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shadow inventory

9.6% Dip In Existing Home Sales

by admin on March 22, 2011

Smart Real Estate News & Commentary by Chris McLaughlin March 22, 2011

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9.6% Dip In Existing Home Sales

Sales of existing homes fell in February after three straight monthly increases.  According to the National Association of Realtors, homes sold at an annual rate of 4.88 million in February, went down 9.6% from January and 2.8% lower than February 2010 sales. The dip was much worse than what was predicted. “Housing affordability conditions have been at record levels and the economy has been improving, but home sales are being constrained,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. As the credit market tightens, the recovery road looks rocky. There is a record level of all-cash purchases as investors are making a killing of homes at bargain prices, as inventory rose to 3.49 million units…  Traditional home buyers are expected to return only when mortgage credit conditions return to being normal.

Fed’s Fisher Opposes Extension of QE2

U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said he opposes any extension of the Fed’s asset purchase program after June, saying inflationary pressures are building “world-wide.”  “No further accommodation is needed after June.  We can no longer press on the monetary pedal,” Fisher said in a speech at Goethe University in Frankfurt. Fisher has been skeptical of the program, dubbed QE2, saying two weeks ago, that it should prove “demonstrably counterproductive,” and it would be better to discontinue it.  Last week, the Fed voted to maintain its key lending target near zero and maintain its planned $600 billion in Treasury purchases through June.  As the Fed’s rate-setting board voted to continue the program, he warned of speculative excesses that may be contributing to the rise in oil prices. “We are seeing the signs of all the intoxication” that arises from cheap and available capital, Fisher said.

Diana Olick – Existing-Home Sales Plunge, Setback for Housing Recovery

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes fell unexpectedly sharply in February and prices touched their lowest level in nearly nine years, implying a housing market recovery was still a long off.  The National Association of Realtors said Monday sales fell 9.6 percent month over month to an annual rate of 4.88 million units, snapping three straight months of gains. The percentage decline was the largest since July. Economists polled by Reuters had expected February sales to fall 4.0 percent to a 5.15 million-unit pace from the previously reported 5.36 million unit rate in January, which was revised slightly up to 5.40 million.

Oversupply of homes and a relentless wave of foreclosures are pressuring prices, holding back recovery in the sector, whose collapse helped to tip the U.S. economy into its worst recession since the 1930s. Foreclosures and short sales, which typically occur below market value, accounted for 39 percent of transactions in February, up from 37 percent the prior month. All-cash purchases made up a record 33 percent of transactions in February. Sales last month fell across the board, with multifamily dwellings declining 10 percent and single-family home units dropping 10.0 percent. At February’s sales pace, the supply of existing homes on the market rose to 8.6 months’ worth from 7.5 in January. A supply of between six and seven months is generally considered ideal, with higher readings pointing to lower house prices.

Chaotic Foreclosures Rock Shadow Inventory

Foreclosure time lines and an abundance of distressed home sales are causing wide fluctuations in shadow inventory across the country. On the whole, it is estimated that 5.3 million homes are in limbo between foreclosure and the sales market. Standard & Poor’s states it could take up to 49 months to clearn the shadow inventory. NAR quotes that Florida with 441,000 residential properties has the largest shadow inventory, followed by California with 228,000.  Generally shadow inventory properties are sold as distressed sales. The growing shadow inventories are attributed to the recent disruptions to foreclosure time lines.  The length of foreclosure process in Florida and California jumped 156% and 157% respectively since 2008.  Florida and California are expected to take 29 and 11 months respectively to clear their shadow inventory.

Discounts Expected in Spring Housing Market

As the market readies for its busiest season, sales of previously owned homes fell sharply in February, setting the stage for steep discounting in the spring market.  The silver lining, say economists, is that bargain prices, coupled with low interest rates, might finally spur some buyers off the fence.  Even without the $8,000 federal tax credit industry watchers predict a larger number of transactions this year.  Still, Monday’s data painted a picture of pain and price declines that have spared no region. “The housing market is still clearly years away from staging any meaningful recovery,” Toronto-based Capital Economics wrote in a note to clients. Some builders of new homes are increasing discounts on residences and boosting commissions to brokers.

Overall, February’s weakness could have been driven by bad weather, deals canceled over lowball appraisals and a higher number of distress sales, according to the National Association of Realtors. A third of transactions were all-cash sales, and investors accounted for 19% of February sales activity, down from 23% in January. Low prices in many markets also reflect a new reality as sellers finally give in and reduce the asking prices on their homes in hopes of a fast deal.  Economists say the number of distressed sales will continue to rise, and put pressure on prices. But mortgage rates, which were trending upward during the fall and winter months, have been falling in recent weeks amid global turmoil over the crises in Japan.

DSNews.com – Delinquencies and Foreclosure Inventories decline

In what can be viewed as an anomaly of the current housing crisis, Lender Processing Services Inc (LPS) reported that the total loan delinquency rate for the U.S. mortgage market dropped to 8.80 percent. LPS calculates this stat based on loans that are 30 or more days past due, but not yet moved into foreclosure.  The company’s statistics are derived from its loan-level database of nearly 40 million mortgage loans. The analytics firm reports that the total loan delinquency rate for the U.S. mortgage market dropped to 8.80 percent. 

According to the firm, foreclosure activity was bottlenecked last fall when the news of improper affidavit filings surfaced and several large servicers temporarily froze proceedings to review internal processes, causing foreclosure inventory numbers to swell as loans languished in the pipeline.  LPS reports the states with the highest ratio of non-current loans – meaning the combined percentage of both foreclosures and delinquencies – are Florida, Nevada, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Georgia and those with the lowest percentage of non-current loans included Montana, Wyoming, Arkansas, South Dakota, and North Dakota.

Now on to our real estate investor news…

Bird Dog Ratio’s

There is a great deal of interest in becoming a bird dog and with good reason; six-figure income, zero start-up costs and extremely low risk make it a win-win for everyone involved. Unfortunately, a few less than scrupulous real estate guru’s have been promoting a bird dog type program that is long on promises and short on results. Now, we adhere to that old rule about “not saying nothing if you don’t have anything good to say” so our lips are mum on the offending party. However, in an effort to educate our readers, it is important to understand one ratio that will help prevent people from falling victim to promises that sound too good to be true.

Pay to Play

One of the newer twists to the bird dog field is the idea that you can pay to play with big investors. At first glance, it sounds like a great idea; you get direct contact with investors that have a proven track record and access to sufficient funding to close as many deals as they desire. The investors get to cherry pick the absolute best of the best properties by having a lot of eyes and ears scouring the area for the best properties.

But is the pay to play program everything it seems? It depends.

A Numbers Game

Like anything in real estate, it boils down to the numbers. Before paying anyone to become part of their bird-dog program, stop and do the math. For example, if someone is promoting a pay to play bird-dog program to 100 people who sign-up to participate, that is a lot of people going after the same properties in each area. Let’s just assume that each person averages ten different deals per year…with over 1,000 different properties to choose from, the chances of your property being selected is fairly minimal if the investor only buys 10 per year. It’s not bad if they buy 100 per year. As an example, one acquisition manager for a well known real estate investor said they evaluated over 1,000 deals a year and selected a couple of dozen at best. How does this translate to the average bird dog investor? Not all that well. By paying to play, you may actually be putting yourself at a distinct disadvantage rather than the desired advantage.

Use the Rules to Your Advantage

The solution? Simple. Use the rules to your advantage. Find out how many properties the investor buys each year as compared to the number of bird-dogs that are enrolled in any pay to play program. This is a “must know” ratio to determine prior to signing-up.

See you at the top!

Chris McLaughlin
**************

Copyright Loss Mitigation Institute LLC 2010.

All Rights Reserved.

http://www.shortsalesriches.com
http://www.shortsalescoach.com
http://www.sixfigurebpo.com
http://www.reomillionaireclub.com
http://www.youtube.com/shortsalesriches 

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com (subscribe to this newsletter)

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About the author:

Chris McLaughlin is widely known as America’s top
Real Estate Attorney and Investment Consultant.

    * As the top Florida foreclosure and pre-
      foreclosure expert, he oversees more than
      100 short sale & REO closings each month
   * Long-time authority on real estate investing
      and rapid reselling of distressed homes.  Owns
      portfolio of nearly 150 high-value, high-profit
      properties
    * Owner of one of Florida’s largest Real Estate firms,
     running 4 different offices, supporting over
     420 agents, uniquely positioning him to help
     thousands of investors make money in the
     biggest market opportunity ever!

   * In 2010, Chris’ 4 Central Florida real estate offices

      closed 2,786 sides for a closed sales volume of

      $392,912,927!  
    * Highly sought-after speaker, consultant, and
      seminar leader for current trends and hot topics
      in Real Estate Investing, Entrepreneurship, and
      Wealth Building
    * Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mclaughlinchris
    * Join my Facebook Fan Page: http://www.mclaughlinchris.com

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Shadow inventory, short sales rising

by admin on September 20, 2010

Smart Real Estate News & Commentary by Chris McLaughlin September 20, 2010

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Shadow inventory, short sales rising

As the approximate 2.5 million homes in foreclosure complete the process, national delinquencies will fall, and REO inventory and short sales are expected to trend upward, according to a report released today by John Burns Real Estate Consulting.  There are currently 562,000 bank-owned homes and 2.5 million mortgages more than 90 days delinquent in the market.  Single-family starts as well as single-family and multi-family permits were down in August, leaving total completions last month 33% lower  than July, at 587,000 units.

Foreclosures grew by 4% month-over-month.  Shadow inventory is inevitably growing and affecting the market already hit hard by high levels of distressed mortgages, such as Stockton, Calif. and Orlando, Fla., which have an excess supply of inventory already. According to John Burns’ data, the two cities have a 27 shadow months supply of homes, 22,344 and 81,309 homes, respectively.  CoreLogic reported that national home prices in July remained steady, but existing home sales decreased 2.6% in August compared to July, according to the National Association of Realtors. New home sales dropped 12% over the same period.

Will raising taxes kill business?

Republicans say raising taxes on the wealthy would cause small businesses to pull back on hiring. Many leading Democrats say that’s nonsense. Who’s right?  Obama wants to raise income tax rates on individuals making more than $200,000 and joint filers making $250,000 and up. That would affect 3% of all taxpayers who report business profits (known as “net positive business income”) on their individual tax returns, according to estimates by the Joint Committee on Taxation, the tax gurus on Capitol Hill.  All told, we’re talking about approximately 750,000 individuals.  How much small business income does that small minority generate?  Next year, an estimated 50% of all business income reported on individual returns will be generated by that small minority of taxpayers who file at the top two rates, the JCT estimates. 

Republicans contend that hiking taxes on even a small group of business owners — because they create a large amount of small business income — will discourage them from hiring. And it might discourage them from investing in other ways in their businesses. The ripple effect: The companies they might have bought equipment or services from will also take a hit.  The end result: fewer jobs are created.  Mari Adam is a certified financial planner who counts small business owners among her clients, and she herself runs a small business. She’s also a Democrat who believes taxes will have to go up. But she’s opposed to that happening in the near-term.  “It’s the context that they’re raising taxes in,” Adam said. “You sense you’re being assaulted from every direction.” 

Business income, home values and investments are all down, Adam noted. Meanwhile, a number of federal and local tax measures have been passed or proposed that could be a hit to small business owners for years to come.  There’s a new requirement, for instance, that they issue far more 1099s than they used to. By 2013, a high-income business owner will have to pay more Medicare tax on her wages and those of her employees. Plus, her investment income will be subject to the Medicare tax for the first time.  Until small business owners’ personal income recovers a bit, Adam believes, they’ll be reluctant to hire or expand.  “None of these [tax] measures is enough, in itself, to put you out of business,” she said. “All these things are cumulative. … The psychological impact of a tax increase now should not be underestimated.”  “It’s like the frog in boiling water. If you keep turning up the temperature, the frog won’t jump out, but eventually you do kill it.”

Olick – More stimulus or not?

“I’m not sure if it’s politics alone or the politics of economic prediction, but I’m seeing an awful lot of ‘revised’ housing expectations as we head into fall.  Chief economist of Fannie Mae Doug Duncan writes, ‘The large pullback in home sales after the tax credits’ expiration suggests weakening home prices in the third quarter.’  He calls a housing bottom, ‘elusive,’ and revises his 2010 projection of basically flat home sales to -7.4 percent.  And then came Moody’s ‘ResiLandscape’ report for September. The headline: ‘A Longer and Deeper Housing Correction’ Thanks to the end of the home buyer tax credit, ‘The housing market’s nascent recovery is back-sliding into a double-dip,’ says author Celia Chen. And so Moody’s has revised its forecast for a home price bottom from Q1 of 2011 to Q3 of 2011. ‘Prices will descend until distress sales represent a smaller share of total home sales,’ writes Chen.  I don’t pretend to be an economist, but didn’t everyone predict a fall-off from the end of the home buyer tax credit? (We saw it after the end of the first credit last Fall).”

“Haven’t we been watching the poor performance of the Administration’s mortgage bailout? Did I miss something about a surge in new employment?  On Monday CNBC will hold a town meeting with President Obama, and I’m sure someone will ask him whether or not he believes we need more government stimulus in housing.  So far the President has left most of the housing talk to his troops at Treasury and HUD.  The arguments for and against government stimulus in housing are both strong, and the price to pay for both is high. Either we let housing go through a long and painful correction or we continue a cycle of artificially stimulated boost and bust, as was the case with the tax credit.  I guess that’s why it’s so hard for all these economists to stick to their forecasts.”

Banks hurting

Inside the great investment houses on Wall Street, business has taken a surprising turn — downward.  After an unusually sharp slowdown in trading this summer, analysts are rethinking their profit forecasts for 2010.  The activities at the heart of what Wall Street does — selling and trading stocks and bonds, and advising on mergers — are running at levels well below where they were at this point last year, said Meredith Whitney, a bank analyst who was among the first to warn of the subprime mortgage disaster and its impact on big banks.  Worldwide, the number of stock offerings is down 15 percent from this time last year, while bond issuance is off 25 percent, according to Capital IQ, a research firm. Based on these trends, Ms. Whitney predicts that annual revenue from Wall Street’s main businesses will drop 25 percent, to around $42 billion in 2010, from $56 billion last year.  Trading in shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange was down by 11 percent in July from 2009 levels, and August volume was off nearly 30 percent. 

“What’s happened in the third quarter is that after a very slow summer, people expected things to come back,” said Ms. Whitney. “But they haven’t, and the inactivity is really squeezing everyone.”  The downward slide on Wall Street parallels a similar shift in the broader economy, which has slowed considerably since showing signs of a nascent recovery this spring. And if banks come under pressure, all but the safest borrowers may struggle to get loans.  With less than two weeks to go in the third quarter, companies will be hard-pressed to fulfill earlier, more optimistic expectations.  “It’s like the marathon: if you’re five miles behind, you can’t make that up in the last 10 minutes of the race,” said David H. Ellison, president of FBR Fund Advisers, a money management firm that specializes in financial companies. Many banks are barely scraping by in traditional Wall Street business.

Wall Street Journal – 10 reasons to own a house

1. You can get a good deal. Especially if you play hardball. This is a buyer’s market. Most of the other buyers have now vanished, as the tax credits on purchases have just expired.

2. Mortgages are cheap. You can get a 30-year loan for around 4.3%. What’s not to like? These are the lowest rates on record.

3. You’ll save on taxes. You can deduct the mortgage interest from your income taxes. You can deduct your real estate taxes. And you’ll get a tax break on capital gains—if any—when you sell.

4. It’ll be yours. You can have the kitchen and bathrooms you want. You can move the walls, build an extension—zoning permitted—or paint everything bright orange.

5. You’ll get a better home. In many parts of the country it can be really hard to find a good rental. All the best places are sold as condos.

6. It offers some inflation protection. No, it’s not perfect. But studies by Professor Karl “Chip” Case (of Case-Shiller), and others, suggest that over the long-term housing has tended to beat inflation by a couple of percentage points a year.

7. It’s risk capital.  No, your home isn’t the stock market and you shouldn’t view it as the way to get rich. But if the economy does surprise us all and start booming, sooner or later real estate prices will head up again, too.

8. It’s forced savings. If you can rent an apartment for $2,000 month instead of buying one for $2,400 a month, renting may make sense. But will you save that $400 for your future? A lot of people won’t. Most, I dare say.

9. There is a lot to choose from. There is a glut of homes in most of the country. The National Association of Realtors puts the current inventory at around 4 million homes.

10. Sooner or later, the market will clear. Demand and supply will meet. The population is forecast to grow by more than 100 million people over the next 40 years. That means maybe 40 million new households looking for homes.

Now for our real estate education section…

Monday Myth-Buster: OPM

“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.”

John F. Kennedy

Myth:  OPM (Other Peoples’ Money) is Best Avoided for Foreclosure Investing

Fact: Using OPM is the preferred method of investing in real estate and locating a solid source of investment funds is easy once you understand how to properly negotiate the terms.

Why Use OPM?

The use of OPM not only provides the greatest return on investment but provides the foundation that allows the purchase of meaningful deals. Let’s take a quick look at how this would work in real life.

Investor A decides to go it alone and sets aside enough money to purchase a $100,000 property for cash. Investor A feels great about this decisions since there is less headache and hassle associated with a cash transaction, s/he saves on closing costs and is able to keep 100% of the profits without the need to make expensive interest payments each month. Investor A sells the property for $135,000 for a tidy profit of $35,000 on the original $100k invested (for the sake of simplicity we are keeping this basic) or roughly 35%. Compared to the return most investors are getting on their money in today’s tough economy, Investor A looks like a genius!

Investor B also decides to purchase a $100,000 property while using a bank loan. S/he puts $20,000 down and takes out a mortgage for the remaining $80,000. This property is also sold for $135,000 but due to slightly higher transaction costs and loan servicing, there were an additional $5,000 in costs. The total profit is $30,000…less than that realized by Investor A in nominal terms but higher in relation to the total amount out of pocket.

Because Investor B only put $20,000 down, the total rate of return was 150% on the initial investment. In fact, using the same $100,000 out of pocket, Investor B could afford to purchase five properties for the same amount out of pocket and a total return of $150,000 versus only 35%. Compared to Investor A, Investor B now looks like a genius!

Investor C also decides to purchase a $100,000 property by maximizing the use of OPM. S/he only puts down $2,000 out of pocket and uses OPM to cover the other $98,000. The property also sells for $135,000 with $5,000 in expenses. Total profit is $33,000 on an original investment of only $2,000….obviously Investor C is the real genius! By using OPM, Investor C would be able to purchase up to 50 properties for the same $100,000 with a total return of over $1.5 million dollars. Pure Genius!

See you at the top!

Chris McLaughlin
**************

Copyright Loss Mitigation Institute LLC 2010.

All Rights Reserved.

http://www.shortsalesriches.com
http://www.shortsalescoach.com
http://www.sixfigurebpo.com
http://www.reomillionaireclub.com
http://www.youtube.com/shortsalesriches 

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com (subscribe to this newsletter)

*************************************************
About the author:

Chris McLaughlin is widely known as America’s top
Real Estate Attorney and Investment Consultant.

    * As the top Florida foreclosure and pre-
      foreclosure expert, he oversees more than
      100 short sale & REO closings each month
   * Long-time authority on real estate investing
      and rapid reselling of distressed homes.  Owns
      portfolio of nearly 100 high-value, high-profit
     properties
    * Owner of one of Florida’s largest Real Estate firms,
     running 4 different offices, supporting over
     400 agents, uniquely positioning him to help
     thousands of investors make money in the
     biggest market opportunity ever!
    * Highly sought-after speaker, consultant, and
      seminar leader for current trends and hot topics
      in Real Estate Investing, Entrepreneurship, and
      Wealth Building
    * Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mclaughlinchris
    * Join my Facebook Fan Page: http://www.mclaughlinchris.com
–

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Home delinquency rate increases

by admin on July 7, 2010

Smart Real Estate News & Commentary by Chris McLaughlin July 7, 2010

 Forward this e-mail to your friends! 

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Home delinquency rate increases

According to a report by Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS), there’s a 2.3% month-over-month increase in the nation’s home loan delinquency rate to 9.2% in May 2010, and early-stage delinquencies are increasing as normal seasonal improvements taper off. This report includes data as of May 31, 2010.  According to the Mortgage Monitor report, the percentage of mortgage loans in default beyond 90 days increased slightly, while both delinquency and foreclosure rates continue to remain relatively stable at historically high levels. There are currently more than 7.3 million loans currently in some stage of delinquency or REO.  The report also shows that the average number of days for a loan to move from 30-days delinquent to foreclosure sale continues to increase, and is now at an all-time high of 449 days, resulting in an increase in “shadow” foreclosure inventory. 

After a two-month decline, deterioration ratios increased, with 2.5 loans rolling to a “worse” status for every one that has improved. The number of delinquent loans that “cured” to a current status declined for every stage of delinquency, except in the “greater than six months delinquent” category.  This improvement was likely the result of trial modifications made through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) that transitioned into permanent status.  LPS manages the nation’s leading repository of loan-level residential mortgage data and performance information from nearly 40 million loans across the spectrum of credit products.  Diana Olick says, “Oh good, so the HAMP program is helping “cure” those 6 month+ delinquencies. No, they’re just delaying them yet again, since we know that the re-default rate on HAMP is only rising. Forget cure and think remission.”

MBA – Refinances increase

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending July 2, 2010 increased 6.7% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.  On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 6.5% compared with the previous week.  The Refinance Index increased 9.2% from the previous week and is the highest Refinance Index observed in the survey since the week ending May 15, 2009. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 2.0% from one week earlier. The Purchase Index has decreased eight of the last nine weeks.  The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 2.3% compared with the previous week and was 34.7% lower than the same week one year ago.  “Mortgage rates remained near record lows last week, as incoming data on the job and housing markets were weaker than anticipated.  As more homeowners locked in to these low rates, the level of refinance applications increased to a new 13-month high,” said Michael Fratantoni, MBA’s Vice President of Research and Economics. 

“For the month of June, purchase applications declined almost 15% relative to the prior month, and were down more than 30% compared to April, the last month in which buyers were eligible for the tax credit.”  The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 6.4%.  The four week moving average is up 0.1% for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is up 8.3% for the Refinance Index.  The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 78.7% of total applications from 76.8% the previous week, which is the highest refinance share observed in the survey since April 2009. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 5.4% from 4.7% of total applications from the previous week.

Credit card delinquencies down

The American Bankers Association (ABA) says the number of consumers behind on their credit card payments fell to an eight-year low in the first quarter of 2010, and delinquencies across a wide-range of consumer debt categories have also fallen.  High unemployment and plummeting home values during the financial meltdown appear to have spurred consumers to shore up their finances and banks to limit their lending, resulting in fewer Americans being late with payments, the industry group said. 

About 3.88% of bank credit card accounts were past due by 30 days or more in the first quarter of the year — the first time since 2002 that the rate has fallen below 4%, the ABA said Wednesday.  And ABA’s composite ratio, which tracks delinquencies across eight key categories, fell to 2.98% from 3.19% the previous quarter — a sign of modest improvement in the U.S. economy, the group said.  “Consumers are doing a much better job managing their finances, building their savings and spending and borrowing less,” ABA Chief Economist James Chessen said.  The Commerce Department’s most recent reports on personal spending and income also showed that consumers stashed a higher portion of their earnings into savings in May than they did a month earlier.

Shopping center vacancies rise

According to research firm Reis Inc, the vacancy rate in U.S. strip centers during the second quarter rose 0.10 percentage point from the first quarter to 10.9%, slightly below the 11% in 1991 during the prior real estate bust, according to the Reis quarterly report, released on Wednesday.  Retailers gave up 1.85 million square feet of occupied space in the second quarter at neighborhood shopping centers, while developers opened less than 400,000 square feet of new strip mall space.  That compares with an average of about 7 million to 8 million square feet of shopping centers built each year from about 2001, according to Reis. 

Asking rents fell 0.3% from the first quarter to $19.07 per square foot, the lowest since the end of 2006.  Factoring in months of free rent and other perks landlords offered to attract and retain tenants, effective rent fell 0.5% to $16.58 per square foot, the lowest in nearly five years.  Reis said that roughly half of its clients plan to take advantage of the cheap rents in their expansion plans.  At large U.S. malls, the vacancy rate rose 0.10 percentage point from the first quarter to 9%, the highest since the first quarter 2000, when Reis began tracking regional malls. Asking rent fell 0.2% to $38.72 per square foot, marking the seventh straight quarter of decline. Asking rent was the lowest in more than four years.

Now for our real estate education section…

Stats, Facts & Other Social Media Solutions

Are you putting the power of social media marketing to work for your real estate business? If not now-when? If you have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for the perfect time to take the plunge, here are a few stats and facts that should provide all the inspiration required:

Inclusive…

  • 77% of Internet users rely upon blogs for information…roughly 80% of real estate buyers and sellers make first contact with an agent via by reading their blogs first.
  • The average social media user has 195 friends they routinely communicate with an average of 1 to 2 x per week.
  • Mobile Facebook users are twice as active as non-mobile users. Only one of every four Twitter users interact via the web interface.

Exclusive…

  • Over 60% of Twitter users are outside of the USA.
  • Over half of YouTube users are under 20 years of age.

Take Away’s…

1. Make mobile a priority when using social media websites. Mobile users on both Facebook and Twitter are more active, linked to more people and increasingly interact exclusively via applications outside of the web interface.

2. International real estate sales and market must use Twitter.

3. UTube is especially geared toward a younger audience.

4. Blogs are a ‘must have’ for building relationships.

5. Put an “I” in social media marketing. Effective marketing is an extension of your professional “voice” but that doesn’t meant it must take a lot of time and effort. Learn how to put the power of social media marketing to work for your real estate endeavors by joining one of our webinars or other informational sessions.

See you at the top!

Chris McLaughlin
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Copyright Loss Mitigation Institute LLC 2010.

All Rights Reserved.

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About the author:

Chris McLaughlin is widely known as America’s top
Real Estate Attorney and Investment Consultant.

    * As the top Florida foreclosure and pre-
      foreclosure expert, he oversees more than
      100 short sale & REO closings each month
   * Long-time authority on real estate investing
      and rapid reselling of distressed homes.  Owns
      portfolio of nearly 100 high-value, high-profit
     properties
    * Owner of one of Florida’s largest Real Estate firms,
     running 4 different offices, supporting over
     400 agents, uniquely positioning him to help
     thousands of investors make money in the
     biggest market opportunity ever!
    * Highly sought-after speaker, consultant, and
      seminar leader for current trends and hot topics
      in Real Estate Investing, Entrepreneurship, and
      Wealth Building
    * Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mclaughlinchris
    * Join my Facebook Fan Page: http://www.mclaughlinchris.com
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