· More than 53 percent of single home owners reported that they purchased a home because it was more cost effective than renting in their area, while 68 percent of single home owners purchased a home that was less expensive than they believed they could have afforded to pay.

· Some 55 percent have less than a 30-minute commute to their office or work from home.

· Singles don’t shy away from foreclosures – especially single men. Thirty-eight percent would currently consider purchasing a foreclosed/short sale home, compared to 29 percent of single women.

· Of the 13 percent of single home owners who own their home jointly with another person, 49 percent made the purchase with their parents. Forty percent live less than 30 minutes or even in the same neighborhood as their parents or extended family. An additional 12 percent live with at least one family member.

· Number of bedrooms is important to 27 percent of single women, while only 18 percent of men were concerned.

Source: Coldwell Banker Real Estate (06/18/2010)

Texas is leading the nation’s current economic recovery with two months of positive annual employment growth after 16 months of job losses.

The state’s annual employment growth rate was 0.9% from June 2009 to June 2010, compared with a negative national 0.1% rate. After 17 months of job losses, the state’s private sector posted a positive annual 0.4% employment growth rate.

The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 8.2% in June 2010, up from 7.8% in June 2009. The U.S. rate was 9.5% in both June 2009 and 2010. The actual unemployment rate in June 2010 was 8.5%.

Six Texas industries — education and health services; mining and logging; professional and business services; leisure and hospitality; manufacturing; and transportation, warehousing, utilities — and the government sector had more jobs in June 2010 than in June 2009.
Source: RECON, July 23, 2010

The booming Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex has added more residents during the past decade than any other city in the U.S. According to the latest Census Bureau figures, the population grew by about 1.3 million people, or 25%, between April 1, 2000, and July 1, 2009. Now estimated at 6.5 million residents, an exact count will be available when the 2010 census is complete.

Dallas/Fort Worth’s attractions include a very favorable business climate, according to Mayor Tom Leppert. There’s no corporate income tax, building costs are relatively reasonable and regulations are minimal. “It’s a great place to do business,” he said, “especially attractive for companies from high-tax states.”

Today, financial markets have stabilized, but the housing market remains deeply troubled. New industry data show both sales and prices are slipping again in many markets, despite record low mortgage interest rates.

The market’s weakness is “being driven by people’s fear that they won’t have a job next year,” says Lucien Salvant, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors.

The housing market had been bolstered in the first half of this year by an $8,000 first-time homebuyer’s federal tax credit. “The tax credit was good — it helped stabilize prices and eliminate some of the inventory” of unsold homes, Salvant says.

But the tax break expired April 30. In May, new home sales plunged 33 percent as buyers evaporated. Now, preliminary estimates by several companies that track real estate show prices may be softening again in many markets.

Realtors are not expecting Congress to try again to shore up the market with new tax breaks. Lawmakers are keeping their focus on budget deficit reduction, not on tax-break creation. “Renewing the tax credit has not come up,” Salvant says.

The one bright spot is mortgage rates. Last week, mortgage giant Freddie Mac reported the average rate of interest on a fixed-rate 30-year mortgage has slipped to 4.57 percent. That is the lowest level ever recorded since Freddie Mac began tracking rates in 1971.

Salvant says the combination of low home prices and extremely low interest rates could help the housing market start to get some traction, even without the tax credit. Realtors are cautiously optimistic, with many saying, “Let’s see what’s going to happen,” he says.

Opportunities continue to pour in!  In 2007, I listed a property in North Dallas that was featured on CNN.  The feature focused on how the neighborhood was selling homes at such high prices, only to be torn down for “Mini Mansions”.

I was also featured on a local news station in 2008 talking about the housing market in North Dallas.

Now, another opportunity has presented itself, not only for me but also for a couple of lucky sellers. 

The sellers will have their property marketed on National Television. 

HGTV is featuring a show “My First Sale.”, which will showcase you and me through the selling process of your home.

If you or someone you know that would be interested in selling their home and receive National Marketing, please give them my information.

Also, please send me their contact information to me at jeannetta@jeannettacollier.com as soon as possible or contact me directly via cell 469-995-1957.

And it’s true. The more people who know you and like you, the more real estate business you will receive.

But is real estate really a relationship business?

Inspired by the Bravo reality series, “Million Dollar Listing,” just one of the dozens of real estate reality shows currently gracing the television, it begs for this question.

The young male stars of this show seem to have an unending supply of “dear friends” with dollars to spend on real estate. “After all,” says Chad, one of the agents, “Real estate is a relationship business.”

If you’ve ever watched the show with a cynical eye, you might have noticed that these young men tend to give sometimes laughably self-serving advice. Such advice as their advice to their “dear friends” to make full price offers in a declining market before the house even hits the market. They allow their sellers to dictate the price and terms of their listings, whining all the while that the seller is being unreasonable. They talk their buyers out of even asking for repairs at inspection because the seller has already come down on his price (again, in a recessionary market).

So, what does this have to do with real estate and relationships?

Selling real estate is about knowing how to sell real estate. Let’s say that differently. It’s about knowing how to manage and facilitate the exchange of real property so that the buyer or seller who hired you is satisfied with the outcome.

Sure, building a real estate business may have everything to do with your relationships, but, as agents, that’s not what we do. Is tax preparation a relationship business? Is dentistry a relationship business? Is dog-training a relationship business?

No, we expect our tax preparers to know how to prepare taxes. We hope our dentists know how to fix cavities. We expect a dog-trainer to be a master in dog behavior. That’s their business.

Our buyers and sellers have the right to expect that we know our business. This means how to manage and facilitate the exchange of real property, not how to persuade our “dear friends” to provide us with easy paychecks.

Depending on which TV network reported the news last week, it sounded either like real estate is continuing along its steady road to recovery – -or that we just hit a pothole in the road.

One major business news channel reported it this way: “Home sales down 14 percent in the first quarter.” Other media reported an 11 percent GAIN.

So what is it?

Well, dig down into the actual numbers from the National Association of Realtors and you find that, yes, 2010 first quarter home sales were 14 percent lower than they were in the final quarter of 2009.

Home sales nationwide, however, in the first quarter of 2010 were 11.4 percent higher than they were during the same quarter the year before. And any economist will tell you: year to year comparisons are more meaningful than quarter to quarter data, which tend to be more volatile.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, pointed out that sales in the fourth quarter of last year were unusually high because of a surge of closings related to the original expiration date of the housing tax credit.

We can probably expect a similar surge to show up some time in the coming two quarters caused by sales closings before the June 30 termination date of the credit program.

The 11 percent year over year gain is a much more reliable gauge of where the market really is, says Yun — and that’s a very healthy trajectory because consumers have more confidence in the economy, are spending more, and mortgage rates remain near all-time lows.

Gains in prices year over year in local markets are especially encouraging: Of the 152 metropolitan statistical areas surveyed by the National Association of Realtors, median prices in 91 were higher than the year before. Though most of the gains were in single digits, 29 markets saw median price increases in double digits.

Economists say the price and sales gains reflect the improvements underway in the overall US economy. The latest federal employment numbers saw a 290,000 net job increase in March, plus a drop in new filings for unemployment insurance claims.

Manufacturing jobs are expanding again, after years of declines, and the Gross Domestic Product (or GDP) is up by more than 3 percent.

In the words of Freddie Mac’s chief economist, Frank Nothaft, “the underlying fundamentals for housing markets are improving rapidly” — and should continue to do so through 2010.

Taking a $14 billion chunk of the existing $75 billion foreclosure-prevention program, the new program asks that banks and lenders reduce the amount that homeowners owe on their loans and offer them new loans. The new loans will be backed by the Federal Housing Administration.

In exchange for slashing the debt owed by the borrowers and participating in the administration’s existing foreclosure prevention program, the lenders will receipt incentive payments from the government.

The plan also includes three to six months of temporary aid for borrowers who have lost their jobs. There will be additional payments designed to give banks an incentive to reduce payments or eliminate second mortgages such as home equity loans – a problem that has blocked many loan modifications.

Will this, the latest and greatest government housing rescue program really work? Well, so far all the prior Obama administration housing rescue plans have been dismal failures. Personally, I don’t see this current plan making a significant difference.

Many people purchased homes way out of line with their realistic budgets. Plus, a large percentage of recent homeowners who had their home loans modified are once again behind in payments.

Question:  In your opinion, will this prolong the housing recovery?

The Obama administration came out with a score card on its anti-foreclosure program last week, and there’s just one word for it: Minimal.

Of roughly 1 million financially-distressed home owners who’ve been given mortgage payment reductions through three month “trials” under the HAMP program, that’s the Home Affordable Modification Program, just 116,000 have ended up with permanent loan modifications from participating lenders.

At the same time, sixty thousand borrowers who entered trial payment plans have flunked out or been kicked out for a variety of reasons.

Contrast these numbers with the bold predictions from the Treasury Department and President Obama nearly a year ago, when they said the foreclosure avoidance efforts would help three to four million homeowners over the coming couple of years.

The administration itself appears to recognize that the report card doesn’t look great. Assistant Treasury Secretary Michael Barr acknowledged to the Associated Press that “we were attempting to set realistic expectations, but I think we failed to do so.”

Among the complications bogging down HAMP efforts so far:

• The original design of the program allowed homeowners to request three month trial modifications with relatively little documentation of their situations, including incomes. Many of them managed to get through their trial periods, but then haven’t been able to satisfy program requirements that they document their incomes to their lenders.
• Though the program can reduce payments to 31 percent of monthly incomes, it cannot deal with increasingly common situations where job losses have eliminated or sharply curtailed household incomes. Many of those borrowers, housing analysts say, are likely to end up in foreclosure.
• The program is limited to monthly payment reductions, not actual cuts in the principal balances owed by borrowers. While that formula works for some distressed homeowners, it doesn’t do anything for the estimated 15 million plus owners who are underwater on their mortgages, stuck with houses valued less than the mortgage balance.

Critics of the administration’s plans have argued for months that foreclosures cannot be averted on a massive scale until lenders and investors agree to permanently write off a portion of the borrowers’ principal debts.

As Sedona, Arizona homeowner Kevin Miller, who’s underwater on three properties including his main home, told Realty Times last week: “Someone’s got to recognize that it was not just buyers who made a mistake (on pricing and timing.) Lenders did too.

They share part of the blame because they lent out money on real estate that often wasn’t worthy anywhere near what they thought.

“They need to lower people’s principal before we all walk away.”

If you are in the market to buy a home, then it is time to understand the basics of home inspections.

According to the National Association of Realtors, 77 percent of home buyers had a home inspection prior to purchasing their home, and Realtors report that 84 percent of home buyers requested a home inspection as part of their contract.

When choosing a home inspector, you want to find a qualified and experienced professional. In this field, that means having client contacts or testimonials to back up their work, as well as the appropriate state license to operate as a home inspector. Not every state requires a license, and if not, you can ask whether of not they are a member of the American Society of Home Inspectors or the National Association of Home Inspectors. In your inspector interview, ask about cost, whether they offer a guarantee on their work, how long their inspection should take, and how you’ll be receiving the report (written or otherwise).

Some inspectors charge a flat rate, but the cost can vary depending on the size of the job, the expertise level of the inspector, among many other factors. As a ballpark, an inspection can cost around $400.

You should expect a typical inspection to take several hours. Smaller homes take less time than larger or older homes. If you really want to be invested in this process, it is recommended that you are present for the inspection. Ask for things to be explained as you go – including how certain things work and where valves, switches, and such are.

Be sure to ask for a written report, and consider asking for price estimate for repairs. A repair estimate is a good negotiation tool when it comes to settling on a final sale price for a home.

It is important to note that a home inspection is not a gold stamp of approval that your new home will be in perfect working order. Things break and items will need repaired. Your home inspector is not liable for repairs or damages.

You can, however expect an inspection of hundreds of items, including: Structural elements, exterior evaluation, roof and attic, plumbing, systems and components, electrical, appliances, and the garage.

Published: April 5, 2010