Fifth Third Bank & Freddie Mac Speaker Event

Scott Bohlen attended this Wednesday's event, which was designed to give a glimpse of the future of real estate and economic markets, specifically for the Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan area.

Scott shared these takeaways during Thursday morning's training session:

from Floyd Wickman, a prominent real estate speaker and author -

Four Truths -

• You can't control the economy - but you can control your economy.
• You have to be a little better than the competition. Learn every day or people will pass you. Read newspapers and business books, review market data.
• Listings are key.
• When the going gets tough, the tough get back to basics: schedule, goals, prospect, face to face. We all know this - we just need to do it.

Ways to Faster Success -

• Attitude
• Don't waste time (ex: 3 hours of prospecting out of a 50/60 week IS doable)
• Love what you do
• Energy - when you walk into a room, how do people view you?

from Amy Crews Cutts, Freddie Mac's Deputy Chief Economist -

• She believes the recession is basically over in general
  terms.

  All pricing has come down with the exception of
  energy.

  Single family home construction is at lowest level since 1945. She feels home construction will take off once we bottom out. But in Michigan, we'll have struggles because of the severe price declines (a builder can't build a home and make $).

  She expects the first time homebuyer tax credit to be extended in some fashion, but not until two weeks before the present credit expires (so in November).

  Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac hold over 50% of the home loans in the country, but only hold around 25% of the failed loans due to the more stringent lending guidelines they have had compared to other lenders.

  The Fed won't touch interest rates to any degree until 9-12 months after a true turnaround has been in place. But they will increase rates when that happens to balance things out.

  She shared her acronym "NINJA" loans - for loans made in the past to those who had no income, no jobs, no assets.

  Michigan is the 5th state in negative equity in home values, California leads the country. 40% of the homes in Michigan are underwater today.