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'Risk retention' proposal triggers industry outcry

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 30, 2011.

A proposal that would require that companies securitizing mortgages retain 5 percent of the risk on all but the safest loans could leave borrowers who are unable to put at least 20 percent down on a home purchase paying higher fees and interest rates, critics say.

The new risk retention requirements were mandated by Congress in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which contains a number of provisions intended to address problems created when loans are bundled into mortgage-backed securities and sold to investors.

The loan securitization process keeps money flowing into mortgage lending, helping make borrowing more affordable. But the process also insulated loan originators from losses and encouraged risky underwriting practices during the boom, critics say.

Regulators have some flexibility in implementing the new law as they draw up the definition of what will constitute  "qualified residential mortgages" exempt from the risk retention requirements.  more...

Trulia rolls out iPad and Android apps

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 30, 2011.

Property search site Trulia has launched two mobile applications, one for the Apple iPad and one for smartphones that run on Google's Android platform.

Trulia also has an iPhone app, which it launched in September 2008. That app is ranked fourth in popularity among real estate-related apps, according to a keyword search for "real estate" at ranking site TopAppCharts.com.

Traffic from mobile phones accounts for 12 percent of the site's overall traffic. In February, more than 2 million users accessed Trulia from their phones -- a 300 percent year-over-year jump, the company said. Meanwhile, website traffic overall rose 80 percent year-over-year.

Pete Flint, CEO and co-founder of Trulia, said in a statement that competing real estate apps "lack both the vision and the utility" that consumers seek.  more...

Nominate the 2011 Real Estate Innovators

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 30, 2011.

To recognize the changing landscape of technological innovation in the real estate industry, Inman News has retooled its annual Innovator Awards categories. The nominations process for the 2011 Inman News Innovator Awards, which opens today, has been expanded to include categories for: the most innovative mobile app; real estate startup; social site or social service; and multiple listing service or real estate trade association.

Created in 1997, and first awarded during an Inman News Real Estate Connect conference in 1998, the Inman News Innovator Awards honor those companies that use technology and innovation to enhance the real estate transaction process and improve the experience for consumers and real estate professionals alike.

This year's categories that are open to nominations include:  more...

Innovator Awards History

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 30, 2011.

The following is a list of Inman News Innovator Awards winners, from the awards debut in March 1998 through the winners announced at the Real Estate Connect conference in 2010.

2010

Most Innovative Brokerage or Franchise: The GoodLife Team.
Most Innovative New Technology: ZipRealty's HomeScan.
Most Innovative Web Service: Houston Association of Realtors' Realtor Match.
Most Innovative Blog: Tech Savvy Agent blog.
Most Innovative Media Site: ProPublica Eye on Loan Modifications.
People's Choice Award: DocuSign's ESIGNControl app.
Innovator of the Year No. 1: Sherry Chris, president and CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC.
Innovator of the Year No. 2: Dale Stinton, CEO, National Association of Realtors.  more...

NAR: Second-home market holds steady in 2010 Premium Content

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 30, 2011.
Flickr image courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emmandevin/2763819020/">miss-britt</a>.

The share of homebuyers purchasing second homes remained steady in 2010 compared to the year before, though overall sales volume declined somewhat, according to an annual report from the National Association of Realtors.

NAR's 2011 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey includes 1,895 responses from households who bought residential real estate in 2010. The association conducted the survey in March 2011 and controlled for age and income.

The survey found that second-home purchases declined at the same rate as primary home purchases in 2010, both dropping 5.6 percent. Investment properties saw the bulk of that decline, falling 7.8 percent, compared to a 1.8 percent decline for vacation homes.

The percentages of investment purchases and vacation-home purchases to overall purchases remained the same as in 2009, at 17 percent and 10 percent, respectively.  more...

Loan delinquencies fall 14%

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 30, 2011.

The number of homeowners who were behind on their mortgages was dramatically lower in February than at the same time a year ago, but the number of homes in foreclosure edged up slightly, according to the latest analysis by mortgage loan data aggregator Lender Processing Services.

Both the number of delinquent loans and homes in foreclosures edged down from January to February, a sign that the total number of non-current loans will continue to decline from a January 2010 peak.

The total number of non-current loans -- delinquencies plus homes in foreclosure -- was down 14 percent from a year ago, to 6.85 million.

The total number of delinquent mortgages fell 21 percent from a year ago, to 4.66 million, which should eventually help slow the flow of homes into the foreclosure pipeline.  more...

Ask the right questions to qualify real estate buyers Premium Content

By David Fletcher, Wednesday, March 30, 2011.

Most of us agree that urgency is the big reason people make decisions to purchase, right? Well, how can you sell anything when there is so much inventory out there?

Multiple listing service inventory is breaking records in some market areas. Is supply outpacing demand so much that it makes it harder to sell? If this is believed to be true, does it excuse us as professionals from developing our skill sets?

Actually, if you do the right job of qualifying your buyer, you may find that the supply isn’t that great for the specific inventory your buyer seeks. This is one of the primary reasons buyer prospects need you. I know -- there's the Internet and your websites, but websites cannot get to the emotional level, which is the reason buyers want a specific home.

The reason I am writing about this is that we, as industry professionals, need to change our mindset about inventory. We need to quit blaming circumstances and hone our skills.  more...

Real estate shadow inventory dips in January

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 30, 2011.

The "shadow inventory" of distressed and bank-owned homes likely to end up on the market totaled 1.8 million homes in January, down slightly from 2 million at the same time a year ago, data and analytics provider CoreLogic said.

At the rate homes were selling in January, that represents a nine-month supply of inventory, CoreLogic said in its latest shadow inventory report -- about the same as a year ago. There are another 2 million "upside down" homes with more than 50 percent negative equity that are likely to end up as shadow supply, the report said.

"While the trend of the shadow inventory is improving somewhat, the current level and distressed months' supply remain very high," said CoreLogic Chief Economist Mark Fleming in a statement. "The short-term weakness in prices and longer-term weakness in the drivers that affect the housing market imply that excess supply will remain high for an extended period of time."  more...

Web logs and the evolution of real estate marketing Premium Content

By Kris Berg, Wednesday, March 30, 2011.
Flickr image courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonythemisfit/3840163742/">Tony the Misfit</a>.

Back when Facebook wasn't for business, before Twitter was born, and in the days when we were still throwing our checkbooks at the classified sections of our local newspapers because people actually read them, I started a blog.

It wasn't such a big deal, this little Web log. And the whole idea didn't come to me in an epiphany of forward-thinking genius. Rather, it was just Experiment No. 372 in my ongoing struggle to differentiate myself and my business from the 85 million other licensed real estate agents in my market area.

I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't even know what "it" was. I just knew that I had been hearing stuff -- that my once novel, static website was now as common as the cheap seats at a royal wedding, and that the process of not only achieving success in this business but hanging onto it is just that -- a process.

So I Googled "How to create a Web log." I did this right after I Googled "What is a Web log?" Then, armed with pages of printed how-tos with mysterious instructions involving foreign terms like "server" and "WordPress," I removed the children and domestic animals from the profanity zone and created my masterpiece.  more...

Century 21 buys back into TV ads in a big way: the Super Bowl

By Matt Carter, Wednesday, March 30, 2011.
Flickr image courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/seeminglee/2240376649/in/photostream/">See-ming Lee 李思明 SML</a>.

When Century 21 Real Estate announced two years ago that it would stop running national television ads in order to boost its online ad spend, the venerable franchisor said it already had all the name recognition a company could ever want.

Now, Century 21 is getting back into TV in the splashiest way imaginable, announcing that it will run a spot during Super Bowl XLVI, on Feb. 5, 2012.

Next week, TV ads promoting the skills of Century 21 agents will begin airing on Discovery Communications' cable channel, TLC, which will also feature the 40-year-old franchise in an upcoming episode of "Cake Boss."

It's highly unlikely that anyone has forgotten that Century 21 exists in the two years that the franchise has been absent from the airwaves. So why come back?  more...

Top home improvement safety tips

By Bill and Kevin Burnett, Wednesday, March 30, 2011.
Flickr image courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/newruffian/3291299970/">The New Ruffian</a>.

Now that spring is on its way, it's time to get going on that long list of projects that has been building during the wet, cold months.

Reviewing some basic safety points is part of shaking off the cobwebs. Occasionally, we've had to learn this the hard way. There were a couple of doozies early in our careers and, frankly, we consider ourselves lucky that we're still here to tell about them.  more...

Regional real estate company embraces social media, agent coaches

By Andrea V. Brambila, Wednesday, March 30, 2011.

In 1973, Harold Crye "wandered" into real estate fresh out of the U.S. Army and discovered he had a passion for the business. He worked for a real estate brokerage for four years before co-founding his own company with Dick Leike in 1977. He was 31.

"I felt like there could be a better way. I felt like the agents were being treated like employees at the last place and I felt they could be given more freedom as independent contractors," Crye said.

"I thought we could set up a company that was a little more agent-friendly, give them more tools they needed, a more fun place to work, more camaraderie. Just a better environment."

Today, Crye-Leike, Realtors has 3,200 agents and 113 offices in nine states: Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana and Oklahoma. The company continues to grow: last month, it expanded into the Knoxville, Tenn., market.  more...