Additional reason to Experience the Weichert Difference

Weichert.com ~ WLN Statistics 

One vision, one company, one team

Weichert.com Facts

•         Top 5 for Broker Sites*

•         Top 30 for Real Estate Sites*

•         Average of 100,000 visits per day*

•         2-3 Million visits per month

•         Office web sites combined can get up to 200,000 views per month

•         Agent profile pages combined can get up to 300,000 views per month

•         Customers spend on average more time per visit on Weichert.com (over 15 mins) than they do on Remax.com, Coldwellbanker.com or Century21.com (reported by Hitwise.com)

•         We run over 1 million keywords on major search engines

Facts

•         18,000 homes sold!

•         On average over 2,000 combined calls, emails & web forms per day

•         5,000-10,000 leads are sent out each month

•         Over 600,000 scrubbed leads generated since inception

•         Call Center open 7 days a week - 81 hours (Sunday-Friday 9 AM to 9 PM EST & Saturday 9 AM to 6 PM EST)

•         Over 30 inside sales consultants working in two call centers to respond quickly and professionally to customers.

•         Full time Internet marketing team ensuring Weichert listings get maximum exposure.

•         A World Class IT department for software development and the management of over 60 servers and our innovative call center.

•         WLN’s Marketing drives more traffic to Associate profile pages and Office web sites

•         Your Listings get more exposure

•          Sellers are now demanding Internet exposure and no one delivers it like Weichert.

* As of  January 2009 source (Hitwise)

Holiday Respite for Some Citigroup Borrowers

CNN.Money.com reports that Citigroup will halt foreclosures and evictions for 30 days, between December 18th and January 17th.    The move on Citi's part will affect an estimated 4,000 borrowers who meet certain criteria.  In a statement, Sanjiv Das, Chief Executive of Citimortgage said "We hope that with this suspension we can make the holidays a little less stressful for our customers who are going through a very difficult time.".  

Remodeling adds less to home resale values than it used to - Dec. 18, 2009

Remodeling adds less to home resale values than it used to - Dec. 18, 2009

Home Construction Rebounds

"I think that this increase is due in part to the extension of the $8,000 tax credit that was mentioned in the article, however I also believe that it is a result of inventory in the resale market.  I think buyers are not finding exactly what they want right now in the resale market and have decided that they can now afford to have a house built with lower prices in an area that may be more desirable for them."

Feel free to contact Scott Berngartt via sberngartt@cmfloans.com for additional industry news.

Real Estate Franchises: Most Recognizable Brands for 2009 in real estate.

Real Estate Franchises: Most Recognizable Brands for 2009

Forecasting housing prices for 2010 - Dec. 9, 2009

Forecasting housing prices for 2010 - Dec. 9, 2009

Wells Fargo to repay $25 billion government bailout - Dec. 14, 2009

Wells Fargo to repay $25 billion government bailout - Dec. 14, 2009

Proposed Bill Could Save Homeowners Money on Energy Efficient Upgrades

CNNMoney.com reports that President Obama's latest proposal to reimburse homeowners for installing and using "energy efficient" insulation and appliances could have wide reaching effects and would make strides towards accomplishing 3 of the President's Goals. Those goals being to make the nation more energy efficient, create jobs within this new industry and stimulate the economy by encouraging consumer activity. The proposal is part of a larger bill bill which includes money for renewable energy manufacturing and infrastructure as well as small businesses.

The incentives for homeowners would be two-fold, first by making approved energy efficient upgrades, the homeowner could be reimbursed by as much as 50% on the price of the upgrades as well as any installation costs, in the form of a rebate. Secondly, depending on which upgrades the homeowner chooses to complete, a homeowner could see his/her energy bill drop by as much as 20%. Director of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, Steve Nadel, advises that a homeowner could receive up to $12,000 in rebates under this program.

Tax Relief extended to 2013 for "Short Sales"

Throughout the past two years, the words "foreclosure" and "short sale" have become a part of a Real Estate professional's daily vocabulary and unfortunately, it's looking like that isn't going to change anytime soon. A Homeowner who is considering doing a short sale (a short sale occurs when a home is sold for less than what is owed on the Seller's mortgage and the bank agrees to accept this arrangement) naturally is and should be concerned about the resulting tax liability.

Traditionally, The IRS views any type of debt forgiveness as income and as we all know, taxes are levied on income. How it works, is say a homeowner has a mortgage in the amount of $250,000 but his/her home is now only worth $190,000. The homeowner contracts a Real Estate professional to sell his/her home and the Seller finally accepts an offer of $190,000. The Sellers bank does its own appraisal of the property and determines that indeed the offer of $190,000 does reflect the current market value. Once the bank agrees to accept this loss, the transaction can then move on to settlement. Tax time rolls around and the homeowner who sold his/her home as a short sale now realizes that he/she is expected to pay taxes on "income" (the difference between the $250,000 owed and the $190,000 accepted) that he/she never received.

The good news is that the "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008" has now extended a previously passed exclusion to the IRS laws that would basically exclude a homeowner in a short sale situation from paying taxes on forgiven debt "income" on his/her principal residence. This exclusion now applies to debt discharged after 2006 and before 2013. For more information on this provision, please visit irs.gov and as always, talk to your accountant for the most updated and accurate information as everyone's tax situation is different.

Forbes says Baltimore/DC are among fastest recovering Cities

Forbes.com just came out with a list which ranks city/metro area based on how fast the metro areas are "recovering" from the recession. The list uses "metropolitan statistical areas", defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget as a "geographic entity" which is used to collect statistics. Data was gathered from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to determine unemployment rates. Other factors considered in creating the list were "GMP" or "Gross Metropolitan Product" which is a way to measure the size of a city's economy, home prices, sales rates and foreclosures.

The Northeast states were among many of the top cities named as "fastest-recovering" on this list, with several metro areas in Pennsylvania and Maryland garnering top spots. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metro area was ranked at #21 and Baltimore-Towson, MD Metro Area landed at #46 on the list.

For more information, visit www.forbes.com.