Larry Cragun sets us straight on what’s up with the mortgage industry today with 7 Things That Have Changed In The Mortgage Industry

BusinessWeek has an interesting post on California’s upcoming cash crunch due to falling property values.  Arnold and the Housing Slump.

By a vote of 291-127, the House approved a bill to tighten regulation of mortgage brokers and banks' loan officers, barring them from "steering" borrowers into higher-cost loans they might be unable to repay. But such legislation hasn't yet been seriously debated in the Senate, and Democrats there failed yesterday to force a vote on a much less-controversial bill to modernize the Federal Housing Administration, which insures certain home loans against default. – House Passes a Bill Curbing Mortgage Brokers

Tim O’Keefe says, “This positivity stuff is not for the faint of heart. But I am starting to see some great strides as bloggers and columnists prove that all is not gloom and doom." Taking it Back!

Home sellers in the San Ramon and TriValley areas are starting to experience what much of the country has been experiencing months ago – ya gotta give a little to get a lot. The East Bay has many real estate markets that have fared the housing market storm in good shape, but the continued rennovation in the lending industry is sending ripples through many of the local housing markets once thought to be above the fray.

Housing affordability for first-time buyers and tightening credit standards for all are affecting the local real estate dynamics. Many sellers are just beginning to realize – it’s the market, not the marketing.

Here are some tidbits from around the nation today that help make the point:

Theresa Boardman had this on her St. Paul Minnessota blog today: Recommendations to REALTORS® and their customers:

• Housing must go on sale. (During the boom, sellers got a premium for their properties–that bloom will be reduced in this market.)
• Prices must drop or homes taken off the market in order to reduce the high and rising inventory.
• Buyers are being realistic in their offers…it is the sellers who do not understand three things:
• Their home values increased a lot from 2000-2005.
• They are selling into a falling market so 10% less today is better than 20% less next spring.
• Selling in this market (getting less for their home) permits them to buy in this market (buying for less).

TOUGHER LENDING PRACTICES DAMPEN BUILDER CONFIDENCE – Home buyer skepticism, fueled in large part by tougher mortgage lending practices, is straining builder confidence in the single-family market, according to the recent National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI).

Some notes from Bankrate.com today
These are the times that try the skills of real estate professionals, says Jim Crawford, a real estate coach in Atlanta.

"It's a buyer's market without buyers," he says. "Of the top 40 markets, 36 are down. In Atlanta at this time of year, we should have a maximum of 52,000 homes for sale; we have 114,000. What's happened is, if you can't sell in Chicago, you can't buy in Atlanta. If you can't sell in Boston, you can't buy in Florida."

Here's the squeeze: Rising inventories make it difficult to set — and get — your asking price. Buyers, caught in the same predicament, are reluctant to buy, hoping prices will return to earth shortly.

Dianna Kokoszka, vice president of Mega Achievement Productivity Systems at Keller Williams Realty, says today's buyer wants money-in-pocket value, not frills and playthings. If your home is competing with nearby new construction, be prepared to offer the same or equivalent incentives as the builder.

And, similar to the down market of the late 1980s, home sellers must now compete not only with builders, but with foreclosures, thanks to all those subprime loans you've been hearing about.

"In order for a home to sell once, it has to sell twice: You have to sell it to the Realtors and then the Realtors sell it to their buyers," says Kokoszka.

And from SquareFeet in San Jose this interesting tidbit from July data: The supply of homes for sale in California now is actually greater than for the country as a whole.

 Image by Nick Buxton

On the home page of our site, after the title, are the words - It’s All About You (The Client). That’s the focus of our business. We realize that every client is bringing us a unique situation.

I mention this because this morning I read this great post by Terri Murphy - Listing Loser - Missing the Big Bucks  In this post, Terri gives us a great example of what happens all too often in the initial client/agent interview.

The interaction that Terri describes is not an experience you will have with The Harper Team. When you list your home in San Ramon, Danville, Dublin or Pleasanton with us, you get a team of people working to aggressively market YOUR home. While including what traditionally works, we step outside the box as much as possible, and we stay on the leading edge of the change the real estate industry is going through. And we stay on top of the real estate trends in our market (Danville, San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton, CA). At least, twice a week you can find postings on our blog of those local real estate trends and other news affecting the local housing markets.

Greg over at The Blue Roof gives us this post today

It’s interesting to me how much the industry has evolved in the last 14 months, but it’s also all relative. There are hundreds of thousands of Realtors out there who don’t know anything about Zillow or any other “New, Innovative Real Estate Model”.

They, and their clients, just go on day to day buying and selling homes and it’s business as usual.

Sometimes I forget that most real estate agents really don’t know or care about any online models. For many, the only website the even know of is their company site, if their company even discusses it with them, or even has a site at all.

The Harper Team sees this everyday in our office (Keller Williams Danville CA) and in our local marketing association (San Ramon Realtors Marketing Association). We are amazed at how the constant stream of links and info we mail to other agents on the evolving nature of the real estate industry and technology fall on deaf ears. The most common reply is – I can’t keep up with it all. Our response – is there any choice?

WebHome USA addresses this issue in their post - Agents In Real Estate 2.0. Will We Be Like Travel Agents, Accountants, Used Car Salesmen Or Lawyers? The Agent's role in Real Estate 2.0 is rapidly evolving.  Real Estate 2.0 is all about the Internet and an Agent's ability to quickly establish and develop a virtual relationship with home buyers and sellers searching the Web.  It's less about the Home, and more about the Home Page.

Our site, our marketing, and our knowledge of technology and the industry are constantly evolving. Just yesterday we added Instant Messenger capability to our blog. If we're online you can contact us immediately through the Plugoo widget in our sidebar. There is much more to come as we continue to evolve our business to address the needs of our clients in helping them to buy, sell or invest in our local real estate markets - Danville, San Ramon, Dublin, Pleasanton - California.

The Harper Team monitors over 50 Real Estate and News Feeds daily to bring you information pertinent to the San Ramon Valley & TriValley real estate market including the communities of Danville, San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton. We welcome suggestions.

Search our blog articles via the Tag Cloud - just click on a word that interests you.

The housing market is showing signs of stabilizing. We wrote about this less than a week ago. It's time for buyers to consider moving or losing - negotiating currency. As the real estate market returns to "normal" in San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton, negotiating leverage will also normalize.

Right now, many sellers are still feeling the crunch of too much time on the market, decreasing home prices, and too much inventory for too few buyers. This is about to change and buyers that thought they could wait a couple more weeks to make a better deal are going to experience the "Huh, what happened?"

Our advice continues to be - buyers & sellers - educate yourself. Keep abreast of the housing market trends in your areas of interest. The Harper Team monitors over 50 Real Estate and News Feeds daily to bring you information pertinent to the San Ramon Valley & TriValley real estate market including the communities of Danville, San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton, California.

Fortune.com - 6 Strategies to Survive the Bust

• Lower Your Expectations
• Drive a hard bargain
• Consider renting
• Step away from the exotic mortgage
• Shop for a rate drop
• Keep an eye on your equity

First-Time Home Buyers Look at Houses Again by Ruth Simon • The Wall Street Journal Online

Dow Tops 12,500 after Upbeat Housing Data • BusinessWeek.com

Another Sign Housing Slump May Be at End by Bob Willis • Bloomberg News

Search our blog articles via the Tag Cloud - just click on a word that interests you.

Now is the Time to Buy

Conditions in the San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton real estate housing markets may not get any more favorable for buyers than they are right now.

We’re at the year-end low point for the housing market in San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton CA.

For the past month we have been encouraging buyers to make their move as we are in a historically favorable situation for buyers. Here are some of our thoughts for buyers:

First-Time Buyers

• Owning a home is a great investment as real estate appreciates in the long run
• Paying rent builds no equity for you
• Interest on your mortgage and mortgage insurance are tax deductible
• The equity in a home can be leveraged

When shopping for a house, first-time buyers especially need to consider additional costs in excess of the straight mortgage payment – insurance, taxes, association dues, and taxes.

The question for buyers sitting on the fence right now is – What are you waiting for?

Interest rates remain stable. In fact, as most homeowners over the age of 50 know, the current rates are darn attractive when compared to the 7.5 to 9.5 rates they’ve seen most of their lives.

Sellers are motivated – on price, on repairs, on helping the deal get done.

NOW is the time to buy. The market forecast is “flat,” meaning that conditions are beginning to stabilize. When the market is stable, the motivation of the seller is going to be based solely on the urgency of their need to move.

Waiting for More? More of What? When the market stabilizes, as it is beginning to do, sellers will feel no more pressure to reduce price based on the “correction” the market is stabilizing from. Sellers are going to lose their eagerness and willingness to cover some of the repairs and closing costs they are now willing to cover.

In general, buyers, wanting to take advantage of the current conditions in the San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton real estate markets, need to be thinking of getting under contract within the next 30 days.