Paragon Market Conditions Report Updates

(Form 1004MC) as of August 31st, 2010

With the upcoming Paragon 4 and Paragon 5 releases on August 31st, LPS Real Estate Group has updated the Market Conditions Addendum within the Paragon 4 and 5 systems to be in compliance with the new requirements outlined by Fannie Mae as of 09/01/10 at the following link:

Selling Guide Updates and Additional Guidance on Appraisal-Related Policies

https://www.efanniemae.com/sf/guides/ssg/annltrs/pdf/2010/sel1009.pdf

These clarifications are effective immediately, except for the calculations related to Form 1004MC, which may require appraisers to change their technology. Lenders should encourage appraisers to perform these calculations immediately, but must require appraisers to use the calculations for all mortgage loan applications dated on and after September 1, 2010

These changes affect how the ‘Total # of Comparable Active Listings’ and ‘Months of Housing Supply’ values are calculated.

Total # of Comparable Active Listings Calculation Changes

Fannie Mae Changes:

“Total # of Comparable Active Listings” should be based on a specific point in time. For example, when completing the “Current – 3 Months” column for “Total # of Comparable Active Listings,” the number should reflect the listings on the most recent date in the 3-month period (which is also the effective date of the appraisal), and not the cumulative number of listings for the entire 3-month time period.

If data is available for the previous time periods, such as “Prior 4 – 6 Months” and “Prior 7 – 12 Months,” the “Total # of Comparable Active Listings” should be based on the most recent day in each of those time periods. For example, in the “Prior 4 – 6 Months” column, the “Total # of Comparable Active Listings” should reflect the listings on the last (most recent) day in that time period. Likewise, in the “Prior 7 – 12 Months,” the “Total # of Comparable Active Listings” should reflect the listings on the last (most recent) day in that time period.

Total # Comparable Active Listings – OLD CALCULATION

• Current – 3 Months: ‘List Date’ =< ‘Base Date’ AND ‘Off Market Date’ is ‘Null’ OR => ‘Base Date –91’.
• Prior 4 – 6 Months: ‘List Date’ < ‘Base Date – 91’ AND ‘Off Market Date’ is ‘Null’ OR => ‘Base Date – 183’.
• Prior 7 – 12 Months: ‘List Date’ < ‘Base Date – 183’ AND ‘Off Market Date’ is ‘Null’ OR => ‘Base Date – 365’.

Total # Comparable Active Listings – NEW CALCULATION

• Current – 3 Months: ‘List Date’ =< ‘Base Date’ AND ‘Off Market Date’ is Null OR => ‘Base Date’
• Prior 4 – 6 Months: ‘List Date’ < ‘Base Date – 91’ AND ‘Off Market Date’ is Null OR => ‘Base Date – 91’
• Prior 7 – 12 Months: ‘List Date’ < ‘Base Date – 183’ AND ‘Off Market Date’ is Null OR

• =>‘Base Date – 183’

Months of Housing Supply Calculation Changes

Fannie Mae Changes:

When completing the “Months of Housing Supply,” the number for the “Total # of Comparable Active Listings” is divided by the absorption rate, which provides an accurate depiction of the existing housing stock as of the effective date of the appraisal. (Using a cumulative number of listings during the “Current – 3 Month” time period may result in an artificially high number for the “Months of Housing Supply.”)

Months of Housing Supply (Total Listings/Ab. Rate) – OLD CALCULATION

• Current – 3 Months: List Date =< ‘Base Date’ AND Off Market Date is ‘Null’ OR => ‘Base Date – 91’ DIVIDED BY ‘Absorption Rate’ for ‘Current – 3 Months’.
• Prior 4 – 6 Months: List Date < ‘Based Date – 91’ AND Off Market Date is ‘Null’ OR => ‘Based Date – 183’ DIVIDED BY ‘Absorption Rate’ for ‘Prior 4 – 6 Months’.
• Prior 7 – 12 Months: List Date < ‘Base Date – 183’ AND Off Market Date is ‘Null’ OR => ‘Base Date – 365’ DIVIDED BY ‘Absorption Rate’ for ‘Prior 7 – 12 Months’.

Months of Housing Supply (Total Listings/Ab. Rate) – NEW CALCULATION

• Current – 3 Months: Total # Comparable Active Listing (Current – 3 Months) DIVIDED BY ‘Absorption Rate’ for ‘Current – 3 Months’.
• Prior 4 – 6 Months: Total # Comparable Active Listings (Prior 4 – 6 Months) DIVIDED BY ‘Absorption Rate’ for ‘Prior 4 – 6 Months’.
• Prior 7 – 12 Months: Total # Comparable Active Listings (Prior 7 – 12 Months) DIVIDED BY ‘Absorption Rate’ for ‘Prior 7 – 12 Months’.

The ‘Absorption Rate’ calculation below is not changing, it has been added in this document for

clarification regarding how the Months of Housing Supply calculation works

Absorption Rate (Total Sales/Months)

• Current – 3 Months: # of Listings in a Closed status where Off Market Date is =< ‘Base Date’ AND >= ‘Base Date – 91’. DIVIDED BY three.
• Prior 4 – 6 Months: # of Listings in a Closed status where Off Market Date is < ‘Base Date – 91’ AND >= ‘Base Date – 183’DIVIDED BY three.
• Prior 7 – 12 Months: # of Listings in a Closed status where Off Market Date is < ‘Base Date – 183’ AND >= ‘Base Date – 365’. DIVIDED BY six.

This process will begin at 10pm and conclude no later than 6am on Wednesday, September 1st, 2010. During this time, your Paragon MLS system will be unavailable.

This process will begin at 11:59pm (Central) and conclude no later than 8:00am (Central) on Wednesday, August 18, 2010. During this time, your Paragon MLS system will be unavailable to you.

A complete list of deployed items and known issues will be supplied after the release.

Respectfully,

John Thummel

Supervisor

MLS Customer Care

After further research, it was determined that emails were in fact being delayed by up to several hours.

At this time, the issue has been resolved and our Network Operations team now reports that all emails have been routed.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

If you have any questions, please contact your Technical Support at 925.295.1270

First video segment – opening the iPad and launching the CCAR Mobile portal, which we have conveniently added to our home page. The CCAR mobile portal at m.ccartoday.com is a mobile optimized replica of ccartoday.com’s key services designed specifically for mobile devices like the blackberry, iPhone, iPad, etc.

Once we are in the mobile portal, we head into the free ‘Area Demographics’ tool that we offer.

A few notes on the videos in this post. We are using a wireless connection to stream the iPad screen to the laptop this is being written on. At the moment this is the most effective way to capture what you see on the iPad screen. We can’t wait for ‘an app for that!’

As a result of that wireless connection, you will see some ‘lag’ or jerkiness in the screen as it refreshes the content.

Since we are on an iPad, flash will not work. CCAR employs flash on several websites, most noticeably in our listing galleries. While the websites will work, there will be an empty space where the flash content should be. Certain other scripts will not display properly on web pages as well.

Finally, we also see a normal computer mouse cursor on the screen. This is not visible on the iPad normally, it is simply a side effect of displaying the iPad on the computer screen. It does help a bit to show you what we are about to click on as we move around the iPad interface.

Second video clip… Lets take a quick peek at how ccartoday.com (NOT the mobile version) loads on the iPad, as well as a few other services like HOT – HomesOpenToday.com. Note that we are focusing on a listing from volunteer leader and President-Elect Fred Weston, who has taken advantage of the opportunity to augment his listing with an additional 18 property photos. The ability to add as many as 25 additional property pics to your listings is one of CCAR’s latest members only benefits!

More real estate related demonstrations are on the way. Up next… a peek at how to use ccar tools with the cooliris app on the ipad, a more in-depth look at the CCAR Mobile Portal at m.ccartoday.com, and much more.

The ipad is basically a big iphone.  Guess what, sometimes bigger technology is better. After an intense decade of competition in the emerging smartphone space, where miniaturization was the rule of thumb, we are starting to see a push for ‘bigger.’ This is of course driven by the screen. The iphone screen is beautiful, but you can bet that virtually everyone who first turned on their iphone and started gesturing at the surface said to themselves, ‘wow, it would be great if this thing was 6 times the size!’

In reality, the original protoype that led to the iphone was in fact the surface tablet that eventually became the ipad, only well after the iphone enjoyed its amazing release.

The ipad is a surface computing device.  That just means that it is a computer that employs a special graphical user interface, or GUI. That interface, for the ipad and other surface devices like it, is the screen itself.  Since surface computing and the iphone both already exist, how can anyone call the ipad a revolutionary device?

Well, do you remember when the rubiks cube rolled out?  Big deal, another multicolor plastic puzzle with moving pieces.  Wrong…  the cube just ‘got it right.’  A 2 year old could immediately pick it up and start working the cube.  It was intuitive, but it also challenged you. It felt good, it looked good, and it swept the world. In the process, it absolutely changed the way that we looked at a few things.

Enter the ipad.  Yes, just a slate tablet.  Yes, just a surface device.  Yes, just a reinvention of the pda.  But oh my.

This is what Apple does so well.  Take established concepts and technologies, and create the ‘perfect’ version of them.

So what do you get for your money?

Well the ipad comes in white or black, in 16, 32, and 64 gigabyte models.  For reference, the 16 gb model could hold about 10-12 high full length movies like Avatar (no perceptible difference from the dvd), and still have room for lots of apps and a bit of user data (stored app sessions, pictures, etc).  The 64 gb version can easily hold 45 such movies and still have a lot of space to grow.

Beyond that, there are now 3g variants of these models.  That basically just means that you can now get the device with a cellular card installed, pretty much like the iphone.  It is not meant to make calls (though i am sure there is an app for that), but rather for data access.  Browsing on the go – access to mobile MLS, email, mapping, etc.  As I noted in the first post, for many agents the data access on the fly is a must, but you may want to strongly consider a Verizon or Sprint mifi card for basically the same cost.  This mobile hot spot will practically fit in your wallet, and offers as good or better data access, with more flexibility.  Of course, if you leave it at home…

For many of us, the 3g option is not needed, as we are constantly in a wifi hotspot.

As discussed in the first review post, the box also comes with a power adapter and cable.  Beyond that, you will almost certainly want a protective case, bag, or something to accessorize your ipad and protect it from damage (including a film overlay to protect the screen)

Beyond the hardware, you get an:

• amazing listing presentation tool. The screen is just so pleasing to look at, the gesture based interface so appealing, that listing presentations, and listing review with buyers, are obvious ways to take advantage of the device.   Whether you are reviewing a powerpoint type presentation, a series of images, or websites (or all of the above), the ipad is a great way to get your message across when sitting with a client.
  
• a powerful mobile productivity tool.  Example: with a $10 app or two you could rapidly create a visually stunning listing presentation on the fly at the home in question, not that you want to.  The ability to be truly productive on the ipad, compared with sitting at a desktop pc with an suite of office software, etc. , will depend on the apps.  As more and more apps are built and perfected for the ipad experience, things might get interesting.
• a potent tool for bonding; bonding with clients, with family and with friends will be a natural result of using the device.  Unlike a laptop, passing the pad back and forth between users is very comfortable. Tthe ipad has an xfactor that is also shared by the Nintendo wii systems here… Put a 73 year old technophobe across the ipad from a 3 year old child, and they will both have a phenomenal experience. It is the simplicity of the gestures and the intuitive interface that makes the tool appealing to just about anyone.
• a sublime gaming platform for certain types of games

So while we have touched on it, we haven’t really focused yet on what makes the ipad, and its smaller cousins the ipod touch and iphone so ‘cool.’  In a nutshell, they are simple, but sophisticated.  I am repeatedly amazed at how many intuitive functions there are.

For example, if you scribble something on your screen, but don’t like the results, just shake your device gently, and it will erase (a 4 year old actually showed this to me)…  just like the etch-a-sketch many of us grew up with.  Looking at a photo?  Want to see the next one?  Just swipe your finger.  This is called ‘inertial scrolling’ and is a big part of what makes the devices so useful.  When you take a phone call and hold the iphone to your ear, the screen automatically dims to conserve battery…  pull it away from your ear a few inches to look at the screen, and it automatically lights the screen.

How is that possible?  Well, the idevices are all leveraging accelerometer technology.  That just means that the device can tell when you are tipping it, rotating it, and shaking it… and it can tell how fast.

Also, obviously, the devices are taking advantage of ‘multi-touch surface computing.’  That just means that you can touch the screen to do things, drag them, etc…  but you can do so with multiple fingers.  So if there is a bit of text that you want to grab, you can just ‘pinch’ the screen at both ends of the text blob, and it instantly highlights just that portion.  This screen technology (which again Apple certainly did not invent, but definitely has ‘perfected’) is now sophisticated enough that well made apps are now using ‘wrist protection’ to ignore your wrist resting comfortably on the surface while giving ‘focus’ to your finger doing the drawing.

Finally, the speed of the system makes it ‘cool.’  Granted, this is a bit of a ploy.  The idevices do not allow genuine multitasking.  So, while I can watch a movie on our recent rebareastbay.com event on my laptop in one corner of my screen, have three or four browser windows open, and still be typing on this post all at once, I cannot do this on the ipad.  The ipad runs one app at a time, and does so very effectively.  The ploy is that it is not that hard to run one app at a time.  But in practical use, the ability to be working in about 2 seconds after picking up the ipad, and the ability to  switch between apps in that same 2 seconds and be working in the new app, make multitasking somewhat irrelevant.  We all do too much multitasking these days anyways.  I do not feel limited by the one app at a time approach, I feel like I focus more on what I am doing, and have a better experience over all as a result.

So enough about what it is and why it is cool.   Lets take a first look at what you can do right out of the box with an ipad, and some of the tools that CCAR puts at your disposal for free!

Some immediate, practical examples.

The CCAR mobile portal

• mobile MLS access
• mobile HOT access
• mobile ccar contacts
• mobile find a realtor
• mobile reverse MLS lookup (find a REALTOR® by their property, etc)
• much more that we will demonstrate visually in the next post

CCAR HOT – HomesOpenToday.com – while you can access HOT through the mobile portal, since HOT is simply a website, you can also of course browse there from the built in browser.

CCAR Single property websites – CCAR creates a few different views of your listing as soon as the listing is entered into the MLS.  These are essentially single property websites that you can frame onto your website, link to from any number of venues where you might want to share listing information, etc.

CCAR Cooliris galleries – CCAR also creates some flash driven ‘cooliris’ listing galleries – for your agent inventory, your office inventory, and for all upcoming open homes.  But wait, you say.  If these engaging galleries are flash driven, how can you take advantage of them on the ipad which does not support flash?

Well, there is of course an app for that!  Cooliris recently put out an app that works well on both the iphone and the ipad.  I suspect that the next revision will improve the quality of the images, which do seem more geared to the smaller screen of the iphone.  We will demonstrate this app visually in our next post, as well as most of the tools we reference here, and beyond.

One of the really interesting and fun things you can do for free with the ipad is display its interface on your pc.  So, for example, I can project an image on a screen from my laptop.  We have all seen this a thousand times in presentations.  Well, add one little step, which is a piece of free client software on my pc, and a corresponding app running on the ipad, and I am now able to be holding the tablet in my hand, driving that wonderful interface, and watching the results on my laptop screen (and/or a projector).  See a printscreen below.  Now that we have that bit of functionality, we will be recording some demonstrations for future reviews.

This concludes part 2 of our series of reviews on the ipad.  We could go on and on describing uses for the ipad using CCAR and third party tools, but it will be much more effective to show you rather than tell you.
Now that the unboxing, and the basics are behind us, we can focus on advanced practical uses in future posts, including video demonstrations of the device in action.

Quick Start Guide