The green real estate movement is specialized knowledge to help clients buy and sell resource-efficient properties.  The National Association of Realtors GREEN designation, which covers various aspects of green residential and commercial real estate, as well as property management, give practitioners up-to-date knowledge on the trends and inssues surrounding green buildings.  Below are a few ideas if you’d like to live a little more GREEN!

• Recycle old tennis shoes at the Nike Outlet Store in Conroe
• Recycle your wine corks at Spec’s
• Rince out the shampoo bottles to recyle with your kitchen plastics
• Mail in printer cartridges to recycle
• Buy houses with tech-shield in the attic
• Look for skylights when purchasing a home
• Tankless water heaters are energy efficient
• Metal Roofs last much longer than the traditional shingle roof
• Plant a garden in your backyard
• Install water efficient toilets in older homes
• There are a variety of windows for the home that lower utility bills
• Sun Screens on windows help consumers save on energy bills
• Variable Speed pool pumps help with energy efficiency
• Program thermostats
• Put lamps on timers

Find out more GREEN tips!

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I have heard horror stories about agents that list houses for sell and put it in the MLS and then do nothing further to market the property and the seller cannot get in touch with the agent for weeks at a time.  These are questions that I confidently answer for my clients and any strong listing agent should be able to anPeople have asked me, “How do I know what agent to use?”  My best advice is to interview several agents and use one that is a good negotiator, uses online and traditional marketing skills, and will follow up with leads and keep the seller informed. 

These are questions that an agent should be able to answer for you:

1.  How are you going to showcase my home to stand out from the competition?

2.  In this online world that we live in, what are you going to do to make my home “findable” online?

3.  How will you make my home “findable” to people moving in from out of town?

4.  Will you include video tours online?

5.  Will you use tagged keywords for google to pick up and distribute over the internet to make the listing easily searchable?

6.   Do you have your own website where you market the property?  How many viewers do you get per month on average?

7.  Is your custom website search engine friendly and optimized for a buyer looking in this are to find it?

8.  Fo you offer a home warranty?

9.  Do you offer home staging?

10. What traditional marketing do you do?

11. How do you advertise open houses?

12. Do you do Realtor open houses?

13. Do you send out efliers to other Realtors in the area advertising the listing?

14. What online advertising are you doing?

15. What is the absorption rate for the area?

I tell my clients why they should list with me over any other agent in Houston.  Here’s the short list that sets me apart from other Realtors:

1.  I have my own iPhone App that allows buyers and sellers to search my website for all of the homes for sale in Houston and easily call or email me anytime from their cell phone.

2.  I offer my selling clients a Seller Services Guarantee so they know how hard I will be working for them.

3.  I have been awarded “The Best Real Estate Blog in Texas” by Texas A&M University

4.  I have Realtor Designations & Certificates that you can find on my website

5.  I use all the social media available

6.  I provide all showing feedback to my sellers

7.  I provide unparalleled accessability to the agent

8.  Offer quality home warranty

9.  I offer yard signs with instant communication with potential buyers

10.  Custom marketing plan for every seller

And much more!

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Check out the new TEXAPLEX Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4XD7F61g1M&feature=channel

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The Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative Program (HAFA) will be providing short sale guidelines for loans not owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and or Freddie Mac starting in April 2009.  For the property to be eligible it must be the borrower’s principle residence, first lien mortgage originated on or before January 1, 2009, and the mortgage is delinquent or will be going delinquent in the foreseeable future.  The current unpaid principal balance must be equal to or less than $729,750.  The borrower’s total monthly mortgage payment has to exceed 31% of the borrower’s gross income.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are expected to come up with their own guidelines soon.

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I have received a lot of phone calls lately about listing short sales.  I am currently getting my distressed property certification and short sale certifications because I am seeing such a need for them in this market.  I have taken short sale listings and continue to do so, but they are not easy.  Buyers need to understand short sales are time consuming and Sellers need to understand that the road is not without bumps at this time.  However, new legislation coming soon is going to streamline the process and help lenders to get through the process more quickly which will make buyers, sellers, Realtors, and banks happy!

As lenders adopt new federal guidelines for short sells, they will become less frustrating for everyone involved.  The short sale process will be standardized to some degree in 2009.  Lenders have the option to begin implimenting the new guidelines now, but they do not take effect until April of 2009.  These new short sale guidelines are part of the government’s new Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative Program, known as HAFA.  This is part of President Obama’s Home Affordable Modification Program.  These new HAFA guidelines are voluntary, but major banks like Bank of America and Wells Fargo are going to participate.  This will hopefully clear up some of the confusion between lenders, sellers, and Realtors about short sales and create somewhat of a roadmap for the three to work together to get the property sold. 

Because of HAFA, lenders will finally have a financial incentive to get these deals completed in a timely manner, which has been a huge problem until now.  The guidelines will provide standardized forms so there’s no confusion between the real estate industry about what the bank is expecting in the form of paper work.  It will include standardized time lines for getting an answer back to the buyer and seller, standardized procedures, and more.  Won’t it be great to have preapproved short sale terms prior to the property  being listed?  My sellers and buyers are joyful about that!!   

As with any new guidelines, they will take months to work out the details.  But this new process for short sales is the beginning to making short sales more successful for buyers and sellers.

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