President signs housing rescue bill

President George W. Bush signed into law a bipartisan housing stimulus bill last Wednesday that is expected to bring greater stability to housing markets nationwide.

The bill, strongly supported by the NAR, will help some 400,000 home owners refinance into affordable, government backed loans and offer a temporary first-time home buyer tax credit, which is expected to serve as an attractive incentive to buyers and help reduce high inventories of unsold homes.

The temporary first-time home buyer tax credit would offer $7,500 for the purchase of any home and an be used for purchases between April 9, 2008, and July 1, 2009. Read more...

Banks to Get a Boost From FHA Refinancing...Analysts say the housing bailout is a good deal for banks.

"The banks should be thrilled with this," says John Vogel, professor of real estate at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business. "This is as good a deal as they were going to get."

Banks will lose roughly $25,000 per home owner by selling their mortgages to the Federal Housing Administration, compared to losing about $64,000 per home owner, on average, by allowing homes to foreclose, estimates Ladenburg Thalmann analyst Richard Bove.

In all, banks will save about $16 billion if they let home owners refinance into mortgages issued by the FHA. Read more...

NAR issues FAQ...Inside is an advance copy of FAQs relative to the home buyer tax credit now available to eligible purchasers under the Housing & Economic Recovery Act of 2008.

Homebuilders develop Web site on housing bill...The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has developed an excellent Web site to highlight the new first-time home buyer federal income tax credit included in the Housing & Economic Recovery Act of 2008. Visit site...

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No excuse for 'Photo Not Available'

While it's well established that multiple photos greatly increase the likelihood that a home buyer will click on your listing, the message hasn't hit home with some brokers and agents, Inman News reported from its Real Estate Connect conference last week in San Francisco.

In a panel discussion on the topic, experts said photos are not only important for getting consumers to click on listings, but that consumers use them as one measure of an agent's abilities.

So if you're not including photos for your listings, you're doing yourself and your client a disservice. Read more...

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NAR supports 'CHOICE' Health Coverage Act

A bill to encourage small businesses and associations to pool together for better health coverage represents an innovative approach to the insurance challenge facing real estate professionals, says NAR Treasurer Jim Helsel. "The 'CHOICE' Act tackles two of the most significant challenges facing small employers, the high cost of comprehensive health insurance and the volatility of insurance premiums," says Helsel.

'CHOICE' stands for the Small Business Cooperative for Healthcare Options to Improve Coverage for Employees Act. The bill would encourage professional associations, credit unions and others to form pooling arrangements for the purpose of offering reinsurance for excess claims. It also offers incentives for the self-employed and small business employers to join cooperatives that provide a refundable tax credit for a large portion of the amount contributed to pay the insurance premiums for workers and their families. Read more...

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REALTORS meet with HUD Chief on RESPA, FHA

A proposed rule to revise the federal Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) contains anti-competitive pricing mechanisms, excessive costs and complex and confusing disclosures, NAR President-elect Charles McMillan told Steve Preston, the new secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, in a meeting last week. McMillan recommended that HUD limit its reform efforts to working with the Federal Reserve Board to come up with coordinated, simplified disclosures and a Good Faith Estimate format that matches up with the HUD-1 Form and that would allow consumers to easily understand information at closing. McMillan also introduced Preston to NAR's popular FHA Toolkit, an interactive publication on using FHA insurance for mortgage financing.

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Fed issues rules to prevent abusive lending

The Federal Reserve adopted rules last week to prevent unfair or deceptive practices by lenders and to protect home buyers from the kind of loans that drove many into foreclosure. Some of the new rules require lenders to escrow money to pay taxes and insurance for risky borrowers, document borrower's income before a loan is issued, limit and--in some cases--ban prepayment penalties, prohibit lenders from making a loan without considering a borrower's ability to repay a home loan from sources other than the home's value and require mortgage advertising to contain information about rates, monthly payments and other features of the loan. Most of the rules are expected to take effect Oct.1, 2009. Escrow requirements won't go into effect until April 1, 2010. The rules do not apply to home equity lines of credit, construction loans, bridge loans, or reverse mortgage loans. Read more...

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State Association awarded legal fees

The Indiana Superior Court, County of Hendricks, dismissed a real estate practitioner's lawsuit against the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of REALTORS as "frivolous" and ordered the practitioner to pay MIBR's legal fees. The practitioner's lawsuit challenged a ruling against him by MIBR's professional standards committee. Read more...

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Managing Workers from Different Generations...Four distinct generations of employees are currently at work in companies across America, all with very different attitudes, expectations and management styles. Business owners and managers are challenged with learning how to maximize the potential in each age group, while encouraging them to work together to achieve common goals. Read more...

Children of the tech revolution...Today's six and seven-year-olds are part of the emerging generation Z. Demographers and social researchers have banged on endlessly about gen Y and their rapid embrace of new technology but gen Z is the first generation born into a digital world.

It's a bit like learning a language in high school compared with being a native speaker (hence an alternative name for gen Z: digital natives). This key difference and others, is now attracting the attention of those who want to know the answer to the question: what kind of adults will gen Z this century's first generation grow up to be? Read more...

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Save with OAR and NAR

Your membership in the Ohio Association of REALTORS allows you to take advantage of a number of member benefits. For questions about member offers and benefits contact Greg Stitz at stitz@ohiorealtors.org.

In addition, the National Association of REALTORS also provides its members many more benefits and offers.

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Tech Tips

Education

CI 101: Financial Analysis for Commercial Investment Real Estate
This flagship CCIM course offers an array of financial analysis concepts and calculations to help you make sound commercial real estate investment decisions. You will also learn the fundamentals of profitable investing and how to accurately measure investment value and performance of a given property. Course will be held in Columbus on Aug. 11-15. C.E. credit applies. Register now...

10-Hour Post Licensure for Salespeople...
This 10-hour course, to be held on Aug. 26-27, in Columbus, is required for all new sales licensees who are within the first 12 months of being licensed. Register today...

30 hours online...Take your real estate continuing education hours online. You can take 3, 6 or all 30 hours in any combination...Sign-up today...

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