New Hampshire Real Estate & Consumer Resources

Archive for the ‘Real Estate’ Category

If I could get CitiGroup CEO Charles Prince on the phone or catch him on the street, this is what I’d like to say to him: Ha! Ha! Ha!

It gives me a great deal of pleasure to see one of the top fat cats like this jerk getting a little payback that he so richly deserves.

I surely don’t expect him to suffer any financial pain. Guys like this are wealthy enough to live out their lives (and probably the lives of many others) without having to earn another cent.

I’d like to see him out on the street like all the poor people that have suffered through foreclosure due to the willingness of the big lenders to push mortgages that people could not afford.

No, it’s not financial problems that will be a problem for Charles Prince. His real  pain will come from the embarrassment of looking like a failure. Guys with enormous egos like he probably has must fear that more than anything else. He failed in a very public way at the helm of a huge company everyone has heard of.

News reports say that Prince is set to step down tomorrow at some kind of emergency meeting. Good riddance.

Maybe, just maybe, this will be a lesson to the greedy creeps that run some of these big corporations. Sometimes your actions come back and bit you in the rear end.

As readers may know, I am anything but a fan of CitiGroup/CitiBank/CitiMortgage/Whatever and any news regarding hardship on the part of that outfit puts a smile on my face.

I sure feel badly for all the lower-level employees who are just trying to make a living and may be facing lay-offs soon. I did my time inside Corporate America for quite a few years myself and was thrown out on my butt a while back, so I can truly say that I “feel their pain.”

I do not, needless to say, feel the least bit sorry for the Charles Princes of the world, however. It’s quite refreshing to see a little bit of what some of us might call “justice” metered out for a change. Hit the road, Prince, CitiGroup may become a better company without you.

The increased rate of foreclosures does not seem to be showing any significant signs that it is slowing down.

Foreclosure rates are still high in many areas of the country amid reports that mortgage giants like Countrywide are feeling the effects of the trend in their bottom line which has resulted in the company tapping a $11.5 Billion credit line and facing the possibility of laying off employees.

Around the country, the numbers are not terribly encouraging:

In San Diego County, California, foreclosures were up to 2,896 for the first half of 2007, compared to 445 for the same period last year — a 551% increase!

Find Foreclosure Listings Online

In Osceola County, Florida, foreclosures are up 100% from May 2006 to May 2007. Not as bad as San Diego County, California, but still quite an increase.

In Fremont County, Colorado, there have been 200 foreclosures so far this year. It took until November of 2006 to reach that number.

Personally, I’m not surprised to see this dramatic rise in foreclosures. In recent years, some lenders have pushed adjustable mortgages pretty hard and some homeowners found themselves in over their heads when rates started increasing and their mortgage payments increased with them.

I sure hate to think about anyone losing their home to foreclosure, but like so many other things in life, one person’s misfortune is another’s opportunity. This is certainly the case in Massachusetts these days as the business of foreclosure has never been better.

 The Boston Herald reports that a record 23,600 foreclosures have occurred in the past year and Massachusetts newspapers have seen a 143% increase in advertising for foreclosure auctions.

Publishers are also getting in on the action with new books about investing in foreclosure properties. There is even a new one in the “Dummies” series for novice real estate investors.

There are numerous web sites offering foreclosure listings online for investors looking for foreclosure properties. Some sites, including those run by government agencies, offer foreclosure listings for free.

For a comprehensive listing of web sites offering foreclosure listings, you can check out this directory of foreclosure sites.

Reports are coming in for all around the country: Foreclosure rates are hitting record numbers these days.

In some areas, like Sacramento, California, ordinances are being revised due to the large number of houses that are becoming vacant due to foreclosures.

The idea is to reduce the time the city has to wait before taking action on a vacant house before it becomes a ‘nuisance; property.

A few months ago I saw a news report on this very subject. According to the report, many foreclosures are due to homeowners that opted for adjustable rate mortgages and when the rates rise, the homeowners are no longer able to make their mortgage payments.

In some areas of California, foreclosures are up as much as 799% over the same period just last year.

Lending giant Countrywide Financial Corporation has reported a sharp increase in delinquent mortgages. As the nations’s largest mortgage lender, it is likely a indicator of a trend that is plaguing the entire country.

In Illinois, foreclosures were up 55% last year and are on track to eclipse that number this year. 

The most recent New Hampshire towns to struggle with the issue of electronic signs are Meredith and Moultonboro. Some residents in those towns are not happy about the notion that new electronic signs may be employed by local businesses.

In Moultonboro, the issue came to the forefront after a real estate company erected an electronic sign to advertise its services.

I’m quite familiar with this issue since a town in this area is also dealing with exactly the same issue and it is a struggle that has been going on for a couple of years now.

A real estate company is also at the center of the controversy in this area and despite the company having lost a court battle and being told to take the sign down, instead they have appealed to a higher court and the sign remains in operation in the meanwhile.

I happen to agree with the residents that want these kinds of signs kept out of their towns. There is a place for signs like that, places with names like Nashua and Manchester.

I agree with the person who was quoted in the Concord Monitor article on this subject who said, “When you’re trying to sell rural New Hampshire and make it look like a Vegas strip, I think it’s an oxymoron.”

Someone else made the argument that local businesses need support and that banning electronic signs might contribute to putting them out of business.

I agree that local businesses need support, but suggesting that the lack of an electronic sign would put someone out of business is ridiculous. Any business that fails due to the inability to put up an electronic sign was going to fail on its own, with or without an electronic sign.

Before I get into this I’d like to make something clear. Not every real estate agent is a Realtor. In other words, ‘Realtor’ is not a job description like ‘real estate agent’ is.

A Realtor is a real estate agent (or broker) that is a member of the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The association bestows the name ‘Realtor’ on real estate agents that are granted membership into the association and, more importantly, are willing to pony up the annual dues that allow them to wear a shiny little pin with an ‘R’ on it and call themselves Realtors.

To answer the question in the title of this post, namely: Is your agent a Realtor and should you care? The short answer in my opinion is no, you should not care.

The most important things you should concern yourself with when seeking a real estate agent are things like whether or not you feel that the agent is knowledgeable, experienced and most importantly, trustworthy.

There are a lot of real estate agents out there, so be sure you take the time to pick one you genuinely like and that you feel is an honest and trustworthy person. Don’t sign any papers until you are sure you want to work with an agent.

If you talk to an agent you are not comfortable with, simply move on and find another one. Like I said, there are many to choose from so don’t settle on someone you are not completely comfortable with.

Not all good, trustworthy agents are Realtors and not all Realtors are good, trustworthy agents. Despite what those clever Realtor commercials on TV would have you believe.

Those commercials make is look as if every Realtor on Earth has been sent down from the heavens as a gift to all those seeking to sell or purchase real estate.

Since I was once an actual, bona fide Realtor myself, I can speak from a bit of experience on this subject.

While I was attending my real estate licensing classes here in New Hampshire, there was a fellow in our class who had been working as a real estate agent for a while and was in the class just to pick up the additional classroom time he needed to take the broker’s exam.

One day the subject of Realtors came up and this fellow remarked that the National Association of Realtors was basically just the real estate agent’s union. I’d be hard pressed to think of a better description of the organization myself.

After being hired by the real estate office I worked in, I was told that I had to join NAR. No, I did not have a choice. If I wanted to work in that office, I had to join and come up with the dues, which were around $400 a year at that time, as I recall. That was the policy of the company I was working for at the time. No NAR membership meant no job with that company.

What, you might ask, does the NAR actually do? Well, as they are so fond of informing the public about, they have developed a code of ethics that all members are sworn to abide by. They do a lot more than that, but that’s their big selling point that they want to get out there in front of the real estate buying (and selling) public.

Before you start picturing intensive classroom training for weeks, or even days, which instills a deep sense of responsibility and ethics in all the attendees, let me fill you in on exactly how it all played out.

I was required to attend approximately four gatherings of other new applicants at various locations around the state. If memory serves me correctly, the lengthiest of these gatherings lasted about four hours ‘ give or take an hour or so.

I will say that a lot if the information and material that was presented at these gatherings was indeed very good and useful information for new agents. All the advice and guidance given was helpful to me and I was happy to have had the opportunity to receive it.

The final gathering was where the actual swearing in took place. The location was a very nice country club in Manchester where all of the new members were provided with a breakfast buffet (which was actually quite good) to enjoy while we listened to the local NAR luminaries drone on about how wonderful the association is.

I must admit to feeling a bit silly and perhaps rather like a Boy Scout toward the end of the event when all of us newbies were directed to stand up at the front of the room and recite (in unison) the association’s pledge (or whatever they call it) with right hand raised. I half expected a secret passage to open behind the fireplace for the purpose of granting access to the Bat Cave for the assembled newly-minted Realtors.

Beyond feeling a bit ridiculous, I felt that the stated goals of the association were worthy ones and that I would be a better real estate agent as a result of my NAR membership.

The gleam of a new penny will, of course, diminish with time. And being a bit of a cynic at heart (can you tell?), my opinion of the association evolved over time. Accelerated perhaps just a bit each time I found myself in receipt of a billing notice for dues.

Beyond their efforts to assure that their members are not screwing the public over (how anyone could, while wearing the coveted ‘R’ pin is beyond me!) lies the primary reason for the associations existence.

Money, of course. How could you imagine otherwise?

That’s a bit simplistic perhaps. The money that is extracted from their willing (and perhaps no-so-willing) members is used in great quantities for political lobbying purposes. Another great surprise!

Just like any other association, they are most interested in furthering the causes of their industry. And you can be sure there is no shortage of bottom-feeding, low-life politicians in Washington and elsewhere with palms extended and a receptive ear for the taking.

Favorable legislative outcomes mean more money for the real estate industry just as they do for any other industry. It’s all about the money, as it nearly always is.

Another huge portion of the associations coffers are utilized for the public relations campaigns. Among them, the commercial advertisements you may have seen on television that encourage you to be sure that your agent is a Realtor.

More customers asking if their agent is a Realtor means more Realtors, which means more money for NAR, which means more money for legislative initiatives, which means more money for the real estate industry. See how simple it all is?

The guy in my real estate licensing course was right on the money, so to speak. NAR’s goals and actions are hardly different than that of any other labor union.

This is not intended to be a hatchet job on NAR. After all, as I pointed out, they are hardly any different from the steel workers union, electricians union or any other union whose main goal is to protect their industry.

They also do actually provide a ton of useful information and resources for their members, including a very extensive web site. They also have another nice web site that lists real estate for sale all over the country for anyone to utilize.

My real motivation for writing this is because I hate to think of some hard-working and honest real estate agent who is not a Realtor losing out on some business because a potential customer ended up with the impression that their agent just had to be a Realtor.

I can easily understand why some agents might want to reject the ‘party line’ and keep the $400 (or whatever it is these days) that would otherwise go into the NAR coffers each year. Maybe they just don’t like unions.

The bottom line is this: If you find and agent you like and feel that you can trust, don’t give the question about whether or not they are a Realtor a second thought.

[tags]realtor, national association of realtors, real estate, agent[/tags]

This is the first time I have posted anything about retirement communities here, but my friend Dave Nelson in Minnesota has decided to turn his dream of a floating community into a reality.

Although not strictly a retirement community, it is anticipated that a large percentage of residents will be retired.

It is such a cool idea that I decided to devote a page on my web site to the project.

Check it out here.

[tags]retirement communities, floating community, river cities condominiums[/tags]

I have finally had some time to update the Internet Dangers section of the site. The new information has to do with Internet scams since they seem to be really flourishing lately and I seem to be getting phishing scam messages on a daily basis.

I had another blog-type site where I was posting some of the typical 419 scam e-mail messages I had received. The idea being to put these messages out there for potential victims to read, hopefully before they are victimized. I did receive a few comments from people thanking me for making the information available, and saving them from being victimized. That convinced me that it was worth continuing and I decided to move that information to this site rather than remain on the free blog site I was using, which did not give me as much control as I have here with a “real” site.

I have also updated the house plans section by improving the look of the pages a bit and increased the number of sites listed. I ran into a few other house plan directory sites during the process and I am happy to report that my house plans directory has a lot more content than the others I checked out.