The “Green” award is great, we have taken great strides to streamline our processes from purchasing to operations to outsourcing to more efficient providors, all in an effort to reduce our consumption. I have even traded my giant SUV for a small car and ride my bike more all in effort to drop my “pump spend” by 50% !

We have also introduced our “Green Text” home info system that allows consumers to get color photos and up to the date info via text on listings. This replaces paper flyers in a lot of cases saving paper, gas and stress all while providing consumers a better experience.

The Favorite Real Estate Company is also huge, it is great to see consumers appreciating our efforts to provide them great service! Please keep surfing and reading ChangingStreets.com homes for sale, web traffic is up 23% this year in a static market and we are pumped.

Foreclosure is the Legal process by which a lender cancels (forecloses) a borrower’s right of redemption of the mortgaged property through a court order (called foreclosure order). The court sets a date up to which the borrower can redeem the property by paying off the entire loan balance (including foreclosing expenses). Thereafter, the lender is free to sell the property and, upon the sale, applies the sale proceeds first to the due amount and pays the remainder (if any) to the borrower. The borrower remains liable for the due amount if the property remains unsold, and for the short fall if the sale proceeds are insufficient to pay off the entire debt. The lender is generally under an obligation to sell the property at or near its fair market value (FMV).

Then there is my definition:

The legal process by which the bank which holds the mortgage on your house cancels your mortgage agreement because you have missed too many payments. In this case you lose the house and all money and investment put toward it to that point.

Losing your home has got to be one of the scariest things a person can experience.  Or the riskiest financial strategy one can execute.  Regardless of the why, we’re all in a heap of trouble because of it.  And looking back, I think we can probably all agree that some preventative medicine would have directly helped a lot of people, and in doing so, indirectly helped our situation as a whole. But help has perhaps come along, better late than never, as the Treasury Dept. is finally stepping in and forcing the banking industry to take some responsibility for their (continued) failure to make things (right) better.

Anyone who has been involved in the pursuit of a loan modification, either for themselves or otherwise involved, knows how difficult the process is. Not necessarily because of the hoops that ordinarily accompany government programs and assistance, but because the banks themselves refused to cooperate. Some more blatantly than others.  Now the Treasury has announced a withholding of incentive money to 3 of the largest mortgage lenders, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Chase, until they get their acts together. This isn’t breaking news today, but I find the details interesting enough to share.

First of all, none of the 10 major lenders passed their audits with flying colors. All of them have violated rules of the President Obama’s Making Homes Affordable plan.  The top 3 require “substantial improvements” while the others require “moderate improvement.” Only those requiring substantial improvement are being penalized at this time.

So what I find is interesting is that my experience, and the character I have associated with each of the top 3 offending banks is right in line with the Treasury’s reports and the bank’s reaction to such.

Bank of America.  Most of the problems I had trying to close out a foreclosure or short sale were the result of Bank of America’s involvement. It’s not that they were mean or seemed to be resisting the sale. They were just so SLOPPY. Now this comes from working the Buyer’s end of the deal. I never dealt with them directly. But my opinion formed of them over the years has been unprepared, sloppy, and unprofessional.  This runs right along with the Treasury’s assessment that BOA, as the worst offender, had poor internal controls for identifying and contacting homeowners, and their error rates for calculating homeowner’s income were more than 4 times the Treasury’s allowance.  Further painting this picture of incompetence is BOA’s plea of no contest to any of it. They said they know they have improvements to make in key areas and will strive to do better.  Now, incompetent or playing dumb? These are the folks that worked along with Countrywide so who knows? But they’re guilty and they know it.

Now Chase bank I haven’t had that much experience with, that I know of, with my real estate sales.  In my decades of personal banking experience though, they are bastards. I am considering editing that into a different word, but to be true to this article, that is the term I use all the time at home. My LOCAL BRANCH have always been angels in helping to deal with the company’s BS, and that’s what kept me there for so long. But eventually I had to fight the power and move on. Might I add here that whereas Chase always made me feel insignificant in a banking business designed to make THEM money, not protect mine, ELGA Credit Union is like family, working together with the goal being a win-win.  Chase is up in arms over the Treasury’s assessment that when calculating a homeowner’s eligibility for the program, they were wrong one-third of the time. That’s 6 times the government’s limit. Deny deny deny. Deny the homeowner’s rights and deny wrong doing. That about sums up my experience with Chase Bank.

Wells Fargo is the only one of the three that is actually formally disputing the findings, citing the Treasury’s use of outdated data for the assessment. This actually sounds about right to me, too. My mortgage is through Wells Fargo and IN MY EXPERIENCE they have been a pleasure. Now I haven’t been involved with them on a foreclosure level, but when miscellaneous things have popped up, they were easily resolved. Even when they owed me money. As big as they are I would think a higher margin of error would be expected, but hopefully they are as cooperative with their distressed customers as they have been with me.  Their violations included poor processes for determining program eligibility and high income error rates.  According to Wells, they’ve been aware of shortcomings and making improvements all along. They feel that if current data were used, their score would have been better. I have to say, that fits my image of them as well.

I think these three instances of things making perfect sense to me – the violations, the bank’s responses, and my opinion of each, prior to the situation –  is such a big deal is because NOTHING ELSE MAKES SENSE. The fact that our values got so inflated, that banks got so loose, and people over spent – okay. I can actually kind of see how that would go under the radar because everyone was happy! But once the fit started hitting the shan, why wasn’t action taken quicker? Too many people tried to do the right thing and were denied unjustly. When their jobs were cut or the main household provider died – those people didn’t run, they faced the situation and jumped through the hoops, only to fall victim to the bank’s negligence.  This resulted in undue hardship to homeowner’s and a worsening of our economy as a whole. It’s all business to the banks who were simply crunching numbers, but for me – the humanity was always up front and personal . And the numbers I couldn’t help crunching were how many people were suffering senselessly. It simply hurt too much. I spent my last several months selling homes in a constant state of “WTF?” due to dealing with banks and watching people who should have been winners, lose. That’s why I’m clinging to this one chunk of business that makes sense and hoping that it leads to more.

Do the situations fit your experience with these banks? I’m really surprised GMAC isn’t on the list. I wonder if they are the alleged 4th big offender who somehow got out on a technicality. How is your relationship with your lender?

I’ve spent some time contemplating what we have and how I can evolve too, and part of what I’ve come up with is defining real estate terms. It’s simple really. I thought about myself as a consumer. I research everything before I make a move, and I GOOGLE the terms I don’t understand.  Then I thought about myself as an agent and I can recall plenty of times where buyers asked, “What does that mean?” or worse, the look on their face gave it away even though they were embarrassed to ask.

In light of everything above, I present “Real Estate Definitions Thursday.” And even though the term might not be the most needed definition, I thought we would start with “REAL ESTATE”, moving toward a complete & comprehensive  list as it grows.  Ready?

REAL ESTATE: A piece of land, including the air above it and the ground below it, and any buildings or structures on it. Real estate can include business and/or residential properties, and is usually sold either by a real estate company or directly by the individual who owns the property.

And there you have it. The beginning of our real estate glossary. Why “Thursday?” you ask.  Well, I have a lot going on – just like you.  Don’t you find you operate better with some type of structure? I need it for sure, but nothing I do has a definite time slot. It’s all just “due.” Which feels overwhelming most of the time, so I made myself a fancy calendar to schedule topics and blog posts to help me brainstorm and stay on track. And Thursday has been assigned “definitions day.”  Again, why “Thursday?” Because all the other days were taken. Duh.

…focused on redeveloping downtown Flint into an vibrant neighborhood consisting of loft apartments, restaurants, offices, entertainment and cultural venues.

I like the sound of that!  If you haven’t heard of Uptown Developments, I bet you have heard of its partners. I have. One of them built my subdivision and another one has put a lot of food in my belly.

Uptown Development LLC supports Flint’s current trend of “changing gears” from “factory town” to “college town.” Critics of Flint’s current condition and potential haven’t been paying very close attention. Despite what has been said, Flint IS moving on from being dependent on General Motors and is turning into a smorgasbord  of entertainment, education, and culture.  With UM Flint at the center instead of manufacturing, it might not be long before we become a “Little Ann Arbor” instead of “Little Detroit.”  I can see that happening if I close my eyes and think above perceived barriers. Can you?

I mean, I could more easily imagine it before our revitalization programs became in jeopardy, and police force and educators were under fire, but I will shut up about that. I promised I wouldn’t go there here, but it’s so hard for me sometimes.

So anyway, yeah, Little Ann Arbor – with University of Michigan, Kettering University, Mott College, and an outstanding Cultural Center. I don’t know if we take it for granted because we live here, or if Flint’s decline overshadowed the treasures we have, but the Flint Institute of Arts, Flint Institute of Music, Sloane Museum, and Longway Planearium are great assets to our community. When is the last time you took advantage of any of them?

Flint is so much more vibrant than it was a decade ago, that’s not news. Unless you’re one of those people on the outskirts that prefers to speak negatively about it, despite not having been here in five years to see what’s happening. But for myself, I’ve been so focused on what a great place it is to find things to DO I have not noticed what a great place it has become to LIVE.

Are you thinking about renting? Have you considered leasing a downtown Flint loft? The architecture is AMAZING and it is so convenient to downtown. I would have loved living in one of these back in the day. If you aren’t familiar with downtown loft living, check it out here.

Call it lingering sunshine inspiration or blame it on the aromatherapy of my self action tanning lotion but I am on fire today! It’s 7:30 am and I’m already posting.  It also probably helps that I had the best piece of news forwarded to me last night that I can’t wait to share.  It’s about FLINT and it’s AWESOME!. Yep. I said AWESOME.

It’s from KIPLINGERS, a DC based business forecast & personal finance publisher, and it names FLINT, MI on the list of comeback cities for 2011. WHAT?! Of course WE know that such awesomeness exists, but it’s pretty rare to see it “out there” from an outside source.

Check out the complete story to find out if YOUR city is on the list!

The timing of this announcement comes at an appropriate time, too, as I have seen a huge spike in activity from all the real estate agents around Facebook talking about being extra busy with showings and writing multiple offers per day. I can only see that improving as the weather warms up – so call your agent and get shopping! With Flint’s economy on the rise, the house prices will be too!

So take that and stuff in in your hat, you negative nellies and infuriating commenters on MLIVE that make my blood boil  every day.  Flint is moving up from Bad News Bear to Comeback Kid!

Stay off my lawn! I’ve told you before that my husband is THAT guy. lol. The addition of our dog last summer has forced him to relax a little bit in this respect but he’s already hard at work devising a puppy potty plan that wreaks the least havoc on the yard. This time of year though, as the ground unthaws and is soaked and spongey, I agree with him. Those footprints you make in the wet ground will stick and cause damage to the root zones of your lawn. It could take a month or so to repair, so why not make it easy on yourself and avoid it for a few weeks until the ground is all dried out?

Clean up debris. Did I mention we got a new dog? So for us, as the snow melts, debris means doggy doo doo.  Get that off the lawn as soon as you can to prevent damage. Throughout the cold season when you weren’t out there paying attention, all kinds of things have blown into your yard, broken off your trees. Sticks, pine cones, and miscellaneous unidentifiable other things.

Then we rake. Regardless of whether or not you have any leaves in your yard, raking will tear away the harmful thatch, and allow water & nutrients to reach the soil. Take the time to do this easy task and watch your grass come alive.

Weeding. This is not the most fun part of spring gardening, but an important one. AND one that you can assign the kids as a chore (or consequence!) You gotta pull those weeds to allow for new growth – not just around your landscaping but in your lawn too.  Then over seed the bare spots. (In general over seeding is best done in the fall, but over seeding the bare spots in the spring will restore healthy grass to the areas you just plucked and those damaged by leaves or things left on them too long.

Time to fertilize.  After everything is cleaned up and aired out you can fertilize.  We are on a maintenance schedule with True Green for that so that it’s done properly, as well as treated for weeds and such. Now your neighbors might not take as much care with their yards and you could still find a scattering of dandelions as debris is blown from the neighbor’s yard into yours.  We gave a True Green card to our neighbor and luckily, he got the hint. Good luck with that.

Lawn Mower tune up. Soon you will be mowing the grass so get that mower out, sharpen the blades, dust it off, and make sure it’s running properly.

Sweep Up. As soon as that first really warm sunshiney day hits, where I can open all the windows, air the house out, and listen to the wind chimes – I will be outside sweeping and mopping the exterior – Sweep or blow off those decks, porches, patios, driveway & walkways, wipe down the trim around the doors, outside lights, clean all the exterior doors and windows, the mailbox, kids play areas outside… Care for all the hard surfaces you can find and your property will look so good and stand out among your neighbors before your flowers even bloom.

I’m not a landscape or gardening expert – just an enthusiast – and a home owner like you! My husband and I do most of the work outside ourselves because we enjoy it. We love going to Walker Farms for plants & ideas, and we love digging in the dirt. The routine maintenance of mowing, edging, pruning, etc. are therapeutic and gives us a reason to stop “working” and enjoy the outdoors.  When it comes to lawn treatment like fertilizing and such, we leave that to the professionals because it’s not fun and we don’t want to screw it up. If you’re a new homeowner, you will soon develop your own routine and landscaping strategies. If you’re a seasoned homeowner, what are you most looking forward to as the ground thaws and frosts disappear?

As each year has ended in very recent history, there has been a collective, “Thank goodness that’s over. This year has got to be better.” We could argue better or worse, I suppose, but none have been good, and each new year seems to have its own set of problems.  This year’s theme so far seems to be poor health.

Now right at this very moment, the theme is turmoil. You have to keep a written list of all the simultaneous trauma to keep track of it. Personal disasters, natural disasters, man made disasters, political disasters… It really is a lot for people to process.

But back to the theme.  In the last few years we have watched the housing market fall apart and the the banks stumble.  It was frustrating having to help the banks get back on their feet knowing that they’ve been taking advantage of us for years and would likely continue to do so.  After that we watched OTHER PEOPLE suffer.  People most immediately affected by the recession were losing their homes and our neighborhoods were getting boarded up. By the end of 2009 we were ALL feeling the strain in our pocket books and becoming experts in couponing and penny pinching.  In 2010 we saw many of our favorite small  businesses close their doors. The economy may have been coming around by then, and we’d all made some necessary adjustments, but too much damage had been done to the mom and pop establishments and young businesses and they couldn’t recover.

Coming into 2011 it seemed that we were on an upward swing and we were well into putting the pieces back together but all that worrying and suffering has taken a toll on our bodies. Stress is a major contributor to many diseases. People were working multiple jobs to replace the one income they lost.  We just didn’t take good care of ourselves and now I believe we’re feeling the affects of it.

Myself – I just spent several weeks dealing with kidney stones. Why? Worry, financial hardship, and the need to stay productive longer each day to work more and take care of more problems found me eating unhealthy, sucking down energy drinks and not drinking water.  That’s a very mild example compared to the hardship, suffering, & loss of others, but it is simple enough that you can see how my reaction to our economical crisis contributed to a health problem for me.  And how we can make the argument that this recession has made us collectively, physically ill.

So what do we do now? I guess the best thing we can do is try not to let the world’s crises inside of us. We have to care and do what we can to help, but we can’t stress and worry and take the burdens on as our own.  We have to move forward toward repair and making things better, not focus on what has been done and we can’t fix.

I woke up this morning feeling overwhelmed.  I thought about the advice I had given to my friend last night about taking care of herself and realized I was not following my own advice! THEN I thought about Zak Galifinakis SNL monologue and I felt my face relax.  Zak in an “Annie” dress is funny enough to cheer me up, but him singing “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow” while lightly touching on some current events put things into perspective for me. I hope it does the same for you.



Prior to January 2004, Kim Babcock ran a daycare but as her kids got older,  she found herself wanting something different. At a friend’s suggestion, she decided to give real estate a try and she has loved her decision to do so, and the opportunity it has allowed her to make a living and spend time with her family.

Meeting new people and the constant challenges of the job is what makes Kim so excited to get to work every day. She is a people person – I can vouch for that. If you go out looking for houses with Kim Babcock you will have fun.  But the part about the constant challenges, that’s a very special quality in an agent.

Every single day I learn something new because every single day there is a new situation in this market that creates new challenges.  To sell a house today it is not enough to have a knowledge of inventory for sale and how to write up a purchase agreement. You have to access every skill and talent you have to jump through new bank hoops eand comfort your clients in the process. I wear so many hats – Agent, counselor, babysitter, repair man, mechanic – I almost lose track of what my actual job is!

It’s true! She actually was late picking up her kids from school one day to help her  (pregnant & crying) buyer get  her car started.  When Kim asked how she could help, the distraught woman handed her a wrench and instructed her to tap on the engine. Now – seeing Kim in her high heel shoes and fancy duds one might wonder if she even  pumps her own gas. But there she was, trouble shooting car trouble and helping her buyer get home.

I asked all the agents for examples of fun or interesting things that happen to them in the field and Kim told me a funny story that is so illustrative of her character.

When foreclosures were coming on the scene in bigger numbers, none of us were familiar with squatters.  Shoot, we weren’t even familiar with foreclosures! So when Kim was showing a home to her clients she was surprised to be greeted by a man who yelled at them for not knocking. Startled,  Kim guided her buyers out the door and they left. Not at all because she was afraid.  But because she felt bad for interrupting the squatter’s nap. Life wasn’t easy for him and he needed to be well rested.

Learning foreclosures was then, though, and Kim says that even though we’re still just calling it a bad market, it has undergone many transitions. Just the fact that everyone is now a foreclosure expert is an interesting observation.

Selling short for no profit or having to actually bring money to the table to sell is a HUGE change from the days when we said, ‘A house is the best investment you can make.’ Where sellers once negotiated to get large sums of money on their sale, they are now ecstatic just to break even. I think it’s slowly getting better though. We at least seem to be headed up and not further down.

The media paints a darker picture than what actually exists.   Hard work, creativity, and the best resources are what have kept our little company growing.  Do I have to work harder for less pay than I did a few years ago? Sure. But I’m still having fun and making a positive impact on my community. What’s more rewarding than that?

Good point, Kim.  Kim is anxious to get you started buying or selling your home. You can reach her at 810.625.6159. She just asks that you make sure your car is running smoothly before you leave and don’t make her late for her daughter’s softball game.  =)

No, this is not a St. Patrick’s Day post, although it was submitted by our very own, very Irish, Shannon Jones.  She’s been extra busy lately sharing some really good hints for real estate and beyond. Today she’s telling us how to be green with electronics.

I was doing some spring cleaning and recycling when I came across a bunch of old cell phones that were not in good enough shape to send to the agency that provides cell phones to the troops. I still wanted to get them recycled and disposed of properly. I am a very modern girl who has to breathe into a paper bag at the mere thought of living without modern conveniences, but I also understand the toll that all our technology takes on the planet. It’s important to me to make things as right as I can so I was excited to find out about this “Instant Sale” feature at Ebay.

At the SELL bar at the top on Ebay there is an option for “instant sale.” I typed in the type of electronics I had, gave the condition and answered a few more questions. I was presented with a “buy it now” price, which I accepted, and Ebay emailed me a pre paid postage label for me to print off and send them the items. They looked them over to make sure everything matched up then deposited money into my account. It was awesome! And really easy to use – they kept me informed every step of the way, reminding me to send the items,  letting me know when the items were received, when they were reviewed, and when they posted the money to my account. And get this – not only did they pay for the shipping, but there are no Ebay fees or Paypal fees associated with these transactions.

You’re not going to get rich off these items but you can do your part to help the environment and it beats the price your junk drawer was paying!

I love it. Thanks Shannon for the green tip.  No wonder ChangingStreets.com was named Genesee County’s “Greenest Company in 2010!”

If she had to pick, Carol says her favorite part of the job would be  sharing in the joy of her buyers as they become home owners for the very first time. Her disappointment in the job would be that in reading the blogs of her Streeter associates,  she has discovered that not enough crazy, weird stuff has happened to her on the job.  She has encountered no live critters or squatters, she hasn’t walked in on back yard barbecues while showing a house. She also claims to have never even fallen down on the job.  I think she’s lying but I can only report what I’m told. Of course, this is Genesee County, though, and she has found herself knee deep in basement water on more than one occasion.

At first thought Carol said she hasn’t really noticed much of a change since she joined the business, and that would be understandable since she had not really experienced a good real estate market yet.  But as she thought more about it, she was reminded of how many more cash deals she sees these days, and transactions where family members are buying homes for family members to live in, because many folks having lost jobs and credit are not able to get financing on their own. This is a sad commentary on the industry but a positive mark on friends and family helping one another through tough times.  It is very much like Carol to find the silver lining in a situation and appreciate the compassion of others. She can relate to that.

Like everyone else, Carol is excited about all the great deals available to people today, at a time when deals are most definitely needed. She notes the bittersweetness of it all, her heart going out to the homeowners who have lost their homes or sold under duress to provide this supply of great deals. But ultimately knows moving forward and getting these houses sold and lived in is what’s going to expedite the healing for everyone.

As much as Carol enjoys working with buyers, the Flushing native has been branching out into working with sellers too and has hadd a blast. So regardless of your real estate needs, give Carol Scharrer a call. See if you can help her find something to trip over or the perfect anecdote, while she finds you the perfect house.  810-341-4214.