Average Time to Close: 44 Days

Average Time to Close: 44 Days

For the second consecutive month, the average time to close all loans stayed at 44 days, suggesting that new mortgage rules that took effect this fall are having less of an impact on delaying loans, according to Ellie Mae’s latest Origination Insight Report.

Here’s a breakdown of averages from the report:

• The average time to close a purchase remained at 45 days in April.
• The average time to refinance rose to 44 days in April (up from 41 days in March).
• The average time to close FHA loans rose to 45 days (up from 44 days in March).
• The average time to close VA loans stayed steady at 48 days.

The closing rates for all loans dropped to 69 percent in April, retreating from the high of 71 percent in March, according to Ellie Mae’s report. More specifically, purchase closing rates dropped to 73 percent in April, down from 75 percent in March.

Credit scores remain high among applicants. Sixty-eight percent of purchases and 69 percent of refinances had FICO credit scores of 700 or above. Thirty-one percent of purchases had a FICO score between 600 to 699.

Additional highlights from the report:

• The average 30-year rate for all loans dropped from 4.12 in March to 4.10 in April.
• Debt-to-Income remained steady at 25/38 and Loan-to-Value stayed at 80.

Source: Ellie Mae

Real Estate is Trending Younger

Real Estate is Trending Younger

Top Motivations for Selling

Top Motivations for Selling

Inventories of homes are tight nationwide. So what’s going to get home owners to finally sell? In a recent survey, realtor.com® researchers found some of the top motivations to sell:

1. Want to be in a different neighborhood (40%)

2. Need a home with different features (28%)

3. Need a bigger home (22%)

4. Want location with better weather, views, or lifestyle (19%)

5. Need to lower cost of living (17%)

Different motivators are more pressing to various age groups. Realtor.com® research found that households between the ages of 35 and 44 tend to be driven by the desire to be in a different neighborhood and have a bigger home. On the other hand, households of those 65 and older are more motivated by retirement and tend to be looking for a home with different features or trying to improve their weather, views, or lifestyle.

However, “the biggest factors standing in the way of today’s sellers are time, making necessary improvements in their existing home in order to sell, and finding a replacement home to purchase,” says Jonathan Smoke, realtor.com®’s chief economist.

Source: “It’s a Great Time to Sell a Home – and to Buy Again,” realtor.com® (May 18, 2016)

Twitter to Stop Counting Links, Photos in 140-Limit

Twitter to Stop Counting Links, Photos in 140-Limit

Tweets are about to get longer. The social network will soon stop counting users’ photos and links as part of its 140-character limit for messages.

The change, which Twitter has yet to formally announced publicly, will likely be implemented by the end of this month, Bloomberg reports.

To Twitter users, cutting out the links in the character limit could be a big savings in crafting their messages. Links take up about 23 characters, even when Twitter automatically shortens them.

Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey said in January that the company would be experimenting with new ways to display text on Twitter. The 140-character limit has been with Twitter since its beginnings in 2006. But the limit was initially in place so that tweets would fit all within a mobile text message. Now, with the growth of smartphones, the 140-character limit no longer seems as important, some users have argued.

“Removing the character requirement for links and photos may encourage users to add more media to their posts,” Bloomberg reports.

Twitter has seen its growth stall in recent months. In its latest quarterly update, the number of monthly active users totaled 310 million, just a 3 percent increase compared to last year.

Source: “Twitter to Stop Counting Photos and Links in 140-Character Limit,” Bloomberg (May 16, 2016) and “Links and Photos Won’t Count in Twitter’s 140 Character Limit Soon,” Business Insider (May 17, 2016)

Why You Don’t Need to Worry About Snapchat…Yet

Why You Don’t Need to Worry About Snapchat…Yet

Confused about Snapchat? You’re not alone. At the Emerging Business Issues & Technology Forum during the 2016 REALTORS® Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo in Washington, D.C., three social media superstars in the real estate space explained what the messaging app is for, and what it’s not.

First, it’s important to realize that it’s not really a social media tool, at least not in the way that Facebook or Twitter can be. Amy Smythe-Harris, Emerging Business Issues & Technology Committee chair and co-broker/owner of Urban Provision REALTORS®, explained that the app is best deployed on a one-on-one basis. “Thats why I think not a lot of people are using it in real estate,” she said. “It’s a communication tool.”

Axay Parekh, Smythe-Harris’ co-chair on the committee and the operating partner at RE/MAX Life in Tulsa, Okla., told attendees he’s seen some use Snapchat’s “Story” function to record a video that will be viewable on the platform for 24 hours. After that users can download the message and repost it to YouTube, or another social media platform where it won’t disappear after a proscribed period of time (like it will on Snapchat). But he added that he’s not seeing many people doing that, and guessed that the reason is that other social media platforms offer more engagement for the same amount of effort.

“I would rather do that as a live video on Periscope or Facebook,” Parekh said. “I get a better return on investment.”

Jacy Riedmann, vice president of Amoura Productions and member of NAR’s Social Media Advisory Board, said that this doesn’t mean that real estate pros can write the platform off forever. She made the point that Snapchat—along with all social media platforms—is constantly changing.

When it first started, Snapchat had “very private components,” Riedmann said. “Then they decided to put a business component on it, which surprised me… But all the platforms that we talk about are going to be different in two weeks, three weeks.”

Smythe-Harris also made the point that the demographics may have an effect on who uses Snapchat and when it’s appropriate to incorporate it in business communications. “Your 14- or 15-year-old sons and daughters or grandchildren are the ones using it,” she said. “That’s my target market in like, 15 years.”

—Meg White, REALTOR® Magazine

Boost Your Business With Diverse Markets

Boost Your Business With Diverse Markets

“Consumers do discriminate. They want to work with people they feel comfortable with,” Dan Forsman, president and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties told attendees at RISMedia’s Power Broker Forum Thursday at the REALTORS® Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo. Brokers learned about emerging market opportunities and the importance of showing cultural sensitivity in their work with clients.

Panelists offered insights about growing opportunities with Asian, Hispanic, and LGBT home buyers, including:

• Global is the new local. “When breaking into new markets and communities, you need to hire agents who speak the language” of that community, said Eddie Berenbaum, president and chief marketing officer of Washington, D.C.-area Century 21 Redwood Realty. More than just having agents who can work with a client on a transaction in their native language, “you need to do networking in their language,” he said. For many countries, it’s also essential to learn about how money transfers are handled and their economic issues.
• LGBT clients are looking for agents who are respectful and courteous. “You don’t need to be LGBT-identified,” said Jeff Berger, founder and CEO of the National Association of Gay and Lesbian Real Estate Professionals. “The community just wants to be treated fairly.” He noted that a recent market survey by NAGLREP indicated that 59 percent of LGBT millennials plan to have children, suggesting that the “family formation” prospects are trending up for this group. “Between this and the legalization of marriage equality, there will be a major impact on the real estate business,” Berger said.
• Hispanics are a young demographic. The median age of Hispanics in the United States is 29, which represents huge home-buying potential as 69 percent of new households formed in 2015 included people of Hispanic descent. “Hispanic buyers will drive the market. You’ll be left behind if you’re not involved,” said Joseph Nery, 2016 president of the National Association of Hispanic real Estate Professionals.
• The Asian-American market is larger than the Asian market, noted John Yen Wong, founding chairman of the Asian Real Estate Association of America. He noted that the life expectancy of Asians—87.5 years on average—is nine years longer than the overall population, which means that if you’re able to secure their loyalty, you can count on a sustained relationship.

—Wendy Cole, REALTOR® Magazine