Neighborhoods and residents are welcome to participate by canvassing their areas and removing illegal signs in the public right-of-way or on utility poles, such as old yard sale, garage sale, promotional and political signs. Residents unaware of the location of right-of-way boundaries are advised to not remove signs.

While signs in Kansas City's right-of way have always been illegal, up until this point there has been no tool to enforce this. A proposed ordinance will add a minimum $20 fine for each illegal sign that will be imposed on the party that owns the sign. This will give the city the tool to enforce this existing law and help improve the appearance of our neighborhoods.

In working with city staff and elected officials, KCRAR has been assured that real estate signs are not the target of this “sign sweep” or the proposed enforcement ordinance. However, this is a good opportunity for members to confirm that their signs are in compliance and not located in the public right-of-way.

Questions? Contact Missouri Government Affairs Director Derek Ramsay at derekr@kcrar.com. 

The next generation lockbox incorporates all of the great existing lockbox features, plus the added benefit of Bluetooth technology. For those KCRAR members with eKeys (phones that function as a Supra key), you’ll be pleased to know the next generation lockbox eliminates the need to carry a key FOB – with the exception of the iPhone, which will still require an adapter. Any Supra-approved eKey device, with either the existing infrared technology or Bluetooth, will be able to open the next generation Supra lockboxes. And for those members who prefer to subscribe to the Display Key (dKey), those keys will continue to function with the new lockboxes.

KCRAR has identified December 2012 as the time when next generation lockboxes will be available to KCRAR members. More details will be made available in the coming months, so please watch for more information on www.kcrar.com and in KCRAR publications.

And builders are hoping this year's Parade of Homes will keep that momentum going.

During the two-week homes tour, 246 houses will be on display metro-wide.

While sales in new houses are up from last year, the latest numbers show a decrease in signed contracts in August compared to the previous month.

The tour hopes to attract buyers at a time when the economy is slowing down.

Experts said buyers can find some of the best prices in new homes.

"Prices in Kansas City remain stable. We are usually one of the top 10 markets as far as price value ratio to what you get. There is a lot of creative builders in this town that deliver really a wonderful product," said Mark Mather with Richard Mather Builders.

Click here for a guide to all the houses listed in this year's Parade of Homes which runs through Oct. 16.

Top Markets for Real Estate Agents

10 metros with promising indicators for higher income

By Andrea V. Brambila

No matter the state of the housing market, there are real estate professionals doing business. Despite gloomy housing and economic news at the national level, real estate agents and brokers in some markets are seeing a high dollar volume in home sales due to rising prices and relatively vibrant local economies.

Inman News examined total sales, median sales price, real estate licensee data and Realtor membership counts in dozens of metro areas across the country to develop a list of 10 metros where real estate professionals are doing comparatively well in terms of sales and average total dollar volume in sales per Realtor.

Click here to read the entire story from Inman News.

REALTORS® should be aware of major changes in the reporting and delivery requirements for every mortgage lending appraisal beginning Sept. 1.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) have developed the Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) to ensure that reporting by appraisers becomes more consistent. The UAD affects conventional, FHA and VA appraisals and requires every appraiser to make significant changes to their daily practice. These changes affect the appraiser’s inspection, research, analysis and reporting processes – and range from intellectual to technical in scope.

The GSEs have worked with all appraisal software companies for many months to allow time for the necessary programming changes. These software companies have been working feverishly to meet the Sept. 1 deadline and to train their users nationwide. These programming changes will allow the GSEs to leverage information in appraisals, for a variety of purposes we can only imagine at this point. As a practicing appraiser, I see many positive outcomes from UAD, while maintaining a degree of caution for where this is heading.

To make matters more challenging, all appraisals written to the UAD standard must now be delivered to lenders in XML format. Without getting technical, appraisers must also adapt to new report delivery processes, which may vary from client to client. In most cases, appraisers will deliver their appraisals using two formats – XML and PDF.

So how does this become a bottleneck that will slow loan closing cycles this fall? While most appraisers are now well aware of the UAD, and well prepared to meet this new standard, unquestionably some are not. And just as appraisers vary in their readiness, many lenders have not prepared for the strain UAD will place on underwriting.

An appraisal written to the UAD standard looks very different than a traditional appraisal. Underwriters must master a complex set of new ratings for quality and condition, and learn to interpret computer-friendly characters placed where narrative descriptions were previously allowed (ex.: ‘1rr0br0.0ba0o’ is included to report basement finish as follows - 1 rec room, 0 bedrooms, 0 bathrooms, and 0 other rooms). All of this to say the property had a rec room. The GSEs have done a masterful job of managing this industry-changing project; however, it may be that only the computers will understand how to read appraisals for the foreseeable future.

REALTORS® should welcome calls from appraisers trying to ascertain the year of updating for kitchens and bathrooms, as well as more specific detail on basement finish. They will need this information to complete appraisals under the UAD, so please return those calls as you may be the only source for this information in some cases. These changes will cause stress and subsequently overreaction; however, we will get through this together.

Mark has been an active real estate appraiser and broker for over 15 years. The SRA appraisal designation is achieved by fewer than 1% of all appraisers nationwide. Mark delivers from a wide range of experience, including appraisal practice, forensic review, appraisal management and compliance consulting.

After little new development the last few years, investors are flocking to buy well-leased office buildings in big markets such as New York and Washington, D.C.

For example, in New York alone, “we're seeing prices (for prized buildings) return to 2007 levels" after falling 40 percent in the commercial market downturn, Richard Baxter, vice chairman of real estate giant Jones Lang LaSalle, told USA Today.

The rise in commercial investments is expected to spread to cities such as Dallas, Denver, and Houston, says CoStar real estate strategist Chris Macke.

Meanwhile, mortgage defaults for office, retail, and industrial building loans are decreasing for the first time since 2005 in the fourth quarter. Real Capital Analytics economist Sam Chandan expects they will fall even further, adding that the "worst-case scenarios have been avoided."

The commercial market’s stabilized building occupancy has allowed more landlords the opportunity to pay down loans, Chandan says.

See the entire story from source USA Today>> 

"Fannie Mae wants to help more buyers afford to purchase their new home. That is why we are offering up to 3.5% in closing cost assistance for HomePath properties," the GSE said on Twitter.

Read the entire story from National Mortgage News >>

The legislation, the “Prompt Decision for Qualification for Short Sale Act of 2011,” was offered in Congress by U.S. Reps. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) and Robert Andrews (D-N.J.). “The current short sale process can be time-consuming and inefficient, and many would-be buyers end up walking away from a sale that could have saved a home owner from foreclosure,” said NAR President Ron Phipps.

Read the entire story from REALTOR Magazine Online Daily >>

The problems were “significant and pervasive” and added up to “a pattern of misconduct and negligence,” according to the Federal Reserve. The Fed says it soon plans to announce monetary penalties against mortgage servicers.

The CoreLogic home price index showed U.S. home prices down 6.7 percent from a year ago during February, a sharper decline than the 5.5 percent year-over-year drop registered in January.

Excluding distressed sales, the index was essentially flat, declining by 0.1 percent from a year ago compared to 1.4 percent in January. Distressed sales include short sales and real-estate owned, or "REO," properties.

Fannie and Freddie, along with other federal agencies, have backed about 9 in 10 new mortgages over the past year. The federal takeover of the GSEs in 2008 following the housing market collapse has cost taxpayers $150 billion, which has prompted many in Congress and even the White House to call for the GSEs to be phased out gradually over a five-year timeline.

The proposal--called the “Draft Alternative Uniform Servicing Standards”--includes timelines for processing loan modifications, third-party review of foreclosures, and a single point of contact for borrowers who are struggling with their mortgages, The Wall Street Journal reports. The draft document also includes a “borrower portal,” which would allow customers to check the status of their loan modifications online.

See the source story from the Wall Street Journal >>

The three-page Good Faith Estimate forms provide buyers and home owners who are getting a mortgage a line-by-line disclosure of what their borrowing costs will be with the mortgage. As of Jan. 1, 2010, lenders now must provide the disclosure form to borrowers within three days of receiving a loan application.

The forms were revamped over a year ago but the lack of clarity that still exists on the form can lead to delayed closings or even the loss of a locked-in interest rate, says Melissa Key, a spokeswoman for the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The new Good Faith Estimate form “is better than it used to be, but it’s not up to snuff,” Kathleen Day, a spokeswoman for the Center for Responsible Lending, told The New York Times. “There are things that need to be unbundled and made clearer.”

For example, the form fails to break out seller paid costs, such as transfer taxes. These costs, instead, are grouped into the “total estimated settlement charges” figure that falls at the bottom of the form. As such, borrowers at times are unknowingly looking at a larger amount than they’ll have to pay.

The form also doesn’t account for down payments in the “total estimated settlement charges” column, leading borrowers to look at a smaller final number than they’ll need to actually pay, experts say.

Some changes may be on the horizon to the forms, though. The new Consumer Financial Protections Bureau has said it will consider revising the good faith estimate forms to make all costs more transparent to the borrower.

See the source story for this posting from the New York Times >>

Experts say the classification will likely have broad sweeping effects on the mortgage market..

The Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law, which was passed last summer, contains a risk-retention requirement that requires issuers of securities backed by mortgages and other assets to maintain 5 percent of the risk of a loan, if it is packaged into a security and sold to investors, Dow Jones reports. The idea is that lenders would be more careful with making loans since they would face steeper losses if a loan went bad.What Is a 'Safe' Mortgage?
Later this month, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will consider new rules that define what a safe or “qualified” residential mortgage is as part of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law.

Go here for the entire story from REALTOR® Magazine Online Daily >>

Today, I don't need a laptop computer -- an iPad, netbook or smart phone is less expensive and lighter and will do the job.

I don't need to spend much on software because most of it is free and what is now free is better than what I used to pay a small fortune for.

Here are some great free programs and services that I use every day, and most of them have been around for years and have a large user base.

Read the entire story from Inman News >>

HARP, which was scheduled to expire June 30, will stay open for business for another year, and Freddie Mac will exempt the refinancings from recently announced price increases, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said in announcing the one-year extension.

Read the entire article from Inman News Headlines >>

Many of the banks' measures go beyond protections already provided to military borrowers in the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. The SCRA forbids foreclosures on active-duty military and caps interest rates at 6 percent.

See the entire story from REALTOR Magazine Online Daily and source Dow Jones Business News.

See the entire story from RealTrends >>

In January, the district issued a request for proposals for brokerage services and a request for qualifications for an array of technical services relating to its real estate. In 2010, the school board approved closing roughly half its buildings.

The winning brokerage team will list properties for lease or possible sale, said Shannon Jaax, director of the district’s repurposing initiative office.

CoStar's index tracking repeat sales of investment-grade commercial properties jumped 10.6% in January over the same period last year, the largest year-over-year gain since the height of the real estate boom in 2006.

The increase in the index for higher-quality properties hit a five-year high for January despite dipping slightly from December, a reflection of how hard the index fell a year ago and how strongly it has recovered within 12 months.

Read the entire story from CoStar.com.

Last week, the House Financial Services Committee voted to end the Federal Housing Administration Refinance Program. Since the program started last September, it has helped 63 underwater home owners modify their mortgages into more affordable FHA-insured loans, according to the Housing and Urban Development Department.

Read the entire story  from REALTOR Magazine Online Daily (and source Associated Press)

Read the entire story from REALTOR Magazine Online Daily (and source Wall Street Journal)

The number of U.S. homes in some stage of foreclosure fell drastically last month, reaching a 36-month low, RealtyTrac reports.

Read the entire story from REALTOR Magazine Online Daily (and sources CNN and Associated Press)

See the entire story from freddiemac.com >>

Builders are warning buyers to be careful before they buy a foreclosure, which they say often come with unknown repairs, limited selection, and headaches in working with banks.

See the entire story from REALTOR Magazine Online Daily >>

See the entire article from REALTOR Magazine Online Daily >>

The state attorneys general proposal, which is still in draft form, would prohibit banks from starting foreclosure proceedings while a borrower is seeking to modify a loan, such as by trying to lower the interest rate or change loan terms.

See the entire article from REALTOR Magazine Online Daily >>

The key is how you use it with your listings.

See the entire REALTOR Magazine Blog post >>