Traverse City Real Estate

I love my city! I just picked this article up from another blog. Click on the link following the exerpt for the complete story.

Realtors: Sales decline skipped Michigan towns

Posted by ANDREW McGLASHEN | Capital News Service February 22, 2008 11:55AM

Categories: Business

LANSING - A quick scan of the news offers a bleak portrait of Michigan's housing market: menacing locks on the doors of foreclosed houses, plummeting home values, empty neighborhoods dotted with "for sale" signs.

But not every part of the state feels the crunch.

"We've been somewhat insulated up here," said Kim Pontius, executive vice president of the Traverse Area Association of Realtors.

"Real estate is a local phenomenon, not a national phenomenon," he said, and a comparison of housing markets in Southeast and Northwest Michigan is "like night and day."

Pontius said smart borrowing and lending practices, as well as the Traverse City area's aesthetic appeal, have kept the market there stable.

"The values of the homes are consistent with what people are borrowing," he said.

Pontius said his organization sold just under 10 percent fewer homes in 2007 than in the previous year. But he added that 2005 and 2006 were "banner years," so the dip in sales wasn't surprising.

http://blog.mlive.com/cns/2008/02/realtors_sales_decline_skipped.html

Caution Light, Fraud Alert

I woke up and went to my laptop to check my email and got a letter from a firm that offered a short sale certification course.in Michigan for $149 for three hours. Why didn't I think of that, said I? I went to their site and observed some of their advertisers. The light bulb went on. This Hope Now and Project Lifeline is going to open people up for the possibility of identity theft and fraud. I Goggled both of those phrases and it was incredible to observe the number of entrepreneurs that were sharp enough to build themselves a web presence in the past month. They may even be legitimate businesses that are just trying to make a buck, but it is scary. The real phone number for Project Hope 888 995 HOPE is contained in the letter you may find at this hyperlink http://www.treasury.gov/press/releases/hp820.htm

I had probably better do a good cleaning on my computer. I can only imagine the number of cookies I picked up as a result of some of the sites I poked around. Yes, some were asking my social security number and did not have the little letter S after their http address. Be careful out there.

The Michigan real estate market has enough problems right now. It is a really sad state of affairs to imagine some may wish to benefit from people's misfortune. Who would have thought that real estate mortgage fraud and foreclosure could morph into foreclosure fraud?

Boat Building

It has been a very interesting year. I realize in retrospect that my post last spring reeked of naiveté. I feel much better educated now. Darn, I hate the School of Hard Knocks. As I was at school obtaining my AARE designation (Auctioneer Accredited in Real Estate), my last instructor accused me of looking at the world with rose colored glasses. He was right.

I am definitely not good at accepting failure, but as Henry Ford once said, “Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently.”

I feel I have been out on the ocean in strong winds and faced them with success. I then turned another course and it did not work as well. I have been dumped from the boat and made it to shore. I am starting over again. Not only do I have to go to sea. I have to build the boat. I then have to determine the nature of the sea and if it is navigable.

I have been an auctioneer for twenty-six years and a real estate instructor for thirteen years. I love them both. I have discovered a way to accomplish both. I have decided, for now, to link up with several of the best auctioneers in the state. I will have, arguably, the finest referral aliance going. I have talked with various auctioneers that have agreed to partner with me on the auctions that approach me, so I will still get to work in that craft.

While I have nothing but the highest regard for my previous boss, financially that arrangement did not work out successfully. I am now on my own. I am the president of the Acme Institute, Inc., one of Michigan’s newest real estate academies. I will be primarily teaching private continuing education classes throughout Michigan. I will hold just a few public courses which will only be advertised on the internet. I have come to realize how much I miss the way it used to be. When I was teaching 130 Con Ed courses and 35 one week prelicensing courses, it was a huge high. I was sailing my vessel in strong winds. It was an adrenalin rush. Every day, I bound out of bed eager to get to work. It was my life. For, now, when I get this new vessel built, I am guessing, it will only venture out into the sheltered bays. I have to do the entire thing. But, then again, I am blessed with a great amount of confidence and optimism. I will also be teaching Salespersons and Broker’s courses for U. S. Brokers Institute, Inc. in both Traverse City and Grand Rapids. With a bit of luck that can grow nicely. The state has just approved my law books for instruction and things are looking up.

I always try to find the bright spot in life. If it’s going to be, it’s up to me. I will be building this boat, mostly alone. Some friends will occasionally stop by and wield a hammer or cheer me on. Only time will tell of its seaworthiness. I believe it will sail very well.

Check out my new class list at www.TheAcmeInstitute.com

A Proverb

This is the best I have ever heard it explained!!

Two wolves.

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, 'My son, the battle is between two 'wolves' inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.'

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: 'Which wolf wins?'

The old Cherokee simply replied, 'The one you feed.'

Delinquent Homeowners Get a New "Lifeline"

I am working on this years continuing education presentation and there is a portion on short sales and foreclosure. I have decided I should share with my readers some of the information I am finding. This is very relevant to todays real estate agent.

Delinquent Homeowners Get a New "Lifeline"

Six of the big mortgage companies involved the Hope NOW Alliance announced that the Alliance is expanding its efforts to help homeowners facing foreclosure.

The rate freeze program announced by President Bush in December applied only to borrowers who were facing resets on subprime adjustable rate mortgages but who were current, in fact had never been delinquent, on their mortgage payments.

The new program dubbed Project Lifeline extends earlier Hope NOW efforts to include those who are seriously delinquent whether their problems are with subprime, Alt A or prime loans and will even assist those in foreclosure with second mortgages or home equity lines.

The new program was announced in a press conference Tuesday morning at the Treasury Department. Treasury Secretary and Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonse Jackson along with Bank of America representative Floyd Robinson and Home Now Alliance Executive Director Faith Schwartz presided.

Lifeline will be, at least at first, a joint effort by six of the largest mortgage servicers in the country; Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Washington Mutual, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Countrywide Mortgage. These six represent 50 percent of the U.S. mortgage market. There are another 19 services that are members of Hope NOW and Secretary Paulson expressed a strong desire to have them sign on to the new program.

Borrowers who appear to qualify for help will receive letters from their mortgage servicers notifying them of the program and their possible eligibility. These borrowers, who will be at least 90 days behind in payments, must contact the servicer within 10 days of receiving the letter and inform the servicers that they are interested in the program, that they are willing to participate in counseling if required, and they must provide financial information to the servicer. If the loan appears salvageable, the homeowner will be granted a 30 day "pause" in the foreclosure process to allow time for a loan modification or other resolution.

Bank of America's Robinson said that the evaluation of a borrower's situation will address the entire picture including credit card and other debt and will be transparent so the borrower knows exactly what is happening with the foreclosure and his loan.

Robinson and Schwartz recapped some of the activities of Hope NOW since it was set up to facilitate contact between troubled homeowners and those who might help them.

The hotline is now handling over 4,000 calls a day, up from 625 at its start, and there are 400 housing counselors working for Hope NOW. The organization has sent out 775,000 letters to borrowers in the last three months and has a 16 percent contact rate but hopes that this will improve as the program receives more publicity. An additional 200,000 letters are going out each month. 870,000 borrowers have been helped with their foreclosure situation and over one-half million of these have been subprime borrowers. Loan modifications doubled in the fourth quarter of 2007 over the third quarter.

One reporter asked how borrowers who are "upside down" in their loans would be treated. Would Bank of America for example, be open to writing down a loan to reflect the current market value of the home, thus forgiving that amount of debt? Robinson said he could not speak for the other servicers but that Bank of America would look at this kind of solution on a borrower-by-borrower basis.

Another reporter asked how many borrowers Project Lifeline was expected to help but Secretary Paulson refused to speculate saying that it would be up to the individual servicers to determine that number but that there would soon be a reporting system in place so that these kinds of questions can be answered.

Paulson stressed that not all borrowers can be helped by Project Lifeline or any other program. There will be some who simply refuse to make contact or who walk away from their homes and those whose financial situation makes it impossible to keep their homes "and we cannot help those who refuse to honor their obligations. But Project Lifeline has the potential to offer new solutions to responsible, able homeowners who want to keep their homes."

Go to www.HopeNow.com for more information.