Provided By North American Title Company
Source Economic Focus
There are many circumstances that could lead to an unavoidable default, job loss and illness head the list. One might categorize these as involuntary defaults. In years past these defaults were infrequent and lenders were prepared to absorb the losses.
Today, lenders are having to grappling with an on slot of "strategic defaults" in addition to involuntary foreclosures and REO inventory
The "strategic default" is a voluntary action taken by borrowers who do not wish to continue paying their mortgages and the lender will not take a "deed-in-lieu of foreclosure."*
Scenario 1
Wing it and hope the lender lets property go through foreclosure without repercussions, except for the credit dings.
Scenario 2
Borrowers who have placed seconds on their properties may find themselves in a real fix. Many, seconds contain options for deficiencies judgments should the borrowers elect to default on their first and second. The borrower may be liable for the shortfall between the amount of the original loan(s) plus cost and the proceeds from the foreclosure or REO sale, likely sold at a fire sale price. In some jurisdiction this is perfected by the lender through a "deficiency judgment."
Scenario 3
In recent years many well intended borrowers obtained financing with a "stated income" loan application. This type of loan did not require verification of income or assets. The borrower's representation was taken at face value. If one needed a little more income to qualify the temptation was great to fudge the figures.
The catch is, if a borrower fudged on the facts the lender may have the option to claim misrepresentation of material facts (fraud) and take the borrower to court. While this is time protracted and expensive, lenders have been known to take this course if the borrower has sufficient assets available.
A Word of Caution
Scenario 1 is going to take some skin off one�s credit worthiness, scenarios 2 & 3 spell trouble. Measure the consequences carefully before electing the �Strategic Default� course, the waters are getting rough.
*Deed-in-lieu is a deed given by a mortgagor (borrower) to the mortgagee (lender) to satisfy a debt and avoid a foreclosure. It is also called a voluntary conveyance.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Automating Your Updates
Written By Joseph Bridges
Provided By Susan Holt, Old Republic Home Protection
Consistently updating your social networking with interest-piquing posts is a sure-fire way to grow your network with motivated clients who want to do business.
Far too often, as we get busy with daily activities from meeting new customers to putting out fires, it can be a challenge to consistently update your network with valuable information.
Keeping your social network growing and craving information is essential to success. The best way to do this is by automating your updates.
With automation you can stay in the conversation even while you are at an office meeting, broker tour, or at a listing appointment. One of the most powerful tools for automating your status updates is the free tool of FutureTweets (http://www.futuretweets.com/). With this program you can schedule out all of your updates for the month in minutes.
We invite you to consider the following key methods when automating your updates to get the most value from FutureTweets.
Time of Updates - Don't schedule all of your updates to be released at the same time. Put some variety in place by having some be released at 8:32 a.m., 8:15 a.m., etc., as the point is for it to appear that you are doing the updates yourself.
Ask Questions in Your Updates - When you ask questions in your updates your network will feel compelled to respond. Questions will get the most active people in your network to engage in conversation.
Schedule out at least a week - The point of automating your updates is to give you leverage. Scheduling out a minimum of one week at a time will free your time up from daily updates and let you see your network grow.
Automating your network is one of the easiest and most efficient ways to get more from your social networking activities.
Provided By Susan Holt, Old Republic Home Protection
Consistently updating your social networking with interest-piquing posts is a sure-fire way to grow your network with motivated clients who want to do business.
Far too often, as we get busy with daily activities from meeting new customers to putting out fires, it can be a challenge to consistently update your network with valuable information.
Keeping your social network growing and craving information is essential to success. The best way to do this is by automating your updates.
With automation you can stay in the conversation even while you are at an office meeting, broker tour, or at a listing appointment. One of the most powerful tools for automating your status updates is the free tool of FutureTweets (http://www.futuretweets.com/). With this program you can schedule out all of your updates for the month in minutes.
We invite you to consider the following key methods when automating your updates to get the most value from FutureTweets.
Time of Updates - Don't schedule all of your updates to be released at the same time. Put some variety in place by having some be released at 8:32 a.m., 8:15 a.m., etc., as the point is for it to appear that you are doing the updates yourself.
Ask Questions in Your Updates - When you ask questions in your updates your network will feel compelled to respond. Questions will get the most active people in your network to engage in conversation.
Schedule out at least a week - The point of automating your updates is to give you leverage. Scheduling out a minimum of one week at a time will free your time up from daily updates and let you see your network grow.
Automating your network is one of the easiest and most efficient ways to get more from your social networking activities.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Healthy Body, Healthy Business
Published By Keller Williams Realty
Provided By KW Blog
One question I ask people is, if you have a health crisis, what will happen to your business, who will take care of your obligations, your clients and your income?
Your first step to a healthy life and business is by reducing your stress.
Stress causes heart disease, high blood pressure, damage to your immune system with colds, headaches and even has links to cancer, as well as mental health problems like anxiety and depression.
Here are some quick tips to manage your stress:
Create the habit of regular exercise-this is your best tool to combat stress! Even a walk around the block, can help to distress you!
Take care of your most valuable asset, you. Make choices that support your health and reduce stress. Enjoy wonderful food, just watch your portions. Focus on “dos” rather than the “don’ts”. Look for vegetables and lean proteins in your choices. There will be other foods that aren’t your optimal, but if you make sure and get what you need, you aren’t as likely to overdo with the less optimal foods. Great food is great fuel and will help your body.
Use this week to rediscover your priorities that will make you successful. This is your clean slate! Go home making the commitment not to waste time on things that don’t matter to you or your business.
Addressing your stress today will help you maintain your health and fulfill your potential!
Provided By KW Blog
One question I ask people is, if you have a health crisis, what will happen to your business, who will take care of your obligations, your clients and your income?
Your first step to a healthy life and business is by reducing your stress.
Stress causes heart disease, high blood pressure, damage to your immune system with colds, headaches and even has links to cancer, as well as mental health problems like anxiety and depression.
Here are some quick tips to manage your stress:
Create the habit of regular exercise-this is your best tool to combat stress! Even a walk around the block, can help to distress you!
Take care of your most valuable asset, you. Make choices that support your health and reduce stress. Enjoy wonderful food, just watch your portions. Focus on “dos” rather than the “don’ts”. Look for vegetables and lean proteins in your choices. There will be other foods that aren’t your optimal, but if you make sure and get what you need, you aren’t as likely to overdo with the less optimal foods. Great food is great fuel and will help your body.
Use this week to rediscover your priorities that will make you successful. This is your clean slate! Go home making the commitment not to waste time on things that don’t matter to you or your business.
Addressing your stress today will help you maintain your health and fulfill your potential!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
SEO-Making the Most of Page Titles and Meta Descriptions
Published By KW Blog
Written By by Cary Sylvester, Executive Director of Technology
Now that you understand how to pick keywords that will help your target audience find your Website (from my earlier post), it’s time to move on to the next phase of your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts: creating page titles and meta descriptions.
Peppering keywords in your content is important, but it’s not good enough to get the attention of search engines that drive targeted traffic to your site. Once you understand the importance of page titles and meta descriptions—and once you learn to use them strategically—you’ll be well on your way to increasing your prospects.
What Is a Page Title?
A page title appears in the browser at the top of each web page. It’s important to choose your page title wisely because Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines put an emphasis on the keywords in your page titles when they crawl your site. Your page title will also appear as the link for that page in search engine results. That makes page titles a critical aspect of your SEO efforts.
Page Title Dos and Don’ts
Do use natural language in your page titles.
Do make your page titles interesting and engaging.
Do include a strategic keyword in your page titles.
Do use your keyword as the first word of your page title, if possible.
Do make your page titles different for every page.
Do include your brand name at the end of the page title.
Do not underestimate the importance of page titles.
Do not stuff your page title with keywords.
Do not write page titles longer than 67 characters.
Good, Bad and Ugly Page Titles
Need some examples of page titles? Keep the dos and don’ts above in mind as you review the page title suggestions below. You can adapt these for your own market.
(Good) South Beach Real Estate
(Bad) Your Best Realtor
(Good) Condos for Sale in South Beach, Miami Beach, Fischer Island
(Bad) John Doe (Don’t use your name unless everybody knows you.)
(Good) Real Estate/ Foreclosures/ Fort Lauderdale
(Bad) Experienced Real Estate Agent
What is a Meta Description?
Also vital to your SEO efforts, the meta description puts the power in your hands to tell Google how you want them to describe your web page. In other words, it’s the description search engines pick up and run under the page title in the search results. Not all search engines use the meta description, but Google does.
Meta Description Dos and Don’ts
Do include your keywords in your meta description.
Do write a compelling description that entices visitors to click.
Do maintain credibility and honest.
Do place your most important keywords near the beginning of the description.
Don’t use the same meta description on more than one page.
Don’t use more than 160 characters.
Don’t replicate copy from your page title or your Google Adwords ads.
Don’t use your keywords excessively.
Good, Bad and Ugly Meta Descriptions
Still not sure how to translate all these dos and don’ts to your meta tag descriptions? Here are some models you can adapt based on your market—and some you should never use.
(Good) “Looking for condos for sale in South Beach? Professional real estate agent Max Jones specializes in high rise and luxury condo sales in Fischer Island, Star Island and Miami Beach.”
(Bad) Call Max Jones of Keller Williams Realty. Max Jones is a real estate agent licensed in Florida and Georgia. He has been in the industry for five years.
The key difference between the good and the bad (we’ll skip the ugly) is that the good offers locally relevant information and descriptive keywords like condos, high-rise and luxury. It still mentions the words “real estate agent” and offers the agent’s name, but the focus is on what’s most important: location, location, location.
Written By by Cary Sylvester, Executive Director of Technology
Now that you understand how to pick keywords that will help your target audience find your Website (from my earlier post), it’s time to move on to the next phase of your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts: creating page titles and meta descriptions.
Peppering keywords in your content is important, but it’s not good enough to get the attention of search engines that drive targeted traffic to your site. Once you understand the importance of page titles and meta descriptions—and once you learn to use them strategically—you’ll be well on your way to increasing your prospects.
What Is a Page Title?
A page title appears in the browser at the top of each web page. It’s important to choose your page title wisely because Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines put an emphasis on the keywords in your page titles when they crawl your site. Your page title will also appear as the link for that page in search engine results. That makes page titles a critical aspect of your SEO efforts.
Page Title Dos and Don’ts
Do use natural language in your page titles.
Do make your page titles interesting and engaging.
Do include a strategic keyword in your page titles.
Do use your keyword as the first word of your page title, if possible.
Do make your page titles different for every page.
Do include your brand name at the end of the page title.
Do not underestimate the importance of page titles.
Do not stuff your page title with keywords.
Do not write page titles longer than 67 characters.
Good, Bad and Ugly Page Titles
Need some examples of page titles? Keep the dos and don’ts above in mind as you review the page title suggestions below. You can adapt these for your own market.
(Good) South Beach Real Estate
(Bad) Your Best Realtor
(Good) Condos for Sale in South Beach, Miami Beach, Fischer Island
(Bad) John Doe (Don’t use your name unless everybody knows you.)
(Good) Real Estate/ Foreclosures/ Fort Lauderdale
(Bad) Experienced Real Estate Agent
What is a Meta Description?
Also vital to your SEO efforts, the meta description puts the power in your hands to tell Google how you want them to describe your web page. In other words, it’s the description search engines pick up and run under the page title in the search results. Not all search engines use the meta description, but Google does.
Meta Description Dos and Don’ts
Do include your keywords in your meta description.
Do write a compelling description that entices visitors to click.
Do maintain credibility and honest.
Do place your most important keywords near the beginning of the description.
Don’t use the same meta description on more than one page.
Don’t use more than 160 characters.
Don’t replicate copy from your page title or your Google Adwords ads.
Don’t use your keywords excessively.
Good, Bad and Ugly Meta Descriptions
Still not sure how to translate all these dos and don’ts to your meta tag descriptions? Here are some models you can adapt based on your market—and some you should never use.
(Good) “Looking for condos for sale in South Beach? Professional real estate agent Max Jones specializes in high rise and luxury condo sales in Fischer Island, Star Island and Miami Beach.”
(Bad) Call Max Jones of Keller Williams Realty. Max Jones is a real estate agent licensed in Florida and Georgia. He has been in the industry for five years.
The key difference between the good and the bad (we’ll skip the ugly) is that the good offers locally relevant information and descriptive keywords like condos, high-rise and luxury. It still mentions the words “real estate agent” and offers the agent’s name, but the focus is on what’s most important: location, location, location.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
How to Choose the Right Real Estate Coach
Written By: Dana Lerner
Provided By: Old Republic Home Protection Co. Inc.
“Coaching Agents Through Today's Market”
Want to have a profitable 2010? Choose the right real estate coach! An effective coach guides, inspires, trains and empowers you in a way that gets results!
Today's real estate market is different and to succeed profitably in this sales business, you are going to need something more than a 1970's approach to training; more than learning how to prospect, how to generate leads, how to memorize scripts, how to compile a mailing list for direct-mail postcards and “forget-me-not” seeds.
What kind of real estate training do you need? When evaluating a coaching program, consider the following issues:
Amount of Time per Week - Is 30 minutes a week enough? Perhaps I need more time.
Real World Solutions - Skills that are effective for today's clients vs. traditional sales techniques.
Practice Time - How much situational role-playing can I do with the coach instead of a peer?
Personalized Interest and Attention - Can we follow MY agenda or must I follow the coach's prescribed agenda?
Empowering and Effective Skills - Ones that make a difference in the outcome - so I can turn a “lead” into a paycheck.
Interest in Me - I want the coach to have a vested interest in me; I don't want to just be another call to fill a coaching schedule.
Business Systems that Work - To truly make my use of time efficient and my business run smoothly.
Mindset Effectiveness - More than just affirmations and an “atta boy” pat on the back.
Market Knowledge - To help me interpret my local market and understand what that means for my Sellers and Buyers so I can help them make the best financial decision to stay ahead of the trend.
Environment of Success - The opportunity to interact and brainstorm with others under the guidance of my coach.
No Long Term Contract - Month-to-month option - the content and results should keep you involved, rather than being ensnared in an expensive long-term contract.
Find a coaching system that works and shows you exactly how to make more sales in this challenging real estate market. The right real estate coach will train and empower you to generate income and help others competently and confidently. You can actually have the life you got into this real estate profession to have!
Provided By: Old Republic Home Protection Co. Inc.
“Coaching Agents Through Today's Market”
Want to have a profitable 2010? Choose the right real estate coach! An effective coach guides, inspires, trains and empowers you in a way that gets results!
Today's real estate market is different and to succeed profitably in this sales business, you are going to need something more than a 1970's approach to training; more than learning how to prospect, how to generate leads, how to memorize scripts, how to compile a mailing list for direct-mail postcards and “forget-me-not” seeds.
What kind of real estate training do you need? When evaluating a coaching program, consider the following issues:
Amount of Time per Week - Is 30 minutes a week enough? Perhaps I need more time.
Real World Solutions - Skills that are effective for today's clients vs. traditional sales techniques.
Practice Time - How much situational role-playing can I do with the coach instead of a peer?
Personalized Interest and Attention - Can we follow MY agenda or must I follow the coach's prescribed agenda?
Empowering and Effective Skills - Ones that make a difference in the outcome - so I can turn a “lead” into a paycheck.
Interest in Me - I want the coach to have a vested interest in me; I don't want to just be another call to fill a coaching schedule.
Business Systems that Work - To truly make my use of time efficient and my business run smoothly.
Mindset Effectiveness - More than just affirmations and an “atta boy” pat on the back.
Market Knowledge - To help me interpret my local market and understand what that means for my Sellers and Buyers so I can help them make the best financial decision to stay ahead of the trend.
Environment of Success - The opportunity to interact and brainstorm with others under the guidance of my coach.
No Long Term Contract - Month-to-month option - the content and results should keep you involved, rather than being ensnared in an expensive long-term contract.
Find a coaching system that works and shows you exactly how to make more sales in this challenging real estate market. The right real estate coach will train and empower you to generate income and help others competently and confidently. You can actually have the life you got into this real estate profession to have!
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