Real Estate News

In the past, when building owners were foreclosed, renters often faced immediate eviction, even when the renters were up-to-date with their payments.

Fannie Mae recently announced the establishment of a new National Real Estate Owned (REO) Rental Policy that will allow qualified renters in Fannie Mae-owned foreclosed properties to stay in their homes. The company currently has an eviction suspension in place through the end of January which will allow for the new policy to be fully operational prior to the suspension concluding.

According to their press release, the new policy applies to renters occupying foreclosed properties at the time Fannie Mae acquires the property. Renters occupying any type of single-family property will be eligible, including residents of two- to four-unit properties, condos, co-ops, single-family detached homes, and manufactured housing. Eligible renters will be offered a new month-to-month lease with Fannie Mae, or financial assistance for their transition to new housing should they choose to vacate the property. The properties must meet state laws and local code requirements for a rental property.

While the company markets the properties for sale, Fannie Mae will manage the properties through a real estate broker or a property management company. The company will not require security deposits to be posted in connection with this program.

Renters in the foreclosed properties will be asked to pay market rate rent under the new leases. Rates may be determined by reviewing local comparable rents, conducting a neighborhood survey, or through other relevant indicators. Rates will also be subject to any legal rent control restrictions. The company will review each instance where the market rate may require a tenant to pay additional rent and will work to reach an equitable resolution.

Carolyn Bowen-Keating, vice president of our relocation division, is currently presenting her 2008 annual report of corporate relocation activity to each of our offices along with her projections for 2009. The report is full of helpful information, including summaries of the sources of our relocation business and how our relocation division is adapting to changes in the third party and corporate environments. It is of some comfort to take note that, although our relocation business is down, most of the lost volume is due to erosion in real estate prices and not erosion of the relationships with our relocation business partners.

Inasmuch as the business generated by our relocation division should be considered supplemental to the core business generated by our sales team, it is important to note which employment sectors are emerging as prospecting hot spots, according to Carolyn. Based on her own success, she recommends that agents concentrate on the medical and financial fields when preparing their personal business plans for 2009.

Traditional referral sources in automotive and other sectors should not be ignored, but agents may wish to consider building relationships in these emerging areas for 2009. Developing contacts upstream of the employer pool, such as with individuals in the recruiting profession is also advisable. In addition to the medical and financial areas, technology will also prove to be a fertile area for prospecting.

By concentrating on emerging business sectors, buyer stream through our relocation division was increased 20% last year. This did not happen by accident, but rather through advanced planning and persistent execution. Developing market driven prospecting strategies will help build strong individual agent business in 2009.

There are two upcoming WMR events that I would like to highlight in this issue of our RE Weekly. One is our first annual Awards Presentation Breakfast which will take place on Wednesday, January 14. At that time, the 2008 Eagle and Sherwood Awards recipients will be named as well as the 2008 President’s Circle. It is the one opportunity we take each year to formally recognize those among us that have achieved excellence.

In addition to the awards presentations, this year’s event also includes a short presentation on online social networking by Tom Chisholm from Facebook. This is an extremely relevant topic and I think Tom will enlighten all of us as to how online networking can help us create more business.

Another way in which we build our business is by providing service to our clients and prospective clients in ways that are ancillary to our core brokerage business. We will be doing that in February with our Property Tax Seminars. The seminars we held last year were an overwhelming success and this year we have expanded the program to include four sessions. We are expecting that every agent will bring at least one client or prospect to one of the sessions.

The content of these sessions is valuable to any property owner, but particularly those who have purchased in the past several years or those who are contemplating selling or purchasing residential property this year. These seminars are yet another example of the corporate support provided to Weir Manuel sales associates that will enhance their individual ability to provide trusted advice to our clients. Agents are encouraged to begin contacting their clients now in order to get reserved seating for the seminars in advance. See your manager for details.

The market and our economy are kind of like the weather in Michigan; if you stick around long enough, things will probably change.

On the heels of the subprime credit crunch and the worse plunge in the Dow since 1929, who would have thought that we would enter the new year with a stock market surge and mortgage rates at low enough levels to stimulate another refinancing boom? But that’s what we had last week as the Dow crested 9,000 on January 2 and mortgage rates dipped below 5%.

What that all means for the balance of what will probably turn out to be a long tough year in the real estate and the financial markets is unclear at this time. But what is clear is that the contrarians who had the courage to buy into the stock market during the past 60-90 days of 2008 when everyone else was selling are looking and feeling pretty good right now.

At some point in the not too distant future, that comment may be made about those contrarians who decided to take advantage of the lowest housing prices and interest rates of the past decade by purchasing real property during the downturn in the real estate markets.

One can never be guaranteed that a purchase is being made at the very bottom of the price curve, just as no one can ever always buy low and sell high. But I feel confident in saying that those buying now are far closer to the bottom than the top. And the market can turn in a heartbeat. Just look what happened to the stock market last week.