We’ve covered this on the blog before, but it bears repeating. Here’s what what NAR has to say on the topic:

Tax time is nearing and once more rumors are circulating on the Internet and by email that the health care reform law enacted two years ago includes a 3.8% transfer tax on real estate starting in 2013. That rumor is not true and NAR has material available to you to explain how that 3.8% tax works. It’s a tax on a very narrow band of investment income for high-wealth households (those who earn $250,000 in a joint return or $200,000 as an individual) that could come into play on the sale of a house if the sales gain is more than $500,000 for a married couple or $250,000 for an individual. Even in the unlikely event the sales gain is more than that amount, the tax would only apply based on other considerations having to with the household’s income and tax situation. The bottom line is, the tax, which was imposed to help shore up Medicare, will only hit some portion of investment income. Video and explanatory article.  Free downloadable brochure on how the tax works. FAQ.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user (and AAR blog contributor) Bill Risser

The 2011 National Association of REALTORS® Conference and Expo was held in Anaheim, CA this year; a good time as usual. Anaheim is an excellent place for large events, and I know more than one person took advantage of the fact that it was right next to Disneyland! As is true every year, my favorite part is walking / talking with other attendees. Whether it’s your friends from other companies, online networking contacts you hardly get face time with, or vendor reps that you’ve never met, the face-to-face (F2F) interactions make this event worth going.

Theme Show

Each year I try to identify a single theme – some common string that runs through the booths, classes and hallway conversations. In my opinion, this was a continuation from last year. It’s no surprise that mobile is once again the front runner. People are still learning how to use their mobile devices in more useful ways. In fact, mobile devices have multiplied; bring on the tablets!

Tablets and Phones

Saturday morning I attended a session on using tablets and mobile devices in real estate. Amy Chorew and Ginger Wilcox lead the discussion in front of a jam-packed room. The room held hundreds and was bursting at the seems. Ginger started by painting a picture of the 2011 home buyer.

They pull up in front of a home for sale and pull out their iPad or smart phone. If they can’t see interior pictures within five minutes, they are frustrated. Five minutes is a LONG time to sit in front of a house waiting for more information.

I get it. I also get that some agents don’t know how to make “mobile friendly” information. It’s hard enough to keep up with the desktop web, let alone the mobile web. Ginger continued by addressing the question she gets asked the most.

Do I Need an App?

No, REALTORS® do not need an app. However, you should make sure that your website is mobile friendly. Do you know what your site looks like on a mobile device? I hope you’ve tried to check it out on your smart phone, BlackBerry* or iPad.

Visit howtogomo.com for tips on having a mobile-friendly site and to see what your site looks like on an Android.

Shiny App Syndrome

Ginger and Amy went through their list of handy apps. They both referenced the fact they have shiny app syndrome and have been know to download apps that never get used. For the sake of time, they filtered their apps list to the handy ones for real estate agents.

You’ve probably heard of the big ones like Dropbox, Skype, Twitter and Facebook. Here are some of the ones they mentioned that are lesser known:

• Expensify – track expenses, take pictures of receipts
• Milebug – track your mileage via GPS
• Magic Plan – build a floor plan from photos (iPhone only)
• My Measures – get dimensions of an object by taking a picture

Walking the Expo

As I mentioned before, no new trend stood out this year. Mobile advertising is still here – although there weren’t as many billboard-sized QR codes. Paperless file management is still being perfected by several different technology companies. Leads for purchase are everywhere. Banks are continuing their “but wait, we’re friendly” campaigns. All in all, nothing jumped out with the WOW factor. I did notice the foot massage booth stepped it up by adding a body shaker. I’ll spare you the ridiculous video.

FB 2 F2F

The next morning included peer-to-peer sessions. I chose Dale Chumbley’s Facebook talk. Dale is Facebook famous for starting the “365 Things to Do in [insert your city]” page trend and engaging his audience in creatively simple ways. After listening to his presentation, it’s no wonder he gets 50% of his business from social networking. Feel free to borrow:

“Crazy Things I See When Showing Homes!”

See something crazy when out with clients? Snap a photo and upload it to Facebook. This is a creative way to remind your friends that you are a REALTOR® that can help them buy a house too. Much better than using the line, “I’m a REALTOR® that can help you buy a house.” This picture is classic.

“What Is It?”

Do you like using photo distortion apps on your phone? Dale will modify a picture and ask his friends to guess what it is. I think it’s a fun way to keep people engaged. Can you identify this one without reading the comments?

Happy Birthday Videos

Have you ever wished a friend a happy birthday by writing on their FB wall? Yes. Were you 1 of 100? Yes. So… what are you going to do to stand out? Dale turns on the web cam and wishes his friends a happy birthday via video. As long as you have a web cam, it’s simple to post a video message within Facebook. Try it. If you don’t like watching yourself on video – don’t! Just post the message and continue on with your day. Start doing this today before it becomes the norm.

Even though Dale networks online better than you and I, his overall goal is still to meet people offline – a.k.a. in the real world. Facebook is a great way to communicate, but getting F2F is much better for business.

I like to stress the importance / significance of face time because so often I get wrapped up in all the techno-tools that I forget to mention what a lot of these tools are actually trying to accomplish: make our lives easier, make our businesses more productive or improve our relationships with others.

All in all, it was a great conference / expo. Thanks for reading!

 *Okay, okay. BlackBerry phones are smart phones too.

NAR has announced existing home sales numbers for September 2011. Here’s the summary for the West:

Existing-home sales in the West fell 8.8% to an annual pace of 1.14 million in September but are 10.7% higher than September 2010. The median price in the West was $207,400, which is 4.5% below a year ago.

It’s interesting to see how the percent change in sales in the West from one year ago stacks up at different price ranges:

$0-100k     42.4%
$100-250k     16.4%
$250-500k     6.7%
$500-750k     2.2%
$750-1M     11.5%
$1M+     3.5%

Tell us about what you’re seeing in your corner of the market in the comments below.

Because Congress did not take action to extend the FHA and GSE mortgage loan limits, limits have declined in 669 counties in 42 states–including 9 of the 15 counties in Arizona–as of Saturday, October 1, 2011. Below are estimates from the National Association of REALTORS® on the decreases in Arizona.

View NAR’s full report on loan limit changes across the country.

Find out what you can do to encourage Congress to extend loan limits.

Sandy Krestan, branch manager and Certified Mortgage Planner for Benchmark Home Mortgage , shared this update on appraisal standards with AAR. A member of the Arizona Mortgage Lenders Association, Scottsdale Association of REALTORS® and Women’s Council of REALTORS®, Sandy constantly strives to stay informed of industry trends and information. You can reach Sandy directly at 602-820-5166 or by email at sandy@TheKrestanTeam.com.

Appraisals continue to be the knothole in a lot of real estate transactions. If you’ve ever had one come in low, then you know how frustrating it can be to look at the comparable sales and try to make sense of how the appraiser came up with that value. Underwriters and investors struggle to make sense of the hodgepodge of commentary and adjustments on appraisals as well.

In an attempt to provide consistency and accuracy to the appraisal process, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have implemented a Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD), and ready or not, it rolls out on all appraisals completed  on or after September 1, 2011. FHA has issued guidance that they will follow suit shortly thereafter. (You can also learn more about UAD on NAR’s Appraisal Insights blog.)

So What Does This Mean to the Rest of Us?

The MLS is the most common source appraisers use for their information gathering on comparable sales, and currently, it MAY OR MAY NOT provide all of the data they will be required to report. Therefore, they will have to call you to get it if you’re the listing agent. This will slow things down a bit, and your quick response, if you’re the listing agent, will be very important to getting appraisals completed on a timely basis.

Here are some of the significant data changes:

Days On the Market: Days on market (DOM) is now defined as the total number of continuous days. DOM is required for the subject and the comparables.  So even if it is taken off the market for a short while and then relisted, the appraiser will have to count all of the days it has been listed.

Offering Price: The original offering price and history of all price changes must be reported.

Sale Type: Sale type must now be reported and the allowable choices are:

1. REO sale
2. Short sale
3. Court ordered sale
4. Estate sale
5. Relocation sale
6. Non-arms length sale
7. Arms length sale

The appraiser will have to start at 1 and choose the most applicable choice in order from 1-7.

Financial Assistance: All financial assistance must be reported. Financial assistance is now defined as: “Financial assistance or concessions paid by any party on behalf of the borrower include both monetary and non-monetary items, including below-market-rate mortgage financing, gifts of personal property, payment of property taxes and/or HOA dues for a period of time, etc.”

Site Area: Sites and parcels with less than one acre must be reported in square footage. Sites over one acre are reported in acres.

Property View: A view rating and view factor must be assigned to all sites. The allowed rating choices are: Neutral, Beneficial or Adverse. There are 12 established view factors which include water view, golf course view, industrial view, power lines, etc.

Property Style: Appraisers must use appropriate architectural design type indicators such as “Ranch,” “Colonial,” “Rambler,” “Farmhouse,” etc. Descriptions such as one story, one-and-one-half story and two stories are no longer acceptable.

Condition of the Subject Property: An overall condition rating must be assigned from the predefined condition categories provided.  The appraiser must also report any “material work” done to the kitchen and bathrooms in the last 15 years. The work must be categorized as “not updated,” “updated” or “renovated.” Specific definitions are provided for each of these terms. The time frames of all “material work” done must be provided in the following intervals: less than one year, one to five years, six to ten years, eleven to fifteen years or time frame unknown.

The standardized “Not Updated,” “Updated” and “Remodeled” definitions as well as the condition ratings will be used to describe the condition of the property.

Sale Date of Comps: The appraiser must now report the contract date as well as the closing date of all comps.

Quality of Construction: This is one of the most significant changes being made! The appraiser must report a quality of construction rating of the subject and all comps from a list of six predefined quality levels.

Basement and Finished Rooms Below Grade: The total square footage of below-grade improvements (unfinished basement) must be reported. The finished square footage below grade must be reported. Percentages are not acceptable. The access to the basement must be reported as either “Walk out,” “Walk up” or “Interior only.” The number and type of finished basement rooms must be reported. The allowable room types are “Recreation Room,” “Bedroom,” “Bathroom” or “Other.”

AMC Reporting: The appraiser is now required to report the name of the Appraisal Management Company involved in the assignment.

On a Final Note

Despite all of these changes, nothing takes the place of the underwriter’s review in the process. It is ultimately the underwriter who is held responsible for insuring that the appraisal is acceptable and supports the value. There is a process that takes place once the appraisal is in that tests the appraiser’s result against an automated valuation model for quality-control purposes. If this process detects that there are other, potentially closer or more recent comps, it will red flag the appraisal data, and the underwriter may have to further investigate value through the use of a review appraisal or by getting additional information from the current appraiser. So it’s never over these days until we have a firm commitment from the underwriter.