Fannie Mae Update

Appealing Short Sale Commissions and New HomePath Property Alerts

Appealing Short Sale Commissions

In February, Fannie Mae instructed its servicers (PDF) to honor the agent negotiated commission on a short sale, unless the commission exceeds 6%. This instruction is applicable to properties where Fannie Mae is the investor.

Important note: Servicers must continue to obtain any third-party approvals (i.e., private mortgage insurers) and those approvals may impact commissions.

If you are working on a short sale and believe a servicer is negotiating your commission outside the bounds of this Announcement, there is a new process for appealing the servicer’s decision.

1. Confirm that the loan is owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae. With written permission from the homeowner (or in their presence), use the Fannie Mae Loan Lookup tool at www.fanniemae.com/loanlookup. Alternatively, the homeowner can call Fannie Mae’s Resource Center at 1-800-7FANNIE (8am to 9pm Eastern Time).
2. If the loan is owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae, provide a copy of Announcement 09-03 (PDF) to the servicer and negotiate an appropriate commission based on the listing agreement (up to 6%).
3. If the dispute is not resolved, contact Fannie Mae at 1-800-7FANNIE. Be prepared to provide the property address, name of owner, and Fannie Mae loan number (if available).

Looking for new Fannie Mae REO in your area?

HomePath.com just launched an updated property alert system that notifies you of new listings in your choice of zip codes. Just click here or go to www.homepath.com and click “HomePath Property Alert” under Related Links at the bottom of the page.

Update courtesy HomePath Real Estate e-news. Subscribe here. 

Service Alert Update

Electrical power has been restored to our office located in the Dole Ofice Building, however there is still a power suppy problem to some of our equipment.   Customers are still not able to access the BOC documents but the roster functions are now available.  Our office phone, email and internet services have been restored.  We will let you know when all of our services are back on-line.
We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.  Mahalo!

HIS Service Alert – Friday, July 24th

We are currently experiencing an electrical power outage at our main office, located in the Dole Cannery Building.  One of the electrical panels on the floor we are located on has tripped, and as a result, we and the other tenants do not have electrical power to anything except for the lights. 

This outage does not affect services except access to the BOC documents, and the office roster functions.  Also, our office phones and office email service are not available.  The building management has an electrical contractor assessing the problem now.  We will send you an update as soon as we have information as to when we can expect our power to be restored.
We apologize for your patience and for any inconvenience this may cause you.  Have a wonderful weekend, Mahalo!

Maintenance Alert

Maintenance Scheduled for Sunday, July 26, 2009, 6:45 a.m.

HIS will be performing software upgrades to our Web Servers on Sunday, July 26, 2009, starting at 6:45 a.m.  The upgrades will take about 30 minutes to complete. All REsearch, IDX, Aloha Living, and Public Site customers will experience a loss of service for the first 15 minutes of this maintenance window.

We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.  Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact our Customer/Tech Support Team at 1-800-628-3121, if calling from the neighbor islands or 599-4224, if calling from Oahu, or send an email to TechSupport@HawaiiInformation.com.

In case of emergency……
You may leave a message in our emergency voice mailbox by calling the main office number and pressing * (star).  Leave your message and your contact information and our phone system will notify our on-call staff that there is an emergency message.  Phone:  1-800-628-3121, if calling from the neighbor islands, or 599-4224, if calling from Oahu. 

August Online Training Schedule

Sign up for one of our online training classes this August and… Learn our trainers tricks & tips for farming Brush up on your basics Discover ways to attract new customers Below are the online classes scheduled for the month of August.  To sign up immediately, simply click on the links below.  Space is limited so please RSVP soon!  If you are going to participate/watch as a group, only one person needs to sign up. Remember, after you have participated, please make sure to fill out the survey or e-mail me your feedback so we can continue to improve upon our training efforts!  Mahalo. August 1 to 9   Basics: Wed, Aug 5, 2009 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM HST Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/185189826    Searching & Formats: Wed, Aug 5, 2009 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM HST Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/522682875   Customizing & Downloads: Thu, Aug 6, 2009 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM HST Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/469991603   Prospecting, Contacts & Calendar: Thu, Aug 6, 2009 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM HST Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/389304202   MLS Update, CMA, Farming, Labels & Roster Download: Sat, Aug 8, 2009 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM HST Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/400669554 August 10 to 16 Basics: Tue, Aug 11, 2009 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM HST Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/120922058   Customizing & Downloads: Tue, Aug 11, 2009 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM HST Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/444739947 Update, CMA, Farming, Labels and Roster Download: Wed, Aug 12, 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM HST Registration Web Link:  https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/183262403   Maps: Thu, Aug 13, 2009 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM HST Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/217885867 August 17 to 23 Searching & Formats: Tue, Aug 18, 2009 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM HST Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/460860915 Searching and Formats: Wed, Aug 19, 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM HST Registration Web Link:  https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/129885619 Customizing & Downloads: Wed, Aug 19th, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/425115858   Prospectiing, Contacts and Calendar: Thu, Aug 20, 2009 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM HST Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/323007514 August 24 to 31 Customizing and Downloads: Wed, Aug 26, 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM HST Registration Web Link:  https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/863896754  Basics: Thu, Aug 27, 2009 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM HST Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/872635618   Maps: Thu, Aug 27, 2009 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM HST Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/307805523    Customizing and Downloads: Fri, Aug 28, 2009 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM HST Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/515215770   Instructions on how to register for the above webinars:   To register, please click onto the applicable link located below the class.  The link will then take you to the registration site. Please complete all the required fields marked by a red asterisks (First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Phone, Organization AKA Office Name).  Click “Register Now” to complete the registration process.  Once registered a confirmation email will be sent to your email address to confirm your registration along with a unique web ID number and instructions on how to login to the session on that day.  If you need login assistance, please feel free to contact our Customer/Technical Support team at (800) 628-3121, press # and then 457.  System Requirements PC-based attendees – Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista Macintosh®-based attendees – Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer Questions? Comments?  I’d love to hear from you!  Please feel free to e-mail me at erin@alohaliving.com or call directly at (808) 748-8759 or toll free at 1-800-628-3121 ext. 159.

Excess SPAM From An E-Mail Scam? Here Are A Few Steps To Fixing It.

Recently we posted a bulletin about an phishing scam that was going around the real estate community.  An agent e-mailed me a few days ago saying that she and a few other agents had replyed to the e-mail scam and since then have had their in-boxes overflowing with SPAM.  She asked if the two were related and if so what could be done.  A bit of checking around with our tech department revealed the following:

The first thing to know is that when you reply to that kind of email, it gives the sender of the original email some information about you:
 
– that your email is a valid email address
– someone reads the email messages
– recipient is in the Real Estate business
 
The fisher then may sell/share the email address to a myriad of people in the internet black market (not by itself but as part of a list of email addresses).  So to answer the question, if your spam amount has increased after replying to this email, that is the most probable cause.
 
To mitigate the spam amount you should contact your ISP (internet service provider) and see what they can do to help.  Specifically, your ISP may have tools for spam that they may be able to turn on, if not already, for your mailbox. 

Also, getting your own domain might also be something to think about, then you are not dependant on what the owner of the “aloha.net” domain does, and could even host your new domain with someone like Google that  has very good spam controls. 

The other possibility with that email is you could decide to call that number, however, the 882 prefix is used by satellite phones, and there might an overcharge that goes to the owner.Lastly, there are many sites online that offer suggestions for spam.  One from McAfee is located here: http://www.mcafee.com/us/threat_center/anti_spam/spam_tips.html.

Most important is to be vigilant of these types of phishing e-mails.  If you receive one, please send to us with an alert and we will be sure to post it for everyone as a warning.

Open Discussion: Practicing Good Business

Agent Shares:

“I get frustrated when a Realtor posts an Open House on HIS but it’s not open when I go to it.  Fortunately I’ve never had a client with me at the time.”

Help to improve the practice of good business within the Hawaii Real Estate industry.  Please share with us the things your fellow Realtors (or business associates) do that you both appreciate and don’t appreciate. 

New Affordability Shapes Housing Market Says Realtor.com

Price declines and low interest rates are motivating millions of home buyers to shop for bargains in the most affordable housing market in 28 years. A family earning the national median income of $53,182 can afford nearly 75 percent of the current homes for sale on Realtor.com.  Click HERE to read the entire article.

IE8 Reminder

Please note that if you upgrade to IE8 you will need to do the following two things:

• Enable the compatibility view (Can be found in the help menu by clicking on the link: http://hisFAQ.HawaiiInformation.com/absolutehelp/?f=549)
• Make sure that Microsoft Java Virtual Machine is removed from your computer.  If it isn’t removed, REsearch will display a data execution error when you attempt to log on, and IE8 will crash if you try to use Outlook with REsearch.

If you do have the Java Virtual Machine software installed and you decide to upgrade to IE8, please call us, as removing the VM software can be very tricky and requires special software. If you want to continue using the Outlook, our Customer Service team suggests that you keep using IE7.  Other than these two items, IE8 works fine in conjunction with REsearch.

Our Customer Service team can be reached at 808-599-4224 or toll free at 1-800-628-3121.
 
 
Need more help with REsearch?

• Browse our FAQ archive HERE
• Watch our Video tutorials HERE

Please Read: Rules Violation Report

Click HERE to see a report of the rules that were violated during the second quarter.  Please take note so that we can try our best to diminish the occurrence of these violations as much as possible, so that we can ensure that our data is correct and reliable 🙂  The top three places we are seeing the highest numbers of discrepancies are:

• Contact info in the Public Remarks
• Disclosure Related
• Photo Related 

Of course, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to let me know: erin@alohaliving.com

If clicking above does not work for you, you can insert this address into your browser: http://www.alohalivingmedia.com/bulletin/rules_violations_2009_q4.pdf