photo credit: herzogbr

Our world pushes forward, nature cycles, leafs fall from the trees, the landscape changes and evolves, tides rise and fall, and the face of our society and business changes along with the ebb and flow of the natural world. Such is the case today. When someone introduces a new technology, things change. That is the way of things, as it should be. People sometimes forget how linked to nature we actually are. The face of commerce and business changes as does our natural world. Well, this isnt about nature its about a new business model.

Roost, a real estate search portal, has introduced a new way for real estate agents to interact with home buyers. Traditionally, Roost has worked in the real estate community by exchanging data between themselves and brokers and agents to list information about properties. However, their world has evolved and the services they offer are born anew, into a "Social Real Estate Toolkit." Social networks have changed the way people interact with each other, so its reasonable to guess that it would change the way business people interact with their customers.

This model helps brokers and agents acquire referral contacts through the social networking website Facebook. The idea is to capitalize on the concept of word of mouth business, which is how most real estate professionals gain the bulk of their business anyway; this seems to be a natural next step. Real estate agents, like the rest of us, are not necessarily web or social network experts, but they are experts at building relationships with people and clients, and this simply helps them further their reach. A natural next step indeed! I wish Roots and the real estate industry good luck in this new endeavor.

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Posted in Headlines, Denver Colorado Real Estate, Blogging, Real Estate Industry, Real Estate Industry Trends, Technology And YOU, Downtown Denver Lofts and Condos

photo credit: bclinesmith

Part of the reason George Washington and his gang came to America and fought for independence is that they wanted the average person to have a shot at a good and productive life, and they succeeded in their plight. We created the strongest middleclass in the world, and we have done a pretty good job at maintaining that way of life over the last couple hundred or so years, however, that lifestyle is now threatened. It has been threatened before here in America, but we are facing some things this country is not used to seeing and were not sure how its going to turn out.

Even the economists are throwing their hands up in the air. We can speculate, but thats all it is, speculation. What worked in the past just doesnt apply today, the problems of yesteryear are not the problems of today, however, there were some very important lesions we learned back during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl that we seem to have forgotten.

photo credit: phi1317

A society will have to learn the lesions again, it seems, once they are no longer emotionally connected to that event. The people of today dont even hear stories and lesions from our grandparents about those times any longer. We have a huge disconnect from that experience and lesion. It looks as though we are going to have to go through it again, which might sustain us for another generation or so.

photo credit: Miquel Wert

We will especially have to learn the political lesions of that generation once again, which of course ties into our financial situation. If you do have a chance to speak to people who are still connected to the events of the 30s, 40s, and 50s, they might tell you they have seen this road before and that we are headed down a turbulent path. This is unfortunate because we have so much in front of us, we have new lesions to learn, and here we are learning lesions we should have already assimilated into our societal consciousness.

Homeownership is a staple of our country, its something we have prided ourselves on, being the strongest middle class and making sure everyone had a chance at a good life. Keep in mind, if we can, the lesions of WWII and the communist movement back a generation ago. Everything turned into the haves and the haves nots. You either had a nice home and worked for the government or you lived in impoverished turmoil. This is not opinion; this is the way it was.  You can look it up.

I just make this comparison because of our current situation. Fewer and fewer people can purchase homes today, and this trend is happening at a break neck pace. The banks simply arent lending and the government isnt helping. You either have perfect credit, money in the bank, and collateral or you dont. Its just that simple these days. You either have money or you do not. Sound a little like something in our recent history? It sure does to me.

photo credit: theqspeaksWe have been so caught up with sides, Right or Left, Conservative or Liberal that we have forgotten to pay attention to the actual direction our Nation is heading. We just want our side to be right. I went to a town hall meeting a couple of weeks ago for a Demarcate Senator, I being more conservative thought I would encounter crazy comments and people who thought very different from me, however, what I found was a group of people saying the same thing as the Republicans.

I was amazed, you could have substituted a crowd of conservatives for this crowd, they were saying the same things the other side was saying, and of course blaming the opposite side just as the other side does, we all want to be right, and we all want to be secure in the fact that the other side caused this, and that we have the answers if only the other side would just listen. However, the fact of the matter is that both sides have been going down an old path that we should have known is hazardous. I think its time we put our differences aside, at least for a little while, and talk about our similarities, and pay attention to the lesions of our grandparents.

We may think we understand the past and are above letting those same things happen again, because were smarter or we understand things they didnt understand back then, but we do not have a better understanding, and we are letting the same horrible things happen yet again. Saying "lets all just get along" simply isnt me, but I do think we need to pay attention to what we all want, to our goals as a country, to where we are going, where we have been, and to start talking about some practical answers.

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Posted in Headlines, Metro Brokers, Denver Colorado Real Estate, Blogging, Real Estate Investing, Real Estate Market Conditions, Real Estate Industry, Real Estate Industry Trends

photo credit: bbcworldservice

The Gulf oil spill effects are likely to be much farther reaching then any of us can foresee at present, but many real estate professionals can see immediate effects. A portion of the money set aside for claims and victims of the Gulf Coast oil spill will now go to realtors that have been affected by the mess.

The new administrator of the Gulf Coast Claims facility, Kenneth Feinberg had no intention of sharing some of the $20 billion with realtors along the affected coast, but members of the state Realtor associations from the affected states convinced Feinberg that many real estate professionals may not have a legal claim, but they certainly have a moral claim on some type of compensation.

"I think it's the right thing to do under the circumstances," Feinberg said, according to an article by The Washington Independent.

"He realized there may not be a legal justification, but I think he has come to realize there is a legitimate need and cause for what happened. He sees that loss of income is a result of the oil spill, and he's trying to do the right thing within the guidelines that he's given," The president of the Alabama Association of Realtors, Keith Kelley said. Kelley also helped during the negotiations.

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Posted in Headlines, Blogging, Real Estate Investing, Real Estate Market Conditions, Real Estate Industry, National News, Downtown Denver Lofts and Condos

photo credit: AuthenticEccentric

During our financial crash, more like a twenty car pile up than a crash, the housing market really took a hard hit. In an attempt to salvage loans, help repair, and give the housing market a leg up, many banks and loan insurers made loan modifications under the Home Affordable Modification Program, but we are in it so deep it looks like even loan modifications are not helping the U.S. out of this mess.

About 677,738 people enrolled in a loan modification program and now about 629,751 have washed out of the program.  Someone was thinking! President Obama himself has offered a positive outlook for the housing market and the overall housing picture, saying the HAMP program represented "just one, targeted piece of that administrations larger efforts on housing." With their track record I cant wait to see whats next.

I guess the Obama administration hasnt looked at the housing numbers today. The July existing home sales numbers paint a bleaker outlook than our leaders do. Although, I hear politicians all have their own set of numbers. Maybe we should look at their numbers and we can all feel better. The July existing numbers are lower than they have been in a decade, and they are not exactly making a sharp turnaround either.

The government, with the best intentions, thought they would help the housing market by offering a tax credit for people buying a home. Sounds good, looks good, free money, what could be wrong with that? Wait, this is America, we dont give free money, or do we? I dont remember.

Well, funny thing, the tax credit gave the housing market a false spike in the numbers, and when the tax credit expired, the numbers dropped lower then they were right before the tax credit, a lot lower. For some reason people panicked thinking that the loss of the tax credit was the end of home buying, and they stopped buying. I think the big lesion here is let a self adjusting system self adjust, and maybe make it a little easier for people to hire other people. Work, Make Money, Pay Mortgage!

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Posted in Metro Brokers, Denver Colorado Real Estate, Real Estate Investing, Real Estate Market Conditions, Real Estate Industry, Real Estate Industry Trends

photo credit: jc.westbrook

The FHA now seems to be the only hope for single family mortgages for people with less than perfect credit and those with limited money and savings. The FHA, in 2007, held a mild 7% of Americas mortgages, but now in 2010 they hold a whopping 30%. Thats a huge increase! Were now in a pickle because prior to 2007 the FHA suffered heavy looses on loans, even losses below what the law allows. Now, they need to cut cost and/or increase revenue.

Im sure normally most people wouldnt care, but they are the only ones keeping the middle class afloat at the moment by backing loans that banks wont. Banks simply arent lending to the average person, you have to have stellar credit, a lot of money, or a back pocket full of collateral, which most of us middle class slugs dont have. They also changed the buyer concessions.

The FHA also banned the common practice of having the seller contribute to the buyers down payments through a non-profit middle man, who also took a piece of the contribution for themselves, go figure!

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Posted in Mortgage, Metro Brokers, Denver Colorado Real Estate, Real Estate Investing, Real Estate Market Conditions, Real Estate Industry, Real Estate Industry Trends, Downtown Denver Lofts and Condos