Connect2Agent - Home Buyers and Sellers

Celebrating the Fourth of July--family style

"If our country is worth dying for in time of war, let us resolve that it is truly worth living for in time of peace."

-Hamilton Fish

How will you choose to spend this holiday? I am grateful to be celebrating the Fourth of July family style. We will be hoofing it to the beach and spending the day under blue skies, hopping about in the water. My children will plunge right in, regardless of how cold the water will be. 

I will be tentative and plead for them not to splash water on me. 

They will tease me and swim near, kicking a stream of water close enough to be a threat. I will eventually take the plunge into the cold water. Emerging from the depths, I will feel refreshed and start to splash and frolic with them.

We will be united and time will seem to stand still.

 

Real estate buyers and sellers hang at online water coolers

While real estate buyers are sitting on the fence, they are jumping right over it to participate with homeowners in the many online water cooler conversations surrounding real estate. They are talking about everything from how much to underbid on a listing price to what the rents are like in Atlanta, Georiga.

The conversation is buzzing. 

What's really funny to me is the amount of people who comment on areas outside of their roots. No subject is off-limits for crossover community members. A homeowner in Chicago will advise a homeowner in New York whether to increase/decrease their purchase price. That same out-of-town homeowner would tell another community member whether to buy or rent. 

It's not an anomaly. These types of conversations happen daily.

Operation Malicious Mortgage smackdown

Sweeping a big net, the recent Operation Malicious Mortgage crackdown resulted in the arrest of 400 mortgage brokers. This effort by the FBI comes in an attempt to restore consumers' faith in the housing market and police fraudulent actions.

Most reports are applauding this effort and taking a "You play, you pay" stance. I agree with squelching fraudulent efforts. What I am more interested in are the actions that encourage the players not to begin. 

I'll be watching the news for more of these preventive measures ... stay tuned.

If you enjoyed this post, you might want to read:

• Department of Justice tells NAR to let the listings go
• Second stimulus package in the works to help real estate buyers and homeowners
• Do you qualify for Bush's new subprime ARM plan?
  
  

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Posted by Rebecca D. Levinson

When it rained, these floods poured in the Midwest

Mother Nature has recently stretched her mighty power down on Missouri, Iowa and several counties in Wisconsin. Torrential rains have resulted in flooded towns and counties, leaving displaced homeowners and those trying to save their homes from the water.

Steven Stearns, a fellow associate of a real estate community network I participate in, lives in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin--one of the towns that was hit with flooding. I guess what struck me the most were the pictures Steve added to his blog post, "GRAB YOUR BOOTS AND LEND A HAND: A WEEK IN THE WISCONSIN FLOOD".

Connect2Agent's top 25 cities to search for an agent

Connect2Agent has been assisting real estate buyers and sellers in finding the real estate agent that is best suited to their needs since 2002. Akin to dog years, you could equate that to 41 offline years of serious matchmaking business.

All that expertise amounts to a sizable amount of data. When it comes to real estate, the reports on the Internet are vast. You can find out what has sold and listed in the past 30 days in your town, where to relocate to and what towns have home values that have appreciated the most.

How to prepare for tornado season

We are only halfway through tornado season and it is throwing some heavy weight around Tornado Alley these days. Typically tornadoes peak during May and June and the season doesn't taper until around August. Meteorologists are professing this year to be record-breaking for tornadoes if the pace continues.

Friday set off a series of tornado warnings and heavy thunderstorms in Southeast Wisconsin and my lovely town of Lake Geneva. Lake Geneva is in Tornado Alley and I was certainly reminded of this by the alarms that resounded throughout the weekend.

Friday was the last day of school for my children, but they were late coming home because they spent the last part of the day crouched in their book bag cubbyholes in a squatting position with their arms covering their necks and heads.

This is all part of the joy of preparing for a tornado. All was safe and sound and my children returned home unscathed. Little did I know the warnings would continue throughout the weekend. When I was not running errands close to home--timed between hours of tornado watches and warnings--the basement became my family's second home. 

Luckily we have a good setup for emergencies, with a bathroom, a television and a refrigerator. My cell phone has Internet access, so I was also able to access up-to-date weather warnings and know when they had ended so we could return upstairs.

Do homeowners deserve to be foreclosed on?

In the wake of competitive over-list-price bidding wars and waiting lists for vacant lot purchases to build a new home on, some homeowners have found their dream in real estate has faded. Do these homeowners deserve to be foreclosed on?

There is much attention being paid to homeowners whose rate lock has expired and is resetting at a higher interest rate than they can afford. Some programs have been implemented on a local level, through major mortgage lending facilities and through governmental programs to help homeowners refinance into a more affordable rate. Do these homeowners deserve to be foreclosed on?

Then there are the real estate buyers who financed more than 100% of the current real estate market value of their house. Some real estate buyers got into loan programs that were interest-only--all in an effort to own a piece of the American dream, because they didn't have a bigger downpayment or the creditworthiness to qualify for a conventional mortgage. Do these homeowners deserve to be foreclosed on?

Real estate trendspot: Connect2Agent discusses new foreclosure services

When the going gets tough, these companies are hoping the tough head to their websites for help. The two companies I am referring to are trying to inch their services into the crowded and cumbersome foreclosure process.

You Walk Away and Walk Away Plan claim to offer services that streamline the decision process for a homeowner on whether they should walk away from their house or continue to hang on. Here's a look at each of these companies.

Walk Away Plan tries to take the guesswork out of accepting a foreclosure or staying in your house. The folks at this company are selling a trademarked plan to consumers that provides them with information on how long they can stay in their house without paying their mortgage and what kind of recourse the lender can have against the homeowner. It even states that consumers who use the Walk Away Plan will be able to purchase a house again in as little as two years.

These are some pretty hefty claims for homeowners who walk away from the recorded interest and liability. The site even goes through a set of moral questions with a homeowner who might feel guilty walking away from the debt they owe. In chatting on the website with a live operator, I was able to get the cost for the service--$495--and it was explained that there are no other fees involved. The site offers a money-back guarantee if you do not receive your report within seven business days. All refunds must be requested in writing to an address in Arizona.

Atlanta, Georgia, residents hit by tornado

Last Friday, Atlanta was hit by a tornado as 130-mile/hour winds made a 6-mile-wide path of destruction in downtown Atlanta. This was the first tornado ever to hit the downtown area. The tornado ripped up trees, caused damage to buildings and littered residential streets.

So far, there are two people reported dead while a few dozen have been injured. Hayden Manswell, a Connect2Agent membership consultant and Atlanta-area resident, was busy cleaning up his house in the wake of the tornado. We are grateful he was able to report to the office today that he and his family are OK. They did have a large window blow out and some exterior property damage. Their home is also currently without power.

If you are interested in helping the citizens of Atlanta, please visit the American Red Cross website, where you can find information about donating relief funds online or over the phone.

If you found this post to be informative, you might want to read:

• How you can help with disaster relief for the wildfires in Southern California
• Homeowners: Do you have enough homeowner's insurance coverage?
• Eight factors to consider before deciding not to purchase disaster insurance

Posted by Rebecca D. Levinson

Celebrating #150 on Connect2Agent Home Buyers and Sellers blog

I have just inched past the 150th blog post for the Connect2Agent Home Buyers and Sellers blog. It has been a ride of learning, researching and writing, writing and then some more writing.  

The thing about the blog is it is never ending. You may start on one topic, only to discover and unearth another. There is a lot of information to share and a lot to learn from others along the way. The blog never sleeps; I might be blogging at 8 a.m. or 10 a.m., or I might be blogging at 2 in the morning. The blogging mind is a funny thing and the Internet is a 24/7 information highway.

I really enjoy blogging about real estate. Connect2Agent Home Buyers and Sellers corporate blog is a great venue to write on, because it allows me to discuss everything from finding a mortgage broker to the economic stimulus plan. 

Along the way, I've had guest contributors and Lee Greve, owner and broker of Connect2Agent, discussing all things real estate. Our Connect2Agent members have also provided a lot of food for fodder for our corporate blog, as well as tales of unusual real estate stories.

As the Connect2Agent Home Buyers and Sellers blog surpasses this 150th-post mark, it is also undergoing some spring cleaning. I will be keeping some of the advice posts, but there will be more goodies lying right around the corner. Regular columns, including a lighter side of real estate with true-to-life, out-in-the-field stories, will hit this blog's postings.   

You will also read what Connect2Agent employees see, hear and feel about different real estate topics. I will continue our guest contributions from professionals throughout the real estate industry. I will continue reviews of marketing tools, industry websites and real estate "breaking" news stories, as well as tried-and-true advice posts. Our real estate agent members will help to educate readers on the local beats in markets throughout the United States and Canada.