The Wausau Daily Herald did its readers a great disservice by running the StatePoint Media article, “Get more money when selling your home,” July 10. The one-sided article inaccurately cites and distorts findings of a National of Association of Realtors® study.

It is patently false that REALTOR.com, the NAR website, accepts property information from individual owners or from the ForSalebyOwner.com website. Only properties listed by a licensed real estate broker are displayed on REALTOR.com.

Quoting the 2009 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, the article misleads readers about the effectiveness of unrepresented sellers selling their homes more quickly than they could with the help of a real estate professional. The article then fails to mention that half the homeowners who sold their homes on their own sold to someone they already knew-a neighbor, friend, or relative. That existing relationship significantly reduces the home’s time on market.

In addition, the NAR study found that, because homes sold without professional representation often aren’t exposed to the open market, “for-sale-by-owner” (FSBO) homes sold for a median of $172,000, while homeowners who used a real estate agent sold their home for a median of $215,000-25 percent more than the FSBO homes. Sellers can gain from the pricing expertise of Realtors®.

Real estate professionals like Realtors®, who are NAR members, bring value to home sellers by exposing homes to more buyers and saving owners time and money throughout the home selling process. That exposure is essential.

Most of today’s buyers search online-nine out of 10 recent buyers used the Internet in looking for a home-and unrepresented sellers have no access to major online marketing avenues such as REALTOR.com and other websites with large pools of listings to which buyers are attracted. The article misleads readers into thinking the For Sale By Owner website has a strong online presence, but the company is comparing its website to other sites for unrepresented sellers. These sites’ total listings are in the tens of thousands in contrast with more than 4 million homes showcased on REALTOR.com.

The article attempts to legitimize itself by citing “Studies from Northwestern and Stanford Universities,” but clouds credibility by failing to report the names of the studies or their authors.

During one of the most challenging housing markets in decades, when timing, pricing and market insights are extremely important, it’s very risky for sellers to forgo professional representation. Realtors® sell hundreds, if not thousands, of homes over the course of their careers, compared to the average person who may only move a handful of times during their lifetime. Smart sellers know that Realtors® are essential to get from “for sale” to “sold.”

Title insurance is important since it provides you with an owner’s policy that insures you have clear title to the property being purchased. If there are any problems discovered later, you can always go back to the title insurance company and have them clear the title up. Depending on the state, it is sometimes routine for the seller to pay for the owner’s policy, but they have an interest in which company is used.

Nevertheless, a fee is paid to the title insurance company too. This is for the lender’s policy. The lender’s policy insures your mortgage lender that there are no liens or judgments against the property and that the mortgage will be in first position. Put another way, should you sell the property or refinance it, the lender’s mortgage gets paid first, before any other claims against the property. Lender’s policies are less expensive than the owner’s policy.

Pending home sales edged down with near-term sales expected to be notably lower in contrast to the spring surge when buyers rushed to take advantage of the home buyer tax credit, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator, declined 2.6 percent to 75.7 based on contracts signed in June from an upwardly revised level of 77.7 in May, and is 18.6 percent below June 2009 when it was 93.0. The data reflects contracts and not closings, which normally occur with a lag time of one or two months.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said lower home sales are expected in the short term. “There could be a couple of additional months of slow home-sales activity before picking up later in the year, provided the job market continues to improve,” he said. “Over the short term, inventory will look high relative to home sales. However, since home prices have come down to fundamentally justifiable levels, there isn’t likely to be any meaningful change to national home values. Some local markets continue to show strengthening prices.”

Yun expects mortgage interest rates to remain historically low for the balance of the year, with very modest growth in employment. “We really need to see stronger job creation to have a meaningful recovery in the housing markets,” he added.

The PHSI in the Northeast dropped 12.2 percent to 58.8 in June and is 25.4 percent lower than June 2009. In the Midwest the index fell 9.5 percent to 64.1 and is 27.8 percent lower than a year ago. Pending home sales in the South rose 3.7 percent to an index of 85.8, but are 13.3 percent below June 2009. In the West the index slipped 0.2 percent to 85.1 but is 14.2 percent below a year ago.

The restoration of the single-family rural housing program that would guarantee home loans for rural buyers was passed by the Senate today and is on its way to President Obama.

The National Association of Realtors® has vigorously lobbied to restore funding for the rural program since last March, and hailed this development as a great victory for rural home buyers.

“This is going to be a great lift for thousands of rural home buyers who need to close on their home purchases before Sept. 30 to take advantage of the home buyer tax credit,” said NAR President Vicki Cox Golder, owner of Vicki L. Cox & Associates in Tucson, Ariz. “Many rural families would have been left out in the cold without these guaranteed loans. Increasing the commitment authority will help rural families, support local housing markets, create jobs and generate new tax revenues,” Golder said.

“The rural housing program is a good example of the kind of program needed for responsible and qualified home buyers who bring common sense to the housing market,” said Golder. The legislation increases the guarantee fee for borrowers, but allows the fee to be financed. “This change will make the program completely self-sufficient,” she said.

Golder thanked Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and Reps. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) for moving the bill to passage in both houses.

The legislation was part of H.R. 4899, “The Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act” that the Senate passed today. The measure increases the Rural Housing Service commitment authority allowing guaranteed loans; previously, RHS has been providing conditional commitments. The RHS is expected to announce new guidelines shortly after the president signs the bill.

Testifying before a House panel today, Jim Helsel, treasurer of the National Association of Realtors® and commercial real estate specialist, told members that a strong commercial real estate sector is vital to millions of U.S. jobs and helps keep the national economy afloat.

“As the leading advocate for private property rights, NAR believes it is critical for Congress to act soon and to get capital flowing to small businesses and to the commercial real estate market,” Helsel, president of Helsel Inc., Realtors®, in Camp Hill, Pa., told the House Committee on Financial Services.

“Lack of available credit remains a significant challenge for our industry right now,” Helsel said. He commended the panel for passage in June of H.R. 5297, “The Small Business Lending Fund Act of 2010,” which ensures community banks have both the incentive and capacity to increase total loans to small businesses. Raising the SBA loan limits and allowing SBA 504 loans to be used to refinance performing property can help ease the liquidity crisis in the commercial sector, he said.

Another credit avenue, credit unions, could increase available credit to small businesses, Helsel said. NAR strongly supports legislation, H.R. 3380 introduced by Reps. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) and Ed Royce (R-Calif.), that would raise the credit union member business lending cap from 12.25 percent to 25 percent of total assets. Currently, small regional and community banks account for almost half of the small business loans issued in the U.S.

“That has put a significant dent in the credit available to the small business community and has reduced cash flow and elevated vacancies in commercial real estate,” he said. The Credit Union National Association estimates that if H.R. 3380 becomes law, credit unions could extend up to $10 billion in additional business loans and help create 108,000 jobs. Helsel said NAR is strongly urging the Senate to include such provisions when it considers H.R. 5297.

Helsel also said that NAR supports the Senate’s efforts to include more generous depreciation allowances for commercial properties in the Senate bill. “Accelerated depreciation would incentivize new equity investment to commercial real estate, reducing debt-to-income ratios and strengthening income-producing properties,” he said.

NAR also applauds the goals of H.R. 5816, the “Commercial Real Estate Stabilization Act,” to clear troubled properties off the market, and is ready to work with the committee when it begins to review the proposal, Helsel said.