Wells Fargo to Top Lender Ranks National Mortgage News
By Paul Muolo
As Countrywide Financial Corp. struggled with bankruptcy rumors in the first quarter, Wells Fargo's residential production division kept chugging along. According to first-quarter figures, the company originated $66 billion in home mortgages during the period, a 7% increase from the first quarter of 2007. Its application pipeline was also $61 billion, a 42% jump from the fourth quarter.
The figures likely mean that as other residential lenders stumble and come under financial and liquidity pressures, the San Francisco-based Wells could be poised to gain significant market share. (CFC is based in Calabasas, Calif.) CFC had yet to release its first-quarter results at press time but it's expected that in the first quarter Wells surpassed Angelo Mozilo's shop to become the nation's largest home lender.
Last week, CFC spokesman Rick Simon did not return telephone calls and e-mails about the matter. Recently, the company, which is slated for sale to Bank of America, said it would no longer issue monthly updates on its financials, which included origination figures. Once the merger is completed, Mr. Mozilo will retire. In January he stopped granting on-the-record interviews to members of the media. In the fourth quarter, CFC was still the origination king, out funding Wells $68.5 billion to $60 billion, according to figures compiled by this newspaper and its affiliate, the Quarterly Data Report.
In the first quarter, Wells posted a $2 billion profit on record revenue of $10.6 billion. Its residential servicing portfolio increased to $1.53 trillion, up 10% from March of last year. The banking giant's strong performance came despite a 16% sequential increase in its portfolio of nonperforming loans. At the end of March, Wells had $4.5 billion in NPLs, including $658 million worth of foreclosed and repossessed real estate and auto loans. It has $314 million of first-lien residential mortgages that are 90 days or more past due and another $228 million in late seconds. A year ago it held $223 million in late first and seconds. Wells is also the largest player in the FHA/VA market.
The Experience is Everything
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Great News From Visual Tour
Prudential Florida Realty and VisualTour have great news for you to succeed in today’s market!
We know that many of our customers are facing new challenges with evolving market conditions. You face new challenges to get a listing sold and reduce expenses for ineffective marketing venues.
84% of Home Buyers turn to the Internet to look for homes.
Which homes capture their time and attention?
We have great news for you if you want to attract more buyers! To find buyers, you need to get maximum exposure for your listings without wasting money on outdated advertising tools. You already know that buyers find your VisualTours very appealing, but are you taking advantage of all VisualTour offers you?
VisualTour delivers more value for you!
The VisualTour Marketing System will be adding some tremendous new marketing, branding, and lead generation tools – at no additional cost to you!
The VisualTour.com website has a completely new design focused on helping buyers select from a large number of listings – all with the rich media advantage of a VisualTour.
And sellers will be able to find you if you actively use VisualTour.
We are taking advantage of our leadership position in the real estate industry to help consumers search from nearly 500,000 homes around North America.
VisualTour will have the only large volume listing search site where every listing includes a rich media virtual tour.
You can imagine how appealing this website is to consumers!
Your VisualTours will automatically be included in our Find a Home search engine!
VisualTour.com is one of the 20 most visited real estate websites in the U.S. – month after month.
No other virtual tour company can provide your listings with the maximum exposure that VisualTour’s distribution network delivers. VisualTour.com attracts nearly 10 million views each month. The pie chart shows our dominant position compared with 9 other leading virtual tour companies. VisualTour gets nearly 4 times the views of the next leading brand. As you can see, VisualTour.com draws almost 50% of all traffic for the virtual tour industry.
Put simply,
VisualTour draws nearly as much traffic as all other virtual tour companies - combined!
You can see that VisualTour gives you and your listings and your customers the most exposure and the best value. Make sure you put VisualTour to use on all of your listings!
Source: Hitwise.com – Real-Time Competitive Intelligence
Did you know that internet marketing is nearly 900% more effective than newspaper advertising and 2800% more effective than those free homes magazines?
OK, but how will consumers know about VisualTour?
VisualTour launched a nationwide television and internet ad campaign designed to build our national brand as a valuable marketing tool only available through your local real estate professional. Advertisements will run on HGTV, DIY, Fine Living and other programming designed to capture the segment of consumers who are most likely to become your customers in the near future. You will be able to see our 30 second commercials on our website and start telling your customers that your firm uses VisualTour to sell more homes and attract more buyers!
We know that many of our customers are facing new challenges with evolving market conditions. You face new challenges to get a listing sold and reduce expenses for ineffective marketing venues.
84% of Home Buyers turn to the Internet to look for homes.
Which homes capture their time and attention?
We have great news for you if you want to attract more buyers! To find buyers, you need to get maximum exposure for your listings without wasting money on outdated advertising tools. You already know that buyers find your VisualTours very appealing, but are you taking advantage of all VisualTour offers you?
VisualTour delivers more value for you!
The VisualTour Marketing System will be adding some tremendous new marketing, branding, and lead generation tools – at no additional cost to you!
The VisualTour.com website has a completely new design focused on helping buyers select from a large number of listings – all with the rich media advantage of a VisualTour.
And sellers will be able to find you if you actively use VisualTour.
We are taking advantage of our leadership position in the real estate industry to help consumers search from nearly 500,000 homes around North America.
VisualTour will have the only large volume listing search site where every listing includes a rich media virtual tour.
You can imagine how appealing this website is to consumers!
Your VisualTours will automatically be included in our Find a Home search engine!
VisualTour.com is one of the 20 most visited real estate websites in the U.S. – month after month.
No other virtual tour company can provide your listings with the maximum exposure that VisualTour’s distribution network delivers. VisualTour.com attracts nearly 10 million views each month. The pie chart shows our dominant position compared with 9 other leading virtual tour companies. VisualTour gets nearly 4 times the views of the next leading brand. As you can see, VisualTour.com draws almost 50% of all traffic for the virtual tour industry.
Put simply,
VisualTour draws nearly as much traffic as all other virtual tour companies - combined!You can see that VisualTour gives you and your listings and your customers the most exposure and the best value. Make sure you put VisualTour to use on all of your listings!
Source: Hitwise.com – Real-Time Competitive Intelligence
Did you know that internet marketing is nearly 900% more effective than newspaper advertising and 2800% more effective than those free homes magazines?
OK, but how will consumers know about VisualTour?
VisualTour launched a nationwide television and internet ad campaign designed to build our national brand as a valuable marketing tool only available through your local real estate professional. Advertisements will run on HGTV, DIY, Fine Living and other programming designed to capture the segment of consumers who are most likely to become your customers in the near future. You will be able to see our 30 second commercials on our website and start telling your customers that your firm uses VisualTour to sell more homes and attract more buyers!
Advice for Tough Times: Lead By Example
Advice for Tough Times: Lead By Example
By John N. Frank
By John N. Frank
Wells Fargo Home Mortgage took a dramatic step last Thursday to pump up the spirits of 12,000 real estate professionals while also reminding them that Wells want to stay a major force in mortgage lending.
It beamed a live telecast featuring three real estate coaches and the co-president of Wells Home Mortgage, Cara Heiden, to 50 theaters in 29 markets where it had invited real estate pros to watch and listen.
The message – when the going gets tough, the tough have to inspire others to get going. Real estate pros need to not only tell clients that real estate remains a good investment, they have to lead by example and by their own demeanor, the panelists agreed. “People have to feel our commitment to real estate,” said Brian Buffini, founder of real estate training company Buffini & Co.
“If you believe in real estate, they will believe,” said Terry Watson, a real estate pro himself and founder and president of Watson World, Inc., a consulting firm. “Real estate people should be investing in real estate now,” he said. David Bach, an author who has written about real estate, agreed. He sees the U.S. housing market as being in a down cycle that presents investment opportunities. Real estate people should be telling their best clients now is the time to buy, Bach said.
Watson recommended using YouTube to post video real estate seminars and testimonials from past clients that will attract new business. Buffini advocated writing what he calls a “confession letter” to past customers – confessing you’re sorry you haven’t been in touch but that you wanted to write them now about the opportunities the market is presenting.
Wells’ Heiden said the lender will co-host buyer education seminars with interested real estate professionals. Potential buyers need to know that some of the myths floating around today’s market – such as that it’s impossible to get low down payment loans or to get a mortgage with anything less than a perfect credit score --- simply aren’t true, Heiden said.
A lot of the tips mentioned have been discussed in other venues but what was most interesting about the session was that a major lender like Wells would sponsor it. It worked with the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, the National Association of Real Estate Brokers and the Asian Real Estate Association of America to pull the event off. Planning for it started last November.
Wells’ commitment to mortgage lending at a time when other financial giants are hurting has to be reassuring to the real estate world.
It beamed a live telecast featuring three real estate coaches and the co-president of Wells Home Mortgage, Cara Heiden, to 50 theaters in 29 markets where it had invited real estate pros to watch and listen.
The message – when the going gets tough, the tough have to inspire others to get going. Real estate pros need to not only tell clients that real estate remains a good investment, they have to lead by example and by their own demeanor, the panelists agreed. “People have to feel our commitment to real estate,” said Brian Buffini, founder of real estate training company Buffini & Co.
“If you believe in real estate, they will believe,” said Terry Watson, a real estate pro himself and founder and president of Watson World, Inc., a consulting firm. “Real estate people should be investing in real estate now,” he said. David Bach, an author who has written about real estate, agreed. He sees the U.S. housing market as being in a down cycle that presents investment opportunities. Real estate people should be telling their best clients now is the time to buy, Bach said.
Watson recommended using YouTube to post video real estate seminars and testimonials from past clients that will attract new business. Buffini advocated writing what he calls a “confession letter” to past customers – confessing you’re sorry you haven’t been in touch but that you wanted to write them now about the opportunities the market is presenting.
Wells’ Heiden said the lender will co-host buyer education seminars with interested real estate professionals. Potential buyers need to know that some of the myths floating around today’s market – such as that it’s impossible to get low down payment loans or to get a mortgage with anything less than a perfect credit score --- simply aren’t true, Heiden said.
A lot of the tips mentioned have been discussed in other venues but what was most interesting about the session was that a major lender like Wells would sponsor it. It worked with the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, the National Association of Real Estate Brokers and the Asian Real Estate Association of America to pull the event off. Planning for it started last November.
Wells’ commitment to mortgage lending at a time when other financial giants are hurting has to be reassuring to the real estate world.
FREE Visual Tour Software
Prudential Florida Real Estate Services Membership has its privileges ~ FREE Visual Tour Software
Prudential Florida Real Estate Services now provides FREE Visual Tour Software to all of our Sales Associates!
Did you know that nearly 90% of U.S. homebuyers use the Internet to search for their next home?
Listings with virtual tours receive 299% more views than listings without enhanced content.
Prudential Florida Real Estate Services provides all of our sales associates with one of the most compelling marketing tools available to attract buyers to your listings – the VisualTour® Marketing System.
You can now create your Visual Tours conveniently from your own computer!
VisualTour is EASY to USE! The VisualTour support staff can train you to use VisualTour in no time at all and you can create stunning, multimedia VisualTours with photos from any digital camera!
And because using our VisualTour Marketing System gives you a proactive marketing advantage, we encourage you to create tours of your local neighborhoods, for individual homebuyers and to promote yourself to every current, future and past customer!
Our VisualTour brand virtual tours show buyers all over the world what the most appealing features of your listings are. Your listings will get maximum exposure on VisualTour.com, the Multiple Listing Service, Google®, GoogleVideo®, YouTube®, REALTOR.com®, Yahoo!® Real Estate Classifieds, Trulia.com, FrontDoor.com, TheRealEstateBook.com and our own website, http://www.prudentialfloridarealty.com/.
If you are interested in downloading the new Visual Tour Studio 6 software on your personal computer, simply email your request to:
stacybenedict@prudentialfloridarealty.com
Include the following information:
Your First and Last Name
Branch Office Location
Email Address
Account and Download Instructions will be sent to the email address you provide.
********************************************
Be inspired, stay positive, and get moving!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
