www.Koziel.com

 

 

January showed a large increase in sales with fewer new inventory entering the marketplace.  Although many of the sales were REO or Foreclosures this increase in activity was a good sign.  Home sale prices have dropped so more people can purchase a home.  Local banks are once again lending and the federal government has several new programs to help first time homeowners.

 

According to a newsletter I just received from CAR REALTORS®  have some good news for the family budget!

 

"NO MORE COMMISSION REDUCTIONS FOR FANNIE MAE SHORT SALES

Fannie Mae loan servicers can no longer require real estate brokers to reduce their commissions as a condition to a short sale approval.  This new Fannie Mae policy takes effect on March 1, 2009.  According to Fannie Mae, the closing of a pre-foreclosure sale cannot be conditioned upon a reduction of the real estate commission to a level below what the listing agent and borrower negotiated.  An exception applies if the total commission is more than six percent of the sales price.

This good news may be tempered by the difficulty for REALTORS® to ascertain whether the underlying loan in a short sale transaction is a Fannie Mae loan.  REALTORS® may wish to ask the lender or loan servicer whether the loan is a Fannie Mae loan, and to consider submitting the Fannie Mae Announcement to the lender with the short sale package."

www.EducationPlus.biz
 

 

 

 

"The California DRE has proposed increasing all licensing fees to approximately double their current levels. If this is of interest to any of you, you can get more information at www.dre.ca.gov and on the home page click at the top on “Decisions Pending and Opportunities for Public Participation”. You can send in “written comments” before 3/5/09 and on March 6^th there will be a public hearing in Sacramento. See you there.

 

So many readers sent me emails expressing their views that we have set up a survey so everyone can express their opinions about license fees, testing requirements and other items about California DRE Regulations. To participate, go to www.DuaneGomer.com and select “Important DRE Survey”. It will be fun and I will forward the results to DRE for consideration.

 

By the way, the DRE is operated solely on license and subdivision fees. No tax dollars are involved. The amounts being promulgated will bring the fees up to the maximum levels currently existing. In 2003 fees were reduced greatly because of the substantial increase in fees collected during the early years of this decade. Everyone wanted a license.

 

Fee increases of this type recommended by the Commissioner do not go before the State Legislature. Provisions are made for written and verbal comments at a March 6^th hearing and then the recommendations go for Administrative Law Review. It is my opinion, after discussions with the DRE, that these increases will become effective July 1, 2009.

 

I intend to go to the hearing in Sacramento and will present any comments made to my blog and will present the results of our survey from interested parties."

 

Author:Duane Gomer

Check out his blog at www.DuaneGomer.info for other current information. 

Check out his  website at www.DuaneGomer.com to see our free reports and recommended books.

www.Koziel.com
 

If you are taking advantage of the entire Internet social networking scene, you might be feeling like it is taking too much time to update all the sites. I found a great free program that solves this problem.

 

Just login to Hellotxt and send one alert to all your social networks. Now Hellotxt alerts your status across all microblogging and social networks. Using sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and others will increase your social and business network. With tools such as Hellotxt, the task has become much easier.

 

Would you like to add videos to your blog or social network? Then visit TubeMogul.

 

For now, the service is free and provides a single point for deploying uploads to the top video sharing sites. You also get powerful analytics on who, what, and how videos are being viewed.

 

Bob Corcoran, a nationally recognized consultant, author and speaker, says that joining in on social network has several advantages:

In short, social networking is a way to put your face in front of thousands of potential customers, and allows you to build up a network of contacts so you can reach out to more people with a more personal approach.

 

And doing so helps you build trust and show your expertise. The result: More business, more customers and more referrals.

 

We are all busy people so stay focus on a few social networks that work for you and the goals you are trying to achieve. There are many sites to choose from and you should be sure to diversify in the sites you select. You should only choose sites that you will be able to contribute to on a regular basis.

For example staying active in ActiveRain, LinkedIn, RealTown and YouTube gives you a nice balance of blog/video/contact management and industry specific group outreach.