Here’s a great article posted by www.realestate.com called “Top 10 Home Buying Mistakes” that you may want to share with your real estate clients. For those who may not understand the process of buying a home or are on the fence about buying real estate “the right way,” these tips serve as useful tips on how to make purchasing a home go as seamlessly as possible.

Read the article and let us know if you agree by posting a comment below!

The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) enacted changes to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) that went into effect on January 1. These revisions—meant to simplify loan information and comparison for borrowers—requires lenders and mortgage brokers to provide consumers with a standardized Good Faith Estimate form.

Potentially saving borrowers up to $700 on closing fees, this new form allows borrowers to compare their initial estimate with their actual closing statement by including a reference to the original amount along with the relevant line item right on the HUD-1 Settlement Statement.

So, what does this mean for you? Ultimately, it could reduce unexpected mortgage costs and closing-day misunderstandings over loan terms. It will also help your clients find a mortgage more suited for their financial situation, hopefully leading to a decrease in home foreclosures.

Although HUD is requesting that oversight agencies exercise restraint in enforcing these new requirements for 120 days, organizations must still show a good faith effort to comply with the rules as of January 1. To help you get up to speed on this update, HUD has posted answers to Frequently Asked Questions and a pre-recorded webcast of their New RESPA Rule Seminar online.

Are you providing real estate buyers and sellers a valuable service? Find out just what they’re looking for, how to attract more of them, and what you possibly could improve on by reading the Real Estate Beat blog from LeadingRE.

Let us know what you think about this National Association of REALTORS^® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers 2009 and about LeadingRE’s blog. If you have any real estate trends or topics you would like us to cover, please comment below!

Many Errors & Omissions claims can possibly be avoided through simple review of paperwork. Be sure any time you are listing a house to check your facts on the property so that you don’t misinform potential buyers. Lawsuits can happen any time, even after half of a year—as in the case of this real-life claims scenario!

Improper MLS Listing Creates Stir with Local Board

A Real Estate agent listed a home for sale and published information in the MLS indicating that the property was connected to the municipal sewer system.

Problem
This particular agent had listed and sold the same property five years earlier and knew it was serviced by a private septic system. However, when completing the MLS form, he inadvertently marked the wrong box. The eventual buyer of the property discovered the mistake approximately six months after taking possession when the septic system failed. The buyer alleged that the agent deliberately misrepresented the type of waste system in order to obtain a commission from the sale.

Mistake
The agent failed to double check the information that was to be entered into the MLS.

Result
The buyer filed suit against both the agent and the seller of the property. The local real estate board also took disciplinary action against the agent.

Prevention
If the agent took a moment to carefully review the information in the MLS, the error would have been avoided. Being an experienced agent in the community, the agent should have realized that there was no municipal sewer system where the property was situated. Also, the MLS information he completed in the sale five years earlier correctly denoted that the property was serviced by a septic system. Unfortunately, the problem was compounded by the fact that the hard pan soil surrounding the house could not accommodate another septic system. A new above-ground system had to be installed, which required frequent pumping. The property also had to be re-landscaped in order to disguise the new septic system. A simple clerical error on the part of the agent resulted in a settlement in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Do you have a similar story involving MLS listing errors to share with us? Send us your learning experience or just let us know what you think about this one! Just leave a reply below!

If you have any questions about Pearl’s Errors & Omissions Insurance for real estate professionals, give us a call at 800.447.4982—whether you’re looking for a new E&O policy or have questions about your current one. We’d love to hear from you!

You can also visit www.pearlinsurance.com/eo to find out more about our quality Errors & Omissions program, including policy features, risk management tools, and much more.

In an interesting podcast from National Association of REALTORS (NAR), Chief Economist Lawrence Yun sheds light on the 2010 real estate market forecast. Yun estimates that 2 million Americans will take advantage of the first-time homebuyers tax credit and that 2.6 million families will utilize the “move-up” tax credit. In addition, he believes that existing home sales will rise by more than 20% in the first half of 2010. Good news for the economy and the real estate profession!

Listen to the podcast here and let us know what you take away from it. We hope it’s good news for REALTORS!