Agent Short Sale Secrets

You Simply Won’t Believe This…’Fake Famlies’ Staging New Builds….

tim — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 01:54:47 +0000

DISCLAIMER: I am not making this up…this was a story on NPRNews.

You’ve heard of staging homes before…but what about staging neighborhoods? You won’t believe what builders are doing these days!

Ok, so Julie and I were driving home listening to NPR when we heard this story….

Fake Families Discovered.

Evidently, CENTEX Homes has started hiring ‘Fake Families’ to ‘live’ in their model homes. I assume they are ‘living’ in the new Construction homes only on the weekends when a bulk of the buyers are visiting the neighborhoods.

As you might expect, the new home owners, once closed and moved in, notice the quiet streets and lack of children riding by on bikes. Curiously, their neighbor’s homes are actually vacant. Some are crying foul play and believe not just the home but the neighborhood was misrepresented to them.

Here’s a great opportunity to remind your buyer prospects why it’s so important to seek professional representation (you, not the build rep) when selecting their next home! Who represented the poor buyer here who unknowingly was taking part in a drama, right there in their own home? There was the nice neighbor baking cookies and her husband talking about his landscaping tools…all made up. Reality show or new home for sale? It’s getting harder to tell the difference. If those 2.5 kids seem smarter and better looking than average, ask yourself if maybe you’ve seen them on tv commercials.

“Mom” Gena Poniatowski shows off some of the features of the model home in Oxnard, including a deep whirlpool tub.

“Residence Style #2,” at left, is just one of three available configurations at Westerly. The house has 2,420 square feet, five bedrooms and a two-car garage, priced from $706,126.

Daughter “Danny” makes cookies in the kitchen. “I love my fake parents!” she jokes.

Morning Edition, July 21, 2006 · In Southern California, a home builder is battling a softening real estate market by taking advantage of an abundant local resource: actors. The Centex company has hired four actors to play a family “living” in one of their model homes — a performance called Homelife.

According to the “script,” it’s mom’s birthday, and helping Gena Poniatowski celebrate is her husband for the day, Ian Murray, and their kids, 14-year-old daughter Danny Devan Sickafoose and her real-life brother, 12-year-old Colin Robert Sickafoose. They gather around a cake to sing “Happy Birthday” in the kitchen, along with a few strangers who’ve come to see the house.

One clue that this isn’t a real family? Poniatowski is wearing a stick-on nametag that says “mom,” Murray is wearing one that says “dad,” and the couple is better-looking than anyone you know.

The no-last-name family occupies a model of the “Residence 2″ style home in the Westerly neighborhood of Riverpark, a huge planned community going up in the city of Oxnard north of Los Angeles.

Amanda Larson, Centex’s director of marketing for Los Angeles and the Central Coast, says they’ve already staged two performances of Homelife at another housing development, and it gives the company an advantage.

“It’s less intimidating to people,” she says. “Maybe they’re not ready to meet with a sales representative — these people are more like your friends.”

The actors say they enjoy improvising with potential home buyers. They bake cookies, watch cartoons, play Scrabble — all the while, extolling the virtues of living at Westerly.

“Mom” brought her own personal items and set up in the upstairs bedroom.

“I felt like I’d be getting ready for my birthday, so I brought a hair dryer, hairbrush, some makeup, clothes in the closet — things like that,” Poniatowski says.

The actors and the show they put on got great reviews from house hunters. In fact, there was only one minor complaint — Homelife would be even more realistic if the family would just fight a little…

Can You List And Sell This Shortsale?

tim — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:38:33 +0000

Realtors, what are you doing this Thursday at 12nn pst, 3pm etc?

This is a copy of an email that I just sent out…..wanted to make sure everyone has equal opportunity to attend this weeks FREE Agent Short Sale Secrets teleconference or webinar.

Hey,

“Can you list and sell this Shortsale?”

Are you ready to hear that question from nearly every seller in your
market?

Free Teleconference (or Webinar)

Let be 100% honest with each other..in THIS market your answer
to that question must be YES!

That is why you want to attend this Thursday’s
F-R-E-E Agent Short Sale Secrets Teleconference.

Again, that’s this THURSDAY 04/02/09 at 12:00pm PST/ 3:00 EST/
1:00 MT/ 2:00 CENT.

Now, go to this link now for all the call-in info:

http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=6806109

You may recall that this event completely filled up a couple weeks
ago. If you were one of the agents who were shut out…

….this is your opportunity to learn what you missed.

Again, we only have enough space for 300 agents to join us on this
call (or webinar)….

To insure your seat simply log-in or call-in to the event at least
10 minutes early…Thats it.

When you attend the call on Thursday we will interview 2 agents who
have created huge businesses from short sales….you will meet..

John Brady. Chances are you have heard about John.
He has now been interviewed on Fox News, NY Post and most recently
the New York Times. And why did all of these prestigious news sources
want to interview John? Simple, he has become one of the nations leading
short sale experts. Ready for this…John has nearly 30 short sales
pending escrow…worth over $300,000 in commissions to him!

Next, you will meet Kris and Kim Darney from Southern California. They
started doing Short Sales late last year and had quick success.
They have become true Short Sale Specialists. Now, other local
agents are referring Short Sale listings to them. You will learn
several new secrets and techniques that they use in their business.

NOW, click here for the call in info:

http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=6806109

On this call you will learn exactly how to:

1) Avoid the 5 biggest mistakes agents make when doing short sales.
2) How to easily find and list tons of short sale listings.
3) How to get the lenders to accept your short sale offers fast.
4) 5 closely guarded secrets to get your short sales accepted
and closed in less than 30 days (and earn full commission)

This is going to be an amazing event..get ready to take pages of
great notes.

Speak with you soon,
Tim and Julie Harris, Agent
OCCoastal Properties
HREU Head Coaches.

P.S. Please DON’T tell other agents about this teleconference..its
going to be completely full…

HREU Coaching Student Featured On CBS Evening News!

tim — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:06:19 +0000

Hey Frank….You Rock!
Realtors, its time for you to take the first step and finally learn how-to become a Short Sale Specialist.

Start now by watching the FREE Agent Short Sale Secrets video and downloading the FREE Short Sale Book.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Can Anything Stop Home Foreclosures? (Very Telling Graph..click to expand)

tim — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:30:11 +0000

Death Of The Mortgage Interest Deduction…Should We Save It?

tim — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:55:56 +0000

This Market Is About Helping Others.

HREU Students and future students….we want to know what you think about this subject. As you may know it appears that the mortgage interest deduction is under attack. Some believe that the elimination of the deduction would further harm the housing market. Others believe that is a hand out….tell us what YOU think. What you think matters to us!

USA Todays view on mortgage deduction: Huge housing subsidy boosts the deficit, benefits the rich

Overly generous tax break helped inflate bubble, distort the market.

Four years ago, when housing was booming, a commission appointed by then-President Bush took aim at one the biggest sacred cows in the tax code: the deduction for interest paid on home loans of up to $1 million. Housing groups howled at the panel’s proposal to trim the deduction, and the plan died in a matter of days, if not hours.

Now fast forward to 2009, when President Obama and Congress are trying to find ways to pay for health care reform and reduce scary federal deficits. Obama has suggested limits on deductions including mortgage interest for wealthy Americans, a move that would raise about $31 billion annually.

Obama’s plan is being met with similar wailing from the home building, selling and financing lobbies, which argue that a housing bust is the worst possible time to talk about curbing the mortgage deduction. Actually, if done right and applied to new mortgages, a gradual reduction in the deduction could have significant benefits, both now and in the future.

As things stand, the nation’s housing subsidies are distortive and make little sense. For one thing, the interest deduction does no good for people generally in the lower income brackets who don’t itemize. Why should the government be subsidizing million-dollar mortgages, plus providing an interest deduction on an additional $100,000 for a home equity loan?

In addition to being regressive, the $80-billion-a-year mortgage interest deduction has had a number of unfortunate effects on the economy. In areas of limited new housing, mostly large cities near the coasts or other geographic barriers, it helped drive up prices to unaffordable levels, undermining its purported purpose of promoting home ownership.

Subsidizing people to borrow also encourages people to, well, borrow. Looking back at all the reasons why people took on mortgages that were simply too large, tax policies that greatly advantaged debt-financed home purchases over other forms of investment were a big part of the problem.

After having wrapped themselves in the mantle of promoting the American dream, the housing lobbies argue that limits on subsidies would thwart recovery in home prices.

That’s questionable. Obama’s plan would continue the deduction for mortgages of up to $1 million, but would allow people only in the top tax bracket to deduct 80% of it.

The 2005 commission argued for reducing the size of the mortgage covered to a sliding scale ranging from $170,000 to $412,000 depending on the cost of real estate in the area. It also structured the tax break as a credit to allow the many non-itemizers to take advantage of it.

The best approach might be to gradually scale back the $1 million deduction limit on new mortgages, perhaps by $100,000 a year for five years. That would increase fairness and reduce the deficit. It would also aid the housing industry now by encouraging people to buy while the limit is still high and help to prevent another bubble once the market recovers.

Realtor Coaching Superstar Interview…FREE Live Teleconference!

tim — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:29:49 +0000

Hello,

This is a reminder for you to attend this weeks Superstar Interview..
Listen to the REPLAY NOW:

SUPERSTAR INTERVIEW INFORMATION

When was the last time you visited www.HREU.tv?
We are posting new educational and motivational videos for you on a weekly basis.

Remember, stay connected with Harris Real Estate University.

Speak with you soon!

Tim and Julie Harris

P.S. Would you like to schedule a free coaching call with a HREU coach?
Go here now to schedule: http://harrisrealestateuniversity.com/freestuff.php

P.S.S. Earn money now when you send a new student referral to HREU. Here is how it works…email us the same time
(more or less) they are signing up.. coachjulieharris@gmail.com and we will pay you $97! Easily pay for your coaching
programs from sending us referrals!

Where Is The Housing Bottom?

tim — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:03:14 +0000

Unless we see a recovery in the housing market, we won’t really see a recovery in the economy. But is the housing market approaching a bottom? Or does it still have a ways to go?

The answer is critical to understanding the current economic depression.

This is a chart of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

As you can see, it’s plummeted over the last 18 months or so. It shows that U.S. house prices have been spanked hard. And, unfortunately, it shows no sign of bottoming anytime soon.

This makes sense considering the flood of foreclosures hitting the market. In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, homes that were selling for $250,000 during the peak are now going for $70,000 in foreclosure. Repeat this scenario across the country, and you’ll see that home prices still have further to go.

Clearly, one of the mandatory skills every agent must have is learning how to do short sales. Start now by watching the FREE Agent Shortsale Secrets video and then download your FREE Agent Shortsale Secrets book.

Making matters worse is the 8.1% U.S. unemployment rate and the fact that nobody can find credit to buy a home with. (Less credit means fewer mortgages.)

As the year drags on and foreclosures keep hammering house prices, this trend will continue to drain cash from homebuilders. That means homebuilders such Lennar Corporation (LEN) should continue to see lower share prices as the year wears on.

Thanks to our friends at SeekingAlpha.com for this article.

Realtor Coaching Student Testimonial…

tim — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 04:20:13 +0000

HREU Testimonial

Hi Tim,

I listen to the replay for the FREE Realtor Superstar Teleconference on last Friday. The call was very informative. Even though you went over the scheduled time, which was super!

I took action this past weekend and applied some of those ideals to help grow my clientele portfolio. I started TWO blogs for FREE! I would like to share with Harris University Real Estate School.

The FREE blog website address is: www.wordpress.com

The way I accomplished two url sites, I registered with two different email addresses.

Check out my sites:

Site #1: http://homesellerandbuyer.wordpress.com

Site #2: http://loanmodificationsandshortsales.wordpress.com

Also, I sent letters to 20 expired listings.

Thanks for keeping me on track. I am blessed to stumble over your sight. You guys ROCK! smile.

Chat with you soon.

–
Sandra Ingram
Real Estate Agent
Haute Properties
Phone# 909-717-0854
Fax# 866-286-0854
email: bpohomes@gmail.com

How To List REOs NOW…

tim — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:40:02 +0000

New student….already listing REOs!

Be sure to grab your FREE Agent REO Secrets Book….here is the link.

“Dear Tim and Julie,

Harris Real Estate University is for real. The information provided is a lethal money making weapon which all agents battling the market conditions need. In my first 2 weeks as a student I have gotten a short sale approved , 2 new short sale listings, a BPO, and best of all my first REO listing. All a new student needs to do is listen and take ACTION!”

Thank You,
Michael A. Keigans, Action Realty
825 SE 16 PL Deerfield Beach, FL 33441
MailTO:Mak@ActionRealtyFinancial.com
http://www.MichaelKeigans.com
(954) 540-1898 Direct

Obama Short Sale Secrets Call REPLAY (Listen NOW)

tim — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:30:38 +0000

Obama Housing Plan

Hello,

Listen now to the call replay……

of todays Obama Housing Plan…Agent Short Sale Secrets call

Do what ever it takes to listen to this call. Its THAT important!

Listen NOW:

http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=6400767

Get ready to take pages of great notes!

Speak with you soon,

Tim and Julie Harris