by RMLS Communication Department | Aug 4, 2009
We’ve added a new Keyword Search to our Forms & Documents menu on RMLSweb. Our Forms & Documents menu has always been filled with lots of useful information, along with the documents that you need in your day-to-day business.
Now, instead of navigating through a list of folders, you can type in a keyword and search! Here’s a short demonstration:
In addition to the Keyword Search, you can also browse by Tags or by the old “folder”-style organization. Oh, and you can also search the archives of Newsletter articles as well (we’ll have more on that later!).
by RMLS Communication Department | Aug 4, 2009
Our friends over at
Oregon Real Estate Forms (OREF) have issued the following update about the disclosure of Annual Percentage Rate:
OREF’s legal counsel, Phil Querin, advises all brokers in the state of Oregon to be aware of federal disclosure requirement that may cause a delay in closing.
Under new rules enacted by the Federal Reserve Board Truth in Lending Act, effective July 30, 2009 it is required that if the final Annual Percentage Rate (APR) changes by .125% or more as disclosed in the Good Faith Estimate there is a mandatory additional three business day waiting period before the transaction can close.
It is suggested that brokers get their buyers and sellers to agree in advance to a written extension as a contingency if the final APR causes the 3-day extension beyond the scheduled Closing Deadline such as:
“In the event that Buyer’s final Annual Percentage Rate (“APR”) differs from the APR initially disclosed to the Buyer in the Good Faith Estimate by .125% or more, the Closing Deadline defined in the Real Estate Sale Agreement shall automatically be extended for three (3) additional business days in accordance with Regulation Z of the Truth in Lending Act, as amended on July 30, 2008.”
If brokers encounter such a situation for a transaction already in process, they can extend the Closing Deadline by using an addendum form (OREF-002).
Caveat: This is not legal advice. All brokers should confer with their principal brokers and also recommend that their clients consult their own legal counsel if they have any questions.
by RMLS Communication Department | Jul 31, 2009
With all the stories in the media, it seems like everyone is facing foreclosure these days. (Even Michael Jackson’s doctor.) So I thought it would be interesting to look at the foreclosure market in our service area to find out what’s really going on.
We currently have 30,276 active residential listings in RMLSweb–this includes Oregon and Washington. Of those, 1,172 are marked as Bank Owned. That’s approximately 3.9%.
Out of curiosity, I took my research a little further to find out how well Bank Owned properties are selling versus the entire inventory in our markets. So far in July 2009, 2,707 properties in our entire database sold. According to my research, 430 of them were marked Bank Owned.
If we didn’t add any more listings of any kind to RMLSweb and the active residential properties kept selling at the same rate they did in July it would take 11.2 months to sell our entire inventory and only 2.7 months to exhaust the inventory of Bank Owned Properties.
Granted, it’s only the morning of the last day of July so it’s likely that we’ll see the numbers of sales go up over the next few days, but this should give you a snapshot of what’s going on with Bank Owned properties.
by RMLS Communication Department | Jul 30, 2009
As we previewed in an earlier post, to help you handle short sales more efficiently and to help the other types of properties that require 3rd Party approval to get fair exposure, we’ve added Short Sale Yes/No and Short Sale Offer (Seller Accepted; Submitted for Approval) Yes/No to Listing Load.
Watch this short tutorial to learn more about how to use these two new fields.
For more information on short sales see the National Association of Realtors Short Sale Field Guide.
by RMLS Communication Department | Jul 29, 2009
Here’s a few hot weather tips I came up with for real estate agents as we all cope with a potential high of
107 today here in Portland!
1. If buyers close on 100+ degree day, offer a window A/C unit as a closing gift (good luck finding one right now, though).
2. Selling agents: if your listing has A/C or is A/C ready – make sure you’re showing those houses now! The heat should really make that selling point stick in the buyer’s mind (and their shirt stick to their back).
3. Keep a cooler full of water bottles for your clients in your trunk when showing homes.
4. Always offer to purchase a Slurpee for your clients.
5. If you happen to be rolling in a convertible while showing homes – apply sunscreen between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., or put the top up.
PS: If you use an ActiveKEY, make sure not to leave it in a hot car for long:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-fdVTBBiCM]
