TheREALTYgram Blogger

Happy Birthday, Columbus Best Blog!

A year goes so quickly! Blogchild Maureen McCabe, e-PRO, REALTOR, launched into the blogosphere a year ago today with Columbus Best Blog: "This is not the best blog in Columbus Ohio! This is a blog about what is best in Columbus and Central Ohio! Best restaurants, best real estate company, best schools, best neighborhoods...." She was recently honored as one of the Top 10 Women Real Estate Bloggers by sellsius blog. Congratulations on the anniversary! We look forward to many more!

John Mudd, Diabetic Blogging PioneerDies At The Tender Age of 32

John Mudd, a REALTOR in Tampa, FL, died this month. Mudd was a real estate blogging pioneer who posted gregariously about luxury homes and equally passionately about the blogging medium. He was a contributing blogger on the Inman blog, and wrote about blogging for major trade press, including REALTOR Magazine.  The news of his death in blogging circles first appeared in Rain City Guide, followed by an Inman news blog entry  pointing to an article in Pinellas Park (FL) Beacon.

The exact date of Mudd's death is unknown. Police report that he died of natural causes and they have scheduled an autopsy. Mudd lived with his grandmother, who thought that he was sleeping for days, according to police. His badly decomposed body was found on a living room couch. Officials speculate that he died between July 17 and July 26. They responded to a call from a co-worker who said that he had not reported to work in several days. His grandmother is now in medical custody, according to the police.

John Mudd's last blog entry is dated July 9, 2006. John sold real estate in the Tampa area and blogged frequently about selling homes to affluent buyers.

He was a lifelong diabetic and a passionate advocate for stem cell research. He sent me an e-mail last August and asked me to join him for National Cell-A-Thon Day. I did!

"As a lifelong, insulin-dependent diabetic, I am asking you to call President Bush tomorrow, Tuesday, August 9th, at 202-456-1414, to ask him to sign H.R. 810 into law. The bill will cause embryonic stem cells to be used in various cure research, from cancer to diabetes to Parkinson's to Alzheimer's. Vetoing the bill will cause the same embryonic stem cells to be thrown in the garbage. We can save lives, or we can throw them away. Thank you in advance for any help or support you lend in the effort to get H.R. 810 signed into law."--John Mudd

He died too young! He inspired a whole generation of real estate bloggers. We will miss him, but we will remember his message and we will continue to lobby for stem cell research.

A Week Of Kind Words,Maybe We'll Sell Some Books For CARE!

Shucks, don't know if I'm suffering discomfiture or just a plain old menopausal hot flash! It's only midweek and on top of mentions in REALTOR Magazine Online and The Philadelphia Inquirer comes a nice plug from Rich Hudson of Internet Crusade.

If you found this blog via a real estate Listserv, don't forget we're selling books about HUD Homes and 100% of the proceeds are going to CARE! Check out our Web Women Giving Circle blog before you close your browser.

Real Estate Splogosphere is Growing;We Need A Spam Militia!

Why are the blog search engines delivering so much junk these days? A University of Maryland study claims that 56% of English language blogs are spam (SPam + bLOG = SPLOG). Excessive spam is rendering most blog search engine almost useless for users who search using wide parameters (i.e. Bethlehem PA real estate).

Blogging guru Steve Rubel talked about spam blogs earlier this week. Splogs are everywhere, there's Pennsylvania real estate sblog, Arizona splog. and splog everywhere you search! I am particularly offended by the Pennsylvania splog, which uses my posts as its content. The owner of the site is unidentified except as "Real Estate Pro".

Some of the splogs are simply vehicles that carry advertising. Others are used as pointer sites to other web addresses. Who's to blame? There are three culprits: web publishers who do nothing to police splog (Blogger.com is reported to have over 100,000 splogs), advertising venues (Google has not done a good job monitoring its AdSense applicants), and the authors of the splogs.

If web publishers and advertisers want the search engines to function with better results, they would be wise to step up to the plate with a plan to fix the problem!

Is The LoftNinja The Calder of the Web;Or Is He The New Andy Warhol?

I just took a little busman's tour around the Big Apple. I didn't even have to leave Bethlehem, PA. iustiNYC Real Estate is one of the shiniest stars in the blogosphere. There's nothing that this blog lacks!  TheLoftNija (a NYC real estate agent)  has been my favorite urban photographer for over a year. His visual repertoire ranges from sexy, wide-angle loft interiors to gritty blighted structures that come alive as art forms. He translates the proportion and geometrics of cable and steel to stunning beauty in Calder-esque fashion. His maps are multi-colored eye candy drifting in the twilight background.

I confess that I have always disliked dark background web sites with reverse type, but The LoftNija makes me love it here! He pulls it off brilliantly, with a grey sans serif type and earth tone links and headlines that offer easy reading even for middle age eyes.

justiNYC weaves photography, video, poetry, and narrative into a winning web surf. Techie wannabes like me love all his tools and links that help us grow. My favorite link is  his arts page , marrying his photography with op art graphics. Makes me want to take out my camera and shoot! I think I'll just do that today. Thanks for the inspiration, Justin!!

9:33 PM Update...just received an e-mail from Justin with more treats from The LoftNinja: Real Estate Blog Pad: Tips and Tools for the Real Estate Agent 2.0 and a neat gallery of panoramas called Space.

Philadelphia Inquirer On Realty BloggingHighlights The REALTYgram Blogger

  The Philadelphia Inquirer's Al Heavens ran an excellent piece on real estate blogging today.   Heavens is a blogger, too. Check him out!

Web Women Giving Circle Members Collaborate;100% Proceeds Of August HUD Book Sales To CARE

  I recently published two eBooks about HUD Homes for Sale. One is a consumer book and the other is a professional guide for real estate agents. All of the proceeds from the sale of both books that are sold through October, 2006 will be donated to CARE in a special arrangement with Giving Circle founder Joeann Fossland, who set up the eCommerce donation platform in her online bookstore on her web site:  HUD Homes for Sale--A Complete Buyer's Guide ($19.95) and HUD Homes for Sale --A Sales and Marketing Guide for Real Estate Agents ($39.95). Agents who order the Sales and Marketing Guide will receive a BONUS copy of the Complete Buyer's Guide, a $59.90 value for $39.95. Click here at Joeann Fossland's online book store to purchase for the 2 for 1 special. All proceeds collected for these books at Joeann's bookstore will be donated to CARE.

Are FHA Buyers DisenfranchisedIn HUD Homes For Sale Market?

The author has recently published two books about HUD Homes available from the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. A recent visitor to her blogs is concerned that FHA buyers and first-time homebuyers are disenfranchised in the HUD Homes marketplace. Chuck Mahoney, president, NOAH FOUNDATION, INC. (National Opportunities for Affordable Housing) left a comment on the blogs. Rather than leave the comment "buried" there, I offer his complete text and my response:

"Frances Flynn Thorsen's new eBook HUD Homes for Sale -- A Complete Buyer's Guide...fails to identify the negative aspects of purchasing a HUD Home especially for first-time homebuyers," writes Mahoney.

"Although HUD/FHA will finance repair escrows for needed repair issues, HUD/FHA put FHA Borrowers (especially first-time homebuyers) at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to the bid process as follows:

"Those bidders that will require FHA financing must use (as required by HUD/FHA) the HUD appraisal that was done for the subject property. This appraisal limits FHA maximum financing calculations to this appraised value. If the FHA bidder offers a bid that is greater than the HUD List Price (which is also the "HUD Appraised Value") the buyer must make up that difference out of their own funds dollar-for-dollar.

"The major problem with this is that Realtors who work the HUD foreclosure circuit know how to out-bid FHA borrower/buyers by recommending other than FHA financing (typically those lovely 100% loan programs) so that the buyer is no longer required to finance based on the HUD appraisal, but can have another appraisal done by other than an FHA appraiser. This keeps the non-FHA borrower/buyer from having to come out of pocket when bidding above the HUD appraised value!

"The irony is that HUD's mission is to promote ‘affordable’ housing through the use of their FHA loans, but in the case of HUD foreclosures ...the FHA borrower/buyer (which would be almost all first time homebuyers) is actually severely, affordably handicapped if they elect to use FHA financing.

"Worse yet, those buyers that use other than FHA financing typically make offers in excess of the HUD Appraised Valuation causing affordability to disappear like trees in a South American rain forest!"

Frances Flynn Thorsen responds:

Both books about HUD homes are very clear about FHA limitations with respect to bidding:

"Keep in mind an important fact about FHA financing of HUD Homes for Sale: FHA will only finance a maximum loan amount that corresponds to HUD’s asking price. If a buyer is inclined to "bid up" a property and finance that property with FHA financing, he will have to make up the difference between the asking price and the bid amount with additional down payment monies. This can put an FHA buyer at a serious disadvantage in the bidding process. It is advisable under these circumstances to have alternative financing in place to maximize bidding potential."

REALTORS who are educated about the HUD Homes for sale process and learn how to work the HUD Homes circuit successfully understand that there are twists and turns in the process that can make the difference between a sale and a rejected bid. The problem is not with the REALTORS who learn to work the system successfully, the problem is with REALTORS who do not know the ins and outs of the program and are unable to counsel their buyers effectively enough to score a winning bid on a HUD home.

Some years ago HUD used to accept any bid amount on an FHA insurable HUD home, letting a buyer use FHA financing for any winning bid amount. In some areas of the country, properties were being bid at twice the appraised value. Overbidding was rampant and HUD put a brake on that process, limiting the maximum allowable FHA financing to the list price of the HUD home.

I agree that FHA buyers are at a disadvantage in the bidding process for HUD homes. I would like to see HUD’s policy evolve to a more lenient one that would let buyers finance up to 115% of the appraised value of the home. This would keep the brakes on excessive overbidding and keep FHA buyers in the loop in the bidding process.

FHA financing has been a mainstay of mortgage lending in the U.S. for many years. Both books devote two full chapters to FHA financing, including comprehensive information about FHA underwriting guidelines with a special focus on compensating factors that can be weighed to tilt the scales toward an FHA loan approval, and help buyers avoid the pitfalls of subprime lending and the predators who prowl those corridors.

Mahoney continues:

"First-time homebuyers have down payment assistance programs & special below-market interest rate financing available to them on a nationwide basis. Most are never told this by their self proclaimed ‘Real Estate Professionals’ (lenders & realtors). The result is the first time homebuyer is unable to maximize his/her affordability through the access and use of these programs.

"Further, the majority of these programs require that ‘Health and Safety’ repair issues are to be corrected/repaired prior to closing if the Buyer is to receive Down Payment Assistance funding and their below-market interest rate! Once, again, HUD actually puts another affordability ‘roadblock’ in front of the first time homebuyer because HUD does not allow these repairs to be completed prior to closing and as a result, the first time homebuyer looses potentially thousands of dollars in down payment assistance funding and ends up paying hundreds of dollars a month too much through the duration of their home ownership.

"Are HUD foreclosure homes good ‘deals’? Not unless the stars are in the right alignment and it is a full moon...for the first time homebuyer. It just does not make sense to give up $10,000 - $50,000 in down payment assistance dollars (this will vary state-to-state) and below-market interest rate financing (203-k, FHA repair financing is much higher rate than even regular FHA financing) to purchase someone else's repair-needy foreclosure home and then have to finance in repair costs.

"Unfortunately, it appears that Ms. Frances, has little experience helping real-world homebuyers maximize their affordability when compared with her book-writing talents for making money by offering books that pretend to offer ‘everything you need to know’!"

Frances Flynn Thorsen responds:

First-time homebuyers have excellent opportunities to reduce their cash-out-of-pocket expenses as well as to maximize their affordability. The book cautions buyers to know the difference between their qualifying number and a monthly payment amount that corresponds with their lifestyle and other monthly obligations and expectations.

It is unlikely that HUD will change its policy and let buyers complete repairs prior to settlement. There is still a very high fall-through rate of HUD contracts that do not reach the settlement table and it is impractical to invite legal issues surrounding repairs made at a buyer’s expense when a property does not close escrow. I would encourage the Down Payment Assistance providers to rethink their policies and consider making adjustments to those guidelines, perhaps exempting HUD homes from their stringent repair-before-settlement requirements. This would be a feasible alternative with a reasonable cap on the repair amount and a time to complete them.

Buyers are still getting into HUD homes with as little as three percent cash out of pocket. It seems evident that new FHA guidelines will lessen that amount in the near future. Not all buyers are candidates for Down Payment Assistance programs. Down Payment Assistance requirements often preclude a buyer’s approval prospects, (i.e. too much liquid cash after settlement, income limitations, lender choice, seller reluctance to participate the seller "gift" programs).

I have been working with "real world" homebuyers for 22 years. I have sold many HUD homes. I am equally concerned with helping buyers calculate their "Comfort Zone" for monthly spending as I am with maximizing their affordability. To the extent that affordability relates to consumer-friendly loan products, I’m with Mr. Mahoney one hundred percent!

Real Estate Kitchen Blog HasEverything For Agents But The Kitchen Sink!

What happens when an Aussie Super Coach and a virtual assistant from Louisiana meet on a conference call and Giving Circle chat room? The Real Estate Kitchen, that's what! What's cookin' there? Lots of advice for rookies and veteran agents, a state-of-the-art podcast facility, and a robust blog, complete with links to the Web Women Giving Circle blogs, Web Women Giving Circle, and Inspiring Woman.

Beverly Hills Real Estate Sales Guru BlogsAbout Marketing To The Rich And Famous

Popular Beverly Hills real estate author, trainer, and coach Bernice Ross, Ph.D, launched her new blog today, Luxury Clues. She promises a fresh, sassy, and gossipy "blog that’s all about connecting you with the resources to represent the wealth of the world in their next real estate transaction! ...what’s hot and what’s not in the upper echelons. ..with tips from real estate’s hottest wealth marketing gurus, Alexandra and Ron Seigel."  Ross is the author of Waging War Against Real Estate Discounters.