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 Beth L. Peerce  Tuesday, November 8th, 2011  Dear Member,
Last month I informed you that Congress failed to extend the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA conforming loan limits and allowed them to expire Sept. 30. Since then, the Senate passed an amendment to an appropriation bill that would restore the $729,750 loan limits through December 2013. The Senate and House are now working out the differences between the Senate bill and the House bill, which the House passed earlier this year, but it did not reinstate the higher loan limits. If the House and Senate agree on a final bill, we will have a two-year extension to the conforming loan limits. C.A.R. is also working with the California Congressional Delegation to ensure this provision is included in the final bill.
C.A.R. and NAR are now working to get support for the extension in the House, but we need your help also. Please look for a Call for Action email from NAR asking you to call Sen. Dianne Feinstein and possibly other members of Congress. Please act now and urge your representative to extend the higher loan limits for GSEs and FHA. Well-qualified buyers don’t need another hurdle to access affordable mortgage financing.
Big changes on the way to help millions of distressed borrowers. Late October, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced important changes to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) to help millions of underwater borrowers whose mortgages are backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The changes will allow borrowers who are current on their mortgage payments to save an average of $2,500 a year by refinancing their mortgages, regardless of what their homes are worth. The revamped HARP Program will also streamline the refinancing process, eliminating certain types of appraisals and underwriting requirements, and reducing or eliminating fees that prevented homeowners from refinancing in the past.
The FHFA is working on details of the new rules, which should be finalized by Nov. 15. Banks may be able to start issuing refinanced loans by Dec. 1. We’ll continue to keep you updated on this issue.
Continue reading: C.A.R. Monthly Message from President Beth L. Peerce – November 2011
Beth L. Peerce Friday, October 28th, 2011
Dear Member,
In August, we had the pleasure of announcing C.A.R.’s brand-new 2011 consumer advertising campaign, “California REALTORS®. Champions of Home.” It’s been airing on cable, TV, radio, and online. Today, I’m thrilled to kick-off the campaign’s social media effort, C.A.R.’s first-ever Facebook contest, called “Stories of Home.” This contest features a new app [...]
Paula Hess Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
SAVING YOU TIME
June sales report in 2:56 minutes. That’s all the time you need to view C.A.R.’s “June Market Update” presented by C.A.R. Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. Find this video on the home page of car.org, where you can hyperlink to it, upload it to your Web site, or e-mail it to your clients.
If you prefer the printed word, find C.A.R.’s “June Sales and Price Report” at http://www.car.org/newsstand/newsreleases/junereport/. Here, you’ll find additional information, including charts and graphs, regional data, and the Unsold Inventory Index by price point, that are not available in the above video.
Learn Smartphone tips and tricks on the fly at Mobile Jolt! These two 60-minute sessions at CALFORNIA REALTOR® EXPO 2010 will serve up java and apps. Bring your phone; we’ll supply the caffeine. For only $10 per workshop, you can join us for hands-on instruction and an introduction to the latest and greatest apps for your Smartphone (http://expo.car.org/workshops.html).
Tweet and Friend HAFA: Join C.A.R’s Certified HAFA Specialist community on Facebook and Twitter to learn from and share insights with HAFA expert Ray Mathoda and other REALTORS®. Participation is free. Join the Facebook Fan Page (Certified HAFA Specialist [CHS] at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Certified-HAFA-Specialist-CHS/108110262571299?ref=sgm or follow on Twitter (CHS_HAFA Specialist at http://twitter.com/HAFASpecialist). Learn more about C.A.R.’s HAFA Certification program(http://www.hafacertification.com/).
Continue reading: Your Membership, Your Way – July 2010
Patrick Lieuw Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
 “Going on a Panama cruise next week – finally taking a vacation!” Have you, your spouse, or your child ever posted anything like this on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare on your phone, your website or another social media website? Did you stop to think about how vulnerable this information makes you? You may think that only your close friends and family will access this information, but you can’t be sure that this is true. What if a stranger, an acquaintance, your teenager’s classmate or a distant friend-of-a-friend reads it and decides your house is an easy target for a robbery?
Think about what else you may post on these websites: pictures of you dancing the funky chicken at your cousin’s wedding, or pictures of your latest (Not-Safe-For-Work) Halloween costume. Has your son or daughter ever posted anything like this or maybe much worse? It may seem funny at the time, but keep in mind – your boss several years from now may be able to easily see this information with a simple search of your name. In fact, a recent Microsoft commissioned survey found that as many as 70 percent of hiring managers have rejected candidates based on information found online.
In all of these examples, easy access to information posted on the Internet can have serious consequences. Have you run an online search of your name recently? You may be surprised with the amount of information out there. One can easily find a person’s full name, phone number, birth date, address and pictures with a few clicks of the mouse. For instance, www.intelius.com is one site that searches utility, change of address, property and business records and other publicly available information to find people. You might have to pay a little more money to access more details of a person, but it is still a relatively easy process for someone to obtain information on you.
Continue reading: The Pitfalls of Social Media
James Liptak Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
Dear C.A.R. Member:
With Southern California wildfires in the news, now is an excellent time to review the legal implications of seasonal firestorms and how they might impact you and your clients. The Southern California wildfire season begins as early as mid-April in some regions, peaks in the fall months, and continues well into winter in many areas. We have recently updated our “Firestorms: Basic Real Estate Legal Issues Q&A” to make it easier for property owners and residents to prepare and find answers to important questions pertaining to wildfires and real estate. Whether you have suffered a loss, or have buyers who are in escrow, this information should prove helpful. You can access the Q&A here: http://www.car.org/legal/2009-qa/firestorms/.
I also hope you are taking advantage of our Market Response Center, a one-stop shop for SMART (Strategic Market Assistance & Response Tools) materials designed with you in mind. We’ve specifically created these tools to help you navigate today’s market and it’s our goal to continue to make things easier for you by providing information that helps you right now. Recently, we’ve added the C.A.R. Financing Guide for California Home Buyers to help keep your clients informed on the variety of financing options available. I encourage you to share this valuable guide with your clients. Check back often for the newest resources available to you and your clients at http://www.car.org/tools/smart.
Continue reading: September 2009 Message from C.A.R. President James Liptak
Peyman Aleagha Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
The real estate marketing gurus who are sold on blogging have been pushing the benefits for a couple of years now. And, many real estate professionals are blogging as a stand-alone Web presence, or as an adjunct to a regular website. But, what if you don’t want to blog, or you are blogging but want to try yet another way to communicate with prospects who you may not yet know?
The new catch word is “micro-blogging.” Some would tell us that it is necessary now for lead generation, or that you must be doing it soon. I’m not in that group, but there is certainly promise in this short and sweet approach to inform past clients and prospects of real estate related events in your area. Basically, micro-blogging in real estate would be releasing “breaking news” type alerts of happenings in the area, especially as they relate to real estate.
Continue reading: Micro-blogging – Using Twitter for Market News Alerts
Peyman Aleagha Monday, March 30th, 2009
It’s interesting how many real estate professionals haven’t made the leap to social and business networking on the Web, especially considering how ingrained the old styles of networking are in their business plans. They join local civic groups, go to meetings, sponsor events and groups, and more. The goal being to not only help their community, but to meet people to build that “sphere of influence” that leads ultimately to future business.
How many hands can they shake? How many meetings can they attend? What’s the cost to sponsor groups, and what’s the membership they impact? These are all questions that illustrate the limiting nature of personal involvement at the local level. Once you realize that Internet social and business networking is exactly the same, but leveraged dramatically, you can get really excited about it. After all, can someone in Oregon see what you’re doing in Florida? They can on Facebook or LinkedIn.
Continue reading: Social Media and Business Networking for Website Traffic
Peyman Aleagha Monday, March 9th, 2009
The ultimate success of your business will probably be tied closely to your success on the Internet. Your website or blog is your storefront in a very big world. It’s easy to get a dry cleaning customer if they pass your store every day on their way home from work. It’s a lot harder to capture a real estate lead from an armchair buyer or seller clicking around the World Wide Web.
Just entering the key phrase “real estate” into a Google search yields a whopping 589 Million results! In your area, county, or town, there are thousands of web search results related to real estate. They’re not going to drive by, so how do you stand out and get found? We all know that we need to continually work on SEO, and many pay to advertise with pay-per-click marketing. Those are fundamental and effective things we must do. But, what else can we do that’s cost effective and will bring us more site visitors?
Continue reading: SEO and PPC for Traffic – But There’s More
Peyman Aleagha Monday, February 23rd, 2009
Actually, we’re not just talking about “social networks,” but business networking as well. The Internet has made dramatic changes in the way the world shops, locates information, and in how they communicate with each other. Of course, email is the elephant in the room. But, as we become ever more mobile and in a hurry, networking will become a many-faceted activity.
So, what do we mean by online or social networking? It’s all about sending messages to one another in real time, and getting back responses quickly. But, it’s also about introductions. We introduce our contacts to others, and they can introduce us to their network. It becomes an ever-growing circle, encompassing more people who in some way keep up with what we are doing or saying.
Continue reading: Social Networking and The New Real Estate Sphere of Influence
Peyman Aleagha Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
Websites are not dead. In fact, it’s a mistaken belief that a blog is not a website. It is just another way of organizing, updating and presenting content. A blog can be a part of your website, or it can stand alone and link to it. The key is to understand what a blog is all about, and how it changes the way in which your site visitors perceive you and interact with you.
What are you trying to accomplish with your Internet presence? Many would say that it is to showcase your services, expertise and listings. That’s correct, but it doesn’t go far enough, nor does it really address the importance of the Web to the average Realtor. What should we be trying to accomplish with our web presence?
Continue reading: Blogging As The Killer Real Estate Business Tool
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