As a seller’s agent, do you list short sales? If you do, are you listing them in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) immediately following the signed agreement from the seller?

It may be in your best interest, and more importantly your client’s best interest, to wait at least 7 days prior to making the listing active. This gives the client the time and opportunity to talk to legal and financial counsel should they so choose.

If you list the home immediately, is there potential liability you could face? When did your client have an opportunity to talk to legal and financial experts?

It may also be in your and your client’s best interest to have a disclosure explaining their options for legal and financial counsel as well verbiage they have an opportunity to seek advice and will pursue this option or they are rejecting this opportunity.

You may want to talk to your broker as to what disclosures, if any, they may have or would like to create, to address this everchanging market.

Please feel free to comment on any Ah-Ha given. I don’t have all the answers, but we can learn things together and collaborate to make things better!

As a real estate agent, whether you list short sales or not, if you don’t think you need to know what HAFA is, you may need to think again.

If you aren’t familiar with the Home Affordability Foreclosure Alternative (HAFA), this program was announced in November 2009 and took effect on April 5, 2010. This is the fourth program from the US Treasury created to help homeowners, the first three to aid the homeowner in retaining the home and an attempt to avoid foreclosure and the last program, HAFA, to help sell the home as a foreclosure alternative.

Why do you need to know about HAFA, OR ANY OTHER PROGRAM FOR THAT MATTER? According to the HAFA Short Sales, The Complete Course class I recently attended and offer by the Hogan School of Real Estate, the REALTOR Code of Ethics contains numerous Articles and Standards of Practice which gives supporting evidence of the importance.

Below are a few quotes from the Code of Ethics, but not limited to:

“…REALTORS continuously strive to become and remain informed on issues affective real estate…” (Preamble)

“…REALTORS pledge themselves to protect and promote the interests of their client.” (Article 1)

“REALTORS shall avoid exaggeration, misrepresentation, or concealment of pertinent facts relating to…the transaction.” (Article 2)

“The services which REALTORS provide to their clients and customers shall conform to the standards of practice and competence which are reasonably expected in the specific real estate disciplines in which they engage; specifically, residential real estate brokerage…” (Article 11)

“Realtors shall not undertake to provide specialized professional services concerning a type of property or service that is outside their field of competence unless they engage the assistance of one who is competent on such types of property or service, or unless the facts are fully disclosed to the client.” (Article 11)

“The obligations of the Code of Ethics…shall be interpreted and applied in accordance with the standards of competence and practice which clients and the public reasonably require to protect their rights and interests considering the complexity of the transaction…” (Standard of Practice 11-2)

So before you think you don’t need to know this information, you may want to think again. Are you doing what’s in the best interest of your client by not knowing? Whether you work short sales or not, are you putting yourself and your client at risk by not knowing the options? Iif you list a short sale, but don’t disclose to your client the HAFA option, could this be potential liability in the future?

If you haven’t taken a class on HAMP, HARP & HAFA, I HIGHLY recommend you do so and the sooner the better.

Have you represented a buyer that bought a home with a sump pump, septic system, sewer ejector or septic tank pump? Did they purchase a home warranty? If yes, does their warranty have the appropriate coverage for any of the above either standard or optional? If optional, did they knowlingly request or reject it? If the home warranty company they chose did not have the coverage available, did one of the other home warranty companies you recommended have the coverage available? Did you inform your client of this?

According to the Old Republic Home Warranty Representative I spoke with regarding the salt water pool AH-HA, she stated Old Republics Standard Plan covers the Sump Pump, but the Septic Tank Pumping/Septic System/Sewage Ejector Pump is optional coverage.

We aren’t in the busineses to sell home warranty plans, BUT is it worth your time to know the home warranty plans you are recommending and whether those plans have the coverage that your client needs? Could you be taking a risk if after your client has a claim denied due to it not being covered, finds out that this coverage was either an option that could have been added or another home warranty company had this coverage available, so they file a complaint against you as the buyer’s agent stating “they would have purchased had they known.”? Whether or not the buyer is being truthful, more prudence and liability may be put on the agent as the agent is recognized as the professional.

What about other additional coverage options? Are you going through the options with your client? It may be in your and your client’s best interest to review companies and option that are specific to their purchase, have them initial the options were reviewed and either accepted or rejected and keep a copy of this in their file.

Please feel free to add an Ah-Ha or comment on any Ah-Ha given. I don’t have all the answers, but we can learn things together and collaborate to make things better!

What is farming? And no, not the farming that is done on Facebook’s Farmville or other application. Farming is a form of prospecting for new leads for your business. One form of farming is postcards sent to a specific area, could be any size such as a city, zip code, or subdivision, etc.

Do you think farming through postcards is expensive and not worth your time? Consider this idea…

Sending 500+ postcards for a one time shot MAY not be worth your time or money, but consider sending 100 cards 5 times to the same group, such as Just Listed, Open House, Just Sold etc.

It’s better to touch a small group 5 times than a large group once.

Please feel free to add an Ah-Ha or comment on any Ah-Ha given. I don’t have all the answers, but we can learn things together and collaborate to make things better!

Have you represented a buyer that bought a home with a salt water pool? Did they purchase a home warranty? If yes, did they add pool coverage? If yes, did they add “salt water pool” coverage? Did the home warranty company they chose have salt water pool coverage available? Did one of the other home warranty companies you recommended have the coverage available if the one they chose did not? Did you inform your client of this?

According to an Old Republic Home Warranty Representative I spoke with today, she stated it has happened multiple times where a buyer has bought a home with a salt water pool where a claim arose and was denied, did not know about the “special” optional coverage currently available with at least one warranty company and filed a complaint against the agent stating “they would have purchased had they known.”. Whether or not the buyer is being truthful, more prudence and liability may be put on the agent as the agent is recognized as the professional.

What about other additional coverage options? Are you going through the options with your client? It may be in your and your client’s best interest to review companies and option that are specific to their purchase, have them initial the options were reviewed and either accepted or rejected and keep a copy of this in their file.

Please feel free to add an Ah-Ha or comment on any Ah-Ha given. I don’t have all the answers, but we can learn things together and collaborate to make things better!

Find out when new jobs are coming into your area or if a company is closing it’s door, changes in the housing market, changes in the lending industry, or any information you may find would benefit you and your business.

Imagine if you knew a company was coming to your area with 2000 new jobs! Would you try to market to that company? How would you use this information to benefit what you do, your clients, your industry?

Have you or do you know of someone who has been “hacked” into your/their account? I do and it wasn’t good. The “bad guy” took over the person’s account and was able to contact all of their friends, compromising their computers with the potential of great damamge.

But, there are ways to protect yourself. Have Facebook notify you each time someone logs into your account from a new device.

How to do this:

1) Login in to Facebook
2) Click “Account” (Top right tab of website)
3) Scroll down to and click “Account Settings”
4) Scroll down page to “Account Security” and click “change”
5) Would you like to receive notifications for logins from new devices? (CHOOSE YES)
6) If you would like to be notified SMS click the box below the previous step.

If you’d like to protect your friends and family, pass this along.

According to NAR, the method of home purchase through a real estate agent was 77% in 2009, down from 81% in 2008.  Other methods also down in 2009 from 2008 are 1) buying directly from builder or builder’s agent at 8% down from 10% and 2) directly from the previous owner at 5% down from 6%.

But with those three options down, what method of home purchase option had an increase?

Through a foreclosure or trustee sale at 10% up from 3% in 2008 and previously only 1%, or less, from 2001-2007!  That’s HUUUUGE!  My estimate for 2010…similar results.

What does this mean?  Buyer’s are looking for deals and going OUTSIDE of the MLS.

What does this means to us?  How do we adapt to and participate in this change of method?