Posts Tagged ‘Intero Real Estate Services’

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FHA Extends its “Anti-Flipping Waiver” through 2012

By Christopher Moles | February 6th, 2012 0 Comments

Last year the Federal Housing Administration temporarily waived its restriction on flipping homes purchased with an FHA backed mortgage. The FHA has announced that it will extend its waiver through 2012 in order to ease restrictions and encourage the market.

The Waiver

The FHA traditionally does not insure financing for properties with a less than 90-day resell turnaround. This policy exists to control property speculation and to protect the ultimate consumer. However, in 2010 the FHA waived its restriction on flipping through 2011 in an attempt to encourage real estate transactions. Since then, the FHA has insured nearly 42,000 mortgages totaling more than $7 billion on “flipped” properties across America. See here.

Under pressure to continue to ease restrictions on the housing market, the FHA has decided to extend its waiver through this year.

The Dilemma

While these numbers may seem large, they are actually quite small relative to traditional single family residence sales. In California, the percentage of FHA mortgages backing flipped homes is minuscule. This is because brokers and principles face certain disclosure dilemmas and distinct liabilities during a property flip regardless of whether the property is otherwise eligible for FHA financing.

Brokers and agents representing home buyers during a flipper’s resell are bound by a fiduciary duty to their clients and a general duty to the public. Sellers must disclose all material facts which might influence the sale price. Facts that indicate a significantly higher or lower present value than the one being considered should generally be disclosed – and problems can occur when those facts are not revealed.

Of course, most lenders continue to restrict flips as a condition for granting short sale approval and many title companies have policies that restrict double escrows. My past article on double escrows during short sales is reproduced here.

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Thoughts on Leadership | Leaders Know How to Attract Attention

By Gino Blefari | September 1st, 2011 0 Comments

To accomplish anything in life as a leader, you’re likely going to need help from other people. Regardless of how talented or accomplished you are, you can’t always assume that you can count on attracting and retaining the attention of others. It will be more and more challenging and rewarding to hold onto the attention of those who matter to you.

Attention provides leverage. The more people leaders can attract and motivate to join them on a challenging quest or initiative, the more impact they are likely to achieve. So, what are effective ways to attract and retain the kind of attention that helps leaders to address the challenges they face? Here are four steps that build on each other.

1. Embrace mystery - Frame the more difficult problems that are relevant to you and need to be solved. Help people to understand why these are such significant problems and why so many people have been unsuccessful in trying to solve them. It probably will not attract the people looking for easy answers, but it can attract those who are naturally curious and looking for stimulating challenges.

2. Focus inquiry – Don’t try to suggest answers. Frame interesting questions instead. Help people gain perspective by posing questions that intrigue and motivate them to start investigating the mysteries that lie ahead.

3. Excite the imagination – Provide some “what if?” scenarios to illustrate the possibilities that await those who manage to come up with creative answers. Paint the pictures but make it clear these are only pictures. Stimulate people to pursue the questions with a lot of energy and creativity.

4. Be authentic – If you are not genuinely engaged in addressing these problems yourself, you will not be able to sustain the attention and effort of others to come up with creative solutions. On the other hand, if you are on a quest yourself, leading by example, you could have a contagious effect and the encounters you have can help both sides to learn from each other.

Do these techniques actually work? Well, think of how Martin Luther King excited and mobilized a broad group of people to tackle some very challenging social problems. On a completely different level, one leading tech company in Silicon Valley regularly attracts the attention of the venture capital community by sharing its most difficult technology problems and suggesting that they would buy the start-ups that come up with creative solutions to these problems. Or look at the way professional astronomers have mobilized a global network of passionately engaged amateurs to learn more about the vast universe beyond this planet.

This kind of attention is priceless and powerful. All leaders need to find ways to generate it and harness it. This is not just an opportunity, but increasingly an unavoidable obligation. Leaders are all experiencing increasing economic pressure as individuals and institutions. In this kind of environment, leaders not only need leverage, but also need to more rapidly improve their performance.

Leaders get better faster by working with others. To do this, they first need to attract their attention. If they fail to attract that attention, they will not get better faster in an increasingly competitive global economy, and they could be overlooked. That is why attention is becoming more valuable at the same time that it is becoming rare.

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Trust Fund Handling Requirements (The 3 Business Day Rule)

By Christopher Moles | August 29th, 2011 0 Comments

California has created very rigid timelines and rules for handling trust funds. The most basic trust fund rule is that trust funds must be properly deposited or returned within 3 business days of acceptance. Failure to comply with this rule can cause you and your brokerage trouble during a DRE audit. It can also put your client in breach of contract.

Trust Funds

Technically, “trust funds” are any funds received on behalf of others in a manner that legally creates a fiduciary responsibility to the funds’ owners. Unlike some other funds received in the normal course of business, trust funds demand the highest level of protection and a strict fiduciary duty of loyalty by the possessor-trustee. With few exceptions, the trustee generally may not comingle the funds, collect interest on the funds, or otherwise personally benefit in any way by holding the funds.

It is well settled law that purchase funds delivered to one’s real estate broker in the normal course of purchasing real property are considered trust funds.

The DRE Rule

A typical trust fund transaction begins with the broker or salesperson receiving trust funds from a principal for the purpose of making a deposit. According to Business and Professions Code Section 10145, trust funds received must be placed into the hands of the owner(s) of the funds, into a neutral escrow depository, or into a trust account maintained pursuant to Commissioner’s Regulation 2832 not later than 3 business days following receipt of the funds by the broker or by the broker’s salesperson.

This rule is explicit and rigid. Brokerages are required to return the funds or properly deposit the funds within 3 business days. The only common exception is in situations where a check is delivered by a client to his broker prior to acceptance of the client’s offer. As provided by Commissioner’s Regulation 2832, a deposit check may be held uncashed by the broker until acceptance of the offer if the following conditions are met:

1.  the check by its terms is not negotiable by the broker, or the offeror has given written instructions that the check shall not be deposited or cashed until acceptance of the offer; and

2.  the offeree is informed, before or at the time the offer is presented for acceptance, that the check is  being held.

If the offer is later accepted, the broker may continue to hold the check uncashed and undeposited only if the broker receives written authorization from the seller to do so. Otherwise, the check must be placed, not later than 3 business days after acceptance, into a neutral escrow depository or into the trust fund bank account or into the hands of the seller if both the buyer and seller expressly agree in writing.

Standard Purchase Agreement Forms

The standard CAR and PRDS purchase agreement forms each have language meant to evoke the above referenced rule and exception. For example, the CAR agreement states “Buyer has given a deposit in the amount of ___________to the agent submitting the offer (or to ___________) by personal check which shall be held uncashed until acceptance of the offer and then deposited within 3 business days after acceptance…”
Not surprisingly, standard industry practice is to deliver the deposit to escrow within 3 business days of acceptance. Failure to do so is often considered a breach of DRE rules and it may put the buyer in breach of contract. As such, agents and coordinators are advised to keep this in mind and make sure to properly deposit funds within the 3 business day period.

A copy of the DRE’s official guide for licensees regarding trust funds can be found here.

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Cool Apps | Top-Notch Mortgage Calculators On The Go

By John Thompson | August 26th, 2011 0 Comments

As real estate agents, we’ve all been there: kneeling in an unfurnished house, helping our client through a couple of math situations as we compare and contrast a couple of houses and loan situations. That’s why every agent could use a good mortgage calculator app, such as Karl’s Mortgage Calculator in the Android Market or Home Shopper for iOS..

Karl’s Mortgage Calculator enables you to calculate mortgage payments given principal, interest and loan terms. And you can reverse calculate any of the other variables given the other three. Perhaps even more useful, you can see how the monthly payment changes when factoring in additional monthly costs like mortgage insurance, taxes, homeowner’s association dues, and property insurance.

Have international clients? Karl’s Mortgage Calculator supports multiple currencies for easy translation.

Home Shopper on iOS is just as robust. This app isn’t just for buyers, it’s a must have companion for real estate agents and lenders in the field who need quick answers for their clients regarding the costs and benefits associated with owning a property. Do you need to know the total monthly break down of owning a home, as well as what your tax benefits will be in plain easy to understand terms? Want to be able to compare those figures to what you’re currently paying in rent and then email that entire report to yourself, your agent, your spouse or whoever? Then Home Shopper is for you.

There are literally hundreds of mortgage calculator apps out there. Both of these are very professional looking, without being bloated with unnecessary functions that make it difficult to use. Graphs and charts help visualize the data so it’s quick and easy to understand.


Cool App overview

Name: Karl’s Mortgage Calculator (Android) & Home Shopper (iOS)

Website:https://market.android.com/details?id=com.drcalculator.android.mortgage

http://itunes.apple.com/bw/app/home-shopper/id452513740?mt=8

What it does: These Calculators enable you to calculate mortgage payments given principal, interest and loan terms and more.

How to use it: Download the app to your device. Enter  down payment amount or percentage and let the calculator show how large a mortgage you require.

Cost: Karl’s Mortgage Calculator (Free)
Home Shopper (.99 cents)

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Intero voted the Best Real Estate Company in Silicon Valley

By Teressa Francis | July 13th, 2011 0 Comments

The results are in and Intero Real Estate Services, Inc. was voted the Best Real Estate Company in Silicon Valley in the 2011 San Jose Mercury News Best of Silicon Valley survey.

The real estate company you choose matters.

Choose the Best.

Thank you for voting Intero Real Estate Services, “Silicon Valley’s Best Real Estate Company.” And thank you for making us the top company by market share for the first time ever this year. We appreciate your votes – and your trust.

Get to know us…

interoreblog.com
Candid talk and hard numbers on the Silicon Valley housing market, from the people who know.

interomojo.com
Inspiration and technology tips for serious real estate professionals.

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Intero Cool Apps: Why You Should Resist the Urge to Ignore Google Plus

By John Thompson | July 8th, 2011 0 Comments

By now, you’ve likely heard some buzz around Google’s latest big release called Google Plus. Maybe you’ve already gotten an invite and tested it out. If not, you should. I’m going to talk about why and how this new social network can be useful in your real estate business and go over a few basics of the road.

Why oh why do we need yet another social network?

This of course is the first question that comes to mind anytime someone invites you to a new “Facebook” of sorts. The short answer for why Google Plus is worth your time is this: It’s easy to use, takes seconds to set up and gives you the flexibility you’ve been longing for to segment your professional and personal social networking in a meaningful way.

OK, so how to get an invite if you don’t already have one?

The best way is to simply put the word out on Facebook and Twitter. Let your existing network know that you haven’t gotten an invite yet and are looking for one. Chances are high that someone in your circle has gotten in and can send you an invite.

What’s it all about?

The fundamental difference between Google Plus and the others before it is privacy. Google Plus is based on the Google Circles feature, which enables you to share and view content to and from specifically defined groups of people – and no one else. So if you want to share new listings or local housing news with your group of interested local buyers, then your cousins in Minnesota don’t have to be burdened with your irrelevant posts. Likewise, your professional contacts won’t have to see the pics from your summer family reunion.

How is this any different from Facebook’s list feature? Very very different. First, there’s ease of use. Google Circles is simple drag and drop. As soon as you get set up, you start creating your circles and simply sort your contacts into their respective groups. Second, there’s the segmentation of viewing content from these groups. So you’re not getting professional news and marketing tips alongside updates from your family members.

It’s easy to get fatigued by social media and resist the urge to jump on the next big thing that ends up being nothing at all (remember Google Wave?). But Google Plus really shows promise to be the best social web tool of all – especially for those of us who’ve found our personal and professional lives blending, finding it hard to keep up with all the content we want to keep up with due to this very blending.

Reach out and get your invite and start test-driving Google Plus today!

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Thursday Thoughts: Bob Parsons’ 16 Rules for Success in Business and Life

By Gino Blefari | July 7th, 2011 0 Comments

Bob Parsons, founder and CEO of GoDaddy.com, the largest accredited domain registrar in the world, sold his company for $2.25 billion this last week on July 1. Parsons credits his success in leadership, business and life in general to 16 rules he developed and lives by every day. The rules cover everything from specific advice for problem solving and decision making to more general lessons about the way the world works. I want to share Parsons’ rules here:

  1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone. Nothing significant happens when we’re in our comfort zones.
  2. Never give up. Almost nothing works the first time it’s attempted. Just because what you’re doing isn’t working, doesn’t mean it won’t work. It just means that it might not work the way you’re doing it. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn’t have an opportunity.
  3. When you’re ready to quit, you’re closer than you think. There’s an old Chinese saying that goes like this: “The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.”
  4. Accept the worst thing that could happen and make it a point to quantify what the worst thing could be. Very seldom will the worst consequence be anywhere near as bad as a cloud of “undefined consequences.” Parsons says his father used to tell him when he was struggling to get his technology company going, “Well Robert, if it doesn’t work, they can’t eat you.”
  5. Focus on what you want to happen. Remember that old saying, “As you think, so shall you be.”
  6. Take things a day at a time. No matter how difficult your situation is you can get through it by focusing on the present and not looking too far into the future. You can get through anything one day at a time.
  7. Always move forward. Never stop investing. Never stop improving. Never stop trying new things. The moment you stop improving your organization, it starts to die. Make it your goal to be better every day in some small way. Remember the Japanese concept of Kaizen: Small daily improvements eventually result in huge advantages.
  8. Be quick to decide. Remember what General George S. Patton said: “A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”
  9. Measure everything of significance. Anything that is measured and watched, improves.
  10. Anything that is not managed will deteriorate. If you want to uncover problems you don’t know about, take a few moments and look closely at the areas you haven’t examined for awhile. You’re guaranteed to find problems there.
  11. Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you’re doing. When you look at your competitors, remember that everything looks perfect from a distance. Even the planet Earth looks like a peaceful place from far enough way.
  12. Never let anybody push you around. In our society, you have just as much right to what you’re doing as anyone else, provided that what you’re doing is legal.
  13. Never expect life to be fair. Life isn’t fair. You make your own breaks.
  14. Solve your own problems. You’ll find that by coming up with your own solutions, you’ll develop a competitive edge. Masura Ibuka, the co-founder of SONY, said it best: “You never succeed in technology, business, or anything by following the others.” There’s also an old Asian saying: “A wise man keeps his own counsel.”
  15. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Lighten up. Often, at least half of what we accomplish is due to luck. None of us are in control as much as we like to think we are.
  16. There’s always a reason to smile. Find it. After all, we’re really lucky just to be alive. Life is short. Parsons says his little brother always reminds him, “We’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time!”

The biggest leadership takeaway for me from Parsons’ 16 rules is Rule #7: Always move forward. By focusing on small daily improvements, you’ll eventually see huge advantages. This is doable, positive and a great leadership philosophy. Now get out there and do it.

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Intero Cool Apps: Get the Inside Scoop on Your Clients with Flowtown

By John Thompson | June 24th, 2011 0 Comments

You know those names and addresses that line the pages of your real estate email contact list? Do you know who these people really are? Have any clues about them, what they enjoy in life, where they envision themselves living? Or, when is the last time you did a quick reality check on who you think they are?

Without any information (or the right information) about the folks who receive your marketing messages, your efforts are wasted dollars.

Enter Flowtown. It’s a social media marketing platform that enables you to mine your current email lists and figure out where your contacts are active and engaged online. (Could this be the end of aimless Twitter and Facebook campaigns?)

The web app can help you reach your existing contacts in new ways. You’ll know a bit more about them as you gain information about where they’re engaged in public online networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and Flickr. You can get more detailed data about what they’re into.

The only thing Flowtown needs to work is an existing contact list, which hopefully you’ve been cultivating since the day you set foot into the real estate field.

OK, how does this thing work?

1.     Go to Flowtown’s website to get started.

2.     Once you’re in, hook up your contact email list.

3.     Watch as the app prepares an information sheet with data about your clients (based on their public social network activities).

4.     Mine that data for all sorts of useful information like which social networks they use most, which clients have large followings online, their occupations, interests, etc.

5.     Start thinking of how you can better target your marketing to fit your real customers.

Real estate choices are about lifestyle. It’s amazing the kinds of clues you can get about a person’s approach to lifestyle just by analyzing what they’re doing publicly online. (I stress the word “publicly” because this activity could have a Big Brother feel to it, but no one’s privacy is being compromised here because the app is using information gleaned from public sites.)

Once you know more about your clients – past, present and future – you’ll be able to craft stellar marketing messages that really speak to them, not just out-of-the-box real estate marketing that every agent in town is using.

This sounds wonderful, right? But alas … there is a catch. Flowtown is still in early stages and accepting new users only by invite. So to use the service, you have to sign up to be on the invite list and invite a few friends and colleagues along with you.

Bummer, I know. There’s a tad bit of waiting involved.

But cruise on over to the website and get your name in there to test drive this thing. You may be surprised by the results!

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Monday Mojo – Dignity, Grace and Elegance Personified

By Tom Tognoli | January 10th, 2011 0 Comments

Over the Holidays I went with my parents to the Italian Cemetery in Colma to visit my grandparents and other relatives. It is kind of weird seeing your name on a tomb stone. My grandfather’s name was Thomas Tognoli (1900 – 1968).

While there we stopped by to check out where “Joltin” Joe DiMaggio was buried…the Yankee Clipper.

DiMaggio is the only athlete in North American pro sports history to be on four World Championship teams in his first 4 full seasons. In total, he led the Yankees to 9 titles in 13 years. In 1941, as America readied itself for war, DiMaggio began the greatest feat in American sports. His 56 game hitting streak captivated the country, and the nations eyes turned to him. It is a record that still stands today…60 years later.

DiMaggio played 13 seasons with the Yankees before retiring in 1951. Joe DiMaggio was celebrated in song and story after he stopped playing as he projected a romance and mystique that aroused the souls and lifted the spirits of millions. DiMaggio was immortalized in the Simon and Garfunkel song, “Mrs. Robinson” (from the movie The Graduate), “Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio,” a song about his 1941 hitting streak by Les Brown and the Ernest Hemingway’s prize winning novel, “The Old Man and the Sea.” Hemingway wrote reverently of “the Great DiMaggio,” and felt a special bond with him because DiMaggio’s father was also a fisherman.

The tragic conclusion of his relationship with Marilyn Monroe not only enhanced his status with the public, but his refusal to “cash in” earned him a reputation as being a man of unusual decency and integrity. Shy and serious, Joe always preferred his privacy; he played and had lived with what in his time was known as class. As his brother Dominic so elegantly had written on Joe’s final resting place “Dignity, Grace and Elegance personified.”

Joe always had a soft spot for children and took the most pleasure in establishing a children’s wing in 1992, called the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Fla. He once said “There is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first or last time, I owe him my best.” The motto is, “Whether rich or poor, no child is turned away.” Joe and his legacy have raised millions of dollars for the hospital.

Joe’s fame also flowed from the aura of quiet dignity that DiMaggio carefully preserved throughout his career and retirement. There was majesty in his swing, and a self-assured confidence in style and conduct that was uniquely Joe DiMaggio’s. In the eye of his public, he was more than a sports hero. He is among the most cherished icons of popular culture. “When Joe walked into the clubhouse, the lights flickered,” Pete Sheehy, the Yankees’ clubhouse manager in those years, often said. “Joe was a star.” He still is. He is the symbol of another era, of another breed of athlete and star.

Obviously Joe was an amazing baseball player, but he was an even more amazing human being. I would say how Joltin Joe lived and loved, and how he spent the “dash” between November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999 was pretty amazing and a great example for all of us.

So, the question is: when your eulogy’s being read with your life’s accomplishments to rehash, would you be proud of the things they say about how you spent your “dash?” What will they write about you on your tomb stone? Remember, it matters not how much we own, the cars, the house or the cash. What matters is how we live and love, and how we spend our dash.

Grace, Dignity and Elegance Personified

Make it a great week

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Consigliere Files: Short Sales

By Christopher Moles | September 20th, 2010 0 Comments

Short sales and REO transactions are a sign of the times and, unfortunately, they are not going anywhere. In fact, current estimates suggest that these transactions will represent a substantial portion (33% or more) of our business over the next few years. However, even as short sales steadily increase, many of our competitors have decided to refuse short sale listings because of there complexity and potential liability. Many brokerages have simply decided that there is no right way to do a short sale.

Intero is not one of those brokerages. Truthfully, prudent and experienced agents can do hundreds of short sales over a career and never see the inside of a court or DRE office. There is a right way to conduct these transactions. It requires discipline, time, and attention to detail. In my time dealing with short sale lawsuits, both at my former law firm and now as brokerage counsel, I can honestly say that every short sale foul up involved an agent that simply refused to exercise one or more of these necessary characteristics.

Discipline in short sale transactions

Short sales ARE NOT normal listings. They are different. Thus, a real estate sales agent must treat short sale listings differently. This means there are important disclosures that MUST be made PRIOR to signing a listing agreement. The state of California requires agents to explain 1) that they are not attorneys and won’t give legal advice, 2) that they are not CPA’s and they can’t give financial advice, and 3) that commencing a short sale will not stall foreclosure proceedings. At the moment that an agent first discusses listing a short sale with a seller without making this disclosure, the agent has breached her fiduciary duty.

Intero has created a “Short Sale Advisory and Hold Harmless Agreement” to help agents meet their duty when procuring short sale listings. Disciplined agents simply have the Advisory signed as soon as they are approached by a short sale seller. Undisciplined agents will not have this Advisory signed. Consequently, these agents are sued and have no valid defense.

Time in Short Sales

Next, short sales require time. These complex transactions involve numerous parties – sellers, buyers, agents, lenders, secondary lenders, negotiators, and normally a professional advisor (i.e. attorney or CPA). Short sales simply cannot be done quickly. As such, there are some listings that an agent must learn to flatly refuse. If a seller comes to you on the day of their foreclosure auction and asks for help “avoiding” foreclosure, you should say “no.” There is not enough time. An agent should not take a short sale listing unless the agent has at least a month to begin the long process of negotiating with the bank and steering the fiduciary toward competent advisors.

Please note; in my time as a real estate attorney, both at my former firm and now at Intero, every short sale suit has involved an agent that commenced a short sale listing within two weeks of foreclosure – each and every single one. Frankly, if you do not give yourself enough time to conduct these sales the right way; you will conduct them the wrong way.

Attention to Detail

Finally, attention to detail is important. Bear in mind, short sales are “exceptions.” The bank is making a special exception for a person facing insurmountable hardship. Thus, there are many special details that must be covered and verified to truly protect the broker and agent. For example, is there real hardship? If not, the bank may resend its “waiver of deficiency” at a later date for fraud. Then, the seller is hit with debt that she thought was waived, and you are hit with a lawsuit. Is the seller hiding assets? You will waste time, energy and reputation trying to procure a short sale for a seller that makes $300,000 a year, has 7 luxury cars, but is underwater on one of his mortgages. Agents don’t want to be interviewed by the FBI or become star witnesses for the IRS. Has each spouse been vetted in this community property state? The list goes on and on.

In conclusion, short sales are complex transactions that will become more and more prevalent in our area. However, they are exceptions, not the rule. Be sure to show discipline and get your special disclosures signed up front. Do not act as an attorney or CPA. Give yourself time to complete the transaction the right way. If you are going to be pressed for time, avoid the listing altogether. And always show attention to detail. Short sales require a special level of professionalism and competence, but if Intero agents can perform these transactions the right way, we will lead the industry for years to come.

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