Socialebb Strategies and Solutions

The National Assn. of Realtors and America's Home Rescue tie for top honors in this week's Foreclosure Hall of Shame contest. The announcement was made by Frances Flynn Thorsen, host of Truth in Housing Matters  a new television talk show on the public television station Access Tuscon (AZ).
 
The National Assn. of Realtors threw in their lot with short sale sharks and issued a reeling blow to American consumers at a session titled, "Realtors Help Buyers, Sellers Navigate Short Sale Transactions" at the association's Mid-Year meetings in the Capital.Panel moderator was Bonnie Boyd, 2009 chair of the Housing Opportunity Forum. That's opportunity for the buyers in commissioned sales, not opportunity for homeowners who want to keep their homes.

NAR president Charles McMillan declared Realtor readiness to assist with sales: “Realtors add value to the real estate transaction and can help home buyers and sellers solve problems and effectively negotiate short sale transactions,The new incentives as part of the Making Home Affordable Program that the federal government announced yesterday are an important step in streamlining the short sale process, and Realtors® stand ready to help.”

American homeowners at risk of foreclosure who would rather seek a solution that will let them KEEP their homes have no seat at the table with the mighty real estate trade association.(Photo: Pro Step Marketing postcard mailer targets homeowners facing foreclosure with a sales option, not a word about HUD counseling or redemptive alternatives.)

NAR pointed a cursory finger at government programs designed to help homeowners, without the benefit of detailed guidance vis-a-vis home retention. Clearly, Realtor leadership focus is on sales and the income opportunities attendant to the housing crisis:

"NAR supports Realtors with a wealth of short sale resources, as well. NAR and Wells Fargo developed the Realtor Short Sale Guide, a primer for Realtors and their clients on the short sales process. Realtors looking for additional education on short sales can sign up for the Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council’s one-day course, Short Sales and Foreclosures: What Buyers’ Representatives Need to Know. The course outlines the foreclosure process and offers advice on educating buyer-clients to prevent foreclosure, tips for getting involved in the foreclosure market, and guidelines for working with real estate owned properties.

"REALTOR® magazine offers a free Webinar on short sales called Short Sales: Finding Income in a Tough Market. During the hour-long Webinar, short sale expert Scott Thompson of Mortgage Resolution Services helps participants learn the basics and best practices for handling short sales from both the listing and selling side. NAR also partnered with Freddie Mac on a Webinar presentation, Introduction to Short Sales for the Real Estate Professional."

There is no corresponding Webinar for Realtors who want to help homeowners remain in their homes.

America's Home Rescue Is About Sales, NOT Rescue!

Panel members Michael and Stacy Spickes, America’s Home Rescue (Austin, TX) boast that "AHR has saved hundreds of homeowners from foreclosure through short sale transactions ... AHR hopes to reduce the foreclosure rate across the nation by educating homeowners about their pre-foreclosure options and providing viable solutions to enable homeowners to get their homes sold and avoid the devastation of foreclosure."

The Spickes offer short sale training to real estate with a rescue theme that does not offer a pixel of possibility about home retention, not a single reference to HUD Certified Housing Counselors who are trained and ready to help homeowners review their options, no mention of viable bankruptcy and other legal avenues with attorneys. America's Home Rescue is about sales, not rescue. 

The "Real Estate Hall of Shame" episode of Truth in Housing Matters will air again on Sunday, May 17, 2009 on Channels 73/98 on the Cox and Comcast Cable networks in Tucson ... Watch online here.

HUD Homes for Sale

HUD Homes are government owned properties available to consumers with a special set of rules and tools. There are two classes – one covers the contract and transaction management, the other explores consumer outreach and marketing. Upon registration, students will receive copies of two e-books:

• HUD Homes for Sale – Sales and Marketing Guide for Real Estate Agents ($39.95 value)
• HUD Homes for Sale – Complete Buyer’s Guide ($19.95 value).

Class Dates:

• May 4, 2009  Oracle State Park, Kannally Ranch House, 3820 Wildlife Drive, Oracle, AZ 85623.

• May 6, 2009 Comfort Suites Tucson at Tucson Mall-AZ, 515 West Automall Drive, Tucson, AZ 85705

Class 1: HUD Homes for Sale – The Transaction (morning class 9 am - 12 noon)

CE 3 Hours Contract Law

• What Is A HUD Home?
• Who Sells HUD Homes?
• The MLS  Is NOT the Best Place for Information about HUD Homes.
• Does the Agent Represent the Buyer or HUD? 
• How Much Should the Buyer Offer?
• Complete A HUD Contract Line by Line.
• Bid Results – Win or Lose?
• Play by the Rules – The Fact that Rules Are Routinely BROKEN Is NOT an Excuse to Break Them Yourself!

Class 2: HUD Homes for Sale – Sales&Marketing (afternoon class 1:30 - 4:30 pm)

CE 3 Hours Fair Housing

• Design a Business Plan.
• HUD Homes = ? Percentage of Your Business?
• Allocate Resources to HUD Homes Outreach.
• Convert Existing Buyers to HUD Homes Buyers.
• HUD Homes Advertising Guidelines
• Print Campaign and Telephonic Outreach
• Webinars – Harness 21st Century Technology.
• Syngergy – Build on Existing Resources.
• Internet Marketing Strategies and Tools
• Weave HUD Homes Evangelism in Social Media.
• Track Your Results.

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Instructor: 

Frances Flynn Thorsen, e-PRO, SRS

…… got her real estate license and became a REALTOR® in 1985. She has been featured in Investors’ Business Daily, BusinessWeek Online, Inman News, REALTOR® Magazine, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. She was founding editor of RealTown.com and worked as Community Manager of Trulia.com. Frances has written numerous articles about HUD homes and foreclosures,  and she wrote two books that are part of these classes. She is CEO of Socialebb Strategies and Solutions.

 

Also see:

Social Media: Tips to Avoid A Risk Management Nightmare

 

School: Advantage Solutions Group, Tucson, AZ. 520-744-8731

 

Are you at risk of foreclosure? Do you have a friend or family member who is facing financial challenges? Come to this weekend's free event!

Foreclosure Prevention Workshop
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church
8650 N. Shannon Rd., Tucson, AZ  85742
520-219-1457
www.SeaTucson.org

How Has the Economy Affected Your Family?

Sunday, April 19, 2009
 10:30 am - 3 pm

Workshops:

• Crisis Budgeting (11 am - 12 noon)
• Foreclosure Timeline and Options (12 noon - 1 pm)
• Bankruptcy and Scams (1pm - 2 pm)
• General Closiing Session - Economic Concerns and Renters Issues, Presentation by Pima County Interfaith Council

Prizes and refreshements  *  Come early for free Foreclosure Prevention Workbook.


Presented by St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church

in partnership with

Pima County Interfaith Council
Pima County Foreclosure Prevention Coalition
Arizona Foreclosure Prevention Task Force
Don't Borrow Trouble Pima County

HUD Homes comprise a huge slice of the foreclosure property pie. But there are differences between HUD Homes and bank homes that matter to buyers and their real estate agents! This is a FREE Webinar for home buyers and real estate agents.

• HUD Homes are owned by the federal government, NOT banks!
  
  
• Real estate agents represent the buyers, NOT a bank, and NOT HUD.
   
•  There are inspections performed before a house is put on the market.

Join me for a discussion about HUD homes ... use the TELEPHONE option instead of computer audio if you want to take part in the conversation!

1:30 pm EDT
12:30 pm CDT
11:30 am MDT
10:30 am PDT

REGISTER HERE

Facebook offers us the chance to host dialogue among our "friends" on our profile pages.

Earlier today REALTOR and real estate visionary Judy Moses announced to her Facebook friends that she was at the airport, headed to a special leadership confab about professionalism for the National Assn. of REALTORS.

I urged her to initiate a dialogue about REALTORS' role in homeownership retention at her NAR meeting ... a spirited conversation followed between me and leading industry trainer  Matthew Ferrrara, who offers specialized services and training in Strategies for Leadership.

I am sharing this dialogue in the interest of airing differing views about foreclosure in a larger thought arena. I've written about foreclosures and speak to REALTOR groups about a Crisis of Conscience that grips the industry. This conversation is rich and revealing ... I'm guessing Judy will be surprised when her plane lands to discover that she sparked such a energetic exchange.

I believe most REALTORS want to make a positive difference and help people stay in their homes. California Assn. of REALTORS has taken a leadership position and adopts a posture that serves as a model on a national level and at state and local association levels. I hope NAR follows suit.

The following is the Facebook exchange that occurred this morning.














































































































































(Frances Flynn Thorsen is author of HUD Homes for Sale - A Complete Buyer's Guide and HUD Homes for Sale - Sales and Marketing Guide for Real Estate Agents.)

Can you complete the following sentence?

Today homeowners in distress can:

a.  Make multiple calls to their loan servicer, receive conflicting information from different reps, send stacks of documents that get lost, repeat process.

b.  Receive a loan modification that too often doesn't really help.

c.  Give up in despair – lose the benefits of ownership, ruin their credit, and become another casualty in a foreclosure crisis that's dragging down the entire economy.

Unfortunately, these are the most common outcomes for homeowners facing foreclosure today.  To make a real difference to our ailing economy, Congress needs to empower homeowners to seek loan modifications through the court system when lenders and servicers refuse to modify their loans.  Today that option is available on any other type of secured loan (including loans for investment properties, vacation homes, and boats) but not on mortgages.

Senator Richard Durbin and Representative John Conyers have introduced bills (S. 61 and H.R.
200, both named "Helping Families Save Their Homes in Bankruptcy Act of 2009") to give homeowners access to the courts as a last resort before losing their homes.  This option could save close to a million homes and — best of all — it wouldn't cost taxpayers a single dime, and according to a new report from Credit Suisse, would reduce foreclosures by 20%. Reducing foreclosures would help stabilize property values for everyone.

Please take a moment now to write and then call your representatives in the U.S. House and Senate.  They need to hear these messages from you:

• Foreclosures are getting worse, not better, and the economic damage keeps spreading throughout the economy. Please stand up for American families and help save homes.
• Keeping people in their homes is the best way we can stabilize the economy now and restore confidence in the housing market.
• It will also protect the financial future of our children and generations to come.
• Please vote to include the authority for judges to modify home loans in the next major funding bill presented to Congress.

TAKE ACTION

Send a letter to the following decision maker(s):

Your Congressperson

Your Senators

Below is the sample letter:

Subject: Help Families Save Their Homes (Support S.61/HR.200)

Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],

I am deeply concerned about the epidemic of home foreclosures that continues to devastate families, neighborhoods, and our entire economy. Today an unreasonable rule prevents homeowners from even the possibility of saving their homes through the court system. This is an urgent request to stop foreclosures and stabilize the economy by allowing distressed homeowners, as a last resort, access to loan modifications through the courts. I strongly urge you to co-sponsor these important pieces of legislation:

The "Helping Families Save Their Homes in Bankruptcy Act of 2009" (S. 61/H.R. 200) was introduced in the Senate by Senator Dick Durbin, and in the House of Representatives, by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers.

This legislation has the support of Citigroup, one of America's largest mortgage lenders.

It is morally wrong that court-supervised loan modifications are available for owners of big corporations, commercial real estate, and even families with vacation properties, but are denied to families on the verge of losing their only home. The proposed legislation would not excuse families from paying their mortgage. It would simply give judges the authority to modify unaffordable loans when homeowners have exhausted other options for avoiding foreclosure. Allowing distressed homeowners access to the court system will help protect the property values of ALL homeowners, and it will not cost American tax payers a single dime!

I join with other concerned Americans in asking you to include this legislation as an amendment to the next piece of funding legislation brought before the Congress. Please stand up for the families in our state and across the country by using your voice and your vote to give your full support to this legislation.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Your Name Here

_______________________________________________________

What's At Stake:

Over the next several years, 8.1 million American families will lose their homes.  Because of market declines, these struggling homeowners can neither refinance nor sell.  Unless their mortgages are modified to align the loan amount with the value of the home, the foreclosure crisis will continue to get worse.

The damage of foreclosures extends beyond the families who lose their home: millions of their neighbors could also lose billions of dollars in hard-earned wealth as home values decline.
There is an effective solution.  We need to lift legal barriers that now prevent struggling homeowners from seeking loan modifications through the courts.  Bills pending in the House and Senate would permit the courts to dramatically expand our capacity to prevent foreclosures.

Campaign Expiration Date:

March 31, 2009

(Frances Flynn Thorsen is author of HUD Homes for Sale - A Complete Buyer's Guide and HUD Homes for Sale - Sales and Marketing Guide for Real Estate Agents.)

Foreclosures and global and domestic consequences attached to the housing crisis are the focus of attention among industry thought leaders in Manhattan this week. The Inman Connect Conference in New York City is an annual assembly of 1,000 of the brightest minds in the real estate industry. Leadership in brokerage, trade association execs, vendors, and Wall Street investors meet this week at the industry’s leading confab and chart a course for the coming year.

Last year’s event concluded with an industry-wide challenge from Connect founder Brad Inman: “How can you use Web 2.0 to help distressed homeowners?"

The Great Real Estate Disconnect

Organized real estate outreach to distressed homeowners in 2007 was mostly self serving. Real estate trainers and schools jumped on the short-sale bandwagon with Webinars and seminars, pigeonholing distressed homeowners as “sellers” predicated on the assumption that circumstances leading to payment  arrears preclude qualification for loan modification relief. I attended a Webinar early in the year with trainer Roger Butcher, who announced that he was a “certified loan modification” expert and told attendees  that a mere 2% of distressed homeowners qualify for loan modification relief.

Butcher commenced a weekly training schedule with a stated goal to enlist 30,000 real estate agents in his own for-profit short sale corps. At the same time, nonprofits reported 65 – 75% success rates with loan modifications in hard hit cities like Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Phoenix.  In their training, the loans were the qualifying factors for modification, not the borrowers.

Answering The Call To Service

Inman’s challenge for the industry received attention online and offline in the course of the year in various ways:

• The most stunning and dramatic event of the year occurred in October when Alex Perriello, chairman and CEO of the Reology Franchise Group, issued a clarion call for help in a letter to all of Realogy’s affiliated brokers and sales associates to announce a “Save the Dream initiative “to help our neighbors and local communities by trying to prevent as many foreclosures from occurring as possible.” Perriello followed with an announcement on the blog at newly launched Better Homes and Gardens.
• RealtyTrac, the nation’s leading foreclosure search engine, provided data feeds to nonprofits and local government authorities to facilitate outreach programs to homeowners in default on their mortgages.
• Trulia launched Surviving the Housing Crisis microsite featuring blogs and questions and answers from the Trulia Voices community.
• Manhattan attorney and leading real estate blogger Joseph Ferrara proposed that the National Assn. of REALTORS add a pro bono provision to the REALTOR Code of Ethics. Joe and I presented this concept, coupled with foreclosure outreach, at the first Real Estate Barcamp in San Francisco in July.
  
  Voluntary Pro Bono Public Service
  
  Every Realtor who is able has a professional responsibility to provide real estate related services, without compensation, to those unable to pay or of limited means. Every Realtor should aspire to render pro bono service on at least one (1) real estate transaction per year.

Petition To Help SAVE THE DREAM

I invite you to fill out the form PETITION: The Million REALTOR March To Save The Dream.

I hereby pledge to help at least one distressed homeowner KEEP his/her home in 2009 in the spirit of service. NOTE: REALTORS and non-REALTOR licensees are invited to participate in the march, as well as lenders, vendors, and others.

We have a choice in 2009. We can surrender to a troubled market or we can be agents of change.Change may have good traction this year. Let's give it a shot!