Duncan Wierman’s Blog

The following information is extremely important!    HUD Issues Problematic Rules Interpreting SAFE Mortgage Licensing ACT

HUD has proposed to eliminate ALL seller financing unless the seller lives in the home or becomes a licensed mortgage originator.  The proposed HUD Rules interpreting the federal SAFE mortgage act can be viewed at

http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#home

Use the search parameter "HUD" and the keyword “safe”. Please review and comment regarding the impact of this broad interpretation of the law.

“In addition to establishing HUD’s responsibilities under the SAFE Act, through this rule, HUD proposes to clarify or interpret certain statutory provisions that pertain to the scope of the SAFE Act licensing requirements, and other requirements that pertain to the implementation, oversight, and enforcement responsibilities of the States. HUD solicits comment on the proposed clarifications and on the regulations proposed to be codified."

History:

As you may recall, we lobbied hard last year to maintain the right for individuals to make up to five seller financed transactions per year before being subject to mortgage originator licensing, etc… However, that law was passed subject to the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) approval of the law as "compliant" with the intention of the federal law. If any state does not have a compliant law, the SAFE act allows HUD to implement licensing for the state. HUD has since issued proposed rules.

In a nutshell, seller financing would no longer be allowed for non-owner occupied homes.

How YOU can help:

We learned about the publishing of the rules very late in the process… and the deadline for comment is upon us on February 16. However, we desperately need for thousands of REIA members across the country to go on record with HUD on this issue. We will be working to try to affect this law in other legislative ways, but cannot hope to gain traction unless our members have clearly communicated that they are opposed to this portion of the rules.

This is your chance to be counted on this issue.

PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR COMMENTS TO HUD!   We have less than one week to flood this system with comments.

Follow these simple steps:

1. Logon to http://www.regulations.gov   

           You will see two white boxes for searching

2. On the left box labeled "Document Type", pull the menu down and select "proposed rules"

3. On the right box labeled "Enter keyword or ID", enter "safe mortgage". Then, press search

4. Locate the blue search result "FR-5271-P-01 Safe Mortgage Licensing Act: HUD Responsibilities Under …." To read the rules, click on this title. You will be taken to another page. You will see "views". You can click on PDF file or another symbol which will show you the rule document online.

5. On the right of the screen, click on "submit comment"

6. Complete the form providing required information and your comments and then submit

What do you say?  Say what you feel, but say it politely!

The message should include that you would like the definitions in the proposed rules to be changed so that private individuals can originate and service loans on properties they personally own. Some ideas from others:

• bank loans are not available on some types of properties

• the tight lending climate has made bank financing "out of reach" for many

• seller financing is an "age old" tradition based on private property rights

• these rules would prohibit even partial seller financing – i.e. a "seller second"

• according to HUD's "Residential Finance Survey" in 2001, roughly 40% of all non-farm residential properties in the US are owned free and clear

• an estimated 6 million Americans own a property other than their own primary residence

• an estimated 4.5% of Americans own three or more properties, many purchased solely as investment properties

• 40% of non-owner occupied residences are mobile homes which are more difficult to sell with bank financing

• approximately 5% of homes in US are for sale or for lease… seller financing may be key to liquidating this inventory

The continued success of our industry as we know it is threatened by these proposed regulatory changes. Please do not hesitate to follow the steps above and make your voice heard.

Creating a "buzz" for your real estate businesses is essential. You got to get the word out.  Social Media is a great place to start.  But where?   There are a few people who promote a "done for you"  method,  BUT BEWARE! 

As I have written before, social media is about engaging an audience,  It its not a "set and forget" one time action. There is no social media marketing wand that someone can wave and target  an audience that  ill automatically start coming to your website. And what works for one person may not work for another.  Throwing up a few pages around on different sites also will not work. See prior post on Web 3 service.

The process of creating a "buzz" doesn't start from creating a Blog or creating a video, it's a social media strategy that encompasses social media and word-of-mouth marketing.  You will find below a compiled a list of social media tools that you can use to build your social media marketing mixes.

1. Blogs

Blogs have become a great tool for social media marketing. That is first because, if optimised correctly, it can be used to drive traffic to a website. A good blog will help in creating internal links, fresh content, active community or non-search engine traffic.

Examples of popular blogs where you can create your account are: Wordpress, Blog.com, Bloggers.com, Typepad etc.

2. Microblogging

Just as blogs, microbloggs offer huge opportunities for business promotion. That is both through content consistency and good optimisation. Few of the most used are: Posterous or Twitter.

3. Online video

The importance of online videos has rapidly increased during the last years. Popular video sharing websites are: YouTube and Vimeo.  There are methodologies that using these services, that will allow you to dominate your competition

4. Photosharing

Social media is all about sharing! Therefore, there are numerous platforms that allow photo sharing with your friends. Some of them are: Flickr, Memeo, and Photobucket.

5. Podcasting Podcasting

is part of the new media tools that are offered to both promote services. Check out Blip or RadioPodcast.com

6. Presentation sharing

Another great way to put your brand's name in the spotlight is by offering presentations on topics of interest for your audience on presentations sharing websites. They are increasingly gaining in popularity nowadays. Some of them are: SlideShare, MyPlick, Scribd, AuthorSTREAM, or Myplick.

7. Social networks:

Applications, fan pages, groups, and personalities Social networks are the place to present, promote yourself as well as to keep in touch with your targeted audience. You can read a list of most popular on our blog on Top social media network sites!

8. Crowd sourcing / Voting

Crowd sourcing is an effective go to market model because it can be used for developing marketing efforts, research, and education.

9. Bookmarking/Tagging

Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources. Examples of popular social bookmarking websites: Delicious, Digg, Diigo, Fark, Mixx, MyBlogLog, Newsvine, Propeller, Reddit, Slashdot, StumbleUpon, Yahoo! Buzz. 10. Discussion boards and forums

10. Online forums are a great way to market your products/ services and interact with other professionals or your audience. Engaging your audience in your niche forum can bring high value to your site and brand too.

11. Content aggregation

Content aggregation offers you the chance to bring all news and feeds around your online communities accounts in one place. Some say this is the future of social media. Emerging content aggregation websites: Bloglines, FriendFeed, Lifestream.fm, Lijit.

12. Brand monitoring

Social media is also offering a variety of tools that help businesses understand the positioning of their brand. Popular examples are: Buzzlogic, Radian6 or Reputation Defender.

13. Ratings and reviews

The best way to find out where your website stands or how your brand is perceived by others is through ratings and reviews. See Yelp, Getsatisfaction.

14. Widgets

For those who are trying to promote their own brands, they can create their personalise badges using interesting widgets on Facebook, Twitter and other networks or simply use WidgetBox or Spring Widgets.

15. Wikis

Wikis are our online encyclopaedia. A short list of wikis: Wikipedia, Citizendium, Aboutus, Pbwiki, or Wetpaint.

Along with all the new ways of publishing your content on networking sites, it is important to publish your articles on publishing sites like Ezinearticles, eHow, Google Docs, IdeaMarketers, Yahoo Articles Group and submit your press release on important specialised sites like i-Newswire, PR.com, PressReleasePoint, PRLog.org.

Social Media Marketing can be very confusing at times. There are many networks and channels to choose from, creating presence on all the channels is very time consuming and randomly choosing any network is not a good social media strategy. I can tell you that major corporations are struggling to understand what social media marketing mix they should use to make their brand successful in the online world. You need to have your web marketing strategy include social media too.

It is very important to identify which channels are suitable for your business depending on your target audience /demographic.  Real Estate Investors who treat their businesses seriously must plan a step by step online marketing strategy.  My Platinum Virtual Investing and Marketing System will help guide you all the way and it provides SUPPORT by telephone , email, and remote access to help you  succeed.

Get it now at http://www.duncanwierman.com/secrets