Are Short Sales For You?

Part 1 of our 5 part series "Short Sales in 2011"

Once unfamiliar territory for many agents, short sales are not going anywhere. At least, not anytime soon. Since 2007, the real estate market has experienced a definitive shift; more and more REALTORS’ business focuses on short sales and REO. If you’re a REALTOR you need to ask yourself - are you in the game? And if so, what can you do to take your business to the next level?

To help you take your business to the next level, we’ve taken the key leanings presented from a recent Fidelity National Title Short Sale Mastermind Group and created a valuable, exciting series that we’re excited to share. Wendy Shaw, of The Russell Shaw Group, a top expert in the field of short sales, along with attorney Mark Windsor of Winsor Law Group, lent their expertise to this frank discussion that takes a look at what’s on the minds of local REALTORS – challenges, successes, best practices and looking ahead to 2011. Here’s the first in a series of five that takes a look at Short Sales in 2011.

Are Short Sales For You?

Do you want a good year? Or a good career? Before deciding if short sales are for you, you must answer this question. If you’re looking for a good, or a great career, then embrace short sales. If you do your job, you’ll have a loyal group of clients for years to come.

If you’re already in the game, ask yourself: are you in a cul-de-sac or a dip? If you’re just going round and round in circles, maybe short sales are not for you. Or maybe you need to make some changes – i.e. revamp your admin staff, marketing dept, etc. At times there are definite lulls or “dips” but accepting those and looking to the future is the key to a skilled agent. If you decide short sales are for you, then commit! Now is the time for action; many agents have gotten out of the market and short sales have become much easier.

Do You Want To Be A Short Sale Expert?

Fact: Distressed homes rose to a 36% market share in December from 33% in November, and 32% in December 2009. (RISMEDIA, January 21, 2011).

Fact: According to the National Association of Realtors’ most recent Realtors Confidence Index, 12% of all recent home buyers purchased their home through a short sale. (RISMEDIA, November 11, 2010)

Are you fully prepared to assist your buyers and sellers with the specialized area of short sales? Fidelity is pleased to inform you of an opportunity to participate in an open forum to assist you with your short sale challenges, presented by Brandi Johnson, a Bank of America senior negotiator. Some of the topics covered will be:

· The biggest mistakes agents make and how to avoid the pitfalls

· What you can do to expedite the short sale process!

· What are lenders really looking for?

· What is a short sale “deal-breaker”??

· Hot tips for your seller

· Does the Equator program make a difference?

Bring your questions and challenges, your appetite too, as lunch will be served. Seating will be limited; for reservations, please immediately call Jo Anne Atkins at (480) 308-9059.

When: January 25th, February 1st or February 2nd 12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Where: Bank of America Home Loan Center, 14850 North Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd., Scottsdale, AZ 85260

RE/MAX Panel of Stars Shined Bright

A couple of weeks ago we had the privilege of sponsoring the RE/MAX Panel of Stars. The event, held at the Renaissance Glendale Hotel and Spa on January 12, featured a panel of CyberStars and StarPower Stars that shared information on how to supercharge your business in 2011. Two of the panelists, Brett Ellis and Michael Maher provided great advice worth sharing.

Brett’s team consistently closes over 400 properties each year and is the Top Residential Real Estate Sales Team in Lee County, Florida. An accomplished author and a well-known national speaker focusing on Marketing Real Estate with Today’s Technology, Brett spoke about the importance of becoming an expert in your market by utilizing social media such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. He also stressed the the use of video in your real estate practice. His advice is to keep your videos simple and authentic, and to run your name and contact info at the bottom of the video.

Brett also spoke about the importance of blogging as the number one way to reach clients, pointing out that it is important to provide credible content.

Michael Maher is Tulsa’s youngest and most successful Realtor. He laid out a 7-Step Fresh Start – RESET Yourself plan:.
1. Define Your ‘Why’ – What provides you real satisfaction? Your 'Why' helps you persevere, provides a purpose and avoid burnout.
2. Stay Focused – Make your business fit your why; reduce interruptions, eliminate bad ideas, and realize good ideas might be bad for you (because they don’t fit your 'Why')
3. Set Up For Success – Obtain the tools you need to be efficient
4. Website Components – Make sure you have a good accessible menu bar; include video on website, add links that create trust and credibility. Clients come to websites for information, so don’t make your site all about you. Your homepage should have your contact info and links to social media pages.
5. Blogging is most important! – Blogging is more important than your website. Blogs help you build and maintain credibility, some people are using blogs as their homepage.
6. Include video on your website – This helps build credibility
7. Expand your network & knowledge

All good advice from top Real Estate Stars that you can implement in your own business!

Featured Tool of the Week - FIT

Gone for the most part are the days of looking up a local business in the Yellow Pages… we go to the Internet instead. Who hasn’t used the ‘Net to check out restaurant reviews… book travel… shop… and that includes shopping for real estate. Consumers are searching the Web 24 hours a day, 93% of home buyers start their home search online.

And consumers are not just searching online, their online activity leads to transactions. Today 80% of all real estate transactions are generated on the internet. While the majority of real estate professionals have websites these days, 90% of Agents are not successful online. Only a small percentage of Agents are successfully generating business from their websites. The reason the vast majority of Agents don’t have the same success is because they don’t have the right tool in place to successfully market themselves on the internet at the highest level, and capture those valuable internet leads. Just being online doesn’t cut it anymore – you have to have the RIGHT tool.

To ensure you have the right tool in place that consumers most demand, and one that also provides the opportunity for you to leverage the abundance of online real estate leads and convert them into business, check out Fidelity Intelligent Technology ~ FIT.

FIT includes the following features:

- Full MLS search that includes state of the art mapping features and brands all of the MLS listings to YOU.

- Lead generation tools to capture those highly coveted internet leads.

- Pages that can be fully customized and countless widgets can be added.

- Blogging software and a blogging network that allows you to blog your own content or automatically pick up content from the network so you don’t need to do a thing!

Internet home buyers today aren’t just window shopping, they are taking action! 72% drove by a home they found online. 46% walked through the home. 90% of internet searches used an Agent, with close to a quarter finding their Agent online. Contact your Fidelity rep today to see how FIT can assist you in shaping up your Internet marketing strategy to market yourself at the highest level online!

Fidelity Data Shop

It’s 11:30p, you’re still wide awake, and need to finish prepping for a listing appointment in the morning. Or perhaps you’re anxious to get underway finding a buyer for the new listing you signed tonight ~ hooray for you! But as available as your fantastic Fidelity Rep always is, you’re thinking perhaps it might be pushing it a bit to call at this late hour and request a Listing Kit… what to do, what to do?

Sign up for the upcoming Fidelity Data Shop webinar, and learn how YOU can pull online Listing Kits with property information. It couldn’t be easier ~ by simply submitting an online request form, within 2-3 days you’ll receive your user name and password which then provides you 24/7 access to obtain property profiles, comparables and neighborhood information. Pull and print at your convenience!

Learning more about this fabulous tool also couldn’t be easier ~ take the training online from your home or office. So mark your calendar for Wednesday, January 19, 2011, 2p – 3p. To sign up and reserve a spot, please RSVP by sending an email request to events-fntmarketing@fnf.com. We ask that you request a copy of the "Meeting Request" be sent to you. Once you receive and accept the meeting request it should automatically drop into your email calendar. You will also have the access information in the notes section of the meeting request. If you are unable to view the meeting request or it is a challenge to find the information in the meeting request - we can send it to you in a separate email.

Contact your Fidelity Sales Representative for further details.

Greening Your REO & Short Sales

Tuesday, January 18, 2011, Class: 1pm – 4pm; Networking: 4pm – 5pm.

Held at Fidelity National Title, 11th Floor, 60 E. Rio Salado Pkwy., Tempe, AZ

Learn how to help your buyers and sellers use tax incentives, grants, utility rebates and energy efficient financing to purchase or sell distressed properties from Cheryl King, EcoBroker® certified, CDPE and licensed broker.

You’ll learn:
-What an energy audit is & how it can help sell more distressed homes.
-What an energy efficient mortgage is & how it can help sell more distressed homes.
-How to incorporate these powerful tools into your listing & buyer presentations.

Completion of this class provides 3 hours of General CE Credits in Arizona. Course cost: $25.00. Seating is limited to 50, please call 888.874.0574 to register.

Another exciting Webinar Wednesday: Preferred Text Network

Wednesday, January 12 · 2:00pm - 3:00pm – online training


Technology is a beautiful thing… the ability to simply log on to your computer and participate in training about new and innovative tools, well, it’s just about as cool as shopping from the convenience of your own home. Almost!


This training provides you a tool that offers something valuable to your buyers & sellers! For buyers, this is a hassle free shopping tool, while providing you a buyer activity trail to see who is serious about buying and who isn’t yet, and incubates the shoppers. For sellers, it gets you in front of buyers, not shoppers and provides a more informed sale!

You’ll receive real-time buyer lead inquiries. Get to buyers before they’ve made a decision about financing.

And you’ll love that it’s FREE to you ~ yes, FREE!

This is 3-tools-in-one, all super simple to use: contact management (CRM), lead generation, and online marketing.

Free app store like the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android...many other apps coming that plug-in and are ready-to-go!

You can also get other professional info from your mobile: Retail/wholesale mortgage rates, property value, calculators, title fees—and more—via text, mobile web.

Please RSVP by sending an email request to events-fntmarketing@fnf.com. We ask that you request a copy of the "Meeting Request" be sent to you - Once you receive and accept the meeting request it should automatically drop into your email calendar. You will also have the access information in the notes section of the meeting request. If you are unable to view the meeting request or it is a challenge to find the information in the meeting request - we can send it to you in a separate email. Contact your Fidelity Sales Representative for further details.

Twitter: Why You Should Be Using It and How

Twitter currently has about 15-20 million users and is continuing to grow rapidly each month. Starting as a simple messaging vehicle Twitter has now become one of the more common forms of communication for B2B, B2C and C2C. Twitter averages almost 40 million Tweets per day, and according to a survey conducted in May 2009, 51% of Twitter user respondents were between 35 and 54 years of age.

Millions of people actively use Twitter as a regular form of communication or medium for news, information and entertainment. In addition to the widespread usage of Twitter, the platform acts as a fantastic way to directly communicate with prospects and clients, and vice versa. Once an attentive audience is developed Twitter becomes a low cost marketing tool for communicating business related information to attain new clients and generate more revenue.

The first step is to set up a Twitter account and customize the Twitter page for consistent branding. Now it’s time to start tweeting! Much like every other aspect of social media, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to how you should run your Twitter account. However, there were some themes that held true in every conversation:

-Twitter has a 140 character maximum for tweets, so tweets need to be a single thought, link, or question
-Your tweets should fit with your brand’s voice.
-Your tweets should have a personal voice that meshes well with the brand voice
-Twitter is meant to be genuine and in real time, information you tweet needs to be current

Just keep in mind that Twitter, like all social media, is a great way to further engage customers, open up new conversations and keep information flowing.

One of the most overlook benefits of Twitter is the ability to do some search engine optimization. As the search engines continue to push forward with real-time search results and social search results, Twitter becomes increasingly important. So what are you waiting for, start tweeting!

You can follow us on Twitter @FidelityPhoenix.

Rise of New Home Sales in November Provides Positive Outlook for Home Builders in 2011

Sales of newly built, single-family homes increased 5.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 290,000 units in November, according to newly released figures from the U.S. Commerce Department. The gain represents a partial bounce-back from a near-record low, downwardly revised number of new-home sales in October.

“While builders continue to face a great deal of competition from short-sale and foreclosure properties, the improvement registered in new-home sales in November is a good sign,” said Bob Jones, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). “With consumer interest in new homes expected to continue to revive as the economy and job markets improve, and inventories of new homes for sale near record lows, our concern now is that a lack of construction financing will keep builders from being able to expand the selection of what they have to offer buyers heading into the spring.”

“Builders in our latest surveys have indicated that they are starting to see more buyers who are seriously considering a new-home purchase, and the numbers showing that sales headed in the right direction in November bode well for what the future may hold,” agreed NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “The extremely low inventory of new homes on the market is also a positive sign that builders have been exercising tremendous caution with regard to new construction activity. That said, unless builders’ access to financing for new development improves, many will not have a product to sell when the opportunity arises, which in turn would slow a market recovery as well as potential job generation from new home building.”

This rise is attributed to sales increases in both the South, the nation's largest housing market, which saw a 5.8 percent gain, and the West, which saw an impressive 37.3 percent rebound over October.

According to the National Association of Home Builder (NAHB) the inventory of new homes for sale is now at an 8.2-month supply, at 197,000 units. This is the first time in 42 years the inventory has fallen below the 200,000 level.

Source: nahb.com

Real Estate Provisions Included in the Newly Passed Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act

The recently signed HR4853, otherwise known as the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act, will extend Bush era tax brackets and a capital gains tax rate of 15 percent through 2011 and 2012.

It will also extend numerous energy efficiency credits through December 31, 2011 -- the Energy Efficient New Homes, Energy Efficient Existing Homes, and Energy Efficient Building credits. According to NAR the provisions included in HR4853 are as follows:

Energy-efficient New Homes Credit: A tax credit, based on numerous energy efficiency milestones, has been available to some home construction activities since about 2008. That provision had expired, but is now renewed through 2011. The credit is available to builders/manufacturers of new homes that meet the various milestones.

Energy-efficient Existing Homes: The tax credit for homeowners who make specified energy-related improvements to existing homes was scheduled to expire December 31, 2010. It has been extended through December 31, 2011. The qualified investments include replacement windows, doors, or skylights, some roofing materials and some heating and cooling equipment. The amounts of the credit vary depending on the asset and its energy rating as determined by the Energy Star program. The standards for qualified property are tougher than they were in 2010, so homeowners will need to exercise great care in their acquisitions. The credit is available only for improvements to a principal residence and only if the improvement is original to the property and only if the property will last for at least 5 years. The credit is not available if the improvement is financed using any form of subsidized energy program.

Energy-efficient Buildings: Owners of commercial buildings may qualify for tax credits for investments in designated insulation, windows and roofing improvements. Improvements to the heating/air conditioning systems, water heaters and air circulation fans may also be eligible for the credit. As with the home improvement credits, these credits require compliance with a variety of energy efficiency standards. Investors should exercise great care in determining what assets will satisfy the given criteria. The improvements must be in place on or before December 31, 2011.