Green Financing Program

On Wednesday, March 23rd, we had the privilege of attending an event that Fidelity Phoenix co-sponsored for Guaranteed Rate Mortgage (GRM). The event was held at Boojum Tree’s Hidden Gardens, a beautiful venue and the perfect setting for a discussion on Green Financing.

Green Financing Program as discussed at this event, in a nutshell:

· 100% of the cost of an energy pack above and beyond what the buyer is paying for the home

· No re-appraisal needed

· Maricopa County- 163K or higher up to 9300 and 163000 or below is 5% of property value

· Based on appraised value

· Single Family, New Construction, Current Construction, units 1-4, and duplexes all qualify for this FHA Financing

· The Green Financing Program through GRM is for FHA loans only. Considering 24% of the National Market Share is FHA’s, this is a no brainer.

· The goal of this program is to achieve national energy goals and create affordable housing

· Tax breaks at the Federal, State, Local, Utilities and Energy Star and all apply!


Other highlights and talking points on the program:

· Great tool for REO Listing Agents-make the upgrades and get your FHA loan

· Use yard signs that show energy assistance savings

· Here is how it would look:
1. Yard Sign

2. Call off of Sign

3. Lender/Energy Efficient Mortgage Chat

4. Lender Refers client to a Vendor to discuss Tax Credits and a bid estimate

5. HEERS (Home Energy Rating System) Inspector takes bid, reviews loan type, sales price and bid price and gives a yes or no

6. Lender Takes Back Loan

7. Sends to Fidelity National Title

8. Lender holds money to pay for upgrades and gets the job done quickly

9. Inspector Certifies

10. Vendor gets paid

11. Home Closes

12. Homeowner Saves Money!

For more information, please send an email to info-fntarizona@fnf.com

Phoenix Real Estate Market Is On The Rise

Phoenix Real Estate Market is on the rise! Our own SVP of Sales & Marketing here at Fidelity Phoenix, Steve de Laveaga, gives a quick snapshot of how our market is shaping up in the first trimester of 2011.

Why Use Social Media for Your Business?

Welcome to Part 2 of our social media series. Today we discuss why you should be using social media for your business.

Location, location, location. Retail locations don’t set up shop where there's no foot traffic. As more and more evidence demonstrates, consumers are using social media and increasingly prefer it over active marketing. In addition to being where the consumers are, the following outlines why it is important for businesses to incorporate social media into their marketing strategy:

*You can reach your market by simply engaging in the right conversations with the right people. This is more effective than advertising.

*If your business can’t be found, isn’t engaging with the market or worse yet ignoring the market you are not likely to be creating transactional opportunities while your competition does.

*Communications is a system to leverage your organizations ability to communicate with your market. Social media is the new communications system.

*Social media saves time and money if you use it right for the right things.

*If you learn “how” to use social media correctly then you’ll understand “what” your market is looking for and “where” they are looking. You want them to look for you.

*When your customers and prospects are engaging about you, your industry or your products and services, you need to be there listening. Otherwise how will you gain the necessary market intelligence, be enabled to respond or even be aware of problems or needs? If you are not present when and where the conversations are occurring you are basically out of touch with your market.

*Communications is about reach. Communicating is about relational dynamics between people. Social media provides the means to effectively communicate with your market, communicating in human rather than institutional terms.

One of the key components in successful social media marketing implementation is building "social authority". Social authority is developed when an individual or organization establishes themselves as an "expert" in their given field or area, thereby becoming an “influencer” in that field or area.

It is through this process of "building social authority" that social media becomes effective. That is why one of the foundational concepts in social media has become that you cannot completely control your message through social media but rather you can simply begin to participate in the "conversation" in the hopes that you can become a relevant influence in that conversation.

However, this conversation participation must be cleverly executed because while people are resistant to marketing in general, they are even more resistant to direct or overt marketing through social media platforms. This may seem counter-intuitive but is the main reason building social authority with credibility is so important.

State of the West Side

Fidelity National Title and Bank of America were proud sponsors of "2011 west valley market trends and an in depth look at the west valley distressed market" held on March 15 at the Renaissance Hotel in Glendale. Speakers included Mike Orr from the Cromford Report and Brandi Johnson from Bank of America. Below are the key points form the presentation given by Mike Orr. To see video clips of the presentation visit our Facebook page.

POSITIVES:

· Economy/Jobs getting better
· DEC/JAN/FEB stronger performance than historical trend
· Lower prices growing strong demand
· Best purchase prices in 15 years
· Rental prices more likely to go up
· Supply drying up
· Great time to be a landlord
· Property over $300k: Hit bottom Nov 2010, price points gently climbing

NEGATIVES:

· Fewer buyers-more renters
· AZ population peaked in 2009
· Out-Migration started in 2007 (largest impact in South & West “Inner” Valleys

SUPPLY & DEMAND:

****Pricing tells what already happened*****

****Supply & Demand provide data to speculate what WILL happen****

Active Listings –

46k peak on Nov 21, 2010, now below 40k

Rentals – “Normal” inventory has been 8k-10k – TODAY: only 5k

-More hard hit are condo rental inventory, “normal” 3.5k-4k- TODAY: only 2k

Pending—

Last 2 years-steep upward trend (Tax Credit)

Glendale doing slightly better than last years pendings

ACTUAL CLOSINGS-

Very active market

2011 well ahead of past 2 years performance in the same time period

FORECLOSURES- (includes commercial properties, but 95% residential)

-# of notices on decline
-# of sales constant
-# of pre-foreclosures going down

· Currently 38k Pre-Foreclosures, used to be 52K – still a problem but a downward trend.
· Mike Orr uses 2003 as a representative of a ‘normal’ amount of pre-foreclosures = 8k

Mike speculates there is no shadow inventory and it would be impossible to measure, REO is on the decline, diversify your business.

SHORT TERM OUTLOOK

· Demand outpacing Supply—creates an active market and should show an improved real estate market pending other impacts don’t throw a curve ball. Regardless, may be bumps in the road.
· Don’t expect prices to show the trend right away – remember price indicates what’s already happened
· Investor Demand key, especially in low-end markets and price points
· $300k and up price points showing signs of recovery (these are usually primary residence purchase or 2nd home purchase

Other Data:
Canadians:

· Last 3 months: 1 in 20 homes purchased were by Canadian
· 6 years ago: 1 in 250 homes purchased were by Canadian
· Canadians are the substitute for the California buyer market we experienced some time ago.

OUT-MIGRATION & SCHOOLS

Important tool to see trends in Out-Migration and hardest hit areas, ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORTS. Google “Arizona schools in roman”, leads to government school data. Reports show registration #s, ethnicity, ages, demographics – Out-Migration areas will take the longest to recover

SHORT SALES

AWC difficult to measure due to the qualifying process on each “AWC”

SS success indicates 3X better than it was in 2008

52% increase from 2008

HUD

Mike’s stats for REO includes HUD homes

1000 active HUD listings right now, 1 in 7 listings is a HUD home

Notice of Defaults

1 million homes in Maricopa County, 1 in 4 have received a NOD/NTR

Speculation on where to FOCUS & MARKET….

· REO has peaked – will be on the decline as more lenders turn to Short Sale programs
· SS – longevity, will be around for many years to come. SS will never take a large amount of market share since they take so long to close, but as banks streamline SS standards and have less Foreclosure/REO it’s very real for SS market share of closings to grow
· $300k and over market

Arizona Imagaing - Another Great Fidelity Phoenix Tool

Consider the folowing:
• Professional photos attract more buyers, 89% of buyers start their search online
• 88% of the listings on MLS do not have 25 photos or a media tour
• More and more REO banks are requiring agents to have 25 photos, virtual tour links, and flyers

With statistics like these, we’re happy that we’re able to provide a great service that allows us to help our agents save time, money and gain more exposure. We’ve partnered with a local photography company, Arizona Imaging, to provide our clients with high quality photos and video tours with a quick response time. When an agent orders a Realtor Advantage Package they receive this HD Virtual Tour free of charge along with high resolution images which are used to create their flyers, populate their MLS listing and “Custom listing Website,” and are then used to gain additional exposure on top sites 24/7 such as Google, YouTube, Yahoo, Zillow, Trulia, Oodle and Realtor.com. Arizona Imaging has also recently added some new features to save even more time and help drive our agent’ business which we’re excited to share -

• The ability to save valuable time when loading stills to MLS. Agents never have too much time and now because Arizona Imaging fully names their images, when an agent goes to load these to MLS, they don’t have to rename every photo.
• They can also now build tours in HD format such as Tour Factory or in the agent software at no added cost.

For more information go to http://bit.ly/eXpoEl or contact your Sales Representative.

The Power of Social Media

Welcome to part 1 of our social media series. In this series we will be discussing the power of social media, social media trends and the best ways to use social media in your business.

Are you a part of and leveraging the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? Social Media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way the world communicates. So what is all the hoopla about, what exactly IS social media? Social media is any form of online communication or presence that allows end users to engage in multi-directional conversations. Some of the most popular are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Active Rain.

Why is social media important to you and your business? It has emerged as a deceptively powerful business tool -- especially for professions like Real Estate where you live and die by your network, and word of mouth means everything. You'll find that social media can be a convenient, ambient, mobile way to get things done, extend your personal brand, help opportunity find you, and find answers to everyday, real-world business problems -- FAST.

The “why” of doing business is the same it has been for centuries - to create value, attract a market who wants the value and engage the market in transaction. However, the “how” of doing this has changed dramatically over the past few years from “push marketing” to “pull marketing”.

“Push marketing” or active marketing, refers to marketing in which businesses actively expound and assert their message through mediums such as TV, radio, direct mail, outdoor advertising, print advertising etc. Push marketing has a clear call to action, most often to sell the target something. “Pull marketing”, inbound marketing or passive marketing doesn’t directly tell the target what to do, but instead builds a relationship with the target.

An increasingly important component of effective marketing strategies, pull or passive marketing is quickly becoming the preferred method of communications for consumers.

Inbound marketing, marketing that does not need to be intrusive or interruptive, is one of the most organic and effective ways to accomplish the two primary goals of business today: to be found easily on the web and to establish the business as an authority in the market.

Social networking is THE prime example of effective inbound marketing. By plotting and managing a social networking strategy, you can define yourself as a true resource on the web – the place where a pool of prospective clients continues to grow each day.

Still unsure it’s not simply a fad? Ponder on these stats:

*Social Media is now the #1 activity on the Web.

*Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the U.S.

*As of January 2011, Facebook has over 550,000,000 users, with over half logged in on any given day.

*62% post updates related to their work life, activities or interests, with 12% doing so on a daily basis

*LinkedIn now has 90 million members.

*34% of bloggers post about products, brands, & services, including what they think about YOURS.

What are YOU doing to leverage the power of social media in your business? We’d love to hear your comments!

The Passion in Real Estate is Back

By Steve de Laveaga, SVP Sales and Marketing FNT Maricopa

The Passion in Real Estate is BACK!!! I had the privilege to attend the Keller Williams annual "Family Reunion" last week and as we speak, I am in Las Vegas attending the National RE/MAX Convention. The energy at both of these conferences is higher than at any time I can remember in the last 3 years!!

One of our best partners, Brett Tanner of KW, said, "Real Estate is FUN AGAIN, this new normal is now something we are starting to understand and embrace, it is great!!" I also spoke with two of our top RE/MAX Brokers, Howard Lein and Bill Ryan who also said, we are starting to see confidence again from our associates and their buyer activity has been off the charts!!

Seeing and hearing this passion makes me feel so lucky to be in the Real Estate space, we just need to continue to educate the community that we have unprecedented buyer opportunity and now is the time to take advantage of it!!

And to our RE/MAX Partners, see you tonight at our Private event to celebrate YOUR SUCCESS, can't wait to share an adult beverage with you all this evening!!

There is no better time for Investors!

Fidelity was one of two sponsors for the February 24th and 25th CIAS (Certified Investor Agent Specialist- http://www.cias.com/) training series. As a long time sponsor and friend to Alex and Cadey Charfen with the Distressed Property Institute, we want to congratulate all those Real Estate Professionals that have gone through the training, are going through the training and will be going through the training in the future.

Here are some great stats from the event:

*In 2009, 20% of purchases were Investor purchases.

*Short Sales have increased 126% since 2009.

*Foreclosure sales accounted for 31% of all residential sales nationwide.

According to NAR:

· 2009 49% of Investors used an Agent of Broker…that means that over 50% of Investors did not use an Agent in 2009

· 1 in 5 residential transactions in 2009, 20%, of the market, was comprised of investor purchases

Additionally, it is said that the last option ARM wave will hit October/November 2011 and an estimated 68% will default on their mortgage, 38 billion dollars. There is no better time for Investors!

To sign up to become a CIAS visit our website at http://www.fntarizona.com/

Here are some other program highlights and market data discussed at CIAS.

· Best time to be in real estate in 20 years- Sellers Need You, Buyers Need You, Investors Need you and The Market Needs you! Everyone is affected by the Distressed Market.

· CIAS helps connect investors to communities that need help. In Arizona this is especially relevant.

· Don’t purchase for appreciation when buying a home. Purchase for cash flow. This is why so many Arizonians got in over their head 2005 and 2006.