Home sales hit a wall with the expiration of the tax credit, reminiscent of how “Cash for Clunkers” sucked up a lot of future demand for car sales.  One advantage of the current market situation is that lower interest rates and housing prices are available to everyone purchasing residential real estate, whether homeowners or investors.  I have noticed an increase in savvy investors buying real estate to “fix and hold”.  They are saying the drop in demand after April has enabled them to get lower offers accepted.

Do I wish a tax credit would come back for everyone, not just first time homebuyers?  Of course I do.  Do I think it will with our record deficits?  Not likely.  If you purchased back in April, congratulations.  You are making yourself rich instead of a landlord.  Hopefully you went with a zero or low cost loan.  If so it might make sense to refinance now, saving a lot of money.  As always, have your mortgage professional do the numbers.

Remember that unless you are Warren Buffet, you can not time the market.  I have missed a lot of great deals because I thought prices were going to go a little lower.  Feel free to call or email with any questions.

Next Week: Update on FHA negative equity refinance program

Best

Chip

Chip Allen

Crestline Mortgage Bankers

A Division of Universal Lending Corp

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The reason they are right is because they are doing it wrong. They have missed the point of the entire platform and how it works. According to Webster’s dictionary, the term “social” means, “of or relating to human society, the interaction of the individual and the group, or the welfare of human beings as members of society.” The key term in that whole thing is interaction. You cannot just post material day after day on social networking sites and never interact with other people. You need to comment on their posts, their home listings, their pictures, their comments, and their games. When you do that, you start a dialogue. The dialogue turns into a conversation and the conversation may turn into a friendship. Once you make friends then you can do deal! I’ll say that again in case you missed it. You need to make friends first and then that gives you the opportunity to do deals like sell a home. If you follow that rule about making friends first, then you’ll finally see results from social networking. This rule applies to any business and not just real estate.

I was recently consulting a non-profit group on internet and social marketing. They thought that they could spend $1500 a month on internet marketing and see a direct P&L result of say $3000 a month. Social networking doesn’t work that way. It’s not a cash machine where the standard profit and loss balance sheet applies. Here is what I told the nonprofit on what they could expect if they embark on an internet social media campaign:

“The most likely scenario to see a return on your investment will be in the form of relationships. You will broadcast a message and make yourself known to thousands of people every day (which is 100 times more than what you are doing now with a passive website). Out of that, conversations will happen, relationships are made, databases are formed, and followers ensue. Over time, those relationships will become stronger and leads to visits to the Ranch and that will lead to someone stepping up making a one-time gift donation of say $10,000. Then a second person will step up with a one-time gift and so on and so on.”

That’s the way social networking makes things happen. So stop posting information about homes; start conversations or provide value added information that start conversations. Make a friend and do a deal.

Dan Polimino is a Realtor with Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty. He can be reached at DPolimino@fullerproperties.com and www.coloradodreamhouse.com/denverpost

Click here to Get started searching for YOUR Colorado Dream Home.