bubbleinfo.com

Lenders have lost an excuse for not foreclosing – from MND:

Here’s a tour of the modular we saw assembled back in February.  While many may have a concern about the quality of construction, it will be compounded by the noise and somewhat uncommon look inside:

The banking/government industrial complex should look at this, and think everything is fine – don’t spend any more trillions!!

Most people would expect that things would work out better after 10 years….

The mainstream media and blogs were buzzing this week about the big increase in BofA’s NOD filings last month.

Let’s examine the local NOD and NOTS counts to see if the foreclosure waters are rising. These are the monthly totals of notices/sales for all property types in SD County filed by all lenders, with BofA’s total right below (and NSDCC counts for SFRs only):

Looking at September’s month-to-date totals, the new-notice issuance is cooling off already. It doesn’t really matter how many notices they file, unless they actually start forclosing on people. We’ll keep an eye on them.

Welcome back – hopefully everybody made it through the blog-host changeover, thank for your patience.  We lost a couple of posts and a few comments, but we should be better off overall.

We’ve reached the 900th video – a collection of cars around town:

We changed blog hosts last night, which should mean faster loading. It’ll take a day for the change to migrate through the internet, so as you pick up this new post, let me know it working!

Hat tip to both MB and daytrip who sent this in:

Home sellers have been trained by the real estate industrial complex to think that the big splashy ads in newspapers and magazines will sell their home.  Realtors prey on the seller’s ego by promising to have their house prominently displayed all over town, and with a price that will make them proud.  Sometimes they’ll get a chuckle with their signature sign-off, “we can always lower it later”.

In 2011, those tactics are low-grade.

Yes, there is a very remote chance that some old guy sitting around the barbershop will pick up a freebee real estate magazine and become enamored with the glossy photos, and plunk down a small portion of his massive bankroll to put you out of your misery.  Very remote.

It’s much more likely that the eventual buyer will come from a thorough internet presentation that reflects reality.  Most realtors say they do video tours, but in virtually every case they are moving a camera over a still photo.  That is not a video tour.

If you are selling your house, review the internet presentations of the realtors you are considering.

1. Do they use large, clear photos that look professional?  Or did they use a camera they got out of a cereal box?

2. Do they use a wide-angle lens that captures most of the room?

3.  Are they “over-photoshopped? Improving the quality with the computer is permissible, but if they are adding enough extra mustard that it looks like a fairy-tale, it’ll makes buyers wonder, “what are they hiding?”

4.  Do they include a youtube video tour that shows a physical walk-through of the house?

The listing agents that produce a tailored, professional internet presentation of your house are the ones doing sellers a favor.  They will use these photos and videos on all of their marketing, and maximize the exposure of your home.

Both buyers and sellers should use two other simple ways to evaluate agents:

1. Check their license number – it’s on every business card now.  Agent license numbers are issued sequentially, so the lower the number, the longer they have been in business:

My license # 00873197 from 1984

Klinge Realty # 01388871 from 2003

Wifey’s license # 01889890 from 2010

The license number is just a checkpoint on experience, and not a perfect measure.  There are plenty of old guys with numbers around mine that should have retired a long time ago, and others like wifey who just got licensed but have been in the business for 12 years - she has more qualified experience than most realtors.

2.  The BEST way to evaulate a realtor is by how many homes they have sold this year.

It’ll make virtually every agent squirm, but you want to know how successful they are at navigating these waters.  The market is TOUGH, and you need quality help to succeed.  A decent, full-time realtor should be selling at least one house per month.  If they aren’t, you should ask more questions to find out why.  There are still 2,000+ sales happening month in SD County, rates are at all-time lows, and lots of people want to buy a house.  If their answer is ‘bad economy’, then you may want to keep looking.

It is nothing personal, I’m not trying to throw lousy agents under the bus – they will do it themselves.  The public deserves to know how to evaluate a realtor, in an environment where virtually nobody talks about it.

Here is my video on Interviewing Listing Agents: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-9qpueJik8

From msnbc.com:

Bank of America has been ordered to pay a former employee $930,000 for violating federal whistleblower protection laws.

The Labor Department also ordered the bank to reinstate the worker.

The Los Angeles-area employee led internal investigations that revealed widespread and pervasive wire, mail and bank fraud involving Countrywide employees, according to a Labor Department statement Wednesday.

The payment will cover back wages, interest, compensatory damages and attorney fees.

“It’s clear from our investigation that Bank of America used illegal retaliatory tactics against this employee,” said David Michaels, assistant secretary of the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. “This employee showed great courage reporting potential fraud and standing up for the rights of other employees to do the same.”

The employee said those who attempted to report fraud to Countrywide’s Employee Relations Department suffered persistent retaliation.

Bank of America said it plans to challenge the order. The Charlotte, N.C. bank said it dismissed the employee because of issues related to management style rather than the complaints. The bank said it takes allegations of fraud seriously and that the employees allegations were investigated and appropriate actions were taken.

Bank of America’s ill-fated acquisition of Countrywide has led to heavy financial losses, lawsuits and regulatory probes. The bank’s stock lost 48 percent this year, largely because of problems related to poorly-written mortgages at Countrywide. In the first half of the year the bank paid out $12.7 billion to settle claims from investors that it sold them securities backed by faulty mortgages.

The employee, who worked for Countrywide Financial Corp., was fired shortly after the mortgage lender was bought by Bank of America Corp. in 2008.