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10 Steps to Selling Your Home in a Scary Market
Tweet Share on Facebook November 13, 2008 Comment (5)In a blog post over at Trulia, Realtor Mark Chesnick offers his advice to homeowners looking to sell in today’s scary real estate market.
From Trulia:
Above everything else, please remember, there is no magic wand to sell your home in a day. It is going to take time, effort and perseverance by you and your Realtor®. The real key question is, how is your house going to stand out compared to all of the others in the same price range and location? Here are 10 steps to help you find a buyer for your home and potentially sell it for the most money possible.
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FSBOs Get Agent-free Access to Realtor.com
Tweet Share on Facebook November 12, 2008 Comment (24)Updated on 11/13/08: An earlier version of this story described ForSaleByOwner.com’s new service as a “partnership” with Realtor.com. While the service does allow non-agent-affiliated sellers to advertise their homes on Realtor.com, it does not represent a formal partnership.
ForSaleByOwner.com, a Web-based company that markets the homes of independent sellers, has unveiled a new service product that allows customers to list their homes on the popular Realtor.com real estate site without having to go through a local multiple listing service.
From the press release:
ForSaleByOwner.com today announced that it has become the nation’s first “by owner” real estate website to enable home sellers to advertise their home on Realtor.com without appearing on a local Multiple Listing Service (MLS). This new direct access to Realtor.com follows the May 2008 settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Association of Realtors.
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Nearly a Third of Past Year’s Home Sales Were Losses
Tweet Share on Facebook November 12, 2008 Comment (3)Zillow's third quarter Real Estate Market Reports have some interesting findings:
Home values in the United States posted their seventh consecutive quarterly decline, falling 9.7 percent year-over-year to a Zillow Home Value Index of $202,966...
Over the past 12 months, 30.2 percent of homes sold were sold for a loss, up from 23.7 percent at the end of the second quarter...
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3 Reasons Behind Hank Paulson’s Bailout Flip-Flop
Tweet Share on Facebook November 12, 2008 Comment (18)Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson sold the $700 billion financial bailout to Congress by insisting that emergency cash was needed to get rotting mortgage and other assets off banks’ balance sheets. Now he’s telling a different story:
“Over these past weeks we have continued to examine the relative benefits of purchasing illiquid mortgage-related assets,” Paulson said in a speech today. “Our assessment at this time is that this is not the most effective way to use TARP [Troubled Asset Relief Program] funds.”
Instead, the Treasury secretary announced plans to use the bailout cash for a distinctly different approach to resolving the financial mess: injecting additional capital into banks (potentially expanding the initiative to include non-bank financial institutions), supporting the asset-backed securitization market, and looking at ways to prevent foreclosures.
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Holes in the New Fannie/Freddie Loan Mod Plan
Tweet Share on Facebook November 12, 2008 Comment (3)In a great post yesterday, Felix Salmon calls Fannie and Freddie’s new loan mod plan “not particularly exciting,” and outlines some of its holes.
From Market Movers:
It applies only to mortgages owned by Frannie, which means, by definition, that it doesn't include subprime mortgages. FHFA is trying to apply moral suasion -- but no cash -- to persuade other mortgage holders to adopt the same plan. Good luck with that.
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AIG Responds to ‘Luxury Resort’ Reports
Tweet Share on Facebook November 11, 2008 Comment (14)The Home Front posted this morning on the news reports that AIG executives had attended a gathering at a luxury resort last week, just as the company was begging the government for more bailout cash.
This afternoon, I got the following email from an AIG press officer (who also says that AIG CEO Edward Liddy will be on Larry King tonight):
Today, Edward M. Liddy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of American International Group, issued the following statement:
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Where Fannie and Freddie’s Loan Mod Plan Falls Short
Tweet Share on Facebook November 11, 2008 Comment (19)Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s regulator announced Tuesday that the housing finance giants will implement a sweeping plan to prevent distressed borrowers from losing their homes to foreclosure. The new program, which goes live December 15, aims to speed up the loan modification process by using a more-streamlined protocol.
Here are the details:
1. The new plan is designed to keep struggling borrowers in their homes by reducing their monthly payments to no more than 38 percent of the borrower’s gross monthly household income.
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AIG Reportedly Sent Execs to Another Luxury Resort
Tweet Share on Facebook November 11, 2008 Comment (13)Here’s one that will have lawmakers in Washington, D.C. foaming at the mouth: AIG reportedly sent executives to another get-together at a luxury resort last week. You’ll recall that AIG took withering criticism several weeks back for sending executives on a fancy junket to a West Coast resort. (The company changed its get-together policy as a result.)
This gathering reportedly took place at that same time that AIG was begging the Feds to give it additional bailout cash. The government did just that yesterday, increasing the struggling insurance giant’s rescue package to more than $150 billion, up significantly from the original $85 billion loan.
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Senators to Paulson: Bailout Funds Are For Lending
Tweet Share on Facebook November 10, 2008 Comment (4)The issue of how banks should use their TARP funds is really starting to heat up. On Friday, Democratic Senators Robert Menendez, of New Jersey, and Charles Schumer, of New York, sent the following letter to Treasury Secretary Paulson. In it, the lawmakers expressed concerns about banks using TARP funds to acquire healthy banks.
The use of TARP funds to help finance acquisitions became a point of controversy in PNC’s recent deal to acquire the struggling National City. And House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, has also raised concerns about banks using bailout funds for purposes other than lending.
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Treasury’s Neel Kashkari on the AIG Bailout
Tweet Share on Facebook November 10, 2008 Comment (3)During a speech Monday, Neel Kashkari--the Treasury official overseeing the bailout--discussed the government’s recent actions regarding troubled insurance giant AIG.
I want to take a moment to discuss the actions we took today with American International Group (AIG) and how that relates to the TARP. The TARP's foremost purpose is to stabilize the financial system. We used TARP funds to purchase preferred stock in AIG, as part of a broader restructuring of their balance sheet, in coordination with the Federal Reserve. This action was necessary to maintain the stability of our financial system. In return, AIG must comply with stringent limitations on executive compensation for its top executives, golden parachutes, its bonus pool, corporate expenses, and lobbying. We recognize that the financial system remains fragile and we continue to stand ready to prevent systemic failures. We worked with the Congress to ensure the TARP included sufficient flexibility to do just this.
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