Luxury Insights

August Webinar: New Rules for Short Sale Success

Based on Deutsche Bank analysis, 14 million U.S. homeowners had negative equity at the end of the first quarter 2009, that's about 27% of owners with a mortgage. 

According to a story yesterday in MarketWatch Deutsche Bank estimates that 25 million homeowners, or 48% of those with mortgages, will owe more on the loan than the house is worth by the first quarter of 2011.  

This summer the Obama administration has announced new rules and procedures that change the way loan modification, short sales, deeds-in-lieu-of-foreclosure, and foreclosures are handled by the banks and their servicers. 

These new rules are just beginning to be implemented.  In fact earlier this week the Treasury publicly reprimanded a handful of banks for their lack of action in implementing some aspects of the plan.  The government is also having Freddie Mac develop a "second look" process to audit MHA modification applications that have been declined on an ongoing basis. 

Also, day before yesterday, Treasury published the first of its monthly Servicer Performance Reports, which track loan modification activity at the individual servicer level.

Bottom line?

Forget what you know.  The rules are changing  and its a whole new ball game when it comes short sales.  We'll be covering the New Rules for Short Sale Success in our webinar for members on August 20th. 

Invitations went out by email today.  If you are a member and didn't receive one, drop us a line. 

Real Estate Marketing with Stats: Why Market Data Matters Now More Than Ever

In today's market, understanding market trends is more important than ever.  Buyers and Sellers are looking for transparency and insights. 

The quality of your answers to these common questions:

• What's my home worth?
• What's for sale (and is it a good value)?
• How's the market?

will define your level of success. 

Confused people don't buy, and your ability to demonstrate your expertise and lift the fog of confusion with simple and accurate answers based on trustworthy data is the key to successful differentiation. 

Yesterday Scott Sambucci and the the team at Altos Research discussed success strategies for doing just this in our May Webinar for members. 

In case you missed it, the slides from the presentation are below, and in the next couple of days we'll be posting we've posted a recording of the full webinar (along with a special freebie for you from Altos Research) here in the Members Only section of our website.

Ilhm Webinar 2009.05.28

We work with Altos Research to produce our weekly ILHM National Luxury Market Report (members have free access to the more detailed version here) which is the only real-time report looking exclusively at the luxury market nation-wide.

Don't forget too that they are offering discounts to members on all of their fantastic products.  So whether you want to supercharge your website and blog with market trend charts that update automatically, or create a custom market reports that is automatically updated and distributed every week, they've got you covered!  They even have a tool that allows you to do instant market trend analysis on your mobile phone--a great tool when you are face-to-face with clients.

Many thanks to Scott, Michael, Ricky and the rest of the Altos team for hosting the webinar and sharing their insights.  

Recording of April Webinar now available

Just a quick post to let Members know that the recording of the April webinar, How to promote yourself and your listings to Institute Members and other agents around the world, featuring Janet Case, CEO of Proxio is available for viewing anytime. 

You can find the link here in the Members Only section of our website. 

For more info on ProxioPro and the benefits Members receive, see our previous post and the Member Benefits section of our website (login required).

Stand Out or Bow Out! (aka "Differentiation and Dominance")

As you know from our earlier post, this month's conference call for members featured marketing and branding gurus Ron and Alexandra Seigel of Napa Consultants and The Language of Luxury.

In the call, Ron and Alexandra share their fantastic expertise and insights on how to achieve market dominance through the  effective use of branding and differentiation.

If you missed the call, well, here's you chance to listen in!

Want to listen on your iPhone?  Download the mp3 file (13 MB)

Stand Out or Bow Out!

To survive and thrive in challenging times you need to out-think (not out-spend) your competition and become the "breakaway" brand in your marketplace. If market leadership is your quest it is imperative to sharply differentiate yourself or your company from your competition.  Blend in at your own risk.  Stand out or bow out!

Ron & Alexandra Seigel, owners of Napa Consultants, International, the leading luxury real estate brand strategists, will join us on our March members-only conference call and share the 7 personal branding secrets that can help you become the Google of your marketplace—the breakaway brand.

Earlier today we sent all Members an email with the call date & time as well as dial-in information.  (Reminder emails will follow).  If you deleted it by mistake or didn't receive it contact us for the details. 

Talk to you soon!

January 2009 Conference Call: Short Sales

A big "thank you" to our guest expert on this call -- Douglas McCabe, CEO of the National Short Sale Center.  Members, if you missed the call, you can download the notes on our website. 

We'll be announcing the details on the upcoming February call soon, so watch your inbox!