How Honest Harry Gets the Job Done !

How I Sold It
Honest Harry Gets the Job Done

With little to showcase, sales associate Harry Ackley decided to tell the brutal truth about his unmarketable listing in Plymouth, Mich., and his peers liked the approach.

BY MICHELLE HOFMANN

Location: Plymouth, Mich.
Square footage: 704 square feet
Lot size: 7,695 square feet
Bedrooms: 2
Bathrooms: 1
Year built: 1941
Extras: “Not much to speak of.”


THE CHALLENGE: When Harry Ackley, a sales associate with Coldwell Banker Schweitzer-Bake Real Estate in Plymouth, Mich., secured a listing from a former client in March 2004, he was worried how he was even going to get people to view the property. “The house was a complete disaster,” Ackley recalls. “Just saying, ‘fixer-upper’ or ‘handyman special’ was not going to get it done. I needed to do something drastic to sell this one.”

How did you overcome the challenge?

ACKLEY: There was no point trying to cover up anything, so I didn’t try. In the listing’s public remarks section, I wrote: “The bottom of the barrel! I have avoided listing this one as long as possible, since it will take a miracle to sell. Sure, it has two bedrooms, one bathroom, and an oversized lot in a desirable Plymouth neighborhood. But beyond this, there’s nothing else that’s positive.”

I asked and received permission from the seller before I wrote the remarks, mind you, but I just went with the brutal truth. It sounds crazy, I know, but I received so many calls from real estate professionals, far and wide, who said they wished they could be as honest in their remarks as I was.
Many of them took the listing to their weekly marketing meetings and brought it to their colleagues’ attention. Someone in my office even framed the remarks. It’s hanging on my office wall.

What was the selling price?

ACKLEY: The property listed for $119,900 in March 2004 and sold for $112,500 in April 2004. It was only on the market for 17 days. We closed May 4, 2004.

Riverside County population forecast to double by 2050, ranking it No. 2 in state

By JIM MILLER
Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO - Go-go growth is expected to more than double Riverside County's population by 2050, making it the state's second largest county.

Only Los Angeles County will top Riverside County and its estimated 4.7 million residents by midcentury, according to new estimates by the state Department of Finance.

"Let's face it, we got the land," said Assemblyman Paul Cook, R-Yucca Valley, whose district includes Moreno Valley, Perris and other fast-growing parts of Riverside County. "We have to make sure we have the roads, the infrastructure, the environmental mitigation, the water, all these challenges."

The state's population will be nearly 60 million by midcentury, which is 22 million more than today. More than half of the state's residents will be Hispanics, up from 36 percent currently, according to the Department of Finance.

The state report studied demographic trends such as immigration, births and deaths. The estimates did not take into account any shortages that could hold down growth, such as limited water, housing or infrastructure.

All told, nearly one-half of California's population in 2050 will live in five of its 58 counties, all in Southern California -- Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Orange and San Bernardino -- according to the state report.

Riverside County currently is the fourth-most populous, with an estimated 2,031,625 people. San Bernardino County is in fifth place, with 2,028,013.

In California history, only Orange County in the 1960s had the kind of growth that Riverside County is experiencing, said Mary Heim, chief of the Department of Finance's demographic research unit.

"At some point in time, the growth will be like Orange County and taper off," Heim said. "But as long as people are willing to have long commutes in return for more affordable housing, that growth will continue."

State Sen. Jim Battin, R-La Quinta, said he thinks the county maintained its quality of life during recent growth waves. What it will be like in 2050, with more than twice as many people, is still an open question, he said.

"It will present a lot of challenges for the county to make sure we have the facilities and infrastructure that we need and have to adopt policies to recognize that the growth is coming instead of trying to prevent it from coming, because you can't," Battin said.

Reach Jim Miller at 916-445-9973 or jmiller@PE.com

Population 2050

These are projected to be the state's five largest counties by population at midcentury:

1. Los Angeles County: 13.06 million

2. Riverside County: 4.73 million (up from fourth)

3. San Diego County: 4.51 million

4. Orange County: 3.99 million

5. San Bernardino County: 3.66 million (ranking unchanged)

Source: California Department of Finance

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_population10.410f243.html

Why San Francisco has The Highest Gas Price In the Nation?

Someone posted a question on my Baby Boomers Yahoo Group.
So, here is my answer:

Glancing at this Median Sales Price of Existing Single-Family Homes
for Metropolitan Areas report, (compiled by the National Association
of of REALTORS®), I can see these numbers and can understand why,
these prices reflect the cost of living in each area.

US Median Sales Price of Existing Single-Family Homes is $217.8 in
2007.

San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA is the 2nd highest in the nation
for at $805.4K for 2007. (up 5.5% from 2006)


San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area is the highest in the nation at
$836.8 for 2007 (up 11.2%. from 2006)


Anaheim-Santa Ana, CA (Orange Co.) at $699.6
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA $589.2
San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA $588.7
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA $381.4


New York-Wayne-White Plains, NY-NJ $540.3
NY: Nassau-Suffolk, NY $477.2

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA $386.9

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV $430.8

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach, FL $365.5

Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA $78.9


http://www.realtor.org/Research.nsf/files/MSAPRICESF.pdf/$FILE/MSAPRICESF.pdf


> Weekly U.S. Retail Gasoline Prices, Regular Grade
> Dollars per gallon, including all taxes
>
> San Francisco takes the prize!! Why is gas so high in San Francisco?
>

The Bad News.

Now you can see why our Real Estate industry is in turmoil.
Many mortgage frauds all over the country. The only consolation, the crooks are getting prosecuted but too late for many of the banks and the mortgage companies who lost so much money already. This is bad for the lending industry.

This is only one of the many, many stories on Originator Times.

Broker Arrested for Scamming at Least 15 Million
Tuesday, November 20, 2007 -
By Staff Writer, Originator Times

STUART, FL – Matthew Bevan Cox was sentenced this week to 26 years and four months in jail and hit with $6 million in restitution for mortgage fraud. Cox was arrested in his Nashville, Tennessee home in November of 2006 and plead guilty to charges in April 2007. Cox had been on the run from police and the FBI after arrest warrants were issued in August of 2004 for conspiracy, stolen identification, mail and wire fraud, money laundering, and social security number fraud. At the time arrest warrants were issued, Cox was already on the run from Florida police for violating his probation for a prior incident in that state.

Cox worked as a mortgage broker and is suspected of running hundreds of mortgage-related scams in at least five states including Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama with an associate that he met on Match.com. Reports indicate Cox got away with at least $15 million by defrauding mortgage companies and duping desperate sellers. The pair acted as though Cox was the client and his partner, Rebecca Marie Hauck, was a real estate agent. The duo scoped out MLS ads and pounced on those offering partial owner financing, only to leave the mortgage unpaid and sending the property into foreclosure.

Cox, who has not used his real name since 2003, used the names Maxwell Price, David Richard Freeman, Gerald Scott Cugno, Michael Shawn Shanahan, Gary Lee Sullivan, Michael John Eckert, Michael White, Kevin White, David White, and James Redd. At the time of his arrest, he was operating the Nashville Restoration Project.

http://originatortimes.com/content/templates/standard.aspx?articleid=2630&zoneid=1

Another story:


Fraud Lands Two Brokers and Insider in Prison
Wednesday, August 22, 2007 - By Staff Writer, Originator Times
Click to Review






NEWNAN, GA - Joseph White of Southern Lenders Mortgage and Michael Jones of Infinity Mortgage have both been convicted and sentenced for their participation in an $11 million fraud perpetrated against nBank, with the participation of a then nBank vice president, Ronald Walton.

White, Jones, and Walton operated an elaborate scheme whereby they diverted funds from a broker line of credit issued to Southern Lenders mortgage and Infinity Mortgage by nBank.

According to court documents, once White and Jones closed on transactions with their nBank credit lines, they then sold the same loans to other investors and then diverted the proceeds to pay personal and business expenses.

White diverted $3,700,000 in proceeds from 34 loans and Jones $1,835,000 from 23 loans.

The court found that Walton, then a senior vice president at nBank, managed the division of nBank responsible for broker lines of credit to mortgage brokers. The fraud perpetrated on nBank by White, Jones, and several additional brokers was carried out with the cooperation of Walton, who received commissions from nBank based upon the number of loans nBank funded for brokers. The fraud against nBank was facilitated by Walton knowingly assisting the brokers in circumventing the nBank security controls that were specifically in place to prevent such frauds.


“This case involved the defrauding of a federally insured bank by various mortgage brokers, aided by an insider who was an officer at the bank,” said United States Attorney David E. Nahmias. “The integrity of the banking system and soundness of the lending industry is of importance to all citizens.”

Walton was sentenced to serve over 8 years in federal prison, White will serve over 4 years, and Jones will serve over 3 years for their participation in the fraud

Many on the bottom of this page:
http://originatortimes.com/content/templates/standard.aspx?articleid=2520&zoneid=5

There are many more stories on this site:
http://originatortimes.com/

The Good News.

I subscribed to Original Times Newsletter and I learn about the latest news in the Mortgage Loan industry.

Purchase Applications Up in Latest Survey
Wednesday, February 06, 2008 - Mortgage Bankers Association

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 1, 2008. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 1086.6, an increase of 3.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 1054.9 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 4.4 percent compared with the previous week and was up 73.2 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index decreased 1.0 percent to 5054.0 from 5103.6 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 12.0 percent to 405.3 from 362.0 one week earlier. The Conventional Purchase Index increased 10.4 percent while the Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) increased 20.9 percent. On an unadjusted basis, the Purchase Index increased 19.1 percent to 386.5 from 324.4 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index increased 1.0 percent to 1552.6 from 1537.6 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index increased 23.7 percent to 309.5 from 250.2 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 10.4 percent to 1007.4 from 912.2. The four week moving average is down 0.5 percent to 417.1 from 419.3 for the Purchase Index, while this average is up 16.7 percent to 4477.8 from 3837.9 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 69.2 percent of total applications from 73.0 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 8.8 from 8.6 percent of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.61 percent from 5.60 percent, with points decreasing to 0.98 from 1.06 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.09 percent from 5.04 percent, with points decreasing to 0.92 from 1.12 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 5.62 percent from 5.70 percent, with points remaining unchanged at 0.97 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

http://originatortimes.com/content/templates/standard.aspx?articleid=2813&zoneid=3

Prediction for 2008.

1. Seattle, Wash.
Median home price: $395,000
Annual price change from 2006: 8.9%
Projected price change to 2008: 3.09%

2. Pittsburgh, Pa.Median home price: $123,500
Annual price change from 2006: 2.7%
Projected price change to 2008: 3.37%

Columbus, Ohio
Median home price: $153,900
Annual price change from 2006: -1.2%
Projected price change to 2008: 3.49%

4. Dallas, Texas
Median home price: $156,500
Annual price change from 2006: 1.7%
Projected price change to 2008: 5.45%

5. St. Louis, Mo.
Median home price: $157,200
Annual price change from 2006: 2.7%
Projected price change to 2008: 3.01%

http://realestate.aol.com

Blue-Chip Real Estate Investment Markets Forbes

If you can dream it....

FROM AOL REAL ESTATE (FORBES)

New York, N.Y.
Fifth Avenue And 70th Street
Median Home Sale Price: $2.45 million
Price Growth Since 1990: 325 percent

Chicago, Ill.
Lake Shore Drive And Route 41
Median Home Sale Price: $1.91 million
Price Growth Since 1990: 236 percent

Dallas, Texas
University Park
Median Home Sale Price: $898,640
Price Growth Since 1990: 148 percent

Philadelphia, Penn.
Walnut Street And Third Street
Median Home Sale Price: $914,115
Price Growth Since 1990: 184 percent

San Francisco, Calif.
El Camino Del Mar And Lake Street
Median Home Sale Price: $2.2 million
Price Growth Since 1990: 282 percent

http://realestate.aol.com/