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2010 (6)

Keller Williams' Red Day 2010 in Tracy CA

Posted by Frank G. Silveria III on May 11, 2010 at 5:30am

Keller Williams Realty gives back to the public on Thursday, May 13 at its Red Day 2010.


Keller Williams Realty Associates may be taking the day off on Thursday, May 13, 2010, but it will hardly be a day of rest. Over 25,000 associates across the United States and Canada will spend their day off by giving back as part of the company’s community service initiative: RED Day.


Short for “Renew, Energize and Donate,” RED Day was created to unite Keller Williams Realty offices and associates in an international day of service. During RED Day 2009, over 25,000 Keller Williams associates participated in activities ranging from food and blood drives to cleaning up trash in public parks, doing yard work for neighbors in need or revamping gardens at nursing homes. Last year on RED Day, the company donated over 130,000 hours.


As part of the RED Day effort, Keller Williams Realty of Tracy has chosen to spend the day with McKinley Elementary, one of the 1st schools to be established in Tracy, CA. We have found that this aged site is lacking an outdoor sports field & sports equipment and many of the 450 children come from families with little to no income, making necessities such as paper and pencils a rarity. With the majority of students being on free or reduced lunch and/or breakfast, these teachers and staff have many obstacles to overcome in order to provide the learning facility that each and every child deserves.


We’ve made a commitment to McKinley Elementary to donate 450 backpacks filled with school supplies to start out the 2010-11 school year on the right track. We are reviving the sports field and building a soccer goal for the kids and their soccer field. We’re also hosting a BBQ for the staff and enjoying an afternoon of outdoor play with all the students; DJ playing Kids BOP, activity booths, raffle prizes and soccer play with Troy Dayak of Dayak’s Den.


The Silveria Team has raised nearly $1,000 of cash donations to contribute toward the school supplies. We’ve received gift cards and meal vouchers from many local businesses, which we greatly appreciate.


We are all very excited to spend the day with the students and staff of McKinley Elementary. We would like to invite you all to join us in our RED Day activities. We will start our day at 8:20 AM and stay until school lets out in the afternoon. If you would like to make a donation of school supplies, soccer equipment, raffle prizes or your time, we would love to hear from you.

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5 reasons why REO continues strong through 2010.

Posted by Jesus (Jesse) Gonzalez on January 26, 2010 at 3:43am
1. Unemployment: Until people have the income to afford their mortgages, we will not see a recovery in the housing market. I believe a direct correlation exist between unemployment and mortgage defaults, the higher unemployment gets the more defaults we will see. This ultimately leads to more inventory and of course, lower home prices. 2. Tightening Credit Standards: The harder it gets for people to obtain the necessary credit to purchase a home the slower it will take to reduce the inventory we have. Make no mistake, I don’t believe in loosening credit standards for the sake of it but, it’s a fact that if people can’t get credit, inventory won’t reduce quickly and therefore slowing if not halting a housing recovery. 3. Artificial Government Inventory Control: In other words, arbitrary influence by the Government to keep unworthy homeowners in their homes at all cost. Make no mistake, this is housing inventory control in the most negative way. I have GSE Investor loan reinstatements after foreclosure on my desk right now where Fannie / Freddie is offering to reinstate a homeowners loan where they will consider unemployment benefits as income……..seriously! 4. Energy Prices: Did you realize that you are paying .86 cents more for gas this week than you were this same week last year? Most likely you haven’t noticed because we have all been pre-occupied with the nations job losses, underwear bombers, Massachusetts election, and Washington bleeding red ink. You may not have actively noticed it but, if energy prices continue to rise people will have less discretionary spending and that pulls buyers out of the market and couple this with Great Depression level unemployment and we end up with more housing inventory. 5. Risk of Hyperinflation: As the US currency continues to looses value against it’s competitors we find ourselves having no other choice but to increase inflation. If the Government continues to spend / make money with less and less value people refuse to hold onto the Dollar and start to move their assets into other currencies or metals and therefore an uncontrollable rise of inflation begins.
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2010...Here We Grow Again!

Posted by Elizabeth Owens on January 1, 2010 at 12:12pm
I'm really excited about 2010. With all of the new technology, education and ways to network I'm looking forward to experiencing more growth in my business.Last year I was so busy with BPO's, Home Retention Consulting and networking to get more listings. Guess what? It's starting to payoff! Quite a few people in my office took noticed of how busy I was and made comments about how "crazy" I was/am and how they "don't think it's worth it" to do so many BPO's. Sad to say many people think BPO's are a waste of time and money. Wow! I mean....really? Are you kidding me?Since I put more time and effort into BPO's and networking my confidence level has gone to an all new high and I've grown even more in love with my business. I know my market area(s) and thoroughly enjoy listing properties. Granted, I don't list them all but that's okay. If it means helping someone keep their home instead of it going into foreclosure then to me that's productive and worth my time too. If they end up listing with someone else then okay. I don't take it personal but do reflect on it to see if and how/what are the best ways to improve, realizing that at times it's not me that's the issue.Many times we hear people quote "It's a numbers game". Do you believe that? If so, hopefully you're not building your business on that standpoint. Going round and round, spinning your wheels, hoping to get that 1 out of 20 or 50 or whatever number you think it is. Don't get me wrong...yes, the more listing appointments you go on, the more leads you have, the more networking you do the better. But make sure it's going in the right direction. Make sure it's productive in some way and not just about money. Learn new technology. Network with more people in AND out of our industry. Help and educate others. Don't forget to set goals no matter how long you've been in the business. Make money and Grow!My business is not "a numbers game". It's a business based on ethics, integrity, growing while working diligently with follow through and putting others first. One of my goals (like many others) for 2010 is to break into REO's and I will. That's how my business will continue to grow in 2010.How do you see your 2010?
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2010 Housing Predictions

Posted by Jesus (Jesse) Gonzalez on December 25, 2009 at 5:47am
Regardless of your political leanings and regardless of your economic philosophies, much of the country will see continued rise in foreclosures for 2010, if we stay on the path we are currently on. A jobless recovery, isn’t a recovery! The first problem is reduced tax collections. As many states are already noticing, they have brought in far less taxes than ever before due to the recessed economic conditions the country faces. These reduced tax collections will only put greater strains on these States budgets and therefore a reduction of State Government will be imminent. A recent example of this is the 25 states that have run out of unemployment insurance and are now borrowing upwards of 24 billion from the Fed in interest free loans. Even though they are borrowing the money, many states will have no choice but to reduce unemployment benefits to individuals so that they will have money to cover the expected increased number of the unemployed. Secondly, a reduction of unemployment benefits does nothing to help individuals maintain homeownership. Many, if not all Loan Modifications are now considering unemployment benefits as income. This was a necessary change in strategy because of the Government mandate to keep 500,000 people in their home by end of 2009. In other words, banks and lenders had to lessen their lending guidelines to consider unemployment benefits as income in order to stay in lock step with the White House Mandate to “save” 500,000 homeowners from foreclosure. With less government subsidy in the form of unemployment insurance to individuals we can expect one of two outcomes. Either the government wises up and stops putting these politically motivated mandates on our lending institutions and gives them the autonomy to handle these situations as they deem best or, we can expect more mandates, more government influence, more subsidies and in return higher taxes to pay for it all. Thirdly, we have got to reduce the Loan Modification Default Rate. It is no surprise to me that people default out of loan mod’s by 73-76% in 3-6 months. I am surprised when people can’t seem to figure out why this is happening. In my experience, the majority of these loan mod defaults is because of reduced or completely eliminated standards in order to be approved for a loan mod in the first place. When we reduce or eliminate any standard to be approved, we deceive ourselves as to the real financial picture of the homeowner and ultimately are only delaying the inevitable. The proof is in the numbers, how can any one call a 73% default rate a success………? Fourthly, we need to have a reduction of Government interference. To gain a true appreciation for less government influence, I challenge each and everyone who reads this blog to take a very close and critical look at the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. Back in 1977 Congress passed this act in an effort to reduce discriminatory credit practices against low-income people. It was this Act that introduced Sub-Prime to the country. It has gone through several changes in it’s time, most notably in 1989 when George H.W. Bush, after the S&L Crisis, agreed with Congress that more PUBLIC oversight of lenders was necessary and they introduced CRA Ratings. This allowed special interest groups to basically grade lenders and banks as to how well they provided lending to their local communities. These ratings had consequences so, if your bank got a low grade they were penalized with inspections, fees and direct government interference. Ben Bernanke himself said, “This law greatly increased the ability of advocacy groups….to perform more sophisticated, quantitative analyses of banks’ records, thereby INFLUENCING THE LENDING POLICIES OF BANKS.” Who in their right mind wants an advocacy group or anyone else for that matter greatly influencing your banks lending practices? Does this sound right? Needless to say, the CRA went through a couple more changes, giving more and more power to special interest and in return, forcing banks and lenders to loosen or even eliminate credit standards, remember the NINJA loan, No Income No Job, Accepted. My point is, less government influence because government influence comes with special interest and that is corrupt! Fifthly, we need to reduce small business operating cost. Small business counts for almost three quarters of business in America. If we can reduce the cost burden on these businesses we leave more money in their pocket. More money in the pocket of a small business gives them financial security and with that comes innovation, higher pay, increased benefits and increased production. I believe that if given a choice, most people would rather have a job than a government check. Sixth need is a reduction of housing inventory. Price’s will only go up when we have less supply, even if the demand stays the same. You don’t reduce inventory by keeping people who can’t afford the home, in the home. Have we not learned this lesson yet? People who can’t afford the home need to go through a disposition method that gives them an incentive to protect the asset / home and gives them the ability to obtain temporary housing or an apartment. Some banks are doing this now in the form of Cash for Keys negotiations and Short Sales but, in my opinion, it isn’t happening enough. In the end, just changing one of these 6 points I made would have a huge impact on housing for 2010. I hope we, as a Country, wise up and make the changes necessary before we go down a path of imminent bankruptcy…..it is possible.
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Central Kentucky--Market Holding Up NIcely

Posted by Melinda Earlywine on September 26, 2009 at 11:30am

Central Kentucky--Market Holding Up NIcelyThe media has tried everything to put a negative spin on our local market, but even so I have been as busy as ever. Buyers are looking forever though and more time is needed to cultivate relationships.Out-of-state buyers are flooding into Central Kentucky and searching for deals on farms and land. The 2010 Equestrian Games are bringing some of these buyers and they are permanently relocating from everywhere. This is the first time in history that the games have been held outside of Europe, which I believe is really a big deal. Kentucky is such a "horse friendly" state and tons of revenue is generated from thoroughbred racing to horse shows at local county fairs. Most of the state parks have trails for riding and you can take riding lessons almost anywhere now. There is a breeding incentive fund offered to horse breeders which redirects sales tax collected on stallion stud fees back to the horsmen who support Kentucky's signature industry. Kentucky just loves horses and of course UK basketball!Most of the out-of-state buyers have property or farms to sell elsewhere and there are a few I have been working with for over a year or more. I stay in touch with them no less than weekly, if only sending a short note to say hi and ask if there has been any activity on their property. Seems like most of them are coming from a very down market, such as Florida, Michigan, California and New Hampshire with their price ranges being above $500,000 to $2,000,000.People involved with horses have always fascinated me, they are a breed that for the most part are down-to-earth and love to stay busy. We have four horses, three being Quarter Horse Paints and one is an old Arabian. They are just "yard pets" and are not riden, but having them to take care of makes me feel warm and fuzzy. They wait at the gate in the mornings so they can get an apple or some sweet feed, but since they are so fat they can't run up the hill, their treats are limited. There is always a boss and ours is Bandi and she likes to keep the other three away from anyone that is going to feed or pet them. She is just plain "bossy".If you plan on visiting Kentucky or are just curious, you need to check out the Kentucky Tourism website. You can visit all the race track sites, find out about events and festivals, see some awesome horse pictures, download a visitors brochure and much more. Of course, if you do visit you are going to want to move here and I am a great tour guide and can find you the right home or farm! Visit my website www.melindaearlywine.com and even though I am in Kentucky and not Kansas I think you will like the spin it has. It is fairly new, so I still need to do some tweaking, but it is already getting some good activity.Everyone have a great day and come visit Kentucky soon!
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