All Under One Roof-A Fantastic Concept that Works.

As many of you may or may not know, Prosperity Mortgage is a joint venture with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and Long and Foster Real Estate.  We operate as both a valuable mortgage lender to all home buyers in the Mid Atlantic states as well as offer services to Long and Foster Real Estate.  Recently, there was some studies done that reflected a much more positive experience with affiliated or "Core Services" than when non-affiliated services were used.  NAR ( The National Association of REALTOR's) and Harris Interactive did the study, with some very interesting results.

The National Association of REALTORS and Harris Interactive partnered together to conduct a public opinion survey regarding public opinion with consumer preferences when it comes to real estate services. They wanted to know if home buyers perceptions have changed since the economic challenges over the past two years. They conducted an original study in January 2008. In November and December 2010, they surveyed 1,100 recent and future home buyers inquiring about the usage and interest in one-stop shopping. Their findings were surprising in that the ideal of one stop shopping has held steady over the past two years, and in some cases, has increased as the availability of mortgages has tightened.


The familiarity of home buyers with one stop shopping has remained steady with 63% of consumers being extremely or somewhat familiar with the concept. Some of the key results include:

-The appeal of using a real estate affiliated service provider has increased 34%. In 2008, the usage was 29% and in 2010 the usage was 39%. The New River Valley mortgage office had a 41.12% capture rate for Christiansburg and 24.39% capture rate in Blacksburg. This gave a combined rate of 32.76% for 2010.

-Buyers continue to believe that one stop shopping will save them money (78%), make the process more manageable and efficient (75%), prevent things from falling through the cracks (73%), and be more convenient (73%).

-Buyers continue to be more satisfied with one stop shopping providers than with multiple non-affiliated providers.

-Home buyers who used one stop shopping consistently reported higher satisfaction levels (52%)-an 11% increase in satisfaction from 2008-than those who used multiple sources (42%).

-The top four services buyers want to be affiliated with their real estate agent’s firm are closing (69%), home inspection (63%), home warranty (54%) and mortgage (50%).

More than 50% of home buyers who were aware that a firm offered a full range of services reported that it positively impacted their decision to use an agent and the firm’s affiliates than those agencies with no affiliations. Since 2008, home buyers have increasingly used the affiliated services with their real estate firms, with the largest increase being in mortgage use (39% vs 31% in 2008), followed by closing services (49% vs 44% in 2008) and home inspections (59% vs 57% in 2008).

One stop shopping has continued to gain popularity with buyers and satisfaction levels consistently outperform multiple unaffiliated service providers. Nevertheless, there are still many opportunities for real estate firms to increase the percentage of consumers who purchase a home through one stop shopping by means of agent education and training and continued broker buy-in an acceptance. If the brokers do not buy into the programs, and express mandatory usage of the mortgage affiliates for pre-approvals, back up offers and other mortgage/marketing needs, then the agents are less likely to associate themselves with the affiliates, event though that relationship exists.

Will Homebuying be more costly in the near future?

In reading through the online papers today, I came across a very interesting article published by Rick Newman of US News and World Report.  I have attached the link the article for you to read as this is a fantastic article about what we can expect to see in the housing market in the near future.

A couple things that I took from this article.  First, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd are involved.  These are the two representatives that have single handily changed that way banks, mortgage companies and mortgage lenders compensate originators.  This new compensation regulation has not been received favorably from those of us in the industry.  So, with this type of governmental insight is involved, take it from me, it will not be consumer friendly. 

The other item that I see is the "federally mandated down payment".  While I am a proponent of everyone having skin in the game, a 20% to 30% mandatory down payment requirement will kill any real estate transactions from happening.  Currently, less than 1% of mortgages that originate have a 20% down payment.  Folks, this means 99% of home buyers, both first time and resale buyers have to use a lesser down payment.  With unemployment in the 9%'s, and housing values off by 10% to 20%, retirement portfolios still off by 20%, where will buyers come up with a 20% to 30% down payment?

Read the article for yourself.  Here is the link.  There is allot of good information contained within the report.

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/112093/how-buying-a-home-is-likely-to-change?mod=realestate-buy