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If you do not follow the show Extreme Home Makeover it is one of the most heartwarming things on television. A family in financial trouble and living typically in squalor has the ABC crew come in and work with thousands of volunteers to build a home in one week.

That is why it is so tough to see that one of the recipients of the communities largess put their home on the market albeit if it was only for one day. The homeowner was given 60,000 dollars to cover the maintenance costs of the home when they got the keys but says the money is all gone.

Unfortunately this is not too surprising. Basic money skills are not that common for folks living on the edge. The producers of ABC should use some of the power of the show to send these folks to school to learn to handle money instead of a trip to Disney World when they build them the house.

As you often see with pro athletes who are broke in only a few years after getting the monster contract, managing ones resources is hard. Education for these families can help avoid the poor publicity Extreme Home Makeover is getting from episodes like this.

Victor Marrero, the owner of the 3,000-square-foot, four-bedroom house pulled it off the market a day after it was listed by a real estate agent on the Multiple Listing Service, or MLS. On Tuesday, Zip Realty removed a lockbox from the home and temporarily suspended the listing, also at Marrero’s request.

Even if the house were still on the market, prospective buyers would have to line up behind Urban Promise Ministries, which has right of first refusal on the property at 3723 Federal St.

During a televised interview, Marrero said he tried to sell the home because it was too costly to maintain. He also said the nearly $60,000 worth of donations the family received during the Extreme Makeover build was gone. via Asbury Park Press.

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New Jersey ‘Extreme Makeover Home Edition’ Home Put On Market For a Day

Zip Realty, the discount real estate brokerage, announced a loss of 7.3 million dollars for the first quarter of 2008. The company’s shares were up after the announcement as the market was expecting a larger loss.

With the ultra competitive sellers market we are facing it is amazing that ZipRealty is still in the game to this extent. The need to properly market and sell a home with a full service push is needed in this market where procuring buyers is difficult.

On the other hand it is good to see they are still in the fight. As real estate changes all different forms of marketing and brokerage concepts need to be tested to determine what will be most effective for buyers and sellers.

Emeryville-based ZipRealty Inc. reported a larger loss and shrinking revenues for its first quarter of 2008 that ended March 31. The online realty brokerage lost $7.3 million, or 31 cents a share, on revenues of $20.6 million. ZipRealty’s losses were more than twice the $3.1 million the company lost a year ago. Revenues were down 12 percent from the first quarter of 2007. via Inside Bay Area.

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Zip Realty First Quarter Loss Tops 7.3 Million

Face it, the odds of energy costs coming down in the near future are nill. Combine that with a stagnant housing market, a glut of starving construction workers, and personal incomes for most not going down, you have the recipe for a surge in Green Remodeling.

The Green movement has always been a fringe element of society as long as it was not affecting the pocketbooks of the American consumer. We tend to think right but act based upon our pocketbooks and what is good for our families.

However, when energy prices soar, the right thing to do for our families is now concentrate on energy efficient choices that will benefit us all. Add to that technological innovations that have improved efficiency while lowering cost on energy savings projects you have the perfect storm.

While things are slow in the construction world and we have some dollars to spend on home improvements, here are a few ideas from the NAHB that will help you save money with green remodeling.

- Toilets, showers and faucets account for 60 percent of water usage in the home, according to the EPA. Replacing these items with more efficient models can save 11,000 gallons of water per year.

- When buying or replacing appliances, choose energy-efficient models. Federal ENERGY STAR-rated appliances are designed to use 10-50 percent less energy and water than standard appliances and save an average of 30 percent over standard models.

- Install a programmable thermostat to set your heating and cooling equipment to automatically turn on or off to match your schedule and create a comfortable and energy-efficient living environment. These units typically offer savings of 10 to 15 percent and cost $40 - $100.

- Old windows are often the weak link in energy efficiency. New window technology yields windows that are three times as efficient, or more.

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Green Remodeling - The Next New Wave For Homeowners?

A Fontana, California man is accused of turning his home into a marijuana grow house after a bank examiner found the evidence during an inspection. This has to be one of the stupidest crooks of all time.

After investing a couple of hundred thousand into the home and equipment to create the grow house, going through the effort of stealing electricity, and then growing the pot, these morons fail to pay the mortgage and go into foreclosure?

The level of stupidity with this guy is unbelievable.

A bank employee stumbled upon a foreclosed house used to grow marijuana, leading to the seizure of an estimated $4.5 million in drugs in two houses and an arrest Saturday. Angel Wayhang Kou, 30, of Rancho Cucamonga was booked into jail on suspicion of cultivating marijuana, maintaining a residence for drugs, theft of utilities and conspiracy…
“They had probably well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment in both homes, between the lights, the electrical, the water, the filtering and venting systems,” Decker said. Police said Kou stole about $100,000 in electricity from Southern California Edison between the two homes by bypassing electrical boxes. Decker said Kou owned both homes, but both were in foreclosure.  San Bernardino County Sun.

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Using A Foreclosure Home as a Marijuana Grow House - Not Very Smart

There are some out there who are hoping for a new depression to come out of the housing slowdown. Well kids, after reading the tea leaves, things are not going to be so bad. When all the experts were stating we were in a recession, the economy grew .6 percent.

So it is a rosy time? No. But with a Republican President leaving office the media always talks down the economy to boost the chances of the Democrats. Not trying to be political but the press corp is about 85 percent Democratic and they do have a dog in the fight so the newsrooms are full of people talking about how bad the economy is and how the only thing that will save us is a Democratic landslide in the next election. Needless to say, the bad mouthing of the economy will end in November with rosy projections coming later.

Gerald Baker captured some of these feelings in a editorial in the London Times today.

I don’t know about you but I feel a bit cheated. There we all were, led to believe by so many commentators that the sub-prime crisis was going to force the United States into a new era of dust bowls and breadlines, a slump that would call into question the very functioning of the capitalist system in the world’s largest economy. Carried away on the surging wave of their own economically dubious verbosity, the pundits even speculated that this unavoidable calamity might presage some 1930s-style global political cataclysm to match.
Well, it’s early days, to be fair, but so far the Great Depression 2008 is shaping up to be a Great Disappointment. Not so much The Grapes of Wrath as Raisins of Mild Inconvenience. Last week the Commerce Department reported that the US economy – battered by the credit crunch, pummelled by a housing market collapse and generally devastated by the wild stampede of animal spirits – actually grew in the first three months of the year.  via Times Online

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So Maybe The Housing Slump Is Not Causing A Depression

Congratulations Zillow and Trulia for their victories in the Webby Awards For 2008. Both companies are leaders not just in the online real estate space but also showing other industries how to harness the web to change the playing field.

Press Release:

Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, online film and video, interactive advertising, and mobile Websites. The Academy unveiled winners today in over 100 categories from over 60 countries and a full list of winners can be found at http://www.webbyawards.com.

 Reflecting the incredible caliber of Real Estate sites on the web, the winner in the category is:

•  Zillow.com                                                                   

http://www.zillow.com

In addition, nearly 500,000 votes were cast by people around the world for their favorite sites, videos, and ads in The Webby People’s Voice Awards presented by Nokia. A full list of both Webby Awards and People’s Voice Awards winners can be found at www.webbyawards.com

 The Webby People’s Voice Award for Best Real Estate Site is:

• Trulia                                                                           

http://www.trulia.com

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Congratulations To Zillow and Trulia - Webby 2008 Award Winners

While mortgage lending is down 22 percent from the 1st 2007, it did rise 3 percent over the preceding quarter. The top lenders include embattled Countrywide Financial who is still expected to be acquired by the 4th largest lender, Bank of America.  

It is interesting to see that the banks are now taking a leadership role in mortgage lending as the mortgage brokers have come undone in the credit crunch they created. IndyMac and Washington Mutual were down over 60 percent from last year while Residential Capital was down 40 percent.

Company                  Q1 2008 Originations

Countrywide                   $73.0 billion
Wells Fargo                    $66.0 billion
JPMorgan                       $53.8 billion
Bank of America              $38.6 billion
Citigroup                        $34.3 billion

Source: Mortgage Daily

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1st Quarter, 2008 Top 5 Mortgage Lenders

I just read a great article over at Copyblogger on Generational Marketing.

Really, go read it now, here is the link; 

Are you back? Okay, great, lets move forward.

Here is my question for the real estate agents out there.

Who is the customer for the homes you are selling?

Not all of the homes and don’t say everyone is a customer. Each   Individual   House  .

If you believe or have said that everyone is a customer to a seller you have failed the test and turn in your real estate license. Seriously, that way of thinking is dead and buried.

But we have the answer and you have heard it if you read the article above.

EVERY HOME SHOULD BE MARKETED TO A SPECIFIC DEMOGRAPHIC.

Did you hear me? Let me repeat it.

EVERY HOME SHOULD BE MARKETED TO A SPECIFIC DEMOGRAPHIC.

• If your home is in a starter neighborhood, write the copy for a twenty something.
• If your home is in a luxury retirement golf community, write for the Silent Generation or Baby Boomers.
• If your home is in a upscale neighborhood filled with young families odds are you should target Generation X.

You now have the answer that can change your real estate business. The reason you need to market differently to each group is:

• Each one of these groups talks differently.
• Each one of these groups thinks differently.
• Each one of these groups triggers on different keywords.

The key to success is to target a market and develop your marketing around them. What worked 5 years ago does not work well now and will work worse in the future.

Lets look at your marketing material and ask yourself these questions:

• Am I are creating generic marketing material to sell the homes you have listed? Odds are you are failing.
• Am I writing in Real Estate Agent Speak and think that buyers appreciate my superior knowledge? Odds are you are failing.
• Am I always counting on my style and personality being dominant and not the concerns of my potential clients? Odds are you are failing.

But you can be successful. You can. It is not hard.

For the real estate agents out there, look at your listings.

• REALLY LOOK AT THEM (Nice McMansion in great suburb)
• Figure out what demographic would buy them. (Gen X)
• Now figure out what group in what demographic will buy this home. (Professionals with young families looking for good schools.)
• Once you have the target market figured out:

RE-WRITE ALL YOUR MARKETING MATERIAL  FOR THE DEMOGRAPHIC THAT WANTS TO BUY EACH SPECIFIC HOUSE YOU ARE SELLING.

More work, sure. But much more profits are in store for you.

In this day and age, work should not scare you. Paying for and marketing your listings to the average buyer should scare the hell out you.

Because if you target Joe Public in this age of specialization you are most likely to Fail. Failure is marketing dollars down the drain on a listing you will lose.  

And you are better than that.

(Did you read the post on generational marketing? If not, you failed. It is one the of most important things you can do today if you want to be successful as a real estate agent. Here it is again.)

(Of course, if you made it this far you did learn something, but really go read the article, re-read this post, and this turn off all lights, computers, and anything else that will distract you and think about it for 15 minutes.)

(Feel energized and back in control again? Good, I know you would.)

Congratulations, you are now on the road to being very successful marketing homes as an real estate agent. Now go re-write your copy on all of your listings and buyers literature and sell some houses!

PS My target for writing this post was the cutting edge real estate agent who understands the rules are changing quickly. Is that you? I thought so…

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Generational Marketing For Real Estate Agents

Looking to invest in real estate, the rental market may be your best friend right now. As homeownership costs are still outpacing the cost of renting by nearly 10 percent and purchasing a home is difficult in a tight capital market, renting is still the option of choice for many. Investment News has an article today talking about the opportunities for either investing in REITs or personal rental properties while the housing market is still slow.

Despite falling home prices, Mr. Leupold said that it is still far cheaper to rent than to own a home in today’s market.
“If you look at the ratio of homeownership costs to rent, it’s out of whack from its historic level by about 5% to 10%,” he said. “This means rents could increase 5% to 10% before you get back into the historic equilibrium.”
All this appears to bode well for apartment REITs, and investors have taken notice. Apartment REITs have been on a tear so far in 2008, generating total returns that included dividends of 17.9% for the year to date through last Thursday, according to the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts. via InvestmentNews

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Why Rental Market Is Going Strong

Weyerhaeuser, the lumber and forest company, recorded a loss of 148 million in the first quarter this year. The loss was due mainly to the weak United States new construction market. When stick built homes are not being built it makes it very hard on the supply companies.

Of course if you are planning a remodeling job or replacing a deck, this is a great time to buy lumber as prices are dropping. Excuse me while I head over to Home Depot to get my decking lumber…

“Business conditions are extremely challenging,” President and Chief Executive Daniel S. Fulton said, noting that single-family housing starts are below the lows of 1979-82. “Since many of our products are dependent upon single-family housing starts, we’ve experienced record-low product prices when adjusted for inflation.” via WSJ.com

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First Quarter Loss For Weyerhaeuser Due To Slow Housing Starts

In one of the best written articles on the housing market problems and how the Federal Governments intervention could make it worst has now been written by J.D. Foster. If you have a few minutes please read it. It is one of the most succinct articles on how much damage the meddling of our government can do to the housing market.

Stop the housing bailout before it undoes all of us – Federal plan could unravel effective private efforts 

I tried to excerpt the best part of the editorial but it is such a solid piece that I can not do it justice by pulling one part of it.

Borrowers by the millions are falling behind on their mortgages. The problems are most severe in a few states. Some, such as Nevada, California and Florida, enjoyed a huge, multiyear speculative bubble that’s now popped in spectacular fashion. Others, such as Ohio and Michigan, are seeing home prices decline because of more fundamental weaknesses in their economies, in some cases significantly exacerbated by extraordinarily foolish state fiscal policies. Yet just about every state is experiencing a housing problem: unusual numbers of borrowers who are delinquent or soon will be, home prices falling a little or a lot and contraction in construction.
Fortunately, the mortgage industry isn’t waiting for Congress to get its act together. Spurred on by the Treasury Department through a program called Hope Now, the industry — supported by services, counselors and community non-profit organizations — is actively seeking creditworthy borrowers who are or are likely to get into financial trouble. Why? To find a way to rework the mortgage or the payment schedule so the borrower can stay in the home.
Since last summer, the industry has successfully reworked more than a million mortgages, and is reworking hundreds of thousands more every month. via the Houston Chronicle.

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Federal Meddling in Housing Market Spells Disaster

While we in the real estate blogosphere try to figure out why the mortgage crisis is not resolving itself, the reason might be staring us in the face.

The consumer never learned the rules of the game.

Real estate agents and mortgage brokers got so caught up in the frenzy of selling and doing deals that they forgot to educate the consumer. This let the honest people turn deals quickly but it also let the unscrupulous amongst us scam buyers.

Remember the Sy Sims line from the annoying ads, “An educated consumer is our best customer.”

Well, according to this study by the Federal Trade Commission, the typical mortgage buyer was not an educated customer, and now we are all paying the price for this lack of education. So take the extra time now to make sure your clients are being served and educated. It is in all of our best interests.

The study, put together by the Federal Trade Commission for the Federal Reserve, contained some startling statistics: Of those surveyed, 25% could not identify the annual percentage rate of their mortgage, and 25% could not identify the amount of settlement charges. Half could not correctly identify the amount of the loan. Two-thirds were unaware of prepayment penalties that could be charged during refinancing. Three-quarters did not recognize that the loans included charges for optional credit insurance. via Forbes.com

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What Consumers Do Not Know About Their Mortgages

Mortgage fraud was rampant in the beginning of the century, that is very obvious to anyone who has watched the real estate market recently. That is why the new legislation coming out of Missouri is good to see. 

Missouri is going to make the crime of mortgage fraud it’s own category of law with enforcement and very specific penalties. The legislators were smart and kept the scope of the law looking forward to stop rampant fraud from happening again instead of a cumbersome legislation that would have tried to right the ills of past issues. Some legislators were hoping to add language that would have funded foreclosure protection and subprime legislation in the bill, but that would have diluted any affect on stopping mortgage fraud in Missouri in the future.  

The legislation defines mortgage fraud as making false statements or failing to disclose material facts. It creates fines and allows for the licenses of real estate brokers, agents and appraisers to be revoked. It also bars attempts to influence real estate appraisals through extortion or bribery.
The bill, which had already cleared the Senate, was endorsed 141-5 by the House on Thursday and now goes to the governor.
“What we were really focusing on were people who were breaking the law,” said Pearce, R-Warrensburg.
Pearce’s bill allows for civil fines of up to $2,500 per violation for those who commit mortgage fraud. It also makes mortgage fraud a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison. via the Houston Chronicle.

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Mortgage Fraud Now A Specific Crime in Missouri

I rarely wish bad tidings on people but the career of Jose Canseco has been laced with self absorption, cheating, lying, and other serious character defects. Could this result surprise you at all?

Canseco makes an obligation to pay a mortgage but then decides that it does not make sense to keep paying on it. When a man’s word means nothing then how can he understand what a contract is?

Jose Canseco, the former AL MVP who made millions during his baseball career, has had his home foreclosed.

Canseco told the syndicated TV show “Inside Edition” that he walked away from his $2.5 million, 7,300-square foot home in suburban Encino because it didn’t make sense to continue making payments.

“I do have a judgment on my home and it to me is very strange because it didn’t make financial sense for me to keep paying a mortgage on a home that was basically owned by someone else,” he said in an interview that aired Thursday. via the ajc.com

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Jose Canseco Loses California Home In Foreclosure

Sam Zell, billionaire and commercial real estate maven, is predicting that commercial real estate is coming back, albeit slowly as the credit market is loosening up. The city center is the strongest market and there is great risk in the “ex-urban, the glass-block commodity office building” sector.

Overall though Zell seems very bullish on the market and with his track record I would pay attention.

“I believe the overall market has already started to ease,’ Zell, chairman of Equity Residential, the largest U.S. apartment owner, said in an interview in New York. “Is it in large volumes? No. Is it the first natural step in the evolution? Yes.’
For the first time since July, when credit markets froze in reaction to rising home-loan defaults, investors are starting to move their money from Treasury bonds, whose returns are below the inflation rate, and into commercial mortgage-backed securities. Insurance companies and pension funds need to earn at least 6 percent to cover their liabilities, Zell said.  Bloomberg.com

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Sam Zell - Commercial Real Estate Coming Back

Sam Zell, billionaire and commercial real estate maven, is predicting that commercial real estate is coming back, albeit slowly as the credit market is loosening up. The city center is the strongest market and there is great risk in the “ex-urban, the glass-block commodity office building” sector.

Overall though Zell seems very bullish on the market and with his track record I would pay attention.

“I believe the overall market has already started to ease,” Zell, chairman of Equity Residential, the largest U.S. apartment owner, said in an interview in New York. “Is it in large volumes? No. Is it the first natural step in the evolution? Yes.”
For the first time since July, when credit markets froze in reaction to rising home-loan defaults, investors are starting to move their money from Treasury bonds, whose returns are below the inflation rate, and into commercial mortgage-backed securities. Insurance companies and pension funds need to earn at least 6 percent to cover their liabilities, Zell said.  Bloomberg.com

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Sam Zell - Commmercial Real Estate Coming Back

Congratulations to all who got behind the effort to alert Congress and the Army about the deplorable conditions at Fort Bragg. The Army launched a worldwide investigation into all barracks in the system to discover the level of housing issues our soldiers face.

Great job and this should make the homecomings easier for America’s heroes.

Brig. Gen. Dennis Rogers, who is responsible for maintaining barracks throughout the Army, told reporters at the Pentagon that most inspections were done last weekend but he had not seen final results.

While not providing specifics about problems discovered during the weekend inspections, Rogers indicated some deficiencies were corrected. In cases where extensive repairs are deemed necessary, the soldiers in that housing would be moved elsewhere until the fixes are completed, he added.

Rogers said it was too soon to know whether the Fort Bragg problem was an isolated incident. He acknowledged the revelations from a video shot by the father of an 82nd Airborne Division soldier showing poor conditions such as mold inside the barracks, peeling interior paint and a bathroom drain plugged with sewage. via  Yahoo! News.

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Army Barracks Housing Video Stirs Pentagon To Investigage All Housing

The head of Fannie Mae is predicting a slow real estate market spanning through 2009 as indicators such as the Case Shiller report as showing even greater weakness in the market. Daniel Mudd predicts the slowdown lasting longer than many other prognosticators, but interesting enough recognizes that he is guessing as forecasting housing is not an easy job.

This is a great point. We all would love to know the date of the turnaround. But the complex formula of consumer sentiment, finances, macro economics, local economics, and government fiscal policies will make it very hard to determine when and where the bottom will be. Add to that different local and socioeconomic groups may react differently to market conditions you have to remember the classic adage.

All real estate is local.

So before you get all bothered by this report, watch the indicators. The  best example of this are  the charts that are on Doug Quance’s site  for the different towns in Atlanta. Some are showing increases over the past couple of months of 10 percent while others right next door are showing declines. If you did not know any better you never would know all these communities were in one metro region! 

“We think at Fannie Mae that ‘08 is going to be a tough year, kind of a continuation of the end of 2007; ‘09 will be similar,” said Daniel Mudd, the company’s president and chief executive, who spoke at a business journalism conference in Baltimore.

Fannie Mae, which buys and repackages loans to sell to investors, claims about half the market for newly issued securities backed by single-family homes.

Forecasting the bottom of the housing slump is a tricky business, with the many conflicting predictions by economists as proof, he added. He said he has seen recent improvement in the capital markets, which play an important role in the mortgage products and rates that borrowers can get, but a housing-price index released yesterday showed accelerating declines across the largest metro areas. via the baltimoresun.com

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Fannie Mae Chief Executive Predicts National Housing Recovery in 2010

A Connecticut Housing Official and her husband is now charged with stealing Section 8 housing money from the East Haven housing authority. The amount of 173 thousand dollars was taken through a debit card that Cassandra Ashe illegally obtained.

I do hope she gets what she and her husband deserve stealing our tax money that was designated for low income housing families.

The executive director of East Haven’s housing authority was arrested with her husband Tuesday and charged with stealing $173,000 of federal housing money that was supposed to help low-income town residents pay their rent.

Cassandra Ashe, 36, and her husband, Jonathan, 43, are accused of conspiracy and theft from a program receiving federal money. Cassandra Ashe earns $57,000 a year as executive director of the authority. Her husband, who works in the New London Housing Authority’s maintenance department, earns $12.20 an hour. They live in North Haven.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, Cassandra Ashe, without approval from the East Haven Housing Authority, obtained a debit card in May 2007 that gave her access to the authority’s bank account containing low-income rental subsidies.  via the Courant.com.

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East Haven Connecticut Housing Official Charged With Stealing $173,000

Local government officials must be getting nervous if they are reading this story. New York City is one of the few hot warm spots in the real estate market and is showing a significant weakness in tax revenue collection. What are the mayors of Stockton and San Diego thinking as they try to keep all the bloated city services going?

So many local governments allocated their real estate tax surpluses to special vote buying constituent services that made the voters feel good without fulfilling their basic needs.  Now they will fight to keep these services going even after the real estate tax well has run dry.

The true catch 22 of the matter is when the homeowners realize they are being assessed for much more than their properties are worth and start mass appealing their assessments. That will be fun to watch as the politicians start scurrying.

Both of New York City’s underpeforming real estate tax revenues are based on sales of offices, warehouses, apartments and single-family homes. The number of deals has slowed, though with some properties, such as Manhattan apartments, prices still rose substantially in the last quarter.
Real property transfer taxes fell 12.7 percent, or nearly $162 million, from the same period a year ago, according to Democratic Comptroller William Thompson. At the same time, mortgage recording tax collections were down 20.1 percent, or $234 million. The Guardian

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New York City Real Estate Tax Revenue Down