Each and every week, there are things going on that impact housing news and the real estate market. Sometimes there are big changes to federal and state policies that impact the distressed property world. Other weeks, there is business news and distressed property news about government programs for distressed borrowers. Or, there are hot topics that impact real estate agents. As such, it’s great to have a weekly housing update.

Weekly Housing News for Week Ending August 22, 2014

Read below to learn about some of the interesting housing news and weird stuff that went on this week in the distressed property and real estate agent arena:

5 Housing Trends to Watch I’m not sure if it is just me or the the San Diego market, but I find this article to be overly optimistic. What say you?

HELOCS in Default – More Short Sales on the Way I first heard this from a friend of mine at B of A a few weeks ago. I’m wondering if this will lead to more short sale listings.

More on Agent Ratings I thought this conversation was over, but apparently I was wrong. Now it seems that there might be some Code of Ethics violations associated with agent ratings. Hhhmmmm.

5 Ways to Get People to Your Open House Struggling with the traffic at your open houses? Here are a few fun ways to spice up your next open house and maybe get a few extra buyers or sellers in the door.

Let’s Continue the Real Estate Conversation

I’ve been seeking the secret to success in short sales and beyond for many years. And if you are active in real estate, then I am sure that you have, too. Being a successful real estate professional is challenging, and there was probably no more challenging time in the last fifty years to be a wildly successful agent than during the Recession.

Interestingly, that wild and crazy ride has taught us some very interesting things about what it means to be successful in real estate. During that time, the percentage of working real estate professionals declined by half. Agents were fleeing the profession and taking jobs in a variety of other fields.

If you managed to make it through, you probably have your share of war stories: hour-long hold times, calls rerouted to India, and homes stripped over everything including the kitchen sink.

Now that I’ve been there and done that, I’ve put the valuable lessons learned from my experience into a book—a book entitled Been There, Done That: Ten Agent Success Principles from a Short Sale Insider, currently available on Amazon. If you’d like to continue the real estate dialogue and are totally sick and tired of short sales and distressed property conversation, please join me on my new site: www.melissazavala.com

If you sign up for the weekly newsletter there, I am offering you three truly amazing items that will launch your career. So, go over and check out what I have to offer, and let’s continue the real estate conversation.