Terms like “short sales” and “bank-owned” are on many people’s tongues and minds in the real estate industry. The recent addition of the Short Sale and Bank Owned fields on RMLSweb now allow us to look at data for these listings individually.

Before there was a short sale field on RMLSweb, there was only a “3^rd Party to Transaction” field. As you may know, “3^rd Party to Transaction” listings are not always short sales. They may also be estate sales or relocations. In order for you to identify short sales more efficiently, the RMLS^™ Board voted to add these new fields, a change that occurred July 29, 2009. This also helps the other types of properties that require 3rd Party approval to get fair attention. RMLS^™ has added the following fields regarding short sales:

Short Sale Yes/No – will be required when entering a listing and 3rd Party to Transaction will be automatically checked when Yes is selected.

Short Sale Offer (Seller Accepted; Submitted for Approval) Yes/No– The rules will be revised to require updating this field when an offer is made.

In a blog post last year, we compared 3^rd Party to Transaction sales to the total active listings on the market. Now, with the recent addition of these new fields, we can look at short sale data and bank owned data more specifically and also compare them to the market as a whole. The graph below shows you the total number of active listings in RMLSweb as of today July 23, 2010, compared to the number of active listings that are checked Short Sale Yes, and also compared to those that are marked Bank Owned. The number of active short sales in comparison to the total number of active listings is approximately 11.7%, while the number of active bank owned properties in comparison to the total number of active listings is about 5.4%.

As you can see from the above graph, the number of active short sales and bank owned properties is a small fraction of the number of total active listings. There were 31,762 total active listings, 3,731 total active short sales and 1,715 total active bank owned listings.

Now that we’ve looked at active listings, let’s compare total pending sales in the market with pending short sales and pending bank owned properties. The graph below depicts this comparison using data from RMLSweb on July 23^rd, 2010:

There were 5,094 total pending listings, 877 pending short sales and 913 pending bank owned properties.

Last, let’s take a look at sold listings. The graph below shows that there were 17,751 total sold listings from the period of January 1, 2010 to June 30^th, 2010. The number of sold short sales was 1,620, just 9.1% of total sold listings. Bank owned listings sold at a higher rate with 3,422 sales, which is approximately 19.3% of total sold listings.

Visit the National Association of Realtors® website for more information on short sales and bank owned properties.

Also, stay tuned for future blog posts that will compare prices and the number of days on market for short sales and bank owned properties, to the market as a whole.

Can anyone say “DUH!”?

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Attention all Realtors®

Numerous Realtors® have reported receiving emails and phone calls from a person out-of country who claims to need assistance with an all-cash real estate purchase. The caller may also insist on the need to retain a lawyer with a trust account, and requests a referral. The Realtor® or referred lawyer soon receives a substantial check (reports are from $150,000 to $500,000) to be deposited into broker trust account or lawyer trust account. Soon thereafter another call is received from a person purporting to be the attorney for the scammer in his home country. The foreign attorney says that the funds were sent out of country without appropriate government authority and must be immediately returned in order to avoid sanctions and penalties. Holder of the funds is pressed to wire the money without delay. Needless to say, the purchaser and the check are a fraud.

If you receive questionable requests for service or referrals, be cautious and inquire further.

The new, improved CMA report has arrived

The transformed RMLSweb CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) has a brand new look and feel, as well as a new location! In addition to an extensive remodel of CMA, RMLSweb also now contains a Radius Search and enhanced User Preferences. Creating a CMA has never been easier and yet offered so many customizable options to set your CMA apart from the rest!

Highlights of the CMA include:

1) Navigate forwards and backwards without losing data
2) Adding comparables via seven different methods (MLS Numbers, Radius Search, Map Search, Address Search, Advanced Search, MLS Number Search, Saved MLS Numbers)
3) Saving the CMA in progress
4) Printing to PDF, printing to your printer, or e-mail with the touch of a button
5) Reorder your comparables or the pages of your CMA report by dragging and dropping them into the order you desire
6) Incorporate properties that are in different categories (ex: Farms/Ranches + Lots/Lands)
7) Display your recommended price through a graph
8) Customize your report with pages dedicated to Company Information, your Resume, and/or color themes to match your office/team
9) Auto-populate subject property information with Tax ID or previous MLS #

For more information, print out our quick reference guide.

Want a trainer to come out to your office and demonstrate this enhanced functionality? Call our Training Manager, Kerry Meeuwsen at 503-872-8051 or e-mail kerry.m@rmls.com.

Learn more about an area by clicking the links!

Recently, RMLSweb was updated with several new features. One of these features is the ability to view a city or county’s Web page by one simple click of the mouse. In client and agent reports, most city and county names are now links to local Web sites of municipalities for that area.

This can be useful if you have a client who currently lives in Ashland, Oregon, but is interested in buying a home in Portland, Oregon. After performing searches to find an appropriate listing that meets your client’s needs, you can email them a client report and they have the ability to also view the city or county’s Web page for more information.

By looking at the city or county’s Web page, your client can decide if that particular area would be a good fit for their needs. This new feature can also be used by agents who would like to learn more about a particular area in order to educate potential clients.

Take a look at the image below. This listing has links for both the city (Portland) and the county (Multnomah). These links will take the viewer to the official Web site for the city of Portland and to the Multnomah County home page.

How else have you used this new link feature?

Hopefully they get this figured out soon.  I know that, as a data provider and a Mac user, it has annoyed the heck out of me forever that I had to borrow a friend’s Windows machine just to log in to make a required password change.

Read more »

Bout time.  :)

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Mobile is now free for everyone

Now, you will no longer have to pay for RMLSweb Mobile. Want to view listing information but you aren’t in your office? Just login to mobile.rmlsweb.com to access a simplified version of our subscriber-only website designed to be used on mobile devices, allowing you to access MLS information while in the field. With the mobile format, which works on almost all mobile web browsers and smartphones, you can:

• Search by address or MLS#
• Search RMLS™ Roster
• Find properties within a one mile radius of a listing
• E-mail or call other agents via active links

There isn’t a better price than “free”!

I thought it was time we revisited the earlier analysis we did on how home value trends vary by the typical home value of a city.  Previously, we found that most metros displayed a pattern in which cities with higher-priced real estate had experienced less decline in home values since the peak of home values in the metro market (relative to cities with lower priced real estate in the same metro).

Returning now to the issue armed with May 2010 data from the Zillow Home Value Index, we find a much more mixed picture in terms of the relationship between prevailing home values at peak and peak-to-current declines in home values. The table below shows the classification of metro regions according to whether the higher-priced cities within the metro have seen more, less or the same degree of decline in home values since the peak in the market.

In the San Francisco metro area, the price level of a city has had a huge impact on how far home values have fallen. At peak, a typical home in Antioch – in Contra Costa County east of the Bay – had a value of $516,000 but home values there have fallen 63% since then. That’s in sharp contrast to Hillsborough – in San Mateo County – where a typical home was valued at almost $2.6 million at peak and home values have declined only 10% since then. Some of this effect is due to the timing of the housing downturn in these two cities. Antioch went into decline before Hillsborough but the former is now seeing positive monthly appreciation (0.9% in May) whereas the latter is still seeing negative appreciation (-0.6% in May). So stay tuned, peak-to-decline values may look quite different than they do today in this market.

Below the table is an interactive chart showing the patterns for each metro region (as an aside, Tableau visualization software is truly remarkable.  While we’re an open source R shop for the most part, Tableau has certainly found a place here when visualization of data is needed).

Relationship Between Typical Home Value of City and Total Decline in Home Values Since Peak

Why not display an address when marketing a property? The two big reasons I’ve heard are:

1) Use it as a marketing tactic to generate more calls

2) To protect privacy, or fear of theft.

Now, there is data to support that you will get more contacts if you show the address.

Zillow analysts found that properties on Zillow that display an address receive 6 TIMES more page views than properties that hid the address. Further, properties with the address displayed also received 6 TIMES the inquiries.

Why is this? 3 main reasons:

1)    Map search – Today, almost every real estate site has some kind of map search, as well as a list search. On Zillow, if we are told not to display the address (NDA), then the home’s location on the map will appear in a general area for that home’s ZIP code – it will not appear in the exact location. We all know one street can vary widely from the next street and having the location – especially if it’s a desirable location – will help the seller.

2) Mobile real estate search – Many mobile applications have GPS-enabled search to answer the question “what’s for sale in the area I am in right now” (such as the Zillow iPhone App or Zillow Android App). Without being able to map properties exactly, NDA properties are missing out on the huge opportunity of mobile exposure. This one will continue to grow in importance.

3) Search engines – We all know that search engines are important website visitors that can’t be ignored. There are huge opportunities for specific addresses to be found in search results, and the likelihood grows as people become more specific in their searches – even searching for actual addresses. Again, if the address isn’t displayed, Google can’t see it, and can’t serve it.

All three of these significantly contribute to the amount of traffic a listing will receive if the address is displayed versus if it is not. The exposure loss can be huge. And with less page views, there are less inquiries, as the data shows.

In pulling the numbers, one thing that did surprise me was that the percentage of times someone did send an inquiry was actually the same whether an address was displayed or not. So this finding contradicts the idea that hiding the address generates more responses. My guess is that the people who do reach out to find out where the property is located must counteract those who are annoyed by the lack of data or discount the property altogether because the location is hidden.

If you list it, will they come? The Lansing family hopes so.

The Des Moines Register is reporting that the Iowa site where the 1980 movie “Field of Dreams” was shot, is on the market for $5.4 million. Included in the price is the actual movie site which includes the baseball field, a two-bedroom, 1.5-bath house (and yes, that familiar front porch), surrounding farmland, two souvenir stands and six farm buildings — a total of 193 acres.

Maybe the movie’s star, Kevin Costner, needs a place to retire?

This May, get educated with FREE RMLSweb training

Here’s a quick rundown of upcoming real estate events & education for May in Oregon & Southern Washington. If you have an event that is not listed here, please let us know by commenting below. For future events, please send an e-mail to communications (at) rmls (dot) com.

Events around the Region:

-Through May 30: Prudential Real Estate Professionals offers its CRS111 Short Sales and Foreclosures course held on July 1st. Discounted registration is available until May 30th.

-May 3: Clark County Association of Realtors® offers Get Connected Boot Camp for FREE admission

-May 17: Clatsop Association of Realtors® co-presents Issues with Short Sales, Loan Modifications and Foreclosure Rescue in Seaside, Oregon

-May 19: PMAR® offers the Navigating the Realtor® Code of Ethics training seminar

-May 20-21: OAR® presents The Accredited Buyer’s Representative®, a two-day course series at the Oregon Convention Center

-May 23: Vancouver Fine Homes Group hosts the Vancouver Fine Homes Spring Tour

-May 26, 27: Earth Advantage offers Sustainability Training for Accredited Real Estate Professionals

Also, if you’re an RMLS™ subscriber, we have lots of FREE opportunities for continuing education credit at a location near you; click the link for your area to view the May Training Calendar:

- Coos County
- Eastern Oregon
- Eugene
- Florence
- Gresham
- Hood River
- Portland
- Roseburg
- Salem
- Vancouver