It is never a good time to lose your home to foreclosure, but it is especially traumatic around the holidays. In the spirit of the season, Fannie and Freddie announced they will be suspending evictions of single-family and 2- to 4-unit properties between Dec. 19 and Jan. 2. “If the property is occupied, attorneys will suspend the eviction to provide families a greater measure of certainty during the holidays,” said Tracy Mooney, senior vice president of servicing and REO at Freddie Mac, in a news release. But that doesn’t mean all foreclosure operations are shutting down. The suspension applies only to eviction lockouts on properties owned by Freddie and Fannie. Other pre- and post-foreclosure processes will go on as usual.

According to RealtyTrac , about 89,000 foreclosure auctions happen every month, so while the moratorium could affect tens of thousands of homeowners, without a true Holiday Miracle, it will be business as usual come January .

This Week’s Real Estate Insight:

If you or someone you know is facing foreclosure be proactive: Contact your lender as soon as you foresee trouble. Be persistent: Keep notes of whom you spoke to and when, along with contact numbers. Pay your mortgage and utility bills before credit card and department store bills and if all else fails, consider filing for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

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More than half of all online traffic today is video, and by 2013, it will more than 90% of all traffic. We have been making videos for about two years now, and they really showcase the special qualities of a property better than still photos and virtual tours.

We were joined by Christian Sterner, one of the founders of WellcomeMat, our newest technology partner that hosts our Video Gallery. In Tom’s never ending quest to make Residentialproperties.com the ultimate online Real Estate experience, he wanted to make sure that the videos could be easily viewed on all mobile devices in any browser.

Partnering with WelcomeMat has made it easy to showcase our videos. Users can browse the gallery, create their own playlists, and search by keywords, from any device.

Here’s the commercial-free podcast of the show:

This Week’s Real Estate Insight:

A recent study in Inman News said that 73% of clients were more likely to list their home with an agent that uses videos to market properties, but less than 1% of all agents are doing them. Videos continue to distinguish Residential Properties and our listings in the market place, creating rich “sticky” original content for our website. Sellers gain the SEO advantage and buyers benefit from all of the extra information videos can give.

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This week I had one of my all time favorite guests on the show, James Brayton Hall, the Executive Director of The Providence Preservation Society (PPS). In the post-war period the trend was to try and make all American cities look the same, but several early adopters of preservation like PPS saw the beauty and importance of preserving our older buildings.  PPS was one of the earliest preservation groups in the country, and their forward thinking plan to save entire neighborhoods has resulted in the largest group of preserved architecture in the Country. There are many benefits to Historic Preservation, aesthetic, cultural, environmental, and educational, I am sure 100 years from now these will remain the most important benefits, but in this climate of falling equity, the economic benefits of stabilizing neighborhoods, increasing the tax base, not to mention the multiplying effect from tourism, (the Newport mansions alone brought in 17 million dollars in revenue in 2008.) are critical to the sustained viability of our State.

This Weekend PPS will once again be hosting its annual Holiday stroll, returning to where it all began with a Holiday on Benefit Street- Guests will get to tour many Benefit Street houses, decked with the finest holiday cheer.  This year’s Festival will feature guided walking tours, educational lectures, and volunteers will be at all the houses to answer questions and offer their insight into the unique features of these special homes. The historic Hope Club will also be open this year serving as the headquarters of the festival. PPS has added a Family Day ticket to the Holiday Festival which includes storytelling by Len Cabral; gingerbread house decorating; a visit from the Snow Queen; a pet parade; carriage rides; and a parade to light the City Christmas tree.

This week’s Real Estate Insight:

This weekend try looking at Providence through the eyes of a tourist.  Come to The Holiday on Benefit Street, enjoy the day, learn about the rich history Providence has to offer and help support PPS’s mission to improve the quality of life in Providence through historic preservation and the enhancement of the built environment.

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So this week Rich and Steve had Andrew Lefebvre from the Nationwide Lefebvre Insurance Agency.  Confusion and misinformation is the chief cause for homeowner’s insurance woes, so it is important to know exactly is and isn’t covered in your policy. Guaranteed Replacement Coverage covers the cost of home replacement over the limit agreed to by the insurer, Replacement Cost will cover your home but only up to the amount the insurer agreed to pay. Actual Cash Value Coverage pays fair market value for your home, usually much lower than the cost to rebuild.  And then there are variations within the policies, so the only way to really know what you are covered for is to read it cover to cover. Make sure you have separately  indemnified expensive items like fine art and antiques,  and review your policy yearly to make sure you have taken any upgrades you may have done to your house into consideration. Finally it is a good idea to add a million dollar “umbrella policy” , especially if you have teenage drivers, to cover anything not in your homeowner’s policy, these usually cost about $200/ year, and could save you from losing everything if you get sued.

This Week’s Real Estate Insight:

When it comes to insuring your most valuable asset, you want to make sure you have the best possible coverage for the money, not necessarily the cheapest premiums.

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HousingWorks RI recently released its annual Fact Book on affordable housing in Rhode Island. The 2011 Fact Book features the incredible success of the 2006 affordable housing bond known as Building Homes Rhode Island (BHRI). The $50 million housing bond created 1,255 affordable homes in 30 communities throughout the state.

The Bond was an incredible boost to the state’s overall economy, including these findings from the economic impact study:

• The $50 million generating about $800 million in total economic activity.
• More than half of all the new construction in Rhode Island between 2007- 2010 was sparked by the bond
• At a time of record-high unemployment, BHRI supported 6,100 jobs in Rhode Island.

While declining values have made housing more affordable, there is still a great need for long term affordable solutions, there are only nine communities in the state where the average wage earner could afford to purchase a median priced home, and foreclosures are still a big problem.

This week’s Real Estate Insight:

Despite the overwhelming success of the last bond initiative, there is no money for Affordable housing in the 2012 budget.  Massachusetts has about $285 million in its current budget for housing programs, and Connecticut is investing over $130 million in housing this fiscal year. The return on the investment has been proven to not only provide affordable housing to the neediest of individuals, but has also been a great boost to the overall economy in general, particularly the hard hit construction industry.

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It is funny how so many people would rather follow the crowd than do what is best for their personal situation, the people who flocked to buy during the boom thought nothing of the fact that so many unqualified people were buying houses they could not afford, betting on negative amortization loans and continued appreciation to float them, yet fear of the future  now keeps many people on the sidelines in spite of historically low prices and mortgage rates.  Today commentators are vilifying the “draconian lending standards that continue to hold housing back”, while that may be true to a certain extent,  I actually feel more comfortable in my mortgage today knowing that the majority of fellow homeowners  can actually afford the home they are in, don’t you?

Pat chided us for our Pollyanna outlook, but perception does play a role in the economy, and since there is so much negative news, we do like to report some of the positive reports to offer homeowners some reassurance  that they are not jeopardizing their financial futures by continuing to pay their mortgages.

This Week’s Real Estate Insight:

Unfortunately Rhode Island has historically been one of the first states to fall into recession and one of the last to recover, so it might be bumpy for a while, but everything is cyclical, and when the market does come back it might just come back like gangbusters.  The majority of Americans still believe housing is a good investment, there is pent up demand and new households being created every day. The decline in divorce proceedings is noteworthy; a University of Virginia study found that nearly 4 in 10 married Americans ages 18 to 45 who had been considering divorce put off their plans   because of the poor economy.  When values do begin to rise, these people can sell their house, or feel confident to support separate households. So don’t worry too much, as Lil’ Rhodys motto points out, there is Hope.

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Single Families

• 4635 Single Families sold year to date, with an average 95 DOM
• 1604 for the QIII; 35% of sales YTD
• 1139 Pending Sales

Condos

• 772 ytd 87% SP/LP
• 241 of them in QIII; 31% Sales YTD
• 242 condos in pending!!!

Multi’s

• 850 yd 92% sp/lp
• 257 QIII; 30% of the sales
• 419 pending

It might be discouraging if you are a seller, but the fact is homes are selling so why isn’t yours? So how do you capture the buyers in this market? Your home had to be priced, staged and marketed better than the competition. Have you ever seen an ad for Mercedes Benz with an out of focus picture of just the gas cap? No, but there are plenty of Realtors marketing homes with horrible pictures. Quality photographs, property videos, stand alone websites are the best ways to showcase your property. If you are better than the competition you will sell, no matter how much inventory and in spite of the headlines.

This Week’s Real Estate Insight

Properties are selling these days,  and yours will too if you are determined to sell it. Find a Realtor with great web presence who will market your home the best. The day your property hits the market, it should be staged and sparkling. Inspect before going on the market and address any issues in advance, then make sure you are priced correctly, properties that are not selling have been on the market nearly twice as long as the ones that do.  If you hit the ground running with these four points, you will sell your home!

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Here are some things to keep in mind as you assess the damage done to your property and to help mitigate future loss:

• Flood Insurance: Less than 1/5 of U.S. homeowners have a flood insurance policy, although four out of five natural disasters involve flooding. Standard homeowners policies cover damage from wind, and wind-driven rain, but damage from ground water or water seeping into a basement from below isn’t covered unless you have flood insurance, available from the National Flood Insurance Program and from a few private insurers. The program has been up in the air for the past few years and presently it is still available, but there is a 30-day waiting period before a flood policy takes effect.
• Hurricane Insurance: Irene is being treated as a tropical storm in Rhode Island for insurance purposes, which should save people money, a hurricane deductible is usually 1 to 5% of the value of the policy, as opposed to a set deductible of $500-$1,000.
• Automobiles: If you have a comprehensive auto insurance policy, you are covered if your car is damaged by flood water. If you are in the market for a used car in the next few months, be careful to check them out carefully. Every year, tens of thousands of cars are damaged by floodwaters and more than half end up back on the road, usually refurbished and shipped to a different part of the country to be sold to unsuspecting buyers. A CARFAX Vehicle History Report will indicate if a vehicle has been registered in at-risk areas during flood and hurricane seasons.
• Tree damage: Standard policies cover damage to a house from a fallen tree, and tree damage to garages, sheds, fences and outdoor pools. Comprehensive auto insurance will cover damage to a car. When a tree in your yard falls onto a neighbor’s property, the neighbor’s policy will cover it but you could be liable if you knew the tree was in bad shape and you didn’t do anything about it.
• Avoid Scams: Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin warns people to be on the lookout for potential scammers. Check with DBR at (401) 222-1268 to make sure that a contractor is properly licensed and registered. If you believe you are a victim of fraud or price gouging, contact the AG’s Consumer Protection Unit: download a consumer complaint form athttp://www.riag.ri.gov/civil/consumer/, call (401) 274-4400 oremail contactus@riag.ri.gov
• Low Cost loans available: Many banks are offering special low cost loans for victims of Irene to help customers make repairs, or as bridge loans until an insurance check comes through, most of these offers expire at the end of September.
• If you are under Contract now: Many lenders require  appraisers  re-inspect homes under agreement after major storms, so if you are in contract , you might be hearing from your lender about  having  your home re-inspected as a contingency on your financing.

This week’s Real Estate Insight:

Read your insurance documents and review  your existing coverage annually. Know your policy numbers, and where to call to file a claim. Websites are great but you will almost always get the best results when talking to a customer rep in person, so call your insurance company with any questions. If you don’t have a copy of your policy, be sure to check it online before the storm hits – you may not have power for a while after the storm. And don’t wait too long  to get a new or expanded policy in place, it might be to late when disaster strikes.

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Personal finance covers a wide variety of topics including budgeting, debt, saving, retirement, Real Estate, insurance and taxes. Understanding how each of these work together and affect each other is important for laying the groundwork for a solid financial foundation. And as your wealth increases, so does the complexity and impact of each decision on future results. Oliver has assembled a team of experts that deal with each of these aspects  including Steve and I and we all appear on a rotating basis on The Money Pro$ , our first segment will be aired next Sunday at 11:30 AM EST on Fox 64. Oliver interviewed us and then we all took part in a roundtable with Susan Arnold from The Rhode Island Association of Realtors to talk about Real Estate and Financing these days and how it fits into a person’s total financial picture.

This Week’s Real Estate Insight
Without a solid financial plan, you are like a ship without a rudder, a Personal Financial Plan isn’t about how much money you make or the size of your portfolio.  Your Financial Plan is about maximizing assets and minimizing taxes, allowing you to make the best possible decisions with your money.  Regardless of how much money you have or the size of your investment account, the key to your success is the plan you put in place. For more information be sure to tune into The Money Pros next Sunday at 11:30 AM EST

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In the past ten years I have been amazed at the number of young people getting into Real Estate right out of college, they are young and eager and are armed with all the latest technology and are ready to take on the world, in my day there were few people who got into Real Estate right out of College. I was an art major, Chris was a reporter, we were teachers, lawyers, social workers, and somehow we ended up in Real Estate.  Most of us had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the technology age, and those who did not learn how to adapt have been pretty much forced into retirement.  While we have taken many different roads, we all ended up here, using all of the resources available to service our client’s to the best of our abilities.

This Week’s Real Estate Insight:

As we draw from our past experiences to help our clients navigate the purchase and sale of their homes, Realtors wear many hats, photographers, market analysts, tour guides, neighborhood experts, therapists, and negotiators. If we did not truly believe in and enjoy what we do, no amount of money would compensate for the stress of being so many things to clients guiding them through one of the most important financial step in their lives.

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