PMAR’s public service website, HOWNW.com (Home Ownership Opportunities Northwest) has a new section that offers consumers information from reliable sources such as the National Association of Realtors®, the Federal Trade Commission, Fannie Mae and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency about how to avoid foreclosure and fraud.
To explore these useful new resources, visit: http://hownw.com/consumer/avoidingforeclosure.asp
Starting on October 1, you’ll notice that you have to accept new Terms of Service (TOS) for RMLSweb, RMLS.com and RMLSweb Mobile.
Note to RMLSweb Mobile users: you will need to login to RMLSweb first to accept the TOS, otherwise; you will not be able to use RMLSweb Mobile until the new TOS are accepted.
The changes to the TOS are in accordance with Title 17, United States Code, Section 512(c)(2) Digital Millenium Copyright Act. As part of the new TOS, if you feel a photo or other content acquired by another subscriber is in violation of copyright, you can now e-mail copyrightagent@rmls.com.
By e-mailing us we can start an investigation, but before we take any action, we need to receive a signed statement with specific information about the infringement by mail or as an attachment to your e-mail. For more details, you can preview a copy of the Claims of Copy Right Infringement instructions.
As a reminder, section 10.3 of the RMLS™ Rules & Regulations states:
“By the act of submitting any property listing content to RMLS™, the Participant represents that Participant has been authorized and also thereby does grant authority for the MLS to include the property listing content in its copyrighted MLS compilation and also in any statistical report on comparables. Listing content includes, but is not limited to, photographs, images, graphics, audio and video recordings, virtual tours, drawings, descriptions, remarks, narratives, pricing information, and other details or information related to listed property.”
We’ve received reports of homes that were listed for sale on Craigslist being fraudulently re-posted as a low-rate rental listings. These types of scams may be aimed at getting prospective renters to wire or send first and last month’s rent. For example, a case was reported where a home listed at over $400,000 was fraudulently offered for just $700 a month.
Suggestion: If you’re concerned that listings you have posted on Craigslist may be at risk, you can setup an alert using RSS feeds – here’s how:
1. If you don’t use an RSS Reader currently, sign up for an RSS Reader, such as Google Reader or Bloglines (these are just a couple examples of free programs you can use).
2. Visit craigslist.org and find your region’s Craigslist page.
3. Click on the “Housing” section and type your property address or a unique phrase from your property description into the search field and click search.
4. At the bottom of the page, there is a button that reads “RSS” – click on this.
5. Copy the link of the page that opens and add it to your RSS Reader.
By doing this, you would be notified when you check your RSS Reader if someone has copied information from your listing & re-posted it on Craigslist in the housing section.
Another option would be to use Google Alerts:
1. Visit google.com/alerts.
2. In the search terms field, enter the property address or a unique phrase from your listing.
3. Select “Comprehensive” as the type of search.
4. Select how often you want to be notified if it returns search results.
5. Enter the e-mail address you want notification sent to.
Google Alerts searches the web, news articles, etc. and will return any results that match your search criteria.
If you see any fraudulent listings on Craigslist, report it to Craigslist.
Please also notify RMLS™ of any similar activity by e-mailing Kelly McKenna at Kelly.m (at) rmls (dot) com.
The deadline to be able to get the $8,000 first time home buyers credit is coming up. Perhaps this fact spurred the increase in lockbox activity this last week. When comparing the week of September 7-13 with the week prior, the number of times an RMLS™ subscriber opened a Supra lockbox increased 6.7% in Washington and 3.9% in Oregon.
Click the chart for a larger view (Washington, top; Oregon, bottom)
Archive
View an archive of the Supra lockbox statistical reports on Flickr.
It’s Realtor® Safety Week and the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) wants to remind its members that this is the perfect time to start focusing on best practices for ensuring your personal safety as well as your clients’ safety, home and office safety, and more.
To help you do so, NAR has revamped its Realtor® safety website: www.realtor.org/safety. It has a lot of great resources for you to use to help build safety awareness year-round, so make sure to check it out and bookmark it.
Safety Resources from RMLS™
We offer a Selling Safe brochure for you to give to your clients. If you’d like some of these brochures, you may request them free of charge (if you’re an RMLS™ subscriber) by e-mailing communications (at) rmls (dot) com.
We also want to know about any safety incidents that you encounter so we can get the word out to the 12,000+ subscribers of RMLS™ in Oregon & Southern Washington. To report such incidents, please e-mail Kelly.m (at) rmls (dot) com.
Pending sales in Clark County surpassed August 2008 & 2007 totals
Sales Activity
Sales activity (pending sales & closed sales) outpaced totals from last August in several areas. Clark County continues to post impressive numbers in this category, as pending sales were up 24.9% and closed sales increased 21.4%. Portland posted a 13% increase in pending sales and 4% in closed sales.
In Southern Oregon, Curry County saw a big jump in pending sales, a 75% increase over last August. Coos County, the Columbia Basin region and Baker County also saw pending and closed sales grow.
Housing Inventory
Inventory, on the other hand, rose in many areas this month. However, most of the increases were modest and inventory remains well below 2008 levels.
Portland saw inventory rise to 7.8 months, up from 7.3 in July, but was still 21% below where inventory was in August 2008. Clark County, similarly, was at 8 months in August, but that was 37% lower than August 2008, when inventory stood at 12.7 months.
Baker, Curry, Douglas & Lane counties and the Mid-Columbia region all saw inventory increase in August, but in all cases, it was still lower than 2008.
Days on Market
You may have noticed that this month we have comparable data for the “Total Market Time” (TMT) statistical category. This is the amount of time that it takes from when a property is listed to when an offer is accepted on that same property. If the property is re-listed within 31 days, TMT continues to accrue; however, it does not include the time that it was off the market.
We started tracking this stat in August 2008, so we finally had comparable data this month. As you may recall, we used to measure “Current Listing Market Time” instead, this measure was less accurate as it only tracked the amount of time that a listing was on the market, it did not track the property address (so if it was re-listed, it would reset).
Overall, it appears that it is taking more time to market properties, all of our market areas saw increases compared to last August, with the exception of the Columbia Basin region and Union County.
In Portland it took 135 days to sell a property, up 11.5% from last August when it took 121 days.
The latest edition of Market Action is now available to RMLS™ subscribers on RMLSweb. To view the latest reports, log on to RMLSweb and under the links section on the left side, there is a link that says “Latest Market Action” in red. A new window should open with all of the latest reports.
If you’re not an RMLS™ subscriber, but would like to see the latest Market Action report for your area, feel free to contact a Realtor® who is an RMLS™ subscriber and they can provide you with the report and further insight into local market conditions.
Stay tuned, as we will offer a few market highlights on the blog tomorrow!
It appears some house hunters took a break to get in that last camping trip or to prepare their kids for school. In Washington, the number of times RMLS™ subscribers opened Supra lockboxes was down 8% when comparing the week of August 24-30 to the week of August 31-September 6. In Oregon activity was also down 5.5%.
Click the chart for a larger view (Washington, top; Oregon, bottom)
Archive
View an archive of the Supra lockbox statistical reports on Flickr.
How's the real estate market in Penny Lane?
It’s a big day for Beatles fans. Their full catalogue was re-mastered and re-released, plus the long-awaited arrival of Beatles Rock Band.
It doesn’t sound like Beatles songs will be available on iTunes yet, but if you have an extensive Beatles collection, here’s my recommended Beatles mix for real estate agents (my reasoning in parenthesis).
Does anyone else have other suggestions for a Beatles/Real Estate mix? Leave a comment!
Image courtesy of Alejandro González G.
Here’s a quick rundown of upcoming Realtor® events & education for the remainder of September 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.
– September 10: Greater Portland chapter of Women’s Council of Realtors® hosts “How to Create a Business Plan in Times of Chaos & Craziness”
– September 10: Portland Metropolitan Associaton of Realtors® (PMAR) hosts “Death of the 30 Day Close”
– September 12: Salem Association of Realtors® Food Drive
– September 17: Oregon Association of Realtors® (OAR) hosts “A Taste of Portland”, a benefit for the OAR HOME Foundation
– September 17: Clark County Association of Realtors® (CCAR) hosts “Barns, Bottles & BBQ”
– September 18: Eugene Association of Realtors® (EAR) hosts “FHA: Client Mortgage Options”
– September 21: PMAR Luncheon, “Preserving Homeownership”
– September 21-22: ABR Course from OAR
– September 23: Education event good for 3 required hours, hosted by Douglas County Board of Realtors® – several topics, read more here.
– September 23: CCAR hosts “Make the Phone Ring with Referrals”
– September 24: PMAR Owner and Manager Forum “New Twists on Old Environmental Issues”
– September 24: EAR hosts “Oregon Legislative Update”
COMING NEXT MONTH: RMLS™ Fall Education Summit & Trade Fair in Pendleton, Oregon – October 8 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Wildhorse Resort & Casino. The event will feature a session on distressed properties from OAR, a panel discussion on water rights, and more! Visit http://tradefair.rmls.com for more information.
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 September Training Calendar:
– Coos County
– Eastern Oregon
– Eugene
– Florence
– Gresham
– Portland
– Roseburg
– Salem
– Vancouver
Image courtesy of Ayhan Yildiz