Tag Archives: South Salem Real Estate for Sale

Brokerages Step up to One-Stop Shopping | South Salem NY Real Estate

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Despite six years of a depressed housing economy that reduced Realtor ranks by one-third, real estate brokerage companies are closer than ever to achieving the long-sought dream of becoming one-stop shops  providing their customers all the services they need to buy or sell a house.

A new survey Imprev, Inc. found that 75 percent of top real estate executives responding said their brokerage firms offer at least one major ancillary service and mortgages are the No. 1 additional offering.  Some 89 percent of the real estate firms that offer at least one ancillary service offer home loans.

Nearly three-quarters (71 percent) offer title services and nearly half (49 percent) offer home-warranty services.

“For decades, the National Association of REALTORS® has tracked growing consumer interest in a one-stop shop through its surveys,” said Renwick Congdon, chief executive officer of Imprev, a real estate marketing software firm that works with 150,000 agents and brokers nationwide.

“Clearly, the industry’s thought leaders are making it happen in their firms,” he added.

According to a 2011 NAR and Harris Interactive study, the number of consumers interested in using a service provider affiliated with a brokerage firm increased 34 percent from the first survey completed in 2008.

In the NAR/Harris study, 78 percent of homebuyers said that one-stop shopping would save them money; 75 percent said it would make the process more manageable and efficient; and 73 percent said that a one-stop real estate shop would prevent the details relevant to their transactions from “falling through the cracks” — as well as make the entire process “more convenient.”

When real estate executives were asked to select the top benefits from offering ancillary services, 79 percent said “higher profits”; 70 percent said “one-stop marketing opportunities”; 62 percent said “increased customer satisfaction”; and 60 percent said “better quality control.”

The survey was conducted in late May. Poll respondents included top executives at leading franchises and independent brokerage firms responsible for more than one-third of all U.S. residential real estate transactions last year.

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/08/

HARP refinancings dip in second quarter | South Salem Real Estate

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Higher mortgage rates caused refinance volumes to edge down in the second quarter as fewer homeowners filed refi applications.

When compared to the two prior periods, 2Q refinance volumes fell slightly, according to the latest housing agency refinance data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

In the second quarter, 279,933 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages refinanced through the government’s Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), representing 22% of total refinance volume.

The slight drop in refi volumes occurred as mortgage rates rose sharply to 4.07% in June, up from 3.57% in March.

The total number of HARP refinances from the inception of the program to now totals 2.65 million.

Market analysts expect the trend to continue, as mortgage rates are likely to trend higher once the Federal Reserve begins scaling back its monetary stimulus.

“I think once rates begin their return to normalcy as the Fed starts to taper, refinance demand is likely to further decline,” explained Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) markets and international banking analyst Sarah Hu.

She added, “The tapering of refinance activity may have already occurred as evidenced in this week’s refinance index (< 2000), the lowest since Jan 2011.”

On a similar note, Compass Point Research & Trade analyst Kevin Barker noted that HARP refinance volumes will remain under pressure given the higher rates.

“If borrowers have less of incentive to refinance at higher levels, it’s going to effect volumes and how aggressively originators will target HARP borrowers,” Barker stated.

He continued, “I would point out that the drop in refi activity compared to HARP volumes will be relatively less because they’ll be more resilient to rates.”

Of the loans that refinanced through HARP in the second quarter, 19% had a loan-to-value ratio greater than 125%.

While taking a look at year-to-date figures through June, 18% of HARP refinances for underwater borrowers were for shorter-term 15- and 20-year mortgages, building equity faster than traditional 30-year mortgages.

In Nevada and Florida, markets that analysts have been keeping an eye on since the recovery began, HARP refinances represented 59% and 50% of total refinances, respectively. This is more than double the 21% of total refinances throughout the country over the same time period.

Underwater borrowers accounted for a large portion of HARP refinances in a number states, representing more than 61% of HARP volume in Nevada, Arizona and Florida.

From the program’s inception through June, 2.34 million loans refinanced through HARP were for primary residences, 78,756 were for second homes and 307,272 were tied to investment properties.

 

 

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http://www.housingwire.com/articles/26598-harp-refinancings-dip-in-second-quarter

 

Protect your data from cloud-based storms | South Salem Realtor

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The recent crash of the dotloop e-signature platform highlights the challenges related to going paperless and relying on someone else’s server for your protection. Whether it’s your email, your website, your e-signature platform or anything else that you store in the cloud, what can you do to protect yourself from cloud-based storms?

In my recent series of articles on the differences between the various e-signature platforms, I outlined the dangers of using a PDF-based e-signature platform such as dotloop that relies exclusively on its company website to track document changes in the cloud. A dedicated web server is one of the basic requirements for any organization in today’s business world. It is used to host the websites of the company or the whole enterprise and possesses the requisite resources for the task. The bandwidth and storage space provided by a dedicated hosting server can never be matched by a shared server, and the exclusivity provided by this server is unparalleled. These servers are usually hack – proof, and are not targeted by malwares, viruses and spywares due to the heightened security provided by the web hosting company. Now that you have finally decided to go for a dedicated server hosting and selected one that suits your business’ demands, you have to think about managing it. You can either manage it yourself or give this task to the firm which is providing you with the server. It is always advisable to hand this task over to the dedicated web server company, which will deal with all the nuances involved in setting up, hosting and managing the server. Even though you can always learn how to manage it, the task will be arduous and take a lot of your time, which is precious for your business’ growth. Typically, Fully Managed Dedicated Server Hosting consists of server monitoring, software updates, reboots, security patches and operating system upgrades. This provides you with ample time to concentrate on other tasks while the hosting company handles your server managing demands. Also, the firms which hire the services of the dedicated web server are provided with individual server administration add-on tools in the standard deals. Therefore, you can be at ease with even the standard deals and see your business achieve new heights due to the fully managed hosting option. Most people choose shared hosting for their website at the beginning. Shared hosting is a hosting account on which you host your website on a shared server with hundreds of other people’s websites. Shared hosting is usually very affordable due to the number of websites sharing the space and resources on each server. The downside of this is your website has to share the resources on the server such as processing power and memory. This means if particular websites are very busy and getting loads of traffic, they will obviously draw more processing power and server memory. This can lead to your website being slow to open and your potential customer won’t wait for your website to display; they’ll just go elsewhere! The other drawback with sharing a server with so many websites is a server is only as reliable as the scripts being written to it. If a particular website uses a bad script it can take the whole server down. Your website will go down as well and through no fault of your own. If your online business is mission critical and you want to avoid suffering any downtime or slowness, your best option is your own dedicated server. And if you are not at all technical then the best option of all is a fully managed dedicated server.You can visit https://www.knownhost.com/managed-wordpress-hosting.html for more information.

A fully managed dedicated server is managed for you by your hosting provider. You won’t have full root access to it but you will get a control panel which you use to set up your website space and that’s it. So in a way, similar to a shared server, except it’s yours with only your websites using it. This used to be quite an expensive option but prices have come down and there are wide ranges of hosting providers who offer fully managed dedicated servers from as low as £50 or £60 a month. The other advantage of your own dedicated server is you can install any software you want. On a shared server you are only able to use the pre-installed software and components provided and this can be limiting. If it’s fully managed your hosting provider will install the software for you and they may make a small installation charge. You also get far more web space to use – if the hard drive on the server is 80GB then you can use about 74GB of that for your websites and software. And with a dedicated server you will get far more bandwidth to use than you would on a shared server. In fact, there are a number of hosting providers who now offer 1 terabyte of monthly bandwidth use which is more than enough for most online businesses.

When I was researching the articles, I posed the following question to dotloop’s CEO, Allison Austin: “What happens if your system goes down, is hacked, or if you go out of business?” His response cited dotloop’s multiple backup systems and that it would be highly unlikely that that would happen. At RadiusBridge we help your business manage internal and external data with a focus on the best use of data to grow your business.

When the dotloop system went down, its users lost access. All digital transaction management platforms send users their documents via email, where they can be archived and accessed for future use.

But unlike DocuSign, Instanet or zipLogix’s Digital Ink products that provide the double protection of both a PDF document trail and independent tracking of changes within the document itself, dotloop users had no backup unless they did one of three things prior to the outage: (1) printed the documents to paper beforehand; (2) downloaded the documents into a separate PDF file on their computer; or (3) stored the documents in another cloud-based solution.

It’s not if they will fail, it’s when Of course, whether you are Google, Amazon, Microsoft or any other technology provider, sooner or later the system goes down. On Aug.16, Google went down for a few minutes. The blackout was “unprecedented.” The result: a 40 percent decrease of global traffic on the Web, according to a CNET article.

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http://www.inman.com/2013/08/22/protect-your-data-from-cloud-based-storms/#sthash.MlrkSiPy.dpuf

Ugly Houses Boom as Foreclosures Dwindle | South Salem Real Estate

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While declining numbers of foreclosures are slowing down most investors, the leading homes-for-cash company is expanding into new territories.

HomeVestors, the number one buyer of houses in the U.S. opened 64 new franchises in the past three months, which is almost double the highest number of franchisees that have previously enrolled in a single quarter.  “This number is remarkable and attests to continued strong interest in real estate investment and the opportunity for investors in today’s market,” said HomeVestors Co-President David Hicks.

Hicks said a lot of their growth is coming from properties in older neighborhoods where houses are 30 years older or more, not newer homes more typical of those that have dominated distress sale inventories.

“Our franchises are buying from homeowners who are selling for a variety of reasons.  Hedge funds don’t have access to those homes and mom and pop investors want to buy in newer neighborhoods,” he said.

HomeVestors’ rapid growth comes amid the housing comeback. “The number of additional new franchisees during the second quarter of 2013 is an indication that investors increasingly believe what we know is true — that there is continued opportunity in the market,” said HomeVestors’ co-president, Ken Channell.  “We are committed to our franchisees to help encourage continued growth and success this year.”

Among the new franchises HomeVestors have added are in new territory for the company such as Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Lower Hudson Valley, New York; and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. HomeVestors of America, Inc. is also known as the “We Buy Ugly Houses” company.

 

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http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/08/ugly-houses-boom-as-foreclosures-dwindle/

 

 

 

Peter Eisenman’s Experimental ‘House VI’ Listed for $1.4M | South Salem Real Estate

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20 images

A rare house by “postfunctionalist” architect Peter Eisenman in the hills of Connecticut has been quietly listed for $1.4M. Despite the name, House VI, this was actually just the second structure built by Eisenman, who, at the time of the 1972 design, had spent much of his career on theory. Perhaps as a result, the construction of the compact house took three years and ran well over budget. In 1987, persistent issues with the structure meant it had to be thoroughly renovated, but the original clients remain satisfied with the result, so much so that they wrote a book in defense of Eisenman’s work. Set on six acres, the controversial house has been listed alongside a repurposed 1880s schoolhouse, now used as a guest cottage, and a lean-to barn

Mortgage modifications up, foreclosure starts down | South Salem Real Estate

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From April through June of this year, an estimated 204,000 homeowners received permanent loan modifications from mortgage servicers. Of those modifications, approximately 160,000 homeowners received proprietary loans modifications and 44,860 homeowners received loan modifications completed under the Home Affordable Modification Program.

“Our mission since 2007 remains the same – to reach out and assist as many homeowners as possible using all of the tools at our disposal. In addition to the progress made via our solution data, HOPE NOW sponsored over 140 face to face events in more than 70 markets nationwide and has been a driving force in bringing together all mortgage stakeholders in the interest of improving the nation’s housing market,” said Eric Selk, executive director of HOPE NOW.

The mortgage industry completed more than 6.52 million total permanent loan modifications for homeowners since 2007. More than 5.31 million of those loans were proprietary programs and 1,223,449 were completed via HAMP.

In the second quarter, approximately 81,000 short sales were recorded, bringing the total to more than 1.32 million since December 2009. When combining both loan modifications and short sales, the total number of permanent, non-foreclosure solutions was more than 7.84 million.

Second quarter numbers were at an estimated 329,000 foreclosure starts, compared to 472,000 during the previous quarter, a drop of more than 30%, and 527,000 in the second quarter of 2012, a decline of 38%.

Interestingly enough, completed foreclosures in the second quarter were approximately 158,000 compared to 162,000 for the first quarter, down 2%. In the second quarter of 2012, foreclosure sales were at 185,000, 15% above current numbers.

Short sale completions in the second quarter were an estimated 81,000 compared to 84,000 in the first quarter, a drop of 3%. Year-over-year, short sale completions were down 25% from 107,000 in the second quarter of 2012.

Month-over-month, foreclosure starts were estimated at 97,000 in June compared to 115,000 in May, down 16%. Foreclosure starts were estimated at 52,000 in June were down 8% from May’s 48,000. On a monthly basis, short sales completed dropped 7% from 28,000 in May to 26,000 in June.

Delinquencies of 60+ days remained unchanged in June at 2.22 million.

HOPE NOW

But numbers don’t tell the whole picture. It’s important to know why foreclosures are on the decline.

Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac, believes many markets have finally worked their way through the large batch of bad loans originated during the housing bubble years.

“On top of this, as home prices have now bottomed out in most markets, that is helping to lift all boats and allow some homeowners to avoid foreclosure through refinancing or even the sale of their home,” said Blomquist.

“Lastly, the persistent foreclosure prevention efforts over the past few years have waged a war of attrition on the foreclosure problem, helping to keep a lid on foreclosure activity,” he added.

Blomquist noted that regulations could be playing a key role in keeping foreclosures from going through. “In some cases, state legislation has slowed foreclosure activity quite dramatically — above and beyond the natural slowing of foreclosure activity that was already occurring,” he said.

Blomquist mentioned the example of California, where the Homeowners Bill of Rights that took effect in January, causing a 60% drop in foreclosure starts in a single month. “The still-unanswered question with regulations like this, however, is are they actually preventing foreclosures in the long-term or are they delaying them to next year or beyond?”

But the decline in foreclosures is a positive sign for the housing market. “Rising prices have helped some people regain equity, giving them an escape hatch to avoid foreclosure, and also giving them hope to keep making payments, rather than just walking away via a strategic default,” Blomquist said

 

 

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http://www.housingwire.com/articles/26172-mortgage-modifications-up-foreclosure-starts-down

 

12 Ways to Get More Pinterest Followers | South Salem Realtor

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Are wondering how to get more Pinterest followers?

Are you looking to increase your Pinterest engagement and drive traffic?

In this article, I’ll share 12 tips on how you can get more Pinterest followers and promote your business.

Why More Pinterest Followers?

More Pinterest followers can help you get more likes, repins, comments, clicks and impressions.

This can then help drive traffic, increase sales, generate leads and build your Pinterest brand.

It also provides an opportunity for you to generate more engagement with your customers.

Here are the tips:

#1: Add the Pinterest Follow Button

The Pinterest follow button diverts website visitors to your Pinterest page, thereby attracting followers. This can be effective if you have a high-traffic website.

Install the button in several prominent places on your website and blog—the header, footer, sidebar, etc. Make it easy for people to find your brand page and convert them into followers.

To create your button, use the widget builder page on Pinterest or create a custom button that matches your branding

 

 

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http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-get-more-pinterest-followers/

 

How Do Digital Marketers Engage On Twitter? | South Salem Real Estate

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Social media has made it possible for us all to be digital marketers.How do digital marketers engage on Twitter

The reality is that if you are on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ you “are” a digital marketer whether you like it or not. You are publishing  and promoting a brand. It might be brand “you” or it maybe be a  business or organisation you represent.

If you publish you are a digital marketer.

Publishing is now marketing and the mind share that content marketing has  garnered reveals the power of social content and crowd sourced sharing.

Marketing also involves two key activities.

Publishing and promotion

Social media provides the means, the technology and the platforms to do  both.

Don’t underestimate Twitter’s brevity

Twitter’s role in the digital marketing pantheon was often seen as about  breaking news. Used correctly it can accelerate your brand message and content  to a global waiting audience that will pass it on. Don’t underestimate Twitter’s  marketing horsepower because of its 140 character brevity.

It can be a focused marketing platform that drives brand awareness and  content discovery. It is a low friction network that moves multi-media content  in real time….fast.

Some questions

So if you see yourself as a digital marketer then you may be asking some  questions. This will provide you with some ideas on the sources you may need to  be reading to keep up to date. It will also enable some insights into the  sources, apps and people that you may need to follow or check out.

  1. Which social networks are they on?
  2. What apps and platforms do they use to share on Twitter?
  3. What mobile apps do they use for sharing ?
  4. What types of content do they share?
  5. What are the mainstream media sources?
  6. What industry sources are they sharing?
  7. What are the social media media sources are they reading, viewing and  sharing?
  8. Who are the people most retweeted by digital marketers?
  9. Who are the people that are most mentioned?
  10. What are the brands most retweeted?

A recent report on  Leadtail looked at 143,856 tweets and 69,657 shared links to provide a  snapshot of how digital marketers engage on Twitter. It also provided  answers to those 10 questions.

How do digital marketers engage on Twitter?

Here are some insights into Twitter engagement as performed by digital  marketers. It reveals resources, tools and people that you may not have heard of  that you may want to add to your reading, viewing and watch list.

 

Read more at…

 

http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/08/13/how-do-digital-marketers-engage-on-twitter/#lDMbWKAz2bVfL841.99

What To Expect From Housing In The Second Half Of 2013

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The U.S. housing recovery continues to make gains. New home sales have surged 38% since last year, hitting a five-year high in June, according to the newest figures from the Commerce Department. And despite a monthly drop in activity, sales of previously owned homes remain 15% higher than last year as well, according to the National Association of Realtors.

 

If housing in the first six months of 2013 could be summed up in one sentence, it would go something like this: Inventory is painfully tight, sales activity is surging and home prices have jumping.

 

Now real estate experts are sounding off on the trends that will help shape the sector in the second half of 2013. Here’s what you need to know.

 

We Are Not Re-inflating A Bubble

 

Home prices have clocked double-digit price appreciation this year. Prices across the 20 major U.S. metro markets were 12% higher in April than they were a year before, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. Other indexes have registered similarly dramatic gains. The last time prices appreciated by double digits were during the last housing bubble, motivating to question whether a new bubble is beginning to inflate.

 

It isn’t.  The current pace of growth, while certainly unsustainable for long term market health, is nothing to worry about just yet. “Prices are now rising as fast as they were during the bubble years, but they are still low relative to the levels where they were back then,” explains Jed Kolko, chief economist of Trulia TRLA -0.65%, a San Francisco, Calif.-based real estate site.

 

He says prices are actually undervalued across most of the country, lower not just than their bubble-era peaks but also lower than their historical norms when adjusted for inflation.

 

“You can sort of think of it as we overshot on the way down and this is sort of a correction back to something more normal,” adds Mark Fleming, chief economist of CoreLogic, an Irvine, Calif.-based real estate data firm.

 

 

What To Expect From Housing In The Second Half Of 2013 – Forbes.

What Really Influences Your Credit Score? | South Salem Real Estate

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Your credit report is essentially your financial report card. It serves as a way for banks, insurance and lending companies to gauge your credit-worthiness and whether you’re likely to miss payments or default on a loan. It’s also common for landlords, employers and government agencies to check your credit before approving an application or confirming a transaction.

But, do you know where the information on your credit report comes from and how it impacts your overall credit score? It might help to know the next time you’re tempted to take out another credit card or just pay the minimum on your balance.

Here are the five most important things that make up your credit score:

Payment history: 31 percent

Paying your bills on time helps you avoid late fees and also helps your credit score. A good payment history shows lenders you have a record of paying on time. And the longer you have that, the better. Late or missing payments negatively affect your score, as do any collections, foreclosures or bankruptcies. Payment history usually pulls the most weight in your credit score calculation, so it’s important to stay current in this category.

Level of debt: 30 percent

It’s not a good idea to use up all your credit. By using most of your credit, or getting close to your credit limit, you can negatively impact your score. A good policy is to keep your credit card balance within 30 percent of your limit. In other words, if your credit card limit is $5,000, charging more than $1,500 can be risky even if you pay off the balance on time. Keeping your debt low shows lenders that you’re likely able to afford monthly payments and possibly take on more expenses.

Length of credit history: 15 percent

How well have you managed your credit accounts over time? Having a longer credit history helps your score. Lenders want to see that you’ve kept a good track record over a long period because someone with little or no credit history is more financially risky because it presents more of an unknown. This means that keeping that credit card you’ve had for a while open can help your credit (as long as you keep the balance low or at zero by paying on time every month).

Types of credit: 14 percent

Showing that you have a record of paying different types of debt helps your credit score. And different types of credit or loans can impact your score more or less. A healthy mix of credit includes credit cards, home loans and auto loans. Credit consisting of only one type, such as credit card accounts, won’t help your score, so diversity is important when it comes to credit accounts.

New credit: 10 percent

Having lots of credit inquiries within a short time lowers your score because it shows you’re actively searching for more credit, which makes lenders nervous. However, when you check your own credit or when an employer does, it won’t impact your score.

The major components of your credit score consist of your payment history and amount of debt. By knowing how the items in your credit report are weighted, you’ll have a better idea of the factors impacting your score.

 

 

What Really Influences Your Credit Score? | Zillow Blog.