Why is RPAC Important to YOU? Becuase YOU Matter.

RPAC $20 (Nickel a Day) from Virginia Association of Realtors on Vimeo.

Builder Bailout Scheme

Here's the next brilliant scheme in our library:  A builder scheme.  Check it out:
1.  A builder offers incentives to buyers: such as cash back at closing or payment for mortgage or home-owner association fees.
2.  These incentives are not revealed to the buyer's lender.
3.  The builder provides the incentives after the sale has closed.

Many lenders put a cap on the value of incentives that a buyer can accept, so the fraud is surrounding disclosure here.

Another builder scheme invloves the builders offering a buyer incentive of a mortgage with no down payment.
1.  A builder wants to sell the property for, let's say $200,000.
2.  The builder inflates the price to $240,000 when he finds a buyer.
3.  The buyer's lender funds the loan of $200,000, believing that the downpayment will be paid at closing.
4.  The builder gets the $200,000 from the sale of the home, pays off his building costs, FORGIVES the buyer's $40,000 downpayment and keeps the rest as profit.
5.  The buyer's lender is lead to believe that there is equity in the home (in their eyes, the buyer put a 20% downpayment down).
6.  If the buyer forecloses, the lender has no equity and must pay all foreclosure expenses.

So...if you are working with a builder: ASK QUESTIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Talk to other agents who  were involved in other transactions with that builder.  This is a HUGE reason why, even when purchasing a new construction home, it is important for buyers to have their OWN representation.

Agents are licensed professionals, they need to make responsible decisions.  As always: go into every transaction with your eyes open.

Up next: Reverse mortgage schemes.

Short-Sale Fraud #1

Over the next few weeks, I will share with you some of the latest frauds that are going on in the marketplace. Fraudsters are coming up with new frauds every day because the old frauds are being detected fairly easily. An amazing fact is that the FBI has investigated over 2,700 Mortgage Fraud cases in 2009, but has investigated over 3,000 in only the first four months of 2010! (Source: FBI 2009 Mortgage Fraud Report Year in Review).

Let's look at one of the schemes that is currently out there:

This scheme is a short-sale scheme:
1. The fraudster recruits a straw buyer to purchase a home for the purpose of defaulting on the mortgage.
2. This straw buyer secures a mortgage using false documentation and information.
3. Once the transaction is complete, the buyer stops making payments on the mortgage, causing it to default.
4. Prior to a foreclosure sale, the fraudster (not the buyer) offers to purchase the property from the lender through a short-sale.
5. The lender accepts this offer, not realizing that the short sale was premeditated.

What can you do to prevent becoming involved in something like this?
1. Use lenders you know and trust.
2. Research the chain of sales on each property you list.
3. If you think something is fishy, talk to the agents that were involved in the previous sales.
4. Know what your buyers can truly afford.
5. Go into every transaction with your eyes open: if it is too good to be true, it probably is.

Stay tuned next week for a builder scheme.

I'd love to hear what you think of this one!

Another reason why Long & Foster is the best place for Top Agents

I Was a Sailor Once

(Photo from knowledgerush.com)

I liked standing on the bridge wing at sunrise with salt spray in my face and clean ocean winds whipping in from the four quarters of the globe - the ship beneath me feeling like a living thing as her engines drove her through the sea.
I liked the sounds of the Navy - the piercing trill of the boatswain's pipe, the syncopated clangor of the ship's bell on the quarterdeck, the harsh squawk of the 1MC, and the strong language and laughter of sailors at work.
I liked Navy vessels -- nervous darting destroyers, plodding fleet auxiliaries and amphibs, sleek submarines and steady, solid, heavy cruisers, battleships and aircraft carriers.
I liked the proud names of Navy ships: Midway, Lexington, Bunker Hill, Saratoga, Coral Sea, Antietam, Valley Forge - - memorials of great battles won and tribulations overcome.
I liked the lean angular names of Navy "tin-cans" and escorts - -
Barney, Dahlgren, Mullinix, McCloy, Damato, Leftwich, Mills, Stickell, Noa, Paul, Coontz, T.C. Hart, Glover & Sullivan Brothers - - mementos of heroes who went before us.
And the others - - San Jose, San Diego, Los Angeles, St. Paul, Chicago - named for our cities.
I liked the tempo of a Navy band blaring through the topside speakers as we pulled away from the oiler after refueling at sea.
I liked Liberty Call and the spicy scents of foreign ports.
I even liked the never-ending paperwork and all-hands working parties as my ship filled herself with the multitude of supplies, both critical and mundane in order to cut ties to the land and carry out her mission anywhere on the globe there was water to float her.
I liked sailors, officers and enlisted men from all parts of the land, farms of the Midwest, small towns of New England, from the cities, the mountains and the prairies, from all walks of life. I trusted and depended on them as they trusted and depended on me - for professional competence, for comradeship, for strength and courage. In a word, they were "shipmates"; then and forever.

I liked the surge of adventure in my heart, when the word was passed:

"Now set the special sea and anchor detail - all hands to quarters for leaving port," and I liked the infectious thrill of sighting home again, with the waving hands of welcome from family and friends waiting pier side.

The work was hard and dangerous; the going rough at times; the parting from loved ones painful, but the companionship of robust Navy laughter, the "all for one and one for all" philosophy of the sea was ever present.

I liked the serenity of the sea after a day of hard ship's work, as flying fish flitted across the wave tops and sunset gave way to night.

I liked the feel of the Navy in darkness -- the masthead and range lights, the red and green navigation lights and stern light, the pulsating phosphorescence of radar repeaters - they cut through the dusk and joined with the mirror of stars overhead. And I liked drifting off to sleep lulled by the myriad noises large and small that told me that my ship was alive and well, and that my shipmates on watch would keep me safe.

I liked quiet mid-watches with the aroma of strong coffee -- the lifeblood of the Navy permeating everywhere.

I even miss the screaming winds of the North Atlantic machine-gunning sleet and frozen bow spray into my foul weather gear as I stood lookout watch on the starboard wing.

And I liked hectic watches when the exacting minuet of haze-gray shapes racing at flank speed kept all hands on a razor edge of alertness.

I liked the sudden electricity of "General quarters, general quarters, all hands man your battle stations," followed by the hurried clamor of running feet on ladders and the resounding thump of watertight doors as the ship transformed herself in a few brief seconds from a peaceful workplace to a weapon of war -- ready for anything.

And I liked the sight of space-age equipment manned by youngsters clad in dungarees and sound-powered phones that their grandfathers would still recognize.
I liked the traditions of the Navy and the men and women who made them.

(Photo from julianstockwin.com)

I liked the proud names of Navy heroes: Halsey, Nimitz, Perry, Farragut, John Paul Jones and Burke. A sailor could find much in the Navy: comrades-in-arms, pride in self and country, mastery of the seaman's trade.

An adolescent could find adulthood.
In years to come, when sailors are home from the sea, they will still remember with fondness and respect the ocean in all its moods - the impossible shimmering mirror calm and the storm-tossed green water surging over the bow. And then there will come again a faint whiff of stack gas, a faint echo of engine and rudder orders, a vision of the bright bunting of signal flags snapping at the yardarm, a refrain of hearty laughter in the wardroom and chief's quarters and mess decks.
Gone ashore for good they will grow wistful about their Navy days, when the seas belonged to them and a new port of call was ever over the horizon.
Remembering this, they will stand taller and say, "I WAS A SAILOR ONCE AND I WOULD DO IT AGAIN."

Market Watch: Based upon August numbers:

Your Business Plan

I’m sure you would agree that productivity is never an accident! Wouldn’t you agree that it’s usually the result of a commitment to excellence, through intelligent planning and focused effort? Here are just some of the thoughts you can use in as your planning objectives.

Do you have a written Business Plan in place?

How many transactions are you going to close this year?

What is your average sales price going to be?

What is your average commission percentage per transaction?

What is your buyer to seller ratio going to be?

What kind of expenses are you going to have?