Rates
Well thank you Mr. Putin and China!
Rates for the most part improved this week on sabre rattling by Russia, trying to reclaim the old Soviet Republic, one piece of country at a time. This has caused EU traders to be concern that Russia is going to start rolling into other countries, thus traders are fleeing EU stocks and putting their money into US bonds.
The second piece of news, and for me the one most concerning, although it hasn’t hit the headlines too much.
A major company in China, defaulted on their bonds with a major Chinese Bank. Now if this sounds a little vaguely familiar, think of Leman Brothers defaulting on Mortgage Bonds back in 2007, which then caused the economic collapse of the US Economy.
China came out, and said they would not bail out any bank (hmm who would of thought China would be a capitalist, and the US bailed out bank and is a socialist).
So this concern drove bond prices up this week and yield prices down, thus taking rates down this week.
Today we have a little pull back, expected after such a huge gain yesterday.
All other US economic news this week was actually pretty good, so technically mortgage rates should of risen.
I think that this China thing may have some legs under it, so I am going to really watch that.
Also, Sunday will be very interesting as the Vote in for Crimea to succeed to Russia. If this happens and Russia doesn’t back down, we could see some volatility in rates again.
Right now I am in a lock mode, taking the rate improvements that we had this week. But come Sunday I could be in a neutral stance.
Rural Development
Well, looks like we have some clarity on RD and what they are going to allow to be RD zoned areas.
From my reading of the official memo that came out on Wednesday, looks like RD will increase area population limits from 25,000 to 35,000.
This means that Kuna is going to be saved until the 2020 census.
So 100% financing for most of KUNA, link to a map here: Link Here
Idaho on a TOP 10 List
Another great reason to live in Idaho, EXPLODING home prices: Link Here
Lead Generator
I wanted to rehash something I blogged about last week, a very interesting article from National Realtor Association, showing how people chose their Real Estate Agents.
I see Realtors spend tons and tons of marketing dollars on various different avenues, all to no avail.
Marketing to past clients does not have to be expensive.
Here are a couple of questions for you:
1-Do you ask you past clients for a testimonial?
Each one of my clients are asked for testimonials, you can read them here! Link HERE
2-Do you send them a Thank You card?
If you don’t, shame on your!
3-Do you friend them on Facebook?
FB is Free Advertising
4-Do you offer them resource post close?
Send them something 1 to 2 x per year worth their while? I send my clients something monthly!
5-Do you send them a Birthday Card?
And I don’t me an automatic one, a real one, with your real signature.
If you have 100 people in your 3nd Circle, 1st Circle of influence is your Family, 2nd is close friends, 3rd is friend/close acquaintances. And 6 of them send you a 1 transaction per year, would that make a difference.
If you don’t love your past clients, someone will.
Another Good Article here: http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/08/how-to-get-customer-referrals.html