I know this article is dated 4/14/2011, but I haven’t seen anything to change its timeliness or accuracy. The policies are still in place by the lenders and the AMC’s that have resulted in many appraisers, myself included removing themselves from being involved in that segment of the appraisal market.

Sadly most home buyers and their Realtors don’t have an option of opting out of the system. I am still reminded of a conversation I had with a Realtor in Danbury when I was calling them to verify some information on a pending sale. The first words out of his mouth was that I don’t like appraisers anymore. Well after that delightful opening we got into his reasons for it. It seems that the appraisers he didn’t like were the ones hired by AMC’s who had no knowledge of his market and had no time to learn about it because of the time restraints put upon them by the AMC’s. So consequently they were grabbing the first three comparables that looked good not knowing if the property had been distressed or had some physical problems and consequently coming in with a lower then warranted appraisal. Even in the buyers market that we have all been involved in some how these appraisals said a lot of his sales were over priced. I kidded with him that they must have thought him a great salesman, probably not one of my better jests.

I could feel his pain and understood the problems he was having. Unfortunately it didn’t make him feel any better to let him know I agreed whole heartedly with him and that I didn’t think it would get any better as the management groups typically only had two qualifications for assigning appraisals. Can you do if for a fee that is between 1/2 and 2/3′s what the appraisers used to get and often half what the borrower is being charged for the appraisal. And can you do it in two days time.

As a result of these two questions the more experienced local appraiser’s often declined to do them and found more lucrative work, leaving it to inexperienced appraisers, trainees or those that were under so much pressure to complete higher volumes of work to survive and to complete them in a time frame that is not always possible to do a reasonable job. Thus the very legislation designed to insure better appraisals has resulted in inferior ones, but at a much higher price.

I am curious if the Realtor’s that read this have found any improvements over the past year. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Last week saw mortgage applications increase by 9.2% . This was driven by an increase in refinances, which grew to 74.9% share of total applications versus the prior weeks 72.1%. The refinancing increase appears to be driven by the record low 30 and 15 year fixed interest rates.

This item caught my eye (see press release below) and I was wondering what the Real Estate Professionals think of this idea. Is this something you will consider incorporating into your marketing? Do you feel it is a positive for selling houses or will it take away some of that personal touch? How about potential buyers, will you sit down in front of your tv and pull up videos of homes to help make your purchase decision? Please feel free to post your response here or to my Facebook Page as I would love to here your feedback on this issue.

Press Release

“Real Estate Video on Demand Network Rollout Scheduled for September”.

Fort Lauderdale, Fla., August 23, 2011 – Next One Interactive, Inc. (OTCBB:NXOI), in conjunction with its real estate partner RealBiz Media, today announced they will begin the roll out their Real Estate Video on Demand (VOD) Network this September under the name “Home Preview Channel.” The Companies have chosen to commence the launch in 5 major cities, based on their geographic and economic diversification. The initial cities will include Los Angeles and Washington DC.

After last year’s testing of the real estate VOD program, we have reconfigured the system and will initially launch each city with up to 1100 residential home inventory listings. Our real estate partners and clients believe this is a good starting point, but want to see the available listings number grow to about 2500-5000 listings in each city. The average price point per listing will start at $40 with the listing being displayed between a 7 and 30 days’ increments.

Next One Interactive, Inc. and RealBiz Media developed this unique real estate marketing platform for real estate companies and professionals, last year, and have made additional enhancements since first testing the program. The technology platform is able to create media assets including pictures, virtual tours and videos to automatically syndicate and publish them to the largest real estate websites (like Realtor.com, Trulia.com, etc.), social networking sites (like Facebook.com, Youtube.com, etc.) and television. This real estate marketing technology platform is able to combine the power of the Internet and Television and provide it in a single automated marketing solution for the real estate professionals.

This one-of-a-kind real estate marketing solution is designed to provide substantial revenue from multiple sources including advertising revenue, listing revenue, referral revenue, imaging solutions and direct real estate sales.

Steve Marques – CEO of RealBiz Media stated, “It’s been a significant amount of work and financial commitment to get here, but with our relationships with the top U.S. real estate companies, franchisors and broker networks, we are now poised to rapidly deploy this new service to existing clients. When you do the math on the number of properties eligible for VOD in the United States at $40 a listing, it should make for a great win for both real estate agents and our companies.”

As much as we enjoy keeping up on the Real Estate industry’s reports, financial data and statistics, when it comes right down to it Real Estate is as much about people as it is about the land. So I would like to start featuring real estate professionals in this blog on occasion. Since all of us have to rely on connections and interaction to succeed what better way to do so then by sharing information on other professionals here. If you are involved in some way with the real estate field, e.g. Real Estate Agent, Attorney, home inspector, mortgage broker, etc, and would like to be featured in our blog, please fill out the following information. There is no fee for this it is just a community service. I hope as this blog grows this will be a useful way of networking and sharing our expertise with the general public.

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Photo Courtesy of Wadsworth Atheneum

If you are looking for a fun family event that is like on your wallet mark your calendars for the second Saturday of every month. Because that’s when the Wadsworth Atheneum offers free entrance from 10 to 1. The day is geared towards family with special activities including creating art, music and more.

Photo Courtesy of Wadsworth Atheneum

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, the oldest public art museum in the United States, was founded in 1842 by Daniel Wadsworth. It is located at 600 Main Street in Hartford, and is made up of five connected buildings. The museum houses a wide variety of art collections along with a collection of Colt Firearms. The free Second Saturday program is a great way to introduce children to art with many fun activities to keep them entertained and smiling.

Since its Sunday and Real Estate news is slow, I thought I would take a little time to feature a local business that has been giving back to the community. The Torrington Register had an article today (Torrington tree service owner rescues cat for free, does about 100 rescues annually) on a local man, David Waugh. It seems like someone that gives back so freely to his community deserves some mention and I wanted to feature his information here in case anyone would like to use his services, preferably the ones he gets paid for.

As the article stated David Waugh owns DPM Tree Service LLC, which is located at 115 Roulin Street
Torrington, CT 06790. DPM’s phone number (860) 482-0475. Keep him in mind for all your tree service needs.

Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey shows 30 year fixed rate mortgages hit a new all time low at 3.83% interest for the second week in a row.  Last weeks 3.84% set the previous all-time low.  The rates are down  .8% from one year ago. The low rates have contributed to a very favorably market for buyers, combined with lower median home prices making home affordability at a 40 year high. 15 year fixed rate mortgages also hit a record low at 3.05%.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency. Shows a fourth quarter decline in single-family house prices for the fourth quarter of 2011 in their Housing Price Index. The index measures average price changes in repeat sales or refinancings on the same properties. Connecticut had a 2.98% seasonally adjusted decline in value in the fourth quarter. This is higher than the national average which saw a decline of only .1% for the same period.  The 2.98% decline places Connecticut in 37th place, just below New York and behind 35 other states and the District of Columbia. New England as a whole showed a decline of 2.06% with only Rhode Island trailing behind Connecticut.

Despite the disappointing showing versus the rest of the country there does appear to be some positives to take out of this. Although Connecticut is trailing the overall market, the market in general appears to be rebounding.  The index for seasonally adjusted price for purchase-only houses rose in the fourth quarter in 27 states and the District of Columbia. There is no reason that the trend shouldn’t continue, and despite it’s being on the lower end of the recovery, eventually adding Connecticut back to the positive side of property value movements.

The Fiserv Case-Shiller Index shows home affordability at the  highest level since their records started in 1971. This index examines home prices in 384 metro areas across the United States, and the results are very upbeat for home buyers.

Firstly, conventional mortgage payments on median-priced housing is just 12% of median-family income.  It has never been this low since the index started in 1971. The ratio of median single-family home prices to median famly income hasn’t been this low since 1991.

What this means is if you are in the position to take advantage of the market and buy a home you will find purchasing a home more affordable than it has been in many adults lifetime.

The Case-Shiller index predicts that this high affordability level will result in the real estate market finally bottoming out later this year and that over the next five years home prices should actually rise at an annualized level of 3.9%.

So with indications that next year may begin the housing rebound with increased sales of existing homes, rising orders volumes for new houses and increased spending for home improvement, it may be time for buyers to get off the bubble and enjoy the most affordable housing market that we have seen in 40 plus years.

This year is a very active one for town Real Estate Revaluations.  A total of 38 Connecticut towns and cities are currently going through revaluation to meet the October 1st Grand List date. If you are located in any of the following communities you will find yourself with a new assessment shortly.  Although most assessments are completed accurately and represent the properties fair and equitable assessed value, during every revaluation there are many properties that have inaccurate  representations of their size, condition and other factors that greatly affect value. Such inaccuracies can cost the homeowner hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year in taxes until the next revaluation comes around in five years. We at Rapid Appraisal, Inc. specialize in tax abatement cases having completed numerous such appraisals on properties ranging from single family residences to various commercial properties. Often our clients have saved several thousand dollars over the life of their assessments. If you feel your new assessment is inaccurate or may place an unfair tax burden on your property versus competing ones in town, please feel free to contact us at (860) 294-9486 for a free consultation to see what your options are.

2012 LIST OF TOWN REVALUATIONS