Jude's Real Estate Rumblings

Daily Real Estate News  |  April 16, 2008

Tired of waiting for the federal government to act, states are developing their own solutions to the foreclosure crisis, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Twenty states have created intervention programs, 13 have set up counseling hot lines, 14 have assembled task forces and nine have established funds for emergency loans or refinance loans, totaling $450 million.

Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Ohio have passed legislation requiring tighter underwriting standards for lenders.

Ohio has announced a nonbinding agreement with nine large loan servicers to modify troubled loans. It also recruited 1,000 lawyers to represent troubled borrowers free of charge.

Minnesota is working with loan servicers to arrange loan modifications and has set up a hot line to housing counselors who will help troubled homeowners negotiate with the servicers.

Colorado raised $750,000 in private donations to hire a non-profit agency to run a hot line that refers callers for counseling in person.

Source: The New York Times, John Leland (04/16/2008)

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U.S. Job Openings

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Perspective on the Consumer Price Index

• The CPI measures the change in the price of a standard market basket of goods. It does not measure the changes in the prices of all consumer goods. It is one set of measures that reflect changes in price levels in our economy (inflation or deflation).

• Among the commodities and services that the market basket of goods contains are jewelry, wine, pets, haircuts, admissions to recreational events, and funerals.

• The current market basket of goods was determined by a 2000 to 2001 survey of 10,000 families across the United States and the diaries of another 7,500 families who recorded their purchases over a two-week period.

• Changes in the price of the goods are derived from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly survey of 80,000 items offered by various product and service providers.

• Individual indexes are available for more than 200 items and for more than 120 combinations of items (e.g., fruits and vegetables).

• The basic CPI is further adjusted by excluding energy and food costs, which tend to be more volatile than costs for other goods and services. For the three months ending February 2008, the basic CPI increased at a compound rate of 3.1%. However, when excluding food and energy, the three-month adjusted CPI only rose 2.3%.

• During the same three-month period, food prices increased at a compound rate of 4.7%. Energy prices increased by 7.6%. Housing prices increased by 2.6%, even with the subprime rate meltdown. This makes sense since housing includes more than houses. It also includes rentals and out-of-town accommodations.

Author: Ken Maxey Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

RISMEDIA, April 16, 2008-The equivalent to a homerun on the Internet for a broker is to dominate their market in the natural (free) search results. I talk to many market- leading brokers, who can't understand how non-brokers are beating them in the free Google results, and capturing profitable clients without paying for Pay Per Click traffic.

To succeed at SEO, you need to cover the 4 Bases of SEO.

First Base: Target the right keywords. Real estate SEO is very competitive, so you must target a set of keywords where you have a chance or ranking in the top 20 positions. Focus on search terms that are specific to your business, such as city/neighborhood names in your service area, and your specialties such as "luxury homes" or "golf homes."

Second Base: Unique, relevant content. Your website must have good content that is unique (not copied from other sites) and relevant to your business. At a minimum, you should have 20-30 pages on your website that give information on real estate, your service area and your business. Be sure these Web pages contain your target keywords in the body text, and also put the most important keywords in the HTML tag.

Third Base: Good website structure. This is one area that many neglect and then wonder why their Web pages are never found in search engines. Each page on your website must contain text in HTML, and be reached by following HTML links (usually those blue underlined text links). If your website uses technologies such as Flash, JavaScript or redirects for navigation or content, the search engines may not be able to find your pages or read your content.

Home Plate: Link popularity. Search engines count each link to your website as a vote of popularity. The more "inbound" links you have, the higher your site will rank. Good content and services will attract inbound links, so focus first on building a good website. Other things you can do are to ask your business partners and associates to link to your site, submit your site to Web directories such as Yahoo, and include a link to your site in online press releases and blog posts.

By covering the four SEO bases, you can compete in SEO-and a great SEO consulting company can pay for themselves several times over-especially for larger brokers.

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Abraham Lincoln

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An article from ColoradoBiz Magazine, reports that the $1.75 billion T-Rex project has brought with it the building of some pricey neighborhoods.  The DTC-area development trends are leaning towards mixed-use or Transit-Oriented Development (TOD).  According to the Center for Transit-Oriented Development, being "TOD" does not require a transit station immediately at hand.  It usually means "higher-density mixed-use development within walking distance - or a half mile - of transit stations."  The idea is perfect for the mixed-use mini-cities being designed and built a stone's throw from their light rail station stops: Lincoln Station, Belleview Station, Shea Properties' Village Center Station and others, as well as ritzy residential towers and homes, plus hotel and retail, and upscale office and residential projects, too. 
http://www.cobizmag.com/articles.asp?id=2094

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An article from RISMedia.com, reports that real estate professionals understand the power and effectiveness of video in selling property.  Virtual walkthroughs and video tours immerse the buyer in the experience of the property, and result in shorter sales cycles, higher conversion rates, and better qualified prospects.  Real estate sites using video report buyers exposed to video are up to four times more likely to act than those presented with words and images alone.  One thing to consider when shooting a real estate video is lighting.  The more light you have when shooting, the clearer, smoother, and crisper your final video will be.  Also, make sure your video is clearly labeled and placed on your home page to attract attention from potential home buyers.  A video on the home page will attract as much as 80% of the overall activity on that page.  Finally, keep your video shorter than 2 minutes.  Videos with a shorter duration tend to have much higher viewership and completion rates and tend to be more impactful than videos with longer durations.
http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-04-15/dos-donts-of-web-video-for-real-estate/

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An article from RealtyTimes.com, reports that one of the biggest concerns of real estate agents is how to market without being pushy or how to be assertive without being aggressive.  One suggestion is to approach a prospective client with the attitude of giving, not taking.  Do you approach a prospective client thinking, "I have to make the sale" or do you approach with the attitude of, "Wow, this person can really use my service, and I want to give them the gift of offering to help them."  Realize that what you have to offer is valuable and be willing to communicate that in a consistent way. 
http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20080415_toothorn.htm

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An article from the Rocky Mountain News, reports that according to analysis by the Rocky Mountain News, the rate of increase in foreclosures for the 7-county Denver metro area during the first quarter of 2008 is roughly half what it was a year ago.  There were 7,459 foreclosure filings in the Denver area in the first quarter, roughly a 16% increase from the previous first-quarter record of 6,410 filings in 2007.  The overall foreclosure rate rose by more than 30% in Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties from the first quarter of 2006 to the first quarter of 2007.  Economist Patty Silverstein, president of Development Research Partners said,  "While no one likes to see these record numbers increase, they're at least going in the right direction."  Silverstein added, "I think it is possible that by the end of the year we will possibly even show a slight drop from the total number of foreclosures we saw in 2007."
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/apr/15/foreclosure-rate-halved-in-q1-in-denver-area/

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