Real Estate Off The Leash

It appears that many congressional leaders believe that the $8K tax credit should be extended as it appears to have helped stimulate increased demand for homes and therefore industry related employment as well. The housing industry is still in a fragile state, but we are seeing fairly steady improvement.

Unfortunately, with every good program, there are those out there that will try to find scams to enrich themselves at the cost of everyone else. This is true with this program as well and the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) is examining questionable claims. Of course, this adds more expense to the program which is generally thought to cost approximately $1B per month.

Mixed Reviews – the Dow’s been toying with the 10K mark and we’ve seen some steps toward improvement in the real estate industry, yet, unemployment figures and foreclosures are putting a damper on any kind of thought of a quick recovery. We are experiencing the longest recession since the ‘30’s and the worst unemployment rate in 26 years.

Now it could be worse, but how do you tell that to your neighbor who’s out of work and in jeopardy of losing their home? I have a dear friend who’s been out of work for 6 months, but what makes this situation worse is that he has a roommate who is not only out of work but also dealing with chemotherapy. Now he’s in jeopardy of eventually losing his home and doesn’t know what he can do to help the roommate.

This is just one situation, yet there are many, many like this and these are our neighbors and friends.

OK, so now with all that doom & gloom said, the National Association of Business Economics (NABE) released a report last week in which more than 80% of economists surveyed believe that the recession is over & we are starting a period of expansion. Granted, the unemployment rate and federal deficit are expected to remain somewhat high through 2010.

Additionally, they expect overall housing prices to increase by 2% and that 2010 will be the first year since ’05 that the housing industry will contribute to the nation’s overall growth.

Many economists believe that we’ve exited the recession during the last quarter and that we are entering the recovery period. The situation that we currently find ourselves in did not occur overnight. It took years to create and will take more than just a few quarters of growth to repair it.

Till next time….Marc It Sold!

This is just absolutely ridiculous! That we as a society have stooped to this level is abominable. Shame on us! If this is the only way for some to get their point across with misinformation and the selling of fear, then we should be ashamed. What happened to good old debates? Yes, even then each side would have their own slant, but not a total distortion of the facts.

If we took a poll today, I doubt if 50% of the people could accurately relate what ‘end of life counseling’ or ‘single-payer system’ means.

Before we even get into that, what’s being discussed as healthcare reform is in reality health insurance reform. The insurance companies have run amok. I have no problem with a corporation making a profit. That’s capitalism as it should be. But you want to talk about death squads, well they are the real culprits. Insurance companies make life and death decisions about what coverages they will allow us based on the cost-benefit, but not to the insured, to the corporation and of course their good old actuarial tables. Yet, they have deep pockets (profiting from us) and lobbyists so all we are hearing is the rhetoric that they are spewing, which carries very little truth.

Pres. Obama did not say that government would make decisions about who gets care. Actually, quite the opposite. He said, “I don’t want bureaucracies making those decisions.” He also said, “The point is we want to use science, we want doctors and medical experts to be making decisions that all too often right now are driven by skewed policies, by outdated means of reimbursement, or by insurance companies.”

I think it’s very important for seniors to have counseling in regard to options, especially when it comes to Hospice care. I used them when I knew it was time for my mother. They were there for pain management and their goal was to make her comfortable so she could pass, when the time came, in her own home, not in a hospital bed with strangers, tubes and machines.

Comparing a single-payer system to socialism is absurd. One has absolutely nothing to do with the other. A socialized health care system is one in which all health care facilities and personnel are owned and operated by the government. A single-payer system refers to the funding of health care, not the services rendered. An example of such in the U.S. is Medicare. It is a single-payer system, not socialized medicine.

The difference between our present single-payer system, Medicare, and that of other countries such as a Canada, is that ours is for seniors and the disabled whereas theirs is a universal health care. In simplistic terms, we are just talking about our system, but on a larger scale.

People! Take the initiative to research what is being discussed instead of listening to pundits. It doesn’t take long to Google any of these topics mentioned here. The news is now big entertainment. With the proliferation of all the channels on the television, all these so-called pundits need to attract viewers. The majority can’t do that by just giving us the facts & letting us come to our own conclusions. It’s about sensationalism, whether it be from the right, left or middle.

While researching this post, I came across a very informative site www.FactCheck.org. It is produced by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Want to learn more about Health Care and debunk some of the myths, check it out.

Till next time….Marc It Sold!

Or What’s Gone Wrong With the Appraisal Industry?

This could be a long convoluted series of articles, but I’ll try to summarize what’s occurring in the appraisal industry.

Yes, we all know of the fallout with subprime loans & homes being grossly overvalued.

Short history… Lenders used to work very closely with certain appraisers. As everything was going crazy they told their appraisers to appraise a property for the value that the lender wanted otherwise they would use someone else. This was the appraisers’ lifeline, so they had to do such. And therefore, values went up and up and in many cases at astronomical rates.

We know what happened with most of those loans and are seeing the fallout of such. Unfortunately, in their efforts to correct a wrong, those in charge are going too far and after the incorrect parties. Andrew Cuomo, Attorney General of New York, helped push us to HVCC (Home Valuation Code of Conduct) which went into effect May 1.

Update… Now lenders have to go through a management company who in turn mete out appraisals. The problem here is that this company takes a portion (40% or more) of the cost of the appraisal. You have to understand that the management company is profit oriented, so you can only gather that they choose the lowest bidder. Now seriously, think of this. How do you expect to get quality work for minimum bid? I’m not saying it can’t happen, but …

Many of these appraisals are being performed by appraisers who are outside of the market. Therefore, they are most likely not as well informed on those current market conditions and nuances that affect each individual market.

To further complicate matters, I cannot talk to the appraiser, nor can the lender or anyone else who’s considered ‘an interested party’ in the transaction. So if I want the appraiser to take into consideration other comparables, I would have to contact the management company with this information.

Now, there is a way around this, go VA or FHA. You see, HVCC only applies to loans of 1 – 4 family residential units that are sold by Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac.

The use of HVCC is affecting all of us, not only the lender, appraisers and Realtors, but also YOU – the buyers, sellers and homeowners.

The market has been correcting itself. Sales have risen, the inventory is dropping and median and average sales prices are in many cases progressing in an upward trend. With the use of HVCC we are seeing many homes being undervalued and therefore the ensuing loss of value to the community and in many instances prospective sales that are not coming to fruition.

There is a move about for an 18-month moratorium to HVCC. This is necessary for the market to continue to correct itself. This is also necessary for HVCC to be corrected itself. Our legislators need to do the right thing to help us protect our home values.

Till next time….Marc It Sold!

…or is it just time to get rid of the Legislature?

In this day and age with lightening speed modern technology, why are we not the one’s making the decision on our future?

We put people in office to represent us, but is this really the case? Do they actually represent us or that of their own personal agenda & their corporate campaign contributors?

Yes, if we are not happy with our congressperson, we can vote them out of office.  But, that may be too late.  The damage could already be done.  The missed opportunity may be gone.

Is what we are seeing a true democracy? I’m surely not promoting autocracy or oligarchy.  But don’t we need changes in our present system to really and ultimately represent that of the people?

Presently our system is that of a representative democracy, but don’t you think we should possibly consider a more direct form of government with limited representation.  Just take a look at Vermont where they have yearly town meeting to decide local issues.  On a larger scale, we have Switzerland where they vote on national referendums two to four times a year.  Granted, we have not seen direct democracy utilized on any large scale such as that of the United States.

With all the information at our fingertips, why not change, besides the fact that many of our representatives would then be out of a job?  Think of the monies that we could save and be put to better use.  Wouldn’t you like more of a say in our government and how it works? Wouldn’t you be more involved if you were given the chance to say yea or nay to an issue?

Of course, then this begs further on other issues such as campaign reform; lobbyists; and, of course, the dreaded electoral college.

President Theodore Roosevelt, in his “Charter of Democracy” speech stated “I believe in the Initiative and Referendum, which should be used not to destroy representative government, but to correct it whenever it becomes misrepresentative.”

We hear a lot of talk from all levels of government, but isn’t this just rhetoric? Is what you are hearing generally representative of your point of view?

Till next time….Marc It Sold!

Earlier this week I spent a couple of days in Tallahassee with the Florida Realtor® contingent for the Great American Realtor® Days, our Legislative Days in which we meet & greet our elected officials and discuss with them what we are supporting and feel is necessary to Florida’s future as well as asking them how we can help as well. In general, the meetings are very productive and warmly accepted.

One of the main issues that we, The Florida Association of Realtors® and the Orlando Regional Realtor® Association, are following & supporting is SunRail, the proposed 61 mile commuter rail stretching from Deland to Poinciana formerly known as the Central Florida Commuter Rail. Before we go into the he said/she said and some of the motivation behind some of these half-truths, etc. about SunRail, let’s look into the economic impact of such.

The Florida DOT hired an outside company to perform an economic impact analysis of the proposed SunRail. What their findings showed was that it would almost immediately create 13,000 more construction and operations jobs with an impact of more than $350M in household income.

Additionally, it was noted that within a one-half mile radius of the station stops it would further create an additional 113,000 construction jobs; $4.6B in construction dollar earnings over the next 20 years; an increase of almost 9 times the value of property; and a further economic impact of $2.5B from workers living and spending in that area.

This is a phenomenal impact in this day age and does not even take into consideration the benefits that this will allow others a reasonable form of transportation. And let’s not forget the health benefits. Without SunRail and additional two more lanes would have to be added to I-4. Instead, we should be seeing a reduction in this traffic and its associated pollution.

OK, so let’s now look at another aspect of why SunRail is needed and why it has to be now! Several years ago, the Federal Government earmarked monies to Florida for a similar purpose. Unfortunately, we could not get the measure passed and the monies went to Charlotte, NC, which is running what I understand to be a profitable system. If Florida does not pass this legislation, I do not see the Federal Government ever offering us these funds again for commuter rail. Why should they? This isn’t baseball where you get three strikes!

One of the main opponents to SunRail is Sen. Paula Dockery. She states her main concern is because the freight trains will divide the downtown of Lakeland & she’s been also been touting the liability issues. We’ll discuss those in a moment, but it must be understood that she also has a personal background and I think this goes much deeper. You have to understand that her husband lost millions upon millions of dollars when the high-speed rail amendment did not pass several years ago. Think she has a bad taste in her mouth and might just be a tad retaliatory? I do, but then again that’s just my opinion.

Firstly, the State of Florida is buying CSX’s tracks and this figure is not overstated and in fact falls between two independent appraisals of such. Secondly, she states that the no-fault liability unfairly benefits CSX. The liability provisions are basically the same as those of South Florida’s Tri-Rail system. What’s even funnier is that Sen. Dockery voted in favor of that back then.  Hmm…do we see a contradiction here?

The are other arguments on both sides that are unfounded and the fact is that the citizens of the State of Florida will not be on the lam to pay for SunRail if the federal funds are not received.

Sen. Gary Siplin, another opponent who is not fully cognizant of the whole situation, was under the impression that the monies should be used elsewhere, such as for education. That’s all well and good, but there is a problem in that the funds we are talking about here can only be used for transportation projects. When this was explained to Sen. Siplin, it appeared that a light bulb went off in his head.

The benefits of SunRail to Central Florida are great. But if we do not go ahead with this project, we will not see any more federal dollars coming through for other rail projects in Florida and that will be a tragedy of greater proportions.

Call your Legislator today! The State of Florida Needs SunRail and so do you!

Till next time…Marc It Sold!

Yes, it’s been quite some time since I’ve written about real estate and politics on a regular basis.  Basically, I’ve just been sitting back and watching what this new administration is doing in efforts to try to correct a very bad situation that we’ve all been enduring.  I felt that my cynicism and sarcasm needed to be put on a leash for a while.  Goodness knows there are enough pundits out there spewing about as it is.

Next week, I’m heading to Tallahassee with the Orlando Regional Realtor Association for the Great American Realtor Days with the Florida Association of Realtors.  It should be interesting.  Last year there was a legislator that was so rude to us that I was ready to walk out of their office, but didn’t out of respect for the other Realtors with me.  This person was more interested in opening their mail than talking to us, yet they wanted out support – go figure!!

Anyway, look forward to new posts coming soon!

Til then…Marc It Sold!

On March 10, 2009, Marc Grossman, GRI opened Marc It Sold!, a real estate services firm serving the Greater Orlando Central Florida area.

…or at least that’s what he’d like people to think. Guess that’s why he’s named himself that on his website. But Florida Governor Charlie Crist is anything but. He is just a political animal looking for his next appointment. He can’t even get through one term in office and he’s already been vying for one job and is now looking forward towards another possibility.

My reason for writing this post came about after a Government Affairs Committee meeting for the Orlando Regional Realtors Association last week while talking with a couple of colleagues. We were discussing the upcoming Legislative Days in Tallahassee and I made a disparaging remark about our Governor. One of the woman asked me why and my response was that Charlie Crist surely can’t like his job as Governor of this state. Additionally, there is a great editorial by Mike Thomas in yesterday’s Orlando Sentinel, As rendezvous with harsh realty nears, Crist may consider Senate bid.

Since he’s been in office he’s been trying to get other positions. He couldn’t have been further up Senator John McCain’s derriere following him around the country seeking to be his running mate for the Vice Presidential nomination. Now, that is gone he wants to run for the U. S. Senate. Sorry, but maybe you should take some time and take care of things at home before moving on.

You never know what will come from Charlie Crist. He hasn’t accomplished one of his campaign’s goals and on top of that has reversed his stance several times. To make himself more appealing to the McCain ticket he thought it would be good to change his opinion on Offshore Drilling. The heck with the environment and the people of Florida.

I can understand wanting to get ahead and being politically motivated, but….doesn’t there have to be a limit? It’s understood that Charlie is looking towards the White House and the thought of that really scares me. He can’t take care of his present position, how the heck can he take care of this nation.

Crist is very charismatic and we’ve all got sucked into his speeches, but when you look at them, they’re all rhetoric. He speaks about being bipartisan and reaching across the aisle, but he is only interested in one goal….and that is promoting Charlie Crist at whoevers expense that may be. His approval rating is unfathomable for such a poor Governor.

None of his Real Estate initiatives, whether it be taxes, insurance or promoting increased sales and production has had any success, whatsoever.  In fact, they’ve all been abominable including his much touted Amendment 1.

Seriously, why do you think Charlie got married? Because it would help his political career. He needed it to supposedly dispel the rumors that he’s gay or bi or whatever the heck he is. Who cares, but again it’s just political motivation. It’s been shown that as Attorney General he knew of the Mark Foley scandal a long time before it became public, but just pushed it under the carpet.

I really don’t care what he is, but I do care that he’s possibly a hypocrite. There is no room for Charlie Crist in the State of Florida and surely he won’t be much help to the people in other offices as well.

Mike Thomas wrote, that “his poll numbers have an inverse relationship with reality. There is little more to be gained, and lots to be lost, by staying in Tallahassee.” Please move on Mr. Crist and preferably out of politics. Then you would be doing us a favor and we’ll call you a – Man of the People!

Till next time…Marc It Sold!

Recently, Florida State Representative Darren Soto (District # 49 – covering parts of Orange & Osceola counties) introduced legislation entitled, the Homeowner’s Foreclosure Bill of Rights that will hopefully help millions of Floridians that are facing foreclosure.

The bill is not a freebie, but would force lenders to renegotiate loans of owner-occupied properties that have been devalued. The way it would work is that homeowner and lender would renegotiate the loan at the property’s present value with the difference from the original loan to the new loan being tacked on at the end of the loan. Basically, we’re talking about a 30-year fixed rate loan with a balloon payment.

To get to this point the lender and homeowner would be forced to mediate. This unfortunately, would further burden a legal system that is already overburdened.

This would allow many to be able to stay in their homes and afford them, especially during our current economic situation. Of course, the homeowner would have to qualify for the new loan, otherwise it would be for naught and just an even more costly mess.

According to Rep. Soto, “What we are trying to do is stabilize the market, we want these people to stay in there homes.”

If this legislation passes both the House & Senate, it would take effect on July 1, 2009.  It’ll be interesting to see how our legislators react to the bill.

Until next time….Marc It Sold!

Day in and day out we always hear about numbers. The price of this, the cost of that, the value of those, but what do all these things mean. The fact is numbers and statistics can be misconstrued. On the surface, you may think that they are black and white in character, but the reality is that they can be easily skewed in most instances.

I love dealing with numbers and part of what may have brought this to a head is my dealing with financial investment calculations and pro forma income statements while studying for my Broker’s exam.

The only reason that someone will skew the numbers is to sway someone else over to their side. What other reason could there be? What other use could there be? The sad part is that someone is being deluded & I take issue with that.

Part of the reason this post came about is because of David Lereah, the former NAR (National Association of Realtors®) Economist’s revelation that he put a ‘positive spin’ on the numbers during his tenure. I’ve felt the same with Lawrence Yun, the present NAR Economist. Like Lereah stated, he was working for the association and therefore it was his job to do so.

So, therefore, he’s spouting what is basically bs, but because of his position many will take it at face value and believe it. This happens all the time, whether it be in business, politics, etc. Again, I have a major issue here. You may wish to call it a spin or whatever, but the long and short of it is that it’s still blatantly a lie! I don’t care how you want to color it or what name you wish to put on it – it is what it is – a LIE!!

Another reason that brought this to the forefront was a paper that I read yesterday issued by Morgan Stanley entitled, Interest Rate Strategy: Implications of a 4.5% Mortgage Rate. While again the paper is very interesting & there are some hard facts there, I also think that there are some intrinsic items that are missing and cannot be denoted with numbers.

This also brings me to the Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) which you hear about so much. All it is an ‘opinion’ of value and should surely not be construed with an appraisal. I stopped performing CMA’s many years ago because it is just so easy for anyone to skew those numbers. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure most Realtors® are very realistic in their analyses. But at the same time I’m fairly sure that there are many that will skew those numbers just to get the listing. That does not help anyone in the long run & surely hurts you the consumer. And furthermore, does not help this industry, just as what the NAR economists have done.

This is a gross injustice to the many that work so hard at building our good reputations.

I use numbers and statistics quite a bit myself. Every month I produce 14 market statistics posts for cities and counties in which I work. When I use these numbers I try to make them black & white. If I skewed the numbers, all I’m doing is creating misinformation. I don’t see the use of that for it would only come back to haunt me.

This was not meant to be a rant, but hopefully just an eye opening awakening. Many of us are naïve in so many ways. It’s not that we are Pollyannas. It’s basically that we just wouldn’t expect such. I personally try to take things that I encounter at face value until proven otherwise. I think that treating things differently might make us a little jaded. So may be I am somewhat Pollyannish, but I moreso consider myself a realistic optimist.

With that said…until next time…Marc It Sold!