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CAR social media program to feature Roost platform

By Andrea V. Brambila, Tuesday, April 12, 2011.

Social network marketing and technology company Roost has signed an agreement with California Association of Realtors' subsidiary Real Estate Business Services to feature its platform as the primary tool in CAR's first social media training program, Roost announced today.

CAR is the country's largest state Realtor association, with more than 145,000 members at the end of March. REBS' training division, CAR Education, will use Roost's social marketing platform as the primary tool of its new Social Network Master Program.

The program is fee-based and geared toward increasing business through social media campaigns. It includes courses on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogging that members have the option to take individually.

"Social networking has become a useful and necessary tool for Realtors to generate leads and serve their clients. Many of our members are in need of quality training and tools to utilize these new platforms," said Robert Bailey, chairman of REBS, in a statement.  more...

Another key player exits reverse mortgage business

By Tom Kelly, Tuesday, April 12, 2011.

It's curious how companies promote the launch of a new product or program but do little to inform consumers when it is no longer available. Financial Freedom Senior Funding Corporation was founded in 1996 in Irvine, Calif., and grew to be of the biggest players in the national reverse mortgage industry. It also became the reverse market leader for homeowners with higher-priced homes.

As of March 31, Financial Freedom will no longer be accepting reverse mortgage applications, becoming the third major reverse mortgage company to exit the business this year. Seattle Mortgage and Bank of America recently announced they were shutting their reverse operations, while Wells Fargo said it would halt its wholesale broker program. Financial Freedom intends to continue servicing the reverse mortgages it now holds, according to a company statement.

New compensation rules for loan salespeople is the most speculated reason for the stoppage, but lenders cite a "need to return to core business" as the prime mover. The bottom line is that seniors will have fewer places to look to pull money out of their homes without having to pay it back.

"After careful consideration, we have decided to exit the wholesale reverse mortgage origination business based on the regulatory environment and the desire to focus on the bank's core businesses," read a statement from Pasadena, Calif.-based OneWest Bank, the parent company of Financial Freedom. "The wholesale reverse mortgage origination channel represents the majority of Financial Freedom's origination business and is the only wholesale origination channel within OneWest.  more...

Recession dashes false hopes for real estate riches

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Tuesday, April 12, 2011.

Though professor Meir Statman's latest book, and my latest personal obsession, explores a set of investor values, desires and motivations so comprehensive I'm just skimming the surface by highlighting them in a series of columns, one investor craving he pinpoints is so core to what virtually all of us who live in developed nations (and don't have to worry about clean water, etc.) desire that it singlehandedly "up-levels" the subject of the book to what humans really want.

"We want hope for riches and freedom from the fear of poverty," Statman states so simply in his book, "What Investors Really Want: Know What Drives Investor Behavior and Make Smarter Financial Decisions."

And when it comes to real estate, therein lies the rub. Much has been made, in recent times, of the fact that many well-off countries don't have high rates of homeownership. In Switzerland, one of the world's most prosperous nations, the homeownership rate is only 31 percent, less than half the current American homeownership rate.

As the subprime mortgage market imploded, spawning the foreclosure crisis, real estate industry participants -- from individual consumers to media pundits to Capitol Hill economists -- began a wide-scale rethink of what's so great about homeownership, anyway.  more...

Realtors re-examine safety policies after shooting

By Mary Umberger, Tuesday, April 12, 2011.
Flickr image courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squinza/2543969843/sizes/o/in/photostream/">Il conte di Luna</a>.

Safety concerns in the wake of shooting

The Des Moines Area Association of Realtors in Iowa is recommending to its members that each brokerage re-examine its safety policies in the aftermath of an agent who was shot and killed while holding an open house on Friday.

Ashley Okland, 27, was shot twice in a model home and later died at an area hospital. Police said on Monday they have no suspects.

Numerous central Iowa brokerages canceled open houses on Sunday, and the area Spring Tour of Homes promotional event was canceled for the weekend, according to the Des Moines Register.

Is that a contract in your pocket?

Florida real estate agents who often find themselves alone in vacant, foreclosed homes are taking gun-training courses in order to be allowed to carry concealed weapons legally, according to a recent radio report by American Public Media.  more...

Century 21 partners with mobile game co.

By Inman News, Tuesday, April 12, 2011.

Franchise giant Century 21 Real Estate has launched an advertising campaign on We City, a mobile game in which players build and control their own cities, the company announced today.

The move is the latest in the franchiser's new "Smarter, Bolder, Faster" marketing campaign, which also includes a revamped website, mobile applications for all smartphone types and feature phones, and a TV ad to run during next year's Super Bowl.

Century 21 will be the first brand -- in any industry -- featured in the We City game, the company said. The campaign ends April 26.

"We view it as one more first. There are very few companies, period, never mind real estate companies, working with consumers in this space," said Bev Thorne, the company's chief marketing officer.

We City was created by mobile gaming company ngmoco and runs on Apple's iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices. Players build their own cities, adding buildings such as cafes, motels, gyms, factories, and colleges.  more...

Regulators take liberties with real estate legislation

By Ken Harney, Tuesday, April 12, 2011.

Maybe a federal government shutdown now and then would be a good idea -- certainly for the current crop of financial regulatory officials. Twice in the past six months they have taken congressional mandates that significantly affect real estate transactions and home mortgages, and mangled them badly.

Cases in point: The long-awaited appraisal reform regulations that took effect April 1, and the "qualified residential mortgage" (QRM) proposals that were called for in last year's Dodd-Frank financial legislation. In both instances, regulators took straightforward statutory language and arrived at rules that vastly altered clear congressional intent.

Personally, I think they are the most egregious examples of regulatory perversion -- even nullification -- that I have seen in 30-plus years of observing and writing about Congress and housing.

Take the appraisal reforms. The Dodd-Frank law said explicitly that lenders must compensate appraisers at rates that are "customary and reasonable" for their geographic markets. But what exactly is customary and reasonable? Congress wrote just two sentences of instructions to the Federal Reserve Board, which was assigned the task of writing the implementing regulations.  more...

Fannie Mae brings back REO buyer incentives

By Inman News, Tuesday, April 12, 2011.

Fannie Mae is once again offering closing-cost assistance for buyers who close on a home in the mortgage giant's real-estate owned (REO) inventory, but in most states will not bring back cash bonuses it previously paid to buyers' agents.

Buyers who put in initial offers on or after April 11, and close on the sale of a Fannie Mae HomePath property by June 30, will be eligible to receive up to 3.5 percent in closing-cost assistance.

The offer is only good for buyers who intend to occupy the home they are purchasing as their primary residence -- second homes and investor properties are not eligible.

Offers submitted before May 15 have the best chance of qualifying, Fannie Mae said, as offers submitted after that "are particularly questionable for closing" by the June 30 deadline.  more...