When you interview Realtors for the house selling job, you want someone who will be concerned about and will take care of your interests. You want someone who demonstrates ready knowledge of homes in the area available for sale. This ready knowledge demonstrates they have actually previewed other homes and don’t just sit around waiting for the phone to ring to list a home.

You will also want someone who asks you the right questions, such as your financial and debt information. By asking these questions, a good Realtor will be able to determine the proper price range you should be looking in. By asking about your family, an agent will be able to tell if what you need in a home is something available in your price range. You want a Realtor who is bold enough to talk straight with you instead of always telling you what you want to hear.

When a Realtor wants to talk and meet with you

Finally, any decent agent will always ask for an appointment to meet with you. Realtors act as your agent, looking out for your interests before their own. You want a Realtor who takes that responsibility very seriously. If someone seems too much like simply a “salesman,” then maybe you should look a little further for another agent.

U.S. policy toward natural catastrophe risk is largely reactive and a comprehensive, forward-looking national natural disaster policy is needed, the National Association of Realtors® said in testimony to two House panels today.

Charles McMillan, immediate past president of NAR, told Congress that it must improve affordability of property insurance for natural disasters.

“NAR, as the leading advocate for private property issues, believes that a comprehensive natural disaster policy should include property owners, insurance companies and each of the different levels of government in preparing and paying for future catastrophic events,” McMillan said. Citing Hurricane Katrina as an example, McMillan said, “Money would not have been paid by taxpayers had proactive federal policies and programs been in place to make property insurance more widely available and affordable.”

He also outlined the following criteria for creating a federal policy to:

• Ensure transparent and comprehensive insurance is available and affordable at premiums reflecting risk.
• Acknowledge personal responsibility of those living in high-risk areas to purchase adequate insurance;
• Provide owners incentives to undertake mitigation measures when appropriate;
• Acknowledge the importance of building codes and smart land-use decisions, stressing the importance of enforcement at the state and local levels;
• Recognize the role of states as appropriate regulators of property insurance and the role of the federal government cases of mega-catastrophes; and
• Reinforce the proper roles of all government levels for investing and maintaining critical infrastructure, like levees, dams and bridges.
  McMillan said that House bill, H.R. 2555, the Homeowners’ Defense Act, authored by Rep. Ron Klein, D-Fla., is a good start toward a comprehensive solution by providing for stable funding sources that would offer the stability needed for more consistency in insurance, availability and affordability.

“All reasonable proposals should be considered in creating a national policy to proactively address the inevitable, rather than waiting for the next crisis to occur and rely upon taxpayer-funded bailouts,” McMillan said.

The National Association of Realtors® urged Congress and the administration to move cautiously before making changes to the Federal Housing Administration program that has served the needs of millions of American families for more than 75 years without needing a federal appropriation.

FHA remains financially strong because it has taken steps to ensure solid underwriting standards and responsible lending practices, said Charles McMillan, NAR immediate past president, in testimony before the House Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity today.

“As the leading advocate for housing issues, NAR believes that one of the best ways Congress can help strengthen FHA is to quickly consider and pass legislation that would make current loan limits permanent,” McMillan said. “It’s important to note that higher balance FHA loans perform better than lower balance ones. While some argue that higher balance loans put taxpayers at risk, such loans actually strengthen the program and reduce risk to the fund.”

NAR strongly supports H.R. 2483, the “Increasing Homeownership Opportunities Act.” Current FHA loan limits are as high as $729,750 in high-cost areas, and are set to expire at the end of the year and revert to lower amounts, greatly hindering the housing recovery process. A decrease of current limits would adversely affect 612 counties in 40 states and the District of Columbia.

Explaining that FHA has played an important role in the recent housing and economic crisis by filing the gap left by private lenders, McMillan said FHA insured almost 30 percent of single-family mortgages in 2009 and more than 50 percent of first-time buyer loans. “Historically, FHA’s market share has hovered between 10 and 15 percent of all loans. And when the private market is strong enough to return, we welcome a reduced FHA market share,” he said.

McMillan said NAR strongly opposes H.R. 3706 that would raise the FHA downpayment. “While that would increase an individual’s investment in the home, it would not add a penny to FHA’s reserves and would disenfranchise many FHA borrowers,” he said.

NAR also opposes a new FHA initiative that increased the up-front mortgage insurance premium (MIP) from 1.75 percent to 2.25 percent because it adds to the closing costs home buyers already face. NAR supports legislation to reasonably increase the annual MIP to replace FHA capital reserves, but in turn, FHA should reduce the up-front premium due at the closing table.

McMillan said NAR was also concerned that FHA wanted to decrease seller concessions to 3 percent. Reducing seller concessions could put homeownership out of reach for many buyers, he said, because it could require buyers to pay more at closing.

McMillan applauded FHA’s stepped up enforcement and oversight of lenders making FHA loans. In 2009, FHA removed approval of or suspended 274 lenders. “Realtors® support adding more tools to help FHA protect borrowers and taxpayers,” he said.

What is staging, anyway? Staging is the process of enhancing the impression a prospective buyer has about your home. Staging is all about removing things from your home that make it look smaller, drab or dated. It differs from decorating because decorating involves bringing things into the home to enhance the look of it.

The key to staging is simplicity and getting prospective buyers to a place where they can picture themselves in the home. You can begin by focusing on these staging basics:

DECLUTTER - Remove “you” from the home (meaning pictures and personal items). Replace personal photos with scenery or postcards. A good rule to follow is to have no more than 3 items on any surface. Remove all items from kitchen counters and store them away.

NEUTRALIZE - Neutralize the rooms with light- colored paint, like creams, tans and white. Keep bright colors to a minimum and use neutral and/or natural colors that can work with many different styles.

KEEP IT CLEAN - Nothing sells better than a clean and well-maintained home. Always keep the home feeling and smelling clean for showings.

Some inexpensive upgrades that can make a huge difference to the buyer include:

- New bed treatment (especially for the master bedroom)

- New towels

- Fresh paint

- Replacing old lamps or lighting fixtures

Start with these staging suggestions and talk to a REALTOR® about your home and what specific changes will give you the biggest bang for your buck. Enter “Staging” in the search field on www.REALTOR.org and you’ll find the Field Guide to Preparing and Staging a House For Sale, offering in-depth staging and curb appeal information.

Pending home sales are down and additional declines are expected from abnormal weather conditions, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in January, fell 7.6 percent to 90.4 from an upwardly revised 97.8 in December, but remains 12.3 percent higher than January 2009 when it was 80.5.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said weather is likely to impact housing data. “January pending sales, though still higher than one year ago, remain much lower than expected given that a large number of potential buyers are eligible for the expanded home buyer tax credit. Moreover, the abnormally severe and prolonged winter weather, which affected large regions of the U.S., hampered shopping activity in February,” he said.

As such, abnormal swings are expected in housing data. “We will see weak near-term sales followed by a likely surge of existing-home sales in April, May and June,” Yun said. “The real question is what happens in the second half of the year. If there is sufficient job creation, housing can become self-sustaining with stable to modestly rising home prices because inventory has been trending downward.”