Social Media Rules of Engagement

Give More Than You Take The more you contribute to conversations and discussions, the more people will recognize your name and what you stand for. Over time you will establish credibility and build value. Remember the well-known adage; the more you care, the more you share.

Respect Be respectful of the community, the members, the group’s overall goals, etc. Social Media is a participatory sport and that means that you are one of many. People can chose to communicate with you or they can chose to ignore you. Treat others as you want to be treated.

Listen Listening and receiving comments and feedback are two of the greatest strengths of Social Media. They represent first-hand interaction with your customer. By listening to them you gain unfiltered feedback about your products and market.

Respond When people comment or leave messages for you it’s only polite to respond in a timely fashion. By responding you are validating to the online community that you are an individual that values and acknowledges others. This adds to your credibility as an individual.

Build Relationships It’s called social networking for a reason. Make sure you build relationships with everyone that communicates with you; establish conversations, ask questions, respond to questions, etc. Discussions and relationships encourage people to return to your page, thereby building a meaningful community.

Be Authentic and Transparent Be sincere and honest; be yourself. With Social Media displaying your profile, message and comments it is critical to your success that you are genuine and dependable.

Do Not Become a Nuisance It’s generally agreed that spamming is bad, but it’s also important to avoid becoming a Keyboard Gangster, Envelope Pusher or a Social Saboteur. More about these different type in my new Social Media Report.

Collaborate Social Media is a collective medium. This means that it uses the knowledge or wisdom of the whole group; not just a single individual. For that reason, information obtained in Social Media on Wikis or reviews is seldom entirely wrong. On the other hand, it’s often not 100% right. As a result, there is a strong need to work together, updating and constantly adding value to improve the quality of the content.

Add Value Every member of a community must contribute his or her fair share. What is your contribution? Remember that contributions come in many different shapes and actions: providing information, being a resource, answering questions and redistributing information.

Consider Opportunities in the Long Tail In Social Media, every service offering has some degree of value. It’s not always wise to just focus on the few services that command a high frequency of interest among a few niche groups and the requisite competition that introduces other service providers. As technology continues to erode communication barriers, value will also come from the many niche groups in “the tail” that demonstrate interest in services that conventional (competing) service providers would otherwise consider having little value.

Idaho Conference on Housing is Next Week

Join us for lively discussions with our workshop panelists and speakers, including Idaho's First Lady Lori Otter, member of the Idaho Meth Project Advisory Council, on dealing with crime and drugs in your community at the 2009 Idaho Conference on Housing at the Doubletree Hotel Boise-Riverside on October 19 and 20, 2009.

Friday, October 16 at 2:00p.m. will be the last opportunity to register online!

Registration Fees:
$125 Nonprofit/government
$175 Regular

Workshops and Presentations Include:

* Housing Crisis and Statewide Housing Conditions
* Housing Fraud: What it Means to you
* Neighborhood Stabilization - What's being done in your community
* Mayors Weigh in on the Link between Housing, Transportation, and Economic Development
* Experts will discuss what the future trends and key issues will be in Idaho
* And much more...click here to view the complete agenda.

First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit-Is The End Near?

The National Association of Home Builders today reported that: “Washington turned a sharper focus last week on extending the current $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers beyond its Nov. 30 expiration date and expanding it to a wider circle of principal home buyers”.

On Oct. 5, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, said that “there has been quite a bit of success” with the home buyer tax credit, and he added that the President is considering extending it to strengthen the economy and create jobs.

NAHB estimates conservatively that the current tax credit has been responsible for some 200,000 additional home sales since early this year, resulting in a net increase of 187,000 jobs. Extending the tax incentive through Nov. 30, 2010 and making it available to all income-qualified purchasers of a principal residence would result in an additional 383,000 home sales and generate 347,000 new jobs in the coming year, according to NAHB economists.

A Meeting in the Oval Office The New York Times reported on Oct. 7 that extending the credit was briefly mentioned in a meeting that day in the Oval Office between President Obama and Democratic congressional leaders Rep. Nancy Pelosi, (Calif.), speaker of the House, and Sen. Harry Reid (Nev.), the Senate majority leader. Congressional aides indicated that a tax credit extension is being viewed as an option for stimulating the economy and job creation and extending it beyond first-time buyers is being considered.

In a statement following the White House meeting, Reid said that, “we need to continue working toward ensuring that more families can stay in their current homes and continue efforts to strengthen the housing market by extending the tax credit.”

The New York Times story also cited warnings from Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com, that allowing the tax credit to expire would slow the sales of new homes not facing foreclosure just as sales of foreclosed homes are expected to pick up, which would put downward pressure on home prices.

“The economic recovery will not evolve into a self-sustaining economic expansion and risks unraveling back into recession until house prices stop falling,” Zandi said in an interview.

September Numbers Are In - And They're Good!

It is clear that buyers are getting the message.

I attended a “Finally Home” first time buyer seminar for 3 evenings last week. Gary Archer, the instructor, said: “There will never be a time in your life when real estate is a better buy.”

By the way, do your buyer clients the best favor you can. Get them in the Finally Home program. I Tweeted from class: “We think they know so much more than they really do”. I’m standing by that.

Sales in September were up 4% over August ‘09 and up 8% over September ’08.

So far in ’09 month over month sales have been up 8 months out of 9. Total monthly volume for September is nearly 2 ½ times what it was last January.

Median price in September slipped to $165,000 from Augusts’ $171,872. Most of this is from the number of short sales that closed.

Inventory fell to its lowest number since June ’06. Our highest inventory number was 5198 in July ’07. We are nearly one-third less than that record amount. Compared to September ’08 we are 15% less. Translating that into months of inventory on hand; we are at less than 7 months. (combined new and resale). This is 50% reduction from January ’09.

We have traditionally defined “market equilibrium” as 6 months of available inventory.
Measuring the impact of the first time home buyer tax credit; NAR recently reported that this category of buyer typically accounted for 45-48% of total sales. Nationally, the number is now over 50% of all sales.

In Ada County, sales of homes under $160,000 account for 32% of all inventory. This is up 20% from January ’09.

In September 45% of all sales were houses under $160,000.

In this price category, inventory is even scarcer. Inventory of new homes under $160,000 is at 4.35 months. Inventory of existing homes under $160,000 is at 4.6 months.

Short sales in September were 15% of all sales. REO sales in September accounted for just over 18% of total sales. This is down slightly from August and down 14% from our high in March.
Pending sales continue to forecast a solid future. At the end of September there were 975 pending sales.

Now, if we can just get Congress to do the right thing and extend the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit, we're going to continue this recovery.

Cap and Trade Bill Misinformation

There is an email recirculating from months ago about the impacts of H.R. 2454 (Cap and Trade bill) that is NOT based on complete reports. Most of these claims are addressed in a series of myths/facts at realtor.org. Please feel free to refer to: http://www.realtor.org/government_affairs/gapublic/american_clean_energy_security_act to get acccurate information.

The Idaho Association of REALTORS(r) are also offering additional input to NAR about the bill prior to being addressed in the Senate.

Tax Credit Call For Action Update

Tax Credit Call for Action Update

The Call for Action (CFA) urging Congress to “extend and expand” the homebuyer tax credit is still open.

Nationally, just under 143,000 REALTORS® have taken action which is a 14.1% response rate. We are on track to reach our goal of 15% very soon! Targeted messaging and The Broker Involvement Program are both helping to build our response rates and we hope they will continue to grow. Please make sure all of your colleagues have responded so we can reach our goal. Take action now.

A lot of news outlets are talking about the homebuyer tax credit and it’s got a lot of people chatting. National Public Radio (NPR) recently ran a great piece on the debate over the extension of the tax credit. To read about it and listen to the story, please go to the NPR website:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113586552&ft=1&f=2.

Homebuyer Tax Credit Best Tool for Sustaining Housing Recovery, Says NAR

Washington, October 07, 2009

The best available tool for sustaining the still-fragile housing market is the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit, and it is essential that Congress extend the credit into 2010, the National Association of Realtors® testified at a hearing of the U.S. House Small Business Committee today.
The tax credit expires November 30.

NAR Regional Vice President Joseph L. Canfora, a broker-owner with Century 21 Selmar Realty in East Islip, N.Y., also told the panel that a major stumbling block for consumers has been the implementation of appraisal processes spurred by the Home Valuation Code of Conduct, which is causing delays in closings, as well as cancelled sales that led to artificially low existing-home sales numbers for August, reported last month.

“The credit is working,” Canfora said, pointing out that the 355,000 to 400,000 transactions directly attributable to the credit made a significant dent in the housing inventory and will help to stabilize home prices. Further, the credit has provided a huge indirect benefit to local governments, shoring up property tax bases in particularly hard-hit areas.

Further, NAR data has estimated that every home purchase pumps into the recovering economy about $63,000 – the equivalent of one new job added to the employment figures.
But, Canfora said, the threat of more foreclosures coming to the market caused by mortgage rate resets, job losses, and by lender’s unburdening themselves of additional properties to take advantage of today’s more stabilized prices could disrupt the fragile recovery.

In a “normal” market, optimal housing inventory is about six to seven months, he said. When the tax credit was enacted in February, inventory was 9.1 months. Because of the spurt in homes sales since then due to the tax credit, inventory declined to 8.2 months in August, closer to “normal” than at any time since 2007.

In urging Congress to extend the credit, Canfora said, “The more robust the credit and the greater its duration, the greater the chance that the housing market can perform its traditional role of helping the economy move out of a recession.”

“But problems arising from the implementation of the HVCC may reverse the market’s positive momentum at a time when the real estate industry is just starting to show signs of a rebound in many markets,” Canfora said. According to an NAR survey of its members, approximately 40 percent of Realtors® report having lost at least one sale since May 1 because of appraisal problems due to the HVCC rules. Twenty percent say they have lost more than one sale.

The culprit, he said, was that appraisal management companies, which have gained prominence because of the HVCC, have assigned appraisers to areas where they lack geographic competence. That has resulted in unreliable appraisals. It is not uncommon that second and third appraisals have to be done to ascertain fair market value. Appraisal fees have also risen and are being passed on to consumers.

Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have issued guidance on appraisals, but NAR is calling upon the mortgage giants and the Federal Housing Administration to issue a consolidated guidance that should be codified and incorporated into the existing policy to ensure proper information on appraisals is available to the real estate industry.

FHA Commissioner David H. Stevens has asked FHA staff to explore that recommendation with Fannie and Freddie. Last month, Stevens reaffirmed FHA appraisal policy, taking into consideration the unintended consequences that have burdened Fannie and Freddie, and issued two Mortgagee Letters focusing on appraisal changes. The policy reaffirms appraiser independence and geographic competence.

The FHA announcement also included timely steps to protect taxpayers: implementing credit policy changes to enhance risk management; hiring a chief risk officer for the first time in the agency’s history; and shifting responsibility for mortgage brokers away from taxpayers to the lenders who use mortgage brokers.

Canfora told the committee that FHA has performed remarkably well through the housing crises, compared to Fannie and Freddie. “That’s because FHA has never strayed from the sound underwriting and appropriate appraisals that have traditionally backed up their loans.”

“The reason the FHA capital reserve ratio fell below 2 percent had nothing to do with FHA’s current business activities. It is simply a reflection of falling housing values in their portfolio.” He cited an FHA announcement that a 2009 audit will show that even if FHA does nothing, the cap reserves are expected to rise back to that required level within a few years. He also pointed out that FHA total reserves are not in as dire straits as some have reported since the cap reserve fund is not the only FHA reserve fund – FHA also has a separate cash reserve that is higher that it has even been – and the combined assets total $30.4 billion.

The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1.2 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.
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