Allison James Estates & Homes Proudly Offers New Agent Websites

Mark Your Calendars - Live Webinars

The Dodd-Frank Act: Could New Rules Derail the Housing Recovery?

THe NATiONAl iNTeRNeT bAseD ReAl esTATe bROkeRAge issue 41 | NOVeMbeR 2012

5 8 10

Read InsidePhone-Email-Text etiquette 101

2

index

ALLISON JAMES ESTATES & HOMES®

Address:309 Tamiami TrailPunta gorda, Fl 33950

Phone:866-463-5780

Website:www.allisonjamesinc.com

index

Press Release: Allison James Estates & Homes has been acquired

Allison James Estates & Homes Proudly Offers New Agent Web-sites

Communication Corner:Phone-email-Text etiquette 101

Technology Topic: ???

Mark Your Calendars - Live Webinars

Fannie: sales up 9 Percent in 2012

Housing surge: What it Means

The Dodd-Frank Act: Could New Rules Derail the Housing Recovery?

basel, QM and QRM: Could New Rules Derail the Housing Recovery?

62 Percent of u.s. Metros Post Annual Decrease in Foreclosure Activity in Third Quarter

Meet Our Agents

2

3

5

6

8

9

10

11

12

14

AbOuT us

3

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Nov 1, 2012 - Allison James Es-tates and Homes one of the fastest growing Real estate brokerages has been acquired by Matthew R. Crumbaugh and Jessica Withers.

Matthew R. Crumbaugh is the son of James A. Crumbaugh iii the founder of Allison James estates and Homes. Matthew R. Crumbaugh joined Allison James estates and Homes 4 years ago after building his own very successful company in Colorado.

Matthew has always been an extraordinary business man ac-cording to James A. Crumbaugh iii. He has always been a driven and very successful business man according to James A. Crum-baugh iii.

Matthew was born and raised in Durango Colorado. At a young age of 19, he started a paint contracting company. Matt very rap-idly grew his company through the innovation of new techniques which advanced the quality of the product, while reducing the amount of staff required for on time delivery. He built his com-pany on integrity and delivering a superior product without sub-stituting quality with quantity and never missed a deadline.

He developed long term relationships that lead to his vast portfolio which consisted of contracting over 300 homes a year. His company also contracted with clients such as Wal-Mart, the Colorado school Districts and the City of Durango, just to name a few. Matt contracted with clients for major projects such as Col-leges, High schools, hospital facilities, and big box retail facilities, such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot. in addition, Matt developed his specialty in the design and build out of “Trophy” homes.

in February 2009, Matthew decided to bring his manage-ment skills and entrepreneur background to Florida to be part of the exciting and fast growing virtual company we know as AJi. Matthew’s astute business leadership abilities are unique and matched by his and compassion. Continuously cultivating and advancing the technology and services of AJi corporate, based on his leadership qualities and contributions, Matthew has helped expand the company into over 15 states and 700 agents and growing daily, building it into the leading National internet based Real estate brokerage in the country.

Matthew operates on the premise of treating everyone equal-ly and fairly and as a result commands loyalty and building on the premise of hard work, exceptional customer service and word of mouth.

Jessica was born and raised in France. Having come to the united states at an early age, Jessica learned the value of hard work, dedication and commitment early on.

in January, 2010, Jessica joined the Allison James estates and

Homes team as a licensed Realtor, concentrating on land acquisi-tion and investments. she is one of the top selling land agents in southwest Florida, transacting over 750 land deals in 2011 and on target to far surpass that number in 2012 by transaction over 600 land deals in the first half of the year.

Jessica most recently joined the Agent Relations team as Vice President, serving as the lead recruiter for new agent develop-ment.

Jessica combines her knowledge and experience in real estate with a strong passion and sense of commitment for our agents. Her desire to match the right person to the culture, core values, and beliefs of AJi has enabled her to maintain an extremely high level of agent satisfaction. Jessica brings her coaching and men-toring talents to the Allison James estates & Homes team and will be spearheading the new training and education division of the company.

To her, a key element of Agent Relations is developing relation-ships and building trust with her agents, while providing exem-plary customer service and support.

Together Matthew and Jessica bring drive, youth, passion and tons of talent to Allison James estates and Homes.

Allison James estates and Homes is a 5 year old National Real estate brokerage operating in 15 states. The Virtual concept that Allison James estates and Homes offers has caused the brokerage to explode in growth in just the last 5 years and the brokerage expects to continue to double in size every year.

The brokerage expects to close out 2012 with more than 800 Realtors and over 7,000 closed transactions and exceeding $1.5 billion in volume

You can reach Matthew at mcrumbaugh@allisonjames.net or Jessica at Jessica@allisonjames.net

James A. Crumbaugh, Founder ofAllison Jame Estates & Homes

Press Release: Allison James Estates & Homes has been acquired

“A key element of Agent Relations is developing relationships and building trust with her agents, while providing exemplary cus-tomer service and support.”

Allison James Estates and Homes one of the fastest growing Real Estate Brokerages has been acquired by Matthew R. Crumbaugh and Jessica Withers. Together Matthew and Jessica bring drive, youth, passion and tons of talent to Allison James Estates and Homes.

4 LONE WOLF

globalWOLF

Your ONLINE presence to the GLOBAL

Real Estate MARKET!

Lone Wolf's globalWOLF websites offer professionally designed, user-friendly website layouts with functionality to attract buyers and sellers, and build traffic

to your site using our simple suite of customizable tools. For more information contact Agent Relations at 866-463-5780 option 2

Agent website features include: A website that will showcase your value to consumers Powerful listing enhancement tools Edit your own content through the simple Web Manager tools Superior Microsoft Virtual Earth8 mapping Lead management and distribution Home Hunter personal property search

Listing search functions and robust open houses Web traffic reports Social media features SEO tools Mobile websites Dynamic templates

GET STARTED TODAY!

Jill Lemons, Agent Relations Coordinator jill@allisonjames.net

866-463-5780 option 2

Allison James estates and Homes is proud to offer its agents, websites offering state of art enhancement tools, mapping, lead management and distribution, seO management at the agent level, as well as cor-

porate level. simple to set up and manage at your finger tips through the new WOlFconnect system that will be rolled out at the end of this month.

The agent websites will be afforded the benefit of live iDX feeds (from most of the Mls associations, new associations be-ing added regularly). in addition, agents will have multiple levels of support through Agent Relations, AJi iT support Division and loneWOlF Real estate Technologies. globalWOlF manages the design, customization, support and maintenance components. Additional features include: bing Mapping, listing enhancements,

lead Management, Home Hunter personal property search, ro-bust Open House and listing search Functions, and Web Traffic Reports just to name a few.

Whether you have an existing website or starting a new one, globalWOlF offers the ability to redirect your existing site, start you from scratch or assist in customization.

For a low monthly fee of $69.95 and as few as 8 easy steps, you could have a website that will showcase your value to consumers in a matter of minutes.

if you are interested in additional information on these new websites, please contact Jill lemons, Agent Relations Coordinator at jill@allisonjames.net or 866-463-5780, option 2.

Jill Lemons, Agent Relations Coordinatorat Allison James Estates & Homes

Allison James Estates & Homes Proudly Offers New Agent Websites

5 LONE WOLF

globalWOLF

Your ONLINE presence to the GLOBAL

Real Estate MARKET!

Lone Wolf's globalWOLF websites offer professionally designed, user-friendly website layouts with functionality to attract buyers and sellers, and build traffic

to your site using our simple suite of customizable tools. For more information contact Agent Relations at 866-463-5780 option 2

Agent website features include: A website that will showcase your value to consumers Powerful listing enhancement tools Edit your own content through the simple Web Manager tools Superior Microsoft Virtual Earth8 mapping Lead management and distribution Home Hunter personal property search

Listing search functions and robust open houses Web traffic reports Social media features SEO tools Mobile websites Dynamic templates

GET STARTED TODAY!

Jill Lemons, Agent Relations Coordinator jill@allisonjames.net

866-463-5780 option 2

6

Let’s begin at the beginning. With the most sophisticated software and best-in-class gadgets, you could be left in the dust if you have not embraced the emerging protocol for phone-email-text etiquette.

And, yes, Virginia, there is an emerging protocol. You wake up, find 200 emails, 4 texts of your balance from your banks, 2 missed 7am phone calls, and still no response to two calls and one email you sent yesterday. The good news: you are NOT alone. The bad news: a lot of us are not yet on board with “the emerging proto-col.” Here’s how it’s shaping up:

Respond to an Email with an Emaili cannot resist starting here. We often think that what we have

to say is “too important” or “too complicated” for an email (or are we just too lazy or fearful to put it in writing?) or that a phone call is faster.

Hey, that person took the time to write you for a reason. He/she falls into one of these categories a) slammed with work, no time to talk during the day or b) has a subject where a written response is wanted and needed.

THe very worst thing you can do to a colleague, attorney, friend is to jump to the phone and dial immediately after reading his email unless he/she has invited you to do so. This is tough for those of us immersed in a culture where returning the client’s first contact is a hair-trigger response. And now you’ll need to

“un-learn” it!i cannot tell you how many close calls were reversed by my

agents’ retention of complete folders (Outlook and others enable this sorting using email rules) of all email correspondence relat-ing to one client, or how many times an agent would say, “The buyer agent gave me the closing office contact info on the phone but i cannot find where i wrote it down; let me call again.” At which i would shout, “Don’t you dare! get it by email.” Moral: let email be your notebook.

New rule: if you MusT chat, ask by email or text when would be a good time to talk.

Tip: Add A Protocol Tag to Your Phone signature – if your first response to this is, “What’s a phone signature?” then stop read-ing here, you’re in the wrong course! if you understand phone signatures you’ll remember that you get and send many emails that end with “sent by my AT&T galaxy on the 4g lTe Network.”

My response to that is, “Who Cares? Why should i let AT&T use my communications for their own branding?” but this and more in an upcoming article. For the etiquette portion of this, you might add the tagline, “Please respond to an email with an email.” if we saturate the market with this, we will have unbeat-able archives of all transaction communications. And less risk!

Use Relevant Subject Lines and Keep Changing ThemHow much hair did you pull out the last time you looked for a

Phone-Email-Text Etiquette 101Welcome to the first in a series meant to help dust off your lapel and propel you into the 21st Century. We will visit strategies for effective communications and marketing TODAY for real estate professionals, written by Meg Russell, Regional Managing Broker for the Triangle, North Carolina and Certified EPRO.

COMMUNICATION CORNER

7document or phone number and found yourself scrolling through 4 dozen emails that all bore the subject line, “Question for seller.” infuriating? let’s remember that each email discussion is signifi-cant in its own right. Do NOT forget to change the subject line. be as specific as you possibly can within the subject space allowed and DO include the property address and client.

example: subject: survey Question 104 Castleberry Jones to elk. keep changing that topic. Note that i’ve put the relevant por-tion of the topic close to the beginning as some phones will trun-cate the subject. if you get a response and have a follow-up ques-tion on the survey, use something like: subject: survey Pt ii 104 Castleberry Jones to elk, or survey Part iii or Response to survey or survey Add’l Follow-up etc. You get the idea. Don’t allow 14 messages in a thread to have the same subject- a big time-waster for you. As you get closer to the closing, start appending the clos-ing date to keep it top of mind.

Use a Signature at All Timesgee, did i even need to say this? Well, just last week i had

to scroll through dozens of emails to find the one single email in which a loan officer used his official signature just to get the proper company name. Maybe calling him out of the blue would have been easier (wink!) Perhaps we might share our etiquette article with our favorite lenders and attorneys.

Respond to a TEXT with a TEXTrefer to above. Duh! in spite of the fact that texts are very

small blurbs, if the sender hasn’t said, “CAll Me” in the text, then DON’T CAll. More and more often, you will see texts that say, “When can we talk?” or “Would you pass me the blah blah’s phone number?” This is gOOD. These are agents embracing the new protocol.

The Caller Who Just Says, “Call Me.” Don’t Be That Guy!i have to preface this one by saying that the first time i saw

the lance Armstrong commercial where he expressed a similar pet peeve (Ah, lance, how i’ll miss you), i was ROFl! This most ridiculous message anyone could ever leave is now the favored trick of telemarketers who use your first name stating they have some important follow-up info for you (of course you have NeVeR talked them), they never mention their own company name, and would you please give them a buzz when you can.

if you took the time to call me, you had better explain the pur-pose of your call. You have wasted my air time and your breath if you called and didn’t ask me anything. Now, if i know who you are, i may call back and give you heck for it, and if i don’t know you, i am sure as heck NOT going to call back (see telemarketer reference above.)

Make these messages as long as they need to be within rea-son. know, though, that the average human has an attention span of 20 seconds, so you may need to repeat yourself at some later date, but at least you have given the call-ee the courtesy of ex-plaining yourself! i know what you are about to say – that there are prospective clients who do that same thing. They simply say, “Call me back.” if you are ok with returning these calls and shut-ting down telemarketers quickly, then do it, but please don’t YOu do it to anyone else especially in professional circles.

Well, there you go -- the very, very basics for the New Age, and, trust me, the twenty-somethings of today are very cognizant of the rules. let’s get on board! keep watching this corner for more communication tips.

Meg Russel, Regional Managing Brokerfor the Triangle, North Carolina and Certified EPRO

Are All Browsers Created Equal?

technology topics

At one time or another you’ve undoubtedly been told “Hey, try out Firefox!” or “Have you used the new google Chrome yet?” And certainly everyone has seen the iconic blue “e” that ar-

rives on the desktop of every new PC on the planet. That’s them… the big Three: internet explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and google Chrome. These three pieces of software make up the overwhelming majority of web browser software in use on PC’s around the world. but what are they exactly and what are their differences?

To start, a web browser is software that enables you to surf the world wide web effectively and efficiently (hope-fully). From viewing web pages to downloading docu-ments, your browser is designed to be your one-stop shop for all things internet related—at least thats what we’d like to hope is the case.

The next question is: are they all the same? To sum it up in a word… no. Not even close actually. internet ex-plorer has been the de-facto standard in web browsing for over a decade, but as with a large portion of Microsoft’s native software certain versions choose to leave out key modern components, leaving it at a disadvantage when performing certain tasks. enter in Mozilla’s Firefox and google’s Chrome browsers. These have been designed to be your browser alternative, and while they have some definite differences, both do a pretty handy job of keep-ing up with the latest web standards and providing a very stable experience.

so how does this effect you as an Allison James team member? We here at support have noticed a high volume of issues that users have reported that have been solved simply by switching their web browser. upload issues, not being able to log in, getting kicked out of a session mid-way, and more have been resolved many times with an alternate software choice. The trend has been switch-ing from internet explorer to google Chrome, and it has proven to offer a reliable experience for those who have done so.

so drop by www.google.com/chrome and give the download link a try. You’ll be up and running in minutes, and hopefully working more efficiently than ever!

John Joyce, CEO of Republic Technologies Corporation, leading the IT Support efforts for

Allison James Estates & Homes

Fannie: Sales Up 9 Percent in 2012

Fannie Mae’s economists expect total home sales to rise approximately 9 percent this year from last year’s de-pressed levels.

Although home prices are likely to dip somewhat in the winter season following typically stronger spring and sum-mer months, Fannie Mae’s experts still believe that home prices hit bottom earlier this year. Combined with record-low mortgage rates, aided by the Federal Reserve’s latest round of mortgage-backed security purchases, more con-sumers are likely to enter the housing market, the com-pany said today.

sales will top out at 4.98 million this year and continue to increase next year, reaching 5.19 million units for the first time in years. Fannie predicts prices will rise 2.9 per-cent this year and 1.6 percent next year. Housing starts will reach 746,000 this year and rise to 888,000 in 2013.

“The u.s. fiscal cliff and debt ceiling debate as well as the weakened global economic environment are likely to create the strongest headwinds facing any real improve-ment this year,” said Fannie Mae Chief economist Doug Duncan. “With these issues hanging in the balance, we believe risks remain tilted to the downside. News from the housing sector is more positive, with various indica-tors showing continued momentum toward a sustainable, long-term recovery. Notably, home prices are inching back into positive territory on a year-over-year basis. Results from our september National Housing survey also show consumers’ home price change expectations have re-mained positive for nearly a year.”

For more information, visit www.realestateeconomy-watch.com

RISMedia

8

Mark Your Calendars -Live Webinars

Allison James estates and Homes - educational live We-binars starting January 1, 2013.

Allison James estates and Homes, Agent Relations Department will commence its new Webinar series

starting January 1, 2013. There will be a webinar hosted once a month in each state. These informative sessions will be hosted by your area broker, special speakers and/or members of your corporate staff.

Topics will cover everything from getting the most out of your website, social media, time management, business planning and financial management, just to name a few.

if you miss the date, DON’T WORRY! You can always watch the video afterward or participate in the same webinar in a different state.

All webinars are open to Agents and Non AJi Agents, so in-vite a colleague and use the webinars to boost your recruiting residual income.

While it’s no longer a question that the housing in-dustry is rebounding after bottoming out from the 2008 collapse, there remains a question whether it can be sustained in an economy that is still trudg-

ing along at a snail’s pace. Housing economists, while ebullient over soaring housing starts, caution that the overall economy can still limit the resurgence.

A HAl survey shows that while some builders are celebrating increased profitability, overall builder outlook remains less pes-simistic rather than optimistic. The National Association of Home builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index increased to 41 this month, the highest since June 2006 and the sixth consecutive gain. but the reading is still below 50, which means more builders remain wary about the economy and other factors.

Many economists suggest that the recent rise in construction, if sustained, could increase job creation and economic growth. The NAHb estimates that each house built creates three full-time jobs and $90,000 in new tax revenue.

several factors, however, argue against excess optimism. The so-called “fiscal cliff” facing Congress represents a major obsta-cle. While congressional aides tell HAl that a modified deal may be struck -- such as restoring some of the bush tax cuts while cutting some money from the $109 billion planned to be re-moved from the national budget for debt reduction -- the fallout will have little effect on the housing market recovery. in fact, the gradual recovery, if sustained, could act as a buffer for the impact of a fiscal freefall.

Continued record low mortgage interest rates will fuel a de-mand for housing, and that would sustain modest home price appreciation. but until lenders climb from under the prospect of financial penalties for their roles in issuing junk mortgages that

helped foment the market collapse, and until new rules are writ-ten to simplify mortgage agreements, banks will continue be-ing reluctant to make loans to anyone other than the safest of borrowers or homebuyers who can pass a difficult muster for a government-backed loan.

What we are likely to see in coming months is a continued de-mand for rental housing while the owner-occupied housing mar-ket continues to shake itself out of the doldrums. The demand for housing is increasing because of the annual addition of 3 million people to the u.s. population rolls, which amounts to about 1.3 million families who need housing. That is in addition to families with pent-up demand for ownership and those displaced by fore-closures who reverted to the rental market for the time being.

so while the housing market is reviving, it is moving up from the very depths of the housing recession. Housing starts are ac-commodating some of the expanding population and pent-up de-mand while rentals absorb others.

HuD, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to sell off foreclo-sures in bulk to investors who will convert them to rentals in an effort to absorb demand for assisted public housing. That reduces availability for the general market in the short term – at least until investors begin realizing profits through resales once the market is restored.

That in turn reduces availability for homeownership for the pent-up demand. While applications for single-family building permits are up considerably, the excitement over the blockbuster september numbers is tempered by the fact new construction won’t come on line for at least two years, giving a boost for a rental market that is already straining from high demand.

Reprinted from Housing Affairs Letter

Housing Surge: What It Means9

As if the eventual fates of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, now in their fourth year of conservatorship, were not enough cause for concern, pending rulings on mortgage origination requirements as mandated by the Dodd-

Frank Act, and the Federal Reserve’s recently proposed basel iii capital standards program, have the potential to deliver a crush-ing blow to both ReAlTORs® and consumers in today’s still-fragile housing recovery.

Taken together, noted the National Association of ReAlTORs® (NAR) Real estate services Director ken Trepeta at RisMedia’s recent Real estate CeO exchange at New York City’s Yale Club, the outcomes of Qualified Mortgage (QM), Qualified Residential Mortgage (QRM) and basel iii rulings now under consideration could vastly change the homeownership landscape, conceivably shutting down the mortgage finance market to a good number of homebuyers.

“if the ability-to-repay rules of QM are written too narrowly,” Trepeta said, “it would tighten credit even more for all but the most credit-worthy buyers. As for QRM, if the rule requires a min-imum down payment of 20 percent, much of the first-time buyer market outside of FHA would simply disappear.”

Among the most worrisome proposed basel iii standards are detailed risk-weighting requirements that would force banks to hold more capital for all but the most conservative loans, making them more costly for consumers as well as harder to get, Trepeta added.

“if regulators do the wrong thing on any one of these issues,” he said, “the result could be a ticking time bomb for the housing recovery we are just beginning to see.”

NAR, which is vocal on the Hill in vigorously opposing any changes that would limit or undermine the current Mortgage in-terest Deduction, has also been working closely with the House Financial services Committee and the senate banking Committee for two years to ensure that Wall street reform legislation does not adversely affect ReAlTORs® or consumers.

“even if regulators get it right,“ Trepeta warned, “credit overall will likely be tighter. “if they botch it, it could be disastrous.”

in a July 2011 letter to Fed Chairman ben bernanke, then-NAR President Ron Phipps wrote, ”regulation of the mortgage lending industry is becoming so complex that it threatens to weaken the system instead of curing abuses,“ and that the lending industry and regulators ”have over-corrected in response to abuses that occurred in the middle of the last decade.“

The letter calls on the credit and lending industries and Fed-eral regulators to “reassess the entire credit structure and look for ways to increase the availability of credit to qualified borrow-ers who are good credit risks.”

This past september, NAR sent a follow-up letter [2] to bernan-ke from 2012 NAR President Moe Veissi on behalf of the member-ship, once again warning of the potential effects of these unre-solved issues. it may serve as the basis of a “pre-fab” letter to be signed and sent to legislators by concerned brokers and agents.

Authority for the rulemaking lies with the Consumer Finan-cial Protection bureau (CFPb), which has until Jan. 21, 2013 to issue the final ability-to-repay/QM regulations, to take effect 12 months later.

Barbara Pronin, RISMedia

The Dodd-Frank Act: Could New Rules Derail the Housing Recovery?

10

11Basel, QM and QRM: Could New Rules Derail the Housing Recovery?

The pending rulemakings for the Qualified Mortgage (QM) and Qualified Residential Mortgage (QRM) rules mandat-ed by the Dodd-Frank Act and the Federal Reserve’s re-cently proposed basel iii international capital standards

have the potential to severely restrict already tight credit and re-duce mortgage provider choice over the next several years. These three pieces of unfinished business leave the housing finance in-dustry in a state of tremendous uncertainty regarding what will be required of them to originate mortgages. elements of each of these proposals point toward unavoidable higher costs for home-buyers as well as reduced access to mortgage credit.

Basel IIIbasel iii imposes greater capital requirements on the banking

industry over the next several years. The main issue with basel iii and mortgages is the change to risk weighting for various mort-gage products depending on the issuer. FHA loans are the most favored because of their clear and direct government backing. gse loans do not receive the same treatment even though the gses are currently being backed by the government. essentially, what basel iii does is require greater risk weighting depending on loan-to-value (lTV) ratios. This will likely translate into less high lTV lending or even greater costs to consumers who borrow with smaller down payments.

Another element of basel iii that is troubling is the diminution of the value of mortgage servicing rights. basically, the new rule will reduce the value of servicing causing lenders to sell off servic-ing rights or perhaps reduce lending overall.

QMThe proposed QM rule is due to be finalized by the end of

the year. The two main issues are whether the QM will be suf-ficiently broad enough to capture the vast majority of an already tight mortgage market and whether QM will be a safe harbor for lenders or give them the more limited protection of a rebuttable presumption.

industry has argued for a broad QM that does not limit access to credit and the CFPb seems sympathetic to those arguments. However, CFPb has been less sympathetic to the safe harbor ar-gument. industry believes a safe harbor is necessary to ensure maximum lending to eligible borrowers. With a rebuttable pre-sumption, lenders big and small are likely to tighten lending well within the QM to ensure that an ability to repay violation rarely or never occurs.

Furthermore, smaller lenders fear the costs of potential litiga-tion under rebuttable presumption. There is concern that litiga-tion costs will be so great that many will not take the risk at all and push lending to the larger banks that have the ability to bet-ter manage that risk. but the catch-22 is basel iii. The fear is that while lending may be pushed to the larger banks, the banks will either be unable or unwilling to absorb that lending because of its effects on their capital requirements. even if they do absorb it, it will likely be much more costly to consumers.

QRMThe QRM, which requires 5-percent risk retention for se-

curitized loans that do not meet the QRM standard, cannot be broader than the QM. it seems the regulators have backed away from requiring a 20 percent down payment. However, it is unclear where they have “ended up.” ideally, the QRM would track evenly with a broad QM with a safe harbor, but there is no guarantee that will be the case.

Conclusionbasel iii, QM and QRM could have a major impact on the cost

and availability of mortgage credit. if they do not come out right from an access to credit standpoint, many otherwise eligible bor-rowers will be denied access to mortgage credit and others will pay significantly more for that credit. Needless to say, this would not bode well for a healthy housing market.

Ken Trepeta, RISMedia

12 62 Percent of U.S. Metros Post Annual Decrease in Foreclosure Activity in Third Quarter

iRVINE, Calif. – Oct. 25, 2012 – RealtyTrac® (www.realtytrac.com), the leading online marketplace for foreclosure prop-erties, today released its Q3 2012 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report, which shows third quarter foreclosure activity

decreased from a year ago in 131 out of the nation’s 212 (62 per-cent) metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more. Third quarter foreclosure activity decreased from the previous quarter in 134 of the metro areas tracked in the report (63 per-cent).

Foreclosure activity decreased annually in 12 out of the na-tion’s 20 largest metro areas, led by san Francisco (36 percent), Detroit (31 percent), los Angeles (29 percent), Phoenix (27 per-cent) and san Diego (26 percent).

The biggest annual increases in foreclosure activity among the nation’s 20 largest metro areas were in New York (69 percent), Tampa (43 percent), Philadelphia (34 percent), Chicago (34 per-cent), and seattle (20 percent).

“Two-thirds of the nation’s largest metros posted decreases in foreclosure activity in the third quarter, indicating that most of the nation’s housing markets are past the worst of the foreclo-sure problem” said Daren blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “in fact foreclosure activity in september 2012 was below sep-tember 2007 levels in 58 percent of the metro markets we track.

“still, rebounding foreclosure activity in some markets remains a threat to home price stability and growth in those markets,” blomquist continued. “The rebounding foreclosure activity tends to be in markets where the foreclosure process slowed down most dramatically in the last two years, resulting in a buildup of foreclosures in limbo that lenders are finally working through this year.

Top 20 metro foreclosure ratesDespite a 21 percent annual decline in foreclosure activity,

stockton, Calif., documented the nation’s highest metro foreclo-sure rate in the third quarter — one in every 67 housing units with a foreclosure filing, more than three times the national average.

California cities — including stockton— accounted for the sev-en highest metro foreclosure rates in the nation during the third quarter, although foreclosure activity decreased from a year ago in all seven metros.

Foreclosure activity increased from a year ago in all three re-maining metros among the top 10: Rockford, ill., at No. 8 (53 per-cent increase), Chicago at No. 9 (34 percent increase), and Miami at No. 10 (11 percent increase).

including Miami, seven Florida cities ranked among the top 20 metro foreclosure rates in the third quarter. six out of the seven Florida metros in the top 20 posted annual increases in foreclo-sure activity. Ocala was the only exception at No. 20 (7 percent annual decrease).

California cities claimed two additional spots in the top 20:

Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura at No. 17 and Fresno at No. 18. The other two metros with foreclosure rates among the 20 high-est nationwide were Atlanta at No. 15 and Phoenix at No. 16.

Top foreclosure rates among largest metrosThe Riverside-san bernardino metro area in southern Califor-

nia registered the highest foreclosure rate among the nation’s 20 largest metropolitan areas in the third quarter: one in every 73 housing units with a foreclosure filing during the quarter — more than three times the national average.

Five other metro areas among the nation’s 20 largest regis-tered foreclosure rates more than twice the national average: Chicago (one in 98 housing units), Miami (one in 100 housing units), Tampa (one in 106 housing units), Atlanta (one in 112 housing units), and Phoenix (one in 113 housing units).

San Francisco, Detroit, Los Angeles, Phoenix Among Cities with Biggest Annual DecreasesNew York, Tampa, Philadelphia and Chicago Have Biggest Increases Among 20 Largest Metros

13Q3 2012 U.S. Metro Foreclosure Market Data

Report MethodologyThe RealtyTrac u.s. Foreclosure Market Re-

port provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing entered into the RealtyTrac database during the quarter — broken out by type of filing. some foreclosure filings entered into the database during a quarter may have been recorded in pre-vious quarters. Data is collected from more than 2,200 counties nationwide, and those counties account for more than 90 percent of the u.s. population. RealtyTrac’s report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclo-sure: Default — Notice of Default (NOD) and lis Pendens (lis); Auction — Notice of Trustee sale and Notice of Foreclosure sale (NTs and NFs); and Real estate Owned, or ReO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). For the quarterly report, if more than one foreclosure document is received for a property during the quarter, only the most recent filing is counted in the report. The quarterly report also checks if the same type of document was filed against a property previously. if so, and if that previous filing occurred within the estimated foreclosure timeframe for the state where the property is located, the report does not count the property in the current quarter.

Report LicenseThe RealtyTrac U.S. Foreclosure Market Re-

port is the result of a proprietary evaluation of information compiled by RealtyTrac; the report and any of the information in whole or in part can only be quoted, copied, published, re-pub-lished, distributed and/or re-distributed or used in any manner if the user specifically references RealtyTrac as the source for said report and/or any of the information set forth within the report.

About RealtyTrac Inc.RealtyTrac (www.realtytrac.com) is the lead-

ing online marketplace of foreclosure proper-ties, with more than 2 million default, auction and bank-owned listings from over 2,200 u.s. counties, along with detailed property, loan and home sales data. Hosting more than 3 million unique monthly visitors, RealtyTrac provides in-novative technology solutions and practical edu-cation resources to facilitate buying, selling and investing in real estate. RealtyTrac’s foreclosure data has also been used by the Federal Reserve, Fbi, u.s. senate Joint economic Committee and banking Committee, u.s. Treasury Department, and numerous state housing and banking de-partments to help evaluate foreclosure trends and address policy issues related to foreclosures.

RealtyTrac Staff

14

Julie BeachCalifornia lA/Orange

Referred by Michael Hosseini

Jeff WongCalifornia stockton

Referred by Mimi Schag

Lori CrawleyCalifornia

Referred by Mimi Schag

Priscila PadillaCalifornia Riverside

Anders LennartssonCalifornia Riverside

Nick KulkaFlorida

Joey EashFlorida

Anthony CarilloCalifornia

David JessupCalifornia

Referred by Marissa Nasol-Ballesteros

Robin CliftCalifornia

Referred by Deanna Smith

Michael KneelandCalifornia

Referred by April Alva

Marc RodriguezCalifornia

Brenda BrissonCalifornia Riverside

Ronda WagnerFlorida

Anita GreenCalifornia

Sean BarrowCalifornia stockton

Referred by Carrie Monroe

Eric EricksonCalifornia Riverside

Referred bySergio Afonso

Marissa Nasol-Ballesteros

California

Diane VigueNew Hampshire

Kirk LaMarCalifornia Riverside

David KyleCalifornia Riverside

Grace MoriokaCalifornia stockton

Meet Our Agents

THe NATiONAl iNTeRNeT bAseD ReAl esTATe bROkeRAge

i want to personally thank all who have helped grow Allison James estates and Homes® to the successful, virtual real es-tate company it has become!

Jessica WithersVP of Agent Relations

941-677-2544

We, at Allison James Estates & Homes®, understand that our own agents are the Best Recruiters! Everyday we add new agents to the company that you, our realtors have referred.