Category Archives: Team work

buying, commitment, Communication, organizing, planning, Team work, tips

Title Changes that took effect July 1 in Indiana

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office_deskMany rules and law changes take effect at the beginning of a month. July 1st was no exception.

One that affects buyers, sellers, and lenders in a real estate transaction that was the change that a Title Company now needs to issue a closing protection letter to a lender, borrower, buyer and seller of the property in all residential real estate transactions in which a title policy is to be issued by the title company or insurance producer and the title company or insurance producer is also acting as a settlement or closing agent.

The possible fee that is charged to each party receiving the benefit of the closing protection letter (CPL) will be payable at closing and needs to be reflected on the HUD-1/Settlement Statement. The Good Faith Estimate (GFE) tolerance requirements under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act may be affected by the new fee as well.

In the past, the closing protection letter (CPL) was customarily issued in Indiana to lenders. Now the Indiana Legislature recently enacted Senate Enrolled Act 370 requiring the mandatory issuance of a closing protection letter (CPL) in residential real estate transactions for a fee. It is still voluntarily for Commercial Transactions. Indiana is one of nineteen (19) states that have enacted the mandatory closing protection letter (CPL) for residential real estate transactions legislation.

The protection provided by the closing protection letter (CPL) is separate from the coverage provided under a traditional title insurance policy. The closing protection letter (CPL) provides a party with protection against theft or misappropriation of settlement funds and failure of the settlement or closing agent to comply with written closing instructions to the extent that these matters relate to the status of title to or the validity, enforceability and priority of the lien of the mortgage on a party’s interest in property.

Here is a link to the full text of the new Indiana law and the Indiana Department of Insurance (IDOI) bulletin.

buying, Communication, education, Short sale, Team work, tips

Mortgage fraud affects all of us

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piggy bankJust opening the email this morning and again I read about another Real Estate “ring” that was broken up. This time this ring was apparently helping individuals who would not qualify for mortgage relief by showing them on how to falsify their income, employment, and assets to qualify for mortgage relief.

The heat is being turned on any type of mortgage fraught by calling the lender to task. Lenders themselves now have created and fine tuning on proactively detecting, spotting and preventing fraught.

Bad news for the fraudsters!

Also not to hot news for any borrower who is looking to borrow money at this time. Now every loan, proof of income and employment is being scrutinized, checked, double checked and triple checked. The mortgage approval process has moved from taking in some cases from 4 to 8 weeks and in some cases to 12 weeks especially when the loan is an insured loan.

In short!

When you are looking to buy a home anytime soon make sure you first get a mortgage approval not a pre-qualification before looking at homes. This will make the home buying process a lot less stressful and you will make the process a lot more enjoy full.

buying, commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, Team work, tips

Define your target market to reach your goal.

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We all have goals, personal or in business and for us to be able to reach our goals we need to define and narrow down our target market.

At many networking events I am finding that many individuals are falling in to the trap of using the words like “anybody who”, “anybody with”, or “somebody who”…to define their target market. All what they do is give a generality of their target and never give a specific target for the listener to work with.

A specific target market could be a specific person within a company you would like to meet and introduced too or a specific portion of our society like women over 40, new college graduates, recently retired military personal. This will help your listeners to hone in on what you are exactly looking for and it is much easier for them to find just that person.

You also need to educate your audiences on what you exactly you are doing and what to look for when reaching your target market. Give them specific speaking points to help them sell you and your services specifically.

When you are more specific, narrow down your target market and educate your audience you will reach your business or personal goal a lot quicker.

commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, Team work

Is your goal a goal or just a dream?

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dream“I see you at the top”, is one of my favorite lines from Zig Zigglar and I look at it every time I feel I am stuck or think I don’t get anywhere

Where is the “top”? What defines the “top”? Will it be the vacation of a lifetime, the large house with ocean view or a trip around the world? Only you can define what “I see you at the top”, means to you.

After you defined your personal “top” you need to plan on how to get to your personal ”top”. Without a plan your personal “top” is just a dream and not a goal.

Most of just don’t pack the bags on Friday morning and go on a vacation on Friday afternoon. We need to plan a little before we do that. This goes the same for our business. We have a business goal, write down the goal and separate the goal into smaller action steps we are going to take for us to be able to reach our goal.

Plan the plan, work the plan and reach your personal “top” or goal. When you don’t plan for your goal your goal will be just a dream and not a goal you are going to reach.

commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, planning, Team work

Are you staying true to yourself and your goals?

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Something Richard Branson said in one of his postings about the Entrepreneurs’ he admires stood out to me and gave me a quick aha moment ” It’s never a bad idea to have a role model or to seek advice from someone you respect — just don’t let it stop you from being yourself. Originality is key.”

You can always looks for others for Ideas and inspiration.  Don’t let past failures take you off course and make certain you stay true to yourself and your personal vision on where you would like to go.

Don’t try to become someone else.

One example I can think of is a Billiard/Pool Player I know. For many years this good player who could easily be a great player has been trying to copy the playing style of a great Billiard/Pool Player for many years. This pool player practiced for years the style of this other player and he never saw the success and result he was hoping for. Only as he came back to himself and found his true self playing style again he always had and practiced and refined it he started to see the success he had been hoping for.

Who do you admire and look up too?

Watch them, follow them, read what they have to say but don’t try to become them.

buying, commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, Team work, tips

Demand of rental units are still at an all-time high

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apartmentI had a blog coming over my desk that reminded me about a phone call I had this week alone with several housing authority agents who are working with section 8 and low income housing clients.

Most of the housing agents are scrambling to find enough affordable housing for families who need them and anytime there is an available unit they have more than enough applicants to fill them within less than a few days. During the conversation I mentioned that investors I was working with are looking to make homes available to the low income sector and asking them what and where their greatest need is. Most of them did not even let me not even finish my question. Each and every one of them told me they can fill housing with 1 bedroom as easily as homes with 4 or more bedrooms within a few days.

The other wall the housing authority runs into is the availability of fund for the families who need them. Many areas now have a lottery for the money the families need and the families need to count on the luck of the draw to receive money to help them. Now with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHA) pledging to decrease the flow of money into multifamily housing by 10 percent this year, it will put a huge damper on the multifamily housing market in a very short period of time.

commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, Team work, tips

Things a seller does to turn off buyers

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I hear it over and over again “I have tons of interested people looking at my home” and when you ask if they had an offer the answer is most of the time “no”.

Sure we are currently having a sellers’ market but that does not mean that every house will sell as soon it becomes available. There are many reasons why or why not a home will sell quickly or sit for a while longer and many sellers will find out sooner or later that selling a home is not all fun and game, especially when you have to deal with a buyer.

Price

Every seller would like to get as much out of their home as possible and some will price their home based on feeling and not true value for the area. Experience has thought me when a home is priced to high from the beginning it usually will for less than a similar sized home.

Value

Some sellers have refinanced their home in the past and that is what they are using to set their price they would like to sell the home for. This is not a good idea. Call an appraiser or the Real Estate Broker to get a current up-to-date evaluation.

Stage Ready

When a house is not “stage ready” you might not see an offer no matter how good the price is of the home. When a home show poor maintenance, is stuffed full with stuff and unorganized you truly will turn off buyers and later end up needing to lower your price or pull the home off the market.

Car sales mentality

Many sellers might hold and open house and trying to sell the home during the open house. Open houses are not a good time to “force” a buyer to sign at the bottom line. Open house is there to showcase and to have your home shine.

Remember the time you bought your home. You fell in love with the home and not the deal.

Be prepared that you have “lookie looks” coming in and most of the time they are only interested in what the neighbor’s home looks like from the inside.

Know the rules and laws

When you finally sit down with a buyer make sure that you know the rules, your rights and responsibilities from the inside and out.  Some of the transaction can get complex and confusing at times and when you overlook even a small detail it could cost.

commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, Team work, tips

Lack of willingness to learn, might cost you

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booksJust ran across a blog post from Mark Graban called No Time for Improvement? Bah! Make Time for Improvement! That reminded me of an interview I did just recently with a REALTOR that I wanted to hire for REO’s and Short sales referrals in her home state.

As a real estate professional I am always looking for other professionals in other parts of the country to make connections with to be able send personal referrals too.

I always ask anyone who I plan to work with about continues education, and self-improvement.

This conversation stuck out and I never will forget this one for sure. It was with a new REALTOR. She had, at the time, her license less than 12 months and during the conversation she point blank told me that she does not have to learn anything else within her profession and everything she needed to know about real estate was thought to her in real estate school and she did pass her real estate license.

We all need to make time for continue education, and self-improvement and we need to make time and see that it is as important as making money. We never should stop or not be willing to learn for self-improvement or for business.

commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, planning, Team work, tips

Are you holding back your own and your company grows?

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Hands touching a globeAll of us who are employed or entrepreneurs want to be successful in what we are doing and sometimes we are our worst enemy.

Contemplating where I want to go and what I want to do when I grow up I ran across an active on the Small Business Center w/ Fox Business “10 Ways You Hold Yourself Back” by Steve Tobak. The column originally appeared on Inc.com that made me think.

Looking at his thoughts he put together what could hold me back I found several the items mentioned that he might be right on.

Living online was one of them and no, I don’t live online. I don’t have time to be online 24/7 even so it appears that way. I laugh at the FB or other game “virtual money” you can buy at every grocery store checkout lane.

Another one was looking for the golden goose or silver bullet. I personal call this putting all eggs in one basket to pigeon whole you and not looking outside of the box. It might be good for a while but it does not prepare you for changes in the business. The same goes for making yourself into a personal brand unless you are a self-help guru you are what you sell and you should focus on your clients and customers and not yourself.

Are you reaching far enough into the future and have set a big enough goal for you or your company and have you put your goal in writing with a step by step plan?  Are you focusing on one step at the time, jump all in, and get it done? When you are not you are not reaching your goals and for sure not an entrepreneur.

A servant leader has is down. They will ask others how they can help them. They don’t not run the 60 second elevator speech at them and ask them for business. The servant leader is looking and giving inspiration and positive reinforcement in others and is not in the market and hunt of Twitter followers.

Still the “old fashion” F2F networking strategy is the way to build long term and lasting relationships. When you have tons of online connections the key is to connect with them on a personal level. When some of the random online connections are not willing to connect on a personal level they might have to go.

One of the biggest driving forces of a successful person is that they have a goal or want stuff. Maybe like a new house on a secluded island or a 1000 acre farm in Montana. This will keep them on task and focused.

Communication, education, Inspiration, planning, Team work, tips

Central Indiana May 2013 housing stats

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Spring 2013 ended up on a high note for Central Indiana’s Real Estate market. In May 2013 vs. May 2012 1362 more homes were sold and the median and average sale prices of those homes are also up.

Today’s Indiana Real Estate Markets Report gives us the following statistics for May 2013 vs. May2012:

• Number of closed home sales increased 21 percent to 7,840,

• Median sale price of those homes increased 4.5 percent to $127,500,

• Average sale price increased 4.2 percent to $150,543,

• Percent or original list price received increased 1.2 percent to 92.8 percent,

• Number of pending home sales increased 18.9 percent to 7,625, and

• Number of new listings increased 11 percent to 12,556.

 

Overall:

• We saw an increase of closed home sales year-over-year for 23 consecutive months,

• Median sale price of homes has increased for 18 consecutive months,

• Average sale price has increased for 17 consecutive months,

• Sellers received a greater share of their original list price for the 15th consecutive month, and

• Number of pending home sales has increased for 20 consecutive months.

 

Indiana is not different than many other states in this Country. We all still very concerned about the low housing inventory. With raising home prices we should see an increase in the amount of homes available for sale. There is still the concern of the amount of bank owned homes that will be release into the market and the raising interest rate.