The way to achieve is not to try. The way to achieve is to do.

The difference between trying and doing is all in your perspective. That difference makes all the difference in the world.

When you see yourself as trying, you are burdening yourself with the expectation of failure. Instead, put all your energy and focus into doing your very best, and into expecting the best results.

Merely trying is itself an excuse, and it gives you permission to make all sorts of other excuses. Doing, on the other hand, gets results.

If you’re going to make the effort, then make it count. Let go of any thoughts that you’re just trying, and embrace the most positive expectations.

You are absolutely capable of making a real and valuable difference. So forget about trying, and with well-deserved confidence, go ahead and get it done.

By Ralph Marston

Just because you’re living in a new home doesn’t mean you have to reinvent your life story. The new surroundings will be quite an alteration, so if you’re the type that does not easily embrace change, feel free to transfer the sense of style from your previous home to your new house. For example, if you painted a mural on the wall of your child’s old room, paint a new mural to give it a touch of personality. You can also arrange a specific room, the kitchen for example, to have a feeling of familiarity and comfort.

Along with new surroundings comes meeting new people. Now, you don’t need to feel rushed to make best friends a.s.a.p., though I’m not discouraging being friendly and greeting your neighbors. Hopefully you’ll it off quickly, but the point to remember is that new friends and relationships take time to reach the trust and closeness of older friends. What you should be wary of is joining organizations you know little about. Do some research and find groups that interest you before hopping into a group that may have unseen downsides e.g. inconvenient location or meeting times. Try signing up for a class or other activity that has a way for you to formally end your participation if needed, but still gets you involved with others and the community.

Another important part of relocating is familiarizing yourself with the area outside of your home. A great way to do this is to take different routes to work, try new stores/restaurants, and do a little research before and after you move in. Knowing the local culture, whether it’s what you had envisioned or not, will make you feel much more relaxed due to your comprehension of it. As you move into your new home, be sure to take the time to enjoy and appreciate your new location and all of the possibilities that come with it.

By Andrew Hill @ www.newhomesource.com

Then the article came out in the Oregonian yesterday sharing other buyer’s and broker’s experience of a shortage of homes for sale.

In the past a low inventory was usually good news, a sign that supply and demand were in balance. In this market sellers that do not have to sell are staying put, and the only homes for sale are people who have to move for some reason, either relocating, a family change or hardship of some sort.

What does this mean to home sellers and home buyers? Change is in the air.

It is good news for sellers because finally there are buyers buying due to low prices and low interest rates PLUS buyers do not have a lot to choose from right now.

For buyers it is a mixed bag, prices are as low as we have seen in many years, interest rates are below 4%. The bad news? There are slim pickings.

How to land the home of your dreams if you are in a multiple offer situation?

• First make sure the home is priced right.
• Have your broker run comparables on it to see how it is priced compared to recent sales in the neighborhood.
• Ask your broker to call the listing broker and find out specifically what is important to the seller and structure your offer to meet the sellers needs.

If you would like to read the entire Oregonian article click here:

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2012/03/low_inventory_of_available_hom.html

Now more than ever having a strong, level headed, experienced broker representing you and your offer is paramount in landing the home of your dreams.

If you have ever thought of adding investment real estate to your retirement portfolio, the time to buy is the bottom of the market!

Stay tuned for my next blog on Warren Buffett’s push to buy big while the market is down.

CLIENT:  I think I want to sell, you have seen the home, what do you think?

PEGGY:   If anyone can get the highest price for your home, it’s us, for sure.  And, on a newsworthy note, residential inventory is lower than at any point in 4 years.  So your timing is good.  …

Add to that the fact that relocation buyers are now entering the market place, starting just after Thanksgiving and continuing through the end of March.  We are entering our busiest period of each year, since for 20 years, my business has been built around a relocation focus.

So, if you do want to sell, let’s put your home on the market now and get it sold!  I believe the best price to list it for is $700k.  I know you would prefer more and we could start at $719k.  If we get no or low showings, then we can adjust the price to $700k. I prefer listing at the right price when it just goes active.  .  You will have a stronger response when the most buyers are notified (see earlier post). I find listings that come on the market priced right, sell for more than those whose sellers  are too bullish, and then lose market time and face a series of price reductions.

It is, of course, your decision. But, if you put me in the driver’s seat, with my primary objective to get the highest price in the least amount of time, I would price it at $700k and get it sold.  Let me know.

CLIENT: I owe $675k and don’t want to be out of pocket.  I don't need to get money back at closing, but I can’t be underwater after the sale.  Now what do you think?

PEGGY:  That is tough, but I'm not surprised knowing this market.  I would be willing to do a lesser commission, for the sake of selling this for you and for the future business between us.  But with $25k, there is not enough equity to cover closing expenses.  If we pay 2.5% selling office commission, which is less than I typically pay, (I incentify buyer's agents, and it works!)  That would leave a listing office commission of $10k,  If we sold it at $700k.  But if we sell it under $700k, that figure drops very fast.  I cannot start up my engines for much under $10k. 

I’ll bet my referral rental company PMC, can get that rented for you. What figure do you need to cover your overhead?

CLIENT: You are a sweetheart and superwoman!  I just spoke to your PMC contact and she is awesome, I am going to make a change to have her manage and rent my house…She is driving by it tomorrow.  thank you…

*PEGGY’S COMMENTS: Our clients need us to be a strong guide and an honest guide, even if it means losing their business in the short term. Because, really it is not losing anything in the short term. If  we take on something we know we cannot complete, it will be terrible for the client and  it will guarantee no future business from this client or from anyone they come in contact with.  I would rather lose current business and gain the clients trust and respect and gain future business from him and those he knows, than take a listing at a price we are unable to sell it at.

I mentioned that the number of listings on the market was down which can be a sign that we are moving toward a more balanced market.

Today, I have numbers to back this up. According to MLS data compiled by Realtor.com, housing inventory shrank in October by 3.5% nationwide compared to September and 21% over last October reaching a 4 year low!

In October, housing inventories declined month to month the most in:

• Portland, Ore.: -6.9%
• Seattle: -5.3%
• Dallas: -5.2%

How does this affect our market place? According to economic theory of supply (listings) and demand (home buyers) if supply decreases and demand remains unchanged, then it leads to higher price and lower quantity.  Or in layman terms, as long as the number of buyers in the market stays constant, lowering the inventory of homes for sale, means there are fewer homes for buyers to choose from, creating greater demand for fewer homes, thus driving the price of homes higher.

Stay Tuned!

Gobble Gobble

I'm in the real estate business, so on top of everything I have to be gratetful for personally,  I am especially grateful that the worst of the real estate economy seems to be behind us.

Here's why I'm grateful this year:

1. Housing, according to the NAR, is projected to gradually improve in 2012.

2. Although FHA loan limits were recently reduced, Congress just reversed that and returned them to their previous limits. You can again use FHA in Portland and Vancouver to purchase a home up to $433,900 and in higher cost of living cities, up to $729,750! The previous reduction was a detriment to recovery.

3.  The number of resale homes sales rose unexpectedly last month while the number of listings declined. Moving in the right direction again.

Have a wonderful, safe and tasty Thanksgiving!

Melting in like butter on hot popcorn,

The center predicts that "by 2030, 70.3 percent of immigrants are projected to own their own homes, on par or slightly higher than the homeownership rate among the native-born".

Rather than hinder the economy, immigrants will increasingly become the future home buyers of America, helping to jump-start our housing market.

The study also found that, unlike some assertions that Hispanics don't assimilate, in fact, Hispanic immigrants are assimilating at the same rate as other immigrants even though they started at a lower economic level.  They predict that by 2030, Hispanic home ownership rates of 67% and Hispanics home purchasing power, like all immigrants, will go a long way to solving our  housing crisis.

The study also predicts that naturaliization rates will grow to 70%.  Read more about this report from The Center for American Progress,

Why? Because, I predict buyers will start coming out of the woodwork and realize that the timing is right to buy.

Sellers that are staged perfectly will be the winners.

Should you wait until you have proof in the form of several months growth when everyone will be jumping onboard, or should you realize that this is the absolute best time to go to market and get sold before the rest of the sellers catch on.

Besides buyer demand there are other reasons for selling your home now,  Here are 10 more reasons why:

 1. People that are looking for homes during the holidays are BUYERS, not lookers. If someone is out scouring the homes for sale, they need a place to live.

2. Many people want to take advantage of the tax benefits of buying before the end of the year.

3. There is less competition for your home due to market inventory. Everyone else is waiting until after the end of the year to put their home up!

4. Homes show better during the holidays with all the decorations.

5. Buyers tend to have more available time to look at homes during the holidays.   For some out of the area buyers, this is the time they have off to look.

6. You can be on the market but restrict showings on the days during the holidays the days you do not want people in your home.

7. Buyers tend to be emotional during the holidays and may pay more for your home.

8. January is a month that many people will start new jobs so that will bring in more serious buyers.

9. You can sell the home now and try to set up a delayed closing so you will not have to more until later.

10.  It is said that buyer's decide to buy after an over crowded Thanksgiving dinner.

All in All, this is an exciting time and we finally have reasons to be optimistic.

Are home buyers still too scared to invest in buying a home? If low interest rates alone were the only factor driving buying then I'd say, it's not enough because low interest rates have proven not to drive buying during the recession. But there are indicators other than low interest rates making this a great buying moment.

Prices are starting to stabilize, and, in fact, the chief economist of NAR, (National Association of Realtors) is actually predicting a 2% RISE in prices in 2012 and a 4% increase in demand.

On October 24, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index reported that there was a slight increase in home values month to month between July and August which is one of the signs of a recovering economy.

Add that to the 2.5% economic growth report from the Department of Commerce and we have slow growth, sure, but I'll take any growth over decline any day. Slow growth in spite of a still lurking shadow inventory of foreclosures, in spite of world wide economic troubles, in spite of upheaval in Washington over how to solve the nations economic crisis. What will it be like when some of these problems actually get solved? 

In fact, NAR recently worked with two well-respected policy think tanks – the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) and the Economic Policies for the 21st Century – that organized and conducted a policy meeting on October 4 and came to the table with a 5 point policy agenda to turn our economy around by turning the real estate policies in the direction that would create positive growth.

FNMA and FREDDIE  did accept the policies we talked about last week , giving homeowners the ability to refinance rather than walk away, Add that to NAR's initiative, The Case-Shiller report and the economic growth increase, I think that the majority of the indicators are pointed to a much safer environment for buying than we've seen since 2005.

Hey, I know I'm sticking my neck Way, Way Out but would you want me to NOT SHARE with you what I see happening?

I've stated before in previous posts and I'll say it again, I've been entirely skeptical since the shock of being so wrong about the economy back in 2007 when my glasses were the color of a sunset in the Northwest.

BUT, I feel that I just have to stick my neck out again and say that from the trenches, it feels like we are at an absolutely PERFECT time for the perfect condition to both sell and to buy real estate.

Does that mean that we are in both a seller's market AND a buyer's market.  Well, maybe.  Let me explain my thinking. 

We are experiencing what every good LONG investor looks for, whether stocks or real estate.  We appear to be at or very, very near the bottom of a market and may even have begun the swing back up. We all know that it had to happen someday. What goes down, must come up! And the indicators, including new data from the Department of Commerce showing a 2.5% growth in the 3rd quarter, Case Schiller price index showing month to month growth and the NAR predictions of growth are all pointing to a recovery, albeit, slow and steady. 

And yet, we have such low interest rates that the Housing Affordability Index (or the measure of a family's income compared to the expense of housing), is as low as it was in 1971!  Just Today, fixed mortgage rates dropped to UNDER 4%, which is 2nd to the lowest interest ever recorded.

Let's put this in terms of buying a home. A balanced market interest rate is considered reasonable at about 6%. With today's FIXED interest rate below 4%, a buyer can now pay about $110,000 MORE for a house with the exact SAME PAYMENT.

And, more importantly, homes now cost less than the cost to reproduce them! Builders can't compete and therefore there are few new construction homes on the market adding less to the inventory.  In any neighborhood, in order for new construction to compete with resale, the builders are forced to offer less amenities in their products to keep the prices at resale level. Small yards, smaller homes, fewer upgrades.  Buying a resale home right now is the DEAL of THE CENTURY! 

So, are we on the road to recovery? We just May Be.

I need to share with you information regarding the current Real Estate market and answer what my clients are always asking me:

  "What is my home really worth right now?

I just got an online estimate and boy is it Way Off!

Here is the answer to that question.

There are three basic ways to estimate the value of a home. 

1. value estimation web site 
2. comparative market analysis 
3. professional appraisal.

Be careful of the Value Estimation Web Site

There are a number of these sites that offer value estimates of your home based on data you input in their web form or that comes from county tax data. These sites offer an estimate of your home's worth based on their system which may use a proprietary formula which is not available to the public for examination.

However, if you read the fine print, you are also advised to do the following:

1. obtain a comparative market analysis (CMA) from a licensed Real Estate agent
2. have a professional appraise your home.

 Why do they advise this? Because the only way to verify the true value of a home is to have professionals with "boots on the ground" visit the property and generate a value based on first hand knowledge.
 

The hard reality is, a home is only worth what the market will bear at the time it is sold. In other words, the market sets the price.  It is not set by how much you need, how much you paid or how much the neighbor's house sold for that is 500 sq ft larger. 

The most reliable estimate comes from the past three months SOLD home prices in your neighborhood which are similar in size, condition, age, upgrading and other amenities. This is where factors such as remodeling, larger sized yards, views, etc will be taken into consideration as the professional values these differences as a function of your neighborhood. This is called a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) and is an adjusted average of those homes closed prices.

In a fluctuating market, the timing of the sale is also a factor since often a home that closed 3 months ago may have gone under contract for 30+ days before that.  An adjustment then needs to be made for another 1-2% to accommodate the several months market timing change, either up if in an escalating market, or down in a declining market as we have recently experienced.

For these reasons, the closest estimates are those of professionals, either appraisers or a real estate broker, like myself who understands how values of different amenities and features differ from one neighborhood to the next. We offer a complimentary CMA which will be by far, the closest estimate you can get to your true market value. 

On November 3, Realtor.com, one of the top 2 most visited real estate websites in the US, launched its international portal to attract the more than 82 billion in annual international sales of US properties to foreign buyers. 

The launch, which was a year in preparation, posted 4.4 million listings, including our own, with translation capabilities in 11 languages, including Japanese. Korean and Chinese.

One of the ongoing issues to attracting foreign buyers is to overcome the language, currency and measurement barriers.  To make foreign buyers more comfortable with US listings, currency is also changed into that of the country and dimensions are changed into metric where appropriate.

This affects ALL of our listings, now available worldwide.  However, not all companies are members of Realtor.com and therefore are not part of this launch . Other non Realtor companies will have to find another way to compete internationally.

Before the launch, Realtor.com already was visited by more than 900 million viewers a month. Now that the site is translated and the money and dimensions are converted, there is expectation of raising that number exponentially to give us a part of that 82 Billion.

These are the countries of origin that are coming to Realtor.com  now:

1. Canada
2. United Kingdom
3. Germany
4. Australia
5. India
6. Mexico
7. France
8. Italy
9. Brazil
10. Japan

Although China is one of our largest investors in US real estate, China is not even on this list. With the addition of the translation to Chinese, a difficult undertaking, it is expected to boost Chinese visitors substantially.

Although there are many transactional difficulties selling our homes to overseas buyers, the launch of this new portal, at least to this writer, defines the world as becoming more and more aligned and cooperative and by providing access to our listings to buyers as close as, say Mexico, we welcome this 80 billion dollar additional marketing engine for the sale of our sellers properties.

After 20 years of listing Portland homes in every market imaginable, I want to set the record straight on why it's a HUGE MISTAKE to list your home higher than market value.

Consider this: There are only 2 reasons a home DOES NOT sell in today’s market.

•     Price
•     Exposure

Why do sellers overprice their homes? Because it is a common practice among real estate agents to give the seller an overly optimistic price in order to get the listing.  We in the industry call this, 'buying a listing' and it's a very common practice, unfortunately.

​I see this everyday when I meet with sellers who are told their home is worth more than it really is. I'm really very good at knowing market price. After all, I've worked right here for over 20 years and grew up in Portland. It's second nature for me to know the market value of homes. Chances are I listed a home similar to yours in your very neighborhood!

 
It's very frustrating to have sellers I speak with get such bad information.

Doesn't it make more sense to price your home correctly and catch any pent up demand in the market on the very first day you list? Consider this: on any given day, buyers are in the market looking for a home.  Some of these buyers may have been looking for months, some for days. This is called, 'pent up demand'.

When a new home comes on the market, these days most buyers get an email notice either from the agent or from an automated home search like the ones we prepare for our buyer clients.(or you can simply sign up here). ON THAT DAY, and not even the next, you will have the highest number of buyers exposed to your home. After that first day, only new buyers coming into the marketplace will see your listing when they find it doing a search.
​

Again, doesn't it make the most sense to price your home to catch this pent up demand, instead of pricing it too high and missing them all? Did you know that the longer a house sits on the market, the lower a final price it will get? And, it's a fact that the homes that sell within the first 30 days, have the best chance of selling closest to their list price!  How many times have I had to explain this to sellers who tell me that they are:"not be in a hurry. We'll just wait until we get our price!"
​

For this reason, I never, ever overprice my listings just so I can get listing business. I just can't put sellers through the agony  of watching the days slip away with no offer and then they are chasing the market as it goes down. It's not good business and it's totally unfair to sellers. 

I hope that now you can see that if a home is priced correctly and exposed correctly when it is new to the market, it will receive an offer in a timely manner and will be sold while the seller has the leverage of being a NEW listing, when buyers are excited about the home and fear perhaps another buyer will snatch it up.

To further explain this problem, here is exactly what will happen to your home if you overprice:

• home comes on the market priced too high,
• potential buyers pass on it,
• a month passes and the seller reduces the price and
• still no offers or showings. 
• Another 30 days pass, the seller reduces yet again. 
• The home is no longer a HOT new product on the market. 
• Buyers have already seen the home come up on their search criteria twice and have passed on it.
• Now when it shows up again, they may not even pay attention. They passed on it before, but they may not remember why. 
• It seems the home has become invisible.
• Now the home may be priced in the ball park,
• few buyers are paying attention. 
• The home is getting old and tired,
• 90 days on the market, no longer a hot new listing, PLUS the market has declined  in that time. 
• Reduced the price further to sell. 
• Finally when the offer comes the buyer has the leverage.  The home is market worn.  The buyer has little fear someone else will snatch it up, because no one has wanted it all this time.

Sellers, please select your agent based on their ability to expose your home to buyers that will value what your home has to offer. Be smart and select a broker with the courage to tell you the truth about your home's value.  You need a broker with the strength to be honest with you and to also have the knowledge and experience to negotiate on your behalf to get you the absolute top price for your home without spending months to get it.

Of the various Obama stimulus plans designed to help homeowners, none worked like the administration hoped. 

However, one of those programs that was used by over 900,000 homeowners  has now been revised with the intention of helping another million. The Homeowner Affordable Refinancing Program or HARP began in 2009 and was designed for homeowners who were still making their payments, but were underwater.   Because there was a cap on how much they could be underwater and because of other liability limitations, many homeowners were unable to refinance under HARP.  

This gave rise to a practice across the country of strategic defaults, which is a plan for those that could pay their mortgage to quit paying and go through foreclosure with the intention of getting the homeowner out from under a mountain of debt that had no security. 

Of course, these strategic defaults added to the pool of foreclosures caused by people who really couldn't pay. who had lost their jobs, had a rate adjustment or simply didn't qualify in the first place and was a further drag on the economy. 

Help is on the Way!

On October 24, the Obama administration announced major changes in the program, calling it HARP 2. Four major banks are participating:

• Chase
• Wells Fargo
• Bank of America
• Citigroup

If you have been waiting for your own stimulus plan, and qualify in all the categories below, then this program is for you.  HARP is meant to give homeowners who are current on their mortgages, and who have lost home equity (who hasn't?), a chance to refinance at today's low mortgage rates with no limit to how much they can be upside down above 80% loan to value.

Here are the criteria:  

If you:

• are not late on your payments in the last 6 months
• have greater than an 80% loan to value 
• your loan was placed as either a purchase or refi before May of 2009
• your loan was sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, 

What is different about V2 is that you no longer have a cap on the amount you are upside down  Perhaps what's more important than removing the cap, is the the refinancing lender will not have to assume the liability for the underwriting deficiencies of the original lender  thus allowing more lenders incentive to cooperate with the refinance. 

Find out if your loan was sold to either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac quite simply because both  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have "lookup" forms on their respective websites. Just click on the respective links.

If you qualify, then take a copy of your most recent mortgage statement to your lender and apply for a HARP  refinance at today's low rates. 

You May Need to Wait another 30-60 days:

The regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac says that new guidelines will be ready for issue by November 15, and the lenders will probably take some time to implement the changes.

Giving 90% of all homeowners assistance to help offset some of this equity drop will be good for the economy and is another notch in the country's belt tightening of the supply of foreclosures that will hopefully lead us to an economic turnaround.