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I was just about to turn my computer off for the night on May 15, at about 10:30 p.m. when I decided to check my email one last time for the day. Much to my surprise I had an email with the Subject: White House Forum on Housing for Florida Leaders. Excitedly, I opened the mail to find an invitation from The White House, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture for me to join senior Obama Administration officials and fellow Florida Leaders for a White House Forum on Housing, on June 4, 2012 at The White House. I couldn’t believe it, nor could I contain my excitement! The first person I emailed was my business coach Michael Maher. He shared my excitement with me and then we both carefully reviewed the invite again.

I responded to the invite and returned necessary paperwork to the appropriate people. Fast forward 16 days and here we are, tomorrow morning I will board a flight to Washington D.C. to see the sites and then attend the Forum. This morning I posted everywhere I could think of to solicit questions, statements and general comments from other REALTOR®s on topics and points that they would like to be addressed at the Forum. I have had a tremendous response and I am hoping to speak to several of the points brought up during the Forum on Monday.  We have a conference call tomorrow afternoon with HUD and the White House Office of Public Engagement to preview the agenda.

Honestly, I’m so honored that I have been chosen to participate in this White House Forum on Housing. I believe that by contributing to these types of events and letting our government know how things are going “down here in the trenches” I can make a difference. It is my hope that by sharing and gathering information at this Forum I will be able to help not only my clients but all homeowners in the state of Florida. I fully intend to share all of the information I glean from this trip with anyone who wants to hear it or read it.

I’m not sure who else got an invitation to represent Florida at this event, but I will promise you this, I won’t be sitting there wide-eyed and in awe, I’ll be contributing and discussing the issues at hand and doing my best to help homeowners in my home state of Florida.

P.S. Stay tuned, I’ll write blogs as the days go by during my trip!

Okay. So maybe ‘man cave for mom’ isn’t a term that’s likely to catch on. But whether you call it a ‘girl grotto or lady’s living room,’ having a private space set aside strictly for the woman of the house is very trendy.

After all, what female today wouldn’t want a room of her own – far away form the hustle and bustle of the family – no matter what it’s called?

Indeed, “she-suites” are the latest fad in interior design, so they’re a trend you might want to consider if you’re in the market for a new home or are sprucing up your current house before putting it on the market.

Whether they’re located in a spare bedroom, a den or a blocked-off corner of a finished basement or decorated in the frothiest pinks and polka dots, antique lace whites or rainbow shades of French meringues, such spaces tend to be both feminine and functional.

But the ways they’re used by the women who inhabit them vary as much as the women themselves.

In her room

Most rooms-for-her include workspace that are appropriate to the room’s use such as desks for studying, writing and paying bills or large cutting tables for avid sewers.

Made-to-order storage space is a must and can include everything from craft cupboards for the passionate scrapbooker to the artist’s supply closet.

The room should be pretty, well lit and inviting. And above all else, it needs a door for privacy.

Increasingly, women are enthusiastically participating in social media; through sites such as Pinterest, where users can pin photos to an online inspiration board, they are sharing ideas and finding motivation for new forms of creativity.

Having a place to put all that imagination to work is not a luxury anymore.

Now if we could just figure out what to call it.

Here is a map that shows every single state, at least the states that report, what percentage of all their sales are short sales. And we can see in a lot of states those are big numbers. And I think those numbers are going to increase in every state. I don’t know if we could afford to walk away from five percent of the market, or ten percent of the market, or in Georgia 20 percent of the market, or in California almost 30 percent of the market. – Courtesy of KCM Crew.

The states that I would be most concerned about are the states that are red on this. This is the map where the foreclosures are already in process. These are the states, usually judicial states, where there was a situation where people had to go through a court system in order to get the foreclosure done. That slowed everything up. It backed everything up. It created even more of a shadow inventory. The states in red are going to be impacted more than the states in grey. So if you’re in one of the red states what you want to do right now is make sure that you don’t get crazy with your pricing. That’s crucially important that you not let that happen. Now if you’re in North Dakota or if you’re in Nebraska you have a little bit more leeway there because you don’t have a load of foreclosures already in process. But in those red states just make sure that you don’t start pricing your inventory, pricing your listings, at a point that they don’t sell right away because there’s a load of competition about to come. Take advantage of the demand that’s in the market right now. – Courtesy of KCM Crew

Take a look at this graphic from CoreLogic for February showing the months supply of distressed homes by state. This is the amount of inventory by state. Now don’t worry about the actual number.  If you’re in Washington it’s 17.9, but look at the other states, like North Dakota at 1 or even Montana at 5.2 months, and if you’re in a state that’s more than ten you’ll realize there is some distressed properties coming. Know that even though demand is up, supply is going to rise also.  - Courtesy of KCM Crew

CNN Money came out with their own story, “The flood of foreclosures to hit the housing market”. Let’s let them see from a third party, not from you, not from NAR, not from me, third party people out there are saying there’s going to be an increase in the amount of inventory coming to the market and it’s going to be distressed inventory, foreclosures and short sales, and we all know they sell for a discount. – Courtesy of KCM Crew

Now the good news is it’s coming to a different type of market than it did originally. Back in 2006 and 2007 demand was dropping like a rock and supply was increasing dramatically; the amount of foreclosures coming to the market. Right now in many parts of the country this foreclosure inventory’s that’s coming to market is going to be welcomed by the agents in those marketplaces. They need the inventory. Demand is very high. So I’m not suggesting this is going to really sock prices again or put tremendous downward pressure on prices, but there will be enough inventory that there will be not an increase in prices in most communities. That’s what we have to make sure we tell the seller that even though inventory is down right now and demand is up there’s another inventory coming at us. – Courtesy of KCM Crew

We often talk about the fact that there’s a shadow inventory out there. We’ve explained to you over and over again that inventory’s been tied up because the banks were afraid of the penalty they were going to get for not doing it properly. That penalty has been well defined and they’ve received the roadmap about 60 days ago. And I’m starting to see the number of foreclosures entering the market increase dramatically. The KCM members out there that already are REO agents, agents who do a lot of foreclosure business, they’re starting to see a tremendous, a dramatic uptick, in the amount of houses they’re getting now; the amount of listings they’re getting from the banks right now.  So that wave of foreclosures, it’s going to be a different wave in different parts of the market, is coming. -  Courtesy of KCM Crew

Now inventory overall, again we’re going back to supply and demand, as a country we’re back to normal numbers; that six month, five to six month number. That’s sensational. And some of the markets I visited over the last 60 days their inventory’s way low in certain zip codes, in certain prices, in certain types of houses. It’s under that six. Its four months. In some parts of California it’s two months in certain price ranges. And that might lead the seller and it might even lead some agents into believing that you know what it’s time to start upticking the price. Let the market determine that. Let’s not try to drive prices up because we have something else coming at us. – Courtesy of KCM Crew

Normally every month I give you a historic look every single time it’s reported on the percentage of contract failures. For this month what I wanted to do was break it down to what the norm was back in August 2010, where it jumped to last year, and where it’s at now. I want everyone to realize the number of houses that are falling out, that go into contract and are not getting to the closing table, that number is increasing pretty dramatically. And one of the number one reasons for that, one of the top reasons for that, is the fact that the appraisals are not coming in. So we can’t let the sellers get crazy as far as pricing is concerned because there’s a second sale that has to be made; not just to the buyer but to the bank itself. And I want you to have this graphic readily available when you’re taking a listing, when you’re doing a price break, and most importantly when you’re presenting an offer. Let them know that waiting for more money doesn’t mean they’re going to get a better deal even if they might find the buyer willing to pay a couple dollars more. – Courtesy of KCM Crew.