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Dear Friend,

This week I’ve got some breaking news for you, I don’t know if you’ve heard this but in a lot of the country the market is changing right now. And I know it’s hard to believe but a lot of areas are seeing falling prices, they’re seeing rising inventories, they’re seeing tougher competition and they’re seeing longer selling times. Banks and mortgage companies now are being completely unreasonable with their new lending guidelines, I mean they expect people to have a job, a documentable income and a 660 credit score to get a mortgage. Can you believe it?

Now I’m being a little facetious but I’d like to spend a little time today talking about some good news. And the good news is that the changing market brings opportunity for people who are willing to be adaptable. You know there’s a saying in tennis that every shot makes somebody happy, whether the shot goes in or out somebody is happy about that result. And the same can be said about the real estate market, every market condition makes somebody happy.

Now you may find it hard to see how this market could make anybody happy but you know besides the media, but there are some key groups of people who are very happy about the market today.

So let’s talk about four of those groups right now.

Group #1: Investors

Investors are very happy about the market conditions, you know the worse it gets, the better. This market offers some fabulous opportunities for investors, prices are low, people are freaking out, rents are high, you know it all adds up to an opportunists’ market.

How are you positioning yourself to help investors in this market? You know one place you might start is with your own clients and your friends in your sphere of influence. Here’s the letter that I wrote in… back in March I guess when all this first started happening, it’s still very applicable today but what would you think would happen if you maybe sent out a letter like this to your clients? It’s just a simple two page letter but let me read it to you and you could send it out as an email or you could send it out as a letter to your clients.

Dear Dean,

You’ve probably seen in the news and read in the paper about the meltdown going on in the sub-prime mortgage market right now, well here’s what it means. For the last three to five years while interest rates were low and house prices were rising, mortgage companies were bending over backwards to get people to borrow as much money as they could lend them. They were offering things line 103 percent financing, interest only loans and adjustable rate mortgages with ridiculously low payments where you could add the unpaid accruing interest on the loan to pay later. Plus you could get all this money even if you had less than perfect credit, that’s why they call it sub-prime lending.

Now of course house prices have fallen, interest rates have risen and a lot of these people who bought homes they couldn’t afford are now realising they owe more than the house is worth. They’re walking away from these homes left and right or they find themselves in the situation where their adjustable rate mortgages are converting to real interest rates and the payments are so high they’re being forced out of their homes. So there are two opportunities here.

First the next six to twelve months may present us with the very best buying opportunity of the last ten years, as banks and mortgage companies dump these defaulted homes on the market at fire sale prices. Now this may only last for a little while as we’re coming into an election year which may lower interest rates and stabilise prices. I’ve decided to start a newsletter alert service for the very best investment opportunities as they come on the market. If you’ve ever thought about picking up an investment property or two, this may be the perfect time. I’ve arranged for the local lender to get up to 90 percent investment loans for my clients and subscribers to this newsletter.

So here’s how it’s going to work. I’ve got real time access to the multiple listing service for Winter Haven, Lake Alfred, Lake Wales and Hane city. I’ve programmed the service to notify me as soon as a new foreclosure or potential investment property comes on the market. Once a week I’ll put them all together and send them to you along with any news updates that may affect the short term market. In the case of a fire sale property that can’t wait until the next broadcast I’ll send a special alert bulletin right away, that day. I don’t know if investing in property is something you’ve ever thought of but if it has every crossed your mind this may be the time.

The second opportunity is in buying a bigger home for your personal residence. Bigger homes are being offered at even bigger price discounts because the market tends to rise and fall proportionately. So as the market has dropped at least ten percent or so over the last year, $200,000 homes are now selling for $180,000. While $400,000 are selling for $360,000 or about a $40,000 discount. Anyway I just wanted to let you know about the new service, I’m not sure how long I’m going to continue the alert service and the situation could change at any time but for now it’s a big opportunity. If you’d like me to put you on the list just reply to this message and let me know.

And sign it from you, your website or your email address and then:

PS: If this comes up t work or in conversation I’d be happy to include any of your friends in the alerts.

Now that letter sent to a group of people who know you, like you and trust you, who’ve maybe heard all kinds of things going on in the market right now. That might be something that would stimulate some activity for you. So there’s one opportunity, now in addition to this you might consider doing some regeneration for investors, you know check out the Marketing Monday archives for weeks 16, 17 and 18 and listen to them with an ear to adapting those strategies for the investor market.

Group #2 First time buyers

You know there’s a big opportunity for the first time buyer here, they may have sat on the sidelines watching as prices went up and up and up and maybe even out of their reach, and right now they’re getting a second chance. You know now it’s interesting because there’s always a group of people who might be saying ‘Yeah but zero down loans aren’t as easy to get anymore, I just… I can’t advertise for them’. Really? You know is that really true? You have to ask yourself because I’ve been asking mortgage brokers everywhere I go about zero down loans and they all say the same thing. That zero down is still available but you’ve got to have good credit and it’s more difficult for the super jumbo loans.

So let’s just take a look at that. You know if you’re talking about first time home buyers, it’s unlikely that they’re going to need super jumbo loans, is that really true for most of the area where you are? You know you just kind of want to look at that. You know and according to Fair Isaacs, the credit reporting… the credit score bureau, the median credit score is 723. And that means that half the people in the country have a higher credit score than 723, half the people have a lower credit score. So if you had a credit score of 723 that would mean that of all the people who have credit scores, there’s 75 million have a higher credit score than you, 75 million people have a lower credit score than you.

Now as a 660 credit score, which is the low end of what’s considered good credit, and that’s kind of now the minimum for what you need for these zero down loans puts you in a place where about 75 percent of the people in the country have a higher credit score than you. So you’re right, you know zero down isn’t easily available for everybody, it’s only available to 75 percent or more of all the people in the country. So why not focus on those people? You know what are you doing to attract first time buyers?

Group #3: Move up buyers

You know now everyone bought their home in the last two years, there are lots of people who bought homes five years ago or more who’ve got equity and who saw prices getting higher and higher and maybe gave up on the idea of getting that bigger house when the prices went completely out of reach. Well the good news is that the bigger house they wanted is now on sale and it’s a far better spread than it was when their house was higher. You know someone who’s seen their house balloon to $400,000 and now it’s come down to $320,000 has seen the $600,000 house they really wanted come down to $480,000. You know and they… they’ve got an opportunity now to save over $40,000 on the spread of moving up right now as opposed to what it was when their house was worth even more.

You know it’s funny how when you point that out that even though there house was worth more, the jump between their inflated house and the inflated bigger house that they want was even much bigger than the jump is now. So why not re-listen to weeks 20 and 22 from the Marketing Monday archives to see how you can start spreading the word about this and orchestrating some referrals for yourself.

Group #4: Agents who’ve developed such a close relationship with their clients that they wouldn’t even think of making any move without consulting them first.

This is the type of market where people really depend on being able to turn to someone they trust. I’m happy to say that month after month my friend Joe Stumpf and I get to help people build stronger relationships with their clients, and we do this at our three day main event training.

So we’ve just got back from Sacramento, where we had about 600 real estate agents and mortgage brokers. And you know I’d be thrilled to have you join us for three days in either Tampa in November or Seattle in December. It’s just there’s so much going on in the market right now and 2008 being an election year and being a year where we’re probably going to come out of this current market situation in one way or another. It’s going to be a big, big opportunity for you and you know these last two months of the year, these last two opportunities for us in Tampa in November, Seattle in December are really great staging ground for maybe 2008 being your very best year ever. I’ve made special price arrangements for Marketing Monday listeners to join us and if you’d like to get some free information on how the main even might help you, just send me an email to MarketingMonday@gmail.com and I’ll send you some free information and all the details on our special offer for November and December here from Marketing Monday listeners.

I hope you can join us.