it has real followers (not a bunch of bots), and that it has good engagement. I look for two things:

1. I check its followers to make sure they don’t have a lot of fake accounts following them. Look through about 20 of its followers to get a good sample of what they have. I don’t want to find a lot of profiles with only a few posts, profiles with a lot of followers for no apparent reason and profiles that don’t have recent activity. If you’re seeing a lot of these things, don’t buy a shoutout from them.
2. I want to make sure the page’s posts are getting good engagement. If the page has 100,000 followers but it’s only getting 150 likes per post, it’s probably a page with fake followers.

Focus more on stories

Instagram Stories are one of the most engaged segments of social media today

 Paid attention to insights

No rocket science here. I simply started paying attention to my post insights to learn what people liked and didn’t like. Based off these insights, I’m trying to put out content I have seen work well before. 

Who would have thought? Give them more of what they want, and they’ll do the promoting for you. 

Used more hashtags

I’m not shy with my hashtags. Instagram allows 30 hashtags per post, and I use them all. I look at it as 30 different entry points onto my page that I get for free. On every post.

I started using an app called Hashtag Expert to help me discover ...

These 5 cities are at risk for housing crashes this year

A new GoBankingRates study published on Tuesday looked at the number of underwater mortgages, home vacancies as well as delinquency and foreclosure rates to identify the cities most at risk of a housing crisis in the coming years. A crash is generally defined as a market in which large numbers of properties are in negative equity, or worth less than the owners’ mortgage.

Here are the top 5 markets that are most at risk of a pending crash:

Newark, New Jersey

The housing market in Newark, New Jersey showed the biggest signs of trouble. Nearly 30 percent of mortgages have negative equity while vacancy rates for houses and rental units sit at 5.2 percent and 9.5 percent compared to the nationwide average of 1.7 percent and 6.1 percent, respectively. Approximately 6.5 percent of mortgage payments are in some sort of delinquency, which is more than six times the national average.

Detroit, Michigan

Post-crash, Detroit’s real estate challenges and opportunities have long been a nationwide topic of conversation. But in this study, Detroit came in second place for crash risk due to its floundering home values — $161,300 compared to the national median of $226,300. At 34.4 percent, the number of homes with negative equity is also the highest in the country while vacancy and delinquency rates are also higher than average.

Bridgeport, Connecticut

The largest city in Connecticut, Bridgeport has seen real estate values drop due to a high crime rate and low economic prospects. The median house in the city is worth $176,200 while 26.9 percent of mortgages are underwater.

“The city’s high delinquency and foreclosure rates are not inviting to people looking for the best place to buy their first home,” reads the report.

Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore has been taking a hit from all sides lately — President Trump recently called parts of the city a “rat and rodent-infested mess” in attacks on local House Representative Elijah Cummings. But while the city’s low median home values ($119,200) and high negative equity rates (26.5 percent) put it fourth on the at-risk list, Baltimore in fact does see constant development and provides plenty of opportunities for investors.

Hartford, Connecticut

While only 22.4 percent of Hartford homes have negative equity, the capital of Connecticut has a high homeowner vacancy rate. At 4.3 percent, the rate is more than 2.5 times the national average. The number is even worse for rental units, which has a vacancy rate of 9.2 percent. A median home in Hartford is worth $130,900.

Critics slam presidential hopeful's plan to 'tax the hell out of' the rich

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio came out last Wednesday night for his second presidential debate with his gloves off.

“When I’m president, we will even up the score and we will tax the hell out of the wealthy to make this a fairer country and to make sure it’s a country that puts working people first,” de Blasio declared during his opening remarks.

De Blasio repeated the comment at the end of the debate, while also plugging his new fundraising website TaxTheHell.com, and dropped the line again at the conclusion of the night during an interview with MSNBC.

The line is a catchy one with a certain Trumpian ring — you can imagine people chanting “tax the hell” at a rally — but now, critics are arguing that the actual policies behind de Blasio’s comments would in fact lead to financial problems, particularly in the real estate industry.

de Blasio’s proposal could negatively impact people who have their wealth locked up in property, which is valuable but not very liquid, wants to “repeal the estate tax… and replace it with a more aggressive inheritance tax.

In any case, it’s highly unlikely at this point that de Blasio will get anywhere near the White House. Polling and news site FiveThirtyEight currently has the mayor in a multi-way tie for last place among nearly two dozen candidates.

Beauty queen accused of interior design fraud by hotel mogul

A couple who hired a former Miss Sweden to decorate their opulent property in The Bahamas is now accusing the one-time beauty queen of interior design fraud. Hotel magnate Henry Silverman and his wife Karen Silverman have filed a suit against interior designer Sofia Joelsson in Florida federal court. With a registered net worth of $300 million, Henry Silverman has at one point controlled hotel brands Howard Johnson’s Ramada, Super 8 and Travelodge.

According to the complaint, Joelsson defrauded them out of millions of dollars by overcharging clients through a network of shell companies and inside vendors.

The lawsuit calls Joelsson a “penthouse queen” of South Beach and claims that she misled them to believe that her company was a licensed interior design firm when it wasn’t.

The Silvermans are asking for at least $7 million in damages based on alleged violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and Florida Deceptive and Unfair Practices Act. They further claim that Joelsson would arrange for contractors to give overinflated invoices and then launder the funds through various real estate purchases while keeping several sets of records for each transaction to defraud tax authorities.

NYC competitor sues Compass over allegedly poaching manager

The well-funded New York City-based brokerage Compass has been hit with yet another lawsuit.

This time, New York City-based competitor Elegran is suing Compass and one of its former managers over what it calls a “brazen scheme to unfairly compete with Elegran by stealing Elegran’s confidential information and trade secrets and using them to target Elegran’s other real estate brokers, clients, and potential clients.”

At the center of the complaint is Zino Angelides, a former manager who defected to Compass from Elegran. Compass allegedly recruited Angelides and three other brokers while they were still at Elegran. On June 24, 2019, Angelides and the three other brokers abruptly resigned from Elegran with no prior notice, according to the complaint, and immediately began working for Compass. They also took what could potentially be $10 million in leads, assuming they all close.

A Compass spokesperson, in a statement, told Inman that it is focused on providing the best experience for its employees, agents and their clients.

Compass has been the target of a number of lawsuits from Competitors, including, most recently, a la...

How to Get a $5,000 Amazon Credit: Buy a House Through Realogy

Over the past year, the decidedly analog business of buying and selling real estate has been upended by a flurry of new money and start-ups trying to usher in a world where homes are bought and sold online. Now, Amazon is creating a partnership that goes in the opposite direction by using its gigantic retail platform to facilitate phone calls with human real estate agents.

On Tuesday, Amazon said that it was working with Realogy, the nation’s largest residential real estate brokerage company and owner of Century 21, Coldwell Banker and other brands, to create TurnKey, a service that will help prospective home buyers find real estate agents. To entice customers, Amazon will give buyers up to $5,000 in home services and smart-home gear when they close.

Amazon is now as much a search engine as it is a store, and the deal fits into the company’s effort to capitalize on its status as an online destination by making money on advertising and other services. It’s also a way to encourage people to adopt products like Alexa speakers and Ring doorbells and to promote its list of handymen, furniture assemblers and other home services.

For Realogy, who will pay for those benefits, the partnership is a way of using Amazon to find home buyers and help its brokers separate the closers from the lookie-loos by rebating a portion of its commission, in the form of free Amazon stuff, to anyone who actually buys a house.

Keller Williams and Compass leaders spar (politely) over tech

Keller Williams Realty President Josh Team said Thursday during an Inman Connect panel that his brokerage is investing $1 billion into technology before directing a jab at Compass CEO Robert Reffkin: “Not buying marketshare.”

During a discussion entitled “The Inman Interview: Can Your Technology Compete?” Reffkin touted purportedly unrivaled engineering talent and Compass’ vision of building a first-of-its-kind property search platform. Teamcountered that Keller Williams is already delivering top-shelf technology to its agents.

The two executives never directly disparaged each other’s firms. But they traded some thinly-veiled barbs.

“This isn’t hyperbole or vision,” Team said about Keller Williams’ tech platform, implying that Compass’ is just that. “This is real.”

Keller Williams’ suite of tools combined with its integration of an in-house lender is helping agents guide customers from the time their contact information arrives in a database to the moment they order an appraisal, he said.

NRT CEO compares Compass' agent recruitment to 'shoplifting'

NRT CEO Ryan Gorman compared Compass’ recruitment of agents and efforts to gain market share in competing marketplaces to “shoplifting,” at Inman Connect Las Vegas Thursday morning

NRT’s parent company Realogy is suing Compass over “unfair business practices and illegal schemes to gain market share at all costs.”

“We don’t sue for show,” Gorman told interviewer Clelia Peters, the president of Warburg Realty. “This is the real deal… the industry should take it seriously.”

Gorman encouraged everyone in the audience to read beyond the headlines and take a full look at the lawsuit. He said after reading it, people won’t wonder why Realogy is suing Compass, but rather why it took them so long to do so.

Next recession will come in 2020 — but it won't be due to housing

Half of the real estate economists and experts surveyed by Zillow this week believe that the next recession is coming in 2020, according to the second quarter Zillow Home Price Expectations Survey.

Of the 100 real estate experts surveyed, half said a recession was likely to come in 2020 with 19 percent specifically pinpointing the third quarter of 2020 — which lines up directly with the months leading up to the presidential election. Thirty-five percent of those surveyed said they believe a recession is likely in 2021, meaning 85 of 100 experts believe a recession is coming in the next two years.

Although experts say housing won’t cause of the recession, the potential slowdown will have an impact. More than half of those surveyed said they expect home buying demand in 2020 to be significantly lower than in 2019, while about a third of those surveyed said they expected it to be about the same.

The combination of slowing demand and an impending recession could be good news for potential buyers in the short-term and cause further slowdowns in overall U.S. home value appreciation going forward.

Home values are currently growing at a 6.1 percent annual p...

Five outdated seller believes agents should debunk

The success of HGTV and the plethora of online information has shifted the ground rules of real estate sales

Three fundamental changes

These three changes have altered the home buying and selling landscape forever.

Change 1: The advent of HGTV

Buyers spend countless hours watching HGTV and have developed extremely refined tastes. They know what they want and when they look at homes for sale. They are looking for properties that look similar to what they have seen and liked on TV.

Change 2: The advent of mobile devices and HD internet connectivity

Buyers used to have to visit a home to add or remove it from their shortlist. No longer the case, today’s sellers have between seven and 10 seconds to sell their home, and those seconds are on a mobile device anywhere on the planet — not in any home for sale.

Change 3: The advent of internet real estate sites

Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia and a host of broker-owned sites have populated the internet with user-friendly websites that provide property data, historical facts, HD pictures, automated valuations, neighborhood and school info, and more.

They have completely removed the need for buyers to visit in person to determine if they like a home. Once a buyer has shortlisted available inventory, they only visit the select few they like.

Five seller myths

With this in mind, here are the top five seller beliefs that are no longer true:

1. I do not need to have the listing agent visit until my home is ready.

Wrong. In reality, the sooner the agent can get in, the better. Sellers, assuming the old rules still apply, might spend money on things that could harm a home’s potential and, conversely, fail to spend money where it matters.

Agents can not only help sellers maximize their potential, but they can also connect them with the trades and other professionals required to do it right.

2. I do not need to upgrade the property for sale.

Since increasing numbers of buyers are looking for move-in ready homes, the more a seller does to get the house to that level, the higher the returns. In an upmarket, sellers can reap a $2-$3 dollar return for every dollar spent.

In a declining market, they may not get 100 percent back, but they will get a sale. I frequently hear sellers ask, “Why should I upgrade? Won’t the new buyers come in and rip out all the stuff I just put in?”

That is not the right question. A better question is, “What can I do to make my online pictures sizzle to get the highest number of buyers through the front door regardless of what a buyer does once they own the home?”

If a seller can invest $1,000 on carpets and in the process, make $3,000, does it matter what the new owner does once they move in?

3. I need to open houses to sell my home.

The myth here is that buyers need to visit your home in person to decide whether they like it or not. In the new reality, buyers are visiting because they have already seen the house online and decided it was worth seeing in person.

Open houses make it easier for buyers who are already going to visit actually to get in. They also make it easy for the neighbors to come through — which is good because they frequently know someone looking to move into the area.

4. I need many open house signs at multiple vital intersections.

Wrong again. Savvy listing agents put out tons of signs because they are free advertising. Buyers who have seen the home online do not need directional signs to find the apartment. With open houses dates and times syndicating to all the major web portals, buyers use the GPS feature in their phones.

As for the neighbors, they will not come because you posted signs at far away intersections. To get them, you want signs close to the open house.

5. If buyers want my house, they will pay more than market value.

Buyers are not running charities. Due to online AVMs (automated valuation models — think Zestimate), buyers know when a property is overpriced and generally stay away, assuming the seller is unrealistic.

While pricing strategies vary from region to region, most agents know to recommend that sellers price listings close to market realities. As more listings come onto the market, buyers have more choices and migrate toward those they believe represent ethical values.

Sellers who insist they must net a specific amount, which in turn pushes the price too high, are only kidding themselves.

For sellers who have not sold a home in recent years, the new rules can be a shock. Ironically, since most sellers are also looking to buy a replacement home, all I usually have to do to change their thinking is to ask them how they are personally searching for homes in their new location.

They walk me through their process, and suddenly, in most cases, they get it.

11 Bad listing description cliches we're over

Hiding flaws behind flowery copy does nothing but waste the buyer's and their agent’s time

1. ‘This one won’t last!’

I get it. The listing agent is trying to convey that they’ve got a hot property that some fortunate buyer will surely snap up in a matter of days, if not hours.

The problem with “This one won’t last!” is agents tend never to revisit their listing descriptions. When your market has an average days-on-market of 30 days, seeing “This one won’t last!” on a listing entering its eighth month on the market will either make a buyer laugh out loud or think, “Hmmm, it did last, so there must be something wrong with it.” 

2 ‘Needs TLC’ or its partner in crime, ‘the handyman special.’

In other words, the home is disrepair, outdated, or has some other issue that needs to be fixed. By leaving those issues to the buyer’s imagination, you might very well be causing buyers to skip right over your listing and move on to the next one.

3. ‘Cozy’ or ‘quaint.’

This is fluffy marketing-speak. What you’re trying to do is cover up the fact that the home is small. Guess what? Any potential buyer who walks through the front door will swiftly figure out that the home is small. You can’t hide that fact behind cozy or quaint.

4. ‘Better than new’

No, it’s not better than new. Even if the home has been demolished and rebuilt from the foundation, it’s not better than new. It’s new. Well, it’s a new home on an old foundation. But you get the point. 

“Better than new!” is one of those phrases that makes buyers ask, “What d...

Why homeownership truly is the American dream

The three main reasons why owning a home is still a big component of the American dream.

1. There are proven psychological, physical and financial benefits to homeownership.

“You own your little corner of the world. You can customize your house, remodel, paint, and decorate without the need to get permission from a landlord.” That’s pride of ownership. 

But aside from the positive psychological effects of owning a home, homeowners in strong markets build equity. 

2. Homeownership positively impacts American families.

From having room for your kids to play to being able to entertain to having space to do the things you love, owning a home helps people realize their full potential.

It also provides a greater sense of stability and opportunity, while growing personal wealth. Homeownership by those who make down payments, and who stay in their houses over long periods of time can result in better academic and emotional outcomes for children.

3. People who invest in their home, invest in the community, and thus improve the local economy.

Nearly 60 percent of Americans own their homes, and for good reason. The National Association of Realtors points out the many social benefits, which include civic participation, financial education and poverty improvements.

Plus, a person who cares for their home is more likely to care for their community through donations and volunteer efforts that keep their neighborhood and schools safe, livable and thriving. In other words, you help yourself and others contribute to a fundamental sense of belonging and responsibility to the wider community.  

Homeownership also plays a critical role in the economy. 

According to the National Association of Home Builders, building 100 average single-family homes generates 305 jobs, $23.1 million in wage and business income, and $8.9 million in taxes and revenue for state, local and federal governments. 

Rents are rising, but the US lacks sufficient middle-income housing

Rents are climbing and more higher-income Americans are choosing to lease rather than buy, but while those conditions are a boon to investors many middle-income earners are nevertheless facing a lack of housing supply.

New research from data firm CoStar paints a picture of an overall booming U.S. rental industry that has seen uneven growth across different parts of the market. For starters, much of the multifamily housing being built today tends to be high-end luxury units.  The number of renter households in the U.S. has grown the most among those earning more than $100,000 per year. And those renters are being attracted to the locations and benefits of living in well-connected urban hot spots. 

CoStar found that since 2015 rent has grown by about 4 percent each year, which is between 1 percent and 1.5 percent more than incomes. The current tendency of people to move out of pricey states as they face affordability woes and into more affordable ones is well-documented, and is typical of what happens as an economic cycle reaches its high point.

All of this represents something of a two-edged sword: On the one hand conditions are tough and getting tougher for renters, but on the other those people who can afford to step onto the investment ladder stand to make reliable returns as rents continue to rise.

Home price growth accelerates for first time in 14 months

For the first time in 14 months, home price growth is accelerating.

Nationwide, home prices grew by 3.6 percent in May year-over-year and 0.9 percent from April, according to the latest data from CoreLogic. At 10.7 percent, Idaho had the highest growth rate out of all the states. Utah and South Dakota followed at 7.8 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively.

The growth can be attributed to a strong job market and decreased mortgage rates, according to CoreLogic. 

CoreLogic predicts that home prices will see even steeper growth in the coming year — 0.8 percent by next month but 5.6 percent by May 2020.

Due to years of consistent home price increases, many buyers are worried about their ability to afford a home. According to CoreLogic, 28 percent of homeowners are worried they won’t be able to afford buying a new home in the future. Only half are satisfied with the number of options available in their market while 40 percent believe they will have to relocate

Trump creates affordable housing council, taps Ben Carson as chair

Amid a growing sense of national crisis over the cost of housing, President Trump created a new government council Tuesday and tasked it with clearing “regulatory barriers,” such as zoning, that get in the way of building new homes.

Ben Carson — who leads the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — will now also serve as the chair of the White House Council on Eliminating Barriers to Affordable Housing. In an executive order, Trump said the role of the council would be to increase the supply of homes in the U.S. in an effort to meet demand.

Trump also singled out an array of specific regulations that he argued are getting in the way of housing construction. The regulations include zoning, limits on population density, “undu...

Bombshell lawsuit takes a new turn

The class-action lawsuit that could upend the real estate industry by effectively forcing changes in how buyer’s agents are traditionally compensated has been amended, adding more plaintiffs and defendants and emphasizing the role commissions play in steering buyers and raising costs for sellers.

Nine law firms filed an amended complaint consolidating two previous complaints with nearly identical claims: the first filed by home seller Christopher Moehrl on March 6 and another filed by homeseller Sawbill Strategic Inc. on April 15.

The June 14 amended complaint alleges NAR and the named real estate brokers and franchisors have violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by “agreeing, combining and conspiring to impose, implement and enforce anticompetitive restraints that cause home sellers to pay inflated commissions on the sale of their homes.”

The main restraint the complaint refers to is a NAR rule requiring listing brokers — and their agents who represent homesellers — to make a “blanket unilateral offer of compensation” to buyer brokers when listing a property in a Realtor-affiliated multiple listing service.

That offer of compensation must be made regardless of the fact that buyer brokers represent the buyer, not the seller, and because it is a blanket offer, it cannot vary according to the buyer broker’s experience, the services the buyer broker is offering or the buyer broker’s financial arrangement with the buyer, according to the complaint.

Unlike the original complaints, the amended complaint does not argue that the blanket offer of compensation is non-negotiable. But the amended lawsuit cites NAR’s Standard of Practice 3-2 and Standard of Practice 16-16 as evidence that NAR impedes effective negotiation of the offer of compensation.

Ikea rebuilds rooms from Friends, Simpsons and Stranger Things

A new Ikea campaign recreates the living rooms of three iconic TV shows with furniture that can be bought in its stores.

Titled ‘Real Life Series,’ the Ikea United Arab Emirates campaign features living rooms from “Friends,” “The Simpsons” and “Stranger Things.” Each room is created with furniture and accessories from the Ikea catalog. While the campaign was designed by Publicis Spain, the rooms will only be set up in select Middle East stores and through an online catalog checklist.

The “Friends” room recreates Monica and Rachel’s apartment with the purple walls and a beige armchair while “The Simpsons” room has an orange couch and bright round carpet. The “Stranger Things” room has the flowered wallpaper, Christmas tree lights and striped couch. Because the campaign has no financial ties to the iconic television shows, Ikea describes the “Simpsons” room simply as for “families,” the “Friends” room for “mates” and the “Stranger Things” room for “everyone” without calling out their titles by name.

Red Flags When Looking For Your Next Home

1. While there may be other houses on the street for sale, especially during the "busy" seasons of spring and summer, an overwhelming number of houses on the market for an area can be a warning sign.

2. Class size in a school system says a lot, schools should be adding enrollment, not losing it.

3. If the neighborhood has lots of empty storefronts, be wary. Empty storefronts point to the area in decline.

4. If limited parking at the house you're looking at is something that you noticed while you were visiting the house for the first time, it has the potential for forever being an Achilles heel of the property.

5. If the solution to the parking situation at your house is off-street parking, what's the traffic like? Are there cars lined up and down the street? Will you potentially have to drive around a while in search of a spot to park? That inconvenience can quickly become a major hassle, especially with a car full of groceries or small children to bring into the house.

Yes, You Can Trust Your Real Estate Broker

A Manhattan Real luxury Real Estate broker wrote a great blog in Forbes Magazine entitled, Yes, You Can Trust Your Real Estate Broker.

According to a 2018 Gallup poll on the subject of most- and least-trusted professions, 19% of Americans consider the ethical standards of real estate agents as either low or very low, while 54% of the population consider our honesty to be just about average. You may conclude that we real estate brokers have nothing to complain about, especially compared to members of Congress, whom, according to the poll, 58% of Americans consider to be unethical.

But when almost one-fifth of the country's population thinks of the profession that I’ve been dedicated to for two decades as not worthy of their trust, it makes me upset. I find such public opinion unfair, especially because the very thing that gives true value to our work is the ethical foundation upon which it's built.

The job of a real estate broker is trust-based. There is serious capital involved in every transaction, especially for those of us who specialize in luxury transactions, and in order for us to succeed in helping our clients achieve their goals, we must be trusted. Brokers who don’t earn their clients’ trust can’t close deals and don’t stay in business.

President Trump’s Onetime Greenwich Estate Relists for 29% Less

A Greenwich, Connecticut estate where President Donald Trump and his ex-wife Ivana Trump lived is returning to the market for $38.5 million—almost 29% less than its onetime $54 million asking price.

The Trumps bought the property after they were married in the early 1980s for about $4 million. When they divorced in the early 1990s, Ms. Trump kept the house. She sold it to the current owners, financier Robert Steinberg and his wife Suzanne Steinberg, for $15 million in 1998.

&n...

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Home flipping rate hits a 9-year high, indicating potential trouble in real estate
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/06/10/housing-market-trouble-flipping-rate-hits-9-year-high/1406883001/?fbclid=IwAR1SLhTrbd-TzCxacNMnOTvq9fGetE0fnYghsZPVnyEI40kk1-OoIRVODQE

The rate of buying, fixing up and reselling a house – also known as flipping – hit a nine-year high with over 49,000 single-family homes and condos selling in the category in the first quarter.
However, experts warn that's not necessarily an indicator of the housing market’s overall strength.
A report released June 6 by the property databaseAttom Data Solutions found that flipping activity represented 7.2% of all home sales nationwide during the start of 2019. That's up from 5.9% in the previous quarter and up from 6.7% this time last year, representing the highest home-flipping rate since the start of 2010.
Still, that's only part of the picture.
The total number of homes that were flipped was down 8% from the first quarter of 2018, and the number of investors engaging in the activity was also on the decline.
Experts say that an uptick in home flipping activity could actually indicate that conditions in the housing market are worsening.
In the first quarter, flipped houses sold for a median price of $215,000. The median purchase price stood at $155,000, making the gross flipping profit just $60,000, which is a three-year low. In the same quarter last year, the gross flipping profit was $68,000.
Late last year, researchers told MarketWatch that the real estate market may be cooling down, describing home-flipping as a “canary in the coal mine" as the high velocity of transactions give flippers real-time data on the direction of the market.

Foreclosure rates remain low, but homes hit by natural disasters continue to struggle
https://www.inman.com/2019/06/11/foreclosure-rates-remain-low-but-homes-hit-by-natural-disasters-continue-to-struggle-corelogic/

While the number of homeowners failing to make their mortgage payments continue to hit new lows, portions of the country hit by natural disasters are struggling.Across the United States, 4 percent of U.S. homeowners fell into some sort of delinquency on their mortgages in March, down from 4.3 percent a year earlier and the lowest level for the month of March in 13 years, according to the latest CoreLogic analysis, released Tuesday. Foreclosure rates, in which one’s home is seized by the government due to inability to pay, is at 0.4 percent, down from 0.6 percent in March 2018. Such a small number of homes have not been foreclosed since January 1999. Despite the good news, however, some parts of the country are continuing to struggle. Overall delinquency rates have risen somewhat in 42 percent of the country. Panama City, Florida and Albany, Georgia saw some of the highest rises in serious delinquency rates, or payments that are due by more than 90 days, across the country. According to CoreLogic, such numbers are the result of homeowners getting caught off guard with higher-than-expected payments in certain times of the year.
Houston, which was ravaged by Hurricane Harvey in September 2017, and southern Florida, which was hit by Hurricane Michael just a few weeks later, both have some of the highest delinquency rates in the country. In many cases, homeowners whose property suffered damage fall delinquent on their mortgage as they take time to figure out whether to make repairs or sell.

Tiny homes a solution to big problem?
https://www.ctpost.com/business/article/Tiny-house-and-Affordable-housing-13799102.php?fbclid=IwAR3aqiR5LQJTiTiMZ52ozaY0oCp6jYNrJsDRYdLXAnsqr9H0OkylVfdMJgs

The lack of affordable housing remains a problem in Connecticut — and Doug Werner of Tiny House Co. in Bridgeport sees tiny homes as a solution.
Werner and his team have been campaigning for years to secure a parcel of land in Park City where they can build a community of tiny houses which he hopes will kick start interest in city and state officials looking to deal with need-based housing demands.
Since 2011, the state and private sector have invested billions of dollars in developing and funding thousands of units of housing available to those whose income is at or below the area median, which as of April 5 was $89,773
Last year, there were 140,531 Connecticut households deemed “extremely low income,” but only 51,050 affordable rental units available in the state.
Werner said he thinks tiny homes could be a viable way to increase the affordable housing stock.
A 420-square-foot tiny home costs between $50,000 and $65,000 and takes 90 days to complete, according to Werner, whose team builds pre-fabricated units.
The median house in the state was listed by Zillow as $244,500. In Fairfield County, according to an April 5 USA Today article, the median home value was $435,477.

Lamont Explains What United Technologies Merger Means For CT
https://patch.com/connecticut/farmington/united-technologies-merger-leads-lots-questions-ct?fbclid=IwAR2F2TzqOLI9ceImwKXhurohaYB4ojRCbSX3VAb7QFxJWi9y8TPGJomv9aU

Last Sunday it was announced that the state's largest employer, United Technologies Corp., and Raytheon Company agreed to a massive merger that was formally announced on Monday.
UTC's headquarters are based in Farmington, CT, and the company employs nearly 20,000 people in the state at Collins Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney. In a press release announcing the merger, both companies said the new company, Raytheon Technologies, will be headquartered in the greater Boston metro area.
The merger still requires regulatory approvals, the approval of Raytheon and United Technologies shareholders, as well as completion by United Technologies of the separation of its Otis and Carrier businesses. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2020.
Gov. Ned Lamont late Sunday released the following statement regarding United Technologies Corporation (UTC) and its future in Connecticut. Lamont confirms that about 100 people will be relocating from Connecticut to the new headquarters which is planned in Massachusetts.
"UTC and its subsidiaries, including Pratt & Whitney, Otis Elevator, and Collins Aerospace, continue to be an important part of Connecticut's fabric. It...

Attorney Jose Palacio is quickly becoming a household name advocating on behalf of those who live in Connecticut. He is exceptionally experienced in Immigration, Real Estate, and Family Law.

He later earned his Juris Doctor from Quinnipiac University School of Law. Attorney Palacio has since partnered with Hartford-based attorneys, learning and practicing various forms of law culminating in the establishment of his firm.

Jose Palacio is a member of the Connecticut River Valley Chamber of Commerce and serves on their board of Directors. Palacio is an active and dedicated member of his community volunteering at town, city, and statewide events. Attorney Palacio is fluent in both English and Spanish and can speak workable Portuguese.

STATE OF THE STATE IN REAL ESTATE

https://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/realtors-economist-cts-housing-scene-not-all-grim

Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, came to the Hartford Golf Club, with a reassuring assessment of the Greater Hartford, Connecticut and U.S. housing markets and economies. Yun told about 100 members of the Greater Hartford Association of Realtors (GHAR) that Hartford’s housing market held its own in 2018, while much of the nation’s housing markets struggled and he said prospects for a recession later this year or next year are dim, especially with a presidential election just around the corner, meaning interest rates should remain low enough to spur home sales and  mortgage refinancing.                                                     Statewide, the median price of existing houses sold in 2018 rose for the third consecutive year, despite a 2 percent sales decline.  Connecticut’s housing performance ranked among the top 10 U.S. housing-sales markets in 2018, but the state’s continued loss of residents, or outmigration, remains a concern. Fewer residents reduce demand for housing, fewer homes on the market that take longer to sell and at lower prices.

Steady appreciation in real estate prices and values means more Hartford area and Connecticut residents can afford a home, or at least qualify for a mortgage to acquire one.

 Yun forecasted improvement in the inventory of new and used houses for sale, which GHAR recently noted has been problematic for Realtors and prospective buyers.

Outlook for US mortgage rates remains stable, housing crunch continues.

https://www.inman.com/2019/06/04/outlook-for-us-mortgage-rates-remains-stable-housing-crunch-continues/

Six months ago, when mortgage rates neared the 5 percent mark and were expected to continue climbing, the real estate business was concerned that home buying in 2019 would be a fraction of what it could be.

Now, though, rates have receded by 50 basis points (a basis point is 1/100th of a percentage point), and all is well. (If all is not well with housing more broadly, at least loan costs aren’t the reason buyers aren’t jumping in.)

Stability is critical, of course, not just for realty sales, but also for mortgage originations. Any jump in loan rates throws both markets into a tizzy. And once things settle down, another increase starts the process all over again.

The Chief Economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association is forecasting the rate on 30-year conventional mortgages to average 4.4 percent this year and 4.6 percent in each of the next two. Rates averaged 4.3 percent in 2017 but jumped up to an average of 4.8 percent last year.

The supply of new homes necessary to meet demand fell short by 337,000 units — more than a third of a million.

Numerous economists have cited labor, land, and lenders as the reasons builders are not building houses at the rates they should be. But, the “most acute” problem is with the lack of building sites. The cost of a lot is becoming more expensive than the house itself.

Compass sued over a single decimal point

https://www.inman.com/2019/06/05/compass-sued-over-decimal-point/

When it comes to contracts, attention to detail is essential. Sometimes a misplaced decimal point can mean the difference between thousands of dollars and nearly $1 million.

That’s the situation with a new lawsuit filed by Residential Realty Advisors (RRA), a real estate advisory firm for multifamily projects, against fast-expanding NY-headquartered brokerage Compass, over what RRA claims is underpayment — the company wants $871,000 instead of the $8,710 it received — due to what it says was a simple error in a contract for work it completed for a company later swallowed up in a chain of acquisitions that ended, most recently, with Compass.

Specifically, RRA claims there was a “scrivener’s error” in its contract with The Mark Company, a real estate sales and marketing firm acquired by Pacific Union International in 2015, which was subsequently acquired by Compass last year. 

Amazon is selling entire houses for less than $20,000 — with free shipping.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-is-selling-entire-houses-for-less-than-20000-with-free-shipping-2019-05-22?fbclid=IwAR2nkOKaz1pNgPLP8KTJxu9ceX_HWBRaoY_H_p6rVmQWimhD061tYrjeO14

Residential builders have found a new home: Amazon.

Prefabricated and modular housing — with homes prebuilt in factories — is having another moment. From 2013 to 2018, industry revenue grew an annualized 8.6% to nearly $10.5 billion, including the growth of 4.1% in 2018 alone, according to research firm IBISWorld.

The homes can be built in 2-3 days with two adults.. There are a number of charming cabins and homes for sale on the internet giant — their prices may be shockingly low, but there are often additional costs and significant downsides. 

We are going to dive deeper into the tiny house movement in the next episode. This isn’t weird.. retailers have sold homes before. Sears House Kits of the 1920s.

Among the catalog giant’s astounding range of offerings were house kits, which the company began marking in 1908. The kits came in 447 different designs, from the grand “Magnolia” ($5,140 to $5,972) to the more humble, but popular “Winona” ($744 to $1,998). Sears advertised the kits with the promise that “We will furnish all the material to build this [house design]. All the parts arrived (usually by train) precut and rea...

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