Sat.Aug 22, 2020 - Fri.Aug 28, 2020

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Sales of large homes skyrocket as homeowners seek more space

Housing Wire

Homebuyers who are juggling work and school from their home want more space, triggering an increase in the number of sales of large homes. According to Redfin , sales for large homes were up 21.2% year over year nationwide in July, compared to a 10% increase for medium-sized homes and a 2.3% increase for small homes. Redfin categorized large homes as those between 3,000 and 5,000 square feet, medium homes between 1,500 and 3,000 square feet, and small homes between 300 and 1,500 square feet.

Contracts 545
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2020 Banking and Construction Lending Trends for Minnesota

Simonson Real Estate

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization announced COVID-19 as a global pandemic (this day also happens to be my birthday so good or bad, it’s an easy date for me to remember). Since then, market uncertainty has caused commercial investors to increasingly worry whether their commercial appraisal analyses are accurate. . At Simonson Appraisals, our team works tirelessly to ensure those worries are needless.

Lending 148
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Appraisals for Estate Purposes

Anthem Valuation

Whether you need an estate tax appraisal, an estate trust appraisal or a probate estate appraisal, we have the experience to help. The type of estate appraisal and the intended us will impact how an appraiser prepares an appraisal report. Estate appraisals by a licensed and experienced real estate appraiser are the most accurate and defensible way to value a property.

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4 Retirement Resources for Appraisers (Free for Members)

McKissock

Here at McKissock, our Unlimited Learning Members enjoy 24/7 access to a wide array of online resources for real estate appraisers. These resources cover a huge variety of topics, from home construction to USPAP compliance to retirement planning, and much more. If you’re beginning to prepare for retirement (it’s never too soon!), here are four excellent retirement resources available right now in our membership toolkit.

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Is the FHFA about to delay the refi fee?

Housing Wire

According to reporting by the Wall Street Journal on Saturday, the Federal Housing Finance Agency has been communicating with mortgage industry groups about delaying the implementation of a fee which would add a 0.5% surcharge to refinance mortgages sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac starting Sept. 1. According to the article, the FHFA is considering a delay to the adverse market fee implementation date, but is not planning to rescind it.

Finance 545
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August Real Estate Market Update

Listing Spark

July was yet another banner month for the real estate market across Texas. In all major markets, we are seeing record setting numbers for multiple metrics such as appreciation rates and number of closed sales. “Pent-up demand from the spring fueled housing activity across the state,” said Dr. James Gaines, chief economist for the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

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What a Luxury Real Estate Broker Can Teach You about Selling a Home

McKissock

Even if you’re not working with buyers who are in the market for a million-dollar home, you can still learn from luxury real estate brokers. After all, selling is selling. Here are four tips from luxury brokers that you can incorporate when selling a home. Brand Yourself. Laurie Moore-Moore of the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing recommends you be the high-powered professional real estate broker everyone pictures in their mind.

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Opendoor launches… a brokerage?

Housing Wire

The line between traditional iBuyer and brokerage is getting ever-so-blurry for venture-backed startup Opendoor. The company, armed with $1.5 billion in VC funding, is looking to bring aboard real estate agents in Phoenix, Arizona, to support its “Home Reserve” iBuying platform, according to Inman , which spotted a jobs posting Friday morning.

Brokerage 535
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5 Tips Every For Sale By Owner Should Know

Listing Spark

Here at ListingSpark, we work with A LOT of sellers who start out as a For Sale By Owner. For that reason, I put together a list of 5 tips every FSBO (For Sale By Owner) should know. This came about because I am always amazed at the misinformation that exists in the FSBO world. 1) Zillow DOES NOT care if you actually sell. What most For Sale By Owner sellers don’t realize is that nothing in life is actually free.

Agents 36
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10 Things You Can Do to Maximize a Small Space

REX Real Estate

Decorating any room in your home can have its challenges, especially when you’re dealing…

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RISMedia Releases August 2020 Digital Magazine

McKissock

At McKissock Learning, we want our customers to have all the resources they need to be successful in real estate. That’s why we’ve teamed up with RISMedia , the leading provider of the most relevant and up-to-date information related to the residential real estate market. As their Strategic Education Partner, we are able to give our customers free access to the digital edition of the RISMedia monthly magazine.

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Fed’s new inflation policy may lead to higher mortgage rates

Housing Wire

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Thursday announced a major shift in monetary policy that will allow the central bank to use inflation averaging, rather than the current practice of setting a hard target. Speaking at a video-only version of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City ’s annual conference, Powell said the Fed will no longer raise its benchmark rate to keep unemployment from falling too low and will allow inflation to run slightly higher than the current 2% target after perio

Mortgage 488
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Insatiable demand drives July pending home sales up 15% annually

Housing Wire

U.S. pending home sales rose 5.9% in July, the third consecutive month of gains, fueled by low mortgage rates and unprecedented demand from consumers. The seasonally-adjusted index measuring signed contracts was up 15.5% year over year, largely on the back of pent-up demand from buyers who were unable to strike deals during the spring, said Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors.

Contracts 477
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Two home offices? Real estate agents dish on the latest must-have amenities

Housing Wire

In the age of COVID-19, Peck Barham knew that prospective home buyers would pepper him with questions about home offices as they decamped downtown Birmingham for the spacious suburbs. But the agent with TeamBarham, Keller Williams Homewood didn’t expect the grub question. “The Birmingham Metro has a large suburban population and we have seen a larger than usual pattern to being outside the downtown district,” said Barham. “However, they do want to make sure they stay within the

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80% of economists see a chance of a double-dip recession

Housing Wire

Almost 80% of economists say there’s at least a one-in-four chance of a double-dip recession, following a record 32.9% plunge in GDP in the second quarter, according to a survey released on Monday from the National Association for Business Economics. About 40% of respondents rate the COVID-19 response from Congress as “insufficient” and 37% said it’s “adequate,” according to the survey that summarized the opinions of 235 members and was conducted between late July and early August.

Business 521
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For Millennials who want to buy a home right now, the Great Recession still looms large

Housing Wire

If the Great Recession never happened, how would potential homebuyers be looking at today’s housing market? . After all, the giant cohort of potential homebuyers now in their late 20s and early 30s was also the generation fresh out of college trying to find a job as the market was crashing in 2008. They remember the struggles of trying to find a job, and they remember the large swath of inventory on the market that made home prices drop lower and lower. .

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James Kleimann of The Real Deal joins HousingWire

Housing Wire

James Kleimann is joining HousingWire as Mortgage Editor to help the company sharpen coverage in housing finance, while also expanding into other housing verticals like real estate, title/escrow and appraisal. Working alongside HousingWire Editor in Chief Sar a h Wheeler , Kleimann will spearhead the editorial strategy for housing coverage on HousingWire.com. .

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There are now 4 providers with MISMO RON Compliance Certification

Housing Wire

e-Closing platform Pavaso announced on Monday it has been awarded the Remote Online Notarization Compliance Certification through the Mortgage Industry Standard Maintenance Organization – making it the fourth company to receive the specialized certification. Originally introduced in April, the MISMO RON compliance certification was designed to assure RON tech providers meet a universal set of standards including credential analysis, borrower identification, capturing and maintaining a recording

Design 413
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Veterans United Home Loans to host virtual career showcase Sept. 2

Housing Wire

Mortgage Research Center , which does business as Veterans United Home Loans , is holding a virtual career showcase Wednesday, September 2, for all interested job applicants. According to Veterans United, the showcase will allow potential job candidates an opportunity to view the company’s culture, diversity and inclusion programs and available career opportunities in a more personal setting.

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Here are the 2020 HW Insiders

Housing Wire

Operations have become increasingly important in today’s environment, and some companies have even offered sign-on bonuses for these roles as the need for them heightens. Many of the 2020 HW Insiders are from these operations roles, and their talent was put to the test during unprecedented times. And these operations superstars guided their companies through it with ease – from moving workforces remote to creating new digital elements in a time of social distancing.

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Another 1 million Americans file for unemployment benefits

Housing Wire

Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell to 1 million last week from 1.1 million in the prior period, the Labor Department said in a Thursday report. “The up and down moves of recent weeks underscore that the recovery will be slow-going as long as the virus continues to circulate,” Wells Fargo economists said in a report. Even with the decline, the level was “still higher than any week during the Great Recession.”.

Marketing 404
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[PULSE] Accountability is more important than action, and nothing happens without action

Housing Wire

Note: This is part four of a five-part series. Over the following weeks, Todd Duncan, sales entrepreneur and New York Times best-selling author, will showcase principles for mortgage and real estate professionals to embrace for success. Find more advice in his first , second , third and fourth pieces. I was in the back of an Uber having just landed in Boston.

Contracts 305
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HousingStack Phase 4: Lead conversion

Housing Wire

HousingStack is a real estate technology landscape that provides a dynamic visual that reflects the rapid changes in the sector. The HousingStack is exclusively for HW+ members. To join the HW+ community, go here. Keeping on the theme of leads , leads , leads , I’m going to highlight some of the products that focus almost exclusively on this area. You could argue that many of the companies we’ve covered so far in the HousingStack help in lead conversion, and you’d be correct.

Tools 264
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People movers: Gateway First Bank, Promontory MortgagePath and Mortgage Solutions Financial

Housing Wire

Gateway First Bank officially named Scott Gesell CEO and general counsel after serving as CEO on an interim basis since April 3. He will also join the board of directors of Gateway as a director. In the seven years that Gesell has been at Gateway First Bank, he has been a part of the executive management team responsible for the growth of Gateway, playing a key role in the in the formation of the bank in 2019, which was born out of the merger of a 100-year-old community bank with Gateway Mortgag

Mortgage 264
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Improving your real estate technology, from search to sold

Housing Wire

One of my favorite aspects of working for HousingWire over the past two years has been helping the company expand our real estate coverage. There is so much changing every day in the real estate technology landscape, and whether it’s through our HousingStack or our Real Estate D emo Days , we want to help real estate professionals stay current.

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8 things you can do to increase value in your home

REX Real Estate

While many have taken on the DIY approach for home improvement projects during the…

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Refi fee is delayed, but what are lenders doing about loans that were already locked?

Housing Wire

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced on Tuesday it is delaying the implementation of its adverse market refinance fee to Dec. 1 – three months past its intended start date. But what about lenders whose refi loans were locked with closing dates after Sept. 1 and carrying the 50bps LLPA? Phil Shoemaker, president of originations at Home Point Financial , said that for every Home Point borrower who had the adjustment added, the fee will be removed.

Finance 498
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Average mortgage rate falls to 2.91%: Freddie Mac

Housing Wire

Average U.S. mortgage rates for a 30-year fixed loan fell to 2.91% this week, the second-lowest level on record, Freddie Mac said in a report on Thursday. The rate declined from 2.99% last week , the mortgage financier said. The average rate for a 15-year fixed home loan fell to 2.46% from 2.54%. “This year has been anything but normal and as the uncertainty lingers, mortgage rates remain near record lows,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.

Mortgage 519
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FHFA extends foreclosure and eviction moratorium for a third time to Dec. 31

Housing Wire

Four days ahead of its previous expiration date, the Federal Housing Finance Agency extended its moratorium on foreclosures and evictions for borrowers with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac until Dec. 31. After its prior extension to Aug. 31 in June, the agency said it intended to monitor the effects of the coronavirus and update policies as needed.

Tenants 533
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The impact of COVID-19 on small landlords: How to lower the risks

Housing Wire

Several times a month, the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) releases data from its Rent Payment Tracker, a measure of the number of tenants who have paid rent that month. Its most recent update, issued on Aug. 24, found that 90% of apartment households had made a full or partial rent payment by Aug. 20. Great news, right? Robyn A. Friedman HW+ Columnist.

Landlords 450
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How to Get on the FHA Appraiser Roster

McKissock

In order to do appraisals for FHA loans (including reverse mortgages and REO properties), you must be listed on the FHA appraiser roster. Below, we’ve provided answers to several common questions regarding how to get on the FHA roster. Whether you’re a new applicant or a former FHA roster appraiser, we hope you find the following information helpful.

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Broad coalition of housing organizations urge Congres to start protecting renters and property owners

Housing Wire

In a letter addressed to congressional leaders, the Department of Housing and Urban Development , the Department of Treasury and the National Economic Council , a coalition of 31 housing organizations and industry trade associations urged the administration to immediately restart negotiating a compromise on stimulus regulation and rental assistance that “keeps people in their homes.”.

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This federal bill could help remove one of the biggest obstacles to homeownership

Housing Wire

A pair of U.S. senators are pushing a bill designed to reduce one of the most significant obstacles to home ownership: prohibitively expensive down payments. The bipartisan-sponsored bill, called the American Dream Down Payment Act, would allow states to offer first-time homebuyers a savings account, which comes with a tax benefit as they save up to 20% for a down payment. “ Down payments are the biggest barrier to homeownership for first-time homebuyers, especially among low-income and minority

Law 516
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What happens to the refi fee if Biden wins?

Housing Wire

After an industry outcry, the Federal Housing Finance Agency on Tuesday said it would delay until Dec. 1 the implementation of the 0.5% adverse-market fee on refinanced mortgages purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That’s almost a month after the Nov. 3 presidential election. If former Vice President Joe Biden usurps President Donald Trump, all bets are off, said Stephen Myrow, managing partner of Beacon Policy Advisors in Washington, D.C.

Finance 483