компютри втора употребаFannie Mae Announces Single National Down Payment Policy;
Replaces Policy Regarding Markets Where Home Prices are Declining

A friend of mine sent me this article the other day and I thought I’d share because it’s important information for where we are right now in real estate! This may help those of us in areas where our buyers have had a hard time getting financing for our deals and lenders have been scrutinizing deals with a microscope!

WASHINGTON, DC — Fannie Mae (FNM/NYSE) today announced a new, national policy on down payment requirements for conventional, conforming mortgages the company will purchase or guarantee. Starting June 1, 2008, Fannie Mae will accept up to 97 percent loan-to-value ratios for conventional, conforming mortgages processed through its Desktop Underwriter® (DU®) automated underwriting system, and 95 percent loan-to-value ratios for loans underwritten outside of DU, in all geographic locations in the United States. The new national down payment policy will supersede the policy the company adopted in December 2007 that required higher down payments in markets where home prices are declining.

Every time you turn on the news, it’s doom and gloom for real estate all around the country.

And certainly… the news is not good by and large throughout most of the country, BUT… believe it or not, there are pockets that are alive and doing VERY WELL, just like when most of the country was in vertical growth, there were pockets with record foreclosures!

The key is being able to know where those markets are BEFORE everybody else does (Click Here to find out how to find the best markets TODAY).

Let’s look at what could happen if you found the markets before your competitors did? (more…)

I’m happy to be ushering 2007 right out the door! Sure, we’ve had a great year in our business. I’ve worked with some of the best minds in real estate, marketing, internet, seminars, etc. But… we’ve also had our share of headaches this year too.

So… we are out with old and in with the new. We’re taking the next ten days to clean out, empty out and start fresh! So far, we’ve got over 9 bags of paperwork ready for the shredder, the house is being cleaned from top to bottom and the office is getting a MAJOR overhaul.

Plus, we’re putting the finishing touches on lots of new things that we’ll be rolling out in January for YOU!

So… What do you think is going to happen in ‘08? Here are a few of my own predictions!

Visit the blog to see Part I of our predictions (and by all means, please feel free to add some of your own!)

1. Increase in Foreclosures…
We’re absolutely going to continue to see a rise in foreclosures, but I think the lenders are going to start working with us…

2. Change in how ‘deals’ are structured
I think we’re going to seller financing and owner held mortgages coming back. We’ll see more and more lease options.

3. Lenders will start to ‘get it’
I think lenders are going to back down and start working with buyers and investors before they get in the business of property management.

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by Heather Seitz

This article is an excerpt from The Real Estate Rant, August, 2007 issue. Click Here for a 60 day test drive of the Real Estate Rant and $852.90 in FREE STUFF!

By now you know that you need a website, blog or some sort of web presence, I hope!

But, it’s simply not enough to have a website if you’re not getting visitors and/or not getting visitors to leave their information so that you can follow up with them. So… how do you capture their info?

Nowadays, it’s easier said than done. You see, several years ago, you could pop a page on the web, tell someone they couldn’t go anywhere until they gave you their information and that was it. But now, people are tired of spam and junk mail and don’t want to give out their email address if they don’t “know” what’s on the other side. Not to mention, just about everybody I know has an entirely separate email account for “forced opt ins”

So… how do you get your visitor to give you their PRIMARY name and email?
You’ve got to give them something SO irresistible or so unique, that they’d be stupid to say no to your offer.

Here are a couple of unique ideas for things you can offer to your niche market: (more…)

by Mark Klee & Caryn McKinney

Answer #1: Niche Marketing = Less Competition and Greater Profits.
As a real estate investor, perhaps you’ve figured out how easy it is to be unfocused in the real estate investment business. That being the case, my partner, Mark Klee, and I want to help you understand the incredible profits available to you by doing business in a NICHE market … particularly one that MOST investors are afraid to go after … bankruptcies. It’s not brain surgery to realize that any market with less competition will also offer you greater opportunities for amazing profits!

You should also realize that if you’re NOT in a niche market, you’re fighting all the other investors for the same FSBOs, MLS listings, and wholesale deals from whatever resources you have. So why not at least check out this bankruptcy niche that most investors are, indeed, afraid to tackle?

Answer #2: Market conditions are ideal
Check out the following basic facts on our current market conditions and you’ll start to see how ideally the stage is set to work with quality bankruptcy leads.

• In many areas of the country, investors are finding greater competition for fewer deals.

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There are essentially 5 steps to being successful in real estate marketing. Before we go into the 5 steps of real estate marketing, I want to encourage you to become a student of marketing. The moment that you are able to find your own deals - on demand - the more money you will make! It’s a direct correlation. When I started out in real estate, I didn’t understand how to “really” market for deals. I was depending upon real estate agents, local real estate investing groups, etc. I did a lot of deals, but I realized I wasn’t making the kind of money I knew I could in estate.

Follow these five steps to successful real estate marketing and you’ll be on your way to filling your own funnel full of five-figure deals.

1. Define Your Target Market:
   You must be focused… If you run in too many directions, focusing on too many real estate markets, you’ll always be skipping around, never getting ahead. You need to learn overcome objections; you need to know how to handle the different situations that arise. Once you master one market, then you can duplicate your system across market after market. For instance, you may choose to start working with foreclosures or out of state owners. Once you get the real estate marketing system in place for one, add the other. Then, you can simply duplicate it over and over again!

   The single most important thing to remember is that you MUST target motivated sellers…. PERIOD.

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The real estate industry, or more appropriately, the mortgage industry is facing daily changes. As you probably know by now if you’ve read the newspaper or watched television in the last three months, the sub-prime mortgage market has made some huge changes… Second mortgages are quickly going by the wayside in exchange for loans with mortgage insurance, which is now tax deductible*.

If you do the math, even with PMI, loans often end up costing the borrower less than the hybrid loans of recent years.

But… the changes affect the new loans, not the existing mortgages with which sellers are facing foreclosure in record numbers. And this is the major reason the real estate market has flat-lined, depreciated, or ____________ (fill in the blank with your market). Let’s face it… homeowners got bad loans and the mortgage industry was getting wealthy. So, let’s not feel too bad for the lenders :-). They not only did it to themselves, but to homeowners and investors. Have you ever heard the saying, “Pigs get fat… hogs get slaughtered”? (more…)

Everyone is looking for a foreclosure “deal” these days – and there’s lots to choose from these days, but be careful… just because a property is in foreclosure, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a “deal”. In fact, nowadays, it takes more time to sift through the leads to find the really good opportunities within the foreclosure market.

The more potential foreclosure properties you have to sift through, the higher your chances are for finding a deal.

The top 5 ways to finding foreclosures are:

1. Bandit Signs
   Bandit signs are plain white or yellow corrugated signs with metal stands that stick into the ground. You can find preprinted signs or you can buy plain signs and handwrite your message on the signs. Place them on corners of busy intersections or in neighborhoods in which you want to purchase a foreclosure home.

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If you’ve resisted the foreclosure market in the past because there was a lot of competition or because banks weren’t so willing to work with you on the short sales, it’s time to move past it! You see, even though people are still trying to break in to the foreclosure market, the “speculators” who called themselves investors over the past few years are gone! So… that leaves room for the cream of the crop to really rise.

On top of that, many serious investors have been tapped out, holding on to properties they acquired when the market was at it’s peak, and now cannot unload. There are more investors going into foreclosure because they bought the “wrong kind of deal” than ever in the past. So… this is prime time for new investors or investors that were not able to really get going because of the competitive market. Investors that are still in the game now are really working together and building their teams of investors. They’re back to specialieing and referring out the deals that don’t fit their own models. The feast or famine mentality is going away - FAST! and investors are once again working together!

Add all of to the fact that banks can no longer afford to NOT short sale. Lender after lender is going belly up, taking back properties that have no chance at all to sell for the mortgaged amount. They are left with two choices: 1. Take back the property after the foreclosure sale and try to sell it with a Realtor; or 2. Short sale now and get out.

Naturally, the question is: Why would a bank take a huge discount when they can take the property back and then sell it themselves? (more…)

Check out the article I got today from the Realtor association… Keep your eye out for some articles on the effects of the press on the real estate market!

WASHINGTON – March 12, 2007 – Anyone selling a home in the past year has likely suffered through some pretty stormy markets, but economists say a break in the clouds may be on the way.

That’s because since the highly anticipated “real estate bubble” began deflating in mid-2005, has been losing air for the past year and a half and may finally be out of air. And while some markets suffered through some deep slumps, forecasters are now predicting the worst may be over.

“It appears we are getting very close to bottom,” says David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.

Lereah is one of several economists who agree that sales data show the national existing home sales market is on the verge of regaining ground.
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