Mariana Wagner, who is co-owner of the Wagner iTeam at Keller Williams Hope Realty in Colorado, Springs, Colo., is taking the stage during the Agent Reboot conference on Wednesday, Sept. 8, at the Denver International Airport Convention Center in Colorado.

Wagner will share her expertise during the "From Clicks to Closings: Turning Your Online Marketing Strategy into a Lead Machine" and "Mastering Social Media to Expand Your Reach Online" sessions at the one-day conference, which is part of a 12-city Agent Reboot tour scheduled across the country through October.

Inman News posed several questions to Wagner:

1. What is the most important business lesson you learned in the past year?
Be careful who you take business advice from. Make sure they have a track record of success doing what they are advising you to do.

2. What inspired you to pursue your current career path?
My career in real estate: My husband, Derek. Training: God, I suppose. Training and teaching is something I have always done, regardless of what field of work I was in.

3. What the coolest technology you've discovered this year, and how are you using it?
My favorite piece of technology is my Droid Incredible. I loved my BlackBerry, but am overwhelmingly amazed at the capability of (the Incredible) as a mini computer and, would you believe it, as a PHONE!

4. What is your advice for real estate industry professionals to thrive in this market?
Get your hands dirty. Get off your butt and actually work.

5. What is your favorite non-work-related hobby?
Playing with my kids, reading, and sitting around doing nothing in a hot spring with my husband.

6. Who is your hero, and why?
Tank Girl, because she is a great strong female role model, and Mother Teresa, because of her eternal compassion and selflessness.

7. What do you view as the biggest problem facing the real estate industry today, and how would you fix it?
Too many real estate agents are lazy and not committed to being successful, and too quick to point fingers at external forces and cry. I think there should be a minimum number of homes that an agent needs to sell every one to three years to keep a license, coupled with exponentially more mandatory ethics and business-building education.

8. What do you hope to learn at the Agent Reboot event?
Mobile tips and tricks.

9.Tell us something we don't already know about you.
If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, there is not much you DON'T know about me.

The Agent Reboot schedule:
Denver: Sept. 8
Las Vegas: Sept. 15
Portland: Sept. 22
Houston: Sept. 28
Chicago: Oct. 6
Boston: Oct. 13
Ft. Lauderdale: Oct. 20
Washington, D.C.: Oct. 27

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Fannie Mae says it will begin fining loan servicers who take too long to complete foreclosures once it's been determined that delinquent borrowers don't qualify for a loan modification or other alternatives like short sales.

The fines -- or "compensatory fees" -- will be assessed when loan servicers can't provide a reasonable explanation for failing to meet timelines for completing routine foreclosures that vary from state to state, Fannie Mae said in a bulletin to servicers.

The time allotted to complete a foreclosure, starting from the referral of a loan file to an attorney or trustee until the date of a foreclosure sale, varies from as little as 60 days in Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia, to 300 days or more in Illinois, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Vermont and Wisconsin.

The foreclosure timelines Fannie Mae has established for the four states hit hardest by foreclosure during the downturn fall in between: 120 days in California and Arizona, 150 days in Nevada, and 185 days in Florida.

Fannie Mae said the foreclosure schedules it's established for each state represent the time "typically required for routine, uncontested foreclosure proceedings, given the legal requirements of the applicable jurisdiction." The timeline in Florida, for example, was extended by 35 days to allow for a state-mandated mediation process.

Fannie Mae promised it "will not impose compensatory fees for delays beyond the control of the servicer, such as unavoidable mediation or court delays, or sales delays by sheriffs or other selling officers."

When fines are levied, they will be based on the outstanding principal balance of the mortgage loan, the rate of return paid to investors in mortgage-backed securities backed by the loan, the length of the delay, and any additional costs directly attributable to the delay.

According to mortgage data aggregator Lender Processing Services, an estimated 2.02 million homeowners were in foreclosure in July nationwide. Another 5.02 million homeowners were behind on their mortgages.

On average, borrowers in foreclosure were 469 days behind on their mortgage payments, up from 351 days a year ago and 196 days in January 2009, LPS said.

Properties that are vacant and held off the market, combined with whatever portion of homes with delinquent mortgages that are not currently listed for sale, "represent a shadow inventory putting downward pressure on both home prices and rents," Fannie Mae warned in the company's most recent quarterly report to investors.

According to the report, 4.99 percent of the roughly 9 million single-family loans securitized into mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by Fannie Mae were seriously delinquent or in the foreclosure process as of June 30 -- about 450,000 loans.

Of those, about 170,000 were in foreclosure. About two-thirds of seriously delinquent loans had been delinquent for more than 180 days.

In the first half of 2010, Fannie Mae's loan servicers negotiated 276,059 loan workouts -- more than three times as many as the same time period the year before.

Fannie Mae's loan servicers also signed off on 38,841 short sales and deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure during the first half of 2010, a 171 percent increase from the same period a year ago that nearly matched the total for all of 2009.

Fannie Mae nevertheless acquired 130,767 properties through foreclosure in the first half of the year, up from 57,469 during the first half of 2009.

At the end of the foreclosure process, loan servicers schedule properties for auction. If nobody bids for a property, or if the bids that are received fall short of the properties' estimated worth, Fannie Mae takes possession of the home and handles its resale.

The company was only able to sell 87,612 of the properties it acquired through foreclosure in the first half of 2010, leaving it with an REO inventory of 129,310 homes valued at $13 billion.

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Kristal Kraft, broker associate at The Berkshire Group, Realtors, is also a blogger and sales trainer who has expertise in digital media and search-engine optimization. She designs and develops websites and is an avid photographer.

Kraft will speak during a "Managing Reputation and Content on the Web" session during the Agent Reboot event on Wednesday, Sept. 8, in the Denver area.

Inman News posed a set of questions to Kraft:

1. What is the most important business lesson you learned in the past year?

I am constantly working on learning how to make things work better, for instance my website, blog or my photos. I started teaching this year and found myself surprised at how little people know about things that are very important to them, like their websites and social media.

By taking a little time each day to study how to do things, people can avoid being scammed when it comes to technology.

2. What inspired you to pursue your current career path?

I enjoy real estate as a career since it allows me to create my own destiny. I get to work with people whom I enjoy and my success is totally of my own making.

3. Share a personal experience or anecdote about buying, selling, owning or renting a home.

After 26 years selling real estate I have many stories. My favorite listing was an REO (bank-owned property) that was condemned due to the previous owner digging a hydroponic growing room just off the basement of the home.

He was caught stealing electricity to grow his marijuana crop. The growing room was magnificently built and shored up well, like a mine, but he broke through the foundation of the house to access it, rendering the house unstable.

I learned a lot about drug enforcement agencies and what they do to find these guys, as well as how effective the utility people are at locating thieves. I sold the home "as is" to a young couple who were probably as amazed as I was as to the talent of the former owner who was serving his time! He seemed to me a misplaced talent who was hopefully retrained in prison.

4. What the coolest technology you've discovered this year, and how are you using it?

WordPress continues to be my favorite software. I'm forever learning new things to do with it. I enjoy showing others how to drive this marvelous business tool.

5. What is your advice for real estate industry professionals to thrive in this market?

Remove yourselves from negative friends who pollute your thoughts with stinking thinking. Stop watching (television) news or reading the newspapers -- set up RSS feeds to deliver topics of importance to you and create your own positive and uplifting world.

6. What is your favorite non-work-related hobby?

Oh, that's an easy question! Photography. You could sit me down on a 5-by-5 patch in a field with my Canon 50D and I'd entertain myself for hours.

I'm equally happy in the outback of Colorado or in downtown Denver -- just let me shoot things!

7. Who is your hero, and why?

I have three: my children. I watch them daily as they take on the challenges of life and find myself admiring their abilities and attitudes. I want to be just like them when I grow up.

8. What do you view as the biggest problem facing the real estate industry today, and how would you fix it?

The lack of standards in the real estate industry continues to hurt both the agent ... and, worse yet, the consumer. The consumer is confused by the differences from state to state and blames the confusion on whoever they end up working with.

If we are to gain respect and trust there needs to be a set of unified standards like ISO (International Organization for Standardization) that a consumer can count on.

9. What do you hope to learn at the Agent Reboot conference? (Optional)

My ears are always anxious to hear about the new technologies we can adapt to our real estate business. It seems there's hardly a week that goes by without some new concept gaining ground. So show me something that is going to change the way I am able to provide service to my clients.

10.Tell us something we don't already know about you.

The only continent I haven't peddled on is Antarctica.

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One of these monthly payroll reports will signal a turn in the economy to self-sustaining growth, and splatter the bond and mortgage markets all over the windshield.

Not today. The payroll positive in August: Non-government jobs rose by 67,000 (half of those in unaffordable health care, the only sector to gain jobs every month of the recession).

Details were thin cheer: Overall employment fell 54,000 in August, as cuts in one-time Census workers and other government jobs overwhelmed the private gain; and a June-July revision found that we did not lose 352,000 jobs, only 229,000.

Flat, going nowhere ... but not a double-dip. Therefore, sell safety-bonds: 10-year T-notes jumped to 2.75 percent from 2.47 percent on Wednesday, but mortgages have held at 4.5 percent.

In the absence of double-dip or recovery, the policy vacuum hardened.

The doves at the Fed need ugly data to push the hawks aside, and allow hatching of more quantitative easing (call it QE2?), the direct purchase of financial instruments.

This is an election year, but the most peculiar in modern times.

The White House finds the economy so difficult that foreign policy looks attractive.

Old joke: Walking on a beach, a man finds an old brass lamp, rubs it, and out pops a very small genie.

GENIE: Ya get one wish. Let's have it.

MAN: What about three wishes?

GENIE: I'm a little Genie. Move it.

MAN: Hmmm... altruism, or selfishness ... Mr. Genie, my one wish ... give us peace in the Middle East.

GENIE: Hey! I'm a little Genie -- gimme something I can handle.

MAN: OK, to hell with mankind. Mr. Genie, I would like one more wildly romantic weekend with my wife of 52 years.

GENIE: (Long pause. Very long ...) Hey! Ya gotta map of the Middle East on ya?

The White House adopted former U.S. Sen. George Aiken's (R-Vt.) prescription for Vietnam: Declare victory, leave, and have a parade. "The end of combat" in Iraq does not quite square with the 50,000 troops still there. For cooks and bakers, maybe ... mechanics ... and the bands. Music is good.

This week we've got Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu in town, and we're going to "solve" Palestine.

In any normal world, the Republicans would move to the middle to take advantage of a country annoyed with President Obama's old-tired-left performance. The center gave him a landslide, but the center has not gotten center in return.

The Republicans do have one old political law to support their grumpy silence: "Never interfere with an opponent who is committing suicide."

However, the Republicans are swilling hemlock of their own in the Calvin Coolidge clubhouse, locked from the inside, lest anyone try to join them. Everybody who likes "I've got mine, you're on your own" is already in.

Amazing. This is a democracy, and our government is supposed to mirror the people. Today's detachment -- abandonment -- of the center and Main Street by both parties is without precedent: a fun-house mirror.

Yet, maybe the mirror is accurate: The people do not know what has happened to them nor what to do about it, and thus politics are lost in empty space.

All economic-fix proposals on the table are reruns, trying to stimulate "aggregate demand." More stimulus spending (less money, but better-targeted), tax cuts (payroll tax holiday?), QE2 -- all the same deal, old-fashioned efforts to "jump-start" the economy that failed in mass and are not likely to work in mini.

Discussion of structural issues has halted. Some big part of our unemployment problem dates to the mid-'90s rise of predatory exports from Asia.

A new do-nothing, embarrassing delegation leaves next week to beg in China. Some say that labor force skills are obsolete, yet age 55-plus employment is rising, and it's youth that's in trouble.

Last, the elephant in the structure: The financial system cannot generate credit, and most of the economic glitterati think that's OK. We borrowed too much, and now we have to pay it back. Suffer. It's good for you. It made better people of your grandparents.

Void it is, until the economy declares itself. And it will.

Chart courtesy of Calculated Risk.

Lou Barnes is a mortgage broker and nationally syndicated columnist based in Boulder, Colo. He can be reached at lbarnes@pmglending.com.

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There's no serious talk of reinstating the homebuyer tax credit, the White House and real estate industry trade groups say, quashing speculation that followed statements Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan made on a Sunday morning news show.

Appearing on CNN's "State of the Union" on Aug. 29, Donovan said July's housing sales numbers were worse than expected. The Obama administration was rolling out a new FHA refinancing program targeted at underwater borrowers, he said, and an emergency loan program aimed at helping unemployed borrowers keep their homes.

Pressed by host Ed Henry on whether the administration was also considering reviving the homebuyer tax credit "to try to prop this industry up," Donovan said, "I think it's too early to say after one month of numbers whether the tax credit will be revived or not. All I can tell you is that we are watching very carefully."

In extending the tax credit for a third time last fall, lawmakers warned that they would not do so again. But Donovan's remarks suggested that the strategy might come back into play.

Two other guests on the show, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., candidates for U.S. Senate in November, said they'd welcome a restoration of the homebuyer tax credit program.

Three days later, Donovan clarified that bringing back the tax credit "is not high on anyone's list that we have heard," Reuters reported. "We have not heard Congress talking about renewing it."

Donovan also told Reuters that the Federal Housing Administration's refinance program was "something that we have talked about before, so it wasn't any new program."

FHA announced the FHA Short Refinance program in March, and released guidance to lenders on Aug. 6 for a Sept. 7 launch.

As for resurrecting the homebuyer tax credit, neither the National Association of Realtors nor the National Association of Home Builders -- industry groups who lobbied hard for its extension last fall -- want to see it come back now that it's expired, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Before the tax credit expired, NAR was reportedly lobbying for it to be extended through the end of the year, and an issue summary posted on the association's website still states that as the group's position.

There's been considerable debate about whether the credit -- three different versions of which were in place between April 9, 2008, and June 30, 2010 -- was worth an estimated $22 billion loss in revenue through 2019.

While more than 2.25 million homebuyers had claimed the credit in its various forms as of July 3, some critics say many of them would have bought a home anyway, and that the tax credit spurred only a fraction of those transactions.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report Thursday analyzing the number of claims received by state to date and the estimated dollar amounts of those claims. Claims topped $1 billion in California, Texas and Florida, and amounted to less than $50 million in less populous states like Vermont, Alaska, Hawaii, Delaware and North Dakota.

Top 10 states for homebuyer tax credit claims

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The California Assembly has rejected a bill that would have placed more homeowners under the protection of an existing state law that requires loan servicers to consider distressed borrowers for a loan modification before beginning foreclosure proceedings on them.

SB 1275, which sailed through the Senate on June 3 in a 21-12 vote, failed to garner enough support in two Assembly votes. The bill went down to defeat Monday in a 30-36 vote that was mostly on party lines, with Democrats supporting the bill and Republicans opposed.

The Center for Responsible Lending issued a statement Wednesday calling the bill "the major foreclosure prevention legislation of the session," and attributing the bill's defeat to "a massive lobbying blitz from banks and other mortgage industry lobbyists."

California already has a law on the books requiring loan servicers to contact distressed homeowners and consider them for a loan modification before beginning foreclosure proceedings. But the law applies only to homeowners who took out a mortgage between Jan. 1, 2003, and Dec. 31, 2007.

SB 1275 would extend those protections to borrowers who took out a mortgage before Jan. 1, 2009, if their loan is subject to review under the federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).

Lenders would also be required to contact borrowers and consider loan modifications before beginning foreclosure proceedings on any loan taken out between Jan. 1, 2003, and Jan. 1, 2009, regardless of whether such a review is required under HAMP.

Because an estimated 25 to 30 percent of loans are not subject to HAMP, the bill would have widened the pool of protected borrowers.

"SB 1275 would have implemented modest procedural changes to give all borrowers a fair shot at a loan modification before their home is foreclosed," said Paul Leonard, the director of the Center for Responsible Lending's California office, in a statement.

Leonard said "intense lobbying efforts" prevented lawmakers from putting in place "minimum safeguards that would help avoid unnecessary foreclosures, even though they would benefit both homeowners and loan servicers."

Sean O'Toole, founder and CEO of ForeclosureRadar.com, a company that tracks homes through the foreclosure process, called SB 1275 "poorly written, overly complicated (and) unnecessarily burdensome."

The bill's biggest flaw, O'Toole said, was that it would have given homeowners up to a year after a sale to void the foreclosure -- a provision that "would lead to blight and chaos" because title companies would be wary of insuring resales within that window.

Had the bill passed, "I think it would have been disastrous in the near term" for brokers and auction investors who specialize in bank-owned (REO) properties, O'Toole said. "That said, I would love to see servicers forced to give homeowners clear decisions on loan mod applications and short-sale offers within a reasonable time frame, say no more than 30 days."

However, that's a directive that probably needs to come from federal rather than state officials, he said.

"The state is in an interesting position in that it has no real control over federally regulated lenders outside of the foreclosure process," O'Toole said. So California lawmakers "continue to monkey with the foreclosure process in an attempt to force lenders to do things they don't have the power to enforce directly."

On average, O'Toole said, homes going to foreclosure in California have about $150,000 in negative equity, and "at the end of the day someone has to take that loss."

California lawmakers "can create all the busy work they want for lenders and servicers, but they can't force federally regulated lenders to take that loss, and they don't have the money to bail out homeowners directly, so in the end their efforts will prove meaningless."

Democrats enjoy a 50-27 majority over Republicans in the Assembly, but 12 Democrats abstained from Monday's vote on SB 1275 -- including three members who'd originally voted for the bill.

Amy Alley, a spokeswoman for Assemblyman Sandre Swanson (D-Alameda), said that while Swanson voted for the bill on Aug. 24, he abstained on Aug. 30 because substantive issues raised by the bill's opponents were not addressed between the two votes.

"He thought there should have been some kind of compromise, some kind of meeting of the minds, but that it hadn't been worked on" before coming to a vote for a second time, Alley said.

A spokesman for Assemblyman Marty Block, a Lemon Grove Democrat who abstained from both votes, said Block did not support the bill.

While Block believed "there were aspects of the bill that were positive, it was ultimately too overreaching, and would lead to ever-increasing litigation that would hinder the state's economic recovery efforts," said his spokesman, Mike Naple.

In other California legislative action, lawmakers passed a bill in August providing some protection from deficiency judgments for borrowers who refinanced their mortgages.

California previously prohibited lenders from pursuing deficiency judgments against homeowners who default on their original purchase mortgage.

SB 1178 extends protection from deficiency judgments to homeowners who have refinanced, but only up to the amount of their original loan. The bill passed the state Senate in a 30-4 vote on June 3 and was approved by the Assembly 60-17 on Aug. 19.

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Federal housing officials have reached an agreement with mortgage lenders that will give nonprofit organizations and state and local governments right of first refusal to purchase foreclosed homes in certain targeted neighborhoods.

Lenders participating in the "National First Look Program" represent about 75 percent of the real estate owned (REO) marketplace, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Wednesday.

Participating institutions include Bank of America, Chase, Citi, Deutsche Bank, GMAC, Nationstar Mortgage, Ocwen Financial Corporation, Saxon Mortgage Services, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

The program is a partnership between HUD and the National Community Stabilization Trust. Communities participating in HUD's Neighborhood Stabilization Program -- "NSP grantees" -- will be given the first opportunity to purchase REO properties in certain neighborhoods so these homes can either be rehabilitated, rented, resold or demolished.

NSP grantees can also stabilize neighborhoods by creating "land banks" to assemble, temporarily manage and dispose of foreclosed homes.

NSP grantees will be notified when a property becomes available, and be given 24 to 48 hours to express their interest in purchasing it.

Once they've expressed interest in a property, NSP grantees will get five to 12 business days to conduct inspections. The lender that owns the property will then offer it to the NSP grantee at a price determined by the lender.

If no NSP grantee exercises its right to purchase an REO property during the "First Look" period, the lender will follow its normal process and sell the home on the open market.

So far, the government has provided $6 billion in funding to help communities buy up properties through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan said in announcing the new program.

HR 3221, the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, provided an initial $4 billion in funding, of which 92 percent has already been spent, Donovan said.

Last year's $787 billion stimulus bill, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, provided an additional $2 billion in NSP funding.

The financial regulatory reform bill passed by Congress in July provided another $1 billion in NSP funding, for a total of $7 billion.

All told, that money is expected to help NSP grantees purchase 100,000 properties in the nation's hardest-hit markets, Donovan said -- a number equal to about 20 percent of the homes that have become REOs in targeted neighborhoods over the last 18 months.

Those purchases "will have ripple effects that could have a profound impact on our local, regional and national housing markets alike," Donovan said.

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Why are some agents prospering in an extraordinarily difficult market while others are struggling to keep afloat? It's all in their attitude.

I recently spoke for Prudential Gary Greene Realtors, the top-producing firm in Houston. The owners of the company, Mark Woodruff and Marilyn Eiland, kicked off the session with 10 minutes of very positive news. Here are just two of the examples they cited:

"In Houston, 91.8 percent of our people are employed -- that means that (most) of our residents could buy a house!"

Are your buyers worried that now may not be the best time to buy? If so, you might want to ask them, "Would you like to purchase a home at 1963 interest rates? Did you know that interest rates today are 1.5 percent lower than they were in 1963 when Gary Greene founded our company?"

When they finished, the room was buzzing with energy. How did they create this?

Each example above illustrates how you can take almost any statistic and frame it in a more positive light. While the Houston unemployment figures are at 8.2 percent, a more positive approach is to look at how many people are employed -- 91.8 percent.

People know that interest rates are low, but most don't realize that rates are that much lower than they were 47 years ago.

Let's face it, if you had a choice to work with an agent who is positive and optimistic versus one who is constantly grousing about how bad the market is, which one would you choose?

If you want to be that positive and optimistic agent. who your clients will love to work with, here are five key ways to stay positive and profitable, regardless of what the market does.

1. The positive side of being a control freak
Take control of the situation. The psychological term for those who believe they can influence events is "internal locus of control." These people are not victims. Instead, they actively search for opportunities, regardless of what the market does.

In contrast, individuals who feel they have no control over external events are said to have an "external locus of control." They passively wait for business to come to them. They lack control and as a result become "victims" of the market or the economy.

2. What you do is what you get
Avoid the negative self-fulling prophecy. Seek out joy in life, and that's what you may encounter. If you believe that life is only filled with struggle and unhappiness, what do you expect to find?

A good illustration of how this works is to look at a picture of a room and identify everything in the picture that is green. Now look away and recall everything that is red. The point here: Where we place our focus can shape our experience.

3. Dump anyone who drains your time and energy
When times are challenging, there's no shortage of complainers. These people pull you away from a positive focus. It's as if they're drowning in negativity and they're trying to take you down with them.

Granted, we all have challenges that can bring us down. Nevertheless, who would you rather be with when you're faced with a challenge: the person who points out all the negative aspects of it, or the person who helps you look for a positive way of handling the situation?

Avoid those who are swimming in the swamp of negativity and spend your time with those who are positive.

4. Don't react -- respond
Sooner or later, everyone faces a major challenge. When you receive bad news, it's easy to spiral into a negative reaction. A better approach is to step back and ask, "What are the options available to me at this moment?" Rather than reacting, review those options and then consciously select the response that will yield the best results.

This approach lets you control your choice, even when external events may be spinning out of control. The moment you can evaluate what is happening and choose your response, you're much more likely to achieve a positive outcome.

5. Choose joy
While it's not always possible to be positive and optimistic, you can choose to focus on the simple joys that are present in each of our lives such as family, good health, or even a beautiful, sunny day. Finding joy in life's events is well worth the effort.

Some studies, too, have linked health benefits, such as longevity, to positive-thinking/optimism -- though let's remember that there can be downsides to blind optimism.

Bernice Ross, CEO of RealEstateCoach.com, is a national speaker, trainer and author of the NAR #1 Best Seller, “Real Estate Dough: Your Recipe for Real Estate Success.” Hear Bernice's five-minute daily real estate show, just named "new and notable" by iTunes, at www.RealEstateCoachRadio.com. You can contact her at Bernice@RealEstateCoach.com or @BRoss on Twitter.

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Mortgage rates continued their record-setting ways this week, with 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dipping to an average of 4.32 percent and 0.7 point, Freddie Mac said in releasing the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

That's down from last week's record low of 4.36 percent, and compares to an average of 5.08 percent at the same time last year.

Rates on 15-year fixed-rate loans also hit a new low during the week ending Sept. 2, falling to 3.83 percent with an average 0.6 point. That's down from 3.86 percent last week and 4.54 percent a year ago.

The average rate for 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) loans averaged 3.54 percent with an average 0.6 point, also a record. That's down from 3.56 percent last week and 4.59 percent a year ago.

Only 1-year Treasury-indexed ARMs, which averaged 3.5 percent this week with an average 0.7 point, did not set a new record, despite falling from 3.52 percent last week and 4.62 percent a year ago.

Freddie Mac Deputy Chief Economist Amy Crews Cutts said the modest growth in prices for consumer goods helped keep inflation expectations "well at bay."

Expectations that inflation won't take off anytime soon, coupled with continued volatility in stock markets, makes the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) that fund most home loans attractive to investors. Increased demand for MBS pushes their prices up and their yields down, resulting in lower interest rates for homebuyers.

In an Aug. 17 forecast, economists with the Mortgage Bankers Association projected rates on 30-year fixed-rate loans will rise to an average of 4.8 percent during the fourth quarter of this year, and stay around 5 percent most of next year before climbing to nearly 6 percent by the final quarter of 2012.

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More homebuyers signed purchase contracts in July than the month before, according to a report by the National Association of Realtors. An index that tracks pending home sales nationwide rose 5.2 percent in July, to 79.4, after hitting a downwardly revised 75.5 in June. May and June both marked record lows following the expiration of the federal homebuyer tax credits.

The index tracks signed, but not closed, purchase contracts for resale homes. An index of 100 indicates the average contract activity in the index's 2001 base year, which was a record year for existing-home sales.

Significantly, July's Pending Home Sales Index remained down 19.1 percent compared to July 2009. New-home and existing-home sales both tumbled considerably month-to-month and year-over-year in July.

"Home sales will remain soft in the months ahead, but improved affordability conditions should help with a recovery," said Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist, in a statement. "But the recovery looks to be a long process. For those who bought at or near the peak several years ago, particularly in markets experiencing big bubbles, it may take over a decade to fully recover lost equity."

Yun added, "Affordability could reach a generational high in the second half of this year because of rock-bottom mortgage interest rates."

The West saw the biggest month-to-month index rise (11.6 percent to 95), but a year-over-year decline of 17.6 percent. The index rose 6.3 percent month-to-month to 62.5 in the Northeast. Year-over-year, the region saw a 21.1 percent drop.

The Midwest saw a 4.1 percent index rise from June to 66.7. The region saw the biggest year-over-year decline: 25.7 percent. The South saw the most modest activity of the month, posting the smallest month-to-month index rise (1.2 percent to 86.3) and the smallest year-over-year drop: 15.6 percent.

In its latest economic outlook, also released today, NAR forecasts that the nation's unemployment rate will average 9.8 this year, dip slightly to 9.7 percent in 2011, and then fall to 9.2 percent in 2012.

As it has for the past several months, the association revised its interest-rate projections for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages downward. September's outlook expects them to average out at 4.7 percent for 2010, 5.1 percent for 2011, and 5.9 percent for 2012.

NAR reigned in its expectations for existing-home sales in 2010. It now projects a 4.8 percent drop in sales compared to 2009, as opposed to the 0.5 percent drop expected in an earlier forecast released last month. Projections for 2011 and 2012 were a bit rosier, however, with sales expected to jump 10.7 percent in 2011 and 1.1 percent in 2012.

The association downwardly revised its new-home sale projections for both 2010 and 2011. Instead of a 9.1 percent increase in new-home sales this year, forecast in its previous report last month, NAR now expects those sales to decrease 11.8 percent.

In 2011, it expects sales to ramp up 35.3 percent, down from the 44.8 percent jump expected in last month's forecast. In 2012, NAR expects new-home sales to rise 29 percent from the year before.

Housing starts this year are expected to increase 12.8 percent -- down from a 24.3 percent August forecast. Instead of rising 42.1 percent in 2011, as earlier forecast, starts are expected to rise 28.1 percent, NAR projected.

The association's forecast for median home prices is roughly flat in 2010: $172,700 -- a 0.1 percent increase from 2009. The association expects the median price of resale homes to rise 0.9 percent in 2011 and 2.1 percent in 2012.

For new homes, the forecast for 2010 dropped is for a 0.6 percent decline compared to the previous year, to $214,600 (NAR's earlier forecast anticipated a 1.2 percent decrease). The association expects a median-price increase of 2.4 percent in 2011 and 5.1 percent in 2012 -- slightly below the rises anticipated in the previous forecast.

The association raised its Housing Affordability Index forecast from the earlier forecast released last month, to 178 in 2010, 166 in 2011 and 138 in 2012. An index of 100 means that a family earning the nation's median income has exactly enough income to qualify for a mortgage loan on a median-priced home with a 20 percent downpayment. An index over 100 means a family has more than enough income to qualify.

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The prominent head of one of California's largest real estate brokerages has taken a leave of absence amid allegations that he made secret video recordings of guests at several properties he owns using hidden cameras in bedrooms and bathrooms.

Michael Patrick Lyon, who has headed Sacramento-based Lyon Real Estate since taking the company over from his father in 1974, has denied the allegations, saying that surveillance equipment turned over to federal law enforcement authorities by his estranged wife was used for security purposes, the Sacramento Bee reported.

Lyon and his second wife, Kimarie "Kim" Lyon, are in the midst of a divorce proceeding. Last year, Kim Lyon turned over to federal authorities surveillance equipment previously installed in the attic of the couple's home, The Bee reported, citing law enforcement documents.

The FBI and Department of Justice closed a 16-month investigation on Tuesday, the newspaper said, but the Sacramento County district attorney and sheriff have launched their own joint investigation.

On Tuesday, Lyon Real Estate announced that company president Jean Li, who was appointed president and chief operating officer in 2004, was stepping into the role as CEO "until further notice." Li has a background in economics and accounting and has been with Lyon since 1987, according to the company's website.

In an e-mail provided to agents to pass on to their clients, the brokerage said Michael Lyon was taking a "leave of absence" in the wake of "numerous media stories offering scurrilous and unfounded allegations."

"These allegations have already been thoroughly investigated by the United States Attorney's Office and the FBI, and these agencies have found the accusations to be baseless," the company said.

"The Sacramento County District Attorney’s office is now completing its own investigation, which is its duty. We fully expect that the (District Attorney's office) will shortly complete its investigation and ultimately arrive at the same conclusion as the U.S. Attorney and the FBI, which is that Mike Lyon has done nothing illegal and will not be charged with any crime."

Founded in 1946 by William L. Lyon, Lyon Real Estate is one of the largest independent brokerages in California. On its website, the company lists contact information for 914 agents working out of 17 offices.

The California Department of Real Estate lists 869 licensed salespersons associated with the brokerage, which is licensed as William L. Lyon & Associates Inc. but does business as Lyon Real Estate.

According to the brokerage's license, as of today, Michael Lyon is no longer an officer of William L. Lyon & Associates.

Lyon remains the chairman of the board of MetroList Services Inc., a Sacramento-based multiple listing service that serves more than 20,000 subscribers in seven counties, the company's chief executive said.

Lyon also remains a director of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, a referral network owned by 50 real estate brokerages that serves more than 600 companies.

"Based on the clearing of Mr. Lyon by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office and the ongoing nature of the local investigation, our leadership does not feel it would be appropriate to change his status at this time," a spokeswoman for the company said.

"We fully support our member company, Lyon Real Estate, and prefer not to comment on the matters involving Mr. Lyon personally."

According to Lyon's broker license, he is also an officer of Trendgraphix Inc., a Sacramento-based company that provides real estate market reports for real estate brokers and agents. The company, which claims ongoing relationships with more than 100 brokerages and 48 MLSs in 18 states, shares the same mailing address as Lyon Real Estate.

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Sadly I don't know much about cars yet I have owned them for decades. If something goes wrong with my car it would be easy for a mechanic to sell me something that I don't need. They could sell me a gallon of headlight fluid and I would buy it. I almost always consult family members who understand cars before I agree to any repairs.

Many real estate professionals rely on websites and technology these days, as much as they rely on their cars, and most know as little about how it all works as I know about my car.

I don't think anyone has to be an auto mechanic to drive a car, and I don't think a Realtor needs to be a Web developer to use a website or blog. In fact, I think learning Web design or coding is a ridiculous waste of time for the average business person.

A few weeks ago I was contacted by a friend who was about to pay $2,000 to have a WordPress blog moved, with one minor customization. I was outraged when I heard the price quote. There are people who charge less than $500 and will do a great job. Moving a WordPress blog isn't generally considered to be a large, expensive project.

People can charge whatever they like, and it isn't my place to decide the value of those services, but I would encourage anyone who is engaging a WordPress expert or a Web designer to do a little shopping and to compare prices.

Cheaper isn't always better, which is why it is so important to ask for references. I had considered hiring out a small project last year and I got three bids. The highest was $1,700 and the lowest was $400.

There isn't anything so special about a real estate website or blog that it should have to cost more than other types of sites, yet it seems like Realtors in some cases pay a premium for these services, leading me to wonder if it isn't like me and my car.

They see me coming and can tell I am clueless, and it may be their only chance to unload the headlight fluid that is taking up valuable space in the back room.

Technology has evolved over the last few years and custom jobs are simpler and more common. In fact, just about everything is custom these days. A decade ago, a custom site could cost $5,000 or much more. I have seen some wonderful sites that have come in at around $1,000 dollars.

When looking for help with a website or a blog, it is a good idea to look at examples of the work that the vendor has performed and ask for references.

I have heard too many horror stories from people who have had sites built and then need some support but cannot get any, or they need some small modifications and either cannot get them or the asking price for modifications is so high that they can't afford it.

Ask a lot of questions before hiring someone to work on a website or to host one. Get references, look at sites they have built for other clients, and compare their prices. Find out how long they have been in business. Try to find out who their first clients were and if those people are still clients, or if they would use the service again.

Look at business websites or blogs. If you like the site, contact the owner and ask the owner who built it and if the owner has been happy with the service. There are so many people offering website design services, and a wide range of prices and experience levels.

Ask your friends who they are using and if they have been happy with the service. Don't buy from the first speaker who comes to your Tuesday sales meeting.

Please don't let anyone sell you headlight fluid -- according to my son, there is no such thing. I would have known that sooner had I taken the time to do a little research.

Teresa  Boardman is a broker in St. Paul, Minn., and founder of the St. Paul Real  Estate blog.

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Editor's note: This article is reposted with permission by The Real Deal. View the original article.

By ALEXANDER BRITELL

Almost three months after Gov. Charlie Crist signed the Distressed Condominium Relief Act, the South Florida real estate market could see a huge rush of large-scale deals, among whose provisions removed frequently problematic "successive developer liability" for would-be bulk buyers.

The law was signed June 1 and took effect July 1. It notably gave condo associations the right to demand delinquent renters pay rent directly to the association, a provision that has been very successful so far.

More crucially, it also removed successive developer liability, which had meant that anyone who sold or leased more than seven units in a condo in one year was legally considered a developer, and assumed the types of liabilities, like construction warranties, typically associated with developers.

Since the law went into place, activity has been "off the charts," said Peter Zalewski, founder of Condo Vultures.

By removing the potentially unlimited liability for bulk buyers before the law's passage, major Wall Street funds representing institutional investors are looking around, most of them with open wallets and assets "in the billions."

"We're moving away from a situation where it's 10 or 20 units in a bulk buy, to one where it's 100 or 200 or even 300 units," Zalewski said. "You have several Wall Street funds competing on the same projects. It's all because of the change in the law July 1."

Before the passage of the law, successive developer liability was proving to be a major concern for interested purchasers, grave enough to prevent some deals from being transacted, said Martin Schwartz, a real estate attorney with Bilzin Sumberg in Miami.

 "There were deals that didn't go through (because of it)," Schwartz said. "I know that before the passage of the law, we've had discussions with a number of our clients, and they were very, very wary of undertaking a situation where they would get into potentially unlimited liability."

The change in the law was dramatic for the market, Zalewski said, but had the same kind of unseen impact like a change in interest rates.

Now, however, almost two months after the law went into effect, the law is starting to have a stimulating effect on the market, he said.

"There has been activity lately," he said. "We've been involved in one or two situations where the bulk purchaser, or potential bulk purchasers, were encouraged by the fact that the shield was available to them. But it's still working its way through the system."

Mark Grant, a partner at Ruden McClosky who was among the bill's drafters, said that while he had not personally been contacted by any bulk buyers since the passage, one of his partners is about to do a filing to the state on a bulk purchase.

One of the firm's clients is doing a filing with the state as a "bulk assignee," as bulk buyers are described under the law.

"They're going to be doing a filing in that capacity and using the protections of the law with the sale of a property."

Schwartz said it was still early to tell just how much impact the law would have in a still-uncertain market.

"I think it'll help, but it's just one of the factors that has inhibited the purchase of bulk units. From what I've been able to see from our clients, I think the perception is that the market has basically bottomed out; but there is some uncertainty in the market about future prospects."

Zalewski, who said he has been working with bulk buyers in the region since April 2007, said the change has been drastic.

"I would challenge you to find one of the largest groups on Wall Street who's not looking in South Florida right now," Zalewski said. "I would anticipate you see some huge numbers put on the board by the end of the year."

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Instanet Solutions, a provider of Web-based transaction management systems, says it's signing long-term agreements with multiple listings services and local Realtor associations in Florida, as its contract to provide services to agents and brokers through the statewide Realtor association will expire at the end of the year.

It's been nearly five years since Instanet and the Florida Association of Realtors announced an agreement to provide Instanet's TransactionDesk to all 145,000 of the association's members as part of their monthly dues. The agreement was a major boost for Instanet, increasing the number of TransactionDesk subscribers from 33,000 to 178,000.

TransactionDesk offers built-in electronic forms, digital signatures, online document management and storage, plus e-mail and Internet faxing.

Florida's state Realtor association, which now numbers 115,000 members, has since developed its own Web-based forms application tool, Form Simplicity, through a subsidiary, Real Estate Industry Solutions (REIS).

The association, which has changed its name to Florida Realtors, began offering Form Simplicity as a member benefit on April 1.

A spokeswoman for Florida Realtors confirmed that the association's contract with Instanet Solutions expires on Dec. 31.

The association's board of directors signed off on the decision to drop TransactionDesk as a member benefit, because Form Simplicity "offers what they felt was a better product for our members," spokeswoman Marla Martin said.

Steve Mapes, vice president of sales for Instanet Solutions, said TransactionDesk is currently used by more than 75 percent of Florida Realtors on a regular basis.

Although Florida Realtors will no longer be offering TransactionDesk as a member benefit in 2011, "agents will be able to continue to purchase Instanet Solutions' services directly," Mapes said.

In addition, Mapes said Instanet has signed "multi-year agreements" to provide services to members of five Florida MLSs and Realtor associations with a combined membership of about 54,000.

So far this year, Instanet has signed agreements with Pinellas Realtor Organization's Pro Biz Inc., serving 5,400 members; the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Lauderdale, with nearly 9,000 members; Regional MLS Inc., a Palm Beach Gardens-based alliance of three Realtor association with more than 11,000 subscribers; My Florida Regional MLS, an Orlando-based Realtor owned MLS with more than 27,000 members; and the South Broward Board of Realtors, which serves about 1,600 members from its headquarters in Pembroke Pines.

"Instanet is expecting to make more announcements of this nature in the very near future," Mapes said.

In announcing the agreement with the South Broward association on Aug. 6, Instanet said it had 390,000 licensed, paid, user accounts associated with its real estate focused products, including InstanetForms, TransactionDesk, DocBox, DocBox2Go, InstanetFax, and Authentisign.

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Home hunters in search of rental properties now have 90,000 additional listings available to them on property search and valuation site Zillow. Zillow has partnered with rental search site Apartments.com to more than double Zillow's rental listing offerings to 150,000, the companies announced today.

Zillow has 12 million monthly visitors, almost 2 million of whom are currently renters, the company said. Zillow added that the partnership will also benefit the quarter of home shoppers who plan to look for both a home to buy and a home to rent, according to a June survey conducted by Harris Interactive for Zillow.

The move "deepens Zillow's footprint in the rental search industry" and offers Apartments.com advertisers "unmatched exposure" to apartment shoppers, the companies said in a press release.

The listings are available at Zillow.com and through the company's iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows Mobile platforms, Zillow said.

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