Foreclosures worse then ever

From CNN:

The Mortgage Bankers Association's first quarter report showed that a record 2.5% of all home loans being serviced by its members are now in foreclosure, which works out to about 1.1 million homes. That's up from the 2% of loans, or about 938,000 homes, that were in foreclosure at the end of 2007.

The report also showed that 448,000 homes, or about 1% of loans being serviced, began the foreclosure process during the first quarter. That's up from about 382,000 homes, or 0.83%, that entered foreclosure in the last three months of 2007.

This marks the sixth straight quarter in which a record percentage of loans went into foreclosure. The trend has led to widespread declines in home prices, as well as huge losses for banks and other financial firms that issued or invested in the loans.

Undertanding Fiduciary Duty

fiduciary - a defenition

1.	Law. a person to whom property or power is entrusted for the benefit of another.

–adjective

2.	Law. of or pertaining to the relation between a fiduciary and his or her principal: a fiduciary capacity; a fiduciary duty.

3.	of, based on, or in the nature of trust and confidence, as in public affairs: a fiduciary obligation of government employees.

4.	depending on public confidence for value or currency, as fiat money.

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I am the first one to admit that the training as a real estate agent is pretty much a complete joke. But they do pound into us one concept, that we have a "fiduciary" responsibility to the client.

Technically when we first meet with our clients Realtors (capital R), are supposed to show a document called "Understanding who the Real Estate Agent represents."


Are we agents representing the seller, are we representing the buyer, what does it mean to represent something besides just an interest in getting a commission?

Well the other day my aunt called me up and said Todd would you please sell my $150,000 pile of rugs for me. And i said ok, and i called up my friend and said hey you want to buy all those rugs my aunt has for $150k, and he said yes. He is a bit of an entrepreneur and thought to himself that the rugs were worth way more, and he tried to get me to try and and see if i could get a little bit more out of my aunt. At which point i realized, wait a minute whose side am I on here?

Do i use my negotiating prowess to help my friend get the most out of the deal, or do i try and get more out of my friend for my aunt, whats my fiduciary duty?

Thats why we have buyers agents and sellers agents. We sign documents swearing our duty too our clients, and are morally, and legally bound to act accordingly.

What are my services?

Why use a real estate agent?

What will i do, What is my service?

There are buyer services and there are seller services. Here we will discuss buyer services.

Buyer Services

1. Prequalification
   
1. looking at your monthly income and expenses and figuring out what kind of monthly obligation you are comfortable with.
2. Looking at what kind of funds you have available for down payment
3. Look at what payments you will need to make including insurance, taxes, adjustedtaxes, Condo fees, ground rent, mortgage insurance, electric bills, gas bills, principal payments, and interest payments.
   
4. Looking at all of these factors figuring out what price range you should be looking into.
   
2. Matching you with properties that match your needs.
1. I will work with you to figure out what it is that you want in a house. Spending time to adctually get precise with what it is that you like in a house, reduces wheel spinning and informs me about what to show you.
   
1. General Style
1. townhouse, detached
2. Garden
3. Garage spaces
2. Location Location Location
1. Schools
2. Traffic outside of house
3. Lighting (Southern facing houses get more light)
   
3. Kitchen Appointments
   
1. How Updated do you like, and what do you want in a kitchen?
4. Bathrooms
1. How many, and what do you need?
1. Can it just have a shower?
2. Just have a bath?
2. Monitoring the market and sending you properties that match your needs the moment they come on the market.
3. Comparative Market Analysis
1. Once you find a property, providing you with a report showing what similar properties have sold in the neighborhood and at what price.
2. Foreseeing potential Appraisal issues, both in price and in condition of the house.
   
4. Preparing a 30page contract
5. Contract Negotiation
1. Time
2. Price
3. Earnest Money deposit
4. Financing contingencies
6. Home Insepection
1. Providing you with a Solid dependable Home Inspection
7. 2nd round of negotiations
1. Figuring out what to demand from the home inspection report.
2. Coordinating and verifying that the work was done in a satisfactory manner
8. Bank Communications
1. Making sure that things are going the way that they were thought to go and foreseeing potential problems before they happen
2. Coordinating with appraiser to make sure they can get into property.
3. Making sure that the appraisal is using valid comperable market research.
   
9. Title coordination.
1. Making sure title work has been started.
2. Obtaining ground rent information about property
3. Coordinating closing date for all parties
10. Closing