The easiest way to avoid foreclosure in 2009-2010?

Make sure you didn’t buy a house in the Phoenix area in 2005-2006.

Ok, so maybe that is over-simplifying it a bit, but my eighty-two-year-old Grandfather has taught me that if you live long enough, you will see it all.

And I can now say with some degree of wisdom:

If you find yourself entering a lottery with a builder to buy a home, chances are you are going to experience a great deal of financial pain in the event that you “win” the lottery.

I hear from people who sit in our local “lottery winner” support groups who find themselves having to deal with difficult choices regarding the home they “won” now being worth less than half of what they paid.

Back in 2005, it wasn’t all that uncommon for builders to take peoples names who wanted to buy a house and then pick a few each month who could have the privilege of buying one of their homes.

Our builder had the same problem other builders had – too many people wanting to buy a house and he wasn’t able to build them fast enough. So the builder set up a lottery and within 2 weeks, the builder had a list of 150 people who put down $5,000 to enter the lottery.

And each month, the plan was that he was going to “release” 3 available lots and pick 3 winners who could then vie for one of the three lots to build a home on.

The first month went by and my name didn’t get drawn.

“Oh no! This meant that next month, he was going to raise the price by at least $5,000!  What was I going to do if I didn’t win the next month or the month after that?”

Lucky for me, I didn’t have to wait long – somehow the magic ping-pong-ball-chute shot my lucky number out in month number two.

Sweet! Now all I had to do was plop down $75,000 as earnest money and a year later I could move into my new house.

And so it began.

I was in the process of short selling my house in 2010 and didn’t even see it coming.

I was excited!

I had just won the lottery.

Someone just failed to mention that winning that lottery meant you were going to be a winner — a winner in the biggest loser.

In hindsight, I have to kind of chuckle at the concept of entering a lottery to buy a home – but at the time, it seemed like something perfectly educated, sane people did. Heck, quite a few smart people I knew would just refinance their primary residence take the cash and enter a lottery for an investment property. Those people essentially just doubled-down on a pair of eights in blackjack – forget entering the lottery.

But now I know.

And if I live long enough to see another home builder hold a lottery for the chance to buy a home, you won’t find me standing in line buying a ticket.

Or anyone else who has lived long enough to have seen what happens to past lottery winners.

Sometimes answering the phone is a predictable sport.

When home values drop 50% and the economy is shedding jobs like I wish I could burn calories writing posts (lots and fast), it seems that every call I get is so… predictable.

Hello, can you just answer one simple question for me? Do I have to be late on my payments in order to get help from my bank?

I have been asked this question no less than about 200 times in the last 2 years.

And usually after someone asks me the question, it is followed by fairly lengthy explanation of how they have never been late on their mortgage payment, have never been late on anything – and currently have a 700 (or higher) credit score.

In short, the callers are stressed out.

Photo Credit

As with many of the larger decisions in life, often times the stress of knowing you are going to have to make a decision is worse than the actual decision making itself.

Another thing that many people won’t tell you when you are short-selling your house is that once you make the decision to actually do it, your stress level will go down.

Or at least mine did.

And many other people that I have talked to have said the same thing.

Once you actually make a decision as to what the best choice is for your particular situation, your stress level will decrease.

Generally speaking.

So if you happen to be one of those people with a perfect credit score who finds that you are staying up late worrying about whether or not the time has come to short-sell your house, I have good news for you:

Once you make the decision – whatever it is – your stress level will decrease.

I’m really not any different than you are.

Even though I play a mortgage commentator on Twitter, it doesn’t mean that I am infected with mortgage rabies not a real person.

I like to think that if there ever was a focus group for everyday-Americans, I might even get an invite.

I am just normal.

And so I am going to let many of you other normal people in on a little secret — because according to my escrow agent,  you might be dealing with the same problem I have been dealing with:

Short selling your house.

Whether it makes sense or not, regardless of what reasons you may have for  short selling your house, I just thought I would let you in on one little secret that no one will really tell you about…

Short selling your house will put an abnormally large amount of stress on your marriage.

Just ask my wife.

Having met her when I was 11 and having been married for 16 or so years now – I can safely say that short selling our house was one of the more stress-inducing events we have been through.

And the strange thing is – no one warned us that she would want to kill me for about 10 months straight for being the one dumb enough to get us into the position where short selling our house seemed like a sane choice.

There are many reasons that short selling your house can harm your personal relationships – and not one of the relationship gurus wrote a word about how to deal with the process in all of the relationship books I have read over the last 12 months.

But chances are, at some point in the process – the ambiguity of it all will become beyond annoying and get at least one of you to the point of apathy.

And I once learned somewhere that there is only one feeling worse than hate: apathy.

So no matter what, if you find yourself in a position where you are selling your home for less than you owe your lender on it…

Make sure you know in advance that it will put an undue amount of stress on your marriage.

And now you can’t say that someone didn’t warn you about that part.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cdgleason/3471590779/

Oy, can’t believe I just used a Latin word in the title…

But that’s really neither here nor there.

In an article posted Sunday I discussed “silly counter offers”. The esteemed John Wake left this comment:

“It also sounds like you have a great client… and the seller and/or listing agent will be a PITA the whole way.”

For those not familiar with the term “PITA”, it’s “net lingo” for “Pain In The Ass”.

And as is the norm, John was spot-on in his assessment (on both parts).

Here’s a recap….

Our very qualified buyers make an offer on a very nice home.

The specifics of the offer aren’t all that important. It was a strong offer, by a strong buyer (as evidenced by the amount down, earnest money, closing time line, their loan parameters, and the fact they don’t need to sell an existing home).

Some things the buyers asked for:

* They wanted a closing date of July 31.
* They needed a 15 day inspection period as they will be out of town for several days (the “typical” inspection period is 10 days).
* They used electronic signatures (which as discussed Sunday, are perfectly legal).

The sellers countered:

* They wanted a closing date of July 30. Yes, one day sooner. The reason, as quoted by the listing agent? “I don’t like closing on Thursdays or Fridays”. (wonder if the seller really cares?)
* They nixed the 15 day inspection period, insisting on 10 days — this despite knowing the buyers would be out of town for a portion of those 10 days.
* They did apparently relent on the electronic signatures. A concession!

There were other items countered. We were a little apart on price, but close enough we felt we could work it out.

So our buyers re-countered on price, and again asked for a 15 day inspection period.

Next the seller re-re-countered. They were now OK with the purchase price — and let’s face it, that is (or should be) 99% of the battle.

But here’s where it went beyond ridiculous.

They countered the closing date again (after we’d agreed on their silly “no Thursday closings” rule). They, in a seemingly random act, pulled the close of escrow date in by two weeks.

WTF? Can you say PITA? The Buyers did. They said “Adiós”.

I so want to ask the sellers:

Dear Sellers,

Why, pray tell, does the COE date now need to be 2 weeks earlier, when a mere 24 hours ago you’d already dictated what date you wanted???

And for whatever reason, you again refused to allow a 15 day inspection period. Hmmmm…. you know that 10 days doesn’t work for the buyer. All they need is a few more days. And you say, “Nope”. Are you just being difficult, or are you afraid a little extra time might uncover a problem?

And now you want additional earnest money, with some of it made non-refundable after the inspection period (you know, the one you won’t allow five extra days for).

You were this close to going under contract. And you blew it. There are 43,158 single-family homes listed for sale in the Phoenix MLS. We’ll find another one.

Sellers, you don’t have to concede to every buyer demand. But think about at least cooperating. Look at what the impact to your bottom line is. Work with the people that are telling you they want to buy your home.

Don’t be silly.

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“Why would anyone open a new real estate brokerage in this market?”

That’s a question I’ve heard several times since opening Thompson’s Realty.

There are a plethora of reasons…. (that was just for you Kris)

Not paying a commission split to my former broker, not paying Century 21 a “franchise fee”, not worrying about my broker telling me what I can and can’t post on this blog. All are valid reasons for opening a brokerage in any market.

But the primary reason we struck out on our own was so we can run our business the way we want to, not subject to the whims and demands of others.

And today we were able to implement one aspect of control in our business that was never possible before.

It probably doesn’t sound like much, but I can’t begin to explain how thrilled I was to write this statement into a listing agreement that was signed today:

Seller has the right to cancel this listing agreement with 24 hours notice.

That’s correct. The right to cancel. It will be in all our listing agreements.

I don’t believe in holding a client hostage. If we aren’t performing to their expectations, then (to quote the great Russell Shaw), “Fire me”.

Please fire me.

Personally I don’t believe this clause will ever need to be exercised — for poor performance on our part. But it’s there, and we will of course honor it. Poor performance isn’t the only reason a client might need to cancel. It’s certainly possible that a client’s situation could change, and it’s ludicrous to hold them to a listing agreement if they are no longer in a viable position to sell their home. (And yet there are countless brokers out there that will do just that.)

Today’s listing agreement was with a great couple in Las Vegas that have had some bad prior experiences with real estate agents (I know.. shocking).

This little clause gives them comfort and control.

What could possibly be wrong with offering that?

(Update: Unbeknown to me (because I’m days behind on my feed reader), Trevor Smith, Redfin Agent, posted about Redfin’s “Firing Clause” just a couple of days ago.  A good read as Trevor responds to some things that are typically brought up in these discussions.)

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[tags]real estate brokerage, cancelling listing agreements, freedom![/tags]

After I blogged here about an A&E producer looking for a Phoenix real estate flipper for the show "Flip This House", I received an interesting email from Amie Kershbaum of 360i.com, on behalf of the Fine Living TV Network (my assumption is 360i does some of the "Search Informed Marketing" for Fine Living. 360i is an interesting site…)

Real Estate Confidential is a "reality show" that claims to show the "behind the scenes" activities of real estate agents (apparently all located in southern California, at least so far.) Now I haven't seen the show yet, so I can't vouch for just how "realistic" it is. 

However, at great risk of losing all credibility I may have ever earned, I will admit that I am somewhat of a reality show junkie. I can't help it. Sometimes mindless entertainment is good for you, and some reality shows offer very interesting insight into human interaction and behavior — a subject I've always found fascinating.  

Here's what Fine Living has to say about the show:

Most people only see their real estate agent when they're touring houses or at closing. FINE LIVING's Real Estate Confidential goes behind the scenes of the real estate world to find out what happens before the "SOLD" sign goes up!

The action behind closed doors is an arena filled with enormous amounts of phone calls, wheeling and dealing, and the nerve-wracking rollercoaster ride of negotiations leaves homeowners' lives hanging in the balance. We meet a team of hungry, funny, and professional real estate agents who show us how realtors price homes, how to best prepare your house for a quick sale, and what type of imaginative and often wild strategies work best in order to "sweeten the deal" when bidding on a home.

Sounds like a pretty accurate picture to me…  Amie said one episode included a client who neglected to mention to their agent the minor detail that they were facing immediate foreclosure. If you've been in real estate long enough to do, oh I don't know, more than two transactions then you know something like that could never happen (said in complete sarcasm mode).

The Fine Living Network is on channel 232 on our DirectTV package. According to the lousy website at Cox Cable, the network is available if you have the "Variety Package", however it doesn't show up on their channel list (which appears grossly incomplete). I can never find anything on their site, so you're on your own if you have cable in the local Phoenix area. I just TiVO'ed tomorrow's show (Saturdays at 6:30pm, DirectTV 232) and will let you know what I think.

In the meantime, here's a little video clip Amie provided:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0Dj-A7FCUA[/youtube]

Real Estate Confidential” airs Saturday April 7 at 9:30PM Eastern (6:30 local) on the FINE LIVING channel.[tags]Real Estate Confidential, Fine Living Network, 360i, Reality TV[/tags]

You may (or may not) have read here before that real estate agents who don’t answer their phones are a pet peeve of mine. I just don’t understand it. If you don’t want to answer a phone, you probably shouldn’t try to make a living selling real estate. The phone rings. A lot. It needs to be answered.

There are countless examples out there of agents not answering the phone. It’s a fact that agents (and their clients) have lost out on a sale due to a phone not being answered.

But what’s transpired here over the last couple of days set a new standard. I find it…. well, unbelievable, stupendous, incomprehensible. I’m not sure there is a word in the lexicon that truly fits…

I’m not making this up folks. I couldn’t invent this.

My lovely bride has a buyer. They are very interested in a nice east side condo. (The last one they made an offer on fell out when the inspector discovered extensive past fire damage in the attic. The poor owner had no clue as he waived his inspection — a really bad idea. But that’s another blog post.)

We have some questions for the listing agent. Just typical standard stuff. Plus we like to “feel out” the listing agent — glean a little info from them that will better position our buyers.

So Francy places the first call on Tuesday.

No answer, leave message. No return call. Repeat five times.

I don’t get it. If an agent leaves a message on my phone along the lines of, “We have a buyer interested in your listing. Please call so we can clarify a couple of things. It will take three minutes of your time”, I call them back. Swiftly. Don’t I owe that to my clients? But I digress…

Two days later, it’s quite apparent that the agent is never going to return our calls. So Francy calls the listing agent’s office. The person answering the phone, another agent, is of no help. So Francy asks to speak to the Broker.

He seems to be a nice guy. Francy reiterates that we have a very interested buyer, but we really need to speak to the agent and she’s not returning calls. Now for those not in the business the Broker is, in effect, the agent’s boss. Normally a call like this to the Broker results in the agent calling us within 5 minutes. (Typically with some excuse as to why they haven’t been able to place a three minute return call sometime over the last 72 hours.)

And here’s where this story takes the remarkable turn….

The Broker’s response?

“Oh, that agent doesn’t answer the phone. You need to email her your questions.”

WTF? Francy, who is usually never short of words, is speechless. About all she can muster is a polite, “Excuse me?”

“Yeah, she never answers the phone. Just email her. If you don’t hear back in a day or so, just let me know.”

What the double F? A “day or so”?!?

I wonder — does this agent tell her clients, “Don’t call me, I never answer the phone. Just email me and I’ll get back to you within a day or so”. Maybe she needs to take her number out of the MLS and just put a comment in the agent remarks section along those same lines. I wonder — does this Broker make a habit of employing agents that don’t answer the phone? Maybe that’s how he markets his brokerage — “COME WORK FOR US, NEVER ANSWER A PHONE AGAIN!”

Its insanity. Pure unadulterated madness!

Tip for those looking for a real estate agent: Call your prospective agent. See if they answer the phone. Sure, you can’t always answer it. I tend not to when I’m with a client. But if your prospective Realtor doesn’t answer or rapidly return the call, continue your search. If they won’t return your call, it’s safe to assume they won’t return calls inquiring about YOUR home for sale.

[tags]bad real estate agents[/tags]

I still don’t understand this…. why would a Realtor not answer their phone?

We have clients *actively* looking to buy commercial property. They want something in the three million range. We’ve found what appears to be the ideal property. Perfect location, great shape, it’s exactly what our clients are looking for.

We’ve been trying to reach the listing agent for three days. We’ve left multiple voice mails and sent multiple emails. We just need a few simple questions answered. The last message we left was along the lines of, “We have a buyer prepared to write an offer on your listing. We just need 30 seconds of your time to answer a question. Please contact us by phone, fax, or email.”

Nothing. We’ve heard NOTHING from the listing agent. Not one damn thing.

I don’t get it.

Our clients are now tired of wasting their time and are ready to move on and find another property.

I’ll predict right here that this “professional” will call sometime on Monday with some lame excuse about why he couldn’t return a call for three days. It will be “weekend related”. Mark my words.

Here’s a tip for my fellow agents — if you don’t want to work on the weekends you need to seriously consider another profession.

Just when I thought I’d heard of everything…. this may be the single most rediculous idea I’ve heard yet….

Extreme Home Staging
By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer

Home sellers long ago discovered that small touches could boost selling prices – fresh flowers, the smell of freshly baked cookies. Now a real estate developer, Centex of Dallas, is adding in beautiful people.

The experiment in what’s called “staging” is simple: Home buyers enter a home and see not just furniture but real people – actors – playing out the life they might lead there.

The Centex program, which its creators call HomeLife, has been used twice so far at Milestone, a 166-house development in Santa Clarita, about 25 miles north of Hollywood.

In one performance, the ‘model’ family spent about three hours pretending it was Mom’s birthday. They baked a cake, sang happy birthday and the children drew and framed a picture – of a Centex house. The original cast included a former Baywatch hunk, Jaason Simmons, in the role of Dad.

There’s more, if you can stand it…

Hat tip to Becky Troutt for finding this article. She commented on her blog:

……Ok, so picture this: You are walking through a model home and come across a “family” acting like they live there while they bake a cake, play cards or want to “show you around in their home.” How un-comfortable or weird would this be? It’s like having a seller at home during a showing. The purpose of viewing a home is in hopes that no one is there so you feel comfortable opening cabinets and looking in closets. If you have a “family” there, don’t you think more people are going to be watching what the family is doing or talking to them versus really looking at the house? GIVE ME A BREAK!

A note to builders: Spend your money on something useful like buyer incentives or paying their closing costs OR better yet how about cutting the price off the home instead of paying people to “pretend to be a family” in a model home???

I must say that I concur with Becky. Is it just us, or is this not the dumbest idea ever?

Developers now eyeing big picture over the quick buck

Link to article

Apr. 23, 2006 12:00 AM

It’s not all about the money these days in metropolitan Phoenix’s real estate world, at least with some developers. Some builders are talking more about planning for the Valley’s future than what they can make on a deal.

[Jay's opine: Trust me, it IS all about the money.]

Look at the Superstition Vistas deal in the far southeast Valley. That giant swath of desert owned by the Arizona State Land Department could easily turn into the next series of Valley subdivisions with congested roads and not enough jobs or retail to support the homes. But for what is likely the first time in Arizona, developers, utilities and a wide range of government agencies are brainstorming how to work together to grow better. [And "grow better" = "more money". Duh.]

The groups even paid the Morrison Institute, a public-policy think tank, to come up with some ideas of how to better develop the 176,000-acre Superstition Vistas site.

Now look at Papago Park. A dozen prominent Valley real estate executives got together to brainstorm how to make it metro Phoenix’s version of New York’s Central Park.

And some in that group will likely never make money off the park’s facelift.

[Jay's opine: If you don't think a well devloped and high traffic Papago Park won't make money for these folks, I can hook you up with an agent selling swampland in Florida. Check the real estate values around Central Park compared to other parts of Manhattan...]

Also, at recent real estate industry forecasts, the talk has been more focused on water shortages, transportation problems and housing affordability than how much a building sold for or how many housing permits a builder pulled in a subdivision.

Some market watchers, like Rob Melnick of the Morrison Institute, say the Valley’s real estate market is at a crossroads. Developers see growth coming and realize there’s more money to be made if it does. [Jay says, "Um, so much for it not being all about the money..."] But if the area’s problems aren’t tackled now, growth will slow.

Talking about the issues is a good start. But it’s time for action.

Pricier apartments

The average rent on a Valley apartment jumped 6.3 percent in the past year. That’s the biggest annual increase since the mid-1990s.

It now costs $772 a month to rent the typical apartment in metro Phoenix, reports RealFacts. Renters are bound to be shocked because the monthly payments on apartments had been basically flat since 2001.

[Jay's opine: And when apartment rents rise, typically rental rates across all types of housing rise. Rents have been flat here for quite some time.]

Sweet home Arizona

Does the band Lynyrd Skynyrd have ties to the Valley’s real estate market?

According to the Arizona Department of Real Estate, a group of people claiming to have connections to the Southern rock band is contacting real estate agents across the state, claiming to have an investor who wants to buy houses or land. They try to rush the deal and ask for the agents to pay for their hotel rooms and meals. Then when the real estate agent finishes all the paperwork, the potential buyer disappears. And the deal never closes.

The Phoenix Police Department has received several complaints from real estate agents foiled by these Lynyrd Skynyrd groupies.

[Jay's opine: The Arizona Department of Real Estate should receive several complaints about idiotic real estate agents. Any agent who falls for this scam ought to have their license revoked. Too bad there's not a minimum IQ requirement for getting a real estate sales license...]

Arizona