Daily Mortgage Gazette

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Congress left town for their spring recess without completing work on two critical programs essential to recovering real estate markets – the National Flood Insurance Program and the Section 502 Rural Housing program (USDA).

Flood Insurance: The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is vitally important to the recovering real estate market. Its authority was allowed to expire on March 28th. Until Congress extends NFIP, no new or renewal flood policies can be issued. Thousands of property buyers will not be able to purchase a home or commercial property without the flood insurance coverage provided by NFIP. Consequently, many real estate transactions will grind to a halt.

Rural Housing Service Mortgage Insurance (USDA): Section 502 rural housing single family mortgage insurance provides housing financing for America’s rural families. These loans are funded by private lenders and simply insured by the Rural Housing Service. As private mortgage markets have dried up, without these guaranteed loans, many rural families are left out in the cold. With funding expected to run out at the end of April, lenders have already stopped accepting new loan applications.

The real estate market cannot afford another setback. Urge Congress to renew both NFIP and the Rural Housing 502 program today.

Subject:
Renew Critical Housing Programs: NFIP and RHS

Dear [ Decision Maker ],

Congress left for recess, leaving two critical housing programs unauthorized or unfunded. On March 28, authority for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) expired, and lenders have stopped accepting applications for the Section 502 rural housing program, which is expected to exhaust its commitment authority by the end of the month.

Until Congress returns and extends these programs, worthy homebuyers will be left without access to mortgages. Given the many challenges financial and real estate markets are facing, now is not the time to create another, but avoidable, obstacle to real estate transactions. Please do not let this continue.

As a Realtor, I can personally attest to these programs’ importance. Since the NFIP expired, my clients are no longer able to purchase a home or commercial property in many parts of my community. They cannot buy the NFIP insurance needed to obtain a mortgage for those properties. In addition, those families and businesses with existing mortgages are not able to renew their required coverage.

Rural families in every state in the nation rely on the Section 502 single family guarantee program to allow them to repair, renovate and purchase homes, as well as prepare sites with water and sewage facilities.

Today, property owners in every state depend on these programs. Each day the Congress fails to act, thousands of real estate transactions will be delayed and homebuyers and homeowners will be left in the lurch.

Upon your return, Congress must swiftly take the necessary steps to ensure the continuation of these critical and essential insurance programs.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address]

TAKE ACTION ON THIS ISSUE BY SENDING A MESSAGE TO YOUR CONGRESSMEN AND/OR SENATORS. TO DO SO, VISIT THE LINK PROVIDED BELOW:

http://takeaction.realtoractioncenter.com/campaign/nhip_rhs?utm_source=site&utm_medium=post&utm_content=other&utm_campaign=unfinished

Provided by: Terri Murphy at www.realblogging.com

First impressions are almost always irreversible and can make or break your connection in a matter of seconds, and how you connect on and offline will make determine if you will win or lose!  What can you do differently than you have been doing?  Are you relying on the same old things, systems, and habits…. or even more concerning, doing the same things your competitors are doing?

Today’s savvy consumer knows what they want, and are not willing to pay for services that do not meet their need. The largest buying segment of housing is GenX, and they are especially good at finding another professional who is willing to do it “their way” and fast!  So, how about tune up for your presentation program?  Whether you are presenting to a buyer or seller, creativity, expertise and delivery will boost or beat your chances.  Here are 3 key tips on how to fine tune your connection:

1) Speed of Response:   How fast are you responding to your lead requests?  If you don’t have systems in place to respond in a nano-second, your prospects are moving on to the next agent who does have a method to  respond  in real time with targeted information …and that is what it takes to make a first WOW impression!

2) When you are meeting face to face, have you revamped how you personally “go to market”?  Are you “market” presentable? Are you fully focused on your client? Have you anticipated their every need?

Before your meeting, are you equipped with a with deep needs analysis pre-written questionnaire that demonstrates you are prepared, interested and focused to authentically discover and fulfill their real objectives?   Unfortunately, this is an area where many of us have slacked off. Having left a fast and furious marketplace, we didn’t have the luxury of time or the need to build trust bridges with our prospects. 

A slower market is loaded with multiple opportunities to engage, connect and earn the right to provide our services to those in need and a great time to demonstrate strong differentiation from our competitors.  As an example, if you are still running a paper CMA from your local MLS and showing up with a worn out one size fits all presentation, you might need to start looking for another job! 

NAR reports that in 2009 that 34% of the properties sold were purchased by GenX. Translated that means they are driven by their own core values and preferences.  Those preferences include real time response, deep expertise and real accountability.   Think about investing some time in a marketing makeover and don’t wait another minute to re-design how you go to market while you still can! NAR’s Learning Library offers some free and almost free online webinars to help you do just that.  Check them out at: (http://budurl.com/MurphyMktgMakeover)

 3) Get rid of the old tools and get good with the NEW ones!   You are right to be confused, frustrated and downright stubborn about trying to figure out what’s in what’s out/what’s hot and what is not, but that is no excuse. 

You might be able to connect with prospects, but keeping all the updates consistent and valuable takes help from techno tools.  Set aside some time or ask the experts what tools are recommended to help you service 24/7 without working all those hours.   Learn how virtual tours like OBEO.com will do the reporting on activity to the seller automagically for you and engage an interested prospect with interactivity on the tour. 

Your time is your money, so employing automated, customized drip systems that offer opt-in/opt-out options integrated with your IDX information is the only way to provide real time information as it is listed to prospective buyers or sellers considering to market their home. 

NAR reports that approximately 98.9% of prospects search for properties on the Internet BEFORE engaging an agent. Surprisingly only 60% of agents even have a website!  Do the basics, but do them right. Get a full web marketing website that does the work for you. Check out  www.RealProSystems.com  and get the whole enchilada:  Podcasts, blogs, drip systems, automated campaigns, back end training and the list goes on.  You can’t afford to be the jack of all trades, so figure out what systems can best support your goals and go for the gold. 

We’ve heard if you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always gotten…and that’s just not true anymore!  We know we can no longer do what we’ve always done to even stay even with what we’ve generated in the past!   If you are truly serious about making money by leveraging your time and expertise, get with the program.   Very few customers or clients say I don’t want to work with that professional because they are too good at what they do, too eager to help me get exactly what I want and too much of an expert at their craft….just ask them!